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diff --git a/40946-0.txt b/40946-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7e5259d --- /dev/null +++ b/40946-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1671 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40946 *** + + Transcriber's Note: + + Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as + possible, including non-standard spelling and punctuation. Some + changes of spelling and punctuation have been made. They are + listed at the end of the text. + + Italic text has been marked with _underscores_. + Bold text has been marked with =equals signs=. + + + + + Principia Club Papers, No. 9. + + EMANCIPATION AND EMIGRATION. + + A + PLAN TO TRANSFER + the + FREEDMEN OF THE SOUTH + to the + GOVERNMENT LANDS OF THE WEST. + + BOSTON, MASS.: + PUBLISHED BY THE PRINCIPIA CLUB. + 1878. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + Page + + Open Letter to the Freedmen of the South, 3 + + Emancipation and Emigration, 5 + + Preamble and Resolutions, 7 + + Plan of Operations, 10 + + Safety as an Investment, 12 + + Objections Considered, 12 + + Settlement of Freedmen on Government Lands Approved, 14 + + The Freedmen's Danger, 15 + + The National Farmers' Association, 16 + + Appendix, 17 + + +SPECIAL NOTICE. + +The PRINCIPIA CLUB PAPERS consist of nine chapters, to wit: + + Vaticanism Unmasked, Chaps. 1 and 2 + + The Political Trinity of Despotism, Chap. 3 + + Despotism vs. Republicanism, Chap. 4 + + The Ballot a Sacred Trust, Chap. 5 + + The Political Trinity Victorious, Chap. 6 + + The Southern Policy a Failure, Chap. 7 + + Finance, Politics, and Religion, Chap. 8 + + Emancipation and Emigration: a Plan to Colonize and + Settle the Freedmen of the South on the Government + Lands of the West, Chap. 9 + +All these chapters, or papers, make a book of 344 pages, and will be +sold for $1.00. + +N. B.--Orders should be addressed "J. W. ALDEN, President of the +Principia Club, No. 9 Hanson Street, Boston, Mass." + + + + +AN OPEN LETTER TO THE FREEDMEN OF THE SOUTH. + + +CAMBRIDGEPORT, MASS., Aug. 13, 1878. + +_Fellow Citizens:_--If any apology for improving your condition were +needed it may be found in the fact that a large portion of the last +forty years of my life was spent, and many thousand dollars invested, in +the terrible conflict with the slave power. It is _not_ necessary for me +to remind you that the result of that conflict was your emancipation +from American slavery by the Republican party, with such leaders and +co-laborers as Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, Senators Charles Sumner +and Henry Wilson, Rev. Joshua Leavitt, D. D., and Rev. Wm. Goodell, all +of whom have now passed away, but whose life-long labors, with many who +are still living, culminated in the Emancipation Proclamation of +President Lincoln in 1863. But it _is_, as it seems to me, necessary to +remind you that the Republican party of to-day is a very different thing +from then--that your liberties and citizenship have now become the stock +in trade of corrupt politicians--that your political rights have been +bartered away for the _promises_ of your old masters, which they never +meant to perform when they made them, and for which they now substitute +_demands_ for your return to slavery, with the pecuniary interest of one +to two thousand dollars in each able-bodied man _left out_; consequently +when they shoot a man they do not lose that amount of investment in his +body. Among the demands of the "dominant race" is the repeal of the +constitutional amendments which made you citizens and gave you the +ballot. Of course they did not ask the Republican party to do it +_directly_. They only asked them to put the political power of the +nation into the hands of the Democratic party, and the second and third +rate politicians now at the head of affairs at Washington were stupid +enough to do it, for the poor privilege of occupying the White House for +a short time. But when another Congress assembles with a Democratic +majority in both houses (if such a calamity should overtake us), that +will be done as sure as water runs down hill. Now what we propose to do +is to open a door to the "better land" of this country, into which every +freedman, who has had enough of slavery, both _legal_ before the war, +and _practical_ since, and who has enterprise enough to desire to better +his condition and that of his family, if he has one, may enter. It is +the most practical, sensible, and scientific "labor reform" yet +proposed; with neither the blatherskite of Kearney, nor his blasphemy, +profanity, nor blarney, to mar and jeopardize the movement. + +It has been known in Washington for some time, that "The Principia Club +Papers, No. 9," soon to be issued, will contain a plan of emigration for +the freedmen and their families of the Southern States, and their +settlement upon the government lands of the Northern and Western States +and Territories, where they can cultivate their own farms and sit under +their own vine and fig-tree. The club will appoint a board of trustees +in whom the public can have the utmost confidence, whose duty it shall +be to assist the freedmen in the selection, purchase, and payment of +their farms, and the removal of their families and outfits. + +More full explanations and descriptions will be given in the pamphlet, +which will contain also specific directions to individuals or colonies +how to proceed in the matter. While arrangements are being made with the +government, the club will be glad to receive any suggestions from any +one interested in the movement, and especially the leading colored men +in the country. + +Concerning this movement, any information desired may be had by +addressing the president of the club, + +J. W. ALDEN, + +No. 9 Hanson Street, Boston, Mass. + + + + +EMANCIPATION AND EMIGRATION. + + +When emancipation took place, in 1863, it was not thought, by the noble +army of philanthropists who had labored more than a quarter of a century +for its accomplishment, that it would ever be necessary for the freedmen +to flee their native States, in order to enjoy their civil and political +rights and privileges under the Constitution. + +Nor was it ever dreamed by the voting Republicans of 1876, that the +administration they were putting into power could ever become so stupid +as to surrender the national power into the hands of the rebel States, +under so thin a guise as the old exploded humbug of South Carolina +nullification--State rights, home-rule doctrine; and then stand by with +folded arms and see the freedmen deliberately turned over to the tender +mercies of the political trinity of despotism, to be stripped of their +civil and political rights under the Constitution, and to be refused +protection by the national government. It made no difference that the +robbers were _rebels_ and the robbed _loyal_ citizens. The hollow +promises of the rebels who had fought four years to destroy the +government, it seems, were better currency at Washington than the +protests of the loyal people who had saved it. + +But the fifteen years that have elapsed since emancipation, have +demonstrated the fact that these loyal people who fought for and +saved the government, and who voted for and elected the present +administration, must be returned to practical slavery, submit to +serfdom, or emigrate to more civilized States, where their civil and +political rights will be cheerfully accorded to them. + +The proof of this proposition lies in the fact that State after State, +in the South, which had amended their ante-bellum constitutions, so as +to conform to that of the United States, preparatory to their +readmission to the Union after the war, have, since their admission, +remodelled the said constitutions in the interest of the "dominant class +of white rulers." Moreover, the leaders of that same class are now in +hot haste to have the United States Constitution made to conform to +their own State laws, by the repeal of the amendments enfranchising the +freedmen,--a specimen of sharp practice and unparalleled audacity, only +equalled in the papal church, where the hierarchy made their system, and +then a translation of the Bible to fit into it, instead of making a +system to conform to the Bible, as originally written. (See Vaticanism +Unmasked.) + +If "the dominant race," as Mr. Gordon called them at the Revere House +dinner, with the approval of Governor Rice and company, choose to put +their carts before their donkeys, in their own States, they can do so, +but when they call upon the nation to do it, the North may have a word +to say about it. + +If that "dominant race" we have heard so much about, and of which we +have had such sad specimens in the present Congress, are expecting to +get their potatoes dug, their corn hoed, and their cotton picked, for a +peck of corn or so per week to each laborer, as their fathers have done +for a couple of centuries past, we beg leave to differ from them, and +suggest to their laborers a more excellent way for themselves. More than +this: we propose to assist those who desire a better condition, to +obtain it quietly, where each can enjoy the fruits of his own labors, +and sit with his family under his own vine and fig-tree, man fashion, +and where their wives and daughters will not be stripped and receive +upon their bare backs, for some petty offence, as many lashes as the +"dominant race" may please to inflict, as was the practice under the old +slave code, and is still continued. + +The whipping-post is as yet an institution of the slave oligarchy, if we +may credit the following telegram:-- + +"At Hampton, Virginia, the other day, a white girl of fourteen years +received fifteen lashes at the whipping-post for stealing a pair of +shoes." + +If the "white girl of fourteen years" had stolen, instead of a pair of +shoes, the assets of a bank, railroad, or any other corporation, she +would have been wined and dined according to the present moral code of +the solid South, which is being copied all over the country. + +If our Northern readers feel that we have overdrawn the picture, and +"flaunted the bloody shirt," we beg them to remember that the Southern +press furnishes the material for that article. The last Boston paper we +happened to take up while writing, has the following quotation from the +"Oskolona (Mississippi) Southern States":-- + +"The future belongs to us and ours. Davis and his Cabinet and his +soldiers will rank with the Washingtons, the Hampdens, and the Tells in +the Pantheon of history, while Grant and his horde of bloody hirelings +will be classed with the Vandals, Goths, and Huns." + +We will refer the reader to the "Appendix" of this, No. 9, for further +evidence of the public sentiment