Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1870-03-31

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one who has lately travelled in the SOut
will testify that instances are very raj
where negro makes any indecent e1
hibition from imperfect clothing; an
this improvement in dress wiz especia
ly strike one familiar with the torn1t
rags of slavery, This may be sma
circumstance in itself, but it is q larg
one when we measure it against the Ell
bergro larem; and it is eloquent alike {
the economy and thrift which enabl
him, and the self-respect which prompt
him, to make such an appearance in tn
world.
Another accusation usually brough
against the negro, and which has OF
tanned certain sort of currency by tn
mere force Of repetition, is, that he
vicious and disposed to be lawless. O
this subject L may repeat the remarl
which 1 recently heard in Virgini
court of justice. In the Hastings Cour
of Lynchburg, worthiiy presided owe
by on of the few Northern judges, ap.
pointees of the military power, wh,
have given satisfaction to the mike,
population that SO severely tries th
popularity of all its public officers,
venerable Virginia lawyer, formerly
STAKEHOLDER, speaking in seme cas-,
where negro was indicted for crime
remarked with singular feeling and in
genuousness that it became the whit.
people of the South to show an extraor
binary fOrbearance towards crimes inn
puted to the black race, as they them
selves were deeply involved in the re
sponsibility, on account of their long
neglect of the moral education of thf
negro in tho days of slavery. There is
q profound force in this remark, and one
deeper than the reader may first appre,
hend, 1t Is founded on close observation
that, excepting the ofense of larceny
which is very frequent among the me-
groes, they are singularly free from crime
and L venture the proposition that,
throwing out this particular crime,
which is exceptional, and the prevalence
of which may he traced directly TO the
decentralization of slavery, there is really
less lawlessness among the negroes OF
the South than among an equal number
of whites, and much iesg-t0 make the
comparison just-then among al equal
number of whites of the same grade of
education and of fortune.
x
But the idea that the negro has bad
eminence, when we come to look
through the entire criminal records of
the South, it is not true; especially
when We take into account the prejudi
ces of the courts against him. In many
respects he exhibits cleaner bill Of
moral health than his white neighbor
He is peaceful, remarkably free from
offence OF violence and disorder. He is
not quarrel>one, and it is remarkable
that the stories of his riots i'll the South
are. Invariably miXedp with some IL
lusion to tile acts or presence of white
people: it is but seldom that in ASSEM-
blies of his own race he ever commits
any disorder or in any way breaks the
public peace. But the crowning and most
virtue of the negro in the
South is his freedom from the vice Of in
temperance-a vice which is a notorious
one in the land in which he lives, aud
which has been the common scoufge of
weak and inferior races, That the ne
gro has been superior tothis instrument
of destruction, which. has been used
with such fearful effect on the least
civilized races, is volume of commen-
dation of him, and speaks for his future
more hopefully than any other incident
of his moral life. | utter pregnant and
truth when say that drunk
enness is almost unknown among the
negroes in the South. 1t is seldom that
they are found drinking to the point of
absolute lntOxicatiOn, or that the law,
which obtains in the South so many
victims from the vice, finds any COM
plaint on bis head against the negro. OF
the comparative temperance of the black
man in the South my observations have
assured me daily their, and 1: defy the
police records of this section to dispute
an assertion that all men will admit in
wolves deeply the morality of the negro.
The past holidays L spent in parts of
the South where the customs of drink
ing freely at Christmas-time where even
observed, and yet can
testify although the town OF l.
the usual number of cases of
esteemed more innocent
than at other times, | did not see one
instance of of drunken negro obstruct-
ing the freedom of the street or dragged
to Jail.
But while giving some facts concern
ng the negro in the South, necessarily
very general. designed 10 vindicate him
rom popular misrepresentation, there
IS one imputation from which l would
clear him, and on which | am.
most willing to rest the claim of this ar
icle as really valuable contribution to
,he know ledge of the true condition of
,he two races i'll the South. 1t is 4 dis |
,overy of which am perfectly assured,
md which cannot but be acceptable to
I'll who desire the peace OF our great |
country and to look to the happy and |
adjustment of many dis |
,ressing questions which have arisen in !
he South. 1t is, briefly, that the famous |
'ugbear of social equality of the negro |
5 the merest bugbear; that it has really |
10 existence in the South; that it is al
ogether Il deception and All impos- |
ure practiced upon the most ignorant |
)rejudicrs of race-a scarecrow which |
politicians hangup when they are speak
ng to people who really know nothing
If the nature and aspirations of the ne
,ro as he exists to-day i'll the South. We !
Ill know how this matter has been
nouthed. 1t is the old drgunleptun1 dd
ioninem to the vulgar underlings of an
last triumph the orator
When he asks, "How would you like
low would you like the animal in your
'arlor?" ETC. etc. This is the Brick
style of literature concerning
he negro-the pot house argument to
e thrown at every man who might
peak, no matter how decently or mod
rately, of the rights of the black man.
t is time that this humbug was explod-
d, and that there was one less, at least,
f those coarse and unmeaning plati-
udes by which the puplic is asked by
to make up its mind on the
egro question-really one OF the most
intricate and thoughtful OuestiOns ofour
ines.
The negro in the South does not want
Dcial equality: he has really no aspira-
ions Of that kind and indeed the more
itelligent of the blacks deprecate the
citation of such demand, rs calculat-
d to excite and intlame prejJdices
gainst their race. without the possibili-
y of any commensurate good. Some