The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-10-05

kindness and good will, and l wish you
many more years of happiness with your
good wife, children and grandchildren.
and further hope that Bill Arp's Letter
will continue to visit us for very many
years to come.
That is a good letter. good man
wrote it. could neighbor with him
and his folks and never say word TO
give them offense But / would teach
them something they do not know-teach
them gently line upon line, precept upon
precept-here a little and there little.
Now, mere is a gentleman OF more than
ordinary intelligence and education who
does not know that the sin of slavery
began in New England among his fore
fathers--not ours-and from there was
gradually crowded southwark until 1T
got TO Georgia. and that Georgia was the
first State to prohibit their importation.
See Appleton's Cyclopedia (Slavery and
the Slave Trade). He does not know
that long after New England and New
York had abolished slavery their mer-
chantmen continued to trade with Africa
and sold their cargoes secretly along the
coast and never did but one reach Geor-
gia and. that one, THE Wanderer." was
seized and confiscated and its officers ar
resi- ed. 1.-THE Wanderer" was built at
PASSPORT. in Maine, was equipped as
SLAYER in New York and Offered there
and crew employed. He does not know
that Judge Story, Chief Justice of the
United States Supreme Court. when pre-
siding in Boston in 1884, charged the
grand jury that although Massachu-
setts had freed their slaves, yet the
slave trade with Africa was still going
on ard Boston merchants and Boston
Christians were stepped to their eye
brows in its infamy. He does not know
that when our nations 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was repealed.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 1T
vet if they can find a market, and can
get the rum to pay for them. The last
record of q SLAYER caught in the act was
in 1861 off the coast of Madagascar, and
it was an Eastport vessel. The slave
trade with Africa was for more than
century a favorite and popular venture
with our English ancestors. King James
III and King Charles II. and Queen
Elizabeth all had stock in it, and though
Wilberforce and others had laws passed
to suppress it, they could not do it. New
England and old England secretly car
ricd it on (see Appleton long after slav-
cry was abolished in the colonies. They
could afford to lose half their vessels
and still make money.
cla a
sin at all. which | deny, it was not our
sin. nor that of our fathers. nor were
we cursed with so many illiterate. low
lived negroes as you suppose. Our
slaves were not edGoated 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 chain-gang nor a convict in
all OF the land and now there are AGO
in the State of Georgia. Who is respon-
sible for that? General Henry r. jack
son said in the great address he deliver
ed i'm Atlanta in 1881: During the four
years of war, when our men were far
away from home and their wives and
daughters had no protectors but their
slaves, there was not an outrage com
mitted in all the Southland. Where does
history present like development or
loyalty? Does it not speak volumes for
the humanity of the master and the
devotion of the slave? If | had power
to indulge my emotional nature | would
erect somewhere in the center OF this
Southland a shaft which should rise
above all monuments and strike the stars
with it's sublime head and on 1t would
inscribe, To the loyalty of the slaves OF
the Confederate States during the years
e2, SO and GA. ="
But this will do for the first lessor
to my friend. 1t may take some time
weeks or months-for US to harmonlze,
and we will not until we get the facts
straight. but | know that he is a gentle
man and | think more of Iowa and her
people since l received his letter
But my friend is lamentably ignorant
fbout the condition of our negroes before
the war and their condition now. / must
roSent apv Slauders upOn our slaves