The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-11-19
JUSTICE TO THE SOLUBLE
a severe Rebuke to Her staIuar+
Calumniators.

1he American Missionary Association ra-
Gentry heid Its annual meeting in Chicago
/ Inc ne new Mr.. Strictly, a celebrated divine nj
@SS" 1oIk, and one of the founders of the
ODerln College, Corresponding Secretary of
| the association, delivered himself of A yery
sensible address on the subject of the South
ern negro, IN which he took occasion 10
administer a very dignified but severe re-.
Duke to the stalwart abuse of the southern
people. HE American Missionary Asso-
cation makes it special work to inquire
lhto the the condition of the freedmen and
devise methods for their elevation to bet
ter state of citizenship and when one of its
member speaks his utterances are probably
| emitted to more than ordinary considera-
ton. The Rev. Mr.. Strictly says:
but show you another picture. 1t car
rles US back few years. The Legislature
/ 81 South Carolina is in session. Its mem
! bers are mostly black men. They have
generally no property and pay no taxes. vet
1 they nave taxed that impoverished State To
/ the verge Of destruction, not for public inn
/ provement, but to lavish it upon themselves
] IN suppers, wines, personal perquisites, in
jobs and in railroad schemes No more
scandalous or reckless plundering of pub
/ nc treasury has ever been practiced in
America, and that is saving a great deal.
/ Why Is this little handful OF mock legisla-
tors allowed to do this? Why do not the
! people rush upon them and hurl them from
the places they dishonor? Why? Simply
because there stands as a guard a file of
United States soldiers-not themselves suf-
/ hclent in numbers to be formidable but
representing the national government and
- ss,.ti-orisyy aud e,-~I- st-y.--
it. The South is indignant determined
and do you wonder?
The troops are now gone, the black legis-
lators dispersed, and white taxpayers are
in their places; and rising above all other
considerations is the purpose of those tax
payers that at whatever cost, and at what
ever needed methods, those irresponsible
plunderers shall never come back again into
power You blame them, but | fear You
would do the same yourselves under like
provocatIOns. If the general government
| by means Of bloody war should subdue
! the Western States and then enfranchise in
any one State enough Indians to outvote the
whites and those Indians should re-enact
/ the plundering of the Columbia Legislature
how long would the West bearit? | suspect
it would not be long till every Indian would
/ be converted into a good Indian, but it
would be in a Western sense he would be
4 dead Indian. Brethren of the North,
make the case your own. Put yourself i'll
/ your Southern brothers place. and Judge
/ him by your own impulses. What, then, is
i the true remedy for this great evil? To an
] SWeT tniS we uiuSJ honestly COflSlueF WIldU
4 the real evil is. These South Carolina tax
payers don't crush these black votes because
/ they are black. They would do the same
/ to the ''poor whites if they, having the
numerical force should enact the same
wrongs Nor is it because they are Repub-
licans. The trouble, therefore, is not with
1 the mans color or party, but with the man
| himself-with his ignorance, his degradation
and his facility in being used as the tool of
desi yning men.
| The remedy, then, is not to change his
color or party, but his character. All other
remedies are delusive, and it is a national
/ folly and crime to tamper longer with them.
| x 1t is a shame and a grievous
wrong to leave matters as they are. 1t is
wrong to the blacks to compel them to suffer
/ in the South or flee to Kansas. 1t is unfair
/ to the South to put them to the dreadful
alternative of suffering doing such great
wrongs 1t is a shame for an enlightened
nation to keep itself thus embroiled, to the
hindrance of its prosperity and the jeopardy
of its peace.