Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1865-07-06

iul evidences, ,laily coming before us; schemes
Of Wholesale incendarisn, involving deaths
by the thousand Of women and children;
schemes TO posion, by the malignant virus
of the yellow fever, an entire community;
deliberate plans to destroy prisoners Of war
By insuferablo hsrdsbips and slow suffering;
plots, too successful alas! to shroud a nation
10 mourning by assassination.
Many honorable exceptionsno no doubt there
are, in whom native virtue reslsts daily
temptation. Such exceptions arc to be
found in all communities, no matter how
pernicious the surroundings But in decid.
ing National questions we must be governed
by the rule, not by the exceptions
The Southern whites subdivide into three
classes; The shareholders proper, many Of
whom are excluded form pardon by the
Proclamation of Amnesty; the poor
whites" and what may be called the yeo.
men Of the South of which last our country
feels that her worthy President is a noble
type, and ofwhich we may regard stout
hearted Parson Brownow as clerical ex
ample.
Ii this last class, whence have come the
sturdiest Union men in Seoessiondom, con-
stituted, like the mechanic of New England
or the West, large proportion of the
population, we might hope that it would
leaven and redeem the extremes of society
around it. But it is found sparse and is
inconsiderable numbers, except, perhaps, in
Eastern Tennessee and the northern portion
Of North Carolina. The poor whites, of
whom the cay-eatng pine-lander Of Georgia
and other Gulf States is the type, far out
number them. Of this last class Mrs.
Fanny Kemble, in that wonderful book Of
hers, journal of Residence on South
ern Plantation" gives from personal obser.
vatien, graphic description: They are,
suppose" (she says) ''the most. degraded
race of human beings claiming an Anglo.
Saxon origin that can be found on the face
Of the earth-flthy, lazy, ignorant, brutal,
proud, penniless savages, without one oi the
nobler attributes that have been found
occasionally allied to the vices OF savage
nature. They own no slaves, for they are,
almost without exception, abjectly poor;they
will not work, for that, as they conceive,
would reduce them to an equality with alb
horred negroes; they squat and steal and
starve on the outskirts Of this lowest of all
civilized societies, and their countehanees
bear witness to the squalor of condition and
the utter degradation Of their natures. 1"
(Journal, p. LAG.
have often encountered this class.
SoW naHy VI thChi idoU youI WHY 'iotibe'uo
member of a Government commission, some
of the Southern States. Labor, degraded
before their eyes, has extipguished within
them all respect for industry, all ambition,
all honorable exerton, to improve their
condition. When last Fad the pleasure of
seeing you at Nashville, | met there, in the
office of a gentleman charged with the duty
OF issuing transportation and rations TO in
digent persons, black and white, notable
example of the strange class. He was a
Rebel deserter; rough, dirty, uncou.h
specimen ofhumanity stout and wiry
looking, rude and abrupt in speech and
bearing, and clothed in tattered homespun.
In no civil tone he demanded rations.-
When informed that all ratiens applicable
to such a purpose were exhausted he broke
forth: What am | to do ther? How am
to get homer
You can have no difficulty" was the
reply. 1T is but fifteen or eighteen hours
down the river" (ths Cumbcrland,) "hy
steam boat to where you live. | furnished
, you, transportation; you can work youl
way,
Work my wsyl" with a scowl of angry
f contempt) Il never did stroke Of WORK
since was born, and never expect to til
my dying day."
Lue dSClt Ioplieu uuletly. luey VIII
, give you all you want to cat on board, if yo,
help them to wood"
= Garry wood" he retorted with an oath
i whenever they ask me to carry wood, II
tell them they may set me on shore; L,
rather starve for week than work for a.
hour; don't want to live in world that
can't make living out of without work.
4 Is it for men like that, ignorant, i(literatC
n vicious, fit for no decent employment o
: earth except manual labor, and spurning a
f labor as degradation-is it in favor of sue
a insolent swaggerers that we are to di:
q franchise the humble, quiet, hard-werkin
negro? Are the votes OF three such men a
! Stanton or Seward Sumner or Garrison
= Grant or Sherman, to be neutraized by th
n ballot of one such worthless barbarian?
o Are there not breakers ahead? To such a
7 issue as that may not the late tentatives &
A. reconstruction, how faithfully soever col
' ceived and intended for good, PRACTICAL
r tend?
j. The duty of the United States to guaral
O. tee to every State in the Union a republ
a can form of government is as sacred as tt
!. duty to protect each cf them from invasion
10 Is that duty duly fulfilled when, with tt
ar power of prevention in our own hands, "
lv suffer the white voter in the least loyal, I'll
ID least intelligent as the least industrious Sc
ton of our country to usurp measure
" political power three fold greater than
to the rest of the nation, voter enjoys?
ts Will it be denied that we haze the leg
ds power in our own hands?
tv Unsuccessful Rebels cannot, by bits
IF paper called Secession ordinances, take
,st State out OF the Union; but, by levyiI
es civil war, they can convert all the inhat
es tants OF State into public enemies, d
h. prved, as such, by law, of their polite
.Tv rights. The United States can restore the
Of rights-can pardon these public enemies.
And we have the right to pardon on CO
ire ditions; as, for example, on the conditi
nm that Slavery shall cease to exist or on t
it- condition that none of those persons, W
mo form the basis of representation, shall,
cal cause of color, be deprived of the right
hlv suffrage.
no Ii we neglect to impose the first cen
of ton, the cause of the late Rebellion v
tn. continue and will some day, produce {
zen other. If we neglect to impose the secc
be condition, an oligarchy, on an exteno
ost scale, will grow up in our large section
aw. the country, working grave injustice
tsd ward the voters OF another section.
evil three-ilth abuse will rs-appear in 81
Jef- form.
un- But if we suffer this. it cannat fail to I
,eo- duce, as Slavery produced, alterations