Year: 1870

60uths


But there is q broader gulf yet
that divides the social system into
two distinct parts: the antagonism of
color. This is not the place to dis
cuss the rights and wrongs of slavery; /;
the institution is dead, and the sooner
Its very existence among US can be
forgotten the better it will be for both
races. But for a generation to come
its influences must continue to be felt
deeply and universally, and the eff
fects of the measures by which the
former relations between master and
servant were severed will survive
even longer. With one blow the
chains wsre struck from the hands of
all slaves, but the same blow cut also
the ties that bound them in mutual
affection to their masters and masters
families. Under other circumstances
the results of such a sudden, violent
severance would have been terrible;
a race of so called barbarians, avow-
edly held in irtolerable slavery, un-
taught and untutored, were in an in
slant endowed with liberty for which
they had not struck a blow; men
whose ignorance, though by no fault
of their own, was as universal as pro-
found, were by an edlct admitted to
all the rights and privileges Of the
most gifted man in the land; and,
worst of all, the poor chattel, but just
before at the mercy of his master, was
suddenly called upon in all his igno-
rance and inexperience to make laws,
to administer justice, to dispose of the
very lives of those who were in every
respect, by nature, by education, and
hereditary culture. his superlers. No
such sudden and violent change is
recorded in the annals of mankind.
And where revolutions have taken
place. bearing similar features, though
far less abrupt and violent, they have
invariably brought with them blood
shed and and anarchy. Not so here.
With truly admirable docility and
self.control the poor blacks, bewil-
dered rather than intoxicated, have
behaved as creditably in peace as dur
ing the war; and while other nations
have been carried away By the excite
ment Of new won riches to inaugurate
a Peasants War or Reign Of Terror,
the African race on our soil has
shown a moderation worthy Of high
er civilization, aud deserving un-
bounded credit. The merit was their
own to a great degree, and far be it
from us to deny them their need; but
much also was owing to the long hab
it of quiet submission, the helpless
condition of their former masters, and
the certainty of being upheld by the
beyonets Of a victorious nation. We
read. however, another sign in this
quiet and peaceful assumption of new
powers so suddenly bestowed upon
them; it proved conelusively that they
bore no ill-wiil to the whites. partly
from a natural kindly disposition of
their race. but mainly because they
felt in their hearts that they had been
in the hands Of friends who had done
what could be done for their welfare
and happiness.


The poor freedmenl They also
have their sad task to work out, and
to pass through the ordeal of period
of transition that will call for heavy
sacrifices and countless victims. Place
the totteriug infant on a Tock-strewn
ground and bid it walk, or take the
blind man Just restored to sight to a
crowded thoroughfaTe and tell him to
push his way through the throng, and
YOU will understand d what is the con-
dition of the poor freedman, who has
been suddenly ordered to think of
the morrow, to provide for his family,
and to perform duties Of the natare
and necessity of which be has not the
slightest perception.


He feels no argsr in his heart
against his former master, and cher
ishes no bitter resentments for the
past: but the affection he once bore
for the family, the house and the
farm has been severed by the sword
of a stranger, and he feels the coldness
that gradually takes its place. Nor
does his former master look upon him
with enmity; he knows but too well
that the severance of old ties was not
the iresdman's doings; he gives him
due credit for his moderation aud for
bearance, and In thousand cases,
moved by sympathy and pity, he aids
him In his hours of helplessness and
despair. But what can he have in
common with him DOW? He wants
him as laborer, to be sure, but he
pays him high wages and looks upon
him as a machine. No more exchang
es of ki1dly greetings, no inquiries
after common friends, no sympathy in
iov or sorrow. The two races are
daily moving farther apart, and in
this severance of friendly intercourse
both are conscious of loss for which
neither the wider diffusion Of wealth
nor the acquisition of political rights
is as yet felt as an adequate compen-
sation.-Frons Southern Society" in
the August aumber of Lippincott's
Magazine.