The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1858-04-26
The FREQ Negro Population.

The probIem of what Is to be done with the free
negro population, proves quite as perpiexing III
the free as the slave States. The Philadelphia
North American has a long article ON the su'JHct'
in which It declares: If there In any one fact eS
tablished by steadily accommodating evidence. 1t 10
that the free negro cannot hnd congeniai nome
in the United States. lie 10 an exotic amongst u.s.
and all the efforts Of philanthropists to natursilhe
him ON American soil and under American SKIES
have failed" The American frankly confesses
that this failure cannot be attributed to the pre-.
julce of the whites, to social ostracism or unequa
legislation, but that the true explanation Us 70
be found in the constitution Of the negro himsetf"
The American declares that IL ia great N istaks
70 suppose that the mere circumstance OF remov
ing the political disabilities under which any par
ticuar class may happen TO labor is sufficient, q
itself, to alter aud improve their cShdition. The
laws of the free States, 1t AYERS give the free ne
gro every chance to accumulate property, as well
as perfect protection In person aid estate. Yet,
in the face of such a state of things; In the face
of sympathy which Is universally protested for
then, In the North In the face of such demand
for labor as to absorb the supply, "the great bulk
of the colored population in the Northern States,
according to the candid admission of the North
American, f" @nety nine in a hundred make pre-
csrious living by contentedly performing the most
mental offices, or live 10 idleness and wretched-
ness. Hs can hardly fail 10 attribute this TO cha
Yacteyiatcs Of their 0,on. We the blacks daily
driven rem avocations once deemed almost exclu-
siyely their own. 1t Ia long since they have iou
rished 10 any of the trades, If they ever pursued
them with success Within few years they have
ceased 10 be hackney coachmen and drsymen, and
they are now almost displaced as stevedores.-
They rapidly losing their places as barber and
servants. Ten families employ white servants
now where one did twenty years ago. Whatever
explanation may be given of these facts, the facts
Themselves cannot be denied; and what 10 to be
done with our colored population, unless they can
be induced to return colonsts TO tho native land
OF their race, or seek some other tropical region
battles the wisest Of us to say"
The American says 1t has been led to these re-
marks by rejecting on the great reluctance dis
played by the people of the free States TO having
free negroes settle amongst them. " 1t seems as
il it were TO become rule, 10 framing constitu-
ton for now State, to prohibit the residence Of
free negroes. The American can understand this |
policy 10 slave States where "the presence of the
free negro fs disadvantageous to tho slare," but.
Sin q free State, where emigration 10 invited by
holding out every indncemeufrfo the inhabitants
OF the old States and to foreigners this aversion to
the presence Of coiored people can only be ex-
planned by the opinion that has obtained, almost
universally, that they cannot become useful citi.
Of the United States; Or In other words, that
they cannot compete on equal terms with tho
white races
Let 1t be remarked that these facts and adniis-
sions do not come from roslayery journal, but
from Que OF the intelligent and influential organs
Of the opposite party.