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A CARD FROM HON. B. H. HILL. *
To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir : Thanking you for your liberality
in opening your columns heretofore to my
communication, allow me space to adc
' ome further facts touching the Camilla
r } o t. I have read all that appeared in the
Tribune, and have waited for additiona
information myself from the State that I
might be sure of correctness in what !
write
1. The chief informs tion upon which
Maior Howard's first letter was based,and
uron which Buiiock based his message to
the Legislature, and upon which your cor
respondent from Albany seems to rely, was
derived from the statements of a notori
ously bad negro, who had served a term in
;] iC penitentiary, and whom 500 witnesses,
black and white, would discredit on oath
in a court of justice.
2. I have been planting several years
in that region. lam there habitually. It
is one of my homes in the State. I have
never seen or known of, or, before I reat
it in your paper, heard, of a bloodhound in
that country. lam assured,and do believe,
there is not one in that whole region ; anc,
I do not believe there is a dog there of any
kind trained to track either a black or
white man.
3. I knew, personally, Judge anc.
the gentlemen who acted with him in in
vestigating this matter, and whose report
throws all the blame on Pierce and Mur
phy. I know also some of the witnesses
who gave their evidence under oath. AVe
h ive no more reliable citizens in our State.
Judge A r ason is an old Whig and Union
man ; was long Judge of one of our
Superior Courts; is a Christian gentleman
of fine education and most exemplary char
acter and elevated mind, and whom any
Northern jury would believe without doubt
or hesitation.
4. The letters of your correspondent, at
least the statements they make, are
originated by some persons, for the ex
press purjwse of inflaming the Northern
mind and influencing the elections pending.
5. You think it strange that so many
negroes were killed, and so few whites in
jured. To me this is not strange. The
negroes were slaughtered, as they will al
ways be, under the circumstances. Their
white leaders escaped, as they intended be
forehand to escape. If the people of the
North will not be moved by the wrongs
and dangers to the whites of the South, I
beg them to rescue the poor negroes from
sure destruction, by repudiating these Re
construction measures, and thereby remove
the inducements offered to carpet baggers
and renegades to breed strife and hate, that
they may get office.
,6. Is it not singular that so many
Northern people will persist in believing
with implicit confidence the wild state
ments of lightened eooviet negroes, and
of bad white men.* who abandon white
society to use the negro for selfish ends,
and of anonymous writers, summarily set
aside the most solemn statements under
oath of our best white people, and the as
surances of the whole white race of the
South, as mere ? attempts to “whitewash
rebel outrages ?“. Strangers and renegades
?* the most original secession stamp, are
inciting negroes to acts which lead to their
Slaughter, in order to mate dvpcs ofeduca
te refined Northern whites, that these
strangers, and worst secessionists, may get
the for their loyalty ! These are
the only fruits which the Reconstruction
taeasur es have produced, or can produce at
the South. Ought such measures to be
'maintained and perpetuated ?”
The attempt to weaken the facts I state
Ufso intended) by a little personal ridicule
ot myself is, in view of the issue, scarcely
pardonable, but is pardoned. Your kind
ness in permitting me to he heard through
your columns in behalf of our people will,
with me and them, excuse any criticism
your sense of propriety may permit. But
oo even me justice. On this s abject,
1. The version of the Atlanta speech
irom which you quote I never saw before ;
out flowing its substantial correctness,
ooes it, properly understood, show vio
!? ac ® : R only proposed social ostracism
y r the Southern men who would vote to
destroy the equality of their States, and to
-s the degradation of their own and our
lainihcg I had in view such consequences
f' Camilla riot. Is it violence, to say
tuata man who will, through negroes as)
; suoels, endanger my property, my life,
ui.ii my family, shall not eat at my table
sleep under my roof? Even Orator
1 us was never so illogical.
