University of Virginia Library

20. XX.
Mournful View of the Situation.

THE work uv death is a goin on. The sakred
precepts uv the Holy Skripters is bein daily
violated by an insane majority, who hev substitooted
their own noshens for the safe and pleasant revelashens
uv Holy Writ, and the practices of their
fathers.

Cood Noah, when he cussed Ham, and declared
that he shood be a servant unto his brethren, hev
foreseen how his cuss wood hev bin disregarded in
these degenerate days, he wood, I boldly assert (and
I make the assertion from wat I know uv the character
uv that eminent navigator), hev kep sober, and
not cusst Ham at all. For wat's the yoose uv sich
a cuss ef it's to be removed jist when you want it to
stick? Hed it bin taken off afore cotton wuz profitable,
and afore the Southern people hed learned to

depend onto their labor, it wouldent hev bin so bad,
and they cood hev endoored it without murmurin.
But, alars! not only is the South in a state of
abject cussitood, but the Northern Dimocrasy is
likewise.

The case stood thuswise: The South depended
on the Nigger; and the Northern politicians, like
me, depended on the South. The nigger wuz the
foundashun upon wich the entire structur rested;
and now that he's knocked out, it falls.

I wuz in Washington the other day, and wuz a
unwillin witnis uv a scene wich filled me with unutterable
disgust. The niggers wuz a celebratin suthin
connected with their onnatural removal from their
normal condishun, and wuz a paradin the streets
with bands uv music, and with banners and inscriptions.
They hed the impudence to dress up in good
clothes, — clothes wich I cood not afford to wear, —
and three uv the impudent cusses hed the ashoorance
to go so far in their imitation of human beins
ez to make speeches; and to my horrer, the mass
uv em hed ben so well trained by somebody that
they actily cheered, and ez near ez I cood make out
got in the applause at the right place, and all without
the assistance uv a indivijjle to commence applaudin

at the right time, wich we hev generally
found nessary at Dimmekratic meetins.

Their inscripshuns wuz insultin. They hed em
all spelt rite, and they wuz full uv aloosions to ekal
rites, and onqualifyed suffrage, and sich, planely
showin that the poor, misguided critters hed no idee
that they wuz loaded down with a cuss, and that
becoz uv that cuss they hed no rites watever.

In Richmond I saw other evidences uv the terrible
breakin down uv the barriers wich Noah set
up atween the races. I wuz sittin in a hoss car,
when a nigger hed the onparalleled asshoorence to
enter and set down. I remonstrated with the chattel,
who laft in my face.

Thus the old landmarks is bein removed, and thus
the foundations uv society is a bein broken up. I saw
in Richmond fair wimmin who hed, in olden times,
never known wat labor wuz, a washin dishes, and
cookin their own vittles; and I saw men, who hed
wunst lived luxuriously on the labor uv a hundred
niggers, now drivin drays, and sellin dry goods and
groceries, and sich, and my soul sunk within me.
Wuz the cuss a mistake? Wuz the nigger not the
race that wuz cussed? or has he becum so bleached,
so lost in the white by amalgamation, that there

ain't enough uv the black left in each indivijjle for
the cuss to hang to.

Andrew Johnson! in your hands rests our cause;
on your ackshen depends our weal or woe! Yoo,
and yoo alone, kin remedy this. Wat if a corrupt
and radikle Congress does override your vetoes, and
legislate for these cuss-ridden people? Yoo hev yet
a power wich yoo must not hesitate to make em
feel. Clear out the rump Congress; declare our
Southern brethren entitled to their seats, and see
that they hev em. The Dimocrisy uv the North,
wich wuz latterly for peece, are now fur war. They
will sustain yoo. Reverse yoor ackshen, and yoo
kin attach em to yoo with hooks uv steel. There
ain't no risk in it — nary risk. Turn the Ablishnists
out uv the Post Offices, and replace em with Democrats;
let it be understood that yoo hev come back
to your fust love, and no longer abide in the tents
uv Ablishunism, — and all will be well. Talk less
uv yoor policy, and put more uv it into acts. Combine
Post Offices with Policy, and proclaim that
only he who sustains the latter shel hev the former,
and yoo kin depend on the entire Democrisy North.
We are waitin anxiously. From the South comes
up the cry, wich the North reëkkoes.

Will Androo Johnson, wich Ablishnists call
Moses, but wich we, for obvious reasons, style the
2d Jaxon, heed that cry? or will he persist in clingin
to the black idol he embraced four years ago?