New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-06-17
Tile AERICAN tXODUS.

A.
At different times bands of colonists have
left this country for Europe, Asia, Africa and
South America. None of these ventures,
however, have proved signally successful, and
there was never much ground for hope that
the $50 negroes who recently slowed them
selves away in the hold of the Azor and sailed
from Charleston for Liberia would enjoy
more prosperous experience There is still less
now. when we learn that the ship has just
reached Sierra Leone, after losing One-tenth
of her passengers by fever, and after terrible
suflcrings on the part of many more But what
ever fate is in store for the survivors, the
fact that this project for new exodus had
taken such firm hold on the Freedman's i'm
agination, that officers of the vessel and
of the port were compelled to struggle for days
with throngng applicants for passage, Is one
well worth considering. While these men were
still in slavery, Liberia had been associated
with their dreams of freedom, with vague
thoughts Of voting and making laws and be-
ing Presidents. But now they enjoy all the
constitutional privileges here which their
freest faucies had dared to associate with the
new life beyond the sea. No doubt among the
most unthinking there fingers the memory OF
that ideal home, that paradise where there was
TO be no work nor WEAKNESS nor trouble, Tor out
of their yearnings and hopes in bondage this had
grown 10 be their vivid conception of what
the African Republic really was But it is not
the most unthinking who have gone, and who
will probably still want 20 60, in spite
OF the present Encouragement OF the blacks
in Charleston; and the best Of them seem
10 be urged on not because they expect so
much in Liberia, but because they hope for so
little here. In other words, they have been
made free, they have been endowed with
equality before the law, they have been given
the ballot, and so far as Government can do
it. they have been intrusted with the same
powers To protect themselves and to advance
themselves which any other class of citizens
enjoys: and yet the result, 50 far has been n
disappointment.
Nor is this 10 be wondered at. They had seen
the wiscst and best men Of the country strug-
Cling for generation to circumscribe the limits
of slavery, and then to destroy it, and finally to
establish their full citizenship; and when this
was done, and when, after great National con-
yulsion to accomplish it, they had gained all
that they or their friends had hoped for and
fought for and when Government could do
no more. it was natural for them to conclude
that all had been done. How should they be
convinced except 10y stern experience that
after all, no help from without could finally
avail to accomplish what remained to be
wrought through patient years of upward
striving by themselves This is the hard
fact which, at last, they have been called
mon TO face, and this is the evident cause of
/ 4 T1,otv. 10
norance and inexperience have not only made
them the prey of designing adven-
turers, tho worst possible instructors.
10 give them their first lessons in
politics, but they have been met, as it was
natural they should have been, by the unscru-
pulousness and skill and pushing energy of
their old masters and so, betrayed by their
supposed friends and trampled on by their
natural enemies, the first fruits of their free
dom have proved apples of SOdom.
And yet this bitter experience Is not alto
getherunwholesome. 1t will free their minds of
that old deluson which experience has so often
dispelled in other countries, that it Is the bal
lot itself, and not the intelligent uss OF the
ballot, which is to cure political Ills. They
may be cast down for a time, and seize upon
/ every DlOUeleu opportunity 10 escape HUM u
struggle which seems so unequal, but point
has been already reached by the leaders of
their race which proves the innate capabilities
of the mass. The brave words of Senator
Bruce ought to assure every well-wisher Of
the Freedmen that history will justify the re-
construction policy, and that the Nation made
no mistake when it determined to treat ne
groes as if they were men. owe believe"
saws this black man who honors Missis-
sippi by representing her in the Senate,
"wo believe that, clothed with all the
"powers of citizenship, we are able
"to paddle our own canoe and, indeed,
eff we fail to do so successfully, under just and
"proper laws, l do not know but that it Is
"about time for us to sink" A race which
breeds such men can safely be left TO work out
its own salvation. This will not be the work
of a year. nor of ten years. But the negro will
learn to wait. He will learn to educate himself, to
earn money and to save it, and thus win for
himself position in the social SCALE He will
learn Just what his rights are and how TO
maintain them by argument, and by force If
need be, and then he will find the land OF
promise nearer home than Liberia.
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