Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-01-15

to be called in. That is the uniform re.
course. reconstruction, so called, every.
where has to be supplemented by the
sword. The army ia the common umpire
to whose arbitration both sides in
the South must needs submit. Thus only
is it that order is or will be preserved
and thereby we understand how it is pos.
sible to realize the sentiment, Let us
have peace" Whether the cost of peace
preserved by such instrumentalities is
likely to be much less than the cost OF
war, is question worthy to be consid-
cred by an economical administration.
The condition of the South is, indeed
most pitiable and distressing. A feeling
of insecurity and fearful solicitude per-
vades whole communities, more terrible
than that of men who live on the crust OF
a volcano. For it is not only life that is
in peril, it is not only property, but it is
all that makes life worth having-it is
the sacredness of mothers, wives and
daughters, exposed to outrages in peace,
which, when committed by the Sspoys OF
India in war, filled the whole civilized
world with horror. 1t is the foreboding
of the dismal and nameless outrages, re-
sulting from the evil influence exerted
by social monsters from the North, in
inhaming all the brutal passions of their
former slaves, that keep the Southern
people keenly sensitive to the peril OF
armed organizations of blacks, urged on
by emissaries who seem to care not what
outrage or crime may be committed, so
it lnures to their personal and political
aggrandizement. The occurrence of such
shocking crimes as often detailed, is man
ifestly the work of these adventurers from
abroad. That the communities in the
South, especially the women, old
men and children, have no rea-
son to apprehend such crimes from
the unfortunate coored population when
left to themselves, is proved by their
whole history in bondage, and especially
during the civil war, when, with no male
protectors upon the solitary plantations,
the female community was perfectly Sc
cure. 1t is only since men have come
among them reeking with the licentious-
ness of certain depraved classes in the
North, and swayed by the vilest senti-
ments of vindictiveness and greed, that
such horrible atrocities as are recorded
have become of frequent occurrence.
YET, .c sach fr;gh.fsl .errcrs, casting
their shadows over Southern households,
additional gloom is added by the convic-
ton that if they exercise the right of self
protection natural to all mankind, they
will be denounced as rebels, and visited
with political vengeance. That retalia-
tory outrages should be committed in
such a state of society is what might
naturally be looked for, but if they occur,
the responsibility rests on those who are
provoking the Southern people to des-
peratien, and then, when violent natures
among them avail themselves of the op-
portunity thus created, holding all re-
sponsible for few.
What if the North were made the scene
of such horrors as the South is subjected
to? How long would it be able to pre-
serve the extraordinary conposure and
equanimity, the Indifferent ar of "Am /
my brothers keeper ?? with which it re-
CARDS the deeds now occurring in South
ern States2 This indifference indicates
tho IL programme aud aud shao"s shows ::hs :hs ssaa;;za= &C
some of the Radical leaders. Let them
not lift the curtain too abruptly, lest the
whole moral sense of Christendom should
receive a shock that will make itself felt,
even at this distance from the central
seats of the worlds civilization, in the
scorn and execration of all mankind
Rn1f;,,ore Sam