Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1865-12-22
We'll said.

Wei Safu.
From the Richmond Times.l
We are very much obliged to those gen
tlemen who have come South to set the mo-
rails of our negro population right, and teach
them the advantage of matrimony and chas-
tity. They have an uphill, arduous wcr&
before them-but doubtless it is labor of
love, and they ask not either gold or silver
for their reward. We, in our humble way,
and according to our light, for many years
past have endeavored to christianize and
civilize them, and vainly imagined, until we
were taught better, that we were doing our
| duty to this legacy that had been forced
! upon us in spite of all resistance, and had
! somewhat improved them in contrast with
their iorefathers on the Guinea coast, or
their cotemporaneous relatives at the court
Of the King of Dahomey But it seems we
| were mistaken, and host Of strong-minded
women and weak-minded men have, at the
risk of'their health, and leaving luxurious
homes, emigrated 10 this missionary, impo-
verished land to set things straight. But,
! while we are duly thankful and Every hum
bic" it is not very pleasant for Ms to read in
| the Northern journals, of the Radical per-
suasion, letters from these amiable mission
aries, describing our fellov-citizens as I'M
mitigated heathens, and painting the hand
some residences which, in our gratitude, we
have furnished them. as little better than
hog pens. The very love feasts at our Afri-
can churches they make fun of, and call
them barbarous. Now, this is not agreeable
not pleasant. 1t may be sport to them,
but il is death to our feelings. And we feel
very much like the sinner, who paid his
quarter to see Death on the Pale Horse"
and afterwards remarked that it might be
very delightful picture for Christians, but he
did not like it.
We wonder that our friends do not recol-
lect the old saying that CHARITY begins at
home and with that, the fact of the hun
dreds of homeless wanderers in the Northern
cities-the thousands Of "unfortunates" who,
in wretchedness of soul and body, roam their
streets at night and show their painted. bag
gard faces each morning to the police magis-
trate-the sin and shame that blaze forth in
their own land and blacken the palaces on
Fifth Avenue and Madison Square, or desc
late some quiet New England home among
the hills of the Housatonic or by the banks
of the Merrimac-crime that would para
I'VE the pen of a Partisan Feuiletonist, and
which carries us back to the Dark Ages We
might tell these missionaries of a case of in
cest among good, pious, respectable and veal
thy people in the city of New York-where
one of the parties had built Sunday School
and the other taught in it-where a husband
is charged with procuring an abortion on his
wife and then forming a liasion with the
abortionist-and where the wife Of Bishop
is an important witness for the plaintiff, and
the Rev. DR.. Tyngs chief fugleman, appears
on the side of the defence, as confeSsor for
the adulterer. But we shut our eyes in hOr-
ror from the scene of poor humanity's frail
ties and denominations, with sad and not ex
ultant feeling.
There are other similar cases now filling
the columns of some Of our Northen ex-
changes, which though not fit "to adorn a
moral" yet might point a tale;" but we
forbear, lest we shock our readers. We have |
no inclination TO draw invidiOus and boast !
full comparisons, for virtue, like beauty and
bravery, is not peculiar to any people or any
cline. The following quotation, from that |
able, conservative paper, the Cincinnati En- |
quirer, may remind the missionaries of some |
things they seem to have forgotten that |
while they are, after their own fashion, ele- |
waiting the African to level with the eau |
casian Of the South, they may be neglecting |
their own whites at home. The Enquirer re- |
marks:
while we have been fixing the domestic rcla- |
tions Of the South own have fallen into dis |
order. If any of our subscribers are inclined To
the perilOus amusement of reading the reports of
the great Eastern divorce cases, We beg them to |
read also in the same connection, the reports of
our philanthropic missionaries touching the sue
cess they have had in inducing the freedmen and
women to enter into the holy state of matrimony.
Here it is that noble charities appear in their
most hOrid aspect. There is nothing like the mar
rage ceremony to elevate and refine the colorcd
persons