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

fixing wages, and the act of the Ieojs
lature compelling these people to woTL
for half wages. was not accepting the
situation, but was intended to rob tbsse
poor people of their labor without com
pensation2 Negroes were arrested Ill
over the State for trivial offences. The
were Imprisoned in the county isII
and in the penitentiary until the iaiis
were filled to repletion, and the peni.
Tertiary had double the number It couI5
accommodate. The judges could moi
very well manage or control this mai.
ter. The Legislature gave the power 10
the county courts at monthly term To
try all felonies without even the inter
position of a grand jury, and persons
were sent to the penitentiary without
that interposition. Negroes were muir
dered at different points in the State
without provocation, merely to gratIfy
the malicious passions Of their murder
ers. The murderers gave themselves
up to the justices courts, and were dis
missed, and when the military sum
moned a commission to try the often.
ders, the President of the United States
dissolved the commission, All over
| the State the negroes were hired for
four months commencing In the spring
and continuing until the harvest was
over, and then quarrels were raised
with them, and they were driven from
the plantations without their wages,
and almost without clothing. This
was the manner in which the Virginia
rebels kept their faith The news OF
these outrages went up to Congress
day by day. Congress then passed Il
final act declaring that no legal govern
ment now exists in Virginia and these
other States, and provided further that
| all loyal people in those States should
participate in the elections. The negro
| then became DISTINGUISHED; and 1 Tell
you, fellow-citizens, ifit was the last
testimony 1 had TO give on earth, /
would say to you, of my own kuowl-
edge, that both in the courts and in the
country, tue negro with the ballot
in,his hand was greatly different per-
son in the estimation of the Virginia
rebels from the negro without the bal
lot. They began to respect him atonce.
They began to recognize him as q man;
and now throughout the whole South,
these men who are raising such cry
about the negro voting are counting the
negro for his vote and Boosting that
they are going to carry him with them,
and that with his vote they are going
to carry tho Southern States for Sey-
mour and Blair.
Great complaint has been made of
the Freedmen's Bureau. happen to
know something about that. When
went into the city of Richmond In the
Spring of 1865, I found all the business
portionEof the city in smouldering ashes
More than three hundred acres OF that
beautiful city was lying there in ruin.
They had the commissary stores for
the support of the rebel army. Sharp
ers had bought up the balance of the
stores and provisions, and had 1t stored
away, exacting exorbltant prices from
the poor people for the necessaries of
life. These people had been living there
/ for TWO years on two meals day. And
there these stores were when Ger. John
G. Breckenridge issued an order which
was communicated from him to subor-
dinate Confederate officers, for tho de-
struction of the city. The torch was
applied in a hundred places at the same
| time; and but for the appearance of the
Union troops next morning before s
o'clock, the whole city would have been
/ a common ruin. Here was suffering
people, who for two years had been liy-
ing on two meals day. Now all
their supplies were cut OF. Everything
| from the country had been brought
into the city to supply the army, and
bought up by spectators. Here was
starving population, not made poor
and starving by the acts of the Federal
Government, but brought to starvation
| by the leaders of the Confederacy; say
my dear Democrat, If you are here to-
night, by the friends with whom you
so much sympathize, Napoleon b.
Forrest, Wade Hampton and JEFF. Da-
vis-brought to starvation by the or
ders ofthese men. L saw those starving
| too 1 saw them in lines, two hundred
TO five hundred feet long, pressing for
| ward, whites in one line and blacks In
another, md sometime both mixed in
the same line. What is going on here1
The Commissary Department of tie
Freedmen's Bureau is giving food 10
these suffering people. Aye, my fellow
citizens, 1t WAS the proudest day of my
life, toknow that belonged to great
government, great people that did
Z IL, L.
sight of Belle Isle, and Libby and Cas-
tie Thunder, where more than ten thou
sand of our Union soldiers had died
from starvation in sight of Lee and in
sight of Davis-in sight of the very
generals who are now trying TO revive
the "Lost Causes" and yet the vibration
of their guns had scarcely ceased to
burden the air, and here was this great
Republican Government feeding their
poor by the thousands and the tens OF
thousands. [Cheers.l
My fellow citizens, the platform of
this great Republican-party takes high
ground upon the civilization OF the age.
1t reaches down to the poor wherever
you find him and whatever is the
color of his skin. 1t says, brother, rise
up; gives him encouragement to work,
to learn to make himself a man; and
when the enemy has persecuted-nay,
when it has starved him, and brought
its own people to a furnishing condition
this glorious Government comes for
ward, and when its enemy hungers il
feeds him: when he thIrsts it give him
drink and thereby heaps Goals of fire
on his head. [Applause.l Here are
these "tuppenny" politicians running
around through the country now howl
ing about the Freedmens Bureau-the
Freedmens Bureaui Aye, my dear
sir, it has fed tens of thousands of your
white brethren in the South whom
Sour folly and wickedness have brouRh
to starvation. [Applause.l These men
are either grossly and preversely wick
ed trying to create a prejudice against
this great charity on the part of the
Government, or they are ignorant OF
what has been going on. speak
from a standpoint where 1 witnessed
all these transactions right before INV
face. A lady of high standing and
great intelligence came to me one day
in Richmond and said "Sir, we have
made calculation and there are now
more than five thousand widows and
orphans in Richmond that were in re-
spectacle circumstances who have not
on an average one dime apiece to go 10
market Tomorrow" That was the sit
ustion of those people. And vet be-
cause the United States Government fed
them through an organization called
the Freedmen's and Refugees Bureau,
ii is the height of Democratic patriot
ism to declaim against that organiza-
ton. And what does 1t all cost? 1t has
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