Part 18 (1/2)
He further stated that one of his chief reasons for suggesting emigration was that it would be a terrible blow to the South. The proud Southerner would then have his own forests to fell and fields to tend. He pictured the haughty Southern lady at last the queen of her own kitchen. He then called attention to the loss of influence and prestige which the South would sustain in the nation. By losing nearly one half of its population the South's representation in Congress would be reduced to such a point that the South would have no appreciable influence on legislation for one half a century to come.
He called attention to the business depression that would ensue when the southern supply merchant lost such an extensive consumer as the negro.
He wound up by urging the Imperium to go where they would enjoy all the rights of free men, and by picturing the demoralization and ruin of the South when they thus went forth. His suggestion met with much favor but he did not make clear the practicability of his scheme.
At length a bold speaker arose who was courageous enough to stick a match to the powder magazine which Bernard had left uncovered in all their bosoms. His first declaration was: ”I am for war!” and it was cheered to the echo. It was many minutes before the applause died away. He then began an impa.s.sioned invective against the South and recited in detail horror after horror, for which the South was answerable. He described hangings, revolting in their brutality; he drew vivid word pictures of various burnings, mentioning one where a white woman struck the match and ignited the pile of wood that was to consume the trembling negro. He told of the Texas horror, when a colored man named Smith was tortured with a red hot poker, and his eyes gouged out; after which he was slowly roasted to death. He then had Mrs. Cook arise and gather her children about her, and tell her sorrowful story. As she proceeded the entire a.s.sembly broke down in tears, and men fell on each other's necks and wept like babes. And oh! Their hearts swelled, their bosoms heaved, their breath came quick with choking pa.s.sion, and there burst from all their throats the one hoa.r.s.e cry: ”War! war! war!”
Bernard turned his head away from this affecting sight and in his soul swore a terrible oath to avenge the wrongs of his people.
When quiet was sufficiently restored, the man with the match arose and offered the following resolutions:
”WHEREAS, the history of our treatment by the Anglo-Saxon race is but the history of oppression, and whereas, our patient endurance of evil has not served to decrease this cruelty, but seems rather to increase it; and whereas, the ballot box, the means of peaceful revolution is denied us, therefore;
”_Be it Resolved_: That the hour for wreaking vengeance for our multiplied wrongs has come.
”_Resolved_ secondly: That we at once proceed to war for the purpose of accomplis.h.i.+ng the end just named, and for the further purpose of obtaining all our rights due us as men.
”_Resolved_ thirdly: That no soldier of the Imperium leave the field of battle until the ends for which this war was inaugurated are fully achieved.”
A dozen men were on their feet at once to move the adoption of these resolutions. The motion was duly seconded and put before the house.
The Chairman asked: ”Are you ready to vote?” ”Ready!” was the unanimous, vociferous response.
The chairman, Belton Piedmont, quietly said: ”Not ready.” All eyes were then pointed eagerly and inquiringly to him. He called the senior member of the house to the chair and came down upon the floor to speak.
We are now about to record one of the most remarkable feats of oratory known to history. Belton stood with his ma.s.sive, intellectual head thrown back and a look of determined defiance shot forth from his eyes. His power in debate was well known and the members settled themselves back for a powerful onslaught of some kind; but exactly what to expect they did not know.
Fortunately for Belton's purpose, surprise, wonder, expectancy, had, for the time being, pushed into the background the more violent emotions surging a moment before.
Belton turned his head slowly, letting his eye sweep the entire circle of faces before him, and there seemed to be a force and an influence emanating from the look. He began: ”I call upon you all to bear me witness that I have ever in word and deed been zealous in the work of building up this Imperium, whose holy mission it is to grapple with our enemy and wrest from him our stolen rights, given to us by nature and nature's G.o.d. If there be one of you that knowest aught against my patriotism, I challenge him to declare it now; and if there be anything to even cast a suspicion upon me, I shall gladly court a traitor's ign.o.ble doom.”
He paused here. No one accepted the challenge, for Belton was the acknowledged guiding star that had led the Imperium to the high point of efficiency where Bernard found it.
”By your silence,” Belton continued, ”I judge that my patriotism is above suspicion; and this question being settled, I shall feel free to speak all that is within me on the subject now before me. I have a word to say in defence of the south--”
”No! No! No! No!” burst from a score of throats. Friends crowded around Belton and begged him to desist. They told him that the current was so strong that it was death to all future usefulness to try to breast it.
Belton waved them away and cried out in impa.s.sioned tones: ”On her soil I was born; on her bosom I was reared; into her arms I hope to fall in death; and I shall not from fear of losing popular favor desist from pointing out the natural sources from which her sins arise, so that when judgment is p.r.o.nounced justice will not hesitate to stamp it with her righteous seal.”
”Remember your scars!” shouted one.
”Yes, I am scarred,” returned Belton. ”I have been in the hands of an angry mob; I have dangled from a tree at the end of a rope; I have felt the murderous pistol drive cold lead into my flesh; I have been accounted dead and placed upon the dissecting table; I have felt the sharp surgical knife ripping my flesh apart when I was supposed to be dead; all of these hards.h.i.+ps and more besides I have received at the hands of the South; but she has not and cannot drive truth from my bosom, and the truth shall I declare this day.”
Seeing that it was useless to attempt to deter him, Belton continued his speech without interruption: ”There are many things in the message of our most worthy President that demand attention. It was indeed an awful sin for the Anglo-Saxon to enslave the negro. But in judging a people we must judge them according to the age in which they lived, and the influence that surrounded them.
”If David were on earth alive to-day and the ruler of an enlightened kingdom, he would be impeached forthwith, fined for adultery, imprisoned for bigamy, and hanged for murder. Yet while not measuring up to the standard of morality of to-day, he was the man after G.o.d's own heart in his day and generation.
”If Abraham were here to-day he would be expelled from any church that had any regard for decency; and yet, he was the father of the faithful, for he walked according to the little light that struggled through the clouds and reached him.