Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1865-11-09

IL pendentc0ndltiOn. II your SectlOn acSl U
e, esces in the failure Of your experiment
h their liberation on this ground, what wi
3, this be but the admission Of the damnin
i charge that your measure Is a blunde
e and a crime, aggravated by the warnin
y so emphatic, which your opponents CAV
i you, and 20 which you refused to listen
r But feel bound, as your Jealous an
t faithful supporter in your humane tasl
= to give you one more caution. The OF
Y iectors who watch YOU with so severe a
e eye have eveN adar5ersu suggestion TO max
Y than the charge of hcadstrOng rashnes
. and criminal mistake iny your experimen
D | Of emancipation: They are eheard gloom
I lily 60 insinnate that the ruin of tn
{ African (which they persistently asser
must result from the change) IS not tn
r blunder Of the North, but the foreseel
- and intended result! Are you aware o
2 the existence Of this frighttul inuendo
d tt is my duty 10 reyealit to you, that yo'
e may be put upon your guard. Ihes
Z / stern critics are heard darkly hintlni
! that they know Northern statesmen ant
I ! presses who now admit, with a sardoni'
shrug, that the black man, deprived o
, the benignant shield Of domestic seFvi
tude, must Of course perish like the ret
, man. These critics are heard inferrinl
/ that the true meaning Of Northern Re
publicanisfn and Free Soil Is, that th'
white race must be free to shoulder the
black race of this continent, and mo
nopolize the sunny soil, which the
God of nations gave the latter as theil
heritage. They take a sort of grim pleas
ure in pointing TO the dead infants, which
they say usually marked the liberating
course Of your armies through the South
in displaying the des.itution and mortal
ity which, they charge, are permitted in
the vast settlements Of freedmen under
your care; in insinuating the rumOrs OF
official returns Of a mortality already In
cured in the Southwest, made to YOU
/ Government, so hideous that their sup
preston was a necessity; and in relating
how the jungles which are eucroaching
/ upon the once smiling "coasts" OF the
[ Mississippi, in Louisiana, already envel-
I Ope the graves Of half the black pOpula-
| ton in that State And the terrible in
/ ference from all this, which they inti-
mate is that the great and powerful
I North only permits these disasters because
/ it intends them, they now pretend to lib
I crate the slave whom they have seen too
/ prosperous under his domestic servitude,
1 in order to destroy him, and grasp, in adj
dition, the soil which he has occupied.
Now, sir, il is incumbent on you, that
I LllE premises On MultLls Will 81 NdLl-
gerous a plausibility, they ground this
tremendous charge, be effectually con-
. tradicted by happy and benefcent re-
suits You must refute this mOnstrous
Indictment, and there is only one way to
do it, by actually showing that you con-
serve and bless the African race, multi
ply their numbers, and confirm their
prosperity on the soil, more than we have
done repeat, the North must refute it
thus For, Of fcOurse, every Northern man,
while Indignantly denying and abhOrring
il, admits what is as plain as the sun at
midday that if the charge were indeed
true, it would convict his people of the
blackest public crime of the nineteenth
century; a crime which would be bound
to involve every aggravati0n and every
element Of enOrmity which the nOmen-
clature of ethics enables us to describe.
II would be the deliberate, calcu-
lated, cold-blOoded, selfish dedication Of
an innocent race Of four millions TO
humiliation the murder, with NAL
ice prepeuse, of a nation not by the
comparatively merciful process Of the
royal Him, whose maxim was, that
thick grass is cut more easily than
thin summary massacre; but by the
slowly eating cancer Of desttutiOn, deg
radiation, Immortality, protracting the
long agony through two or three genera 1
tons, multiplying the victims who would
be permitted 10 be born only to sin, to
suffer and 10 perish; and iusuring the
everlasting perditiOn of the soul, along
with the body, by cunningly making
their own vices the eXecUtiouers Of the |
doom. 1t would include the blackest .
guile of treason being done under the de-
ceitful mask of benefaction and by pre- 1
-s..E.@
of its motive would concur with its I
treachery to enhance its guilt to the .
most stupendous hight for upon this in .
