The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-10-02
What Shall be Done With the Negro !


What Shall be Done With the Negro!
From the LoutSvHle Courier.
Everybody has heard the story of the man
who drew the elephant in a lottery. After
the first flush of joy at his supposed good for
tune was over, he began TO consider what dis
position he should make of the huge animal
that threatened incontinently to eat him out
Of house and home, and OF which he could
make no possible use. The story, it will be
remembered, goes on to tell of the trials and
tribulatiOns OF the unfortunate wight with his
newly acquired property, which thus turned
out an insupportable burden instead of piece
of good fortune, and which he would gladly
have gotten rid of by making it a present to
somebody but for the Circumstance that he
could induce no one to take it. Now we are
disposed to consider the negroes very much
in the light of the elephant drawn by the in
dividua in question. They have been freed
from their former condition of bondage, in
which, by the way, they were really of some
use, and turned loose upon the country; and
new that the thing has been done past re-sc-
ton, the question is, what shall be done with
them?
1t is useless now to discuss the wisdom OF
emancipatipg the negro. The fact that he is
free is one which must be recognized; and we
have got to make the best of the circumstance
that we can. That he is proving burden
upon the nation most grievous to bear, and
that he threatens to become still more 80 in
the future, is but too apparent. The support
of Sambo has cost the Government of the
United States a mint of money each year since
the period of his liberation, as the tax payer 5
depleted pocket bears witness.
The enormous expense of maintaining the
Freedmen's Bureau is but a trifipg matter in
comparison with the evils looming up in the
future. AS rule, the negro is idle and self
indulgent. In his native Africa, and in the
West India Islands where he has assumed his
natural habits and condition, he does no work
except when engaged in occupations that
would scarcely be considered laudable among
civilized and enlightened nations, but ia con-
tent to lie all day in the shade of the orange
or banana, waiting for the fruit to fall into his
mouth. From the day of their emancipation
in the United States the negroes have evinced
a strong inclination to return to the instincts of
their race as far as circumstances will admit of.
In great measure abandoning the industrious
habits of the days of their servitude throughout
the South, they have crowded into the towns,
with little dependence for livelihood except
as they obtain it by aims or pilfering. Some
| of the towns and cities of our own State afford
a striking illustration of this. The popula-
tion of Lexington, for instance, has, since the
close of the war, been nearly or quite doubled
from the cause we allude to. The citizens OF
that place very naturally regard the acquisi-
tion as anything but blessing; and those
| who look upon the great number of dusky
faces that peer out upon them, 60 in what
direction they may, cannot but consider it q
marvel how they live. Since it is thus
already with the negro, there is no reason fol
| doubt that, unless something is speedily done
| to prevent 1t, the soil of America will, ere
long, be cursed with sort of pariah by al
odds more Objectionable than any other ever
known in other lands.
But the unpleasantpess of having a race 8
idle vagabonds among u.s. and being compelled
to maintain them, is not by any means the
most formidable feature of the subject. The
negro, possessed as no is of strong animal
passions and inferior intellect, is, in his new
condition, peculiarly susceptible of evil influ-
! ence. Thore who familiar with the char
acter of the race, and conversant with iti
history, can be at no loss to form some con
ception of the evils that might be wrought
through the instigation OF bad and designing
men. II is no light matter to have among us
an inferior people, with bestial passions ant
instincts, capable of being aroused to turbu-
lence, insubordinatiOn, and rapine at any
time. 1t may be said, we know, by some
that the docility and tractableness thus far
manifested by the majority of the Southern
negroes should allay all such apprehenslons
Let it not be forgotten, however, that the forc'
OF the habit OF respect and obedience to thei
former masters is still upon them. Ever
that, as our readers are aware, has not beeI
able to prevent numerous outrages in diferen
parts o the South.
an Offset to calculations based upon the exre
rience of the last three years, his documen
becomes absurd. The contrast is then between
the carefully compiled data of the Ways an,
Means Committee, fortified in regard Il
income by the opinions of the Commissions
of Revenue, and the predictions of disoredite
official, manufactured to order. Our Demo
} cratic contemporaries are welcome to all tn
consolation they can derive from the latte
: source.
But the World goes little too far when
parades Delmar as an authority in estimatin
the cost OF radical rule" The burden
T the story is that the current fiscal year wi
end with large deficit; the only cOrrobors
McCulloch, whose opposition to the Congrei