The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-09-22
ss Mean - or ss Poor Whites" !" and MulattOes.

Mean " or - Poor hnlteS !" anu muiattOes'
The Southern newspapers, which
to represent the late slave holding aris-
tocracy, are loud in their professions OF
Nattachment to President John, and yet
they lose no opportunity to insult him
by sneers at what they designate the
mean or poor whites" They are
we'll aware that President johnson,
more than any man in the South, Is the
representative of the poor non-slave-
holding whites He boasts on all occa-
sions Of his humble origin, and of his
rise in the world in spite of the frowns
of the aristocracy; and yet the South
ern editors and politicians Of the seces-
sion school take every occasion to throw
contempt upon the poor whites. This,
however, may be the result oflong hab-
it, of which the chivalry have not yet
been able to break themselves. We
must remind them that they never as
perse the late loyalist convention as be-
ing composed of mean or poor whites
without heaping insult upon the man
whose pardons they sought for months
before they obtained them, and which
hey are proud to hang up in their par
lors
Another favorite calumny which the
rebel press is fond of repeating is con-
tanned in the epithet "mulatto conven-
ton" There is this much color for the
application of this epithet, viz; that
one of the delegates from Louisiana has,
apparently, Slight tinge of the Afri-
can in his complexion, but not more than
Tennessee and lately of Alabama, who
oh
airy before the war, in consequence of
his books and sermons in favor OF slav-
cry. His African origin is as well at
tested as the fact that he married into
a respectable white family, or the other
fact that he was everywhere treated as
guest and equal of the Southern aris-
tocracy.
We might 90 further, and remind
those who sneer at the 6 'mulatto con-
vention," and the mean white conven-
tion that there are other eminent South |
erners in church and State, who are
known to have negro ancestor at the |
distance offs some four or five generations,
to whose industry and thrift the fortune |
and foundation Of the family is due. |
We might refer to the laws of the South |
which define who are mulattoes, in |
proof Of the fact that man ceases to |
be thus designated after the third or
fourth generation, and may hold up his |
head as white man. We know moth
ing of the rank of the delegate from
Louisiana in society. If we are correct
fy informed, the line which separates
the two races in New Orleans, and in
some of the parishes, is nearly oblitera-
ted, so that among the creoles it is Of
ten difficult to say who is who. This
difficulty has doubtless given rise to
the misconception which prevails as to
the meaning of the word creole. In the
free States, and in the more Northern
slave States, it is regarded as a syno-
nyn for the mixed race but the Lousi-
anians, who are sensitive on the subject,
insist that the word simply implies a
native.
Whenever a man, though of known
African origin, grows rich and power
ful, and turns oppressor of his race, his
blood becomes purified in the eyes Of
the chivalry. 1t is only when he gives
all the powers of his mind and soul to
5he vindication and elevation of his
race that the term I" free''
negro or mulatto is applied to him.
We may say in conclusion that the
9pithets, mean white, poor white, and
nulatto, Eave nearly spent their force
ind The dayis not distant when the
base and heartless demagogues who now
ldrl them as anathemas will address
;ozening words of fiattery to the unfor-
unate classes referred to- Washing-
on Chronicle.