“Let us reduce the question of our rejection to a question pure and simple of the color of our skins, and by the help of that God who gave us that color we shall win.

“On the question of education much might be said in blame of the South, but far more may be said in her praise.

“The evils of which our president spoke are grave and must be righted, but let us not fail to see the bright side.

“The Anglo-Saxon child virtually pays for the education of the Negro child.  You might hold that he might do more.  It is equally true that he might do less.  When we contrast the Anglo-Saxon, opening his purse and pouring out his money for the education of the Negro, with the Anglo-Saxon plaiting a scourge to flog the Negro aspiring to learn, the progress is marvelous indeed.

“And, let us not complain too bitterly of the school maintained by the Southerner, for it was there that we learned what true freedom was.  It was in school that our hearts grew warm as we read of Washington, of Jefferson, of Henry, apostles of human liberty.  It was the school of the Southerner that has builded the Imperium which now lifts its hand in power and might to strike a last grand blow for liberty.

COURTS OF JUSTICE.

“As for the courts of justice, I have not one word to say in palliation of the way in which they pander to the prejudices of the people.  If the courts be corrupt; if the arbitrator between man and man be unjust; if the wretched victim of persecution is to be stabbed to death in the house of refuge; then, indeed, has mortal man sunk to the lowest level.  Though every other branch of organized society may reek with filth and slime, let the ermine on the shoulders of the goddess of justice ever be clean and spotless.

“But remember this, that the Court of last resort has set the example which the lower courts have followed.  The Supreme Court of the United States, it seems, may be relied upon to sustain any law born of prejudice against the Negro, and to demolish any law constructed in his interest.  Witness the Dred Scott decision, and, in keeping with this, the decision on the Civil Rights Bill and Separate Coach Law.

“If this court, commonly accepted as being constituted with our friends, sets such a terrible example of injustice, it is not surprising that its filthy waters corrupt the various streams of justice in all their ramifications.

MOB LAW.

“Of all the curses that have befallen the South, this is the greatest.  It cannot be too vehemently declaimed against.  But let us look well and see if we, as a people, do not bear some share of the responsibility for the prevalence of this curse.