Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1874-03-20
The South in English Eyes.

of the General Assembly, pendino
which the House adjourned.
The South in English Ives
A long and carefully written article
in the last number of the Edinburgh
Review, under the title of the .Ninth
Census of the United States.'' discus
ses the condition of the South the
working Of emancipation, and the fu-
| ture of the negro race. Ii the picture
| is dark, it must be confessed that
there is much cause for the gloomy
shading. Emancipation is regarded az
purely military measure; as much SO
as the attack on Richmond. After
wards the blacks were used as gar
rison for the South. The result of
this naturally was revolt of the peo-
| pie at the the domination of an alien
race. The whites were exasperated
| old wounds were kept llnhealed, and
| the government was weakened. The
condition of the negro, moreover, was
not improved. On the contrary, if the
| census can be relied on, it was made
worse, although, upon the whole free
| dom has shown itself to the blacks
neither as Il destroying angel moving
| down the unworthy race that aspired
| to blessings reserved for its betters,
nor as a benefcent fairy raising them
as If by the stroke of magic wand to
an equality with those who had been
prepared by Thousand years of we'll
ordered progress for the temperate en-
| ioyment of it's gifts
| The rate of increase IN ten years is
not such as to induce the belief that
the South is to become a negro conn
try. In the United States there were
five whites added to the population for
| every two blacks, and even the South
ern States held their own in spite of all
! their disadvantages, and of the ex-
| haustiDg emigration after the war.
Judging by their fecundity while i'll
slavery, the blacks should have in
creased one million. The census COM
putes the addition at but half that num-
| Der. Why this fallingo off What have
| been the causes of this striking retarda-
ton? The writer in the Edinburgh
accounts for it in three ways. The
burden of the war told heavily on
them. Emancipated but unprotected,
want, disease, and filth made fearful
havoc among them. Vice and immo-
rality reigned in the refugee camps,
and the hangers on of the army were
wretched, dirty, pestilence inviting
crowd. Scarecrows were gentlemen to
them. Then, in freedom, the total
absence of the maternal instincts in
nursing and caring for children, 80 in
herent in the negro character, when
unframed, showed itself, and the chill
dren persisted in multitudes. This
excessive infant fmnrtality all accounts
n mi oG. full al
ty still. The care OF the aged and in
firm, so beautiful trait in Southern
planters home in the days of slavery,
ceased with freedom.
The negroes were left to take charge
Of their own sick and old. Many OF
them were turned adrift upon the
world, and persisted miserably. There
are few signs even now of much bel
ter state Of affairs. Thus the census
holds out no brilliant promise for the
future of the negro race in America
While the abolition of slavery may
have been a blessing to the blacks, 1t
is one that ..ame to the whites in
questionable shape. A people one
sixth the number of the French have
had to bear a fine twice as heavy as
the one exacted by the German con
querors, in the value alone of the slave
property lost. To this must be added
the plundering by reckless adventur-
ers, the decentralization of labor, the
heavy taxes. the deterioration oil land
involved. 1t is ruin, and the slave
and the former master must fare alike.
The wise and humane course after the
civil war would have been to have put
the South under q stringent but just
military government. 1t would have
been wise, for it would have effected,
sooner than any other form of rule
could, the pacitication of the country.
And it would have been humane to the
blacks, as it would have inslred their
full protection; to the white. as it
would have saved them from the last
degradation of all, in their own eyes,
that of being subjected to their own
slaves.
Instead of this, Congress, affecting
to guarantee republican form of gov
eminent, imposed conditions, exacted
guarantees, Overrode the popular will,
DISTINGUISHED those of the South accus-
toned to govern, enfranchised those
who had no more idea of political
rights than they had of the ultimate
constitution of matter, and the result
''scalawag" State governments which
have made themselves laughing
stock, shame and mockery. "When
everything is said that can be SAID,
however, in reprobation of the mis-
deeds Of 'carpet-baggers,' it still re-
mains true that the responsibility for
the course of events in the South, since
the close of the war, does not resi-
solely, or even chiefly, upon them. In
every emergency they have been able
to reckon with certainty upon Federal
support, and it was this alone that gave
them courage to act as they did.
Such are few of the conclusions
necessarily imperfectly given-of the
thoughtful and able article referred to
above. Though they are rite to us
here, it is gratifying to St. the true
state of affairs in the South so accu-
rateIy gagged abroad. Baltimore ia
zCttC.