The free press. (Charleston, S.C.) 1868-186?, April 11, 1868, Image 1
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CHARLESTON, S. C.
POST-OFFICE BOX, 495
SPEECH OF d H. CHAMBERLAIN ESQ.,
OF BERKLEY, ON THE INVALIDATION
OF SLA\'E DEBTS.
The Speech which we print below, was de;
jiveredinthe Constitutional Convention in
this city on the 22nd of January, upon the
ordinance to declare null and void all con
tracts, whereof the consideration was the
purchase or sale of slaves.
Mr. President : I am extremely anxious
that the measure which we are now consid
ering, should receive the approval of a very
large majority of the Convention, and it is
with the hope that I may say something to
add to that majority, that I take the time of
the Convention. Let me say at the outset
that I am not a repudiationist, that I am as
far as any man here, as far even,
to say, asfar as my friend from Fairfield,
from having any sympathy with any meas
ure that looks either in principle or ia
fact towards repudiation ; and when my
friend from Fairfield yesterday took occa
sion to call us who favor the present meas
ure repudiationists, and charged that this
was but the initial step, the entering wedge
of repudiation, he made a statement which
every friend of this ordinance denies, and
which neither the gentleman from Fairfield,
nor any other gentleman has proved. I
am neither in favor of repudiating nor scal
ing, nor staying by so much as one hour,
any honest and just debt. I do not believe
that this community, nor any community
can ever reach sound and substantial finan
fai! prosperity, until it abandons, utte"rly
and finally, all attempts to obstruct, delay
or forbid the speedy collection by due pro
cess of law, of any and all just legal claims
of one citizen upon another. It was upon
this principle and in this spirit that 1 re
corded my vote against the stay measure
which passed this body a week ago, and it
is with this principle in view and in this
spirit, that I now approach this question.
If I thought that the existing claims for
slaves fell within the category of just, legal
debts, ? know that I have no prejudice
against the system out of which they sprang
so strong, as to lead me to favor any meas
ure which would impaired their validity or
delayed their collection, and it is only be
cause I am persuaded that the nature of the
debts, and the circumstances in which they
now stand, are such as to take them
out of the catalogue and companionship of
just, legal claims ; upon high considerations I
say of justice and of law, not at all from
feeling or prejudice, that I favor the present
measure which forever extinguishes and
bars such claims. My friend from Fair
field, told us yesterday that this measure
grows out of our prejudice against slavery,
which led us to forget and overlook the
legal merits of the case. I desire for one to
say to my friend that it is precisely upon
the legal aspects of these claims, that I fa
vor the ordanance before us.
Mr. President, the existing claims for
slaves, of which there are thousands in this
community, grew out of the peculiar insti
tution of slavery. ^ By special legislation,
by positive municipal law, human beings
were considered property in this State.
They were not property naturally and with
out law?God and nature, the common, un
written laws of human society, made them
men. It was solely by^the force of positive,
enactments against natural justice and the
law of nature, by virtue only of a positive,
artificial code that they become property,
wherever such a code did not exist, men
were not property; or wherever having
once existed, it ceased to exist, men ceased
to be property and assumed their natural
condition. ? The nature and tenure of slave
property, was consequently at all times and
under all circumstances peculiar 'and pre
carious. It rested not like other property
upon nature and the original constitution of
human society, but unlike any other pro
perty, it rested solely and exclusively on
written, positive, special, municipal regula
tions. Such was the case in the slavehold
ing states of the Union, and while I do not
deny or seek to evade the fact that slaves
were by the statues of South Carolina pro
perty, and that this property was tolerated
and even recognized by the General Govern
ment, yet I do claim that from its very na
ture, property in human beings* was a pecu
liar, limited, uncertain nature, liable to dan
gers to which no other property was exposed
and held by whomsoever it was held, at a
peculiar risk and by a tenure liable to be
broken by the same process by wiich it was
created.
