New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1865-09-09
THE nOUTH OF TO-DAY.

suddenly translated from the dark prison-house
of chattel Slavery to the light and air ofrelative
Freedom. They may and will hereafter be OPP
pressed and spurned, wronged and despiSed; but
they can never more be sold. No more can
wives and daughters be exposed IN the iliaihe'-
place and set up on the auction-block 10 po
knocked down to whatever lecherous villain
shall see fit to bid highest, with Law ana uos-
pei in the person of judges and chief priests COM
placently looking on and approving the nor
rble transaction. We shall still have,
villains and villainies, crimes ana
atrocities but this particular fashion of Heaven
daring iniquity will no more aflront the daylight
in this Nineteenth Century after Christ on the
the soil hallowed by the footprints Of the Pill
grims, enlightened by the teachings of Franklin
and Jefferson, sanctified by the blood of Warren,
and liberated by the sword Of Washington.
And we reprobate, once for ALL the suggestion
that the condition of our Freedmen is or can be
worse than that Of slaves. In purely animal
sense, we do not doubt that many of them have
gained nothing by the change; but every hui
man being is something more than an animal;
and to every one the possession Of Lib
erty has value incompatible in pecks
of corn-meal and pounds Of bacon. She
is dead 7" lately observed inquiringly stranger
in Atlanta to a bevy of black children surround
ing in the street the body of a woman of their
own color eyes," was the subdued yet exult-
ing responses; she is dead; but she is Free y
In that answer was a conclusive reiutatlon OF
all the Bishop Hopkinses and DR.. Seaburys who
ever dishOnored Man and insulted God by argu-
ing that human beings may rightfully be held
as slaves.
| -Four Millions of American People have been
suddenly called from the black night OF Bondage
to the midday glare of Freedom. Is it won
der that some of them betray transient piinu-
ness. a passing bewildermentl The transition
is immense-the suddenly imposed responsible
tiles stupendous. Could we nationally expect
them all to be assumed and discharged by these
ignorant beings-hitherto infants in law and in
fact, at sixty years as much as at si1-asit they
had been trained to forethought, to Thrift, TO
family cares and duties, through life :
| The experiment of Black Freedom at the
South is undertaken under most untavorable
auspices To all ignorant, inexperienced, SEMI
barbarOus races or persons. the stimulus oil
prompt payment for their work is essential 70
their resort to aud persistence in rugged manual
labor and the South, unhappily, is unable to
pay wages weekly or monthly in cash. Money
was never abundant With the planting class;
but now they have far less than ever before.
In very many instances, planters hitherto ac-
counted wealthy and meaning to be just have
said to their ex-slaves, 1--WE can make only
Corn and Bacon this year; and that we shall
need for home use; but if you choose 10
hold on and help us through, you shall
fare as we'll as we can afford and
inert year we will make crop Of
Cotton, and you shall have fair proportion o.
the proceeds" We do not complain Of this:
it may be the best that can be had; but to tel
A an ignorant negro, who has always till now
worked for nothing, and learned to distrust his
masters conceptions Of right and regard for bis
well.being, that he must work eighteen months
+ before he can pocket dollar, and then accept
e such recompense as that master thinks just
is not holding out the kind of prospect calcu
e lated to override his natural inclination to us'
= his new.found freedom. Pay down may no
now be possible; if so, the more 5 the pity
And here singular facts presented: Though
the South is all but destitute of Horses, Cattle
t, Implements, Fabrics, GrOceries-everythin sh'
most urgently needs, and has been accustomed
n to buy-hr people are boarding gold The very
u planters who say they cannot pay wages fol-
~ labor are selling Cotton for twenty cents pei
y pound in Gold rather than thirty-two in Green
. backs and this Gold they are of course putting
aside. 1t is an ominous fact that, while the
;, South urgently needs almost everything else
a Gold by the Half Million is moving hence South
ward to be exchanged for Cotton.
u Let us not be misunderstood. Though the
% Southern ruling caste have chung to Slavery
idolized it, fought for it, died for it, with {
passionate fervor that non-slaveholders car
scarcely comprehend do not expect ant
have in good part ceased to desire, its reestab
4 lishment. Though Slavery, to a STAKEHOLDER o.
his White satellites, is more than wealth.
power, dignity, luxury, and the means of de
volving on Others all that is hard and repulsiv'
in life, while retaining its comforts and III
pleasures-the Southern Whites generally, how
ever reluctantly, realize that the peculiar insti
tuition" has passed away forever. If a fair, un
constrained vote of majority of those Whites
| - hat, ~.