The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-01-19
A Chapter Of Wholesome Advice.

Chapter OF Wholesome Advice,
The South Carolinian newspaper having
complained of the unkindness of the North.
of its unwillingness to see a restoration of
good feeling, and particularly of the tone Of
Northern newspapers, especially the tone of
the Baltimore Daily Commercial-the latter
paper proHers its Southern contemporary the
following bit of good advice;
In return for the reproof the South Carol-
nian has chosen to give us, we tender 1t lit
tie advice. If it wants "peace," let 1t cease 10
apostrophize Rhett and his secession confreres,
and above all-let it cease to arralgn those
as sincere at least and consistent as ITSELF If
1t wants indeed, "byegones to be byegones,"
let it busy itself more about the future of the
South, than its past! Let it tell the people OF
South Carolina what their immediate interests
demand in regard to their agriculture; their
commerce; their manufactures; instead of
wasting its time and the va liable space of its
columns, in moaning over secesh ordinances,
and demonstrating-fo the fiftieth time, per-
haps, that there is nothing of good about the
negro His disabilities, his weaknesses, and
ignorance, are great enough-all the world
knows; but dwelling upon, and abusing and
ridiculing him tor all these failings will not
help the matter. And in recommending the
South Car0linian to pursue this course down
there, we are only urging it to that course the
people of Maryland know we are pursuing
here. We want Reconstruction" to be shown
in neighborly good feeling; in combinations to
advance trade, manufactures and all that; and
If the politicians are determined to keep caus-
es for quarrel open, we are not. Let the
South Cdrotinian pursue similar course,
with ourselves, and it will have little or no
reason to complain of want of accord with
those who look to it for aid in restoring the
South.
1t seems to us that, fort he South Carolinian
and other Southern papers to ridicule the ne
gro and tell what poor, untractable and
worthless thing lR is, is not only in very bad
taste, but it is done with exceedingly poor
grace. For two hundred years the negro has
been under the tuition of Southern masters ;
he has been their pupil; he is precisely sohat
they haze made him. If he is lazy has he not
had illustrious examples? Has he seen in his
white ''superiors" brilliant illustrations of in
dustry? Have not those equally idle and lazy,
and infinitely less productive, fattened and
grown rich on the products of his extorted
toll?
Is he shiftless? And in the loose habits OF
the South, the rundown plantations, the mort
gagged crops, and the general dissipation, has
he been without striking example of shiftless-
ness?
Is he given to theft? And for two centu-
ries has he not seen every cents worth of the
fruits of has industry taken from him? Has
he not seen the child stolen from its cradle,
the daughter from his cabin and the wife
from his bosom, and sold like lambs or cattle
to the drover?
Is he often creature of lust and passion,
and apparently-stultifed in his moral sense
And is he the only one in the South who is
liable to this charge? Has he had no lessons
set before him in this regard by his white in
structors? Ifnot why that general fading out
of the color of his race? Whence comes that
yellow skin on the plantation? And why are
those thus bleached of their color treated no
more tenderly than the full-blooded African,
if the aohite man has not become stultifed in
his feelings toward his o,cn kindred?
We repeat, that for two hundred years the
HcSIo las oecu ullucr tuc lnStrucllon VI
Southern masters, and is precisely what they
have made him; and if he is untractable, and
low, and miserable, and has made but small
advance in the right direction, there is just
reason to suspect the mode of training to
which he has been subjected, and for trying
a different mode. And 1t aciH be done; and
not till two hundred years of freedom have
failed to produce good results, should any one
insist that slavery is the negros normal con-
dition, or Is better for him than liberty.