outlined for the purpose of carrying into effect the project for the assisted emigration of the negro race. Those pre Other sented are enough, however, to indicate in a general way the lines upon which the problem may be solved, and the sincere endeavor has been made to infuse into the plan the spirit of equity and, indeed, of generosity in which it should be placed in execution. A duty not to be ignored or postponed rests to-day upon the white man and the black man alike,-the duty of taking measures to remedy the existing condition of affairs so detrimental to the welfare of both races. Other remedies have been crudely attempted, and, as hereinbefore pointed out, have not only failed of success but have left the problem more acute, more difficult of solution, and more threatening to the peace and welfare of our country than at any previous time since the close of the Civil War. It is but an idle boast for the people of the United States to point to the abolition of slavery unless they are prepared by the adoption of Lincoln's plan of assisted emigration to carry to fulfilment the work which he had undertaken. The successful operation of the plan outlined would be certain if public sentiment were sufficiently cultivated, and accurate information disseminated throughout the country as to the real status of the problem and the necessity for its definite solution. This can be done only by the organization of societies to bring about public discussion of the question before the people of the United States, discussion not characterized by acrimonious contention as to where the blame for present conditions should be placed, or by dreary historical recitals of past occurrences; nor proceeding upon the futile theory of educational possibilities as a solvent of the problem; but inspired by the earnest, practical endeavor to bring the public mind to a realization of the fact that the obvious solution, to wit, the removal of the cause of the difficulty, is the only possible termination of the trouble, and that this can readily be effected by the use of the ways and means at present available. CHAPTER III WHERE IS THE NEGRO TO GO? The desire and yearning of my soul is for an African nationality. I want a people that shall have a tangible, separate existence of its own; and where am I to look for it? On the shores of Africa I see a republic-a republic formed of picked men, who, by energy and self-educating force have, in many cases, individually raised themselves above a condition of slavery. Having gone through a preparatory stage of feebleness, this republic has, at last, become an acknowledged nation on the face of the earth,-acknowledged by both France and England. There it is my wish to go, and find myself a people. In these days, a nation is born in a day. A nation starts, now, with all the great problems of republican life and civilization wrought out to its hand;-it has not to discover, but only to apply. Let us, then, all take hold together, with all our might, and see what we can do with this new enterprise, and the whole splendid continent of Africa opens before us and our children. Our nation shall roll the tide of civilization and Christianity across its shores, and plant there mighty republics, that, growing with the rapidity of tropical vegetation, shall be ours for all coming ages.-GEORGE HARRIS, in Uncle Tom's Cabin: 1852. MPRESSED as he was with the profound conviction IMPRE that the solution of the negro problem lay in the direction of emancipation and subsequent colonization, Lincoln incidentally turned his attention toward the choice of a place where the race might be established and an opportunity opened for its independent development. We find in his memorial address at Springfield in 1852, quoted at page 311, his suggestion that the ultimate redemp tion of the African race and the civilization of the African continent might in the inscrutable purposes of the great Ruler of events be effected through the evolutionary processes likely to follow the adoption of his plan. Likening our situation to that of the Egyptians under Pharaoh, cursed with the plagues and torments engendered by the presence of an alien and hostile race, his hope and prayer were that by early and judicious action great disaster to our people should be averted by an absolute sundering of its connection with the negro race. His hopes in that respect were doomed to bitter disappointment, but, frustrated as they were, his faith in the desirability of colonization never waned. In address after address, in message after message, in letter after letter, in and out of season, he recurred to the opportunity afforded the negro to settle in Liberia, or elsewhere beyond the boundaries of the United States, and, undeterred by frequent disappointments, to the end maintained that in colonization rested the only hopeful future of the African race. Upon the principle that if all that he sought could not be effected, and that if the larger project of Liberian colonization, so near to his heart, could not then be realized, a beginning might be made upon this continent, when entrusted with the pitiful sum of six hundred thousand dollars to undertake a six-hundred-million-dollar task, he endeavored to effect arrangements with South American republics to receive an exodus of colored freedmen, and did, in fact, succeed in establishing a small colony for that purpose on the Ile à Vâche, a small island under Haytian jurisdiction. We have already discussed how circumstances placed the fulfilment of his wishes beyond his power, and how after his death the sweeping change of thought which for over forty years has carried us away from the true solution of the problem succeeded the more rational views entertained by both white and black prior to the unfortunate attempt at reconstruction. The Present In its essentials, however, the problem remains unchanged, and, as before stated, the situation is now far more favorable to the proposed solution than it was when LinSituation coln's project was abandoned. Nearly all of the Favorable. developments of the past forty-five years in science and material affairs have tended to favor the easier execution of the proposed plan, while a few changes have been to some degree unfavorable. Of the first class, the increased facilities of transportation, as compared with 1865, tend to make the disposition of the problem much less onerous. The difficulties of embarkation and the perils of the sea have been greatly lessened by advances in steamship service, and any liberally arranged plan of deportation would encounter but little difficulty arising out of inadequate transportation. The increase of wealth of the country has also lessened the proportions of the burden. In 1865 there were four and one half millions of negroes in the country, while the national wealth' was computed at about sixteen billion dollars. Since that time, while the numbers of the race have slightly more than doubled, the wealth of the nation has increased sevenfold, and the white population has increased, largely through immigration, in much greater ratio than the black. In proportion to the magnitude of the task, the resources of the country are far greater than they were in Lincoln's day. Advances, also, in sanitary science and in the knowledge of how to adapt emigration to the conditions of its new environment, together with the educational progress of the negro during the past forty-five years, industrially and otherwise, the gain in self-reliance which has come to him with the progress he has made, the national experience gained |