The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1885-05-14

The results have been reached, let it be
borne strictly in mind, under the most
unfavorabIe circumstances. Freedom
found the negro without changing gar
ment and homeless; his only capital be-
ing the public road for q home and the
plying sky for a covering. He was ig-
norant through no fault of his own. He
was STEPPED in degradation and dyed in
moral obliquity; having no just appre-
hension of moral relations, whether
they related to the family, the rights Of
property, or to adherence to the truth.
These were the natural fruits of slavery. /
Such was the condition of that nation
born in a day; which with lightning
rapidity emerged into freedom, became
a soldier, citizen and a sovereign with
out a single preparation for the response /
bility of his new relations. Such was
the legacy willed by the war, to be as
simulated into the body polite by the
south. Frustrated by the war, bleeding
from a thousand wounds with poverty
and restitution stocked on every hand,
the south was in no condition, and nei-
Their was she in any humor to undertake
the task nor lend the helping hand which
the freedman's case demanded. Even to
expect that she would then, would have
been expecting too much of human ma
ture. We do not pretend to boast over
our attainments, because they have not
been gained without help, and we do ex-
tend our many thanks for the help af-
forded by both the north and the south
It fills our very hearts with pleasure to
think Of what an army of northern mis-
sionaries, with the Bible in one hand and
spelling book in the other, scarcely
waiting for the smoke Of the fierce bat
tie to scatter, followed in the path of the
union army, sought the freedmen and
extended the help they so much needed,
but which the poverty and temper of the
south at that time could not afford.
Northern philanthropists have planted
more than twenty-five million dollars in
the south toward aiding the poor litter
ate freedmen in gaining a knowledge of
letters. We chronicle the fact with I'M
utterable joy to see the south gradually
sweetening her temper and recovering
from the sad reverses of the war, has
now grasped the Negroes hand and to-
day her meagre, bat increasing facilities
for public school education are open to
the colored youths as well as the whites
Then too, the churches Of the south
are to limited extent, engaged in edu-
eating these millions. The same people
that once objected to the move are now
/ foremost in the van. To the credit of
the south we can say that she opens her
work shops, her factories, her ware hou-
ses and her trades-unions to our hands,
while in nearly all her fields we mono
police the labor. Look back, say TWEEN
ty-two short years, and examine our
progress up to the present day.
Notwithstanding the many disadvan-
tagcs we have lab0red under. we present
YOU the result. Since then our number
has increased from four and half to
seven million negroes, with nearly one
million children in school We publish
our eight newspapers and furnish nearly
sixteen thousand school teachers. about
fifteen thousand students attend high
schools and colleges, about two million
members in the Baptist and Methodist
churches. Owning five million acres oil
land in the south, producing one million
more bales Of cotton than before the war
a saving Of fffty-six million dollars il
the fraudulent Freedman's Bank and al
assessment of one hundred million dol
lars of taxable property.
These figures, be it remembered, have
not been gathered by black, but by whit,
men.
Now to the editor of this paper
| do ask: How does the facts impress
you when you will remember scarcel,
twenty-five years ago we did not owl
ourselves ?" This doubtless will convinc
every candid mind, that apart from al
help, from every friendly source, the ne
gro has been exerting herculean effort
to help himself in character no less thai
in educational and material wealth, hi
progress has been steady and upward
Consult the secular andreligion teacher:
black as well as the whites of our ow
, race, then examine our progress and w
will only ask, like old Cromwell, tha
you grant us but one favor, and that
that you paint us as we are.
T. /. NJ.