The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-01-18


beginning to affect surprise and disappoint.
ment that their patients are not happy yet
In the FIRST place, there Is already mos'
startling decrease In their numbers. III
nearly every southern State the negro
population Is melting off somehow, disap.
pearing rapidly in some direction or other
This is very serious fact for all the par
ties concerned for the negroes themselves
who throve and multiplied and replenished
the earth until the hour when philanthropy
fairly got hold of them-for the empioye'S
Of labor-snd, indeed, for the whore oou
munity Of these States, who iose % many
valuable hands-and for the Pcopic VI Tue
North Who would insist upon turning them
loose. Naturally, these latter do not like
to admit the whole extent Of the havoc
which is unhappily thinning of the popula-
ton which they undertook to elevate in
the scale of humanity; and it is in vain
that We look for any trustworthy statistics
on the subject coming from that quarter.
General HOWARD, Of the Freedmen's
Bureau, in q late letter to Secretary STAN
ToN;estimates that is, conjectures,) the de-
crease, doubtless according to the best in
formation which he has been able to pro-
cure but his estimates are long way be-
low the mark. Dor example, he supposes
the diminution Of colored people in Vir-
ginia to be $4,000, in Georgia $4,000, in
South Carolina $1,000, and SO on. Now,
on Monday last we published an estimate,
founded upon the returns of the commits
sioners Of the revenue, showing loss of
10000 in the numbers Of blacks in Vir-
GINA alone from 1850 until the LIST Of Feb
ruary, lS65-a year ago. At the same
rate Of decrease, if il has continued since
that date ,and we fear the rate has been
larger), there cannot now. be much over
100000 in Virginia, against 531, 900 in the
year 1860. If General HowARD's conjec-
lures as to the other States err in like
proportion, as we suppose they do, the
true account Of the matter would be
truly appalling.
If the northern people, on dissolving the
old connection between the two races, had
been content to let them both alone, so
that they might adapt themselves to the
new order Of things as they best could
those who best know the South know that
the new relation would have established
itself amicably and smoothly in the great
majority of cases; and the great suffering
and waste Of human life would have been
spared. But this would not suit the po-
litical views Of the dominant faction; it
was necessary that they should represent
the southern planters as filled with vindc-
tive animosity against their emancipated
servants, and Indignantly resolved to do
them no justice in contracts: this gave the
needful pretext for occupying the country
with troops, and giving to officers the
power of coming between the freedmen
and those who needed their labor; pre-
text, also, for representing the southern
country as still in state Of. dangerous
disturbance, thus giving Congress occasion
for exceptional and unconstitutional inter-
ference-for keeping up " the war;" in
short, during profound peace, until those
who controlled the Government should
reap what they call "ths fruits Of the
war;"
They have been bitter fruits for the ne
gro. He has been the first and heaviest
sufferer by this meddling philanthropy.
We read Of perfect exodus of colored
people now moving of from every district
of South Carolina. The Tribune, which
does not reveal these ugly facts when it
can help it, mentions that "they are col
elected in camps along the line of the
"railroad waiting for trains which are to
"bear them away" 1t appears that
these people are bound for Florida, the
Government finding them transportation,
and giving them six months rations. The
negroes Of South Carolina were made the
special object Of the experiments Of the
Government since the war ended; and
we see the result. The correspondent of
the Tribune thus accounts for the migra-
ton "The contract system of the past
"year was productive of every species of
fraud, injustice, and wrong; and after a
"year Of toll and endurance, the freedman
"found himself at its close without money,
"proyisions, blankets, or shoes, and with
"out home" OF course the writer
charges all theses frauds and wrongs upon
the wicked planters-for that is his cue
but whatever be the cause, the result is
sad. A year or two Of "freedom," with
Government spoon-feeding, and all the
zeal of the Bureau gentlemen, leaves such
multitudes Of negroes homeless and naked
that they fly, in their misery, so fast and
multitudinously that large districts of
that State are threatened with total de-
privation Of labor. Those who can believe
that the planters and farmers, who have
need Of that labor, are the persons who
thus drive the poor people to despair, must
be the same who hold that the war is still
raging in South Carolina, and will rage I'M
til Mr.. STEVENS and his friends have reaped
all the fruits of it.
In the same number Of the Tribune we
find an editorial appeal on behalf of many
thousands of negroes now in the District Of
Columbia who "remain on hand" says
the Tribune, sand have greatly oyerstock-
"ed the local market for such labor as
"they can perform. Hence, idleness, pri-
"yation, suffering hence, in some cases,
"thriftiessnes, demoralizStion, and crime"