iple of self-
government does not consist wholly or chiefly in the idea
that self is the person who governs, but quite as much in
the doctrine that self is the person who is governed. How
our race troubles would disappear if the dominant Saxon would
but obey, in his treatment of the weaker races, the authority
of the fundamental laws on which his own institutions rest!
The problem of to-day is not how to convert the heathen from
heathenism, it is how to convert the Christian from heathenism;
not to teach the physician to heal the patient, but to heal
himself. The Indian problem is not chiefly how to teach the
Indian to be less savage in his treatment of the Saxon, but
the Saxon to be less savage in his treatment of the Indian.
The Chinese problem is not how to keep Chinese laborers out
of California, but how to keep Chinese politics out of Congress.
The negro question will be settled when the education of the
white man is complete.

We make every allowance for ourselves. We expect mankind
to make every allowance for us. We expect to be forgiven
for our own wrong-doing. We easily forgive our own white
fellow citizens for the unutterable and terrible cruelties
they have committed on men of other races. But if a people
just coming out of slavery or barbarism commit a hundredth
part of the same offence our righteous indignation knows no
bounds. We have no recognition for their eager desire for
civilization or for liberty, no generous appreciation of their
improvement and promise. And the thousand things in them
that give promise of good in the future are disregarded if
there be any trace left in them of the old barbarism.

Has Reconstruction been a failure? Let us see about that.
We must remember that the relations of the black and white
races to each other, which have existed almost from the foundation
of the world, cannot be changed in a single generation. It
is but thirty-three years since General Grant and the two
Houses of Congress, in political accord with him and with
each other, took possession of the Government. That possession
has been interrupted more than once. It is but forty years
since slavery was abolished. It is less than thirty years
since the last of the three great Amendments to the Constitution
took effect. What has happened in that time? Slavery has
been abolished. That is not a failure. The negro owns his
right to his own labor. He cannot be separated from his wife
or children.