New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-06-18

Il
through the exertions Of Mr.. Dennetk
The planters of these fertile parishes are
compelled to accept any labor they can
obtain, and this has chanced to be ex-
clusively colored labor. So that while
the migration of white laborers of uppop-
ular opinions from the State has, per-
haps, equalled the immigration of white
laborers of all opinions into the State, the
latest State census claims to show an in
crease Of twenty thousand colored laborers
within the present decade. That there is
general movement of colored labor
from the worn lands of the Eastern
cotton States to the fresh and alluvial
lands of the Mississippi river and of
Texas, is rendered obvious by the increase
Of cotton receipts at this port, as
we'll as by the rapid advance of the sugar
and rice crops of Louisiana. New Or
leans has access to no new territory, and
yet her staple receipts are increasing.
The increase Of additional labor applied
to the same territory is therefore entitled
to acceptance as fact.
With colored majority of our popula-
ton, increased by laborers OF the same
race annually and unavoidably imported
by even White League planters, we do
not see probability that thescolonization
plan of small farms cultivated exclusively
by white labor will supersede the system
of large plantations cultivated by colored
labor. We certainly wish the small farm
system success, whether the farmers be
white or of color, bat with the necessities
Of the country and the rapid increase of
its product under the regular and orderly
labor of both white and black, we can
fcresee no such e1igency as will cause the
colored people to be driven from the
country as the Californians propose with
respect to those obscene and idolatrous
pagans, the Chinese.
But Mr.. bennett, III a recent letter to
the Picayune, publishes statement which
should awaken the attention of all who
regard the moral and industrial future of
our State. He says:
Planters generally admit that the young
negroes who have not had the early plantx
ton training that the older field hands had,
are unreliable plowmen and laborers. They
are more inclined to idlenese, to ihieviDg
propeDsitiee, and to general thriftleesnees
than their fathers are. The young female
Negroes are particularly worthless and un-
reliable. The young negroes are filling our
penitentiaries. Nearly all Of the old race Of
plantation and house negroes will. in less
than ten years, be in their graves. The next
generation Of negroes are broken staff for
planters TO lean upon.
Emancipation has undoubtedly with
drawn the interest of the white race in
the moral culture of the colored people.
1t has even substituted feeling OF hos
tility in some instances, and bitter sense
of vengeance in any overt demonstration
that the moral condition of the colored
race is such as Mr.. bennett in his argu-
ment for white laborers or small! farms
it to be.
It is to be regretted that even the
Christian churches do not seem to regard
the moral culture of the colored people
with the same zeal as that Of those who
inhabit more distant field. We have
even had occasional expressions Of favor
for White League doctrines from the
clergy of different churches. We are
aware that the mass Of our Christians re-
gard their home missions as duty, but
it is very important that society should
regard it in the point Of importance which,
in our opinion, it deserves. Suppose Mr..
bennett be correct in assuming that in
dustrial discipline will decay with the
loss of the present laborirg force of the
colored people. Suppose that the moral
decadence is what he describes, what will
be the consequence to the land owners
ard others of Louisiana?
l. Universal idleness will overspread
the country. 1t would only be animated
by universal theft. Capital would escape
from such danger, and labor could find
no motive to toll where rapacity awaited
the harvest.
2. The courts would be crowded, the
jais overlooked, and the penitentiary cost
more than the State government.
With such system of domesticated
field and domestic labor, with the land
overrun with lazzaroni, we ask what |
would be the value Of real estate-what
the safety of capital?
Il may be replied that it would demon
strate the error of emancipation. This
might be true, but what price to pay for
the demonstration, price which we
should pay, while the whole cost to phi
lanthropy would be the refutation of its |
theory. If the South was jungle in
habited by creatures relapsed into print
tive barbarisn, the abolitionists who gov
erned might be distressed at the failure of |
their authorizations, but their country, the |
North and West, would go on to grow in |
wealth and population in spite of every |
negro in or out of Africa The people of |
the South are, then, deeply and directly |
in the morality and industry of |
Ill the people without regard to color,
while the abolitionists owe it to them
selves and to humanity to aid in every |
possible manner in seeing those whom
they have brought tout of the house of |
bondage" through the wilderness and in