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(Erftrtti) American AUGUSTA, GA., JA!I ‘ MR. THOMAB P. BEARD Will be general agent and editor oi the “Colored AniericSnduring my ab •ence from the city. He is fully author ised to transact Ml business connected with the paper. J. T. Shuftex. TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS. Unforseen difficulties hate compelled us to suspend tbe publication of the ‘Colored American’ for the present But in order to fulfill our obligations to our patrons, we have made arrangements for them to be supplied with a New Pa per entitled the COLORED GEOR GIAN, the first number of which will be delivered 4 on next Saturday Morning, to all the subscribers of this paper. * Thomas P. Beard, Authorized Agent EQUALITY. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. In our last issue we considered the question: ‘What is Social Equality?’ If, in defining that question, as we found it, by the every day practice of the white man, we gave utterance to language which might have offended the finer feelings of the guilty, we plead in extenuation of our Conduct, that we could not help it— truth would out. If it has done its mission bj condemning the guilty and exonerating the innocent, it has accomplished the work which we intended it to perform. Truth, plainly spoken, although it is given in language not altogether pleasant to the ear, ought never to produce of fence ; but to the contrary, it ought to arouse the mind to a proper sense of tbe sin, and endeavor to atone to the best of its ability for the wrong committed, and we hope this will be the result of our last honest and outspoken homethrust. We shall now consider the other ques tion under the above head, namely: * What is Political Equality ? ’ If all men acted upon the great funda mental law of equality, by ‘ doing unto others as they wculd have others de unto them/ there would be no need- for gov ernments and law makers, and conse quently we would not Know wnat politics' meant. But tbe fact that men will not do this is the reason that we must govern and be governed, and that fact gives birth to a thousand and one difficulties and troubles which otherwise would not exist if they would all act upon the law’s simple mandates. Somebody, however, must make laws, and somebody has the right to say who that privileged some body shall be. Now if these laws are to be Catholic, or universal in their nature and operations, it would only be just and reasonable to suppose that all would have a right to judge and to consent who it shall be that shall make and administer those laws, but this is far from being the case. When we take into consideration, the number of those who have. and those who have not that right, we will find that the latter is vastly in the majority. Now the question arises, Why is this ? There must be reasons for this, and good ones also, for it is almost universal in its work ing. We presume they are both nume rous and sufficient, but whether they are or not, it would only be wasting words —on our side—to find fault with them, for they are the s?me in every well gov erned country, apd consequently must be just and reasonable. But it may not be uninteresting to know who these are which are thus excluded, and the reasons fqr their exclusion, for it may afford us some definite idea of the justice of the reasons given for the exclusion of the colored man along with them. Tbe first of these is the Foreigner. He is excluded from participating in the choice of law-makers, first, because he is not native born, se cond, because not being native born, he is ignorant of our institutions of govern ment, and must understand them before he can participate in them; and third he is excluded, as a precaution, for the safe* ty of the country. There is another reason which might be given, and that is, in nearly every case he is ignorant of our language. Every one is willing to acknowledge that these reasons are right ■oa proper, anu vumoienv SO eXGIUaO ufm from immediate participation in thechoice of rulers. The second class which is excluded are children and adult minors. They are excluded because of the want of sufficient self-control and undeveloped ideas. They are native born and under* stand our language, and, m not a few cases, our institutions of government also, but they have not arrived at the yeart of discretion which admits of firmness of decision in the most important affairs of life. Hence they are declared unfit by all nations, to participate in the ballot box. The third class which are excluded are women. They are excluded from the simple reason that they are, or ought to be a part of man, and that their sphere is anywhere but in the arena of politics and governments. ‘ The Head of the Woman is the man/ says the Scriptures, and all civilized nations have accepted that posi tion, and keeps her, as they ought to keep her, away, and free from the tumult of politics. Thus there are three classes excluded from participating in the choice of rulers and law makers, although these three classes have to bow to the mandates of those whom they never authorised