The Portland daily press., 1865-12-22
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LETTER FROM GOODWIN SMITH.
.ol6G The Events In jamaica. IS III Y

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.ol6G The Events in jamaica. rs IiH "
ID the Editorse Of the Boston Daily Adssrhsss-
The second mail from Jamaica since the
outbreak of the so-called instruction has now
fully delivered its contents, and the English
pubic are In position 70 form tolerably &C
curate opinion as to The nature and signif-
eaace Oh these horrible events.
Nothing has occurred to prejudice, IN the es-
timation ofany impartial observer, the charac-
ter or the claims of the negro race; though
the impolicy and injustice of allowing the ex-
slaveowner to exercise any power over the .ex-
slave. 29lEG 0tbG1ks jIlOG a
peak as one fully sensible of the great per-
plexities of the negro question and fully aware
how difficult it must be to introduce political
equality without social fusion, or to bring
about real social fusion between races severed
from each other by color, by a physical antipa-
thy, andby the fatal memory Of the time when
the men OF one race We're masters, and the
men OF the other were their slaves. .W . u
As you know, we abolished slavery at great
cost in our West India possessions. We
found, after patient searching and judicial
examination of the system, thai if we did not
aboli,h it, 1t would bring upon us the judy
ment of God. Be- s3g3sT HASH
, At first We substituted term of apprentice
ship. But we found that apprenticeship was
slavery under another name, lift was not
worse. In two years, under the hypocritcal
forms of law, 10000 apprentices received lin
the aggregate, one quarter of million of LASH
es, and $1,000 other punishments by the tread
wheel, the chain gang, and other means of le-
gal torture. = .I&pa
We then abolished apprenticeship. But we
could not change the ex-slaveowne. IS heart,
md I,af 4n1
eliminate devotion to parliamentary institu-
tons, we have allowed his propensities too
much scope. He has, by various machina-
tons, excluded the great bulk of the negro
population from the exercise of the franchise,
made the Assembly an organ of his own pref
uIices and interests, and by caste legislation
created among the negroes deep and natu-
raj dissati faction which, without any org.n
lied conspiracy, Is no doubt always ready to
break forth in local manifestations of discon-
tent,
The intentions of the home government.
and Its action, so far as it has interposed, have
been uniformly good and just. Its veto has
probably prevented greater excuses Of caste
legislation, especially in the direction of va
grancy laws. But it has not kept power
enou III ia its hands. q y ~
The spirit OF the negroes had been embit-
tered by distress, caused by a long drought
A dispute arose as to the ownership of an es-
tate from which a legal claimant was Seeking
to eject the negro occupants who had settled
upon it. In the course of the dispute, collis-
ion took place between the negroes and the
legal authorities. The negroes surrounded a
court house in tumultuous manner. The
riot act was read to them. Perhaps they did
not very clearly understand 1t or distinctly APP
prehend the consequences which the disre-
gard of it involved. They refused to disperse.
They were then fired upon by party of vol
unteers, and some of them, it appears, were
killed and wounded. They then rushed u,,on
the party who. had fired upon them and tore
some of them to pieces with circumstances of
great atrocity. 1t was most shocking scene:
put not nearly SO shocking as many that have
occurred in French and Irish instructions,
where the mob had not been fred upon and
had received no immediate provocation. ls4 q
No doubt the feeling ofthe negroes against
the dominant caste was unclaimed by this en-
counter. Yet the massacre scarcely extended
beyond the scene OF the original collision
Very few atrocities were committed, so far as
at present appears, otherwise than In hot
blood. On the other hand, we learn, even
from the adverse side, several remarkable In
stances of negro mercy. .Eia stitE B9g7s % a9..
As the case at present stands, there is moth
ing whatever to prove peculiar, much less in
delibie, ferocity in the negro race. Rather
the reverse. But the whites of the island, the
English officers who have been corrupted by
the Establishments of that depFaved society
flor it il deeply depraved), and, sad to say, the
Governor himself, have mmitted such atroc-
tiles, that ii the home government were to fab
In its duty Of vindicating the character of this
country, 1t will be time for an Enllishman
VINO cares for the honor of his nation to look
out for another home. y ~
No evidence OF a widespread conspiracy, or
of a conspiracy of any kind, has yet been pro-
duced By those who were most interested in
producing it, since the proof that such peril
existed would, as they well knew, be the only
possible excuse justification there could be
none) for their violations of humanity and,
law. AID the evidence before us tends to show
that the disturbance was local and accidental:
though the di- content of the negroes NAV
have been as general as, Is to be feared, il
was first. fsis-aaat q ~
This Is all that has yet been proved AGAINST
the negro ffeeholder of jamaica: and the
Governor himself complains that many of the
disafected are not poor and ignorant, but per
sons of property and education, which, With
out industry and capacity for knowledge.
they could not have obtained. niusa9 ~ 81
The London Times is of course illstffvinp
the Governor and the ex-slayeowners In their
inhuman seventies, and demanding that the
negro, as an ipcoTigible barbarian, shall be
put again under the lash. But confess that
were compelled to put anybody under the
lash ON the ground Of barbarism, / should, on
the evidence before me, choose to put, not the
ex slave, but the ex-slaveowners and the man
ayers OF the Times. g li ~ s. 1aae'aE q -s75f
A. ali events, trust that the negro race
VIII not pc allowed to suffer In the judgment
OF all nations and statesmen Cor the ALLEGED
IauitS Oh Lne negroes in Jamaica, until JUDICIAL