Thoughtful men at the South now have no rose-colored views about the
Negro problem. They fear the impending conflict. With them the
supremacy of the white race is the settled point, but they see in the
growing numbers, intelligence and restlessness of the Negroes an
increasing danger that will only be aggravated by delay. Why should
not the North and South alike manfully face the question of a war of
races? What will it mean? What will be its end? If the whites and the
blacks of the South alone engage in it, the blacks will be
exterminated. Nothing less will meet the case. If the North mingle in
the struggle, it must be to help the whites or the blacks. If to help
the whites, that will mean the more rapid defeat and slaughter of the
blacks; if the North help the blacks and save them from destruction,
then we shall be worse off than we are now, the two races will be
together with enmities aroused a thousand fold!

But why not face the more hopeful question: Is there a remedy? There
is! The teacher and the preacher, the spelling-book and the Bible, the
saviours of men, the reformers of society, the uplifters of races, are
spreading over the South. They go to the manufacturing towns--the
Birminghams and the Annistons--they go to the large cities with their
common and normal schools, their medical, law and theological
seminaries. When the pupils become teachers, they go into the smaller
towns, they go into the rural districts, on the small farms,
everywhere instructing, encouraging and stimulating the people,
leading them to more intelligent industries, to economy, to the
purchase of land, the erection of better houses, to a higher aim in
life, and to the formation of a right character. Of such stuff men are
made, citizens, Christians; men who can use the ballot, who own
property that must be protected by the ballot; men who have homes that