This, therefore, is my first observation ;
that at all times, even in its palmy days,
when the mountain of slavery stood strong,
when the dogmas of Calhoun and Hammond
passed unchallenged, and South Carolina in
t a e insolent frenzy of her madness was ready
to throw down the gauntlet to the world,
even then human beings were only a iimit
ed; peeunar, defacto property, held by a pe
-u?tar ?QUre and at Peculiar risks. It re
w ~> lacu> this position that such
property, property in human beings, could8
never claim the same sanctity, the same ?i- '
Tiolability, the same legal consideration at
our bands which we universali/ accord to
other property.
But, Mr. President, a controversy arrose
touching this same property, one section of
the Union sought its universal recognition ;
the other sought at first only its restriction,
but at last its destruction. The controversy
waa not a sudden one. It did not burst,
with sudden surprise, upen those who bad
invested m that property. The storm, the
crisis, were foreseen by the blindest. It
was to every man's vision a struggle which
should settle this precise question, "shall
human beings continue te be property ?"
Both parties recognized and admitted the
issue. Like a great suit at law the plead
ings on either, siae had at last narrowed
the entire controversy to this single and vi
tal ?3sue, "ifiall human beings be property fn
That JsB?? Wae joined. Every man knew
that he held his slave property subject te
the decision of that issue. Every man had
due notice that any investment he might
make or had made in, any claim he might
acquire to property of that sort, was sub
ject to that decision ; that is was good or
bad, valid or invalid, according as victory
should re*t on the banners of Lee and John
ston, or of Grant and Sherman; according as
the hateful symbol of a slave-holding con
federacy, or the glorious banner of a free
Republic, should finally float from the bat
tlements in yonder harbor. That was the
whole question. It was taken out of the
courts. It was referred to the dread arbi
trament of war.
Do 1 need to appeal to native South Caro
linians aroned me to attest the fact which
I state, that every man felt and knew that
his slaves were property, that his slave
bonds and'slave securities were good or bad
according as the confederacy stood or fell ;
who imagined that if the fortunes of war
went against South Carolina it would ever
be so much as a question anywhere whether
any claim based on slave property would be
valid?
No, Mr. President, the whole controversy,
the whole issue, was then and there decided.
A tribunal from which there is no appeal,
then and there, recorded its decision that
human beings were not property in South
Carolina ; and in whatever condition slave
property stood, then and there, I contend,
it must forever stand. The confederacy fell
and with it fell slavery ; with it fell proper
ty in man; with it fell every claim and
every obligation which rested on the basis
of slavery. I say, then, that the strictly
legal effect of the success of the arms of the
Union under the President's Proclamation,
was to finally extinguish slavery and to in
validate all titles and claims based on slave
property.
These, then, Mr. President, are my two
positions: 1st. That property in human be
ings was originally a peculiar, defacto prop
erty, entitled to no consideration, outside of
the force of the positive, municipal laws
which created and upheld it. 2nd. That
the precise question of its validity, after
long argument and all due notice* was sub
mitted to decision in the struggle of South
Carolina against the Union; that when
South Carolina yielded to the arms of the
republic, slavery, as a legal consequence,
with all its incidents, all its obligations, all
its concomitants, became finally extinct.
We are not, therefore, Mr. President, re
pudiating any debt. The war settled'the
debt. We are not staying any debt. The
war satisfied the debt. The rude hand of
revolution swept the docket, stayed from
every action, quashed forever every pro
ceeding, and forever arrested every judge
mtnt. And I state it here to day, as a le
gal proposition, fully capable of defence,
that this ordinance is no more than a mere
declaration and announcement of the strict
ly legal consequences of the failure of South
Carolina to maintain the issue which was
submitted to the tribunal of war.
Now, Mr. Pr?sident, if these principles
1 are correct, I do not need to meet any spec
ial objection to this ordinance, if this or
dinance rests on good and sufficient legal
grounds, the incidental hardships it may
work to individuals cannot change onr ac
tion. But I maintain that no hardship will
arise from the ordinance which was not the
necessary result of emancipation. It is true
that slave bonds are worthless, and so are the
slaves. Suppose the widows and orphans
who$e slaves were sold for bonds, had kept
them until the closeof the war, would they not
have lost them ? It is said that many wid
ow's and orphans and minors are to be ru
ined by the invalidation of these bonds.
