POOR WHITE.
And there Genieve sot, the good, pretty, patient creeter, a hearin’ her own people run down to the lowest notch. I felt as if I should sink, but felt that before I did sink I should speak.
He went on to tell what a dretful state the country wuz in, and all a owin’ to the colored race; and sez he:
“The niggers don’t take any interest in the welfare of the country. What do they care what becomes of the nation if they can get their pan of bacon and hominy?
“A mule stands up before their eyes higher than any idea of Justice or Liberty.
“They are liars, they are thieves, they are lazy, they are hangers-on to the skirts of civilization, they can never stand upright, they have got to be carried all their days. And it is this mass of ignorance, and superstition, and vice that you Northerners want to see ruling us white men of the South.
“They can’t read nor write, nor understand an intelligible remark hardly; and yet these are the men that you want to have vote and get put in as rulers over us.
“Well, we will not submit to it, that is all there is about it; and if war comes, the sooner the better, for we will die fighting for our freedom. It is bad enough for us Southerners to be ruled by Northern men, but when it comes to being ruled by beasts, animals that are no higher than brutes, we will not submit.”
Sez I, for I would speak up, and I did: