The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-01-29

n44D tic a4ittI ~ AApl TIC a. lf%A
ty who has posted it with such haste 10
that run mad sheet which with the rap1ci
ty of a hungry wolf seizes everything cai-
culated to bring discredit upon the Peo-
pie of the Southern States. The let
ter contains numerous aggeIatIOn@
which are accepted as Gospel truths by
the Tribune. The first thought these
( statements have suggested i, their con
( tradiction Of al the glowing prophecies
Of the champions Of emancipation, who
predicted that it would elevate the negro
4 morally, socially and industrlo usly
I This writer says that instead of being
lifted up out Of the slough Of degrade
| ton into which the abolitionists declared
slavery had plunged him, and placed
him upon higher plane Of civilization,
he has sunk deeper and notwithstapd
ing the paternal care Of the government
over its wards, has reached the con
fines of that lower deep Of barbarism
from which his ancestors We're rescued
when they were captured and sold to the
New England Puritans into slavery.
As with all exaggerated statements.
there is an ingredient OF truth in the
writer's account. Ii the negro has not
progressed as rapidly as the seers Of ahoIi
ton predicted-ifh he is still in ignorance,
and poverty and rags as descnbed-it
must be remembered that the respCnsi-
bilities of freedom and Of citizenship
were thrust upon him when he was not
prepared to bear them, aud that his ear
her training in that condition by the Re
publican party, was the worst kind.
The Freedman's Bureau was organized
in the first years Of emancipation to bend
he African twg the way it should grow.
1t was their educator; and what lessons
did it teach them? TO be idle; to be
thriftless; to hate the whites; to look
to the general government as the fountain
Of every blessing, and the sky from
which not only food would drop into
their mouths but raiment would descend
upon their bodies. and while they were
taught these lessons, their labor, what
ever it amounted to, in com mon with the
whites, was plundered of its earnings by
a system oflegalized robbery. Tens of
millions Of dollars were seized from these
poor people under the unconstitutional
and infamous cotton tax; and there is
not an article which they consume, even
now, whether of cotton or wooden goods, /
iron or salt, on which they do not pay a
tax under the Republican tariff of from
fifty to one hundred per cent, for the |
Of the privileged classes
And yet Notwithstanding all this perm
,ious teaching and systematic robbery,
hey are not the abject, wretched and
Utterly impoverished and cast down PEG
Die represented by the writer. They
,arn their living; and are the occupants OF
houses more CUIuIOrtUUrv vUuUr
nave been expected considering the
complete desolation Of the Southern
plantations at the close of the war; and
many of them are accommodating proper
y, acquiring the rudiments of education
lnder the wholesome public school system
by the Democratic party,
md increasing in the knowledge of the
luties of citizenship.
1t is not worth while to follow the
writer in his comments upon the condi
ion and prospects of the white popula- Z
ion of Mississippi and the other Southern
states No people have ever in the
worlds history, exhibited equal recuper-
tive powers under circumstances the
most adverse and depressing. -Four
billions of their property was lost to
hem by the war. Their houses were
aid waste, with fire and sword. They
7ere ruled and robbed after the war by
liens and enemies, and victimized by
he most unfriendly and cruel legisl alton.
heir men ofexperience and intelligence
1 public affairs, were disfranchised.
hey were, so far as governmental decree
Duld avail, subordinated to their former
aves whose unftness for ruling them
lives much less others, the Tribune cor =
espondent avouches. Still, these men of
he South; and these glorious women,
20, of the Anglo Saxon race, shaking
4 the coils with which misfortune had
lcircled them, as the lion shakes the
ew drop from his name, rose superior !
calamity, conquered fate, and grappled =
it'll doom itself until it became a victo-
Try. They have regained their right
{ self government. They have super
,ded the rule of Ignorance and corrup-
on with an administration of intelIi.
ence and capacity. Industrialy they
re better off. The Southern States of q
lie cotton belt are exporting nearly two =
undred millions of dollars worth OF their I
reat staple; and Mississippi, deriied, +
,used and illuminated, ranks first
nong her sisters in It's cultivation. II
That other article of American com. '
cree brings an equal amount of money I
to the country? 1t Is this indispensable n
-oduction of the South that has turned u
e balance of trade with foreign nations u
favor OF the United States and is 81
'inging wealth to the Golfers Of the gov :
Let their traducers say what
ey will, they can not overturn the logic
uncontrovertible facts. =,
~)H-- NJ