-• Tee Forsythe speech, from which you
h”*ote in your issue of yesterday, I never
s uw as printed. I never in my life, on any !
occasion, cither felt or used the language
you quote toward or of “Union men.” I
U'.'UDtiess may have used such language
inciters to riot and bloodshed in the
but toward no other. You quote
Parallel columns with the colored
a-an lurner. Allow me to thank you for
-uwing me to be equal with the negro in
, u ! ie -j Il 7> ls a privilege which is
\ rnulmt: by th* Reconstruction measures
i \ r Muic is more liberal thau the policy
L J ce p s to 'maintain and perpetuate ”
1 1 is impossible for the Northern people
h> conceive how adroitly and yet how of
■•h-tually our utterances in the South are
a sorted here, and how completely our
anmg 1S often reversed, and the applica
-1 notour words changed,
i find a wide-spread idea at the North
jat the election of Gen. Grant will insure
Peace and quiet at the South. This re
r.!‘!dn desire, but it is not
K'-Mbie n Gen. Grant, as President, shall
tamtam and perpetuate” the Recon
. •ion measures. The fault does no
J 1 the temper of the Southern whites
as is represented at the North, but it lies
m the character of the Reconstruction
policy and m its logical workings. These
measures breed a dirty class of office-seek
ers at the hands of negroes, who in turn
breed Camilla riots. Our best white peo
ple are now doing ail in their power to
prevent these results in hope of early relief
in the Presidential election. We do not
regard the governments forced under these
Reconstruction measures as yet legally
established. In our opinion the American
people, in this election, are to express their
will on that question. If Gen. Grant shall
pe elected the carpet-baggers and negro
instigators will feel sustained and en
couraged. Our white people will fool
abandoned by the Not th, and, I fear, will
>eceme hopeless aud desperate. I turn
bum the picture of results. When you
blame men for not keeping quiet and cool
n a fti e, then blame the Southern whites
or results m that case. People of the
INorth save us now! On the other hand,
the election of Seymour will be accepted
as a decision by the American people that
these governments are not established; the
few whites who now support them from
policy will aoandon them ; all inducement
to organize negroes as voters will be at an
end ; the people will be encouraged, "hope
ful; good governments for ail colors will
leturn, and. peace will be assured, and uni
versal and instantaneous. Ido know that
all our industrial arrangements are affect
ed by this contingency. If Mr. Seymour
is elected, plantations now idle are to be
worked, factories built, and capital invest
ed, and at fair, good prices. If Gen.
Grant shall be elected, bargains are to
be rescinded, and none will venture, ex
cept such as are compelled for a living, and
lave no other resource.
I firmly believe it will cost the Federal
Government two hundred millions per
annum to keep the peace under these re
constructed governments, and then the
peace will not, because it cannot, be kept
under them.
But will the destruction of local peace
and property be all ? I fear not, and he
ieve not.
Sir, let the deep sincerity of my convic
tions crave your indulgence for a few ad
ditional sentences. I am entitled to an
audience from your readers, and through
your assistance. I allude to the incident
following in no spirit of reproach, but in
entire kindness, and only to illustrate my
point and my motive- I have seen the
explanation of the Tribune, and recognize
its force viewed from the standpoint of the
Tribune, but our people did not then so
understand it. On the passage of the
Kansas-Nebraska bill, nearly ail the old
V\ big leaders of the South joined the De
mocracy. This left the Whigs or Ameri
cans in a decided minority. It was then
I felt it to be my duty to change the pur
pose of my life and enter polities.
It was my lot to engage with all my
humble powers, from 1855 to 1861, in a
vain effort to arrest the tide of secession
that was sweeping the. South,as I thought,
into revolution. Late in the winter of 1860,
more earnest than ever before, I warned
our people that war, on the most unequal
terms, must follow secession. On
one of these occasions a distinguished se
cession gentleman replied to my war warn-
ings by reading extracts from prominent
Northern Republicans, and with special
emphasis from the columns of the Tribune
to the effect that if the people of the South
desired to secede they had a right to do so,
and would be allowed to do so in peace.'
He then alluded to me as one born and
raised in the South, and yetwasendeavoriug
to frighten our people from their rights by
threats of war, while Northern Freesoilers,
who had been esteemed the enemies of the
South, were conceding our rights and as
suringits peaceful exercise. Now, my
good sir, what could I have rejoined?
