EQUAL RIGHTS AND MATRIMONY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume I, Issue 18, 22 June 1867, Page 2

EQUAL RIGHTS AND MATRIMONY.

A corre«pundent in the interior of Louisiana complains of our saying that the freedmen ought not to be intrusted ro the care of those who' hate them, and vehemently repels the charge. He say?, indeed, that " it ts false," and adds that he and his friend, are " willing to do almost anything for the sake of peace." In fact, he says they are willing to give up everything except honor ; but —" we don't -vant our daughters to marry the 'nis:s.'" Our correspondent proceeds to declare that he likes the negroes,- ---•' I repeat, I like them.. .. They are like Irishmen, as a general rule, you can do anything you please with them provided you give them whisky." In fine, he does hot think " the Southern people were ri»ht in treating thair slaves as they did,'' but he be»s that " the nigger" may not be eternally mixed up wjth everything. 'We are your brothers, and the negroes are hardly cousins." It seems, then, that instead of hating the freedreen our correspondent and his friends have only a good-natured contempt for them. But if the freedmen are such simple, silly folk, pleased with whisky and, tickled ; with a fiddle, whence comes ths ludicrous fear that " our daughters " will furiously insist upon marrying them? There was' a Dutch Copperhead in Pensylvania who was heard loudly lamenting after the late' election of Governor Geary. His sympathetic i.eighbors begged to know the cause of his distress*. "Oh teer me !" replied the. afflicted citizen, " Geary is elected, and I now we must marry our tauters to te niggers." That is the kind of intelligence and argument which we expect of the "Conservative" lackeys of "the South" lin this part of the country. But "the South " its. If should be wiser. I As for the eternal mixing of the ne°ro lin every question it is plain that, as he mixed us ud in a ferocious war because he was treated as a brute, the simplest wav to Ibe relieved of the eternal mixing is to "five him fair play. Louisiana, for instance, has always treated him as a chattel. How does Louisiana like it •' as far as she has got?" Suppose now Louisiana should try treating him simply as a man—not a possible son-in-law.— Harper's Weekly Herald.