Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1868-07-07
Facts Confuting Theories.


For n long time past the Demos
cratic press has teemed with cries OF
NEGRO Supremacy THE Negroes
are INDECENT and lazy" They are
lot OF panpers, supported by the
General Government" and other
choice phrases and derunciations con.
stituting the stock in trade, and the
sum total Of their arguments. The
following extract from the editorial
correspondence of Chas. G.. Halpine,
Of the N. Y. Citizen, dated at Rich
mond,) though q Democrat, says it
is 10 use to ignore the facts, confutes
these assertions. Unlike the World
and other Democratic Journals, that
Systematically suppress every fact
damaging to their theories, Halpine
says he "eannot fight with poisoned
arrows" He shows that the Freed
men are Il sober, industrious and well
behaved people. He says:
There is nothing like personal ex-
perience for correcting errors. We
hear stories from interested sources,
and often accept conclusions with>
out sufficient eXamination-conclus>
ions which single week Of personal
observation must prove to be un
founded. What may be the conduct
and temper Of the recently freed me-
groes throughout the who beSouthern
States, we cannot say but by uni
versal evidence, the agricultural ne
groes Of Nirginia-that is, the farm,
hands and blacks not employed in
the main cities. wv here politicians
most do congregate" are behaving
with wisdom, propriety and mod
Grafton which are fast eXtorting the
praise of all who have not some dir>
Get, or fancied interest in maligning
and misrepresentiDg their personal
conduct. In the country districts,
the freed negroes Of Virginia are ex-
hibiting qualities Of industry, mod
Grafton, patience, docility, and self
respect which entitle them to all
praise, and are extorting the praise
even of those who most feared and
disliked their ascendeney. Treat
them with even decent fairness and
UNDERESTIMATE margain with them
which you mean to keep-and they
are fully as respectful as under the
old system, and far more Industrious,
far more willing to learn new and
improved methods of agriculture and
all tie mechanical arts. The inn
provement of their labor, now that it
is free and compensated, nearly if not
fully makes up to the old owners
such Of these latter as are not hides
bound in prejudice-for the loss Of
their services as slaves. The rcgu-
lar rate of wages for good field hands
is about $500 q year and found
their subsistence osting about one
third more than their pay SO that
for fifty cents day, at the outside,
good faSm laborers may be engaged
by every one who will treat them
fairly. As to anything like per-
manent ascendency Of the black race
in Virginia, or anywhere else in the
South-exeept, perhaps, South Caro-
lima and Mississippi, where they
must remain in majority for the next
ten or & dozens years-the fable is
too obvious and too absurd for seri>
Gus refutation. White colonists from
the North, and white immigration
from Europe, are already disposing
of this problem and whenever the
political questions Of our late "DixIe"
are settled, there can IE no doubt
but that the enormous productive>
ness of the South will turn nearly all
the immigration and restless labor of
our continent in that direction.