New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1863-04-04

"a f.rm.lsborers, to replace their citizens
who have gone to the War. Their usual crops
cannot be planted and TILED for lack of this
labor But they need it only because their
own cruel laws repel the laborers who would
gladly supply their want. Tens OF thousands OF
freedmen are clustered about Cairo. st. Louis,
Memphis, &C., and strung all the way above
the Ohio and Mississippi, who would gladly DO
chiefly the work which they sorely need. But
their Infamous "Back Laws" enable the
meopest and most venemous Copperheads TO
hunt away or imprison any Of these poor labor
ers who enter the State; and the result Is
enormous loss to the Whites and death or re-
ensavement to the unhappy Blacks. And those
who thus deny to these poor victims the prlvl'
Iege Of doing tho rudest work for the scantle't
wages are continually clamoring that "Free
Niggers won't work." and "can't take core Of
themselves"
In Kentucky, the case seems rather worse
though worse in seeming only. Thousands OF
fugtiyes from Rebel Slavery in Mississippi,
Alabama, Georgia, &C.. have drfted into that
State on their way to actual freedom. Every
one of them is to-day free man by the trea.
son Of their masters. the acts of Congress,
aud the express terms Of the Presidents Proc
lamaton. But every negro is presumptively
slave in kentucky, and her laws provide tor
tho selling into actunl bondage of those found
going at large in that State who have not q
legal domicl within it. Under these laws, it
is q profitable business to arrest these hapless
fusitives, throw them into Jail. advertise and
sell them; and tho Kentucky journals overflow
with advertisements accordingly. We judge
that loyal Blacks who have fed from Rebel
masters, and are therefore entitled to their
liberty, are now being re enslaved in Kentucky
at the rate Of at least Five Thousand per
nnnum.
Will some of our friends, who think they
understand this whole matter so much better
than we do, be good enough to tell us how to
secure justice for these poor wanderers The
Black Laws of Indiana and Illinois are no
whit less detestable, less diabolical, than Slav-
cry itself they have the same source, the
same spirit, and are equally at war with hu-
mainly and natural right. And yet we actually
know no way in which they can be annulled
save by making the people of those States
respectively ashamed of them, and so securing
their virtual if not formal repeal. We shall
be very glad to learn that there is some
reader and surer way; but We do not now
know any. Will some Of those who think we
err in holding that State restored by loyalty
to the Union might reestablish Slavery il she saw
fit just set to work and upset by some Judicial
process these atrocous Black Laws of Indiana
aud Illinois, and free once more those fugitive
Unionists from the South whom Congress and
the President have emsncipated but whom
Kentucky nevertheless rejDsaves' Here is q
practical work TO be done. and an urgent need
that it be done forthwith. If our critics are
right on the law, there can be no difficulty and
should be no delay. Which among them will
try conclusions with the infamous laws and
usagcs we have held up to Reproduction, and
show how they can be subverted otherwise
than by the action of the States which now
uphold them