The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1880-01-17

e OF cotton mainly, by uncertain, antas
g onistic and most negligent labo
A taught the people Of Mississippi til
l absolute necessity of its abandonment
1t is doubtful If our people are yet col
vinced Of its absurdity. The Grang,
: as organized, has done much for th
State, through its lectures and publ
cations, although it has never ye
. struck at the root of the evil-our Ia
| Dor system.
We are in an anomolous condition
, History gives no example in all points
and can therefore furnish little by wa,
of illustration and results. But on
fact is patent and pressing-we ar
agriculturally oppressed and burdene(
by our overfiowing, unsystematic ne
gro labor, and our devotion to on,
branch of farming. We have forgot
ten the agricultural wisdom OF oul
fathers in their cultivation of system
attic crops-that is, rice, sugar anG
cotton-in the policy Of our devoted
ness to the Thirteenth and Fourteenth
A mendments of the Constitution OF
the United States, and in our distin-
guished consideration for the new citi-
zens, politically considered. 1t is true
that the negro is, in many respects, a
different individual now, than he was
in 1860. griculturally considered he
has not advanced, but retrograded i;
the Nation and the States have edu-
ucated him every way but the right
way. He is a free laborer emphati-
cally; and we have unfortunately
given him the full benefit of his sud-
den freedOm-liberty to work or to
starve. In 1860 he was generally
known as o slave, and the system un-
der which he labored, held to be
slavery. This was not historically,
morally or socially true; for although
he was the property of his master, he
was under State protection, and in
most respects, a full warranted laborer.
His subsistence, his comfort, home
and hoolth woll osanred him There
were then no tramps no paupers, and
little crime; but the negro, ''in the
plump, flush of full-feeding health"
passed life of careless Indifference
there was no fear of famine among
the laborers, nor Of a labor famine;
his restraint curbing his remissness,
while labor was his luck and perfect
warrantee against his leanness. Here
was peasantry surprising any in the
world for happiness and material and
substantial comfort. Here was sys-
tematic labor in its perfection, cultiva-
ting systematic crops--but even then
the devotion of the people of Missis-
slppI to one branch Of agriculture
solely was an evil, for they failed or
forgot to give the proper encourage
ment to manufactures and to the me-
chanic arts-the exclusiveness of the
cotton planter retarding the States
expansion, while his selfish
individualism frowned out all the less
industries. But to-day, in
light you view him, the ne
gro as a laborer in this State is an un-
mixed evil-bold, patent, perniciOus.
He is no longer warranteed labor
er; he is tramp, free to work or to
starve; he is pauper, wholly indie
pendent of and above vagrant laws
he is under no compulsion; and our
experience certainly teaches that the
.emissness of his tillage and the un-
certainty of his labor will as surely
lestroy the fertility of the land as ev-
,r the sands of the great desert over
,ame and destroyed the glorious fertil-
ty of the valley of the Nile. The in
lustrial capacity of the race, by our
legislative and social incapacity, is be- ,,
ng rapidly lost, and we are daily
threatened with labor famine. We
ire Overrun with negro tramps, and
by three hundred thousand ,
while crime is rampant ev =
anywhere. And this tramp, pauper !
md criminal, who can, if he wills, ut
erly destroy for a brief period the ,
states agriculture and her prosperity,
s the Hercules of American politics,
nd the ApOtheosis of the Northern :
mind.
The constitution makes the negro l
ace the equal of the white. But can r
written constitutions alter the deerees l
f God? And does any wise man L
Dok for other result in the near future
han that the inferior race must be v
to the superior race? I
ct the negro go where he will and P
his must result. The issue before us,
owever, as an agricultural people, is D
he labor question. 1t is our higher 81
NV, above constitutional rights and b
tate rights under the government. s
t is superior to all purely political
all questions effecting the D
tate as an integral portion of the =
superior to, because :
II us it lies behind and involves the
nancial question. Shall it be organ Vi
ed into systematic or shall "
remain licentious labor, with bI
lr whole rural society disorganized
nd decaying? Herein the Grange D
as shown its singular non-adaptatiOn "a :,
its original organization, to the late O
States. We want a
range that will grapple with and
,nquer the labor question. The war az
lving not only destroyed the labor pr
the South, but materially unsettled q
at Of the whole country, the Grange al