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Staunton Spectator: August 27, 1867 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

The Negro--His Past and Future
(Column 05)

Summary: Argues that history demonstrates that "two different races cannot live together upon terms of equality. One or the other will fade away and become extinct." Therefore, the writer contends that, "until they can change the color of the African's skin, and make a white man out of a negro," the "attempt to give him this equality dooms him to death."

Origin of Article: Dover (N. H.) Gazette

Full Text of Article:

No philanthropist can philosophize upon the past, present and future of the Negro without feelings of anxiety as to his fate. While the negro was in a state of slavery, interest, if no higher motive, prompted his owner to care for his health and well-being. Waving here the abstract question of the right to hold him in this condition, we assert that the negro, while held in slavery, was a careless and happy being. He had not thought or care for the future. His master fed and clothed him; nursed him when he was sick and looked after his welfare generally. While in this condition, the increase of the black population was in greater ratio than the white.

Gen. Howard, Chief of the Freedmen's Bureau, who ought to know the facts has recently published a statement, in which he says, that since the commencement of the war, the negroes have decreased in numbers one million three hundred thousand. This may seem a startling fact, and no doubt the war, and the peculiar position of the negro, may have contributed in some degree to this result. But without either of these agencies, that the negroes, in their present condition, should diminish in numbers, is only in accordance with all history in reference to that subject. All the facts we have in the premises go conclusively to show, that two different races cannot live together upon the terms of equality. One or the other will fade away and become extinct.

When white settlements were first planted upon our Northern shores, it was estimated that in New England there were three hundred thousand Indians. All that are now left of them are about two hundred of the Penobscot tribe at Old Town in Maine, and a small remnant of the Stockbridge tribe in Massachusetts. What has become of them? They have not emigrated. Neither war, pestilence nor famine has done the work. Nor were the Indians reduced to slavery.

On the contrary, the noble and pious Elliott spent his life in the attempt to Christianize and civilize them. But with all the fostering care of the whites, and their efforts to elevate the Indian to a social equality with themselves, by an inevitable law, inherent in the nature of things, they have faded away before the progress of civilization like dew before the rising sun. Their fate in New England is but a presage of their fate all over the continent. Already have they passed away from the Great Valley of the Mississippi, and are found only beyond the pale of civilization in our Western wilds, an soon they will be known only history.

Less than a hundred years ago Capt. Cook discovered the Sandwich Islands. At that time he estimated that the number of inhabitants at four hundred thousand. A recent estimation makes their number at this time less than eighty thousand. These natives were found so docile and tractable that it was supposed they could easily be Christianized, civilized and elevated to a point of social equality with the whites who settled amongst them, and extermination is the result-in a few years not a native will be found upon those islands. In both these cases the people than have become extinct were the natives of the soil, while the negro is but an exotic on this continent. We do not mention this latter fact to prove that the whites will become extinct and the negroes remain. On the contrary, it is always the inferior race that passes away before the superior; and certainly the facts and history both show that the negro is the inferior race, and consequently must become extinct; for, if the Indian and Sandwich Islander could not sustain themselves on their native soil against the superior race who invaded them, can the negro sustain himself in a country which is his only by adoption? Then the fate of the negro is surely read in the history of the races which we have cited. Slowly and gradually he must fade away, and become extinct on this continent.

Between the African and the Caucasian, the Creator has, for some wise purpose, erected a barrier as impassable as the gulf between the righteous and the wicked, and all the puerile efforts of puny men can no more overcome the former than the latter. Until they can change the color of the African's skin, and make a white man out of a negro, they cannot elevate the negro to a moral, social and political equality of the whites. The attempt to do so has always failed and always will fail; and not only will it prove a failure, but it will result in the extermination of the negro. To attempt to give him this equality dooms him to death.-Dover (N. H.) Gazette.

