The Portland daily press., 1876-07-18
A Plea for Life.

In the House Of Repres entatives Saturday,
during the debate on Mr.. Smalrs amendment
to the army bill and in reply to the insinua-
tions of ex-Confederates and ex-Copperheads
respecting the Hamburg, s. G. massacre, Mr..
Rainey, one of the colored members from
South Carolina addressed the House with great
marks Mr.. Rainey said:
Sir, regret as much as any man here, that
outbreak at Hamburg. L regret that the pro-
ceeding was measurably countenanced by a
cavalier who has descended from noble stock,
the very best that peopled the soil of Carolina.
When make this assertion, 1 am not infu-
enced by partisan prejudice. l do not speak
tanned 10 what say by the Democratic papers
OF South Carolina. have in my hands the
News and Courier, the leading Democratic
paper of the State, which contains an article
from the Augusta Chronicle and Constitution
alist, stating the very fact that General Butler
went from Hamburg across the bridge into Au-
gusta, saw young men over there and said to
them Things over in Hamburg look squally.
Young men. we may want you over there this
evening. Get yourselves in readiness" The
editor OF this DEMOCRATIC paper, published in
Augusta, says that General Butler made use of
that expression, and that those young men,
fully armed, and to the number of two or
three hundred, went over there, and, sir, what
are we to say Of the brave white men, who
fought in the Confederate army, coming out in
an armed force to capture and subjugate 40 de-
fenceless negroes collected in building where
they could not defend themselves. These
men said they were willing to surrender the
few arms they had, but not until Gen. Butler
or some one else high in authority should give
them assurance that they themselves, their
lives and their property should be secure. Did
they expect from Gen. Butler any more than is
accorded to them by the Constitution? ask
whether they had not as much right to bear
arms as General Butler or anybody else Had
they menaced or threatened any one while en-
gagged in that parade of the 4th of July? No,
sir. The whole trouble arose because few
men infamed with whiskey and With deter
mination to subdue the negro in the South,
told them with threats that they must stand
from across the road so that these men might
just think of it what would be though of it ii
mere IN Washington city, when military COM
pany was parading on the fourth of July, two
men should come up in buggy and demand of
the officers that the company should get out of
the way, and if they did not should at once
set to work to murder the men of that military
company. ask you citizens of the United
States, would you stand it 4? ask you, brave
men who fought for your country's liberties
long before you took part in the war of the re-
bellion, would you stand it 1 ask you proud
southern men, who boast of your gallantry,
your intelligence and your superiority to my
race, would you stand it? I ask you men Of
the North, who sacrificed your blood and your
treasure, who sacrificed the lives of your sons
and your relatives, would you stand it? DO you
then expect the negroes to stand all this Do
you then expect my race to submit eekly to
the continual prosecutions and ma ssacre in the
South ? Are you going 20 allow US any rights
of self defence? In the name of my race, my
people, in the name of humanity, in the name
of God, ask you whether we are to be Ameri-
can citizens, with all the rights and immunities
OF citizens, or whether we are to be vassals and
slaves I? Again, ask you to tell us whether
these things are to go on, SO that we may I'M
derstand now, and henceforth what we are to
expect