The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1865-08-04
& Negro State.

4 Negro State.
Gen. SHERMAN, in his speech at Indianap-
oils, professed most kindly feeling towards
the colored people, and declaerd that he felt
under special obligations to promote their
welfare. because his ancestors had done much
to bring them into their present calamitous
condition He does not favor their admis-
sion to the right of suffrage, however at the
present.; but advocates their colonization,
and suggests that the State of Florida be con-
verted into a negro State, with due representa-
ton in Congress.
We see no great objection to the plan of
forming n negro State, to which colored peo
pie from all sections may emigrate of their
own free WILL with such encouragement and
aid from the States and the General Govern
ment as may be practicable. Such colony
would furnish fair field for the develope-
ment Of the capacitie. of the colored people,
and would offer an asylum from the oppres-
sion and cruelty which is likely to be visited
upon them in some. of the rebel States. on ac-
count of their devotion to the Onion during
the late rebellion. And although the scheme
would not probably entirely dispose of the
negroes, or of the negro question, it might,
as far as it goes, furnish a practical solu-
ton Of that most difficult and important
problem.
Gen. SHERMAN seems fully to realize the
obligations of the Government and the people
of the United States to protect the colored
people, whom our arms have liberated in the
enjoyment of their freedom, and TO amelior-
ate their condition and extend to them the
benefits of education, and do for them every
thing practicable to elevate them in the scale
of humanity. His proposition TO organize
them as State of the Union, and to admit
them to a representation in Congress, show:
that he is not governed by the chronic hate
and prejudice against the g nigger," which
has been so long the boast of the Democracy.
The immediate organization of one negro
State, in convenient proximity to the rebe
States, might have beneficial tendencies in
several directions in addition to those already
suggested. However bitter the hatred of the
late shareholders and their poor white de
pendents may be against the negroes, they
cannot be so insane as to desire to drive tbs
laboring population out of their States. Bu
in order to retain them against the induce
ments offered by negro State in the vicinity
the -slaveholding nabobs would have to holC
forth counter inducements. They would have
to treat them WELL pay them fair wages, and
eventually grant them the right of suffrage
Another advantage to result from the oganiz
alton of negro State. would be the with
drawaI of that class of the population from
such Southern States as continued to deny
them the right of suffrage, and thus reduce
the ratio of their representation in Congress
Under this process, South Carolina would
soon sink to her proper insigni6eance in the
Halls of Congress, ss elsewhere And as 6
minor consideration, but one not to be over
looked, the new negro State would be a reli
able loyal State, and its vote in Congress ant
at the Presidential election, would be yery
sure to be east for the Union party.
This project of a negro State must not
however, be regarded as an exclusive thing
nor must we expect all the colored people O
,sthe land to be crowded into that single State
u the present or. the future. In the mean
tine other measures must be steadily pursued
tortke benefit of this much injured race; and
il "a 1st colonial project does well, another
can ~ &augurated. And in the meantime
~ pteGsing measures for the educational, in.
dusnt and religious improvement of the
col6 people, we shall eventually, by pa
tis11 mort and prayerful dependence on God
for kelp and counsel, succeed in securing the
sslvskAn of the Republic and the permanent
welf1o3 and elevation of the negro race in the
uaited States.
M so far, then, as the measure does not in
volve compulsory emigration, or transpor-
lon wholly at Government expense, or the
nsion of other measures for the elevation
y colored people, we endorse General
aAx's Negro State policy most cor