columns
again and again, when the subject of intermarriage between whites and
negroes is discussed. But the terrible state of immorality which
exists there, involving white men and colored women, is something upon
which the papers of that region are silent as a rule. Not so the grand
jury that met recently at Madison, Ga., which thus spoke out in its
presentment with all plainness of the Old Testament:

"After several days of laborious investigation we have found the moral
state of our country in a fair condition, and the freedom of our
community from any great criminal offenses is a subject for
congratulation to our people. But the open and shameless cohabitation
of white men with negro women in our community cries to heaven for
abatement. This crime in its nature has been such as to elude our
grasp owing to the limited time of our session. It is poisoning the
fountains of our social life; it is ruining and degrading our young
men, men who would scorn to have imputation put on them of
equalization with negroes, but who have, nevertheless, found the
lowest depths of moral depravity in this unnatural shame of their
lives."

"The despatch chronicling the presentment adds: 'The reading of this
presentment in court aroused a great feeling of indignation among men
who declare that the private affairs of the people should not be
intruded upon.' It strikes the Northern mind that until these 'private
affairs' do not need to be 'intruded upon,' Southern newspapers and
Southern clergymen would with better grace bottle up their indignation
upon the terrible evils likely to result from the legitimate
intermarriage of the two races."--_Newspaper waif._

CHAPTER IX

_Political Independence of the Negro_

The following chapter is, in the main, a reproduction of an address
delivered by me before the Colored Press Association, in the city of
Washington, June 27, 1882:--

* * * * *

In addressing myself to a consideration of the subject: "The colored
man as an Independent Force in our Politics," I come at once to one of
the vital principles underlying American citizenship of the colored
man in a peculiar manner. Upon this question hang all the conditions
of man as a free moral agent, as an intelligent reasoning being; as a
man thoughtful for the best interests of his country, of his
individual interests, and of the interests of those who must take up
the work of republican government when