Valley Spirit

This is a question which has long puzzled the ablest statesmen of the country, and of which no satisfactory practicable solution has ever been arrived, even by those who make the loudest professions of sympathy with his condition as a slave. It is a question, however, which must, ere long, be looked squarely in the face. Heretofore, it has been discussed in view of the contingency of emancipation of the slaves in portions of the United States where they have been held in bondage; now it must be viewed in the light of an existing reality. A large number of slaves have been freed as our armies have advanced into the southern country. No one pretends to believe that the former status of these negroes will be restored. The able bodied males have been, and will doubtless continue during the course of the war, to be employed to a large extent by the Government; while the remainder have been mainly provided for at Government expense. No particular status, however, has been assigned to them, further than the exigencies of each individual case might require. With the close of the war, however, if not at an earlier period their status as a class must be determined. It must then be decided whether they shall be admitted in every respect as the equal of the whites, or whether, though released from the obligations which made them the property of another, they shall be excluded from political and social equality with the whites. So far as this portion of the blacks is concerned, the question of slavery has been decided. Underneath this, however, links one still more knotty and perplexing, viz: the negro question. Presidential edicts, Legislative statutes and ordinances of Conventions, though they may invest the slave with the title of freedom, cannot bleach his skin, endow him with any mental or physical faculty withheld by nature, nor eradicate the inborn feeling in the white that the African is an inferior race. It is not so much the "prejudice of color" which makes the negro repulsive when assuming equality with the whites, as the low character given him by the Almighty. This antagonism does not assume the form of hatred or hostility, for the conviction of superiority the white man experiences is generally unaccompanied with any desire to tyrannize over the negro. Inhumanity to a black universally awakens as much sympathy for the victim as though perpetrated upon a defenceless person of another complexion. We presume those who have expended thousands in colonization schemes can hardly be accused of lack of philanthropy towards the unfortunate race, and yet these benevolent people have esteemed it better for the African to be separated from the wearers of the fair skins--better for the African, and better for all.

Hitherto there has been a great reluctance on the part of the free blacks to fall in with the idea that their happiness would be promoted by emigration to some country of their own. In this they have doubtless been encouraged to a great extent, by the ultra Abolitionists, who oppose colonization on the ground that it implies an irresistible conflict between the races, which they will not concede. Of a similar character are the present efforts to extend the privileges of the negroes, the effect of which must be to invite them to remain and others to come.

We do not propose to argue the question whether the elective franchise should be extended to the negroes. We have always supposed with the deserted statesmen of the country, that our Government was made for white men. The legislation of the patriot-fathers all show this. The politicians of the present day, have, however, grown so much wiser than their predecessors, have attained so much more thorough knowledge of the laws of government, have made so much more progress in civilization, and have exhibited such superior sagacity in their mastery of the principles of philosophy and philanthropy, that we are conscious of laying ourselves open to the ridicule which attaches to old-fogyism, in presuming to think that the teachings of a past generation should be any guide in these enlightened days. And when we look around us and behold the familiarity with our organic institutions, the public enterprise, the virtue and the high intellectual powers which distinguish the black race in our midst, he would be "conservative" indeed, who could hesitate for a moment in deciding upon the subject of negro suffrage.

Pottsville Standard.

Houses for rent, owing to the wholesale destruction of buildings by the rebel vandals, are unusually scarce in this place and consequently the rents demanded by landlords are exhorbitant [sic]. We were inclined to the belief that the misfortunes of many of our people would protect them from the vipacity [sic] of those having tenements to let, but in this we have been very much disappointed. It would seem to be the desire of these men, not to get as much for their houses as they are worth; but to get as much as they can possibly squeeze out of the necessities of our people. There is no good reason why rents should be any higher now than one year ago. The tax on real estate is the same, and though marketable commodities are higher, wages have risen in the same proportion. In a year or two there will be some room for expansion, created by the rebuilding of the burned portion of our town and the erection of new houses on available lots on the outskirts. When our town has been rebuilt, this cruel war ended, and the days of peace and prosperity again return, men who have taken advantage of the necessities of the people in their day of adversity will not be forgotten.