Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1865-11-09

s which now ill The minds Of the frees
: men. The mischief Of one Of these
: have already indicated. It suited you
( purposes, during the season Of strife, dil
gently 10 teach the negro that the whit
{ people Of the South were their oppres
s0rs and enemies. Well, sir, they hav
( learned your lesson eflectually, and vii
not speedily unlearn it. The c0nse
quenee is that you have thereby strippe
yourself Of the aid Of eight millions @
white people in your arduOus task, an
these, the white people among whom
alone are 10 be found persons familia
with African character, and among whom
alone has there ever been, or will ther
ever be an engenious personal affection
for individuals of that race. We hav,
lost the ability 10 guide, counsel or in
struct them.
The larger part Of them evidently con
found liberty with license; and to them
liberty means living without earning
living. Accustomed TO seeing their mas
ters performing little manual labor, (be
cause they were necessarily occupied
with the more important, and often more
aTduOus labor Of superintondence), The
freedmen assume that, TO be free, is u
be like their masters in the former par
ticular They forget this little difference
that man cannot be usefully occupied
in the labor Of superintendent, when he
/ has nobody to superintend. Your first
I task, sir, viii be to convince them Of this
mistake, and, as / have proved, you arc
/ bound to do this, without causing or per-
hitting them to suffer any painful con-
sequence of this error.
Your emissaries, armed and clerical,
diligently taught them that all the labor
rendered by them in servitude was in
compensated; and that every dollar OF
the proceeds Of that labor taken by the
landhOlders, was a ROBBERY from them.
I "A good and certain home and livelihood
at all times, sustenance for their families,
provisions for tho decrepitude, and main-
/ tenance for those they left behind them
are, in the eyes Of these philosophers, no
compensation at all, even for that labor
which Is least skilled; because, l pre-
sumo, they were so secure and reg
ular, And il Is the established doctrines
Of the Abolition school, that, while labor
is entitled to wages, capital is not; in ac-
cOrdance with which truth, those good
people, as is vel known, always lend out
their money for nothing, and pay away
the whole profits of their costly factories
in wages to operatives. The consequence
of this doctrine among the freedmen Is
this: They argue that ell the property in
the country being the fruit Of their IN
requited labor, they may now help them
selves to a fair return, whenever and
however they can.
Hence q habit what we old fashioned
Southerners used to call theft" which
renders them Of rather doubtful utility as
hired laborers. You viii have a great
deal of trouble, sir, in correcting this
mistake; and again, l urge that you are
bound 10 do this, without permitting or
causing the freedmen to taste any Of It's
bitter consequences. For, L reason OF
this as Of all other misconceptions which
they learned Of you, that you are SOL
emnly bound not to let them suffer for
what was your error. What, Will you
punish them for believing yOuI ItwOuld
be a monstrous iniquity. You have this
task then, gently to educate them out of
this innocent mistake of stealing every
thing which comes to their hand, by
90 moral suasiOn,n ~ without stocks, whip
ping posts, jails, or any such harsh meas
ures; and meantime, to generosity re-
pair all the evil consequences OF those
thefts to themselves or others, OutOfyOur
own inexhaustible pockets. Do you not
think, sir, that defect this the "school-
will have TO go abroad pretty
The freedmen are almost universally
that when Congress meets,
they will each one be set up, as a gentle
man farmer, on land Of his own. Thus,
they saw, they were told myriads of times
by Federal soldiers and chaplaius; and
these holy men especially, heralds Of the
gospel of Abolition, must be incapable of
a liel They argue farther, with degree !
Of plausibility Of which l leave you TO
Judge. "This promise bears its obvious
truth on its face. For has not the North
itself the special friend Of the
black man, the assertOT of his wrongs, I
and his liberator2 Has she not been lee
turing the South in his behalf for forty
years2 If she left us, after her victorious
in a worse condition than
when we were under the Southern Op-
1ressOrs, her act would not be a benefit, |.
out a hyDocritical crime. But no one but I
a fool can fail to see that 10 set Us free, [
and assign US no homes nor tenure Of the
soil, would be a great injury, as compared /
with our former condition -
Such is their argument; and they add, /.
Is its climax, that it does not bear telling, /
20 great a people as the Yankees should .
wage this tremendous war for four years,
pill so much blood and, above all, spend 4
70 much money for the negro and yet I
cave him in a worse condition than be- /
ore. So confident is this belief, that .
when the typographical engineers Of your I
proceeded lately to survey .
zen. Grants line of march up the region /
If the APpOmatOX, many OF the freed .
men were confident they were marking
,ut their farms, and some went to put in
heir claims for first choicei 1t is vain
o ask them where the land is to be
,otten. OF course with so "cute a
leople as the Yankees, all things are pos
ible. It has no effect to hint,
hat the fixing of the negro race /
IpOn the soil in their own fee-sim- 4
Die right does not precisely accord /
with the principles Of Black RePUbli /
sanism; that " America belongs to the 4
white man" or to suggest that the Yam /
zee, however much of our land he may
,onfscate, will probably want it all for .
himself, provided it Is good for anything. .
The freedmen appeal triumphautly 10 the I
admitted truth, 80 thoroughly (
svinced by the whole progress Of the war, I
that that people are actuated in the strug- I.
gle by nothing but a generous and ele- /
vated philanthropy. The consequence of /
this expectation is, that they viii not I.
make any contract to labor for the future; T.
for they say, although while waiting the |.
action of Congress in this matter, they
have condescended TO aid in rearing the |
present crop, what freeholder viii here |
after leave his own independent globe to /.
hire himself out 70 servile labor? No; .
after this year let the naughty Southern /
Jppressor ind labor as be can; they and /
their children will be done with him.
Thus enc mischievous mistake chases
another through their ignorant minds /
fOstered by malicious men; and each
one is q fatal obstacle in that path of
sober industry where alone their welfare
IS to be found. You have u great task, I
Sir, in causing them to unlearn these
misconceptions. How many enbarras-
sing observation-disclosures your people will
have to make ia performing that task, it
is not foT me to indicate
Another of your difficulties viii be
found in the necessity for the displace-
ment Of a very large part of the black
labor and population in many districts of
the South. My own county may be
taken as a fair example of the other
parts of Virginia. There were in it about
eight thousand blacks. Our wisest men
of business are unanimous in declaring
that under the new system of hirelipg
labor, the industrial pursuits of the
county cannot employ prontably more
than one-third (some say not more than
one-hfthl Of the former labor, at prices
which win give subsistence to the blacks.
And their opinion IS manifestly correct,
because every business man who is uues-
toned, individually, declares that he is
to reduce the labor employed
by him in some such ratio, Now, this
fact IS not cited by me to argue from it
shs superior economy and productive
ness Of the former system, in that it was
able to employ, upon the same soil, in a
manner, three times or five
times as much labor. And that the en-
pIOyment of it was remunerative is
proved beyond a cavil by the prosperity
of employers and laborers.