Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-02-17
Personal SAFETY IN THE
SOUTHERN STATES.

A correspondent of tue Springfield Re
publican, a Radical organ of high stand
ing in Massachusetts, writes from North
Carolina as follows:
"There are doubtless good many peO-
pie scattered through the Northern States,
who have an idea that it can neither be
safe EOr pleasant for a Northern man 10
travel in the South. They think of 'Ku-
kluX klans, and all sorts OF masked
despeIadOes fitting about Ike ghosts in
the darkness, and threatening the proper
ty and life of any man from New Eng
land State. Or, if they allow themselves
more temperate views, they are by no
means clear that a NortheInor could es-
cape singh. and insult, studied neglect. OF
on bursting contempt from the late Con
fcdeTa'es. One does not need to be long
in North Carolina to feel certain that, so
far as that one STATE is concerned, there
is no reason for any such apprehension.
And in the course of travel, he is likely
to meet men of other Southern States,
and he will invariably get the impression
from them that no such state of feeling
exists in the viCinities from which
they have come. So thst it will be lit
tie singular if he does not begin, after
while, to infer that there has beer great
deal said, by political war horses and
common hacks, of the nature of pure AMI
simple bl4theTskite. For personal and
party ends, even Republican politicians,
Heaven save the mark = have not dis
dained to draw largely on their own fancy,
or on the faCcy of persons equally ire
sponsible, when they have described the
Southern States as Oyerrun with violence
and streaming with blOOdshed. There has
been, doubtless, a tree of anarchy, now
and then, in the South. There has been
violence. But the anarchy for which ma
tive born Southern men are accountable,
is very little compared with the usual law
lessne-s of an election in New York city.
A. far as the charge of violence goes, We
can, at the North, show as large a pro
portion Of dastarlly assaults, IObbeTies,
murders and the like, as can be truly
charged upon the South. And
il is with pleasure that your corresp0n-
dent records his conviction, that it is as
safe for q man to travel in the South after
and with money, as it is in New England;
! tbat it is as safe to vote the Republican
| ticket there as in New England; that it is
as safe TO be religious after one particular
pattern, OF irrelgious after no pattern
whatever, as it is in New England"
The Executive Government, from Grant
to the lowest official, and Congress have
all been engaged as scavengers of crime,
TO keep up the excitement to ait in con
| tinuing their power. Murders, arsOns,
robberics, house breaking, larceny and
other crimes committed in B Boston, Wash
ington, New York, Chicago and other
cities go wholly unnoticed by Radical
politicians, because no political capital
can be made out of them. Still we all
know that life and property are far more
safe at the South than in the above and
many o.hcr cities, and far more 50 than
in the new settlements in orr Western
Territories. While such motives con
tlnue 10 exist the Radicals will get up and
publish charges against Southern men who
do not support them politically. To them,
keeping alive the excitement against
"Rebels" is of the highes! pos
sihle importance, for when that
ends, they 90 down 10 the obscurity from
which they were thrown by the waves of
war, never to rise again. They have Pc
; litical motives in caUsiog crime, or il
spreading the lclief that ii exists. On
the other hand, the true Southern man
has no motive TO commit crime, but many
to prevent it and to secure peace and or
der. How long will thinking people al
the North continue to believe that South.
ern white men will Commi. crimes with
out any possible motive, and when they
have the strongest possible inducements
their own interests and happiness-n0t to
do so; and that hone are committed by
Radicals and negroes, when they have
the strongest possible inducements-theil
own political ascendancy, with its patron
age and power-to impel them to commit
them, or spread the belief that their adj