Note 31 — Chapter VI · SOUTH CAROLINA AND GEORGIA, SURVEYED.

From an Address to the people of Georgia, by a Committee of the State Temperance Society, prior to the election of 1855.—“We propose to turn the 2,200 foreign grog-shop keepers, in Georgia, out of office, and ask them to help us. They (the Know-Nothings) reply, ‘We have no time for that now—we are trying to turn foreigners out of office;’ and when we call upon the Democratic party for aid, they excuse themselves, upon the ground that they have work enough to do in keeping these foreigners in office.”

From the Penfield (Ga.) Temperance Banner, Sept. 29th, 1855.

“OUR SLAVE POPULATION.

“We take the following from the Savannah Journal and Courier, and would ask every candid reader if the evils referred to ought not to be corrected. How shall it be done?

“‘By reference to the recent homicide of a negro, in another column, some facts will be seen suggestive of a state of things, in this part of our population, which should not exist, and which cannot endure without danger, both to them and to us. The collision, which terminated thus fatally, occurred at an hour past midnight—at a time when none but the evil-disposed are stirring, unless driven by necessity; and yet, at that hour, those negroes and others, as many as chose, were passing about the country, with ample opportunity to commit any act which might happen to enter their heads. In fact, they did engage, in the public highway, in a broil terminating in homicide. It is not difficult to imagine that their evil passions might have taken a very different direction, with as little danger of meeting control or obstacle.

“‘But it is shown, too, that to the impunity thus given them by the darkness of midnight, was added the incitement to crime drawn from the abuse of liquor. They had just left one of those resorts where the negro is supplied with the most villanously-poisonous compounds, fit only to excite him to deeds of blood and violence. The part that this had in the slaughter of Saturday night, we are enabled only to imagine; but experience would teach us that its share was by no means small. Indeed, we have the declaration of the slayer, that the blow, by which he was exasperated so as to return it by the fatal stab, was inflicted by a bottle of brandy! In this fact, we fear, is a clue to the whole history of the transaction.’

“Here, evidently, are considerations deserving the grave notice of, not only those who own negroes, but of all others who live in a society where they are held.”