Of the purpose Of the North, /
that motive would be, first to weaken /
and disable its late adversary, the South, I
by destroying that part Of the people .
which was guilty of no sin against you, 4
and then, by this union of fraud and .
force, to seize and enjoy the space which .
God gave them, and laws and cOnstitu- /
ton guaranteed.
This, indeed, would be the picture .
which these accusers would then present i
Of your splendid act, that you came rs a /
pretended friend and delivereT to the AZ I
ricau, and while be embraced you as his .
benefaCt0r in all his simple confidence /
and joy, you thrust your sword through 1
and through his heart, in order to reach, I
who stood behind him, whom YOU could .
not reach The deed would receive an .
additional shade Of bl8ckness from every
which the North has ever ut
tered against Us for our supposed Oppres-
sion Of the black man from every prUfe--
sion Of your superior humanity toward
every assertion Of your supe-
riOr civilization, light and Christianity.
For is it not the righteous penalty Of the .
servant who knew the will Of his Di-
vine Master, and did it not, to be beaten .
with many stripes? If the North should, .
indeed, after all its claims to the I
trials which eXalt a people, have this .
most accursed deed fastened upon it, then .
would be fulfilled against il that awful .
warning which the Son Of God Jhundered 1
against the most boastful Of the abusers .
of his teachings: Thou Caperneum, /
which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be I
thrust down to hell" And on the face /
OF all the earth there has been no people :
since that doomed race who said "Hts I
blood be upon US and our children ~ /
against whom the voice Of impartial his
tory has pronounced deeper eXecratiOns 7
than those which would await you. Once /
more: Could such a crime be perpetrated
and the dire judgments of God fail to /
follow? Could your posterity hope to es-
cape the fated tread Of that divine retri-
button witch hitherto has pursued, with
inevitable steps, the crimes Of all the ma
tions, from the primeval East to the
farthest West, with the double scOurges I
of God?
Up, then honorable Sir: Yea, / would
exclaim through you; Up! thou great,
Christian North: cleanse thy skirts from
this foul charge; deliver thy children
from this fierce indignation Of heaven by
the splendid liberality and success Of
your accusers, by lifting these Africans,
with the strong hand Of your benefcence,
to your own prosperity. Do not listen to
these bOding assertOrs of the impOSsibility
Of the exploit; but so lavish your enlght-
ened care and labor, and wealth and
love, as to compel impOssibility itself
The conclusions to which, l trust, you
have now come with me, are briefly
these, that the North is bound by the
logic Of events and Of its own acts to
become the chief guardian and nurse Of
the freedmen. That the South Is, with
out its own fault, disabled from doing
more than very little of this work in
future. That the North must do more
for them than the South ever did, and
that in the profusion Of her OWE superb
ority is asserted by herself, and Of the
advantage ana lQSJlce WOlcn freedom
possesses, according to her, over slavery,
that the North cannot throw on the
African, unaided, the task Of securing his
own destiny, nor plead that the attain
ment of social prosperity isa thing which
cannot be done for those who cannot
effect it for themselves; ; because these are
just the points which the South urged
against this change, and which the North
denied in insisting upon it, and because
you alone are the authors of the change.
That your section has thereby incurred
sacred obligation to bestow on the Afri-
can a wen being higher than that Of the
state from which you took him, no mat
ter how much 1t may cost you. And that,
if the North fails m this, it eonfesses
itself an enormous criminal.
Here, then is your task, and these are
its conditions. There Is no more sincere
aid which / can render you in it than to
give YOU sober sketch of its real difficult
ties, and with this l shall close.
One Of yGar difficulties is in the thrift
lessness Of the Africans themselves, and
their want of intelligent foresight; a trait
which was caused, not by domestic servi-
tude but by the savage condition from
which they were taken, and which we
had partially corrected when they were
taken out Of our hands. For this is just
the character which all savages exhibit,
r 4 4 N-NH.