Dayton daily empire. [volume] (Dayton [Ohio]) 1850-1865, 1865-09-15

For the Emplre.l
what Shall he done with the
Negro

qultc lao, OF listening W party VI gym
tlemen-most Of them Wh:gs-discuss-
ing aud denouncing the party just then
springing into existence, which took for
its cardinal principle aud watchword the
abolition Of slavery. Seeking an oppor-
tunity afterwards, said to one Of them,
sis not slavery wrong ?" "Well, yes"
was his reply, al suppose it is" "Then
why denounce the Abolitionists ?" "For
several reasons, my young friend, but
principally because none Of them can tell
us ahotto do 'Oih The negroes after we shall
have abolished slavery"
Well would it have been for the Amer
lean people, had they required of the Abb
olitionists a satisfactory answer to this
great question, before giving over the adj
ministration of our government into their
hands After four years of bloody strife,
during which they have told Us that sla-
very is the snm Of all villianies, the cause
OF the war, the root of bitterness, the great
crime of the 10Th century, the destruction
ofwhich must be secured even at the cost
of mountain Of gold and an ocean of
blood We find that slavery is in the ago
MES of dissolution, but also, that this
great question as to the destiny Of the
negro race in America, demanding an i'm
mediate and sufficient solution, threaten
ing more evil TO both black and white
races than slavery even could have
wrought, is upon us, and our rulers seem
rs incompetent to meet it, as little chill
dren. With infinite pain and labor they
have climbed high up the slippery face Of
the rock, only to find that it is true, as we
said, that there is over-hanging and un-
scalable cliff yet between them and the safe
footing above. They can tell us now,
how great are the difficulties they encoun-
ter---though they but repeat what has
been told them from the beginning--dif-
iiculties, which ought to have dissuaded
them from their undertaking, but as yet
we have heard not one feasible plan for
surmounting them.
What is to be done with the four mil
lions of negroes in America ? Henry
Clay thought that 30 long as they remain
among us they must remain slaves. He
considered them "the incongruous and
perilous element in our population" and
in the United States Senate on the 9th
of February 1889 he said ;
whenever it is safe aud practicable, j
desire to see every portion of the human
family in the enjoyment of civil liberty,
but prefer the liberty OF my own race to
that of any other, The liberty OF the de-
soendants of Africa in the United States
is incompatible with the liberty and safety
of the European descendants. Their sla.
very forms an exception resulting from q
stern and inexorablO necessity,t to the gener.
al liberty in the United States"
Jefferson said that the negroes would
ultimately be free, but that they coult
never live in this country upon terms o
equality with the whites. This, was hi
language in 1921 Nothing is NOR
clearly written in the book of late than thu
emancipation the blacks but it is equal
ly certain that the two races will neve
live in state Of equal freedom under tn,
same government, so insurmountable ar,
the barriers which nature, habit and opin
ion have established between them.
NJ de Tocqueville, the great Frencl
philosopher, visited our country abou
1886, and published on his return to Eu
rope, his views of our political institu.
tons, which a distinguished American
says, "are more general, comprehensive
and philosophic than have ever been pre-.
sented by any writer, domestic or foreign
His chapter on the negro race in Americ,
from which we think General Cox obtain
ed all the sound reasons he has giver
aiiainst negro suffrage, present mastery
view of the subject. Though abhorring
slavery, he brings himself, and will be ap
to bring any impartial reader to the con
clusion that, admitting it to be an evil i
is one that can not be eradicated with
out incurring greater.
He notes the fact In the outset. thA