American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1866-12-19
Outlaws 7

elusiyely that the reconstruction policy
of Andrew johnson hes not as yet brought
the Rebels of that State into obedience
to the laws-exeept, so far as the mill
tary powor of the government is exer-
cised by Gen. Sickles, and those under
him and yet, we are told by the Pres
ident, that, "In all the States, civil au
thority has superseded the coersion of
arms, and the people, by their voluntary
action, are maintaining their governments
in full activity and complete operation" f"
and that, "the enforcement of the laws
is no logger obstrncted in any State by
combinations too powerful to be Suppress
ed by the ordinary course of judicial
proceeding"
And yet, Union Soldiers, while enga
ged in the performance of their bouuden
duty are shamefully and ruthlessly mur-
dered-and Executive clemency is ex.
tended to the Rebel marderers---but they
are some of "n,y friends" and VIC wish
to show them that, although they are the
vilest of wretches, and have forfeited
even life itself, We still extend to them
the righthand Cf fellowship, and grant
them, even more and greater privileges
than is extended to men North and South
whose loyalty to the government, has
never been called in question.
Here is the article referred to-read
and judge for yourselves;
1t is mercy to withhold power from
those who will but abuse its posl es-
sion. In South Carolina, for Instance
exclusive Of freedmen, there are three
classes-the Loyal, few but firm, who
kept their faith through the dark and dis
couraging midnight of Secession-the
Rebels, who re ally repent their mistake
and are sincere in their profession of re-
allegiance-and, lastly, motey variety
of men, of different social grades, some
educated and some ignorant, some refn-
ed and some coarse, gentlemen and loaf
ers. well-born and low born, who are uni
ted by a common hatred of the Govern
mept which conquered and now controls
them, and who mean to fight on small
scale for cause which they failed to
successfully defend upon large one
Gen. Sicklc's report shows that Law and
Justice have not attained very firm
ioothoids in South Carolina--that crime
is not yet intlmidated, and violence not
yet a5ashed-that men of blood are still
bold and busy, and murderously meddle-
somc-that the peaceful and law>abidng
still need there the military protection of
their lives and their property-that in
certain localities; loyalsts and free Omen
are in constant danger Of i'll treatment,
and even of death, and arc tormented (to
use Gen. Sickle's words) by bands of
outlaws and maraudcrs, composed of the
most reckless and abandoned characters,
organized mainly for plumber and pillage"
---scoundrels who do not seem to have
much reason to fear the civil authorities,
and who are to be restrained, if at all,
only by the dread of summary military
punishment. We are glad to learn from
Gen. Sickles that ''justice is administer
ed by the Superior Courts with a con-
scientious respect of law" The difficult
ty is in getting their offenders into the
upper courts at all. Magistrates are d.
latory in issuing warrants. Sheriffs and
constables are far from diligent in making
arrests. Coroners. when freedmen are
killed, are more than traditionally obtuse
With bands Of mounted robbers prowling
about the country, with justices of the
peace afraid to do their ddty, with officers
police either cowardly or corrupt, what
chance, in sparsely settled locality, have
honest men of escaping from any outrage
which the devil may prompt, opportuni-
ty inspire, and passion consumma.e p
There is nobody who will arrest, and. if
there were, there is nobody who will COM
NIT for trial there is no resource but to
fall back upon the military power. and
thus indefinitely to postpone that hour,
so much to be desired, when it can be
safely and sensibly Withdrawn.
These facts, which are officially stated.
and which are worthy of credit, put the
Government of the United States in a
new light, and exhibit it in that very
state which so often has defied and insui-
ted it, as the protector OF the weak, as
the power by which alone South Carroll
na is saved from the sheerest and savagest
anarchy. The very soldiers who were
hailed upon their arrival as intruders and
oppressors, as plundorers and Federal
mercenaries, now alone stand betwee.. the
so-called respectable classes and all the
evils of anarchy for the blood stained
thieves who mortally and materially abuse
the loyalists and the freedmen would be
quite as ready to 1espoil and destroy the
most ultra secessionists When the pro
motels OF the Rebellion nade disobedi-
ence to the law the test of manhood and
of State patriotism, they awoke a busy
devil with no more respect for those who
conJured him than for those he was sum
moned to destroy 1t was the benevolent
justice of the United States which saw
ed them from all the possible horrors of
survile insurrection it is now the mil
itary force of the United States which
preserves them from destruction at the
hands of their own violent population