Are there not many, I ask, of the same
classes who were ruined by the setting free
of their slaves ? But do we propose to re
munerate them for slaves set free ? No, Mr.
President, when slavery went down, every
thing based on slavery, deriving its force
and obligation from slavery went down with
it, as a legal, inevitable consequence, and
that in future no doubt may rest on this
question, no further litigation may be wast
ed upon this iss?e, we declare and ordain
by this ordinance that all such controversies
shall cease, that the doors of our courts,
shall not be open to contest claims which a
war of four years has proved, in the face of
the world, to be invalid.
For myself, Sir, I do rejoice, I confess,
that my moral abhorrence of that institu
tion in which these claims originated, is
also expressed in the ordinance before us ;
that while the ordinance rests on safe, suf
ficient, legal grounds, it also enables us to
fasten the stigma of our moral reprobation
upon human slavery.
The day has at last cotne when law and
morality' join in saying with Lord Broug
ham that it is a wild and guilty fantasy that
man can hold property in man.
I remember, Sir, with my friend from
Darlington, when the slave hunter bore
away his property from the streets of Bos
ton, which we had fondly called free : but
there were even those that day who swore
by the living God, that they would leave
no stone unturned till Anthony Burns could
walk the streets of Boston with his name on
his forhead and defy the Carolinas to come
and take him. That day has come. That
institution, by force of which alone, Antho
ny Burns was property, staked its existence,
its validity, its life on the issue of the strug
gle which began seven years ago in this
very city. The decision was made against
South Carolina, and now, Mr. President, I
do desire that through the mouth of the first
legal assembly of South Carolina since that
act of December I860, it should be announ
ced to the world, that in that great
suit, slavery was defeated, and, as a legal
consequence, everything which rested for
iti force and validity upon slavery, fell with
it; and that, henceforth, no issue arising
out of slavery shall be joined in our courts,
and no judgement for claims based upon
property in human beings shall be enforced
by authority.
**> SPEECH J?fcF MB^ ^ILLSB?^Y. .
Bem?rks of Hon. f?lbert Pillsbury^
deliver?d'?t tae Mass M?efing held at
the Club House-on Monday evening,
Maren 30th. ^ .
Thjis State has passed through many
and terrible vicissitudes since 1860.
The smoke of the first gun fired upon
Sumter has not yet cooperated. It
arose, and spread like a pail over this,
and all the other unreconstructed States
settling down by degreess, till it buried
them all in total defeat, and utter finan
cial ruin. Since that time, there has
been to this people but one period of
promise, and of hope ; and tnat was
when they were humble, and subdued,
by the surrender of the last Confeder
ate army to the Federal forces. If was
then that they scarcely dared ask, or
expected to receive favor from their
exulting conquerors. It was then that
any terms which might spare their for
feited lives would have been entertain
ed with alacrity. It was then also, that
the North, having exhibited its power
to quell rebellion against the govern
ment, and after having vindicated its
right to re-establish that government
wherever it had been destroyed, offered
most magnanimous terms to the fallen
enemy. These terms would then
have been - joyfully accepted, and this
desolated country would by this time
have advanced far upwards from the ru- "
ins in which it still lies prostrate, had
not the traitor at Washington, joined
hands with the traitors of the South, to
demand everything just as though they
had never sinned. Following his lead,
they have offered every measure of rea
sonable reconstruction, till now they are
about to see their ignoble leader banish
ed from his high position and doomed
to an eternal, disgraceful retirement.
Still, their enmity does not in the least
abate. They gloat over tbe defeat of the
Constitution in Alabama ; exult in ad
vance over our reported disconiforture
in Arkansas ; boast of what they intend
to do in Virginia ; and now here in
South Carolina, are trying to move
heaven antP earth to squelch the new
Constitution which has been formed
with the utmost care, and generosity,
and is soon to be submitted to the peo
ple for ratification. Strange infatuation?
