Daily Picayune, "Underground Railroad Return Trains," October 22, 1857

    Source citation
    "Front Page 4-No Title," The Daily Picayune, 22 October 1857, p. 1.
    Newspaper: Publication
    New Orleans (LA) Picayune
    Newspaper: Headline
    Front Page 4-No Title
    Newspaper: Page(s)
    1
    Type
    Newspaper
    Date Certainty
    Exact
    Transcriber
    Zak Rosenberg
    Transcription date
    The following text is presented here in complete form, as it originally appeared in print.  Spelling and other typographical errors have been preserved as in the original.

    UNDERGROUND RAILROAD RETURN TRAINS- The Cleveland Plaindealer states that every steamboat arriving at that place brings back from Canada families of negroes, who have formerly fled to the Provinces from the States. They are principally from Canada West. They describe the life and condition of the blacks in Canada as miserable in the extreme. The West is therefore likely to have large accessions to its colored population, and it is not at all improbable that Black Republicanism and Abolitionism will diminish, in consequence, in proportion as the negroes increase. The Canada folks do not want them, and have shown a disposition in their Parliament, and otherwise, to discourage their coming to or remaining in the Provinces. In some instances, the question of ejecting those now resident there, has been discussed. Our Western States will be likely to experience a smiliar attack of the black comito, when they shall have become satisfied with this peculiar Southern luxury. In some localities the superabundant free negro population has already become a burden, while in others they are under severe restrictions, which amount almost to an exclusion from the limits of the State.

    Should this exodus from Canada continue to any great extent, it would throw such a burden upon those States which have adopted the most liberal policy towards the negro, that it would occasion a reaction in the public sentiment, which would compel them to abandon their abolition doctrine and practice, for their own self-protection. We should then hear of fewer attempts to abduct slaves from the slaveholding States: stock in the Underground railroad would become worthless, and the Abolitionists would be content to allow slaves to remain under the care and protection of their masters. Even though at heart sympathizing with the oppressed and taskworn negro, and yearning twards him with all the love of the professed philanthropist, he would still be permitted to toll and bleed: for now that the route to Canada has been closed, there is no alternative but to take them to their own bosoms: and this they will not do for love-no, not for money!

    Thus, in one way at least, the country may, and possibly will, be rid of the political plague-spot which has disgraced it, and preyed upon its vitals for so long a time. The disease is one of that kind which, in time, will care itself.

    How to Cite This Page: "Daily Picayune, "Underground Railroad Return Trains," October 22, 1857," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/848.