New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-11-24
FREEDMEN rs. p1LLSBORE.

r. ... FREEDMEN u.s. .PILLSBURR. -
Mr.. Richard Swiveller, on being crossed in
love, took to playing the flute, thinking,
after mature consideration, that it was good,
Sound. dismal instrument, not only in unison
"with his own sad thoughts, but calculated to
Awaken fellow feeling in the bosoms OF Dis
"neighbors." What the flute was to Dick the
English language is to Mr.. Parker PilsDury'
Ii is probably many years since he has been
in any company of q hundred people, OF whom
he did not honestly believe and think 1t his
duty to mention that they were stepped in cor
ruption, immersed in iniquty, aud likely in
few days to wade knee-deep in human gore.
For a good, steady going jeremiah in daily lie,
commend us TO him. or if it was Hczekiali,
whose DAYS ran backward, then Hezekiah let It
be. With him each day is more gloomy and
omnous than the day before. Like the deyout
Captain in the First South Carolina with his
Rebel prisoner, he promises us nothing but
d" the Day of Judgment and Periods Of Damna-
ton" This illimitable tragic power made him
effective, though depressing, as IN Abotionist.
It seems a little unfortunate that now, when
Slavery is abolished he should turn his lurd
artillery upon the freedmen. After devotlng
half his life to setting them ut liberty, he
seems ready TO devote the rest OF It to proving
their unworthiness of freedom thus treating
the negroes rs Mr.. Squeers did his schoolboys
when he set them on their seats by boxing one
ear, aud knocked them of by boxing the other
There was nothing very new in these charges
against the freedmen. They were just what
tho Democratic press had been steadily assert
ing, and the freedmen steadily disprovng
from the outset of the war. To them liberty
means license Mr.. Pillsbury thinks; they have a
weak partially for whisky and for gingerbread,
aud arc imperfectly supplied with elevated
patriotism and with small-tooth combs
Nothing can be more obvious, he thinks, than
that they are unfit for the ballot Bat how
the State of South Carolina is to be governed
nasmuch as he does not seem to think even
the white population very far advanced in
soap aud sanctity-doth not appear We
should say that, as the Ecclesiastical Council
in Connecticut Teinstated the backsliding dea-
con, on the ground that il the Lord wanted
church in West Littleton he must take such
materials as West Littleton had to offer, so
even Mr.. Pillsbury would be compelled, 10y his
own showing, if set to reconstruct South Caro-
lima, to do it, in some degree, with the ballots
of the unwashed.
However, these views attracted small atten-
ton at the North, from their want of novelty
and 80 long as they were confined to the Dem
ocratc press, as The World and The Revolution,
they attracted little at the South. But when
they were announced largely in The Independ
ent, in the vast hospitality given by that
Goods acre. of a sheet--on that first page
where the CHEEKY editor leaves each contribu-
tor to fight for his own hand, like Harry
Wynd, having no connection with over the
way-then they gained wide attention at tho
South, and met with joyful response from
every one who had an atom of negrophobia
left in his bosom. To declare that nearly
every free black man in South Carolina was a
drunkard and vagabond,- what more had
Nasty himself to offer7 ...-r
We notice therefore in the Southern Repub-
lican press, and especially i'll that very able
sheet, The Charleston Daily Republicans, con-
slant protests from black and white against
these sweeping attacks. To assert, after brief
stay in South Carolina, that the freedmen are
"most emphatically lost" that they are almost
universally incorporate. that marriage is
"raren that "infanticide is common" and "On
"the plantstion very few children are born
these statements are pronounced to be wan
tonly false. These contradictions were con-
firmed to us but few days since by Capt
N. G.. Parker. State TreasGyer OF South
Carolina, man of high character, who served
successfully: in the list Massachusetts Cavalry
and the 33d U. s. Colored Troops, and has had
abundant opportunity for observing the South
Carolina freedmen for eight years. He says
that these charges are cruelty unjust" and
have already done great deal OF injury to the
position of the colored people of the South.
The same opinion is expressed to us by Ser
geant Prince Rivers, well known as one of the
ablest colored men of the State, natiye-born
South Carolnan, and the very first man in the
United States to open his house as q re-
cruiting Office for colored soldiers, in
May 1852. He was member of the
State Constitutional Convention, and is
now q member of the Legislature,s aud, being
also q magistrate, has abundant opportunity of
knowing the condition of freedmen. He indig-
nantly denies these assertions of general
drunkenness and licentousness whilo admit
ting, of course, that tho cOlored people are
still poor and ignorant. Again, we have n
lctter befVre Us flom Sergeant Langley,