155. CLV.
THE ALABAMA CONVENTION. — THE WOES OF
JOHN GUTTLE, JR.
Montgomery, Ala., December 1, '67.
[1]
It is possible that this world may continyoo to exist —
that the heavenly orbs may continyoo to roll about on each
other's axises, and move in harmonious cycles into their respective
spheres — that comits may continyoo to wheel and turn
thro the speer assigned em in the grand economy in celestyel
space, but I doubt it. Ef sich a disorganizashen ez I am now
witnessin doesn't overturn that order wich is Heaven's first
law, all I kin say is, nacher is so constitooted ez to stand stunners
of no ordinary magnitood. I am in Montgomery, in attendance
on the “Constooshnel Convenshen,” ez it is called, now
in session in this accussed town. It wuz curiosity wich brot
me hither. I hed heard uv this piebald body — uv this black
and tan gatherin, in wich niggers and white men — niggers in
wich the white blood predominated, and white men in wich the
nigger blood predominated — wuz gathered and sittin side by
side, the same ez tho Noer hed never cust Ham, and ez tho the
nigger wuz not a beast, and not our inferior at all. Ez I gazed
I sed to myself, —
“The times is out uv joint, oh cussed spite,
That I wuz ever born to set em rite.”
I entered the hall with the son uv my old friend, John
Guttle. John is a chip uv the troo Guttle block. When I
arrived I found him a leanin on the bar uv a small grosery, a
smoakin a cigar and a lookin ez disconsolate ez mortal cood.
Shakin hands with him, a momentary gleam uv joy shot athwart
his careworn face, ez he invited hisself to drink with me. Not
feelin it rite to deprive him uv one little ray uv contentment,
I stood the drinks not only for him but for a dozen more wich
I found leanin on their elbows on the bar, all uv em with a
cigar atween their teeth, uv wich the lite hed gone out in
consekence uv their bein too much discouraged to draw em.
I knowd the most uv these young men in the happy days uv
yore. They wuz all the sons uv planters in the vicinity — all
uv em uv the first families uv Alabama, whose fathers hed
wunst owned their thousand akers apeece, and hed brot em up
ez the troo shivelry uv the South wuz alluz brot up. Ther
wuzn't wun uv em but hed worn the most magnificent broadcloth,
and, in his day, won and lost his thousands at faro.
Ther wuzn't wun uv em but wuz up in all the ennoblin sports
wich wuz the delite uv the shivelry uv the South, sich ez
pitchin dollars, draw poker, and horse racin, and scarcely wun
but hed fought dooels in his time; and every man uv em hed
slaughtered his hecatoms uv Yankees in the late war. Yet
here they stood, out at elbows, with naplis hats, and all in the
last stage uv seedinis.
The young men wuz in a dredful state uv dilapidashun, and
their murmurin wuz more like the lamentashens uv Job than
anythin I hed heard for a long time.
“Why,” sed John Guttle, Jr., “the old man left me a thousand
akers uv land, but wat wuz it good for? I hed no niggers!
The whelps refoosed to work without wagis, and that I
woodent pay em on prinsiple. Finally they commenst makin
offers for the land, in patches uv from ten to fifteen akers, and
crooel necessity compelled me to accept it. The money I reseeved
I wuz compelled to live on, ontil my paternal akers wuz
redoost to a scant hundred. The produx uv a hundred akers
wood support me, but it won't perdoose. I hev no labor —
wher kin I git the labor?”
“Yes,” exclaimed all uv the dozen young men, rollin over
onto the tother elbow, “Guttle's case is our own. We all hev
land, but wher's the labor?”
I wuz about to commiserate em when the bar keeper struck
in. He wood sejest, that possibly under the circumstances, it
wood be better if instid uv layin on ther elbows, askin, “wher's
the labor?” they shood go and do a little uv it themselves.
Troo, if they shood do it he woodent see so much uv em, but
they wood be able to pay suthin for the likker they consoomed.
John Guttle and I wended our way to the hall in wich the
Convenshun wuz a sittin. In the hall wuz a site! On the rite
wuz a nigger on the floor and makin a speech; on the left wuz
a nigger of majestic presence, with his feet cocked up onto a
desk, abslootly readin a noosepaper, and another wuz jist a
comin in towards his seat with ez much composure ez tho he
hed never did anythin in his life but be a member uv constitooshel
convenshuns. All about the hall in varius attitoods sot
niggers uv varius shades, and all uv em well dresst, self-possessed,
and without a particle uv that hoomility wich the race
hed alluz displayed wen in the presence uv their sooperiors.
“Good God!” sed I to Guttle, after I hed recovered from
my astonishment, “am I awake, or am I dreamin? Tell me,
please, who are these niggers?”
“Dost see that nearly white nigger on the floor offerin a
resolution?” sed Guttle, hoarse with emoshun. “That nigger
is my property. His mother wuz sold to Orleans twenty years
ago, on account uv a resemblance wich my mother fancied she
saw in him to my lamented father. I kept him ez my servant,
and the yaller cuss somehow learned to read. He owns a part
uv a place the old man hed in the North uv the State. That
one to the rite who is bizzy writin, is another — a blacksmith,
wich the old man bot on purpose to do his repairin, coz the
white blacksmith wich wuz located near us cost too much.
He wuz cheep at $2500, coz uv his bein a sooperior workman,
and I am told that the incapable bein hez a shop now uv his
own, and hez a pile uv money in the Savins Bank, while I —
his nateral sooperior — hev to depend onto the chance liberality
uv a comparative stranger like yoo for the very drink
wich I now parch for want uv.”
And the onfortnit young man busted into teers, wich we
went out and assuaged. Returnin, he resoomed: —
“That mulatto on the left, by the double winder, is a carpenter.
He bot uv me fifty akers uv land, and when delegates wuz
to be electid to this yere Convention he run agin me, and beat
me four to one, the ongrateful niggers which we hed worked
all our lives absolutely preferrin him to me, to legislate for
em,” and he bustid into teers agin.
“Wat,” sed I, “is to be the end uv all this?”
“God only knows,” sed he, “I don't There is nothin but
rooin ahead and on each side uv us. These niggers and the
crazy whites in league with em, hev now sole control uv Alabama,
and they are mashin down the 'spectable old barriers
wich kept the races in their places. They are passin ordinances
pervidin for skools. They hev given themselves the
ballot and hev disfranchised us who served the Confederacy,
so that the power will be theirn for all time to come. The
result is already foreshadered in wat they hev done. Out near
my place, they hev a village, and a skoolhouse in wich they are
taught reedin, ritin, arithmetic, and all sorts uv devilment, by a
skoolmam sent by the Freedmen's Commission. They refoose
to work for us onless we pay in advance, and consekently, ez
we can't git labor, our farms is runnin to weeds. And to make
matters wuss, the Convenshen is makin labor a lien upon the
crops, and so hamper us that it does seem to me that they
intend to delibretly rooin us. They are establishin skools and
churches, and villages everywhere; and wat is pertikelerly
oppressive, we hevn't the power to stop em in their mad
career. Politikle power we hev none, and when it comes to
force, the beast Pope stands here sekoor behind the bayonets
he controls. Good Lord, I — but let's drink.”
Wich we did, I payin for it.
I shel leave here to-morrer. I kin never bear to hev niggers
pass me clothed in broadcloth, with papers stickin out uv ther
pockits. I kin never bear the degredation uv hevin niggers
pass me without takin off their hats and steppin respectfully
off uv the sidewalk. Thank God that Kentucky did not
openly rebel. There, at least, we kin keep him in his normal
speer.
Petroleum V. Nasby, P. M.
(wich is Postmaster).
