The banner of the South. (Augusta, Ga.) 1868-1870, August 01, 1868, Page 5, Image 5

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I*o, Mr. Seomour grew weary of law and Tuiht privacy and retirement a few al raMons and repairs rendered the place . iViy i;:.posing"and sufficiently accommo 'i * t j n g for his own wants and those of his 1 >mily. A fine grove of ancient trees Surrounds the house, affording an inviting .bade, while walks and drives are abundant, without materially encroaching upon the usefulness of the soil. The house is fur ii-hed in keeping with its own outward ap- , M “ t ranee, its surroundings, and the well f'; tastes and character of its occupants. K \uair of refined comfort pervades the whole. From the verandah a view is ob ’ aned well worth a long journey to enjoy, fiown the green slope and across the rich meadows of the Mohawk valley, all cov , dat this time with toiling farmers hast ening to secure the over abundant crop of hay,"taking in the entire city of Utica and Jj its surroundings, stretching far away up or down the Mohawk, the view is finally ] os t in the blue distance, far up the pic turesque Chenango valley, the opening to which is directly opposite. At the time of my visit, this very anx ois aspirant for Presidential honors was engaged in superintending his laborers in - curing the hay crop. I apologized for the inopportuneness of my call, and re% marked that 1 supposed him to be a coun ty gentleman of leisure. He simply Failed, told the men not to cut any more _r:ass, but haul in what they had down, and invited me into the house I made -ome essay at my business, but he insisted on my telling him the nows. Like all reg ular journalists [ protested that I knew nothing later than appeared in the Utica m iming papers. “Well, those are the only papers £ get here,” he replied, “and those don t reach me till eveniag.” I told him ail the news I could remember, and romaked on the enthusiasm with which his nomination had been received. To this he replied tint he didn’t see how people could get up enthusiasm in such hot weather as this. He thought they had better postpone politics until it got cooler. Talking of the heat, I suggested that the heated term commenced with the meeting of the Convention. “Yes,” he said, “and but for that I wouldn’t have been in this unfortunate predicament. I went to the Convention on purpose to prevent my being the candidate. I fought steadily against it until t' e midnight be fore I was nominated, and again, fifteen minutes before my name was presented, I protested most emphatically against its use. When they did present it, the excite ment and the heat and all together com pletely upset me. Had I been as cool as lam now, I should have declined. I had planned out a little trip abroad for myself, but this affair has changed all my pro gramme. and unsettled all my plans of life. I didn’t want the office* j I wanted Chase nominated.” “Could Mr. Chase have been nominat ed? Tasked,” “l thought so then,” “but I have since learned zo my satifaction, that had my name not been sprung as it was, Mr. Hendricks would have been nominated in two or three more ballots.” After some more general conversation, in which I didn’t secure a promise of that postoffice, because I didn’t ask for it, I took my leave. Morris. -' THE ATLANTA MASS MEETING. SPEECH OF HO"/. B. H. HILL. IiSPRTED FOH THE CHEONICLE & SENTINEL. When General Cobb had concluded his address, several bands of music struck up various popular airs, in different parts of the arbor, improvised for the accommoda tion of the audience. The Hon. B. IT. Hill then came forward and said: Mr. President and fellow-citi zens—l especially request entire quiet while I attempt to address you to-day. In addition to the fact that I have to fullow two gentlemen who have no superiors on this continent, I am, unfortunately, labor ing under considerable physical disability, the extent of which is not even known to myself. I greet you to-day, my countrymen, with a joy and gladness that no language can express. One year ago I came, in my humble way, to this same city, to speak to the people what I believe to be words of truth and soberness. There has been quite a change since then. On that occasion I met, in a quiet, retired room, some half dozen gen tlemen, who had made up their minds to brave the storm that was coming upon us at all hazards. That little band of half a dozen in that private room has swelled to day to thousands of freemen, in the open air of this once more to be redeemed coun try. T must confess that the history of the past year is one to me lull of cheer and rejoicing. I may differ with most of you, but I feci that during the past twelve months the white race of the Southern States lias done more to manifest heroism, endurance and cour age than any other people had ever mani fested on a hundred battle-fields. [Cheers.] it is not uncommon for a people to lose their property; it is nothing new in the history of nations for a people to be defeat ed iii battle, it is not even altogether new unfortunately, that a people should lose their cities and bury their dead, that they should be cowed in their spirits, and should be made almost hopeless of the future. But there is something else which is pos sessed by every people far more valuable than property, far more to be desired than cities, Jar more to be coveted than the vic tories of war, and that thing you still pos sess. notwithstanding your enemies sought to destroy it—l mean your honor as a people. There were two propositions made to you, which I would briefly state, so that you can see