The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-04-30
The Exodus Question.

To us this Kansas movement seems 10 be
one of the most hopeful signs OF the time, Tor
it shows that the negro has hopes and aspIra-
tions for which he has never had credit; and
il also shows-much a. he has been maltreat-
ed and depressed that the whites OF the South
have no desire to lose his services, and that
they are willing to retain them by any reason
able concession.-Northern Republican paper
This is about the average Of the man
ner in which the negro exodus is dis
cussed in the Northern Republican news
papers. 1t betrays ignorance, and Is
full Of absurdities. What are called
g the hopes and aspirations OF the
negro are mere phantoms Of the imagin-
ation-sensational ideas awakened by
pecuniary and political spectators in
the minds Of a credulous and uniformed
race. who have not thought seriously
about what they are doing They have
an idea Of something better beyond
"a land flowing with milk and honey
and the enjoyments Of life without
money and without price, promised
them in the first days Of emancipation.
During the greater part Of this time,
they have lived in the South under the
party whose leaders excited these eX-
pectations, which have turned like
the apples Of Sodom to ashes on their
lips. 1t will take much less time
for the negroes To discover in their
new homes in the West that they have
been imposed upon by the cunning
fiends who have held the word Of
promise to their too trusting ears.
So far from having been "maltreat-
ed and depressed" in the South, their
greatest wrongs have come from the
party which burdened them, in the in
fancy Of their emancipated condition
with responsibilities they were unable to
bear; and who planted distrust and
hatred in their bosoms against the whites
among whom their fortunes were cast,
and whose interests were intertwined
with their own. There have been race
troubles, but they were less frequent
than might have been expected, the
mischievous leadership Of the selt-con-
stituted guides in whom they were prone
to place their trust in the first years OF
Z" freedom" considered.
1t is true g" the whites of the South
have no desire for the negroes 20 emf
CRATE" or ''to lose their services" as
the writer prefers to express it. The
whites have done nothing to evince
such a feeling. They have dealt
with the colored people, as general
thing kindly, humanely and justly. No
agricultural, landless population on
earth, has ever been treated more lIber-
ally, and favored with better opportu nj
ties The negroes have literally dicta
ted the condition on which they would
cultivate the lands If "on shares,
all right. If as tenants, all right. And
whether in one way or the other as they
themselves preferred, they were fur
nished houses to live in, garden grounds
for their exclusive benefit, fuel, and
permitted to use the premises and pas
lures of the proprietors for their stock,
as if they were their own. We posi-
lively affirm from knowledge Of what
we assert from careful observation, and
some experience in the different methods
of employing colored labor, that the land
holders of the South cannot make d." fur
Their concessions" unless it is to make
them fee simple titles to their posses
sions, abandon their homes and seek new
ones elsewhere If the blacks have been
made the victims of eXtortiGn by the
people who have supplied them with
goods, the evil ought to be corrected by
wholesome public opinion, or legisla-
ton, if necessary. 1t is the business of
lawmakers to succor the weak against
the expressions of the strong. As for
political . concessions" they are out of
the question. The Southern whites have
done all that was possible consistent with
their right of selfgoyernment. They
have accorded to the colored sufragans
the same civil and political privileges
which they themselves enjoy, and what
more can be asked?