23 regime. The extermination of a race may go on rapidly ; at all events, its degradation will not be long in coming. How many times have I heard it said since the victory of the North, “ The Americans will kill the freedmen. You have desired the end of slavery ; you will witness the end of the negroes. In the pitiless Anglo-Saxon mill the unfortunate colored race will disappear, ground to powder, as the Indian race has disappeared.” I have replied—all your friends have replied—answering for you. We have predicted (and you will not contradict our prophecy) that the crime of the North will not be spared any more than the crime of the South ; that the problem of the freedmen will be resolved in that impulse of intelligent generosity which has resolved the problem of the slaves ; that after having fought the South with those brave negroes whose blood has flowed under your flag, you will not have the heart either to thrust them outside the common law, or to drive them from your omnibuses and street cars. You would not have your friends blush for you before your enemies. You will show to all that, after having conquered the rebellion, you know how to conquer yourselves. You will pursue to the end the reparative reaction which has already been manifested to your honor in the greater part of the Northern states. You will treat your companions-in-arms as men and equals. You will permit no one to point out your coldness and harshness, to maintain that the hatred of slavery among you is inseparable from the hatred of the slave ; that your manifestoes in behalf of human liberty are so'many acts of Phariseeism ; and that your charity is bounded by your interest or your pride. These accusations rouse our indignation. We forcibly repel them. But your acts will be more eloquent than our words. Your acts must be the refutation par excellence of your enemies. They have said, “ The North will be pitiless and unjust towards the colored race.” You will answer them by opening to the colored race the inviolable asylum of the common law. They have said, “ The infamous acts formerly endured by the free negroes, and which formed a
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=