The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-23

citing causes Of the war which set free over
four millions Of slaves.
We urge upon the more intelligent of the
colored people the propriety of collecting now
such histories as this of Lewis Clarke and
any others which will paint in impershable
colors for them the picture of slavery and the
slave as he was. The natural impulse since
the war with the whites of the North has been
to put it and its cause out of sight as quickly
as possible. They fought, driven by a savage
necessity, with their own flesh and blood;
and that necessity overcome, they have no
mind to go book and pick over the details of
the loathsome quarrel. They would be glad if
the sunshine and quick-growipg grain would
hide now and always their brothers blood and
their own which cry against each other from
the ground. Nor would we have the histories
kept as a record of guilt laid up against the
stakeholder. Of sdead sin-no memorial
Beside that Christian consideration, there is
the plain one of common sense, that il would
be unfair to hold them responsible for that
error out of the belief in which they are
rapidly growing In ten years from now,
slavery could by no possibility form part of
the Constitution of a Southern State. So
quickly do the morals, the opinions, and the
sentiment of people alter and adapt them
selves to the actual necessity of their present
life. Nothing changes the creed of corpo-
rate body so fast as expediency. In 1853
we saw mulatto slave arrested when
crossing the Ohio river and taken
into the streets of border town on the
Southern side. She had her baby in her arms,
with which she had travelled on foot two
hundred miles, only to see the strip of free
soil on the other side of the river, and to be
dragged back into slavery again. The citi-
zens turned out to help drive her through
the streets, and when some woman would
have given her a cup of water out of charity,
drove her back from her with insults. The
same town, its interests being with the
North, three years afterwards, was foremost
in the Union cause, and now is eager to give
suffrage, and that with the heartiest good
will, not only to black men but to black
women. The wind is driving the great cur
rents with this straw.
Free labor, mutual trade, and immigration
will make the nightmare tales of the cruelties
of slavery appear fabulous In the eyes of the
next generation of whites at the South, and
it perhaps is as well it should be so. But if
the descendants of slaves would furnish the
surest incentive to ambition to their own
children, they will suffer not one of these
records of heroism among themselves to fall
to the ground. ''It may be good for a man, y
as says the prophet, ''to remember that he
had borne the yoke in his youth, provided
he can also remember that he risked life and
all that made life dear to rid himself of the
yoke. If the colored people of this
country desire stronger bond to make
them nation they can find it in the names
of the men and women who first testified in
torture and death to the price at which they
held their chance of freedom. Let them not
forget to carry these household gods with
them from generation to generation, lest they
learn to wear their liberty lightly, forgetting
its worth. At the recent closing exercises of
the Anti-Slavery Society in Pennsylvania,
some reference was made to q record that had
been kept for many years by the agent of the
underground railroad in Philadelphia, him
self the son of a slave, and a man of remark
able intelligence and probity. To that
Office, under the care of the leading
Pennsylvania Friends, came negroes
from every part of the South
in every disguise, manned and SCARED
in boxes and bales-alive sometimes, to draw
the free breath they had never known-deat
sometimes, in sight of land. No tragedy
| could surpass in elements of dramatic horror
the simple facts as stated by the agent; the
covert notice, given by telegram, that goods
were to be looked for; the watching for the
train; its delays when life hungupon an hour
upon the chance overturn of the box by
careless porter; its conveyal to the Office; tht
two or three men and women at night will
locked doors, standing with bated breatl
while the boards were knocked off, not know
ing whether free man would come ou
among them or a dead lump of matte
on which man could wreak his bruta
malice no longer. Brothers met il
this room that had never seen eacl
others faces; mothers came here for tiding
of the children that had been taken from then
long years ago, not knowing whether the
were living or dead. We sincerely hope tina
the promise made of the publication of thi
especial record will be fulfilled, and that a
such histories may be preserved now Will
they can be taken down freshly from the lip
of eye-witnesses. To the most indifferen
reader they would prove, full of a strang
interest, and pregnant with noble meaning
But to the future descendant of these me
they will have value only to be appreciate
when they are lost beyond recall.