Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-08-04
what the Cincinnatl Gazette and
Comniercial Think about Gen
eraI Cox's Col0mixntfon Plan.


eraI Cox's Colonization Plan.
General Cox's strategem to eyade direct
Il ly answering the two questions put to
him by the Oberlin Committee, as to wheth-
,er he was In favor of amending the Consti-
tuition of the State so as TO allow Negroes
to vote, and as to whether he was in favor
of comforting upon the Negroes in the
Southern States the privilege of voting, by
advocating q visionary scheme of colonial
| tiop. does not meet the favor of either The
Cincinnati Gazette or of The Cincinnati Com
uercial. The Gazette discusses the .coloniz-
| alton absurdity at length, of which it says:
At the start the project would require the
Iforcible appropriationo OF large part OF the
States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama
and wesnppose the whole of Florida,and the
removal of the white population: Is 1t be-
| lieyed that these States will consent to have
an important portion of their territory
taken out of. their jurisdiction. and the
white people removed, to make q territory
| for a population of negroes, whose labor
they need to save their estates from ruin,
and whose labor they are determined to
have? And how would 1t be possible to
keep the peace between these antagonlstic
races when the antagonism had been lnten-
siied by territorial division and a COM
mon border, and was subject 10 the con
tinual disputes and agitations Of border
'The United States Government has never
been able to protect even the Indians In
their reservations from the aggressions of
the whites On this very question 1t once,
under Democratic administration, submit
ted to notification of its laws by the State
of Georgia, and gave up the Indians to rob-
berry. 1t apparently reduces the impossi-
biIity TO say that this territory now con-
tains the majority of the blacks, and that
the reward Of political power would draw
the rest there; therefore there need be no
coercive collection of the colored race IN
the designated region. But II the whole
OF, the States mentioned were taken for the
black region tand this would not be too
much for such great and provocative pop
ulatioh), nearly two-thirds ofthe late slaves
would still be outside of the region, In
North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Ken
tnckv. Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and
dther States, some of them remote from the
black regions, and where they have all the
home attachments. And is there enough
of the reward of political power In the sub
iect state thus offered them to draw them to
their allotted territory without coercive de-
portation?
Has any power ever undertaken the de-
portation of population of four millions?
Can any country stand the depletion of such
a laboring population? What would become
of the production of the Southern staples
while this exodus was being carried outl
when could we look for peace and restored
industry under that effort? And who will
furnish mama and quails to feed this popu-
lation of near four millions, thrust into the
wilderness, while they are settling? In
avoiding present duties, because they are
beset with difficulties, let us not fly TO the
refuge of remote inpoSSibilitieS. The removal
of the white population from the allotted
territory would alone bea greater under
taking than the Government dare attempt.
OF colonization The Commercial says:
But this is not possible noio, nor is II desira-
Bile. There is NO surplus of labor in the
South. The war has destroyed nearly fifty
per cent of the white adult population of
has not, as in the North. been any augmen-
tation from without. Here, while the eX-
igencies of the war have swept into the
army hundreds OF thousands of young and
middle-aged men, constant tide OF emf
grafton has steadily brought to our shores
other hundreds of thousands to supply the
places made vacant. Nor is it to be over
looked that the South itself has furnished a
large supply of productive labor to the
North. The ,merciless CONSUMPTION of her
people, and the prosecutions to which men
of Union sentiments were subjected, drove
out many thousands of white men, of the
poor and middle classes, who have found
employment and homes in the North, and
who will not, probably, return to the South.
The South has been exhausted by her
gigantic war against the government but
in no way is she SO seriously impover-
ished as by the loss of productive labor.
The testimony of travelling correspon-
dents, sent out to take observations
of the industrial condition of tle
South, is conclusive that there are hundreds
of thousands of acres from the Potomac to
the Mississippi, lying idle. and rapidly re-
turning to a primitive state. Labor is COM
pletely disorganized. There is hardly a
plantation that will this year produce the
amount of cotton, corn or other staples, that
il yielded in 1860 or 1861, while vast regions,
trodden under the destroying feet OF armies,
will furnish nothing but a luxuriant crop
of weeds and briers.
With everything to rebuild and restore
including fences, barns, houses, roads,
bridges, factories, founderies, workshops
DO elear-sighted Southern capitalist or ag-
riculturist, it seems to US, can see without
regret, any laborer, white or black, with
draw from the community, or regard with
any thing but apprehension, any political
or social policy whose tendency will be to
expel such labor, The Southeln States |
cannot afford to lose this labor, were the |
Government ever SO ready and willing to |
enter upon grand scheme of ,coloniza- |
ton. Ii the South is to be restored to its
former prosperity within the next five or
ten years, it must be done by retaining the
labor that it has, and inviting more from
abroad. s..i a5t i'. ...
Is General Cox, who advocates so great
an absurdity, to escape committing himself
on the Negro Suffrage question, deserving
the support of the voters of Ohio9 r.
The southern Elections and the