Year: 1868


South.


A lecture on Africa was delivered In Cooper
Institute on Monday evening last The audi
ence were mostly oolored people. The
especial text of The lecture was description
OF tho habits and customs Of the people OF
Liberia, together with review Of the form OF
government Of that black republic, its aris-
tocracy and other matters pertaining to its
social condition. II seems that according to
this authority. the aristocracy Of the country,
composed principally of black emigrants from
the United States, had improved in at least one
relation since leaving here-the marriage re-
lation. Content with one wife, as most of the
emigrants were before bidding adieu to the
shores of America, they have improved the
number 80 that it now reaches among the
noblesse one hundred and fifty wives for each
black nobleman. This is bringing Old Africa
and Young Africa together practically. The
aristocracy of Old Africa in the good old days
Of King Solomon and the Queen Of Sheba
boosted Of the number Of their wives and con-
cubines, and Young Africa, transplanted
with its vigorous shoots from the
luxuriant soil OF Southern America, adopts at
once the customs Of its iliustrious preds-
cessors. They might as we'll have gone to
Utah on this Continent; but Brigham Young
and bis Mormon followers hate niggers. and
hence their departure for more congenial
cline, where the thermometer ranges from
sixty to one hundred and FIVE in the shade all the
year round. This Is practical negro recon
struction In Liberia. How far II improves the
morals Of the emigrants our readers may
judge.


Now, what is the tendency OF the present
scheme Of negro reconstruction In our own
Southern Statesi We will confess ourselves
mistaken II it cannot be proven to point In
direction similar to that We have shown it to
assume in the case Of Liberia, with, possibly,
this difference-the blacks want white wives
here, while in Liberia they are content with
wives Of their own color, in all their sweet
ness. In the discussions in the Southern re-
construction conventions any careful reader
must notice the inclinations Of the blacks in
regard to their social relations with the whites
They demand, in the first place, equality in all
political affairs. That is partially conceded
them. They next demand equal privileges in
all public institutions Of instruction, in all
public places Of amusement hotels, travelling
conveyances-in short, wherever respectable
white man or his wife or children, properly
attired and well behaved, can go, there must
Sambo and Dinah be permitted to shuttle in,
whether properly Glad and well behaved Or
not Pluming himself upon these privileges,
to the use Of which the black has been en-
The black smacks his lips at the prospect Of
marrying a white mans daughter AS the
white radical Graves the negro's vote so will
the negro crave possession of the charms Of
the white radicals daughter. Equality at the
ballot box will be succeeded by demands for
equality in the bridal chamber. Revolving as
it may appear. these negro reconstructionists
do not hesitate to speak in their debates about
the "iechery" of their former masters, and
couple the term with the significant expression,
Bottom rail on top now." 1t is enough to
make innocence and purity and humanity
everywhere shudder to reflect upon what these
licentious blacks may attempt to do during
these the first hours of their unbridled freedom
and lust As the negro recOnstructionists in
Liberia have taken to themselves many wives,
st will not be remarkable if those in the
Southern States initiate their example and
covet the daughters of those whites whom
they have been taught to consider themselves
the equals of morally, socially and politi-
caly, and, to make all things equal, have the
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