The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-09-04
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 29th, 1870.

Mr.. EDITOR:-It is such an uniform
practice Of the Confederate Democracy
to represent the negro as an indolent,
od-for-nothing but to serve the white
man that I take pleasure in giving an
article from "The Republic" giving a.
truthful description Of the results of.
their, not the Southern white mans
industries.
Nearly Eoery Land-Hozder in the
South who is not carpet-bagger has
one excuse, and only one, for the lack
OF prosperity in the late slave-holding
States. 1t is that "the niger won't
work" The worn out land, the tum-
BILE down fences, the buildings gone to
ruin, the worthless horses and cattle,
the absence of farming implements,
the tendency On the part of the people
to do things as their fathers did them,
instead of keeping abreast Of the times,
the few school-houses, the neglected
roads, the ruin and desolation every
where seen in nearly every state in the
South, their ruined credit-these are
all because "the niger won't work.
admit that there are q great many
idle, worthless negroes in Washington,
Baltimore, Alexandria and George
town, to say nothing of cities farther
South-Richmond, Charleston, New
Orleans and others of less Importance
but these do not affect the prosper
ity of the South, fer the Southern cit
les are not manufacturing centres in
any sense, and they depend upon the
products Of the charlottesville cotton
fields, the rice fields, and the tobacco
feads-for their commercial standing
and prosperity. Who works these
fields? The negro! Has any traveller
ever seen a white man in a cottonfield
or harvest-field Of any kind in the
South? No! The average Southern
white man sits around contemporaries,
cheWs tobacco, drinks whisky, damns
the Government and says 1.-THE niger
won't work. and all this time the mig
ger is moving fields Of grass with a
common scythe, blowing with starved
mules, getting the quarter of crops
from oVerWorked lands, and bringing
to his employer the small returns
which such farming always produce
Go into almost any Southern small
town and you will see poor, jaded, half
starved horses by the dozen, tethered
to posts and fences, where they remain
all day, while their owners sit around
in shady bar-rooms and lament the
failure Of the rebellion and echo the
refrain that the niger won't work"
Let the doubling Thomas of Washing
ton drive out in the early morning on
any Of the beautiful drives that lead
from the city, and he will see whether
white men bring the marketing to
toWn-the garden truck, the vegeta-
bles, for which our market is famous,
the fruit that no other city can equal,
the game, the fish, that make our mar
ket the envy of other cities-the adj
vantages arising from all these, the
doubling Thomas will see belong to the
ringers" that won't work" The
niggers do all the work in the South
and the white men do the heavy stand
ing around and receive the money
without devoting an hour a day to the
business which gives them support
The Southern people may as well I'M
derstand, first as last, that no pursuit
in life can be successful without hard
work and personal attention. The
times have passed when Southern
farmer Tor "planter." as he calls him
self can get along without working
himself. No man can thrive in any
pursuit who does not look after his
business for himself. Temporary sue
cesses may be made by accident: but
permanent prosperity depends uron
individual endeayor The "nigger'
aoW work, but he will work more sue
cessfully il he has an example and in
telligent direction. If the Southern
people will only work, they will not
have any occasion to brag about what
they were befo' de wah," but on the
contrary they will be able to boast of
what they are 7aoaO.''
The false idea, so strongly insisted
upon, in the days of slavery, that the