Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1866-01-24

our friends, that when the grim leaders OF
the rebellion shall re- e-embrace their oldparty
allies, President placed in power by Re
publican trust and Republican votes, for
getful of an example that consigned two
Presidents to private life and public lnfamy
viii be present to celebrate the reunion OF
these pardoned principals IN crime with suS-
pected accessories before the tact. do
not speculate as to what the President may
do You never know what slngleman, sud
denly elevated to power, may do. fut
not your trust In princes Is warning
that will apply to all men IN power new
er could guess the secret motives that IN
duced Tyler and Fillmore to betray the
Wings. I have often heard that person
who stands on the brink of Niagara, or
climbs TO the top of lofty tower, feels an
almost irresistible impulse to jump of. 1t
NAV be some such unnatural sensation that
prompted these two gentlemen to leap from
their high eminence into the terrible obscurl-
ty below | cannot believe that MIR. John
son will follow these unseductive examples.
But if he should, he alone will be broken.
The tower will stand, but his crippled limbs
can never again ascend it. The ranks of the
Republican army would not even waver.
Its contractors and suffers would fly, to be
sure but without the loss of a man or a
gun, it would still stand, the friend of the
oppressed and the terror of the oppressor.
Whatever individuals may do, be assured
the Republican party will adhere to its
principles, and its principles will certainly
triumph. TheWhig party could hardly be
said ever to have been in a settled majority
of the people, and it stood yet he betrayal
of two of its Presidents, and only broke
down when it surrendered to the slave pow
er in the Baltimore convention OF 1852.
| conclude, therefore, that colonization
and re- -enslavement are both impossible.
Then determination awaits them, " so we
are told. The census, however, tells diff
ferent story. These tables show that the
black population multiply quite as fast as
the white 1t is the large additions of the
white element from abroad that gives that
race an apparent advantage. L know that
these people are poor. For long, dark years
their industry has gone to swell the over
grown estates of their present prosecutors
But they have been accustomed to life of
deprivation. Their wants are few; and In
a country where labor is high and land and
food are cheap they cannot waste away. l
know it is thought that this rapid increase
is due TO the mercenary care of the master.
The more children he could raise for the
market the greater his estate. This is true
only of a few of the more northern States.
Breeding was not encouraged in the plant
ing States further south. The overseers
task was inconsistent with the duties of ma
ternity. The services of the mother were
worth more than her offspring. The life OF
the slave was graduated by the price of cot
ton, and, as general rule, it would pay to
use him up in seven years. And whatever
would pay in that country was practiced.
humanity was no restraint, for making a
man into brute makes the maker brutal.
During the transition from bondage to free
dom, in the midst of civil war and bitter
persecution, their numbers may possibly
diminish for short time; but the expecta-
ton that they will become extinct has no
foundation either in the history or charac-
teristics of the race.
In endeavoring to look fairly at this ques-
ton, | have found no evidence upon which
to rest the belief that this race is ever to be
colonized, reenslaved, or eXterminated.
come back, then, to the question with which
[ began, what shall be done then?
Let them alone. That is the answer
given by member of the New York Leg
islature when il was proposed to send sur
geons to vaccinate the Indians who were dy-
ing of smallpox on the Reserve, ''They
are drunken, vagrant, thieving race, )"
said he; "Let them alone. The sooner
they are gone the better for the country
''We cannot afford to let them alone, said
the member in reply; ''they spread the in
fection through the whole surrounding coun-
try, and we have only the choice to admin
lister relief or suffer and die with them.
Neither can we afford to let five millions
of population, who are forever to remain in
our midst, increasing as we increase sink
How
and vice. 1t we do, our own race will GER
tainly grade down to them. The more we
degrade these people the lower we sink our
selves. The ignorant white people have
been made to believe that the elevation of
the negro is equivalent to their debasement.
The reverse is true. The more we improve
this unfortunate race, the higher we raise
our own. Human influence is not confined
by sharp embankment of rank or condi-
ton. 1t overfows to adjacent ranks, cor
rupting or purifying them as it is itself cor
rupt or pure All classes in society are ele
waited where there is no degraded class. It
is the interest, therefore, of every while
man that these people should be educated
in morals, skill, industry, and letters Eve
ry dollar expended for this purpose will e.
conemize losses by unskilled labor, by riots,
theft, and poor rates more than tenfold I
am not now advocating the cause of this
race, however meritorious it may be- do
not base the necessity of their Improvement
upon any claim of their own. 1t does not
at all impair my argument to concede the
truth Of all the charges preferred against
them, even by their most unscrupulous ac-
cusers. Suppose that their minds are as
weak, and their proclivities to vagrancy and
vice as strong, as the life-long despoilers of
their earnings allege, admitting at the same
time my premises that they cannot be sent
abroad, nor reenslaved nor exterminated at
home, it only makes the necessity founded
in Selt-interest the more imnaratipa nno,,