University of Virginia Library

35. XXXV.
An Appeal to the People just before the October
Elections.

PRESIDENT JOHNSON, who hez bin likened
to Androo Jaxon, and wich, since my appintment
I conseed him to be, in many partikelers, his
sooperior, requested me and William H. Seward
(his secretary and chaplin) to draw up and publish
to the Democracy of the various States holdin elecshuns
this fall an address, or ruther an appeal,
firmly beleevin that hed he extendid his tour to
Maine, and isshood an address to em, that that state
wood not hev gone ez it did. William refoozed to
take part in the appeal, sayin that it warnt uv no
use, and so the dooty devolved upon me.

Democrats and Conservatives uv the North:

Appresheatin the gravity uv the isshoo, I address
yoo. The signs uv the times is ominus.

A Radikle Congress, electid durin the time when
the Southin States, wich comprises reely all the
intellek uv this people, didn't take no part in the
elekshen, bein too bizzy gettin out uv Sherman's
way to open polls, — a Congress, I repeat, in wich
there ain't no Southern man, and wich consekently
kant, by any stretch uv the hooman imaginashen, be
considered Constitooshnel, hez dared to thwart the
President uv the United States, and set up its will
agin hisn! I need skarcely recount its high-handed
acts uv usurpashen. It passed a bill givin rites to
niggers, wich, accordin to Scripter (see Onesimus,
Ham, and Hagar, the only three texts in Scripter
uv any partikeler account) and the yoosages uv the
Democrisy, ain't got no rites; and the President,
exercisin the high prerogatives put into his hands
by the Constitooshen, vetoed it. Here the matter
should hev endid. He hed expressed, in a manner
strikly Constitooshenel, his objecshens to the measure;
and a proper regard for his feelins, and just
deference for his opinions, ought to hev indicated
the right course. Here wuz peace offered this Congres.
Here wuz the tender uv a olive branch. The
President didn't want a quarrel with Congres; he
didn't desire a continyooance uv the agitation wich
hed shook the country like a Illinois ager; but he
desired Peece. Congres cood hev hed it hed they
only withdrawed their crood noshens uv what wus
rite and what wuz wrong; ratified, ez they shood
hev done, sich laws ez the President saw fit to
make: in short, hed they follered the correct rool
when we hev a Demokratic President, and put the
Government in his hands, with an abidin trust in
his rectitood and wisdom, we mite hev avoided this
struggle, and thus wood hev bin peaceful. But this
reckless Congris, bent upon consentrating power in
its hands instid uv dividin it between him and Seward,
passed the bill over his head, regardlis uv his
feelins! The responsibility for the dissension rests,
therefore, with Congres.

But these questions are altogether too hefty for
the Demokratic intellek, and I fling em out for the
considerashen uv the few Post Masters we get from
the Union ranks. To the Dimocrisy I address myself
more partickerlerly.

Do you want to Marry a Nigger? This
ishoo is agin before yoo. Are you in favor uv elevatin
the Afrikin to a posishen where he kin be yoor
ekal, or perhaps yoor sooperior? That ishoo is
agin before yoo for yoor decision, only the danger
to yoo is increased. The matter has become threatening;
for, disgise it ez we may, thousands uv em

kin read, and they are akkumulatin property, and
wearin good clothes to a extent trooly alarmin to
the Dimokratic mind. We hev alluz consoled ourselves
with the soothin reflection that there wuz a
race lower down in the scale uv humanity than us
uns. Shall we continue to enjoy that comfort?
That's the question for every Dimokrat to consider
when he votes this fall. Remove the weight uv
legal disability, and ten to one ef they don't outstrip
us even, and then where are we goin to look for a
race to look down upon? It's a close thing atween
us now; and ez we uv this generation can't elevate
ourselves, why, for our own peece uv mind, we
must, — I repeet it, — MUST pull them down.

Agin then I repeet, Do you want to Marry
a Nigger? Yoor daughters wunst carried banners
onto wich wuz inskribed that trooly Dimokratic
motto, “White husbands or none!” and in consequence
they've bin mostly livin in the enjoyment uv
none. Are they to go back on that holy determinashen
to preserve the Anglo Sackson race on this
continent in its purity? Do yoo want the nigger —
the big buck nigger — the flat-footed nigger — the
woolly-headed nigger — the long-heeled nigger —
the bow-legged nigger — the Nigger — to step up
aside uv yoo, and exercise the prerogatives uv freemen

in this country? Do you want the nigger
aforesed to be mayors uv your towns, with all the
hatred they hev towards us? Wat chance, O Dimokratic
dweller in cities! think yoo yoo'd hev if
hauled up afore a nigger mayor on a charge uv disorderly
conduct? Wat chance wood yoor children
hev in a skool uv wich all the teechers wuz niggers?
Wat chance wood yoo hev wen arrestid for small
misdemeanors, afore nigger judges?

