The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1867-07-18


negro conventions and wherever you
find one of these conventions in which
these emissaries and renegades are the
dcvilish prompters, you will find con-
fscation threatened, or apologised for,
or justified or demanded. And these
are the very men who ara TO form, or.
ganize, control and administer, and en-
Joy the offices under, these new gov
ernments proposed by these Military
Bills. And when we admit the power
to abrogatc existing governments to
be composed Of such men with such
views and for such purposes, these alb
rogations and disfranchisements and
new organizations, will continue until
such men do efiectually control, and
such views and purposes do etfectually
prevail. The whole purpose Of these
Military Bills is to add these ten States
to Radical party power; nothing less
than the complete accomplishment of
the purpose will be accepted. And this
purpose can never be accomplished but
by DISTINGUISHING, impoverishing, de-
stroying and driving off all the true,
and noble, and manly and country-lov-
ing Of the Southern people; and deliv-
ering over our bright and beautiful land
to the riotous rule and miscegenating
orgies of negroes, yankees and base
apostates from their own kindred, col
or, country and blood. / would not
fear the docile negro, left to himself.
lie would soon know his true friends,
in his interest, and be useful. But the
Africanized white man is an enemy to
the peace and the interest of both "a
ces, and would be an admitted monster
in any age or country Of barbarians.
l admit, then, that we are in danger
of confscation. Those who outlaw pa
triotism and intelligence would not
scruplc to rob. The representatives
who violate the Constitution they are
sworn to support, in order to abrogatc
State government, and reduce the peo-
pie to military bondage, could not add
to their iniquities by taking the little
property we have left. AS q people,
we have but littlc-scarcely enough to
prevent starvation. All the world
seem to be moving to send us bread to
keep us alive. What a curious people
we are! fit objects of charity and fit
subjects for contiscation! The same
train brings the bread to feed, the Off.
Ger to Cypress, and the emissary to
breed strife and to rob! Alas, we have
been robbed-robbed in war and in
peace, and by toes and by friends. A
few are rich. They prospered while
their victims were sacriticed--showed
Il talent to make money while their
dupes showed " will to lose blood.
These might naturally dread confisca-
ton, and, in view of the sacrifices they
made to get property, it may be reas-
enable they should make greater sacri.
fees to keep what they made, for what
is honor worth to such? But even
these should not altogether lose their
reason. May they not be nursing
Il power that may consume them ?
Thieves are not always to be trusted,
eve by their friends and c%o-laborers.
Ii is safer to avoid y danger than trust
to controlling it.
When We abandon the safeguards of
the Constitution, and trust ourselves to
the magnanimity Of its violators, we
shall embrace the surest means of pro-
curing the loss Of all things. But |
scorn to pursue such q line of argu-
ment.
A people who are willing to sacrifice
honor to avarice are beyond the posi-
bility of redemption. If the very
statement of the proposition does not
awaken q feeling of adherence we are
indeed in a sad condition. II anything
can be baser than degradation it is such
a motive for sinking to it. Lost prop
erty may be recovered; burnt cities
may be rebuilt; devastated fields will
bloom again; wen buried children,
fallen for their country, will live again
in the quickened spirits of new genera
tons. But us with individuals SO with
people and communicable sense Of
honor once lost is lost forever. Yes,
more; the history of human nature,
singly and in communities, teaches us,
without exception of example, that
when self-respect is once lost, self
abasement once accepted, cities, lands,
liberty, country cannot be retained.
1t is natural, too, that all others
should lose respect for those who lose
respect for themselves. If we accept
the humiliation proposed for us, all
mankind will be ashamed of us, our
children will be ashamed of us, and our
very enemies, whose hatred prompted
the shame, will mock and deride us.
Even now l believe the impression
which u few have been Industrious to
produce, that our people are willing to
reconstruct under these acts, has dam
aged us more in the estimation of all
honorable minds than anything else
that has happened. | do not know
Gen. Pope, but if, as l assume, he
possesses the ordinary instincts of
honor belonging to an American gen.
tleman, he must have felt au almost
n%auseating pity for the poor men who
gathered about him in Atlanta, and, for
getting the history Of their fathers and
the character of our institutions, wei
coined with feasting and rejoicing the
Inauguration of military despotism over
one Of the Old Thirteen, whose sons
were in the first revolution, and who
holds in her bosom the ashes of Pulas-
XII! A brave man loves courage in
others, and despises sycophancy, es-
pecially that sycophancy which makes
sacrifices to power to secure safety, per.
haps patronage for itself. Heroism in
defeat, patience in suffering, the rreser-
walton ofhonor in the midst of misfor-