SCRIPTURE READING EXERCISE.

(SPECIAL LESSON.)

THE LAW OF THE LORD IN ANCIENT AND MODERN REVELATION APPLIED TO THE AMERICAN NEGRO RACE PROBLEM.

SPECIAL TEXT: "Let not man join together what God hath put asunder."—"THE COLOR LINE," chap. i.

NOTES.

1. Introduction of African Slavery into America: "Some time anterior to this period (i. e., 1620 A. D.) the Spaniards and Portuguese had bought from the chiefs on the coast of Africa negro captives, and had carried them to other parts of the world, especially to South America and the West Indies, and had sold them as slaves. This traffic they had continued without intermission, and in the year 1620 a Dutch vessel brought to Jamestown twenty of these unfortunate beings and sold them to the colonists of Virginia. This was the introduction of African slavery in the British American colonies, which has been the source of so much subsequent trouble, as we shall see. By the close of the year 1620 the population of the colony amounted to nearly two thousand. Upon the subject of the introduction of African slavery in Virginia, and afterwards in all the other British colonies, out of which so much trouble and strife subsequently arose, it is quite proper here to state that a majority of the colonists at Jamestown were very much opposed to this introduction in their community of these supposed descendants of Ham as "bondsmen and bondswomen" for life. Their opposition arose, however, perhaps more from considerations looking to the best interests and future welfare of the colony, in its progress in moral and material development, than from any feelings of humanity towards the unfortunate victims of this species of commerce. The African slave trade was at that time not only tolerated by all civilized nations, but actively engaged in for profit by many of the most distinguished Christian monarchs." (Stephens' History of the United States, p. 36.)

2. The First American Slave Ship: "In 1636 was built at Marblehead, in Massachusetts, the first American slave-ship; it was called the Desire, and was intended for the African slave-trade, in which most of the European nations were then engaged directly or indirectly. The first cargo of African slaves brought into Massachusetts was by the Desire, on the 20th of May, 1638. Many of the most prominent men purchased slaves out of this cargo; so that Massachusetts was a few years only behind Virginia in the introduction within the English settlements on this continent of this unfortunate race of slaves." (History of the United States, Stephens, p. 88.)

3. The Beginning of Abolition: "On the 12th of February, 1790, a petition, invoking the Federal authorities to adopt measures with a view to the ultimate abolition of African slavery, as it then existed in the respective States, was sent to Congress, headed by Dr. Franklin, who had been a very distinguished, though not a very active leader, owing to his age, in the ranks of the "Nationals," in the Philadelphia convention. There were then in the United States 697,897 negro slaves. They had been introduced into all the States, as we have seen, but most of them were at this time in the Southern States. This movement was looked upon with alarm everywhere by the true friends of the federal system, as it invoked the exercise of powers not delegated by the States to Congress. After a thorough discussion on the 23rd of March, 1790, in the House of Representatives, the question was quieted for the time by the passage of a resolution "That Congress have no authority to interfere in the emancipation of slaves, or in the treatment of them within any of the States; it remaining with the several States alone to provide any regulations therein, which humanity and true policy may require." (History of the United States, Stephens, p. 367.) The act of emancipation did not come until 1863, in the midst of the Civil war, and then it was regarded merely as a war measure.

4. The Race Question as Affecting the Southern States: Perhaps the most convincing book in justification of the South in denying to the negro race social equality with the white race is the one written by William Benjamin Smith, entitled "The Color Line, A Brief in Behalf of the Unborn," from which the following is a quotation:

"Here, then, is laid bare the nerve of the whole matter: Is the south justified in this absolute denial of social equality to the negro, no matter what his virtues or abilities or accomplishments?

