The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1871-03-10

LII tifc pTeScHt per1eCt luli Oh local
pOlitics-wfth no elections, State or
Federal, for eighteen months to come
we may hope few words OH the
relations Of the negro to our South
| ern communities may receive due
consideration, without suspicion of
partisan purpose.
| We question the soundness of tie
fourteenth and fifteenth amendments.
not because they award civil rights
and the elective franchise to the
freedmen, but because they do so i'm
a manner utterly subversive of local
self-government. We think there is
a more excellent way. BY the new
Constitution of Tennessee our people
have made the negro an integral elc.
ment ofour body polite. 1t is well
to appreciate this accomplished fact.
And 1t would be well to have this inn
pressed upon the party most inter-
ested-that his rights have been l.la-
ced upon the only Legitimate and pre-
manent basis, the consent of the CON-
munity in which he lives. AS we
value our free institutions, it is our
interest to see that he uses his fran
chise intelligently and for the public
| good-to see that he is well grounded
in sense of political duty and JUS
tice. If any think his admission Sc
we're strain on our popular system,
that is only an additional argument
for earnest endeayor. In his indivi-
dual and family relations, the negro
| continues constituent part of our
Southern people and leading pro-
duetive element. If a wholesale de-
portation were feasible tomorrow,
the majority of Tennesseeans would
pause before bidding him God-speed.
No: he must remain among us, and
his influence will, must, be felt, in So
ciety, for good or for evil. He must
live I'VE cannot see him starve. Neith-
support him in idleness or contenauce
him in crime. Nor is it our interest
to see town and county blotch I'd over
with mud novels, uninviting to the
stranger and demoraliZing to the ma
tive, breeding poverty, pestilence and
petty,larceny. 1t is the interest of no
community to harbor thriftless, I'M
productive class. Such cancers on
society may be inseparable from the
vast swarmeries of old settled coun-
tries, but there is no excuse for such
in this broad fertile land of Tennes-
see. Therefore it is our duty to en-
deavor, by all means within our pow
CT, to draw out the negrO's industrial |
capacities, to make him prOvident and |
prosperous, to teach him self reliance |
and so improve his lot in life and |
make him a cOntented worker in the |
human hive. This must be mainly a |
labor oflovc. The negro, as a distinct |
class, has passed beyond the pale of
special legislation. Nor would we
like to see even the most general sta
tute enacted that might seem, from
the surroundings ofhis race to bear
more particularly on him than OH us.
We want to see no law passed for the |
purpose of including the negro. We |
must accord him before the courts an |
even chance in the race Oflife. Out
side of the courts let us do the same |
or more. The matter Of his instruc-
ton, encouragement and elevation
should be left to those insensiblc in
fuences by which society is shaped |
and perpctuated-to the volun tary
efforts ofindiyiduals ard commune
ties. To make such efforts efficient,
we must manifest an earnest interest |
in his welfare. TO make the mani
festation certain, it must be with us
a genuine feeling. We must work
with will and heart.
The perpetuation of political free
dom and the security of society is
largely concerned in our success.
Those who know the negro best will
most readily concede that he will not
be insensible to sincere, unselfish in
terest in his behalf. He is naturally |
a grateful creature, and many of his
errors since emancipation may be at
tributcd to his sudden and complete
isolation from the sympa.hies and
counsels of those to whom he had al
ways looked for encouragement and
instruction. The war turned him out |
on the world, all unprepared and I'M
familiar, like disiDherited child. |
Probably we erred in yielding him,
without struggle. to the selfish |
schemers who swarmed the South to |
make money of our miseries. And |
often we have become impatient at |
his docility to the stranger, when he |
was but seeking for those needs of his
social nature that we peevishly denied |
him. But those days are passing
away, and we may reasonably expect
to be hen ceforth the masters of our
own destinies. Let us now at length |
begin the good work. Our doctors.
on their mission of mercy, enter the
lowliest hut, and lawyers will defend
the lowest criminal for a mere pit
lance, while the local politician will
not hesitate to improvise and attend
the negro ball for the furtherance of
his ambition. With higher motives,
in the interest of society and of our
children, let us also proceed to labor
earnestly in this inviting harvest of
human souls. The church can aid
largely in this work; perhaps the
church should lead. Unless our peo-
pie take hold of this work, and speed
lily, we fear we shall bequeath of chill
dren a heritage Of woe in the next
generation of negroes reared aluid all
the curses of civilization withou the
moral and humanizing influences that
the present generation have partially
enjoyed. Unless society takes hold
now, in some manner similar to that
we indicate. the negro question will
be, twenty years hence, a more terri
BILE reality than we dare dream of.
The above was written before the |
development of the "COlOred State |
Convention reported yesterday
Those uncalled forsand inflammatory |
proceedings only serve to show what
a thorn in our side these neglected |
orphans of the war will prove, unless |
we speedily and successfully inaugu-
rate individual and social efforts to
rescue them from the hands of the
Philistines among whom they have |
fallen.-Union and american.
STATE DEBT REDUCED.