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portant duties of legislation. It was impossible for the white man of the South to submit to the control of his former negro slaves, and so after a struggle of force and subterfuge which reflects no credit upon either party thereto, by a conflict ending in 1877 the few remaining vestiges of negro rule were swept away, and since that time, by one means or another (later herein to be described), the negro has practically been deprived of all participation in the governmental affairs of the Southern States.

He has, however, progressed in business, improved in his religious condition, made great gains in the direction. of education, and in a thousand different ways his advancement has been a cause for encouragement to the well-wishers of the race. From time to time large numbers of the race have sought to emigrate to more favored northern or western sections, and at one time to Mexico; but little has come of these abortive attempts at change of locality. With freedom has come the possibility of migration and opportunity for contact with other sections of the country. With this development has come an awakening of intellect, with the awakening of intellect has come aspiration, following aspiration there has succeeded in the main discouragement and despondency.

In summing up this brief review of the history of the negro problem in this country, it may naturally be divided Historical into four periods, marked by clearly defined Summary. outlines:

FIRST,-the period of colonial indifference and unrestrained importation, ending with the prohibition of the slave-trade by the Constitutional provision taking effect in 1808.

SECOND, the period of strenuous endeavor on the part of the free states to limit the area of slavery, and on the part of the slave states for its extension, beginning with the Northwestern Ordinance of 1787 and terminating with the repeal of the Missouri Compromise.

THIRD,-the period of struggle for human freedom, beginning with the abolition movement, and leading by incessant agitation and appeals to the moral purpose of the nation to the Civil War and the adoption of the war amendments conferring on the negro, in form at least, the fullest rights and privileges of American citizenship.

FOURTH, 1865-1909-the period of trial and testforty-four years of nominal freedom and liberty, forty-four years of assistance and encouragement from the North, forty-four years of struggle against overwhelming disadvantages of repression at the South, forty-four years displaying some progress but containing much disappointment and no end yet in sight; the solution of the problem apparently as remote as when the framers of the Constitution in their spirit of optimism essayed to effect, and assumed that they had effected, its permanent adjustment.

A fundamental and ever-to-be-regretted mistake was made at the close of the Civil War in the adoption of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution, conferring upon the negro citizenship and the delusive promise of equal rights, together with the futile effort to invest him with the franchise.

In theory, the negroes should have been continued in their subordinate position and regarded as alien wards of the government until by education and experience they might have fitted themselves for establishment as a separate people in some appropriate locality. Unfortunately, this plan did not commend itself to the radical statesmen of that period, and under the constraining power of Stevens and Sumner the nation chose the worser part, and by conferring upon the unqualified blacks unearned citizenship aroused hopes and held out prospects never to be realized.

Happily it is not yet too late to correct this initial error and to retrace our steps to the point where they diverged

from the path of wisdom, safety, and honor. The forty years which have elapsed since the adoption of this illI advised policy of reconstruction have been a period of trial and schooling for the negro and of enlightening experience and thorough reflection for those charged with the control of the destinies of the nation.

Better than ever can we now approach the discussion of the problem. We have a clearer conception of the character of the questions involved, and there exists a less narrow and prejudiced feeling between the sections of the country so gravely concerned in the solution.

CHAPTER III

THE DIMENSIONS OF THE PROBLEM

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

BEFORE

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

EFORE entering upon the performance of the task of attempting to propose an efficacious solution of the negro problem, it is the part of wisdom carefully to examine the dimensions of the subject under discussion, in order that it may be determined whether our abilities and resources are adequate to the accomplishment of what we are about to undertake. To that end, therefore, before further considering the negro problem, let us pause for a moment to survey it in all its portentous dimensions.

In discussing this aspect of the question, and generally throughout the work where not otherwise specified, the figures regarding population are taken from the United States census of 1900, and the statistics in relation to political conditions principally from the New York Tribune Almanac of recent years.

It appears by this census of 1900 that the population of the continental United States, comprising the part of the country lying on the continent of North America and south of the Canadian boundary, was 66,809,196 whites and 8,833,994 blacks. Adopting the general percentage of increase shown by former censuses, and taking into consideration the increased immigration for the past two or

three years, the white population of the United States, as above defined, is at the present writing in the neighborhood of seventy-six millions, and the negro population will not vary far from ten million souls. A simple calculation will enable us to ascertain the approximate number of negroes in the United States at the present time.

By the census of 1900 their numbers were ascertained to be, in round numbers, 8,840,000. For the preceding decade the rate of increase had been 18.1 per cent., which closely corresponds with the general rate of increase for the preceding half-century. Adopting these figures as a basis, the increase for the next decennial period would be 1,600,000. The census of 1900 was taken in June of that year, and eight years having elapsed, the proportionate increase would be 1,280,000; indicating a present population of 10,120,000. This computation, while of course not scientifically exact, will readily serve as a basis for the discussion of the problem, where extreme accuracy is not at all essential, and hereafter in this work it will be assumed that the negro population is, in round numbers, 10,000,000 persons.

Before proceeding to consider how this alien element is distributed throughout the country, it may be well to take this opportunity to refute the proposition so frequently advanced that there is an immediate prospect of a decrease in the numbers of the African race. Its numbers, as shown. by each recurring census since the formation of the Constitution, are as follows:

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