Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-07-09
REV. NM. HARLEY HEARD
FROM.
His Denial of ISLANDERS Against
Georgia-InfOrmatIO Wanted.

| GeOrgfa-InfOrmatiO Wanted
We find the following manly and excel
lent letter in the Richmond (Va.) Religious
Herald, from Rev. Timothy Harley, formerly
pastor of the Savannah Baptist Church. 1t
will be perused with interest:
Editors Of the Religious Herald, Richmond, "a:
Ny DEAR SIRs-A colored man, named
| Lewis Charlton, called on me to-day, and
stated that he was a Baptist minister, from
| a small town or village named Westminster,
not very far from Baltimore. He also said
| that he had come to England to collect two
thousand dollars with which to build Bap-
| fist church and school room for his people
l asked him why he came hSTe to beg the
money, when the Baptists of the United
States were far ADLER to assist him than the
| Baptists OF this country. He then affirmed
| that it was of no use for a colored man to
ask anything of his white brethren in the
| South; and that in Maryland colored child
/ would no sooner be tolerated In public
| school than a rattlesnake, and If a colored
man were to enter a church for white
people, he would be kicked out like mad
dog. These are his own words. Now,
have spent seven happy years In the South
ern States, and l know that this antipathy
of the white Christians against their black
brethren is wickedlY misrepresented and
grossly exaggerated, especially by freedmen
who come hither to get money by exciting
English pity for the ''poor negro" and who
display the very bitterness OF which they 80
piteously complain.
am, sirs, neither an advocate nor an
aDologist for the evil of slavery, of which
the Sunny South is now happily rid; nor DO
forget that the system was the parent OF
fearful abuse in too many instances; aoAse
| which l believe every rightminded man In
/ the South sincerely deplores. No thrilling nc
| ton written more for political than Tor phil
anthrOpical purposes, was needed TO make
| Christian detest tyranny In every shapes
| but let justice be heard though the heavens
fall. The people Of the South are not to
bear all the blame for a traffic in which the
people of the North, and the people
/ of England, too, formerly had
part. Neither are the kind masters
| and mistresses, who formed the major
portion of the slave owners, to be judged
with the brutal minority in whose eyes ne
groes were merely ministers to their greed,
oppression and lust The mass OF the color
| ed people are seeing, with daily increasing
| clearness Of vision. that the white people OF
the South aye their true friends, duping them
| with no false promises, plundering them with
| no dishonest banks, esjoling them through
no political knaverY; but encouraging them,
| amid altered and accepted circumstances, TO
| live honest, virtuous, industrious and cody
1 lives. so Llat inc lduu Ol buOiA ilOCAbf moJ
become the land of their lasting prosperity.
Holding such views, could not credit the
| statements of my cOlOred visitor; and lis
| tened with amaZement when he further
smoke of districts in Georgia where colored
| men were engaged to work for a year, and
| IL they refused to fulfill the engagement they
were put on the chain gang aud 'ohlpped 70
their cork. When l told him that l had
| lived in Georgia, and that L was sure his
| charges were false, be said that he had
| been so informed. Poor old man his
gray hairs moved my heart, and made
me regret the keener that he could
have been the victim Of such animosity.
But I was more panied when ne
expressed his sorrow that martial law was
| not still continued in all the Southern states.
Martial law over a crushed, Impoverished
and desolated people; and those people the
| fellow countrYmen and brave brothers OF
| their richer and more numerous victOrs!
| Then martial law in Ireland cannot be such
| a cruel wrong after all. calais, for the
rarity of Christian charity, under the sunP'
Alas, also, for the consistency OF some who
call that an evil In one country which they
consider good in another, ard that other
country their own.
Now, as these representations, or mtsrep-
RESERVATIONS, are being constantly made in
England, desire you to publish this letter
| that l may be furnished with facts and au-
thorities with which to refute the SANDER
Gus reports. At first l thought OF writing
to DR.. Williams, OF Baltimore, to answer
for Maryland, and to DR.. Tucker, OF At
lanta, to answer for Georgia; but as your
paper will meet the eyes of all, l solicit In
formation from every quarter that Will
prove to the English people that the colored
people are kindly treated by their white
Christian brethren throughout the South,
and that there is no need for the poor
freedmen to cross The ocean to find sym
pathy aud succor in their efforts TO beneht
| and bless their race.
Nearly all who visit England from
America are from the North, and they are
| heartily welcomed; not as Northerners, but
as Americans; for they and we are one, and
| the unity was never more cordially &C
| knoWledged than at present. An American
| is not asked what section he comes from,
nor whether he is of Northern or Southern
| sentiment. Therefore every attempt to
| prejudice the English mind against any one
class or party among our TRANSATLANTIC
| brethren is a high misdemeanor against
| that heavenly law of love which COM
mands the partakers of a common civlliza-
| ton and a common Christianity, for
/ the worlds sake and their own, to be Of one
| heart and mind. And, surely, in the body
| Of baptized believers who constitute the
| true apostolic succession, with one Lord,
| one faith and one baptism, there should be
| no such i'll feeling as would certainly be en-
gendered If it were believed that a poor
/ brother had to come over here for help, be
cause out of more than a million of South
| ern Baptists not one would lend helping
hand to build house for divine worship,
on account of the color of that poor
brothers skin.
TIMOTHY HARLEY,
Pastor of John Street Chapel, Bedford Row,
nnd