The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1871-03-24
From the Savannah Republican
THE NEGRO PROBLEM.

| thet1 10 3uSSSi fAhS 1"A'S 49, '-J -
not more, of public attention. We
allude to the general spirit of lawless-
ness that pervades the negro race in
many portions of the South, one that
is far more difficult to cure, we fear,
than the curse of the Ku-klux. The
latter, as a general rule, is the result
of the withdrawal of the protection
of law. 1t seeks, though by repre-
hensible means, to supply the place
of the law and afford protection to
society. In other words, the Ku-
klux Klans are but vigilance COM
mittees, which have always had an
existence in this country in commu-
mites where, from the corruption of
government or general demoraliza-
ton, the law has failed to afford the
necessary protection to persons and
property. They are composed of
well meaning but misguided citizens,
as general rule, and in order to
abolish them we have only to restore
government to its normal and proper
condition-the cause removed, the
effect will soon disappear.
Negrolawlessness, on the contrary,
is different both in its origin and re-
suits. 1t does not seek to enforce
the law and protect society, but to
set both at defiance. 1t springs from
inherent brutality, unrestrained by
force or proper conceptions of moral
duty. There is nothing conserva-
tive, or even reflective, in the nature
of the race. Fear is its greatest con-
trolling principle, and this removed,
either by emancipation, a loose adj
ministration of the laws, or sudden
elevation to personal or political i'm
portance, the worst ofhuman passions
are turned loose and a bloody harvest
is the result. The law is set at de-
fiance, public opinion and the usages
of society ignored, and the devil
turned loose, accomplishes the devils
work.
We have two striking instances
before us, almost contemperaneous,
in which the negro worked out the
real elements of his character. One
day an officer Of the law, while en-
gagged in the trial of incendiaries, is
shot dead in his seat by one of the
offenders, and all the by ISLANDERS of
his race rally to the rescue of the as
sassin. The sad result was given in
our dispatch from Meridian, Miss
To- day, we have a report from Va,
representing that party of negroes,
impelled by some real or imaginary
grievance, attacked and mobbed one
of their own race, leading to shock
ing scene of butchery and bloodshed.
1t seems never to have occurred to
these people that they were living in
land of law. And here, in our own
city, how often are we called on to
record the most frightful butcheries
from the most trivial causes All
over the country, theft, burglary,
incendiarism and murder prevail to
a more or less extent.
Now, this is deplorable picture
of people that has just been relieved
of the shackles of slavery and set up
as a power in the land and what is
to be the future Of their history p
What the means of social and moral
revolution among them? How are
those fierce African passions, desires
and Iusts to be checked and subordi-
mated to the demands of well-regula-
ted society," Can it be done at all,
and how? These are serious ques-
tons for the statesmen and philan-
thropist, and they cannot too soon
bring their thoughts to the solution
of the grave problems. Can the ne
gro race, differing as it does in its
entire moral and intellectual nature,
be made to live and prosper in the
same community and under the same
laws with the Caucasian 7 We be-
lieve it to be moral impossibility-
| that government and social condition
must be adapted to the nature, habits,
thoughts, feelings of a people, or else
it must prove a failure and fall to
pieces. The temperament, emotions
and aspirations of the white man are
wholly different from those of the
black man, and therefore institutions
that suit the one cannot suit the
other. We see this stubborn fact
strikingly illustrated in the admins
tration ofour penal codes in the South.