The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1880-02-12
The Exodus Investigation.

Bro Bonitz, of the .IeSseager was before
the Senate COMMITTEES, and make a very
clear statement of the condition Of the af
fairs in the exodus region, and the iniqui-
ties practiced on the credulous darkeys by
their leaders. A later telegram says
&c. 5. Wooten, a La Grange, attribu, ed
the exodus TO the Misrepresentation of an
agitator named Perry who deluded the ne
groes with the idea that their travelling ex-
penses would be paid by the government.
Perry, he believed, received one dollar
from them the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad
Company for every passenger furnished
their road. Wooten ridiculed the idea that
the negroes were oppressed ia North Caro-
lima, and thought they had as good oppor-
tunity make a living there as laborers have
anywhere.
JAS. Buchanan, former Abolitionist Of
Indiana, testified that there was no room or
demand for more laborers in that State;
every winter the supervisors of the poor
had to feed abie-bodied men who could not
get work He was and always had been
opposed to the exodus, and he believed
nine out of ten opposed to it. A half dozen
Republican leaders, however, whose names
he gave, had tacitly encouraged the move
ment with the hope that their party would
derive benefit from it.
John O'Kelly, of Raleigh. n. c., who
was slave before the war. testified that be
was worth $1,000. Another colored man
from near Goldsboro, n. c.. said he owns
475 acres Of land, q part which he rents to
white men. w. w. Arlington, of Nash
county, testified that he was slave before
the war but own / O0o acres of
land
E. B. Borden, Of Goldsboro, North Car
olina,. who said the people of North Caro-
lima do not feel alarmed at the exodus, that
1T is already subsiding, and that the great
are as we'll contented as they arein any
other section of the county. The witness
was crsss-examined by Mr.. Blair, particu
larly in regard to the landlord and tenant
law Mr. Borden stated that the law bore
the same on white and black, and did not
necessarily place laborers at the mercy of
the landlord and the merchant, that a man
| might be good laborer and still be thi:t-
less, and that any man, even apamper. who
produces more than he consumes is to ben
eft to the State. Senator Vance said to the
witness: 'Mr Blair has tried to make you
say that this landlard and tenant law was
passed on the presumption that all tenants
were dishonest [ ask you if you th ink be
cause they have laws in New Hampshire
against stealing, that all Of Mr. Blairs CON
stituents are thieves - OF course the wit
ness did not think anything Of the kind. L.
G. Groomes, lawyer, of Greencastle, Ind, i,
read to the committee extracts from the
Greencastle Banner, urging the colcred
people in the South 10 come North of the
Ohio and help make solid North.
A special from Topeka. kansas, says the
Office of the Kansas freedman's relief asso-
citation have been instructed by the direc-
tors of the association to devise and put in
operation some pratcal method Of averting
the constantly increasing immigration of
of colored people to Kansas. An effort
will be made to turn more need of
laborers and when the people are bet
ter able to care for such, as they are
in destitute circumstances. The relief
associations has found it impossible to main
tain the hundreds Of enigrants who have
| lately arrived