The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1865-12-30
The a.rcat Pros,Iem.

question: When the elephant is caught,
what will you do with it? Aboiitionisu was
for twenty-five years unpopular and odious,
because it was unable to answer this ques-
| lion; and it would have remained so to this
day, bat for the intervention of other excit>
ing issues that forced the main questi, n out
Of sight. The south, looking upon anti-slave-
f., ~ agitation at the north as = monstrous
imperiinence, became aggressive and insoient
IN return. Slavery extension Ia the terrific
| ries, renewal of the slave trade, surrender of
fugitive slaves, and many kindred questions
arose exciting the public mind, so that the
most important question of all was forgotten.
As with individuals, so with nations or states
mutual aggressions. examinations and re-
ordinations such as characterized the politi'
cal strife between the north and south, must
end in set-to. The sections crossed swords,
and as both sides admitted that slavery was
the bone Of contention, it was inevitable that,
when the north triumphed, slavery went down.
But the great problem recurs, and is as far
from solution as ever. TIL. negro being free,
what to do with him? The radicals (which
is but new name for the old abolition party
meet the question in their usual reckless way.
The Gordian knot-how to abolish slavery
they cut with the sword and they would cut
the other in the same way. The solution
which Sumner and Stevens propose of the
negro problem is simply this: Make the ne>
gro the equal Of the loyal white man, and the
superior of the wife man tainted by rebellion !;
and as the south will not assent to this, com.
pei them by the sword. Their state govern
ments are to be declared dissolved, and the
states treated as conquered provinces, with
military Governors oyer them, and Congress
to pass laws for them like territories This
state Of things to continue until the people
of those states shall adopt constitutions in
which the white man who took any part in
the rebellion shall be forever disfranchised,
and the negro be made a voter and in all
other respects the equal of the 10y al white man
In plain English, the Thad Stevens Sumner
solution of the negro problem is, to make him
the master of the white man in the SOUTH
the equal of the white man in the north, and
to turn over to him the whole southern coun-
Try. Thus privileged above his fellows, he is
to vNgetate and rise to the full stature of his
manhood.
Unfortunately for radical theories, the plan
is not new oue-it has been fully and fairly
tried in San Domingo and Jamaica, and in
both places signally failed. Instead of rising
ia the scale of being when made his own
master, the negro has relapsed into barbarism,
if anything mere degraded than that from
which he was dragged by the slave dealer in
the jungles of Africa. Seriously now to pro
pose this exploded plan for the solution of
the great negro problem in America, is an
insult 10 the intelligence of the age.
The case needs very different treatment.
We MAKE no pretensions to a solution of the
great problem: but fe=z suggestions will oc-
cur to any one Of common sense. Ideness
and vice are the worst enemies of the negro
race, and he is the truest friend of the freed
men who shall do most to prevent them from
falling into such habits. Preventive meas
ures must necessarily be both encouraging
and repressive The freedmen must be sup
plic,i with motives to industry he must be
Thoroughly protected in person and property;
have the right to enter the courts to exact
justice from his employer, whether black or
white, as well as for other civil purposes; and
the means of education must be provided
him, as the more enlightened he can be made
the more Industrious he will be. And then
there must be repression; idieness. vice and
vagrancy must be repressed and punished.
II motives Of industry and rewards fail, the
fear OF punishment must come in to deter
from laziness or crime. This is necessary
for the mutual protection CT both whites and
blacks.
Such course OF treatment, we are free to
admit. may involve the necessity, for time
yet, Of some sort of congressional supervision :;
a continuance, in some form, as Gen. Grant
suggests, of the Freedmen's Bureau in GER
tain localities for it is evident the feeling
towards the negro in portions of the south is
such that it would not be safe to commit him
wholly to the tender mercies of tie whites.
And the power. of congress in the premises
under the second clause of the constitutional
amendment just adopted, will hardly be lis
putsd. But such course of treatment is
exactly the opposite of that proposed by
Sumner and Stevens. This course involves
tutelage, care and supervision; their plan is to
make the negro the master at once.
Our impression, however, u.s. thateven with
the system of care and supervision we have
suggested, the uegro will substantially prove
failure His condition at the south will
ultimately be that of the negro in Pennsyl
vania, for instance. White labor from the
north and from Europe is destined to possess
the south, and the negro, after few years
Of experiment and dolefui failare, will be
pushed aside. At least onefilth Of the popu
lation of every city or village in middle and
Southern Pennsylvania is negro. They occupy
4 suburb known as the negro quarter, and
there the mass of them live in filth, and
poverty ard indolent wretchedness. No
farmer or contractor, however pressed for Ia
brrers. thinks of going to the negro quarter
for hands, though hundreds of stout, burly
fellows are summing themselves there in
sleepy Incidence. Nor is this the condition
of the negro in Pennsylvania becaus, he has
been deprived of his rights" Up to 1886,