The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-03-09
REMOVAL OF FREE NEGRors

| REMOVAL OF FREE NEGROES.
Anxious to see sfl that could be adduced n
Iavor OF the stringent measures which b.ve
oeen proposed in the Leg islature as a mean. Of
ooe,cing the emigration Of this unhappy class.
we nave read with attention the recent sreech
OF Mr. Rutherford, Of Goochlapd. +, -.
Judging BY the style, to have been preps,.S
WIN care; and as the author is a gentleman Of
prudence and respectable talents, il is fair ,c
presume tina; ne has ascer:ained the views or
those with whom he co-operates, and has pre-.
sentsd them with as much force az anv Of h;~r-
coaojutors could have done. Viewing il .s.
impartially as the nature ofthe case .am;,.. =.
must say, with due respect to Mr.. Ru,he,foo,d
but in daty to truth, that we have never seen 4
more unsatisfactory argument.
He asserts ,hatfree negroes, eonsortipr with
our slaves on terms of equality, corrupt and.
disaffect them, and aid them in escaping: that
| the only complete remedy for this is their
amotion from the Commonwealth; and that il in
perfectly legitimate, according to precedent
and public policy to resort to force. by taxa.
ton, and penalty, even to ensIavement, for this
purpose. In all which we differ with Mr.. Ru-
therfoord.
That free negroes, as a class, are idle and,
| vicious, we are we'll aw are, and equally so that
they commit many offences against the laws.
Grimes, liksveEmin, seem to thrive amid power
ty and debasement. Criminal records every
where show that the per centage is greatest in
that class which Is lowest in the social scale.
Here CO or marks that scale; and we attribute
| to complexion what belongs to class. In a free
country, New-Y ork for instance, whose great
city commits more crime annually than the
whole fifteen Southern States put together,
could criminal statistics be arranged with re-
ference to the wealth of the convicts, we are
well persuaded it would appear that something
like ono twenty-eighth Of the population fur.
| nshed nne-tenths of the crime, which are the
proportions that Mr.. Rutherford has errone-
ously stated for the free negroes. We say er-
roneously, because we dispute his deduction
from the facts of the census. Fer, not to men,
ton the superior adroitnsss of the white man
in eluding detection and shifting crime, We
know that when he is anaigned il is much
| more difficult to convict him, because his con-
federafes are for the most part negroes. wheih-
er bond or free, and their testimony is excluded
by law. Thus, if he does not escape inaict-
ment, he is almost sure to be acauitted. In
| .i.o country, the comm0nest class OF nIsue-
meansrs results from "trading with negroes"
by white men, whom, for the above reason, it
is almost impossible to punish whilst the Of.
fences Of the slave, which, luckily for him, are
tried and punished by his master, never 60
upon the docket except when they are of hei-
nous character. Every save-owner knows
that were it otherwise, the criminal records of
his county would present very different ap-
peaEance-that the free negro, by that test,
would rise vastly in the scale OF respectable.
y, and not unfrequently would outshine his
white eompeer. We have no doubt that the
neighborhoods, heretofore unheard Of by us, to
which Mr.. Rutherford refers as desolated by
free negroes, have, in fact, been ruined by can
ming white men with negroes as their agents.
Arguing, then, On the facts of the case, we
may we'll contend that the keeper of every
| roadside grog-shop, from the greater security
with which he plies his trade, his greater ca
Iacity for harm, and the comparatively greater
degradation to which he has fallen, is worse
citizen than the free negro, and-along with
his family and associates to adopt Mr.. Ruther-
Soords logie-a filter sui jsct for deportation.
The idea that the free negro disaHscts the
slave, and renders him rebellious, is mere
dream without foundation in fact, whose ole
ments Mr. Rutherford cannot have analysed.
Except as it has heretofore taken place, that 10
to say on very small scale, and at the instiga-
1 ton of slaves, never Of free negroes, insurec-
ton is an impossibilty. The history of other
nations far more exposed to il than ourselves
proves the fact. And it would be hard to ex-
pei whole class for what none Of them have
ever yet done, what it is only within the remo-
test possibility that they ever will do, and
what, if done, cannot be as dreadful in its ca
tasIophs as an ordinary shpwreck, and may
be much more easily provided against.
Nor do we see that their presence is at all
more conduc Give to the escape OF the slave than
would be that of the white men WHO would
take their places. Untaught to write, Ignorant,
| timd, needy, and ueacherous, they would be
more apt to betray the fugitive, or, if inclined
TO speed him, much more easily detected and
punished. As if TO disprove bis own theory on
| the subject, DIR. Rutherford mentions thel
| fact that one free negro is now in the psniten-
tiary for aiding fugitive one in 53.S29 In
fact slaves have never escaped in large mum.
bers excep, on the frontiers of free, or quasi
free States; and the opportunities there aaord-
ed them shew much more intelligence than 10
usually the portion of the free negro. Admit
ting, however, that they take their share in
such affairs, we have the strongest reason to
believe that the part they play is altogether in
significant. They comprise, in round num-
bers, one-ninih part ofour colored population.
and assuming the number Of escapes in 1850.
when there were only 80, tthey are since less'l
as the basis of the calculation, il will appear
that they have helped of only nine, WHICH =
at the rate OF one fagitive for every 9ssi
free blacks. We have been accustomed % re-
gard the defamation ofsoldien as prs''y ..
we're punishmeu, for actual mutiny, but i is