at the South, which goes to show that +the freedmen must EMIGRATE, FIGHT, or PERISH. + +While the churches of the North are sending missionaries to educate them +up to the point of Christian citizenship and an educated ballot, the +"dominant white race" are robbing them of their political rights, +shooting them down, if they dare to assert them, and making them "hewers +of wood and drawers of water," as in the olden times of American +slavery. (See Appendix for evidence of this.) + + + + +PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONS. + + +The following preamble and resolutions, with plan of operations, will +indicate the work we propose to be done, or at least entered upon. + + +PREAMBLE. + +_Whereas_, by the proclamation of emancipation of President Lincoln in +the year 1863, about four million of colored people were emancipated +from American slavery; and _whereas_, by the subsequent amendments to +the Constitution of the United States, passed by Congress and ratified +by more than three-quarters of the States of the Union, nearly a million +of said emancipated slaves, of lawful age and sex, were enfranchised and +made citizens; and + +_Whereas_, said amendments to the Constitution were practically +nullified and rendered a dead letter in the Southern States at the last +presidential election, and ever since, by disfranchising the colored +Republicans who would not put into the ballot-boxes Democratic tickets, +shooting some and intimidating others; and + +_Whereas_, the elements of despotism in the Democratic party are now +clamoring for a repeal of the said constitutional amendments, so that +they may return the colored Republicans legally to their former +condition, or a worse one, and use them for Democratic voters and +ballot-box stuffers; therefore,-- + + +RESOLUTIONS. + +1. _Resolved_, That the Principia Club appeal to the government of the +country, to render such assistance as will enable their emancipated +people to take their families to the Northern and Western States and +Territories, and settle on government lands, where they can enjoy their +rights of citizenship, and be protected by the government which has thus +far failed to render them protection from bull-dozing, assassination, +intimidation, and other barbarisms to which they are now subjected by +the elements of despotism in the South. + +2. _Resolved_, That a board of trustees be appointed to assist the +freedmen in obtaining their lands at government price, together with +such an outfit as will enable them to remove their families and commence +farming on their own account, to receive and disburse all moneys +contributed for the above purposes, appoint such agents as may be +necessary in the several States, to promote emigration and carry forward +the following plan of operations, until the freedmen and their families +who desire it, shall be removed to better homes and more civilized +society, entirely away from the barbarism of slavery, and the pernicious +doctrine that States rights are supreme and national rights are +subordinate. + +3. _Resolved_, That emancipation from American slavery being +practically nullified, therefore, emancipation from home rule as +understood and practised at the South, becomes a _necessity_, and +emigration to a civilized community a consequence. + +4. _Resolved_, That the President of the Principia Club be instructed to +obtain from the Secretary of the Interior a list of the number of acres +of unsold and unpre-empted lands in each of the Northern and Western +States and Territories, from which the Trustees may select farms for +their wards. + +5. _Resolved_, That the same ascertain from the officers of the Pacific +and other railroads, the best terms they are prepared to offer to +settlers for the transportation of themselves, their families, and their +outfits to the lands along their roads respectively. + +6. _Resolved_, That the twenty-eight million acres of land contiguous to +the Central, Union, Kansas and Denver Pacific roads, which the Secretary +of the Interior has recently decided to open to actual settlers, at the +government price of $1.25 per acre (the three years' limitation after +the completion of said roads contained in the land-grant laws having +expired), shall receive the special attention of the Trustees of this +association in the selection of farms for applicants. But in case the +decision of the Secretary of the Interior should not stand, or should be +contested, then the government lands will be purchased instead. + +7. _Resolved_, That the Republican party, to whom the country owes, +under God, Emancipation, be called upon to finish the work so nobly +begun, by carrying out a provision of the United States Constitution, +Art. IV., Sect. II., Clause I., which reads, "the citizens of each State +shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the +several States," and that this clause of the Constitution, together with +the amendments enfranchising the freedmen, be made test questions at the +polls, until a solid North shall elect a government that will +have backbone enough to see to it that every State in the Union +shall strictly comply with the requirements of the United States +Constitution, or revert to a territorial condition. + + + + +THE PLAN OF OPERATIONS. + + +1. The Trustees shall be men of either known wealth, ability, financial +strength, or business capacity, in whose honesty and integrity the +community will have the most implicit confidence. + +2. All moneys entrusted to them shall be appropriated in strict +conformity to the directions of the donor or lender, whether for the +general expenses or the purchase of lands. + +3. The funds furnished the Trustees for the purchase of lands, shall be +treated as loans or donations as the party may elect, the deed in each +case to be taken in the name of the party furnishing the money to pay +for the land, which deed may be held by the Trustees, or passed over to +the owner as he may elect, as security, if for a loan. + +4. The terms of sale to the freedmen by the Trustees shall be +substantially those of the pre-emption laws, to wit: $1.25 per acre; but +the terms of payment may be mutually arranged between the owner and +purchaser, or their agents, the Trustees. + +5. Every freedman who can pay for his own farm may have his deed at +once, and enjoy the privileges granted to and by this association, by +the payment of five dollars towards the general expenses. + +By the above plan it will be seen that any person investing fifty +dollars for a quarter section, one hundred dollars for a half section, +or two hundred dollars for a section, and so on, will hold the land as +security at $1.25 per acre, while the alternate sections which have been +sold by the Pacific railroads have averaged much more, or about five +dollars an acre (some have sold for fifteen dollars). Thus it will be +seen that the investment will be a safe one, and at the same time +facilitate the exodus of the freedmen to the Western States. + +The Trustees will not be allowed to run the association in debt, but +will invest the money put into their hands in the best lands, according +to their judgment, and sell them to the freedmen in the order in which +application and selection is made. + +Justice to the freedmen, after the treatment they have received, +requires that the United States government should transport them free of +charge, together with their families, household goods, farming +implements, &c., to unpre-empted lands in the Western States and +Territories, giving to each family land sufficient for their +maintenance, with due diligence and care, and a reasonable time to pay +for it. But the prospect of a "labor reform" movement of that magnitude +does not look very encouraging, when we remember that the rebel South +have thirty-five bogus members in Congress, to which they are not +entitled, while depriving large Republican majorities of several States +of the exercise of the elective franchise, which the amendments to the +Constitution conferred upon them. + +If we had more STATESMEN in Congress, and fewer corrupt politicians, the +prospect would be more flattering that the demands of justice would be +heeded. + +If, however, the government as at present constituted, should take hold +of the matter in earnest and good faith, our "National Farmers' +Association" may be easily modified to conform to the circumstances. But +on the other hand, if the "solid South," by virtue of its _thirty-five_ +bogus representatives, should rule the nation as in ante-bellum times it +did with its _twenty-five_, neither the freedmen nor their friends can +expect any thing to be done in the direction we have suggested that will +benefit the freedmen, until Congress shall be reconstructed at the +polls, or until the large Republican majorities of freedmen in the +South, despairing of the protection of their political rights by the +Federal power, seize their last resort and defend them by their own +strong arms, under "home rule and State rights." If they should do this +the "dominant race" and their rifle clubs would vanish like dew before +the sun, and that ball wouldn't stop rolling until the whole nest of +Southern rebels are cleaned out. + +But we propose to the government to prevent all this bloodshed, and +quietly remove the freedmen and their families to the Western prairies. + + + + +SAFETY AS AN INVESTMENT. + + +1. When an individual furnishes the Trustees with money to purchase a +farm of a quarter section or more, for a freedman and his family, he +will get, in due time, a deed of the land at $1.25 per acre, as security +for his investment. The investor may then sell the land to the farmer or +freedman on such terms of payment as may be agreed upon; or, if more +convenient, the Trustees will do it, under his instructions. + +2. When a purchaser of a farm pays for it himself he will get his deed +at once, and that will end the matter with him, so far as the Trustees +are concerned. + +3. Parties wishing to _donate_ farms for poor and worthy freedmen and +their families, can do so through the Trustees, and be furnished in due +time with the names of the recipients, their location, and post-office +address. + +4. As an investment, well-located farms at $1.25 per acre, are as safe +as government bonds, and will pay a much larger interest. We have +already stated that the lands donated to the Pacific railroads have +_averaged_ five dollars per acre, while some of them have sold as high +as fifteen dollars per acre. + + + + +OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. + + +1. We are aware that one objection to our plan of placing the freedmen +in a comparatively independent position from their old masters and their +posterity, is its _magnitude_. But that is no valid reason why it +should not be adopted. If it cannot be wholly accomplished in a +generation or a century, let it be done, so far as it can be, in our +generation, and continued by our successors until it shall be finished. + +Under God, Moses undertook to lead the children of Israel out of +Egyptian bondage into the promised land. In doing it they were forty +years in the wilderness, but in due time the thing was accomplished and +passed into history. The magnitude of the project and the time required +for its accomplishment were no objections to its being undertaken. It is +true we have no Moses to lead the freedmen into our western prairies, +but we have the same God to work under that Moses had. + +2. