The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1876-10-04
THE GREATEST YET.
GARFIELD, THE PHARISEE, PUT
UPON THE SPIT AND
DONE TO \ TURN.

UPON THE SPIT AND
DONE TO 4 TURN.
:Snivcling Hypocracy and Lying IA
triotlsm Exposed and Smashcd-'se.
ccssion an Original Product of New
England CupidIty--A Terrible AR
raignmcnt Of Republican Rascals,
Cheats and Shams.
70 Hon. JAS. A. GARFIELD,
MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM OHlO;
| have read the speech you sent me.
am astonislled and shocked. AS the
leader OF your party, to whom the can
didutes have specially delegated the
conduct OF the pending campaign, you
should have met your responsibilities
in very different way. ! do not pre-
sumo to lecture so distinguished u man
upon his errors; but if, | can prevent
You, even to asmall extent, from abus-
Ing the public ~credulity, it is my duty
to try. Promising only my great anX-
fety to preserve the fraterna! relations
existing between us lor many years,
follow the Horatian rule, and come At
once to 1.-THE middle of things"
You trace back the origin Of present
parties to the earliest immigration ut
Plymouth and jamestown, ana profess
TO find in the opposing doctrines then
planted and afterward constantly
Cherished in Massachusetts and Fir-
pinia the germs of those ideas which
now make Democracy and Abolition
ism the deadly foes oleach other. The
ideas so planted in Massachusetts were,
according t. your account, the freedom
and equality of all races and the right
and duty of every man to exercise his
private Judgment in politics as well as
religion. On the other hand you set
forth as irreconcilably hostile the doc.
trine of Virginia, THAT capital should
own labor, that the nesrohad no rights
of manhood, and that the white MAJ
might buy, OWL and sci! him u his
offspring %fOrevcr.' Following these
assertions with others. and linking the
present with the long past. you employ
the devices OF your rhetoric to s!ority
the modern Abolitionist and to throw
foul scorn, not merely on theSoutlern
people, but on the whole Democracy OF
the country.
This looks learned and philosophical,
and il gives your speech q dignity
seemingly above the reach of the ordi-
nary deMagogue, Happy is he who
knows the causes Of things fclicitous
il the partisan member Of Congress
whose stump speech goes up the river
Of time to the first fountains of good
aud evil. But your contrasto OF hlstOrl-
cal facts is open to one objection
which l give YOU in a form as simple
as possible wien l say that it is wholly
destitute OF truth. This, Of course,
implies no iniputatiOn on your good
faith. Your high character in the
church, as we'll as the State, forbidsthe
belief that you would be guilty o.
willful Misrepresentation.
The men of Massachusetts,, so far
from planting the right Of private judg-
ment extirpated and utterly erti"guish-
ell it, by means so cruel that no man
of common humanity u think OF
them even now without disgust and
Indignation. am surprised to find
YOU ignorant of this. Did you never
hear Of the frightful prosecutions they
carried on Systematically against Bap-
fists and Quakers and Catholics? How
they fined, imprisoned, laslled, mutt
lated, enslaved and banishtd every
body that claimed the right Of free
thought. How they stripped the most
r%irtuous and inotfensive women, and
publicly whipped them on their naked
backs, only for expressing their con-
ecientious convictions? Have you
never, in all your reading. met with
the story of Roger Williams? For
merely suggesting TO the public author
tiles of the colony that no person
ought to be punished on account of
his honest opinions, he was driven in
to the woods and pursued even after
wards with q ferocity that put his own
life and that of his friends in constant
danger. In fact, the cruelty of their
laws against the freedom Of conscience
and the unfeeling rigor with which
they were executed, made MasSachu-
sets odius throughout the world.
These great crimes of the Pilgrim
Fathers ought not to be cast up to
their eLriidren; for some of their de-
ecendents II hope Il good majority are
Ligh-principled and honest men, sin
cerely attached to the liberal inStitu-
lions Dlanted III the southern lat
ltuQSS III LiiS S'iiliitf'' J'ut ~ y'u
nre right in your assertion that the Alb
.litioNists derive their principles from
Tie ideas entertained and planted al
Plymouth, that may account for the
conr>e and brutal tyranny with which
YOUR party has. in recent times ram
pie upon the rights Of free thought
and free speech.
SLAVERY IL MASSACHUSETTS.
Nor are YOU more accurate in youi
declaration that the old Yankees plan
ted the doctrine of freedom and equal
ity. or opposed the domination OF one
race over another. Messrs. Palfrey
and Sumner have said something to
the effect that slavery never existed in
Massachusetts,. and you may have been
misied by them But either they were
wholly ignorant of the subject, or else
they spoke with that loose and lavish
unVeraeity which is a common fault
among men Of their political sect.
The Plymouth colony and the province
of Massachusetts Bay were pro-slavcry
to the back bone. If you doubt this l
refer you to Meore's "History Of sla-
very ia Massachusetts" where the evil
denss consisting chiefly Of records
and dncGH,eifts perfectly ~authcntica-
ted1 is produced aud eollated with Il
fulkpqss aud fairness which cannot be
questioned. The Plymouth immi-
grants planted precisely the same doc
thine which you ascribe 10 the James
t.,u,, nnltt,iutu fhot 10 ia CAV. thn,.