The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-06-02
A FUSS I'm the Family.

Had supposed that the pupiicauoh
of a truthful account Of the insult
offered the colored people by the Mar
shals on decoration day, would have so
much disturbed the equanimity of the
LatslIqsacer as to throw it completely
out of its balance, we might have con-
cealed the fact as that paper did from
the public gaze. But really, the impair
TALLY which should always govern
correct journalism compelled us re-
luctantlv to disturb the feelings of our
neighbor without intending it, upon the
same humane principle that skiIlful
surgeon always takes melancholy pleas
IRE in removing a shattered limb or a
disturbing ulcer to cure his patient. We
only plunged our lancet into this ugly
sore Of the Republican party 10 let the
people have smell of the offensive and
fatal odor that the rotten concern cNhalcS
Asusual, however, the Htcllig0,ccr, being
completely out of sorts in explaining
the matter, makes the case worse one
than we had at first supposed 1t to he.
From that journals statement 1t az
pears now that the colored people
really were repulsed from any position
in the procession, and that the error
was committed by one of the
Assistant Marshals, Colonel Hub
BARD" But the htcligatccr seeks
to break the force Of this important
fact 10y the following entertaining cX-
PLANTATION: Statements differ as TO
what Marshal HUBBARDS order was.
He asserts most positively that he pro-
posed to have the colorcd men fall i'll
Just behind the city authorities, speakers
and clergymen who were in a harouche
and two omnibusScs, and not behind
the other vehicles; and some Of the
colored men concur in this statement,
But the weight of the testimony Is
against the Colonel and to the effect
that he directed the colorcd men to fall
in at the rear of all the vehicles But
some of them say that twice when they
started into the procession at the point
where Colonel HUBBARD claims he told
them to enter it, they were stopped 10y
couple of policemen whose names
they give; and one of them says he
heard the City Sergeant tell these two
deputies not to let them niggers 20 in
to the procession till all the carriages
had passed.
Now, it is perfectly manifest from this
Statement" of the case that Col. Ilrn-
BARD did order the negroes to the rear,
and that the negroes, feeling themselves
outraged, refused togo in the procession
at all The attempt of the Iatcjiigcncer
to throw a part Of the blame on "two
policemen and the CITY Sergeant is
simply ridiculous and purile, because it
is a reflection upon the intelligence of
all present who heard the order, as well
~ on the conduct OF all the Mar>halls
of the day Can any one believe that
the Marshalls stood hy and permitted
two policemen and one sergeant to
disturb and break up their whole order
of procession without rehuke? And if
they did do so, can any one excuse the
Marshals for not replacing the
colored people in the ranks
when they saw they had been thrust
out altogether and against their order
of procession These estimable gentle
men, the Marshals, and their apolOgsts
may be willing to accept as merited re-
buke this serious reflection upon their
conduct as officers of the day, but people
ofthe dullest comprehensions willyiew it
in altogether a different light. They
know, as the HtclA;gmccr and all know,
the truth of the matter to he, that the
negroes were ordered to the rear be-
cause, if they had been put in the mid
die, it would have been esteemed an
insult to all the white people on horse
back and in carriages, and they would
have withdrawn as the negroes did,
from the procession, rather than
have submitted to it This Is the
grardn,cn of the whole affair, and it is
useless for partisan apologists to at
tempt to throw the responsibility upon
two policemen and one sergeant. Why
don't they face the music and say at
once that they do not want to mix
with the negroes except at the ballot
box on election days, when they will be
hale fellows well met.
But the REGISTER, in lis cagerness TO
excite feeling where none is due, puts
itself in a very awkward position. 1t
forgets that the occasion on which this
thing occurred was wholly non-partisan
1t was one in which all patriotic citizens
united without reference 10 party.
Democratic citizens and municipal au-
thorities joined with Republican citi-
zens, and the Mayor and one of the fore
most Democratic members of the bar
were among the speakers, ="
Certainly, there were good Democrats
who participated in the ceremonies Of
the day, and no doubt decorated sol
diers' graves with as much heart as any
portion of our people. They know how
10 -nrnnrn hnr the dead % ,rnll ns 70 rn