Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/38

 30 Southern Historical Society Papers,

outlines of a broken landscape. Lands have thus been ruined and abandoned, sufficient in area, under careful husbandry, to feed and clothe the entire population of the ex-slave States.

So extensive has the destruction of the old plantations become that the wolf even, that was banished from our soil a century ago, now returns to howl over the desolations of its tillage. These ob- servations are not set down in malice, but for our admonition and instruction. They are intended to show that a race which has not yet learned even the arts of a common laborer, is not yet fitted for the prerogative of a sovereign. It is intended to unmask the hypoc- risy of those who would justify the robbery of a land of primeval forests and a virgin soil from the Indian and the turning of it over for destruction to the negro. Under the supervision of the white man, these lands may be reclaimed, and under the undisputed dominion of the country by the white race, the negro can attain to a prosperity and happiness that would be impossible while competing with the white man in the race for political power.

THE SOUTH WILL HOLD THE KEY.

With the proper limitations on negro suffi-age, all other race questions can well be left to future solution. We can then gravely turn our attention to a solution of those problems of anarchy or socialism, and the question of labor and capital, which engages the serious attention of all patriotic and thoughtful men. With the Anglo-American element once securely installed again in power in the late slave States, it will become a tower of strength to the nation in its struggle with socialism. The South will then hold the key to the situation, and will lead in the movement to rescue the country from anarchy. With the foundations of free institutions thus deeply laid in the South, under the guardianship of the descendants of the fathers of the republic, we can look for the late rebellious section to be the trusted champion of our government against the minions of socialism. It can be relied on to formulate a plan whereby we may bridge the gulf that lies between Lazarus and Dives, so that both may pass and repass in contentment and happiness.

THE DREAD FETICH.

The white race in the South has not only assimilated, but the pride of its traditions runs back to King's Mountain and Valley Forge and Yorktown. The colored race itself, under the tutelage of the white race, will be an element of strength in the coming social-