The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-04-24
Hostility of Race.

The Dispatch on more than one occasion
has presented the question Of hostility OF race
as one that rose above all the negrophillst
measures of the Government, and one that
would ultimately determine the fate OF all
races on this continent. What is the lesson
of the la,rS social which Congress has been
hammering at forseven years in the endeavor
to force social communion where nature has
established incxtiuguishablc aversion aud
hostility? Congress is no wiser than Mrs.
PARTINGToN, who attempted with broom to
sweep back the ocean tide. It's policy can
hut increase the mutual aversion and misery
of the races.
We have Just met With Il remarkable para
graph in a letter from the Indian Territory,
which lies upon the Arkansas river west Oh
the State of Kansas. This letter is written
by northern correspondent to the Cincln-
natl Commercial, and therefore cannot be
discrcdited as the expression OF the views OF
one who is prcjudicrd against the negro. 1t
brings forward the negro in 4 new phasc-ln
his relations to the Indian. 1t will be seen
that according to this northern authority the
negro compares unfayorahIy with The Indian.
He says:
"This settlement has the general appear
ance of IN abandoned cmrmoeting ground
in the backwoodS of Ohio, and is inhabited
almost entirely by negroes. who have lite
rally invaded the agency. a continuous line
of settlements and farms, or rather patches,
extends ten miles along the Arkansas, with
Il population of about thousand negroes
and perhaps a hundred Greeks. The soil i'll
this vicinity is of ineXhaustible fertility. l
walked through fields Of latelv-planted corn,
and i'm the patches Of thriving vegetables,
md noted everywhere Il loose and active soil,
Is black. us rich, and as easily cultivated as
NV part of the Wabash 'bOttonlS.' None
,ut the poore>tand lowest Of the Greeks will
i've among these freedmen, and on this beau
iful and fertile tract, capable of producing
IL amazing quantitiesall the fruits and grains
If the temperate zone, thousand or two of
heSe creatures live III dirt, ignorance, and
hject poverty, barely one remove from &C
lril starvation. TO go from this freeing
,er settlement to town Of pure Greeks, as
did yesterday, seems like emerging from
to enlightenment
The facts here stated are not creditabe to
he African. But he is far more happy and
ontented with his "patch of garden truck
n the Arkansas river than he is in the States,
laiming elevations for which he never can
'e fitted and social equality which can only
make him miserable. But we were not pre-
srcd to see such contrast rs is here pre-
entcd between the negro and the Indian.
We had supposed that SO far as tillage and
ropping were concerned, the negro would
keel. 1t seems that in this case it is other
wise; and that the Cherokee is better liver
nd far more neat and orderly than the PC
TO.
These questions apart, however, there is
Joint in this paragraph deserving attention,
specially Of coloreG people. The district of
ountry mentioned as inhabited by thousand
negroes is one of unrivalled fertility, and it
5 in latitude Sc, a little south of the Virginia
nd North Carolina line, very well suited to
he African race. Could not Il colony of we'll
colored people settle in that ter
'tory, and by their industry build up COM
nunity happy in its abundance and i'll its or
ler and general prosperity ? If there is any
yell-laid foundation in the mind of the CO.
ored man for his ambition for equality
With the white race, i'll such a
and as that described by the northern
writer in the Commercial, he may prove it.
There every advantage is offered that white
man could desire. There the white man
would build IL State Of power, and dignity,
and wealth. The negro there, thus far, shows
lmfavonbly; but the experiment deserves 4
better test. If there is 4 better class of ne
groes than that now gathered together on the
Arkansas river in the Indian Territory it
ought to 80 out there. 1t is due to the race
hat it should be vindicated, and equally due
% the magnificent country of the Territory
hat it should be better used.