The Portland daily press., 1862-10-27
Emancipation will keep the Negroes at the


One of the most mischievous things at the
north. is the efforts of demagogues to frighten
the laboring population with the idea that
emancipation win overrun the north and tend
to crowd white men out of employment by
great influx of colored aborers. The Irish
population is appealed to in this direction, by
a class of men who would sell an Irishman into
slavery as soon as they would black man, if
they could make money by it; but they will
appeal to and pamper any kind of a pref adice
for the sake of securing votes. The facts show
that even the prospect of emancipation tends
ID make the negroes less anxions To leave the
soil OF their birth The fact related a few days
since OF the slaves hired out near New Or
leans, by the advice and aid Of Gems Shepley
and Butler, is worth thousand theories on
this subject. Carleton, in his letters from KY.
to the Boston Journal, makes some statements
and gives some facts touching this matter,
that will be read with interest by all who are
anxious to know the truth, and will be hailed
with satisfaction by those who are willing to
see the poor descendent of Africa raised to
the dignity Of a man. He says
1t is not easy to root out the education of
century, to transform an entire community, to
sever ties of association, of assimilation, Of
, commerce, of social relations-in short, to
change from slavery to freedom. Yet that
Is the transforming process. Kentucky has
been with the South and for slavery, but
she is yet to be for freedom. You hear the
question freely discussed. You see auti-slav-
cry books in the bookstores, advertised on the
streets and read by the people. The old ioun-
dations are breaking, the northern men from
Cincinnati and Chicago are taking the places
Of the merchants of former years. Fresh, vi
talized blood is beginning to circulate Gin
cinnati and Chicago papers are finding read
ers. Slavery is going by attrition-the grind
ing out process, which wears and crumbles by
atoms. Negro property is depreciating. 1t is
small beginning at present, but to increase
rs the years roll on.
The change promises to be bloodless. There
| are no indications of insurrection. The ne
groes in Kentucky evidently understand the
! great problem of the age quite as well as the
/ rest of us. Ii is all hope and expectation of
good to them. They know by intuition that
the changes, convulsions and battles of the
hour are for them; that every cannon that ad-
yances is for their interests; that every drop
| of blood shed upon the battle field is fertiZ-
| er of the tree of Liberty. beneath whose cool
| ing shade they will eventually find rest and
| comfort. The negroes far as | am able TO
! Judge by observation and information from
Others are better contented than before. They
hope. 1t is no longer a starless gloom. The
| day-star has risen. They wait for the dawn
! ing. 1t is noteworthy fact that the negroes
show less disposition than ever to escape into
| Ohio. 1t is easy to escape now. The barriers
are down. The river is fordable; the country
is in commotion. If they should run away so
loosened are all the ties and bonds of love and
vigilance that little effort would be made for
their capture. They fear the rebels. They
know if they fall into the hands of the gueri-
las they will be sent South. Thousands have
! thus been sent away. So the grinding goes
on-sowly but surely. All things are chang
ing. Gravitation is the universal law. Every
particle of matter in the universe attracts ev-
cry other particle. So the earth moves round
! the sun: so the sun with its attendant orbs, and
all the galaxy of heaven. Offering in uniath-
omed depths. sweet in eternal, endless, un-
measured cycles round the universal centre
! ordained of Jehovah; so from barbarisin up to
civilization. from heathenism up to the religion
! OF Jesus Christ, moves the human race. The
| long black coud OF darkness reaches over the
centuries to this present hour, and throws its
shadows across the land. The storm is raging
but beyond the gloomy present there is a ra-
diant future.