Year: 1865

SOUTH.


From the Richmond Enquirerl


1t was a bitter jest when a distinguished
French statesman said, a few years ago. that
the United States were only fulfilling their
duty of exhibiting colossal dimensions in all
| material interests when they contracted a


national debt also, that surpassed all others
on earth. The good people of the South
will soon have to add another feature of Eu-


ropean civilization to those they have been
slowly but surely acquiring one by One-a
| regular Proletariat. The pauperism that
prevails in all the older States of Europe is,


at once, an evidence of their unsoundness
| from ssdecrepitude or bad government, and a
sore that sxhausts their resources and i'm
pedes their healthy action, has hitherto
been an unknown evil to our far scattered
population and teeming soil. 1t will be so
no longer, and Fourth of July orators will
be deprived Of one of their favorite boasts.
while legislators will have to bend all the


energies of their minds upon a subject that
has so far batfled the ingenuity of statesmen
and economists of every land.


Our former slaves will, with the exception
Of a small proportion, become paupers. This
is misfortune as great for us as it can posi-


bly, be for them, and we need no gratuitous
advice on the part of our Radical brethren


at the North to be told that selfprotection


requires us to make every effort towards re-


lieving the sufferings and improving the con-


dition of the freedmen. The honor of the


South demands that we should not allow


them to perish in our midst. However easy


our consciences might feel on that subject,


the catastrophe having been brought about


by others, who have left the consequences to


us the world at large would hold us respon-
sible for the calamity, and history would not
in silence pass over the apparent barbarity.


We are, most assuredly, not obliged to as
sumo all the effects of this sudden and violent
Liberation of whole race. But by Gods
Providence, this race is placed in our midst,
the freedmen live side by side with us, there
is no possible way, within the reach of hu-
man ingenuity, to remove them in body to
a distant country, and all that is left us is to
bow to the inscrutable decree, which ap-
points us unwilling guardians of helpless
millions. There is no avoiding the solemn
duty. 1t is irksome it is unsought for: nay,
it is unjust, but it is one of those sad and
solemn duties which the strong man looks in
the face and bravely takes upon himself to
fulfill, with Gods aid so well as he can. Sue





wolves no disgrace, but leaves, at least, the
grateful sense of having done all that could
be demanded.


We must feed, clothe and educate these
helpless beings, and the sooner we resolve to
assume the obligation and. provide for its
honest fulfillment, the easier it will be for US
all. Those among them who can render
service, well trained house servants and able
bodied field hands, will amply repay the Of
fer of a home and a fair compensation. The
mere relief from the moral responsibility for
the physical welfare of our servants, which
weighed SO heavily on conscientious masters
and faithful matrons in Virginia homes,
will be signal benefit, for which we can
well afford to pay a small tax. Many wo-
men will be useful in households and on
farms, and children of 4 certain age can
easily be apprenticed to learn handicrafts or
to be trained for domestic service. But
there will remain over large number of
freedmen, whom the excess or the want of
age, infirm health and utter incapacity for
any but the coarsest work, will render un-
able to find shelter or respectable connec-
tions. These will constitRte our paupers,
and it is our duty to see to it that they do
not become criminal as well az poor. Al
ready the public safety of every kind of
property has been seriously impaired al
ready our highways and byways swarm with
homeless, thriftless vagabonds, and in every
town and village vast numbers of wretched
beings are crowded together, living in forced
idleness and wanton disregard of law and
decency.


There are two measures especially, which
are imperatively called for, even before any
other efforts can be made to regulate the
status of these new members of our society,
and to provide for their duties as well as for
their rights. We must have poor tax,
every community, county, corporation or
rural district being taxed, and we fear, being
for a time at least heavily taxed, to provide
for these paupers and to prevent the burden
from overwhelming individuals with no
benefit to the commonwealth. The burden
may be hard to bear, but it will be true
economy in the end to pay these taxes, for
they will provide most judiciOusly, by well
chosen officers, for the support of all the
needy, prevent the annoyance and wear and
tear of feelings connected with systematic
beggarry, and .give the necessary control
over all who are not regularly employed and
under domestic restraint. To complete this
control, however, rural police, consisting
of active, energetic and yet discreet ,men,
will have to be established in every district,
whose duty, prescribed by law, it will be to
patrol the whole country, to watch over pub
lie security of persons and and property, and
especially to regulate the movements of the
vagrants. Volunteer associations of the
kind, which have already been organized in
various districts, have shown the great use
fulness of such a system Of well directed
surveillance To make this police efficient,
however, it must consist of regularly en-
listed and well paid men, for there is no re-
lance to bo placed upon voluntary service,
however Jealous in their action and disin-
terested in their motive.


With two such safeguards providing for
the necessities, as well as for the good beha-
vior of the large floating population which
has so suddenly been called upon to learn
unprepared, the obedience due to public laws
and the prudence required for self-preserva-
ton, we may safely take time to mature,
through our able Legislature, such laws as
this new class of inhabitants and their anom-
alous condition may require. We may for
the present, content ourselves with making
them inotiensive; we must ere long, see to it
that they become not only harmless, but use
full; that they can pay taxes like all others
who enjoy the protection Of the laws and the
benefits of organized society, and that they
contribute, not merely in names, but by the
actual fruit of their labor, to the aggregate
wealth of the country