clearly what 1 mean: The first proposition which afteeted your honor was, that a Congress in which you were not represented—a band offbreigners, not one of whom has ever lived or expects to live upon your soil—nay, men who have avowed that they hate you, claimed the right to destroy the government you had formed, and to dictate to you »fop. formation of anew government. This was done, too, right in the teeth of the Declaration of Independence, which says that all government derives its au thority from the consent of the governed. You are asked to forfeit your honor be cause a band of foreigners—men among whom you had no representatives— 1 among whom you were denied representa- j tion who confess their hate of you— J these men claimed the right to destroy the government which you had formed, and to dictate the formation of another in its stead. None but slaves would have ac ceded to such a demand, and none could have been other than slaves who would consent to it. The second reason why your honor, as a people, was so seriously involved, is this : That in the formation of the new govern ment which this foreign power dictated it was prescribed, as a necessary condition, that the intelligent and virtuous of your people—those whom you had ail your life deemed worthy of the highest trust— i should be forbidden to participate, while those who had been your slaves should be at liberty, without discrimination, to participate. You were to form a Govern ment, under the dictation and by the direction of a foreign power, and you, in the formation of the govern ment, were to be deprived of the services of the intelligence and virtue of your country, simply because you had trusted them, and you had to submit to the gov ernment being formed by those who had recently been your slaves, ignorant and de based as they were. Yfou will remember now that these are the reasons why your honor was involved. The base Congress— the unprecedentedly traitorous Congress who got their own consent thus to attempt, in the day of their power, to dishonor an unarmed people—this Congress, I say, had a vague, lingering suspicion of the dishonor of their scheme, and therefore provided a plan by which the infamy should seem to spring from your own con sent. Well, I confess truly, that when I looked at the picture; when I saw the is sue and remembered that no people had ever grown great who suffered their honor to be sullied—no people had recovered from misfortune who had yielded their honor to the enemy—when I remembered all these things arid saw the condition of our people, saw all the dangers that sur rounded them and the power that dictated these terms, Oh God, thou and thou only, knowest the anxiety of my spirit! When the smoke of our burning cities went up to heaven, and our brave men fell in battle I was grieved exceedingly; but when a whole people—millions of freemen— were asked —-ordered—-commanded by power to sacrifice their honor at the bidding of hate, and there were found those who whispered that the sacrifice would be made, my heart did sink within me ; and when I remember now the means and ap pliances brought to bear to compel you to yield, I do rejoice in knowing that you refused [cheers]. I have had only one point to accomplish in this struggle ; some have troubled themselves about offices, others about votes, others yet about carrying the election against the convention and still others about the defeat of the constitution. For all of this I care nothing; the great and only point which I had ever felt to be of serious consequence in this struggle was to induce and persuade the white people of the South never to consent to this infamy. I knew that elections would be declared successful; I knew that, right or wrong, they would say that the elections were carried. They came for that purpose. That was not the point with me. 1 wanted your women and children to see; 1 wanted posterity to know ; I wanted a record made so that it could be read by all men, now and forever, that the white people of the South refused to give their consent to this iniquity. [Cheers. ] That is why I wrote and spoke ; that is why I despised the in famous and defied the powerful. Still, fel low citizens, it was a time to fear. If I doubted and trembled on that occasion do not blame me; if I feared you would not be equal to the great crisis, don't chide me. Remember the powerful influence brought to bear. The claimed to be all powerful, and they avowed their purpose of carrying out this infamy, and if you did not accept it, of making you accept a worse. First of all these in casing out that plan, they sent the military here ; they sent an army of bayonets to make war upon a helpless people as another means of ac complishing this infamy and securing the form of your consent ; they came to some of your own public men—natives of Geor gia and of the South —men whom you had honored of old, and they bought them upas co-adjutorsin the work. [Cries of Joe Brown.] No, I don’t allude to that man. I tell you, my friends, his name forms a sub ject that is becoming too vulgar for refer ence in decent company. [Cheers and langh ter, and cries of “that so.”] I speak of a class, and I affirm fearlessly, and I want the people of the country to know it, that there was not a single Southern public man who advocated the acceptance of this Reconstruction scheme who was not bought, and bought with a price by your enemies. [Cheers]. The price has partially been paid, and you are to pay the balance. [Laughter.] What arguments did they use ? Did they appeal to your pride, your honor or your interests? Not at all. They came among you and travelled from the seaboard to the moun tains, and they told an impoverished people “If you don’t accept this infamy the little property that you have left shall be confis cated, and every man of you shall be disfranchised !’