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Staunton Vindicator: August 10, 1866 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

The Social Problem
(Column 05)

Summary: Expresses concern that the course pursued by the Radical Congress may "produce a war of races of a very terrible character" and urges leaders not to ignore the "intrinsic differences" between the races when making policy.

Origin of Article: Washington Republican

Editorial Comment: "The Washington Republican has a just perception of the enormous practical difficulties of the problem in which emancipation has involved the country; but which the Radicals fancy they can solve by an act of Congress or an amendment to the Constitution, and require the South to settle at the drop of a hat. It says:"

Full Text of Article:

The Washington Republican has a just perception of the enormous practical difficulties of the problem in which emancipation has involved the country; but which the Radicals fancy they can solve by an act of Congress or an amendment to the Constitution and require the South to settle ast the drop of a hat. It says:

The sudden abolition of slavery has suddenly forced the people of the South where existed into the trial of an experiment which has never yet peacefully succeeded, -- the experiment of so adjusting the laws and modifying the temper, habits and bearings of Anglo-Saxons and free negroes dwelling together upon terms of civil equality (social equality is out of the question) in the some communities as to satisfy both and produce a condition of mutual contentment. To zealots unadvised of the struggles which have occurred heretofore under such or similar circumstances, it appears to be a subject of no concern whatever.

To the Radicals in and out of the present Congress, judging from their flippant method of treating it, it appears to be a n experiment which may be resolved by the application of the dreams of Thaddeus Stevens -- an enforced application of the equality doctrines of the Declaration of Independence. But our best informed and most sagacious and considerate statesmen, whilst impudent reformers push their notions upon and into the communities where slavery has recently existed before their present wounds are [unclear], will produce a war of races of a very terrible character. The reason for this apprehension are too numerous for a newspaper article. They would fill a volume.

The slaves of the ancients belonged to the same race s the masters. They were trophies of war, and frequently, as the cases of Aesop and Terence, the superiors of their masters in intellect and learning. Freedom was the only distinction between them, and when this boon was conferred they came upon a common level. And, although it was found that a prejudice against those who had been enslaved lasted long after the period of the enfranchisement, the freedmen bore so close a resemblance to the free born that it became after a while impossible to distinguish one class from the other. Slavery in the United States has been united with the visible badge of color. The negro has been the subject of it. Doubly dishonored by color and the fact that his race has been enslaved from time to time out of mind, the colored freedmen is in a far worse condition for employing equal civil rights with his former master than were the slaves of antiquity. This led De Tocqueville to remark that "the law may abolish in form the institution of negro slavery, but God alone can obliterate the traces of its existence."

In attempting to being our freedmen into harmony with the white men we have, besides the fact of former servitude, three sorts of prejudices to contend with -- the instinctive prejudice of color, the prejudice of the former masters, and the prejudice of the race. These, separately or combined, have, in all known instances of negro emancipation, been fruitful and never-ending causes of discontentment and discord, so that whenever the whites have been the most numerous they have found it necessary to their personal safety to keep the blacks in a subordinate and servile position; and wherever the negroes have been the strongest they either have, or have striven to destroy the whites.

And when we remember how difficult and slow has been the process in every country, inclusive of our own, of rooting out the distinctions of aristocracy which we inherited from the old World, and of preventing the growth of others, such as aristocracies of wealth and of sect, scarcely less prejudicial to everything like equality and harmony, we are compelled to acknowledge that it is not strange that no experiment of the kind we are now trying has ever succeeded. There have been, and yet are, rightful we do not say but actually nevertheless these intrinsic differences hitherto between the two races, which statesmen, and particularly those in charge of our Government, are not at liberty to disregard. It is the full knowledge of these, and of the horrid massacres and wars they have heretofore produced, which admonishes the President of the necessity of moving in the work of reconstructing Southern society according to the altered condition of things, with the utmost circumspection.

[No Title]
(Column 01)

Summary: Criticizes "those pretended friends of the poor African, who teach him to distrust his early friends, the Southern whites, and incite him to open rebellion against them," arguing that were it not for their "false tutoring" the former slave "would have accommodated himself to his changed condition and been useful as a laborer."

Full Text of Article:

Before and during the war, the Southern master confided in hi slave and the slave in turn relied upon his master for the sustenance of himself and family, and protection from wrong at the hands of others. Nor need we say to those who are familiar with that of which we write that this confidence on the one hand and reliance on the other, was but rarely abused. Since the emancipation of slaves, however, an influence has been at work to sever the friendship which has so long existed between the whites and blacks of the South. Those men in high places whose duty it was to have sided in restoring amicable feelings between the lately hostile sections, with but few exceptions, have rather endeavored to make the alienation more permanent and lasting. To accomplish this more surely have their many acts of legislation been passed, which, in no small degree, have tended to create distrust, want of confidence, and even ill-feeling between Southern whites and blacks, who are still, to a vast extent, dependent upon each other, and especially are the blacks dependent upon the whites. Men have even been sent to, or are found in certain communities, so depraved or lost to all principle, as to instigate the colored people to deed which must redound to their future disadvantage, if they do not, as in several instances already, result in the death of many of them.

With the allurements held out shortly after the close of the war, it was not to be wondered at that many negroes ceased to work and gave themselves up to idle or vicious lives. Soon, however, their necessities or good sense, together with the continued kindness of their former masters, induced the vast majority to resume their work and they bid fair to become again useful members of society. This did not suit those men who had arisen through intestine struggle to the surface. They must needs to keep alive an internal strife or sink forever. The various disturbances we hear of are the fruits of their efforts, and, while advantaging neither party to the struggle, serve to advance the interests of the instigators and their abettors. We have not, and we are glad to see that others do not lay the blame to the poor emancipated slave, who, without false tutoring, would have accommodated himself to his changed condition and been useful as a laborer, as is witnessed where the vile teachings of malicious agitators have not insinuated themselves, and our treatment to those who conduct themselves with the propriety should be just as kind as at any period of our past lives.

