Unfettered: A NovelGriggs, Sutton E. (Sutton Elbert)
General
Unfettered: A Novel
Griggs, Sutton E. (Sutton Elbert)
African Americans -- Fiction; United States -- Race relations -- Fiction
"Sure sign that I did right to attack that scoundrel Warthell, if it has
made this old Democratic paper mad. Ha, ha, ha! Morlene thought I was doing
wrong. I wasn't though, anybody can see, for what would this old
Democratic paper be kicking about if what I did wasn't against it?" Thus
muttered Harry to himself as he went on to his work.
"We'll hear a different tune when the Northern Republican papers begin to
discuss our attempt to get rid of these Negro traitors who are plotting to
undo all that the North has done for us. I take my medicine from the North;
let the South go where it please. See? Any Negro that will stand up for the
South against the North is an infernal, ungrateful, good for nothing
rascal, and _ought_ to be killed. Tell him I said so." These last words,
addressed by Harry to himself, were accompanied with the shaking of a
clenched fist at an imaginary foe. The more he pondered his course, the
more he praised himself, and the more outrageous Morlene's desertion of him
seemed. Eagerly he awaited the coming of the Northern papers that he might
regard his vindication as complete.
Harry went about his daily task in a half cheerful, half moody frame of
mind, pondering what steps to take with reference to his wife, but arriving
at no definite conclusion.
After the lapse of a day or so the eagerly-looked-for Northern Republican
paper came. Harry smiled with satisfaction, saying to himself: "Now we
shall hear the thing talked about right."
The article was headed, "A Crime Against Freedom." Harry now thought that
the article was going to gibbet Dorlan Warthell for having committed a
crime against the freedom of the Negro by refusing to longer affiliate with
the party that gave him freedom. He re-read the caption, "A Crime Against
Freedom." "Yes, yes; only it ought to be 'An Unpardonable Crime,' for that
is what it was." Eager to feast on the invectives to be hurled at Dorlan,
he stood still on the street corner and began to read:
"The United States of America is a government ruled by the duly ascertained
will of a majority of its citizens. Each qualified citizen has the right of
casting one vote in support of whatever side of an issue that pleases him.
Each citizen has the further right to use all legitimate means in his power
to induce other citizens to cast their votes as he casts his.
"The right of advocacy is, if possible, more sacred than the right to vote,
for the votes of fellow citizens go well nigh the whole length in shaping a
man's environments. Since the votes of others are the majority influence in
determining a man's environments, it is manifestly unjust to deny him the
opportunity of influencing these votes. He who strikes at freedom of speech
strikes at the corner-stone of our republic, and, to our view, commits the
greatest crime that a citizen can commit against a government.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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