Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-01-10
TIRE LATE INsURKECTIONI IN GEOF.

The course pursued in regard to
the instruction on the Ogeechee
plantations, near Savannah, forcl-
bly, illustrates the course OF the
Radicals toward the South. Here
was large band of negroes, armed
and under strict military discipline,
who were defantly resisting the
civil authorities, and threatening |
the people of the vicinity and Of
Savannah, with dire vengeance.
They had already committed nu
merous Outrages, and the white cit
liens, residents of the immediate
neighborhood, fled to Savannah in
great terror, and we'll may they
have been alarmed, for there was
imminent danger to their lives.
Now what has been the course of
the authorities touching this insur-
reetion? Gen. Meade ordered Gen.
Sibley to Savannah with instruc-
tons to investigate the matter.
Gen. Sibley has made the investi-
CATION and reports thatall the blame
attaches to the white people, and
especially to the sheriff and his
deputies, who, he charges, exhibit
ed cowardice when attempting to
make the arrests, in the first in
stance. Gen. Sibley reports that
there were about fifty negroes en-
gagged in this affair, yet warrants
were issued by a magistrate Of
Cheatham county for the arrest Of
one hundred and thirty-four, a
number Of whom were charged
with assault with attempt to com
NIT murder, and others with resist
ing the sheriff in the execution Of
the laws. These are no light Of
fenses, yet Gen. Sibley wholly ex-
culpates the negroes and censures
the whites. Gen. Sibley says he
found among the negroes only three
guns and one bayonet on a stick.
The Savannah papers have stated
and reiterated the statement that
there were military organizations in
the district, and these statements
have not been denied by any re
sponsiblc parties cOnversant with
/ the facts. The Savannah Republican
says nobody intends TO harm the
negroes, but insists that they should
be disarmed and thus deprived of
the weapons for harming others.
This will be necessary in order to
secure the peace of the neighbor-
hood and respect for law on the
part Of the negroes. There is one
other point, and a very important
matter too, to which the Repubi-
can calls attention, of which Gen
| Sibley seems utterly obliviOus.
That is that many thousand dollars
worth Of property was carried off
by these law-defying negroes.
This they should be made to
return as far as possible to the law
ful owners, and where this cannot
be done, the negroes should be
made to pay the losses sustained by
the owners. These are some of the
facts which stamp Gen. Sibley's re
port as utterly unreliable. New is
there a man in all this broad land
who does not know that if these in
surrectionary and law-defying ne
groes had been white men, it would
have been heralded over the country
as an evidence OF a rebellIOus spirit
that would have to be crushed out
by the iron heel of the military ?
There never has occurred a more
forcible illustration of the policy of
the Radicals toward the South.
Touching this Ogeechee insurrec-
ton, the Savannah Rep"JHcop of
the 9th instant says:
There is no doubt in our own mind
that, if this instruction was not in point |
OF fact gotten up by the political follow
ers of Bullock in order to further his in |
famous ends at Washington, the moves |
ment there Tor remanding the State to |
military and negro government was an
inducemcnt with the Oseechee negroes to |
inaugurate at this time state of things |
for which they have been in active train. |
ing 10y the Radical black and white |
leaders for year OF two past After all,
these cowardly skulkers are the real |
guilty parties, and it is pity they can
not be punished i'll the place Of their il.
nOrant dupes.
I'VE would here take occasion to res
fer briefly to a rumor that has been set
ahoat by certain apologists for these ne
gro outrages, and to which some who are
ignorant Of the facts may give credit
Catching an idea from the New York
Tribune, a rude sense of instice has
been alleged as the impelling motive to
the depredatiOns on the plantations in
charge of Mr. Middleton, that gentleman
having failed to settle fairly with the
freedmen for their years labor. This
statement is wholly grOundless, as he is
prepared to prove by the looks Of the
plantations and other credable testimC-
nv. With the exception of one planta~
tion-.he SOuthfeld-wheie he had
fourteen hands employed by the year,
and working on shares, all his contracts
for labor were made by the day, and the
hands paid of regularly at the expira-
ton OF their time. This his books
which are open for the inspection of all
proper perSons-will show. The South
field hands, who contracted 10y the year,
took no part in the rebellion, but to tie
contrary, have kept at their homes, one
of them being shot while standing senti1
mel over the very property that was car
ried off by the marauders. They have
suffered alike with Mr., Middleton, hav-
ing lost a good part of their year pro-
ducts at the hands Of the insurgents