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, when it +began its work, had no expectation of converting the world to +Christianity in a generation or a century; but that was no reason why it +should not organize and go to work, leaving for its successors to finish +what it then only began. The same is true of the Home Missionary Society +work, and that of the American Missionary Association, which has the +freedmen under its care especially. The work of both of these societies +will be greatly facilitated by taking the freedmen from the clutches of +the old slave oligarchy, and placing them in an independent civil +position on our boundless prairies, and in cities and villages where +they can care for themselves, their families, and their country, with +none to molest nor make them afraid; a work which neither of the above +societies can do, under their present constitutions. + +Where they are, Col. Preston, of Virginia, in a paper addressed to the +American Missionary Association at its annual meeting said: "There is no +place for them as legislators, and no room for them among the whites as +doctors, lawyers, professors, engineers, architects, or artists. By +other pursuits they must gain their livelihood, and for other pursuits +they must be trained." + +It will be observed that agriculture is left out of the colonel's +catalogue, and, of course, must be included in the "other pursuits" by +which the freedmen "must gain their livelihood." Now we propose to place +them on the best farming lands on this continent, where they can not +only gain a "livelihood," but qualify themselves for any and all of the +above occupations and professions, with no rifle clubs to keep them in +subjection to the ruling class of whites. + +President Fairchild, of Berea College, said that the above quotation was +a "leaden weight hung upon the neck of the colored youth." + +Our plan proposes to put them in a position to shake off that "leaden +weight," and rise in the scale of humanity in consonance with their just +deserts. + +It can but commend itself to the friends of the freedmen. + + + + +THE PLAN APPROVED. + + +Since our "open letter to the freedmen of the South," dated Aug. 13, +1878, and published in the Boston "Traveller," a few days after, +announcing our plan of emigration, we have received letters of +endorsement from leading freedmen, which show the feeling in the South +in favor of this plan, and their opposition to the Liberia scheme of +emigration. One of them writes us: "I prefer going West, and many +hundreds here would join me. I am opposed to emigration to Liberia. We +cannot live in the South and enjoy our political rights. We need wealth +and education. These are what we cannot get in the South, where the +landed aristocrat refuses to sell and divide his land among the blacks. +He opposes our education, so as to be able to control our political +rights, and make us only "hewers of wood and drawers of water." I hope +the plan will be a success. The prayers of many freedmen will go with +you and the whole scheme." + +This writer is endorsed by Hon. J. H. Rainey, M. C. from South +Carolina. + +As we go to press with this pamphlet, we will give the key-note of the +newspaper press on the subject. + +The "Washington Republican" urges upon the colored men of the South that +the best thing they can do is to go to the West. It says:-- + +"And the sooner they go the better for all concerned. Their exodus from +the South would leave the soil of that to them inhospitable section +without tillers. It would weaken the political strength of the +ex-Confederacy in the Union, and they would stand some chance of being +represented in the national councils, as well as being counted in the +basis of that representation. Besides, it would awaken a sentiment among +the better classes of the South in favor of law and order, for the +purpose of persuading them to remain 'at home'; and this would result in +a determined effort to overcome Ku-Kluxism and bull-dozing in all their +varied forms." + +To be "counted in the basis of that representation," and be forced to +submit to have bull-dozing representatives sent to Congress by the +Ku-Klux, is an unparalleled monstrosity. + + + + +THE FREEDMEN'S DANGER. + + +We verily believe that the chief danger to the freedmen is in being +fooled by the _fair promises_ of "the dominant white race." They have +succeeded so well in befooling the government, and have found out by +experience that it is much easier and more profitable to _fool_ than to +_fight_, that they will try the same game with the freedmen, as soon as +they begin to emigrate. _But don't be deceived by them._ You had +experience enough, both during slavery and since emancipation, of their +perfidy, faithlessness, and treachery. In our forty years' contest with +the slave power, we never knew its votaries to make a promise, involving +human rights, _and redeem it_, when it was against their pecuniary +interest to do so. I may say the same of their political promises, +specimens of which are given in the previous numbers of the Principia +Club papers, also in the Appendix, and need not be repeated in this. + +Rebels who claim that this is "a white man's country," and that "negroes +have no rights that white men are bound to respect," are not to be +trusted. The thirty-five members of Congress to which the freedmen are +entitled, should be chosen by their votes, and, in every locality where +the freedmen are in a majority, and are fraudulently deprived of their +vote, the representative from that district should be denied a seat in +Congress. This would dispose of the Democratic majority of bull-dozers +at once. But whether this can be done or not, as things now are, +organize into colonies, leave the "solid South to the world, the flesh, +and the devil," emigrate West, where you can vote and enjoy your +political rights, as the Constitution defines them. + + + + +THE NATIONAL FARMERS' ASSOCIATION. + + +ARTICLE I. + +This association shall be called the National Farmers' Association. + + +ARTICLE II. + +The officers of this association shall consist of a President, +Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer, who, together with three other +persons, shall constitute a board of trustees. + + +ARTICLE III. + +The object of the association shall be to encourage the freedmen of the +Southern States to emigrate to the Northern and Western States and +Territories, and settle upon government lands, where they can be +protected, and live under laws in harmony with the Constitution of the +United States; or form townships of their own on the New England plan, +with churches, schools, &c., according to their own predilections. + + +ARTICLE IV. + +Every individual owning a farm not less than a quarter section, or forty +acres, shall be entitled to membership in this association, by the +payment of five dollars towards the general expenses. Any surplus +remaining over and above the expenses will be invested in farms for poor +families, who have always been loyal to the United States government. + + +ARTICLE V. + +Every freedman who purchases a farm and settles upon the same, shall be +an honorary member of this association, until he shall have paid for the +same and obtained his deed, when he shall be admitted to full +membership. + + +ARTICLE VI. + +The officers of the Principia Club shall act as officers of this +association, until an act of incorporation shall be obtained, or until +other officers shall be elected. + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +If any proof were needed of the truth of our positions in the editorial, +the preamble, the resolutions, or the necessity of the transfer of the +freedmen from Southern rule and the barbarism of slavery, to the more +civilized portions of the land, it may be found in the Appendix. The +testimony of the Southern press is absolutely overwhelming. We might +print a large volume of the same kind, but we content ourself with only +specimens enough to answer our purpose, from both the Northern and +Southern press, leaving the mass of testimony still in our drawer. + +We begin this catalogue of witnesses with an article from the Boston +"Traveller," which quotes and comments upon Southern testimony with so +much truthfulness, that we give the article entire. + + +NEGROES AND THEIR RIGHTS. + +The recent Democratic Convention of Edgefield County, South +Carolina,--the home of "Hamburg" Butler,--adopted the following +resolution:-- + +"We regard the issues between the white and the colored people of this +State, and of the entire South, as an antagonism of race, not a +difference of political parties. This State and the United States were +settled by the white race; the lands now belong to the white race; the +white race are responsible for its government and civilization, and +white supremacy is essential to our continued existence as a people. We +are willing to accord to the colored race equal and exact justice, and +we recognize all of their rights and privileges under the laws of this +land." + +Rightly interpreted this means--"We will give the niggers all their +rights, but really they have no rights." That is the old doctrine of the +Democratic party, which changes its principles only when the leopard +changes its spots, and a more truthful declaration of its principles +than is often presented. Some of the Southern Democrats, who just now +are endeavoring to secure negro votes for their party, deprecate these +declarations, and the resolution has given rise to some discussion in +the South Carolina press. + +The Spartansburg "Spartan" says:-- + +"Unfortunately there are too many who, thinking they can manipulate the +negro vote, wish to bring it into the Democratic party. If this is done +it will not only destroy the controlling influences of the white man and +endanger his institutions and civilization, but will put the up country +of South Carolina under the control of the low country, where the great +negro vote lies." + +The Charleston "News," taking a different view of the case, says:-- + +"If colored people are willing to become Democrats in good faith, it +will require grave deliberation to determine whether it is not wiser to +let them in, and give them a voice in the party, than to leave them +outside as a bait for Independent Democrats. The Independent, not the +colored Democrat, is the rock ahead in South Carolina politics." + +The "News" is willing to allow negroes to act in the Democratic party, +it seems, solely because the colored vote may thereby be controlled. It +does not concede their right to vote, and to vote as they may choose, +but it realizes that some of them will vote, notwithstanding the +opposition of the Spartan school of Democracy, and seeking to have that +vote controlled in the interests of the party, it is willing to have it +understood by the negroes that they will find no obstacles in the way of +their voting, if they unite with the Democratic party. The same end is +sought by the "Spartan" and by the "News." The first-named wishes to +secure the supremacy of a race by preventing the negroes from voting, +while the "News" thinks it a better policy to adopt measures for the +control of their votes. The "News" is no more friendly to the colored +men than its contemporary, and the policy it proposes is as dangerous to +their rights, as that of those who, in an outspoken manner, tell the +negroes they are entitled to no political privileges. + +PLAIN TALK.