Shall Northern Men Migrate to the South?
(Column 06)

Summary: Argues that the Radical plan to place the South "under the political control of two and a quarter millions of negroes" acts as a de facto ban on Northern immigration, which the South should encourage. Ultimately, the author contends, the cry will some from the North-- "'This country belongs to the white man.'"

Origin of Article: Charlottesville Chronicle

Full Text of Article:

The cotton and sugar lands of the South are among the finest fields for enterprising settlers in the world. The States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina cover some 300,00 square miles, an area as large as France and Great Britain. They have a population of about four and a half millions. France and England have a population of sixty millions. The country, it thus appears has about one-thirteenth of the population it can maintain. There is room for fifty-odd millions of people in South Carolina and on the Gulf.

But it is developed that this magnificent empire is to be placed under the political control of some two and a quarter millions of negroes. They have under the operation of the late acts of Congress, become the heirs and occupiers of all this territory. They will legislate for it, and governor it. The white man will live there by sufferance. They can elect the Governor, the Legislature, the judiciary, the magistracy, the sheriffs, the clerks, and all the State and many of the county officials.

Now the question arises, who is going to move into such a community? What young man from the North, wishing to seek his fortune, is going to settle in New Orleans, to be governed by a negro mayor and a negro board of city officials? What respectable laboring man in Illinois or Indiana is going to drop down the Mississippi into the State of Mississippi or Alabama, to find himself in a Haytien Empire?

The present law of the country amounts to a prohibition against moving from the North into the South. There are narrow-minded white men in the South, who say they prefer negroes to Yankees, and that they want no Northern immigrants. Their views are literally realized by the working of the existing laws. The Yankees are shut out from the Cotton States by a blockading squadron which cannot be evaded.-There is a wall established between the population of the North and the fertile fields of the South more compact and impassable than the earthen rampart which Hadrian built in Britain between the River Tyne and the Solway Frith, to shut out the Picts and Scots.

The Ancient Britons were so annoyed by the irruptions of the Saxons from the Cimbric Chersonese that they instituted an officer whom they called the "Count of the Saxon Shore,' whose especial business it was to keep out the invaders. Every President of a board of Registration in the South is a "Count of the Saxon Shore," the result of whose labors is to keep off all incomers-although they come with the spade instead of the sword.

We do not agree with our old Bourbon party that it is to our interest to keep the Northern man out of the South. We believe, when he comes here, he will be not only a valuable accession to our labor, but that he will become one of us. We therefore want him. And we therefore want to show him that under the present arrangement he is "excluded from the territories." The North insisted on keeping the old territories open and free, so that Northern men might go there and settle. They carried their point, as in our opinion they ought to have done, for the idea of fastening slavery on the virgin soil of the Republic was the great blunder and sin of the South. We have now ten other territories-once Sovereign States-the finest soil in the world, and at the very door of the densely populated North: shall the Northern people be permitted to settle in these territories? That is the question. They have the abstract right: but shall they be permitted to settle in these territories? Shall they practically enjoy and exercise this privilege?

If you can make the climate unhealthy for a Northern constitution, you can nullify their abstract right. If you can make it dangerous for a Northern man to show himself among the elate Confederates, his abstract right is nothing. If you can set up some form of civil government or some prevailing religious creed which is obnoxious to him, you may still shut him out.-Or if you can secure a heavy Coolie or Chinese immigration, it may disgust and drive him off. Or if you can Africanize the South-that is the thing.

So that, as matters stand, the white people of the Gulf States as ruined, and the white people of the Northern States are prohibited from migrating to the South. Universal white misery. The blacks alone rejoice. It is a saturnalia for them. They do not look into the future. They harbor no anxieties. They are suddenly governors, State attorneys, judges, militia generals: their only thought is of the present.

It is a magnificent empire to consecrate to an idea. It is a noble race, the white race of the South, to sacrifice to a Borriobeolagha experiment. It is a wonderful instance of self-abnegation-that of the restless Northern man giving up one-forth of the united States to two millions of negroes-to practice in-when a single State or Territory would be an ample play ground.