Here are the very words I did rejoin :
r ‘*l care not what Mr. Greeeley and Mr.
\V ade, or any other Republican, or all Re
publicans together have said or may say to
the contrary. More to be relied on than
all these, I plant myself on the inflexible
laws of human nature and the unvarying
teachings of human experience, and warn
you this day, that no government half as
great as this IJniou, can be dismembered,
and in passion, except through blood,
xou had as well expect the fierce lightning
to rend the air and make no thunder in its
track, as to expect peace to follow the
throes of dissolving government. I pass
by the puerile taunts at my devotion to the
best interests of the people among whom I
was bom and reared, and trust my vindi
cation to the realities of the future, which
I deprecate and would avert, and again tell
you that dissolve this Union, and war will
come. not say it ought to come. I
cannot tell when, nor how, nor between
whom it will come. But it will come, and
it will be to you a most unequal; fierce,
vindictive and desolating war.”
Since the passage of these fatal Ileeon
sti uccion measures by Congress, I have
0nc xr iu my P°wer to arrest the tide at
toe North which is trampling on all the
guarantees of liberty in ten States of the
union, and which is destroying the Consti
tution for all the States of the Union. I
find now a bitterness at the North and a
reeling of distrust toward the South far
more irrational and unprovoked than 1
us ei witnessed in the days of Secession
atrogdos at tho South. If the North in
loot) had done halt as much to allay the
tears of the South as the Southern whites
are now doing to inspire confidence and
good will at the North, those of us who
.'i ere m the of the unequal struggle
s : 1( * Ve been enabled to prevent seces~
DreraiWi l - he , same fatal delusion
Const’ ml h ’ ruwUh ‘he architects of the
with the 8 • oT ? nhr r prevailed
U “ Uie “eessiomsta of the South in 1860
msiib ©i fii'liffMr
It is said, let. us maintain and perpetuate
measures which originated outside of the
Constitution, and which have been or mav
be established by force, and toe shall have
peace / The will of the people, your lead
er 8 write is the higher law, and Constitu
tions wilt bend and break before this unita
Ik arbiter without disturbing the peace of
the nation!
. Sir, do not charge me, as did the Seces
sionists, with a desire to alarm or an intent
to threaten. But 1 cannot see the Consti
tution—the grandest production of human
effort for the security of human freedom
hopelessly toppled to its foundations by a
maniac storm of passion and hate, and
utter no protest or warning against the
ruthless act. I tell you these Reconstruc
tion measures of Congress cannot be main
tained and perpetuated without destroy-
ing the Constitution. The Constitution
cannot be destroyed k ui peace. your
people from this fatal delusion before it
is too late. 1 cannot tell when or how or
between whom war will come. But it will
come. ;The nation’s “blood will flow when
the nation s Constititution is stabbed.
Freedom will die when this freedom’s life
is destroyed.” And as the shadow is
greater than t-hd substance, so will the war
ivtac/i wdffollow the attempt to destroy the
Constitution be fiercer than that, which fol
toiced the attempt to dissolve the Union .
But this much I know: A united
North will not again wage battle against a
divided South. Repeated pledges of
rights, dignity, and equality preserved
unimpaired, will not again induce armies
to disband, and States to become helpless.
Magnanimity in loyal destroyers of Con
stitutions will not again be expected. The
holy traditions of common struggles will
c °f wea ken revolution; nor will even
the adhering properties of common blood
and race, under the dominion of fanaticism
again oe trusted.
I defy you to point me to a single respect
abiC white man of the South who said, or
wul now say, he approves these Recon
structions measures of Congress as either
Constitutional, right, or just. The very
men there who accept them, do so with
the known intention of repudiating them
a3 soon as they get back in the Union, and
have their disabilities removed, I point
you to millions in the North, who hate
these measures. llow long can govern-
ments founded on such measures last ?
