, we seem to have all around us evidence of
this utter instability of character. Never since the world began has he
had, and never will he have again, the incentives and aids to
improvement which at that time fell into his hands. There was, as one
spur to ambition, the spirit of resentment which he was supposed
naturally to entertain at having been kept in servitude by even the
kindest of masters; but the negro is amiable and forgiving, and not only
during but after the war conducted himself with admirable good feeling
and moderation. Granting, then, that he indulged no feeling of
resentment, there must have been, should have been, there was, a
sentiment of rivalry with the whites which was pardonable and proper to
the most amiable and forgiving nature; and at first the young negroes
applied themselves with assiduity, and learned with an avidity which
delighted some classes, and was no doubt a discomfiting surprise to
others. It was astonishing to see the rapidity with which they mastered
the alphabet of progress, and white mothers said to their indolent or
refractory children, "Are you not ashamed to see little negroes more
studious than yourself, making even greater progress according to their
advantages, and in matters with which you should be already familiar?"

As time went on even the indolent or refractory white boy to some extent
improved, and seemed conditionally sure of further improvement; but the
negro, having arrived at a certain point--and that usually no high
one--seemed incapable of further progress, as a man, though not
afflicted with dimness of vision, is prevented by natural causes from
seeing beyond the horizon. Doubtless the spirit of rivalry already
mentioned, born of defiance and resentment in a mild form, was to some
extent the incentive to application, and its brief duration serves to
illustrate the instability of which we speak. Doubtless, also, many
others, by reason of poverty, which necessitated manual labor, were
unable to continue the pursuit of an education to any great advantage;
but what numbers of white children, by the losses of war placed on the
same footing--placed identically on the same footing, because they also
and their parents were compelled to earn by labor their daily
bread--have yet continued to improve! The negro had the same privilege
of night study and (immediately after the war) as many teachers at his
service as any white child. He had also one advantage over the white: