Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1863-12-11
IHE RIsuT WAY TO TREAT BLACK AMERICANS.

Tin England) that the North treated the
blacks worse than the South. L frankly
owned that there had been most un-
christian state of things in the North,
but that il Was undergoing change !;
and that. At the worst, the North treated
the slave better than the South-thal our
prejudice was simply individual, Il did
not exist in the North organcally. In
the North man might be a man by law
in the South be was forbidden TO be a
man If slave. 10 the North he might
have the right to his wife and TO bis chill
dren and family estate in the South, no
more right to his children there than the
mint has to the dollars which are struck
in its die, and which are only struck for
circulation. In the North, he might
send his child to school in the South. il
any taught his child to read, he was sub
ject TO peniiential punishment. In the
North, they owned what they accumu-
lated; in the South, the master owned
it. In the North, they might become
elements of power; in New York and
Massachusetts they could vote, but not
in the South. So that, although they
we're excluded from here aud there a
railway, or coach, or church, they had
the great primal rights Of citizens. /
did not justify The feeling of prejudice at
all, but | declared that, in spite of all
that, their condition in the North was in
comparably better than in the Souih I;
and as for the happiness Of the slave,
because he laughs and sings, told them
my pigs are happier than that; for when
a man is stripped and dishonorcd all his
life long, what business has such one to
be happy? Could you, ifyour son were
taken by some Algerian, captive, and
made to serve in the house of bondage
would it please you TO learn from some
apostle of freedom that he was lazy, and
fat, and happy2 You would say, No
blood Of mine is in his veins. We bring
up our children 10 hate oppression, and
to court death rather than TO bear it life
long. And yet we are the men to sup
pose a slave is better Off than a free
man! Why? Because be has enough
to eat, and straw to sleep on, and laughs
because he is unconscious of his degra-
dalion ? am ashamed of them if they
are happy. Ii is those that run away
because they are not happy that honor
(Applause.) i, was my privilege to as
sure those whom ! met that marvellous
change had taken place, and nowhere
more than in New York, and that moth
ing had changed the New York public so
much as the late atrocious riots there.
And it so happened that report of the
committee on the colored sufferers by the
riots came to hand just in time for me to
read it at the breakfast at London and
bear witness that nothing could be
more effective. They asked me TO pros
cure for them that report, and thousand |
copies are on their way for circulation in
England to-day, as witness that the
heart of New York, after all--he heart
Of our merchants, the heart OF the men
that have made made money by cotton
selllng--are, after all, in the right place,
and that when they are aroused, they are
the defenders OF the most ahject and the
mos; despised of all our population.
said that the position Of the colored
man was rapidly changing by virtue oil
his own relations TO the government, and
that il was providental that he was call !
ed to stand AS soldier, for there was no
way in which he came SO soon into pop.
ular sympathy as in the ranks Of the
army. There is that in courage that
everybody admires, and in standing 10
the field and perilng their lives for them
selves aud country, the eolored men will
earn for themselves position that will
not be gaiusayed by this great democrat
ic people. Ii is said that war ia terrible.
1t is terrible in some respects. Fire is
terrible, but it burns out the dross and
gives US the fine gold, and war, as a med
icine, is trying slavery, think. also
said that there was not such a spectacle
in the world as this tremendous people
with this war Oh their bands, that thou
sands and hundreds of thousands of
freedmen thrown upon the hands Of the
government, were now being cared for
with assiduity and fidelity that had no
parallel in Europe and think did not
transcend the facts. II was also my du-
ty to state more exactly--and it may not
be any harm to state il here at home
what seemed to be our duty towards the
African, TO say that we were not carried
away by any intense philarthropism in
setting up men and making idols of them
merely because they were black. l said
that We proposed 10 do for them just
what fhe fundamental nnnr;nnn ill.,.