Should they succeed, what can they ex
pect but a future still more gloomy than
the past ? If they succeed in smothering
this new born hope, I see nothing be
fore them but the desolation of despair.
For their sakes, if for nothing else, we
must not suffer them to commit such
wanton suicide. They may not at pres
ent accord to us cither philanthropy or
patriotism, but if we sueceeed for them
and in spite of them, the day will come
when they will rejoice that their own
madness has been overuled, and they
have been saved in spite of their very
selves. Sometimes resistance to an evil
is mora painful, and disastrous than
would be the endurance of it. If the
former ruling classes of the South re
gard it'asan evil that anarchy, confusiou
and misrule be displaced by well regula
ted government ; if they regard it as an
evil that millions of chattels have be
come citizens, it is useless for them to
resist it. The decree of the people has
gone forth, recorded by the
feat of the Almighty. And whereas
in this case, Vox Popoli est Vox Dei,
the \'oice of the people is the voice of
God, for a distracted, impoverished
minded people to resist, would be worse
than "kicking against tho pricks/^ it
would be butting out their brains against
the eternal, adamantine walls of justice
and right.
It is true that the changes through,
which this people have passed are great.
The whole system of their former gov
ernment has been supplanted ; and for
them to become reconciled to the new
order of things requires effort, requires
sacrafice, did we see them inclined to
make that effort, and sacrafice,
we should thank God, and take
courage. But the reverse of this
is true. They seem to have plunged
headlong into the slough ; and instead
of making manly, determined efforts to
regain the solid land, they pitch, and
flounder right where they are, utterly
declining any assistance from those who
stand upon the bank, sinking all the
while deeper in the mire. But they
must be rescued at any hazard. We
have farmed a good Constitution, and
we must spare no effort to secure its rat
ification. Then we must select such men
to make and execute the laws as shall
be firm, undaunted, but yet, generous
and just. We must move straight for
ward in the work which has been inau
gurated, without fear or favor, and then
the result will be victory to ourselves,
and eventually blessings untold to our
enemies.
1 We shall make South Carolina ere
long, prosperous and happy, in spite of
any, and every suicidal measure upon
which, in her madness and blindness she
is so terribly intent. We must niscthe
flag on high and boldly follow its lead.
We must not abate one jot of faith or
hope, till our work is fully accomplished,
till South Carolina shall again shine
forth among tire galaxy of States, beau
tiful because she is prosperous and hap
py, but thrice beautiful becauses he is,
really, and forever will.
The Late King of Bavaria refused to
marry the Princess Sophia. Charge, a
hasty temper. Specification, she b< xed
her maid's ears with a saucer.
- PUBLIC SPIRIT.
There is nothing that helps a place
along so rapidly as a proper exhibition
of public spirit on the part of its citizens
?especially of that portion of them
who from their wealth or the magni
tude of their business operations are in
a position to make their influence felt
for good or ill in the community. A
man may be born, grow up, pass through
life and die in a place, and yet that
place never receives one particle of ben
efit from his existence. He might as
well never had lived. A turnip or
cabbage would exert just as favorable
an influence on the public mind as he
does. He exists, breathes, vegetates.?
makes money, perhaps, invests it where
it will pay the best,?and dies at last,
and leaves his wealth, and that is all, to
remind any one that he ever lived. He
did nothing to help build up the place
he called his home, he suggested no im
provements, nor made any himself, and
only thought how he could add a dollar
to his bank account, or make his invest
ments pay better than they had done
before.
