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About The banner of the South. (Augusta, Ga.) 1868-1870 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 20, 1869)
6 don men t of all rights. We might have urged that the Congress of the United States has been our worst enemy, has already passed out of the pale of the Constitution in legislating against us, and that it is perhaps the last body in the world, at the feet of which to throw prostrate the “organic law” of the State of Virginia. That we could hardly risk a petition of grievances to that body, or a petition for a proper constituii'onal amendment; but if they were even so inclined as to favor us, we could not honorably ask them to wound their own «onsciences and the constitution of the Union. We might have fairly insisted that too much discretion would be given the “delegation of nine” to grant them all the ways and means of approaching Congress and of carrying out the resolu tions of the meeting, itself unauthorized and self-constituted. And we might have urged further that it was wise to desig nate substitutes for those leaving vacancies in the delegation, and to limit their number, not to allow them to catch up the transient or invited visitors who might be at Washington and who might be carefully picked to agree to agree. Above all, the propriety of submitting the whole programme first to the “primary meetings” of the people before going to Washington at all, might have been submitted; instead of resolving to have the whole thing done ready to hand forty days before the people are to be called on at all.—We might have put it to “prominent gentlemen” thus: “Suppose you go on to Washington and by all means in your power prevail upon Con gress to take the ‘organic law’ of Vir ginia under its legislation, and Congress does the best in its wisdom under the circumstances, and then you return to the people of Virginia, and they shall not consent to your self-assumed work. Don't you see how you will be heaping coals upon our already too afflicted people by making them opponents at home and in Congress too, upon wholly new grounds of controversy, where there are already more than enough old grounds to divide and distract us?” And might not a better province and function have been allotted to the “primary meetings” of the people of Virginia when assembled, than that merely of first receiving the report of the delegation ol nine, and then not of adopting what the “primary meetings” may deem expedient, but to adopt only “such measures as may be most expedient to promote the objects expressed in the re;»olutions of “promi nent gentlemen;” The people are not, first and last, left to attend to their own business in their own way, but the delegation of nine is to do it all for them, and thereafter to call them together, to carry out the objects of the delegation. This whole policy seems to me timid and truculent, and, like such policy always does, backs us right over the precipices we were endeavoring to avoid. It threatens not only a worse danger than it professes to escape, but it fixes a stigma and openly fronts disgrace and civil death. “Prominent gentlemen” may get up some partial primary meetings packed to promote their objects; but, if the people are aroused to a full assemblage, I have no fear ot their verdict, notwithstanding the “recent elections.” And here arise certain puzzling questions, which I don’t know how “prominent gentlemen” will dis- pose of: 1. Who now are the people of Virginia, who are invited to meet in primary meetings? Are they the white voters, or are they blacks and whites under the reconstruction acts? 2. Are they to appoint delegates to the popular convention without regard to color? 3. Os what people of Virginia is the “popular convention” to be composed? “Prominent gentlemen” who surren der the elective franchise to Congress, and suffrage and eligibility to office to Negroes, will surely not offend their cause by rejecting the freedmen from the “primary meetings” and from the “popular convention,” recommended to effect this compromise of equality between the races. Hunnicutt is sharp enough to look out for that. You shall hear from me again. Yours truly, He.vry A. Wise. To R. R. Collier , Esq., Petersburg Ya.i NEW YORK CORRESPONDENCE OF THE BANKER OF THE SOUTH. New Yore, February 13, 1569. Banner of the, South : It has been said that a great city is a sore on the body-politic, and truly it would so seem. The other day I chanced to traverse a, tome, unknown portion of this huge metropolis, and could not but feel an actual oppression of spirit at the tremen dous evidences of a hopeless poverty presented. For miles and miles the route wound through narrow , festering streets, lined on either side with towering “tene ment-hoases**—tenement here not having the old English sense of a rented house merely, as it is used in the South, but meaning a vast caravanserie into which fifty, and sixty, and occasionally as many as an hundred poor families are crowded— and as