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not be deprived of them.' In truth, disfranchisement cannot now be the remedy. I venture to agree with those thoughtful Northern statesmen who say that, whatever temporary inconveniences may attend the policy, deliberately adopted, it must be adhered to; for, they say, under our political system the only security that every class shall be fairly treated is, that they should have votes. They instance the case of the Chinese in California, who, in their view, are unfairly treated because they have no votes, A man, they say, who has a vote, even if he carries no weight now, is sure to be courted by some party sooner or later. The whites must have divisions among themselves, and then they will be civil to the blacks. I think the experience of our own Colonies is entirely in favour of this view. Unrepresented blacks, and other unrepresented classes, are always liable to be treated unfairly under labour laws, vagrant laws, and revenue laws. I am told that in the interval between the war and the adoption of the black-vote clause of the Constitution some of the Southern Legislatures showed a disposition to adopt similar laws; and though they now are honestly free from such ideas, such proposals would probably spring up again if the blacks were not represented.

It must be remembered that the Constitution of the United States imposes no obligation whatever to give universal suffrage to all blacks; all that is required is that there shall be the same rule for black and white. The Southern States are perfectly at с liberty to impose any general property qualification,

household qualification, or anything else they please -they might very well impose an education qualifi cation such as exists in Massachusetts to this day. With this exception, in Massachusetts, however, universal manhood suffrage has, I think, become a sort of custom of all the States, and perhaps they would find it difficult to depart from it.

What makes it more especially desirable that the question of the black vote should be settled is, that in reality there are no other great questions whatever to divide North and South, or black and white. Such is the conclusion to which I have come after very careful inquiry.

Free trade is no longer a question between North and South-in fact, if the truth must be told, it is not now a question in the United States at all. The system is to disarm opposition by protecting everything and everybody. The sugar and rice of the South are protected to conciliate the South. Dwelling on the good management of Georgia, a man of position said to me, 'Look at Georgia; instead of talking nonsense about free trade they have gone in manfully, established most successful cotton manufac tures, and taken the benefit of protection.'

Well, then there is the more burning question, lately the Greenback question-still the question of debts on the former footing or enhanced debts, and of cheap silver dollars against dear gold dollars. That question may be very exciting indeed, but it is also not one in which the dividing lines will lie between North and South, or black and white. True, the

Southerners owe a good deal of money and want cheap money very badly; but the strong movement in that direction came, not from the South, but from New England. So far from this being a question in which the black vote is dangerous, the fact is that the blacks have divided most impartially on the subject, and it has more than anything else given promise of a new political shuffling of the cards, after which there will be no longer black and white sides, but a wholesome intermixture.

The

It is true that the old question of State rights as against centralisation is now an active factor in American politics; but, so far as I have been able to learn, the present vitality of the question entirely hinges on the disputed black vote. All else that has resulted from the war the Southerners have honestly and fully accepted. Most of the States have accepted even the black vote and made the best of it. There is no rancour and no secessional spirit left. temper of the South is for the most part admirable. But two or three States still maintain the struggle as regards the free exercise of the black vote. It is that and that only which raises the question of coercion, irritates the North, and leads to talk of the return of the 'man on horseback.' If that were out of the way I can discern nothing in regard to which the South has any greater interest in the maintenance of State rights than the North and West. All would, no doubt, be glad to be rid of Federal taxation and the interference of Federal officers. The North and West would enjoy cheap tobacco

just as much as the South. If it could be so ar ranged, all the States would be most glad to appro priate the drink revenue to their own purposes, and so diminish the weight of direct taxation (for State and local purposes) of which they complain. In no other respect is there any question of infringing the State rights of domestic legislation and management in the South more than anywhere else. It was slavery that raised the question of State rights and brought on the war; it is this sequela of slavery that keeps the question alive.

THE CASTE QUESTION.

There is one more view in which we must look at the question of black and white: I mean the separation of the people of America into two castes, which is becoming more pronounced than ever. Since the North has insisted that the blacks should be admitted to political equality neither North nor South has made any movement whatever towards admitting them to social equality; in fact, the movement has been rather the other way. A certain friendly fami liarity and association was possible and common, more especially in the South, when the parties met on acknowledged terms of superiority and inferiority. Now the whites assert their superiority by social exclusion; and the blacks themselves, unwilling to accept the old situation in social matters, have much withdrawn themselves from associating with the whites on occasions which formerly brought the two

races together. This is particularly noticeable in the churches. I am told that in former days almost every church had a recognised 'black quarter;' now the black churches are almost entirely separate from the white churches. It was not unnatural that this should have happened at first, but one might have hoped that prejudices would have been gradually got over. After all it is only matter of habit and custom, and that such a habit can be very completely over come is shown by the case of the public conveyances, especially the tramway-cars, so universal in America. I believe it is not long since no black could venture to intrude himself among whites. Now the habit has been established, and the humblest black rides with the proudest white on terms of perfect equality, and without the smallest symptom of malice or dislike on either side. I was, I confess, surprised to see how completely this is the case; even an English Radical is a little taken aback at first.

There is generally no bad feeling or incivility attending the caste separation; on the contrary, I saw nothing but good feeling and good temper in the daily relations between the classes; only, like separate Hindoo castes, they do not intermarry, or worship or eat together. I fear there is not at present much appearance of any abatement of this caste feeling; it is maintained and perpetuated by the separation of the children in the public schools. It has become almost the universal rule of the United States that none of the schools, high or low, are common to the two races; the whites have their schools, and the

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