The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1880-04-29
The Evil and Its Remedy.

! The witnesses who have testified be-
fore the Congressional committee en-
gagged in investigating the exodus of
lcolored people from the South to the
North and West agree in ascribing its
cause to be the Democratic misrule in
the South-to the fact that, under the
Democratic State Governments in the
South, the negro is hopeless of protec-
ton for his life, liberty, property, or
civil or political rights. He is cheated.
oppressed, bulldozed and robbed; and
the courts, the laws and the authorities
afford him no redress or protection.
Testimony from all other sources is
universally to the same effect. The
facts of history also tell the same story.
After the war, when the former slaves
were liberated, many timid Democrats
prophesied that the blacks would pres
emily overrun the North, and disturb
the work and wages of the white work
ingmen. But the blacks did not come
North. On the contrary, for couple
or three years, there was a perceptible
emigration of blacks from the North to
the South. So long as the Republican
party held rule in the South there was
no exodus. Even the Ku-Klux atroci-
ties could not and did not drive the
blacks from the South. So long as
there was any present hope, of speedy
return of the Republican party to power
in the South, the blacks bore all the
atrocities perpetrated upon them, and
clung TO their native soil with patient
fidelity. They are home-loving race.
They like the climate of the South and
its physical conditions of life. 1. re-
quiIed the very strongest motives to
wretch them from the South and drive
them into exile. The exodus did not
begin until the Democratic party had
taken sure possession not only of most,
but of all the Southern States. Then,
when there was no longer any prospect
of Republican home rule, when polit-
ical hope was extinguished- then, and
not till then, did the colored people re-
luctantly and sadly. as the last resort
Of despair, begin their exodus out of
the land of oppression into the land of
freedom and equal rights. These are
the indisputable facts Of the causes and
history OF the exodus.
This exodus has only Just begun.
There are abundant signs that it may
increase prodigiously-th if the same
canses continue and magnify, it will
increase prodigiously. This is pros
pect which seriously troubles a good
many people. and not entirely without
cause. - "a
OF course the Northern Democrats
are troubled because of their prejudices.
Thousands of Northern workingmen,
however, believe that the exodus pos
sesses features ruinous to their inter-
ests. Their fears are not entirely base
less as to a few localities, though
baseless as to the country or any State
as whole. The migration of laborers
may become so large as to affect the la
bor market seriously in places; but, of
course, taking the country as a whole,
wages must rise in the South from the
loss of laborers even more than they
can possibly fall in scattered parts of
the North through an influx of labor
ers. If the South loses any large share
of her colored population, she will be
compelled to offer better opportunities
and better treatment to settlers from
the North. But the labor market of the
North and West is too immense to be
appreciably affected, except in scattered
spots, by any influx of labor. We can
absorb millions from Europe; and a
million more or less from the South will
hardly be felt.