The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-05-25
ITpsg KE1LEY,s SOUTHERN CAMPAIGN.
Judge Relzey's Speech at atlanta, Ga
Procession Of Colored People, dc.

ATLANTA, Ga, May 20, 1867.
Judge Kelley addressed an audience
of some three thousand people, mostly
colored, but with large scattering OF
whites and some army officers mounted,
in the Court House square, this after
noon, at three o'clock. A large process
sion of colored people, fifteen hundred
strong, came on the ground, with ban
ncrs and notices OF, "The Ballot Box
and the Jury Box-Our Liberties We
P.ize-Our Rights We Will Maintain"
The speaker was presented by j. L..
DLnning, chairman of the meeting.
Mr.. J. II. Hambleton asked If any
one would be allowed to, reply to any
incendiarism on the occasion.
The Chairman said that they expect,
ed to hear but one speech. Qronical
cheers for Hambleton.)
Mr.. Kelley then proceeded to deliv-
er an address, in the same calm, tempe
rate tone which characterized his speech
at Montgomery. God has given the
South stores of wealth, yet he found the
laboring people poor. The cause ofthe
difference was that education and the
use OF machinery were employed in the
North, and both were sighted in the
South. Gentlemen of Georgia, an edu-
Gated boy is worth more. not only to
himself and his family, but the State,
no matter for the color; and will you
not act wisely if you follow our exam
pie? Coal and iron were the nerves
and muscle of the civilization of the
Nineteenth Century. They were both
in abundance in Georgia, and yet coal
was only worked in one county. He
alluded to the factory system, and the
facility afforded to young women to
earn living and cultivate their minds,
and hoped that they would soon see
factories and mills on every stream in
Georgia. No State is Independent I'M
til she can raise within her own borders
everything necessary for the life of its
people. Why not spin and weave cot
ton in Georgia, rather than to send it
to England and Belgium, to come back
to them heavily taxed? All this can
be done if Georgia takes care of her la
boring people. He referred to the in
crease of property near the cities of the
North, and said that he supposed land
could be bought within ten miles of At
lanta for $40 an acre. CA gentleman
ON the platform said "s1O'0 Well,
then, tell You that you could not buy
land at 800 near any Northern city
Premature decrepitude has fallen upon
the South. In 1776 Norfolk was the
leading seaport of America. Where
was her commerce now, or before the
war? There was nothing to be seen in
the harbor but oyster boats and fishing
smacks. The same stagnation existed
from the Susquehannah to the Rio
Grande. Slavery had oppressed the
white man more than the black. (Cries,
That is true."0 This has nothing to do
with politics, they might say; but he
was not there to merely talk of politics,
but of the social life and interests ofthe
country. Yet it was this contrast be-
tween the North and the South that led
the republican party to resist the ad-
vances of slavery. With some good
advice to the freedmen, reminding them
that liberty has not released them from
labor, and if they thought so they were
under a great mistake, freedom was IL
Illustrated by what friend of his did
when walking with him in Independence
Square once. He observed him hard at
work doing something with his cane on
the ground, and he found that he was
trying to turn over one Of those big gold
bugs which had fallen upon his back
After he had got him On his legs he said,
CHOW, poor devil, you can have your
own road you have as good a chance
as any other bug of your kind" That
is just what freedom has done for YOU.
You have as good chance as any other
bug of your kind. daughter and some
discomfort among the negroes.) If you
ask me what kind, say mankind
cloud cries of Now you said it,
"That's right" &C., from the negroes.)
He conjured them to forget the past, to
overlook the lifelong prejudice of their
neighbors, to be faithful and gentle, not
shrinking from asserting all the rights
of their manhood, but to remember that
for their own sake and that of the coun-
try they should be peaceful and indus
trious. They were citizens, and had the
duties Of citizens to perform. There
was no longer, through Gods will, any
distinction of race recognizable before
the law. He thought there were two
races here, but if so then the climate of
Georgia had either played the devil
with darkies' complexion or there were
children in the colored schools who were
not entitled to be there by right of Afri-
can descent. loud laug hter, in which
the colored ladies present joined hearth
1y) Turning to the gentlemen around
him he said, You will treat these peo-
pie kindly, 1 know you will. You need
their labor, and you will appreciate it,
whether it happened for good or ILL.,
What is done is perfect and cannot be
undone. Let all that has passed be bu-
ried. and you will reap the reward of
all our sufferings, not only for Georgia,
but the whole country, which in our
new birth of universal liberty will be-
come indeed " the land of the free" as
it has always been the home of the
brave"
During the delivery of this speech
the platform was crowded with the
most eminent gentlemen in the vicinity,
including Governor Brown and General
Woford, the confederate commander in
lHQOrrIa Who o,,,ronlo,oI