The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1859-08-24

pressly their own. It is long since they
have tourished in any Of the trades, If they
ever pursued them with success. Within
a few years, they have ceased to be hack
ney coachmen and draymen; and they ara
now almost displaced as stevedores. They
are rapidly losing their. places as BARRIERS
and servants. Ten families employ white
servants now, whefe one did twenty years
ago. Whatever explanation may be given
Of these facts, the facts themselves can not
be denied; and what is to be done with our
colored population, unless they can be it,
duced to return as colonigts to the native
land Of their race, or seek some other tropi-
cal region, bafflas the wisest of Us to say.
We are led to these remarks by rejecting
on the great reluctance displayed by the
people Of the new States to having free ne.
groes settle among them. There is some
thing more in this than mere prejudice or
jealousy. 1t is exhibited in places where
the political sentiments of the people are as
in Kansas, Oregon and Iowa. It seems as
if it were to become q rule, in framing
constitution for new State, to prohibit the
residence of free negroes. In the case Of
slave State il is not difficult to understand
this. The presence of the free negro is dis
to the slave; and besides, the
policy of the slave States is to discourage
manunission, which draws from the re.
sources of the State by diminishing the
number of laborers. But in free State,
where emigration is invited by holding out
ever inducement to the inhabitants Of the
old States and to foreigners, this aversion to
the presence of colored people can only be
explained by the opinion that has obtained,
almost universally, that they cannot become
useful citizens Of the United States; or, in
other words, that they can not compete, on
equal terms, with the white races.
This opinion is undoubtedly founded on
observation. It has come to prevail in the
free States in spite of theories 1--WE had al
most said in defiance of the wishes Of good
men everywhere, and it is Of the utmost
Importance that this truth should be fully
recognized by humane and philanthropic
men. We believe that all labors directed to
the promotion of the welfare of the free col
ored man, as well as the slave population of
this country, will miserably flil, unless the
truth is borne in mind. We applaud to the
echo the movement made in Russia by the
Gar to enfranchisc the peasant, and raisg
the sorf tc the dignity of free man; and
this because there is no natural difference
between the Russia landlord and his servant
attached to the SOIL The latter Possesses
all the capabilities belonging to the former,
and needs only that chance of Development
which the restrictions imposed by the laws
forbid him to enjoy.
But the perplexing problem which we IN
the United States must bring to a practical
solution is, What is to be done for a race
which, in the absence Of prohbitory laws,
can make no headway whatever for itself;
or, at least, none in the presence Of race
of superior intellectual force and energy2
We see new communities springing up, and
absolutely prohibiting the residence of class
marked by peculiar hysical and moral char
acteristics among them, on the conviction
that its members must be burden on their
resources. We see the same class at our
own doors, as body, daily becoming more
helpless. Of all questions none deserves
more to be well pondered than that which
relates to the disposition to BE- made of the
negroes on this American continent. Let
not a hasty Judgment pronounce their case
utterly hopeless; nor, on the other hand, let
false theories, respecting the equal intellect
ual and moral force of the race, deceive you
into mistaken and injurious policy.