I have sought to show something of the actual character of the negroes, as learned from a closer and longer experience than falls to the lot of most tourists. The worst enemies to the enfranchised race, will at least admit that ample prominence has been given to their faults. I shall be glad if any satisfactory data have been furnished for determining their place in the future of the country.
They are not such material as, under ordinary circumstances, one would now choose for the duties of American citizenship. But wherever they have opportunity, they are fitting themselves for it with a zeal and rapidity never equalled by any similar class. Their order and industry are the only guaranty for the speedy return of prosperity to the South. Their devotion to the Union may prove one of the strongest guarantees for the speedy return of loyalty to the South. In any event, there can be no question, in the pending reorganization, as to the policy of seeking to ignore them. The Nation can not longer afford it.
Better let them build who rear the house of nations,
Than that Fate should rock it to foundation stone;
Leave the Earth her storms, the stars their perturbations,
“Steadfast welfare stays where Justice binds her zone.”
[84]. It should be remembered, in any estimates of politics at the South, that nearly all the leading Southern journals are still in the hands of the men who, five years ago, in their columns wrote up the rebellion. And, while the men who fought for the rebellion are entirely subdued, the men who wrote for it have seven devils now for every one that formerly possessed them.
[85]. Montgomery (Ala.) Ledger.