"We affirm, then, that the south is entirely right in thus keeping open at all times, at all hazards, and at all sacrifices an impassible social chasm between black and white. This she must do in behalf of her blood, her essence, of the stock of her Caucasian race. To the writer the correctness of this thesis seems as clear as the sun—so evident as almost to forestall argument; nor can he quite comprehend the frame of mind that can seriously dispute it. But let us look at it closely. Is there any doubt whatever as to the alternative? If we sit with negroes at our tables, if we entertain them as our guests and social equals, if we disregard the color line in all other relations, is it possible to maintain it fixedly in the sexual relation, in the marriage of our sons and daughters, in the propagation of our species? Unquestionably, No! It is certain as the rising of tomorrow's sun, that, once the middle wall of social partition is broken down, the mingling of the tides of life would begin instantly and proceed steadily. Of course, it would be gradual, but none the less sure, none the less irresistible. It would make itself felt at first most strongly in the lower strata of the white population; but it would soon invade the middle and menace insidiously the very uppermost. Many bright mulattoes would ambitiously woo, and not a few would win, well-bred women disappointed in love or goaded by impulse or weary of the stern struggle for existence. As a race, the Southern Caucasian would be irrevocably doomed. For no possible check could be given to this process once established.. Remove the barrier between two streams flowing side by side—immediately they begin to mingle their molecules; in vain you attempt to replace it. * * * * The moment the bar of absolute separation is thrown down in the South, that moment the bloom of her spirit is blighted forever, the promise of her destiny is annulled, the proud fabric of her future slips into dust and ashes. No other conceivable disaster that might befall the South could, for an instant, compare with such miscegenation within her borders. Flood and fire, fever and famine and the sword—even ignorance, indolence, and carpet-baggery—she may endure and conquer while her blood remains pure; but once taint the well-spring of her life, and all is lost—even honor itself. It is this immediate jewel of her soul that the South watches with such a dragon eye, that she guards with more than vestal vigilance, with a circle of perpetual fire. The blood thereof is the life thereof; he who would defile it would stab her in her heart of hearts, and she springs to repulse him with the fiercest instinct of self-preservation. It may not be that she is distinctly conscious of the immeasurable interests at stake or of the real grounds of her roused antagonism; but the instinct itself is none the less just and true and the natural bulwark of her life.

"At this point we hear some one exclaim, 'Not so fast! To sit at table, to mingle freely in society with certain persons, does not imply you would marry them." Certainly not, in every case. We may recognize socially those whom we personally abhor. This matters not, however; for wherever social commingling is admitted, there the possibility of intermarriage must be also admitted. It becomes a mere question of personal preference, of like and dislike. Now, there is no accounting for tastes. It is ridiculous to suppose that no negroes would prove attractive to any white. The possible would become actual—as certainly as you will throw double-double sixes [in dice], if only you keep on throwing. To be sure, where the number of negroes is almost vanishingly small, as in the north and in Europe, there the chances of such mesalliances are proportionally divided; some may even count them negligible. But in the South, where in many districts the black outnumbers the white, they would be multiplied immensely, and crosses would follow with increasing frequency.. * * * But some may deny that the mongrelization of the Southern people would offend the race notion—would corrupt or degrade the Southern stock of humanity. If so, then such a one has yet to learn the largest-writ lessons of history and the most impressive doctrines of biological science. That the negro is markedly inferior to the Caucasian is proved both craniologically and by six thousand years of planet-wide experimentation; and that the commingling of inferior with superior must lower the higher is just as certain as that the half-sum of two and six is only four."

A Final Word on Speech Building: In the notes that have accompanied these special lessons, which we have suggested be treated in extempore speeches, we have gradually developed one single lesson in the matter of constructing a lecture or speech. The plan has been simple, and the illustrations abundant. The lesson in speech structure was based upon the simple principle of the speech having an Introduction, a Discussion, and a Conclusion, accompanied by several illustrations of noted speeches. A word was said with reference to the gathering of material for such an address, and the manner of delivering it in the form of extempore speech. And now at the conclusion of the lesson, I desire to say one more thing, and to say it as emphatically as it is possible for it to be said.

Let every speech, lecture, or discourse by a Seventy be an honest one. Let it be his own, good, bad, or indifferent. A poor speech that is one's own is more to one's credit than a good one stolen, and repeated as his. Plagiarism is defined to be an act "appropriating the ideas, writings, or inventions of another without due acknowledgment; specifically, the stealing of passages, either word for word or in substance, from the writings of another and publishing them as one's own; literary or artistic theft. * * * A writing, utterance, or invention stolen from another. (Dictionary, Funk & Wagnall's.)

