New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-08-28
country in 4 form worthy of The transccndent
THE COLORED VIRGiNIANS.

The colOred men in convention in virginia
hit the nail very fairly on the head in their
proceedings, 40 far as the future conduct OF
the white people is concerned in the ADJUST
mcnt of their difficulties HOt-headcd, idiotic
demagogues who urged the appointment
only of negro officers to govern negroes were
quietly snubbed; a labor union was inaugu-
rated and temperate, just address 10 the
people of Virginia was adopted Now, there
can be no doubt that ever in Virginia and
North Carolina where slavery existed In It's
mildest form, there still exists great injustice
in the treatment of the freedmen. They are
often undergrad for good work, and systemat-
ically set aside and neglected whenever 1t Is
possible in domestic life and i'll the courts.
But there is also no doubt that no part OF the
Southern white population will he so open TO Il
reasonable temperate appeal rs that OF Flr-
pinia. Their old relations with the COlOred
population were exceptionally patriarchal and
friendly. There still exists the ancient kindll-
ness on the part of the whites-a sense OF
more kindiness indeed, than justice. No
move Oh the part of the colOred people, too,
coud be wiser than the establishment of q
labor union to regulate and exact fair prices.
manufacturing or mining in Virginia and
North Carolina, before the depression, ac-
knowIedged that the black labOrers were more
faithful and steady workers, and invariably
caught the idea of the work with more quick
ness than the same class of whites. Yet the
system Of undcr-pay or of cheating by the
unjust cxaciion of fines was general.
So much may be fairly said on behalf of the
colored Virginians and their effort to better
their condition. But on the other hand they
must confess that the proportion OF colored
men who make this effort to regulate wolk
and wages, or who are willing to work for
wages at all, is as one to ten compared to the
swarms of idle drunken negroes who crowd
the slums of Richmond, Norfolk, and Lynch
burg. The holders of the convention are keen
enough in finding and marking ont the duties
of tho whites, but they pass over in silence
this great heavy mass of ignorance and idle
ness which must be lifted before their race
can command the position or respect which
some of them Individually have earned for
themselves. In IIenricO County alone the
black population before the war so far out
numbered the whites that it was a common
maxim in the ford talk of Virginia politicians
that only the iron heel OF Slavery
could hold the dangerous reptile down.
Our educated colored friends will find
that the danger so turgidly described exists
still. but that it is II danger to Themselves
now, rather than to the whites, and one no
longer to he troddcn out of sight, but lifted
into harmlessncss by dccency and selfrespect.
How this is TO be done concerns them more
seriously than they seem to think. The schools
are there and the teachers. Opposite va
cant dilapidatcd mansion, with the shutters
hanging by one hinge, which was once the
dwelling of the President of the Confederate
States, there stands the large, complete, new
Colorcd High School; a significant sign to all
who choose to understand it. Bat school
teachers and work avail little so long as rag
ged thousands refuse to use them, and so long
as they refuse, the efforts of cOlored refOrmers
to elevate their race will prove abortiyc.