New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-10-01
DUB COLORED CITIZENS--THEIR RIGHTS
AND THEIR VALUE.

e franchise, deport or even extermlnate tx
: celored majority in Louisiana. Suppo.
}. this intoleraut interest should be met
the same spirit by the colored majorit,
Suppose a constitution adopted by tn
majority in which the qualification Il
be person of color within certain fxe
; degrees. Such an absurd provision woul
but mark the extreme intolerance Of ii
class to which we have alluded. But
| appreciate the value Of anything W
have only to imagine its loss. L
from any cause. there should b
an exodus from Louisiana of a
persons OF the colored or mixed race. wha
then! Their places would be imme
diately filed by white immigrants,
would be the reply of the intolerants
Admit that this inhu. was as rapid as E,l
ropean emigration at present. i. mus
take several years 20 replace neari,
four hundred thousand people. con
nected chiefly with the industrial ane
laborious pursuits Of society: VIVA
are the landholders, taxpayers and en-
ployers Of Louisiana to do in the mean
time: Go into ruin and liquidation. Th.
present generation would be reduced tt
beggary, and there would be nobody ief
for them 70 beg Of Such is the tendenc,
OF intolerance. 1t would prefer the de
population and bankruptcy Of the State &c
q longer deprivation o: office.
! The common policy o: all mankind has
been 20 employ in tie care and culture OF
tropica! and semi-.ropica. countries. the
! races most fit by nature 20 sustain ia health
and vigor the diseases and physical lassi-
| tude 90 which the Northman is subjected
in the same regions.
Such was the motive which carried the
tropical slave trade along the isothermal
line Of its own torrid temperature.
Elevated by the ASSOCIATION of centuries.
the Liam OF color now aScends in America
to his place in the platform of human
CVudS1ts. AIe ID III" ulLeu AOG tuc duties
OF citizenship cast upon him. Is there .
less necessity for his seyvices' Has he
diminished capacity to render the world
those invaluable labors. for which he was
originally transferred from another con-
tincnt: Will he not contribute his CRATE
fu! and now intelligent. counse! to
and in the regeneration OF his native and
endeared country? As. then. the same and
even superior ability to render these ser.
vices exists. the colored population be-
comes even more valuable than hereto
tore. We may pause to remark that. as if
in Christian retaliation tor the denuncia.
tons and violence Of those who have in
the parishes Of northwestern Louisiana
advised and justified the wholesale slaugh.
ter Of several hundred co!ored men. the
colored people o: Caddo. Bossier and De
Soto have. in the midst Of the pestilence
which has peculiar terrors for the whites.
cultivated almost the whole crop of the
season. When we turn to the appalling
at Shreveport We find that
stricken city wholly dependent: upon the
domestic services of the colorei race
Colored nurses are sent from New Orleans,
and upon people of color is the health !
and comfort Of society mainly dependent.
The disproportion of mortality among the
white and colored races is very great
The unusual number Of colored people
who have died Of the Shreveport fever
you'd. Of itself. raise y doubt if some
'ther type Of malignant fever is not COM
dictated with the principal disease. To
how the almost entire exemption of the
olored race from this climatic contag ion.
We viii! take the statistics Of yellow fever
u New Orleans in 1853. This was ur-
doubted and undisputed yellow fever.
The deaths were as follows: whites 1914.
olored 90. The population of New Or
cans may be assumed, making no deduc-
ion for absentees. to have been one hun
red and fifty thousand, Of which we
I'LL assume one-third to be of color. The
then. Of colored deaths to col
red population was about one in two
Of colored TO white. the nor
llity was a. about one to one hundred
nd sixty. The normal liability of the
olored race to this climatic disease may
e stated as nil.
With the indications that the importa-
on and diffusion of yellow fever can 40.
e prevented by sealing UP the po-: Of :
ew Orleans during the summer months.
lay come a necessity fox SO organizing
lie West India an other tropical trade
) that it can be conducted without dau. .
er and without interruption. What can
etter condUce 70 this policy. il it be
iopted, than the employment Of cologed
ariness and other tever-proof CONNER
al agents il this special trade. The $
'lored people are already employed in
e navigation Of the river. why should