The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1873-01-18

VI W. N8SO48A3Y4Ss 2l01S0Ss
IMnIaRATI0N OF BLACK PEOPLE TO
t Ss LOUISIANA.
We never expected TO ind Repub-
llcan paper telling the landowners,
that, II Louisiana be Aficanized, the
blame will be theirs. Much less did
we expect tolearn from the same source
that cplored laborers are welcomed to
the State, while encouragement is not
given, by onering to sell lands, to white
people TO come among us. We had
supposed, until We saw Wednesdays
1ntelligencer, that 1t was expected by
the Republicans that coIored people
should be encouraged to migrate to
Louisiana, and that white people should
take the rough chances, and that what
ever discrimination might be made,
none should be made to discourage the
blacks. But that journal taunts the
people with their zeal in procuring
black laborers, and their discrimination
against the whites, and says II the State
fs Africanized the landowners will be
responsible.
There Is a bit OF Justice In tho taunt
which we are ready to endorse. 1t is
true, too many Of our planters arc
ready to food tho country with igno-
rant blacks, and Indifferent to tho i'm
migration Of white settlers. The plan
ter looks too much to his individual
and present interests, and not enough
to that Of the parish and State. Cheap
labor is not all our situation demands.
1t demands less ignorance, less preju-
dice, and a wider diffusion of the
knowledge of political responsibility.
We have a fruitful soil, great advanta-
ges Of transportation, unrivalled salu-
brity Of climate, numerous avenues to
fortune, and a country, in fine, fit for
the nobility of earth. But we are
dwarfing our advantages and our pros
poets, and deadening our energies by
the suicidal policy OF increasing each
year that class of our population which
is without the natural foresight or the
acquired knowledge to aid us in tho
march to development. We arc turn
ing the scales tho wrong way.
1t Is lamentably true, that no citizen
Of this State, with duo regard to con-
science and to the condition of our
State affairs, can find tho heart to ask
his friends Of another State, or cline,
to come to Louisiana to find a good and
tranquil home. But why make the
matter worse, and defer indefinitely the
era of a better dawning7 Any Of US
can live by our own unaided efforts and
energies, or by reasonable employment
Of tho capital we possess. But 1t must
be apparent to all-at least, to any re-
flecting man that no matter how
much our property may be valued ut
now, Or how great our energies may
be, the ono will very soon be valueless,
and the other, II not basely directed,
worthless, unless there he a change in
the condition Of this State. Have we
not then every reason to countermarch
in our movement to populate the
Slater
What makes the necessity for such a
step moro important is, not the actual
increase Of the blacks disproportionate-
ly over the whites, by immigration,
but 1t is the uses to which designing
Radical office-seekers put these people
after they have become citizens Of the
State. 1t is this fact that makes the
Case so much the worse for the Intelli-
gencer and those partisans who are
now upbraiding tho people for their
lack Of foresight, want Of pride Of race,
and their avaricc. And there is an in
structive deduction (for tho negro) to
be drawn here. Tho white people do
not object to the immigration Of the
blacks, because they are black but
simply because they refuse to DO iden-
titled in interest with tho whites. The
white Republicans do not find fault
with the blacks because they become
Republicans, but they find fault with
the whites because they encourage