The Black Subject.

    Source citation
    "The Black Subject," Daily Dispatch, July 24, 1856, p. 2.
    Newspaper: Publication
    Richmond (VA) Dispatch
    Newspaper: Headline
    The Black Subject.
    Newspaper: Page(s)
    2
    Type
    Newspaper
    Date Certainty
    Exact
    Transcriber
    Zak Rosenberg
    Transcription date
    Transcriber's Comments
    The following text is presented here in complete form, as true to the original written document as possible. Spelling and other typographical errors have been preserved as in the original.

    THE BLACK SUBJECT

    The Senate having confirmed the list of naval promotions, which occurred under the Naval Reform bill, and the House not having yet passed the Senate bill providing a remedy for officers to whom injustice was done by the late Naval Board, and in all probability not being able to spare time from Kansas and Freedom, for any such subject, it is more than probable that Congress will adjourn without redressing the gigantic injustice and oppression which characterized the action of the Naval Board.

    The negro subject is too important and engrossing to permit any attention to the interests of white men. Gallant officers of the Navy, who have served their country faithfully in ever clime, some of them veterans of the last war, with the scars of cruel wounds still upon their bodies, and who aided, by their labor and life's blood, to achieve for America that naval renown which is her greatest pride as a martial people, are thrust aside for negroes, the imagined sufferings of the well fed and contented blacks being of far more importance in the eyes of Congress, than the real grievances and wrongs of white patriots, gentlemen and officers! The prospect now is, that in order to give the demagogues of the House of Representatives who have been in session eight months without performing a single act of public advantage, sufficient time to make up their short comings, the two hundred naval officers, with Stewart and Maury at their head, will be deprived of all chance of justice, while the families of many of them, and those most deserving persons, must not only share the bitter mortification of their gallant husbands, but suffer from sheer want.

    This is only one specimen of the manner in which Congress legislates for negroes, to the exclusion of white men. Well is the party now dominant in the House styled Black Republican. Black is their only wear. Hung be the heavens in black , their only motto. The twenty millions of white men, the descendants of the brave revolutionary fathers, the chosen people whom Heaven has placed here as the pioneers of civil and religious liberty, are not deemed worthy a moment's consideration.-Shem and Japhet are forgotten, and Ham has become the lion of the day. The South are kept in perpetual turmoil about Ham by the aggressive demonstrations at the North, whilst in the North Ham is welcomed as a man and a brother, as he winds his way by the underground railroad, "stealing and giving odours." It is not the fault of the South that this subject is perpetually agitated, a subject more dangerous to the peace and union of this country than any other. The South asks only for repose and security; it would willingly till the soil in quiet and silence, without ever uttering a word about slavery, if its adversaries would permit it. But that is not their temper nor their policy. The live upon the agitation of that topic. They grow rich, go to Congress, build up newspapers, and run for the Presidency, on that hobby. Take it away and their vocation's gone, and with it their bread and butter. The interests of the whole white race of the Republic must be neglected, and one-half the country kept in central disquiet and discontent,-not to help the black race, but to enable white demagogues to ride into power upon black shoulders.

    How to Cite This Page: "The Black Subject.," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/1177.