Contending Forces

teeth), “shaken him as a dog would a rat until he was dead! dead! dead! We took her home, but I believe that her father was a madman from the time he placed his eyes upon her until he was murdered. And who do you think had done this foul crime? Why, the father’s half-brother, uncle of the victim!

“Crazed with grief, Monsieur Beaubean faced his brother and accused him of his crime. ‘Well,’ said he, ‘whatever damage I have done I am willing to pay for. But your child is no better than her mother or her grandmother. What does a woman of mixed blood, or any Negress, for that matter, know of virtue? It is my belief that they were a direct creation by God to be the pleasant companions of men of my race. Now, I am willing to give you a thousand dollars and call it square.’ He handed Monsieur Beaubean a roll of bills as he spoke. Beaubean seized them and hurled them into the villain’s face with these words: ‘I leave you to carry my case into the Federal courts and appeal for justice.’ Unhappy man! That night his house was mobbed. The crowd surrounded the building after firing it, and as an inmate would show his head at a window in the struggle to escape from the burning building, someone would pick him off. So it went all that night. I seized Mabelle and wrapped her in a blanket. Watching my chance I stole from the house after the fire was well under way, and miraculously reached a place of safety. I took Mabelle to the colored convent at New Orleans, and left her there in the care of the sisters. There she died when her child was born!”

As the speaker stood silently contemplating his weeping, grief-convulsed audience, a woman was borne from the auditorium in a fainting condition. John Langley from his seat on the platform leaned over and asked an usher who the lady was. “Miss Sappho Clark,” was his reply.

Amid universal silence, the silence which comes from feeling too deep for outward expression, the speaker concluded: “A tax too heavy placed on tea and things like that, made the American Colonies go to war with Great Britain to get their liberty. I ask you what you think the American Colonies would have done if they had suffered as we have suffered and are still suffering?

“Mr. Chairman, gentlemen call for peace, and I reply: ‘Peace if possible; justice at any rate.’ Where is there peace for men like me? When the grave has closed over me and my memories, I shall have peace.

“Under such conditions as I have described, contentment, amity⁠—call it by what name you will⁠—is impossible; justice alone remains to us.”

XV

Will Smith’s Defense of His Race

Thank God for the token!
Thank God that one man as a free
Man has spoken!

Whittier

Someone at this moment began to sing that grand old hymn, ever new and consoling:

“Jesus, Lover of my soul,
Let me to thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is nigh.”

When quiet once more reigned, amid intense silence the chairman arose and introduced Mr. William Smith as the last speaker of the evening. Tremendous applause greeted him, for he was known to be an able and eloquent debater.

“Friends,” he said, “I shall not attempt a lengthy and discursive argument; I shall simply try to answer some of the arguments which have been advanced by other speakers. I have no doubt that they have spoken their honest convictions. Now let us look at the other side of the question.

“We know that the Negro question is the most important issue in the affairs of the American Republic today. We are told that there are but two ways of solving the vexed question of the equality of the two races: miscegenation by law, which can never take place, or complete domination by the white race⁠—meaning by that comparative servitude.

“Miscegenation, either lawful or unlawful, we do not want. The Negro dwells less on such a social cataclysm than any other race among us. Social equality does not exist; no man is forced to receive another within the environments of intimate social life. ‘Social position is not to be gained by pushing.’ That much for miscegenation. The question now stands: Which race shall dominate within certain parallels of latitude south of Mason and Dixon’s line? The Negro, if given his full political rights, would carry the balance of power every time. This power the South has sworn that he shall never exercise. All sorts of arguments are brought forward to prove the inferiority of intellect, hopeless depravity, and God knows what not, to uphold the white man in his wanton cruelty toward the American Ishmael.

“We are told that we can receive education only along certain elementary lines, and in the next breath we are taunted with not producing a genius in science or art. A Southern white man will tell you that of all politicians the Negro is the vilest, ignoring the fact that for corrupt politics no race ever can or ever will excel the venality of a certain class of whites. Let us, for the sake of illustration, glance at the position of the Irish element in politics. They come to this country poor, unlettered, despised. Fifty years ago Pat was as little welcome at the North as the Negro at the South. What has changed the status of his citizenship? Politics. The Irishman dominates politics at the North, and there is no gift within the power of the government that does not feel his influence. I remember a story I heard once of an Irishman just landed at Castle Garden. A friend met him, and as they walked up the street said to him: ‘Well, Pat, you are just in time to vote for the city government election.’ ‘Begorra,’ replied Pat, ‘an’ is it a guvimint they have here? Sure,