in streets, and in the houses, and in the faces that here and there appeared at the windows, there was but the one gene ral air of dirt, neglect, and misery, it was impossible not to recall the proverb that God made the country but man made the town. Somewheres, no doubt, in the inscrutable wisdom that guides the uni verse is a reason for these huge congrega tions of varied humanity that men call cities, but to our poor comprehension these are, as that statesman of old had it, but. sores on the body-politic. To most men, not looking beneath the surface, the magnificence, the grandeur, the wealth, the power, the beauty of a great city, its noble palaces, its temples whose spires touch the heavens, its wide pleasure grounds, and stately works of art are all such attractive ingredients as make the general whole a thing to wonder at, re spect, and admire. Life in a great city! Why there is something thrilling in the very words, and were they but seen as the title of a book how many would stop and buy. But beneath the surface; with all the glare and glamour gone; with as deep an insight to the degradation and misery of the picture as to its brighter tints, how can a city life stand one instant in comparison with the eternal youth and perennial beauty of unsophisticated Mother Earth ? Wliat savor of the ball-room, the opera, the boudoir is like the sweet breath of an early country dawn? What sight by glittering chandeliers like the blush of the rose on the rose-bush, or the tender timidity of the violet in its bed? And what sound, what sound, though from the silver instruments of a grand orchestra or the well trained voice of a prima donna , like the cheery cry of the hounds when Troup, and Spot, and Trumpet strike the trail? But—pardon the digression—let us get back to the city. As I traversed this route whereof I tell you, it came into my mind that the thousands and tens of thousands wiio dwell in these miles of houses were the natural allies of the South. The same power which oppresses the “rebel” through malignity oppresses the Northern laborer through avarice. In the one case reconstruction laws and armies are the instruments of hate, and in the other bonded and merciless capital the instrument of greed. These poor people are the slaves of the New York millionaire. They toil out their lives for him ; they work hard and live spare, and lodge in crowded kennels that lie may go delicately and robe in purple and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every day. They are his slaves; he owns them; and, just as the rich man here has his legion of bond women and bondmen, aye! and bond chiidren, too, for they put the little urchins into the mill and grind a profit out of them, so in every one of themultitudhious cities of this great North are other mil lionaire masters and other thousands and tens of thousands of white slaves. All these labor discontents you hear, all these strikes, these labor congresses, these co operative associations are but the out crop pings ol a spirit which revolts at monetary bondage and is seeking blindly to be free. We must help them. The wronged, out raged, reviled, and menaced white men of the South must strike in with the suffer ing and defrauded sons of toil in the North, make common cause against the common enemy, and, if votes will not do, bayonet Radicalism, Negro suffrage, the debt, and the bond aristocracy alike into the sea! The thing can he done ; it must be done ; it will be done. The two great interests of Liberty and Labor are weak in their present state of alienage, but bring them together and who shall stand before their solid front ? And yet, with this tremendous potency before them ; with this keen, good sword just ready to their hand and only needing a little pluck and statecraft to set it swing ing after such fashion as would soon win now the land, there are those in the South —I shame to write it, as much in shame for their stupidity as their baseness—who are for bowing down to the enemy, and accepting Negro suffrage, aiul guarantee ing that robbery, the debt, and becoming the very humble slaves and servants of Sumner the Spado and Butler the Bea«t. if so onlythat they may have their disabilities removed and run for office. V\ atch them, whether editors or politicians, watch these men who are for giving way, watch them and watch them well. He who from this date gets his disabilities removed has, you may rely upon it, gone over, and, however fair a face he may put on it, is your enemy and only waits the bidding of his masters to do you a harm. Ido not speak lightly in this matter; it is suscepti ble of proof that no man can get his disabilities now removed unless he first pledges himself to give aid and comfort to that hideous spawn of Hades, known as the Radical party. And as to the press, when you see any paper advising acquies cence. counselling no further resistance to mongrelism, and rather palliating than assailing Radical deeds and doctrine, set it down that ‘Toil money" is at work in