Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1869-06-15
r,o.rTNurp FROM FIRST pAaE.1

their A, b, C, schools, soup shops and asy-
lums. They have reduced men to the condi-
lion of menials, white menials, and, of course,
are lust as much bound to aid and support
them, as the master was to support the women
and children and old decrepid negroes, VINO
got the benefit of their labor in their working
DAYS. And here, bY-the-way, Mr. Wade 1t
will be just as we'll to admonlsh MIR; tribune
Greedy, who talks so fippantly about the
tbefts and robberies of the negroes in Geor-
oia and elsewhere in the do,om-trOdden South,
and accounts such doings as only innocent
exhibitions of sort of crude justice, that
the day NAV come when an account, too, Will
he taken between the white masses aud the
nublic land robbers and bond holding usurers
and paper,mouey men, when he ana they
NAV not only find some of these little innocent
doings of ''rude.justice" brought home TO
their own doors, but when they will require,
as offsetts to the account, all their A, BIZ U,
schools, soup shops, and pseudo phlanthroplc
establishments, of what kind and whatsoever
may be- When that account is taken, think
they will have harder customers to deal with
than we have with Cuffee. Customers who
may not be satisfied with simply rendition OF
the public lands, and fair and equal divi-
sion of the corpus of property, created by
their labor, but nov in the hands OF few,
but who may hold the few responsible for in
terest, rents and profits. Aye, even though the
type,setter and upstart Greedy bawl "knaves
and villains in behalf of his bond>holders
until his foul throat is blaze of ulcers. We,
the South, bought Cufee of you the North.
You brought him here in your ships, we had
no ships. We, as tillers of the soil, employed
Cuffee in making tobacco, rice, cotton and
sugar. You, of the North, besides getting
the original price of Cuffee, in hard money,
and having the use of that money to the pres
ent time, 1869, have had, as our factors, 1t
NAV be said in truth, all the clear and clean
profits that have ever been made out OF Gut
fee. And, vet, with the original price and
interest thereon, in your own hands, and all
the profits made on Cuffee, you have the i'm
pudence to demand of us, not only that we
shall free Cuffee, whom you sold to US, but
that we shall put Cuffee above ourselves This
is the true statement of the question. Well,
if we must do this, at your behest, We only
ask that your white slaves, who through usury
and paper money have been deprived of their
rights and of their fair chances to acquire
property, through your infamous system of
usury and paper money, shall be placed IN
relation to you, in the same situation in which
YOU desire to place Cuffee to us. That is all
we ask and now take the account, you men
of the North, or West, as soon as you please.
My honest impression is that, North or West,
the thieving plunderers OF lands, public lands,
lands that belong to all the people, and the
bond holders, who have specialized in North>
ern, and Southern and Western blood, will.
whenever that account is taken, be found
much more indebted to the white masses, both
of the North and West, than the South is to
CufFee, or to Africa in general. l have no
fears about that account or about that set
farv Of Of ha
and West, have all the proceeds, your chests,
to use the test of Aristophapcs, will be found
full of all sort of cakes and good things. Ours,
you know, are empty Let this be the test :
Where, and how did you get those chests full?
Ours are empty!
Well, Mr. Wade, let this episode go for what
it is worth and let us come back to what we
were discussing and considering, to-wit
whether the masses of the people ever
have what they are justly entitled to as long
as their servants, members of Congress, may
steal and appropriate their public lands at will
and pleasure, and as long as usurious and pa
per money bond holders may tax them, and
not only tax them, but have Grant and the
sword to enforce the collection of their infa~
nous and unrighteous exactiOns.
i say to you, sir, that, as a condition prece
dent to this unhallowed taxation of the peo>
pie, 1t will be necessary to abolish and blot
out this usury and paper money, as infamous
contrivances for the benefit of the few and
cunning, and to have just weight and Just
measure, by which, all who work in agricul-
ture, manufacturers, or commerce, may have
some chance, some show, to acquire property;
and, thus be relieved from the degrading con-
dition of menials and white slaves to those,
who through usury, or the abuse of a common
and public agent, money, and through the ar
~ La1l ~, Ltl
ance vile" Now, indeed, though they are
white slaves and own no property, have no
house and only rented habitation, and often
a dogs house, these same masses, as they are
the many in number, and must have the
necessaries of life, pay in the enormous prices
of everything they eat drink and wear two
thirds of the enormous and grinding taxation
of the country. This taxation does not fall
on property and the rich, but on numbers
and the masses, who, albeit the tax>gatherer,
in the shape of constable or sheriff, does not
call on them, yet, in the prices of everything
they eat, drink and wear, pay t,rothirds of
all these enormous taxes, as, in this speculat-
ing war of printers, priests, pettifoggers and
politicians, men who lived on the mseres of !
the masses, they poured out more than two
thirds of the blood.
But, Mr.. Wade, tribune of the people, only
remove these Twin oDStructlons, 10 lar and
equal chance to acquire property, and my
word for it, men will be able to take care of
themselves, and to have, in your own words,
their "recreations ond amuscnents," and will
be more blessed than by anything, again to
use your own language sentiment, that has
ever been thought or done for them, "since
the coming of Christ on earth"
The want of men is property, Mr. Wade,
and fair and equal chance to earn it by the
"sweat of their own brow" by their own in
teIligence and energy, and by their own in.