The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1865-09-13

OUR READERS Will have seen, with curiosity or
interest, tho announcement of the proposition in
"our pancr that wealth and population have q me-
cessary relation to each other, and that the pres
ervation of tho negro therefore, apart from higher
cons deratious, will be Of direct pccuniary advan-
tage to our people. Admitting however, that
population of the latter sort is wealth. it is doubt
ed whether the negro can form n part of any such
population, and whether, therefore, in any proper
sense thcrc can be proportionatc wealth III popu-
lation of negroes.
The question is q hard one, and much depends
upon its solution. It is certain that heretofore he
has been @ part OF sach q population and that
here his presence has been wealth. The Southern
States have had an aggregate of wealth proper
toned to their population, quito us great as the
most prosperous people in the world It is all
illusion that tho negro cannot work with men of
other races, when proper stimulants are applied.
They have, in tho average fine physical constitu-
Aons; thoy have great capacity for the endurance
of labor and fatigue and the planters in the Wost
Indies, experimenting on different kinds of labor,
after the emancipation were convinced that NO.
grocs the most efficient and one planter
went 80 fur as to say that gang Of negro slaves
would do three times much as the same number
of Portuguese from Barbados, or Coolies FROM
China could do, if their lives depended on it. In
confirmation of this opinion, to great extent, has
been our own experience. The negroes here, what
ever mon may say of their relative capacity to the
free laborc-s that occasionally have come in COM
petition with them, have worked with astonish-
ing activity and viSor; and it is to be doubted
whether any people on earth, in no greater num-
bers have ever performed tho aggregate Of labor
that has been performed by negroes in the South
crn Stntcs
1t is certain, also, that the want of individual
intelligence and moral lcharactcr-supposing def
ciencies to eXist-will not bo the nsuperable i'm
pediments to his efficiency. The negro here is
not yet 30 debased and brutal as the laborers in
many of the mining districts of England and
Wales. He is not lower III tho scale of morals md
intelligence than operatives in many manufacture
ing establishments of England and France; not
lower than laborers in agricultural districts of
France and Austria; and yet these men work effi-
cient!y. They give their bono and muscle to tho
enterprises that comprise them with perfect regu-
'Iarity and vigor they give stability and impulse
to the State, and each, in his sphere, gives his
full and proper contribution to the vested inter
ests OF his country. So it is, also of the Chinese
whose intelligence in many places is scarcely
above tho range of instinct and who can scarcely
be said to have moral character at all They also
work efficiently and WELL and if the vested values
OF that Kingdom are not in proportion to lis popu-
lation, it is rather from evils in the system of its
socety than in the want Of character in its labor
ing population.
1t will thus be seen that if the negro shall not
still be worth his five hundred dollars to the State,
it will not be for the want of intelligence ard char
actcr but from the want of power in society to
Keep him at his business. If society can keep him
IN harness-f from his own sympathy with So
ciety around him, or from the stimulants of star
rrat f-N,N>
ciety can apply, lie can be kept at work, he will be
prevented by no mbeclity of moral or intellectual
character from contributing his just proportion to
the common Wealth. y j.. - i y
But paramount question then occurs, can So
clety keep him at his work? and VIC answer, nuoues
tionaby it oan and it must do 3d. Society has so far
oVerrled whatever of Incidence and ncapacitv n,ov
DC In him, and, by the discipline Of slavery. has
maze Eim one OF the most efficient worl,ors
IN the world, and it can do 80 still Truo
we may not discriminate against him. II ia tho
feeling md purpose OF largo party NJ tb;,
country that the negro shall 10 right-tbat no
shall possess every quality, character and CO.
nnctty necessary to take the step with society
here, and advance with it-that he shall be ~, ~
every occasion, ready for every emcrgency-con-
stitute an element OF society and an equal elc
Heh'' ana IN equal element of progressive 30.
cie'S, "h'' tAls therefore, that there shall be no
lmpedmcnt to their realization of this ideo wbot-
ever may have seemed to DO the purposes oy M
ture OF the Lord Of nature to the contrary. md
this feeling will, Of course, oppose policy which
would tend to recognize any natural difference bc
tween the races here which they have Determined
shall not exist. Wemayno ssYo. a negro, if VIC pro.
pose TO save him as negro; and We must foreoo
the promptings OF benevolence, even, except upon
admission of the socin dogma. But this presents
no real difficulty. If the proposition be true that
the races are equal, and both are merely to DO lot
hione to advance with equal rapfdty to wealth and
"et-helng there will be no difficulty in tho casc
The negro will then 'lo worth his weight in tbc
scale OF population, as we have said ho ia: and In
WIN sustain rs in our assertion that bo ia ~ n6c,,
mary value to our vested interests. But II not
each society can apply remedies for it's own o,iIs.
1T must apply the corrections it's experience ,I,o,'
20 nave become necessary; and if among its neo.
pie there be vagrancy, vice and crimes,
and crimes can be punished and must be min.
ished, when necessary, to remove them Iftbo the.
ory OF tho party We have referred to DO true tbese
laws Will operate we'll on the ono race as on tho
other. II the theory be not true, It will operate
more extensively on the negro race, It will bo