New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-10-03

The Southern gentleman-the haught.
fellow who before the war lorded it over vas
plantations and hosts of negroes here, AM
staggered over the North in an equally i'm
perious style, exacting homage from every
body-who cracked his bull whip and jinSle'
his handouts in the very capital of the ma
ton, even in the legislative halls-is tn
most peculiar man in existence. Before th'
war;" sin reb time the era from which
everything dates here he was "monarch O
all he surveyed" and most despotic sove
reign he was. Then, like the King of Da
honey, the power of life and death was ii
his hands, and from him there was no ap
peal. After the war change; the negro
owns himself. But he (the colored man
must have land on which to gain livelihood
and the old Southern gentleman or his son
owns il all. The Southern gentleman rents
the land to his former slave at about the
| whole value of the land each year, and thus
practically sells his land each year, recover
| ing it at the end. This heightened gentle
man, this soul of honor, does more-he
furnishes the people ON his plantation,
buys provisions and sells to the poor colored
! man at an advance Of so to leo per cent,
agreeing to wait for his pay until the crop
| is picked out and ready for market little
iudcious exaggeration Of the account usually
attends these operations, and at the end OF
the year the cOlored man frequently finds
that he has nothing due him for his years
labor. lie raises the cotton, pays all eX-
penses, and the high-toned scion OF chlvalry
deliberately cheats him out OF all. The
Southern gentleman, who Will even now boast
Of his aristocratic ancestry, and who claims
to be the very 6 soul of honor" has been
simply transformed from one kind Of thief to
another. Before the war he claimed property
in the colored man and took the product OF
his labor; now he takes the product of his
labor without making that claim. Then the
Southern gentleman paid all the bills on ac-
count of his man now the man pays his
own bills, but in both cases the actual
result is the same--the Southern gentleman
gets all the cotton when the bills are
paid. True there are some colored men
who don't suffer themselves to be so robbed
now; but three years ago all were robbed
alike. There are some exceptions, but what
have stated in regard to the old Southern
gentleman is the rule of treatment of coiored
plantation people in all this portion Of the
South.
The Southern gentleman is a staunch sup
porter Of Greeley. With the exception of
few who stick by the old land marks of De-
mocracy as followed by O'Conor and Blanton
Duncan, none are found who are not Liberal
Republicans. Every scoundrel in the coun-
try back from the river, (where the poor
whites, naturally negro-haters abound,) who
rides the country at night whipping, and
sometimes killing the defenceless colored
man, and burning his house or school-house,
is this day blatant supporter of Greeley
and Graft Brown.
guerrilla, and hunted and shot Union men,
women, and children, white and black, is to-
day supporter of Greeley. The same is
true of every man who, in the good old days
Of slavery, was negro trader, or who kept
blood hounds for hire to hunt fugitiyes from
the internal bondage by which our people
were cursed. Every fend who starved and
murdered Union prisoners in the prison pens
of Millen and Andersonville every ruffian
who, with Forrest at Fort Pillow, murdered
and burnt defenceless colored soldiers after
surrender, is this day supporter of Greeley
is I" Liberal Republican" In view of all
this, what colored man, with a proper respect
for himself, can ally himself to the so-called
Liberal Republican party? What colored
man, save Sella Martin, can so far degrade
himself by mingling with such band of
ruffians-the scum Of the whole cOuntry-as
forms the rank and file of this Liberal Demo-
cratic party: l assure you, Mr.. Editor, that
the colored men here, who see all Of their
enemies Identified with this Greeley move
ment, are endowed with far too much COM
mon sense to be deluded for a moment by
any such shadow to abandon the substance
Of Republcanism. Little doubt exists in
my mind that ninety-nine hundreths of our
people will be of the same way of thinking
on the 5th day of November.
A. W. SHADD.