Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1867-06-15


to,Beneral rcprobation ask YOU all to bear
witness, that this prediction was nowhere ius.
tiied by the event. The colored people of
tl.4 South who were still held as slaves. uni
foEmly felt their affection for their masters and
ttls9r families was such, that they would be
tcaInS and outlaws, murdcrcrs and criminals of
tE EfdeoPoSt dye, if they should take ndvan.
, tT,p of their masters absence III the war to
aFftsc their families. The Southern Whites
onnght to feel, and trust that many of them
dpffeel, gratitude toward the colorcd pcnnlc for
tilelc general department throughout the war.
me Blacks often ran away to the Union mr.
mics and enlisted there; but they took no -.
dye advantage of the opportunities offered by
their masters absence. Applause
.,Fci!ow citizens there have been many in.
stances wherein men held in Slavery have
been been instantly or gradually by one means or
another cmancipatcd, but don't remember
ai1y instance where a fcttcrod race was ibcra.
ted from Slavery, and yet kept for generations
ID scrvilc, abjcct, degraded condition There
Is is tue great slavcholtling Empire of brazil
always shvcholding since it had any consc
4uencc ut all-whcrcin men who are slaves
to. day may be free to morrow, and thcncctorth
eligible to any trust, any Office, being voters
nnd citzens, precisely us though born free and
~ h'to Such was the course pursued by
Great Britain in respect to the slaves cmanc
nnted IN her Colonies. Slave.y is one thing,
Freedom another. But there is an intcr,ne-
diate condition, which is neither Slavery or
hbcrty that incites all the energy and asp-
ration OF frecmen, and yet involves more than
hall the disabilities of the slave. Such
condition as that, | believe, was never long
maintained or endured in any civilized coun.
\ nd ,-0f l..
which the dominant race in the South dos
tined the Blacks to occupy by the legislation
OF lS65-GG-a condition which is neither
Slavery nor Freedom, and one which men
partly educated, and who felt themselves to
certain extent cmancipatcd, would find utterly
.uubcarablc.
Let me here meet an objection which is
sometimes offered Some men saw u,rhc
]. IPlack people of the South arc, to a great ex-
,,Ssht, ignorant pnd degraded: how then can
lSa0 Insist that they arc qualified to oujoy all
the privileges of .;tiao.. p, II eov ;f v,,,
make ignorance uniform ground of exclusion
from political power, can comprehend the
justice of your rule, your objection. But, so
long as ignorance or degradation is no bar to
citizenship to White men, protest against
making it Il bar to suffrage on the part of Black
men, who have excuses for Ignorance which
White men have not. [Arplausc7
But then, there are peculiar reasons why
this race among us should have it's liberties
secured by the most stringent, frmest guar
antccs. They are and must remain, to some
extent, n separate aud peculiar people in the
land. They will be exposed at every step to
pcri's and antipathics which other men arc
not, not only because of their color, hut be-
cause OF their weakness as well For thew
are not only minority of our people, but
their nuncrcial Importance is sc,dly declin-
ing. When our first Federal census was ta
ken, in 100, they were nearly fifth of our
entire population when our last census was
taken, in 1860, they were but an eighth and
the child is now born who will sec them no
more than a twentieth. do not believe that
they will prove unable to hold their ground
among MS as frcemcn, nor that they Will prove
less prolific in freedom than in bondage But
there Is no African immigration to this coun.
try, and never has been any voluntary immi-
grafton OF negroes to any region outside of the
tropics They may be dragged into the tenn
Pcratc zone in tctters, as they have hccn; but
IN freedom Their tendency is wholly the other
way. And, On the other hnnd, the waves of
great and steadily swelling European immi-
grafton arc constantly breaking on our shores
dcposting here some 25o 900 person per an
mum, mainly in the prime Of youthful yicor
i5y this gigantic influx, the character of onr
population is brins constantly modified 80
thnt the Blacks, now majority in two OF tIlrce
States, will soon be a minority in cach and an
inconsiderablc, powcrlcss fraction of our whole
people. The present, therefore, is tho acccp
ted time to secure their rights, when there is
public interest tc,: in them, and when there
rn t,t,l ,>F ~