Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 13 (of 20)Sumner, Charles
History
Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 13 (of 20)
Sumner, Charles
Slavery -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc., American
“Among these were four ex-governors of three different
States, who had received pardons from President Johnson. Our
conversation naturally and necessarily turned to the future of
the emancipated negroes. Their past and present condition was
discussed, and their chances as well as our own were of course
considered, and everything that could bear upon their future
was canvassed. The course to be pursued by the Legislatures
of the reconstructed States, and the laws to be enacted, in
order to obtain the fulfilment of contracts with the freedmen
employed, occupied no small portion of consideration. In this
way I had full opportunity to learn the opinions of those who
have been and will be again looked up to as the leaders and
directors of Southern opinion and sentiment.
“The unanimity of all was not the least singular thing,
especially regarding the _status_ of the freedmen and their
rights hereafter. If legal chicanery can avail, those rights
will be but nominal, and they will remain, as they have ever
been, isolated and apart,--free in name, but slaves in fact.”
It seems that in Georgia there is a body of men known as “Regulators,”
who are thus described by a correspondent of that journal which has for
years whitewashed the enormities of Slavery, the “New York Herald”:--
“Springing naturally out of this disordered state of affairs
is an organization of ‘Regulators,’ so called. Their numbers
include many ex-Confederate cavaliers of the country, and their
mission is to visit summary justice upon any offenders against
the public peace. It is needless to say that their attention
is largely directed to maintaining quiet and submission among
the blacks. _The shooting or stringing up of some obstreperous
‘nigger’ by the ‘Regulators’ is so common an occurrence as to
excite little remark. Nor is the work of proscription confined
to the freedmen only._ The ‘Regulators’ go to the bottom of the
matter, and strive to make it uncomfortably warm for any new
settler with demoralizing innovations of wages for ‘niggers.’”
Such is the unimaginable atrocity which, according to friendly
authority, prevails in Georgia. The poor freedman is sacrificed. The
Northern settler, believing in Human Rights, is sacrificed also. Alas
that such scenes should disgrace our country and age! Alas that there
should be hesitation in applying the necessary remedy!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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