--The Providence "Journal" says: "The stipulations to which +the Southern States solemnly pledged themselves, as the conditions of +restoration to their forfeited rights in the Union, and to their +readmission to a share in the government which they had attempted to +overthrow, have been shamelessly violated. The negro is not permitted to +vote unless he is frightened into voting the Democratic ticket. He has +practically 'no rights which a white man is bound to respect.' In some +of these States a sort of peonage has been established, which differs +from slavery mainly in the exemption of the master from the care of the +slave in sickness and old age, and in all of them disqualifying laws, +and still more disqualifying practices under the laws, prevail. History +presents no parallel to the forbearance shown by the conquering party in +the rebellion, and none to the perfidy of the party that was overcome." + +A leading paper in the State of Senator Gordon--the Columbus +"Enquirer-Sun,"--thus favors the lynch law: "A good, able-bodied, +healthy corpse, or even a slightly damaged one, dangling from the limb +of a tree on a public highway, strikes more terror into the heart of a +criminal, and creates more respect for the fiat of justice, than the +inside of a thousand jails, or the presence of an army of judges and +jurymen. There is an appalling grandeur, a horrifying sublimity in the +spectacle of a ghastly, half-devoured human form suspended in mid-air, +receiving alike unconsciously the refreshing drops of the nocturnal dew +that gives life to the violets, or the glowing rays of the morning sun +as it ascends the eastern horizon and beams smilingly down on a busy +world." + +Which is correct? Here is Representative Waddell of North Carolina, +formerly a rebel general, telling an organization of Union veterans, +that not one person in one hundred thousand in the South expects or +desires compensation for property destroyed by the Union armies, and +here is ex-editor Cheney of Lebanon, who has travelled through the South +and sojourned in Florida, saying: "You meet with no man in the South who +does not either earnestly assert the justice of these claims, or leave +with you the impression that he hopes they will be paid, because such +payment means more money and greater prosperity for the South. Even the +negroes, when it comes to the test, will be found co-operating with +their masters to secure compensation for their own freedom." We repeat +our question, Which is correct?--_Concord Monitor_. + + +LOUISIANA. + +Ex-Governor Pinchbeck had an interview with the President recently, in +which he took occasion to express his views concerning the needs of +Louisiana. He represents the interview to have been pleasant and +satisfactory. Pinchbeck says the State has now the best governor of any +other within his recollection; that the people were generally better +satisfied than heretofore, with the condition of affairs, although the +people there, as elsewhere, complain of hard times. The only thing of +which Pinchbeck complains is that the few children, nearly white, in the +public schools in New Orleans, have been required to leave them. They +should, he said, have been permitted to remain until faded out by +increase of years. His own children were included in the number removed +by the school authorities. + + +THE SOUTHERN POLICY. + +The Principia Club of Cambridgeport has just published a pamphlet of 160 +pages with the above title, containing a history of the President's +Southern policy, so far as developed, up to the close of the extra +session of Congress. The facts and testimony were collated by its +president, and constitute a chain of evidence absolutely overwhelming to +all but the conspirators, who are determined to ignore the facts and +swear it through in the interest of the bull-dozed Democracy. That the +said policy is a failure to promote Republicanism, can no longer be +doubted. That it has put the government of the country into the power of +the conspirators is abundantly proved by this pamphlet, which will be +read with great interest.--_Traveller_. + +The colored people of the South are physically and socially in a worse +condition to-day than when held in the bonds of slavery, and as citizens +their badge of citizenship is a mockery, and far more galling than the +chains which bound them in involuntary servitude. The Constitution +promises them protection in equal rights before the law as citizens, but +the protecting arm of the Federal power has been withdrawn, and the +written law is not worth the parchment on which it is inscribed. The +guarantees of the Constitution are suspended. The rights of citizenship +are a baseless dream. The heel of political oppression is planted upon +their citizenship with a power as ruthless as that which restrained +their physical freedom as men. The Constitution and its guarantees have +become a mere sham.--_Washington Republican_. + +The grand jury of Pike County, Miss., reported that many persons +summoned before them as witnesses failed to come, because of the fear +of personal violence should they testify. "One witness," they say, "was +assassinated while _en route_ to the seat of justice, and we have +received such information as to lead us to believe that the lives of +others would be in danger, if they came before the court to testify." +Mississippi gives a Democratic majority of fifty thousand.--_Chicago +Inter-Ocean_. + +But what right has the "Inter-Ocean" to complain? Hasn't the policy +given Mississippi peace? Haven't the bull-dozers been informed that they +will be conciliated, regardless of expense? And what is the importance +of a murder or two, or the perversion of justice, or any other little +violation of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, +compared with peace and reform? The "Inter-Ocean" is an implacable +newspaper, and ought to be ashamed of itself for printing such +bloody-shirt facts, and insinuating unkind things against the President +and his Democratic policy!--_Traveller_. + +Alluding to the suggestion of a Southern paper that Mr. Garrison should +be hung, the Philadelphia "Bulletin" says: "It is difficult to say with +certainty what may not happen in a country the government of which is +now controlled by a political party which once strove to destroy it; but +we have a very strong notion that when hanging for treason begins in +this country Mr. Garrison will not be the first victim. If such a policy +should be suddenly introduced, it would vacate about three-fourths of +the Democratic seats in Congress and rob the Democratic party of its +most popular leaders." + +We know what we are talking about, and we say this is the plan which +Western and Southern Democrats are now working up. Their first purpose +is to capture the government, and their next will be the separation of +the States. Mr. Voorhees's statesmanship does not recognize any +community of interest between the West and the East. He thinks "the +great West" and "the sunny South" should join hands and let the Eastern +States with their "capitalists" and "bondholders" and "Shylocks" go. +This is the new Democratic scheme, and it is one that honest men and +patriots must fight from the start.--_Indianapolis Journal_. + +The Atlanta "Constitution" objects to the roasting of negroes alive in +Alabama, especially those who have not been convicted of crime. Alluding +to a recent affair in that State, it says: "No immigrant, looking for a +new home, will for a moment think of settling in a State or section that +permits mobs to supersede courts. The senseless burning of Owen Wright +may cost the cotton State a million of dollars, coming as it did at a +time when immigrants were looking this way from the Northern States." + +The Meriden, Miss., "Mercury," supports the policy by declaring that "no +man should be tolerated as an independent candidate for any cause and +under any circumstances, who attempts to procure his election by solidly +arraying the black voters in his favor," and the Okolona, Miss., +"Southern States," supplements this with the following: "The real, +simon-pure Democracy of Mississippi, have never made the negro any +promises--none whatever. We have, therefore, no pledges to redeem. +Remember that. We will see that he is protected in his life, limb, and +property as far as in us lies; but at the same time we will take +precious pains to nip any of his political aspirations in the bud. 'This +is a white man's government, made for white men and their posterity +forever.'" We congratulate the administration on the progress of the +policy. + +There are strong Republican districts in South Carolina, Mississippi, +and Louisiana. Let Matthews, Hoar, Foster, and the other distinguished +gentlemen who championed "the policy" in the Senate and House, together +with the editors who have been "writing it up," go down there and help +the Republicans elect the right kind of men. There is no easier and +better way to secure a Republican majority in the House.