fectly-intelligibl question, what is the next step before us to better the condition of affairs reveald in the WALTON report? - Is it, as has been suggested, to extend and perpetuate the existing system of supervision, to organize it into a county system, -to bring it under the control of a central directing head? There ar those for whose judgment I entertain a very high respect who hold that this is the proper cours to pursu. I am aware that the burden of authority as wel as of numbers is against me, but, as I hav alredy sed, I am of a different opinion. I hold that the remedy does not lie in this direction. That this, as things now go, means simply more mechanical organization, a further infusion into our schools of the spirit of the factory, the railroad and the state-prison. I hold that the immediate effort should, on the contrary, be directed towards the universities, the missing link between them and the common school should be supplied. The superintendency should in this way be reorganized on a scientific basis.

It is to suggest this view of the next step to be taken that I am here ;for, if I am right, the effort now likely to be put forth in consequence of the WALTON report wil prove a misdirected effort. I can, therefore, take but a partial interest in it. To be effectual, the reform must, in my opinion, begin much further back and be developt in a far more comprehensiv spirit. Until it does so begin and is so developt, I am obliged to say that I can see no great advantages likely to result from disturbing the existing condition of things.

The Hon. GUSTAVUS J. ORR, of Atlanta, Ga, read the following paper on

THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO-ITS RISE, PROGRESS, AND PRESENT STATUS.

Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen :

I come before you to-night to discuss a subject of the deepest public concern; and I am happy to know that my audience is composed of persons with minds broadened by culture, liberalized by learning, and capable of weighing properly whatever may be advanced. I am happy, moreover, to believe that sufficient time has now elapsed for reason to begin to assert her sway, and that men of all sections of our common country are now prepared to hear with candor. This I shall expect of my present audience; and I do not believe I shall be disappointed. I promise on my part to exercise the same candor which I look for in you. African slavery, either fortunately or unfortunately, was introduced into the colony of Virginia in the year 1620-two hundred and sixty years ago. Soon after, this example was followed by the other colonies; and not a great many years had elapsed before every one of them became slaveholding. The laws of climate, the laws governing the remunerativeness of negro labor, and other influences caused slavery soon to begin to gravitate Southward; and this movement continued till at the time the colonies declared themselves independent in 1776, the great bulk of the five hundred thousand negroes then in the country were to be found in the Southern States. The existence of slavery in the South formed the basis of a civilization in that section entirely distinct in many particulars from that found in the Northern portion of the Union. It early became evident that, as in the celebrated instance recorded in sacred history, two nations, as it were, were struggling to the birth.

The difference in social influences, the difference in moral teachings, the difference in interest, the differences in the theories of the constitution generally held in the two sections, and, indeed, the difference in the entire surroundings separated very widely the two peoples. Each section misunderstood the other in a hundred particulars; and the obstacles to a better understanding constantly grew in magnitude as time moved on. The terrible war which followed, in which men of a common origin, priding themselves in a common history, cherishing the same glorious traditions, and of equal bravery met in deadly strife, -I do not propose to trace. Would that the horrors of that fearful period could be buried forever in oblivion, or, if remembered at all, that they might be recalled only for the useful lessons which they teach! I do not refer to the subject to-night for the purpose of locating the blame of the fratricidal strife, for Heaven knows there was wrong enough on both sides. I have to do, rather, with the harmless race who were the innocent cause of the unhappy struggle and of all the terrible sufferings which it entailed. Was it a mercy to that people that they were brought to these shores and subjected to so many long years of servitude? Was it one of the purposes in the Divine mind to prepare them, by the stern discipline of slavery, for something better? Was slavery, indeed, the divinely-appointed tutelage by which they were to be brought forward to a higher plane of civilization? These are questions which deserve our thoughtful consideration, now that we have reached the period of calm, philosophic reflection. In order to give them a proper answer, let us first consider the condition of the race in their native home; and, secondly, the influences, civil, social, and religious, brought to bear upon them in their long period of slavery. We shall thus be led to see that slavery was a great educator, perhaps the greatest and most wisely conceived that could have been devised..

