Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-03-23
lails alnion and Ameritaa.
Reading Matter on Each Page.
Second Letter of Hon. John Bell.
NASHVILLE, March 10Th, 1866.

| CIRCUMSTANCES, tiiey cOnid ADOPT TOWARDS the
black population Of their respective States.
The omitted points were, first, the making
of some provision, as liberal as their means
would reasonably warrant, for the tuition or
schooling Of orphan or other destitute col
ored children; and, secondly, the subsis-
tence of the colored aged and helpless class
these provisions 10 be separate in the appli-
cation, but equal in proportion to numbers,
with those made for the poor white children
and the destitute and helpless whites. Such
provisions, | think, no less expedient for the
interest of the people OF the South than due
TO their character. Such course would be
productive of their interest, inasmuch as every
| thing which tends 10 improve the condition,
elevate the pride, and stimulate the industry
OF the African race, since they are TO be
members of the community, will strengthen
the security Of the whites against the evils
to be apprehended from a neglected and
Discontinued element Of the population; and
| it is due, also, TO themselves, upon the
ground that they justly claim TO be the best
| friends Of the African race, in their midst
| despite the intermeddling and false claims
set up by the fanatics of the North.
These views are the more earnestly pressed
because l perceive as | shall presently
show, that there is determination on the
part Of the leading radicals at the North, il
necessary TO the seclrity of their power, to
provoke, or at least TO run the risk, of a
war Of races in the South, rather than sur
render their pretensions to permanent ascen-
dancy during this generation. 1t is true,
that for the present, any provisions that can
be made for either Of these beneficent pur-
poses in the Southern States, especially in
the burnt and desolated districts, on which
the iron heel Of most cruel and unsparing
war has imprinted itself must be scant in
deed but the will to do will stand in all
time for the deed. For a year or two, at
least with the destitute whites as well as the
blacks the great need-the most urgent
want, the wailing cry must, indeed will be,
bread-bread-bread
| cannot dismiss this part Of the subject
without giving expression to some views
which have been long anddeeply implanted
in my mind in regard 10 the relations lately
subsisting between the African race and
| their masters in the South. | regard that
relation as one Of mutual obligations. duties
and benefits TO be reciprocally bestowed and
received relation between a race held to
be inferior, and requiring the guidance and
training Of race superior, or one much
| further advanced in civilization. Expert
ence has shown that for the civilization of
of any barbarous people, the lapse of many
generations or ages is necessary; and that
the state of pupilage even for those of adult
age, is the normal or proper one, and that
they should be treated as grown-up child
rem, depending for their welfare upon the
care and protection Of a superior or master I;
the relationship in this view partaking, in
part, that of parent and child, and in part of
guardian and ward and in either aspect, al
| together benign in its bearings and tenden-
cies. The obligation on the part of the
slave was to give his labor and 20 be faith
| full to his master and his interest; on the
| part of the master, it was TO give care,
protection, food, raiment and shelter in in
fancy, in sickness, in old age, during life,
10 the slave; and, further, the obliga-
ton as guardian, 10 afford him such in
struction, or moral culture, as the circum-
stances in which both guardian or ward
were placed would admit or justify. In this
view of the nature and obligations of the
relationship Of master and slave the most
intelligent of the shareholders of the South
with whom ! have conferred, have con-
Cured; and this class concurred in the
opinion that the balance of benefits was
ON the side Of the slave. OF course this was
not the opinion of the uncultivated and less
intelligent classof Shareholders, who looked
upon the slave with no other eye and with
no other estimate of his value than the profit
he might expect from his labor.
1t is true, that while | believe a majority
| of the shareholders of the South may be
claimed as having felt their due RESPONSE
bility as Christians and upright men, and
understood the duties they owed to the de-
pendent race whom they held in bondage, it
must be admitted that there were hundreds
conscious of no such responsibility, nor
| obligation to care for the moral culture or
training Of their slaves. But for period of
fifty years, having given such attention and
observation as | could, without making it a
special business, to the condition of the
slaves in the South, | have noticed and
watched with some care, their gradual,
though steady progress in all the external
| evidences of improvement and amelioration;
and at the close of the period, was particu-
larly struck with the difference exhibited, in
their recent condition, eontrasted with what
/ il was at the commencement of ii, or half a
century ago. / have had occasion, also, to
remark the singularly fortunate manner in
which the less refined and cultivated class
| of planters, as they acquired clearer percep
tons of the connection between their true in
terests and a humane and liberal treatment
Of their slaves, stepped in TO supply the
| place of a religious or moral sense of duty;
so that both seemed TO combine and vie with
each other in improving the condition of the
| slave.
So great was the change in the general
condition Of the slave population in the
South, in the last half century, brought
about chiefly by the joint agency, first, of
| the increased number Of well educated plan
tiers who had grown up in the first part of
that period, and secondly, of the more en-
| lightened views of their true interests that
had come TO prevail among the less cul-
| tivated class of shareholders, that liberal
minded men conceived strong hopes, especi-
| ally in the border States, of being able 10
ingraf such amendments upon the slave
code as would remove all, or many Of the
most Objectionable features in the system of
slavery practiced in the United States
such as the separation of husband and wife,
parent and child-and Of granting the privi-
legeof changing masters or owners or buying
their freedom upon an appraised valuation.
| But the abolition mOvementin Massachusetts
and other Statesof New England put an end
to all such hopes. Still, however, such pic
turewas presented ofgeneral happiness, cheer
full acquiescence and contentment under what
appeared 10 be their destiny, their per-
feet freedom from all cares and anxieties
among large communities and bodies of sub
iect people or slaves, that just before the
outbreak of the late terrible war, and look
ing 6TS upon the picture above presented, and
then upon that noe presented of the same
people, in the same country, so great and
| appalling was the contrast that all good men,
and angels even, might well avert their
ewes from the latter and weep over the sad
reverse that had overtaken them, through
the fundamentally Of misguided friends.
make this strong presentment Of the case OF
the African race in the South from thorough
| conviction that the North, impelled by IA
natical zeal, under the guise of an act OF
Justice to human rights, have committed 8
great error, and perpetrated the greatest
crime against humanity recorded in the an
nails of time. Add to this the crime o.
breaking up and utterly defeating the
grandest experiment ever attempted OF
set ON foot, not by mans devices, for that
could not be- but in the ordinary course o.
events, influenced and controlled only by
such causes as were most active in the gen
eral movement of society, at the particular
period in which il originated, that promised
az some future time, the most satisfactory so
lvtion Of the problem--the fairesi test tina
the nature Of the case permitted, OF the
theory Of the equality Of the races, viz: th'
Caucasian and the African, and 10 settle th'
contest so long maintained by the partisani
Of each. between the descendants of Japhe
and Ham. for an equality, mental and rhysl