the white race for its assumed attitude of supercilious supremacy. One cannot read the books and magazine articles of the leaders of negro thought, or listen to their platform addresses, without realizing that, despite all disclaimers to the contrary, there dwells in the inner soul-consciousness of the writer or speaker a profound discontent as to the prospects of betterment, and an equally profound skepticism as to the intention of the white man ever to accord the desired equality.

In an eloquent and scholarly address delivered, before the Society for Ethical Culture in Carnegie Hall, New York, on February 17, 1907, Professor DuBois, after pleading for industrial opportunity and educational assistance for his race, said that after all the main demand of the negro, the denial of which was a disgrace to the twentieth century, was for human respect, human sympathy, human brotherhood. In words of temperate, but none the less indignant, protest he pictured the disadvantages under which his race. was laboring, and yet ventured to propose no remedy save the indefinite suggestion that America could by the application of the principles of human brotherhood give the world the solution of the problem of the color line.

Many of the wiser and more far-seeing members of the negro race have for years been constant in their advocacy of a more radical and enterprising plan for the extrication of their fellow men and women from their dependent and humiliating condition. But against the mass of ignorance and slothful selfishness which hampers the efforts of these ambitious spirits, the proposed plan has made but slight progress. We shall recur to it later in the work, where its commendable features will receive suitable discussion.

To sum up the whole situation in relation to the negro's efforts to arrive at a solution of the problem, it may be said that while the great majority are simply groping for light

and leadership, endeavoring to obtain a foothold from which, despite oppression and unfair discrimination, advancement may be effected, the leaders of the race are beginning to unite upon a general plan of industrial progression to be followed by a demand for the recognition of their rights of citizenship in the South and for assistance in their educational development from the wealthy North. Content for the moment to protest, the negro reserves his future right to demand.

Having thus given all practicable consideration to the various solutions proposed for this great problem, and having demonstrated not only the inadequacy of the currently proposed remedies to bring relief to the situation, but also their tendency to aggravate the difficulty and to increase its dangers, we may now turn more hopefully to what appears to be the true solution of the problem and the only efficacious means of extricating the American people from the burdens of racial contention imposed upon them by generations of error and indifference.

Before entering, however, upon this phase of the subject, let us pause for a moment to consider the solution proposed and steadfastly advocated by Abraham Lincoln, who, by common acclaim of both races, must be regarded as the one man whose long cherished convictions upon the subject are entitled to the most respectful consideration.

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CHAPTER VII

ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM

I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races-that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.-ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Speech at Charleston, Ill., Sept. 18, 1858.

PERHAPS of all men who have given the negro problem

consideration, Abraham Lincoln was best qualified to pass judgment upon the subject of our discussion. He observed carefully, reasoned with logical accuracy, and was Lincoln's gifted with a prophetic vision which enabled Relation him to predict in reference to this, as well as to many other subjects, the final outcome of the

to the

Problem.

complication of the races.

He was of humble birth and grew to manhood under the most adverse circumstances, beginning life in a community where negroes were numerous, and where slavery was upheld and regulated by statute. His early years were passed in southern Indiana and southern Illinois amidst a population largely the outgrowth of emigration from Virginia and the

Carolinas, and thoroughly imbued with the Southern view of the relations of the negro to the Caucasian. In his boyhood he made his celebrated trip upon the flotilla of rafts to New Orleans, and on the way to that city was engaged in a desperate encounter with predatory negroes. In some fateful manner, from his earliest childhood to the hour of his death, he seems to have been intimately associated with the negro problem in some of its varied aspects.

We are familiar with the account of an apocryphal anecdote concerning his observation of the slave pens of New Orleans upon his first visit, followed by a solemn vow of dedication to the cause of the freedom of the slave in much the same fashion as young Hannibal is said to have been sworn upon the altar to cherish eternal enmity to Rome.

Singularly enough, in his boyish contribution of June 13, 1836, announcing his candidacy for the Legislature, his first political venture, he takes occasion to say:

I go for all sharing the privilege of the government who assist in bearing its burdens; consequently I go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms, by no means excluding females.

A very early announcement of his liberality of view in regard to the extension of the franchise, and yet decided in its exclusion of negroes.

The next year, being then a young lawyer, in Springfield, in an address before the Young Men's Lyceum of that city, upon the perpetuation of our political institutions, he feels moved to remark in relation to an incident which is of familiar character in our time, as follows:

Turn, then, to that horror-striking scene at St. Louis. A single victim only was sacrificed there. This story is very short, and is perhaps the most highly tragic of any

thing of its length that has ever been witnessed in real life. A mulatto man by the name of McIntosh was seized in the street, dragged to the suburbs of the city, chained to a tree, and actually burned to death;-and all within a single hour from the time he had been a freeman attending to his own business and at peace with the world.

Such incidents were unusual at that period and doubtless this one impressed young Lincoln. If a like tragic affair should occur in the South to-day, it would probably pass without particular comment, merely counting as one in the roll of lynchings of the year.

Time passed, and Lincoln was growing in comprehension of the gravity of the problem. He had been honored by The Spring- election to the General Assembly of Illinois. field Protest. Toward the close of the session of 1837 the subject of the enslavement of negroes having been made a topic of discussion in the Legislature, the following impressive protest was placed upon the record:

Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having passed both branches of the General Assembly at its present session, the undersigned hereby protest against the passage of the same.

They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy, but that the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils.

They believe that the Congress of the United States has no power under the Constitution to interfere with the institution of slavery in the different states.

They believe that the Congress of the United States has the power, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, but that the power ought not to be exercised, unless at the request of the people of the District.

The difference between these opinions and those con