help, the encouragement, the guidance, that the
strong can give the weak. Thus helped, those of both races in the
South will soon throw off the shackles of racial and sectional
prejudice, and rise above the clouds of ignorance, narrowness, and
selfishness into that atmosphere, that pure sunshine, where it will be
the highest ambition to serve man, our brother, regardless of race or
previous condition.

CHAPTER VIII.

Before ending this volume, I have deemed it wise and fitting to sum up
in the following chapter all that I have attempted to say in the
previous chapters, and to speak at the same time a little more
definitely about the Negro's future and his relation to the white
race.

All attempts to settle the question of the Negro in the South by his
removal from this country have so far failed, and I think that they
are likely to fail. The next census will probably show that we have
about ten millions of Negroes in the United States. About eight
millions of these are in the Southern States. We have almost a nation
within a nation. The Negro population within the United States lacks
but two millions of being as large as the whole population of Mexico.
It is nearly twice as large as the population of the Dominion of
Canada. It is equal to the combined population of Switzerland,
Greece, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba, Uruguay, Santo Domingo, Paraguay,
and Costa Rica. When we consider, in connection with these facts, that
the race has doubled itself since its freedom, and is still
increasing, it hardly seems possible for any one to consider seriously
any scheme of emigration from America as a method of solution of our
vexed race problem. At most, even if the government were to provide
the means, but a few hundred thousand could be transported each year.
The yearly increase in population would more than overbalance the
number transplanted. Even if it did not, the time required to get rid
of the Negro by this method would perhaps be fifty or seventy-five
years. The idea is chimerical.

Some have advised that the Negro leave the South and take up his
residence in the Northern States. I question whether this would leave
him any better off than he is in the South, when all things are
considered. It has been my privilege to study the condition of our
people in nearly every part of America; and I say, without hesitation,
that, with some exceptional cases, the Negro is at his best in the
Southern States. While he enjoys