who possessed something of an education, it can be seen
at a glance that the supply of ministers was large. In fact, some time
ago I knew a certain church that had a total membership of about two
hundred, and eighteen of that number were ministers. But, I repeat, in
many communities in the South the character of the ministry is being
improved, and I believe that within the next two or three decades a very
large proportion of the unworthy ones will have disappeared. The "calls"
to preach, I am glad to say, are not nearly so numerous now as they were
formerly, and the calls to some industrial occupation are growing more
numerous. The improvement that has taken place in the character of the
teachers is even more marked than in the case of the ministers.

During the whole of the Reconstruction period our people throughout the
South looked to the Federal Government for everything, very much as
a child looks to its mother. This was not unnatural. The central
government gave them freedom, and the whole Nation had been enriched for
more than two centuries by the labour of the Negro. Even as a youth,
and later in manhood, I had the feeling that it was cruelly wrong in
the central government, at the beginning of our freedom, to fail to make
some provision for the general education of our people in addition
to what the states might do, so that the people would be the better
prepared for the duties of citizenship.

It is easy to find fault, to remark what might have been done, and
perhaps, after all, and under all the circumstances, those in charge
of the conduct of affairs did the only thing that could be done at the
time. Still, as I look back now over the entire period of our freedom,
I cannot help feeling that it would have been wiser if some plan could
have been put in operation which would have made the possession of
a certain amount of education or property, or both, a test for the
exercise of the franchise, and a way provided by which this test should
be made to apply honestly and squarely to both the white and black
races.

Though I was but little more than a youth during the period of
Reconstruction, I had the feeling that mistakes were being made, and
that things could not remain in the condition that they were in then
very long. I felt that the Reconstruction policy, so far as it related
to my race, was in a large measure on a false foundation, was artificial
and forced. In many cases it seemed to me that the ignoran