Baton Rouge tri-weekly gazette & comet., 1865-10-28
The Presidents Address TO the
COl0red Race. Y

until recently have characterized the
Freedmen's Bureaus in this and other
States, stands the able and states
manlike address of President JOHN
SON, delivered to regiment of dis
charged colored troops at Washing
ton on the ! 1th inst, and intended to
apply to the freed people of this
country generally. 1t was a repeti-
ton on an enlarged scale and in more
emphatic terms, of the Presidents
views and sentiments previously ex-
pressed to delegations of colored men
who had waited on him to learn his
policy with reference to their race in
its new phase of existence.
In his address to the colored
troops, the President most earnestly
and distinctly tells them that the
destiny of the freed people is now in
their own hands, and that what that
shall be depends upon themselves.
AS the Louisville Journal appropri-
ately remarks in its resume of the
address, he breaches to them an ex-
cellent sermon, and his text is In
dustry and Selfcontrol. The object
of the President is to benefit the
colored race through social elevation
to be effected by industry, the con-
troll of the passions, morality, order,
obedience to law, and faithfulness to
obligations.
He directly tells them-what
would be nonsense and trifling ad-
dressed to company of intelligent
white men--"I want them to under
stand that, 50 far as | am concerned,
|
| | do not assume or pretend that am
stronger than the laws or course Of
nature, Or that / am wiser than
Providence itself"
This is well adapted to disabuse
the childish notion Of the negro that
the President can do any thing he
pleases, law or no law. In the course
Of this feeling and thoughtful ad'
dress Mr.. johnson hints that if the
continued existence together in peace
Of the two races in the United States
be found incompatible, Providence
that works mysteriously but un.
erringly and certainly, will point out
the way and the mode and the man
ner by which these people are to be
separated, and they are to be taker
to their land of inheritance and
promise, for such a one is before
them. Hence we are making the
experiment"
In these sentences, as if forgetting
for the moment whom he was speak
ing to, he addresses the whole coun
try. In alluding to the negro "lanc
of inheritance and PROMISE" he
means Enthusiastically the country
whence the negro originally came
Africa. Who knows what Provi
dence may design in regard to thai
land of thick and appalling darkness
in connection with the events thai
have taken place in this country
May not the negro, sent here to bt
Christianized, elevated, educated by
contact with the Caucasian race anc
in the brunt school of experience, bt
returned in due time civilized to his
native home, to be there used as ar
instrument in the hands of Provi
dence TO reclaim and disenthrall il
from the gross horrors to which fol
centuries upon centuries it has beer
subjected2 : Providence indeed works
"mysteriously but unerringly ant
; certainly"
Toward the close Of his speech, i
we may so term it, the Presiden
, breaches the subject of the possibility
of the commingling together of th'
two races in a state of freedom
!. about which he has evidently grav
> doubts. 1t is ga great problem befor
ra ~ ha ccxyu uvbatbor +ha Hcolnru,