The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1873-05-29

Applying the ratio used i'm the third
column to the $4,000 freedmen of 1870.
we see that in 1900 there VIII be about
5,5O0,OOO negroes in the country. against
$1,000 900 whites. In other words. the pro-
portion Of negroes to whites, which is now
about rs to z, will in thirty years be re-
duced TO ] to 2.
The above table, if it errs at all errs in
making the whites fewer than they prob
ably will be, and in making the negroes
more than they probably will be. The tree
negro has never been prolific, ard the de-
cline in the rates of increase noted in the
above column i'm the successive periods from
1880 to 1870 is not to be taken so much as
a sign of decrease in his productiveness As
symbol of the increasing intensity of the
abolition a@itatons and a CORES bonding
diminution of the number of negroes emau-
cipated. Not less than per cent. of the
increase of the free negroes previous to
1850 was not natural increase, but an in
crease growing out Of the accession to the
number of free negroes Of colorcd persons
emancipated by their masters. As the alb
clifton agitation increased the Southern
States added continually to the obstacles in
the way of manumission, and the feeling
among large classes of people in those States
10 favor ofmanumission gradually died out.
The consequence of this was regular de-
cline in the ratio OF increase of the free
negroes. so that while this increase from
1920 to 1880 was s.. 9G5, or 81 per cent, il
fell in lS3O-40 to G6.6yi. or 20 per cent; in
lS4U-0O TO 4S,2O2, or l2I9 per cent; and
from 1850 to 1860 to 1853, or about 10 per
cent.
The conclusion which it is necessary to
draw from these data is that the natural
decennial rate of increase of the free negro
is only "A little Over4 per cent, that this rate
is one which continually dminishes. and
that in 1900 the negro will cease to increase
at all, and will begin to decrease. This, we
say, is the conclusion which is necessarily
forced upon Us by the negro as he is pre-
sented to Us in the constant ratios of the |
census tables. We are not able to accept the /
inference which Mr.. Superintendent Walker |
apparently wishes us to draw. that the fall |
ing off in the increase of the negroes j. a /
temporary and abnormal one. He says 1
very truly, thar, "Drawn largely from the |
plantations. where their increase was natu-
raj, rapid, and sure, 10 cities and camps /
where wapt vice and pestilence made short |
work of the multitudes hastily gathered, |
inadequately provided for. and lett for the |
filst time TO their own control,
it t. only to /
be wondered at that the colored people Of
the South have held their own in the ten /
years since 1860" But these causes, which |
operated so disastrouslv u the destruction |
OF the stout, trained, healthy negro OF the |
plantation, are still operating against ms /
remnants. and will continue % operate with /
teniold force against his scrotuious and de- /
ollltated children and grandchildren. There |
are no camps, indeed, but the negro crawl /
Gates to the cities with an uncomfortable /
lmpulsion, The subioined table of twenty /
one cities to which the freedman has had !
access since 1860 will show forcibly in what |
numbers ne has abandoned the country: