Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-02-12
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aslph negro on'any Of those lands; they
were stoolazy; they abandoned the lands
and Hocked to the towns and citiss.
istschsme, though ophilanthropic. was.
failure. = The negro always has been a
failure, SO far as progress is concerned,
and always will be a failure W hen thrown
entirely upon his own resources. sai 5,
But. says the gentleman from Penn
sylvania, MI. KELLEY, the cause Of the
ignorance and degradation of the negro
10 to be found in the fact that Democ-
racy ruled this country for so long a
time. He proposes to remodel the Gov
ernment. He is not in favor Of the
Government of our fathers, He is, per-
haps. like that celebrated gentleman
who wanted an anti slavery Constitu-
tion, an anti. slavery Bible, and an anti;
slavery God. Our statesmen of to-day
are much wiser and purer and better
than were the fathers Of the Republic.
Let me call attention to the fact, how.
ever, that by the terms of the Constitu-
tion the slave trade was authorized from
that time (1789) up to 1908 that nearly
all Of the men who helped to frame it
were owners of slaves: that the slave
trade was continued 80 as to give en-
ployment to the vessels owned in the
New England States and elsewhere !:
that every State then in the Union,except
Massachusetts, owned slaves, and she
had owned them shortly before; that
the foundations Of the colossal fortunes
or many of the fortunes, and much of
the wealth of some eastern men were
laid in the misery, agony, the cruelty
and horrors of ..the middle passage" !
that many men who are excessively 10y
al and boast of being lineal descendants
of the Puritans, if they will follow back
little over half a century, will find that
the title to some of their paternal acres
was acquired by the sale or traffic in
negroes Yes, the price of flesh and
blood, as beginning. enables the des-
cendants Of some Of those Puritans to
roll in wealth and luxury aud idleness
to-day. Slave labor was more profit
able in the South than in the North, and
the Puritans sold their slaves at good
prices and went into "the middle pas
sage" business. ggs1 '7Ia. l.sssla-e5. -
Now, the descendants of these "hardy
Mariners these enterprising Puri-
tans, y with supercillous .sneers. scof at
men who held property In slaves since
the Puritans did. Democratic rule de-
graded the negro, did itY Democratic
rule for nearly four score years made this
country great. and. glorious, powerful,
prosperous, and happy. God in His in
scrutable providence made the negro
what he is. always has been, and always
will be-inferior to the white man; just
as he made the vulture inferior to the
eagle. Charges like this against the
Democratic party may do for circulation
in New Hampshire, or elsewhere, just
before an election-for which purpose, /
presume they are intended-but the his
terry of this country and the history. Of
the world -hurls back the aspersion in the
face of whoever may assert it.
.s + msnot of those who think that be-
cause Washington and Jefferson and
their compeers owned slaves, therefore
thew are forever shut out of heaven and
banished from the presence of the AL
mighty. Nor do 1 think that those en-
ternrising New Englanders who engaged
in the slave traffic are all consigned to
endless nerd;t;on I onIv aiIude To
these things to refresh entlemen's rec.
objection. For my own part, never
was pro-slavery man and never held
Drowned a slave but many good men
have.
But the honorable gentleman from In
diana TMr. JULIANI seems to dwell
pretty strongly on the great advantages
to be derived from the opening of those
lands to actual settlers, white and black
along the line of the New Orleans, Ope.
lousas, and Great Western railroad
He talks about a strip of land
some twenty miles wide which
the grant of Congress covers as
being remarkably fertile. Part of it is
fertile. Having travelled over that road
several times, can state that so far al
it is finished, that is, from New Orleans
to Berwick city on Berwick bay
nearly all the lands worth entering
or fit to live upon have Ions
since been settled and improved
perhaps nearly all of them long before
the road was built or the grant Of lant
given by Congress. The country abou
Bayou La Fourche and Thibodeaux wal
settled by the French in the last century
The railroad company, therefore, go
nothing SO far, or comparatively nothin,
except alternate sections of land-if il
can be called land. or if it was survey