.’ Congress, claiming to be all-powerful, installed an army in your midst, and found citizens ready and willing to urge, to persuade, to intimidate and to threaten a starving and almost helpless people. Oh, my countrymen, proud as I know Southern blood to be, don’t chide me if, in this dark hour, I felt uneasy. I confess that I did. I watched the first election — the election for the Convention—with in tense interest. I happened to be in New York city when the first election in the South came off, and I shall never forget how my hopes were lifted and my desires fulfilled ou receipt of the first telegram from the South, giving, as one of the facts connected with the first day of the election, that the whites refused to have anything to do with it. I waited anxiously for the second day, thinking that perhaps the “superior race” had crowded in, and the whites were, on that account, unable to get to the polls. [Laughter.] The second day came, and brought the news that the whites had, almost to a man, remained away from the polls—only a few carpet-baggers and office-seekers voting, thus the elections went on to the last. I tell you, fellow-citizens, I moved among the inhabitants of the great com mercial metropolis prouder that day than ever before. I shall never forget meeting some of the prominent men of that city, one of whom said to me, “We had been taught to believe that the people of the South would endorse this measure, and they have had nothing to do with it. Why, added he, “your people are more honorable than we gave them credit for.” Well, the power with the bayonet said that a Con vention was ordered. All knew, however, that it was ordered by negroes not by whites—though,in truth, nobody did order it but the bayonet and certain scoundrels. The negroes never ordered it. I exonerate the negroes. ]. Laughter.] I affirm to day another great fact, which I want to be re membered, and which, whenever the occa sion may demand,! stand prepared to sup port : The Convention in Georgia was defeated by thirty thousand votes' [Wild cheering.] Ah, my friends, there is noth ing like it in history ! You were poor, you were betrayed, tempted, threatened — you were told that every man that did’nt vote for the Convention, must have his little remaing property confiscated, besides being disfranchised, and that the list of voters was to be used to ascertain who you were. Miserable threat! Proud people—noble people ! The verdict you gave was that, though many of our gallant spirits were sleeping under the sod, there wa3 heroism still left the South. [Enthusiastic cheers. 1 Well, the false convention as sembled and a thing called a constitution was framed. It had to be ratified, and a Governor and officers hud to be chosen, and what was the appeal then ? Os course, if the Southern white people approved the constitution, this dishonor was complete. They had exhausted appeals to your fears —you could not be frightened from your honor —and the next thing was to buy you up. So they put in the new Constitution something called relief. The few men in the South (who, unfortunately, were South ern men from accident or other cause) who had sold themselves to engage in this work, being entirely conscious that they were bought up for the purpose, thought, of course, that the same means would answer for the balance of the people. They, therefore, sought to buy you, and they promised you relief. I came here to this very city and I took occasion to notify you that this promise was put in the new Con stitution for no other purpose than to cheat you, and that the rogues and hyprocrites who put it in, did so with the distinct knowledge that it would be stricken out after the election. They used it well. They bid high. The question was this: how many men in (ieorgia are willing to confess themselves no better than negroes if they could thereby get rid of their debts ? how many ot you would be willing to be ne groes, if by being negroes you could be excused from paying your debts? Well, I came to this city in March to inaugurate the fight on that question, and some of you, my friends, were weak-kneed. You didn’t do right. A good many of you came to me then and said, “Don't you say any thing against the Constitution; everybody is going to vote for it, everybody was going to be sold.” It was a great wound to inflict upon _ me. I was struggling for nothing on this earth but to preserve the honor of the people of Georgia, and, know ing that they could not be frightened, I hoped they could not be bought. We made the fight and let the whole world know it, the white people of Georgia, by an overwhelming majority, refused to be bought. Some few men, I apprehend, are about in the category of the poor negroes who voted for a Convention to get “forty acres and a mule.” Ah, you poor victims of a wily hypocricy; of men to whom God gave a white skin by mistake. [Laughter.] You who went upon the public block, be fore your countrymen and the world, and publicly proclaimed that you were willing to be a negro, if, by being a negro, you could be excused from paying your debts, how do you feel to day, after agreeing to be a’negro and having to pay your debts, too ? I Laughter. ] My friends, General Cobb made a re quest of the military; I shan’t make any—never intended to; but I ad visc you, poor fellows, to make one The only evidence of how you voted is