The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1889-06-20
In The Southland.
Some Observations Regarding the
Colored Brothers Who Are
Sojourning in the Realm
of the Bulldozer.
"NoBoDY KNOWS THE TROUBLE
SEE, LORD"
LOGAN, O., June 13. 1889.

LOGAN, O., June 13. 1889.
1t was not my purpose when
came home from the south TO have
written anything about the negro
only in a general way, but l have
been asked SO many question:
regarding what l had heard OF
learned oil him, that / have con-
cluded TO write something, tho
there may be very little in it thai
is new. The negro was part o.
the chaiteIs of the people of the
south before the war. As much
SO as the cattle and horses in the
fields or the hogs that run wild
in the woods. One result OF the
war was his liberation from slave.
ry and elevation 10 the same
plane of citizenship with his for
mer master. Without education,
without any knowledge of Gov
ernmental affairs, he became the
dominant political factor in a re-
gion where he had spent the
greater part of his lite as a slave,
and if the destinies of states
wrecked by war were not en-
trusted directly to his unframed
hand, to his untutored mind, ii
was at least through the power
vested in him that one of the
most remarkable class of politi-
clans, taken as a class, that ever
existed in any section of the
country, got control of the polit-
ical machinery in the SOUTH
How that experimen. turned out
is an old story.
Schooled in early life to abhor
slavery In all of Its phazes, and a
boy hardly in my teens when the
grea: civil war that gave the ne
gro his freedom had closed, it
was not strange that [ should
have felt friendly towards the
freedman, that l should have ta-
ken some interest in his progress
and sought 10 understand all
questions touching his welfare.
Without wishing to plague the
readers of the SENTINEL with any
opinions l may have formed up.
on the subject, l do desire to say
this, that it has struck me very
forcibly of late years, that if
there had not beer a lack of wis
dom some where in considering
the future of the negro at the
close of the war. the liberty that
has since been exercised in taking
from him the rights accorded under
the constitution, would certainly
not have had a being unless the
of the people had so
wilied it. The fact that public
speakers and portion of the
press have for a dozen years de-
clared the actions of the southern
people i'm taking from him his
rights, infamous, has in no way
changed the result and each year.
as regularly as the season comes
around, the negro has been count
ed ont. IF what the constitution
says about The negro is true, then
his treatment is shameful, and
what is justly due him should be
given to him, let the cost be what
it might. If, on the other hand,
It has been discovered, or is con-
,eded that a mistake was made
At the time Of his Liberation in
giving TO him the rights of citi-
senship without any restriction
whatever, then the American
people have taken an easy, if not
! very creditable way Of getting
'ut of a bad job by turning the
;olored brother adrlft.
I ask myself now. as l did many
lines while looking upon the
raves Of the thousands of brave
,oys who were cut down in. battle
'r whoes lives went out in hos
,itals Did the result justify the
acrifice of so many precious
ivesg I think it did, all things
considered. If, however, at any
ime prior 10 the liberation of
he slave, his fuinre welfare or
had been a consid- |
ration aside from any other
Measure, then l say very frankly
hat l do not believe. taking lnto
ccount the condition of the ne
.ro to day. that the result justi-
led the sacrifice of a single life,
nd think it would have been far
'etter for the negro and lessened
he shame of American civiliza-
ion. if a second Moses conid have
ed him back TO the jungles
thence his father was taken by
he slave trader and Time en-
rustad with the creation of An
mpire in keeping with his tem-
er and humor-an empire that
light have been christianized in
me by the Missionary and an
|ement reached IN that way that
not Just now having its feet
,rned Zionward by divided sects
nd dissenting factions. Ii
With freedom the negro was {
wen The right of suffrage, and