Now, can this thing last? Is it in human nature, or common sense, to keep up this aim?

It cannot be done. The Republican party cannot violate the public sentiment of the North. It must either come down from its pegs, or be supplanted. The cry may be suppressed for the occasion, but it must ultimately find vent-"This country belongs to the white man!"

The colored man may live in the South in peace; he cannot live here, if he institutes war on the white race. Backed up by the military power of the North, he can temporarily out-vote the whites in the Gulf States, and establish there negro governments; but the moment he has achieved this object under the lead of short-sighted and self-seeking white adventurers, his empire-and more-will be wrested from him. Then the North will feel and perceive that they too are involved in such a policy; that the South, which they have claimed the right to visit and to settle in, is barred against them. Then a political party will spring up by an irresistible impulse-whose only platform will be, "Give us a share in the rich domain of the South!" This is the inevitable issue of what is now occurring in the South.

Gov. Peirpont
(Column 01)

Summary: Governor Peirpont spoke yesterday in the Staunton Court House. The editor did not hear the speech, suspecting that it "would reflect no credit on the Governor of a great State like Virginia." If the contest for Governor is between Peirpont and Hunnicutt, the writer argues, most will vote for Peirpont but only as "a choice of evils."

Full Text of Article:

In the language of a citizen of Rockingham county, who has the faculty of using expressive terms, his Excellency, Gov. Peirpont, "exploded his explatterments" in the Court-house of this place on yesterday-Court-day. As we were engaged during the time in writing receipts for those who called upon us to pay their subscriptions to the Spectator , we did not hear the Governor's speech, and, in fact, did not have much desire to do so, as we supposed he would make the same speech here that he did Harrisonburg, and, judging from the reports of the papers of that place, we were satisfied that it would be such as would reflect no credit on the Governor of a great State like Virginia, and would add nothing to his strength as a candidate for election for another term. The people of this State would vote for him with more willingness, (or rather with less unwillingness) if he were to remain at his post of duty in Richmond, and would not go "stumping" over the State delivering speeches containing sentiments obnoxious to the better class of its citizens, and depriving the farmers of needed labor by causing the negroes to leave their work to go to hear his speeches. If the people be reduced to to the straitened alternative of voting for Pierpont or Hunnicutt, the majority, we suppose, will vote for the former, but will feel that such preference would not imply much of a compliment-being a choice of evils-not that they dislike Peirpont's views the less, but that they dislike Hunnicutt's the more.

P. S.-After the above was in type, we were informed by those who heard the Governor's speech here that it constituted of pointless generalities, and that he did not assail here, as he did in Harrisonburg, the institutions of learning in the State. He made no allusion to his allegations against the clergy, or his remark in reference to General Stonewall Jackson.

[No Title]
(Column 05)

Summary: Argues that, whatever the consequences of "a conflict of races and parties," white Southerners can be assured that they "are not responsible" since they "did not bring on the hostility" currently exciting the South.

Origin of Article: Lynchburg Republican

Full Text of Article:

The country is apt to run into opposite extremes on the negro question, after the Radical physic has made the people sick. It does not become us to inquire now into the remote and merely possible results of a conflict of races and parties involving the most vital and exciting issues that ever distracted a people. Whatever those consequences of agitation or collision may be, we are not responsible for them, as we did not bring on the hostility out of which they may arise. The issue was forced upon us in spite of protest, warning and expostulation. The Radical party is accountable for it, and for all the grim tragedies which may constitute the natural sequel.-Lynchburg Republican.

[No Title]
(Column 06)

Summary: Reports that yellow fever outbreaks have occurred in New Iberia, Louisiana, New Orleans, Pensacola and Galveston and suggests that the situation is likely to grow worse in September.

