The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-07-26
From the Ne,o Orleans Picayune, July IL.
The Fall OF tho Free Negro.

The Governor Of New Mexico, in his late naes-
sage to the Legislature of that Territory, has re-
commended that prohibitory acts Of the severest
character be passed to prevent the entrance of free
negroes into that Territory. He treats the race as
nuisance, and their presence "disgustng
degradation" and would have them excluded by
law from the whole territory.
1t was the effort 10 effect the same purpose with
regard to Missouri which DISTRACTED the admission
of that State into the Union, after the slave ques-
ton had been compromised on the line of 500 3O,
and State constitution formed without restriction
to slaves. The constitution authorized the L.
gislature to pass laws to prevent the migration OF
free negroes and mulattoes into the State. This
resisted with great zeal, as in violation of the
Constitution of the United States and came near
preventing the admission of the State into the
Union. It would probably have had the effect but
for the opinion which prevailed, that TO refuse adj
mission to the State, after it had been regularly
framed with constitution and government, would
not remand it TO territorial condition. Missouri
would be State, but not in the Union Hence the
question was compromised, on Mr.. Clay's motion,
in manner which left it unsettled as before.
Since that time, however, States have passed laws
containing the same principle-that of excluding
free negroes from residence or citizenship-and no
nounced them invalid. The State laws in regard to
colorcd seamen in southern ports are founded on
the same claim of power. What the power of
legislation may be in Territory of the United
States is different question; but it is pretty GER
tain that it will not meet with even 80 much ac-
uuiescence as the State claim has received If the
New Mexcans follow the counsels of their Cover
nor, shall look for howl Of horror in all the
anti slavery States, and piteous sermonizng over
and sffs nf this hoL
race. Abolitionisua will run melancholy mad over
tho wrongs of the poor negro. There is, in truth,
something to excite melancholy for the degrade
ton and wreichcdness of this race. They are re.
garded everywherr, an inferior class; and no.
where ms a class fer whom society is bound to pro-
vide, or for whom philanthropy labors with cheer
fulness and perseverance. The census returns
show that they arc inferior in condition to the
slaves; that they more depraved, more me-
elected, and more miserable; and that whio all
other races are increasing in number and condi-
ton, in a very rapid ratio they scarcely keep up
their numbers, and IN some places they are dwin-
ding away, giving evident signs that, in the enjoy
ment of absolute personal freedom, and in the
midst of the abundance of all the elements of life
easily procured they are in progress of extinction
as race, and would soon disappear from the earth,
unless recruited by the addition of new victims Sc
duced from the thriving slave classes to perish in
the degradation and vice of black freedom. Marked
for avoidance and disgust everywhere, they are
most irredeemably degraded and lost where the
camor in favor of the blacks is loudes, and where
the most fervd utefestis displayed for the redress
of the wrongs and the mitigation OF the sufferings
of the other colored races, who living in the
distant South in comfort and contentment, and
showing how little Of care and want they have, by
the rapid multiplication oftheir numbers in a state
OF subsection to superior This lip phian-
thropy is for foreign uses 1t has no energy or
credit for good acts at home. Its only domestic
use is for the profit Of SPECTATORS in politics and
charity, who make gain by the cheap display of
fine sentiments in favor Of sufferngs they do not
see, while they are blind and deaf to the misery at
their own doors.
The problem of the disposal of free blacks in
this country is one of the most vast and complica-
times. How to dispose oIthem, consistently with
the paramount rights andintcrests of the superior
classes, to whom their preence is dangerous and
offensive, tasks, unayaihnely, the wisdom Of the
most profound Statesmen aid the purest Of phisn-
thropists. The instincts ofnatural pity are at war