St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1899-07-08
ARP HAS SWORN OFF.
Northern People Will Not Be En-
hghtened About the Negro.
How the Record Of Massachusetts
Compares with That of Georgia
How the slave Trade
Was Fostered.

upon them. From time to time we have
sent our best men there. We sent Gen
Gordon and Colquitt and Henry Grady
and they were well received, and we
thought our Georgia missionaries hae
converted them, but in little while
shey had relapse. Gov Northen
thinks he has converted all but the ed
itors, but my observation is that editors
control the animus of the people, ano
il they are against us their readers viii
be. / notice that some OF their editors
are easy on our governor, but none. Of
them have apologized. They have got
to repent and apologize before we vii
be satisfied with their conversion. This
thing Of going up to the altar and shal-
ing hands is played out They@fiked te
have shook Henry Grady S arm off. sblft
in q few months they took it all bach
andwen to abusing us again about the
negro. It is very discouraging to a mis-
sionary to have to keep on CONVERTING
the same heathen. / notice thad one oil
their papers lets us down sorter easy
on Sam Hose, but wants to know what
about the Iynching Of Lige Strickland.
That's all right. Give US something
hard. Lige was "a preacher in Meri-
wether county, and his father-in-law
Aaron Watson, says he was the mean
est niger iTi the county, that he beat
his wife up sseandaious!y and cut, and
slashed her with a butcher knife, and
the members gof his own church toog
himaeut one night and gave him hun
dred lashes and told him to leave, the
county. Then he settled down IN Cow
eta and turned politician and made him
self generally distnrber of public
peace and good order, and finally
capped the climax by denouncing the
white people and defending Sam Hose.
The general opinion is that Lige got off
pretty well, for they didn't burn him.
The Boston Transcript says we are "a
generation behind the times; ii fact,
several New England generations be-
hind it," How is that? Why. hasn't
been 200 years since New England was
burning innocent. harmless women for
being witches. 1t hasn't been SO years
since Boston merchants were shipping.
rum to Africa to buy negroes to sell
again to slave countries. Long after
Massachusetts set her slaves free her
merchants carried on the slave trade.
Joseph Story, the great jurist, charged
the grand jury in Boston and said:
The slave trade is still carried on
among us with inplacabIe Kferoeity.
Avarice has grown more subtle in its
evasions of the law. It's appetite is
quickened rather than suspended. f0ur
citizens are STEPPED upfto their very
mouths III this iniquity..s'
w, w. Story, his gifted son. says:
''The Boston newspapers denounced nay,
father, and said that a judge who would
deliver such charge ought to be hurled
from the bench;Y and he says, further,
that athe fortunes OF many men of
prominence were invested in this in
famous business. When slavery oisap-
peared in New England the African
slave trade took ON new life, and was
winked at. A man might have position
in society and be considered a. gentle
man and Christian, while his ships
were freighted with human Cargo and
his commerce was in the blood and pain
of his fellow creatures. Many of the
largest fortunes in Boston were the
blood money of the slave trade and
came from the sale Of the wretched car
goes of negroes that survived the hor-
rors of their transportation across the
seas s3S S88
Yes, we are behind that sort Of busi-
ness several generations.
But I've sworn off. The history of
Massac achusetts fatiguess nay indigna-s
ton. Here are our negroes who would
be happy and contented if the northern
press would quit stirring up discomfort
and telling them lies. If old Mother
Julia Ward Howe, whoyis now in her
eighty ,frst year and ought to have an
old womar's IS sense, was to drop down
here in Gainesville she would see5sornes
young bucks wrestling on the depot
platform while waiting for freight, and
she would hear the merry laugh of
score of negro draymen who stood
around, She would hear the sound Of
the colored school bell She would pass
and repass negro women with basket
of clothes on their heads and smile on
their faces She would see negro girls,
clad in clean garments, nursing white
childrerf and watching them with ten4
der care. If there was funeral on
hand she would see happy. gath ering
Of women and girls, daughters OF Zion,
following the hearse, andsif there was
a ruilroad excursion on hand the depot
would be crowded with both sexes and
cort her carefully to the baseball
ground and let her see the young E bucks
play and hear them shout and give the
aegra yell for victory. But she is too
I'D TO be cured. | remember when she
published an abolition paper in 1S47.
But, pslawi Ii wouldn't do any good,
soI will swear of. Somebody said that
{ q woman was fool at 30 she would
pe fool until she died. And some
iody else said convince a woman
tgainsf her will and she viii be of the
ID Ilae opiEion still. And the parable
tays III they win not believe Moses
md the prophets, neither would they
believe tho one should rise from
hasdead. 4 And so win swear OK for
good and let those Boston pharisees die
N their own conceit. The Massachu-
setts state board of charities says In
sts annual report: ~. And now we find
hat there Is hardly aeountry q in the
Ilaerant crime Is SO common AS In Mas