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Belief
3 - Reading 3 of 31 |
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Navigate
within this Belief: Reading 2 << >> Reading 4 |
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Additional Beliefs: Belief 1
Belief 2 Belief 3 Belief 4 Belief
5 Belief 6
Belief 7 Belief 8 |
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Harper's Weekly,
December 26, 1863, page 818 (Editorial) |
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Now that the policy of the
Government is maturely settled, it is clear that one of the chief questions of the
immediate future will be the care of the freedmen. In ordinary times, when emancipation is
enforced by law, as in the case of the British colonies, and especially in Jamaica, the
rage and pride of the planters prevent a fair trial of the experiment. They refuse to
treat honorably as paid laborers those whom they have been used to drive as cattle, and
the inevitable consequence is that the great plantations fall into ruin, and the laborers
take to the bush. Nothing is surer than that if the planters of Jamaica had been as equal
to the new condition introduced by emancipation as the slaves were, the prosperity of the
island would never have been disturbed. |
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The condition of our emancipated
slaves is such as to require the most faithful and intelligent care. The operation of the
act is to attract them to our lines. They come in groups of utterly destitute men, women,
and children. The most unfortunate of human beings, they yet do not find corresponding
sympathy. Even the Government which has freed the, and which invites them to enlist as
soldiers, does not treat them honorably, and pays them not the wages of the white
soldiers, with whom they bravely fight and nobly fall, but only the ten dollars a month
allowed by the law for the general employment of contrabands. Homeless, almost houseless,
utterly destitute and dependent, this rapidly-increasing class of our population demand a
peculiar care. It is idle to say that no particular class of persons can be provided for,
but they must all take their chance, because we recognize that common-sense is the basis
of statesmanship when we establish a Bureau of Indian Affairs and a Department of
Agriculture. Indians and farmers are the two classes directly interested; but does any
body quarrel with the bureaus for that reason? |
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The sagacity of the President will
undoubtedly lead him to make some proposition to Congress for the establishment of a
Freedmans Bureau, charged with the care of this exceptional class. Davis says in his
Message, with a sly leer at Europe, "By the Northern man, on whose deep-rooted
prejudices no kindly restraining influence is exercised, they [the
freedpeople] are treated
with aversion and neglect." But the reluctance to touch the subject, the stupid
prejudice against the word Abolitionism, the dull slang about "one idea," must
give way to plain practical common-sense, or the country will be dishonored. |
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Harper's Weekly,
December 26, 1863, page 818 (Editorial) |
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