151. CLI.
MR. NASBY ASSISTS IN THE OHIO ELECTION. —
THE DEFEAT OF THE AMENDMENT.
Post Offis, Confedrit × Roads }
(wich is in the Stait uv Kentucky),
October 12, 1867.
[1]
Feelin that the time hed arrived which wuz to decide
whether 7,000 degradid niggers wuz to grind 500,000 proud
Caucashens into the dust, I felt that ef I shood fail in my dooty
now, I shood be forever disgraced. Accordingly, I put in the
eleckshun day at a Dimocratic town in Ohio — the battle-field
— the identikle place into wich I made a speech doorin the
campane.
I arrived ther on the mornin uv the elekshun, an found that
comperhensive arrangements hed bin made for defeatin this
most nefarus and dangerous proposishen. Paradin the streets
ez early ez 7 A. M. wuz a wagon containin 25 virgins, runnin
from 27 to 39, the most uv em ruther wiry in texture, and over
their heads wuz banners, with the followin techin inscriptions:
“Fathers, save us from Nigger Ekality!” “White Husbans
or none!” It wood hev bin better, I thot, hed they bin somewhat
younger. Ther wuz suthin preposterous in the ijee uv
females uv that age callin upon fathers to save em from anythin,
when in the course of nacher their fathers must hev bin a
lyin in the silent tomb for several consecutive years, onless,
indeed, they marrid young. Ef still livin (I judged from the
aged appearance uv the damsels), their parents must be too
far advanced in yeers to take an activ part in biznis. In another
wagon wuz a collekshun uv men wich hed bin hired from the
railrode, twelve miles distant, whose banners read, “Shel
ignerent Niggers vote beside intelligint Wite men?” Hangin
over the polls wuz a broad piece uv white muslin, onto wich
was painted, in large letters, “Caucashuns, Respeck yer Noses
[ILLUSTRATION]
PARADE OF THE VIRGINS. Page 476.
[Description: 635EAF. Illustration page. Image of several women in a wagon; a
sign behind them reads "FATHERS SAVE US FROM NIGGER EKALITY! WHITE
HUSBANS OR NUN!]
— the nigger stinks!” Then I knowed it wuz safe. That
odor hez never yet bin resisted by the Democrasy, and it hez
its inflooence over Republikins.
I never saw sich enthoosiasm, or more cheerin indicashuns
uv the pride uv race. Ez evidence uv the deep feeling that
pervaded that community, I state that nine paupers in the poor-house
demanded to be taken to the polls, that they might enter
their protest agin bringin the nigger up to a ekality with em,
wich wuz nine gain with no offsets, ez ther wuzn't an Ablishnist
in the institooshun. Two men, in the county jale for petty
larceny, wuz, at their own rekest, taken out of doorence vile
by the Sheriff uv the county, that they mite, by the ballot,
protest agin bein degraded by bein compelled, when their time
wuz out, to acknowledge the nigger ez their ekal. One
enthoosiastic Dimekrat, who cost us $5, hed to be carried to
the polls. He hed commenced early at one uv the groseries,
and hed succumbed afore votin. We found him sleepin peacefully
in a barn. We lifted the patriotic man, and in percession
marched to the polls. We stood him on his feet, two men supportin
him — one on either side. I put a straight ticket into
his fingers, and takin his wrist with one hand, held his fingers
together with tother, and guided his hand to the box. Ez it
neared the winder, he started ez ef a electric shock hed struck
him, and, straightenin up, asked “Is it the sthrate ticket? Is
Constooshnel Amindmint No! onto it?”
Ashoorin him that it wuz all rite, he suffered me to hold his
hand out to the Judge uv Eleckshun, who took the ballot and
deposited it in the box. “Thank Hivin!” sed he, “the nagur
is not yet my ayquil!” and doublin up at the thigh and kneejoints,
he sank, limber-like, and gently, onto the ground. Ez
he hed discharged the dooty uv an Amerikin freeman, we
rolled him out to one side uv the house, wher the drippin uv
rain from the roof wood do suthin toward soberin him off, and
left him alone in his glory.
The amendment got but a very few votes in that locality.
The Republikins jined us in repudiatin it, mostly upon ethnologikle
grounds. One asserted that he hed bin in favor uv
emancipashen in time uv war, becoz the Afrikin cood thereby
be indoost to fite agin their Southern masters, and it wood hev
the effeck uv makin the drafts come lighter in his township.
He wuz a humanitarian likewise. He opposed crooelty toward
em. He wept when he heerd uv the massacre at Fort Piller,
becoz in the army the nigger wuz ez much a man ez anybody,
and sich wholesale slaughters tendid to make calls for “500,000
more” more frekent. But when it come to givin uv em the
privilege uv votin beside him, it coodent be thot uv. He cood
never consent that a race whose heels wuz longer than hizzen
shood rool Ameriky. “My God!” sed this ardent Republikin,
“ef you give em the ballot, wat kin prevent em from bein
Congrismen, Senators, Vice-Presidents, and even Presidents?
I shudder when I think uv it;” and he hurried in his vote.
I didn't quite see the force uv his objecshen, for it never
okkurred to me that bein sent to Congris wuz the nateral
consekence uv votin. I hev voted for thirty years, at many
elections four or five times, but I hev never bin to Congris.
Wher is the constituency wich wood elect me? But it wuzn't
my biznis to controvert his posishen. It made no difference to
me wat his reason wuz for votin ez I desired him to vote.
The nigger-lovers beat up one man to vote for the Amendment,
wich, I saw by his dissatisfied look, hed bin over-perswadid.
