Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-02-12
Government by Negroes-A New View
of Radical Tactics-MaiSfng Up for
Abstin ence from BIoOdshed.

Abstin ence from BIoodshed.
From the Pail Mall Gazette.l
r.. Except in the case of
the United States there has been great
uniformity in the history of the suppress
sion of RI ri,bellisns 10 modern times. First,
there has been severe and often ssDguin-
sry punishment inflicted on the chiefs OF
the revolt; then has succeeded a period
during which the successful empire has
enforced strict obedience to itself from
its su upjngated dependency; and finally
has coHie o strong desire, growing some
times out of policy, sometimes out OF
sense of justice, and sometimes out OF
mere emotion, to win its affections, or at
all events its voluntary acquiesence in
accomplished facts. England is just at
resent feeling an almost passionate wish
to be re,conciled to Ireland and to be be-
loved by the natives of India; Austria
has done her best to come to terms with
Hungary, and there are signs that the
| sufferins.s of Poland are beginning to
cause discomfort and compunction even
in Russia. The United States seem des-
tined to an experience of different kind.
On the morrow of the conquest their
treatment of the Southern leaders was
marked by gentleness which will Railways
be remembered to their honor. Bat in
the next stage of their relations with the
| South, the necessity for combining des-
potic rule with something like the forms
of local self-government forced them to
adopt policy which has more than made
up for their abstinence from bloodshed.
| Nobody whose intelligence has not been
| impaired by the habit of repeating tormu-
las about universal suffrage can doubt
that the punishment inflicted on the
Southern whites is far the severest which
! one community has ever inflicted on an
other. England governed Ireland through
a minority which the mass of the Celtic
population, however it might hate, never
dreamed of despising; the United States
rule the South through mejority of me-
groes, contempt for whom was almost q
religion with the planter before the at.
tempt at secession. We are not consid.
ering whether the punishment was de-
served, or whether the Northern States
could possibly help inhicting it; we
merely say that, after the cspac
ity OF the negro for improvement
has been rated as highly as possible, and
after all possible deductions have been
made from the credibility of the stories
published by the Democratic press, the
fact remains that government of white
men by colored ex-slaves is the acutest
form of moral torture which has ever
been applied to community. How un-
| fortunate it has been, that the punish
ment of the South has taken this shape
the United States are not likely to feel
until the time comes land it will certainly
come) when the people of the North will
be animated with the strongest wish to
he reconciIed to even the most obstinate
zealots of secession. We should be
sorry to lay down tbst'the United States
would have done we'll to shed blood like
water in the first moments of triumph if
onlv they could have devised some less
| degrading contrivance for the proyis.
;,nal government of the South. Yet it
ia ouite certain that bloodshed ia easily
forcotten: personal outrage with the
greatest difficulty. The Hungarian
mobiles appear to have forgiven the
Emp,sor Francis Joseph for his whole
sale executions of their brethren but no.
bodv can fail to zee that the irreconcil-
| ability OF bOme Vi tuo uOsS ~
of French politicians 10 greatly due to
recollections of the personal dishonor TO
which they were subj scted on the mem
orable morning of the coup d etdt At
the uresent moment we are we'll aware
that nothing seems less important to the
great majority of the Northern people
than that the experiment which they are
trying in the South causes excessive DIS
con, tort to a parcel of conquered rebels
but they will probably hereafter view
this experiment with otLer eyes when
there comes the inevitable waking to
sympathy aud pity, and when, much
about the same 1hing, it appears that the
negroes, Who ere instruments Of punish
ment, have become not only Southern,
but Northern power, Weighing heaviiy
in the scale whenever national decision
has to be taken.