New Oregon plaindealer. (New Oregon, Iowa) 1859-1866, 1859-11-18
FROM the Philadelphia North American. Rep)
tn" Free Colored PepuIa ion

tn" Free Co|ored PepuIa ion
If there is any one fact established
by steadily accumulating evidence, it is
that Il e free negro can not find con-
genial home in the United States. He
is an exotic amongst us, and all the eff:
fort of philanthropist to naturalize him
on American soil and under American
skies have failed. We know that it is
common to attribute this failure to e
prejudices Of the whites, which defeats
all the attempts ma lie to improve radi-
calIy and permanently the condition of
the blacks; but after allowing to this
cause NIL the influence which it deserves
1t must be admitted that it does not ex.
plain the almost universal degradation
of the colorel population in the free
States, and we must Look beyond preju-
lice and social ostracism, and the une-
quail legislation which may be supposed
to flow from these, for some DEEPER ex-
planation--onc which we believe is to
be found in the constitution of the me-
gro himself
II is a great mistake to suppose that
he mere Giro umstance of removing the
political disabilities under which any
particular class may happen to labor is
sufficient, of itself, to alter and improve
their con lition. The most that liberal
institutions and laws cen do is to leave
men free to the exercise and development
Of their faculties in general; anil accor.
ling to the nature # these faculties. and
the innate qualities of the soul, will be
the state of the man and of society re-
sulting. Now, 50 far as the colorel pop
ulation Of most of the free States are
concerned, there are no laws that tram
mel their faculties or limit the sphere Of
their industry. They are at liberty to
par ue most callings and to accumul,te
property.
The laws extend protection to the per-
son and property of the colored man as
they do to the white. And to prove
this. if proof were needed, it would be
easy to mention the names of few per-
sons belonging to this class, who have
grown rich by honest industry. And
in the face of such a state of things,
when we find the great bulk Of our COL
ored population, ninety-nine in hum
'lred, making Il precarious livelihood by
contenie,lly performing the most mental
Offices, or living IN illeness and wretch.
e'lness, we can hardly fail to attribute it
to characteristics of their own. 1t can
not be doubted that enough sympathy
is felt for our col red people to furnish
them with encouragement and patron
age if they had the enterprise to become
good mechanics and laborers, and the
energy to 'mpete with the white labor
err. And besides, in the North, there
is usually such demand for labor as to
absorb the supply, and no we'll qualified
workman. unless in periods Of depress-
ion, need fear to be unemployed. But
we see the blacks dai y driven from avo-
cations once deemed almost exclusively
their own. 1t is Lang since they have
flourishe in any of the trades, if they
ever pursued them with success. With
in few years they have ceased to be
hackney coachmen and draymen, and
they are now almost displacel as steve
dores. They arc r'pidly losing their
places as BARRIERS and servants. Ten
families employ white servants now
where one dill twenty years ago. What
ever explanation may be given of these
facts, the facts themselves can not be de-
MED; and what is t. be done with our
colored population, unless they can be
induced to return as colonists to the ma
tive land Of their race, or seek some 9TH
er tropical regions, battles the wisest Of
us to say.
We arc led to these remarks by re-
fec,ing on the great reluctance display
cd by the people Of the new States to
having free negroes settle amongst them.
There is something more in this than