Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1868-06-11

backward. e,.
About two hundred and forty-eight years ago,
the present month"; Dutch vessel brought into
James River, Va, twenty Africans who were i'm
mediately purchased as slaves by the English-A.
mcrican colonies, and from them, you date the COM
mencement of American slavery. Nearly all of
these original twenty were Immediately transplant
ed to the New England colonies, in Massachusetts,,
and from thence to New York, New Jersey, Della
continued toincrease among themselves and by an
occasional accession from slave traders, the North
Aourished, and continued to do so, by the aid of
slave labor until by the rapid increase of popula-
tion-involving scarcity of agricultural land
and the advancement of mechanical science, it was
found that the cost of slave labor could not COM
pete with the paupers of the old world. Your
magnanimous friends, in Yankee land, began to
look about and devise remedy to get rid Of their
blacks; and how was that accomplished? Did
they say to their slaves I'VE consider it wrong to
hold you in bondage; we, therefore, set you free
20 where you please. Oh! no; not a bit of it
They met in conclave and said to themselves, we
will get up a law of gradual emancipation, giving
us time to sell our slaves TO- our Southern brethren
to work in the cotton and rice fields, where they
will be of great benefit to us in raising cotton to
keep our factories in operation, besides getting the
full value for every head of them; and so they
did Therefore, they so loved your ancestors that
upon finding you were likely to become tax on
them, they louingy transferred them to the broad
acres of the sunny South, that they might be Of
more service and profit to them, indirectly in rails
ing cotton for their mills besides getting their actual
value in money before they left. l 90 back thus
far, my friends, in order to get at the first evidence
Of that Yankee love for your race about which so
much has been said and prated upon. The South,
being an agricultural people, the climate, soil and
surroundings being more conducive and genial you
thrived and increased, and by your aid, did much
to build up and enrich the whole country. You
have been inherited from father to son as so much
property, costing so much, and worth 80 much,
out the honor Of establishing standard value in
money upon you is due to the affectionate friends
North, in the way and manner | have stated, and
the only difference see between the original enan:
cipation, North, and the recent emancipation,
South, is, that your Yankee friends received your
freedom without money and without price, inYolv-
ing the ruin of very large number of Southern
men who were not responsible for the traffic
if We can find another evidence of this much talked
of love and flia affection that is 80 seductive, and
for which you are willing to sacrifice home, friends
and all. 1t would be a natural supposition, that
if your Northern friends had given your ancestors
their freedom; as matter of principle they would
have nothing more to do with slavery-would
neither touch taste, nor handle the unclean thing
but mark you'll A few years subsequent although
these magnanimous humauitarians had eased their
consciences bytransfeing their slave property from
their own soil-they enacted law, commonly
called the Fugitive slave law,'' by which they
pledged themselves to return any slave to bondage
that.should manage to escape to the free States ;
and this they did. Yes, my colored friends in
their unbounded love for you, they gave your an.
cestors their freedom because it was matter Of
selfnterest, and they got their round dollars for
every mothers son Of them; but foreseeing that
any slave who could manage to escape into their
free States would, perforce, become free, they
themselves although we have the name Of freeing
you, it will never DO for us to let you get away
We can't get along without your labor, and al
though zoe won't be called shareholders and have
the trouble of keeping you ourselves, we will con-
vert our States into hunting ground, and every
poor devil who contrives to get up here, we will
hunt and secure him, and pay the expenses of the
chase This my friends, is evidence No. 2, of
that pure christian-ke love you are praising, but
fear your reciprocity is deserving better, or at
least, surer cause. .F 80
You will all readily see what am aiming at,
and as we have no surer way of judging the future
than by the past it is far better toreason thus than
to rush bindy forward until it is too late to re-
trace our steps. We will now follow our country
down through successive years, all marked with
wonderful strides in prosperity, and advancement
of the arts and sciences Aourishing as never coun
try did BEFORE two parties alternating power viz:
the Wings and Democrats-but both striving to
maintain the constitution and the laws; and it
mattered very little which party was in power, so
was concerned. But it seems our happiness and
peace were to be disturbed. And resting ourselves
in fancied security, we scarcely noticed small
dark speck upon our political horizon, which con-
tinued to expand and grow larger, until it ranked
ITSELF by the aid of seditious fanatics at home and
abroad as one of the parties of the country
rivalling the others for place and power. This
party soon become rendezvous for the spawn and
refuse material of the old parties and by reason of
o disgraceful and untimely division in the Demo-
cratic party at Charleston, 8. c., in 1850, the o.
riginal radical Republican party slipped into pow
er, seized the reins of Government and by dint Of
and patronage, hold them still Upon
the accession to the presidential chair of Abraham
Lincoln, we were plunged into civil war, which
after raging for more than year, a compromise
was sought for, in which the Confederates were Of
fered protection to life and property, meaning you,
ifthey would lay down their arms, and disperse to
their homes You will readily perceive, that even
anxious an to keep you in bondage, so far as they
we're concerned, notwithstanding their fair promi-
ses and high sounding intentions previous to their
getting into power This is evidence No. 8, of
that supreme love, which you are taught to adore.
Mr.. Lincoln substantially stated in his inaugural,
that it was neither his intention or design nor that
of his party, to interfere in any way with Southern
slavery, and if slavery was abolished at all, itwoud
be done through some act of the South and not by
any act of his. And so it was and you are now
indebted for your freedom-if it be bessing-to
the South, and not to him whom you have been
led to believe was the great apostle of liberty, and
whose portrait embellishes the top Of your ticket
And how was it during the late struggle? Did
they allow the Northern blacks to keep out Of dan
ger. Oh no; their love was so strong tor your
race, that at the earliest practicable moment they
rushed every black man, North, they could get
hold Of into the conflict, and if report be true,
they were not always in the rear when hard fight
ing had to be done. A distinguished Major-Gen-
eral from Illinois, now blatant, tearing impeach-
er, and member of Congress, is reported to have
telegraphed to the Governor of his State to 'hur-
ry up and rush in some more of the id niger
volunteers, for they made most excellent breast.
works of them and that was all they were fit for "
Another Major General who extinguished him
self during the war at New Orleans, Fort Fisher,
and Bermuda Hundreds reported as saying, in
the streets of Washington, at the commencement
of the war; that he wished every black rascal in the
country was strung up by the heels on every cross
road in Christendom. This gallant and bottled
up gentleman afterwards engaged quite extensive;