"Social equality" is a political scare crow, as there is no such thing, in fact. It is to the illiterate class of whites what putting the Negroes back into slavery was to the ignorant class of colored people. Those who talk most about it know the least about it. The cultivated southerner is not disturbed about social equality. There has never been, and there will never be, among the same race, nor between different races, any such thing as social equality. Freedom does not mean "social equality" nor manhood. It means only the opportunity to be a man. Freedom per se brings nothing but abstract principles, but it opens the avenue for all that is grand and noble in this life and in the great hereafter. Freedom, legislative enactments and judicial adjudications cannot make men socially equal. The merit must be in the individual himself, and find a corresponding merit in some other individual. But I shall not attempt to follow out this line of thought here. I shall speak upon social contact or mixture (if I am allowed to use the word) of the races, improperly called "social equality" by some. They mean combination of races, I suppose, if they mean anything. I use mixture and combination in their broadest sense, preferring the chemical definitions. I am opposed to combination of the races in the least degree, and I see no necessity for mixture outside of business relations. I oppose it for more than one reason, which I cannot discuss here. Keep the Negro race separate and distinct, if it is desired to perpetuate its identity. The lines can not be too tightly drawn, for such lines guarantee the protection of the virtue of the colored girls of the South. The desire to mix with the whites—to marry and associate with that race—is a concession, on the part of those who have that desire, which is cringing and craven, and puts a libel upon the boast that the "Negro blood is equal to any other race". If it is so grand and noble a race, why seek combination and mixture with any other race? But I do not put this question to you. It must be answered by those who advocate such nonsensical doctrine. We can find in our own race ample scope for the exercise of our social ambition. However, I am willing to make the following contract with the white race of the South: "We, the Negroes, agree on our part, to hang by the neck until dead, every colored man who violates the seventh commandment with a white woman, if you, the white people, will agree to punish according to law every white man who violates the seventh commandment with a colored woman. So help us God." There is not a sensible colored man in the whole South who will not sign the contract, and I know the better class of whites, those who say least of "social equality," will sign it for their race. Separation of the races does not mean depreciation of the merits or talents of either of them, any more than the division of States by geographical lines, or the continents, teeming in varied natural wealth, divided by the great oceans, signify the underestimation of the worth of one or the other. In his famous speech upon Mars Hill, St. Paul beautifully and eloquently said: "God * * * giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation." Whether these bounds appointed by God be physical distinctions in the races, or whether they consist of deep oceans or towering, craggy mountains, they must be observed.

There will never be even a mixture of the races, to say nothing of combination, in this country, to any appreciable degree, even if there were an inclination on the part of both in that direction, until the condition of the Negro is changed, and I claim, paradoxical as it may appear, that when the Negro's condition is changed by the cultivation of virtue, there will be even a less desire than now to mix and combine with the white race. In nine cases out of every ten the mixing and combining is the substratum of both races. I can not pursue this subject further at this time.