New-York tribune., 1869-03-26
BREAD AND THE SPELLING-BOoK

BREAD IND THE SPELLING-BOOK
The Freedmen's Bureau discontinues its
work Reconstruction advances apace No
menclature changes The condemned "nigger
is fast becoming our colored fellow citizen.
Scipio Africanus will yet rise in the Hall OF
REPRESENTATIVES to speak to the question OF
Reform in the Naturalization laws. Witess-
ness NAV be against him, but not wool Con-
siderations of tibia and fbua, of pigment and
cerebellum. shall not withhold the white aspi-
rant to post official revenue IN his district from
soliciting his Endorsement. No question of Sc
lected races shall forbid his pallid fellow-mem-
her from Iowa to button hole him for his vote
on a cunning railroad BILL Nay, The E1press
will print his speech in full, with euloglstic
display headings and, in rounded periods,
will The World group Euclid, Hannibal, Tous-
saint, Dumas, and the current SciDio, and, IN
neat allusion to Epictetus, infer that condl-
tion of bondage prepares the way to the largest
intellectual liberty.
Now, therefore, since emancipation involves
the suffrage, and the suffrage involves the
right to hold office; since the actual "darkey,'
clamming at low water along the Maryland
| creeks, is the possible legislator--it behoOves
us, in both instances TO see that the best use is
made of this raw material Of Republics. The
negro, leaving slavery behind, expects to ex-
change work and the lash and enforced obedl-
ence for sbambling laZiness and eligibility
to all the hOnOrs that may be heaped on
white men. His notion of a gentleman is n
man who lives without work He aspires to
| be q gentleman. He is too initiative not to
| have caught the vices which have been his
example for the last two hundred years.
The negro has hard lessons to learn
before he is fit for citizenship. which
will not, alas be withheld until he
is fit. But lie gives us vantage ground.
Sambo's model gentleman reads, and Sambo
is mad for the alphabet. In the freedmen's
schools are no empty benches Gray polls
and baby curls bend over the spelling book.
Wrinkled hands and fat little fists cramp them
selves round the unaccustomed pen. Scholars
are few among all these students. Slavery
does not cultivate the logical faculty nor en-
courage pure thought. But when the Honorable
Mr.. Cox and the Honorable Mr.. Morrissey refer in
eloquent terms to their intelligent constituency,
Scipio Africanus may cherish just pride of
race as he adverts to his Taught, the negro
will be the trustest of citizens; untaught, the
most homeless of vagabonds. Ills education has
become question of public economy Snd
safety And the duty of educating these
masses negro teachers must take up. White
men and women have done noble service but
they do not, generally they cannot, give their
lives to the work. They are aliens in blood
and breeding. Competent negro teachers-pa-
tent, plOdding, kindled with class PRIDE and
held to their work by class mpathies-would
make men and women of their fOrlorn and
childish people.
There is at Hampton, in Virginia, a Normal
School which promises better help to the freed
men than any other institution of which we
have knowledge 1t is q growth of the Manual
Labor system, and invites men and women,
white and black, indifferently. 1t has perhaps
eighty pupils, the youngest twelve years old,
the oldest forty. The men work on the school
farm, in the carpenters shop, the shoe shop,
the wheeright's shanty, or wherever special
capacity determines. They have built the
school barns, granary, henneries, and work
shops. They mend tools, make fences, plant
trees. The farming is scientific and admirable.
The "sacred SOIL" to the amazement OF the
white planters thereabouts, is drained, deep
plowed, fertilized, made to yield unheard-Of
bushels of grain and truck" 1t supplies the
school, and ships early vegetables to the Balti-
more and NewYork markets Beef and pork
raised on the farm, oysters and fish caught in
the neighboring creeks, furnish the table.
From o'clock till / o'clock the men work out
of doors, the women in the house. being duly
credited with the cash value of their labor,
which pays for tuition, board, clothes, and
books. The organization is such that the
incest economy prevails, and the charges
are, therefore, low. But every scholar must
pay his way. On this point the young Super
intendent, Gen. Armstrong, is inhexible, long
experience among the blacks having shown
him the whole giving system TO be miserable
makeshift The rule bears hard sometimes,
but the greater value set on the education
that must be paid for fhe determination of