o obtain money to "lift him up," have spread broadcast over the
land a feeling of contempt for him as a man and pity for his lowly and
unfortunate condition; so that throughout the North a business man
would much rather _give a thousand dollars_ to aid in the education of
the black heathen than to give a black scholar and gentleman an
opportunity to honestly _earn a hundred dollars_. He has no confidence
in the capacity of the black man. He has seen him pictured a savage,
sunk in ignorance and vice--an object worthy to receive alms, but
incapable of making an honest living. So that when a black man
demonstrates any capacity, shows any signs of originality or genius,
rises just a few inches above the common, he at once becomes an object
rare and wonderful--a "Moses," a "_leader_ of his people."--It is
almost as hard for an educated black man to obtain a position of trust
and profit as it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. The
missionaries, the preachers, and the educators, assisted by the
newspapers and the magazines, have educated the people into the false
opinion that it is safer to "donate" a thousand dollars to a colored
college than it is to give one black man a chance to make an honest
living.

Let us now look at the system of education as it has been operated
among the colored people of the South.

It cannot be denied that much of the fabulous sums of money lavishly
given for the education of the Freedmen of the South, has been
squandered upon experiments, which common sense should have dictated
were altogether impracticable. Perhaps this was sequential in the
early stages of the work, when the instructor was ignorant of the
topography of the country, the temper of the people among whom he was
to labor, and, more important still, when he was totally ignorant of
the particular class upon whom he was to operate--ignorant of their
temperament, receptive capacity and peculiar, aye, unique,
idiosyncrasies. Thus thousands upon thousands of dollars were expended
upon the erection and endowment of "colleges" in many localities where
ordinary common schools were unknown. Each college was, therefore,
necessarily provided with a primary department, where the child of ten
years and the adult of forty struggled in the same classes with the
first elements of rudimentary education. The child and the adult each
felt keenly his position in the college, and a course of cramming was
pursued, injurious to all concern