The free lance. (Fredericksburg, Va.) 1885-1926, 1902-11-13
BILL ARP WRITES OF THE POP
ULRR SAGE OF BARLOW.
The Philosopher IS reminiscent Dis
cSsSes Events OF the Past-Thines
He Does Not Know.

cSsSeS Events OF the Past-ThinqS
He Does Not Know.
Nanted-In 1881 General Henry X.
Jackson. of savannah. delivered i'm At
lenta the most notable, instructive and
eloquent address that has been heard in
Georgia since the civil war. The subject
was The Wanderer," a slave shin that
landed on the Georgia coast in 1853.
But the whole address was an historical
recital OF many political events that led
to the civil war and OF which the genera
tion that has grown up since were pro-
ioundiy ignorant and still are Ii was
delivered by request OF the Young Mems
Library Association, when Henry Grady
was its chairman. and / supposed was
published in pamphlet form aud could be
had on application. But have sought
in vain TO find a copy. | have newspa-
per copy. but IL has been worn to the
quick ard is almost illegible / wroteSo
Judge Pope Barrow. who is General
Jackson's executor, and he can find none
among the generals papers. Can any
veteran furnish me copy | would also
1e pleased TO obtain copy Of Daniel
Nebsters speech at CapOn Springs.
which was suppressed by his publishers
aud 10 which General Jackson makes al
fusion.
General Jackson was a great man. He
won his military laurels in the war with
Mexico. lie was assistant attorney gen-
eral under Buchanan when Jeremiah
Black was the chief. He was the vigilant.
determiIed, conscientious prosecutor
OF those who owned aud equipped aud
otieered the only slave ship that ever
landed on the Georgia coast lie was a
man OF splendid culture and poet of
ability and reputation. Strangeif is that
nd L..
compiled in the appendix of some South /
ern history as a land mark for the pres I
ent generation. Ii is sad and mortifving /
that our young and middle-aged men and /
our graduates from Southern colleges I
know 50 little of our ante -bellum history. I
The Northern people are equally ignorant /
Of the origin Of slavery and the real causes
that precipitated the civil war. Most of I
them havea vague idea that slavery was /
born aud just grew up in the south
came up out OF the ground like the II /
year-old locnsts and was our sin and our
cnrse Not one in ten thousand will be- /
ieVe that the South never imported a
slave from Africa, but got all we had bv /
purchase from our Northern brethren. / /
would wager a thousand dollars against 4
ten that not man under fifty nor a .
school boy who lives North of the line
knows or believes that General Grant |
their great military hero and idol. was a
slave owner and lived off Oftheir hire and
their services while he was fighting mn
about ours. I.incoln's proclamation OF
freedom came in S63. but General Grant
paid no attention to it. He continued
TO use them as slaves until January. 1865.
tSee his Biography by General James
Grant Wilson in Appleton's Encyclope-
dia General Grant owned these slaves
a h..
was bad manager and Just before the
war began he moved TO Galena and went
to work Tor his brother in the LANYARD /
While there he caught the war fever and 4
got good position under Lincoln. but
had he remained in st. Louis would have
greatly preferred one on our side. So
said Mrs. Grant a few years ago TO a
newspaper editor in st Augustine.
How many OF this generation North or
South know or will believe that as late as
November, 1861, Nathaniel Gordon mas
ter OF New England slave ship called
the Erie, was convicted in New York of
carrying on slave trade. tSee Apple- .
toni just think OF it and wonder, In |
1861 our Northern brethren made war
upon us because we enslaved the negroes
we had bought from them. but at the /
same time they kept on bringing more
from Africa and begging US to buy them.
How many know that England. our
mother country, never emancipated her
slaves until 1913, when twelve millions
were set free in the East Indies and one
hundred million dollars paid the owners
by act of parliament? 1t is only within
the last halfcentury that the importation
OF slaves from Africa has generally ceas-
ed. Up to that time every civilized
country bought them and enslayed them. !
English statemen and clergymen said it
was better to bring them away than to
have them continue in their barbarism
and canibaiism. And il was better. be-
iieve it was Gods providence that they
should be brought away and placed in
slavery, but the way il was done Was
inhuman and brutal. The horrors of the
middle passage, as the ocean voyage WAS
called, Is the most awful narrative ever
read and reminds me of fDante's'JnferDo." I"
About hall the cargo survived and tho
dead and dying were tumbled into the
sea. The owner said we can afford To
Hose hall and still have thousand Der
cent profit.
Rev. John Newton, one of the sweetest
poets who ever wrote hymn. the am.
thor of Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved wretch like mep''
Savior, Visit Thy Plantation "Safelv
Through Another Week, j." and many oth-
ers, was for many years a deck hand ON
a slave chip and saw all its horrors He
became converted, but soon after became
captain of SLAYER and for four veors
pursued il diligently and mitigated its
crneity. Then he quit and went IN
preachiog and says in his sautobiogranbv
that it never occurred to him that there
was anything wrong or immoral in the
slave trade where il was humanely con-
Quoted. The Savior said: "Offenses mnst
needs come, but woe unto them Inv
whom they come"
In Appleton's long and exhaustive ar
tiele on slavery it is said that slavery in
some form has existed ever since buman
history began. And it appears to have
been under the sanction Of Providence as
far back as the DAYS of Noah and Abra.
ham The latter had very greatbouse-
hold and many servants whom he had
bought with bis money. The word slave
appears but twice In the Bible Ia il sv-