Dallas herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1849-1873, 1870-01-22
the --r.ih csmlss al Last.

The truth Gsmiss az last
Ff.ui a. 49, 0ris-a. Fi.sguns
Very 0ilen during the past four
years, the quiet people Of the North
and Northwest have been walked up
from their dreams that peace reign
Cd throughout the length aud
breadth OF tho United States, By az
tirles in the leading Radical journ-
ais Of the North, either editorial or
in the shape accommodations nom
different points in the Southern, or
rs il is now the m0do ia that region
to style them, the Rebel States, in
which was elOquently set forth u
fearful state Of crime against both
person and property, all Of which
is charged against "rchels" aud dis,
loyalists," aud the Executive and
Congress are earnestly invoked TO
use all their military or legislative
power In put an end 10 SO objection
able a stale of things; 10 accomplish
which object il has been recommend,
ed 10 them 10 continue the system
of military government for those
States 80 emphalically marked out
by the original reconstruction act Of
1867, aud the supplementary ur
amcndatory ORes 10 II passed from
time to limo, By Congress, Ms party
necessities or supposed advantages
appeared TO demand it, The pre-
texts on which these measures have
been fastened on ten States, arc TO
be subject TO the calm investigation
of history, which will investigate
them scarchinsly and ...aa;Iiisriiaiiy,
and Judge Of the actual motives Of
those, who in their various positions
in the public service, have given n
persistent support in the work Of
humiliating tho people Of those ten
States, and Of trampling in the dust
all of their dearest and most cherish
ed local rights and institutions
Judging by tho experience Of tho
past two years, it is next to useless
for any Southern journal or public
man to enter upon the task Of cx.
posing tho enormous injustice Of
those acts ; and of tho proceedings
of tho military officers appointed to
enforce them.
Without exception, so fur rs we
arc advised, the military district
commanders have adopted, it would
seem almost by concert Of action,
the policy Of reporting that a dan
gerous condition of things exists in
their territories that "loyal" men
are never safe from the rifles, knives
or plots of unrepentant "rebcls !"
that the freedmen are not safe from
attacks on the part Of the whites,
who murder them with rs little hes
itation or conjunction as they
would shoot squirrels or other wild
game; that crime and defiance Of
all rightful authority, stalk boldly
in all parts Of the 'rcbel States
and that nothing but large military
force, stationed at convenient inter
walls throughout the South, can pro-
tect the lives of the nations wards,
and those of their philaD thropic !
friends who have left the North to
teach the emancipatcd Africans the
arts of reading, writing and arth.
metic, and help them TO spend their
earnings as field laborers, whenever
they have been willing to work OH !
the cotton or sugar crops.
The outer world, ignorant for the
most part, of the real facts of the
case, have, under such repeated ef-
forts in the newspapers or in Con
gress, probably como ere now to the
conclusion that the whites of the
South are q set of semi. barbarians,
to whom murder, or other violations
Of person or property, are pleasant
pastimcs, and that, after all, the
military repression to which they
have been subjected for several
years past, is the government best
suited to their passions and the con-
dition of things generally.
1t is almost like meeting with an
oasis in q bleak desert for us even
now and then, to observe some little
fact brought forward to contradict
the efforts of Northern journals or
their correspondents, as well as the
District Commanders, to misrepre-
sent and malign the Southern mass
es. Not long since General Terry,
who commands in Georgia, sent
forward to Washington report on
the condition of affairs in that State,
so narrowing in its details as to muir
dcrs and other crimes, as to give an
additional shock to an already much
excited Northern mind, and to add
great strength to the efforts of GER
tain congressional leaders to remit
that State again to position of mil
itary supremacy, and to add even
to the rigorous provisions of the
preceding reconstruction acts. A
prominent citizen of that State, Gen.
Morgan, who had submitted to all
those provisions, indignant at the
matter of this report, publicly de-
nounccd General Terry's statements
in it to be UNANIMOUSLY false, and the
country has beheld the strange and
unprecedented spectacle of an indi-
vidual holding the commission, and
wearing the epaulets of a Major
General of the United States Army,
submitting to such charges without
resenting them. But a far moro
important witness as to the true
character of these alledged crimes
on the part of the Southern States,
is found in the person of Major Gen.
eral III. w. Halleck, who commands