The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-11-22

ouired local attachments by ownership
land. The results of emancipation and wa
= have made the whites poor also; and th'
Incertain condition of our federal relations
srevents the influx of capital or population
Enterprise is paralyzed. Few are able tt
employ laborers and pay them literally. "
the other hand the dominant States are rich
In all of them the wages of labor are much
greater than we can pay. In many OF them
are pubic lands of great fertility which the
laws give to the actual settler at nominal
price In one of these States portion OF
the people has given substantial earnest
of the principles they profess by electlng
two Africans as members of their State Leg
islature. Everything seems to invite their
emigration to the dominant States; nut
most of them are too poor to pay the ex-
penses of moving This difficulty may be
overcome by d1verting the appropriation
made to sustain the Freedmen's Bureau, to
defraying the travelling expenses of those
who may choose to move allowing each one
to choose the State or Territory to which he
would CO. When thus left free and aided to
go where they may think their condition will
be bettered, no ground will be left for furth-
er sectional strife as to their government.
Who, that would avoid the rock on which
our ship of State is threaten ed with wreck
will object to this scheme of reconciliation I!
1t is clear that the Northern States will not
object to it. 1t will place the negroes, vol
unfairly emigrating to them, under their i'm
mediate guardianship, where they can look
after their personal protection, and mental
and moral culture, much more discreetly
than they can by Freedmens Bureau, or
any other machinery while they remain here.
am sure North Carolina will not object
to this scheme. If it be objected that the
emigration would be so universal as to leave
us for time, without suficiency, of labor
ers and it be conceded that this would be
the result. who would not prefer to perform
servile labor until other labor could be pro-
cured, to the ihquietude and humiliation to
which we are now subjected! But such
would not be the result North-Carolina
means to treat her freedmen with justice
and humanity. Very many of them retain
the feelings of kindness and confidence
which they formerly felt towards their mas
tiers, and these reciprocate the feeling and
pay them fair wages, and give them every
reasonable aid to better their condition al
though we may be unable to perceive any
thing to encourage our efforts in the past
history of the race.
l respectfully recommend that you propose
this plan of national reconciliation to the
Congress of the United States.
Whether this suggestion be carried out or
not, it behooves us to consider what the well
fare of the State requires us to do, in special
reference to the African race among us. The
task, which the sudden emancipation of 50
many slaves imposes, if we were allowed to
undertake it without interference, would be |
a most difficult one. We must face it as it |
is, and do the best we can for the common
veal of the white and black
The most prominent subjects. demanding /
new legislation, are crime and pauperism.- /
Our Courts have been so occupied with the .
criminal side of the dockets, that little at
tention could be given to civil suits, and our
IL, <l,1
garded as the meanest of crimes, and of in
frequent occurrence in this State, from the
manner in which the late war was conducted
and other causes, is to be regarded as a rather
variable offence. The action CT our courts
has done much to check it. 1t is still fright
fully common. Negroes compose much the
larger class of these offenders. Much the
larger number of convicts, of all colors, are
insolvent, and the expenses of their prosecu-
ton and imprisonment swell largely the
fnghtful burthen of taxation under which
our impoverished people are laboring. This
evil must be remedied, if possible
Under our existing laws. recently enacted
power is conferred on the justices of the
peace to erect warehouses, for their respect
i've counties in which insolvent convicts
should work out the fines imposed and the
costs of prosecution. The erection OF pro-
per buildings will cost much. Counties
cannot bear the expense of erecting around
them sufficient walls to prevent the escape
Of the prisoners. The salary of the superin-
tendent ana other employees must be con-
How can the convict be COM
PEELED to labor? What is he to work at
If a mechanic, is it contemplated to supply
each county work house with the necessary
,ools and materials Is leather to be pro-
7ided for the shoemaker and saddler coal,
Invll, hammer and bellows for the black
smith planks and planes for the carpenter?
&c. If not, what is he to work at ? Ger
ainly not at farming. This would re
Iuire the keeping of mules and horses,
With uncertainty whether any, or how
many convicts would be sent to the ,
Vorkhouse. The superintendent could not
pitch his crop in uncertainty whether he I
would have any hands, or how many he I
would have, and almost a certainty tn at
when he put his convict in the field to work.
he would run away .
l submit whether it would not be better ,
o keep up our highways by taxation, and
o compel insolyent Migrants and Others con- {
lcted OF mlsdemeanors, to work with ball
nd chain on the highways or other public E
YORK of the counties, allowing them, as pro- 9
ided in our county workhouse act, to raise :
ne line and costs by apprenticing them i
elves. :
PENITENTIARY :
As to convicts for the higher grades of
rlme, think peDitentiary should be g
rected. This mode of punishment mas been =
! long use In most of the states. 1t has +
ever been discontinued, so far as 1 am in +
'rmed In any state which has adopted it,
nd regard this experience as decisive in +
ivor of this place.
Ii this recommendation be approved. I 6
1rther recommend that provision be made
DR. employing convict labor, as far as prac y
lcable, in the construction of the necessary =
uildings; and thata proper commission be =
onstltuted to carry out the design In the u
est manner
PAUPERIsM. @
The number dependent for subsistence on a
ublic charity is vastly greater than it ever f.
'as in any past period of our history. A =
feature of the freedmen's bureau .
as the issuing of rations to INDECENT blacks y
his, understand, will be, or has been, dis a
'ntlnued. Large numbers of them too old il
lnhrm to labor, and still larger number +
children too young to labor and without II
arents or with parents not providing 4
r them, must be cared for. In "
addition to these is the large num- a
sr made dependent by the loss or e.
mo