The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1866-10-04
saegesflons CONCERNING cine Freedmen.
CARROLL CouNTg, MISS,
September 2jth, 1861

TO which, think, II won|d be well "a
urge the attention Of the people before
the next meeting Of our Legislature.
One In which we are deeply interested,
10 which some attention has been
given, and which the signs of the
times daily intimate to be Of growing
Importance to us. / mean the i'm
portance Of improving our present
laws for the control of freedmen.
This has been a year Of trial in every
sense Our purse, oEr energy, our
patience and resolution have all been
tested, and many of us have paid
dearly, in the dearest Of all schools,
for our knowledge.
The only feasible plan presenting
itself TO our law makers at the last
SESSION Of our Legislature, at all cal
culated TO meet the exigencies Of the
case, was adopted in our present con
tract law, and, indeed, it was the best
and only course left us. While it was
an experiment in which few, If any, OF
the practical minds in the country had
confidence, it has in some degree sue
ceeded in districts where the negro
has not been demoralized by contact
with Northern fanatics, yet it is utterly
unequal to the protection Of the con
tractor, where such influences are felt,
or where negroes have been hitherto
operated upon by them And how
ever much ] may be in the minority
rs to the feasibility of the thing, AN
amendment can be made to the laws
that will give it far greater efficiency
for the protection Of the agricultural
interest of the country, to which there
can he no substantial objection.
The cotton interest Of the South is
the hinge upon which the wealth of the
country turns, and regular, steady,
certain labor is an Indispensable requi-
site to its production. While the
laborer is no longer the property Of
the proprietor, laws can be enacted to
secure the contractor against the
whimsical changes in the minds of an
unstable race, by afIlxing a penalty,
other than pecuniary in addition there
to, for abandoning a contract before
its consummation except always for
cause. Let US have those
penalties, either prison or a work
house, both of which they would feel,
both of which they would dread. The
present law, so far as itOperates upon
freedmen is nudity, and why should
they be exempt from penalties for
contracts more than whites
Once every year the laborer is in the
He has right to the best
price he can procure for his services,
but once concluding an engagement
let him be compelled to keep it. And
not be allowed to ruin his employer
by abandoning him in the midst of his
or cultivating operations, for
no better reason than that "the sun is
too hot to work, or the labor too hard"
for his delicate constitution. | have
heard these reasons, and so have hun
dreds of others.
The result of the war has released
This race of vagabonds in our midst,
people possessed of no conception of
moral or civil obligations, banllrupts
n heart, head and purse, with whom
he obligations of contract, to which
$ only attached q pecuniary penalty,
$ rs threads of gossamer in the path
way of an OK. This fact which we did
lot need to be taught, has been dem
to the North and to thous-
Inds of Northern men among us, every
lay for the past eight months, and is
xerting Il healthful influence over the
minds of the observing and thinking
PORTION of that people.
Two influences have operated to
,rotect us this year OF both, time
will deprive u.s. The idea that they
we're amenable TO the law, has kept
many at their post, and in the quasi
performance of their duty because
ignorance and superstition combined
o make it terrible; and the race has
ot yet entirely lost that habit of ODE
Hence incident to a state Of slavery. |
tut each succeeding year will lesson
he force of both these influences. They |
iill soon realize that the white man has
o individual right to exert any re-
traint over their actions-that the
lw inhiets no punishment they dread
then realizing their freedom they will
bandon themselves to their charac-
eristic Incidence and the numberless
wills that follow, as has already result
q wherever they have realized these
Kings, vide, New Orleans and Mem
his, and every other Southern city,
themselves to the control of
he people-Or perhaps | should say
religion it is, to seek
ur view, And well may we shudder
hen we contemplate the powerful and
litter influence striving with earth AMI
eaven for its accomplishment The
lnaticis,n of the North is having its
olson like tide of the ocean in this
ERECTION. Let us, therefore, with the
rmness of men, meet it with such
,gislation as our judgement dictates
} be best for the control Of the ele-
lent through which they propose to
perate. We loose nothing by this
Ourse, and gain the respect OF every
sfecting man North and South, and
Iorthern men are far from being all