The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-02-21
fEnr the nisnatch.1

F0T the bispatCN.J
Mr.. Editor You don't think the negro
Is the best .ahorer we can get for our farms,
and make the objection that there must ne
cessariiy be socid! commingling. Is this
necessary? We have believed that the negro
would find his level and true place, and find
it impossible to be recognized socially by the
superior race. Backed by Federal legisla.
ton and Influence, we see how little has been
accomplished In this direction. You say the
white laborer viii require his home, with his
bed, his light, his book, &c. Then he Will
certainly require more expensive diet than
the negro. How long will 1t be before
the Southern farmer csn afford TO
employ such a laborer and give bin such
wages as he will expect for his support and
that of his family? You believe the Texas
Pacific railroad will carry the negro race out
of "North America" I suppose you mean
to Mexico and Central America. What will
be his inducement to 80 thither but the cli-
mate? There are no farmers there who Will
require his services, and 20 superior race
who will be interested TO control and advise
him. You forget that the local attachments
of the negro are scarcely less strong than
those of the white man, and l venture
the assertion that the next decade and
many decades TO come will show an
even in Virginia, whence many believe there
will be an exode to more southern States.
We know that many of the negroes Of our
State who are enticed North and West BY
higher wages soon find their way back to
"Old Vrgipny "-indeed, that very few re-
main away permanently. Their cry is
"Carry me back to Old Tirginny Shore,"
showing how strong are their attachments
for their native soil and their former asso.
cia.es. We see no prospect that they will be
removed from the southern States. Inc
masses cannot get away ii they wished. The
General Government will not force them
away or furnish means for their removal. Inc
people will not drive them from their Iands,
threu ia greed, as they did the "poor indiap,"
for they have no lands to be driven from. We
I'll remember how difficult it was to induce
the freed negroes TO emgrate TO LIBERIA,
With all the inducements that were onerea
trcD. Thep, tell us how the PACING railway,
or anything else, is going to carry them from
North America? You will say that races so
distinct cannot live together, according to
the teachings Of history. History, as far as
] know, furnishes no similar example.
Where else have we seen two races born
and bred together, playing together in in
fancy. and growing up together in manhood,
not as equals, but one looking up to and con-
fess ng the superiority Of the other, and ad-
miIing bis superior The teachings OF bad
men have not yet obterated that admiration
and sense OF dependence, and it will not DO
so If the wh bite man will act wisely. The ne
gro cannot get away, then; and it is clearly
our policy 10 make the best we can, II you
will, Of "bad uargain," and make him our
efficient ally in tiIiiug our soil. Z.
Taking up the last remark of our respected
correspondent first, we say that the present
condition Is not susceptible Of speedy change,
ard we must indeed make the most of 1t.
But it is condition at war with peace and
improvement, and, above oil, with nature
and with justice. 1t cannot endure, and
morality vii! in such time as is consistent
with the economy of those oyerruling forces
effect this change.
We assume what we consider an undenia-
bic position when we assert that there can
not be the highes, condition OF civilization,
and therefore the existence Of those social
attributes which we call virtues, where there
are mixtures of distinct races of unequal ca.
pacities. The social economy is thorough,
binding the classes and pursuits in one
body. The professional classes cannot be
independent Of the producing classes. The
classes leading professional lives, and living
days of leisure and luxury, cannot last with
out constant change Of the families who be-
long to them. Without the replenlshment
OF those classes from those born and bred to
the pursuits of labor those classes would be-
come apathetic, effete, and altogether inca
plble Of managing the higher cares and ad'
minstering the affairs of State. This makes
it necessary that tiilage and labor in the high
est social state should be in the hands of the
best human type Of the State-best for its
manhood and its mental powers. 1t isvitsl
to the State that it should have that type for
its source of replenishn,ent of what are
called "the higher pursuits"
We hold this to be social principle that
is undeniable and self.eVident. II we know
any one social law better than any other il is
that society derives its greatest power, as
we'll as It's subsistence, from the school Of
labor. The farmer has been styled-not in
APPLY" the man of God" That society
which degrades tillage by leaving it to an in.
ferior race Is impairing itself vitality. The
degradation of tillage is to exclude from the
noblest occupation on earth the best race
to impair its vgor and its virtue-and to
drive it abroad to seek occupation, whilst
the inferior race is rooted to the soil. What
man has not seen this in Virginia! In some
sort this is an attempt on the part Of the SUI
perior race to avoid the common doom
that man shall eat his bread in the
sweat Of his brow. A doom which
benefcently carries with it the greatest
blessings to man-the blessings of health, Of
peace of mind, of virtue, and of happiness.
How beautifully does the pagan fable of An
TEAS illustrate this When the wrestler
touched the earth he rose with renewed
vigor, aud was invincible. 1t Is from the
earth we get life and health, and it is toiiing
In the earth which nourishes and cherisbes
all power and nobility In man. Dreadful is
the fate of that community which leaves to
inferior beings the tilling Of the soil. Degra-
Gation must come to land which degrades
Its nobIest occupation.
Those points contain the answer to every
proposition of our respected correspondent
which looks to the practicability and endu-
rability Of mixture OF two distinct races
one inferior to the other--aud which must
be kept socially distinct, yet which are pc.