--_Inter-Ocean_. + +At the Virginia election last week, the Republicans cast seven votes in +Petersburg and three in Richmond. The "Washington Republican" says: "It +is well known that the negro loves the franchise and is proud to +exercise it. The only reason for his not having done so at the recent +election was that he could not safely vote as he wished, and would not +vote the other ticket." + +Alluding to the Atlanta speech of President Hayes, William Lloyd +Garrison says: "The mental obfuscation of the President is hard to +parallel; but his moral standard in this instance, is as flexible as 'a +reed shaken by the wind.' Such a confounding of loyalty and treason, +right and wrong, liberty and slavery, and treating them all 'with +respect,' and in the same complimentary manner, is enough 'to stir a +fever in the blood of age.' Hail, Judas Iscariot! Hail, Benedict Arnold! +Your reproach shall now be taken away! You nobly acted up to your +'convictions,' and are as much entitled to commendation as the apostle +John or the patriot George Washington! We humbly beseech you to be +'equally liberal and generous and just' to the apostle and patriot +aforesaid, who were not less heroic and true to their convictions. +Neither party has anything to be ashamed of; but both glory in their +achievements.". + +The sum total of Democratic policy in the South is the condign +punishment of venial crime committed by Republicans and negroes, and +amnesty for all crimes committed by Democrats. The Democratic party has +never been strong enough anywhere to declare its independence of the +dangerous classes.--_Philadelphia North American_. + +The Atlanta "Independent," in discussing the question of who saved +Georgia to the Democrats, does not give credit to Benjamin Hill, but to +the shot-guns of the Ku-Klux.--_Cincinnati Gazette_. + + +GOING TO LEAVE "OLD MISSISSIPPI." + +Senator Bruce, colored, of Mississippi, is preparing to shake the dust +of that unfriendly stronghold of Democracy from his feet. He realizes +that it is not the place where a black man can safely go to grow up with +the country. His marriage to a Cleveland belle was only part of the +programme he has mapped out for himself. He has bought considerable +property in that vicinity, and when his senatorial term has expired he +will go to his farms, and let others fight it out on the color line. + + +HAMPTON'S LEGION OF "CONCILIATORS." + +The "Traveller" has all along maintained, in spite of the protests of +the Northern doughfaces who worship the ex-Confederate chiefs, that the +conciliatory profession of Hampton & Co. is a malicious snare, and the +fraternal disposition attributed to their followers is a delusion. As +the campaign at the South advances, the truth begins to develop, and +even the Northern conciliators begin to acknowledge it. The following +information comes in the form of a Washington despatch to one of the +most obedient newspaper servants of the Southern chieftains:-- + + +_Terrorism in South Carolina._ + +Information from Abbeville District, in South Carolina, is to the effect +that Democrats have already begun a system of terrorism to prevent +Republicans from organizing for political purposes. Several of the local +papers of that section are charging that Republicans of that vicinity +have completed a ticket, and that it is already being circulated +secretly among colored voters, and upon this curious charge an attempt +is being made to stir up white citizens to take this matter in hand, and +act in time, and vigorously. In Edgefield District, one of the local +newspapers, in commenting upon this reported secret action on the part +of the Republicans, says that something is feared in Edgefield County, +and upon this urges that two Republicans, who are supposed to be leaders +in this movement, should, if they dared to lift their heads or fingers +in political machinations, be seized and hung. To use its own words: +"Yes, we mean exactly what we say. If those named, and others, ever dare +to inaugurate political schemes in Edgefield again, let us hang them. +Not only our own self-respect, but our safety demands it, and that +without masks or disguise." + +The newspaper quoted is the Edgefield "Advertiser," which contains a +long article giving the names of those Republicans against whom it +tries to incite the mob. The Abbeville "Medium" joins in the cry against +the Republicans, who are exercising their common rights, and advises the +Democrats to "throw out pickets" in order to suppress the movement. What +all this talk means everybody knows, and the experience of the Southern +Republicans shows them what they are to expect if they dare to exercise +their privileges as citizens. Extraordinary emphasis is given to this +revival of Ku-Kluxism, by the recollection that it is just two years +since the horrors of the Hamburg massacre were enacted, on the very +ground where this movement finds its inspiration, under the patronage of +one who now holds a seat in the United States Senate; and that it is +more than one year since the State government of South Carolina was +surrendered to Hampton with the assurance that everybody's rights would +be protected, and that fraternal relations would be maintained as a +result of the conciliatory policy. This melancholy failure of all +efforts to compromise with the perfidious ex-Confederates, in South +Carolina, is only one in a score of lessons, by which the North has +blindly failed to profit. The assassins, who slaughtered the colored +Republicans, at Hamburg, are still at large, and ready for more bloody +work: and Hampton sits calmly at the head of affairs in his State, +deluding the people of the North with promises which he never intends to +fulfil. It would seem to be about time for us to recall the language of +the Cincinnati platform, declaring it to be "the solemn obligation of +the legislative and executive departments of the government" to "secure +to every citizen complete liberty and exact equality in the exercise of +all civil, political, and public rights." This language was enforced by +the imperative demand for "a Congress and a chief executive whose +courage and fidelity to these duties shall not falter until these +results are placed beyond dispute or recall." It is useless to deny that +the signs are ominous in the South. The time seems to have arrived for +testing the courage and fidelity of those whom the Republican party +called to the duty of protecting the rights of citizenship, and the +capability of Republican institutions for the plainest purposes and +requirements of a government. + +The Portland "Advertiser," a disgruntled sheet of Republican +antecedents, says President Hayes has effected a "permanent settlement +of the Southern question." That depends. He has secured Democratic +ascendency in every Southern State. He has wiped out the Republican +party of the South. He has rewarded bull-dozers instead of punishing +them for their crimes. He has emasculated the United States flag so that +it is no longer the symbol of protection to the newly enfranchised race. +But the one thing which would compensate in some degree for these acts, +he has not been able to do; viz., make loyal men of the unreconstructed +ex-rebels. These are just as bitter, venomous, and implacable to-day as +on the day when Gen. Grant's term of office expired. One man, and one +only, so far as we know, has been changed by the "new departure," and +that man is now a Cabinet officer. Upon the same terms even the Chisholm +assassins might be conciliated.--_Concord Monitor_. + +The safest thing to do with the Southern claims of all kinds is to +reject them promptly. If the entire batch should be ruled out, some +deserving persons might suffer, but the country would be saved the cost +of enriching a good many scores of rascally rebels. The claims now on +file foot up about three hundred millions of dollars, and we venture to +say that not half a million of this amount is honestly due to the +claimants.--_Philadelphia Bulletin_. + +The lynching of the colored man, Walker Denning, in the town of +Riverside, Texas, appears to have been an unusually brutal and +unjustifiable act, even for Texas. The girl with whom he eloped admitted +to the reporter of a Texas paper that she prompted his course, Denning +at first strongly objecting and advising her to stay at home. The +spectacle of twenty armed men firing buck-shot into a chained and +helpless victim at such close range that his clothing was set on fire, +horrifies us with its unnecessary savagery. But the revelation is no +new one. We have already had proof upon proof that under "conciliation" +there is no law, justice, nor mercy for the unfortunate colored people +of the South: and this merely adds another to the long list of +butcheries, and worse than Turkish barbarities, of which the +blood-thirsty rebel element have been guilty.--_Traveller_. + +Henrietta Wood, a colored woman, of Cincinnati, has recovered two +thousand five hundred dollars damages against ex-Sheriff Ward, of +Campbell County, Kentucky, for unlawful duress and abduction. In 1853, +when living in Cincinnati, she was enticed over the river to Kentucky, +and delivered over to Ward, who kept her as a slave seven months, when +he disposed of her to a slave-trader. She was sold South, and remained +fifteen years in slavery. She returned to Cincinnati after the close of +the war, and commenced the action which has just terminated in her +favor. + +The "Macon (Ga.) Telegraph" demands that the Southern people shall be +paid for their emancipated slaves. Next they will probably want pay, at +hotel rates, for the entertainment of Union prisoners during the +war.--_Philadelphia Press_. + +The colored Republicans in Somerville County, South Carolina, carried +the local election recently by a large majority, but the Democrats +managed to count them out, on the ground that it wouldn't do for the +Republicans to carry the first election of the season.--_Journal_. + +And this right under the much-praised administrative system of Wade +Hampton, who, with Gordon, Lamar, Stephens, Hill, and the rest of +the treasonable species, constitutes the organic beau-ideal of +statesmanship. Turn the other cheek and let them slap it, Mr. Journal. + +A SAD, TRUE STORY.