Sugar planter. [volume] (West Baton Rouge [i.e. Port Allen, West Baton Rouge Parish, La.]) 1856-1925, 1858-07-10

NEeaoM EcHAS1cs.-We find the followln!
paragraph about Negro Mechanics, going thu
rounds Of our exchanges. 1t seems to NEE
with favor With a large number. particularly
those advocating the Mechanical interest
The subject is no doubt fraught with much
interest to The people of the South, and: II
our opinion, should commend itself to the at
~tention Of our Legislature. Too many me.
| chanics in our own State: are deprived of {
comfortable support by negroes usurpine
their places, and while suck labor benefit:
their owners, it is gradually sowing the seeds
of discomfort among the laboring white popu.
~lation, that cannot but result in evil. The
Pensacola Observer: commenting upon this
subject says: lis there a high minded me-
chanic in the land who would be willing tc
work side by side with a mnsky, impuden1
rncouth darkey? No, not one; If absolute
necessity did not sometimes drive him to it.
This accounts in some degree for the ants
of respect usually withheld from the poor
mechanic here in the South, by certain class,
who are ever prone to find some pretext to
turn a cold shoulder to the hardy son of toll
who deems it an honor to earn his daily
bread by the sweat Of his brow"
"We believe the Legislature of all e]ave-
holding States should pass an act prohibiting
the owners of slaves from making mechanics
of them. The rice, corn, and cotton field is
the proper place for the negro-and not the
workshop. That should be keptfor the white
man exclusively. There are thousands of in
dustrious: enterpris;ng young men who are
driven from the mechanical trades, rather
than work all day side by side with the ne
gro. Their pride revolts at this, and we
think very properly. All cannot be pro-
f%essional men-their inclinations do not lead
IN that way, but necessity drives them to
business of some kind and they rush into the
learned professions without one single quail
fcation. And why do they do this? Because
they do not like to be thrown into daily in
tercourse with the negro mechanics. See
how many young lawyers ami physicians are
starving; because the country is oveTrun with
them, and their pride forbids them from fol-
lowing trades. But exclude the negro race
from the mechanical arts. and YOU at once
ennoble the business. Men who are now
ashamed to acknowledge themselves mechan-
les, would take pride in it, and there would
be but few drohes in society. All parents
are not able to give their children education
to be professional characters, and
how far superior is the respectable artisan to
the quaek doctor aorthe jack-leg Iawyer-the
one scarcely able to distinguish chill from
fever, and the other incompetent to make a
in a magistrates court We hope the
of the different States will take
this matter into consideration. We are aware
that men will say we have the right to do
as we please with our negroes, and convert
them to any use we think proper" but it is
not so. The rich have no right to build up
at the expense Of the poor, and this
is done whenever you degrade the mechanic
by placing him on q level with the slave
The only trade entirely excluded from the
negro is the art of printing thank God the
p'inter can proudly defy the black scoundreIs,
for the States have wisely prohibited them
from education.'