The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-03-20
ABSORPTION OR GRADUAL EXTINCTION


1t is worth noting that the New York Trib.
une indorses the apprehension expressed by
some intelligent observers at the South, that
one of the consequences of the abolition OF
slavery will be the extinction of the black
race ia the United States. This idea of the
ultimate deletion OF the blacks through the
friction of economic and social forces, opera
I ting under the merciless auspices of freedom,
though only now dawning upon the capacious
intellects of Mr.. Greeley and the rest of them,
the negros peculiar friends at the North, has
for years been familiar to the Southern. mind
From Thomas Jefferson to jefferson Davis, it
has been subject fruitful of solicitude and
reflection to the craftsmanship of the South.
Mr.. Davis, referring, in a message to the Con-
federate Congress, to Mr.. Lincoln's emancipa-
ton proclamation, took occasion to deplore
the fate Of the negroes in the event of their
abrupt and Wholesale Liberation under the
terms OF that document. One of the effects of
such measure, if successful, he said. would
be to doom to destruction the negro race in
the South, population generally of gentle
and contented disposition, and under condi-
tons adapted to their natural peculiarities,
not only quiet and harmless and useful, but
capable of large advancement in civilization.
Mr.. jefferson believed that nothing could
avert the eventual abolition of slavery. But
what would be the consequences of the event
was question which he could never resolve
to his own satisfaction, and it filed him with
concern to his dying day. As for the negroes,
he anticipated that finally their case must
come to this alternative, deportation or dele
ton. Well, this thought of the inevitable
elimination of the black race in this country
under the grinding attritions incident to their
freedom, begins at length to break upon the
dark profound in which the philosophers of
the New York Tribune ruminate over vast
projects for the regeneration of the world. |
And SO we now read in that journal |
that ''this fear'-the apprehension that the |
blacks will perish in consequence of the |
death of slavery-''has some historic justif- |
cation. A race signally inferior in energy, |
numbers, wealth, intelligence, persistency
and almost every other quality that would |
enable it to hold its own, placed in close con-
tact with a superior, if incapable of absorp-
ton, is in danger of gradual extinction" The
veriest of old fogies is your fanatical, uncom-
Radical. Thus, Mr.. Greeley, with
al his frantic though well paid devotion TO
he cause of the American negro, has been
July half century behind the intelligence of
ordinary people on subject most yitally con-
'erning his black brother and protege. And
low that he begins dimly to discover the hard
ines which the blessing of freedom"-the
'oon commended by him as the sum of all
elicities-is destined to draw ground the
ace on whom it was thrust at the cost of a |
million of lives and three thousand millions
+ dollars, what does he say? What conso-
alton, what solution, does he offer? Why,
he lectures of Jobs comforters were posi-
ively exhilarating compared with Mr.. Gree
sy's recent dissertations on the awful pro-
lem which he and his coadjutors have caused
D confront, like Sphinx's riddle, the black
opulation of this country. He indicates no
'ay of egress between absorption" and
gradual extinction" Nothingness is at
ither horn of the dilemma Thus the grand
cheme of benefcence contrived by the pecu-
an friends of the American negro is to Gull
inate in the nihility of his race. At least
lch is the anticipation of some OF them.