--A letter from New Orleans to the "Philadelphia +Press" thus refers to the native Republicans of Louisiana:-- + +"The leaders were beset with dangers and difficulties such as have never +even been dreamed of in the North. One by one they have given their +life's blood in the cause. They have lain down their lives, true to the +flag. They have been thinned out by assassination and violence. Their +graves--the graves of the victims of Democratic outrage--are scattered +throughout the South. There are comparatively few of the living to tell +the tale. A large proportion of these, even, have been maimed and +crippled in the fight. + +"They are to-day, as a rule, none the less true to the Republican faith. +The Southern Republican leaders have nothing to offer by way of +palliation or excuse. They have fallen one by one in the enemy's front. +The Republican masses have been massacred by wholesale; have been +murdered and outraged upon every occasion and in every manner. They have +been hunted as the beasts of the jungle. Their blood cries to Heaven +from every hillside, from every by-way, and from every bridle-path in +the South. There has been more of blood--_Republican blood_--that has +dyed the soil of Louisiana alone than all that has been shed in all of +the Indian wars of a quarter of a century. It has been shed, alas, in +vain. _The American people were not a nation. There was not, there is +not to-day, to their shame be it said, the power within the American +people, to protect the life, or avenge the murder of an American +citizen, within the American lines_." + +We would crucify our extreme modesty and suggest to the above writer the +reason why "there is not to-day the power within the American people to +protect the life or avenge the murder of an American citizen." Is it not +because we, "the people," put their political power into the hands of +the commander-in-chief of our army, in trust for four years, who +betrayed that trust by the transfer of that power into the hands of a +contemptible knot of armed and defiant rebels, thus constituting a solid +South with which to rule the nation? And is it not because the said +commander-in-chief, at the demand of the said rebels in arms, packed up +his traps and withdrew our "federal bayonets" from the South, thus +giving them, in addition to _their_ State rule, _our_ national +supremacy, by further giving them two States with large Republican +majorities? + +And furthermore, is it not because the loyal North did not arise as one +man and demand the impeachment of the traitor who bartered their +liberties for a _sham_ peace, taking rebel promises for pay which have +since been repudiated? + +But the men who assisted the President in this nefarious business are +coming to their senses. In a speech a few days ago, at Toledo, O., the +Hon. Charles Foster, M. C. from Ohio, and a member of the political firm +of Matthews, Foster & Co., renounces the Southern policy of the +administration, which that firm helped to inaugurate, as follows:-- + +"I believed in and supported President Hayes in the policy of refusing +the use of force to sustain State governments. I believed in it as a +matter of principle, though his course can be sustained on the ground of +necessity. I had hoped that his policy of kindness and conciliation +would result in the formation of a public sentiment South that would +permit Republicans to exercise fully all of the political rights +guaranteed to them by the Constitution and the amendments thereto. +Knowing that there are a large number of the people South who are tired +of the Bourbon Democracy, I hoped that the President's course would +permit them the more easily to assert themselves in some form in +opposition to the Democracy. I see signs of a realization of this hope, +especially in the States of Tennessee, North Carolina, and Texas, but in +less permanent form than I had hoped. The President's policy has lost +him the sympathy of the great mass of his party. That he has +conscientiously done his duty as he saw it, there can be no question. No +matter whether the conventions indorse him or not, no man will rejoice +more than he over Republican success--North and South. While he was +beslavered with praise from the Southern Democracy, they seemed to be +laying broad and deep the foundations for a solid South. Upon the +attempt, through the Potter resolutions, to unseat the President, they, +with bare two exceptions, voted for it. They declined even to give an +opportunity to vote upon the Hale amendment, which would have permitted +an investigation into Democratic frauds. Jeff Davis makes as treasonable +speeches as those of 1861, and he receives the indorsement and approval +of a large proportion of the press and people. Out of one hundred +newspapers in Mississippi, ninety-five indorse and applaud Jeff Davis. +Mr. Singleton, of the same State, on the floor of the House of +Representatives, declared 'his highest allegiance to be due to his +State, both in peace and in war.' + +"By the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment, the political power of the +South in the Electoral College and the House of Representatives, was +increased about forty per cent. The Republican party to-day can poll, if +permitted to do so, forty per cent. of the vote of the South. Yet, in +the coming elections, I do not believe that we can carry one in five of +the districts that we know to be reliably Republican. By force and fraud +the political power of forty per cent. of their people is exercised +solely by the sixty per cent., thus making a solid Democratic South. The +right of the citizens of the several States to enjoy the privileges and +immunities of all the States is not respected in many localities. It is +said, condescendingly, that a Republican can live in the South without +trouble, if he will keep a padlock on his mouth. + +"Now, my fellow-citizens, there can be no lasting peace until the +amendments to the Constitution are executed in good faith, both in +letter and spirit. A solid South is a constant menace to the peace of +the country. It means that the Constitutional amendments shall be +abrogated and repealed in spirit; it means the usurpation by the +majority of all the political power of one section of the country, and +with a fragment of the other section it enables the solid South, +inspired as it is by the spirit and the men who sought the overthrow of +the country, to now rule and control it; and yet they may be in a large +minority in the whole country. Such success, if it is submitted to, +means the payment of the rebel claims, the pensioning of rebel +soldiers, the payment for slaves lost in rebellion. I feel it my +especial duty to say that as long as the menace of the solid South +threatens the peace of the country, it is the duty of the North to be +united against it. I am desirous as any man can be that we shall get +away from sectional politics, but I cannot close my eyes to the danger +of a solid South. The advice I give is simply that ordinary prudence and +care be exercised. I repeat, that so long as the menace of a solid South +exists, it is the duty of the North to continue to meet it with 'the +most Greeks.'" + +The New Orleans "Times" says: "While the North, with a lavish hand, is +soothing the fevered brow of the Southern suffering, she is building a +monument of gratitude which will be luminous forever." And the only +thing the North will ask in return for what it cheerfully gives is that +the monument shall bear the inscription, "Justice to all men." + +Senator Chaffee, of Colorado, who is now at Saratoga, was asked if he +expected an early revival of business, and in response said: "Yes; a +beginning of a revival, because the excessively hard times and real +hunger have driven the lazy to work. I was at Hot Springs, Ark., not +long ago, and saw thousands of people going through to Texas. As many as +twelve hundred emigrants would go through Arkansas in a day. I talked to +many of them, and they told me that they had not generally twenty-five +dollars ahead of the railroad fare, but said that they desired to get a +piece of ground, raise potatoes, or anything, and be independent. That +is what will bring us up, and nothing else, every idle person to do +something at production. + + +RECENT BULL-DOZING IN LOUISIANA. + +The Pointe Coupee, La., "Record," a Democratic paper, on the 17th inst., +said:-- + +"It is rumored that several men from Bayou Fordoche came to the court +house this morning to make affidavits against certain parties from that +section of the parish. The complaint is shooting and whipping." + +Commenting on this, the New Orleans "Observer" of the 24th said:-- + +"From sources absolutely reliable, affecting affairs in Pointe Coupee +parish, we learn that since the hanging of four black men in the +Racourcee settlement by the bull-dozers of that section, the colored +people thereabouts have sought to leave the locality, going to Fordoche, +a bayou neighborhood where is a large colored settlement of small +farmers. + +"Determined to stop this migration of colored people, and at the same +time terrorize the Fordoche farmers, on the night of the 14th inst., +Wednesday, a crowd of bull-dozers, some sixty odd men from Racourcee, +came to this colored settlement, and for no known cause, save that which +we have expressed, outraged several inoffensive and hard-working colored +people. Lucy Allain, a colored woman, was stripped and whipped +unmercifully, and the same treatment was given William Abraham. Levi +Sherman was shot three times. All three of these victims are now +confined, by reason of this outrage, to their beds. Others of the +colored people would have received like treatment, but they got out of +the way. A prisoner in the jail there was hung for sport. Fortunately, +he was cut down in time to save his life. Some colored people were +outraged, and atrocities and indignities practised generally befitting +the lawless character of the Democratic party-workers and bull-dozers. +The good citizens (white) of the locality have called a mass meeting to +express their indignation and to attempt to redress these wrongs, or at +least put a stop to further outrages. The meeting was to have had place +on Wednesday, the 21st inst. A similar meeting was also called for the +same day at New Roads. The information furnished us of these horrible +crimes is from purely Democratic sources, gentlemen and decent citizens +who abhor the partisan atrocities of their party-workers. So far as we +can learn, Republicans of Pointe Coupee are so terrorized that even +prominent gentlemen there will say nothing of this act of atrocity, the +information in fact reaching this city and our office from responsible +Democratic citizens. We are informed that the plantation visited was +one of the New York Warehouse and Security Company's places, and of +which Mr. Bradish Johnson is the agent. + +The Macon, Ga., "Telegraph" is only a little in advance of the +ex-Confederate "conservatives" when it demands the repeal of the +fourteenth amendment, that the Southern people may extort payment for +their liberated slaves. That will soon be one of the regular planks in +the Southern Democratic platform. + +In Jasper County, Georgia, since the war (reports a local paper), there +have been sixty-nine men killed, and not a single hanging. + +The Augusta (Ga.) "Chronicle" suggests that the proper place for +Congressman Rainey (the man whose sobriety enabled Congress to adjourn +on the day appointed) is the chain-gang. Perhaps his consignment to a +slave-gang would suit the "Chronicle" better. + +The Democrats claim that white and colored school children have equal +school privileges in Georgia, but this is far from being true. In +Atlanta, there are fine houses for the white scholars; the colored +scholars are sent to cellars and other unfit places, and are limited in +accommodation at that. + +The Charleston "News and Courier" is Wade Hampton's organ, and it is +leading his campaign in South Carolina. Alarmed because the Republicans +threatened to exercise their right to talk politics and vote, the organ +says: "Seceders and malcontents will be treated as public enemies, and +made political outcasts. The Democratic party will not lay down the +sceptre of authority in South Carolina, nor shall the sceptre be wrested +from the strong hands by which it is grasped." That is, Wade Hampton +says, in substance, "I am for conciliating those who vote for me, but +death to all who oppose!" Truly, as Gov. Boutwell said in his Maine +speech, the Southern question is given the greater importance in this +campaign by the action of the ex-rebels. + +In North Carolina, the Republican leaders are trying to induce the +negroes to vote by telling them that the coming election will be a fair +and free one. The deception is not justifiable, and will cost the men +who resort to it the confidence of the colored voters. + +The vote for the Democratic State ticket last week was about eighty +thousand. There was no opposition. The legislature will be almost +entirely Democratic.