Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1862-10-10
BY JOHN MAHIN.

raise the black flag, and to take no more pr
:, oners-that is, show no quarter to the sol
- iers Of the United States during the furth
prosecution Of the war;
Will it give "aid and comfort" to the re
els to know that there are people in the 10y
'' States who do not like the proclamation-al
who denounce it as bitterly as they do?
Will they rejoice to find the allies upon who
they counted when they fired the first g,
upon Fort Sumpter coming to their aid ar
. being as one with them upon this question
the Presidents proclamation ? II so, tho'
. who render them this aid and comfort al
. guilty of reasonable practices, and are lab
to arrest under the late order of the Presider
declaring martial law.
Now We do not propose to urge the arres
of such persons. They are too few in number
and to insignificant in character What, an
all we propose to do. is, to hold up befor
them mirror, so that they may "see them
selves as others see them," and to warn sue
as have given no thought to the question 9
the position they occupy.
Figures VS.. Rhapsody.
The Courier still persists in its fears tina
the North is to be overrun with negroes, t,
the great detriment of the whites. We al
understand its motiv es. 1t seizes upon tn
prejudices against the negro to stab the ad
ministration over his sable shoulders. 1t ha!
merely changed its base of attack 1t is no
love of the Northern laborers, but the love o.
Southern Shareholders that prompts its &C
tons. There is no foundation for all its
false alarms, and no one knows it better than
the Courier
Let few facts settle all its fears The war
has now been in operation for about eighteen
months, and thousands of negroes have been
freed by the march of our armies, and during
all this time not single negro has found his
way this far North till last week, when eight,
all told, were sent for and brought into this
county. During the progress of the war all
the contrabands, though perfectly free to go
North, have always clung to their native States
and counties even, and have only left US in the
Peninsula and Virginia vallies, where our ar
mics have retired before the rebel hordes
The fear of reinstatement only overcame their
dread of the cold North, and love of home.
Gen. Hunter said that only six of all the thou
sands around Hilton Head went North when
no oh stacle was placed in their way. This
has been the case wherever the movements of
our armies have freed the slaves. If for safe
ty they have come into the free States, they
have only crossed the border, anxious to re-
turn South the moment they can do so and
not endanger their liberty
All the stories circulating in Democratic pa
pers to the contrary Notwithstanding, stats
tics show that the free negro has always pre-
ferred home South to one North. The
whole number Of free negroes in the United
States in 1850 were 434 ,495 of these 23s ,127
were in the slave States, ard 1876, 1868 were in
the free, and in 1856 the preponderence was
still more in favor Of the slave States Mas
sachuSetts, where negroes vote, contained
1904, while Louisiana had 7,462. Illinois
had 3,436, while North Carolina had ~ ,443
Iowa had 333, the District of Columbia 1857.
New York, where negro that is worth $3.50
can vote, right given him by the Democrat
ic party there were 49,o69, while in Maryland
there were 74,723 So we might 60 through
with the whole catalogue Of free and slave
States, proving conclusivelv that when the
free negroes freely choose their homes they
select the Southern States. 1t is law of na-
ture that over-rides their fear of slavery They
constitutionally fear the cold North, and cling
around the warm and genial South. A Nor
weigain would seek the tropics as soon as
a negro would come North if they were not
forced to.
Our advice to all who fear that the labor Of
the negro will here COME into competition with
white labor is not to attack the negro, but
rally around the President. Sustain vigor-
Gus prosecution of the war, and the Presi-
dents proclamation, backed by our brave and
noble army, will soon proclaim and ensure
freedom throughout the whole land.
The negroes will then seek southern home,
where the climate and labor is more congenial
to them, and where their long presence has
done away any feeling adverse to black labor
ers
The Courier's cry of negro equality and
alnalgamation is too stale to require notice or
comment asrF
~ The Courier, true to its natural in
stincts, resorts to the most malignant misrep-
presentations in its report Of the emancipation
M seting last week. 1t charges that at that
l:.~ Jacob Butler declared that ''eueTy