The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1865-09-22

portant State elections are soon to
take place
The young free negroes of the South
are said to be taking kindly to their
spelling books, and manifest (nearly
oil OF our correspondents represent
an earnest desire to conquer the alpha
bet and Webster's spelling book. As
evidence of the truth ofwhat we hear
upon this subject, there were three
millions of Webster's spelling books
sold at the animal New York trade
sales last week. Indeed, from the
negro's proverbial fondness for .'lo19g
words" " we can readily imagine the
anxiety with which he looks to those
fascinating. columns of words in six
and seven syllables, which tempt him
to hasten up the ladder of learning.
From our own observation OF the
negro children in the free schools of
Massachusetts, they appear to learn
with as much quickness as the de-
scendants of the Puritans, and to be
fully as amiable and honest. The
stutuS of the negro having been deter
mined, If he is to remain among us as
n laborer, his usefuinessana valuc will
sncrease. in the same ratio with his
intelligence. Education may, in the
course of time, eradicate or greatly
subdue many of those vices which we
have been induced to regard as inhe-
rent i'll the race. The fact that the
young negroes are pursuing their
studies with so much assiduity is
most encouraging.
The Chronicle charlottesville in
forms us that the whole negro popu-
latlon of Albemarle has broken out
thick with an attack Of E'a-b-abs," 3"
which we attribute to the influence of
the University of Virginia Upon the
lmaginations of the colored news-boys
and boot-blaclzs of the county. We
hear the same things from many
other sections Of the Union, coupled
with the announcement that nearly
ali the 'tc6aored students" are already
aspiring to the pulpit and the other
learned professions
The people of the South are very
greatly misrepresentedb by those who
allege that they are opposed to the
education OF the free negroes. We
think that they should receive every
encouragement to educate their chill
dren. The want of educated labor
has always been the bane of the
South; and we have suffered as much
as the former slave fnom the effects of
those laws which prohibited the edu-
cation of the negro. Even when all
nations tolerated slavery, those M
ton" whooo ola~cn mcrv educated pro-.
tlted by the institution greatly more
than those whose slaves were brutal
and uneducated.
The helot OF Sparta was never half
so useful to his master as was the
educated slave Of the Roman and the
Athenian. As the future prosperity
OF Virginia must be achieved by
manufactures, mining and commerce,
as well as by agriculture, we shall
stand greatly in need Of all the edu-
Gated and intelligent labor which we
can procure. The education of the
rising generation of free negroes is,
therefore, much to be desired. Whe.
'ihSA CllIouRH ILe mnuence OF great
natural causes they are forced to leave
the State, or whether they remain in
our midst, we think they should be
encouraged to improve themselves,
for no one has ever had in his en-
ployment negro who could read and
write, who did not discover that he
was Infinitely more useful than one
who could not. The approximations
which we find in the Sadical papers to
the effect that the Southern people
are throwing obstacles in the way of
the education of the blacks, are utterly
destitute of truth. .-Rihneond Times.
MEMPHIS AND CHARLESTON RAIL.
ROAD.-We learn that the Memnh1s