The daily clarion. [volume] (Meridian, Miss.) 1863-1866, 1866-02-09

on the crops no" pIdnted
give us the most anxiety it Is the
rising and just risen generation of such !;
and on giving their minds the proper
direction depends our future safety and
quiet
That the negro will be educated Is
beyond all question. Were he indlf-
ferent as to this himself, his new-made
friends are determined that he shall be,
if the only thing gained be to ALLEVIATE
him from the people among whom ne
has been raised but the negro is himself
anxious upon the subject, and every
where is moving every means In his
mower to receive, at least, the rudiments
of education. In those parts Of South
Carolina and Louisiana which had
sometime been within the Federal lines,
when the war broke up, large public
schools, with larger numbers of scholars
than in those for the white children,
had been constantly kept up and now
that direct Government aid is with
drawn, the schools are maintained by
private subscriptions. In the latter way,
schools are also maintained among the
negroes in this State.
The negroes then have schools, and
they will hereafter have more. Is 1t OF
no interest to us that they should be
educated Alright 2 During the existence
of slavery our laws forbade the educa-
ton of the slave but it may be ques-
toned whether such ignorance as this
left him in, made him, in any degree,
better subject. He was just as liable
to be tampered with by designing ag-
itators, and much more so TO receive
false and exaggerated impressions of the
advantages of emancipation, while the
reading of the Bible and other good
books would have rendered him more
dutiful contented and home-abiding.
However this may have been, the ne
gro is now free, and it is for his interest
and our own, that he should become as
intelligent in the performance Of his du-
ties in life as his circumstances will per-
nit, and that the instruction given him
shall be such as will make him orderly,
quiet, industrious, cheerful and pros
porous.
We must recollect that the poetical
axiom as to the twig, and the tree is as
true of the negro as it is of the white
man, and thatifwepermit the negro twig
to be be bent towards the North, we
shall make the tree hove stubborn in
clination in that direction which we will
never be able to correct, and in all pos
sibiIity his children's children will take
the same direction.
Let us not-be deceived by the fact
that the middle-aged and elder negroes
raised with us and by US, notwith-
standing all the efforts to estrange
them from us, still retain for us a re-
spect, Difference and confidence which
their just and liberal treatment as slaves
in our hands deserves. The new gen
Grafton and the rising one will not know
or appreciate the past, and our influence
over them will depend! on our present
action, and not on the memories or re-
citals of it.
Nor will it do to despise the negro.
He was not despicable as an enemy
when a slave he would be very for
midable one now, were he without any
one to support him in hostility. The
gallant Col. Griffith, of Arkansas, said
that as hard fighting as he had en-
countered from the Federal troops was
from negro regiments; give these men
the material aid and countenance of the
Radicals, who are now courting them,
and we will find them formidable foes.
Make the EDUCATION they receive anti
Southern in all respects, ard you may
bring about war, not of opinion only,
but one bloodier and more disastrous
than the one we have just passed
through.
We are led to these remarks by
seeing, in an exchange, the following:
A number of freedmen in Selma have
published an appeal to their former
masters, concluding in the following
earnest and respectful terms
TERs: We know there is large num-
Der of widows and crippled men, who
are we'll educated, and have no employ
ment by which to make living.
These persons we would be pleased to
see taking an interest in teaching our
children, and training them up in the
way they should go. We are greatly in
want of schools, and to persons who
will establish them, we will guarantee
our undivided support. Our own peo-
pie are the proper ones to teach US, and
We sincerely wish them to do it. And
why should they refuse They raised
and taught US all that we know, as car
penters, blacksmiths, stone and brick
masons, painters, etc., including working
on the farm. driving, etc., and were not
ashamed or backward in performing this
service. And why should it be con-
sidered disgrace to make living at
this business in the South We make
our living out of the people here, and,
therefore, we think it our duty to spend
our money with those who sustained and
toek care of us.
The United States Government and
your State Convention gave us our
freedom, and we prefer you to any other
to have the money derived from our
daily labor for teaching our children. IF
you all stand back, strangers will come