How, let me ask, in the name of High Heaven,
wood yoo like to be tried for hoss stealin afore a
nigger jury?

“But,” say some uv yoo, who, set ravin by drums,
and flags, and sich, went off violently into the war,
and wuz, perhaps, saved from starvin by niggers,
“these niggers wuz our friends in the late war —
they fought agin the South!”

O, wat a deloosion! O, wat blindnis! Troo,
they did; and that shows the danger that's afore
us; that lifts the fog from the precipise onto wich
we are standin, and shows us our danger. Wat
does this fact prove? It proves the onreasonableness
uv the Nigger — his discontentednis with the
posishen to wich nacher assigned him, and his cussid
disposition to upset the normal condition. The
Bible makes him a servant unto his brethren (see

Ham, Hagar, and Onesimus, three blessed texts).
Science proves him to be, not a man, but a beast;
and so, take him ez we may, either ez our brother
or ez a beast, — and Dimocrisy, with that liberality
wich hez always distinguished it, gives every man
his choice wich theory to take, — his condition is
servitood. But he, with a cussidness, a perversity
wich I never cood understand, flies into the face uv
the Divine decree, flies into the face uv science, and
asserts his independence! He turned agin them ez
hed fostered him; turned agin, in many instances,
his own parents (in these instances, for convenience,
the parents adopted the brethren theory), and for
an abstract idea fought agin em. That restlessness
under bonds alarmed the Dimocratic mind. We
who owned em under the Skripter (see Onesimus,
Hagar, and Ham), and under the eternal laws uv
scientific trooth wuz content with the arrangement,
and why shood they not hev bin? Things wuz
normal. They worked, and we eat; and ef they
hed bin content with this ekitable division uv the
labor uv life, all wood hev bin smooth to-day.

Their takin part agin us at the South, and in
favor uv the Federals, is, instead uv a coz uv feelin
good toward em, a source uv oneasiness; instid uv
bein a reason for elevatin uv em, it's my principal

reason for depressin uv em. Sich onsettled minds
shood be quieted; this itchin to raise theirselves
shood be crushed out uv em, that Science and Holy
Writ (see Onesimus, Hagar, and Ham) may be
vindicated.

Shel we desert Androo Johnson, after all the
trouble he hez bin to in gettin back to us? Shel
we elect a Congres this fall so soaked in Ablishin —
so filled with objeckshuns to our Southern brethren,
ez to refooze to receive em back into the seats which
they vacated? Consider! The Southern Dimokracy
hevn't, and don't, lay up nothin agin yoo.
They are willin to forgive and forget. They failed,
but they are willin to forgiv the cause uv the failyoor.
They hevn't got the government they wanted,
but they find no fault with that, but are willin to
take charge of the wun they hev bin compelled to
live under. Kin they offer fairer? The fate uv war
wuz agin em. Buryin all hard feelins, they extend
to us Chrischen charity, and say, Here we are —
take us — give us our old places. They hev bin
chastened. Their household gods hev bin destroyed,
and their temples torn down. Wun neighbor
uv mine lost two sons in the Confedrit army; another
son, which he hed refoosed $1500 for in 1860,
he wuz compelled to shoot, coz he wuz bound to

run away into the Federal army; and two octoroons,
which he hed a dozen times refoosed $2500
for, each, in Noo Orleans, he saw layin dead on
the steps uv a skool house in Memphis. Hez he
suffered nothin? And yet he is willin to take a seat
in Congress — forgettin all he hez suffered, and forgivin
the cause thereof. What wickedness it is
wich would further bruise sich a broken reed!

Therefore, ez yoo love yourselves and hate the
nigger, I implore yoo to act. Take yoor choice uv
the platforms uv the different States — vote ez a
Johnson Unionist, or ez a Democratic Johnsonian
— but vote.

Kentucky holds out her hands appealingly! Kentucky
implores yoo to bild up a bulwark North uv
the Ohio River to save what little is left uv pure
Dimocracy there! Kentucky will back yoo in yoor
endeavors. Will you heed her cry? Shel she appeel
in vain? Forbid it, Hevin!