The Van Buren press., 1866-04-21

slaves; they now are fUc. Is their con
diton better or worse than it was then I
AS was said, they had homes on the plan
tations around; now they are mere deni-
zens-hirelings They were clad and fed
without their care orexpense; now they
they derive every morsel and every gar
ment from hard, if not precarious earn
ings. They had a certain and continual
support; now they have poverty. But
the great distinction with them is liberty.
1t mavs. tl,.eo "a "a Ave years Tor IN subsel
quent timc) they may have the means for
enjoying freedom The possession of
anything, goods, lands, money, liberty,
is useless unless itproduces profit or plea
sure. The preachers say sinner would
be unhappy in Heaven because Of his in
ability to enjoy the glories of his sur
roundings.
/, for one, am not disposed to. array
Jamaica, or any other locality where
slaves have been emancipated, as an ex-
ample of the future status of the freed
man. Let us give him fair chance. 1t
is our interest to do SO. From appear
ances it may be necessary to give him
more thrn fair chance; but by fair is
not meant such chance as miscegenist s
desire Let us help him to become in
|telligent, moral and well to do. If it be-
comes necessary that he should vote-not
on scraping cotton, hoeing corn, or even
on that difficult and remunerative branch
of science in agriculture for which he is
so justly celebrated, gourd-raising but
on the tariff, fishing bounties, banks and
constitutional amendments, we can but re-
gret, acquiesce and keep silent.
The reason for not holding our negro
case as counter to the Jamaica one, is
because of the dissimilarity between them.
Pro- slavery statistics used to show that
certain years, when the negroes were in
bondage, thousands upon thousands of
hoysheals of sugar were raised i'm the
Island for expectation; they also show
ed that in other certain years, when the
negroes were Free the no-hogsheads- at
all were raised. But British philanthro-
py left the negroes to shift for themselves.
AS the climate was very hot, not ma
ny shifts were needed. Our philanthro-
py and our winters will compel differ
ent economy. 1t will not be easy for the
African to return to the habits Of his fa-
ther-land. Palm trees alone are not suf-
ficient protection from the elements, and
gourds are not perennial.
Let us await the result of the expert
ment. 1t will take but a few years to de-
eide it. do not see why, If the hold
ings of northern good-men are correct
the negro cannot succeed as well as the
penniless foreigner that comes to our
shores. The former may not be acquain-
ted with the mere matter of literature as
the latter; but in agriculture and many
things that conduce to thrift and prosper
| ity, he is vastly the superior. About one
fourth of our population are descendants
Of the Revolutionary fathers: the rest
have filled in. The latter, or their dc
scendants, in many instances, are undis-
tinguishable from our sires. Children OF
immigrants oftentimes cannot speak the
language Of their parents they are not
"chips," DC. Now the African has q
chance to prove what his friends have as.
serted for him not by an occasional
Fred Douglass (who, by the way, Is
strongly intermixed with the white mani
but by his whole race becoming equal in
intelligence with the Anglo Saxon, Celt
and Teutonic ri' 'i'F
QyERE Slavery being abolished in the
United States, the enactments against the
importation Of slaves are dead. Why
couldn't any number Of negroes come
over from Africa and participate in the
benefits of the best government the world
ever saw? SUMNER
LITTLE Rock, April 18th, '66.
Our WashinEton Correspordonce.