On the other hand, there are men
who realize that life is given for some
better purpose than the mere hoarding
of money. They believe they have pub
lic as well as private duties to perform,
and a portion, at least, of the wealth
which they accumulate belongs, in sofcie
sense, to the community among whom
it is accumulated. With this end in
view, they seek investments at home in
stead of going abroad ; they purchase
laud and improve it ; they erect dwell
ing houses and thus encourage immigra
tion from other places ; they enlarge
their own busiuess as fast as good judg
ment would seem to dictate, and give
employment toas many mechanics a;
possible ; they encourage others to en.
large their operations by loaning them
means, or furnishing increased accom
modations in the way of buildings or
machinery. In these and many other
ways they contribute to the growth and
prosperity of the community to which
they form a part. They give liberally
in aid of the charitable and religious or
ganizations of the place, and do it cheer
fully, as .thpugh it were a pleasure rath
er than a mere duty. Such men are a
blessing in the community, Their in
fluence is like that of the sun and rain
upon vegetation. Everything seems to
smile all about them ; their path is
marked with beautv, and flowers seem
to spring up beneath their very feet.
And the influence of such men is not
confined merely to what they do them
selves. Man is an imitative creature.
He is always seeking for models, and
apt to follow them, be they good or bad.
Genuine original men are scarce. There
fore he who sets a good example not
only benefits his race by what good he
does himself, but he stimulates ot hers to
do good likewise, and the influence thus
set in motion goes on extending until it
compasses the whole earth, perhaps. No
man can tell when or where his influ
ence will end, nor what form it will
eventually put on. Now a public-spir
ited man becomes a motive power, to
propel those around him wTho are capa
ble of any motion at all. Some men
are not. They are born to fill a small
circle, and they cannot fill a large one.
Public spirit is not to be expected of
such. They are mile-stones on the road
to point the way they never travel them
selves. Thus they serve their purpose,
doubtless, but their position is not to be
envied by live men, who have higher
ideas of life. We have known some
such men, of whom it may be said they
are fifty years behind the age. They
are contented in the possession of per
sonal comfort and ease ; their thoughts
are never troubled about public improve
ments, except it be the fear that they
may be taxed to pay for them. What
was crood cnouirh tor their fathers is
good enough for them.
One can conceive what a place would
be if entirely controlled by such men?
a Sleepy Hollow kind of a paradise, de
voted to the past, untroubled about the
present, and never even dreaming of the
future. If such men ruled the world,
railways, telegraphs and labor-saving
machines would be unknown, and we
should eventually relapse into barba
rism,
It is a duty men owe to themselves
and their fellow men to encourage a lib
eral public spirit. It is the opponent
of selfishness, enlarges the heart, and
makes the world better and more fit for
the residence of beings with souls. It
increases the great sum of human hap
piness, and promotes the best good of
the community and the world. A pub
lic-spirited man is generally a safe guide
to follow iu matters affecting the tempo
ral as well as spiritual good of the hu
man race.?Reporter.
IMPEACHMENT MEANS.
1. To vindicate the laws.
2. To preserve the authority of the
Constitution.
3.. To prevent a cc-ordinatc branch of
the Government from violently trans
cending its true powers.
4. To defeat usurpation.
5. To insure domestic tranquility.
G. To strengthen public order.
7. To still further define what consti
tutional government means.
S. To prevent the wresting of power
from the people by refusing to recog
nize the le?a? acts of their repr?senta
ti ves.
THE DEMOCRATIC PA KT Y IN OPPOSI
TION. *
A political party fits itself for power
in opposition. That is to say it works
itself clear from many trammels and
complications, which inevitably beset a
party in power, and has the inestimable
advantage of disowning all responsibili
ty. Every party in power must by the
laws of its existence and the frailty of
human nature, commit many blunders
and mako many mistakes, "it always
has to take the initiative in the most
important questions, whose right solu
tion can only be ascertained by experi
ment. The party in opposition can" and
should oppose everything it considers to
be injurious to the country, but it fails
to show itself a truly great party, if it
does not put forward some definite plan,
which it offers as wiser and better than
the one it opposes. The Democratic
party has failed to do this. It is at
present merely an element of negation
in the body politic. It asserts that the
Republican party has done everything
wrong, yet itself proposes no plan where
by things could be made right. As
somcfone has said, the Democratic party
is only the Republican party of six
years ago, meanina\ of course, that it
has accepted the issues of the Republi
can party of that time, while the present
Republican has prog?csscd as farbcyend
them. It cannot be denied as a general
fchimz that were there is least education,
the Democratic party is the strongest,
in the purlieus of great cities, in the
wilds of thinly inhabited sections, in
States where there is a lar<re class of un
educated people. These are not to be
enlisted into high reforms of society.
