The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1858-11-18
The Coalition of Jamaica.

/ bic condition:
: 1t appears that the colored people of Ja-
maica are not satisfied with a bare equality
of civil and political rights, but aspire to
their exclusive enjoyment. Not content
with acquiring lands by free sale and pur-
chase, and by squatting on tracts which
twenty years ago were valuable plantations
though now abandoned TO the first conner,
they wish to force the proprietors of the es-
tates now under cultivation to dispose Of the
remains of their property exclusively in "a
yor of the colored ''Sons of the soil" mena-
cling the colony, in case Of continued re-
cusancy, with the fate of Hayti.
For many years the negroes have enjoyed
all those advantages over the whites which
are the unavoidable results OF their numcr-
ical superiority in a country governed under
a very liberal representative constitution
Negroes and mul4ttoes fila majority of the
public ofHccs;a if there are sill some OF
the more important places filled by whites,
it is, in some cases, because the ineumbents
date from a period antecedent to the eman-
cipation, and, in others, because individuals
of the fashionable color, with anything like
the indispensable qualifications of a mental
character, are not readily found. Whenever
they possess an education and ability, they
obtain preference. / do not say that this
is the deliberate policy Of the British gov
ernment and its representatives here; it may
well be the natural consequences of the pre-
dominance Of the colored people at the hust-
ings and in the legislature, the colonial gov
ernment being what is here called "parlia-
mentary."
The little influence and eipectability re-
tanned by the whites being derived from
their superior wealth and intelligence, the
leading spirits among the {. colored party y
have always endeavored to effect TIE over
throw of'the former, at the expense of the
agricultural and commercial interests of the
island; and, with that view, have either
legislated against property, or refused to
leglslate when protection was required; and
as magistrates have used all their authority
IL favor of vagrancy and crime, all in tie
hope OF driving away the remaining whites.
In the fulflment of this scheme their pro-
gress has heen wonderful, yet still too
gradual to comport with their impa .ence !;
its originators arc growing old, and some of
them, ike Moses, have died before entering
the promised land. A number Of W hites
still cling TO their possessions here as drown
( ing wrctcLcs catch at straws; hence the
wrath Of the colored politicians, which oc-
casionaily swclls too high TO be restrained
by prudential Considerations
Some idea may he formed Of the extent
to which Tie colored people carry their pre-
tensions, as well as OF the intensity of their
hatred for the whites, whenitis known that
the senior editor Of the newspaper which
threatens the colony with the fate of Hayti,
is although a mu.atto) the Governor first
I. Il
Committee, president Of the privy cuun-
Gil, nj mem5er Of the legislative council, Gus
tos-rotu!oram Of the country, and mayor OF
the city of Kingston; while his partner
(also a colored MANI is member both Of
the privy and legislative councils, justice of
the peace in several counties, alderman of
Kingston, light house commissioner, &C., &c
The senior editor virtually governs the is
land in his capacity of first minister, and as
President of the privy council, he would, in
case of the death of the governor and lieu
tenant governor, or the absence of one and
death OF the other, succeed without dispute
to the chief executive power. As these
editors and other colored men are not salts
fed with tiieir present position, it is fair to
presume that nothing short of the expulsion
OF thG hites or their extermination will do
for them. . .--.s- -..- ----.-. ....--
| wish it were in my power in few
words, without dwelling too long on most
unpleasant subject, to convey to you an ad-
equate idea Of the poverty, misery, and deg
radiation which the emancipation of the
slaves has brought upon a country which the
anti-slavery papers in the United States
baSely represented as an example of emu
lation. cannot think of these Shameless
falsehoods without feeling an Indignation
which it would i'll become me to express in
adequate language. am induced to bring
the subject before you by observing in the
colonial newspapers extracts from some an
ti-slavery publication respecting Jamacia
which has recently appeared in the United
States.
Nothing can be more untrue than the sup
position that the idle, dissolute, a.d crinIi-
nal population Of Kingston presents an un-
favorable contrast to that Of the country
IN the interior, where the whites are thinly
scattered the police insufficient, where ex-
ample for good is wanting, wncre the means
OF Subsistence for man in q savage state is
abundantIy provided by the liberal hand OF
nature, the negroes give themselves up to
African idleness, obsceuity, and vice, with
out the shadow of restraint which exists in
towns, and disease, the consequence of their
crimes and carelessnt IS, is gradually thin
ming their numbers. / have just returned
from visit in the Parish Of Metcalfe, one
of the most fertile, and once of the
most hourishing agricultural districts of the
island. spent some days on what was
once coffee plantation producing from sew
enty to one hundred hogsheads of coffee
1t is now overerown with wood and almost
impenetrable jungle. the exhor5itant pro-
duction of fertile soil abandoned to the
culture of nature; and the whole district is
so infested with the silver-tick as to have
become almost uninhabitable From the
property referred to may be seen five coffee
plantations, or rather the rUined mansions Of
five abandoned coffee plantations which
once gave an income to their respective
owners OF from two to five thousand pounds
a year Not coffee tree is now cultivated
in the district; the proprietors have gone :;
some Of them are in great poverty in Eng
land, some have died beggars, and others
! have left the country or sunk into obsqurity
! somewhere no one knows what has be
/ come Of them Their sHccess0rs-the ne
groes-with abundance of the finest posi-
( ble soil around them which they can cult
vate for their own profit live in squalid
/ idleness, prefsrring to sleep in the san and
) - zf 81, ]