The Portland daily press., 1875-03-11
Hasten Slowly.

vi ldte IucIe udS Uceu Will many Vi tuc
people of the North a change of feeling in re-
gard to the southern negro. At the close OF
the war we very generally realized our duty
toward him, we took him under our protec-
selves to civilize and to educate him. But in
the years which have elapsed since the close
of the rebellion our memory of his former suf-
ferings and wrongs has became something
dim, the warm desire to right the injustices
of two centuries has in degree cooled, the
kindly patience with which we visited his
first clumsy attempts at self government has
measurably given way to feeling OF impati-
ence at the tardiness of those good results for
which we so fondly hoped. The great desire
which possesses us for restoration of tran
quillity in the South, the gradual dying-out
of our just resentment toward the Southern
leaders, ARE leading many to renewed injustice
toward the negro. His wrongs are matters
of the past The disturbed condition of the
South is subject of present consideration and
in looking at that we are in danger Of forget
ting its causes. While we should be actuated
by the broadest charity toward the white
people of the South we should not permit
that charity to lead to neglect Of the black
An impatient desire for the restoration of
order ought not to cause us to forget that ten
years is scarcely time for race, enslaved for
centuries, barbarous for untold centuries be-
fore, to possess themselves at once of the
stern virtues and the selt-controlling power OF
a people whose ancestors have been free men
for a thousand years. ~
Fifteen years ago nearly four million OF me-
groes were held as slaves. The majority of
them were feld-hands, ignorant, indoent
and sensual; carefully debarred from all edu-
cational and intellectual opportunities; hav-
Ing no incentive to exertion except the whip
Of the overseer and the slave-driver; taught
by the frequent sundering Of all ties of blood
and family to disregard the family relation,
the bond of husband and wife, the interdepend.
ence of parent and child; forced by their situa.
ton to pilfer and to lie drought up to depend
wholly upon others for their care and ever
their bare subsistence. The close of the wal
threw them unprotected upon land impov
erished by war, there to earn their living; up
on the mercies of a people exasperate d by de
feat, for just consideration Of their rights as
men. The government stepped in to thei
aid. 1t fed and clothed them in their extrem
ity. 1t established schools and systems of re.
ligious instruction. 1t passed laws for theil
education and protection. In a word it en-
deavored to repair its own omissions of eighty
years.
1t is not to be denied that the efforts made
for the bettering OF the moral and social and
educational condition Of the black race have
been successful beyond reasonable expecta.
ton. The new generation has in the main
been taught the rudiments Of common
school education, and is being educated in
habits of honesty, frugality and self-depend
ence. 1t is too much to expect that in sin
gle decade people can be elevated from the
british condition inseparable from state o
bondage to the level of the most polite and
civilized races. In this case we have not on
Y to combat the evils incident to the system
of slavery, but we have to overcome the mo-
yet wholly eradicated influences of anteceden
centuries of barbarism.
Is it any wonder that there are still igno
rant negroes, that there are still many idls
and shittless ones, that there are still those
who have not risen so far superior to. the
supreme Caucasian" race that they wholly
refrain from lying, and stealing, and ever
killing on provocation?
So far we have done well. We have taugh
this race to go alone if left to itself. But is
it safe or prudent to leave it wholly alone IL
its ''inevitable conflict" with those who hav'
been taught to look down upon 1t, who hav'
been educated in habits of domination ovel
it, and who, by the most natural impulse ir
the world, will seek to govern it? While
placing the most charitable construction up
on the motives of the Southern people, it il
but prudence to bear in mind that they viii
be influenced by their inherited traditions
by the governing habits of lifetime, by tn
invariable temptation to seize power when
ever the opportunity offers. The Southern
orators are urging that, if no intermeddlinl
is allowed, cordial relations will be established
between the former master and the forme
slave, and that the negro will soon learn T.
trust and confide in the old owner of th
soil. All this may be true, and it is certainl
highly desirable that cordial relations be
| tween the races be restored. But in laborin
to accomplish this result we must not forge
the tendency of the strong to dominate th
weak. If we permit the black TO wage, sin
gle,handed, this unequal contest, he will b
overcome; for the stronger mind, more use
to the methods of political warfare, will Gel
tainly triumph, and the not unlikely re
suit will be the establishment of grea
landed proprietaries in the South, with do
cile peasantry, kindly treated, it may be- Du
not the less subservient, to work the land
system altogether opposed to the genius Q
our institutions and in the end fatal to fire
! government in the South. Is it not well