New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-06-06

\ your people-the eolsred raee-can not read
| They have been newly enfranchised, and
! generally untaught. This want needs to be
met. The sooner the better. Mr.. Howe, in
| England, you remember, fought long and
| bitterly against the right of suffrage, and
after it had been passed in spite of him. he
said: Now we must go to work and edu.
cate our new masters" 1t was required
You have given suffrage to large class
here, and you must go to work with Will
to educate the colored people, that they may
be enabled to handle their power with iudg-
ment Capital will follow. Although it
may cost you money, and may appear bur
densome, you can not afford to do without
a schOOlhOuse upon every hillside and every
valley in the south.
There is foundation for the statement that
nearly one-half yonr people do not know
how to read, and hence do not know how TO
vote. | allude to the cOlored people, OF
course | live in the city OF New York
where about two-thirds of the voters are
foreign born. Irish, English. German and
French: but we spend $3.0OO,O0O year to
educate their children, and begrudge no
effort or expense to cause the new genera
ton to grow up American citizens in heart,
soul. and belief And it is great mistake
when your Southern ladies and gentlemen
treat with repugnance, at least with cold
come here to teach the colored children.
have known good. pure women who came
here to teach, and who were among the best
of tutors, and they have lived among you
for years, and in all that time never received
the most distant cordiality. countenance, or
even hospitality.
This is prime Southern mistake. The
ignorant are to be helped up-not to be
frowned down. AS yet, presume that the
H., nd ftav
taught have no proportion to each other.
The good and wise here should love the
teachers vocation. Ours is one country.
1t is forever destined to be one country. Of
the forty millions of people in this country,
there are at least thirty millions who be-
lieve in the perpetuity and unity of the
United States. Now, let all take hold of
the land and make the most of it.
We are no longer Mississippians or New
Workers, but American citizens. / was
told some strange things in Texas. On one
occasion was asked what thought of the
people there-how l liked them! I ans
wered that | had been accustomed to see
ing just such people for over forty years.
A little more hair on these, perhaps, than
on those at the North. But they speak
better English than they do in London.
The good Creator, when he made this
country, made it so that it could not be di-
vided. We all need the Mississippi 1t is
east or west, north or south;
but man has made ten thousand iron lines
to hold the country together,
binding it as if with ligaments of steel
her railroads And what shall be done to
strengthen these bonds! Educate! Edu-
cate the mind and muscles of the people.
Educate better and more of it. Let there
be common effort to develop the unedu-
Gated race, as well as to bring out the
riches of the soil. Build railroads. Bind
the Gulf to the Pacific, the Atlantic to the
and reap the reward of COM
mon benefit.
Instead of asking for more labor better
and labor seems what you re-
quire. You are as many in number as
was twenty years ago, but
your products are not as great. And why!
Because you have so few departments of
| believe in agriculture. / am
essentially an agriculturist; but you need
every other branch with it. You want one
hundred cotton and wooden mills, iron
foundries, ten thousand manufacturing
establishments where you now have one
hundred. In Texas, with as large an area
Of territory as all France, there are eight or
ten manufactures. They ought to have a
thousand. You have the mild, beautiful
climate the soil, and all the natural advan-
tages; but after all you can't build up a
people and have wealth with only a couple
Of crops. | don't object to cotton, corn or
other crops, but you want men to come
here to build roads, start factories and add |
to the diversity of your industries.
/ am glad to see, as | do, large numbers
Of improved farming implements at all your
iepots; but / would be better pleased, and |
you the richer, to know that they were |
manufactured in Mississippi. Set every
stream to turning wheel, every wheel to |
turning a mill You will find that if you
nave not thus increased your population,
II least you have doubled your wealth.
We have the country left to us. We have |
IN energetic people. We have forty million
)eople. We form the noblest common
wealth on the earth. Our wealth may be |
!uadrupled in twenty years Each for him
elf. and all together, let us turn in to make
ne most of our heritage. Let States take
lold to build up waste places. Let us
waste no time in reproaches, but take it as
t is, and make it work out it's improve
nent, and we will become the richest and
most productive country that the sun ever
hone upon.