The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-01-25
Progress or the Negroes-Senator VIM
dom's Emigration Project.

The United States have been conducting,
since the close of our civil war; one of the
most interesting social experiments in his
tory-one OF the largest in extent and one
which is likely to be far-reaching in its con-
sequences. 1t is an experiment fraught
with the future condition OF that one of the
five great sections OF the globe whose in
terror has SO recently been trodden for the
first time by the feet of a civilized explorer;
but an experiment whose more immediate
effects will be felt on the large popula-
ton of African descent which seems des-
tined. ior several generations, at least, to
toll and thrive in the Southern half Of our
Republic. The civilization and Christian
ization Of ''the dark continent belongs
to the far off times of the distant future
and is dependent on the success OF the
African race in the United States. 1t is
possible that there may be intermediate
steps and that the West India Islands may
become the seats of fiourishing negro COM
munities before the native home Of the
race in Africa shall bask in the light of
Christian civilization.
Nothing was further from the thoughts of
the inhuman slave traders who tore cap
tured negroes from homes and sold them
into slavery than that they were preparing
the way for the ultimate redemption of
continent. Abhorrent as American slavery
was to all the best impulses of humanity,
that inscrutable Providence which is ever
at work, ''from seeming evil still educing
good" seems to have used it as an
agency Tor developing the enslaved
race. What the negroes have gained
from generations of servitude is capacity
for steady labor. the most difficult lesson
for savage peoples to learn, but the indis-
pensable prerequisite Of any advances
toward civilization. It is in consequence
of the long training OF our negroes in the
school Of labor that the first results of their
emancipation compare SO favorably with
English emancipation in the West Indies
The negroes on the sugar plantations in the
West Indies were so constantly decimated
by the climate and by harsh treatment
that the supply had to be kept up
by fresh importations from Africa, which
prevented that steady transmission of
acquired habits from generation to genera
ton which finally transformed the United
States negroes into mass of patient toilers
The habit Of labor had become established
in our negroes previous to their emancipa-
ton, and this habit formed the secure basis
Of further civilization, whereas in the West
Indies the slave population consisted so
largely of negroes of the first and second
generation of captured Africans that they
easily relapsed into the old habits Of savage
Incidence.
1t is owing to this difference that the pre-
dictons founded on the results of West
India emancipation have been so COM
pletely talsifed by the event. Our freed
men have not turned out to be mass Of
lazy vagabonds, as is proved conclusively
by the statistics Of the cotton crop since
the war. The production of cotton has in
creased since emancipation, and the pro-
| duction of cereal crops in the South has in
creased in a much larger proportion, which
is on incontestable proof that negro in
dustry has not fallen off since its emanci-
patton from the whip of the slave driver.
The negroes in O state of freedom have
proved to be an Industrious and valuable
peasantry and, this great point being as
sured, we may look with confidence for
steady improvement of their condition.
How far this improvement has already
gone is an interesting question to which
there will be no complete or satisfactory
answer until we have obtained the result of
the next census. But the tax lists of sew
eral Of the Southern States Show most
gratifying increase in the possession of
property by the negroes, and the educa-
tional statistics are said to be still more IA
vorable. The interesting statements made
in the House on Thursday by Mr.. Cain,
colored Representative, are in the highest
degree encouraging if they can be regarded
as authentic. Mr.. Cain presented statistics
TO prove that in four Southern States the
number Of negroes who can read and write
is larger in proportion to the whole colored
population of those States than the num-
Der of whites who can read and write is in
proportion to the whole white population.
The federal census of 1880 will determine
whether these representations are correct
1t is 10 be hoped that provision will
be made by law for gathering very
full statistics of the condition of the
Southern negroes. Time enough has passed
since the close of the war for very con-
siderable development Of the results and
tendencies ofemancipation, and these should
be ascertained and recorded for the in
struction of the present and future genera
tions. SO great, SO gigantic q social expert
ment will always excite enlightened curl
osity, and it will be crime against civili-
cation if the next census, taken at 80 i'm
portant a stage of the experiment, should
not furnish the basis for an intelligent
judgment. The census takers should be
instructed to go infinitely into all the details
of the condition of the freedmen. The prop