The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1875-06-09

Chairman Of Committee to look after
the condition of the freedmen, has pub |
lished an elaborate article in the Allan
tic Monthly, setting forth the result of
his investigations at that time, and OF
his observations of the conduct of the
blacks since their acknowledgements. The
entire article is not before US, but we
have found the following extract in an
exchange:
Gas chairman, during 1868, Of a gov
eminent commission appointed to inquire
into the condition Of the American freed
men, l had studied the character and the
probable future of the negro. l had rec
ognized in his race excellent qualities.
| had found our colored population ge-
NAL, emotional, ruled by the social af-
fections disposed to cheerfulness and
mirth devotional by feeling; with
more humility, resignation under adver-
sity and trust in Divine Providence than
the Anglo-Saxon and, above all, mar
vellously free from blood-thirstiness and
i'll will towards their oppressors. But L
had detected in them, also, grave tallIngs
and shortcomings, partly OF race,
chiefly caused by the condition of servl-
tude extreme ignorance, Of course
and the ignorant are ever the prey or the
tool of the Ubiquitous schemer; lack OF
selfreliance, and therefore constant liza
bility to be misled dim perceptions Of
DroDertg-riqhts, and therefore need Of
training to honesty; deficiency Of enterprise,
Of breadth of Uie,Cs and habits Of geneTGtl-
sation, and therefore small eapab'tity Of
taking q Iedd an the material improvement
or IN the political advancement Of society
: Il X / have seen no cause to change
the views which | expressed to Stevens
and his fellOw-committeemen on the
contrary, the actual results, political and
financial, consequent upon legislation by
illiterate and undisciplined negroes, mis-
led by demagogues, hare strongly con-
frnled lcItut ut the outset 1Oere d1tttctpdttOdls
0nly."
The foregoing is one of the frequent
signs of a reaction on the subject Of ne
gro citizenship. Should it finally culmi-
nate in positive movement it will not
be in the South but in the North among
those ardent but honest fanatics, whose
commiseration for the negroes in slavery
went to the other extreme Of deifylng
ing him as an idol. The Southern whites
never claimed the credit of freeing the
negro, nor of investing him with the re-
sponsibiIities of suffrage, but they will not
initiate a movement to take it from him.
1t is the determination of nire-tenths of
them to afford him fair participation in
all the opportunities and privileges OF
citizenship, and to help him work out
his destiny for his own and the cOuntry's
lasting benefit, by kindness and generous
treatment, if he will let them.
The reaction to which we have refer
red and which is foreshadowed in the
above extract, is due to the use which
the negro has made of his rights of citi-
zenship. Making all allowances for his
ignorance and inexperience, it must still
be confessed that he has grossly abused
them.
Last week we published an opinion ex-
pressed by the Rev. Mr.. Clark, of the
Methodist (Pittsburg, Pa Recorder,
E e6db qfF 6a1 yst IF inyeS
ing all the labor and money that have
been expended for the religious training
and enlightenment of the negro, his NOR
al condition is worse now than before the
war. And here we have the opinion of
Mr.. Lincoln's Chairman of the Freed
mems Commission, that he is still worse
failure as an agent in the affairs of gov
eminent.
This opinion is based upon the incon-
trovertible facts that since God created
the world, there never has been such |
of corruption, iniquity and vii |
lainy under the name of civil government |
rs those which have hourished under ne !
gro auspices in the South since the de- |
cree of emancipation. We have always !
felt that there was an excuse for the /
negroes to place themselves under the
lead of adventures bent only on plumber |
and selfpromotion, at the begin
ming of reconstruction, because the whites, |
contrary to our advice, stood aloof and !
declined to point them the way they
should go, But their fatal error has
consisted in continuing to follow that
baleful leadership after its corruptions
and the mistortunes which it would
bring upon both races, had become man.
fest.
And what could have been a more
atal error, and more glaring evidence
If want of forecaste than the proneness
If the negroes to combine as a race
against the whites, seeing that the AT
-ican element in the country was a mere
lwarf compared to the colossal Anglo
saxon which never yet has failed to as
ert itself VIGOROUSLY over all antago-
lists?
But to leave generalities and to come
Iown to details. What could have been
nore stupidity shortsighted than the con
luct Of the negro leaders and their fol-
overs at the late session of the Missis-
ippi Legislature Take their conduct
n reference to the Common School sys-
EN-, for example. The thing they most
lain to need for their race is education.
Common sense would have dictated that -,
ney would have cheerfully consented to /;
ny measure that would have popularized t
lie system and made it endurable to the I
hites by whom it is supported. And q
ct the negro members arrayed them !
lives almost to a man against every g
roposition for curtailing the needless ex-