The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1870-05-18

Esop. who wrote more than two thou
sand years ago, put the result of his study
of human nature into the form of Fables.
They are so wise and true that they have
lasted till our time, and will last longer,
for what was true then, observation has
since thousand fold confirmed Some of
the most important lessons Of life are Of
ten now most briefly expressed by the Fa-
bles of Rsop. Here IS one of them, to
which we owe the familiar expression that
YOU cannot wash Blackanoor white :"
"a certain man having bought Black
moor, was so simple as to think that the
color of his skin was only dirt and filth,
which he had contracted for want of due
care under his former master. This fault
lie imagined might be easily removed. So
he ordered the poor black to be put into
tub, and was at considerable charge in
providing ashes, soap, and scrubbing
brushes for the operation. To work they
went, rubbing and securing his skin all
over, but to no manner Of purpose, for
when they had repeated their washings
several times and were grown quite weary
all they got by it was that the wretched
Blackamoor caught cold and died"
| Now, all observation Of the negro, from
his appearance in the sculptures of the
earliest antiquity, and all the written rec
ords of his relation to the superior race, in
every age and country, confirm the moral
that is taught in this ancient fable of the
old Greek philosopher "To wash the
Blackamoor white to put him on a foot
ing of equality with the white race, has
been tried in vain In our day. it has been
tried IN Mexico and in South America,
and with only deterioration in both ra-
ces. This settled truth has sunk 80 deep
into the minds of the white men of the
United States that it resisted all the ar
guments of the Radicals. So they deter
mined 10 lay aside argument and try
} force. By force, we have had Fifteenth
: Amendment tackled to the Constitution IN
contempt Of the known will of two thirds
2 of the people of the United States. The
attempt will fail. The work of God and
t nature cannot be undone by .presumptu-
e GUS human hands What history and
: physiology and science have taught is not
> likely to prove vulgar error, ss the Rad
: icals call it. For they have progressed so
far that they now despise even the men
: OF their own party, who, like Abraham
{ Lincoln, always deprecated the attempts
o to confound together the races, or to put
i them on political equality.
# Yesterday the Radical press was bla-
! tant in spurious exultation over the cele-
n kration of the Fifteenth Amendment in
Y this city. But the public sentiment OF
: the white people of Philadelphia was new
e er more Enthusiastically evinced than in
n the absence OF real sympathy with the
It occasion. The most intelligent of the col
IS ored speakers, Fred Dougla: a light mu.
l. latto, dwelt upon the fact, and ascribed
e it to the ignorance of the 'lower grades.
y The same speaker made the following
II fling perhaps at Esop:
r GOur opponents console themselves Will
is the idea that liberty is not congenial u
E. the health of the black race which vii
st die out. To that class say the prospec
A. is far from fattering believe in tn
le vitality of the colored race, because tina
n- for two hundred and fifty years it ha
rs been subject to all the intrigue and pun
n ishment OF slavery"
IS But this is not good reasoning for ther
1e is no doubt at all that slavery did increas
n the productiveness Of the negro race
at which has already diminished in freedom
After all, the old fable may came true lit
orally, as we'll as in the moral that is {
be drawn from it.-PkiLodelphia Age