The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1864-06-24
THE GATE CITY.
/ FRaDA4.JUNE q.


How Gen. Oglesby Beams, A Ans1
i ttNs a1Mvofy HAN r.
In his great speech ct Metropolitai
Hall last Friday night, Gsa. Oglssby ex
planned how it happened that he becam
An anti-slassry man. The General is !
Southern man by birth, percentage and
early association, and has lived oil hi
life time among Southern born people,
Lest any reader may not have Rad thu
speech, we publish an extract from Y
giving the circumstances that opened hi.
eyes to the internal character Of the 10.
stitution. He says:
May / indulge myself for ., moment "a
give you few Of the reasons why I, be.
came an anti-slayesy MANI TYes, yes.
l know that what affects the character Of
any one man in the country is Of but lit.
tie consequence; still it was . big thing
with me, and controlled all the future
thoughts of my lifs--made me honest on
the question, made me purely honest -
My father was . stakeholder; he had .
wife and eight children, and-only one
observation-disclosures identified himself
with the institution of slavery. He was
Virginian born, living in Kentucky, .
cooper by trade. A negro fell to his lot
somehow with other things from his faith.
er. He took the negro, learned him the
carpenters trade; he lived in the family,
while all the children we're being born he
nursed us, took care of US, led us along
by the hand, and father ESQ am told and
believe it's true, never gave him lash
ora kick or an unkind word. Zap
plause.1 He was one of the noblest black
men have ever seen. After awhile, in
the course of events, my parents died and
left us poor. was eight years old.
saw that negro put upon the stand and
sold off at auction. That did not concern
me very much; scarcely knew what it
meant. | saw those who were my friends
whom loved dearly, and still love-I
saw them about, and supposed As q boy
that it was all right That negro came
often to see as. as he was taken away
only about eight or ten miles. He was
then forty years of age. Shortly after
wards son of the purchaser. in the wrath
and fire Of the moment. exposed his old
bare back, and gave him one hundred de.
liberate lashes. The news came to rs
children through our married sister-that
sad story of how poor old Uncle Tim had
been treated.
Something settled hold of me then,
young as | was, and / made resolve, for
a boy, of quite serious character, that if
ever in the province Of God, I grew up
to be worth anything, enough to buy him
back to freedom, I would do it. His mag
ter, presume, was as kind as they gen.
orally are. 1t is not the owner Of slave
l am abusing, but the institution. / am
striking at something higher than man
the system. Time passed on, and l re-
manned poor. Finally California became
the rage, and went there. / got to-
gether money enough to come back home
and 60 to Kentucky; kept my promise;
| bought him and set him free, and then
swore eternal vengeance on the institution
of slavery. Tremendous cheering. i
The institution Of slavery never favored
me. l love the people, for they were my
dear friends, and owned slaves. Most Of
my relations we're nearly all Kentuckians;
and nearly all shareholders. saw had
nothing to gain by it. There were no
free schools-no such thing as learning
to read and write. | lost my attachment
for the institution. I pever saw the day
when | wanted to own slave-when /
desired to have the control of one. l
came to this free State where there was
no such thing, where. the young men
could rise up and maintain the manhood
which God gave them; and any man who
will insist upon taking the same stand
that did, will come to.the same conclu-
sion.
1t was very dangerous thing for me
to join a political party opposed to slavery,
for the men / associated with were not
opposed to it, but the more / thought
about it, the more l necessarily became
opposed to it myself. At last there was
no sort of question as to the duty of the
Government. In the language Of these
resolutions, it was to eradicate it, but /
did not insist upon that issue before the
couAtyy. The party which / intimately
associated with did not insist upon it,
We thought that in time. from its own
obnoxious nature, it would wear out, but
the speculative nature Of the thing, the
fortunes to be made from the traffic, the
immense gains to be acquired from the
labor of slaves in the cotton and sugar
States, enticed and fascinated the people
of the South. In 1860, when the census
was made, We found, under all the benign
influences of the growing civilization Of
the age, that instead of the institution
going gradually out of existence, it vac
actually fixing itself in perpetual psrma-
nency upon the country; that its dark
claws had sunk deep into the visals OF
the nation. And the men who adhered
to it were sunk SO deep in iniquitv and
immortality that they endeavored to infiict
upon us chastisemcnts, the more fully and
efectfully to retain their grasp. The men
who stood up for that institution grappled
the United States by the throat; they
went stark mad, assailing the vitals oi
our country that slavery might live, and
then it was that the people became aroused
to the requirements Of the hour, and true
to the highest mandates Of humanity they