The South Revisited [pp. 22-31]

The Soutl Reviszted.
this problem for herself,- the national
government perhaps looking on to see
that no flagrant injustice be done, no
constitutional provision violated,- I feel
sure that the problem would in some
way be justly solved, and we should be
really, what we all are anxious to be, a
completely united people.
But in the meantime, while uncertain ty prevails on the point of possible in terference, the people of the South are
all at sea. The most thoughtful cannot
forecast the outcome. The people sim ply meet emergencies as they arise, and
hope that the problem will gradually
solve itself. As an example of such par tial solution, but perfectly just, I would
mention the law passed in some States,
which conditions the exercise of the
franchise upon the payment of a small
poll-tax of one or two dollars. This
law practically disfranchises nearly the
whole of the blacks.
Meanwhile the relation, especially
the personal relation, between the races
as far as I have been able to observe,
and as far as I could learn from others,
is kindly and even affectionate, and
becoming more and more so. Mean
while, too, the negroes in some localities
and under favorable conditions are improving in intelligence, in acquisition of
property, and in self-respect and respect
of others, and therefore becoming more
qualified to vote intelligently. I say in
some localities and under favorable conditions, but in other localities the very
opposite changes are going on, and the
difference of conditions in the two cases
emphasizes every word I have said above.
Wherever the white population is in excess, so that there is no doubt about
the controlling element in shaping the
policy of the community, the negroes
are improving in all the respects mentioned above. But wherever the negroes
are largely in excess, so that the control
of the superior race is lost, as, for example, in parts of Louisiana and the
coasts of Carolina and Georgia, the negroes are rapidly retrograding. Here,
as in Liberia, Hayti, and wheresoever
else they are withdrawn from the personal controlling influence of the white
race, they are rapidly relapsing into barbarism.
Joseph Le Conte.
r
1889.]
31
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