The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-03-17
unDut.cturinx Opinion.

Yesterday mOrning the newspapers
throughout the country were favored
BY the Associated Press with Tribune
special, purpOrting to give the details
Of the late murderous affrays at Warren
ton, Georgia, in which two men named
WALLACE and DARDEN lost their lives
WALLACE, it will be remembe red, was a
Georgia editor, whom DARDEN as>assi-
mated on account of some newspaper
structures. The latter vas subsequent.
ly taken from the j ill where he was
confined, by party of armed men aud
shot To death.
The TribmGs special gave 4 partisan
coloriug to the whole affair. DARDEN
was "Ioyai" man, who had shot a
rebel in . personal difficulty aud was
murdered in a cOwardly manner by
baud of Ku Klnx. This version of the
affair went to every Journal in the
country which receives the dispatches
Of the Associated Press. On the same
morning that this Tribune account ap-
peared, the World, Times and other
New York papers had dispatches show
ing that the transaction, bloody and
disgraceful though it was, had no po-
litical signiication whatever, WAL
LACE aud DAIDEN, the murdered men,
being both Democrats, and the quarrel
between them being of purely per
sonal nature.
This version of the affair was entirely
ignored 10y the newsmongers OF the.
Press. An account wholly untrue in
itself and grossly unjHst in what it i'm
plies, is sent throughout the country,
and as far as a highly colOred sensation
story can do so, the impression Is pro-
duced that in Georgia armed mobs are
in the habit of assassinating men be-
cause of their loyalty"
This Tribune special has internal evi-
deuce of being manufactured for par
tisau purposes. The crime Of DARDEN,
who is assumed to be loyal" man, is
CLOSED over, and the terrible retalia,
tion is painted in most glowing colors.
WALLACE, an cditer, dcnOuAces OAR
DEN through his PAPER; DARDEN, in re.
spouse, attacks WALLACE unawares, aud
blows his brains out, a trivial and truly
loyal proceeding. For this harmless
aud playful recreation, says the Tribme
the Ku Klux have shed the blood
of reliable Union man, and
then it elaborates at length the
idea that in Georgia all Republicans
hold their lives at the mercy of furious
mobs. Now if the Tribune'S statement
as to the politics of the parties case
were true, which it Is net, that paper
would Just be claiming for the loyal
men of the South the right to play the
assassin at will, and with perfect impu,
nifty. How long would it take such
loyalty" as that, operating by example,
to reconstruct the South upon Repub-
Ican basis and bring peace ana harmo-
ny aud security to that country :
Our idea of this ease is that both OAR
DEN and WALLACE were men of high pas
sions, ready TO wipe out personal insult
in blood, that their quarrel was of a
purely private nature, and that the at
tempt to give TO it political significance
is entirely unwarrauted by the facts
The TribuRes story is not remarkable,
when we remember its persis' cut efforts
for years to falSify the Southern situa-
tion to the prejudice of the people OF
that section, but We do protest against
the partisan rsncOr that makes of the
Associated Press a medium for dissent
natiHg One-sided aud distorted versions
of occurrences like that to which we re.
fer.