But, seriously, we do most earnestly and decidedly protest against this idea that the negro is not an individual but a fraction of an unit. We believe the _certain_ result will be injurious to his people, but this will not be a _necessary_ result. Were a white student guilty of such a crime and blunder, it would be simply ridiculous to say that the _necessary_ result was injurious to “his people,” meaning the white race. There are reported cases of self-inflicted injuries of this kind. Who believes for a moment that, because a wife mutilates herself, as in a case reported, she has brought discredit upon all our wives? We treat Indians and Negroes in classes as if it inhered, by eternal necessity, in the nature of things, that their individuality should be ignored, disregarded, or trampled upon. We are a great ways off from the true and right basis of action when we pass by the personality of any one with all his inherent rights and responsibilities, and think of him and treat him only as belonging to a general class. It may be, that until his rights are respected by the public at large, the negro must receive special attention as the case of Whittaker has received; but, so long as his treatment is special because he belongs to a class, it is evident that the treatment of the class to which he belongs is all wrong. Whittaker’s innocence or guilt pertains to himself alone, and should in no way affect the question as to the standing or character of his people. The feeling that it must necessarily affect them is one phase of the sentiment which has isolated and made intolerable the life of this poor fellow at West Point. Personally he appears to be a very fine fellow, but the condition of “his people” has necessarily—so these young cadets think, and evidently many others who are not in the callow softness of their cadetship agree with them—affected him, rendering him unfit for comradeship, or even decent treatment. The questions, (any one of which is deemed a final and conclusive estoppel to all argument as to the right of the negro to Christian courtesy), “Would you sleep with a negro?” “Would you associate with a negro?” “Would you marry a negro?”—these are simply absurd. Whether we would do any, or all of these, should be answered as in the case of any person of whatever race, in view of considerations and qualifications that are purely individual, with no reference whatever to Ham, or to his or her people. We associate with friends because of personal qualities, not because they are white or yellow.