St. Mary's gazette., 1865-08-17
A Suggestion.

Aiine anu laU-LreaSing, Like other
plaques. frequently as-ume the character
Of an epidemic. We are passing at pres.
en', We think. through an epidemic of this
kiud 10 the United States. II il Difficult,
now to open . Newspaper without fipding
that murder or robbery. or la w. breaking Of
some kind, is on the rampage. This
should not, perhaps, surprise US. I, is the
natural effect Of civil war upon public NOR.
sis. Nevertheless. all good men should
labor earnestly and uDi;ed.y to limit or
abolish this disease and to restore public
morals to their normal condition. The
very thing they ough. no. to do, is to ee.
frightened and 10 give up and trust that
the evil will correc. and cure itself. Tha.
would te folly. madness. suicide. No,
the evi! 10 be cured, must be met aud
checked, eud, therefore. we should all
make up our mind. TO meet and check 1t.
and. m oreover. We should do this upon
the spot and at once. 1t is q much easiel
task to put out spark than to subdue a
conflagration.
There reflections have been sug ga1sted
by the condition of things in our own
midst. We have at this time a number Of
lswless characters ia this county. who
seem TO be acting pretty much as they
please. and. without we have been misiu-
formed. they generally please to be law
breaking. They are mostly negroes. not
natives Of our county. and have no inter-
{ st IT it. except such an in,eres. as may
arise from being employed by spectators
to cut and haul cord wood or to perform
other temporary labor. A few weeks
since, . large company Of these characters.
apparently withou. any head that they
ether obeyed or respected, passed through
our county. plundering aud Insulting the
people on their lioe Of march with pe,fec.
impunity, and behaving generally in the
most reckless manner. Remonstrance was
trt ated with iusult and demands for salts.
faction were met by threats Of further vio-
lence. Bad as this was, It is not the
worst We have to apprebend. unless we
bestir ourselves to action. Emboldened
BY their past impunity aud the absence of
any civil or military force in the county
to restrain or bring them to punishment, i.
it not to be feared that the lawless propen-
si,ies Of these people may culminate in
darker and graver crimes than either theft
or robberyr We should see to this mat
ter at once. While the military vas sta
toned amongst W, such lawlessness, as We
are now noticing. was almost unknown to
the county; or. if L was known, We had
only to appeal to this power for redress
and the evil was Immediately abated.
But the military are now beyond our reach
a,d We are. therefore, compelled to invoke
ard rely upon the civil arm for our pro-
lection. Now. it is notorious that our pre-
sent police arrangements are utterly impo-
tent to meet any such danger US the one
in hand. The practical thing, therefore.
to do. it seems to us. is SO to arrange and
strengthen cur present police force ss to
make it equal to any reasonable or proba-
bic emergency. Ard i. is just here we
would put in our suggestion. Let the
Commissioners Court take this m.tter in
hand. 1t has the power under the law,
We pre'ume. TO rsife the couatabulary or
police force Of the county to The MEASURE
Of any danger tha. may threaten fbe pub
lie p, acc or menace the public safely
Let it appoint, then. as many active young
men in each dis.'ic. Of the county as may
be Necessary. in its judgment, to enable
The regular "fheers Of the law to arrcs.
violence therein or to execute The civil pro-
cess OF our magistrates. The en- plnyment
"f this additional force would only be
temporary, because the evil complained Of
"a e'ISetcd 10 be only temporary. and the
cost to the county. therefore. would be
light. but even lift .hould prove otherwise.
we belnve tha. the ,sx payers of the .oun-
~ would ,h-crfully meet il TO be satisfied
,ba. shsir property and families were un-
der the safeguard Of power. the only thing
that lswlessness re, pce,s.