in the possession of the military. Go then be fore they leave and ask them to burn up the record. The great majority of the white people spurned the bribe and de spised the bribers, and let it be forever re membered, to your pride and honor, that the people of Georgia, under the threat of the bayonet, with the temptations of treachery all round and in the very ashes of their poverty, have said to all mankind: “We can neither be frightened nor bought from our honor.” [Great Cheering.] I have said" the Military declared a Convention had been ordered, when there was thirty thousand majority against it. They also declared that Gordon was de feated, and that the Radical party had succeeded, when, in truth, Gordon was elected by nearly ten thousand votes. [Tremendous Cheers.] I say that it is so, counting the correctly registered voters and correcting the frauds of the ballot. I repeat, counting the honest registered voters, I say that this Express agent was largely, defeated tor Governor, and he knows it, and they know it. VVe won two victories, and we won them against the bayonet, against force, against fraud, against treachery and against the negroes. The white people of this country are not going to consent to this thing; they never have and never will. If the Radicals have been unable thus far to get the consent of the white people to this scheme of infamy will they be able to do it hereafter? How can they? They have appealed to your fears and your avarice and taken advantage of your poverty, but they have been disap pointed ; they have failed in their schemes and I tell you that there is no argument or appliance which they can use in the future more powerful than these they have used in the past. Any people who can with stand such appliances offeree and pressure as have been brought to bear upon you within the past twelve months, can never be seduced or driven from their honor. lam proud of Georgia, and I pray that when God takes me hence my bones may be laid in her honored old soil. [A voice, “you’ll go to Heaven.'’ 1 My friends, I wish to pass now to another subject. The issue has some what changed. I have told you what the is-ue has been the last twelve months, and I wish to state here, in a few words, the main points in issue now. Some who consented to be bought for the purpose of inducing the people of the South to accept this infamy offered this excuse: They said they were not going to be Radicals, they were not going to consent to negro government, but they said “let us seem to go into this thing, let us get back into the Union, and then we’ll turn it all over, and do as we please.” That was an argument based upon treach ery. They had betrayed you, and they were Justifying their treachery to you by proving that they were going to betray the Radicals. That suggestion deceived a great many people for a time. For myself, I had nothing to do with it, because I could not consent to join traitors. I don’t be lieve in treachery—no people ever saved themselves by it. Where the honor of a people is involved they cannot swerve from principle for the sake of policy. The only line of honor is a direct one. But what is the result ? Those manipulators at Wash ington who bought these Southern men had more sense than the men they bought. They were not going to be caught in any such trap as that, aud in this respect my prophecy has turned out to be correct. The issue now, then, is this : Shall this infamy which has been thrust upon the people of Georgia and of the other Southern States, be valid and per petual? That is the first point to which I wish to direct your attention. In order that it may be perpetual, the Chicago platform says that the rights of the Norta ern States to regulate the franchise and to change and modify their own Constitutions shall not be infringed, but the Southern people shall not have the right to change their Constitutions at will. Now, if any thing in American history never was dis puted Defore it is this, that the States were members of the Union on an equal footing; and there is no man, from George Wash ington down, whether high or low, wise or simple, black or white, who ever had any idea that the Union formed by the States was a Union of unequal States; it was al ways admitted that the States were equal and each retained control of the franchise. I state a mere fact and history; since the acknowledgement of our independence we have added twenty-four new States to the Union, and in every act admitting a State as a member of this Union, it is distinctly stated that she is admitted on an equal footing with all the other States. But this Chicago Convention, with the Georgia Radicals in it, for the first time in Ameri can his" ory makes the declaration that the Union shall be a Union o ?unequal States. L want you all to remember that point. It is the great aim of the Radicals. Where are you now, my good Union-men? You that wanted to get back into the Union and were willing to sacrifice everything for the accomplishment of that object; you that congratulated the country upon being again “in the Union?” [A voice “none.”] It is a Uuion in which the Southern States are vassals and the Northern States rulers. I want you to hear it and to remember it. That is mere sheer naked disunion in the most odious and traitorous form in which the word was ever spoken. [GreatCheers.] It cuts the femoral artery —it is a stab to the very heart and destroys the Union of equal States which our fathers formed. I read with shame and mortification—(l knew the poor fellow did not know much.) I read, I say, in the papers that this stupid Express