The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1876-01-20
I VOLUME v xXIv-=s--NUMBER 1928.

were opposed TO this course, but were
controlled and intimidated by the smaller
and violent element Of their party.
i The colored people are fercely de.
nounced for their ignorance and want Of
moral training, and their condition, which
is in many respects unhappy, is imputed
to them as crime. It must be admitted
that slavery was bad training school,
not only intellectually but morally. The
cruel and inhuman laws which made II
penitentiary offence to teach colored chill.
dren to read and write have borne their
fruits, which have, like the apples Of the
Dead Sea, turned 10 ashes upon the lips
OF those who enacted them. II Is written
that the sins Of the fathers are visited on
their children unto tho Sd and 4th gene.
rations, and il is not in the providence OF
God that the inventors OF these laws
should entirely escape their consequences.
I would that the cup Of bitterness could
entirely pass from the white people OIL tho
South, but that is not possible under di-
vine law. Those whoSpracticed African
slavery for two hundred years cannot
hope to escape all the evil consequences
resulting from it. 1tis the,merest folly
longer 10 deny the atrocities that have
been committed upon tho colored
people in the Southern States. The evi.
dence is found in thousands Of deposit
tions taken before investigating com.
mittees, in the. continued. revelations by
persons coming from the south, and inthc
| current statement Of hundreds Of newg.
papers. Although there is reason TO
believe that perhaps not u :. tithe OF
the outrages are ever brought to the at
tention Of The public. They have been
hunted like wild beasts; and The white
sporlsmenY went cunning for them. u
that many white men had been murdered
by the Indiana tho whole country
would have demanded vengeance
and large portion would have
clamored for the determination OF the
savage tribes. When some twenty Etarv-i
ing and desperate Modocs murdered Gen
Candy and, three Of his colleagues tho
government never stopped until, lne last
man had been killed, captured, tried and
hung. When the Virginius was noto-,
riously engaged in an illegal and hostile
\ expedition against the Spanish govern
ment and was captured by Spanish
cruiser and some 80 Of tho ,crewitried by q
courtmartial and shot, our government
demanded Immediate reparatipn and
threatened Spain with war If it was not
made. When some six years ago an ameri-
can boat was fired upon and two men
wounded upon the. coast OF Coree, our
feet demanded reparation, and when it
was not granted battered down the forts
and slaughtered nearly three hundred OF
their soldiers. When the Mexican rob-
bers, make raid across the border into
Texas and steal five or six hundred cattle
the depreciation Ii ten.fold magnitied.
The government Of the United States is
urged by many to go to war with Mexico
and at least TO place the army OF the Unit
ed States along the Rio Grande for the
protection OF the property oil Texas. But
when o hundred negroes are murdered-in.
cold blood II is considered small affair
unworthy Of the attention OF the govern
ment, and not even jhstifying an exami-
nation. One difference is, perhaps, that
the cattle can be sold and the negroes can
not. The infamous lies about the negro
plots to murder the white people have
become exceedingly stale and disgusting.
Last summer the columns OF the south
ern Associated Press for days groaned
with the stupid and clumsy story'that the
negroes had conspired tomurder the white
men and the ugly white women OF Geor-
gia. That this lie was intended as pre-
textfor the slaughter, there is but little
doubt. Ifapprehensions Of uprisings ev-
er existed they grew out OF tho conviction
Of the intolerable wrongs inflicted on the
colored people, and are anotherproof of
the truth OF that saying, "conicince doth
make towards Of u.s." Every year before
the war there were stories OF the plans
among the slaves to "rise" and murder
their masters and families, which l bc-
lieve in every instance turned out TO be
false, but were afterwards madethepretext
for the greatest cruelties. The conclusive
answer to all these foul calumnies Is
found in the fact that the colored men on
| ly are killed. That II white men are kill
ed they are few in number, and the cases
are exceptionable. Mr.. Morton declared
that it was the duty of the Republican
party to maintain the rights OF the color
ed men, and said should the Republican
party Of the North become Indifferent 10
the fate Of the colored people Of the
South, and ignore tho atrocities COM
mitted upon them, nothing can prevent
them from sinking rapidly into state OF
yassalage, and'their last condition will be
worse than their first. That the Demo-
cratic party Of the South are reconciled
to civil and political equality OF the col
ored peopled is contradicted by their
every act byi'v their daily life,
by their history in the past and
their aspirations in the future, and when
they get physical power, Regardless OF
Constitutional provisions or Congression-
4 al enactments, they will hurl them from
theplatform Of equality and reduce,them
| TO vassalage but one remove from slav-
cry: He referred to the white line policy
adopted by the Democracy Of the South,
and affirmed that 1t was established by
the Democratic party Immediately after
the termination OF the war and never has
been relaxed for a single, moment Tho
white line policy was the legitimate de-
scendant Of the black code Of 1885, and
the revelation Of 1876 was but acontinu.
alton Of the fight against the principles Of
reconstruction and constitutional amend
ments. Whatever disguise may be tenn
porarily adopted, whatever protests may
be made in Washington, the inaexible
purpose Of the white line Democracy Of
| The South Is 'the destruction ot the politi-
cal rights OF the negro. he would cite
the reports Of the committees sent to
investigate the optrages, and said that
the Hon. George F. Hoar, Chair
man Of the Congressional Investigating
Committee, In his report made to the
House last winter, briefly recapitulated
The history Of murders and atrocities In
Louisiana and presented sickening de-
| tail Of horrors that dwarf into insignifi.
cancc any Indian war that has occurred
within century. The horrid massacres
at Mechanics Institute, at Colfax, and at
Coushatta, to say nothing Of those Of
lesser magnitude, relieve those At Wyo-
ming and Schenectady Of their historic
prominence and throw over the butcher
les Of the Modocs mellow light. "
The evidence taken by the Reconstruc.
ton Committee Of the House, Of which