The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1865-11-18
Saturday Morning, Nov. Is, 1855.
An Appeal in Behalf of the Portland Freed
mems Aid Association.


An Appeal in Behalf of the Portland Freed
mems Aid Association.
CONDITION OF THE FREEDMEN.
In the exgencies of the late memorable civil
war, between three and four million slaves
were declared to be Free by the proclamation
of the President Of the United States, and thus
far, in good faith, the whole power of the ma
tional government has been exerted in the en-
deayor to make their freedom actual.
These millions of fellow-men, however, enter
their new condition, with the scars upon their
bowed bodies, the degradation in their pinched
and halfdeveloped minds, caused by two cen
turiesof slavery In spite of the sympathy
which terrible and protracted in justice
ought to excite, in spite of their claim to
the national gratitude, for quiet obedience
to the laws, for humble but efficient loyalty to
the government for their patriotic devotion OF
blood and life in the desperate contest we have
just waged against rebellion, they are still the
objects of widespread and inhuman antipa-
thy and suspicion. Large classes of our
countrymen, who felt no satisfaction in their
emancipation, still passonately insist that
they shall be kept as serfs of the soil, not
recognized as part Of the people or of the
constituency of the government, and deprived
of all political powers, through which they
might maintain their right to life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness. 81 saraJ 7sa
In extenuation OF this undemocratic pro-
scription, it is urged that thse men are too
degraded and ignorant to be entrusted with
any political powers. They are as ignorant
and degraded as the tuition of just such syS-
tenn of slavery, as we have enforced upon
them, could make them. We have jealousy
kept, by rigid laws, sternly enforced, the
light of knowledge from their darkened intel
lects. We owe them not only share Of the
wealth we have accumulated by their unpaid
toll, but also of the intelligence their constant
labor has given us the leisure to acquire. We
shall not have done for them what the rule of
heatIen justice, still less what the spirit of
Christian charity demands, if we turn them
out penniless, landless and ignorant, to COM
pete for the goods of fortune, with antagonists
upon whom we heap all the advantages of
wealth, social position and political power.
Our hereditary love of .tdir-pIay, resents any
harder conditions than those, under which
their late oppressors shall start with gen
eral ownership of the soil and of such movable
property as the war has spared, while they
shall have free hands and educated wits, forti-
fled by the ballot, to give them the chance by
fairly requited toll to overtake their favored
competitors.
A MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE.
We appeal to the Christian sentiment of the
country. For more than thirty years the
American church has labored most assiduous-
Iy in the sublime enterprise of carrying to the
dark corners of the globe the blessings and
hopes of the gospel Here, in four million
emancipated slaves, are the heather at our Oacn
doors and a field of missionary labor white
for the harvest! In carrying to this people
civilization and Christianity there are no
oceans to cross, no foreign languages to learn,
no hostile ideas of an old faith, built into social
habits and forms of government, to uproot
Never before, even among the foremost and
most intellectual races, was there seen such a
passion for education as among the blacks of
the South since their emancipation. Let the
missionary 60 forth to his work in hope and
cheerfulness. He shall not have to sit down
to teach Christianity under the shadow of
some old temple, consecrated to idols, and lay
down his life in old age with the temple stand
ing in all its sanctity, thronged with all its
worshippers, casting its shadow over his DEATH
bed. He shall go forth in the morning, carry
ing his seed and return in the evening rejoic-
I,,;,,f,;,,rr HE cl,oavoc uyif1, him
POLITICAL DANGERS OF AN IGNORANT, HALE
ENFRANCHIsED CLASS.
We appeal to the prudence Of the states
man. The inequalities of society, though they
are facts to be recognized, are not to be ag-
gravated by partial legislation. The law
should always endeavor to make whatever dis
tinguishes one man from another,-his supe-
fior fortune, birth, education, or virtue, the
heritage of all. The best governemnt will
always be careful, not for the powerful classes
to maintain their privileges, but for the feeble
classes to make up their deficiencies by extra
ordinary protection. s a8 N01
They speak wiser than they know, who pet
ulantly and contemptuously ask that the aeqro
shall be taken out of politics. The negro
ought to be taken out of politics. This can
only be done by taking him once for all out of
the category of oppression and prescriptions.
for politics, what has it ever been but the de-
mand of some person or class for justice or
RIGHTS withheld and denied. Give to the
negro of South Carolina the same rights we
give to any other citizen of South Carolina,
and cease to base a political distinction upon
GO trivial amatter as complexion, and there will
be no more special legislation needed for the
men of dark skin, than for the men with blue
ewes or with red hair No thoughtful man
presumes to claim that circumstance SO IN
consequential as color gives scientific ground
for interrupting the democratic order OF equal
ity. He claims to do it on the preteXt OF de-
ficient intelligence Let us supply intelligence
by education, and no pretext is left for an mn
just discrimination, but one which, even in the
days when slavery controlled the nation, we
never dared avow in our laws.
We can never establish this government up
on a safe basis with four millions of lahorers
In state Of partial enfranchisemen. Com.
plete, rigorous, soulcrushing slavery was one
mode of eXacing labor-madng it the inter-
est of perfectly free men to labor for lust
compensation, is another mode, ard there is
no combination Of the two systems possible
Give a man half his rights, and he will agitate
till he acquire the other half Ultimately it