The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1865-06-29
Making a Virtue Of Necessity.

Il has been held by certain class OF NOR
al theorists, rather virtue than otherwise,
ito make virtue of necessIty'-to accept
the inevitable as the greatest good. There
may be virtue in it, but we don't believe 1t
is honest, always. The case in point is the
shareholders of the South and their North
elm copperhead friends and allies. They
have just staked their all-committed the
greatest crime known to humanity-inaug-
Grated the most extensive, most sangulna-
ry and unnatural civil war that History
was ever called upon to recorder the sole
purpose of nationalizing slavery and making
it more secure and perpetual. Hundreds OF
thousands of lives have been sacrificed
thousands Of homes have been made desc
late-the property accumulations of cen
fury have been destroyed, and throughout
the southern rebel states, the material i'm
provements of the last half century-cties,
homesteads, railroads. factories, &c, &c, have
been sacrificed in this war-not to protect
or preserve the institutions of slavery, for 1t
was never assAiled or threatened by the
North, but to make it universal, and the
cornerstone of their nationality, either by
destroying the Republic and founding
slave-holding confederacy upon its ruins, or
by compelling by force of arms such con-
cessions in favor of slavery as should make
it the fundamental principle OF the Union
AS they might have anticipated-might
have known-had not slavery made them
doubly blind and foolish, they had not sue
c,eded in single point. They have sig
nally failed, and the consequence is, they
lost all that they went to war to preserve.
Slavery is abolished and southern chival-
nv" is made a laughing stock and by-word,
the world over. Itmay be a virtue to ac-
cept the fate they have brought upon them
selves without grumbing and make the
best of it, but for them to say that they re-
ioice over the result of their rebellion, and
knew all the time that such result was
for the best and for their interests, is not
honest.
A South Carolina delegation was at WASH
ington last week to confer with the Presl-
dent on the subject of reconstruction III
that State. Judge Frost, the spokesman OF
the delegation, in his reply to the President
said the people of South Carolina would ac-
cept the conditions forced upon them by the
course of events, and make the best OF them.
He also said Freedom to the slave is free
dom to the master, provided you can supply
a motive for industry" This the Milwau-
kee Neaos translates to mean, ''that it IS
really the Slave owners who have secured
freedom by getting rid of their slaves" and
thereupon proceeds to comment upon as
follows
s'The relation of master and slave has
been pecuntarily more oppressive to the
former than the latter. The prevalent
notion at the North that the negro slave
worked for his master without compensation
is utterly without foundation in truth. In
proportion to the amount and value Of labor
done, the southern slaves have been more
literally rewarded than any other class Of
like Iabore.s in the civilized world"
Viewed in connection with the course of
the NaaoS for the past four years, and of the
the slave holders for twenty five or thirty
years, the above is vastly sensible, is it not?
The Nesos has constantly, daily assaulted the
the administration, opposed and denounced
the war, because it declared it to be an abo-
lition war--a war for the emancipation of
slaves war to rob our southern brethren
of their slaves, of their property, and all the
changes it could ring upon that idea.
It was war for the niger, an abolition
war to make niggers equal to white men,
&c. But we were not told then that it was
q white nuns war to free the shareholders
from their niggers, That idea had not yet
been born. 1t was left for the genius of
the editor of the Milwaukee Neaos to discov
er that the southern shareholders went to
war to free themselves from the oppression
Of their slaves Contrary to all hitherto con-
ceived ideas upon the subject the abolition
lists and fanatics of the north have been ad
the cause of the oppressed mas
ter's O instead Of that of their oppressors-
the slaves. That is what we call making
q ''virtue of necessity" with vengeance
But seriously and candidIy we want to
know whether the father of lies himself,
could invent three more monstrous lies,
than are contained in the above three SEN
fences taken from the Neacs. Take them
and see how they look.
1st ''The relation of master and slave
have been pecuniarily more oppressive to
the former than the latter"
raised al the cotton-buit all the Railroads
if he has not built the cities, his labor has
furnished all the capital for building them,
and his master has taken the pecuniary pro-
;eeds. All the slave has had, has been the
,oarsest kind of living and the cheapest
clothing, seldom enough to cover his naked
less. And not content with all the proceeds |
# the slaves labor, the master takes his
children and sells them-ma&es merchan-
lise of the slaves offspring, as we'll as of his
abor. The slave after life of toll, after
having earned thousands of dollars for his |
master, raised large family which has also
ii been sold aud the price put into his
masters Golfers, finds himself in his old |
ge, alone, uucared for-too decrepid to be
.oaded to further labor by the overseer's
ash, only too glad to be allowed to die in
,eace in some miserable howell. His master
IL this time is olling in wealth, in the &C