Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1868-08-25
The Alabama Freedmen Make Present
to Gen. Callis-A Bitter Roman Re-
minder-History Repeating ITSELF

y
Gen. j. B. Calls is at his old home
in Lancaster, among friends and
scenes of his childhood. Since the
war he has resided in Alabama, of
which State be considers himself
permanent citizen. No man with
whom we have talked is better ac-
quainted with affairs at the South, of
which country be is devoted friend,
not TO her dead past but to her living
future-with liberty and justice to all
as her rock e fegeneration
Gen. Calls, besides carrying in his
vitals u Minnie ball, sacred to the
memory of Gettysburgh. also carries
fine gold watch, being present
from some Alabama froedmen-the
inscriptions as follows. his mono~
gram on ole side OF case; upon the
other design which sorely reminds
us OF the days of so>called constitu>
tional liberty under the reign of the
modern democratic Caesars, being an
engraving representing the whipping
OF q slave woman by 4 hlreling overs
seer, the subject being bowed down
ana her hands IN iron clasps locked TO
the whipping post; the appraised whip
appears broken, and the head Of over
seer is turned about in the direction
OF a U. S. officer, no with spear or
liberty in hand, appears gently re
minding the hireling that the day of
whipping has ended and that the sun
light of liberty is about to burst from
above dark mountains in the distance;
IN the back ground are cotton folds
and slaves, mountain tops, morning
sun, slave huts, &c. Within the case
we read these words written by slaves
and engraved by the N. Y. artist:
" Presented to Gen. John B. Calls, u.
5. A., By the Cotored People Of North
alabama, il Testimony Of our apprecia
ton Of his Services IN behalf Of our
Rights as Citizens before the Lac"
As further attestatiou that Gen.
Calls was beloved by the freedmen
and regarded as q second Savior to
their race, they andrt the white union
men OF North Alabama supported him
quite unanimously for Congress, elect
ing him Of course by a large majority,
thus giving him all the ..onors in their
power. Such friends as these Gen.
Calls can never deny or cease to re i,
gard with Christian affection. The
circumstances related remind us OF
certain events in history which we
give for the profit Of those having the
wisdom to apply them:
The Gracchi Brothers, liberty low
ing spirits who fiourished late in the
meridian glory of3imperial Rome, re-
ceived some small trinkets of little
value from the poor slaves whom
they had set free-a la John Brown.
"'Twas all they had to g'velo
The trinkets were priced by the Grac.
chi above all the glory ana honors
heaped upon them by the abolition
masses. They wore these trinkets
about their necks, and at the welkin
assemblages would display them with
fine effect. Said one OF the brothers,
'See here, these presents from slaves,
OF but little value, but saved from the
earnings above time under cruel task
masters, reveal a volume of Roman
wrongs which Caesar dares not open
and resd-but which | dare open to
the world and resent to the utter>
most"
Such astounding proclamations were
detiantIy made at a time when we'll
say under some Roman Caesar like
old Buchanan who feared liberty, yet
even more feared the mobiles, (slave~
holders, Of Rome. 1t is sufficient to
say that the Gracehi soon fell u sacii-
flee to the consistory Of Roman des>
potism; but the event broke the Ro>
man yoke and raised Nero, son of a
freed woman, to the thronel And
such result can hardly fail in our
own country if the Seymour and
Blair line Of conduct be successful
Think OF tin the ways OF a wonder
working Almighty, freedman or
son Of a freedman, descendant ofslave
mother, often whipped by cruel over
seers, is to rise up and take the Pur>
pie Of democratic, chivalric America
And who can then say to the lord
God, this is indeed hard and surely
unconstitutional? Joseph, sold by
his brethren for q slave, became Gov.
ernor Of Egypt Nero, successor to
the Roman Caesars, and Of slave de-
scent, was the master of invincible
Rome And may not a righteous
God decree, to our shame perhaps,
that descendant Of Ham shall be
the successor to Gen. Jackson and
Andy johnson The like may all
be brought about by just an attempt
by some future Blair at reinstating
taskmasters and slave whippers over
these poor freedmen of the South
Indeed such would be natural re-
suit, were there even no All~wise
and avenging God to occasionally re-
verse the order Of thingsl The wise
only can understand such lessons.