Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1874-12-05
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1874.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER ., 1874.
The st. Louis Republican says Of
the migration of the negroes to the
rich bottom lands of the South: "a
few months ago We suggested the
probability Of an ultimate drift Of the
colored population from these states
where the contest between white and
black has been fought and decided in
favor of the whites, into those states
where the colored supremacy appears
to be so we'll established as to have
caused an exodus of whites to other
regions We indicated the bottom
lands of the Lower Mississippi as the
object and final resting place of this
cOlored movement locality from
which the whites are already depart
ing and in which the black current is
already depositing its sediment. A
singular discussion in Georgia gives
sharp significance to this view. There
is migratory agitation perceptible
among the colored people of that
state; they are looking straight to the
West, and the railroads of Georgia,
recognizing it, are bidding for emf
grants by Offering tickets to Yicks-
burg at so head, with the attrac-
ton of one free ticket in every TWEEN
ty-five. The Atlanta and New Orl-
cans road and the Western and Allan
tic are the rivals in this bidding, and
the competition between them has be-
come 80 sharp and the migratory
connection so strong that the press
of the state has become alarmed
The Atlanta Herald speaks of the
threatened emigration of the negroes
from Georgia as a subject Of engross-
ing interest and importance and
calls on the railroads TO cease from
their competition s.44l 90 CO OH "a rate
for tickets high enough to prevent the
railroads from being made easy drains
by which the state is to be depopula-
ted of its laboring classes
The uneasiness of the Georgia press
at the threatened wholesale exodus
of our negro population, as they call
il, is natural, and so, perhapse, is their
absurd proposition to arrest it by fix
ing a high rate of fares to Vicksburg.
The chief fact in the whole business,
however, is that the population is
tending towards the rich alluvial cot
ton lands of the Lower Mississippi
that the negroes desire to go to Vicks-
burg. This is not the effect of low
emigrant rates on the competing rail-
roads; it is the cause of them. The
roads are not stimulating the migra-
ton; they are only adapting them
selves TO it; and it is not probable
that an increase of the rates, even if
the roads could agree on it, would ar
rest the movement. Every large mi
gratory movement must have a pow
erful cause at the bottom of it, and
no treatment of the phenomenon that
does not go to the cause will have any
permanent effect. The political con-
tests of the last eight years in the
Southern states have been, in a great
err degree than was generally imagined,
struggle for supremacy between the
two races, and the fact that in Georgia
it has ended in a permanent Demo-
cratic majority of fifty thousand,
while in Mississippi the colored race
not only holds its own but bids fair to
strengthen its hold, affords an expIa-
nation of the incipient colored exodus
from one state to another. Prone as
we are to congratulate ourselves that
the recent elections settle the relations
between the two races in the South
and eliminate the last disturbing ele-
ment from Southern politics, they
have done no such thing. The pres
emit semi-subject condition of the
blacks i'll the South cannot be main
tanned, any more than the enforced
subsection of the whites to them,
maintained for the past eight years,
could be perpetuated. The inequali-
ty between the two races in these
states where both are so powerful is a
cause of irritation-a proVocation to
incessant efforts on one side aud in
cessant jealousy aud vigilance on the
other; and there would seem to be but
two remedies for the trouble-either
absolute civil aud social equality be-
tween the two races, or the scgrega-
tion of the inferior one in some local
ity where it will secure undisputed
possession by The mere weight of
numbers. The movement begun in
Georgia looks like an instructive re-
cognition of this fact by the blacks.
They cauuot secure absolute equality;
they, therefore, resolve to depart to
region where their race, already out
numbering the whites, form the nu-
cleus of the possible negro common
wealth or one of the negro common
wealths Of the future. 1t is well
known that, while the black popula-
ton in the river counties of Mississip-
pi is steadily increasing, the white
population is proportionately decrea-
sing. Why the covetous superior
race should thus quietly allow itself
to be pushed off the most productive
cotton lands in all the South it is diff
ticult to account for, except on the
hypothesis that it foresees the ire
sistible precipitation OF the inferior
race in controlling numbers in that
district, and consents to make way for
the movement"
Memphis Avalanche: ave do not
believe the WIG AND TRIBUNE desires
to misrepresent Mr.. Johnson's posi-
tiou, but it does go, nevertheless. 1t
has been sought by friends OF Cover
nor Brown to identify the ex- President
with this iniquity, in order to weaken
the force of the point made against
the former for his connection with
that conspiracy against the people OF