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

FRIDAY MORNING, SEPT -, 1862.
Emancipation Again.
In former article we argued that
practical emancipation was disarmed of many
of its terrors, in view of the fact that the
American negro is prominently self sup
porting.
But there is another objection that obtains
among timid, credulous souls, who are ear
nest enough in their conservatism of whatev-
er is wicked, cruel, or oppressive, but when
asked to act in the direction of liberty aud
true democracy, forever scent bugbear, and
see rampant lion in the path. 1t is, that
proclamation of emancipation will be the sig
nal for general emigration Of the blacks,
Northward, to cease only when the sooty
swarm shall have eaten out the fairness of the
laud.
Let us look at the probabilities for mo-
ment. A motive inheres in every action un-
der the sun, and every effect has super-in-
ducing cause. It is labor, seeking opportu-
mites, or more remunerative employment
enterprise in quest Of more genial chimes, blu
er skies, richer soils, and cheaper lands; tai.
ents chatting for scope; conscience bent on
disenthralment; or chiefest Of all, manhood
bursting and fleeing from calling bondage
it is some combination of these exciting eau
ses that produces general movement of pop
ulation in any direction. Again, it is the
poor and oppressed Of all peoples to whom
these motives come nearest home, and with
the greatest force; hence it happens that it is
they who throng to our shores from Europe,
and hence too it is, that it has been slaues
seeking freedom, that has caused in the main,
that considerable though stealthy migration
of blacks Northward in years past. A
further cause may be found in those cruel
laws that have disgraced the statute books in
many of the slave States, compelling free ne
groes to abandon the State or be re-sold into
slavery.
Suppose every slave freed to day, and what
conceivable motive would send them North in
any numbers If they want employment, it
is at their hands. Broad plantations await
but their labor to smile with abundant crops
commanding a reader sale and better prof
its than any that can be raised at the North.
Either as Independent farmers or hired hands,
they can coin comfort and independence from
abundant acres. If they be content with the
simple necessaries of life, at home is where
their necessities are the fewest, and means of
supplying them the readiest at hand. And
if some simple darkey, some unsophisticated
Elhiop, should wander towards the Lakes in
the hope of lettering his condition, he would
find the disgrace of being "nigger" ten fold
less among his old time masters; that
he and his race were fore-doomed to contempt
and obloquy, forever bye-word and re-
proach in the mouth of the whole people
that he was shut out from opportunities of al
most every kind that the commonest boon of
humanity, freely accorded to the meanest and
most depraved of any other race were grudged
him-that we love liberty for ourseloes, and
hate it for darkeys; that the cool Northern
air developed stencil in and about his cuti
Gle, unnoticed at the South, but intolerable to
Northern noses-and trust US that wandering
Cuffee, very speedily satisfied that whichever
road he took he'd wish he'd took the other"
would right about, and never stop till beneath
the Palmetto, Magnolia, or Southern pine, he
related in familiar ears what hard country it
was "up Norf"
The wisest may not now foresee the precise
condition of affairs at the South at the end of
the war. 1t is at least probable that through
the mischances of the battle field, the reluc-
tant but salutary operation of the gallows, and
an extensive flight of defeated traitors from
the country, the great landed properties of
the South will generally change hands, and
new men, controlled by different set of ideas,
fill their places. Northern energy and thrift
may organize free labor. The great Southern
staples there in greater demand than ever may
be created through the fundamentally of COM
pensated labor, and all considerations of eli
mate, proximity, and trained capacity, point
to the great truth that the blacks must and
will be large proportion of the actual work
ers of the South, for years to come; and it is
for our people, our Congress, and our chief
rulers to so organize, arrange, and provide,
hot <1o, hall I,o &c
this mass of crude material, in manner thrown
upon their hands.
INDUCING no rainbow-tinted visions, sink
ing for this once the moral aspect of the
question, which, after all, is the most import
ant one; leaving the Constitutional argument
in the hands Of Congress and father Abraham
we are content to believe that in tie event of
the eman cipation of the blacks, they viU re-
main where they are, and soill BE- found SELF
supporting.
az The Chicago Journal thinks General
Mcclellan is heading formidable force in the
direction Of Harper's Ferry, to intercept Stone
wall jackson. If this is true supposition,
it explains the absence of Gen. Mcclellan from
Washington, mentioned in yesterdays dis
patches. We sincerely hope it is true. We
see no reason why Jackson should not be
trapped and caught with his entire force be-
fore he is ten days older.
az As may be seen by the orders from
the War Department published this morning,
restriction on travel has been removed, the
reuoo for thu ordor having ceased tn exist