BLACKS AND WHITES. 133

The white man needs the aid of his colored
brother, as his assistant, or his servant in the
house, the field, or the shop. Change the rela-
tion from slave labor to free, hired labor, and
every colored man at the South becomes of in-
creased value to the country. Under these cir-
cumstances such a flood of -white population
■would pour in beneath the sunny skies of the
South, as soon to destroy the present dispropor-
tion between the whites and the blacks, and, ere
long, there would be the entire evanishing of
the cloud which now menaces our land.
Satan is a hard master. He lures us to op-
pression, and then curses us in our crime. God
shows us the patb of rectitude, and it is the
path, of prosperity and joy.
Let none say that the negroes will not work
for wages. The petition to the Georgia Legis-
lature silences that falsehood forever. The
slaves are so eager to work for wages that even
when they have to hire their time, paying two
thirds of their wages to their masters, they will
still press on so earnestly, learning mechanic



134 SOUTH AND NOKTH.
trades, taking contracts, purchasing horses and
drays, that the proud, rich, intelligent white
race feels called upon to interpose legislative
enactments to crush their energies 1 It is not
necessary to utter another -word upon this point.
The horrible petition to the Georgia Legislature
must sUence the most inveterate caviler.
