Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1867-12-04
[From the Memphis Public Ledger
andDenand Bread.

anu oIcdOs
An afflir has eliminated at Columbus, Mis-
sissippi, which seems the beginning of the
end The country around having been first
exhausted by stealth and robbery, an organ
lied and armed band Of negro marauders has
marched into the city and demanded bread
A company of United States regulars has dis
persed 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 negroes? A hundred thous md
men dispersed to the best possible advantage
for that purpose will prove wholly insufficient.
One of three things must be done speedily
either tue whites must abandon the country,
vagrant laws must be enacted and enforced
and the labor Of the blacks compelled. There
is no time to lose. Men thai will not work
and must eat, will fight for bread and if
white men have it, they must fight to defend
it. If prompt measui es 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 aud we trust the warning will not
be without its instant effect to stir the North.
ern mind and induce tho President to place
the South under military rule at once Co.
lumbus is hardly an exception. Outlawry is
universally triumphant all over our States,
aid we are without Republican Govern
ment in every one OF them. We subjoin
the following summary from the Avalanche:
" For some time great deal of dissatislac-
tion has existed among the freedmen in the
,hor rb1nl lnfn Vol h,c L
quit work and left the fields white with cot
ton, 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 plantations and give up
their houses to other laborers who would
work. They then took to the woods, and com.
meHced system of indscriminato piIfering
and stock killing. About two hundred OF
them have been assembled in the neighbor-
hood of Columbus, Mississippi, since the be-
ginning OF the election, and had become per.
feet nuisance and terror to the neighborhood.
At the request of the citizens, company Of |
United States troops had been stationed at
Columbus, for the protection of the lives and |
property Of the people. When this band of
vagabondized negroes had exhausted the coun
try Of everything which was stealabc they
determined to make raid upon the town Of
Columbus in full force. They were all arm
ed, and procuring afifc and drum, they march
ed into town, and demanded bread. Not one
of them asked for work; they did not want
that. Bread was all their cry, and they were
about commencing anindiscriminate robbery,
when the United States troops appeared on
the ground, and dsarmed them first, and then
dispersed them. The ringleadcrs were then
taken into custody.
What scene of bloodshed and robbery
we would have had to 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, ittakes no far See .ng proph-
ct to tell. The negroes all through the coun.
try are becoming most thoroughly 6cmoraliz.
ID under the teaching of the Radical hyenas,
Who counsel aud incite them at every fence
;orues 10 their oEp dessDctiea. They DOW,