New-York tribune., 1879-05-28
1Yr ryg0LgtD YtGRO QUESTION

When we hear that the negroes are en-
camped 10y thousands along the Mississippi, That
their old owners are brandishing pistols, dirks
and false wrts over their heads that river
men are thrusting the poor wretches of Of
their boats CATER their passage Is PAID, and
are actually putting up their vessels for the
Summer out of fear Of the planters, we really
feel that the good old times have come back
and that the war and its issues were but an
uneasy dream. Two doubting ThOmasea, lately
heard from, seem to be of the same opinion.
They began TO charter OHIO River boats to
take the negroes 10 Kansas, and then, prob
ably doubling whether a negro could actually
be free to 90 where lie pleased in this cOun-
try or not, and scared by the threats of the
planters to fire upon the boats, they buried
cfi 10 Washington to take the Presidents ad-
vice in the matter, and to know whether
Government would protect them i'll case such
attack was made. Having received the assu-
rance that it would, they have gone back "tO
" deliver these poor creatures from bond
sage"
Really il seems to Us that they might have
saved themselves the trouble Of a journey to
Washington; the danger from the planters
was not worth so much consultation. OF
course, these men will bully and spare the ne
groes if they can; they have always found
that easy enough 70 do; and equally of course,
they can control Southern steamboat men, who
not only sympathize with them but would
find it ine1pedient 10 lose their patronage
That even Southerners of prominence are
not above Bullying the negroes aud the
men who are trying to aid them is
shown by General Chalmers's absurd and
staggering letter referred to in our Wash
ington dispatches, advising the Governor of
Mississippi to arrest all persons coming
down the river with boats to carry the
blacks away. But all this illumination is
very different matter from firing
on boats sent from the North to transport FREQ
men where they choose to go. Your Missis-
sippi bully knows that is an overt act of re-
belion quite as well as does President Hayes.
He is loud talker; a very loud talbCr in
deed But he talked q good many years be-
fore lao committed an overt act of rebellion
before, and he never would have dono it then
il he had not thought he would have backing
IL the North and in England. He will be much
slower in his motions now. IF tho gentlemen
who rushed to see the Presiden; about this mat
TRANQUILITY in their good work; Government
will not bo called upon to interfere TO help
them.
But what are they going 20 do with these
peopleY We should like TO hear come definite
practical plan laid down beyond their mere
removal. 1t will not do TO dump them in
great masses on Western prsiries, even if escb
man is provided with land to work. The
negro always succeeds better when he has the
white man to initiate and to lean upon.
Give them land. but let it bo land in the
nei. i.hbOIhoOd of white settlements The
coored man of the South, as we have said
before. has no higher ambition than to have
"a patch" of ground and a homo. When he
has that he is not, "a rule, either lazy
or vicious or drunken. There are tons of
thousands of little farms in Pennsylvania,
Virginia and North Carolina owned and
worked by men and women who were slaves
In 1864. His instinct il (unliko tho Indian)
to get u foothod on tho soil, and then to
mingle with the life of the whites as servant
or in the lighter trades. We speak, of course,
OF tho lower. uneducated grades of colored