Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1866-05-24
The Bad Reaction in the South.
From the Springfield (Mass) Republican

Ex-Goy Holden, Of North Carolina,
writes to United States Senator that
hundreds of loyal people are daily
leaving that State for the Northwest, and
that all loyal men will be compelled to
leave, himself among the rest, unless
protection is afforded them by the Gov
ernment This state of things in North
Carolina is the more remarkable from
the fact that the proportion Of loyal men
has been from the start larger in that
State than in any other Southern State,
Tennessee, possibly, excepted. Similar
accounts come from Texas. A Union
man in that State writes to the New
York Erening Post that the old seces-
sion leaders now control public opinion
again, and in many parts of the State
Union men are obliged to submit to
every insult and indignity, being fire.
quently beaten and abused, and that
in fact hundreds have been killed since
the war ended. In Parker county, the
rulians took possession of an eminence
near the town and kept up a ire upon
the courthouse, making it impossible to
hold court, and so prevented the trial OF
some of their associates in crime. And
throughout the State it is next to lmpos-
sible for Union man to get Judgment
in any court, so completely are the Off
GERS Of the law under the control of the
ruffianly element The writer states
that the Union men are disgusted at the
course things are taking; and some who
fought on the side of the Union during
the war say they would never do it again /;
they do not think that a government that
can not or will not protect them worth
fighting for.
So many accounts of this kind are
now coming from the South that 1t is
impossible to doubt that there is very
general reaction against the cause OF
the Union. In many cases it takes the
form of malignity toward the freedmen,
as in the Memphis riot Making all
proper deductions for false and exagge-
rated reports, too many of them origi-
mating in sinister motives, tits manifest
that for several months, the current Of
popular opinion in the South has been
setting in the wrong direction, and that
it is growing worse and worse In this
state of things it is fortunate that the
Civil Rights Law is in existence, and II
il cannot be universally enforced, its
application in isolated instances will at
least indicate the determination of the
General Government to protect all
classes of its citizens.
Different reasons are given for the
unfavorable reaction in the South. Some
say that the rebels are encouraged by
the Presidents policy others, that they
are provoked and exasperated by the
course of Congress and the continued
hostility of the dominant party at the
North and these conflicting opinions
are expressed by Southern Union men
of undoubted loyalty. Both are true to
a certain extent, but the root Of the
difficulty lies deeper. II is the disagree
ment between the executive and legisla-
tive departments of the Government
that causes the trouble.
If the President and Congress had
been united in almost any line of pol
icy, the Southern people would have ac-
ouiesced in it. No other course would
have seemed to them possible. Bat
they see the Republican party divided,
thus giving the Democratic opposition a
chance TO recover power, ana the ooutn-
ern politicians very naturally catch at
the idea that through that party they
NAV regain their former political inhu-
ence. Indeed, they may be said TO be
driven to this by the evident determina-
ton of the majority Of Congress TO ex-
clude the Southern States indefinitely
from representation and from a part IN
the Presidential election Such are the
consequences Of the unhappy ieud at
Washington feud begun in unreason
and persisted in from sheer passion and
folly, concerning which it will puzzle the
impartial historian TO determine which
side was most TO blame.
II is not yet too late to heal the fend
and partially avert some Of the deplorable
consequences, ifthere were disposition
on either side TO seek things that make
for peace and the general welfare Con
gress has evidently decided not TO inter
fere with the accomplished reeonstruc'
ton Of State governments, and not 70
attempt to give suffrage to the freedmen