The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-05-28
nonrHERN MISREPRESENTATION.

; NORTHERN MISREPRESENTATION.
It would be very idle to attempts correction
of the thousand and one rumors that general
and special correspondents furnish the Radical
press. It is the trade of these men to write
letters that will be read, and like other, equiv
ocal professions which are tolerated in great
cities, if they must be permitted "to ply their
vocation" it is very foolish to be virtuously
indignant at the vicious perfection which the
professors attain Mr.. GREELEY is, indeed, q
philosopher, but he is also the editor of a New
York newspaper and we suppose he thinks he
strikes fair balance by maintaining his indi-
yidual character by his personal speeches aud
acts while he secures the profit Of his news
columns by judicious investment in sensa-
tional correspondence. We would not, there
fore, give particr lar consideration to letter
dated Charleston, which, appeared in the Tn
bune of the 23d, were. it not that this letter
seems to be part of 8 general system adopted
not only by the Radical, but by the Democratic
press system which consists in q studied
Misrepresentation of the conduct Of the mill
tary administration of this District. Now, we
have no love for military government. If asked
why, we can only say we were born free and,
God willing, we would rather die 80. But
when q military government is created over us,
\ we not onlyi intend to render under CESAR the
things which are CEsiR's, but we think it right
to recognize the. wisdom and justice with which
that government is administered whenever it is
administered ard we protest against this out
side interference which, on the part Of both
Democrats and Radicals, has not the slightest
reference to our good, but is meant to serve
party purposes. !, ; = ~. :, ., = =
The Democratic press abuses General Sick
LES, without the slightest reference to the
practical character of his orders, but because
it wants, .taa cry =" to rally the Democracy, and:
resistance to military authority, "a mild ="
riot, few insignificant lives lost, moderate
shedding Of blood, would furnish material for
| Q clever paragraph, flourish about the Con- !:
stitution, and, perhaps, secure the election of
q: doubtful member Of Congress, or q war-Dern-
ooratio Governor in some Northern State. I
The Radical press does the same thing be-
cause military rule is quite too practical ahd
quite too impartial for the proselyting spirit
Of the Republicans. They want agitation fpr
agitation's sake; they want excitement at the;
South to create excitement at the North II
iiThe letter to which we, have referred is q
very good specimen Of this latter sort of mis-;
+ representation. "a
- The writer has travelled through the State
and he has not found the agitation, the ap,s
|itagonism he desired. Black and white ali ke,
| seem toobe minding theireown business. Plah=.
ters and laborsrs alike seem to be thinking
more Of their crops than Of universal suffrage,
and what IS worse still, the Military Govern
ment seems 70 have been trying in earnest to:|
comprehend the real condition, Of the State,
and to adoptits action to better it. Of conrFs
if this is allowed to go on, reconstruction be-
comes rather an easy matter Therefore We |
have the following paragraph: - -. i
SsFs S GSss ss o e n
administration, Gen. Sickles desires, undoubtsh-
ly, to- do right. One difficulty with hime seems TO
be that he is anxious TO stand well with the Coy.
ernor and the whites generally. he likes social
position, which iBony' thus attained. The othbr
and subordinate officers very generally '!pnt On
airs".they rather ignore the colored troops- and
their officers, and unite in contempt, not silent by
any means, for the negroes. Among the regulars,
crank and fle" many acts Of cruelty and opprae
sion, are constantly perpetrated. Wherever they
can or dare they malereat and abuse the heemeh.
Several instances OF this feeling have come under
my oRn observation since have been here: \
And this followed by collection Of marvel |
lous rumors and the statement, that accordi4g |
to Gen. Scor7, there are 500 murderers of
freedmen at large. in the. State .'unwhipt bfl
Justice" Of course I. nobody here beievs ss |
that Gen. Scorr is responsible for any suak
ridiculous exaggeration, the conclusive reply |
being, that for a long period, during the aP-
sence Of Gen. SIcKLEs, Gen. SCOTT was nbt
only Commissioner of the Bureau, but Com
mander of the District, and that he is not the
man to permit any such violation Of justice
within the sphere of his authority.
The whole object of the letter is to produce
the impression at the North, that the Military
Government is entirely in too perfect a SYM
pathy with the white population, and that the
freedmen look for protection to the Bureau
alone, and especially to 'Chaplain FRENCH, the
shrewdest and most sagacious planner that the
freedmen have ever had on their side" In
deed the writer says, "the best instrumentali-
ty in aid Of reconstruction is found in the
Freedman's Bureau"
Now of General SCOTT we have nothing to
say which is not kind. In all that we have
seen of him, we think we have evidence Of a
desire to do right, and indeed it is difficult not
to exaggerate his merits, when we compare him
with his predecessor General SAxToN, whose
career was one of unmitigated mischief. il In
fact to him and to Judge BRISBANE, the head
of tine Tax Commission, may fairly be credited
whatever decentralization and confusion has oc-
Cured in the labor of the State, and it is an
infinite credit to our colored population, that
with such perverse encouragement to dowrong, |
they have behaved 30 well. But the Freed |
mems Bureau, as piece OF administrative
machinery is an utter failure. The only way |
in which it could have worked judiciously, was
as o part of the military administration and
the only reason that it has not worked more
mischief here than it has done is because prac-
tically it has been subordinated to the militia
ry command of the District.
Of the Rev. Chaplain FRENCH we wish to say |
NO harm. We have no doubt that he earns his
salary by diligent prayer, and we know that
the earnest prayer of righteous man avail
eth much. Indeed we have no doubt that he
prays as &c shrewdly" as he plans, for the e1-
hortations of the Rev. Gentleman have changed
latterly very much for the better. In the
days when he lifted up his hands under the
shadow of General SAxToN's authority, there |