--_Despatch from Alabama_. + +And where, pray, is that new Independent party; where are the old Whigs, +the administration Democrats, not to say anything about the resuscitated +Republicans, who were to arise from the policy of conciliation? Alabama +is pretty solid. + +To deprive man of the fruit of his labors is to cut the sinews of +industry. Who will care to labor if another is to appropriate the +results of his toil? He is deprived of an inalienable right, the +enjoyment of which alone can induce him to exercise the self-denial +implied in labor and economy. To distribute the products of his industry +to the community, as some social theorists would teach us, is to +destroy individual enterprise, and to reduce society to a great +almshouse.--_Zion's Herald_. + +[Despatch to the Traveller.] + + +FREEDOM OF SPEECH NOT TOLERATED IN SOUTH CAROLINA. + +"New York, Oct. 15.--A Washington despatch says that Congressmen Smalls +and Rainey have been obliged to flee from South Carolina on account of +their activity in organizing Republican meetings, and they were +yesterday promised protection by the President." + +Protection where? in Washington or South Carolina? It cannot be in the +latter, for the President has put his "Federal bayonets" into the hands +of Gov. (?) Hampton, and voluntarily shut himself out of that State. +Nay, more, he has driven the bolts through his military power as +commander-in-chief of the nation, and the last Congress screwed on +the nut, which leaves the President powerless, and the Governor +all-powerful. Let us see how he is using that power. The Democratic +paper of Sumter County, edited by one of the aids of Wade Hampton, +calls upon the Democrats to turn out and break up the Republican +meetings in such appeals as the following:-- + +"Men with mothers and wives; men with sisters dear; men who expect to +raise families in Sumter County,--let your sons and daughters turn out +on Saturday and meet the thieves whom Sam Lee is gathering together and +attempting to fasten on us as our rulers and masters in this county. Let +everything be conducted on Saturday with military order, promptness, and +decision. In 1861 our Southern braves left their homes and firesides and +encountered every conceivable bodily privation, every danger, for a +cause that dwarfs into perfect insignificance in comparison with the +Democratic cause in this county to-day, and yet are there men who are so +ease-loving and unpatriotic that they will not turn out on Saturday to +meet the Republican thieves? If such there be, go mark them well. + +"Let Northern speakers come; we intend to carry Sumter County +Democratic, at the next election, in spite of the world, flesh, and the +devil. + +"Democrats should rally as one, on Saturday. He who dallies is dastard. +He who doubts is damned. + +"Surely, no one, who is worthy of the name of man, can hesitate, under +such conditions, to take a hand on Saturday." + +The following, to the rifle clubs, is given as the programme for the +Democrats, on Saturday, Oct. 19, the day the Republican meetings are +called for nominations:-- + +"Presidents of clubs are requested to report to county chairman, who can +be found at the rooms of the executive committee, in the rear of the +town hall, up stairs. The clubs will be earnestly enjoined, by those in +authority, to remain in line and under command of their respective +presidents until they are turned over to some higher officer, from whom +they will receive orders during the day." + +Ex-Senator Swails, of Williamsburg County, and also deputy United States +marshal, has committed the unpardonable sin against the Wade-Hampton, +Hamburg-Butler, shot-gun Democracy, by speaking at Republican meetings, +for which offence he has been twice shot at, and finally driven from the +county, having been visited by the Democratic Executive Committee, +accompanied by a band of Red Shirts or Rifle Clubs, and presented with +these good Democratic resolutions:-- + +_Resolved_, That S. A. Swails be required to leave Williamsburg in ten +days. + +_Resolved_, That he is a high-handed robber. + +_Resolved_, That he and his rioters be held responsible for all +incendiarism which may happen. + +_Resolved_, That unless the above be complied with, he must forfeit his +life. + +These facts were yesterday brought to the attention of the President by +Congressman Rainey and Mr. Swails, and it is reported that he thinks +something ought to be done about it, and says just what the man whom he +made Governor of South Carolina said: "Tell the people they shall have +all the protection the law can give." Wade Hampton has the power to +fulfil his promise, and it is apparent he never intended to give the +Republicans the protection they asked, and we fear that President Hayes +is putting them off with a promise of the protection he is well aware he +cannot give. + +These South Carolinians come to Washington and claim government +protection to their persons and property while in the exercise of their +constitutional political rights. The President "thinks something ought +to be done about it"! Wonderful! So does an old hen when the hawks are +after her chickens. But the difference between the two is this: the hen +blusters about and immediately calls her subjects under her wings, thus +giving them all the protection in her power. But the President _thinks +something ought to be done_, but does nothing worthy of the occasion. + +Wade Hampton promises "all the protection the law can give," and that +was none at all while in his hands to administer, for the reason that +the theory of the shot-gun Democracy is, that the negro has no _rights_ +that the white man is bound to protect. + +While the South is entitled to the palm of victory for shot-gun +Democracy, the North is a fair competitor for doughface flunkyism. +Ex-Senator Swails, by the testimony of his personal friends in Boston, +bears a character the direct opposite of that given him in the following +paragraph from the Philadelphia "Times." While despotism is the rule in +the South, owing to the natural soil in which it is nurtured, we are +happy to believe that flunkyism _in the superlative degree_ at the North +is the exception. + +"If State Senator Swails of South Carolina, had lived in any Northern +State and prostituted his senatorial office as openly and recklessly as +is clearly proven he did in that State, he would be in the penitentiary; +but having resigned his seat to escape dismissal and fled to escape +punishment, he has settled down in Washington, where a few carpet-bag +thieves yet linger, and is telegraphing over the country how the Hampton +rifle clubs have driven him from the State. As the South Carolina +penitentiary evidently haunts his dreams, he should hie himself to +the Massachusetts Botany Bay of public thieves, and put himself +under the protecting wing of Governor Rice. He will find Kimpton +there, and a fellow feeling will make Kimpton wondrous kind to +Swails."--_Philadelphia Times_. + +[Special Despatch to the Boston Traveller.] + +Washington, D. C., Oct. 21.--The statement made to the President, last +week, by State Senator Swails, that he was forced to leave South +Carolina in consequence of receiving a notice that his life would pay +the penalty if he remained, is fully confirmed by the Charleston "News +and Courier" received here to-day. + +That paper admits that such a notice was served on Swails, and says it +was done because he was a dangerous man, and disturbing the peace of the +country where he resided. Instead of lynching him the Democrats gave him +the opportunity of leaving the State. + +The "News and Courier" contains an account of the capture of a +Republican meeting at Lawtonville on Friday last, showing that the +Democrats are determined to carry out their policy regardless of the +instructions sent out by Attorney-General Devens to the U. S. officials. + +The meeting was called by the Republicans in the interest of Smalls, the +Republican candidate for re-election to Congress. The despatch to the +"News and Courier," from Lawtonville, says: + +"This morning the negroes began pouring in, attired in the +recently-adopted radical uniform of blue shirts, several mounted clubs +and other clubs on foot, embracing large numbers, being included. Fully +2,000 men, women and children gathered, when some eight red shirts +galloped in and captured the meeting and proceeded to run it on a +division of time schedule. Rousing Democratic speeches were made. Mr. +Smalls failed to appear. Some of Hampton's men rode forty miles to hear +Smalls. The effect of the day's work was exceedingly good." + +SCOTT. + +As goes South Carolina so go the other rebel States, as in the _first_ +rebellion. Georgia next falls into line after this fashion: + +The "Augusta (Georgia) Constitutionalist" insists that the Democrats of +South Carolina shall defy the lawful direction of the Attorney-General +of the United States in regard to conspiracies against the political +rights of the citizens, and shall continue to disturb, and, if need be, +break up Republican meetings. The advice is equally plain and +peremptory. Republicans are not to be allowed to hold meetings without +the presence and participation of Democrats. What that participation is, +is well understood. It is the attendance of armed men who will not allow +a word said which does not meet with their approbation; it is the +warning of citizens not to join in the meetings; it is the threatening +of life if they do; it is the savage assaulting of those who are +conspicuous in proclaiming their intention to vote the Republican +ticket; it is armed and violent defiance of the law, and, in the last +resort, assassination. The issue is clearly defined. It is, pure and +simple, whether the government of the United States can and will protect +its citizens in their constitutional rights, when those are rights which +it is authorized and required to conserve and defend. Evidently the +rebellion was not ended at Appomattox.