The appeals that are made to them must
be of a lower order than to the better
educated. Talk to them about taxes,
not about freedom and progress. Tell
them of high wages, more tliau justice
and humanity. As is natural a tempo
rary depression in trade is ascribed to
nongovernment, when it is the inevitable
effect of the laws of nature. The D?m
ocratie party has done its [.?art during the
past six years to excite the passions of
the lower orders, but for principle or
platform, it lias put forward none since
the war. It has not fairly adopted re
pudiation, but has thus far fought its
battles on the principle of opposition to
each and every plan of the Republican
party. We do not defend the Republi
can party from its mistakes, but vre
think the country would prefer that it
should remedy them itself, rather than
trust the Democratic party to do it on a
record of mere opposition.
-?
A WORD FOR NEWSPAPERS.
Nothing is more common than to hear
people talk of what they pay newspa
pers for advertising, etc., as so much
given in charity. Newspapers, by en
hancing the value of property in their
neighborhoods, and giving the localities
in which they are published a reputa
tion abroad, benefit all such, particularly
if they are merchants or real estate
owners, thrice the amount yearly of the
meagre sum which they pay for their
support. Besides, every public spirited
citizen has a laudable pride in having a
paper which he is not ashamed of, even
though he should pick it up in New
York or Washington. A ?rood-lookin?r.
thriving sheet helps to sell property ;
gives character, to the locality; in all
respects is a desirable public conveni
ence. If, from any cause, the matter
in the local or editorial columns should
not be quite up to your standard, do not
cast it aside and pronounce it of no ac
count, until you are satisfied that there
lias not been any more labor bestowed
upon it than is paid for. If you want a
good, readable sheet, it must be sup
ported. And it must not be supported
in a spirit of charity either, but because
you feel a necessity to support it.?Del
ti ic a re County Ri ; ; u L? ira u.
Indivi d u a l ?n flu en ce,?Robert
Col Iyer savs :?
"Out of your life there flows, every
day some spiritual influence as true in
its" nature and degree than any ever
known. You may never write a book,
or even a letter; but then, no more did
Jesus Christ. No mistake can be great
er than to suppose that I have done my
duty by my home, in filling it with
plenty, or my children, in securing them
the best teachers; or that I have been
true to my marriage vows, because I
have kept myself pure, and never stinted
my wife in her expenses; or to Church
and State, because I have voted right
on election days, and been in my time a
deacon. Oh! friend, I tell you un
speakably more in that mysterious and
most holy influence of a sound, elastic,
cheerful human soul, in a sound body to
match. I see once in a while a home,
in which I am just as sure that it is im
possible for the children to go radically
wronir. as it is for the planet to turn the
other way on her axis. The whole law
of their life, of their spiritual gravitation,
is fixed by the streng, sweet father and
mother, resolute, above all to preserve
this right attraction, though there may
be less at last in counted dollars."
Postal Dispatch.?A banking in
stitution in New York, early in Novem*
ber last, mailed 2,300 letters to individ
uals in as many counties in the United
States, each requiring an answer, and
January 1st had received answers to all
except ten.
"LIVE AND LET LIVE/'
"What is the use of a man working
himself to death in order to make a liv
ing:'7 is a question which laboring men
arc continually propounding, and which
workingnien's "strike's" attempt in vain
to answer. The Danes have a proverb
that "A dead man is good for nothing"
and the significance of this proverb
ought to be impressed upon statesmen
and politicai economists. A dead man
produces nothing, consumes nothing,
buys nothing, so that the exchange of a
living laborer for a dead body, or the re
duction of a strong working man, with
a hearty family, into a feeble pauper,
with a brood of sickly, ignorant, vicious
children?made such through idle pov
erty?is just so much loss to the com
munity as is the sum of what he might
produce added to the cost of himself
and dependents as non-producers.