As to the low condition of the Negro tribes near the western coast of Africa, whence the former slaves of this country were originally brought, all authorities are agreed. They were simply savages, practising Fetichism, the very lowest form of idolatry. They were the slaves of the most degrading superstitions, believing in spells, charms, and incantations, and having no system of rules of conduct deserving the name of a moral code. In regard to their intellectual condition, one author says, “It is impossible to name a region tolerably peopled, where any progress at all has been made in the arts, which is so completely illiterate as Negro Africa. It is not enough to say that it has neither books, authors, nor learned men. In no part of this extended region is there an alphabet or a hieroglyphic, or even a picture, or symbol of any description. All those refined processes by which the ideas of one mind are to pass into the minds of others are entirely unknown."*

Now, I say nothing of the manner in which these Africans were introduced into this country, or of the motives of those who introduced them. With matters of this kind, this discussion has nothing to do. I simply put this question: Suppose a population of the kind above described had been set down in considerable numbers in the midst of a community well advanced in Christian civilization, and a body of wise, philanthropic men had been convened to consider and report upon the question as to what should be the relations of this new population to the community in which they had been introduced, what conclusion do you suppose would have been reached? Would they have advised that these strangers be incorporated into the body politic with rights equal to those of other citizens? It seems to me that, intelligence and virtue being the recognized foundation-stones of liberal government, the wise men supposed, even looking to the interest of the new comers alone, would have advised a probationary tutelage hedged about with salutary restraints, and backed by the strong arm of power. The ablest writers on government of modern times with all the lessons of the past before them, and enjoying all the advantages of the advanced thought of the age, have taught us that governments must be arbitrary or liberal, stronger or milder, according as the people to be governed are ignorant or intelligent, of feeble or strong moral principles. The wise men supposed, in making the recommendation suggested, would have been but conforming to these well-known teachings of our philosophic thinkers. Now, the condition to which the slaves of the South were ultimately advanced did not differ very largely from the supposed condition advised by the hypothetical wise men. The slavery of the South was often denounced by Northern writers and speakers as chattel slavery, and many persons throughout that section doubtless fully believed that slaves were treated, under the law, simply as things. No greater mistake was ever committed. The slavery of the South was very far removed from absolute or pure slavery. I hope you will allow one reared in the midst of the things which he describes, to speak freely and frankly to you of what has been familiar to him from childhood. I think, perhaps, that I shall be able to show you that the relation of the slave of the South to the society of which he formed a part, whether so intended or not, was really that of a species of inchoate citizenship. It was a state of slavery, indeed, but a slavery with many benign modifications. The three great absolute rights of Englishmenrights which belong to all to whom English institutions have descended as an inheritance-are, according to Blackstone, the right of personal security, the right of personal liberty, and the right of private property. While it was not pretended that the Southern slave was permitted to enjoy these rights in the sense in which you understand them, yet I propose to show that he did enjoy them all in a modified sense. I am not a lawyer, and therefore do not feel myself capable of presenting a professional view of this part of my subject; nor do I think that a presentation of that kind would be appropriate or interesting to an audience such as the one before me. I hope, however, that I shall be able to give such a view, though unprofessional, as shall make good before you the declarations made.

"The right of personal security consists in a person's legal and uninterrupted enjoyment of his life, his limbs, his body, his health, and his reputation:" so says the authority just referred to. In a state of absolute or pure slavery the subject of it is divested of this right in all its specified details. In the slavery of the South it was secured to him by legislative enactment in most of the particulars enumerated. The murder of a slave was punished with death; and the maiming of him was visited with very heavy penalties. Indeed, resistance to the infliction of these wrongs by a slave, even to the homicide of him seeking to do them, was considered by our law as justifiable. An examination of our Southern codes will further show that all other injuries done to the person, not amounting to deprivation of life or limb, such as assaulting, beating, wounding, etc., when done to slaves were made penal. It is true that the master had the right to correct his slave for disobedience, idleness, petty theft, quarrelling, fighting, or other offence of a sufficiently-serious character; but for all cruelties, or needless and wanton punishments inflicted by masters severe penalties were provided; and so tender was our law of the rights of the helpless slave, that in a contest with his master it was made the duty of the court to assign him competent counsel. For injuries done the reputation of the slave no redress was provided; but even this omission was not without its reason as one of the main grounds for providing redress in such cases, viz.: the injury done to one's business and the consequent abridgment of his means of support, did not exist at all in his case.

