Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-12-29
THE NEGRO QUESTION.


From the National Inteiligeneef
/ A few days after the surrender Of Gen.
/ Lee, 3 rebel soldier, on board q steam
/ boat. addressing a fellow passenger, who
/ afterwards announced himself as from
! New England, as the boat was passing
: J JAMESTOWN Island, in James river ex-
claimed, as he pointed to the spot:
/ a. There the war began, two hundred and
I forty.fIve years ago % His meaning was
/ that in 1920, thirteen years after the first
settlement, q Dutch shipInasteT arrived
! at that spot with the first cargo Of ne
Vross that had ever landed on our shores.
! This Is not precisely accurate, as the
! Spanish colony of Florida was foul with
/ negro slaves nearly generation earlier,
while, by singular coincidence, the Ply
mouth colony, founded the same year
with the Introduction OF negroes in Viz
Pinia, $500, is known TO have bad me-
/ gro slaves also thirteen years afterwards,
/ fl6S3l. The Virginia colonists forbore
/ the sin of importation of negroes among
/ them, or the siu of slavery, as it was
| afterwards called, full rs long as the Pu-
lritans-possiby, indeed, longer; for there
l is evidence Of negro slavery in 1858 IN
Massachusetts,, with q probability that
IL was Introduced earlier, while il is
/ known to have begun at Jam msstown in
1920. In q book published in l764, called
! the New England Prospect" which
{ has been cited by high historical author
/ itv. mention is made of the consterna-
/ ton Of certain Indians VITO, observing
negro in the branches of q tree, took
/ him for their Bad Spirit, where1pon
/ they posted TO the English and en-
/ treated their aid TO coDjure this devil to
/ his own place, who, findIng him to be
/ poor wandering blackRulore, conducted
/ him 10 his master. Up. 81. This is stated
I to have happened IN 1888. So g poor,
wandering blsckhmOFes, /" in or before
/ 1888, in Massachusetts,, had their mas
ters"
Nevertheless the rebel soldiers idea
I was closely related TO profound and
melancholy truth. A morbid sensibiiity
about negroes has, in one form or an
other, according 10 what it was mixed
With, by whom il was patronized, or
with what objects it was expouuded,
] been, FROM the origin Of the colonies,
occasionally shown, and having, in later
vears, convulsed public opinion under
/ The superficial head Of prO-siavery
against anti-siaveTy, fiuaily broke into
[ an earthquake Of civil dissolution under
( the equally superficial lead Of insurrec-
/ ton against Government. Under all
mutations and issues, real as they werei
there was at bottom u specific poison
/ working in the veins of the political body
which was the predispOsiDg cause OF sli
/ International trouble, s.nd that poison
WAS the presence Of negroes. The pres
/ ence of negroes OceasiOned the anti
/ slavery fanatieism, which was but the
natural form Of horror of negro assOcla-
I ton in those not Immediately exposed
D 1lu FaV rsaA tn THEa
/ groes in the country. Their presence
/ occasioned " pro slavery also, because,
] INDEPENDENTLY Of all industrial consider
/ stions, in which the non-slavehOlding
whites had no share, that was the nat
I ural force Of the same repugnsnce 10 ne
/ gro association, in the hearts of those
/ Immediately exposed toit. Here was an
instinct, / g.: a horror Of equalization
I NTH ne0rOes ; which was mOrbIdly strong
/ in the white breast of each section, and
which In itself was common 20 both, yet
/ actually operating in tie form Of an Au-
/ tagouism between tha people of The
! NSrth and those Of the South, solely be-
. cause their circumstances were different,
and, consequently, the same instinct
EXPRESSED itself in opposite forms.
/ Nothing more melancholy could be
/ conceived than the obvious deduction,
that the furious and colossal struggle OF
blood in 1851 was but the elimination Of
these opposite forms Of the same i'm
pulse; that the spurious and ignorant is
sues and controversies Of our politicians
which developed it never touched the
! true point and that this tremendous frs
I tricide Of Caucasian brethren was nothing
but a mistake Of the truth.
/ If God is in heaven and man is his
] creature. let US not reject the truth which
I millions have perished TO unseal to us +!
/ NeqrO egIldlizutiyR IS i7ltOJeTdbie to tChite
! DfODle. This truth hEs survived every
/ pos-ible cOntravButiJn. and has been con-
stsnt through trials and tests that nc i'm
. auinahle eITur could Withstand. Let
1 as consider a few of them:
l. If IL hada been really true that all
I white persons who were not rendered in
sensible TO justice toward him by preju-
iices arising from his degraded condition,
! believed the negro to be q fit component
. Of society, we must have found in COM
muuities where those not so prejudiced
were in q majority, a corresponding IA
| vOr for negroes as a component OF soel-
| ETY.. Yet, il will not be denied, that in
any community in the United states, the
persons who live up 70 that doctrine in
good faith are so few that they are re-
gsrded as singular, ana by those who
profess zeal for negro rights, are habitu-
ally selected as honorable examples.
/ There could be no distinction, honorable
or otherwise, attaching to conduct which
was common or very frequent.
> But even if in a given community,
it were common to the msiOriiy, or to
ALL to treat negroes among them ss bona
Rde equals in all respects, the test would
not be conclusive unless the negroes IN
such community were sufficiently nu-
merOus to make a substantial component
Of the society. The repugnRnce excited
in one individual by the presence OF an
other is not to be compsred in intensity
and energy TO that which characterizes
classes against each other in which case
each individual by force Of law Of
familiar experience, is an exponent oi
the aggregate repugnance Of thousands
limited only by uncommon wisdom anu
virtue in the individual, or by some
eccentricity which makes him otherwise
an exception TO common men. Why
do YOU want to drive them off now, since
YOU admit they are getting wealthy,
respectable, and educated, compared
with what they were formerly ?" wa'
asked by n stranger Of white man, o.
the working class, in 1858, in Xenia
Ohio, when some excitement had ariseT
against the negro population Of thai
place. " Because" was the instructive
reply, "they're getting too far respect
D. able for white f0lks.n This man was al
earnest adherent Of the Republican
party. voluhly hostile 10 slavery. Bu
The fact is of little account. He mad no
the ordinary temptation to dissemOle
and coarsely, but truly, uttered the Law
OF his race, in the conditions in which i
was operating in his heart.
& Kansas was g dedicated to freedom,
/ e.. TO negro freedom. Civil war wa
imminent. This WAS the pitch Of ex
ciiement to which hundreds of thousand
Of people 10 the States not containing
many negroes had brought themselves
as they said, by considering that tn
course of settlement Of the Territory, ]
suffered to go on as it had done else
where, would allow Kansas and Ne
braska to become States in which ne
groes should not have equal rights will
white men. II was not pretended tha
the. white men from the North win
q should settle there would ever incur tn
& least inequality or prescription. ltcoui'
- lot, therefore, have been in the interes
Of their own white men, but exclusively
: as they themselves proclaimed, witt
: ravishing elOQuence, in the interest @
negroes, that they struggled for i" free
, dom " in Kansas. They gained the vic
tory. Freedom wss its fruit. Not whit
freedom, for they did not pretend that
was in issue. But black freedom was tn
. fruit. Alas, for the hypocrisy that doe
9 not even know itself! The only frni
availed Of was fruit for the white man
3 and that was the privilege Of excludin
q negroes from existing at all in the Terri
tory; for it is well known that anon
their earliest legislation was an act VII
d. tually prohibiting colored people iroI
d coming into the Territory. Thus tn
anti-si1Ueyy impulse that undermine
LOYALTY to the Uuion, and reverence fo
tba GonstitutiDp. and conducted th