The Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1863-1886, 1867-08-29

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have laid down our arms. If the
North was fighting 10 set you free
they were ready to abandon their
object. Tho truth is you arc in.
debted to your own good conduct
under Gods providence, for your
freedom. 1t was predicted that you
would take up arms against your
former masters. Instead of this,
most ofyou staid at home, protect
ed the wives and children of our
soldiers in tho field, and made
bread and meat for our armies
Tho Yankees, seeing this, resorted
TO the expedient of declaring you
free. as means of starving US out
and thus force US to make a peace
1t was political necessity rcsorted
to, not so much to benefit the col.
ored man as it was to punish tho
white man."
This from Southern man of the
celebrity Of Mr.. Brown is worthy
of note, and We trust our Demo
cratic friends will be able to digest
it. The. following is still more no.
ticeable:
"But is said the Northern people
are reyour friends than the whito
people of the South. Let us inquire
into this. Is it probable that peo-
pie who are strangers to you can
be moro your friends than are the
people among whom you have been
raised, and whose gratitude you
have excited by your docility and
fidelity under trying clrcumstan-
ces? But let us try another test
How do tho Northern people treat
the colored folks who live among
them? You will illnaturally conclude
they have given them all the rights
they have conferred on you, and
more too. Not bit off In most
OF the Northern States the colored
men have about as many rights as
you had when you were slaves;
and they are much less respected
by their white ncighbors, as a gen.
eral thing, than you arc in this
country by your former masters -
1t is very well for you to inquire
II all these things have been given
to strangers why the same things,
and even greater have not been
done Tor your race at the North?-
The answer is easy. These things
have beon done because it was sup.
posed white men of tho South wo'd
bopunished thereby, and not as q
benefit to the colored man. | am
happy to say tho design has not
been effected; the white man of tho
South has not been humiliated.--
They consented to your emancipa.
ton as one of the results of the
war, and having done SO, Intelligent
men everywhere agree that you
oughtto have, without reserve, all
civil and political rights necessary
to the protection of your lives, your
liberty, and your property.
To-day you stand equal with
the white people before the law
BY THIS l mean that you haze the
rigat to rote, to hold office, to make
contracts, to bug and sell property,
10 sue and be sued, to giOc eridence
IN court, and in general terms to do
whdteoer white men may righttuNy
do for your orn preservation and po.
'ttttcdI protection. Right here equal.
lty cedseS-aS it ceases Jetueen White
people. God nercr designed that
men should be equal. lie made some
short, some large and some small,
some rise and some foolish, some ,cth
white skins and some uith dark. lie
marked his distinctions all Orer the
human family, and What God did men
can not undo.
"Men rake mon equal before the
law; that is, they can confer on
them equal civil and political rights
but they can not make them of e.
quail stature, or equal wisdom, or of
the same color. No more can they
make them socially equaL. Social
equality depends on agreement. THE
lawS can not force it. lam no man IS
equal, socially, unless he agrees to the
equality. No man has a right to de.
mdnd against my consent; and this
rule is uniuerSr ! and GN,perudding
among men. Your race is no e,rccp-
ton 10 the rule. The honest, indus.
trious, and frugal among you do
not admit to social equality the dis
honest, idle and wasteful of your
own color, nor do tho white. people.
Social equality is simply a matter
of private agreement, and is not to
be controlled by any public law
Whenever the black people desire
social equality, and the white peo-
pie agree to yield it, we shall have
it, and not before. 1t takes two to
make bargain, and Irisk nothing
in saying that neither whites nor
blacks in the South want to make
this bargain now. | have but ono
idea now to add. 1t is this: there
will be social equality in the South
between the races quito as soon as
the same thing occursat the North;
Tor | happen to know that the
Southern people have a much high
er appreciation of the black mans
honor and character than tho Nor.
thern people have"
This we think might be studied
with advantage by the white people
Ct Ohio, who are so nervous on the
negro voting question, and really
are SO ignorant as to believe that
negro equality must result from u
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