Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1865-09-01
OUR LABOR sYsTEM..-wnAT SHALL IT BET

country 10 ln QutltdIu VI H0NSitJ ia HAotOA9s ASb
such thing has been witnessed and realized by the
people of the Southern States of this government
Slavery, or what has been called uncompensated
labor, which has been the only system heretofore
known, has been done away with by the action of
the government and free or compensated labor has
been substituted therefor. This system is one in
which neither the employer or thc.empoyee have
any experience, and it is exceedingly difficult for
either to adapt themselves to it. The slave, exult-
ing n his newly and unexpectedly acquired
liberty, and knowing neither its limits or bounds,
its requirements or its responsibilities is indisposed
to labor beyond what his actual necessities demand
him to do, and will not be bound by any of the Or
binary stpulations of honor of usage, and works
or idles as suits his within. He hires himself with
not reflection and abandons his contract without
scruple He has not yet learned the conditions of
his new state of life and presumes that he will be
cared for as he has always been.
The employer is at a loss what TO do for he cam
not conduct his operations depending upon the
labor of others, under such system this for he
cannot look TO the future of even few months,
with any degree of confidence, and he therefore
plants in doubt and perhaps, does not reap at all.
At the very time VIXEN his crop requires attention
or will be lost these free and independent laborers,
feeling no responsibility, and against whom there
is no remedy, may leave him; his crop is ruined,
and the hopes, and expenditures of long and
weary months, are gone beyond recall. The
amount of loss which the employer sustains in such
cases is not only his loss but it is the loss Of the
whole country. 1t is precisely that much alb
stracte6 from the sum total of the nations wealth
and prosperity. 1t is that much less left to tax;
that much less which would have gone to swell
the amount of our commerce with the world
Consequently, the question is one which interests
the government and every man and woman in it.
The general prosperity of the nation is the aggre-
gate of individual success. The wealth of the
nation is the aggregate of individual possessions,
and Just so far as individual enterprise is crippled
just so far ms the community is disabled from pro-
ducing wealth. just to that extent are the resources
of the nation curtailed, and the amount which the
government can tax cut down.
We presume that the propositions we have laid
down will not be disputed. If not then it follows
rs an inevitable consequence that the systemiza-
ton of the labor just thrown out upon the world
by the abolition of slavery, is a matter of great
and vital importance. No one who regards the
general welfare of the country will oppose it; no
one who regards either the interests of the white
man or the black will raise his voice against a
proposition which merely seeks to make the black
man not only more independent and happy, but 10
make him, at the same time, source of wealth and
n benefit to the community in which he lives
Ter more than century tho black man has been
the only aborer in the hot climate of the Southern
States. His physical constitution enables him to
endure with comfort burning temperature
under which the white man, his superior in all
else, would perish His muscle has titled the soil
and developed its resources. The products of his
labor have enriched his master, and the wealth
thus produced has made the nation prosperous and
great But he is naturally ndolent and thoughtless
in his disposition, and will only labor under the
incentive of pains and penalties. Persuasions
will not move him. nor has wealth any allure
ment to equal the luxury of stupid nap in the
blazing sun.
This race, so constituted, so indolent and thrift
less SO unambitous and careless of the future,
now thrown out upon the world to work or
not to work, as to them may seem best and most
acceptable. Holding no property they are entirely
irresponsible for their contracts, and with but a
languid sentiment of honor, they hold their
promises cheap and violate them without scruple
In fact SO far, there has been hold upon them in
their condition. They have been unable to
n disanrn nr fho 1in,to md
tions of liberty, or to avoid the dshonor and un-
proftableness of utter faithlcssness.
Now it is very evident, that if four millions Of
people heretofore compelled to labor, and by their
labor to swell the aggregate of national wealth.
and thereby increase its strength and prosperity
are permitted to hive a life of ideness, every de-
partment Of society will soon be made to feel tho
blighting and whitening effect of such n system
We are aware that no one proposes that they
shall live in idleness but unless some plan, NOR,
reliable than any yet brought into general usC
for making their labor productive shall be adopted
the result will be what no one can fail t.
deprecate, What the country now needs and ab
solutely requires we mean that portion of tht
country in which slave labor has been heretofore
employed, is a labor system which shall be at the
same time remunerative to the laborer and reliable
10 the employer A system under which the right
and interests Of both parties shall be eiectually
protected, under which there shall be neither
tyranny or cruelty on the one hand or evasion Of
violation of contrast stipulations the other. il
word, system under which when the Negro
binds himself to work for one or twelve months
for stipulated price, and the conditions of tn,
contract are not violated by the employer, tn,
negro shall be compelled to fulfil the obligations h
has assumed, aud not, upon bis on yoliton or whin
quit his employer and leave lis interests to suffer
Simple justice to both parties is all such system
would require, and surely to this no reasonable
man could object. Without it white labor will b.
substituted for black so far as it is possible, al
idea of depending upon the labor Of the negro vii
be abandoned, and he will be left TO starye am