The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1862-06-28
Un,no,, Abolitioni.m--A New Article.

Illinois Abolitionism--A New Article.
Whether the new constitution of Illinois
has been adopted, may still be debatable
question: but that the sections in refer
ence to negroes have all, separately and
collectively, besn adopted by an over
whelming vote it is beyond question.
Illinois thus adopts for herself new
sort of abolitionlsm, being the abolition OF
free-negroism. She abolished slavery by
her first constitution-she abolishes free
by her last -'~s-s------s-s--
The plain English of this expression at
the polls is, that in the opinion OF the peo'
pie of Illinois, the two races cannot ana
ought not to live IN the same community as
equals, and not desiring their presence as
slaves, or as degraded race, we exclude
them entirely. I lfs-E
1t may now become question Of some
moral, if not practical Importance, can the
people of Illinois justify this action to
".candid world?' Have one race ofcLrist-
ian people right to exclude another race
from q given number Of square miles OF
Gods footstool?
John Jones Guys farm Of 900 acres.
Has he o right to exclude all the world
from those acres? He concludes to admit
ten partners into joint occupancy with
himself of those acres-must he therefore
admit all the world into the same pateper-
ship? So the people of Illinois have poss'
essed themselves of certain number of
broad acres, and have adopted certain rules
or laws under which for mutual benefit,
certain classes of people are invited to
become partners with them in the occu'
pancy of those acres Must they therefore
offer the same privilege to certain other
classes whose joint proprietorship would
be an obvious disadvantage to the COM
munity?
The time has arrived when the discuss
son of free negroism is forced upon this
nation as the all important question of the
day. The most gigantic civil war the
world has ever seen is raging in this coun-
try about the negro. A powerful political
party propose, as the great end for which
this war should be prosecuted, to turn
loose upon the country about four millions
of free negroes Ga bono? Will it benefit
the whites at the expense of the negroes
That would be wrong. Or benefit the
negro at the expense of the whites? That
would be self-sacrifc,ng, certainly, but
hardly justifiable to posterity, at least
Or will it benefit neither or both races
Free negroism is no new experiment, and
is capable of being tried by the crucibeof
statistics
In 1926 there was benevolent association
formed in Massachusetts, for the " Ameli
Grafton Of Prison DISCIPLINE of which
such men as Rev Francis Wayland, Rev
Edward Beecher, Lewis Tappen, dc, were
members. The annual reports oc that
society invariably deplore the degraded
of the negro aud in proof Of it
furnish facts like these. In 1896 the
negro in Massachusetts was politically in
all respects, as he is to day, the equal of
the white man. Yet in 1896, while the
colored people composed one serenity fourth
part of the population of Massachusetts,, it
furnished ONE SIXTH of the convicts in the
penitentiary the same was true in Pennsyl
vania and New Jersey Has there been
any improvement since than? In 1850 the
negro population composed about locdth
part Of the population of Massachusetts,.
1t furnished ONE SEVENTH Of the convicts
in the penitentiary. In New York, Penn
sylvania, New Jersy and Ohio, the only
states from which we have statistics, the
same frightful disproportion between white
and black penitentiary conyicts obtains,
and showing an actual increase in the pro
portion since 1896.
There is the same overwhelming pro
portion of negro as compared with white
paupers in the same states; and indeed 1t
is undesirable that the white people OF
those states pay millions of taxes annually
in the way of criminal court and pauper
expenses on account of the negro for which
his presence affords no sort of compensa-
tory benefit But was the negro less de-
graded-lsss vicious while held as slave
in those states !? On that point we have
no statistics but this at least is certain:
He was no charge upon the public,-his
master kept him comfortably clothed and
fed-he kept him out of the poor house
and penitentiary.
There is one aspect in which free negro
ism presents itself 1t is of dozen others
probably the least startling and important.
The ruin, in all ages and countries where
it has been tried, which has followed his
emancipation, and his immediate lapse
into Incidence, barbarism, vice and deg.
these and the like ere other
aspects in which the subject presents
itself in an infinitely stronger light. But
we do not propose to pursue it further at
present. The hints we have thrown out,
however, are enough, we imagine, to show
that Illinois at least has some strong
reasons for being anxious to keep clear of
the nuisance. ".a
Both Gen. Pope & Gen. Ualleck deny
ever having sent dispatch to the war
or any where else, stating that
Gen Pope had taken 5000 Of Beauregards
men prisoners after the evacuation Of
Corinth. Gen. Pope, however, does say,
in conversations at Washington: that in
following Beaureguard's retreat he took
not 10000, but at least 10000 men-im-
pressed and corcripts, straglers and desert
ers, whom he did not regard as soldiers
and released Immediately on parol Also