policy of the past forty years was substituted for the colonization plan of the earlier statesmen of the country. It cer Is the foregoing plan indeed impracticable? tainly is not an easy disposition of the question. On the contrary, it is an extremely difficult and expensive Difficulty one. But it has the superlative merit of being of the Proposed radical, and when once put into effective operation Solution. will make a final disposition of the whole question. Desperate cases require desperate surgery, and the evil depicted in the foregoing pages is of such alarming and permanent proportions that it necessitates a remedy of a correspondingly heroic character. Another consideration may be here noted. The present is certainly a most propitious time for the adoption of the proposed policy. The projected colonization of 1850 was premature. The wealth of the country was not at that time sufficient to carry out the project. The attitude of other nations would have been hostile. The methods of communication between countries, and the general development of trade and resources were not sufficiently advanced to justify the experiment. Above all, the African race had not received sufficient educational training and industrial development to qualify it for the assumption of the task of establishing a stable governmental organization. The aspect of affairs, on the contrary, at the present time is exceedingly favorable. The resources of the country, as will hereafter be made to appear, are abundantly capable of carrying the proposed remedy to a successful conclusion. The past fifty years have been a period of preparation, and the coming decades which will be required to place the plan in effective operation will afford to the negro a sufficient chance for the development, under proper auspices, of the capacity essential to establish himself as an independent factor in the world's progress. Further, unless this plan be promptly adopted and effectively placed in operation, the progress which the negro is making in the acquirement of land and personal property will render the problem one of increasing difficulty with each passing year. If wisdom should guide his counsels to the acceptance of the plan, with augmented intelligence would come both courage and ability to act for himself in establishing some new home for his people. On the other hand, it is to be feared, from our knowledge of his characteristics, that with the passage of time his disinclination to sever himself from his condition of dependency will increase, and the ultimate deterioration which his enemies predict would inevitably result. Tremendous as the undertaking appears at the present time, and although a completely satisfactory conclusion may seem to be unattainable, the difficulties would gradually disappear were the task once commenced in earnest. The resources of the nation are adequate. The means for the accomplishment of the end are at our hand. The necessity is urgent, and all that is required is a spirit of generous assistance on the part of the educated and wealthy white race, a recognition of the necessity for this solution on the part of the negro, combined with the courage, foresight, and ambition to establish himself in a new environment, where under more favorable skies the destiny of his race may be achieved. The Negro's Op No greater opportunity ever opened itself to the leaders. of a race than would lie before the chosen representatives of the American negro were the chance offered them to lead their people forth to some new land portunity. of promise, as of old the Israelites were led out of the house of Egyptian bondage into the newer and better land of Canaan lying so invitingly awaiting their occupation. The project should appeal to the imagination, the interest, the ambition, the pride, the philanthropy, the morality of the African race. And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed Wouldst thou not stir in this. It is, after all, the obvious, practical, inspiriting solution of the problem, and once adopted and earnestly in good faith placed in operation, the wonder of the nation would be why its merits had been so long obscured. Believing this to be the effectual remedy for the evil under discussion, it is purposed in the ensuing chapters to discuss the means by which the problem may be solved upon the principles announced; further, to anticipate and consider such objections as are likely to be presented to the proposed solution, and in conclusion to point out the beneficial effects which would necessarily flow from the adoption of the proposed remedy. These latter would be by no means confined to any class, interest, or section of the country, but would inure to all, as well to the negro as to the country which has been for nearly three centuries his abiding place, but in which he has never succeeded in establishing himself upon a satisfactory basis, and in which at the present day his race is but an outlawed and disregarded element. CHAPTER II THE WAYS AND MEANS Salus populi suprema lex est. HE preceding chapter was devoted to the purpose of attempting to state clearly, and upon the lines advocated by Lincoln, the general outline of the plan which appears to the writer to be the only feasible method for bringing about a solution of the negro problem upon principles insuring future prosperity and harmonious relations between the races. As it is incumbent upon any one having the confidence to propose a method for accomplishing an undertaking of this importance to accept the obligation of pointing out how the projected solution may be carried into effect, that burden will now be assumed, and in the present chapter an effort will be made to set forth in some detail the measures deemed requisite and sufficient to produce the desired result. And here it may be repeated, that what is proposed does not necessarily embrace all that may be done to facilitate colonization, as many other methods will assuredly suggest themselves as experience develops the needs of the situation. Two Indis It will be noted that for the successful accomplishment of the task, two things are indispensable. First, a definite decision on the part of the ruling Caucasian race pensable that the negro race is not qualified to form a Requisites constituent element of the citizenship of the nation, combined with the realization on the part of the members of the latter race that their opportunity of the Work. for development can never be found in this country in association with the dominant Caucasian. Second, the adoption by the races of such co-operative measures as may place the negro in a location and amidst surroundings. better adapted to enable him to enter upon an independent career of nationality. Let us, then, consider the ways and means necessary to accomplish the first of these objects. It may be well to preface the discussion by saying that as the proposed plan is radical in its character, it will be necessary for its logical execution that it be carried out with strict and unswerving purpose, and that neither the white man nor the black man should shrink from any legitimate conclusion involved in the theory that the destinies of the two races are to be worked out by absolute separation. On the part of the great majority of the people of this country-the white population-there must be a just appreciation of the magnitude of the problem, and a complete understanding of the principles at stake, involving, as they do, nothing less than the purification of our national citizenship and the re-establishment of the integrity of our political system; while on the part of the negro, in like manner, there must be the full recognition of the fact that the segregation of the races, although for the moment inflicting some unavoidable hardship upon his race, will ultimately result in placing within his reach opportunities for development, possibilities of progress, and instincts of independence impossible of acquirement under existing conditions. The negro must bring himself to the recognition of the wisdom of the plan, and must give to it his unreserved acceptance. For the carrying into effect of the first general proposition of the plan outlined in the foregoing chapter, let us take up in order for consideration the different proposed measures |