p. 143 | The Old Controversy

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 29, 1875

The Old Controversy.

The spirit of slavery still lives in its old home. Nothing stands in the way of its re-establishment but the lack of power; and in the troublous times before us, this obstacle may disappear. The following is from The Christian Press, of March 1875:—

Shall our colored people be free or slaves? Strange, after all the blood and treasure spent by the nation to secure their freedom that this should be still a question. But it is, as the following extract from the report of the Congressional Committee on Louisiana, just presented to Congress, shows. The report says:

“The laws passed by the Legislature of that State in 1865, 1866 and 1867, must have been designed to put the negro in a state of practical servitude. 1865, chap. 10, provided that, under the penalty of fine or imprisonment, no person shall carry fire-arms on the premises or plantation of any citizen, without the consent of the owner, thus depriving the great mass of the colored laborers of the State of the right to keep and bear arms, a right always peculiarly prized and guarded by his white employer.

“1865, chap. 11, punishes by fine and imprisonment the entering upon any plantation without the permission of the owner, thus preventing any person from seeking intercourse with the negro for the purpose of giving him political or other information, except such as his master should approve.

“1865, chap. 12, authorizes any Justice of the Peace, on complaint that any person is a vagrant, on summary process to require such person to give bond for his good behavior and future industry for one year. On failing to give such bond, the Justice shall issue his warrant to the Sheriff to hire out such person for twelve months under such regulations as may be made by the municipal authorities, provided that, if the accused be a person who has abandoned his employer before his contract expired, the preference shall be given to such employer of hiring the accused, thus putting it into the power of any local magistrate, on summary process, to remand the laborer to a condition of practical slavery.”

The report quotes two other acts of the same character, passed in 1865, and also mentions an act of 1867, imposing a poll tax of fifteen dollars for highway purposes, under which it would be possible to raise $2,612,000 in a single year.

These laws perished with the government that enacted them in 1867, but they show the animus of the rebel element now striving through means of the White League to gain control of all the Southern States. Let them gain this control, with a President and Congress in sympathy with them, and the present freedom of the colored people would soon be a thing of the past. The old beacon fires must be kindled. The old liberty guard must shoulder arms once more in defense of the golden rule: “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”