American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1867-11-02
EXTRACT FROM THE SPEECH OF
HENRY A. WISE

llVered Dy hon. Henry "A. wise a
Richmond recently:
Our own, our native land, it's civi
liberty has departed its govern
ments, State and federal, have beer
dissolved and changed There ART
no longer any guarantees Of the rights
of the one or checks upon the powers
of the other, and its soul has beer
trampled in mire and filth by the in
vasion of fratricidal civil war
Where now is separate State identi
ty? Where now internal sovereignty
Where now equal dignity2 Where
now self.protecting power or the egis
of constitutional law9 Where nov
separate State independence? Tht
wrecks of powers and of rights points
to Congress-. Congress has stationed
commandants over districts number
ed by proclamation. They have
ordered the civil to be subordinate
and obedient to the military authori
ty. The conventional as well rs the
municipal powers and capacities oI
State peoples have been ignored,
and enacted and proclaimed out OF
existence. The Executive courts
overrule and override the courts OF
the judiciary. The benches of justice
are suspended by epauletted commits.
sions, who need nor sheriffs nor ser.
geants, nor marshals nor posse conn.
tatus-who drill to order, who sub
stitute criers and tip staff with drum
and fife, who serve no civil process,
but note the minute of the pr0ces
uerbal and are armed with gloves OF
steel to do martial execution. The
free white people who were masters
but yesterday are humbled to become
the political slaves of the black freed.
men OF to-day. The American slaves
of yesterday, the freedmen, not free
men, of today, are exalted to become
the political black masters of the
white freemen of yesterday. What
change in single day! 1t was,
rather, a night of the blackness OF
darkness of surrender. A surrender,
not of the black mans chains so
much as of the white mans natural
rights of race and civil rights of
citizenship. 1t was a change, not
from slavery to liberty of the one
race, but a change of black slaves
into black masters, a change of white
masters into white slaves. Not a
change of the Ethiop;an's color and
nature into white, nor q change of
the Caucasian color and nature into
black not change of the races, but
a change reversing the relative con-
ditions of the two races and merging
the rights and relations of both in an
unlimited, unchecked, underlined des-
potism. There is no more fellowship
in citizenship. The vase Of Union is
broken, not cracked, merely. 1t is
broken to pieces through and
througout from tip to base. If held
together, it is no longer in amity and
peace, and by compact or agreement,
or by ratification. 1t is now pinned
by bayonets, bound by brute force,
cemented, not by fraternal affection,
not by common love of country, not
by comradeship of common fate or
fortune, or cause or sacrifice, or glory
or suffering, or triumph, but by an
amalgam of the coagulated blood of
enemies in war, not yet; in peace,
friends. This revolution had wrought
thorough, and fundamental changes
in our social system and our economy
in every branch of business, particu-
larly that of the culture of the land.
The lands are all that are left US.
They are the only fountains Of our
life, the only sources of our supplies.
The only earnest of our renovation
is the earth we live on, and the lands
are left desolate and waste. This
land, of every land the pride, is be-
reft of its verdure, it's blossom and
its bloom, its fruits and its flowers;
of everything, except its ancient re-
nown, its late glory in arms. and its
present honor and pride. The form
or laborers have been enticed from
the fields and are now the pupils of
politics, the dupes of fanaticism,
A" honeyfuggled by the fatal caress-
es of co-operationists, and are but
too certain to be the demoralized
victims of the demagogues and whis-
ky of elections, and to be decimated
by the diseases of the now licensed
vices of their race-laZiness and lust.
These changes demand an absolute
change in agriculture, change from
the plantation to the farming system.
This requires new mode of culture.
new labOrers, new implements, new
crops, more various, on smaller
scale, more contracted and concen-
trated, requiring more skill, more
care and yielding the most profit on
the smallest space. Virginians. if
they would not be driven out from
their own inheritance, should them
selves do this work of farming for
They must not call
on Hercules, nor freedmen, nor Ger
man, nor Swede, nor immigrants
from any cline.
After speaking of TIE favorable
geographical position of the State,
her soil, climate, mineral and other
he advised the landholders
of the State to give every encourage
ment to. our own white labor and the
young men of the State to apply
themselves to the study of agricul-
ture as science, if they would save
the real estate of their fathers and
keep sacred the altars of their own
birth nlaces and homes