Daily Richmond Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1865-1869, 1865-10-05
WING.
THURSDAY MoRNING.....OCT. 5, 1865.
YKE,r1ENr or rnE FREEDMEN.

There is, and will continue to be, great
scarcity OF farming labor 10 the South for
years TO come. This will occasion much
competition among our farmers to procure
the services Of the freedmen. The latter
can select such employers as they please
and will be sure to choose those VINO Will a.
ford them ample protection, treat them KIND
" and humanely, aad pay their wages pune
tually. Itls true the emancipation OF the
negroes has begOtten a feeling OF irritation
and il some cases, it may be, spirit Of re-
venge, towards them in the bosoms OF the
whites but tho i'll treatment likely to result
from these roseutful passions will be more
than counterbalanced by the necessity which
has arisen to treat the negro we'll in order to
procure and preserve his services.
Negroes VINO hire themSe Ives on farms, or
as house servants, and are obedient, faithful
and ho1est, will find in their employers men
able and willing to protect them, and to treat
them with kindness. Il they continue long in
the same service, attachments will grow
up between them and their employers al
most as strong as those that existed between
the late slaves and good masters. But can
dor compels US to add, that idle, vagrant,
vagabond negroes will incur the risk OF bad
and often OF cruel treatment. Such negroes
must orpecessity live dishonest lives, and will
be suspected Of incendiary designs, and with
no white patron or employer to appeal to for
protection or for redress Of injuries, their
situation will De wholly deplorable and pitia-
ble. SUIT il will be condition brought on
by their own misconduct. The freedmen oil
Rome, who were white men, and many OF
them learned scholars, all had patrons Sc
lected by themselves from among the Patri-
clans and wealthy plebians. Between the
freedmen or clients and their patrons there
ever existed the strongest and most faithfully
observed ties Of attachment. Roman
historians inform US that no pa
iron and no client was guilty OF
breach Of the duties arising from the rela-
tons between them during the whole time
of the Commonwealth, which lasted SIX or
seven hundred years. Some such relations
will naturally aud Of necessity grow up be
tween the freedmen and the rich and trust
worthy whether rich OF poor,) whites Of the
South 1t may, in part, be delayed for
some time by Northern fanatics who are
continually melting the blacks, vainly and
hopelessly to assert their political and social
equality. But the instinct which teaches
Young fowls to seek shelter from the coming
storm, bv lowering under the wings of their
pareuts, will suffice to satisfy negroes that
they will require protectors, guardians and
patrons more influential and more intelligent
than themselves. Employers are, in some
sense, masters Of laborers, whether
they be white or black. The freedmen, at
the worst, will have this advantage over the
slaves, that they may select none but good
employers or quasi masters. On the whole,
we are decidedly of opinion that after the
Freedmen's Bureau is Withdrawn Ii ON the
South, the negroes will fare much better
than they do now; for then, and not until
then, they will feel and see the necessity Of
going to work, and OF working Steadlly anu
industriously, fulfilling their contracts, and,
in all respects, so demeaning themselves as
to secure employment. They now expect
that Congress will give them farms, establish
schools among them, aud continue their ra-
tons. Nevertheless, We think, as we said
on yesterday, that the Freedmen's Bureau
will satisfy the entire North that negroes
require mu;h stricter and more arbitrary
government than whites. On the score OF
humanity, the Government could but estab-
lish this Bureau. We hope and believe that
so soon as reconstruction is perfected, the
freedmen will be turned over to the State
authorities, who know best how TO treat and
10 govern them.