Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1886-11-24

msnt there, who, by accident. acquired
wealth but not decency or intelligence.
Parr wal possessed ofplain, hard senee. but,
unfortunately, had very little education:
A few white delegates pretty generally ran
the convention. These we're clear-headed
Union soldiers and ex-Confederate soldiers
who were in good faith reconstructed A
debate was in progress upon the question
of requiring q 'test-oath' of all electors, and
the ex-soldiers of both armies ind a large
majority OF the negro delegates favored q
liberal policy, and opposed what was known
as the 'iron-clad' oath, that would prac-
tically have disfranchised nearly every
native-born white voter in Virginia. par
ticularly those who lived east Of the
mountains.
"a committee of extreme Republicans
and Democrats went to Washington City
and laid the facts before President Grant
and the Co. gressional Committee on Re
construction These high authorities gave
their influence to the proposed liberal pol.
icy, with the understanding that, before its
final adoption, the constitution formed
should be submitted to the people OF Vir-
ginia for ratification, and to the United
States Congress, then largely Republican,
The committee returned to Richmond in
high feather, and reported the result OF their
interview with Grant, and such Statesmen
as Senators Wilson, Sumner, and Morton,
and such Representatives as Thad. Stevens
and others like him. The question came
up in tie Black Crook Convention. A
delegate from a Peninsula County offered
the 'irun-clad' oath as a substitute for the
liberal proposition. This delegate was a
camp follower, who had been a bounty
:,n,,ov nnl ovyo rp,o1lol oor,lo- @l,,,rh
twice enlisted in the Union army, and draw
ing the bounty given at that time. Hehad
no property, and by blatherskite talk with
the masses OF the ignorant ~ex-slaves, he
had secured his election. If the 'iron-clad'
clause was defeated he and those like him
would disappear forever from the political
field, and draw 40 more per diem; there
fore, he out-shouted the most radical and
extreme delegate, white or colored, in the
convention.
1T was then that delegate Parr-the orig
inal anti-Secessionist ,ant~i-disunionist, anti
Confederacy member from Nausemond--
arose. In his way. that called every mans
attention, he told how he had done all he
could against the war, against jeff. Davis
government and secession. How he had
escape across the hostile lines; bad given
information to Union officers, and in every
possible way given aid to the Union cause.
He pictured in his u%nscholarIv way how his
little home across the creek had been de-
stroyed by the Southern army, and how
his only means Of making n livelihood
by fishing and catching oysters
had been wiped out. He pictured the aid
he had given to the slaves Of rich men to
get away to the land OF liberty, where the
stars and stripes were flying. Then he
turned to and described that little delegate
from the Peninsula County having no
home, barely a name, in the north; who
had by questionable means secured a seat
in that body, where for the first time in
his life, he was associated with gentlemen
who was nobody at the North and had
come South to dictate what should be the
law to govern 500. 900 peoplei in that State;
who stole United States bounty money and
fired not a gun in the United States de-
Tense, and had lodged in the fishing shanty
OF a poor ignorant negro on York river,
wearing a pair Of 15.cent socks and stolen
government drawers and a worn blouse
that he had carried in a cheap-John oil
cloth carpet bag" And then, with face lit
up and eyes flashing Indignantly, he asked
whether that select body of lawmakers,
assembled to give to a great State a funda-
mental charter for government, would be
influenced in their work by the advice OF
Grant, Wilson, Morton and such men as
these statesmen at Washington. or by a
'carpetbagger from a Peninsula county no
larger than a Nausemond peanut patch
THE word was repeated from mouth to
mouth. AS if by magic 'carpetbagger' be-
came a political catch-worl. 1t has lived
from that day to this day, and has become
thoroughly incorporated in our Ian
guage as any modern word that Can be
mentioned. Old man Parr has long ago
been gathered to his fathers. The people
OF Suffolk, Nansemond's capital city, ire
spective OF political opinion, revere his
memory and respect and love his wisdom
and his orphans, and whenever Fairs
name is SPOKEN in the Old Dominion State,
'carpetbagger' involuntarily follows upon
its mention. It is PARIS word. His ridi-
Guile sent that class OF political adventures
TO the rear and ruin. They have long ago
gone from the State and are heard OF in
her politics no more. But 'carpetbagger'
still survives, and at each. returning politi-
canvass in some place, is the slogan
OF the hour.
$50 too, if the reader will search he will
find that 'bulldoze' arose in a somewhat
manner, in Louisiana during the
political reign OF Yarmouth, and SO 'ske-
had its origin in the resemblance
las a Massachusetts soldier thought) OF a
Hampton Roads crab, trying to get to
water to the movement of a Massachu.
sets regiment at the battle OF Bethel, when
Butler sent Gen. Wool to capture the Dixie
and Prince John McGruder. The
word subsequently became Of general use
and to-day has Il well defined meaning.
The same is true of monkey for example,
don't monkey with a buzz saw
"And it may be safely saidthat as words
are sounds used to convey our ideas or
any sound that does convey these
IDEAS or wishes is Il good word and fit to
find a place in the bright lexicon OF Anglo
YOUTH
The Travelled gentleman looked at the
and with a friendly smile babe the
reporter good night"