The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-09-28

nenter: because negroes had to ethe
mechanics, negroes had to be the jours.
The white man could not be employed
| for anything except as contractor. II
degraded the poor white man. II drove
| thousands and tens of thousands out OF
| the State, It Impoverished their lands.
1t caused large portion OF the popuIa-
| ton to grow up without even the rudi-
ments OF an education. 1t dtscour-
| aged the building up of cities. 1t hsd
no commerce. These are facts patent
10 all-all OF rccord-ali known 10 the
world-known TO everybody.
What is there In that "Lost Cause" TO
commend il to the American people in
| any section OF the Union? C'NothiDg"
tnnd npplause.l Go there, you man
who labors settle down in their midst +;
you cannot get common schcOl loE
your children to go to; you have no
more respect paid TO you than Is paid
to slave. Why? Because you labor;
| You are regarded as in a low, degraded
| condition. Thousands of immigrant
Germans have gone to the State OF Sir-
ginIa since the war. They sail tnsy
were going to run out the negro by me
Immigration OF Germans and lrlsh'
| They brought ship loads of theLI therei
and how long did they stay? Iney
went TO the farmer; he sent them out 10
the "uuarter," where they had been in
the habit of keeping the negro: ne seht
their peck of meal. and their thtee
pounds and n half of "hltch;" ana now
long did they stay? They Went out OF
the State lust as quick as Dntchmen's
and Irishmen's legs could carry them.
[Eaughter.l
Yet these people maintain that there
is a class born to rule and another porn
to serve. .,-.. ~
give you these facts as showing the
moving impulse of the Lost Cause."
They were contending for Govern
ment which they called GLASS" Gov
eminent. If you will go there and talk
to those men, all tho candid, sincere
ones will tell you, "Why, sir, certainly
az was after class Government. 1
"neYer did believe in universal sur
"frage. 1 never did believe everybody
ought to vote. believe only gentle.
"uen ought to VOTE" This thing is
patent and well understood there. Mr..
Montague made speech i'll Richmond
last autumn, about this time in the
year, before n literary society, in which
he distinctly announced that the cause
OF the late rebellion was universal snf.
frage. You see 1t in the Richmond
newspapers every day that universal
suffrage ia Undesirable. They want 10
return to the old Government of our
fathers" when nobody but freeholders
voted. [Applause.l This, my follow
citizens, is the "Lost Cause" Every
man in this community, or in the Uni
| ted States, who votes for the purpose
OF sustaining those men in the South
votes for Il Government based on class,
| for the disfrancEisement of the work.
ing man, and for throwing the Govern
ment entirely into the hands of an
aIistocracy, FOR debasing the lower
class and making them merely "hewers
OF wood and drawers of water" Zap.
plause.l
now desire TO show the object of
these men as shown by their Legislative
nets. will state but II single instance.
During the first year of the war their
| Congress convened at Richmond, com
posing, it was supposed, the learning
and intelligence OF the Confederate
States. If have Il Democratic friend
in the house tonight, 1 want TO call his
attention now to this point. as II Is Il
matter of solemn enactment on the re-
cords OF the Confederate Congress. To
maintain their army what did they do?
Phey passed an act declaring that every
able bodied man between the ages OF Is
ind so belonged to the Confederate
army, except-now, mark the excep-
tlons-the officers of the State and Con-
| federate governments and their depu-
ties, and such men as might be de
tailed" and gentlemen" or men who
| owned fifteen slaves. What is the effect
practically? All these gentlemen that
were too old to so into the army and
those of military age, who owned their
%, 80, 40 or 100 slaves divided them out
among their sOns-in.law, or whom
ever they wanted TO keep out of the
army, so they should have the requisite
fifteen slaves apiece. And then ulI these
"detuiled" gentlemen, the justices OF
the peace, tire constables, Sherins and
overseers OF the poor, were made a Sc
iect body in each county, who went
round TO cOnSCrint. When the COnsCript
officers came, the gentleman of the
house would go out and blow his horn
and the pickaninnies would range
themselves around to be counted. II
there were fifteen, "yOu, sir, are not
liable to conscription;" and they went
! for the poor man and tho poor man 3
son who lived up on the hills and in
the hollows, and-were working by days
work, or upon Impoverished land for
the purpose OF making living. And
| such ConscriptiOn WAS never carried
out with such cruelty in the world, us
| these men enforced. Those they could
not conscript and put into the army,
they ran to the mountains and shot
down in their tracks; and there are
thousands OF widows and orphans to-
day in the Southern States, whose hus-
bands or fathers were good Union men,
poor. had no interest in the war for
slavery as they called II. They fled TO
keep out of the army. and these gentle
men who were exempt by the law of
the Confederate States government
shot them down in their tracks and left
! their widows and orphans to mourn
their death. My Democratic friend,
what do you think of it? Gentlemen,
who sympathise with these men Mt the
South and are moving heaven and earth
for the purpose of misleading this peo-
| pie now, what do you think of ii?
| This is the truth; and this might be
all true and yet it would become as
necessary TO inquire whether we were
right or wrong in putting down this
great rebellion-whether there was
anything in this great Government
worth fighting for and worth the blood
and treasure that was lost. maintain
that there was. Our fathers whom they
made the great chart of liberty and
made it known 10 the world in Phila-
delphia, in I776, declared in the very
first sentence that all men are by ma
ture created free and equal, aud have
certain inalienable rights. among
which are life, liberty and the pursuit
OF happiness. They were only assert
ing the great proposition of Him who
your neighbor as yourself" Compare
the two propositions and you will lind
| they exactly correspond. Our Govern
ment, by our Revolutionary fathers,
was based on the great principles OF
civilization as taught in the New Tes-
lament. That civilization is based upon
an observance OF the marriage rite, the
parental right and the educational
right. The marriage rite preserves the
morals of the community; the parental
right brings up The child to be good
citizen; the educational right educates
and gives every man his proper posi-