The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1869-03-31
From the Richmond CVa.) Enquirer. ]
On Scalawags.

I'll 0Cd4dHdh6.
Living languages grow, with new
exigencies fresh words are coined Oh
old ones receive new application tC
answer the demand. When the bub.
blingS of civil commotion threw "a
the surface of society an impure scum
| which had before been interfused
among its lower strata, it was felt that
some word of pictorial power was
needed to represent and cOnsecrate to
scorn the disgusting phenomenon. IT
was supplied by the farmer.
When he sees among his flock a
black sheep, lean and i'll conditioned,
which feeding will not fatten nor nuI-
tuoe, covered with burs and filth, pre-
! disposed to catch and communicate
every passing distemper, but still 60
ing about with sniveling nose and
rheumy eyes, apparently rejoicing in
\ the rattEng dishOnors of its tails, he
| at once prOnounces it scalawag. And
when amid the seething of the revo-
1utionary cauldron, certain disreputa-
bic things, gaunt and i'll favored, hun
CRY for Office, and never satisfied with
getting, prone to corruption and ca
ger to contaminate others, were seen
to emerge from the der this of society
like Internal frogs from the pit of
Acheron," thousands of throats Kissed
out scalawags. Even the sable sons of
Africa recognized the exquisite apt
ness Of designation, and with nostrils
broadening with snort of contempt,
yelled forth the epithet which consigns
them to universal derision.
Junius remarks that 'Fthe people
are seldom wrong in their opinions,
In their sentiments they are never
mistaken" A high instinct guides
them in their moral Judgments
Black and charred as the human soul
Is IN the furnace OF its own passions,
1t never wholly loses its ability of
distinguishing between the plainly
right and the palpably wrong. The
strong blast of universal contempt
which withers the scalawag fixes his
doom forever.
He has stripped himself of the last
rag of responsibility, and walks gown
ed in q taWdry attire of shams and
pretences. He has surrendered, at the
bidding Of a master, all the convic-
hons, affections, sensibilities and pref
udices which from early infancy has
entWined themselves around his heart
strings, and for what? The ''consid-
Grafton" which like an angel came
to whim the offending Adam out of
him, " IS some paltry Office contempt
uously tossed to him by his former
slaves and present task masters. For
this he forfeits the graduating hand
friendship; for this he relinqulshes
the sweet assurance of welcome which
beamed from a neighbours face; for |
this he turns his back on kith and kin |
and color, and advocates uniformity |
OF political privileges to all complex |
ions and conditions, though he knows !
that 1t involves for US social equality |
possible amalgamation. Like the un-
happy Claudio, he processes to be will |
ling TO encounter darkness as q bride |
and hug it in his arms-'
Esau sold his birthright for mess
Of pUttage, but hapIy he was uncon-
5cious Of the spiritual blessings he was
oartering away. Judas committed a
more awful crime, but at least he
guilty remorse. But the
is a conscious deliberate,
nnpretending traitor, who would en-
w Judas his bargain and defraud
Esau of his broth. He breathes an
atmosphere of insincerisy, speaks the
'hibboleth Of hypocrisy, and bathes
MS soul in halcyon seas of tasehood.
1The man that was used up" by the
Aickapoos, but who repaired the raw.
lges Of war with the appliances of
lrt, and obtained a false eye, false
lair, false teeth, false palate, a false
ongue, and false limbs, but for the
act that he was remOdeled after an {
legant pattern, was fine type of q l
Scalawag.
These are subjects on which thought
9 painful. Pascal complained that {
he measureleSs expenses of the heaV- I
My spaces terrified him, The infin-
te prolongations of eternity confound,
he deeps under deeps, the abysses
up abysse5 of human deg l
freeze as with horror. To [
ee a Southerner, once, perhaps, a 5
right eyed boy, endowed with ca [
rowded with noble aspirations, ,dWar-
ed by q mean love Of place into q
lie, crawling, wriggling creature-to y
ae him deliberately lay bare his back
Ihile the Radical beadle plies the y
,sh, crying "Even so, master, since T
seems good in ty"-welcoming the 2
lst descending rod as an emblem of L
lercy, kissing the foot that spurns 8
i'm, ''if angels weep, 1t is at such
ght."
Shakespeare has drawn a Shallow, a q
lender, and a Silence, he has por- v
aged the nearest approach to mere Z
lsanity, but he draws with loving s.
ouch and delights to show a soul of y
OO0ACoo III LA4uSS Cb44s Oul SNCu :
lat universal genius, in whose vast p
lind was set all that God ever vouch O
fed, never conceived of a sealawag. e
lis generous nature feeling "hoW
arful and dizzy tits to cast ones eyes 81
, low" recoiled from looking into q
le fouler depths of human debRse-
lent. This was reserved for a fer n
II and meaner spirit who gave us n
le firt preliminary sketch and faint p
1umbration of the coming monster
T the scalawag is the bright consum-
ate flower which the Yahoo is the n
Iudest mud. d
Let US hope that even he Is not al
gether without some aspirations for e.
hat he deems noble and exalted. 1t
ally seems that he, too, has his ideal
is notion of human perfection his a
eal. of unfallen Adam walking z
ound the bowers of Paradise is car 1,
It bagger. "But what must be the th
when money Is the God ?'' -