I desire to call the attention of our Seventies to the fact that the ugly words, "stolen," "theft," "stealing," are used as describing this act, and in literary ethics the act is just as despicable as those acts in commercial life that go under similar descriptive titles, "stealing," "theft," "robbery." And indeed, there is more excuse for such acts in commercial life than in literature. Of all despicable characters in the literary world, the is regarded as the most contemptible, and yet there have not been wanting among us in the ministry of the Church (due to their ignorance of the ethics of literature, of course) those who have advocated the appropriation of sermons and lectures prepared by others; and have advocated the repetition of these stolen sermons in the preaching of the gospel! I know of nothing that should be so completely repudiated in the Seventies' class work and their subsequent ministry as this course, or anything that smacks of it. It is as bad as wearing stolen clothes. It is asking one to shine not even by borrowed, but by stolen light. It will result in mental laziness. It is a confession of one's own inability to think for himself and work out from the mass of materials that lie before him in the revelations of God, the deductions and conclusions that make for the establishment of faith and righteousness in the lives of others. A few ideas hammered out on the anvil of one's own thought, even though they be crudely and haltingly expressed, if they are one's own, that is a better beginning and more hopeful than the most glowing declamation of the sermon that has been stolen from another, or plagiarised from some book or tract.. I beg of you to adhere to this counsel. Of all things have your discourses honest before God and before men.

Of course, I know the excuse that is made to justify plagiarism among some of our young and inexperienced Elders. Some of our young brethren are conscious of their unpreparedness to immediately begin their work when called to the ministry, and they feel the necessity of beginning at once; for they are called upon to speak immediately on arriving in their missions, and they are overwhelmed with the sense of having nothing to say, and either through wrong suggestion of others, or misconception of the proprieties in the premises, they commit to memory the discourse of a companion, or a tract (See Editor's Table of Era, September, 1907), or parts of books and deliver such memorized tracts or discourses as their own. That is plagiarism, which is always dishonest and not in harmony with the Spirit of truth, which is the Spirit of the gospel. To meet such an emergency of unpreparedness supposed to justify the kind of plagiarism referred to above, I suggest that it would be better for the Elder to confess his inability to set forth the doctrine or message for the present, but say that he had in his possession a tract or book that did so, and with permission of those who had gathered he would read some passages from it that would set forth some of the doctrines of our faith; and then read so much as might be necessary for the occasion. Or he might say that on a given occasion he had heard his companion set forth a certain doctrine or part of the message they were sent to deliver in a manner that appealed to him, and as his companion had not referred to it, or was not likely to refer to it on this occasion he would take the liberty of doing so; being careful to credit his companion throughout, and especially at points peculiarly striking. By taking this course, he preserves the consciousness of his own honesty, and by diligence will soon work himself out of the necessity of reading or repeating the ideas and language of others.

President Joseph F. Smith's Benediction on, and Instructions to the Seventies:

"I feel like blessing the quorums of the Priesthood, every one of them, from the High Priests to the Deacons. I pray God, my Heavenly Father to remember them in their organizations, to help them, that they may magnify the Priesthood they hold and do the will of the Father; that the Seventies may be minute men, instant in season and out of season, ready and willing to respond to the calls that are made upon them to go and preach the gospel to the world. Gather in from the Elders' quorums those who have proven themselves worthy and who have gained experience, and make Seventies of them, so that the quorum of the Seventies may be replenished; and the aged ones, whose physical condition will not permit them any longer to do missionary duty in the world, let them be ordained High Priests and Patriarchs, to bless the people and to minister at home. Gather in the strong, the vigorous, the young, the able-bodied, who have the spirit of the gospel in their hearts, to fill up the ranks of the Seventies, that we may have ministers to preach the gospel to the world. They are needed. We cannot now meet the demand." (Conference Reports, October, 1905, p. 95.)