Not so
the Ethiopian. In his case, we find ourselves confronted with a
situation never contemplated in that era of political dreams and
scriptural science in which our institutions received shape. Stated
tersely and in plain language, so far as the African is concerned--the
cause and, so to speak, the motive of the great struggle of 1861 to
1865--we recognize the presence in the body politic of a vast alien mass
which does not assimilate and which cannot be absorbed. In other words,
the melting-pot theory came in sharp contact with an ethnological fact,
and the unexpected occurred. The problem of African servitude was solved
after a fashion; but in place of it a race issue of most uncompromising
character evolved itself.
A survivor of the generation which read "Uncle Tom's Cabin" as it week
by week appeared,--fresh to-day from Massachusetts with its Lawrence
race issues of a different character, I feel a sense of satisfaction in
discussing here in South Carolina this question and issue in a spirit
the reverse of dogmatic, a spirit purely scientific, observant and
sympathetic. And in this connection let me say I well remember
repeatedly discussing it with your fellow-citizen and my friend, Colonel
Alexander Haskell, to whom I have already made reference. Rarely have I
been more impressed by a conclusion reached and fixed in the mind of one
who to the study of a problem had obviously given much and kindly
thought.
Pages:
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31