New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-02-01
90 cARRY ME- RACK ~


which it encases are quite as lively as II the
cheeks below them were OF the purest whlte
and the most brilliant carnne. In the paimy
DAYS of the patriarchs, the most potent threat
which could be employed to keep Virglnian
or a Maryland chattel docile, was to sell HIM
to 90 further South; and we know very well
that too often, under pecuniary pressure, this
method of raising ready money was resorted TO.
II is not strange considering this, and moreover
that Texas is a State founded by emlgrants,
that we find there great many freedmen who
were born in Tennessee, Kentucky, or upon
the Eastern seaboard-or rather we should have
found them there a little while agO-for now,
it appears that "they are returning to the
States from which they were originally
drought by the slave-dealers." Being at lib
erty to do So they are carrying themselves
back to the places Of their nativity. Texas, all
considerations of feeling apart, is not just the
State in which black man would desire to
live. The Caucasians Of those parts do not
go7ern their passions with absolute sway; they
find il difficult to forego their accustomed lux
ury of shooting hogging, and hanging mig
"gersn and stampede of those who are
exposed TO these bland attentions seems to
us to be the most natural thing In the world.
An immediate consequence is that labor Is
scarce" and in some parts OF the State
planters cannot get help to carry on their
FARMS 1t is difficult, if not impossible, to
determine by any general rule whether the
Blacks in leaving Texas are acting wisely or
not but we can readily understand that in
certain localities the negro is not safe from
extreme violence any more than he Is sure OF
fair wages and the prompt payment even OF
the low wages agreed upon. Finding himself
thus situated, the sooner he leaves for more
propitous parts the better; and now
that he can leave we may be sure
that he will, unless he is persuaded
TO remain by good treatment and an equitable
compensation for bis labor. II the planters of
Texas can afford to ignore emancipation alto
gether, and to drive away the labor which
alone can make their land Of the least value,
they must be q good deal richer than we
usually supposed them to be-
These statements in regard to the emigration
from Texas remind us of the chronic fear
in some Northern States of dispropor
Tomato incursion of Blacks. Certain of our
neighbors have always assumed that enamel
patton would be followed by the general flight
of the Freedmen to the North and various
measures have been suggested, and in
some cases actually taken, to keep the
colored people where, it is asserted,
they belOngn The inhabtive instinct of the
Black has not been taken into the account at
all. His preference for warmer climate than
ours the croalers have been altogether too
nervous to consider Assuming that he would
prefer wood saving at low wages to the culti-
walton of cotton and tobacco for wages cOnsid-
erably higher, and arguing that the demand
for wood -sawyers and boot-blacks is limited,
the uncomfortable conclusion has been reached
that we shall have an immense mass Of black
paupers to support in idleness. Now, consider
ing that the freedman, if he is equitably treated
there, can have no motive whatever for leaving
his old home, it is curious that those who profess
the most profound adherence of the race,
and the greatest fear lest it should overrun
the Northern States, are perpetually finding
fault with every project for rendering the ne
gro cOntented, busy, and prosperous at the
South, "where he belongs" where his labor is
in demand, and where he can add more than
in any other section to the general production
of the country. If these wretched victims of
negrophobia have no consciences to be
awakened if there is no feshly spot in their
obdurate hearts if nothing but self-interest
can keep them mindful at least of the forms
and shows of humanity, then we appeal to
their sel6shness, their prejudice, and their
hatred, and we ask their cO0pera-
ton, however base may be their mo-
tives, in making the Southern States
such an abiding place that the Negro will not
care to leave it. We think especially that tho
members of the Democratic party have earned
mo matter how the right to advise their
Southern brethren" and TO exhort them to
keep their freedmen at home by rendering
that home pleasant and desirable. No statute
forbidding the passage of the Black from one
State to another is possible. He must be left
to the motives and the influences which always
govern human nature. He must be free to
select his own domicile, and, while he lawfully
demeans himself, he must have the full pro-
lection Of the law. Only when all other
things are thus rendered equal VIII ne
be truly at liberty to follow LIS own
natural tastes and impulses. 1t is, We think in
the power Of the Democratic Party to give to
its quondam allies the best possible advice, and
to remind them that the agricultural prosperity
of the South is a matter altogether out OF the
question and something not to be reasonably
anticipated, If those who are most familiar with
Southern labor are to be driven by bad treat
ment from the plantations to work under great
difficulties at the West or to crowd into the
already over-crowded cities. A plain resolution
embodying this idea would really sweeten all
the other doings of the Democratic Convention,
and its entertainment by such body, in our
opinion, is demanded by common prudence and