Des Arc citizen., 1858-12-11
THE EAUTIES OF NEGRO
 EQUAIITY

judging of1the effects of the abolition of slavery in that island, communicates the following information on the subject. Should Stewards Black Republican pro- gramme be carried out, we should witness the same state of things in the United States. The Southern plantations would of necessity be abandoned 10 ruin and des- ola:ion, and the thrifty white population, of both North and South, would have thrown upon them millions of lazy, igno- rant and brutal negroes, claiming to be the equals of the whites.
 IL appears tha, the colored people of Jamaica, are not satisfied with the bare equality of civil and political rights but aspire 10 their exclusive enjoyment. Not content with acquiring lands by free sale and purchase, and by squatting on tracts which twenty years ago were valuable plantations, though now abandoned to the first conner, they wish to force the proprie- tors of the estates still under cultivation to dispose of the remains of their property exclusively in favor of the colored "sons of the soI," menacng the colony, in the VI fate of Hayti.
 For many years the negroes have en- loyed all those advantages over the whites which are the unavoidable results of their numerical superiority in q country govern ed under a very liberal representative Constitution. Negroes and mulattoes fill a majority of the public offices; and ifthere are still some ofthe more important places held by whites, il is, in some cases, be- cause the ncumbents date from period antecedent 10 the mancipation, and in others, because individuals of the fashion able color, with anything like the inds. pensable qualifications of mental charac- ter, are not readily to be found. When ever they do posses some education and ability, they obtain a preference. do not say that this IS the deliberate policy of the British Government and its represen- tatives here; 1t may we'll be the natural consequence of the predominance of the coored people at the musings and in the Legislature, the Colonial Government be- ing what is here called parliamentary"
 The little influence and responsibility retained by the whites being derived from their superior wealth and intelligence, the
 leading spirits among the 'coored party" have always endeavored 10 effect the over throw of the former at the expense of the agricultural and commercial interests of the island; and, with that view, have eIth- CT legislated against property, or refused to leglslate when protection was required, and as ma gstrates, have used all their authority in favor of vagrancy and crime, all in the hope of driving away the re- maining whites. In the fulfilment of this scheme their progress has been wonderful, yet still too gradual to couport with their lmpatlence; its originators are growing old, and some of them, like Moses, have died before entering the promised land A number of whites still cling to their possessions here as drowning wretches catch at straws; hence the wrath of the colored politicians, which occasionally swells too high to be restrained by pruden- tial considerations.
 Some idea may be formed of the extent to which the colored people carry their pre- tentions, as we'll as otthe intensity of their hatred for the whites, when 1t is known that the senior editor of the newspaper which threatens the colony with the fate oi Hayti is (although mulatto) the Gov ernor's first minister, Cor chairman Of the Executive Commiitee,O president of the privy council, member of the legisla- tive council, custos-rotulorum of the coun- try and mayor of the city of Kingston; while his partner (also a colored man) is a member of the privy and legislative councils, justice of the peace in several counties, alderman of Kingston, light house commissioner, &c., Sc. The se- nior editor virtually governs the island in his capacity of first minister, and, as presi- dent of the privy council, he would, in case of the death of the governor and lieutenant Governor, or the absence of one and death of the other, succeed without dispute to the chief executive power As these editors and other coIored men are not satisfied with their present position, Il Is fair 10 pre- sume that nothing short of the expulsion ot the whites, or their eXtermnution, will do for them.
 ] wish it were in my power, in a few words, without dwelling too long on a most unpleasant subject, 10 convey to you an adequate idea of the poverty. misery and degradation which the emancipation of the slaves has brought upon country which the anti-slavery papers in the Uni ted States basely represented as an exam pie for emulation. can not think of these talsrhoods without feeling an which it would i'll become me to express in adequate language. 1 am induced to bring the subject before you by observing in the colonial newspapers ex- tracts from some anti-slavery publications Jamaica, which has recently appeared in the United States.
 Nothing can be more untrue than the | that the idle, dlsSolute and | population of Kingston presents m untayorable contrast to that of,ae coun- try. In the interior, where tue whites ire lhinIy scattered, the police insufficient, where example for good is wanting, where he means of subsistence for man in say- lge state is abundanily provided by the
 beral hand of nature, the negroes give