to make them; yet the reasons for their ex clusion are accepted by themselves and all others as being both good and suffici ent. Now, those same reasons are used by a certain class in order to effect the exclusion of the colored man from parti cipating in these same benefits. The late slaveh dder and his Northern friends de clare that colored men are totally unfit for enjoying the privilege of saying who shall judge them and make laws for their obedience, because they have been slaves. Let us see if this objection is a reasonable one. The fact of them being slaves un* doubtedly declares that they are igno ravt, because they were not allowed to read and write, and on account of this deficiency in mental culture, they stand in precisely the same relation to suffrage as the Foreigner does. But is there not a number—and an immense number they do make—who have this much valued vf Winy Bti»n gUVUrtT them, but who are as far behind, in point of intellectual development, as the late slaves are? How many thousands are there of enfranchised white voters who know no more about the qualifications of a candidate for office, but what they gather from word of mouth and in the debate of the barroom. They cannot read a word for themselves, and, in con sequence, are totally unable to form an independent opinion of the great questions of the day, or who is T»r is not the proper parties to place in office to work out thef e questions. Their ignorance makes them become the willing tools of the stump demagogue and the dupes of the plausible retoric of the political ora tor, so that the man with the sweet* est tongue and the smoothest *■ bun kum ’ captivates their ears and also their votes. Yet they are hauled to the polls and compelled to vote because they have white skins on their bodies. The South ern planter, or the moncyocracy of the country, has no fears of their ignorance; to the contrary, they want them to re main in that condition so that they can bend them all the more easily to their whims and wishes. But they raise a terrific howl when bare mention is made pf elevating a colored man to tnat posi tion. Because he is ignorant cannot be the basis of their objections, so long as they Lave the same amount of ignorance among themselves. Their only ground for objections must lie in the fact that he has a black skin, and if this is really all the foundation which their objections rest upon, it must appear, in the eyes of every man of common sense, prejudice, and prejudice alone that gives birth to these objections. The colored man is native born, and thus far he is ahead of ths Foreigner, and if he is ignorant, he is not so ignorant as him, for the language of the country is bis mother tongue, and mother wit is perhaps as largely develop ed in his brain, as in the brain of any other man taking into bonsyieration meat. necessary the ballot box 0n account of danger to the county byam jvMfe the case of the Foreigner, for he knows do party but these h< was born and raisec among, andllF knows no country but bis native country, so that there is no rasemblanee between him’and the Foreigner inn sufferage point of view, in any single instance. But he knows be is ignorant, and on th a 1 account ho is per tly willing to accept education and mental development as the basis upon which he is to approach the polls of his country, provided, the same is applied to the white man also. But reason and justice demands impartiality in this toat ter, and until this is done, selfishness and injustice will characterize ail attempts of the white man to exclude him from par ticipating irUhe ballot box. As political equality is, to a great extent, based upon commercial equality, and as commercial equality is universally accorded - to evpty man irrespective of color, we cannot see any just reason for making such a marked discrimination when the former is in point But waiving all objections, both pro and am f we are of the opinion that it will be the interest of the whites, especi* ally his former owners, to extend political equality to the colored man. He is now a free man, and as a free man he has the right to acquire wealth as the product of his honest labor, and with that wealth he has the inalienable right to dispose of it as be may think proper. Now, one thing is certain, he is not to permit that wealth to find its way into the bands of bis enemies; those who would hold him sub ject to their will and pleasure. The population of this S f ate, is almost, if not actually so, man to man; the white and black making a population of one million. Now, in the course of a pear, these five hundred thousand colored people will spend an immense amount of moneythe sum may be comparatively small at the present time, for they are newly out of a bondage which did not remunerate them IwifWf’f,. li w * —wilt IritniMwn HW the years of their freedom increase, and as a natural consequence, they will spend it more profusely. Bn l let us take it at an estimate of twenty million dolla s per year as the amount earned by these five hundred thousand—and this is far below what it actually will be. Out of that sum there