Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1867-05-29
A Picture Of Kentucky Con-
aRerVafIsm.

The travelling correspondent of the
Cincinnati Commercial MACK" gives
the following lively sketch of Ken
lucky Conservatism:
81 don't know of any better cure for
Conservatism than a few days residence
in the blue grass region and a careful
observation of the political situation
here and hereabout. Not that there is
anything in the political or social at
mosphere having a direct tendency
toward Radicalism, and presentingit to
you in all the beauty of holiness-fsr
from it. But there are two modes of
conversion in religion, and why not in
politics? In one church they scare
sinners into heaven by opening the fur
mace of hell, and letting the brothers
and sisters see for themselves how high
the mercury stands; in another they
coax them into the realms of bliss, on
the direct line of piety and good works.
II is by the first of these two modes of
conversion that l should propose to
cure Conservatism here in Kentucky.
Just let the weakened brethren come
over here and see the awful example,
and nothing shorto of a post Office apiece
will keep them in the Conservative
ranks ten days longer. Icame here on
Saturday a tolerable Conservative per-
son. | shall leave to-day in order to
save myself from Radicalism. If l re-
main twenty-four hours longer, l should
60 away hurrabing for Thad. Stevens.
''The fact is, Kentucky is a living an
aehronism. She exists in the nine
teenth century through some mistake
OF other, and bears upon her face in
disputable evidence that she was in
tended for the pre-Adamite period, or,
at any rate, the ante-diluvian era of
the worlds existence. Every year
hundreds of live Americans cross the
ocean aud travel through Europe to
see the Holy Land and other antiqui-
ties. They can ave much time and
money by coming to the unholy land
of Kentucky. where they'll see all the
antiquities they want. The Covington
and Lexington Railroad, starting from
the 0aio river, will take them back
toward the dawn Of creation at the rate
of Eve hundred years per hour, till, up
on reaching the terminus at this end,
they will instinctiEely rub their eyes,
and enquire for Adam and his accom-
pIished lady.
"But if l keep on this strain l fear l
shall be set down as n who don'thke
Kentucky, which l am far from being.
There is no other place like it since
Sleepy Hollow, with its legends, went
out Of existence.
"Strsngeas it may seem for so ancient
a land as this, they have politics and
political parties here. But, above all,
they have id Riggers.' The id
niger is the glory of Kentucky. He
exists in all his primitive simplicity
here. Congress may legislate him in
to a citizen the civil rights law may
attempt to change the EIhiop's skin,
or the leopard's spots but here, In
kentucky, he is a id niger still
yea, and ever shall be, world without
end. In Tennessesa and the South, tho
race of did niggers' is extinct. It
vas extinguished by the Reconstruction
law, and in its stead Immediately
sprang up a race of respectable and in
teIligent ~colored citizens-black, it is
true, possibly thickIipped, perhsps
misunderstanding its prede-
cessor in the physiological fact that the
hollow of its heel makes q hole in the
eround-but intelligent and respec-
table for sll that, and worthy a full
representation 10 a Conservative Con-
vention in Tennessee. Against all such
political heresy Kentucky stands firm.
No respectable colored gentleman for
her. Not-aH the Establishments of poi
iticians can persuade her thst q DID
Niger is anything Of the kind. She
will not sell her birthright-the inesti-
mable privilege of hitting a niger with
the nearest brickbat-for any such a
mess of pcttage as a few thousand adj
ditioual votes. The niger was a mig
ger under the fathers and when
Macauley's New Zealander shall sit up
on the suspension bridge to sketch the
ruins of the Queen City, he shall turn
his eyes to the South, and they shall
rest Upon the time honored institutions
of Kentucky stih preserved in the
~.golloping of a nigger.j