Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1868-08-25

Harrison now Circuit Judge, who, during
the war was in the city OF fhiiadelphla IN !
the conacitv of rebel spy, and who returned !
- Richmond and made report of his obser- |
cations, and afterwards quit the Contederacy |
because Jefferson Davis did not recognize in
his services recommendation to promotion; |
that had made Judge of one Gillespie, whose
prosecutions of Union men in the early part |
of the war had made his name terror in the |
western part of this State, and who was in
favor of hanging Union prisoners who fell !
into his hands a party that had thus re-
warded treason and dishonesty, had no right |
to charge that the national Democratic party |
had any faint of treason upon its escutcheon.
In this part of his speech, Col. w. alluded to
the services of Judge Ephraim Bee Hall, in
the Virginia Convention Thc speaker had
no recollection of the record, but he had seen
it charged and never denied, that the said
Judge had remained in the Convention and
voted for members Of the Provisional Con-
gress of the Confederate States, and after the
bill had passed for placing the forces Of Vir-
ginia on war footing, had voted to make
Robert E. Lee commander of those forces,
These charges he believed to be true, as they
had been publicly made, and never denied by
the gentleman who holds the Office of Judge
of this Circuit, or any of his friends. Pass
ing from the unfounded charge against the
Democracy, Col. W. discussed at length the
suffrage question, and the reconstruction mea-
sures which the radical party had forced on
| the people of the South. In referring to the
question of suffrage, he showed that the re-
| publicans were committed to negro suffrage,
| Notwithstanding the attempt made IN the con-
vention at Chicago to presenta plank bearing
a Northern hue on one side and Southern
| IL
| ed the loyal States the regulation of suffrage
| for themselves, whilst for the Southern States
the matter was decided by Congress- and the
terms absolute. Having established the fact
that radicalism was irrevocably comrntted to
this pernicious doctrine, he proce eded to show
the unftness of the negro for the endowment
of the right thus thrust Upon him. For two
hundred years the efforts of Christianity had
| been directed to the enlightenment and civil
ization of the negro in his native land, and
to-day the standards of the missionary could
not be planted one hundred miles in the in
! terror Of Africa. In further illustration of
the incapacity of the negro for the enjoyment
of political equality with the whites, he re-
lated an anecdote Of a negro preacher in
Alabama who had been employed by a wealthy
planter to preach to his slaves, of which he
owned a large number, many of whom were
quite unruly, and at times, decidedly disobe-
dicGt. The old preacher commenced his DIS
course by an eXhortation to obedience, and
then launched of into a description Of the
horrors of the hell to which they would be
consigned if they disregarded the commands
of those who had rule and authority over
them. In his description he depicted hell as
the coolest place Of which there was any ac-
count, and said if the Mississippi river were
| - H.
as that point provided for disobedient darkies.
The negroes were all congregated in an open
meadow beneath the sweltering rays Of
Southern summers sun, but SO graphic and
! impressive was the old mans description of
their future frigid place Of torment, that they
commenced shivering and shaking, and mani
testing signs of determination, on the part
| of many of them, to mend their crooked ways.
The master present and heard the dis
course, and the next morning was accosted by
| the aged disciple as to how he liked the SER
mon. The reply was that he thought the dis
course very impressive, but by 10 means Or
thodox, as he knew Of nothing in the lids of
the bible to justify the conclusion that hell
was cold place-on the contrary, his reading
had led him to believe that it was intensely
hot. The old negro said, OATS berry true,
massa, but if you let's desc negroes know hell
am hot place, you cant keep EN- out of
dar. Dey bound to 90 dar." This negro
preacher, familiar with the instincts and Gre
dulitY of his race, found it necessary to de-
ceive them, and did it easily; and so could
they be deceived by the unprincipled carpet
baggers who had gone among them to kinde
the spirit Of hate against their former masters
Col. w. said if the radicals wanted to make
the negroes their equals to fellowship with
them, and to have that social intercourse that
should subsist alone among races Of the
same color, they were welcome to do so-he
had no objection-but as for himself and his,
SO help him God, he desired and would have
none Of it. In referring to the reconstruction
measures which en- infamous Congress had
fastened upon an oppressed and helpless peo-
| pie, he characterized them as the most iniqu-
touS measures that had ever received the
sanction of a legislative body, and asserted
that history might be searched in vain for q
parallel to such tyranny.
Ee then briefly, but with much force, con-
trasted the candidates presented for the suf>
frages of the people. The radicals, hoping
for success, not in the popularity Of their
measures, which were being rejected by the
people, had adopted Gen. Grant as their can
didate, with the expectation that his military
prestige would bring victory to their STAN
dards He would not detract from Gen.
Grants merits as soldier He knew that
the General with an army of 100000 men,
well clothed, well fed, and spiendidly equip
ped had forced the surrender Of $4,000 poor
ly clad and half-star Confederates at APP
pomattox Courthouse, and if there was any
special merit in this military feat Gen. Grant
was welcome to enjoy it. OF the early life
of the General, the speaker and the country
knew nothing, except what had been given to
the public by an admiring parent, who repre-
sented his son as an unusually precocous
boy, Here, Col ". spoke of old man Grants
narration of the Juvenile exploits of his son
Uiyss, who successfully rode an unmanage-
able mule in the circus. and jumped down a