Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1866-10-18
southern Gratitude.

II there is any honorable trait in chiv-
alry-if there is anything worthy to be
called chivalry--it is honorable graft.
tude for favors bestowed at an hour of
need. "a friend in need is q friend in
deco says the old proyerb. What shall
be said OF the man or the community
who, after an exhibition of such friend
ship-after unexsmpled fidelity at the
moment Of bitterest need, should abuse,
malign, and even murder such friend /?
The South is the peculiar region of
modern chivalry, according to its own
boast. It's people are fond OF asserting
that they are generous, grateful for
favors, true to friends, never forgetful
of q good service rendered them. Let
them be judged by their own standard.
Judge Clayton Of Alabama, who was
during the war a Major-General in the
rebel army, recently had occasion to
charge the Grand Jury of Pike county,
in that State. Among other questions,
ne discoursed to the jury Of the status
OF the freedmen, and the duty of the
courts aud people toward them in their
new relations. He said of the negro
"He is proud to call you master yet.
In the name Of humanity let him do so.
He may be older than you, and perhaps
carried you in his arms when you were
an infant. He may have been the COM
panion Of your boyhood. You may be
bound to him by thousand ties which
only a Southern man knows, and which
ne alone can feel in all its force. Itmay
be that when, only few years ago, you
girded on your cartridge-box and seized
your trusty rifle to 60 forth to meet the
invaders OF your country, you commit
ted to his care your home and your loved
ones, and when you were far away upon
the weary march, upon the dreadful bat
tle-feld, in the trenches and on the
picket line, many and many time you
thought Of that faithful old negro, and
your heart warmed toward him. Did he
not raise the corn and meat that fed your
wife and children? And when you re-
turned home, did he not welcome you
with tears Of Joy? Was he not faithful
to the las5 l believe there was
scarcely ever such picture OF fidelity
in the world as was exhibited to us
during the war Then let US not cher
ish any luminosity toward them for that
which we and they were unable to pre-
vent, and which is q deplorable catas-
trophe to them more than to u.s.
Now what has been the return Of the
Southern white for this "unexampled
fidelity 2" What has been the complex,
ion of chivalric gratitude ? Bloody red
The reward has been murder-the bull
let, the knife and the torch. Let Mem
phis and New Orleans attest on large
scale, and every township in the South
furnish its occasional witness. The
chivilrlc white, as reward for the care
of his family during his time Of need, as
a reward for this acknowledged devo
ton to his interests, not only denie:
every right due to man, so far as ht
dare; not only oppose giving his faith
full friend and servant of his dark days
education, civil rights, d fair chance tt
live and be happy in the land but pur
sues him with murder, the torch and tn
club
This is uh9 inevitable Judgment OF his
tory-the unimpeachable tact-tne con
elusiop o. the Southern spokesman-th
Judgment which the South, through al
it's present utterances, is pronouncin
against The South.