“From my outlook, I am free to affirm that I see nothing for the Negro of the South but a condition of absolute freedom or of absolute slavery.  I see no half-way place for him.  One or the other of these conditions is to solve the so called Negro-problem.  Let it be remembered that the labor of the Negro is his only capital.  Take this from him and he dies from starvation.  The present mode of obtaining his labor in the South gives the old master-class a complete mastery over him.  The payment of the Negro by orders on stores, where the storekeeper controls price, quality and quantity, and is subject to no competition, so that the Negro must buy there and nowhere else—­an arrangement by which the Negro never has a dollar to lay by, and can be kept in debt to his employer year in and year out, puts him completely at the mercy of the old master-class.  He who could say to the Negro when a slave, you shall work for me or be whipped to death, can now say to him with equal emphasis, you shall work for me or I will starve you to death.  This is the plain, matter-of-fact and unexaggerated condition of the plantation Negro in the Southern States to-day.”

WHY THE NEGRO DOES NOT EMIGRATE?

“I will tell you.  He has not a cent of money to emigrate with, and if he had, and desired to exercise that right, he would be arrested for debt, for non-fulfillment of contract, or be shot down like a dog in his tracks.  When Southern Senators tell you that they want to be rid of the negroes, and would be glad to have them all clear out, you know, and I know, and they know, that they are speaking falsely, and simply with a view to mislead the North.  Only a few days ago, armed resistance was made in North Carolina to colored emigration from that State, and the first exodus to Kansas was arrested by the old master-class with shotguns and Winchester rifles.  The desire to get rid of the negro is a hollow sham.  His labor is wanted to-day in the South just as it was wanted in the old times when he was hunted by two-legged and four-legged bloodhounds.”

NO FEARS OF THE FINAL RESULT.

“In conclusion, while I have plainly portrayed the sources of danger to our people, I have no fears as to the final result.  The American people are governed, not only by laws and selfish interests, but by large ideas of moral and material civilization.  The spirit of justice, liberty, and fair play is abroad in the land.  It is in the air.  It animates men of all stations, of all professions and callings, and can neither be silenced nor extirpated.  It has an agent in every bar of railroad iron, a servant in every electric wire, a missionary in every traveler.  It not only tunnels the mountains, fills up the valleys, and sheds upon us the light of science, but it will ultimately destroy the unnumbered wrongs inherited by both races from the system of slavery and barbarism.