The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1867-05-03
FOR THE MANITowoc PILOT.
Protection.

kindliness and forgiveness in the pride and
joy with which the national heart was
pulsing. Expressions Of it from all hands,
from the press and the people, arose. From
no source were they more frequent or strong
than the army. But, waking from the
stupor into which they had been thrown by
the sudden realization of their abolition
schemes, SUMNER and STEVENS rushed
frantically forward, shouting Justify, Hold
on the black man must be protected ~
And the good unthinking people of the
North looked shame faced enough at being
caught displaying tenderness towards these
traitors" and, being rebuked by those
oracles, really thought their iacipient
generosity was something to be ashamed of.
Then, like the detected and pursued thief
who joins the throng and shouts as vocifer-
ousy as any, stop thief!' so these we'll
meaning people hid their shame by lik e
arti6ce, and brawled of "red-handed
traitors" bloody rebels, !" murderers,"
and all those cries which fanatical party
has made so familiar. These fantastic
caperings might have amused us as very
excellent pantomine, but that there was
such an air of awful tragedy about them.
I doubt if any secure observer during the
French Revolution felt like laughing at the
mad antics of those fanatics And so the
war-cry went out over the land, "To your
tents, oh, Israel Guard the Most High
Sambo!" ss
After an unusually long incubation, the
old Radical Hen finally hatched Two as
precocious chickens as ever picked the shell
were ushered before the public, amid great
ruff1ing of feathers and futtering of the old
hen and vociferous Growing of the little
Radical Roosters-of which our village is
happy III the possession of one. Both these
pets are labelled Protection" The one
is dingy white, and roosts over the manu-
factures of New England. The other an
untinged ebony, roosting over the South.
1t is with the latter we have to do. But
let me hazard prediction In few, very
few, years we will see both these chicks re-
turning, equally strong, and driving the old
hen from her nest.
Radical legislation works upon two pre-
misses and deductions: 4 sc, That as the
negro is ignorant and as the Sontherners
are ill-disposed toward him, therefore he
needs present military protection I'd, That
the power to vote will give him the ability
to protect himself. 1t is superAuous to
bring proof to establish that which is ad-
mitted in the proceedings. am willing to
admit further, that the relations into which
the negro was drawn with the Federal gov
ernment during the war, naturally embit
tered his Lifelong friends against him that,
under those feelings, injustice has often
been done to him. But do these premises
warrant the conclusion that, " therefore, he
needs present military protection We
may learn something from the lessons of the
past which will help us in solving this ques-
ton. History proves thateppressed peoples
are rarely prolific. Political economists also
assure us that the question of sustenance
directly affects the increase of humanity.
Statistics, gathered previous to the war,
prove that the negro wasremarkably prolific
Witness his increase after the stoppage of
the slave trade. From these facts we may
logically conclude that the negro, as slave,
was well fed, well clothed and we'll shell
tered-three essential elements of rapid in
crease. But that interest which then pro-
tected him is stronger now. Labor, free,
demands different treatment from labor,
bond. The physical force which could be
used with impunity in directing the one,
must change to persuasion in directing the
other. Negro labor can no longer be forced,
it must be induced. We can safely assume
this fact to be as patent to the South as to
us. If so, it becomes their interest, direct
powerful interest, to- treat this labor prop
erly; that is, not only kindly, but justly.
For, bond OF free, the negro must ever re-
main at the South. The same laws which
prescrlbes the northern bounds of the lion s
range, and places invisible limits south of
which the wild boar dare not 60, defines as
accurately the position of the negro in our
country. The exceptions but enforce the
general law. He must ever, too, be the
laborer there. No matter what the future
may bring that race-of wealth to some and
intelligence to all, it is to be hoped, still,
negroes must ever do the work. Nature
merely tolerates the white man in the trop-
les. He must take her products at second
hand. Field labor is with him physical
impossibility. IF persisted in, death from
sunstroke, or fever, or congestive chills,
certainly ensues. The negro is not affected.
The relations Of capital and labor are closer
there than elsewhere capital is more de-
pendent. If then, at the North, capital
can be left with labor, almost unrestricted,
to make their own terms, cannot dependent
capital then be left to treat alone with more
labor? Isl bayonet necessary
TO adjust their relations? Self-iDterest is,