Year: 1866




est, which is as effective as any mechanics
union in the North, and already the South h;
commenced to feel the power of labor over cap
ital. Slowly, but surely and by such lndirec
influences as this general protective combina
! ton, the freedmen are working revolution il
sentiment here which will finally result in thei
obtaining enlarged privileges from the hands o
| those who are now most violently opposed t.
| them. 1t is probable that many of the freed
men will refuse to contract at all during th,
coming year, preferring to work by the day, o.
week, or month, as the case may be- and as theil
own ideas of self-interest will be best advanced
They know very well now that the labor law
of the different States are Intellectual, and thai
they cannot be compelled to assume obligations
unwillingly. As long as they can keep clear o
a charge of vagrancy, they know that they car
come and go as they please. 1t is astonishing
to observe in them what seems to be almost in
tuitive knowledge of their rights, and it is al
equally remarkable to learn from them the fact
that they, in majority of cases, know and un
derstand their legal rights under the civil right
bill as well as if they had been the originator
of that law themselves"


The same writer tells us that many o.
the ablest and most industrious negroes
are thinking of removing to Liberia, OF
elsewhere out of this country. If any
considerable number should thus abandon
this country, it would cause serious tenn.
porary embarrassment to the Southern
States, where labor has always been scarce,
and new enterprises for the development
of their natural resources have been diff
cult for this reason.


Opinions have changed rapidly in the
Southern States on many important sub
jeets; and it is certain that greater changes
still impend. As industry and enterprise
revive in that part of our country, and the
demand for labor, already greater than the
supply, is doubled and quadrupled, as ii
will be within the next two years, South
ern men will see the necessity, not only oi
keeping all the workmen they have, but
of giving them and their children all the
skill and industry which only education
and the fullest possession of equal rights
and privileges can give men. The slave
system trained white men in the belief
that the more ignorant workman is the
more valuable he is to his employer. This
monstrous and silly doctrine was asserted
by many influential Southern men. But
it will not take long to discover there what
has long ago been known in the free North
ern States, that the more intelligent a
workman is, the more valuable he is to his
employer and to society; and that the men
who destroy negro schools infict pecuni-
ary loss upon all the employers of negro
labor in the region.


In the Western States the demand for
labor has been for years so great, that their
legislatures have held out extraordinary
inducements, to draw workmen to them.
So far from Withholding any rights, they
have offered publicly the utmost limit of
rights and privileges to all who would
come. In Indiana, for instance, to induce
foreign immigration, foreigners were made
naturalized citizens in a year after their ar
rival; and there has been sharp rivalry
between all the Northwestern States to OBJ
tain the largest number of workmen.
Such rivalry will, before long, be seen in
the Southern States also; indeed. we have
no doubt that the entire equality before
the law guaranteed to the negro in South
Carolina will carry to that State consider
able numbers not only of blacks but of
whites; and the State which first estab-
fishes good free school system for the
negroes, will draw to its borders the most
industrious blacks from all the surround
ing States.-N y Post