The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1863-05-30
j.)ubIil Enoirs.
From the Washington Chronicle.
Negro Equality.

This is the great bugbear among many
who warmly espouse the cause of the
Government, aud approve all its meas
ures, with this single saving. they
wish the rebels to be dcspoilcd Of their
property. They wish every means to
be used to secure our success III the field,
emancipation included. They love the
Union and hate the rebellion and every
thing connected with it. But they seem
to be constantly under the influence of Il
sort Of horrd nightmare, wi h huge
negro the most prominent figure among
all the strange shapes and monstrous
forms that compose it. They don't
want the negroes brought up to their
level" they say or, in the common
language of the day, they " don't want
the niggers made our equals" Leaving
wholly out of the question those ignor-
ant and prejudice people who swallow
the ridiculous stories, and believe the
monstrous accusations of the pro-slavery
press, both North and South, it cannot
be denied that. there is very large
class of honest and in elligent men whose
Judgment is materially disturbed by the
constant repetition of tie phrase " negro
equality" and who, on account of this
disturbance. can never form correct opin-
ions on the affairs of the nation
But looking at the matter without
prejudice, it is clearly the most absurd
doctrine in the world, that mere edic,
should effect change in the relative
positions of negroes and whites, as re-
CARDS their substantial equality. Be
cause slave is made free. it does not
make him eqnal to other freemen. lie
has the same brains, the same capacities
that he before possessed, but no more
He can accomplish no great amount OF
work. He is simply placed in a position
which should never have been denied
him, when be can show what manner of
man he is. A negro slave, who has been
elevated above his fellows, and by reason
of his superior capacity, put in places
Of trust and possibility, will still be
as far above his companions after he is
free as he was before. A negro me-
chanic who was while slave, superior
or inferior to white mechanics, will still
bold the same rela ion as between man
and man. If lie is be ter workman, a
more honest, industrious, and sober man
than his white neighbor, he will outstrip
him: as he ought to. He will stanG upon
his own merit. But if he is lazy, incom-
petent, and proAigatc, he will be driven
to the wall, and no amount of proclaim
ing, or Legislation in the world will make
him the equal of his white competitor.
Copperheads are very fond Of laughing
at the proclamation as mere brutum
tuimen, and of deriding its advocates
for attributlng power little short of
miraculous to measure only intended
to affect those who are out of his reach.
They do not reflect how they sultlfy
themselves when they attribute to the
proclamation a still more wondrous pow
er, and insist that it Immediately ele-
Yates an inferior race to an equality with
superior one.
This whine about negro equality, too,
is worse than illogical it is cowardly.
The men who are SO afraid of being de-
graded by the fact that free competition
in labor, in morality, and in progress,
which belongs of right to every man, is
accorded to race thai has hitherto been