The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1867-02-15


wealth, and that upon this subject he found
such state of feeling among the intelligent
men as warranted little hope that the pres
ent generation of negroes will see the Gay in
which their race shall be anenable to such
laws as apply to the whites. Already has
each of the southern states by It's constitu-
ton or laws abolished Its negro code, and
placed the blacks and whites on an equality
before the law, and what further privileges
ARE demanded for the present generation of
blacks OF whom this writer says:
The negro is no model OF virtue CIR man
Illness lie loves ideness; he has little
conception of right and wrong, and he is
improvident to the last degree of childish
ness; he is creature-as some of our own
people will do well to keep in mind-he is
IA creature just forcibly released from slav-
cry. The havoc Of war has filed his heart
with confused longings, and his ear with
confused sounds OF rights aud privileges; it
must be the nations duty, for it cannot be
left wholly to his late master, to help him
to clear understanding of these rights and
privileges, and also to lay upon him a
knowledge OF his responsibilities. He Is
) anxious to learn, and is very tractable In
respect to minor matters; but we shall
need almost infinite patience with him, for
he comes very slowly to moral comprehen-
sionS"
This want of understanding of rights and
privileges-this want OF knowledge OF re-
sponsibilities-this lack of moral compre-
henslon on the part OF these freedmen are
to be supplied at the national expense
We are left to conjecture as to how these
annual expenditures are to be estimated
and laised, and through what agencies
made and di, bursed. WIN these annual
appropriations reach $l,200,O00, and are
they to be disbursed through the treedmens
bureau? Or is this great work, requiring
years Of labor and almost Infinite patience,
In its accom- plishment, if it can be accom-
plished at al, of bringing this black race
to the capabilities OF self government, to be
entrusted to the hands OF a few unprlncl
pied demagogues OF the south and north ?
This is not the ostensible plan of the pro-
posed constitutional amendment, subscribed
to by northern legislatures, but under the
powers claimed to be conferred by It's pro-
visions and those other powers assumed to
be given by the constitution. Congress
will endeavor to so shape its policy that
these states shall be kept under national or
northern sectional control, until this edU-
cational, Iepublicanizing problem shall have
been solved.
Further, this writer says: Il think the
freedmen divide themselves into four clas-
scs. One-fourth, recognizing very clearly,
the necessity of work, and going about it
with cheerful diligence and wise fore
thought" In this the better class Of
blacks, can be easily recognized one that
may soon, through the encouragement
which will be surely extended by the whites,
become substantial treeholdeTs or respect.-
/ bnll To
the institutions of the state and worthy the
enjoyment of the right Of the elective
franchise.
"One-fourth comprehending that there
must be labor, but needing considerable en-
couragement to follow it steadily" This
needed encouragement will come from the
example Of the industrious ne-fourth, and
the remunerative rewards bestowed by the
| planters or the late slave masters, whose
interests require the steadily applied and
we'll directed labor Of all the blacks. One
fourth pretering idleness, but not specially
ayerse to doing somejob work about the city
and towns; and one-tourth avoiding labor as
much as possible, and living by voluntary
persistent begging, or systematic pliierlng.
Thousands of this aggregate body OF people
appear to have hoped, and perhaps believed
that freedom meant idleness; thousands
are drifting about the country or loating
about the centers OF population In a state OF
vagabondage.
How are all these vices that attach to one
half OF the slave population of the south TO
be uprooted and their sad effects removed :?
! Through what means is this inbred, chronic
habit Of ideness, begging and pilfering to
be eradlcated and that OF industry and hon
! esty OF life substituted IN its place? by
| what lnstrumentalltes on these false no.
! tons Of freedom that lead to this life and
| all the ills of vagabondisln, to be changed
1t is, alleged TO be the nation duty, for
it cannot be left wholly to the late masters
of these freedmen, to supply the means and
instrumentalities necessary for the accom-
! plishment Of this great and phl!anthroplc
work?
There seems to be a great diversity of
opinion among the radicals as to the means
to be used in the trial Of this experiment
for the amelioration Of the condition and the
! elevation OF this race to the position of en-
Gghtened freedom capable Of self govern
! ment.
What particular line of policy congress
might, under the provisions of the proposed
article, to the constitution, comforting pow
ers over the rights, liberty and property Of
| the Individuals within the several states,
see fit to pursue in their re construction Ct
the political and social institutions of the
south, cannot be here foretold and only i'm
agined that it will under present or like
political control, be revolutionary if not vol
| lent in its conception and execution, we
have well grounded reason to believe and
/ fear.
All republicans are agreed that the south
ern states should be excluded from repre-
sentation in congress, for an indefinite
period, longer or shorter, as may be found
necessary for the full trial of the expert
mental policy for the time determined upon
but differ widely as to what that particular
policy shall be-
Some suggest the letting of the states re-
main as they are, and the establishment Of
schools to be supported at the national ex
pense and placed under military control,
for the education of the blacks in their
duties and Obligations as citizens
Some would have the nation retain mill
tary control over the southern states and
subjects the higher order of whites to the
enforced employment of the enforced labor
of the blacks upon terms fixed by military
l. 4 IL