the situation as it existed ten years ago. Doubtless, the Negroes have gained upon the whites in literacy to some extent during the decade, but certainly not sufficiently to change the general result.

In the light of these figures, can the argument of fear of Negro domination be sustained?

It is true that our first duty is the preservation of the civilization of the South upon the lines of our race, and this franchise provision does so upon the firm basis of justice and fairness. Then, sir, should we remain longer chained to the past?

Let us consider a most practical and potent reason why, as soon as possible, this or some other plan of settlement should be adopted which will hurry the Negro along the road of intelligent and settled citizenship. In this day of industrial and financial change, the South, in the adjustment of the commercial affairs in the next twenty-five years, will be the chief factor. We can no longer devote ourselves to the one and sole idea of holding ourselves solid on the Negro Question. Believing in the Southern leaders and trusting to their guidance in the past, still with the most absolute earnestness I believe that the time for change is upon us. The South has other things to occupy its attention. The great objection to the present system is that it demands our absolute attention and effectiveness to the exclusion of all else. We are busy. We are growing rich. We are the seat of a great commerce. Wealth is coming among us. This demands that we should

have freedom of action to take advantage of our opportunities. How can we proceed on the grand march of industrial progress when our whole attention is absorbed with our inherent political complexities? Surely this settlement must be made and this question forever closed, so there will be nothing to distract our attention from the great question of developing the South in the manner which it deserves. That problem behind us, how easy will it be for us to grasp our imperial opportunities! The tyranny of the solid vote to be maintained on the one question is the most burdensome and exhausting which ever afflicted a people. Let us now cast it off.

More than this will arise out of the commercial change of to-day. As surely as we live, this marvellous industrial transformation of the South will sooner or later produce a division among us on the great questions of commerce. It is sure to do so. In every progressive Southern State, it has already made a division of the white voters. In my State, it has made an absolute and almost equal division of the vote. Under this condition of affairs, the Negro vote will count, and will surely be consulted. It is inevitable. We cannot put off the day. Then let that vote be intelligent and carry with it the dignity and consideration of propertyowning and intelligence. Let the status of the voter be settled and the question will be out of the way and behind us. We do not wish to emulate the condition of affairs exemplified by the monarchies of Europe and be

compelled to entirely devote our lives to the public safety.

Believing in the preservation of our civilization and holding to all the time-honored sentiments of the South, yet I believe that the changed condition of affairs today demands that the South should settle emphatically and once for all this great political question. Should prejudice stand in the way when almost rising to our splendid destiny? Should time-honored opinions interfere with our progress? Out from the shadows of the cloud, how glorious would be the light of our day! Relieved from its paralyzing effect, what country could equal our achievements! In the words of a great English statesman: "Or shall we expect from time, the physician of brutes, a lingering and uncertain deliverance? Shall we wait to be happy till we can forget that we are miserable, and owe to the weakness of our faculties a tranquillity which ought to be the effect of their strength? Far otherwise. Let us set all our past and present afflictions at once before our eyes. Let us resolve to overcome them, instead of flying from them, or wearing out the sense of them by long and ignominious patience. Instead of palliating remedies, let us use the incisive knife and the caustic, search the wound to the bottom, and work an immediate and radical cure."

A fair and honest franchise will once for all settle the question of Negro domination, the mere fear of which has been so great a blight to the South.

Delaying the settlement of the status of the Negro will, under the circumstances, but lose us precious time. The Negroes will in time become voters, full and free voters, and with our absolute and ultimate approbation and consent. Delay will not affect the final result. This may seem a bold statement, but if you will indulge me I will appeal to your experience for my justification.

Every argument of memory and experience teaches us that this question is surely solving itself in the ultimate direction of broad political liberty for the Negro. It is useless to controvert it. To-day, beyond denial, it is nearer a liberal solution than ever before. Under Providence, excepting the first great shock of civil franchise granted to the Negro, the other steps towards the broader enfranchisement have proceeded step by step, and under the assimilating and soothing process of time they have been without jar to our feelings or wound to the body politic. There has been no backward movement. It has been purely forward all the time. I challenge contradiction to this statement. I mean political and civil advancement. I adhere to absolute social and racial separation as earnestly as any one to whom I speak. Social and racial separation is the salvation of both races. Loose Memory's chain

and wander with me over the South, enter the courthouse and legislature and the marts of business, and you yourself will be amazed at your unconscious change of sentiment in the direction of liberality towards the

Negro. When he was a slave, we gave our fathers and sons to death, and deluged with blood this fair country to retain him as a slave; and yet within the sound of my voice there is not a man who, for all the land between the swelling seas, would rivet a fetter on the arm of a Negro. Stand with me in the sacred halls of Justice. I remember when a Negro's oath was not taken. Yet to-day an intelligent Negro on the witness-stand is accepted without question; and if he has been an honest man, no difference is made between him and a white man of equal character.

That which has distinguished the Anglo-Saxon in all times is the right of jury. The juryman must be a free man, and under the sun of Australia or the snows of the North, the jury has gone as the badge of the Anglo-Saxon. I remember when a Negro darkened no jury in my State; yet, to-day, Negro jurymen have been found by those experienced in the work of the court-house, to be, without question, safe and conservative.

In my town, with a prescience of the future beyond the wisdom of his day, Stonewall Jackson taught a Negro Sunday-school, at times against vehement protest and under threats of prosecution. To-day we have spent a hundred millions upon the Negro school, and not for the wealth of the Indies would we close them to him. In your business life his every step has been against a protest, but he has made his place within the march of affairs, and as great as the changes have been,