Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1858-06-22


date, has u kng and doleful article, founded
un M ordinary item of news from Jamaica,
ns n text. The terrible announcement
which has stirred the Democracy to its
very center, and seems to threaten it's ever
lasting ruin, is in these words, no more,
and ri less:
~ Meeting was held ut Kingston, on
the gid Of April, to consider the pIacti-
cability OF inducing fugitives aud free ne
rrocs from tho United States to settle III
Jamaici,, and measures were adoptel to
bring this subject before the Legislature.
with the view Of establishing n fund and
w complete the project. 1t is probable
that delegate will be sent to the United
States to promote the enterprise"
Now. what is there in this project to
star,le Democracy from its propriety.
The enquirer" acknowledges itself puz-
zIetl-uttcrly ydunIbfounded. 1t says, its
.'prcconccivcd notions were, that the Is
Ian had already too many FREQ negroes. "
That 'if We have been correctly informed,
the great existing evil which now depresscs
indastry and trade in Jamaica, is its
swarmns population of idle free negroes.
We have been repeatedly assured that
these rcgrocs are in pitiable state Of des-
titution. Why. then, efforts are made to
in.rease this grievous burden. we are un-
ablo to determine"
We did not suppose for moment, that
the Enquirer believed the falsehoods it
hn, been publishing for the last score of
Years in reference to the effects of eman-
citation in the West India Islands
Twenty years ago, on the first day oil Au-
uust next, occurred one of the sub
FINEST spectacles our earth has ever
Witnessed. Eight hundred thousand hu-
man beings, on that morning. with tran
quill j"y-wi,h songs of praise and CRATE
iul hearts, passed from the condition OF
Mings into perSons--irom choHelhOod into
,nnnh ood-from sidveS into free men. or
course such an event was setting n dan
gerous example SO near our borders and
to counteract its silent influence on the
people of this country it became the mis-
sion of "Democratic" papers to misrepre-
sent tho conduct and condition Of the peo-
.pls thus freed. systematically and per-
sisLently, from that hour to this, every ia
vDrable fact has been suppressed, and ev-
cry conceivable falsehood has been circu-
lated, until it seems the present editor Of
the Enquirer" had actually come to bo-
lcve the absurd and preposterous calum-
MES.
The official statistics of the Islands, it is
true, were accessible; but these contained
the very facts which it was important to
suppress and stories were fabricated to
show tho failure of emancipation. One
fact, and one only, gave nny plauslb'lity to
the tales of ruin to the Islands rs a conse-
quenoe of abolition. and that WAS, that
for time, there were not as many hogs
heads of SUGAR exported from jamaica, as
there had been under slavery. But that
worry fact, seen in the light Of Christianity,
Phil suphy, or Civilization, was IL strong
argument in favor of the triumphan: sue
cess Of the MEASURE, insteal of ils failure.
To the STAKEHOLDER, who would sacri-
ice tho ply sical. moral, social, and ever
lasting interests Of the laboring population
for an additional hogshead of sugar, OF
bale Of cotton, the price of which might
minister to his pride and lux ry. this di-
minisheG export proved tho ruin of the
Islands of course. But all who had enough
of humanity left in them to value man
mprs than molasses, or who could look
upon the happiness the elevation, the pro-
gress of II people as things to be desired
in themselves, that fact WAS one of the
most encouraging consequences following
tho abolition of slavery.
While the people wero slaves, the whole
population, men, women, and children, all
who were able to work, were driven, from
day To day. and from year to year. i'll the
production Of sugar. Of course all the
productions of the 100000 laborers fig
urcd in the annual list of exports. a few
hundIed LordIings who owned the estates
aud The people. and had them managed by
nsen,s and attorneys, themselves living i'll
England, totally regardless OF the rights
Of the labofers. fought against the Eman-
cipation Act as long as they could, and
~heu it passed sgn;nst their wills, they,
with true slayehu,ding insiincts and phi
InsopI y, painted to tho diminished export
of surtr, and cried "falure'' and "run"
to the county. Our own shareholders
naturally took up the strain. and failure
and "ruin" have been the watcbwords of
."Democracy' here, as it has been of the
"a ris,ociacv'' in ENGLAND ever since,