New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-11-02

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+ is not pleasant duty to be contin-
ely discussing the Ku-Klux and their evil
doings, but doctors are never relieved
from the necessity of looking at disease in
its various loathesome forms. Human
society is very like the human frame in
this, that it Is subject to distempers which
The prudence and wisdom Of IDS thinking
faculties alone can arrest or prevent ku-
kluxism is . disease Of the body polite
that has existed for ages and which all
criminal legislation has had for its object
to ex6rpate. II Is not necessarily con.
crete, for the man who takes the law into
his own hands and Stays his fellow being
for some prejudice which he had con-
ceived, is . member Of the society, even
though he never took an oath, or joined q
company. It is not confined to race, for
the negro mob or the Chinese tumult is as
much the growth of the order as an Irish
not or Southern midnight raid. The
crowd that hangs suspected horse thief
in the North is just as much Ku-Klux, as
the organization that fires upon radical
in Grant parish. The one may be baser
than the other. and it, influence may be
worse, but that does not relieve the lesser
crime Of its moral depravity. What con-
stitutes ku-kluxism is armed violence
committed in defiance of law and reason,
for insufficient cause. and for purposes
which the actors therein dare not avow.
For instance to take q case away
from home: In Los Angeles, Cali
fornia, recently, two Cinnamon became
involved in difficulty. wherein one was
shot The Chinese resisted the officers in
their efforts to arrest the murderer. and in
doing 20 they shot two white men. Five
hundred citizens, white men and Mex
leans, At once gathered around the scene
Of the disturbance. assaulted the Cinnamon,
who only numbered about fifty, and after
killing and wounding fifteen or twenty
men and women, arrested the entire party.
Not satisfied with this terrible lawlessness,
he Ku-Klux attempted to set fire to the
Eown, and actually pillaged the Chinese ont
IF ten OF twelve thousand dollars in gold.
This was ku-kluxism on both sides, and
he authors Of the evil fell . prey to the
vrong which they originated. But then
'ome innocent people suffered, and the
'ictors in the disgraceful disturbance be-
okened their own deeper baseness by add
ng robbery to their violation of the law
# peace. Perhaps the hope Of robbery
VAS the true origin of the mob. Perhaps
he Ku-Klux in Los Angeles, like the Ku-
zlux in other quarters, wanted to burn up
he evidence Of their dishonesty when they
to set fire to the homes of the
,eople that they had killed. We are al
owed to suppose the worst motives in
men who commit the basest actions.
The Ku-Klnx in the South have be- |
'aved quite as badly in certain cases Is |
heir friends in Los Angeles. They have
murdered men in the dark, cold b1oodedly |
nd cowardly, and they have burned up
he houses of these men afterward. We |
ave no evidence that they robbed their
ictims, but we believe that their capacity
Or such was quite equal to the commits
ion of this additional crime, provided |
here was anything to rob. Wickedness
t this sort is like jealousy, making its
wn food. 1t finds one act of lawlessness
be promoter of another, and what is
vorse, it destroys in time the conscience
hat protested against the original sin.
There is little account that we desire
0 open on this subject with certain par
les who are Haunting themselves as the
aentors Of society. Who is responsible,
be teacher or the pupil in error? If
ewspapers aggravate ignorant men into
be preparation of wickedness, why
hould they escape when the ignorant
hen are pursued. For instance, partisan
apers in South Carolina constantly in
AIMED the public mind with falsehoods
oncerning the aims and designs of the
republican party, and weak people, be-
ewing that they were to be put under the
eel Of the negro, believing that strangers
'ere in their midst only to rob and plum
er them, set upon the negroes and
hangers and slaughtered them under
over Of darkness and from behind fright
Il masks. This is the line of account of
luch of the ku-kluxism that has pre-
ailed and which now prevails in the
outh. General Forrest himselfan Gen.
al Beauregard say that in the beginning
'cieties of good men were formed to guard
emselves and their property. It is true
ey also say that these conservative or
mutations have been disbanded, cut
ey can not testify to this fact. The
'od men may have withdrawn from any
,proper society, but does that demon
rate that the bad ones withdrew at the
me time? Is not human nature and
imam experience against this suggestion?