Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-03-05

To see ouIsels as ithers see US,
Itwad frae mony a blunder free us
An foolish notion"
That this declaration applies as forcibly to
communities as to persons, nobody will deny.
The Chinaman at home, plg-tailed and al
mond eyed, is satisfied that all persons and
countries outside of the celestial empire are
barbarous and miserable, and as he eats his
rice and rat-soup with knitting needle, de-
vouty thanks his numerous wooden gods
that his lot was cast in the howery kingdom.
We, the people of Mississippi, have been
guilty of similar delusive self-felcitations.
As we have, week after week, viewed the
panorama of atrocious, disgusting, or in
geniously wicked crimes, as presented by
northern newspapers; as we have read OF
widows and orphans robbed by insurance
companies; of the swindles of savings banks,
OF the schoolgirls crowdlng around the
doors of courthouses to catch and discuss the
details of scandalous trials, a knowledge OF
whose very existence a southern matroo
would be ashamed to express, we have felt
thankful that we lived In an agricultural
State, remote from metropolitan temptations;
that our sons have been raised to gain their
daily bread by honest toll on their own smiling
acres, without aspiring to the positions OF
defaicatiug cashiers, fraudulent directors of
savings banks and life insurance companies,
or prominent political preachers with one eye
on a big salary and the other on the pretty
women of the congregation; that our
daughters would grow up innocent and pure,
free from the faint of aristocratic example 10
New York and Brooklyn; and our young
men have even been heard to say they would
not marry a girl raised in either OF these
cities, if she were the only woman In the
world. And yet IN this self-same Brooklyn,
mirror has been held up before the people
of Mississippi, that has shown them how they
look to some other people-at least to the
congregation and pastor of Plymouth church.
In sermon recently delivered by the highly
moral Henry Ward Beecher before that con-
gregation, he weighed the State and people
of Mississippi in the balance of his righteous
Judgment, and found them wanting. Listen
to his meme, tekel, upharSiH:
II don't call your attention to the alienation of
trust funds but call attention to the growing
delinquency of Reputation. When you see State
like Mississippi tcicb for all moral purposes might
hare the 2DateTS Of TIE GUT ton o0er her, and blot
qrOlO up Thereon State like Tennessee or Loulsl-
ana refuse to pay their debts; when Virginia hesi
tates and falters and wrigges. what is TO prevent
one after another of these states from dishonoring
all the reSt?"
Observe, Messrs. Editors, it is from a moral
point that this judge, who has no fear of
beng Judged, surveys our enormltles; and
this is why his judgment is so crushing. If
it had been from a political, or social, or
financial, or scientific, or from any point of
view except the moral one, we could have
borne it, in the hope there might be some
mistake, or some higher tribunal to which we
could appeal. But the whole world has
learned that in matters OF pure morality,
Henry Ward Beecher is the highest and most
ipdisputable authority known among men
and women, and to intensity our humiliation
the siken perfumed crowd who listened to
this preacher ofChrist's gospel while he thus
mathematical whole stateful of his fellow
countrymen, showed no disapproval of his
words; but on the contrary, several times
during the discourse, delicate rippes of ap-
plause concussed the aristocratic kid gloves of
this highly moral congregation. Having thus
disposed of the people and State of Missis-
sippl, Henry Ward Beecher proposes, 1t is
said, to visit Memphis some time in April.
Whether his object is to view across the
bordera the CONSERVATION and despair created
by his denunCiation, or TO establish a mission
station whence to begin the conversion OF
heather Mississlppians to the christianity of
Plymouth church, has not yet been an
nounced; but in any event we should not tail
to improve the opportunity that will then be
available. The most humble and concllla-
tory course would be to prepare written con-
fession OF our sius, admitting:
First-That we, the people of Mississippi,
although we deny the soft Impeachment Of
repudlatiug our lawful debts, confess that we
| have presumed to manage our financial affairs
in our own way, according to our own sovereign
will, without consulting Henry Ward Beech
err, Plymouth church, or the State of New
York, in consequence whereof out State
bonds are at par and Wall street is deprived
| of the pleasure of specializing on our mlsfor-
tunes and growing rich on our calamities.
Second-rhat in regulating our social IN
! tercoCrse, although we have taken many
worthy people of the north to our hearts,
| given them our sons and daughters IL mar
| riage, and bestowed upon them our public
| offices of trust and profit, yet we have dared
to exclude from our hearths sundry adven-
| turers, gamblers, tramps and carpetbaggers,
even though they hailed from the land OF
God and morality.
Third-Ihat concerning political affairs we
have to confess that the white people OF the
| State have wickedly held forth to the negro
such inducements as low taxes, common
| interest In a common country, universal edu-
cation, and personal Profession n al honor
able pursuits; and that sufficient number
| of intelligent freedmen have yielded to these
inducements to secure to US the control OF the
State for years to come.
Fourth-That in matters Of religion we
have to confess that our faith mas been weak
ened by the many successive shocks inflicted
upon It by those who are the acknowledged
opponents of christianity and heads of the
church in the moral cities of the north, but
we hope that few such exhibitions of broth
erly love and charity as the one that suggest
ed these comments may In time bring US
back to the true fold and enable us to realize
that we are citizens CT united country, liv-
ing under equal laws, and knowing but one
one God and one Savior.
Let this confession be presented to Henry
Ward Beecher by the governor OF our sta-e
and the judges of the supreme court, assisted
by few ministers of the poor substitute for
religion used by Mississipplans, and perhaps
our reverend censor will relent and cease to
proclaim that "for all moral purposes" Mis-
sissippi might have the waters of the Gulf
Cow over he- ana blot out ali her inhabitants,
that a race more honest might grow up
there" HAN.
PAEoLA Co., MISS, March 3, 1879.