THE RACE PROBLEM. 277 



the contrary, by those who assume to speak for us, or by frank opponents. Faith 

 will be kept with him in the future, if the South holds her reason and integrity. 

 [Applause.] " 



The above was delivered before a Northern audience ; and to show 

 that Mr. Grady was perfectly sincere in every word he said on this 

 subject, I will now give an extract from a speech delivered by him at 

 the Augusta, Georgia, Exposition, in 1889, which is as follows : 



\ 



" As for the negro, let us impress upon him what he already knows, that his best 



friends are the people among whom he lives, whose interests are one with his, and ^ 

 whose prosperity depends on his perfect contentment. Let us give him his uttermost 

 rights, and measure out justice to him in that fulness the strong should always give 

 to the weak. Let us educate him that he may be a better, a broader, and more 

 enlightened man. Let us lead him in steadfast ways of citizenship, that he may not 

 longer be the sport of the thoughtless, and the prey of the unscrupulous. Let us 

 inspire him to follow the example of the worthy and upright of his race, who may 

 be found in every community, and who increase steadily in numbers and influence. 

 Let us strike hands with him as friends and as in slavery we led him to heights 

 which his race in Africa had never reached, so in freedom let us lead him to a pros- 

 perity of which his friends in the North have not dreamed. Let us make him know 

 that he, depending more than any other on the protection and bounty of govern- 

 ment, shall find in alliance with the best elements of the whites, the pledge of safe 

 and impartial administration. And let us remember this that whatever wrong we 

 put on him shall return to punish us. Whatever we take from him in violence, that 

 is unworthy and shall not endure. What we steal from him in fraud, that is worse. 

 But what we win from him in sympathy and affection, what we gain in his confiding 

 alliance, and confirm in his awakening judgment, that is precious and shall endure 

 and out of it shall come healing and peace. [Applause.] " 



Every time the partisan politician speaks on this subject he purposely 

 complicates and makes it worse ; but thanks to an all-wise Providence 

 for the power that now rests in the hands of the Farmers' Alliance, 

 which has taken up this great question where the noble Grady laid it 

 down. Until the advent of the Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union 

 and the Colored Farmers, the negroes, as a class, have taken but very 

 little interest in politics for several years. They lost their former faith 

 in politics and politicians, which was very natural to one acquainted 

 with the fact that they had always been loyal partisans, and for their 

 devotion and zeal they had been paid off with a few appointments as 

 postmasters in, most generally, third or fourth-class post-offices. 



Since the negroes have been organized into the Farmers' Alliance, 

 they have made considerable progress in the study of economic ques- 

 tions, and, judging from the utterances of their leaders, they are willing 

 and anxious to sever all past party affiliations, and join hands with the 

 white farmers of the South and West in any movement looking to a 



