New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-09-18
GENERAL II. J. CAMPBELL.
His Talk 60 the People of 1t. Charle

to the negroes, is couched in simple, IA
nailiar terms, every sentence of which can
be easily understood by the least intelligent.
We make an extract from the Generals
speech, regretting that want Of room pre-
vents our giving the whole
After God gave the victory to the Union,
then the Yankee soldiers came here with
the blue, which has been dear to your peo-
pie ever since. When God, with the armies
Of the North, set you free He commenced
giving a lesson to our Southern friends.
They got their backs up, and they sw0re by
all that was blue and all that was gray
when the war was over they would take
control of this country; that they would
teach Mr. Yankee and Mr. Niger all about
this thing; they wanted to take charge of
this country; they bowed to the tiag be-
cause they had to; they were willing to bow
to the government, but they hated 1t, and
it'svery natural they should. Ii You have
knock down fight with man you
wouldn't want to kiss him the next
moment especially when he has whip
ped you. TApplause and cries OF
E'No," You're right" These
men thought that to the white people OF the
country belonged the government. That
was very natural. That was the way they
had been brought up. Who had ever heard,
before the war, of any but white people
governing the country? Why, from the
time they and their fathers and their
fathers fathers were boys, from the time
the Spanish and French settled the country,
nobody had ever heard OF anything else.
Now these people have to be taught we are
all children of a larger growth, and ii we
only have good heads for it, we learn some
thing every day. There is no one that can't
learn something. A voice, "that's SOL
These people had to learn the lesson that
the black men were free; if they were free,
they were citizens; if they wero citizens,
they had a right to vote; if they had
right to vote, they had a right to hold office.
That was a bitter pill: and they found
it mighty hard to swallow. So they made
common cause with the Democracy in the
North, and we had a terrible fight. The
Republican party took up the cry that, for
the safety of the cOlored man, We must,
whether he was ignorant or net, give him
the ballot to protect himself with; that was
our doctrine, and that was the right doc
trine. 1t was not palatable to these peo-
pie, and l don't blame them for that; but
as God Almighty Chastised the Northern
people until they came TO their senses, so
He did in the South, and He put these peO-
pie through course OF sprouts under the
reconstruction laws. Now we have had
strong government; We have had the mill
! tary power; we have had ignorant Legis-
laUufGS, we udSb ndl uupIlHC1I I'IGd LICuJ
and they have piled taxes on these people
so high that their plantations and stores,
| and farms and shops will hardly bear
It, and if that kind of government con-
tinues longer, you will have no persons
here to cultivate their lands, and no per-
sons to pay you your wages. What Is the
result! Do you imagine that four years
ago, before they had this discipline, l could
have come here among these white gentle
men, with you colored men and me, Yam
kee, and talk politics? No. They would
have sent us in the river, and you ColOred
men too The same thing that has brought
them here was the Chastisement that
brought the Northern white people to ac-
knowledge your rights. Now the whole
white people of the State Of Louisiana are
perfectly willing to accept you as citizens
and receive. you as voters, and to accord to
Won equal rights with themselves, CivillY
and politically. Now, any man has the
right to run for Office who can get the votes
and get himself elected. That is, under our
democratic system of government. q plain
principle, and they have acknowledged it.
Let me show you how that is worked out.
This last summer We had a convention Of
the white people, who call themselves lib
erals, in New Orleans; and we had con-
vcntiOn composed mainly of cOl0red people,
Republicans in the city at the same time.
Those white people belonging TO that con-
veDtiOn sent their committees and mes6en-
gers to our convention to state to us this:
'If you Republicans will join us in the
effort to have good government, we will
nominate some Republicans On-our. ticket
and some col0red men on our ticket, and
then we will nominate some Democrats aud
some Liberals, and we will make JOINT
ticket that the whole OF the good people OF
this State cansupp0rt. Wasn't that great
advanced Wasn't that great change be-
tliS nd 90 q iDOIE hack
six or ten years ago, when you went to bed
in your cabin, did you ever dream this time
would come? Never in the world
Now, then, these people say to you, let
us stop all this strife between white and
black, all this strife between Republican
and Democrat, and let US Join together and
acknowledge each others rights, aRd unite
upon ticket composed of as good people
as we can get, for the sake of the best gov
ernment Of this State.
But started out to tell you who l was.
have told you far enough for you to know
that | was a soldier in the federal army.
After | came to New Orleans, and without
seeking it, without coming here for the pur-
pose of being in politics, was elected to
the Senate at the same time that you elect
ed Mr. Harper. For four years | have
served your people. was elected by col
ored yOtes and whenever question has
come up about your schools, or your civil
rights, or any measure which concerned
our welfare and your protection, my vote
was always cast against the Democrats, and
in your favor. A vOice-'Amen." Let me
tell you now, that hereafter, if these Demo-
cratic friends with whom [ propose now
to act, for the sake Of peace and harmony
of both white and black-in the next Legls-
lature, whether | am out Of it or nit, when
ever a. question comes up IN which the
rights of the cOl0red people are concerned,
and their safety and protection, my vote
shall be lust as fearle essly and as unquali-
fiedly cast in your favor in the future as it
was in the past. [Applause,l Your people
are very suspicious and when you want to
know what c0lored man is thinking about
YOU must look long time. tie goes to a
meeting and hears what a man says, and
will look as if he believed it all, but he
won't believe a bit of it until he goes home
and thinks it over.
don't blame you for being suspicious
and Jealous, that was the way you were
brought up; but when your children grow
up, who are free from their birth, who
drink in freedom with the very air they
breathe, that they will be higher up than
YOU are. Many of you have been deceived
many times by white men, both Northern
and Southern. | don't blame you for being
suspicious and jealous. But what l want to
bring YOU to is this: When you have
little bov. and you know he is in the habit
of telling fibs sometimes, if he comes aud
tells Won. papa, | want to do SO and SO, if
YOU will let me- won't do this, or Will do
that what is the best way with hims
The best way is to take him at his word,
even if you don't believe him, and say
I" Yes, sir; all right; go and do it, mat Is
a great deal better than to say, You are
little liar; don't believe you" For, i you
take thatcourse you make him har. Take
him hv tha hand haliaye him trust him,