Dayton daily empire. [volume] (Dayton [Ohio]) 1850-1865, 1865-01-28
The CrIrne OC the AbOlitiOHtsis
against the Negro.

A certain Colonel John Eaton, ir., !
the Superintendent Of the Freed Negroes
for the Department of Tennessee and Ar
kansas. lie has recently published a re
port, which we have not seen, with th
exception of such extracts as the Republi
can papers choose to publish. AS mat
ter Of course, Colouel Eaton, being al
Aboltionist, will make his report as fa
vorable to his own ideas as possible. H'
will put the very best face he can, on the
results of emancipation, and the opera
tions Of the new system And, Of course
such papers as the Cincinnati Gazette, in
publishing extracts from his report, will
select those least damaging to the Aboli-
tion cause. We CLEAN all the facts in OUT
possession, from such portions of the re-
port as the Gazette publishes.
We learn from this authority, that the
slaves in Colonel BAton's department
amount to 770, 900, and we are told at the
beginning of what he has to say. that Of
these, "eighty MoUSoRd have either died in
The United States service, or are still in it,
as laborers or soldiers" The Colonel
does not tell us what proportion died, or
what proportion survive; and the bare Tact
that he makes no intimation of the num-
ber deceased, iustiies the belief that it is
so large that he shrinks from telling it.
We are confirmed in this conjecture from
what we knoV of the mortality among the
freedmen of Louisiana and elsewhere.
He thus speaks of the negroes, who
rushed tumultuously to accept Nlic @boon
of freedom - /" But there was back
ground to this sublime march of events.
Ignorance perverted idoas--taking iher-
~ for idleneSS- embracing all the fostered
vices and crimes Of the old system, cring-
ing deceit, theft, absence Of chastity, tat.
ters, nakehness, tern limbs; women in
helpless childhood, age and de-
crepitude, multform sickness, and unwept
death b"
Remember, that this is said by one who
aided to confer the "boon Of freedom" on
the negro, and who is anxious to justify
himself, and those who acted with him.
for what has been done. 1t is not the
statement OF aDemocrat, who might be
suspected, in such statement of horrors,
to have exaggerated. They are the words
Of an Abolitonist. 81 90 -
We have always been tanght by Aboli-
tioniSts to believe, that it was none but
the masters, who would deal harshly aud
unjustly by the negro. That every North1
ern man possessed a phiIan.hropic heart,
and could not be induced to oppress or
wrong this unfortunate race. But our Alb
clifton author, Colonel Eaton, disabuses
the public mind in this respect, The Gin,
cinnati Gazette, after reading what the
Colonel has to say, remarks 1--WE find in
this report more evidence of dishonesty
and downright knavery Of the white les
sees toward their employees, than Of the
indisposition of the freedmen to make an
honest living" as /" ,1s" t,t' ""a
And again; white men are too sharp
and rascally for the negro, and he is fire.
quenuy discouraged and rendered. indiIler-
ent, vicious and thrillleSs, by the AeeeiDg
operations Of thes superior rsee."sAa
Further along, i is confessed in tbe re-
port, that while it was expected to raise
40, 600 bales of cotton, only 5000 were
produced by the labor Of freedmen Ir,
Here we haye an Immense number OF
negroes, set free by aggressive force. at the
cost of incalculable blood and treasure.
The first result that is reached, Is unparal-
leled vice, crime, disease and death among
the mahumitted; the next is that they are
cheated out Of what little they honestly
earn, by the villainouslwhites who follow
the army from the North, in its progress oI
conquest; and, finally, the failure TO pro-
duce, by the amonhtI Of iouryfiths what
was expected of their labor, is confessed.
And what is to become Of these poor
people in the future Imagination recoil,
from contemplating the horrors which are
in store for those upon whom the "boon o.
! freedom" has been conferred. .'armH
As.,ahnIs Oo,..,u q