The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1868-02-27
THE COIOred Members Of the
Louisiana Convention.

The COlOred Members Of the
Louisiana Convention.
The New Orleans correspondent Of the
Cincinnati Commercial thus describes the
Louisiana Convention:
ga few days agOI studied the charac-
tsristics of the Mississippi Constitutional
Convention. The negro delegates in that
are a decided minority, and but silent
partners so far as OratOry is concerned
The Louisiana Convention has very differ
ent traits and features. 1t is composed of
ninety-eight delegates, of whom exactly
one-half have African blood in their-veiHs
The colored delegates in Mississippi are
reserved in department, almost to the
point of timidity. Here they assume the
full prerOg atives of self-assertiOn, are self
reliant and consciously good as anybody
The African population of Louisiana is the
highest development of its race in the
South. The colOred members Of the Louis
lana Convention are of all shades of eOm-
plexiOn, and three-fOurths of them are
men Of marked appearance.
Gas this Convention is the contrast and
corollary Of the secession Convention Of
1861, so its members have both antithesis
and affinity with that body. John Slidelp >
octoroon son is a member of the present
Convention, so is Beauregard's, and so Is
the son Of the rabid De LOndes. Their
fathers dragged Louisiana ont Of the
Union that they might continue to traffic
on their own flesh and blood, and ascert
their instructive adherence of the African
race by choosing women therefrOm to
| rear their dusky race
'sThe sons labor to create a new and free
Louisiana, not forgetting to debar their
progenitors from doing more mischief at
the hallot-box,
"The 40 colored delegates in the Louisi-
ana Convention are among the best speci-
] mems of their race [ have ever seen. So
| far as my observation extends, one will
find the most intelligent and good looking
colOred men and women in Louisiana, and
the ugliest and most densely stupid in the
sea islands, along the South Carolins
coast. In those islands the blacks are moi
many grades above barbarism. They
have corrupted the language they speak
until it is half an uncouth dialect of their
own. But you will find the white sand
lhiIIers' in the same State, who compare
even more hufavorably with their fellows
of the not over modest Caucasian race
1.-The deeper we go in our ethnologica
, Istudies the more our little vanities ge
bruised.
The new Constitution of Louisiana prac
tically, will be the creation of white mel
conversant with the scope and application
of organic law, and who are used to pub
lie affairs. The negroes, however, are no
i driven like cattle nor caioled like sill.
trout. They know their strength, and as
sert it without reserve, but they right.
conceive that they are junior members o
the firm, whose profits will not suffer b.
letting the older heads dictate the polio
in the light of wholesome experience an
la Just notion Of responsibility. They de
port themselves on the floor without an
of the embarrassment that would sprin
, from their new functions if they though
themselves to be less or lower than thei
colleagues. They don't think anything Q
the kind. You may know that from thei
t walk and talk. When it comes to votin
on an important article, they generally e
together, but on minor questions, thei
views seem to be as various in shade q
their skins. Of the 40 negroes, about bal
= a dozen belong to the genus field-hand.-
! They may have some good points, but
is not looking pretty or presentable. Th
2 rest are a credit to their race"