Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1862-05-03
ASHTABULA O.. SATURDAY MORNING. MAY 3, 1862.

his labor. II is strange and sudden trnnsi.
tion the freedman is constrained to rub
bis eyes and convince himself that this is
not one Of the dreams by which be has arore.
time been cheated ; his next impulse is to
take to his heels.
Yes, he must fec for he cannot abide
in freedom and security on the soil he has
so long molstend with his sweat and which
has often been redeemed from the wilder.
ness by his toll
Tomorrow The Union forces moy be driv.
even or drawn back and the Rebels return
in force nay, tomorrow lie may betrayed
by some epauletted slnvehonnd in the Fed
eral service into q new and bttercr bon.
doge, in defnance of every dictate of hu.
manity, policy, and good faith. In vain
has Congress enacted and the President mp.
proved that the National forces shall no
longer act rs slave. catchers the law is
evaded or dtiiled aud slaves are still hand
dcd over, even 10 the rebels, in nearly or
quite every state where the war is now in
progress, SDuh Carolina and Georgiu pro.
blbly excepted The base will act out their
nature, any law of God or man to the con-
trary notwithstanding.
The freedman must ny; but whittier
To whom can be look for hospitality and
protection, for food and shelter, if the
Christian charity of the free North does
not prolfer him a welcome The Free
West is in good part closed against him by
prospective, inhuman laws impelled by the
blind hate and bitter perjudice of the unedu.
Gated Whites whom Slavery has exilcd from
the South, and who know no better than to
attribute their poverty aud degradation TO
the innocent blacks. The slave of a Ten.
nessce or Missouri rebel who fees across
the Ohio or Mississippi into Illinois vic.
la'es thereby the law of the latter Free
State and subjects himself to dreaded pen.
aliies to be rendered more stringent by the
New Constitution about to he accepted or
rejected by her People The laws of the
Middle and Eastern Free States are genor.
ally harsh enough toward the colored man,
hut they do not deny him right to exist.
SO, if the choice he open TO him, the slave
deserted by his rebel master aud thus vir-
tnalIy enfrancbised, turas his face in this di.
rcciion. Thousands have already made
their way somehow across the Maryland in
TO Pennsylvania, thousands more will doubt ess
follow in their footsteps. What shall be
their reception
These poor fugitivcs, with scarcely an
exception, have always earned all they had,
and a good deal that was stolen from hem,
by the hardest coarsest labor; Unlearned as
they doubtless are, stupi as they ore gene.
rally supposed to be, they understand
that every oue's livelihood must be fairly
earned by himself or by others and they
are quite aware that they lack the power
aud the Wit to compel others to work for
their profit. Ninety nine in every hundred
of these fugitives are trained TO manual la.
bor, mainly agricultural, expect to ork for
all they receive, are perfectly willing to
work, and only ask fair chance. Shall
it not be accorded
Two distinct periIs stretch across their
path the first tnat of The blind aud brutal
negro hate which would deny them any
chance to work ut all, under the plea that
whatever wages they may receive must be
abStracted from the aggregate earnings Of
White nborers. This assumption is as mis-
taken as the spirit which impels it is base
No country was ever impoverished, nor
hIlO AbC VI It's luUOltIS GhGI lGIUGtu
by an increase of its laboring; producing
population. An influx of gamblers, grog
sellers, lottery, or policy-ofice keepers, and
the like, does tend to diminish earnings and
increase pauperism; not so the immigration
Of honest, useful workers. IfOne Hundred
Thousand Of the Laboring Glass were to
llock into the Free States per month for the
uext 20 years, those States would be more
prosperous and their labor better employed
and rewarded during The whole time than
if their immigration were reduced 10 an iu-
considerable fraction. Every immigrant
family would need shelter, aud this would
create and Dainiaih healthy and constant
demand for new habitations they would
need clothing, bedding, tools, household i'm
plements, and thousand conven.
fences, stimulating trade, keeping mp
demand for real estate, and in every way
creating a market for more and better re.
warded labor than the immigrants would
supply. ln stagnant decaying country
where population is stationary or declining,
Labor seeks employment in vain not so in
one which is rapidly growing, and where new
farms, new houses, new shops, new factories,
are constantly required and provided.
The outcry, against the Influx OF South
ern fugitiVes at the North is as dishonest
as it is cruel. 1t is the cant of base politi.
cal self.seekers who would mainly be part.
sans OF the Rebellion if they dare but who
not being sufficiently brave to stand up for
the slavehoding traitors, crafty their dis.
loyal iuclinaIions, more safely by exciting
perudice against their most defensceless
victims Those who sought to excite riot
10 Philadelphia against q couple of carloads
of fugtiVes from Slavery to rebels who re.
Gently reached that city, were of the very
breed that insisted, until after the uprising
of the People at the bombardment of Fort
Sumter, that we ought to avert civil war
and preserve the Union by accepting the
Mont gomery Constitution and recognizing
JEFF. Davis as our President, vice Abraham
Lincoln, ignominiously kicked out. The
very presses that urged that notable expedi'
ent for "Peace" Compromise" and RE
construction are-noW doing their utmost