The second great right of the citizen, the right of personal liberty, "which consists in the power of locomotion, of changing situation, or moving one's person to whatsoever place one's own inclination may direct, without imprisonment or restraint, unless by due course of law" it was not even sought to guarantee to the southern slave by legislative enactment. The main design of slavery being to secure to the master the services of the slave, the theory of the institution seemed to require that the former should have the right of directing and controlling the movements of the latter, and the law was so framed as to secure him in this right. Almost universal usage, however, required that this right should be exercised in kindness and mercy; and in a thousand ways the theoretical rigor of the law was abated in practice. The very largest liberty of locomotion compatible with the ends of slavery and the best interests of the community as constituted was allowed by all humane masters to slaves who were faithful and who could be trusted. It may be further added that while the master had the right to control the liberty of the slave, no other person could do so with safety; for the master was the legally-recognized protector of the slave, and always appeared upon the scene when an unlawful attempt was made to interfere with the personal liberty of the latter, either to enforce such legal remedies as were provided or to extemporize remedies of his own where the law had provided none. One good effect of this control exercised by masters--good in its influence upon the slave-stands out and is patent to every observer, now that slavery has been abolished. I refer to the habits of industry thus generated. Observers from other portions of the Union, Southern men, and even the former slaves themselves, all unite in bearing testimony to the fact that the freedmen trained up in the days of slavery are far more industrious, much more thrifty, and far better laborers than those who have grown up under the influences of their newly-obtained freedom.

It remains now to consider the last of the three great absolute rights of the citizen, viz.: The right of private property, which has been said to consist "in the free use, enjoyment, and disposal of all his acquisitions, without any control or diminution, save only by the laws of the land." This right, like the last considered, did not belong at all to the slave under the law. All the acquisitions of the slave, of every kind, vested in and belonged to the master, who could use them and dispose of them in whatsoever manner seemed to him best. This is the way theory put it. There is a law, however, in the presence of which opposing human enactments have, in all countries, and in all ages of the world, been impotent. I allude to the law of a generally-received, well-established public opinion. What the commonly-received opinion requires to be done, in any community, is always done in the absence of laws which require it, and even in the face of such as forbid. The general sense of all communities in the South required that the slave have the right to the full enjoyment of acquisitions made in time allowed him by custom, or in time specially granted to him; and depriving him of these acquisitions on the part of the master would have been universally regarded as an act of ineffable meanness. No man could do such a thing in the face of the outraged sense of right in the community. In practice, the condition of our slaves in respect to the wants usually supplied by the full enjoyment of the right of property was far better than that of the laboring poor in many free communities. In the first place, the supply of all their physical wants was assured. Their masters were required by the law to furnish them with a sufficiency of wholesome food and comfortable raiment, and to support them in infancy, in sickness, and in old age. The law requiring this was enforced by heavy penalties, and the records of the courts in my own State will show, within my own knowledge, that these penalties have been enforced with the approval of entire communities. In addition to this sure support, it was a universal custom for planters to assign certain plots of ground to their slaves, giving to each the usufruct of the part assigned him, and the time, work-animals, and agricultural implements necessary for its cultivation. It was a common thing for the slaves to realize from the sale of the produce of these plots of ground from ten to one hundred dollars each, and in rare instances, these annual accumulations have been known to reach several hundred dollars. Slaves were now and then permitted also to own a few swine, some fowls, and sometimes a cow. Their right to these little acquisitions was considered sacred, and any disposition made of their effects by verbal will was most religiously executed. Even as I now speak, one dusky face comes up before me, the face of an humble playmate of my childhood, who, in the days of slavery, returned from a neighboring State to receive at the hands of my good stepmother, acting as voluntary executrix, a considerable sum of money and other effects left him by the nuncupative will of his dying mother. But I need say nothing further on this head.