will be spent ten of those millions. Now, here is a power (for ‘ money is power,’ and that a great one) we are con fident our far seeing white financiers will not despise. This amount of money— and millions more than that—will find its way into the coffers of commercial men, but only into the coffers of certain com mercial men,, and these will be, the true friends of the colored race, for their de* termination is—and we speak advisedly in this matter—that not one cent shall find its way iuto the pockets of their ene mies. White men may laugh to scorn this idea, but it is a practical one, as every business man knows, and will most as suredly be carried out—then * let those laugh who win. 1 It is but right and just on our part to aid him who aids us in procuring our rights, which he is satisfied ip his own mind we are entitled to, and he will be sup* ported by our weans in so far as lids in our power. We believe there is a good deal of truth in the old saw which says that ‘ there is more power in the pocket then in the priest/ for we see it daily demonstrated in our midst Money is the &reat lever of society, no matter under what government the society may exist J and just as the purse strings are tied or untied in a particular direction, all things can be procured. We are not ignorant of this, by any means, and our cry in. future shall be, Millions to our friendly but nd one cent to our foot; and ww shall await patiently the result. . A poor woman in Nashville, 54 years old, was turned out of her tenement on Thanksgiving night, because of her mar bility to pay tbp rent. The next monk ing she was found dead among the debris of her household goods. SOI THE COM ON EDMEN. . | ft of the Commia r the Legislature of a code of laws, to frith the exception of ,W 0 or three opinion) unjust ar rides, we are much inclined to approve of them. But, why require a special code of laws to regulate them, more than to rrgulate any other branch of society F Are their criminals worse than white criminals, and is virtue among them less in substance, than among white society, which demands a new system of laws to punish Or reward, as the ease may be ? If a freedman is guilty of thieft, is ,he a worie thief than a white man guilty of the same crime ? If he is caught at house breaking, or horse stealing, or commit* ting any depredation on property, ojher than his own lawful possession, does the fact that he is a freeman make the guilt the more glaring, or the crime the more despicable ? Or if he is to be rewarded for doing right, is his measure of right, less than that of a white man who does the same? If not so, then what in the name of sense is the use of spoiling good pens and paper compiling laws and regu lations to guide him, wher. there are laws and' regulations already in existence, which reach his case exactly ? If he is free, let him be free in good faith. Do not take the shackles off his bands to bind them on his feet, but let him stand on the broad basis of bis freedom and manhood. You cannot tell what he is, nor what he will do, unless you trust him, and you cannot but know and feel, that he never betrayed that trust before. He is not going to do so now If be stood to you as you now stand to him, and be was to enact a special code of laws to regulate ‘your conduct, while there was in existence a code amply suffi cient for that purpose, would you not grumble and growel about it ? Aye 1 there would not be paper enough, nor printers enough in the land to publish your re* monstrances against such an inovation of the rights pf W>y not do to him as you would have him to do to you, if you were so situated ? The fact that a special code of lays is prepared for freedmen, is a proof that a crime committed by a freedman is greater in point of importance, than if it was committed by a freeman or a white and that existing laws, which would re ch the white’s case, could not possibly reach the black’s. Is not this virtually declaring that slavery, though dead in name, is yet alive and as rampant as ever, and that the constitutional amendment is a declaration bf rank bypocracy before High Heaven,! a seal of a nation’s per jury. You may deny them the right ot suffrage—they -are not fighting so hard for that at present—but beyond that there is no law, necessary to be enacted to govern them, but what can be found on the statute books of the state to day. The white’s criminal laws will do for them; the whites’ testimony laws will do for them, the whites’ labor and contract laws will do for them; and the whites’ marriage and legitimacy laws will do for them. Is there necessity for other than these ? Reason and justice does not think so, and it will be well for our law makers to remember that others have as been a sense of reason and justice as they have. Makenao class laws, or you sap the very foundation of the superstructure of re publicanism. Better ten thousand times banish that class by an act of eviction than make one-sided laws for them, and have the knowing of the worm of eon - science continually reminding you that wrong is stamped upon your wisdom. Parade of the Colored Fireman.