But to those pretended friends of the poor African, who teach him to distrust his early friends, the Southern whites, and incite him to open hostility against them, in order that they may be advantaged thereby, too much of culpability can no attach. All the blood that has been spilled by their teachings in upon their heads and a fearful reckoning is in store, which sooner or later must and will overtake them.

Pass Him Around
(Column 02)

Summary: Reports that a man calling himself Col. Jas. H. Hardin recently cashed a forged check at the First National Bank of Staunton and has done the same thing elsewhere.
(Names in announcement: Col. Jas. H. Hardin)

Full Text of Article:

About the 23d of July Col. Jas. H. Hardin, who claimed to be a Kentuckian by birth, and to have served on the Staff of Gen. Breckenridge, presented a check for $300 purporting to have been drawn by the "Augusta National Bank of Georgia" on Colgate & Stratton, No 54 Exchange Place, New York, and made payable to Col. Jas. H. Hardin, to the First national Bank of Staunton, where it was cashed, only after Col. Hardin, who was a stranger was vouched for by a well known citizen of Staunton. Upon the check being forwarded to Colgate & Stratton it was protested and returned without remark. Thereupon a telegram was sent to Augusta, the check was ascertained to be a forgery and that a man calling himself Col. Jas. H. Hardin has used similar forged drafts before. We learn that the national Valley Bank of Staunton cashed a check for $50 for Col. Hardin, purporting to be drawn by a Louisville firm on another house in New York, and upon being forwarded, was also returned protested.--Col. H. is a man of fine address, and as he is still at large it would be well for the press to circulate these facts to prevent imposition on others. We learn that he had lately married a lady in Monroe, Michigan.

[No Title]
(Column 02)

Summary: Reports that "the citizens of Richmond and other places have been very much disturbed lately by the parading and drilling of negroes at all hours of the night," a practice that has just been prohibited by Gen. Terry.

Full Text of Article:

The citizens of Richmond and other places have been very much disturbed lately by the parading and drilling of negroes at all hours of the night. Gen. Terry has issued an order prohibiting in this military department, during the existence of martial law, any organizations for the purpose of drill or military instruction other than the militia organized by the Governor of Virginia. This will put an end to the annoyances complained of.

[No Title]
(Column 02)

Summary: Reports that cholera has reached epidemic proportions in New York, where two hundred died from the disease last week alone.

The Southern States to Vote in the Presidential Election
(Column 03)

Summary: Argues that the Southern states cannot be prevented from participating in the 1868 presidential elections "without breaking the public peace and exposing the country to the horrors of another civil war."

Full Text of Article:

The following pointed remarks occur in an editorial in the President's organ of Wednesday:

It will be recollected by our reader who have kept the run of this paper, that we intimated a suspicion several months ago that the Radical members of Congress had entered into a conspiracy against the Constitution to shut out the electoral vote n 1868 of certain southern States, and that about a month ago we stated more clearly what it was. As no Senator, Representative, or Radical newspaper has presumed to deny the allegation, we take it to have been true.

It is a point that cannot be carried out with impunity. We do not believe it can be consummated without bloodshed. At all events, if the electoral votes of the States thus unlawfully excluded will elect a candidate for President who shall not be elected without them, the people will find a way to have them counted, by putting the proper President elect into the executive office and maintaining him there, by force if necessary.

The exclusion of ten States from representation in Congress goes to the verge of public forbearance. No further outrage can, in our opinion, be superadded to it without breaking the public peace and exposing the country to the horrors of another civil war, in which the people of the excluded States would have the sympathy of the civilized world.

Local Items
(Column 01)

Summary: Among the most recent recipients of pardons are five residents of Augusta: Jas. Guy, Chesley Kinney, John McClure, George Seawright and W. H. Bell.
(Names in announcement: Jas. S. Guy, Chesley Kenney, John McClure, George Seawright, W. H. Bell)

Local Items
(Column 01)

Summary: A "difficulty" occurred at Jno. Beck's Bar Room on Monday evening when John White was "severely handled" by two patrons, John McCraddock and James Gallaher. Gallaher and McCraddock were arrested Tuesday morning and will be tried in the next session of the Hustings Court.
(Names in announcement: Jno. Beck, John McCraddock, James Gallaher, John White, Evans, Bruce)

Local Items
(Column 01)

Summary: Reports that the charges against Peter Hanger Jr. for defrauding the government by making false returns of distilled spirits have been found to be groundless.
(Names in announcement: Peter HangerJr.)

Local Items
(Column 01)

Summary: Loring Turner, the youngest son of Job Turner, recently fell from a distance of 30 feet while climbing a tree. No bones were broken, and Loring is "rapidly recovering from his bruises."
(Names in announcement: Loring Turner, Job Turner)

Local Items
(Column 01)

Summary: The chimney of Dr. Arthur's residence caught fire last Thursday and spread to the roof of the National Hotel. The fire was extinguished quickly with little damage.
(Names in announcement: Dr. Arthur, H. H. Peck)

Local Items
(Column 02)

Summary: Phillip McLauglin was arrested by Deputy Sargeant Kurtz last Tuesday and brought before the Mayor, who fined him one dollar for firing a pistol within the corporate limits.
(Names in announcement: Phillip McLauglin, Kurtz)

[No Title]
(Column 01)

Summary: A slave ship was recently captured in Pensacola Bay with 150 freedmen on board, bound for Cuba. Men from Mobile, New Orleans and New York have been implicated in the kidnapping.