The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1870-04-28

ers of the Radical party, we have pub
| lished from the Washington Chronicle OF
the 18th inst, the recent remarkable
speech of Senator Morton, of Indiana.
The speech is significant in several par
ticulars. 1t IS an admission, from an au-
thentic source, that Radical reconstruc-
ton has practically failed in all the South
ern States, and it is declaration Of q
continued hostile policy-by his party To-
wards the people of these States. This
mouth-piece Of the Jacobin organization
proclaims that there is "a smell of blood
in the air" and with savage ferocity de-
clares that the appetite of prescription
has been quickened instead Of allayed, by
what it has fed upon.
He is correct in stating that Recon
struction has been a total failure III the
Southern States, so far as relates to the
restoration Of confidence and the estab-
lishment among the people thereof OF
goodwill and friendship towards the au-
thors and executors Of that policy. There
Is no soundness nor permanency in the
governments thus erected. Conceived in
violence and fraud, the offspring of ven
geance and corruption-in every Inca
ment they bear the hideous marks which
denote their Parentage.
The Indiana oracle attributes the dis
satisfaction of the people of the Southern
States with these governments TO the in
fuence Of the Northern Democratic party.
( Nothing could be more absurd. 1t is true
that party has resolutely opposed the pol
icy of hate and prescription by the feder-
al authorities in dealing with the South
and has constantly advocated the estab-
lishment of local governments, based
upon the consent of the governed; but
the discomfort which prevails throughout
the South Is due to deeper and stronger
causes. Human nature has ever revolt
ed at cruelty and injustice. The brave
and generous people who laid down their
arms and resumed their allegiance to the
federal government upon pledge Of just,
if not liberal and ma@naniInous treat
ment, are disguised with the perfdy
which has marked the conduct of their
oppressors, and they naturally loathe the
vile agents who have been put in author
ity to execute their DEGREES. 1t has been
tism to goad the people to resentment in
order to replenish the fires of persecution.
Dare any one attempt to name a species
of villainy, injustice and cruelty which
has not been put into practice by the car
pet bag and scalawag reconstructionists
who are administering these fraudulently
established Southern governments Tn
der the forms of law, have they not
plundered? Have they not murdered?
Have they not industriously engendered
strife between the races that ''the smell
of blood" might taim the atmosphere
and awaken the cry of Northern fanati-
cism for still 'smore blood :" Taking
advantage of the helplessness of the
Southern people, and the obligation
which they have incurred and are relig-
iously observing, to keep the peace,
have they not heaped upon them every
manner of insult and outrage? These
people would be less than human not to
despise from the bottom of their hearts
the authors Of their wrongs and the agents
through whom they have been inflicted.
But it is all false to say that notwith
standing these provocations to violence,
the Southern people are not peaceable
and law-abiding. Half the time since
the surrender, they have been deprived
of civil law, and yet through all this
trying period, their society has been
well-ordered and well-conditioned, and
so they intend it shall remain.
The Radical orator, Morton, in his
place in the Senate where the Southern
States have no representative to correct
the ISLANDERS Of their enemies, charges
them with ''murder and (even) nameless
''villainies," and makes this calumnious
imputation the basis of threat perma-
nently to subordinate the civil govern
ments of the States to the military auth
ority of the federal government revo-
lutionary measure which involves the
subversion of the Constitution of the
United States. Upon this proposition,
the people of the Southern States will
look with a ealmness which springs from
a consciousness of right. Fate can have
in store no punishment more terrible than
they have already suffered. Indeed they
will joyfully read in this extraordinary
manifesto unmistakable signs of the des-
peration and despair Of the Jacobin
leaders. In the North, the people are
revolving against their usurpations; and
in the Southern States, the establishments
which were built up by military fraud,
are falling to the ground. To maintain
these. organizations they are meditating
the adoption of the desperate expedient
/ foreshadowed in the Morton speech-a
measure which viii speed the day Of their
overthrow
As faithful chroniclers of passing
events, we could not omit the letter of
Gov. AlcOrn to the Memphis ovation
in honor of the 10Th Amendment The
antecedents of Its author considered, we
will venture to say that it is the most re
markable paper which has yet emanated
from his prolific pen. As he is entitled