that journal. Here again the assertion is not made without reason. Men have come up here to get money to carry on their papers and it has been proffered them oil con dition that their papers ceased to be “rebel” and forthwith became ‘Toil” forever more. To the eternal honor of the Southern press, the proffer has been all but univer sally rejected with scorn; one journal there is in particular that was for years a \ Mill® <9® Tt II SOTTE. i bright and shining light in Southern journalism that went down rather than survive on dishonoring terms. All hut universal this rejection has been, but not altogether universal. Here and there the temptation has been too great, and there are now at iny pen's tip the names ol three papers at least that are in the hands of “loil” money-changers and must speak their sentiments or not speak at alb What these names are vocari non expediat, it is not now time to tell, but when yon light O! reader, on a professedly Southern journal which talks much of “fixed facts,'’ and “the thing is inevitable,” and “now let us cease factious opposition” and other such dastardly twaddle, you may be pretty sure that you have lit on one of them. Such are the papers, such the men that are unable to see ati inch before them and are eager and furious to sell out to Radicalism when a bright and glorious deliverance is ready to wait upon that same course ot constant hostility and ceaseless embarrass ment, by which the Roman Fabius wore out the patience and prevailed at last over the power of even the mighty Hannibal himself. The story is instructive, and, though old, shall be told anew. When, the Carthaginian General invaded Italy. Fabius was sent forth to meet him, but seeing the superior army of his antagonist, refused to fight a pitched battle, but con stantly harrassed him by cutting off small detachments, intercepting supplies, and impeding his progress. Tired of this slow work, though indeed it was the most deadly stategy that could possibly have been employed against their enemy, the Romans cried out against Fabius, gave him the nickname of Ounctator , or the Sluggard, and insisted on another General being put in command. This was done, and, flushed with pride, the new command er rushed down from his mountain tast nesses against Hannibal and met at Tlirasy mene one of the most appalling deteats that ever fell upon the Roman arms. Glad enough were the Romans to have old Sluggard hack, and so soon as he was back he began liis tactics of masterly inactivity and finally non-acquiesced his enemy out of Italy. The lesson is one that has its direct applicability to-day. Without Southern consent, everything now done, or doing, in the South under the name of reconstruc tion is as baseless as a dream and ephe meral as a vision. Edgar A. Poe tells a story somewhere of a corpse that was kept for some months from corruption by the application of magnetism, but the moment the force was withdrawn fell into putrescence, and the simile is just the one for these swollen fabrics they call recon structed State Governments. They are in a solution of cold steel, and but take the steel away and they, with their so-called Governors, and Constitutions, and pie bald Legislatures, and tax-gatherers, and upholders, pimps, apologists, and defend ers, will rush headlong into one common puddle of loathsome rottenness. Accept nothing, acquiesce in nothing, work hard, save your money, possess your souls in patience, wait, biding your time, and all will yet be well. Liberty South, and Labor North will yet get together, and then let the ruffians call on the rocks to hide them. That calf, Sumner, has lately had his meddling deposition keenly rebuked in two instances. As you know he conceives himself the special champion of anybody w ho wants to upset anything, and so when Greece began to fiilibuster against Turkey in the matter of Crete, the Great Flogged must squeeze through Congress a resolu tion cf “sympathy” with Crete, though that Island was notoriously in the wrong, and as for the Cretans they appear to justify St. Paul's view of them, as given in Titus i. xii, where he says, “The Cre tans arc always liars, evil beasts, slow’ bellies.” However they believed in “Pro gress,” they, had “moral ideas,” and that was enough for the fellow and lie worked his “Sympathy” through. Then on the expulsion of Isabella, from Spain, lie hatched another resolution to say that the United States—meaning him, Sumner— hoped that Spain would establish “anew order of things.” On it being objected that this was very loose language, since the “new order” might he worse than the old, the phraseology was altered to something about “liberal institutions,” meaning, of course, something after the present dis graceful condition of the blessed Union. This too, went through, and now for the sequence. Every one of the great powers of Europe, including those who made Greece an independent country, and have been loaning her money, and keeping her afloat for the last thirty years, met in con