It is the lack of valuation or appreci
ation shown for workingmen by politi
cal leaders that keeps the mass (to use
a coarse saying) with their "noses to the
grindstone/' it' intelligent legislators
would consider the "claims of labor'7 as
they ought to be considered, we should
I not. be obliged to chronicle the occur
I rcr.ee of "strikes" or the complaints of
laborers that their wages are inadequate
fur decent suramrt. 'Ibero is an obvi
ous inequality between the sum of work,
daily or weekly, expected from hard
toiling mechanics and their assistants,
and the sum looked for to be performed
by clerks in oiiiees or employes of gov
ernment. As a rule, government offi
ces are open at 9 o'clock A. M., and
close ut or 4 o'clock, I\ M., while the
salaries paid for officia] labor range ?rom
double to ten or twenty fold the wages
of people laboring in common vocations.
All this is wrong. There should not be
such disparity of labor and compensation
between classes of our ci/izens. Human
beings claim are worthy of more thought
than horses and cattle?and yet, as a
general usage, we have greater consid
- oration for beasts of burthen than our
fellow-creatures who toil that we may
enjoy comfort and luxury. Men de
mand leisure and rest?demand the
privilege and opportunity to become
thrifty and intelligent. And according
as they do become so. they are more ca- ,
pable of doing the world's work. Men
ask for wages, not to hoard or hide
away, but to expend in the purchase of
goods manufactured and sold by other
mem High wages, then, become dis
pensed through various channels, and
return to increase the common stock, and
to vichi new custom and profit to all who
pay wages. These facts are so evident
that it is a wonder capitalists and werk
ine men cannot see them in the same
light. That they do not, unfortunately,
is the cause of so much misunderstand
ing and oppression :and it should be the
task of statesmen to shape legisla! ion in
such a way as to encourage and set an
example to employers and employed,
that they may be led to adjust the re
lations of labor and capital, so as to in
sure to every workingman a "fair day's
wages for a l'air day's labor," and im
press upon all alike the value and fit
ness of that common-seusc motto, "live
and let live !"
- ? ?
The New Orleans Tribune gives the
following capital contrast of the two
Moses, of wh?m Andrew is the latest
specimen :
The true Moses was the meekest of
men ; our Moses is the most mulish.
The true Moses was a man of prayer ;
our Moses is a man of oaths. The true
31 oses was slow of speech, ade Lad his *
brother for a mouthpiece; our Moses
unfortunately speaks for himself i lie
true Moses was a great law-giver j our
Moses is a notorious law-breaker. The
true Moses forsook S?fypt not fearing
the wrath of its king ; our Moses has
gone down to Kgypt for help. The true
Moses turned his back on the foe of his
country ; our Moses has turned his back
on his fiiends and the friends of \\\t>
country. The true Moses "endured'7 t<>
the end ; our Moses lias betrayed and
abandoned the cause to which he swore
allegiance. The trae Moses led an op
pressed people out of bondage j our
Moses promised to do it, but left them
to their foes. The true Moses labored
to save the people ?rom the bite of fiery
serpents ; our Moses has sought to have
all the people bitten by them i. e., Cop
perheads, When the true Moses died,
the children of Israel wept lor him 30
days; when our Moses shall leave the
White House for Tennessee, all the
people w 111 sa amen. The man who
reeled into ofiicc ought to be ruled out.
The Rev. James Lynch, a colored
preacher of Mississippi, and well known
in Baltimore, challenges any one in the
State to discuss the question of suffrage
with him before the voters of the State.
He remarks: My color alone should
be no objection to an acceptance of this
challenge, inasmuch as it will take no
part in the task. I will only use my
heartj my brains and my tongue/''
A missionary among the frcedmen in
Tennessee, a.-ter relating to some little
colored children the story of Ananias
and Saphira, asked them why God did
not strike even bodv dead who tells a lie :
when one of the least in the room quietly
answered, "because there would't be
anybody left',"