Litchfield enquirer., 1866-09-13


 made 2 serfin the lAme q freedom, and suf. fets all tho evils of the institution of Slavery without receiving that care, which the master from a sense of bis own interest would give to his bondsmsn. By the act ofsome of our Legislatures, it is made a trespass for any man toAenter supcns stbe. plantation Of another without the consent of the owner or agent, and punishable with fne. and imprisenment The object of this lSm $ etiientl5 tol prevent laborers from leaving the plantation npon which they are compelled to engage. It is al punish this employee for failing to laoor to suit the employer or disobey any orders. The interpretasions-cflsx laws ands@decisidns- by The Courts has been characterized by the same un wholesome and intolerant Spirit The laws passed in theldays of Slavery for its protec. tio1 are enforced with the saine exactness to day as ten years ago i Citizens have been ar rested on the charge of having told negroes that they were nrightfdily entitled to vote i; throNninto prison, retained ,formonths, tried ,hy Judge. withouta Jaryy refused time to aend for witnesses or counsel, convicted aHd |svptenesd to punishment,in the Penitentiary. There is no redress of any grievances or :atrq- cities perpetrated upon jUuisn men, or deser- ters from the rebel armies during the war A is even necessary to plead special ordars from a Confederate officer, for it is said that all cit izens belonged by law to the militia. and, as both the State and Confederate Governments | had repeatedly ordered the militia to appre- l bend deserters at any time and place. it is held that the acts passed to screen Confeder- ate officers and soldiers from the consequen- ces of acts committed in obedience to orders covers all the acts committed against deser- tersl or conscriptscin the attempt of apprehen- ! sion. As against Union rsmen, However, the lav so wsa 1s hv 10 ho slightest inaction by, conscripte in flying to our lines, or bya deserter starving in his cave, is, sure to meet with speedy judicial re- tribution. Dad man resist a eonscript off cer to the 1eath,>it is murder. Did cons- cript officer arrest women and children and keep them for forty hours in a fierce storm. without food and subjected to the grossest in- dignities and violence, producing the death of some and periling the lives of others; Git is done in obedience, to military authorits." and the rebel goes unpunished.a In short, in all actions where cause occurred during the war there is plenty of law against the Union man, but none for him.: h causes occurring at he.presenta time, the fierce hatred of the men who were right, while disunionists were;wrong is sufficient to prevent them passing the triple guard with which treason has surrounded her temple: of injustice, viz, disloyal magistrstes, disloyal Grand Juries; iisloyal Petit Juries, to say; nothing of the disloyal, agencies of Gov ,ernment. Union men are estracised and pro. soribed socially in most parts. of the South Soldiers of the Union army are compelled in many places, to discard the blue which they have worn with honor in order to protect them selves from insult and violence. Ministers of the Gospel are silenced and excommunicated from the churches on account of their constant and steadfast loyalty to the Republic. Dis loyal men have military Aasso citations which are known in Virginis as the Legion of Honor in South Carolina and in Louisiana as relief societies-all of them composed of Confeder- ate soldiers, and presided over and controlled by their former leaders aud chieftains, and used for the purpos of fostering the animus of resistance to our. Government and keeping alive. the hope of Southern independence Their object isto monopolize, all places of trust and power, preserve the exclusiveness of the South, and at the proper time, when some hoped~to feud may divide the people of the North, it will again throw its sword in the scale and achieve it's long-cherished dis union purpose. Loyal men are taunted and threatened in private and denounced in pub lie lassemblages. Bowed down and crushed by the foul spirit of prevailing and olamo- rops disloyal population, many of our people are selling their estates for whatever they can get to procure money to enable them to leave and come North During the continuance of the war, rebels feared that puninsment would be meted out to them for the <,wrong done to ? Uhion men should they fail in their object. This fear was a protection, especially during 1868 and 1864. Now, even this guaranty is take'i away for our prosecutors are the,sice- gerents of the national power at the South. The,U Union man is discarded and abjured. H z has to look forward to A!life Of continual per seeuticn for himself and serfdom for his 9hlld- rav. Thnf ro4co hA Without protection for the present and future there is nc hope but in exile
 .,g This view of the condition ofthe South be- fere the war, and of fhthe events which have transpired since, brings aus to the 'considera- ton of the confirmed, consolidated, intolerant and defiant power of disunion which now con- trols every department of the non-reconstruct ed States.ga AlEpf the restraining influences in favor of the Union existing before the war have perished from the land, save the public light kept alive by the loyalists.t The armed effort to overthrow the Governmsnt having been treated simply as an unsuccessful but heroic act, the leaders of the ,rebellion stand justified in the eyes of their own people. This is the basis of their moral justification. They possess the lands of the South through the fla voritism of the military despotism enthroned at Richmond. During the war they absorbed 5y contracts and speculation the wealth :; of our section. They have been confirmed in the possession of this ilkgotten wealth by the pardoning power of the Executive, by the pro- visions of the N National Bank Act,e requiring local residence for .directors;i they possess control of theentire financial power of the States, where with the lands the cotton, the tobacco, and, raiiroad wealth,i and welding the banking influence of the country, and speaking by authority, of the Presidsnt as the supporters of his dynasty and administra- tion policy, they dominate with an, absolute power. ..4.,.-,g, ,s,.:. ,.>.a .'s,at a
 An open and shameless coalition has been formed which needs only for it's consumation the success of the Presidents policy Into that coalition have been already drawn by Rone influence CT another, men heretofore iden- tified with the dearest affection of the Ameri- can people. 9;Thus the work of political cor ruptioa will go-on; the South, compact, defi- ant and sectionalized, with its anti-republi- can institutions. resting on negro serfdom as as the corner stone; the North, torn by fac tion and distracted by the ampit of aspiring politicians saad contending parties. This oon- fict of sections will progress. transferred from the battle-felds to the halls of the National Legislature. The spit it of disunion will seek to gain by the ballot what it failed to achieve by the second .open-armed attempt at separa- tfon will be simply a question of time and fa-