How long ought they to last? They are
out sine of the Constitution ; they libel the
Declaration of Independence ; they nega
tive every pledge made to induce surren
der; t.iey outrage blood; they subject the
meu, women, and children often States to
daily scenes of riot and industry,
and nightly forebodings of pillage and rape;
tuoy organize semi-savages, under pro
tection Ox bayonets, into armed political
bancD, that strangers, knaves, and vaga
bonds may be chosen to fill the seats once
occupied by Madison, Lowndes, and
rien, and be called the r6presentatives of a
people whom they thus insult, endanger,
and enrage. Can such measures work
peace . Are these guarantees against dis
turbance . Come what may, the people of
the oouth will never vitalize these govern!
ments with their consent. It is not the
want of that consent that breaks the peace.
Tiie eviiS which break the peace arc in the
governments themselves—their nature,
ana workings. These evils would
not be icmoveu if this consent were given,
but would only be strengthened and made
permanent and destructive.
1 dely you to show me a single condition
of restoration, or of reconstruction, prepar
ed by the army, or by the President, or by
Congress, which the South rejected, and
which being rejected damaged the North,
oi which, if accepted, would not have dis
honored the South.
I)o not, I beseech you, drive the South
ern people to utter desperation. Remem
bering your promises before all faith i«
hopelessly destroyed. Return to the Con
stitution before your wanderings from its
boundaries are forever irretraceable. Re-
store your currency and your bonds to
goiu value, and the Union to good will, by
allowing to the Southern States, over their
internal affairs, the same power, under the
same Constitution, which is allowed to
and exercised by the Northern States.
How is it courageous to oppress the
bouth oni3 r because you can f JJut I warn
you, the same Government, cannot admin -
i \r er 'f o,C nnf South and freedom at the
A or, l he time has come when emphati
cady the country must be all free or all
slave .
leu millions of white people—Americans
—weaned with repeated offers of Union ;
exhausted with protestations of good faith
arid security; voiceless with vain pleadings
ioi peacehopeless of the redemption of
pledges ; impoverished with insatiate ex
actions, sick with fruitless concessions to
malignity; distracted because they will not
consent to dishonor; despised because they
win not be inferiors; oppressed because
they will not agree to be ruled by slaves;
maligned as rebels because they will not
submit to pillage by negroes led on by
strangers, ana driven by a terrible experi
ence to the final conviction that in them
sew# atone is their protection—such apeo
ptr, though deserted by all mankind, are
not POWERLESS.
ours, very trulv.
ni 1 T ANARUS, B. a Hill.
Lhauler House, Xew York, Sept. 20, 1868.
iwo.—Lord John Russell never per
petrated but one bon mot. Speaking of
the fcehleswig-Ifolstein question, Lord
John said: “ There never were but two
men who understood it, a friend of mine,
and myself. My friend died after ex
plaining it to -me, and I have entirely for
gotten what he said.”
NOBLE LETTER FROM GEN. ROSECRANS
in rep.y to an invitation to address the
*ate Mass Meeting at Indianapolis, Gen
era! Roseerans wrote the following manly
letter.. The pledge which the General
gives of his “honor and life” for the good
faith and devotion of the Southern people
to the principles of the Constitution, and
their willingness to support the Govern
ment of the United States, administered
in accordance with its provisions, will
never be forfeited by any act of ours, if the
Northern people will take the General’s
advice and ‘ '‘restore the people of the
Southern Staff to hopeful , cheerful, SELF
GOVERNMENT.
This is all that is necessary to be done.
Let us have the same rights; accord to us
the same privileges; extend to us the same
protection; restore to us our right to equ&l
and just representation in the Federal
Government; permit us to manage our
intei cal affairs in the same way and to the
same extent as Massachusetts and Ohio
are permitted; recognize our right—the
right claimed and exorcised by every
Northern State to regulate for ourselves
the qualifications for electors—do this and
ipso J ado the Union is restored. And not
only a Union in law but a union of senti*
meat, of brotherly love and national pride.
