Page:The Negro a menace to American civilization.djvu/217

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THE NEGRO
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The Colonization of the Negro " How about negro colonization, Mr. Murray? Will such schemes ever succeed? " " No," was the reply. " The negroes have never been in favor of such colonization, nor have such schemes ever been engineered by people who have not wanted to make money out of it. There was a move- ment about fifteen years ago to take the colored people to Kansas, and there have been propositions to send them to Brazil and^ other places. The negroes are in the United States to stay, and if they could have free transportation to Liberia, or to Africa, they would not take it. I do not think the people of the South want to get rid of the negro, and I think if we are let alone that we will work out our destiny to the sat- isfaction of every one." A Look at Fred Douglass Speaking of the future of the colored race, Fred Douglass is one of those who believe that the two races will eventually come together. He says that the color line will eventually be obliterated, and that the only salvation for the negro is in union with the white. Douglass is about three-fourths colored himself, and his second wife is as white as any woman in the United States. She was his private secretary when he married her, and is, I am told, very fond of her hus- band. She is twenty years younger than he, and lives with her husband near Washington. Fred Douglass is rich. He is said to be worth in the neighborhood of $200,000. He got $7,000 annually as marshal of the District, and he has for a long time received $100 a night for his lectures. His books have paid him well, and he has so invested his money as to be well fixed. He is now seventy-six years old, and he has failed within the last three or four years. He has lost weight and strength, but intellectually he is now as strong as ever, and his last letter in reply to Senator Ingalls was as strong a paper as he has ever written.

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