Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1861-12-11
Erroneous Statement.

Lgront0uA Stotement'
The statement in the published report Of Mr.
T. j. Allen Government detective) that negroes
committed under the District laws as runawsys
are sold FOR their Jail fees II no owner eventually
tstaol,shes lawful claim to them, proves to have
originated with a negro confined under the law
In question, who told Mr.. Allen that ks had been
80 Informed by the constable who took him up.
Upon such testimony concerning the law, Is 10,
that the abolition press and pow-wowers Of the
country are just now tearing their hair over
slavery In the District Of Columbia
III there exists a law upon our statute books
authorizing the sale Of negroes here for Jail fees
it's 50 obsolete that persons who, like surself,
were born and reared, and have lived life time
within sight Of the dome Of the Capitol, have
never before heard Of Its existence. Certain II H.
tnet no such sale has taken place here within the
last half csntury-or the memory Of the "oldes,
lnbsbitant''-not enc.
~ 10 worthy Of note that the testimony upon
which MI. Allen has based all the statement OF
facn OF his rhetorical and poetic report are de.
rived wholly from negroes In Jail, incarcerated
a. be says, on the presumption that they are run.
sways. Had be lived In this community a sInols
decade, be would have known, an our own citi.
fens do, how little reliance Is to be placed on
such testimony
The report In question 10 evidently being used
10 bring about the legal abolition Of negro very
In the District Of Columbia which fact gives II all
us Importance. In this connection we have to saw
that slavery Is already practically abolished here
by the anomalous condition Of the country. To
abolish what the abolItionists term the &C black
code" Of the District Of Columbia, instead of 90
amending II a. 10 prevent injustice from being
noae through 1t, will prove a dire calamity 70
ttV nj 40
efoes-a class against whose presence among
them the citizens Of non .slavehoIding Illinoi.
nave stringently provided by constitutional re.
shicton. Under the operations of the code in
question, though some wrongs may have been
perpetrated through entiquated clauses Of II, the
Zee negro population Of Washington have been
HOT nail century more prosperous individually,
more serSicssoie to society at large and in every
way In better eoadition han the free negroes OF
ne NORM General experience teaches that they
require olnefeht laws for their government than
those applicable to white population and sxpe.
fenceAers teaches that the operation Of such laws
may greatly benefit them, and ward of the evils
'ncidat to themselves and society arising out of
tnef presence at the North without their restrain
Ing influence.
III revolutionary changes be made in the local
law OF the District I'm this connection, 10, bun.
comoe at the North. instead Of a free negro popu.
iation Of perhaps IA, $780, In the current anomalou,
condition Of the country the District Of Columbi.
cannot fail TO become at once the harbor for al
least $1,000 negroes, practically freed as an
incident OF ne war. With such a population
without especial restraining laws, Washington
VIII Dc rendered almost uninhabitable' 10 the
white man. The business Of our white laboring
population Of both sexes will be utterly ruined by
THIS inhu1 Of negroes, who will only work, az al
TIE North, when they cannot otherwise manage
70 feep life In their bodies. The abolitonisfs OF
Congress who can zee naught worthy Of their
sympathy In the condition of any class In any
community but the negro class, win of course
continue their tinkering experiments upon the
local Affairs Of the District Of Columbia, until
tney make 10 nothing lees than hell upon earth
for The white man. These are facts and legiti
mate consequences, the force Of which all our
felow-citiZens Of well balanced minds already
realize