Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1865-08-10

u
! freedmen to political privileges in th,
Southern States, leaving to you the respon
sibility CT your action in regard thereto.
| | presume we shall agree in regarding
! the four general principles asserted in the
"Faneuil Hall Address, as those which
should guide the determination of our rela
| tons to both whites aud blacks in the rebe
States. That there may be no mistake iu
reference to this, quote them:
First. The- principle must be put be.
yoBd, all question, that the Republic has a
direct claim uron the allegiance Of every
citizen, from which no State can absove
! him, and to his obedience to the laws Of the
Republic, anything in the constitution OF
laws Of any State TO the contrary notwith.
standing.
Second. The public faith is pledged to
every person Of color in the rebel States, to
secure 10 them and their posterity forever a
complete and veritable freedom. Having
provided them this freedom, secured their
aid on the faith Of this promise, and by o
successful war and actual military occupa.
| ton Of the country, having obtained the
power 10 secure the result, we are dishon-
.ored if we fail to nske il good TO thcm.
Third. The system Of slavery must be
abolished and prohibited by paramount and
irreversible law. Throughout the rebel
States there must be, in the words of Web
ster, impressed upon the soil itself an in.
ability to bear up but free men,.
Fourth. The systems of the States must
be truly republican.
The application made of the last princi.
pie in the address, do not regard as sound,
but l shall perhaps agree more fully with
you than you do with the address, when
assent that in republican community po-
litieal privileges Of any kind can never be
rightly or safely based upon hereditary caste.
How then, it will naturally be asked, can
there be any practical difference between us
as to the mode of carrying out these princi-
pies? 1t is found in the views we take Of
the mutual relations Of the two races in the
South. You, judging from this distance,
say, Deliver the four millions of freed peo-
pile into the hands Of their former oppres-
sors, now embittered by their defeat and
they will make their condition worse than
before" l, starting from the same princi-
Piles, and after four years of close and
thoughtful observation Of the races where
they are, say l am unwillingly forced to tho
conviction that the effect of the war has
tions, but to develop rooted antagonism
"hiOh tuCt pCEmducuL luSl6U III OuG
political community an absolute impossible
ity. The sole difference between us then is
in the degree of hostility we find existing
between the races, and its probable perma a.
nence. You assume that the extension of
the right Of suffrage to the blacks, leaving
them intermixed with the whites, will cure
all the trouble. I believe that it would
rather be like the decisions in that outer
darkness Of which Milton speaks, where
''Chass e~spire shs,
And by decision more e'nbroils the Fray
Yet, as believe, with you, that the right
OF life and liberty are inaliersble, and more
than admit the danger ofleaving laboring
class at the entire mercy of those who form
erly owned them Is slaves, you will say am
bound to furnish some solution of the prsb-
lem which shall not deny the right or incur
the peril. 80 am. and the only real solu-
tion which Lean see is the peaceable separa-
tien of the races. But, you will reply,
foreign colonizations will break down hope.
lessly under the very vastness of the labor,
even if it were not tyvannical enough to
expel these unfortunate people from the
land of their birth. grant the full weight
of the objection, and therefore say the solu-
tion is thus narrowed down to peaceable
separation ofthe races on the soil ,ohere they
nOp are.
The essential point in the discussion thus
appears to be tho ualrelations of the two
races in the Southern States as a question of
fact, and the probable future consequences
of those relations as question of theory.
Upon the question Of fact I think l may
with all msdesty claim that my antecedents
and my opportunities Of observation entitle
my testimony to have some weight, even
with the most radical anti-slavery men IF the
North.
The antagonism of which have spoken
is not entirely one sided. On the part of the
former master il takes the form of an in
domitable pride, which utterly refuses to
entertain the idea of political or social equal :
ity, mingled with hatred intensified by
the circumstances and the results of the
war. This feeling snet confined to the slave.
owners alone, but the poor whites share
it fully, and often show it more passion
ately. ...
On the part of the freedmen, it is mani
Tested in. an utter distrnst of the dominant
race, and an enmity which, although made
openly manifested, 10 as real and implaca.
BE as the other. They have the mutual at
traction OF race among themselves, and re-
pulsion of the whites us another people,
developed to degree which surprised me.
1t is not as individuals of a nation common
to US all that they speak of themselves, but
to use the language of one Of them, speak
ing to myself, they feel that they ''have
long been an oppressed and down-trodden
people"
Hildreth, in his "Dsspotism in Ameri
ca" declared slavery to be in itself state
ofwsr, and this character is indelliby i'm
pressed upon both races in the South
The captive learns duplicity toward his cap
tor, and in the slave it has become marked
characteristic. 1t is fair stratagem for
which he feels no guilt. l have seen a
master boasting Of the fidelity of his servant,
and discussing the subject of slavery in his
presence, while the negro waited upon him
with an inpassive humility which would
make you believe no intelligent ideaIof free
dom had ever penetrated his brain. Yet |
have seen that same negro afterward in
camp transformed into clear, headed ally
of our troops, leading them to his master
buried stores, or guiding themt to the flanks
of the ensmy's lines, with an intelligence
and steadiness of purpose which left no
doubt as to his understanding ofthe conflict
between himself and his master.
The daily and hourly repetition Of proofs
Of this fact, many Of them too subtle foi
description, but none the less convincing to
the observer, has fully convinced me that
O. 4