The colored men of the South must cultivate more cordial relations with the white men of the South.  They must, by a wise policy, hasten the day when politics shall cease to be the shibboleth that creates perpetual warfare.  The citizen of a State is far more sovereign than the citizen of the United States.  The State is a real, tangible reality; a thing of life and power; while the United States is, purely, an abstraction—­a thing that no man has successfully defined, although many, wise in their way and in their own conceit, have philosophized upon it to their own satisfaction.  The metaphysical polemics of men learned in the science of republican government, covering volume upon volume of “debates,” the legislation of ignoramuses, styled statesmen, and the “strict” and “liberal” construction placed upon their work by the judicial magi, together with a long and disastrous rebellion, to the cruel arbitrament of which the question had been, as was finally hoped, in the last resort, submitted, have failed, all and each, to define that visionary thing the so-called Federal government, and its just rights and powers.  As Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson left it, so it is to-day, a bone of contention, a red flag in the hands of the political matadors of one party to infuriate those of the other parties.

No:  it is time that the colored voter learned to leave his powerless “protectors” and take care of himself.  Let every one read, listen, think, reform his own ideas of affairs in his own locality; let him be less interested in the continual wars of national politics than in the interests of his own town and county and state; let him make friends of the mammon of unrighteousness of his own neighborhood, so far as to take an intelligent part among his neighbors, white and black, and vote for the men and for the party that will do the best for him and his race, and best conserve the interest of his vicinity.  Let there be no aim of solidifying the colored vote; the massing of black means the massing of white by contrast.  Individual colored men—­and many of them—­have done wonders in self-elevation; but there can be no general elevation of the colored men of the South until they use their voting power in independent local affairs with some discrimination more reasonable than an obstinate clinging to a party name.  When the colored voters differ among themselves and are to be found on both sides of local political contests, they will begin to find themselves of some political importance; their votes will be sought, cast, and counted.

And this is the key to the whole situation; let them make themselves a part of the people.  It will take time, patience, intelligence, courage; but it can be done:  and until it is done their path will lie in darkness and perhaps in blood.

CHAPTER X

Solution of the Political Problem