Southern Religions Teachers

Prof. Swing is right, and justly severe in his North American Review paper, on the failure of tho southern pulpit. Those churches, while they have Jone mach good, and contain noble men, are, in a sub stantial sense, in bonds. Ton or rifteen men "run" the southern Methodist church. Our friend Dr. Haygood boils to speak out on some few questiono, but he will "go under" if he dares to do his whole duty. We could name six men, inoludiog Editors Lafferty, of Richmond, Haygood, of Macon and John, of Texas, who could shake that southern Methodist church, bishop and all, into the next era. The chain-gang system of Georgia and North Carolina, the convict-making of black, by white men, for minor offenses, ostracism, active bulldozing, and so on, are texts enough to inspire the men we name. Few generations present such opportunities, and they can do Moses-like work. As to the convict business, which is one fruit of slavery, and which we have seen in the south, we quote the following from the ínter Ocean's correspondenee : Coi.umbia, 8. C, March 30.- Particular palos seem to have been tnkpn wirhin the last year to give the chain-gang system of Georgia an uueuviable, though just, notoriety. And it is true that the oppression and slaughter of negroes in that 9tate during the past ten years, througli the instrumentality of the chain-gangs, has been a thing horrible in the extreme. But if one were to seek for the worst phases of the southern chain-gang system, for the most loathsome forms of modern slavery in the south, he would tind that, horrible as the system is In Georgia, it is really humane in compnrison witli the extramural prison system of the other former slave states. In South Carolina there has for two years been a gang of about 300 convicts at work on the Greenwood and Augusta railroad, where the mortality has been more than twicc as great as that which raged at Andersonville during the war. The death rate among the long-term convicts in this gang was sixty-six per cent. of the wholo number received ; and the treatment meted out to the convicts was sickening in the extreme. The condition of the convicts at last became such that the state legislature ordered an investigation to be made by the superintendent of the penitentiary. The following extract from his report, recently published in pamphlet form, will furnlsh an adequate idea of the chain-gang system of South Carolina : I found in one end of the stockade nino slck men, chalned on what was intended to be a straw bed, but the straw was too thln to do much good. I could not stand the awful stench, and had to direct the guard to unchaln t liriu and brlng them out In front of the stockade. I found them in a deplorable condition, all of them complainlng of Hwollen llmbs, venereal diseaseii, etc. I then went to the socalled hospital, where I found three sick. They had some straw to He upon, and were all chained. They were all covered witii vermln and fluas - so inuch so that I was forcea to leave the room. I don't see how it was posslble for a well man to exist in theee places well treated, much less a slck man wlth no treatment, or so llttle that 1 regarded it as none. They had no change of clothlug, no shoes, no coverlnis of any descrlptlon that I could see. They reported that they had no medicine or no medical treatment except one doo Of naregoric, in the three days precedlng, and then nurishment was fat bacon and bread. 1 left the camp und proceeded to wbere they were at work on the road about a niile or a mile and a half dlstant. I foand about seventy-flve men at work on the road but It was so late that I could only inu ¦ êZZX. condition geuerally and postpone lasDectlon Uï wen? -!Mn to where the? were at worSeniYéa the roll, and lnspected them. I nnind grt many coinplalning of venérea! dlseases and swollen llbms, and almost all with scurvy. They were very dirty in person and clothinjj- ha ving no change; some of them said they had not washed for weeks. I saw no lihinki'ts or hed-dothing for them to He upon or cover wlth. I heard great and loud complaint agalnst Captain J. J. Caliill and his fuard. One of them, W. H. McQarvey, No. ,125, showed Colonel Butler and myself scars upon his head which he sald were caused by blows from a Btlctc In the hands of Captain Cahlll, and persons outslde gave the same informatloa. Captain Cahlll himself, in reportIng those that were dead. lnformed me that the guard had shot one while In shuckles and faatened to the gang-chain, clalming that he was in revolt. We heard that Cahlll had ordered the guard to shoot hlm. Superintendent Lipscomb's report then dwells upon the mortality rate, showing that out of 285 convicts 114 had died up to the lirst day of last September, by far the greatest death rate that has yet been discovered in any of the cliain gangs of tüe south. The report of Dr. Trezevant, the surgeon of the South Carolina penitentiary, upon the condition of this same gang of convictii, verifles in the strongest terms the superintendent's report, and, in some respects, adds to tlie horrors of the picture. I will quote a few passages : I reached the stockade on Monday afteruoon, the 25, and lminedlutely proceeded to lnspection. I found In the log-pen, which Is called the hospital, three convicts lylng on a shelf made of poles and clapboarus, and covered about two lnches with siraw. Two of aaid convicts were colored and one white. One of the convict, John Lord, was in the last stages of exhausllon, and had nothlng on but hls i les ainl a pair of pants- the rest of hls body being covered wlth üies. McGurvey, the white convict, was so weak and cmaclated that ho was unable to leave the shelf, and tüe straw was so full of vermln that 1 was unable to make a satlsfactory examination of hlm. The Kugllsh language does not posness words sufflciuntly stroug to express the stench which arose from that Dluce. The auarters In which Ihe laborlng couvlcts are consint of log peus, twenly by thirty feet,separated by aii aUey-way oí elght or leu foet. íu thls space, in one peu, I fouud elghteen other convicta lyinjc on the naked nuüi, thelr dlsuaseH belng prlncipally exhausttou and dropsles. TUe saine style of Hleepiug accommodations prevails in these pens os do lu Ihe hospital, with the exceptlou uiiit mi some of the shelves there Ís no straw al all, and (rom the pollshed appearance ol the clapboards there has been none slnce they were occupled. I saw no trace of coverlug of any kind. Thestencli arlslug froin these quarters was siekenliiK to the utterrnost extent. The eooklug Ís doue lu slx or eight round ovans In the opeu air, the bread whlch I examined being burut ou top and raw throughout tlie balaucu. Krom the stockade I went to where the cuuvlcls were at work, aud lnapected each luim separatoly. Wllh the exceplion of min', I found them all more or less lufected wltli scurvey, and with un eruptlon that wa evldently cauaed by the vermlu on thelr perHons. Thore were two who were so swolleu wilh drousy of the extremltles that I remurki-d that they should have been In the tiospiial, and was told that they were there on llght wurk.JuKt to do whatthey pleased. None of them pose8sed a changu of clothing, and thelr persous, though evlueutly liavlng been wanhod ou the previous tíuuday, were olfenslve on account of the stench from thelr Hlthy clolUeii. Slavery never developed more inliuinaii or brutal features tliau are einboilied in the abovo oflicial reportó; and the magnitude of this barbiirisin can be fully conceived wlien it is reiaeinbered that there ure dozeru of these convicta' camp, where the prisoners of a state are made the slaves oí individual, seattered licre and there throughout the cutiré soutli. The chalngangs, in all their atrocity, seem to have tprung up only upon the ruins of slavery, and are conflned entirely to the former slave stntes. A necessity is arising to pnt in action some force that will blot them, with their unjust sentences, incarceration of innocent men. and foul iuurders. from