Year: 1868

and their unrelenting hatred OF the North
and its loyal people. is sTeer}
| This bitterness toward Northern men,
| who prove true to their principles, and
who do not bow in slavish submission to
the opinions of these naughty aristocrats,
! selfconstituted judges of honor and mo-
rality, know from personal experience
Though descended from one of the oldest
| families of this State, and born and par
TALLY raised in Rockingham county, upon
my return nearly two years ago to my
native place, was denounced as Yam.
kee, and generally received with all the
coldness and distrust due to one of that
detested race. Notwithstanding my own
nativity, and the position of my mothers
family, they could never forget the Puri-
tan birth of my father, whose native State
Vermont, with her $4,000 majority, Sc
nobly leads the van: and may add, could
never forgive his<dying efforts in defense
| of his country.


Speaking OF h5na, and feeling that what
ever importance any words of mine may
have, is derived from the name bear, and
the affection many still feel toward one
who through life proved himself the peo-
ple's friend, few words concerning my
father may not be inappropriate. 1t was
with feeling of surprise, and must add,
of Indignation, that / saw his name in
scribed upon one of the transparencies
born in the late Conservative procession.
thought that common decency at least
would have prevented them from drag
from the tomb the name of man whom
they had betrayed and denounced through
life, and after shis death, whose orphan
children they had prosecuted.


While gazing upon that name ] remem-
bered the time when these same men de-
clared him traitor to every principle of
honor because he preferred his country to
his party, and bitterly denounced him for
his efforts to rally the people of the West
for the defense of the Union.


l remember all these when I am de-
clared degenerate son; and for every
quotation they give me from his speeches
l will give them a dozen. When the Sen
t671eI parades sentence concerning a
white mans government, will remind
them of his dying words. When the wife
bent over the scarce breathing form of the
expiring statesman, and asked if he had
no message to send to his children, " Tell
them," said he, in voice rendered almost
inaudible by the near approach of death,
to obey and support the Constitution and
the laws Of the land" This solemn in
junction | intend to obey When see
myself personally abused by the Conser-
vative press, on account of my po
litical sentiments, and called traitor to
the State in which / was born, would
recall to their recollection the time when
[ was called an alien enemy. About the
year 1862, a bill was filed summoning
Thomas Steele (now Associate Justice of
the Supreme Court and r. A. Ellington
to Greensboro, to show why they should
not surrender the property of Robert M.
and Stephen A. Douglas, alien enemes of
the Confederacy; and when am denounced
as Yankee and carpet-bagger, would
remind them of their efforts to drive me
an exile from my native State, and render
me stranger to the soil that gave me
birth; as, however, have inherited my
fathers name, and his principles, it is nat
ural that / should inherit their animosity.
Nevertheless, it is strange that these men,
his bitterest enemies in life, should now
claim to be the truest exponents of his
principles, but not more strange than that
they should now assert themselves the best
friends of the Constitution of the United
States, and the infallible interpreters of
its provisions, after they have sacrificed





thousands of millions of treasure to
trample into the dust that sacred instru-
ment.


Such is their consistency, and such it is
throughout all their political principles.
If white Republican addresses a crowd
of colored men, expressing his honest SEN
timents, instructing them in their rights
and duties, and advising them.as friend,
that action involves social equality, and is
disreputable.


High-born conservatives, however, can
mingle promiscuously among colored men
at barbecues, eat from the same sheep, and
drink from the same bottle, and they de-
serve the praise of their fellow citizens.
If a colored man, following his honest con-
victions, votes for the best interests of his
race, and as all his higher instincts prompt
him, he is totally unworthy of the ballot,
and is even unfit to olga bare subsistence
from the bosom of the common earth. If,
on the other hand, that colosed man
proves traitor to his race-votes to con-
sign himself, his wife, and his children to
a condition worse than slavery, for they
all say that the condition of an old free
negro was worse than that of a slave, he
is respectable, and his swarthy hand is
worthy of grasping the sweetest flowers
plucked by the snowy fingers OF Carolina's
fairest daughters. By reference to the
columns of the Standard you will learn
that in the town of Chapel Hill, of classic
fame, the ladies, to testify their admiration
for the eloeuence of colored Conserva-
tive orator, presented him with an elegant
bouquet of flowers. I have no objection to
this. The flowers were their own, and
they may give them to whom they please ;
but claim the right, as long as observe
the restraints ofpublic decency, of deciding
upon the propriety or impropriety of my
own conduct The time has gone by
when one man was better than another
because he happened to be born in inde-
pendent circumstances, and henceforth
virtue and intelligence alone shall be the
criteria of merit. Nothing more clear
ly shows the utter hopelessness OF the So
called Conservative cause, and the politi-
cal degradation to which the party has de-
scended, than the means employed to In
sure success; since they are afraid to leave
the result with the unbiased vote of the
citizens of the State and country. ANY
man who, by refusing employment to all
who will not swear to vote the Demo
cratic ticket, and this is done openly all
over the State, attempts to starve col
ored man into voting against his deliber-
ate convictions and the best interests OF
his race, is less worthy OF the ballot than
the negro whom he influences.


Consider, then, the difference between
the candidates, Seymour, former Governor
of New York, and Grant, the conquerel
of the rebellion 1t is true that Seymour
may be the more fluent speaker, that is
IL - h,4% -