--_Providence Journal_. + +We have contemplated deferring the publication of this pamphlet until we +could ascertain from the Secretary of the Interior the number of acres +of unpre-empted land in each State, together with their location &c., +&c., but we are informed by the commissioner of the land office in +Washington that there are no data or statistics in his office that will +give us that information. + +As we may have to wait for Congress to assemble before we can obtain the +necessary statistics, we shall send out our pamphlet at once, and set +the ball in motion. + +The question that has recently come up between the Secretary of the +Interior and the Pacific railroads must be settled, so far as we can +see, in favor of the Secretary, who has just issued a pamphlet with the +grounds of his decision, and which has been sent us. + +The railroads, however, may delay matters by their dilatoriness in +making their returns to government of the lands sold by them, their +location, &c., and it may be necessary for Congress to hurry up that +matter a little, so that the land commissioner can give the desired +information. + +But there is no time to be lost. The "conciliated" Wade Hampton, and the +Hamburg-massacre-Butler crowd have already organized the second +rebellion in South Carolina, and armed their militia with "federal +bayonets," over which waves the "bloody shirt," inscribed with Hampton's +declaration in a speech in Sumter County, "that the Democrats must carry +that county at all hazards," supplemented by Senator!! Butler, who "said +it was unnecessary to tell them _how_ to do it." "Webb," a correspondent +of the Boston "Journal," tells us in the following paragraph, how they +are doing it:-- + + +SHAMEFUL CONDUCT OF THE MILITARY. + +"Armed men have been stationed as pickets on roads leading to county +conventions. These men were supplied with State arms, furnished through +the United States, were evidently under good military discipline, had +recognized officers, and were known as members of the State volunteer +militia. At first they appeared without uniforms; of late they have +attempted in uniform to break up Republican meetings. They have not +hesitated to announce publicly that the white people of South Carolina +had decided that Republican meetings should not be held, and that any +attempt to hold such meetings might result in personal injury. At one of +the meetings at Sumter County, one of the aids of Governor Hampton +knocked the Republican chairman from the stand. Another seized the +chairman by the throat and severely injured him. The speaker was Probate +Judge Lee, who acted as chairman of the meeting, and who at that time +was threatened both with shooting and hanging. So many authorized +details of those acts of violence have been brought to the knowledge of +the Administration here that the President and his Cabinet are convinced +that there is an organized movement in South Carolina to put down by +violence any attempt at Republican organization, and that Wade Hampton +is giving this revolutionary and cowardly movement his active personal +support. It is, perhaps, needless to say that the President is very much +surprised at Hampton's conduct." + +If "the President and his Cabinet" had consulted the Principia Club +papers more, and Southern rebels less, it would not have taken them half +of their Presidential term to learn that rebel promises are of no +account whatever, for they would have discovered abundant evidence of +their utter worthlessness. As "federal bayonets" are now so popular in +_rebel_ hands, and getting to be so useful to put down _Republicanism_ +in South Carolina, perhaps our verdant President, in his "_surprise_," +may break the shackles with which he was voluntarily bound, and use +"federal bayonets" to put down _rebellion_. At all events, he ought to +obey the United States Constitution he has sworn to support, which +tells him he "shall guarantee to every State in the Union a republican +form of government." If he hasn't given away all his "federal bayonets" +to the rebels, is it not about time for our commander-in-chief to use +them in South Carolina? (See Principia Club Papers No. 7, pp. 152-5: The +Southern Policy.) + +[Special Despatch to the Boston Traveller.] + +Washington, D. C., Oct. 18.--The President has taken steps, through the +proper officers, to have the outrage perpetrated at Sumter, South +Carolina, investigated, with a view of ascertaining who is responsible, +and whether or not there has not been an open violation of the United +States laws. + +District-Attorney Northrup has the case in charge, and will, said a +member of the Cabinet to your correspondent to-day, make an energetic +investigation of the outrage and report the facts promptly. There is no +reason to doubt that he will do his whole duty and make a fearless +investigation of the affair, which, according to the Democratic account, +was brutal in the extreme. The Administration, said the Cabinet Minister +further, will see that the rights of the colored people in South +Carolina are maintained, and to this end will, if necessary, go to the +full extent of the United States laws. + +We may be too faithless in this matter, we hope we are, but when +"investigations" shall result in the _punishment of criminals_, instead +of their protection from further molestation, we may have more +confidence that justice will triumph in rebeldom. + + +VIRGINIA COMES NEXT. + +"President Hayes, who is attending an agricultural fair at Winchester, +Virginia, made a hard money speech yesterday, and quoted Washington, +Jefferson, Madison, and other distinguished Virginians in favor of sound +money."--_Traveller, Oct. 17_. + +While the President was making stump speeches in Winchester, in the +direct line of civil service reform, as he understands it we suppose, +the shot-gun brigade were at Hicksford demonstrating the fruits of his +Southern policy. The "Traveller" states this case in the following +strain of sarcasm. + +A "saucy" negro was shot at Hicksford, Virginia, yesterday. It was a +political meeting, of course. A Republican was speaking, and the negro +had the audacity to applaud his sentiments. This was in the Court House. +A leader of the Democracy named Reese, not wishing to soil the temple of +justice with blood, called the negro out of the building and promptly +shot him dead. There were four hundred colored men present and this +shooting will be a lesson for them. They will now know better than to +applaud Republican speakers, or vote a Republican ticket. + + +CONCLUSION. + +We have thus spread out the present condition of the freedmen, before +the American people. It is a plain case for the former, and not a hard +one for the latter. + +The whole question of emigration, as it now stands, lies in three +propositions, one of which every freedman _must_ choose. + +1. He must remain, as he is, under the political trinity of despotism; +be denied the free ballot, conferred upon him by the amendments to the +United States Constitution; be forced to vote for the despotism that +crushes him, already deserted by the government he fought to save, and +which is constitutionally bound to protect him in his political rights +and Christian privileges; or, + +2. He must, _vi et armis_, maintain those rights against rebel +despotism, with the "Federal bayonets" in rebel hands, and the power to +send the army to the Indians or the devil; or, + +3. He must, _quietly_, if he can, _forcibly_, if he must, emigrate to +the public lands in the West, pre-empt a farm, and enjoy the rights of +citizenship under a republican form of government, of which he is an +integral part, and be represented in Congress by one elected by a +majority of legal voters, and not by a minority of rebels, as is now +the case in large Republican districts in the Southern States. + +For obvious reasons, we pray the freedmen, in Christ's stead, to be +reconciled to the last proposition, and in every county and town where +their political rights are ignored by a rebel Democracy, let them form +colonies under a chosen leader and emigrate West. If they cannot go +without assistance, let that fact be communicated to us, and we will +appeal to the people of the North to furnish them the means to do so. + +It will be readily perceived that the converse of all this will be, that +the landed aristocracy of the South must pay their laborers honest +wages, recognize their constitutional rights as citizens of this +Republic, acknowledge the ownership of their capital, which means the +fruits of their labor (land and labor being co-operative capital, +neither being available or profitable without the other), or, otherwise, +the land-owners must submit to the loss of their laborers by emigration, +perform their own labor, or employ foreign emigrants. + + + + +NOTICE. + + +_Five dollars_ will pay for _one hundred_ of these pamphlets with the +appendix, to be sent to as many freedmen in the Southern States, and +constitute the donor a member of the Principia Club. + +_One dollar_ will pay for twenty copies of the same, sent as above. + +Address the President of the Principia Club, J. W. ALDEN, No. 9 Hanson +St., Boston, Mass. + + * * * * * + +==> =Read and Circulate.= + + +ALBERT J. WRIGHT, Printer, 79 Milk Street (corner Federal), Boston. + + + + + Transcriber's notes: + + The following is a list of changes made to the original. + The first line is the original line, the second the corrected one. + + The terms of sale to the freedmen by the Trustees + 4. The terms of sale to the freedmen by the Trustees + + a "permenant settlement of the Southern question." + a "permanent settlement of the Southern question." + + They are to-day, as a rule, none the less true to the + "They are to-day, as a rule, none the less true to the + + doughface flunkeyism. Ex-Senator Swails, by the testimony + doughface flunkyism. Ex-Senator Swails, by the testimony + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Emancipation and Emigration, by Anonymous + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40946 *** |