The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1874-05-06


area for the North, so it was after
wards maintained, among other rea-
sons, because it provided a garrison
for the South, The policy is one
that has been followed by conquer
ors in all ages; but this American
adoption is peculiar in this respect
that, whereas elsewhere the garri-
Fsoning colony has always been Of
the kindred of the conquerors, and
the population Kept down an alien
one, in the South it is the conquered
who are bone of the bone and flesh
of the flesh Of the conquerors, while
the garrison is altogether alien. Our
own experience in Ireland teaches us
how ineradicable is the resentment
caused by such system Of holding
country, how deeply it compromi-
ses a government and drags it on
from one false step to another. In
the South all its usual evil fruits
! have been aggravated a hundredfold.
The prejudices Of the whites are in
revolt at their subsection to their
former slaves; and these liberated
slavse are incapable Of discharging
the functions imposed upon them
During the four years Of the Civil
I, War, though the whole available
" lite manhood of the Confederate
States was drafted into the field, the
negroes never yentured to strike a
single blow for freedom, the women
and old men sufficed to keep them to
their tasks. They did not even dare
to run away until the approach Of a
Northern army guaranteed them pro-
lection. Nor are they now more ca
pable of meeting their old masters
without support. To make of them,
then, an ascendancy party is only
exasperating the whites without
really strengthening the govern
ment. 43,. Lao.
/ Let us, then, inquire in the first
place, what is the condition of the
negroes, as it was in it's probable. in
fucnce upon them that the policy
pursued in the South has been most
widely debated. One party, it will
be recollected, were never tired Of
prophesying that, when set free, the
negroes would speedily die cut, or BIZ
exterminated. While another party
with equal confidence predicted thu
they would rapidly begin to supplan1
the, whites, at least in the warmer
States. These predictions were the
promptings of partisanship, and as
cold experience seldom confirms thu
Vaccinations banded about in the
heat Of controversy, most persons
will be prepared to learn that in this
. case also they have not been verified
Freedom has shown itself to thu
blacks of the South neither as de
stroying angel moving down the I'm
worthy race that aspired to blessings
reserved for it's better, nor as a ben
efcent fairy raising them, as if by
the stroke of a magic wand, to al
equality. with those who had beer
prepared by thousand years of well
ordered progress for the temperate
enjoyment Of it's gifts. The entir'
coloured population of the Unitet
1 States, free and slave, Northern ant
q IA
Southern, was returned in 1860 q
4,441, $3.50, in 1870 the same popula
!! ton was found to be 4,ssO,009. Il
the ten years, therefore, il has in
E creased by 43s,179 souls, or, JUS
9-2l per cent. Considering all tn
circumstances, the rate must be pro
nounced not discouraging, but it i
certainly not such as to induce, tn
belief that the South is destined t
become a Negro country. The rat
of increase Of, all nationalitie
throughout the Union was 1922 pc
cent; that Of the whites alone wa
| 24-3S per cent. Thus, the coloure
increase was less than half the ave-
!. rage, or, to be mere exact, where tw
blacks were added to the population
!, there were over FIVE whites. Itmu'
!, be remembered that the whole il
!. crease was largely augmented by in
migration. It does not follow, ther
fore, from the figures just cited til;
there has been any falling 9! Of. in in II
natural fertility Of the negroes, OF
!, er figures, however, prove that the the
has. If the rate ofincrease that pr
vailed amongst them previous is to o' -
f had been maintained during the K
i years that followed, the addition
5 the coloured population would ha