Page:A defence of the negro race in America from the assaults and charges of Rev. J. L. Tucker.djvu/29

 4th. That black men shall not be entrusted with the training and education of their brethren.

As Dr. Tucker is evidently serious in these suggestions, I presume that I must take them up in as serious a manner as he presents them.

Now, I beg to say that nothing can be more non-natural than the plans thus proposed. People, however philanthropic, are rarely prepared to go it blind in the disbursements of moneys. Christian people especially give as "stewards" of their Divine Master. They want to know, first of all, the quality of fitness in their almoners; and, next, that they will use their moneys aright. But here is a proposition which reverses all the "settled principles of alms-giving. For—

1st. It cleverly lays the burden of obligation in this matter upon the Northern people. Dr. Tucker says, "You freed the slaves, and left them on our hands." "Blood and trouble have come of it so far, and for this you of the North are largely to blame." But the question arises. Has freedom made the alleged heathenism of the Southern blacks any denser than slavery did? Has emancipation plunged the Southern blacks into ignorance and benightedness? And, if not, whence arises the special obligation of the North to perform this duty of evangelization?

And then—

2d. Why should Southern men be the chosen missionaries to the black race? Whence arises their special fitness for this work? From experience? From high achievement or from large success? Why, Dr. Tucker admits the failure of the South. The Negro has been moulded and fashioned by Southern Christians two centuries and more: and Dr. Tinker avers—I am using his own language—"the Negro is retrograding in morality," (p. 2.) "I say deliberately,