— On Monday afternoon last the following companies composing the colored portion of the Savannah Fire Department, had a New Year parade. Warren No 1, Pul* aski No 2, Pulaski Branch Hose Cart No 2, Franklin No 3, Wright No 11, Tomocbiohi No 7. The procession was under the charge of Foreman Jordan, of Pulaski No 2—Chief Marshal, Charles Ripley. The pr occasion was conducted in a very orderly meaner, and the deport* common* ■' • j i * «, i S’ ? G.-iir,'’..’-4* i- ■ f **■ * MI80B1XANROV& In (WMWquence of the Legislature of Tennessee having refused to admit negro ifi the mvil emrte, Get. m, Meistant commissioner of the Freedmen’. Bureau for that State, has issued aa er* dor which provides for special courts, under bis superinteadenee, to hoar coms id which negroes are interested. A man in Maine lost a cow last wook without any apparent disease: baton ex amination after her death discovered the cause—a piece of hoop-skirt steel-spring, about two* inches in length, which the cow had swallowed, and not being able to digest it, had worked through the stom ach, and had just penetrated the heart, causing instant death. It is noted as a peculiar fact that three of the prominent members of the Re publican party have died, within a.brief space of time, while indulging in pleasur able recreation. Joshua R. Gddings fell by the side of a billiard-table; Presi dent Lincoln died in a theatre, and Mr. Corwin was stricken down . nile enliven ing the festivities of an evening with jokes. i Cuba.-—The population of this beauti i ful island at the last census was a little over a million. The area embraced by it and its dependencies is 47,278 square miles. The great staples are sugar, coffee and tobacco; and the annual value of the products of the plantations is esti mated at $60,000,000, although only about one twentieth of the island is in cultivation. The annual revenues of the Government amount to something like $13,000,000. There are 1,442 sugar estates, 1,818 coffee estates, 912 tobacco estates and about 10,000 grazing farms. • Our neighbor, the Journal and Mes senger, gets off the fallowing: A Crawford County correspondent sends us the following with (indisputable evidence that the statement is literally true: * Died, on the 24th of November last, at the residence of Mrs. Eubanks, in Crawfbrd County, Mrs. Lucretia Em fitiger, aged forty-nine years and eight months. Mrs. E. was a most excellent woman and exemplary Christian. For ten years she labored under dropsy of the abdomen, a d was, during that time, tap-, ped one hundred andfour times, and the erormous amount of eight hundred and sixty- wo gallons of Water drawn off. During her protracted suffering she was ever patient and generally cheerful. A good story is told of Gen. Steadman, now in command of the Department of Georgia; A railroad contractor came to him one day and asked fora military force to com pel the negroes to work in repairiug the line from Savanuah to Augusta. ‘They won’t work,’ he said. ‘How much do you pay them?’ asked the General, who has been a railroad and canal contractor from bis boyhood up. ‘Ten dollars.’ •The Devil I’ said Steadman, ‘you go, and give ’em thirty, and see whether they’ll work then. 1 never gave a man less than 87j cents a day in my life. J think 1 could get a brigade at that price here. You go and try it I’ He went 1 Berwick. • The other evening, at Bloomington* Illinois, the daughter of Mr. Peter Whits, mer, accidentally pushed a kerosene lamp from the table where she was reading, and as it broke it set fire to the oil, &c Mr. W. instantly smothered the fire with shawls, pillows, &c., thinking he had a narrow e. cape ffom conflagration. To his surprise, in a few minutes he heard % fire behind the plastering of the wall, roaring like a chimney. Some of the liquid fire had crept through a creviee in the floor, not over a twentieth of an inch wide, and ignited the woodwork in the ceiling He it through, put out the lower part of the fire, and was then obliged to break through from the ouU side, /md also in the second story, before he could save the house. It is one of the most singular cases we have ever heard of, and shows the great danger of kerosene oil. Recently, the wife of John Cranford, slater, Ewe and Lamb Close, Damfries, Scotland, gave birth to a son j who ex* hibits the rare, if not unprecedented, peculiarity of having three tongue*. We saw the child, and found it to be seeming ly in excellent health, of full sixe, and in other respects well formed. The middle tongue is the largest of the three; it ia rounded at the top, and is fastened to the lower part of the palate in such a way as to prevent the child sucking readily. Each of the tongues is separated from the other, and those on each side do not ap* pear to cause the infant much ineon* veuienca. The curious malformation does not, so for as appearance goes, res < suit from any disease. The child has been seen by several physicians, and they are of opinion it would be advisable, after he is a little older to liberate the middle ■tongue from the palate by an operation. Meanwhile the infant is suckled by weana of a hMtU