Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-08-22

The attempt of the Johnsonites and
Copperheads to restore to place andpOwer
the traitors and late rebels of the South,
is very naturally accompanied with the
effort to make contemplate that class of
citizens who occupying the humber walks
of life, and having had the misfortune, in
Democratic opinion, not TO be woman-whip-
pers and traficers in human beings, were
unable to attain the standard of gentility
recognized in Southern society. Thus we
find the New York World most earnest
supporter of Andrew johnson and the
claims Or traitors to full psrtfcipaticnTn
the goyerHnen5 designating the Conven-
ton ofSouthern loyalists which is to meet
in Philadelphia on the Sd Of September,
as tThe Mean White Convention" Before
the war, "mean white" meant in the
South a man who worked fer his living,
who derived the support of himself and
family from his daily toll the carpenter
and shoemaker, and tailor, were of this
class, and though honest, industrious and
law respecting they might be, with the
aristocratie slave driver or seller they
could find no respect nor consideration,
and we're regarded as but one step remov-
ed from the degraded and abused slave
whose toll supplied the luxuries snd ease
of the master. In Congress, and from the
stump, these Southern lords were wont to
designate the people Of the North as
amudsiIs" and greasy mechanics It
was believed that the war would crush out
this aristocrstic spirit, and to some
extent it did SO, but the efforts
of the friends and apoloeists of
treason at the North to restore these late
slaYe-owners to the rights and privileges
they forfeited by rebellion is calculated TO
re-awaken that same intolerance and pride
that was the especial characteristic of the
Southern planter in the past. It is not
astonishing to see such sheets as the
| World psndering to this distinguishing
trait in the Southern character, since it
has before given us specimens of its re-
gard for imean whites" 1t was this
paper that in IS64-then as strongly in
the interest of treason as now-speke as
follows Of Abraham LINCOLN and Andrew
johnson:
sThe only merit we can discover in this
Baltimore ticket is the merit ofconsisten-
cy; it is all of a piece; the tail does not
shame the head nor the head shame the
tail. a rsil-splitting bufIoon and a boor-
ish tailor, both from the ~backwoods, both
growing up in uAcouth ignorance, they
would forms grotesquesubject for sstiric
poet, who might celebrate them in such
strains as Dean Swift bestowed on Whis-
ton and Ditton, CT Aristophanes on that
servile demagogue, Hyperbolus,"
But though such expressions as "mean
whites,p emudsills," and the like, may
have a soothing and conciliafory eff
feet upon the minds OF those Southern
gentlemen" in whose behalf they arc ut
tered, TO tho Northern man at least they
carry nothing of their former sting, and
but make ridiculous those who perpetuate
them. The greasy mechanic" has been
pitted against the son of chiYalry, and has
shown mis- superiority as q man, and hav-
ing by brave deeds in the cause of his
country established his claim to the re-
speet and honor of his countrymen, he
can laugh at all such attempts as that of
the Worldt0 bring him into contempt.