ference, at Paris, and unanimously decided that Turkey was right and Greece and Crete were wrong, so that these latter have been obliged to take the back track, and, thanks to the ignorance and presump tion of Sumner, the blesesed Union is put in the ridiculous attitude of sympathizing with something it didn't know anything about. As to the second instance, the Spanish people were so far from apprecia ting the ioil resolution advising them to establish a radical form of government that they voted it down, and voted for a monarchy by . a tremendous majority, so that here again, thanks to the bray of this wild ass from Bostingk, the blessed Union made a fool of itself. But these creatures have no sense. They are half parrot. They have a litte head-roll of names that they croak forth at every op portunity, but know no more what they really mean than a wild Patagonian. Ot course there are very many sensible and de cent people but they are cowed down, and the parrots and wild asses have the floor. After awhile we will change all this, but for the present it is as stated. As Hudi bras has it of the Cromwellians, so these loil birds have wonderful ideas, “■Whose honesty all durst swear tor, Though not a man of them know wherefor.” On looking over the latest volume of the Statutes at Large it is to be perceived that Congress has inserted after each provision for the appointment of a Federal official a new clause which reads that said official when once appointed is not to be removed without the conset of the Senate. As he cannot be appointed without that consent, this will be seen to put the whole power of office holding in the hands of the Senate, so whether the Civil Tenure of Office Act be repealed or no Grant will be equally bound. The point does not seem to have been noted before, but will doubtless yet arise and create trouble when it does. Tyrone Powers. NEW ORLEANS (LA) CORRESPONDENCE OF THE BANNER OF THE SOUTH. Banner of the South: In the Catholic world of our city, the great event of the week is the departure of the Rev. J B. Duffy, C. SS. R., who has been ordered hence on account of his failing health. His absence will create an aching void whose pangs can only be assauged by time. Nearly twenty years ago came the then youth ful missionary to our midst, aud imme diately commenced his pastoral labors, which have continued, almost uninter ruptedly to tiiia date, and have left tan gible monuments which will endure and testify to his zeal for ages to come. The imposing and magnificently orna mented Church of St. Aloysius, (consid ered by many the finest in the South,) the lofty and capacious School Houses, and the superb saloon known as St. Al phousus’. Hall, are only a few of the solid creation erected by the English speaking Catholics of the Fourth District under his practical leadership. Less tangible than these, but of vastly more intrinsic value, are the living but. un seen creations, the hidden “gems” of the pious Father’s zeal—the numerous confraternities and sodalities lie has founded, having for their chief object the spiritual welfare of their members. His loss will be felt not only by his companions of the clergy, by his thousands of parishioners, by the hundreds upon hundreds ot school children to whom he has been at once father, friend, and teacher, and by the whole Catholic popu lation of the city; but also by all re spectable residents of every denomina tion, who recognize in him all the best qualities of a good and useful citizen, whose every effort—and they were inces sant and herculean—tended towards the public weal. Outside the charmed pages of the Ara bian Nights, it were hard to find a parallel to the wondrous transformation effected in the Fourth District, under the magic influence of his observant eye, and tire less hand, and indomitable zeal and per severance. An observer, standing to-day on Constance street, midway between Josephine and St. Andrew streets, aud gazing on the marvellous piles of archi tecture in the shape of massive church es, colossal school houses, spacious or phanages, asylums, and seminaries, that surrouud him on all sides, with their hosts of heaven-aspiring crosses, can hardly realize that, within one short score of years, all this costly splendor has arisen from one poor ■wooden shanty that could scarcely keep the weather off the few dozens of poor Catholic wor shippers who there attended the daily Mass of Father Duffy! Under his nur turing hand, and those of his Ligourian co-laborers, that humble wooden chapell like the veritable “grain of mustard seed,” has branched out into the present lorest of religious edifices that literally afford shelter and protection to multi tudes of Christ’s poor “birds of the air” —the little handful of parishioners have grown into an army of pious men, wo men, and children, whose exemplary re gularity of life is, 1 venture to say, un surpassed by any congregation in Amer ica. All honor, then, to the good Priest who has presided over and guided this miraculous progress