Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-10-31

IT, One man, when asked why he ought to
be Free replied; "I feed and clothe myself
and pay my master one hundred and twenty
dollars year and the one hundred and
twenty dollars is just so much taken from
me, which ought to be used TO make me
and my children comfortable" Indeed,
broken as was their speech and limited as
was their knowledge, they reasoned alb
stractly on their rights as well as white
men. Locke or Claiming might have forti-
fed the argument for universal liberty from
their simple talk. So true is it that the
best thoughts which the human intellect has
produced have come, not from affluent learn
ing or ornate speech, but from the original
elements of our nature, common to all races
of men aud all conditions IN life; and genius
the highest and most cultivated may bend
with profit to catch the lowliest of human
utterance.
There was very general desire among
the contrabands to know how to read. A
few had learned and these, in every in
stance where we inquired rs to their teacher,
had been taught on the sly in their child
hood by their white playmates. Others
knew their letters, but could not "put them
together" as they said. l remember Of
summers afternoon seeing young married
woman, perhaps twenty-five years old,
seated on a doorstep with primer before
her, trying to make progress.
THEIR CHARACTER.
In natural tact and the faculty of getting
q livelihood the contrabands are inferior to
the Yankees, but quite equal to the mass of
the Southern population. 1t is not easy to
see why they would be less industrious, if
free, than the whites particularly as they
would have the encouragement Of wages.
There would be transient difficulties at the
outset, but no more than bad system last
ing for ages might be expected to leave be-
hind. The first generation might be untitled
for the active duties and responsibilities of
citizenship; but this difficulty, under gen.
erous provisions for education, would not
pass to the next, Even now they are not so
much behind the masses of the whites. Of
the Virginians who took the oath OF allegi-
ance at Hampton, not more than one in
fifteen could write his name, and the rolls
captured at Hatteras disclose an equally de-
plorable ignorance. - AS o race,
they may be less vigorous and thrifty than
the Saxon, but they are more social, docile
and affectionate, fulfilling the theory which
Charming held in relation to them, if ad-
vanced to freedom and civilization.
If in the progress of the war they should
be called to bear arms, there need be no
reasonable apprehension that they would
exhibit the ferocity of savage races. Un-
like such, they have been subordinated to
civilized life. They are by nature q religi-
Gus people. They have received an educa-
tion in the Christian faith from devout
teachers, of their own and the dominant
race.
But as events travel faster than laws or
proclamations, already in this war with re-
bellion the two races have served together.
The same breastworks have been built by
their common toll. True and valiant, they
stood side by side in the din of cannonade,
and they shared as comrades in the victory
of Hatteras. History will not fail to record
that on the 28th day of August, 1861, when
the rebel forts were bombarded by the
federal army and navy, under the command
of Major General Butler and Commodore
Stringham, fourteen negroes, lately Virginia
slaves, now contraband Of war, faithfully
and without panic worked the after-gun ol
the upper deck of the Minnesota, and hailed
with victor's pride the Stars and Stripes
as they again waved on the soil of the Car.
n1inoS