and by principle at all hazards. A Southern white man has no
respect for or confidence in a Negro who acts merely for policy's sake;
but there are many cases, and the number is growing, where the Negro has
nothing to gain, and much to lose, by opposing the Southern white man in
matters that relate to government.

Under the foregoing six heads I believe I have stated some of the main
points which, all high-minded white men and black men, North and South,
will agree, need our most earnest and thoughtful consideration, if we
would hasten, and not hinder, the progress of our country.

Now as to the policy that should be pursued. On this subject I claim to
possess no superior wisdom or unusual insight. I may be wrong; I may be
in some degree right.

In the future we want to impress upon the Negro, more than we have done
in the past, the importance of identifying himself more closely with the
interests of the South; of making himself part of the South, and at home
in it. Heretofore, for reasons which were natural, and for which no one
is especially to blame, the colored people have been too much like a
foreign nation residing in the midst of another nation. If William Lloyd
Garrison, Wendell Phillips, or George L. Stearns were alive to-day, I
feel sure that he would advise the Negroes to identify their interests
as closely as possible with those of their white neighbors,--always
understanding that no question of right and wrong is involved. In
no other way, it seems to me, can we get a foundation for peace and
progress. He who advises against this policy will advise the Negro to
do that which no people in history, who have succeeded, have done. The
white man, North or South, who advises the Negro against it advises him
to do that which he himself has not done. The bed rock upon which every
individual rests his chances for success in life is the friendship,
the confidence, the respect, of his next-door neighbor in the little
community in which he lives. The problem of the Negro in the South turns
on whether he can make himself of such indispensable service to his
neighbor and the community that no one can fill his place better in the
body politic. There is at present no other safe course for the black man
to pursue. If the Negro in the South has a friend in his white neighbor,
and a still larger number of friends in his own community, he has a
protection and a guarantee of his rights that will be more potent and
more lasting