The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1902-10-02
BILL APPS LETTER.
He Gets Communication From a Far
Away Admifer
WE0 ENJOYS HIS PHILOSOPHY
Bill Then Proceeds to Morales on a
Number of Things That Strike Ills
Fancy.

"Keokuk, Iowa, SPECIALIZATION
Charles H. Smith, Gainesville, Ca
Dear Sir: For several years past
have been reading your letters. l like
very much your writings about the
home life, the everyday events and
the many little incidents Of your ex-
perience, looking backward over q
long and busy career.
Although a stranger. Of opposite
politics and with many different views
of life, still your words have interest
ed ME and have so many times oucn-
ed my heart that | want to write to
you my appreciation. l wish you could
visit Iowa-go over it from the Mis-
sissippi to the Missouri river and
meet the people Of q republican state.
You would, 40 doubt, soften your
writings about the 'northerners.' You
would find as warTnhearted and gen.
erous a people as you have in Geor.
gia.
You would find a people that aver
age in intelligence with any people
on earth. II you could interview the
fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters or
wives of those who had fallen in the
war Of the rebellion, you would not
find bitter resentment; you would not
find that these men, who had given
their lives, had done so with any
hatred toward their southern brethren.
but you would find that the great rea-
son for their sacrifice was in the
cause Of the union of all parts of this
great country and liberty for all hui
mainly. This is northern sentiment.
and God, who rules wisely, ordered
that the result should be as it is.
1T is certainly a great curse to
have so many illiterate, low-liyed ne
groes in your state; but how true 1t
says the sins Of the fathers shall be
visited upon the children unto the
third and fourth generations To my
mind, the forefathers' Of Georgia
sinned in purchasing and owning
| slaves, and nov their children's
dren suffer the consequences.
81 trust you will receive these
words as they are meant, with the
greatest kindness and good will, and
| wish you many more years OF hap
piness with your good wife, children
and grandchildren, and further hope
that Bill Apps Letter will continue
to visit us for very many years to
come"
That is a good letter. A good man
wrote it. l could neighbor with him
and his folks and eve say a word to
give them offense. But | would teacE
them something they do not know
teach them gently line upon lire,
precept upon precept-here a little
and there a little. Now, here is a gen.
tleman of more than ordinary intelli-
gence and education who does not
know that the sin Of slavery began in
New England among his forefathers-
not ours-and from there was gradu.
ally crowded southwark until 1t got
to Georgia, and that Georgia was the
first state to prohibit their importa-
ton. See Appleton's C~yclopedia (Sla-
very and the Slave Trade). He does
not know that long after New Eng
land and New York had abolished sia-
very their merchantmen continued 20
trade with Africa and sold their car
goes secretly along the coast and
never did but one reach Georgia and
that one. 1.-The Wanderer," was
| seized and confscated and its off,
GERS arrested. THE Wanderer" was
built at Eastport, in Maine, was
equipped as a SLAYER in New York and
Offered there and a crew employed.
He does not know that Judge Story
chief justice of the United States ST..
preme court, when presiding in Bos-
ton in 1884, charged the grand jury
that although Massachusetts, had
freed their slaves, yet the slave trade
with Africa was still going on and
Boston merchants and Boston Chris
tians were stepped to their eyebrows
in its infamy. He does not know that
when our national existence began the
feeling against slavery was stronger
in the southern states than in the
northern. Georgia was the first to pro-
hibit it, but later on the prohibition
was repealed. New England carried
on the traffic until 1S45-and Is doing
it yet if they a find a market, and
can get the rum to pay for them. The
last record of a SLAYER caught in the
act was in 1861 off the coast of NADIA
gascar, and it was an Eastport YES
sci. The slave trade with Africa was
for more than a century a favorite
and popular venture with Dur English
ancestors. King James II and King
Charles II and Queen Elizabeth all
had stock in it and though WILDER
force and others had laws passed to
suppress it, they could not do it. New
England and old England secretly
carried it on (see Appleton) long af-
ter slavery was abolished in the col
onies. They could afford to lose half
their vessels and still make money.
No, no, my friend. II slavery was a
sin at all. which deny, it was not our
sin. nor that Of our fathers, nor were
we cursed with so many ill~iterate.
low-lived negroes as you suppose. Onr
slaves were not educated in books as
they were in manners and morals and
industry, and, mark you, there was not
a heinous crime committed by them
from the Potomac to the Rio Grande.
We did not have a changing nor q
convict in all of the land and now
there are 4.400 in the state Of Georgia.
Who ia ~reSnonsibla for that? General