Agent, in the presence and under the protection of force and treachery, went yesterday, through the farce of being in augurated a miserable sham Governor of Georgia. Why. every word he uttered .shows he does not, this day, know the difference between a restored Union of equal States and a constructed neio Union ot unequal States. Take that fact down : pencil it carefully and take it to your hearts. It I ea n teach you to take home with you that single sentence, you will not have come nere to-day in vain. There was,u j the history of any people, such a boM, plan, palpable, universally admit ted cause ot war as that simple statement m that Chicago platform. ‘ 3 not aIL You - yentle men, who think you are members ofa Legis lature poor, deluded souls, how 1 pity you! - you who come here and go through the form of passing laws, I want you to hear one thing. Not only is that doctrine of unequal States in the Chicago platform, but it is in what you call your Omnibus Admission Bill. That bill prescribes the manner in which you shall go back, and every one of you who voted the other day to get back, as you say, into the Union, agreed to the doctrine that Georgia shall never have the right to do what Ohio can do; that the Southern States shall never have the right to do what the Northern States can do. You agreed to remain for ever an unequal member of the Union. You agreed that you would get back into the Union by consenting that Georgia shall never have the power to modify or to change her own State constitution, as to her own domestic affairs according to her own will and pleasure. [A voice, “They didn’t know any better.”] Ah, you rene gades—you rogues—who tried to steal your neighbors’ property and could not do it Ah, ye men that adopted the Recon struction measures for the purpose of getting hack into the Union and then catching the Radicals by changing the Constitution afterward. Are you not caught caught by Thad. Stevens— caught by Charles Sumner ? I don’t know but one thing that is worse, and that is agreeing to be a negro, to get rid of your debts, and then after becoming a negro having your debts to pay. [Cheers, with cries of “good.”] Remember, oh, my countrywomen— mothers, teach it to your children as you rock them in their cradles and in the nur sery ditties, by which you send them to sleep—tell them that men—white men Georgians—some of them “to the manor born”—have come upon this classical old hill, and have deliberately put upon record their solemn consent that the proud old State of Georgia goes back into the Union on the express condition that she shall never be equal to other States. Oh, you renegades from everything that can make you hope for even a chance of being gen tlemen. You have buried the sovereignty of your State; you have sullied the char acter of your ancestors and agreed to make vassals of your, children. You have agreed to wear a Radical yoke in order to vote yourselves eight dollars a day f r a few hot days in summer. [Cheer* J That is the Luion we have—a Union of unequal States. Ye cowardly, base, disunion ists of the vilest type, you disgrace humanity by calling honest men rebels! That is not all. l r ou have not only agreed to inequality, but vou have also agreed to what is called the equality of races; that is, you have agreed to equality among the races as a condition of getting back into the Union, and you have agreed that that shall never be changed, but you are so given to lying that you could not tell the truth even when you thought it was to your interest to do it. [Laughter.] You say in your record that you have agreed to an equality of the races when you know, you vile hypocrites,that the ver agreement you make includes the disfran chisement of the intelligent, virtuous and educated, and wealthy white men, and that they shall not be allowed to hold office in this country, or while any scalawag or negro may. Is that equality ? [Several cries of “no. ] If a negro has a right to vote and hold office why not these men whom you have always trusted ? Oh, you whited sepulchres—ye who are de grading the poor negro by your example of fraud and treachery. Ye vile renegade from every law of God and every right of humanity, you are deceiving the unfortu nate negro to his ruin. [A voice “that’s what’s the matter.”] If the negroes ever get a permanent right to vote in this country it must be by the emsent of the people that live here- If the negroes, when this infamous proposition wa* made to them by more infamous white men to disfranchise the white people, had come out and said publicly and openly, “We are willing to accept the franchise; if there is any benefit in political equality we want it, but we will never consent to disfranchise the intelligent white men of this country. If the negroes had come out and said that they would have furnished an evidence that they were capable of exercising the franchise. [A voice “some of them did it.”] Yes, and those that did it must for ever be remembered. lou Radicals of the Legislature have agreed to degrade your own State and people, and you have agreed that that degradation shall be perpetual. The question in this contest is whether that programme shall be carried out. That is where Grant stands, and where Colfax stands, and where all you vaga bonds stand. Where do we stand ? Where do Seymour and Blair stand ? Upon the glorious ancestral doctrine that the States are equal, and that white blood is superior. [Loud applause. ] Now choose ye which you will vote for. Some of you got scared last fall for fear of losing your property by confiscation, others #f you were afraid of 5