In tne name oi the Southern people, we
thank General Roseerans for this noble
expiession oi his confidence in our integri
ty, honor and good faith, and we assure
lim that if his counsels shall prevail with
the North, arid our right of self-govern
ment receive their sanction, we shall prove
to the world that he has not misconceived
our true character and sentiments :
.St Martins, Brown County, 0.,)
September 21, 1868. J
Gen. John Love, Indianapolis, Indiana :
General : Indispensable duties prevent
me from attending the gathering of offi
cers and soldiers at Indianapolis, to which
your letter invited me on the 23d inst.
But beyond the great gratification I
shou.d experience in meeting so many of
my old companions-in-arms, and mingling
our momones of* the past with resolutions
of lufcure efforts and sacrifices for the
honor of the land and flag we love, my
presence thero would accomplish more
than a simple statement of my views on
the chief* issues which now agitate the
country.
I believe our free institutions and high*
est material interests are in grave peril. I
shall, therefore, perform a solemn and re
sponsible duty to my fellow-soldiers and
countrymen, who love this nation more
than partv, by stating what I think the
most vital issues before the public in the
approaching Presidential election.
Above all other expenses—expenditures,
taxation, bonds, “greenbacks,” or any
thing else—stands that of restoring the
people of the Southern States to hopeful,
cheer fid seiffgovernmen t.
Restore them this, and as certainly as
uay follows the sun our political stability
win be assured; our financial prosperity
will speedily follow ; the value of prop
erty iu the oouth will increase ; our pub
lie securities will go to a premium ; our
greenbacks will become par ; coin and cur
rency accounts, with all their evils and coin
plications, will disappear from the books
of our business men.
Believing with all my soul that the pres
ervation of our Government from despot
ic changes, and all those inestimable bless
ings depend upon this restoration of the
southern people to wholesome, cheerful
self-government, 1 am equally certain that
it can be done, and dare pledge my honor
and life for them that they will give and
obseiye all proper guarantees to renounce
secession, slavery, and their dependent
issues ; to protect, educate, and elevate
the freedmen to the exercise of all the
franchise they enjoy in Ohio, Indiana, or
Illinois; and faithfully to perform all the
duties incumbent on them as good citizens
under the Constitution and laws of the
United States.
And what more could be asked of them,
or what greater results could patriotism
desire for the country than depend upon
this issue ?
Not even the prosecution of the war
challenged a more thorough renunciation
of party preferences and personal dislikes
on the altar of our country than does the
attainment of this great good,
The desolate and ruined South, the op
pressed tax-payers of the West and North,
generosity, mercy, love of country, appre
hensions of evils to come, every motive
that ought to move the hearts of true and
nooic men, appeal to us to say by on**
votes we will stop that hopeless folly of
attempting to govern the Southern States
Y what we can loyal blacks, ” and give
the people, under just guarantees, the
right peacefully and legally to proceed to
reorganise their own government within
the Union.
With such convictions, I hold the man
who would not express and act upon' them
a traitor to himself and his country, and
despise the partisan who would find' fault
with any reasonable steps he might take
to bring about so great a good to the na
tion.
Recommending my convictions, and the
reasons for them, to the judgment of mv
fellow-soldiers and countrymen, I remain
very truly, yours, W. S. Rosecrans.
THE SPANISH REVOLUTION.
