Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-04-17

In Tennessee, the Davidson county Farmers
Tut" has some very curious and instructive
scussions Instructive because they enable us
TO understand clearly what the "confed-
crate planters think and desire in regard to the
= freedmen. AT recent meeting of this club
abor and the negro were the principal topics.
A Rev. Mr.. Tanning argued that the negro was
reated to be a slave, and is of little or no use
on earth in any other condition. To make a
egro useful, his condition must be as near that
slavery as possible; for, said this Rev. Mr.
aiming, "a Niger that goes to school can
ever afterwards be brought to work." He was
Inclined to believe ;he negro has soul, but he
has no concept IN of moral right and wrong, "
which means, we suppose that he is incapable
of seeing that slavery is divine. The best in
terests of the SOUTH he urged, are assaed by
those who educate the negroes and defend their
freedom. Kukluxism is based on this idea
Gen. Harding, to whom we have once before
given some attention, insisted that the negro is
better adapted to labor than white people. He
would do well, if they could have him in the
proper condition; but "he has been very much
spoIt by the freedman's bureau and radical in
huence." And besides. "schoolmasters and
schoolmarms have had a bad influence upon
him." as we all know that "too much nforma-
fion is not good for the negro" In a previous
speech, Gen. Harding denounced laborerS who
seek 10 own land and have fixed homes, for
which be was criticized by the Germans He
was now silent on this point; but Col. Thomas
Claiborne said :-"It is all stuff about the dig
nifty and honor of labor; a man who labors is
not honored." This is the fixed idea of the class
10 which he belongs. 1t is everywhere current |
in the south, as northern men have learned to |
their sorrow, who have bought land and sought |
10 realize respectable homes there. No northern |
farmer or mechanic can be comfortable there, |
because these southern Bourbons hold that |
labor is dishonorable, and have ways of making |
their view of the matter felt and understood.
These Tennessee gentlemen, like their class in
all the southern states, have no conception of
what is meant by fres labor,-no comprehen-
sion of its power to promote manhood, prosper
ity, and enlightened communities They agi- |
tate to restore the old order of things; and when
they talk of immigration for the south, they |
mean only an immigration of laboring people /
who are willing to become serfs. There is no
supply of this sort Of immigrants, and no posi-
bility of restoring the old condition of things at
the south; for the freedmen, who, generally,
work well for their wages when sure of their
pay, are really so far "spoiled as to be no
longer inclined to become either slaves or serfs.
1t is this which inctes the kuklux khan 10 its |
bloody work, and moves the mourning southern |
Bourbous to support this khan. They could
suppress it easily, if they would; but it docs
their work. The kuklux are their creatures
their fighting guerilla, operating to extermmate
the influences that "spoil negroes, destroy the
new era in the south, and train the freedmen to
feel that they are fit for nothing but Ignorance
and slavery.