The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-01-31
x-rebels vote. Will the Tribune re-
The Lesson of Jamaica.
.oonisiider?'

Inc Lesson O1 Jd"oics
The Jamaica question cannot be too
carefully studied by us at this time IN
this country. And we can imagine few
more valuable books than clear, bret,
and faithful history of that island since
the emancipation. The great moral
which is taught by that history, in the
traomentary form in which it is accessl-
BILE. is the practical helplessness OF an
emancipated, servile class among those
who have held them enslaved. Making
all fair allowance for the climate, and
for laziness, ignorance, dishonesty, and
ease of subsistence upon the part OF the
emancipated class in Jamaica, it will
hardly be denied by q student OF It's
condition since 1885 that the chlef dill
Guilty of the situation is in the spirit OF
the old planter or slaveholding class
The initiative belonged to them. Good
sense should have taught them that
their true interest lay acquiescing hearth
" in emancipation and making the best
OF it. They were to depend upon a
class of laborers perfectly well known
to them, but placed in totally differ
ent position in respect of the tenure OF
men. They were to be treated as free
men. But also they were to be treated
as new freemen, as men bewildered in a
position to which they were unused.
Too much was not to be expected OF
them. They were first of all to be
taught confidence in the late master
class. They were to be educated, pro-
tected, forborne. The duties and res
possibilities thrown by emancipation
upon the master class were indisputably
very great; but they were to be faith
fully fulfilled or the whole island would
sink into ruin. Nobody pretends that
these duties ever were fulfilled, or that
as class the planters made any serious
attempt to accept or even to understand
the situation. The apprentice system
failed. The negroes were utterly al
ienated. They took to the bush, and
the great estates went to waste. ia
maica has languished, not on account
of emancipation, for under slavery 1t
was steadily and rapidly declining, but
from the naughty injustice of the mas
ter class.
The Eyre massacres of last year
happily aroused the English conscience.
The protest was tremendous. The
government was compelled to recall
Eyre, and to send out commission OF
Inquiry. Eyre is now in England,
where strong effort will be made to
bring him to trial for murder; and Sir
Peter Grant is the new goyernor-a
man known for his protection of the
natives of Bengal from the hard hand
of European masters. In his speech
upon assuming the government, Sir
Peter points out that there is no prac-
teal Justice in the Island for negroes in
cases of more than ten pounds; and it
has been found necessary, for the pro-
paid magistracy in Jamaica. AS a
further illustration of the administra-
ton of justice there is the case OF Cor
don Ramsay. He was one ofthe lead
ers of the massacre Of last year; and
the evidence before the grand jury
showed that when a man named Mar
shall, who was being logged by
Ramsay's order, either exclaimed,
90 lordr' in agony of the punish
ment, or merely groaned, or ground
his teeth. Ramsay said that it was
sedition. ordered him to be taken down
and hung, and he was hung. Three
witnesses proved these facts. There
was no question of them. But the
grand jury of planters refused to find
bill And these are the things which
Carlyle and Tennyson and Ruskin de-
fend as manly, British, heroic, and nee
essary.
1t is the business of craftsmanship
to deal with human nature, not with
abstract theories; and if any argument
were wanting to demonstrate the I'M
perative duty of the United States at
present to hold the freedmen firmly by
the hand, and not to intrust them to
those who hate them more than they
love their own interest, it may be found
in the story of Janlaica.-Harper's
Weekly.