Local News
(Column 01)

Summary: Dr. Sears has purchased the former residence of Dr. Madison, on Garber's Hill, from Echols, Bell & Catlett for $4,000.
(Names in announcement: Dr. Sears, Dr. Madison, Echols, Bell, Catlett)

Local News
(Column 01)

Summary: The 170 acre farm of Gabriel Hite, deceased, was sold at auction to John Hite for 50 dollars per acre.
(Names in announcement: Gabriel J. Hite, N. K. Trout, Peck, Cushing, John R. Hite)

Local News
(Column 01)

Summary: The 105 acre farm which belonged to Jacob Baer, deceased, was sold to Philip Fauber for 40 dollars an acre.
(Names in announcement: Jacob Baer, Rev. Geo. A. Shuey, Philip Fauber)

Local News--A Small Impostor
(Column 01)

Summary: Reports that several citizens were deceived by "a small cripple" who gave his name as James Rhodes. Rhodes borrowed money and promised to repay it, but his story turned out to be false and his whereabouts are unknown.

Full Text of Article:

A small cripple-one leg being shorter than the other-giving his name as James Rhodes, of Hollidaysburg, Pa., spent some time here a few weeks since, during which he borrowed money from several citizens, under the pretence that his mother had sent him a draft to the Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs, and that he would return the sums borrowed as soon as he got there. He did not return the money, and, we learn, did not receive a draft, and failed to pay his board at the Springs. He has returned, and gone, it is supposed, to Lynchburg. This will prepare the citizens there to be on their guard against imposition by him.

This statement is made at the request of a respectable citizen-one of the sufferers.

Local News--Horse Stolen
(Column 01)

Summary: G. W. Peaco recently stopped a horse thief near the South River. He recovered the horse, but the thief drew a weapon and fled.
(Names in announcement: G. W. Peaco, G. B. Stuart)

Full Text of Article:

On Sunday, the 25th, about 10 o'clock, a young man was passing near G. B. Stuart & Co.'s mill, on South River, mounted on a small bay stallion. Something in his appearance attracted the attention of Mr. G. W. Peaco, who lives on Stuart's farm, and he entered into conversation with the stranger. From the confused account the man gave of himself and his horse, Mr. Peaco became strongly impressed with the belief that the fellow had stolen the horse. After some parley, he charged him with having stolen him. He at once said: "well, if you think so, you can take him," and forthwith dismounted. Mr. Peaco said I will take the horse and you also, and advanced upon him, whereupon the fellow drew a revolver and made a speedy retreat through the bushes. Mr. Peaco being alone and without arms, hastened to his house and got his gun, and summoned some of his neighbors and went in pursuit, but the fellow made good his time and effected his escape, leaving the horse, saddle, bridle, and a bundle of clothing in possession of Mr. Peaco.

The supposed thief was a large athletic man, about 20 years of age with a large scar under one of his eyes. The bundle of clothing contained a calico shirt and two collars, wrapped in a red figured cotton handkerchief.

The horse is a good one, of medium size, and well formed. He seems never to have been shod, though, from his mouth he appeared to be 10 or 11 years old. In the course of conversation the man stated that he had come from Amherst and was on his way to Staunton.

The horse and clothing are at G. B. Stuart's residence, about 3 ½ miles above Waynesborough, where the owner of the horse can get him.

Marriages
(Column 03)

Summary: Sarah Gearhart and William Lovegrove were married on August 22 by Rev. J. W. Kiracofe.
(Names in announcement: Rev. J. W. Kiracofe, William Lovegrove, Sarah E. Gearhart)

Deaths
(Column 03)

Summary: Phillip Mellenway died at his home near Augusta Springs on August 20. Mellenway was an Prussian immigrant and had a "long, laborious, and well spent life."
(Names in announcement: Phillip Mellenway)

Deaths
(Column 03)

Summary: Elijah Messersmith died near Augusta Springs on August 5 at the age of 84. He labored at his trade as a wagon-maker until a few weeks before his death.
(Names in announcement: Elijah Messersmith)