ant to every one of us than the whole
sugar-crop of Louisiana or the whole rice-crop of Georgia. Secure this
result, and the future opens for this nation a larger horizon than the
most impassioned Fourth-of-July orator in the old times dared to draw.
Fail in this result, and the future holds endless disorders, with civil
war reappearing at the end. If, therefore, there be any general
principle to assert, any essential method to inculcate, its adoption is
the most essential statesmanship. Twenty millions of white men, with
ballots and school-houses, will be tolerably sure to thrive, whatever be
the legislation: legislation for them is secondary, because they are
assured in their own strength. But four millions of black men, just
freed, and as yet unprovided with any of these tools,--the fate of the
nation may hinge on a single error in legislating for them.

Now there are but two systems possible in dealing with an emancipated
people. All minor projects are modifications of these two. There is the
theory of preparation, under some form, and there is the theory of fair
play. Preparation is apprenticeship, prescription,--the bargains of the
freedman made for him, not by him. Fair play is to remove all
obstructions, including the previous monopoly of the soil,--to recognize
the freedman's right to all social and political guaranties, and then to
let him alone.

There is undoubtedly room for an honest division of opinion on this
fundamental matter, among persons equally sincere. Even among equally
well-informed persons there may be room for difference, although it will
hardly be denied that those who favor the theory of "preparation" are in
general those who take a rather low view of the capacities of the
emancipated race. The policy pursued in Louisiana, for instance, was
undoubtedly based at the outset, whatever other reasons have since been
adduced, on the theory that the freedmen would labor only under
compulsion. I have seen an elaborate argument, from a leading officer in
that Department, resting the whole theory on precisely this assumption.
"The negro, born and reared in ignorance, could not for years be taught
to properly understand and respect the obligations of a contract. His
ideas of freedom were merged in the fact that he was to be fed and
clothed and supported in idleness." Whatever excuses may since have been
devised for the system, this was its original postulate. To suppose it
true would be to reject the v