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A GREAT OPPORTUNITY.

Here is the great opportunity of the Republic, and of Christian civilization-to raise up an inferior race to the level of our own. This is at once the greatest and the most difficult work that was ever attempted by man. But it is the work that God has given us to do, and blessed is he who has a part in it. And to have a part, it is not necessary to be in a public station-a governor or a legislator: for it will be accomplished in private spheres, by the personal influence of good men of one race coming in contact with the masses of the other. You may make all the laws in the world, and enforce them by all your power, civil and military: they do not touch the seat of the disease. The poison is in the blood; in the profound mutual distrust which divides the two races. How is this to be overcome? How are they to be brought together? In the advance towards a better understanding, the stronger race must lead the way. The white man, in his intercourse with the blacks, never forgets his own superiority. Then he must accept its obligations. Noblesse oblige, and the first of all its obligations is courtesy to inferiors. Kindness disarms distrust, and begets confidence—a warm atmosphere in which prejudices and animosities dissolve and die. There is no heart so hard that it can resist a love which never faileth." The true solvent of the Race Problem, as of all social questions, is gentleness, not the gentleness of weakness, but the gentleness of power. "Thy gentleness hath made me great," is the Divine method; and so in human relations, a gentleness that is at once subdued and strong is the very breath of God. It is the South wind, causing the spices to flow out. And what healing influences will come from the schoolhouses! Already "the woods are full of them," humming like so many hives of bees; in which the noble army of teachers, faithful men, and faithful women, too-God

WHAT MAY BE IN THE NEXT CENTURY.

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bless them!—are working in the spirit of their Master for the uplifting of a lowly race. Work on, brave hearts! We send you our word of cheer and of hope. There is a better day coming, though we shall not live to see it. But whatever any of us can do, little though it be, will not be lost. Long after we are dead and gone, the seeds of kindness, sown by voice or pen, will spring up and blossom from the dust. And at last, in some far-off future year, will the desired end come, when no man shall vex his neighbor, since universal love brings universal peace. Then in the middle of the next century, it may be a generation not yet born may see those happier times which our eyes are not permitted to behold.

CHAPTER XV.

A CAMP-MEETING IN THE WOODS, WITH A FEW WORDS TO MY COLORED BRETHREN.

The desire to do full justice to one side of a question, often leads to injustice to the other—a danger I have felt from the beginning of this discussion. While trying to present the case of the whites of the South in the most favorable light, I have feared that I might seem unsympathetic with those who had suffered from the more powerful race. If it were a mere question of sympathy, I should always be on the side of the weak against the strong. But it is not a matter of feeling, but of truth and of justice, in which one needs to be on his guard against being led away by his sympathies, so as to impair the value of his judgment.

Have I really leaned to the stronger side? Then I will try to restore the balance by leaning to the other; and my last words shall be to my colored friends. In these I hope they will not think that I assume a condescending or patronizing tone. I do not wish to pat them on the back, or delude them with high-sounding promises to the ear, that will be broken to the hope. I love them too much to deceive them. As the only true kindness is in perfect

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frankness, I wish that my parting words should at least bear this proof of what I feel so deeply.

But it is very awkward to talk in a familiar way with those at a distance: it seems as if I were shooting into the air, and over the heads of everybody within hundreds of miles, with a vague idea that somehow and somewhere I should hit somebody. Now if I am to talk, I like to have my hearers near enough to see the whites of their eyes; and so, if you do not object, I will, for the purpose of this familiar talk, suppose ourselves to be assembled in a big camp-meeting, in a grove of live oaksthose magnificent trees which are the glory of the Southern forests, and which, when bearded with moss, seem like the veterans of another generation, looking down upon their puny descendants at their feet. Here there is ample space for you all to rest at your ease, leaning against the trees, or sitting on the ground, if perchance the talk should be a little dull, or you can prick up your ears if there be anything worth listening to. I can promise only that it shall be the advice of a sincere friend. With this I begin :

Men and brethren! The Lord has brought you out of the house of bondage! He has set before you an open door, leading to a straight path of safety and of peace; but He does not compel you to walk in it: it is left to you to take your own course. Hence my first word to youand the last also—is this: Your fate is in your own hands; the great work for your race must be done by yourselves. If any of you have got an idea, because of the way in which you were cared for by your old masters, that you are to be "carried' as long as you live, the sooner you get rid of it the better. Even if they were ever so kind and ever so willing, they could not do everything for you, and they ought not if they could, for it would only keep you in a state of perpetual childhood. The sooner you

192

ABRAHAM AND HIS CABIN.

come to a "realizing sense" that you have got to take care of yourselves, the better it will be for you. Nor must you look to the Government to provide for your wants. It is not the business of the Government to feed black men any more than to feed white men. There is but one law for white and black: He who will not work neither shall he eat. This little word of four letters is the key to Paradise.

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As I am saying this, I see a man of large stature and great bodily strength standing on the outskirts of the wood, in doubt whether to accept this hard doctrine. Let him not be in a hurry about it; but go off a little way, and sit down under a solitary oak, where nobody will disturb him, and he can do "a heap o' thinking." Indeed, if we can 66 let up" on the talking for a few minutes, and vary the exercises with a spell of singing (which stirs the blood, when rolled out by such magnificent voices), I will go and sit down by him for a little private conversation. 'Well, Abraham "-I use this name as one that is familiar to me and has pleasant associations-"how do you like being a free man?" He answers slowly, "Things ain't quite so easy as they used to be on the old plantation." "Yes I know it, but think what you have gained by the exchange. True, you've got only a mere patch of ground with a log-cabin upon it. It's 'mighty little.' Yes, but it's yours. And Dinah, who keeps it for you, is yours, and no man can take her from you; and the little merry faces that I see around, grinning with their white teeth, and laughing out of their eyes-all are yours! They may not be as well dressed as white folks' children, but Dinah will patch up their tattered garments; and as long as you can scratch ground in that garden patch fast enough to keep them in hoe-cake and corn-dodgers, and they are plump as so many rabbits, you need not be

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