The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1869-01-14
to about one thousand dollars in value,
all of which were lost.

made trip through some OF the sou'n'
ern States. He was not favorably i'm
pressed by close inspection of the Vir-
ginia negro for he says:
The negroes in Virginia seem to be
more contented than those of the other
States that we have been in-at least,
we saw more of them idle, and more
complaining of rates Of wages and want
of work, This may be owing to the
season of the year during which our
visit was made. The rate Of wages
ranges from six to ten dollars per month
in all the southern Stutes. TO this is
added ration of three and half pounds
Of bacon and peck Of meal per week.
hut to live in is furnished them ; and
very little work to do for the money
We presume northern farmers, who
would 90 into the fields themselves and
say to the negroes "come," aud might
get more work out of them; but they
are constitutioually opposed to labor,
and require constant driving. We were
astonished at the immense profundity Of
their ignorance. They do not really
seem to have an idea above an OYSTER
and are, many Of them, in Intellectual
calibre. but little above the beasts of the
field.
They are utterly improvidcnt and IN.
able 10 take care Of themselves. The
rags in which they are clothed would
astonish the most accomplished beggar
in Italy. They are expecting the Gov
ernment to do great things for them,
aud have got an idea into their heads
that from this source they arc to get
forty acres of land, a mule and FARMING
implements, and provisions enough to
last them until they can make crop
-uFrhvfF 1iFnd FFfhcY-reneei,ss iis,tt stttitc'
Government owes them this. If they
get that mule it would not live three
months, but would die of starvation
half of the negroes would be even too
careless to lead their animals to water.
The planters can trust very few of them
with their stock, and they require con-
stant watching. 1t seems incredible
that any human being would let lis
dumb beast die for want of water, yet
we are assured that it is often done by
negroes whv attain tic owne ship of a
horse.
John Randolph g Roanoke tried this
experimental Of fitting out freedman with
farms. BY his will he freed his slaves
apd directed that they should be settled
in a colony in Ohio-each provided
with house and lot of ground and farm
ing implements. They we're, moreover,
to be under the care of a superintend-
ing white man until they got fairly
started in their new career. 1t was all
done as directed, and today, after the
lapse Of twenty or thirty years, not one
of those freedmen owns the lot that was
given to him.
What mockery it is to give these
creatures, with their present degree of
education and intelligence, voice in
the administration of our Government.
Negro suffrage South, fortunately, is 80
great farce that it will not long con-
tinue to be a reality. 1t may exist in
name for 6, few years, but even then the
negro vote will be but the echo of that
of the white man. The freedmen al
ways agrees to what a white man says
in all our conversation with him We
were never able to meet anything but
the most ready assent to every PROPOSE
ton which we advanced, no matter of
how contradictory or absurd charac-
ter.
JOHN G. BREcKENRIDGE.-John G..
Breckenridge is not rich. He is poor )
g, I r., oGoo IT, 10