Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1869-05-20


disturb or defeat his ADMINISTRATION
INDEPENDENT
| Fair Field and Free Fight Ter the
Freedmen.
From the Cincinnati Commercial.
q; TIE deposits si fifteen thousand color
| ed PERSONS IN the South with tho Ma
! tional Freedmen's savings and Trust
| Company amount at this time TO 81 ,loe,
| 429, or fraction over seventy SIX dollars
10 each dcDositor- A Southern CORES
| pondsnt OF the New York Commercial
| Advertiser Is oil the opinion that were
the freedmen to deposit the gold, silver
and currency they hzve boarded away,
| the aggregate would reach not less than
S2O, ,O00, 900. This, of course, is a loose
! estimate, and there are III data by winch
! TO test its accuracy. But IL Is the general
testimony that the negroes, demsralized
I by the war, and their transition from
bondage 10 freedom, are rapidly resum-
/ ing their Id habits of industry, and are
! learning To husband their earnings
the complaints Of their idlensss, shit
lessness, and heedlessness are dying
away The planters, toe, begin to per
| ceive that the inducement of fair wages
promptly paid is more potent than 1.-The
| physical stimulus' which, it was assert-
ed at the close of tho war, was impera-
lively essential to induce the negro to
take up the hoe aud go to work.
There are doubtless thousands among
them who are, as a correspondent assert
ed, absolutely worthless" But among
the races OF men where is one to be
found of which the same may not be
said? So many predictions have been
made by theorists who believe the ne
-ol tn 20
slavery, and disappointed by actual
experiment, it is time they should be
modest and wait for the developments
OF the future. The freedmen have not
lapsed into barbarism, nor have they
become, to any large extent, paupsrs
and burdens upon the State, nsr have
they shown q stronger repugnance to
labor than any other race would be
likely to exhibit if put in the same con-
dition. On the contrary, they have
manifested desire for education that
has surprised these who believed them
capable of acquiring it. Comparatively
few are paupers and beggars, and when
they have been treated kindly and paid
promptly they have labered with As
much steadiness and industry as any
other class of men.
We insist only that they shall have
fair chance, and that no greater obsta-
cles shall be put in the way of their
advancement than are opposed to the
advancement of any class of men. Let
them have tho protection of equal laws.
afford them the white mans oppertuni-
ty to acquire property, give them, equal
ly with the whites, free schools for their
children, open to them the avenues
of trade and commerce, and If they
aspire to become lawyers, doctors, di-
vines, or seek to enter any of the pro-
fessions, dc not bar the deer in their
faces. In shsrt, put before them the
same opportunities and inducements to
be industrious, to accumulate property,
to acquire education, TO accomplish
themselves in speciSities, that are before
every white boy and man in this coun-
try. and then if they fail, the responsi-
bility will be theirs. Uuless that is
deDs, it con be justly claimed by them.
that an impartial test of their capacity
mad not been had.
We co not plead for special sdvsnta-
ges and privileges fer them; but We dc
insist, before 10 passed, that there shalt
DC fair trial--nothing more, and moth
ing iesz. This, we believe, will be con-
ceded 10 them in the Southern States
sooner than in the anti-slavery Conn
monwealths. While the negro was a
slave there, he was treated rs slave,
and legislation, shaped Of course by
those who had an interest in keeping
him in that condition, denied to him sill
things that might haYe = tendency to
render him discontented with his con-
dition. But being free, the same inter-
ests that combined to make him useful
as slave, will combine to increase his
usefulness rs a citizen. The Southern
whites have only to be convinced that
he has the capacity to become something
better than chattel, and they will unite
10 assist him in his progress and improve
ment for it will be to their social, in
dustrial, and perhaps their political in
terests to do 80.
In the South the relations Of the two
classes have been revolutionized by the
war In the North they have been but
slightly modified. Here it is prejudice
of race, not of caste, as in the South,
and the bond of that prejudice remains
unbroken. Hence the conviction that
the fairest opportunity for the devel-
opment of the negro will ultimately
be given in the States where he was but
recently held As 3 slave, but treated
with less prejudice of race and cslor
than in the free North. There is, to-
day, for instance, more unrelentlng
opposition to negro suffrage in Indiana
and Ohio, than in conservative Virginia
or Democratic Mississippi. If the negro
commends himself to the whites of the
South by his industry, economy, and
ambition to better his condition, he will
soon have . wider field and more gener-
Gus opportunities there than in the
North.