Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-11-23
A STARTLING EVENT.
Armed Negroes March into
Columbus and Demand
. Bread.

An affair has eliminated at Columbus,
Mississippi, which seems the beginning
of the end. The country around having
been first exhausted by stealth and rob-
berry, an organized and armed band Of
negro marauders has marched into the
city and demanded bread A company
of United States regulars has dispersed
them and protected the citizens for the
time. But what of that, and what next ?
Is it possible for the United States troops
to keep down three hundred thousand
vagrant and starving negroes2 A
hundred thousand men dispersed to
the best possible advantage for that
purpose will prove wholly INSULT
cient. One of three things must
be done speedily = either the whites
must abandon the country, or the
negroes be driven out of it, or eff
cient vagrant laws must be enacted and
enforced and the labor of the blacks
compelled. There is no time to lose.
Men that will not work and must eat,
will fight for bread and if white men
have it, they must fight to defend it. If
prompt measures are not taken war of
races is no myth, but an inevitable
reality, which is upon us.
We have repeatedly called attention to
these facts and we trust the warning
will not be without its instant effect to
stir the Northern mind and induce the
President to place the South under mill
tary rule at once. Columbus is hardly
an exception. Outlawry is.universally
triumphant all over our States, and we
are without o republican government in
every one of them. We subjoin the fol
lowing summary from the AUalanche:
For some time great deal of dissatis-
faction has existed am ong the freedmen
in the neighborhood of Columbu Miss.
They had quit work and left the fields
white with cotton, and would not pluck
boil, the reason given for such action
being that their share Of the crop would
not pay their expenses for the year,
owing TO the tax on the staple and the
low price to which it had fallen. As
soon as they refused to work, as matter
of course, they had to leave the planta.
tons and give up their houses to other
laborers who would work They then
took to the woods. and commenced a
system of indiscriminate pilferlng and
stock killing. About two hundred of
them have been assembled in the neigh.
borhood of Columbus, Mississippi, since
the beginning of the election, and had
become perfect nuisance and terror to
the neighborhood. At the request of the
citizens a company Of United States
troops had been stationed at Columbus
for the protection of the lives and prop
erty of the people. When this band of
yagaboudized negroes had exhausted the
country of everything which was steal
able. they determined 10 make raid
upon the town Of Columbus in full force.
They were all armed, and procuring a
fife and drum, they marched into town,
and demanded bread. Not one Of them
asked for work; they did not want that.
Bread was all their cry, and they we're
about commencing an indiscriminate
robbery, when the United States troops
appeared on the ground, and disarmed
them first, and then dispersed them. The
rinrleaders were taken into custody.
What scene Of bloodshed and robbery
we would have had 10 relate had It not
been for the fortunate presence of the
troops we shudder to think Of This is
the first attempt at bread riot which
has ever occurred in the South, but how
long it will be until they become common
it takes no far.seeing prophet to tell.
The negroes oil through the country are
becoming most thoroughly demoralized
under the teaching Of the Radical hyenas,
who counsel and incite them az every
fence corner TO their own destruction.
They now, positively, in many localities
refuse to work, will make no contracts
with the planters, fully expecting the
division Of lands so long promised them
by the Radical leaders. Bands Of from
three to fifty are roaming through MIS-
sissippi in every direction, a terror and
q Nuisance, not only 10 the planter, but
to the industrious Of their own color.
How long this state Of Affairs can con-
tiuue without scenes Of riot and blood
she'd depends entirely upon the forbear-
ance OF the white man. A spark may
ignite the train whieh will redden the
horizon with the blaze Of burning houses,
and initiate a conflict between the races
bloody and remorselesa