Then"--and he slapped me on the back
highlariously--"the niggers is free!"
"Well?" sez I, not seem wat cause for highlarity that wuz.
"Well," sez he, "them niggers is not now OTHER PERSONS! We alluz counted
five uv em for three in making up the Congressers we wuz entitled to;
now they count as white men, wich increases our delegashuns to sich an
extent that ef yoo Northern men do half yoor dooty, we'll hev a majority
in Congress. Then, good Lord! the pleasant crack uv the whip shel agin
be heard on the plains uv the sunny South. The niggers wont be
re-enslaved; but our Legislaters will speedily redoose em to their
normal condishun. We shell observe the Constitushnel Amendment strickly
and in good faith. The Afrikin shel be free; but the good uv society
demands that he shel be under proper guardianship. He wont be allowed to
change his location; and the laws uv the States will define his dooties,
and give us the power uv enforcin em. He wont be allowed to hev arms, so
he can't resist. Ez he can't leave a plantation, he will hev to submit
quietly to sich rools ez the high-minded planter makes for him, or be
shot on the spot, or turned out to die uv starvashun, akording to
circumstances. Ef the planter is a unrejenerated child uv damnashun, he
will shoot him; ef he is a saint, who hez a southern hope uv a blessed
immortality beyond the grave, he'll restrane his anger, and turn him out
to die uv hunger, onless he repents, and comes back humble.
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