The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1876-01-15
THE BLACK MANS DREAM.

The interference of the Federal Govern
ment in the affairs of States where the negro
population is comparatively large has natu-
rally caused delusion in the minds of the
latter.
For the most part children in intellect while
mature in passions and appetites, it was with
strange sensation Of novelty that they found
themselves freed from the accustomed re-
straints of white tutelage and authority. They
became the owners of their own labor without
knowing what to do with it. Under an
instructive sense of thenecesssity of labor tt ey
went to work, but they had never been used
to calculating the value Of labor, the value Of
lands on which their labor was placed, or the
value Of the directing experience of the white
man. .5...5-
Hence it happened that they put too high
q price upon their labor, being encouraged
thereto by white men who had their conf
dence, but who were strangers to their real
condition and true relations With notions
of the rights to property confused and indis.
tinct they were cheated by the same persons
into the belief that there was to be distributed
among them the lands and cattle Of their late
masters Forty acres and mule" figured
in all their anticipations, showing by the
credulity with which they harbored the idle
promise how little they are accustomed to
reason.
They in like manner became the masters of
their own action and were thrown upon their
resources, without the faculty Of self-govern-
ment and without the habit of anticipating
inevitable wants. .....
They received the endowment of liberty
without the ability to conceive what, in
law-ruled and civilized land, that liberty
implies, or the rights which attach to it, or
the duty which it involves, or the sacrifices
required from those who would maintain it.
Naturally they exulted in their change OF
status, became chronically excited over it.
and in their enthusiasm attached to enamel
patton an imaginary license of action to
which they knew no bounds except the
orders Of officers of tho Federal army or of
the representatives Of the Radical party.
In these delusive notions it unfortunately
happened to be the supposed interest Of GER
tain classes to encourage the negroes. II
was long thought necessary to retain large
numbers of Federal troops in the South, and
the political advisers of the negroes led them
to believe that these regiments and garris ms,
composed IN great part of negro soldiers,
were intended to uphold them in assuming
and maintaining full control over the white
people. They were deceived into the belief
that they were the righttul owners Of the
Southern domain and the rightful rulers Of
the Southern States. at a time when they
needed honest advice their prejudices were
awakened against the honest men who could
have given it. AT a time when they needed
friendly counsel from those familiar with
their character and weaknesses, they were
cunningly deceived as to their relations to
society aud their duties to their neighbors
and local authorities.
The privilege of voting was given to
negroes so abruptly and its first exercise was
under auspices so adverse that they acquired
notions altogether wrong as to the duty
which attaches to the ballot. The negro
voter was deceived as to the weight which in
tel!igence AMI capacity are entitled to in gov
eminent and as to the Difference which gov
ernment ought to pay to the interests of the
State. The ideas were skilfully inculcated
that the negro's vote was as good es the white
mans, and that where there was black
majority there ought to be government by
black men or their white favoriLes.
But the black man's dream of a carnival of
social and political supremacy is now nearly
over. The little b:ief authority with whose
mockery he has been deluded is passing away
from him. He has found out that his people
are not possessed of the ruling capacity and
ruling pow@ Hs is convinced at last Of the
superiority of the white mans faculty in
every hing which requires intellect He is
no longer deceived by the fact that some of