The Freedmen [pp. 489-493]

THE FREEDMEN.
paints, hydraulic cement, lithographic stone, limestone, mill and
grind stone, fire-rock, kaolin, e,,mory, plumbago, nickel, cobalt, zinc,
copper, silver, gold, lead, coal and iron. Most of these minerals
occur in quantities that are literally inexhaustible. In case of many
of these articles, the mines and quarries of Missouri could easily
supply the market of the world. If an incomplete geologic survey,
and the rude efforts of unscientific miners, who have as yet scarcely
touched the vast deposits of the State, have disclosed such results,
we may justly expect far richer developments when an exhaustive
investigaltion has been made, and systematicjnining been extensively
prosecuted.*
ART. VII.-TIIE FREEDMEN.
[We do not agree with Mr. Fitzhughtl either as to the value of white foreign
labor at the South, or, as to any possible (ldanger to the Freedmen after thile removal of the troops and neg,ro Bureaux. Mr. Fitzhuglh has remained in Virginia,
whilst we hlave traveled over the entire South. In sections of country where
there are and hli,e been no tro,,ops, our experience invariaibly is, that thie negro
is happier and bette,, and sustais the most armicable relations with thie whites.
Still it would be well to make our police system perfect for whites and blacks.
The idea of negroes going to the North is more faincifi,l than real. Its climate,
as statistics slhow, is in the long runt fatal to him. Let the negro, however, be
guarded in all things. Everybody at the South favors and our interests dictate
this.-EDITOR.]
LIGHT and hope are breaking in upon us from several sources. The
wise, cautious, and conciliatory proceedings of the Philadelphia Convention; the consummate statesmanship, the wonderful prudence,
sagacity, and whole-souled nationality, the courage and the magnanimiity displayed by the President, and the movenient by a large and
respectable portion of Northern o,fficers and soldiers to hold a Convention, one of whose objects will be to urge the speedy restpration of
the Union, gives us of the South the assurance that at no distant day
the disabilities to which we are subjected will be removed, and that
the cruel and tyrannical rule of radicalism will cease, by the expulsion of radicals from office. But our social and industrial difficulties
are of more serious and vital consequence than our political disabilities, and out of these difficulties we begin to see our only exodus;
one which, if not satisfactory, may by pridence, foresight, and rigid,
yet just and humane rule, be rendered endurable. We cannot procure white laborers from Europe, and if we could, they would be a
nuisance rather than advantage to us. The experiments made within
the last year with this sort of labor prove that it is wholly unreliable, infinit(ely more worthless, than that of Freedmen. The native
whites of the South are either landowners or tenants, or engaged in
some occupation more respectable and more profitable than that of
hired field hands. They very rarely hire themselves for such labor,
* The above was prepared by Mr. Waterhouse for Bradstreet's admirable St. Louis Trade
Circular.
489