The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-01
Unclean.
From the Petersburg Va } M9e1

From The Petersburg Va In5e1
Even a scalawag has vulnerable place.
Achilles was open to hurt in the heel the
negro has, with all his insensibility to pain.
a tender shin-and even ths scalawag-
moral rhinoceros as he is-has been found to
have soft spot open to the shafts of his op-
ponents. . .... ....-, ....-... s..... =.
Where is it? That is the strangest part of
all. The last feeling which one of them would
be supposed to have preserved would be
sense of shame, aud susceptibility to reproach.
But SO it is. Their greatest complaint against
their former associates is despairing cry at
the odium and contempt hurled at their de-
voted heads-poor prosecuted saints. Con-
science does net sleep-tortured unhappy con-
science-not even in the bosom of scalawsg,
but there guilty and self-acousipg, it uplits de-
predatory hands, and with hasty speech turns
under the brands which honor and decency ap-
ply to their repudiators.
''They do not care" Oh mol They are
proud of the scornful glance with which
honest men return their timid, half doubtful
advances. They revel in martyrdom--so they
say; but somehow they never speak, nor
write letters for the public, but there comes
to the surface the quick writhing of the worm
under the foot of outraged society.
Do they deserve this heavy punishment or
not ? Is it really as outlaws and Ishmaels
that they stand in relation to our homes aud
institutions, or is their claim admissible,
when they protest to be prosecuted for "mere
difference of political opinion 2" We think
that the instinct OF the people has judged
Alright.
Were their fall only moral suicide, they
might be visited with only that losthing con-
tempt which has all the qualities of pity--but
they have Iallen like Lucifer, bearing to their
lower regions an internal hate of all that is
better than themselves or brighter than their
lot they have become in descent, not only
negative blemishes, but positive enemies Of
their kind. They trade, with the lowest pas
sons of their besotted souls as currency, for
our highest hopes and most sacred possessions;
they war with relentless fury and with terri
BILE means upon all that divides a higher life
from their own miserable deg radaton-not
to build up hell, but to pull down heaven.
And what should be meted out to these
jewellers in every pit of moral filth, but undis-
turbed enjoyment OF the walOw which their
instincts suggested. They prefer riding our
land to ruin to marching with it towards a
long destiny of peaceful freedom-they choose
to rule the poor negro rather than be the equal
OF the white man-they incline to a mess OF
pottage, and refuse their birthright-they
pawn their souls to the devils of lust and
petty ambition, rather than earn an honest
living by sturdy blows; then let them lie in
the pit with the idols unto which they have
JOlneu themselves; let tnem glut their NIL
with the husks of the strangers service; as
they have made their beds, SO let them lie in
them. . .
The man who would do these things is not
worthy the sound of a cordial voice, nor the
! touch of maiden's band-he is foul, debased
unscrupulous, goddess, beastly. He is
trying with might and main to rob us
of our liberties, our security of person
our property, our social peace oul
household happiness-if he succeeds we are
without hope-it he fails the brand of Cair
should be put upon his murderous brow, anC
the finger of scorn should follow him as
shadow unto death.
Boldly he avows that if he can subject us Il
the supremacy of illiterate hordes of blacks, o.
worse, to that of himself and his carpet-b bal
associates, he will do it. Then if he does not
we should not need be told the treatment du,
the violator thwarted in his brutal purpose
the assassin ioiled in his cowardly blow, tn,
incendiary stayed with his stealthy torch
Forget Never while the sun shines on tn,
country saved from such fate. Forgive
Never while one true impulse of manly Low,
of right, and hate of wrong, animates on'
bosom in Virginia.
Dig a social grave for their putrid carcasses
so del that the earthquakes OF ten centurie
would not disturb their cursed bones; auC
| while they live let the children huddle toge
ther and the women shrink in horror,