Thr Ex- Queen’s Journey from St. Sebas
tian to France — Her Spanish Escort
trussed at the Border—Reception by
■Napoleon and Eugenic—Arrival at
ResidencT^ 16 m P eror 171 0 <’
London, October I.—Telegrams have
been received in this city by wav of Parß
fmfthi luayonn l u ayonno ’ yesterday even
ing, which report the entry of the exiled
Queen of Spam into the territory of the
Umpire and her reception and shelter by
Napoleon. Finding that the revolution was
A f “ cfc accomplished,“ Isabella broke up
the semblance of the (Jourt held at St Se
bastian during the morning of Wednesday
September 30, and set out at an early hour
for France. She was accompanied to the
frontier by a detachment of Spanish hal
berdiers, whom she dismissed when abou*
to step from the soil of Spain to that of
franco.. The ex Queen breakfasted at 11
o dock in the forenoon at Hendaye ana
arrived at Napoleon’s summer retreat at
Biarritz at half-past two o'clock in the
afternoon. The Emperor Napoleon, the
Umpress Eugenie, with the Prince Impe
rial of France, were assembled at the cha
teau, where they received the fallen
Bourbon. An interview, fifteen min
utes in duration, took place be
tween the distinguished party. The
took, her departure immediately
a.tei the termination of the conference,
entered a carriage of a special train set
apart for her use b3 ? the officers of the
railroad, and,was taken to Bayonne, where
she arrived at a quarter to three o’clock,
benor Marion, ex-Minister of the Gon
zales Bravo Cabinet of Spain, had a place
m the same carriage. At Bayonne they
met the other members of the late Min
istry, when Sonor Gonzales Bravo held a
conversation with the ex-Queen for about
live minutes, took leave and retired. Dur
ing her residence in France Isabella will
inhabit the castle now belonging to the
Emperor Napoleon, at Pau; the last of the
Bourbons sheltered in the cradle of the
race ; Isabella, of Spain, the guest of a
Bonaparte in the house where Ilenn IA r
was born. When the Queen of Spain left
San Sebastian she took with her all the
Crown jewels and royal regalia, together
with.23,000,000 seals in gold.
It is announced to-day that the great
powers will allow their diplomatic relations
with Spain to remain in statu quo.
PROCLAMATIONS TO BE ISSUED FOR ELEC
TIONS THROUGHOUT TnF. KINGDOM.
Madrid, . October L— Proclamations
wul soon be issued for elections to be held
throughout the kingdom to choose mem
bers of a definite Junta and delegates to a
Constitutional Assembly to meet at an
early day in Madrid. The leaders of the
revolution are acting together in perfect
accord.
October 2. —Elections for
members of the new Junta are in progress.
Perfect order is maintained. General
/ftionge has been arrested and sect to the
fortress Santona, where he will be confined
until his trial commences.
Barcelona, October 3. —The people
sacked the town hall and publicly burned
the Queen’s portrait. Count Chester,
who endeavored to quiet the mob, was
fired upon, but escaped under cover of
night. Bassols has been appointed to the
command of the provinces of Catalonia by
the Provisional Junta. Serrano will not
go to Madrid, because the National Guard,
which holds Madrid, refuse admission to
the regular troops, which Serrano com
mands.
SPECULATIONS ON TIIE SUCCESS OF TIIE
REVOLUTION.
London, October 1. —The success of the
revolutionary movement in Spain, ending
as it has in the expulsion of Queen Isabella,
gives rise to much speculation as to her
liable
the dislike of the Emperor Napoleon to the
Orleans family is fatal to the hope of the
•n r de , Mont t>ensier, and that a Carlist
will be chosen to rule over Spain is regard
ed as impossible. The ancient rights of
the House of .Savoy to the throne of Spain
are discussed, and the Duke of . th,
second son of King Victor Emanuaf, is
talked of as an available candidate.
La France to-day discusses the prospects
ot Spam, and predicts that the present revo
lution will be followed by a violent civf
war.
A gentleman, on a visit to Washington
one day very coolly opened the Senate
Chamber door, and was about to pass in
when the door-keeper asked :
Are you a privileged member ? ”
“What do you mean by that? ” asked
the stranger.
‘ A Governor, an ex-Member of Con
gress, or a Foreign Minister,” was the
reply.
The stranger replied that he was a
Minister.
“From what court, or country? ” asked
the official.
. Very gravely pointing up : “From
Heaven, sir.”
To this the door-keeper very
ly remarked:
i hia Government at present, holds no
intercourse with that Foreign Power! ”
. John,” said a stingy old fellow to his
hired man, as he was taking dinner, ‘‘do
you know how many pan-cakes yon have
eaten?” “No, do* you ? ” “Yes, you
have eaten fourteen!” “Well,” said
John, ‘.‘you count and I’ll eat.”
3