Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1883-05-09
Further Testimony.


from the recently published pamphlet Of
the Rev. ]. L. Tucker, DID,, upon the rela-
lions Of the church to the colored race, sui
ficiently full to enable its readers to form
an idea Of what, from his point OF view and
that Of some seventy witnesses whom he
called up from all sections Of the south, is
the condition Of the colored population OF
that region in respect to morality and re-
ligion. The New York Observer, believing
DR.. fuckers statements were inapplicable
to the race, as whole, started an indie
pendent line Of inquiry. The results of its
researches are published. DR.. Tucker could
hardly wish for more striking confrma-
ton Of the truth of his allegation than Is
given by the Observers witnesses Their
unanimity and their positiveness leaves lit
tie ground for belief or hope that detailed
canvass OF the regions Of the colored popu-
lation would disclose state of things diff
fering essentially in kind. The first of the
Observers witnesses, a Presbyterian pastor
Of long experience in Georgia, says that
journals article on this subject expressing
disbelief in the facts alleged he has " shown
to prominent men Of BOTH RACES and they
agree with DR.. Tucker almost in every
statement" A leading colored man in the
community in which this witness lives said
in answer to inquiries that the morals Of
the negroes are no better than in 1865, and
he feared they were worse; that in that
village having colored population of four
hundred he did not know that there was a
single virtuous young unmarried woman
and was sure that the great majority were
living in RIGHTEOUSNESS because they can
live that way without work." No disgrace
attaches to unchastity. OF the morals of
the ministers he said, Some Of them are
very fair, others very bad;" that, speaking
only of those he had seen in that locality,
three-fourths of those who had preached
there in the last fifteen years have been de-
tected in adultery. The same questions ad-
dressed to farmers, lawyers and doctors, in
the county of this pastors residence elected
the answer that the morals of the negroes
care not better than in 1865" Speaking
for himself he expresses the belief that the
fruitful source of so much of this immoral
ity results from the licentious lives of so
many of their ministers. Like priest,
like people," Out of two hundred convicts
on the convict farm for that county, forty
were preachers or licensed exhorters. Wit
nesses from Louisiana, Virginia, Kentucky,
Tennessee, Maryland and Kansas, some of
them northern men many years resident and
in business in the south, having opportuni-
ties for observation, others Presbyterian
clergymen and missionaries lifelong resi-.
dents or long time workers among the
colored people, say with varying degrees of
emphasis, that so far as their observation
extends, "Dr. fuckers statements are liter
ally and intensely true" and are in accord.
ance with the testimony Of Christian gen.
tlemen" in the southern states generally.
There is striking uniformity and positive.
ness, sustained by disagreeable fullness of
details, in the testimony of these witnesses
There is large membership in the churches,
says one, "but there is no pretense of Chris.
tisn character as it is understood at the
north" "The preachers are the worst of
all, it is repeatedly alleged, and that their
influence is all against the incoming Of
educated colored ministers. That the me-
gro professors as class appear to have no
idea of morality or practical Christianity
and will not submit to instruction nor listen
to the preaching of the whites, is the testi-
mony of others, and the Observers witnesses
confirm the reports of retrogression since
the war, OF gross and unrestricted immorali-
ties, of unfaithfulness to marriage VOWS.
Their religion has no perceptible effect upon
them for good. Their preachers have been
heard to ask them not to steal chickens on
their way home from night meetings, and
while prayer-meeting was going on in an
out house a kettle of water was heating at
the same time to scald a stolen hog. A
Boston lady, missionary among the refu-
gees from various southern states settled in
Ah"hooot Vho hdo hNCu dlOuO dmOuR LuObt
people and seen them in all the vicissitudes
of their lowly life, closes long detailed
statement Of the irregular lives and scan
dalous crimes of pastors and professors with
the statement that here and there is man
or woman who earnestly desires better
things, but on the other hand "the blood
would run cold with the moral atrocities
which she has seen and known among the
refugees. This testimony fills several col.
umns in the Observer and its terrible posi-
tiveness can be only feebly apprehended
from the meager summary we have given.
Over against this dark picture the Oh.
server places first the testimony Of Presby-
terrain layman, an ex-confederate soldier.
He admits that "the negroes are in great
superstition and darkness and that "their
morals are low and degrading" and it is
difficult to see why he should be put on the
stand on this side of the case. The pious
generalities and Inscriptions of praise to Mr..
Slater in which he INDUCES do not seem to
meet the point. The second "witness on
this side simply introduces a letter from
Virginia prosecuting attorney dated at
-" Amelia c. H." in which this official con-
graduates missionary laborer in that To-
cality upon the success Of his work as shown
by "a marked improvement in the conduct,
character, morals and intelligence of the
colored population of that locality. The
third witness evidence is chiefly of the
"Iu Quoque," or "you're another" charac-
ter. Against the charges of negro licen-
tiousness an alleged declaration of DR..
Nehemiah Adams is adduced, that he,
DR.. Adams, believed the marriage VOW
was more faithfully kept among the negroes
OF the south than in Massachusetts,. In
further proof of the falsity of the allega-
tions affecting negro morals he sets up that
northern writers are grieving over the
charges that in the New Engand states the
average of divorce to marriage is one to
eight A missionary in North Carolina,
the last of the Observers rebutting wit.
nesseS, is the only one that gives satisfac.
tory and discriminating evidence, present
ing details, of the existence of an orderly
negro community. He presents q picture
of regard for the laws of property in the
locality covered by his observations whicb