Semi-weekly Louisianian. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1871-1872, 1871-05-18

gladly 1nclte tnelr cOIIectlOu. VI cOUoo,
it's counsel will have only such weight
with Conservatives as its intrinsic worth
may fairly command by deserving.
The past is past. The dead are here
no moro. Not even lunatic now urges
the restoration of Slavery. The notion
that Four Millions of Blacks may some
how be lured or driven to abandon their
native land for that of their remote an
cestors has no longer serious advocate.
The Blacks will not migrate to the
North, nor even to the Northwest. A
few may 90 to Africa; another handful
scatter in various directions; but the
great body of them will remain in the
land of their birth, tending rather
from the James and the Roanoke to the
further South and Southwest. In short,
they and their descendants will live
among you, and work for You and for
others around you. And. having acquired
and exercised the political rights Of en-
franchised citizenship, they are not likely
to be divested thereof. Any serious at
tempt to reduce them to even political
vassalage and impotence must incite
perilous and desolating convulsions.
What are you doing to qualify these ta-
lo,o-citizens for the grave responsibilities thus
imposed on he,ns
OF course, you are not responsible for
their Acknowledgement. We all know
that. Had the decision rested with you,
they would not now be voters, nor would
they be free But they are free, and
they are voters; and your welfare, as well
as theirs, is to be powerfully affected by
their exercise of the functions for which
they are as yet 80 imperfectly qualified.
| When the last great Extension OF the
Elective Franchise was achieved in Great
Britain, Robert Lowe, (now Chancellor
of the Exchequer,) who had resisted 1t
step by step with signal ability and stub
born determination, promptly declared,
I'VE must educate our new masters
That was the simple dictate OF sci
preservation. And not Lowe alone, but
the great majority of British Conserva-
tives, have since supported grants OF
money for Popular Education which, but
for that Extension of Suffrage, they
would have sternly resisted.
Now, the very saddest aspect OF South
ern affairs is the Indifference evinced by
nearly all, and the positive aversion ex-
hibited by 80 many of you to the Edu-
cation of the Masses, White AZ well as
Black. Right well do you know how
unfit are your "poor White" as well as
your CUlored neighbors for the grave
public trust they now discharge; yet you
are evidently doing little, and likely to
do little, to enlarge their qualifications
Most of you act as though the cost OF
Popular Education was just 60 much
, thrown away.
We know that you are generally poor.
The first settlers of New-England were
still poorer; yet they built chool-houses
and hired teachers when they had barely
J roofs over their heads. They did this
, even while they allowed no one to vote
but members IN good standing OF the re.
cognized Church, 80 that loafers and
vabonds were utterly powerless.
Of course, you do not burn school
houses wherein Black children are taught
nor mob their teachers; but both these
wrongs are perpetrated, and your voices
are seldom heard in earnest rebuke oi
such dastardly offenses. And it is per-
3 fectly notorious that teachers OF Negro
Schools-many of them noble, devoted
' women who would grace any social circle
are. as a class, the most unpopular
B Northerners now tolerated among you
Q And no other tax-not even that OF
: Whiskey-is 80 odious in your section 81
e that levied for the support Of Common
o Schools.
That the ignorant poor, White o
Black, should dislike to be taxed 10
!. schools, need not excite surprise, wer
: such the fact. But that you, who know
= the worth of Education, who deprecat
the sway of ignorance, who think 1t har'
that your ex-slaves should out-vote you
, should evince kindred spirit, is amazing
You seem to wonder that "carpet-bag
= gers" and SCALA wags" should be truste'
= and followed by the Blacks in preterenc
: to their old masters. Since the forme
. evince zeal for general education, Will
70 the latter do not, this choice is perfeotl
natural We doubt whether you can nm
- - anegro in . thousand who is 30 benighte
e or 80 degraded that he does not wish hi
u children taught at least to read and writ
= Suppose you had all been early an
0' Jealous champios Of Popular Educatio
- l-h d started schools on your sever
D. plantations or at points where the chi
q, dren from two or more plantations coul
y. most conveniently ass,mble-had we
g. coined and honored teachers who prove
es worthy of your kindness-had shown a
earnest desire to have every chil
l. gathered into some school or other
would not the parents perfectly natur
distrust of your intentions been gent
:. o.o1uellv H;enelledP Would not thOi