The Greene County Republican. [volume] (Waynesburg, Pa.) 185?-1867, 1866-06-06


with oaths and revllings, that his slape
be instantly given over to his swif,
vengeance, Did none protest, did none
help, did none save? Oh, country, hide
thy face whilst it is told that from these
soldiers he had armed, from this general
he had assisted, not hand was. raised
to prevent fate which my lips tail Justly
to describe. This slave, with chain
on his leg, with Il rope around his body,
was tied TO the saddle Of his master. and
under the hot Southern sun ran by his
side across the seven intervening miles
to his hon ne; when the limbs failed under
the strain, the lash on the shoulders was
n rare restorative. Reaching it, his
comrades and frends-Eay, more, his
m0thr-were collected to see the "ex>
ample collected around the stake to
which was bound the poor body that
sheltered this heroic and martyr soul.
cannot, cdHn1t pant that scene! Great
God! that suck things were possible, and
thy heavens tall not! but through the
sound OF falling blows, rcyiIing oaths,
and hideous blasphemy, through the
atfrighted and ghastly stiffness OF his
companions, there went up 10 cry for
mercy, no shrek or pain, no wall OF
despair; but when the long torture was
passed, and nature had yielded to this
work of tiends, the dying face was turned
towards his mother, the eyes dim with
tlfe veil that falls between time and
eternity, seeing her eyes with their latest
glance--the voice not weak, but clean
and strong even IN death, spoke for her
ear-"l5e OF good cheer, mother; they
can destroy the body, but they cannot
Kill the soul" And even with the bonds
the free soul walked with God.
With what weapon did we conquer in
This war! Every one knows, however
many may be unwilling to confess, that
it was Liberty. Through what plan did
we walk to victory and peacc7 Every
one knows that it was through Emanci-
patton Had we not given freedom to the
slaves we should have fought to defeat
or an exhaustion that woul have con-
sented to separation. Had we not
received the aid and help of these same
slaves, as iniormers, as guides, as spies,
as soldiers who shall say to .what point
the conflict would have been prolonged!
What gratitude we owe them! More
than the present is able to compute, and
that only the future can understand.
Bat in doing this for us they have
ontailcd on themselves more cruel pcr~
secution that their oppressors ever
inflicted upon them in the past Where
the black was their Save they desWSed
hin. As their conqueror they hate him
VIII the arisloGrats or the South be quick
to forget that they were compelled to
fight with their own slaves at Port lIud-
son, Oustrc, Mi!lkcn's Bend, at Wilson's
wharf on the James, through Georgia
and the Carolinas? Nay, that ihey were
again and again defeated and forced to
Surrender unto them VIII they fail 10
remember that into their conquered and
burning capitals, into Charleston and
Richmond, the first troops to enter,
wearing the blue UNIFORM ofthe republic,
bearing its banner, keeping step to the
march of its music, were black troops;
many Of them, but aIaw months or years
before, bond turalIs in their midst
BY saving US they have destroyed
themselves, unless we protect them by
seeing that they are enabled to protect
themselves.
What illumination CT cruelty would 1t
be to Use these men to conquer the South,
then thrust them under the heel Of the
humbled and iniuriated conquerer?
AS one Of them, two years sncesa
slave IN Charleston John Pinciine?),
writes. and | want you to observe :he
language used, They
Che whites will make freedom a curse
to us, for We have no home, no land, no
oath, no vote, and consequently no
and it would be far better that
we had never been born than to undergo
the hardship and punishment that will be
inflicted on us FIVE are left alone. May
Heaven forbid, and God Almighty .
Di otect us from the revenge ofthe Rebels
and the Presidents polcyl"
What was tie record Of the war .
through the days in which that slave Of .
whom | told you was seat back to .
slavery! The record was defeat, defeat,
Gcteat--tishouor ard death! Not until |
the nation put an end to these abomi.
nations, not until the slave was,a man,
not until we had learned and practlsed !
the first lesson OF justice, did victory lead |
our armies to peace. The slave cried to !
God, and God heard him.
AS the war did not triumph, think you
a power can endure that contains such
liscordanti elements! Every black child
rprentced, torn from the arms of its
mother, every black man hunted to
death by the law or outside the law,
every freed man or woman bought and |
sold in the market-pl every murder,
every riot, every massacre, cry to God |
against u.s. The bodies may be killed, |
but the souls and their testimony cannot
be killed "Shal not God avongo his
own elect which cry day and eight unto
him, though he bear long with them? |
tell you that he will ayenge them spec
dily,'
Some talk of this as matter of time,
as though it were some phenomenon Of
human nature or the physical world over
which they could have no possible intlu>
,nce or control Now we have the
)ower in our hand; now VIC can exercise