The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-10-16
WASHINGTON, Oct. 8. 1879.

lUnltGu States MlIliSGOI t'o 11dy w W.
Iivered an address in Lincoln Hall
upon the exodus of the negro from the
Southern States to the Northern and
Western States. He described in a
deeply feeling manner the condition Of
this (thc colored) race at the time Of
their emancipation. Gle had no home,
no land, no property, no resources, no
education nor hope of any, no means
of advancement, but was turned loose
abstractly as his own master with
nothing but his two hands with which
20 subsist, clothe and educate himself
and those dependant upon HIM; and
this, too, in the midst Of his former
owner, who had become soured and
unhappy because he had been Invested
of his chattel, and had no real friend
ship for or sympathy with the eman-
cipated slave, who to him was just so
much lost property, and who was in
terested in making it appear, if posi-
BILE, that the negro was not capable OF
taking care of himself.
TO make progress under such cir
cumstances seems almost an impOssi-
bility--and yet the freedman has. ad-
vanced, though slowly, and not very
far on the road to success. He has
learned that he owns himself, and yet
he enjoys but little benefits from that
fact. He tolls, but he receives only a
meager return therefor. He is told by
the Constitution that he is a citizen
and q voter, but he is bull-dozed and
intimidated out of his vote. His
chances for educational advancement
are also cut off. All OF which has re-
duced him to a lower stage of seryility
than that occupied when he was owned
by his master.
After seventeen years Of emanclpa-
ton, now understanding what his real
position is and comprehending some
what his wants, the freedman seeks to
relieve himself by escaping thence.
His exodus is a movement which is a
declaration of a purpose of the freed
man to assert and maintain that indie
pendence in his own behalf, without
which no individual and no people can
rise to the level CT dignifi6d and hon
orable manhood. If justified upon no
other ground, this movement IS justl-
fed thoroughly by the fact that it is
an effort to relieve the present condi-
tion of utter dependency on the part
of the freedman upon the old slave,
holding class.
The history of the emancipated
classes of the world, whether they have
been serfs or slaves, sustains the posi-
patton has occurred, and the emanci-
pated class has been left under the
the midst of the old associations of it's
slavery upon the plantations or estates
where it was wont to labor, such class
thus situated and thus controlled, does
not and cannot rise until it has by
some means freed itself from the de
Dendence connected with such cOndi
ton.
"But these are objections to his
emigration. First, it is claimed that
the negro should remain in the South
and demand Of the Government plo-
lection from the wrongs which are por-
petrated against him, it being asserted
that for him to emigrate at this time
theretrom is to surrender the funda-
mental principles Of protection which
is guaranteed him, as we'll us every
other citizen of the Republic, by the
Constitution of the United States.
Here it must be remembered that in
emigrating from the South to the
North the freedman is simply moving
from one section of our common coun-
try to another; doing SO in the exercise
of his individual right to go when and
where it suits his convenience and his
advantage. In the next place, it is in
the exercise of such Constitutional
right that he leaves section Of the
country where slavery has created a
barbarous and oppressive public senti-
ment; the source of all the abuses
which he suffers, which it is impossi.
ble-certainly impraeticable-to reach
and eradicate by any Legislative enact.
ment had by the General Government