What will the mechanics of
Richmond think of the following unscrupulous statement of
Rev. Dr. Bacon, of New Haven, as published in the New Haven
Palladium.
In his visit to
Richmond, he found
no middle class in Richmond! "There are some white mechanics"--"but they occupy miserable shanties, generally." This veritable
Doctor says:
‘
"There were two hundred and fifty white children, as poor and ignorant as the blacks, attending at the
Laboratory School, and they need the aid of the people of the
North.
When I mentioned this fact to
President Johnson, his answer was, 'I am very glad to find that anybody knows that there are white folks at the
South!' We must do much for the poor whites.
Many of these children were barefooted, and all poorly clad.
The dwellings of
Richmond are all either very large and imposing, or small and squalid.
There are none for the middle class, for there is no such class.
There are some white mechanics and workmen there, but they occupy miserable shanties generally — very unlike the New Haven mechanics.
There is no inducement to our laboring population to go to
Richmond, or anywhere South.
They must begin by making it a fit residence, such as they need."
’
If all the letters written and speeches made by those Northern men who visit the
South have no more truth than the above, we can easily understand how the plain, good people of the
North should be misled in their estimate of the
South.
This benevolent visitor seems to feel special sympathy for "the poor whites of the
South," as if there were no poor whites at the
North.
Let him pass over the towns and cities of his own regions, and he will find squalid poverty among whites and blacks such as we have not been accustomed to see in more southern latitudes.
