Year: 1879




Representative Manning, who is
minohty representative in Congress
from Mississippi, has in his possession
some carefully prepared statistics to
show that three-ffths Of the cotton in
Mississippi was cultivated by whi'e
labor. and it is his desire that General
Walker, the Superintendent OF the Cen
sus Bureau, shall make separate col
umn in his reports showing this fact.
This, of course, is for the purpose OF in-
viting white labor to the Valley Of the
Mississippi to engage in the culture OF
cotton, and also to get clear OF negro
labor, which it is found they cannot
retain any longer without giving them
the political and civil rights to which
thew are entitled. Under the changed
condition of affairs since the war, 1t
would not be strange If there were
something in it more than msre senti-
mental ideas. Negro labor in the South
was only profitable to their masters SO
long as the negroes were held In the
bondage OF slavery, but when they were
set free by the results Of the war, and
they began to labor for themselves,
thsy were not profitable to their former
masters, and so far as the latter were
concerned their places might as we'll
have been filled by white laborers. 1t
is Mr.. Manning's idea to import white
labor into the cotton States and let the
negro 60 to Kansas, Indiana or wher-
ever he has mind to pitch his tent.
From whatever standpoint Mr.. Manning
may have viewed the question, it is
doubtful II he will realize the benefits Of
his ideal change unless the temper of
the South very much changes. Should
thrifty Northern laborers, with their
Northern ideas, take the places of the
negroes Of the South, they will be sub
ject to just the same political perstcu-
tions to which the negroes have been
subjected, and should the negroes emf
CRATE Noythward, encouraged by the
enjoyment of the liberty withheld from
them in the South, they will become
thrifty and intelligent, and in the ex.
srcise of their political opinions they
will still make the North more strongly
Republican than it has been. Mr.. Man
uing's plan will not answer, because it
was conceived in spirit Of hostility to
the negroes, who are really the best
friends the South has, II her people
would only cultivate their friendship.
Political power is what Mr.. Manning is
after, but it is hard to see how the
South can gain any more than she now
has by sending of her negroes and fill
ing their places with white labor. The
South is now solidly Democratic, and if
there was white man in the South in
place Of every negro, it could not be
more solidly Democratic. With the
North the effect would be quite differ
ent. Should the colored laborers Of the
South emigrate to the North, they
would only make that section more
strongly Republican than it now is.
Mr.. Manning's plan, we opine, will not
work well. He had better keep his
colored laborers in the South, where
they naturally belong, and if the Dem
ocrats of the South will but show to the
negroes that they are their true friends
by allowing them to exercise all the
rights and privileges Of citizenship, it
would not be long before they would as
willingly vote Democratic as q Re
publican ticket. That is just what Is
wanted, and the sooner Mr.. Manning
comedies that fact, the better will it be
for all parties concerned.