Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1862-09-12
Emancipation.

7 ciSe tIle eIiiailClpitioH power, PidOeu ny w
gress in his hands, at just that time and
precisely that extent he deems will best SUI
J. serve his countrys welfare in the permanel
and effectual suppression of this rebellion
~ We could expect no more, could ask no les
e We may thank God his heart is in the .rigf
! place and fervently hope that his judgmer
may promptly recognize the fitting momer
: for decisive action.
Meanwhile, increasing audacity and vigo
mark the daily developments of the rebellion
Unity of purpose and the energy and despcl
alton lend force and precision to rebel blows
and while our lines stagger and fall back be
fore furious onsets, the rebellion assumes gi
gantic dimensions hitherto unimagined. 1ea,a
/ Bat-like indeed must be the vision of tha
man, who, coupling these facts with the Pres
ident's declaration, regards the proximats
emancipation of Americas toiling millions AZ
by any means improbable. 1t becomes us
then, to calmly face the probability and ques-
ton ourselves as to the effect of this novel and
important step. ....,7 .r.... .,....... t..g
That any considerable proportion of the
three to three and half millions so freed
will consent to expatriate themselves, we have
| not the slightest idea. Were colonization to
be the condition of freedom, it is possible that
a general exodus might result; but the act
frees the swarthy Americans where they stand,
and leaves emigration optional with them
1t was in courtesy to the common idea, so
seduously cultivated, that aoe must do some
thing aci'A them, that the colonization scheme
was tackled on to the emancipation act. But
we apprehend, in the event of emancipation,
outside of any considerations of right and
wrong, of policy or expediency, the stubborn
fact of the entire disinclination of the blacks
to emgrate, will settle the question effectually.
Born in the country from mother to son for
generations, loving itas fatherland; inhabi-
tiveness having as large place in their phren-
ology as ours as much afraid of that which
is new and untried as your pale-faced conser-
vative, they will prefer to try titles with starv-
alton at home, even after their muscles have
changed owners.
Freedom, then, as effecting themselves and
ourselves becomes consideration of vast i'm
portance. -t -
By the party wherein the knaves lead and
fools follow, we are told day by day through
hours and columns, that the blacks when
oreed will become the bane Of our civilization
that negroes will swarm through the North
like locusts, filling aims houses and jails, sup
planting white laborers in their accustomed
avocations, reducing the price of labor, mar
rying our brothers and sisters off-hand, gen
dering myriad mulattoes, forcing themselves
into our workshops, stores, counting rooms,
sanctums, pulpits and halls of legislation, and
filling the land with noisome effiuvia while
at the South, armed with torch and dagger,
they will riot in rapine, arson and murder,
until hell shall hold high carnival, and one
or the other race shall be exterminated. In
the name of humanity and reason is this so
or is it sheer fabrication of wicked hearts,
cunning heads and fertile imaginations, de-
signed to beguile the simple into frantic
horror of emancipation, hoping thereby topre-
vent it's consummation
1t isa fact that the american Mgro as
thrifiy and industrious Candid reader, 60
over in your minds the list of blacks within
the scope of your personal observation and
compare them with the same number of the
lowest of our souereigns, and agree with us,
that considering the oppression Of cast and
class, the thousand insults to which they are
daily exposed at the hands of prejudiced
and negro-despising race, that there is no
people that more instinctively eschews de-
bauchery and crime, or more universally self
supporting. af.a.. 5.a .s. tr
Although legally benighted and systemat-
ically debauched, a considerable percentage of
the slaves have been accustomed to hire their
time of their masters, at from ten to twenty
five dollars per month-their rative adroit-
ness and acquired skill enabling them to pay
the monthly stipend, and retain balance,
wherewith to procure articles of comfort, lux
ury or fancy, or to treasure up against some
happy day, when the aggregated savings may
purchase the blessed boon of freedom
Swarming in the cities of the South are null
titudes of colored denizens, filling almost ev-
cry position in business and working COM
munities, from the nimble waiter to the
shrewd and successful merchant. Patient
in adversely, affectionate to fault, the negro
is eager to learn and quick to initiate. r..
If this much can be accomplished, if so
many and so good specimens, struggling up
against every conceivable adverse circum-
stance, challenge the approving judgment
of the world; if through years of wrong, the
race has earned its own subsistence, and that
of its free-loving, on-producing masters, who
dare assume that with the added incentive of
the blessings of liberty-for itself and its
children-it will do less? Is an atmosphere
of liberty really so baleful as to deprive ambi-
ton of all incentive, muscle of elasticity
Will the hoe linger over the cotton because
the ball will belong to Cuffee, or stalwart
limbs toll less sturdily because the lash has
ceased to swing? Can it indeed be true that
in climate genial andwith soil whose boast
| is that iftickled with hoe it will laugh with
harvest, where the reward of ten days labor
is food sufficient for a year, that the emanci
pated blacks will supinely starve or lapse into
hopeless barbarism? Of truth, we think
not. 4I 8 '7
have been able to receive from the various 10y
al States. we deem it safe to state that th,
entire 100000 volunteers called for by tn
sdorx loAo oall hauo hoox, nra