Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County, Texas. Page: 260 of 1,110
vii, 9-1011 p. incl. ill., ports. : ports. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this book.
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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.
essential that she should hold her brotherhood
unimpaired, quicken her sympathies,
and in the light or in the shadows of this surpassing
problem, work out her own salvation
in the fear of God, but of God alone.
What shall the South do to be saved?
Through what paths shall she reach the end?
Through what travail or with what splendors
shall she give to the Union this section, its
wealth garnered, its resources utilized, and
its rehabitation complete-and restore to the
world this problem, solved in such justice as
the finite mind can measure, or finite hand
administer?
In dealing with this I shall dwell on two
points.
First, the duty of the South in its relation
to the race problem.
Second, the duty of the South in relation
to its no less unique and important industrial
problem.
I approach this discussion with a sense of
consecration. I beg your patient and cordial
sympathy. And I invoke the Almighty
God, that having showered on this people
His fullest riches has put their hands to this
task, that He will draw near unto us, as he
drew near unto troubled Israel, and lead us
in the ways of honor and uprightness, even
through a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar
of fire by night.
What of the negro? This of him. I want
no better friend than the black boy who was
raised by my side, and who is now trudging
patiently with downcast eyes and shambling
figure through his lowly way in life. I want
no sweeter music than the crooning of my
old " mammy," now dead and gone to rest,
as she held me in her loving arms, and bending
her old black face above me stole the
cares from my brain and led me smiling intosleep. I want no truer soul than that which
moved the trusty slave, who for four years
while my father fought with the armies that
barred his freedom, slept every night at my
mother's chamber door, holding her and her
children as safe as if her husband stood
guard, and ready to lay down his humble life
on her threshhold. History has no parallel
to the faith kept by the negro in the South
during, the war. Often 500 negroes to a
single white man, and yet through these
dusky throngs the women and children
walked in safety, and the unprotected homes
rested in peace. Unmarshaled, the black
battalions moved patiently to the fields in the
morning to feed the armies their idleness
would have starved, and at night gathered
anxiously at the big house to " hear the news
from master," though conscious that his victory
made their chains enduring. Everywhere
humble and kindly. The body guard
of the helpless. The rough companion of the
little ones. The observant friend. The silent
sentry in his lowly cabin. The shrewd counselor.
And when the dead came home, a
mourner at the open grave. A thousand
torches would have disbanded every southern
army, but not one was lighted. When the
master going to a war in which slavery was
involved said to his slave, " I leave my humc
and loved ones in your charge," the tenderness
between man and master stood disclosed.
And when the slave held that charge
sacred through storm and temptation, he
gave new meaning to faith and loyalty. I rejoice
that when freedom cane to him after
years of waiting it was all the sweeter because
the black hands from which the
shackles fell were stainless of a single crime
against the helpless ones confided to his
care.
From this root, imbedded in a century of
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Lewis Publishing Company. Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County, Texas., book, 1892; Chicago, Illinois. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth20932/m1/260/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Public Library.