“Sir!” sed I, “do yoo consider a Afrikin suffishently
intelligent to be trustid with so potent a weapon ez the
ballot?”
Bustin away from them wich hed him in charge, he exclaimed,
“No, I don't! I can't vote for it. They ain't
intelligent enuff. Sir, scratch off the `Yes' from my ballot,
and put onto it `No!'”
“Here is a pensil,” sed I.
“Do it yerself,” sed he; “I can't write.”
And I did it. Sich is the effeck uv a word in season.
Words fitly spoken is apples uv gold, set in picters uv
silver.
One man woodent listen to me, but votid the Amendment.
He hed bin a soljer, and for eleven months pertook uv the
hospitality uv the Confedrits at Andersonville. Escapin, he
wuz helped to the Fedral lines by a nigger, who wuz flogged
almost to death, in his site, for not betrayin wher he wuz hid.
I mite ez well hev talked to a lamp-post, or whispered Gray's
Elegy into the ears uv a dead mule, wich is the deadest thing
I ever see. Ez he shoved in his ballot, he remarkt suthin
about he'd ruther see a nigger vote than a d—d rebel, any
time. From the direckshun uv his eye-site, I persoom he
referred to me.
I left for home ez soon ez the votes wuz counted, and the
result wuz made known, only waitin till the poll-books wuz
made out, and the judges uv eleckshun hed got ther names
written by the clerks, and hed made their marks to em. On
my way home I wuz gratified to see how the nateral antipathy
to the nigger hed revived. At Cincinati, the nite uv the
eleckshn, they wuz bangin uv em about, the patriotic Democrisy
goin for em wherever they cood find em, and the next
day, ez I saw em at the ralerode stashens, they hed, generally
speekin, ther heds bandaged. It wuz cheerin to me, and I
gloated over it.
Full uv gladnis, I entered Kentucky, and joyfully I wendid
my way to the Corners. I wuz the bearer uv tidins uv
great joy, and my feet wuz pleasant onto the mountins.
Ez I walked into Bascom's, they all saw in my face suthin
uv importance.
“Wat is it?” sed Deekin Pogram. “Is it weal or woe?”
“Is the proud Caucashen still in the ascendant in Ohio, or
hez the grovelin Afrikin ground him into the dust?” askt
Issaker Gavitt.
“My friend,” sed I, takin up the Deekin's whisky, wich, in
the eggscitement uv the moment, he didn't observe, “the
Constitooshnel Amendment, givin the nigger ekal rites, hez bin
votid down by the liberty-lovin freemen uv Ohio. Three
cheers for Ohio.”
They wuz given with a will. The wildest enthoosiasm wuz
awakened. Bascom put a spigot in a fresh barl, and the church
bells wuz set a ringin. The niggers wore a dismayed look,
and got out uv the way ez soon ez possible. A meetin wuz
to-wunst organized. Deekin Pogram felt that this wuz a proud
day. Light wuz breakin. The dark clouds uv fanaticism wuz
breakin away. We hed now the Afrikin in his normal posishen
in Ohio, and we will soon hev him likewise in Kentucky. He
moved the adopshen uv the follerin resolooshens: —
“Wareas, Noer cust Canan, and condemned him to be a
servant onto his brethren, thereby cleerly indikatin the status
uv the race for all time to be one uv inferiority; and,
“Wareas, To further show to the eyes uv the most obtoose
that a difference wuz intended, the Almighty gave the nigger
a different anatomicle struckter, for full partikelars uv wich
see the speeches uv the Demokratic stumpers doorin the late
campaign; and,
“Wareas, The attempt to place the nigger on an ekality
with the white in votin ez well ez taxashun, we consider the
sappin uv the very foundashun uv civil liberty, ez well ez uv
the Crischen religion; therefore,
“Resolved, That the Constooshnel and Biblikle Democracy
uv Kentucky send greetin to their brethren uv Ohio, with
thanks for their effectooal squelchin uv nigger superiority.
“Resolved, That to the Republikins uv Ohio, who voted agin
suffrage, our thanks is due, and we congratulate em that now
they, ez well ez us, are saved from the danger uv marryin
niggers; and likewise do we asshoor em, that in a spirit uv
mutual forbearance, we care not wat particular creed they
perfess, so long ez they vote our principles.
“Resolved, That the will uv the people havin bin cleerly
indikated, we demand the insershun uv the word `white' in
the Constitooshun uv the Yoonited States.
“Resolved, That we ask the colored voters uv Tennessee,
and other States where colored men hev votes, to observe how
they are treated in Ohio, where the Ablishnists don't need em.
In them States we extend to em a corjel invitashun to act
with us.”
The fakulty uv the Institoot met next mornin, for the purpus
uv revisin the Scripters. It wuz decided that the word
“white” should be insertid wherever necessary, and that that
edishen only be yoosed by the Dimocracy and Conservativ
Republikins. We made progress, the follerin bein a few uv
the changes: —
“`So God created a white man in his own image.'
“`Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me before white
men,' &c.
[ILLUSTRATION]
"SUFFER LITTLE WHITE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME" Page 481.
[Description: 635EAF. Illustration page. Illustration of a man sitting in a
chair with several children standing around him.]
“`Suffer little white children to come unto me, for uv sich is
the kingdom uv Heaven.'”
Wich last is comfortin, ez it shows that the distincshen
is kept up through all eternity. I give these merely ez
samples. We shel hev it finisht in a few days, and, ef funds
kin be raised, shel publish it. Sich a vershun uv the Skripters
is needid.
Petroleum V. Nasby, P. M.
(wich is Postmaster).
