Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1875-07-02

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been taken advantage of, and we hope they
will not allow themselves to be thus i'm
posed upon again. Whether the requester
seriously thought there was such scheme
on foot and it was necessary to warn the
colored people and their friends against it,
or whether he thought the plan a good
one and that white people who are 'inde-
pendent" of justice and good sense should
be rallied to its support, We are left to
conf lecture. But in either event he is a
man who understands but little of cur peo-
pie, and appreciates less their good sense
And our firm belief is that if Gen. Grant,
at any time in the pursuit of his ambitious
schemes, had lent himself to the plan of
Mr.. Murray-and he has done things al
most as bad--he would have met a united
opposition in the white people of the
South.
The system of labor which prevailed in
the South during the days of slavery has
become so interviewer With the fabric of
society that to talk about disrupting it is
almost like an attempt to break up the
fountains OF the great deep. 1t is true.
when at the close of the war, the Southern
ers with only their land left found starva-
ton staring them in the face, because they
could not work, and the negroes dazed by
their sudden freedom, would not, looked
around anxiously to see if they could not
avert this evil by obtaining: Tabor which
promised to be more reliable But this
did not last long. 4 common necessity
drove both black and white to look to the
soil as the only means of relief. Hence a
mutually of interest resulted in a sort of
practical though tacit partnership. The
whites furnished tbs land and the negroes
the labor. Thus the two races have DRIFT
ed along together through trials and pri-
vations, eking out i scanty support until
now their relations are almost as well
settled and ascertained as they were pre-
vious to the great civil commotion. These
relations, thus formed under the stringency
Of dire necessity, have resulted in mutual
advantage until now prosperity promises
once more to build up the waste places of
the South. The only draw back to it being
the Radical scalawags and carpet-baggers
who have sought and still seek to keep
alive the embers of hate between the two
races, by inducing the blacks to preserve
the color line in political affairs. At the
period above spoken of the wisdom of
employing negro labor, and the propriety
of importing white labor was discussed
not only here but throughout the other
slaveholding States. but We believe that
public opinion was pretty unanimous in
favor of colored labor for many reasons.
In the first place, even if the people were
willing to dispense with negro labor to
which they had SO long been accustomed,
there was no capital to pay for the impor-
ted labor. II this were obviated the inn
ported laborers could not be fed as cheap
ly nor would they be as docile as the
colored people. An antagonism would
necessarily spring up between the whites
and blacks, the latter being able to work
cheaper and stand the climate better than
the former. The former therefore would
soon return to the employment of the lat
ter as the most natural and profitable sup
ply, and the farmer Of course would speedi-
ly leave of their own volition. This was
the unanimous sentiment of convention
of formers and Changers held at Atlanta,
Georgia, and which may be claimed as q
fair set off to the pamphlet Of Mr.. A. G..
Murray. Many of the negroes are doubt
tess larry strifet-ss,- with NH their
faults, we think the people of the South
must rely upon them for their labor, until
| the farmers and their sons learn to work
themselves. We therefore think that it is
generally conceded that it is much wiser
to nurse and utilize this labor Of which
there is such an abundance than to try the
doubtful experiment Of supplanting it.
We do not wish by any means to be un-
derstood as intimating that emigration il
not desirable. On the contrary, we think
nothing would add so much to our pros
perity and their own as large access of
immigrants. But the class we want most
are men with means to purchase small
farms, and who will be not merely laborers,
but proprietors and farmers on their own
account. With the access of this class.
whether from abroad or from the North
and the abundance of negro labor we now
have, and whose condition is gradually
improving, we see no reason why this sec
ton as well as the whole South should not
acquire prosperity heretofore unhoped