of Religion! And I only repeat the heartfelt prayers of many thousand bereaved fellow citizens, in begging that God’s choicest blessings may ever follow our dear Father Duffy Last Monday the rain fell all day long' ; and for several hours in the after noon our streets were all Canals, and it needed only the high-prowed gondolas to make us fancy ourselves in Venice. Along the Mail road routes the windows were crowded with ladies and children, who watched with curious glee the plash ing* and plodding of the car-mules, and laughed heartily to see pater familias plung’e out from the car and wade knee deep to his door-step. At the crossings, many a wayfarer dived suddenly out of sight on stepping into the treacherous depths of an unexpected gutter, and it is even feared that some lives were lost by drowning under these circumstances. The “oldest inhabitant” has no reco j lection of a similar flood. Since Monday’s storm, Winter ha* been upon us in full blast, to the •v reat delight of clothiers and coal dealers^who have done a brisker business the p as t four or five days than for several weeks before. The Right Rev. Bishop Gibbons of Wilmington, has been spending a week or two here, on a visit to his family, who resides in this city. He is expected to preach to-morrow in St. Alphonsus Church, which will doubtless be un u . sually crowded on the occasion. Our Grain Elevator—which l con sider the lever of this city’s future com merce—began its operations yesterday on a lot of fifty or sixty thousand bushels of grain which were disposed of “i u a twinkling.” With our Cotton Presses, Tobacco Factories, Sugar Houses and Elevators the Sunny South may yet be the side to win and laugh. Southern Radical. H : L. T . BLOME & CO., PUBLISHERS AND PROPRIETORS. AUGUSTA, Ga.,FEBRUARY 20,1869 JSepaitment. TERMS : One copy, one year, invariably in advance,.... $3 00 “ “ six months “ “ 150 Single Copies 10 ctg To Clubs.—To any person sending us a Club of 15 one copy, one year, will be given. To Clubs of 20, or more The Banner will be furnished at the rate of $2 50 per annum, In all cases the names must be furnished at the same time, and the caih must accompany each order. &jr Dealers will be supplied on liberal terms, jfejr- in making remittances to the Banner ok the South use Checks on New York, or Post Office Money Orders on Augusta. If these cannot be had, send by Express, or in Registered Letters. - -• • MONEY ORDERS, The money order system is recommended for its superiority as a safe and cheap method of transmitting small sums through the mails. Orders are issued in sums not less than sl, nor more than ss{). l arger amounts can be transmitted to the same person, at the same time, by additional orders. RATES. For an order not exceeding S2Q 10 cents. More than S2O and less than S3O 15 “ More than S3O and less than $4f)....20 “ More than S4O and less than SSQ 25 “ Those who remit money to us should, in every ■ ase, procure a post-office order, where it can be done, a check on New York, or make remittances by Express. If this cannot be done, money letters should be regis tered; otherwise, if money is lost, we will not be responsible. Address L. T. BLOME A CO., Augusta, Ga. THE DIGNITY OF CONGRESS If it were not too serious a subject, we might afford to indulge in levity when re viewing the proceedings of Congress while counting the recent electoral vote; but we must forbear. It is too painful to con template, otherwise than with feelings of shame and regret. Our readers have al ready read the proceedings upon that oc casion, we presume; and. patriotic as they are, must have blushed at the degradation to which Radicalism lias sunk that body which was once a dignified assemblage of illustrious men. it is now, alas! a Pende monium of evil spirits, and such creatures as Ben. Butler and lien Wade are its prominent and influential leaders! Geor gia seems to have been the bone of conten tion ; but at last, after a great deal of con tention and squabbling, her vote was counted. This was of little consequence, however, unless it was accepted as com mitting Congress to an acknowledgment of Georgia's status as a State in the 1 nion: but that motley assemblage can be com mitted to nothing except its policy of keeping the dominant in power at the ex pense of justice, decency, and law. have only to submit and bear with all the patience we can command ; for the present Congress has neither dignity, justice, nor consistency among its attribute-. Major T. H. Lynam. —ln our issue oi February Gth we asked for information respecting Major T. H. Lynam, 9th Mis sissippi Regiment, Confederate Nates Army. Our Agent at Huntsville, Asa., Mr. Dan O’C. Murphy, informs us that he was a private in the 9th Mississippi during the war, and that Major Lyman was last with the Regiment atMissionai; Ridge, where he was severely wound Immediately after the surrender, Majm Lynam was at Oxford, Miss., whei*‘ L resided before the war. His brother, Edward Lynam, S ,N1 Thomas’ Buildings, Liverpool, Kngh<n<,
