Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1878-08-22


southern states, for ten generations, labor
was held to be degrading. No laborer,
white or black, was esteemed worthy of
honor. Work was not worship, but dis
grace. In southern political articles of
faith 1T was declared that the black Ia
bOrer was "chattel," and the white
laborer "mud-sill"
And they ''lived UP to" their creed.
Taxation was levied with a merciless
rigor on labor, while capital was permit
ted to dictate its own terms. One exam
pie will suffice TO establish this fact. l
select the state that gave the confederacy
its president. By the laws of Mississip-
pi, before the war, and during President
JOhnson's provisional gOvernment-be-
fore negro voted, or the republican par
ty existed there-the taxation on land
was limited to ten cents on one hundred
dollars of valuation. The owner was
constituted the sole judge of its value
What was the result? In Hancock coun-
ty, for example, according to democratic
testimony, mot One-half of the taxable
lands were assessed at all, and the assess
ed portion was generally rated at five
cents an acre." In thousands of in
stances the assessment was only one dol
lar an acre. In other words, a cultivated
plantation of a thousand rich acres paid
only one dollar in taxes Three illustra-
tions will show how this Ubiquitous
scheme actually worked.
Colonel Benson Blake and wife owns $500
acres of the best cotton lands in the state, lnclud
ing magnificent house, and the finest improve
mentS. in the county of Warren. Tax, S99. rs!
Colonel Joseph E. Davis owned 3,793 acres of rich
i" bottom-lands" on The Mississippi river, Includ-
ing the famous Hurricane plantation. I ak, S141.-
IA! This estate sold for $4,000 The heirs of
General John A Quitman owned q. $40 acres of
the same rich bottom lands, - handsomely i'm
proved" 1t included plantation which was
rented for 100000 per annum. 1t was taxed S1S4,-
Ga! Thus, these three splendid plantations. EN-
bracing 1900 acres of the best land in America
worth at the lowest estimate twenty dollars
acre, paid into the state treasury only S439 80 in
taxes. Thus the lords OF the lash were favored.
How did the working-men fare? BY an act of the
democratic legislature of Mississippi, in 1865, it
was provided that all blacksmiths. bakers, butch
erS, brick-Inakers, carriage makers, carpenters
dealers in timber, lumber or shingles, gas compa-
MES, contractors OF bridges, printers, gunsmitbs
sawmillers, shoemakers, talorS, tanners, watch
makers, painters, milinerS, and others, shall pay
tlCeHty;fUe cents on every hundred dollars worth
OF gross TeceiptS-not of capital or profit but CT
gross receipts of earnings; while innkeepers,
apothecaries, ana others, besides their licenses
shall pay dollar on every 800 of gross re-
ceipts. Under this law, in VIcksburg, a livery
stable keeper, in license, and one dollar every
hundred dollars of gross receipts. paid tax of
SOL OBJ; firm of apOthecaries, 1902 So; butcher
S243. 70; a firm of bricklayers, on their own work.
So7 76; a shoemaker, STOPS; clerk in a hardware
store, with no property except salary of 81 200
year, S33; barber, with TO assets except his
soap, shears and razor, <107.63; cOlored dray-
man, for his dray and two mules, $33 80; a soda
fountain man, S115.SS."
Can any record more wildly portray
the spirit of the southern democratic
leaders? Have the northern labor re-
formers anything to hope from these
men if they shall ever sit in the seats of
national power?
How will such men respect the politi-
cal rights of labor? Let Gen. Butler, of
South Carolina, answer. He was asked
by the house committee whether he had
said that his colored laborers should not
remain on his lands unless they voted the
democratic ticket. He replied:
II said this: Invent down and gave them tick
cts, and said 10 them that they had right to vote
the republican ticket if they pleased; that they
were free men, as free as | was; but If they eCeF-
CiSed that right, and imposed taxes on me which
were destroying my property and prospects, l
should throw myself back on some of the rights /
had under the laws of the country, and see that
they LETT mig plantations"
He had twenty or thirty hands.
six or seven of them" he said, "voted the
democratic ticket, some OF them did not vote at
az and md d Go not know how the others voted, but
20: With view of turning them off if they
voted the republican ticket?
A.
they mad an honest ticket but for voting for these
THIEVES AND ROBBERS
here ], haze done so and intend to do there
tSee House Mis-. Doc. 81, part /, p. 3'3, last ses
sion of congress-
Among the ''thieves'' and robbers on
the republican ticket were two citizens
we'll known in the north-Ruthe rford b.
Hayes and William A. Wheeler; and the
head of the state ticket was Governor
Chamberlain, man whose honesty, civic
courage, and intellectual capacity, have
been more extravagantly eXtolled in South
Carolina than the merits of any one public
man since the days of John G. Calhoun!
Conversion by starvation was one of the
most potent agencies of the democratic
policy in the savage campaign in South
Carolina during the summer Of the cen
tennial year.
TWO HOSTILE THEORIES.
What has the patriot to hope from the
triumph of the democracy? The two hos
tile theories of citizenship clinched in civ
il war. The south taught the doctrine
that allegiance was primarily due to the
state, the north believed that allegiance
was due to the nation only. The southern
leaders still preach the old heresy to the
rising generation in their public speech
es, their histories, their colleges, their
school-books. This theory will confront
every honest scheme of national improve
ment. Temporarily abandoned when the
south only is to be benefited, it will OBJ
struct all the great measures of national
advancement which, as the country
grows, must prove too great and too dan
gerous to be confided 10 corporations,
and therefore must be undertaken by the
nation itself. Democracy is the creed of
province; republicanism the religion of
nation. Democracy grovels in fetid
wards; republicanism creates imperial
commonwealth out of desert wastes
EDUCATION OR IGNORANCE.
What has the philanthropist to hope
from the triumph OF the democracy? The
most important duty of national states
manship, although the problem least de-
bated, is the universal education of the
people. Democracy is as deadly foe to
education as the Romish Church is to
freedom. Democracy has its roots in ig-
norance. Where democracy rules, the
education of the people is discouraged.
ct no maxim is now more universally
accepted than that intelligence and vir-
tue are the foundations Of our institu
tiOns and the security of our liberties.
The popularity of this idea before the
war compelled some recognition of edu-
cation in the states where slavery existed
There were constitutional endorsements
of it and statutory provisions for it; but
the schools for the people that were es-
tablished under them in the larger cities
were sneeringly described by Gov. Ham
mond, of South Carolina, as "pauper
schools" The relicts of this sentiment
are distinctly manifested in the states of