Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-12-31
THE SOUTH.
Fruits of Radical Govern.
ment.

spondence of the New York World, de-
scribing the condition Of society at the
South with more particularly. 1t is
dated Sumter, S. c., December Ia:
Helper was not very far wrong in his
estimate of the prison and poor house
capacity which the negro population of
the South would soon demand. No
country is more terribly scourged with
rogues and marauders than this is at
ptesent. Hogs, cattle, poultry, horses,
are swept away, and all the ordinary
precautions fail to afford security. Every
morning fresh reports are received of
daring robberies during the preceding
night and in some cases arson and MUIR
der add their horrors to the narrative.
The barn in which the industrious farmer
has housed his entire provision crop is
broken into, plundered and then fred,
and he and his helpless family are
aroused in fhe dead of night by the
musketry of the retreating robbers, to
witness their entire dependence for
another year passing away in flame and
smoke. A gentleman and his wife ride
to church of an evening in buggy be
secures his horse with halter to n tree
at the close of the meeting he finds
buggy and horse, but the harness has
disappeared. Cotton brought in from
the country for security and stored in
town in substantial outbuildings, within
a few yards Of the private dwelling,
under lock and key, has been success
fully removed in the night, in bales of
four to six hundred pounds, while the
owner was sleeping within a few PAGES of
the robbers. At Society Hill, near
Cheraw, a band of fifty armed negroes
marched through the village, firing off
their guns and disturbing the community
with their hideous yells.
"At Lynchburg, in this district few
nights since, the negro Union League
was in session with its armed sentinels
posted on the streets, and peaceable
white citizens, whose business required
them to pass to their homes, were rudely
challenged, halted and their lives threat
ened. These are we'll attested facts, and
columns could be filled with similar re-
citals-a state of things which, however
deplorable, is the legitimate result Of
Radical politics, and Bureau support,
and emissary instruction. Stalwart ne
groes, who loaf about the towns, or sun
themselves to sleep during the day in the
country, gather in bands as the night
comes, and by their unchecked depre-
dations excite dismay and consterna
ton everywhere. The picture here drawn,
however dark and incredible it may
seem, is really but faint delineation of
facts, occurring not only here, but
throughout all this country, wherever
the negro population is in the ascendency
In no other land would it be tolerated
long. but the white men are virtually
debarred the right to protect themselves; (;
and the military government, which is
formidable enough, with its casemate
Imprisonment and military courts, to
discourage white men from organizing
for their own defense, certainly fails to
afford security to life and property. And
this negro element thus turned loose
upon the country, despising labor and
embracing with the politics of the Radi-
cal the morally of the freebooter, is to
govern the State, and be marshaled for
the overthrow of the intelligent conser-
yatism of the whole nation !"
The news from every quarter and
through every source is to the same
i effect The condition everywhere
throughout the South is absolutely fright
full. There is not people upon the face
of the earth so utterly PROSTATE and
helpless as the Southern people. The
following from the Cinolnnati, Gazette
still further corroborates the official ac-
count, and gives deeper shade to the
sorrowful picture Of ruined people.
1.-THE state of things is appalling.
Distress, want and misery are even now
stalking abroad. What it may come to
in the dead of winter God only knows
Every kind of business here is Frustrated
Planters are bankrupts by the failure of
the crops, and involve the merchants
who advanced for them on the strength
of the growing crops. The distress here
will be equal, l am afraid, to the Irish
famine of 1847 and l849. assure you,
YOU never saw such distressed and
ruined people as the people of Missis
sippi.
These are the results of pure philan-
thropy. The officer certifies that the
freedmen of the South are starving, and
the correspondent, as we'll as the officer,
tells why they are starving. They di-
vide their time between theft and re-
construction; the one by the encourage
ment of their Northern friends and ad-
mirers, and the latter under their aus
pices. They will not labor themselves,
and. by their depredations, they defeat
the labor of others. They are bringing
not only themselves, but the whites,
among whom they reside, to poverty and
starvation, and, in spite of Freedmen s
Bureaus. and military supervision, and
Government rations, they are dying of
with a rapidity which even the ravsges
of a pestilence are hardly equal Gin
cinndh Enquirer.
Philip Kirby hung himself in a corn
crib at Peoria, H.. Saturday morning,
with this inscription in his pocket !;
William Hill-when this you see, re-
member me-"
New Hampshire has fish commission
ers, whose business is to stock the
i streams of the Granite State with shad
and salmon. They have lately bought
$4,000 salmon spawn, most OF which
will be planted in the Connecticut.
A Young lady, Miss Mary Grant, sit
ting by the window Of a school room,
in Mount Vernon, Ohio, a few days ago,
was looking at game OF base ball, when
the ball, By an unlucky stroke, vas sent
through the glass, driving a splinter OF
glass into her eye. The teacher drew
The glass out, but the eye was sightless.
General Morgan L. Smith, before be
vent as Consul TO the Sandwich islands,
cot A divorce from his.wiie and married
- -. The frat wife declares be