Woodville Republican. (Woodville, Miss.) 185?-current, 1902-10-18
ARP GETS A LETTER.
From an IOwan Who Disagress With
Him on Slave Question.
The Philosopher says He Thinks
More of Iowa and Her People
Since Reading It-WOuId Teach
His Unknown Friend.
copyrighted by the Atlanta Constitution
and Reprinted by Permisslon.l

copyrighted by the Atlanta Constitution
and Reprinted by Permission,l
"Keokuk, Ia, Sept. 10, 10O2.-Maj.
Charles H. Smith, Cartersyille, Ca
Dear Sir; For several years past
have been reading your letters. !
like very much your writings about
the home life, everyday events and
the many little incidents OF your ex-
perience, looking backward over a
long and busy career.
Although stranger, of opposite
politics and with many different views
of life, still your words have inter
ested me and have so many times
touched my heart that l want to
write Q you my appreciation. l wish
you could visit Iowa-go over it from
the Mississippi to the Missouri river
and meet the people of republican
state. You would, no doubt, soften
your writings about the northern
ers.' You would find as warn-heart-
ed and generous people as you have
in Georgia.
you would find people that aver.
age in intelligence with any people
on earth If 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 reason for their sacrifice was
in the cause of the union OF all parts
of this great country and liberty for
all humanity
at is certainly great curse to
have - many illiterate low-lived ne
groes in your state; but how true Is
the Bible, that you revere, when it,
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 now their children's chill
dren suffer the consequences.
Il 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
Lpiness with your good wife, children
and grandchildren, and further hope
that Fill 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 never say a word
to give them offense. But l would
teach them something they do not
know-teach them gently line upon
line, 7reeept upon precept-here a
little and there little. Now, here
is a gentleman of more than or
binary intelligence and education, who
does not know that the sin of slavery
began in New England among his
efathers-nOt ours - and from
there was gradually crowded south
ward until it got to Georgia, and that
Georgia was the first state to pro-
hibit their importation. See Apple
tons 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 At
RIGA and sold their cargoes secretly
along the coast and never did but one
reach Georgia, and that one, The
| nH
Gated and it's officers arrested. The
Wanderer was built at Eastport, in
Maine, was equipped as SLAYER in
New York, and Differed there and o
crew employed. He does not know
that Judge Story, chief justice of the
United States supreme court, when
presiding in Boston in 1884, charged
the grand jury that although Massa
chusetts had freed their slaves, yet
the slave trade with Africa was stlii
going on and Boston merchants and
Boston Christians were STEPPED to
their eyebrows in its infamy. He
dors no! 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 prohibit it, but later
on Che prohibition was repealed. New
England carried on the traffic until
1S45-and is doing it yet if they can
fipi 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 Madagascar,
and it was an Eastport vessel, The
slave trade with Africa was for more
taan a century fayorite and popu-
lar venture with our English ances-
tors. King James H. 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 secret
ly carried it on (see Appleton) long
after slavery was abolished in the col
onies They could afford to lose half
their vessels and still make money.
No no. my friend. If slavery was
a s'n al ALL which ! deny, it was not
our sin, nor that of our fathers, nor
were we cursed with so many illit-
crate, low-lived negroes as you sup
pose. Our slaves were not educated
in books as they were in manners and
morals and industry, and, mark you
there was not a heinous crime com
mitted by them from the Potomac to
the Rio Grande. We did not have a
chain-gang nor a convict in all the
land, and now there are 4,400 in the
state of Georgia. Who is responsible
for that? Gen. Henry r. Jackson
said in the great address he delivered