AIMBORLIAD

VII.

A TRILEMMA.

THERE is no basis for the expectation that the antipathy between the white man and the Negro will ever be appreciably moderated. The two races in America will remain apart, in obedience to a law that is so nearly if not wholly universal in its operation that we are compelled to regard it as a fundamental law of human nature, and therefore beyond hope of repeal or evasion.

These assertions and assumptions are of the most momentous character, truly, and everything depends on their truth. The negro question is practically a question of the future relations of the white and colored people in America; and this question easily resolves itself again into the ultimate inquiry as to the probable persistence or decline of the race-prejudice in the mind of the white man of the South. This last, then, is the all-important question which remains to be considered. We can agree or disagree about much of what has gone before, and be little the worse for disagreement in any event. We can not afford to make any mistake in taking the next step.

Is it probable that the white people of the South, for any reason or motive, under any circumstances that are likely to arise, will ever regard the negroes among whom they live with much less aversion,-or with more favor, if that term be preferred, than they now entertain towards them?

The answer must be an emphatic, unqualified negative, if we can determine the probable future conduct of the people in question by what we know of their past and present conduct, and of their sentiment and disposition however manifested. For, what single reason have we to expect a change in any of these respects? No such reason presents itself to ordinary minds, assuredly. The prejudice of race has always been exhibited, and is still exhibited, by every white man, woman and child in the South. It is rooted in the minds of fifteen millions of people. Argument does not touch it. All the pleadings and protests and threats and blows that have been employed to modify it have not affected it in any individual mind,-save to confirm and strengthen it. It is stronger to-day, if possible, than ever before. It is so strong that it laughs at the suggestion of yielding.

There is not a white person in the old Slave States-not one-who advocates a change in any respect in the social relations of the two races; not one entertains the thought of change.

The existing status is perfectly satisfactory to

all those who alone can change it; and is jealously maintained by them. They regard as enemies all who would overthrow or even disturb it. Their whole energy is directed to preserving the situation as it is, from the first approach toward a change.

The evidence and results of this disposition cannot be overlooked or misunderstood, and have been fully exhibited in a preceding chapter. The whites and blacks of mature age, it was shown, are absolutely separated in every relation of life which would require them to meet under even the semblance of equality. The white and black youths are only farther apart than their parents. The younger and succeeding generations will hold still less ground in common. The manifest tendency of the two peoples, everywhere, is to drift ever farther away from each other. There is no single bond or force to counteract or check this tendency; there are ten thousand strong forces in ceaseless operation to confirm and promote it. Assuredly, there is nothing-nothingin the conduct and known disposition of the Southern white people to encourage the slightest hope or expectation that they will change either their conduct or disposition towards their black neighbors; and assuredly these, on the other hand, can neither compel nor induce such a change.

Do not these bare assertions faithfully depict, so far as they go, the position and relations of the

white and black peoples in the South? And do not they go far enough? They are the plain, unvarnished statements of the most conspicuous feature in the present condition of our country, and their substantial verity can not be honestly denied.

Yet, if they be true, who can estimate their tremendous importance? They are fraught with so grave meaning, when fully understood, that it is not strange that thoughtful men, North and South, have been slow to advance them or accept them; and have tried rather to persuade themselves that the facts are not as they appear to be, or to avoid facing them altogether until now. They mean the assured failure of the great work the American people have been engaged in for twenty years, the work of making American citizens of several millions of African people occupying the same soil with us. They mean not only that the Negro question has

not been settled, but

that it is not in the way of settlement, and will never be thus settled.

Shall we then accept this as the true statement of our condition, and act on it? This would seem to be the wise course; but, unfortunately, it is not the course that is being pursued. There are some, if not many, among us-among our public men especially-who cannot or will not see what is so plainly to be seen. They accept part of the statement as true, and reject the rest; or accept the whole in substance and reject the

inevitable conclusion that is drawn from it. They see the situation as it is, but cannot accept the assertion of its continuance and consequences. They see that the races remain wholly separated, that the gulf between them is widening—and yet hope that they will unite. They recognize the existence and potent operation of the race-prejudice in all lands and in all ages, and yet expect it to fade out, sooner or later, in the Southern States of North America-where its intensity and energy have ever found their fullest expression.

What are the grounds of this hope and expectation? Briefly stated, they are two-fold. The more familiar ground is that, under the favoring conditions of general "education" and "development," the negroes will be brought more and more nearly to the level of the white race; that the prejudice against them will naturally subside as they rise to that level; and that the process of assimilation will be made effective, and will be hastened, by the knowledge of the white people that the two races are hopelessly doomed to compulsory association, and must assume equal, or nearly equal, relations for the good of both. The less familiar ground, perhaps, is that the presence of a large mulatto population in the South shows conclusively that the race-prejudice has not served to keep the races apart hitherto, and that it may be expected to prove less of a barrier in future, under the conditions already