The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-09-15

A Northern Man Speaks.
RICHMOND, September ID.


has inaugurated "a white mans party" in
Virginia, and propose to conduct the i'm
pending canvass upon that basis, calling
upon all white men to rally to its standard.
and ask the support of northern men who
have settled in the state--appealing to the
prejudice of race and their fears OF negro
rule-their papers telling us that Republic
canism at the north IS very different thing
from Radicalism in Virginla-in fact, that
the two are as wide apart as the poles, it
seems pertinent that q northern man and
Republican should analyze this thing
called Conservatism, A White Mans
party" /" Responsibility, n.s Gentlemen Of
Virginia" ETC., etc., and see what it is.
TO begin with, gentlemen, you call your
selves Conservative. Discussion of
that question is really unnecessary, since
you yourselves give it the lie, by also
calling your party ''the white mans party
You appeal to race and color. You de-
nounce nearly one-half Of your population
on the simple line of color, for which
they are not responsible. In that they
are as their Creator and ours made them,
except where there has been a mixture
of blood, and there the whites are respon-
sible, though it complexities matters in
drawing the line. Surely you would not
condemn your own blood because it hap
pens to be mixed and amalgamated. There
Is no Conservatism there. You denounce
their ignorance when you yourselves are
entirely responsible for that ignorance,
having heretofore rigidly enforced it by
statute law. You charge that the negroes
have first banded themselves together
against You and thus forced you in self-de-
Tense to combine against them. The
charge is both untrue and foolish. You
were the first to war against them. You
held them in slavery by rigid laws, enacted
by yourselves, and in which they had no
voice. You passed laws forbidding them
education, and made it penal offence
for any white man, woman or
child, or even one of their
own color, to instruct them, in the first
rudiments of an education. You made the
Bible a sealed book to them lest they
might interpret it to your prejudice. You
entered upon war with your own country
men upon the silly pretext that your
authority over them was about to be
questioned. You fought nearly fosr years
to retain them in slavery. In some Of the
states the first laws attempted to be passed
after the surrender were to enforce your
lost authority. You enacted that they
must be within doors after certain hour
at night, while no such restriction was put
upon your own race. You fixed time for
them to make contracts for their labor, and
upon failing to do so within the prescribed
time, you proposed to take the matter in
Your own hands, which was simply but
another form of slavery. You deny
them admission to the iury-box. You
make of them only 6 hewers of wood and
drawers of WATER" and now you organize
white mans party denouncing their
ignorance and class them as brutes, etc.
etc. etc. A very good course to pursue
to secure their continual estrange-
ment from their old masters who
are SO very Z" kind to them,
by profession though not in prac-
tice politically. Gentlemen, what can you
expec,? They are not so ignorant nor
brutal but that they know who gave them
freedom and franchise. Show them by
your political action that you mean justice.
Then, and not till then, will you divide
their vote. Cease to combine against them
before you expect them to unite with you
in the political arena.
Nor is your expectation that men who
come here from the north, educated from
their childhood in Republican principles.
will unite with you in your crusade against
a class, based upon any better foundation.
Republicanism in Virginia has the same
significance that it has in New York, New
England, and the West. 1t means justice
to all, progression and prosperity, equal
civil and political rights to every individual
in every state, whether native, naturalized,
OF adopted. What claim have you as
party upon the vote of northern man
settled in Virginia Let us see.
You denounce him when Republican,
as "carpet- Dagger" the native Republic
can "scalawag," turning against his own
people, because iorsooth he happens to en-
terrain opinions different from your own,
and has the moral courage to vote and act
in accordance Herewith, while many Of
you are really Republican at heart, but
lack the moral courage to love public
opinion and announce your true principles.
You are less courageous than they. Shame
on you for your eewardicel You had
courage enough in battle-both moral and
physical. Why falter now? You invite
us to come into Virginia and settle here to
aid you in developing the industries and re-
sources of the state, and we respond to the
invitation by coming with our families and
our means, all in good faith; but how are
we received? BY the male population in
friendly apparently, cordially
welcomed. But by the ladies Of the South
how-ah yes, how? Not only with abso-
lutte Indifference, but really with contempt
and scorn. Our wives and children
are as effectually ostracsed from
society as though we lived in
the wilds Of Rocky Mountain wilderness.
Your children are taught by their mothers
to despise, and even to insult, the little
Yankees" when they meet them. Our
children come to us. their little hearts
ready to burst with grief, the tears chasing
each other down their cheeks, and plain
lively ask "Why we must be Yankees, if
Yankees are so bad that they cannot play
with other children in the neighborhood.o
Shame on the mother who can thus teach
her children, and thus bring grief to inno-
cent childhood. These things are, alas too
true, and you applaud Your president
Davises" and your Jubal Earlys to the
echo while they announce these facts to
you. ISee their speeches at the late gath
ering at the White Sulphur, which to this
day stands unrebuked by a single Uonser-
vative.l No reasons there for northern
man to vote for you. You disparage and
distort the objects and aims of northern
men and their kindred, and denounce them
taxst HAC ~ y. n -.