over their fellow-citizens of the North. They ruled in Congress,
dominated over the press and the pulpit, and, ambitious to extend their
dominion, demanded larger territory for the extension of the slave
system. When this was refused, they set up an independent standard and
brought on the war. The end was disastrous to the South. The capitalists
were well-nigh ruined and the slaves were set free.

On this same plain, growing out of the embers of that same conflict,
another and almost as threatening a struggle is rising up before us. The
white race in the South still largely controls capital, intelligence and
power, and these forces are again used to hinder the impoverished
laborer. The white man holds office, from which the black man is
excluded, who is denied opportunities and privileges which crush his
manhood. The contest is again unequal, and the outcome must take one of
two forms. Either the oppressed laborer will rise in rebellion--and
whatever may be the ultimate result the conflict will be dreadful--or,
on the other hand, the laborer, denied education, a comfortable home and
a chance to accumulate property, will sink into an utterly hopeless
degradation, a curse to himself and to the whole South.

What is the remedy for all this? There is a remedy, and if applied
promptly may save the nation from either of the catastrophes we have
named, and that is: Give the black man a chance to acquire property,
education and power equal to his white neighbor, and the elements of the
struggle are gone. This is the work the American Missionary Association
is attempting to do. It meddles not with theories, or parties, but aims
quietly to give the needed help to the Negro.

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