The colored Tennessean., 1865-08-12

81, - % -" antaole language
: : may be laughed at as alstain, sneered E
! aside rhetoric, but We. ask the reader t
i carefully peruse the d blowing extract
from General Cox G4tekr and see whetl
" er it is not justified:
~ 81 have watched m aoen interest the ed
lr ucatiOnal effect Of tie war rpon our ow
% army, and l assure you hst while our whit
soldiers have uniformly and quickly learne
/ 10 appreciate the tact that the existence G
e our free government could only be preserves
Dy the obstruction OF theIsystem of slavery
8 ana SO become radically ahd thoroughly anti
/ slavery tne tendency io1 battling for the oil
flag was almost equally Uniform in increasing
e and deepening their pri]9 of race. The fac
] is one which cannot b7-saf.lv overlooked il
: any calculations invovIg their action upor
. the political problems bef4e the country. anc
E it is one in regard to wbkh can hardly bt
! mistaken"
There are many sn3b bth words in the
I foregoing. They areacely turned, and
! sound euphoniously cough. But they
mean this, or nothing THAT the preju,
dices of race have gn1n ocronger dur
ing the way ~owL S1n't believe any
such thing. We knfw better. We
have seen blacks and Whites fraternize,
Their blood has mingldl in one common
stream, for one common purpose, and in
oehalt OF one beloved nationality. We
are OF course aware that Ignorant men
m the ranks, and some who ought to
know better tn higher places, still de-
nounce our people, ill.u$ng them when,
ever opportunity offers for such brutality.
We have yet to learn that the passions
Of the brutal or the prejudices of the
unreHectng, warranted those who claim
to be statesmen, in devising ways and
means to afiict those who are the vic.
TINS of prejudice and passion. We think
it was Sir Philip Sidney who said, that
"Ehe poorer and more oppressed human
being, the nearer he comes to the sym.
pathies Of tue gentleman" A soldier
ought to be gentleman.
In order to give more weightto the sali-
ent points Of General Cox's letter,
we extract the main points,. which he
makes here:
After four years of close and thoughtful |,
observation of the races where they are, I am
unwillingly forced to the conviction that the
effect of the war has not been simply to "em-
bitter" their relations, but to develop a rooted
which makes their permanent fu-
sion in one political community an absolute Ii
impossibility. The sole difference betweere Il
us, then. is in the degree NaSAnstlity wa sana
existing between the races, and its probable
permanence. You assume that the extension
Of the right of suffrage tothe blacks, leaving
them intermixeds with tie whites, will cure
Ill the trouble. Ibelevethat it would rather
% like the decisions in the outer darkness of
which Milton speaks, where i
Chaos umpire sits, l.
And by decision more smbroils the Fray
The antagonism of which have spoken is
lot entirely one-sided. On the part of the
ormer master It takes the form IF an indom- Y
table pride, WHICH utterly refuses to entertain !
he idea of political or social equality, min.
led with hatred intensified by the circum- S
tances and results of the war. This feeling +
J not confined to the slave owners alone, but
be poor whites share it fully, and often show b
more pass1onately.
"On the part of the freedmen it is mani
ested in an utter distrust of the dominant J
ace, and an enmity which, although made by p
more passive andless openly
lanitested, is as real and implacable as the II
ther They have the mutual attraction of =,
ace among themselves, and repulsion of the
rhites as another people, developed to a de l
rec which surprised me. 1t is not as indi- n
lduals of nation common to us all, that -
ley speak of themselves, but, to use the Ian n
uage OF one of them, speaking to myself, they 81
el that they 'have long been an oppressed
ad down -trodden people" e
After making an argument for homo. Ell
entity of people, which is certainly we'll il
and alluding to the fusion of st
ferent white elements in our common m
ationality, General Cox says:
g But this unhappy race of which we speak bt
'es not amslgamate with the rest. 1t is en- .,
ely immaterial to discuss why it is so; the u
ct no one can deny; nor can it be denied tE
at it's salvation or its destrrction will 4u-sely t1S
worked out in its family isolation.
" Because there could be no real unity of m
ople between the Southern whites and at
uthern blacks, it seems manifest to me that ~
ere could be no political unity, but rather nc
life for the mastery, in which the one or the W
her would go to the wall. '"
" The struggle for supremacy would be di- 81
Ct and Immediate, and see no hope what e.
er that the weaker race would not be re- ~
ced to hopeless subjecton, or utterly de- th
-oyed.' a.,
General Cox's remedy for this state w
tb;nog 70 ~ o,,... .. 4.; '"