Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1865-01-27

and their immediate dependents have been
traitors at theart-were most clamorous through
out the recent brief canvas over the emancipa.
tion question, Notwithstanding the fact that in
sympathizng with the rebels they surrendered
all their rights OF American citizenship as
surely as those elsewhere who have sought
unsuccessfully to destroy their respective gov
ernments, have in the end paid similar penal
ties for so doing. They unfortunately found 4
multitude of CO. laborers for the moment in an
unthinking throng Of Union men who could
not comprehend how and why the continued
existence Of slavery in Maryland initiated
to prevent the speedy success OF the arms
OF the Union cause. Though Unionists at heart,
these latter could not suddenly unlearn the
lessons Of a lifetime acquired under slavery's
tuitien, though the new teacher was the death,
desolation and pecuniary cost OF slavery's war
against the principles of American liberty.
They are, however, a hopeful class, and bid
fair soon to comprehend that the evils they
dreaded in the change were baseless as a
dream.
In this section of the State, which gave the
heaviest vote (and majority against emancipa-
ton, they are already, for the most part, ex-
pressing their acquiescence in the change, and
evincing disposition to aid the emancipation.
lists in making the most of it for the benefit Of
all-white and black Thus it is clear that
they will now cheerfully accept the approach
ing changes in the tone Of the States laws and
in her policy OF legislation, now that the former
are no longer to. be framed and her government
(State and county, NO longer to be administered
almost solely for the aggrandiZement Of the
class Of her citizens interested In negro prop
erty, at the heaviest conceivable cost to every
other class Of Maryland's population. 1t is
clear that, hourly, even on the Eastern Shore,
where the nominal loss through emancipation
has been heaviest, the sentiment Of opposition
to the policy is dying out with astonishing
rapidity. 1t is creeping through the hair OF
those of the pro-slavery party whose negroes
have been liberated, that under the new order
of things their farms will pay them better than
under the old; especially in the condition to
which slavery's war had already brought the
institution In their midst. They begin to COM
prehend that it will prove more profitable TO
get their work we'll done for fair wages, than to
get tlthalf done with no pay directly to the labor
and with the cost and harrassment OF provid-
ing tor numbers Of negroes too old, too feeble
or too young to labor efficiently, If at all. They
find, too, that most OF the late slaves left In
their respective counties are disposed to work
faithfully for wages, and have had infused
into them, by the magic of emancipation, an
amount OF maHliness and energy properly
directed, which the race was here previous
ly thought incapable Of manifesting. Those
VIGOROUSLY idle and dissolute-whose bad
influence and positive injuries to the com :
munity heretofore went unpunishea OF the
law through the shield OF the slave.code of
the State made for the benefit of the institu.
ton, have been almost the only negro em,-
grants from "The Shore" since the adoption Of
the New Constitution. Indeed NAV write
that with wonderfully few exceptions, such
negroes, and those utterly lndisposed to hard
labor-much fewer in number than has a. WAYS
been alleged by persons who conceive that an
indisposition to labor faithfully without com.
pensation, involves necessarily an indisposi.
tion to labor when fairly paid for so doing
have gone of, principally to Baltimore There
they hope to get high wages for very light work:
for doing odd jobs while Ioafing around the
city's streets. The severe competition of white
labor there will soon either kill them off throp Oh
want, or will educate them into a practical re.
aliZation that, when lightest, labor in the city
is far harder than in the country, and, though
nominally better paid. the difference in the ex.
pense OF living in city and on the shore
makes the wages paid In the latter region m uch
more remunerative than city rates. W.DW