American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1865-08-16

to send them to. They have been raised
with us, and they understand and like us
as we do them. They are natives of the
country as well as we are, and they love
it as dearly as people could. They are
thoroughly acquainted with our system of
agriculture, and seem exactly suited by
nature for it. Then as the demand for
their labor exists, as they must remain
among us and must live off the country,
laying aside all questions of abstract right
and duty, why should we not make vir-
tue Of necessity, and employ the blacks in
that way that will be most advantageous
to them, most profitable TO us, and best
for the country generally !? 1t is time
that we understood few facts that have
stared us in the face for months, or even
years past, to which many of US yet shut
our eyes. The first is that the negro is
no longer slave, but is as free as we are /;
the second is that he neger can be a slave
again in any possible event, but must al
aoays be free; and the third is that we
have got to regard and to treat him as o
free man-have got to operate upon and
with him ip the same manner and by the
same influences that we operate upon 9TH
er free men. The sooner we recognize
these facts to their fullest extent, the bet
ter for us and until we do recognize them
as facts, and act upon them as facts, we
need expect nothing but evil to grow out
of the co-existence of the blacks and
whites in our territory. We do not now
speak of the social or political relations
of the two races-with that we have at
present nothing to do-but only of their
being equally free, and equally entitled
to be considered and treated as freemen,
that is all. Then let the people no lon
ger hope to have the labor of the negro
without compensating him for it. 1t is
impossible-they cannot do it, The ne
gro is free to choose for himself whether
he will work for nothing, or not work at
all 1t is unreasonable to suppose that
he will make a choice different from a
white man, and we all know what the
white mans choice would be. The ne
gro's choice will be the same, and if he is
not paid he will not work and there is no
power to make him. But whether he
works or not, he will live, and if he is
not allowed and induced to earn an hon
est living by his toll, he will have it some
other way. He will act upon the princi-
pie that the world owes him living, and
he will take the easiest methods of pro-
viding for his necessities. We have said
that the negro must be compensated for
his labor, and we do not mean by this that
he must be paid one dollar for what is
worth ten or fifty to his employer. But
we mean that he must be paid just as a
white man would be paid for the same
service. If his employer gives him a
part of his crop, LET it be a reasonable
part. Give him part of what he is to
take himself, or what is of equal value,
and do not select the best and tell him to
take the leayings. Do not tell him first
, to cultiyate what his employer is to have,
and after that he may have some insig-
nifcant little patch to cultivate for him
self Let him understand that his EN-
ployer wishes no advantage of him, that
he is going to give him what fairly be-
longs to him, identify his interest with his
employers. let the gain of. the one be the
gain of the other and their loss be mu-
tual, and we hazard the opinion that the
people will conclude that the free labor
of the negro is quite as profitable to them
and the country at large as was his labor
while slave. If this system was ppr-
sued, it strikes us there would be few in
stances of negroes deserting their employ
ment; but, if it is not pursued, we shall
not be surprised TO find such desertions
hereafter much more frequent than they
have heretofore been"
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