New-York daily tribune., 1863-04-16
THE NEGRO INFLUX.

known as "nlgger on tne Draln, W ohac'
laws excluding blacks from entering or settling
| in those States. The form OF getting up
petitions deprecatiDg this influx was resorted
to, oil which are based on the idea that the
liberated slaves will take up their abode in
the North. 1t is quite certain that up to this
time many thousands have been liberated, but
so far as we can learn, very few have come
among us. On this point, the Senate Com
mittee of the Pennsylvania Legislature is very
clear, saying that
There has beeo Is there now any cause to appe
hend tho nhux Of any percspt0le number 0i oseA ane
OF the pas prove that though thousands OF slaves
have been belsd they prefer remaining near the paJe o
climate OF the North Only let them assured that
their liberty will De secured and protected a. tne snu
need exist that they WILL select oui o'ae '
their future permenent home
There is no outcry from Northern laborers
of having as yet been deprived Of employment
by Gil influx of blacks. SO few have come
this way, that the presumption is strongly IN
favor Of their remaining in the South, and
the fear of On influx is wholly imaginary.
While slaves, as many fled from bondage as
we're able to escape; but, having become free
men, they prefer remaining IN the land OF
their birth. Had Slavery continued, they
would continue to come; but, Slavery baying
ceased, the experience of two years proves
cOnclusvcy that they refuse to leave free
homes in the South for new ones of uncertain
comfort in the North.
In the case of New.Jersey, 1t happened, BY
a singular coincidence, that the petitions re-
ferred to originated in the lower counties OF
the State, the same which few years ago
sent petitions to prOscrbe or place restrictions
on the civil and political privileges OF foreign
ers. They then sought to prevent the Ger
mans, the Irish, and all other foreigners from
voting, as well as TO stop foreign immigration.
The same arguments applied then to prevent
an influx of Dutch and Irish are leveled at
the blacks now. Poor foreigners coming to
this country would increase the burden OF tax
alton, aud at the same time deprive our own
citizens of work, or SO reduce wages as to
starve them out. Time has shown the alb
surdty OF these allegations; while the fact is
notorious with all who have looked into the
subject, that the most prosperous times known
TO this country we're those when foreign i'm
migration was most active. Yet, in the face OF
these welLestablished facts, the Identical argu.
nents were revived against t.. incoming blacks.
They were TO swarm throughout the North,
and to displace the Dutch and Irish, though
the latter had failed TO displace Americans.
The truth, however, is that these reasons were
mere cloaks, used by the low demagogues who
suggested them, under which to iuaugurate new
crusade against the poor negro-oiishoOts of the
intense Pro-Slayery sympathy which applauds
pleasing to an armed treason.
These efforts to prevent the freedmen from
settling among us are the residuum of what
two years ago, was q widespread popular de-
lusOn--that, because the Slaves were all to be
freed, therefore they would all come here.
But Time has healing in his wings. The delu.
sion is beginning to be generally recognized as
such. The South must continue to grow cotton,
corn, tobacco, and rice, as she always has
DONE The world needs these products, and is
determined to have them. England has relied
with pitiable helplessness upon the South for
cotton, and France for the maintenance of her
stnpendous monopoly of tobacco. They have
loug been chatting under the stoppage of their
supplies They will risk anything short of war
with us, to reopen them. All these products
are the reward of labor, the labor Of the blacks.
Under Slavery, it was wrung from them with
out wages--under Freedom, it will be perlOrm.
ed with wages. 1t is simply question
Of wages. The blacks will stay where
they were born. il their labor is paid for; they
will migrate ii it is not. Without them, the
landowners will starge. Never having Iabored
in the past, they will be unable to do so in tho
future. Hence the South can DO more spare
her black labor under Freedom than she could
under Slavery. Its remaining with her is for
her question Of life or death--she must pre-.
vent its coming North or perish. 1t is the
lOng-contnued dislocatiOn Of this her only system
alton.
In the effort to retain her labor, she will be
powerfully aided by the natural fondness of the
negro for the warmer latitudes. and his pro-
verbally strong attachment for his birthplace.
More than this, the utter destitutOn of the
South, in consequence Of the war, will require
the labor Of more negroes than she ever pos.
sessed to repair damages. One half of Ken
tucky, all Virginia and Tennessee, have been
stripped clean Of fencing. Other States have
suffered vast damage in the same way. When
We tell our readers that the fences in the sim