Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1866-02-15

Extracts from a Letter Of q Sol
Edfer Of the 25th O.. v. v. I.
Dated south Carolina,. Edge
1eid District, Nailed Columbis
Jan. 80, Is66. -
"The people Of this part Of the Stat,
seem completely demoralized about tbei
debts and taxes. 1t seems as If the STATE
will never be received inte the Union. The
State Legislature met at Columbia and
made laws for the State, but they lcaunot
go into force while the military is in force
through the State.
II have got pretty we'll acquainted
through this neighborhood. and fad very
agreeable people am visiting through
them occasionally, and am treated as well az
l could wish. The young people seem very
sociable, whether they are 30 or not, can.
not say, but do not doubt it at all.
Every thing goes on quietly through
this part Of the District. The Freedmen
are quiet and have all made contracts to
labor for the year. and have all gone to
work better than was expected. The citi-
zens.were very uneasy before Christmas -.
They all expected that the negroes would
rise in insurrection on Christmas day, but
Christmas was as quite as any other day.
II long to be away from this country
where will not be troubled with blacks
always"
This letter is from a truthful and moral
young man from Belmont County. have
quoted four consecutive paragraphs The
second and fourth show his sympatbies and
afinities to be with the tt.rebel class and
his prejudices to. be against the loyal er.
sIares. Consequently, his leanings, if any,
are towards the coppey party North. He
feels at. home with 'sociaLle" ex.rebels;
but feels ita trouble" TO ''be With blacks, -
though in the service of his country. He
is, of course, no lying aJolitiontist," nor
has he the disease called "nigger on the
brdiH." If be be clear of copper on the
brain, he is q acredible witness. And even
under this disease he would hardly testify
particularly for the Freedmen, and agains,
South Carolins ex- traitsrs
The testimony OF this letter is very im.
portant just now and here, in regard to the
present, and important issues before the
country. It gives the lie-very fatly-to
the long, cid, stale falsehoods Of the South
and their rebel-sytnpathizing-c g-copper.friend
North-as
First, That "the negroes ufQ not ,oork,"
If freed, without compulsisn and without
the lash. This letter says the negroes are
working--are ar working better than
was expected. Are the white people of the
South working as WeU? Half so peN as the
Freedmen? Will party in this country
never cease lying? Or does it act-politi-
N llv--rnOp tho y,r,pos-la aol hnt - Al.
",chen Il shall cease to lie, ii 1in Je sure to
die?
Second, That the emancipation Of. the
slaves would bring insarreetion, murder
incendiarism, throat cutting, miscegenatlon
indeed. blood and thunder, death and
ruin! But these have not come, though rebs
and cops have striven to bring them. And
now, nobody but fool fears they will come,
unless they shall be provoked by the brutal
oppression and bloodhound cruelty of saw
age ex Shareholders and their minions.-
Unless they should be needed--as they are
for political capital, and the needy politi-
cal party shall succeed in devising ways and
means to bring them, come they will never.
Third, That emancipation would bring
idleness, vagrancy, pilfering, ruin, starva.
ton, insecurity, confusion, alarm.
This letter gives the lie to all this appre-
hension--"The Freedmen are quiet''--
Christmas" quiet as any other
day." And this testimony is confirmed by
the testimony of hundreds of witness un-
questioned and unquestionable. A people,
all quiet" and that have all gone to
work" will not likely do harm to any one or
any thing letting them alone, and so mind
ing its own business, quietly doing its own
work. But oppression may, make the
quiet, the industrious and the peaceful
mad
Fourth, This testimony, so far as it bears
on the subject at all, proves that the lies,
patent in our midst about the negroes--poor
creatures !-"soon to be extinct" dying off
in consequence of the wickedness of the
abolitionists and the wicked emancipation
Of the poor slaves torn from their kind,
loving and fostering masters, are mere po-
htical falsehoods, got up to bear on coming
elections. True-there is suffering in the
South among both blacks and whites. There
has been some slaughter among the blacks
now free. But where justice is regarded
few blacks suffer.
The alarm among the poor miserable
negro haters is that the Freedmen are doing
so well-iar better than the poor, ignorant
"Uhite trash" The able bodied negroes
are providing well for themselves, are begin
ming to sustain their own schools and to sup.
port their own poor. They are beginning
to sustain their own newspapers by the
score, their own churches and banks too.-
-Four or flee bundled thousand OF the Freed
men have already been taught to read the
Bible, and are rapidly receiving Bibles
They have now in their "Freedmen's Sap
ing Banks" upwards Of t,oo millions of dol.
lars in deposit.
Never has the devil and his Intervals set
their malignant arts to work for mischief,
with more malignant hate and persevering
devices than the negro haters South and
North are now doing to thwart the aims of
benevolenoe, of philanthropy and Christi.
anity, in the bledsed work Of elevating an
oppressed race to all the rights and privi.
legss of humanity and religion. Still,
schools, the Bible and the Gospel are going
amongst them-still they rise And still
the devil and all their enemies in their
anguish hawl--'NegTo equaltyF ''I.
Now, there is a principle involved here.
The DEVILS kingdom and interests, and his
rest too, suffer under every good done to
our race. As redeemed man rises he and
his kingdom fall. Hence his hatred to our
race and his opposition to every thing
that betters human condition Napro