Year: 1866

SOUTHERN SrATEs-Tke MaaRer IN whlcA h


should Be dealt wih BY the Whites.-The fol-


lowing article from the Richmond, Va, Re
public is an excellent one, and We commend


it to our readers throughout the Southern


States


The future destiny Of the freedmen in
the Southern States gives great solicitude


to speculative and philanthropic minds. We


cannot perceive the practical advantage OF


many of the speeulations that We have heard.
That which most concerns every man is the


performance of his own duty, leaving events
10 Providence. We find the fact to be, that


there are large numbers of men who were


formerly our slaves, suddenly emancipated,
and on whose labor and good conduct we are
dependent for prosperity and order We


recognize universally the right they have


acquired to receive fair wages for their la


Dor, and we expect them, in return to render


an equivalent for what we pay. The me-


chanical part Of our obligations is obvious


enough, but the spirit in which they are dis


charged is more important and influential


than any contract or regulation of wages,


however faithfully fulfilled.


We believe that this spirit is almost uni


versally such as It should be. The relations


of friendship and sympathy which subsisted


from childhood between the two races in the


South must continue to animate them in


their changed circumstances, or the welfare


and happiness of both will be imperiled. Il


will not be difficult for us, who have so long
enjoyed the fruits of their labor, TO cultivate
a spirit of kindness and forbearance if we


bear in mind the condition from which the
freedmen have emerged, the ignorance and
helplessness which it produces, and the good
behavior and subordinatiOn of their whole
conduct during the late war. If race en-
slaved for ages does not exhibit universally
the ability and inclination, when suddenly
emancipated, to take care of itself, we must
bear in mind that this emancipation was not
their own act, and but for disunion could
never have occurred.


What are the duties which devoive upon
us, in their altered circumstances, for the
existence of which they are not responsible
what are our duties, even if they should
generally exhibit what prophets of evil pre-
dict-a universal tendency of thriftlessness
and Incidence? these are the questions
which should occupy our serious thoughts.
We hold that the only answer is still the
same-to do our duty, and wait if not with
hopefulness, with patience and resignation,
events which we cannot control. Before we
give way to the suggestions of despair, let
us, with honest intentions and indomitable
perseverance, employ every effort to improve
and elevate a race whose productive industry
in the past has ministered to the general
prosperity, and whose peculiar faults are
mostly the fruits of condition to which
their race has for centuries been subjected
Uniform kindness and forbearanee, and the
of generous interest in
their happiness and elevation, will in
the end, render them a contented and
class of the population, or
else they are inaccessible to the influences
which, in every age, have proved most pow
erful in the Improvement and civilization of
1t must be borne in mind that
they have on their part the powerful incen-
tive to industry which arises from self-de-
pendence, and, although they may not all |
realize this at first, vet experience, that hard
and efficient schoolmaster will soon make il |
evident to the dullest comprehension. We |
do not believe that the humane and generous |
people of Virginia contemplate with any
thing but poignant sorrow the possibility of |
the Generalization and extinction of the
colored race, and we therefore invoke them
to exhaust every remedy of patience and
and every means OF moral and
Intellectual training before they permit
themselves to despair of their future.


Hitherto, ,'on the whole, making due allow
ance for the bewildering and almost stun
ming effects of the late political and social |
they have exhibited degree of |
sobriety, fidelity and good feeling which no
one could have expected, and which has
rarely been equaled in the history Of the
world. With the -e-adjustment of our old
political relations, with the restoration of
business and social affairs throughout the
to accustomed channels, the labor
ng classes of Virginia will readily take their
place in the universal march of industry and
order.


We can greatly facilitate this result by re-
using to assume that they are certain to be
mere cumberers of the ground, and by doing
Ill in our power TO educate them to industry
md good habits, and to make them feel that
We desire their happiness. The religious
Of the South, which in the con-
lition of slavery labored with such signal
uecess to train multitudes of this race in the
and practice of Christian virtues,
hould hasten to lead and give tone to the
general effort for the temporal and spiritual
yood of those multitudes whom they have
always recognized, even in their days Of
,ondage and humiliation, as brethren.