"I do not believe," said Mr. Stillman, "in emptying on the shores of
Africa a horde of ignorant, poverty-stricken people, as missionaries of
civilization or Christianity. And while I am in favor of missionary
efforts, there is need here for the best heart and brain to work in
unison for justice and righteousness."
"America," said Miss Delany, "is the best field for human development.
God has not heaped up our mountains with such grandeur, flooded our
rivers with such majesty, crowned our valleys with such fertility,
enriched our mines with such wealth, that they should only minister to
grasping greed and sensuous enjoyment."
"Climate, soil, and physical environments," said Professor Gradnor,
"have much to do with shaping national characteristics. If in Africa,
under a tropical sun, the negro has lagged behind other races in the
march of civilization, at least for once in his history he has, in this
country, the privilege of using climatic advantages and developing under
new conditions."
"Yes," replied Dr. Latimer, "and I do not wish our people to become
restless and unsettled before they have tried one generation of
freedom."
"I am always glad," said Mr. Forest, a tall, distinguished-looking
gentleman from New York, "when I hear of people who are ill treated in
one section of the country emigrating to another. Men who are deaf to
the claims of mercy, and oblivious to the demands of justice, can feel
when money is slipping from their pockets."
"The negro," said Hon. Dugdale, "does not present to my mind the picture
of an effete and exhausted people, destined to die out before a stronger
race. Gilbert Haven once saw a statue which suggested this thought, 'I
am black, but comely; the sun has looked down upon me, but I will teach
you who despise me to feel that I am your superior.' The men who are
acquiring property and building up homes in the South show us what
energy and determination may do even in that part of the country. I
believe such men can do more to conquer prejudice than if they spent all
their lives in shouting for their rights and ignoring their duties. No!
as there are millions of us in this country, I think it best to settle
down and work out our own salvation here."
"How many of us to-day," asked Professor Langhorne, "would be teaching
in the South, if every field of labor in the North was as accessible to
us as to the whites? It has been estimated that a million young white
men have left the
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