Dayton daily empire. [volume] (Dayton [Ohio]) 1850-1865, 1865-09-16
For the Emplrel
What Shall be done with the
Negro

(oonciuded)

rille were right it would seem impossible
that the American people could have been
induced to consent TO the destruction OF
slavery had not their judgments been
warped by fauaticism OF hate. The deed
has been done. Peans of joy and 10 tri-
umphes without number have been shouted
from one end Of the land to the other over
the dsenthrallment of four millions of
blacks and now when we ask, what shall
We do with them General Cox replies
with arguments from De Tocqueville
whose only logical tendency is to prove
that we ought to have left them as they
were
But that question must be answered
without delay. 1t should be considered by
us without prejudice and without fear, as
patriots, loving our whole country as
friends Of the black race as well as of the
white; as christian people, willing to do
to the negroes and to all men precisely
what we ought to wish them to do to us,
were our situations reversed; bearing in
mind at the same time, that we cannot
change human nature that we must deal
with man and facts as they are, and not
as they ought to be, and that the measure
Of duty, is the best that under all the
circumstances is attainable.
'Is it not possible to permit them to
remain as they are ? Does the question
need any other solution than will be fur
nished by the familiar laws governing
capital and labor? ?" Let us see.
The negro now has only his freedom. He
will before long demand all the rights Of
the white man. "To give negro his
freedom and leave him in ignominy is to
prepare chief for revolt" In the
struggle thus inaugurated, the blacks will
be exterminated and the natural feeling OF
every white man will approve their doom.
If it be said that the whites ought to
grant their demands for perfect equality
before the law, the answer is that the in
extinguishable prejudice of race and color
forbid us to look upon this az even pos
sibility.
"Can we not mingle our blood with
theirs. and thus obliterate the distinctions
God has made between the races ?" Ma
ture shocked and disgusted, answers
promptly and finally No.
"Can we not colonze them in Africa %
This the blacks themselves would prob
ably resist. Besides to transport them
to the African coast, and to supply them
there with the necessaries of live, until
they should be able to help themselves,
would require the combined navies and
treasures of the world. These objections
apply also to any project for colonizing
them in Mexico orCentral or South Amer
lea, and to such schemes the objections
OF the governments of those countries to
the reception OF so many million paupers,
would have to be overcome besides. Prac-
tical difficulties quite as formidable, stand
in the way of their removal to our remote
western territories.
General Cox recognizing the obligation
of his party to furnish some kind of an
answer to this question says "the solu-
tion is narrowed down to q peacsable sep
aration of the races on the soil where they
now are" He proposes to stake the
contiguous territoryin in South Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama and Florida, and there,
under the Sovereignty ofthe United States
organize the freedmen in a dependency of
the Union analogous to our Western Ter
ritories." He proposes also, that they
should be given "full a ID exclusive politi-
cal privileges" and left to rule themselves
without interference from any quarter.
This is the scheme of one who claims to
have done great deal of "honest think
ing" upon the subject-one of the ac-
knowledged leaders of the party which for
the next four years must shape the policy
of the country.
He acknowledges there are difficulties
in the way of its realization. Thinking
men will heartily agree with him there. 1t
involves the forcible election of all the
white citizens in that territory from their