Year: 1866

the trial should be in Virginia, where
the actual offences had been committed.
We, therefore, submit the matter for
your consideration.


By an irreparable law of nature, when
ever we fasten one end of the chain upon


fellow being, the other and heavier
end is linked around ourselves, corro-


ding our bodies until the iron enters our


very souls. We insist, therefore, that


the masses of our people were so pro-
foundly ignorant of the condition of


public affairs, and so misled and deceiv-
ed by the intensely selfish and wicked


aristocracy, as not to be morally re-
sponsihle for their participation in the


late rebellion, and that it would be ad-


ding cruelty to injustice to hold them


so. To convince the most sceptical on


this subject, let us look at the condition


and history of the first Congressional


District in this State. That District


contains more than four times the terri


tory of the rich, prosperous, enlighten-
ed, happy, liberty and equality loving
| State of Rhode Island, once the seat of


learning, and of boasted Virginia hos


pitality, the birth place of our Presi-


dents of the United States, embracing


the site of the first English settlement


in America. The city of jamestown,


which, now more fallen than Tyre, or


Sidon, or Sodom or Gomorrah, has not


enough of ruins even left for bats to fit


or owls to hoot in. In the nineteen


counties of that district, there is not


now, as it's Representatives in Congress


thirty years ago boasted, single news


paper published, and so long has the
ohon
bly, more than three fourths of its ma


tive grown men and women can neither


read nor write. Rhode Island, with its


half million acres, has nearly double the


population, ten times the wealth, enter


prise and education, and contributes to


the national Treasury more than twen-


ty times the amount of that district,


with its more than two millions of fer
! tile acres lying on both sides of the
Chesapeake Bay, and on the great rivers


James, York, Rappahannock and Poto-


mac, having the greatest commercial,


oyster and fishing capabilities of almost
any district in the United States. What


forcible illustration of the truth that


justice, equity, industry and virtue, or
as the Bible says, "Godliness is profit
able for the life that now is as well as
that which is to come. That righteous
ness exalteth a nation, but sin is re-


proach to any people,


We would not object to the sentiment
ofthe old and eccentric member of Con-


gress from the first district, if he only
referred to those reasonable newspa-
pers which have advocated rebellion,
for they have indeed been Il curse to us
all, bringing fire and sword, desolation
and death not only upon Richmond, but
upon every extremity of the State.


If we earnestly consider the origin
and inquire into the causes of our ca
lamities; if we ask why have our rivers
like ancient Nile, run blood why have
we like the Egyptians been overwhelm-
ed in a Red Sea, while we were trying
to prevent ourselves from escaping to
land of freedom? Why have our first
born been cut down by tens Of thou
sands until the voice of mourning and
1amentation fills the land as it once did
the land of Pharaoh? Why have we
suffered so many plaques as once visi-
ted the proud and stubborn oppressors
of the old Isralites ? We shall find the
answer to be, because, in the language
Of reason and philosophy, we have
made war upon the rights of human ma
ture. Or in the language of the old
Hebrews, because we have oppressed
the poor, and because the God of the 7
poor is determined to write with his |
own hand his adherence of slavery and I
oppression all over our land, in charac-
ters so legible that neither we, nor our |
children's children, can ever mistake his +
mind and will, in coming generations.


To our shame and disgrace, it must
be admitted, that as far as we are advis- |
ed, every one of the numerous conflicts |
of races which have occurred in this |
State during the past year, has been the
Wanton and unprovoked work of wick
ed white men upon poor, quiet, unoffen-
ding, and in most cases, unarmed and |
unresisting colored people. Why should
we murder, rob or interrupt them, burn
their school-houses and churches, insult
and attack the teachers, who in the
cause of improvement and elevation,
and Christian charity have come to US
from the ever friendly North, in the
same spirit that brought them in 1855,
to this devoted city, when the scourge
of yellow fever was here in its wrath
Let us not forget that then as now it
was to the North and it's generous peo-
pie that we had to look in our want for
aid and assistance. Unless stop is
put to such violence and outrage upon
the freedmen, we can never expect re-
lief from the presence of N orthern bay
onets, and admission to the rights and
privileges of the Federal Union; but
we shall become the by-word and scorn
of the whole civilized world. We shall
be considered barbarians, and be Justly
excluded from the sympathies of all
christian men. 1t is our duty, gentle
men of the jury, to see to it, that peo-
pie who were loyal and true to the ma
toms flag in the time of trial and dan
ger, shall be protected against the per-
of those who, fresh from scenes
of treason and rebellion, are pursuing
their victims with most internal hate,
for no apparent reason, except their fl
deity and devotion to the country.


We fully appreciate the magnitude
and difficulty of the task set before you
the monstrous wrong with which you
are called to grapple, like the giant