New-York tribune., 1868-03-21

| Rebel press began TO recover HOin tHe STUN
| ming blow that crushed their COnfederacy. One
| by one they threw off the mask of loyalty,
and to-day their tone and their arguments are
| as disloyal vindictive, and incendlary as they
were in 1861 The same billingsgate vomit Is
poured upon any man or thing of the North
| the same supercilious claim of arstocratic blood
and breeding for the South; the same iron
| plated exclusiveness in social and business
| life; the same studious cOncealing OF Southern
failings, magnifying of Southern virtues, and,
per contra, the enlargement OF every point OF
disadvantage, and the ignoring OF all that Is
creditable in the North-all these are coming
| to the standard they held before the war; ana
are working their baleful influence In the
minds of the people.
Leaving generalities, let us come to speciii-
cations and particularly to the course of the
Southern press in the important matter OF re-
construction. The enfranchsement of the
| slaves, and their elevation to the rights and
duties of citizenship, was the most important
| feature in the history and results OF the ke-
| bellion. Freedom from servitude was neces-
| sarily conceded, and we do not know any con-
siderable number of Southern people who re-
| fuse to admit thus much as an accomplished
| fact But when it comes to voting and hold
ing office, when One-third, and in some States
even a majority of the people, venture to ex-
ercise the natural and acquired rights to which
they are entitled, there breaks out this long
slumbering demon Of discord, and the press
| teens with such abuse as one might seek In
vain beyond the purlieus Of the fish-market.
Men of great learning, of great natural
abilities. and, of the highest social stand
| ing are leaders in the infamous work
not Smith, and Jones, and Brown of the back
woods weeklies. but Daniel, and Rhett, and
Forsyth of the great dailes, and others whose
| names are not at hand. but such as the editors
of The Mobile Tribune, The Wilmington Star,
and papers of that sort-the innumerable Brick
Pomeroys of the South. These men began by
brutal abuse of "niggers," sneering at
the idea of their voting and threatening them
with penalties if they presumed to exercise the
right given them by the National Government
They famed the prejudice against niger
equality; they suddenly conceived an intense
repugnance to "niggei" associations, although
the complexion of some haf-millon OF their
| fellow citizens, who are now exercising the So
much denounced privilege of voting, gives eyi-
dcnce past all cOntIoversiOn that this "nlgger
association" must have been, at bygone day,
| far less repulsive than the pure blooded pale
faces would now have MS think. These editors
urged summary measures to prevent the colored
men from voting discharge from employment
was the leading punishment; TO be spotted and
bounded from place to place by detectives,
whose business it was to prevent the poor fel-
lows from getting work, was another idea; to
starve them into desperation, drive them to
the absolute necessity of stealing food, and
then hang or shoot them through the
agency of Vigilance Committees was the
crowning act
Despite these discouragements, nearly all the
"niggersr who were qualified registered and
voted. Ii requires n considerable degree OF
courage to lead forlorn hope; it is serious
business to take your life in your hand and 20
out against almost certain death; II needs
equal courage to assert a grand political priyi-
leee in defiance Of horde of enemies who
are not only painting to lap your blood on the
| instant. but who go to the eXquisitely cruel
extreme of hunting down your weak and
| HELPLESS family, if you dare to exercise your
rights Yet this is just what the Leading
Southern editors have DONE 1t is just what
! seven -eighths of all the white-livered con-
trollers of the press have done. lt Is the
| old, old story of tar, feathers, rails, pis-
| tolls and bowie-kniyes, only III new
form. Yet the negroes voted. Here, III
a land of law and order, where there Is ut
least decent regard for human rights, we
cannot appreciate the sacrifice made by those
| poor freedmen. They waded through sea of
fire 10 vindicate their title to manhood, to mani
fest their devotion to the country that, after
holding them for twenty years in grinding bond
age, had at last risen TO the first principle of
it's governmental theory, and made them part
and parcel of the commonwealth. History can
not show a nobler picture. Four millions of
hitherto degraded and brutalized human crea-
lures are, by the lightning stroke of an inspired
pen, invested with the highest right citizen
can claim; each man of them made in repre-
sentative form equal to the President himself;
and yet no violent assertion of these newborn
rights no outbreak of misled ignorance; not
the first instance in three years OF even an at
| tempt to usurp power or place; standing face
to face as their political equals with the men
who bought and sold and whipped and
branded them; these moral heroes-these
conquerors of themselves-have never taken
the first revengeful step, never thought
of the grim enjoyment of revenge, but quietly
and peacefully submitted to prosecutions, and
insults and outrages, to ISLANDERS and provoca-
tions that, as slaves, they could scarcely have
borne. When the historian of the coming CEN
tury writes up the record of these six years, he
will wonder alike at the infamy of the provo
cations given by the Southern press to the
freedmen, and the noble forbearance with
which these heroic people met the assaults of
their unscrupulous enemies. And there are