New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-05-17
THE soUTH-ITS SINS And ITS SUFEEB-

Our correspondents have now been so long
in the disturbed districts of the South, that we
can form from their letters distinct idea OF
the state of society in that unfortunate part OF
the Union. 1t is q melancholy picture that
they draw for us. The most intelligent, the
influential, the educated, the really useful men
of the South, deprived of all political power,
have come to look upon themselves as the
outraged subjects of despotic cOnqueror.
Taxed and swindled by O horde of rascally
foreign Adventures, and by the ignorant class,
which only yesterday hoed the fields and served
| in the kitchen, they care nothing for politics
except to throw off the oppressive yoke; they
have no interest in national affairs; they
would call themselves of either party,
provided their rulers were only OF the
other. The refuse of Northern cities, who
went southwark after the war, Out-at-elboWs
| and destitute of character and education, now
roll in splendid carriages, drink rare wines,
Glitter with diamonds as big as Fisk's, and
steal taxes as fast as a New-YOrk Street Com
mission 1t is no wonder that the impover-
ished planter, growing poorer every day. the
ex-Confederate officer who fought so bravely
for q cause in which he honestly believed, the
professional men, accustomed all their lives to
hold Office and lead the public sentiment OF
their communities, look on such things with
rancorous hearts. They might submit to be
ruled by soldiers who had beaten them III
battle; but here they are plundered by suffers
and camp followers.
This is a miserable state of things indeed
for a republican governmental burlesque upon
the suffrage, when the only restriction upon
voting is that the votes shall not be cast FOR
the most intelligent and virtuOus citizens We
have often warned our party in Congress OF
the inevitable result of the vindictive method
of Reconstruction. We have told them, and
we tell them again, that there is only one way
TO restore the Union-UniveTsal Amnesty and
IMPARTIAL Suffrage. We shall continue to urge
this policy; but in some places Southern people
are doing their best to defeat it. They profess to
be satisfied with the constitutional amendments;
to be convinced, at any rate, that the suffrage
once granted must not be taken away. But
while they are clamoring for political equality,
the poor blacks are quivering under the lash
of midnight ruffians, or fleeing from their
burning cabins, or perishing. by the assassins
bullet. While there may have been exag-
ceration in some of the stories OF tho
Ku-Klux Khan, there is proof enough
that many reports of outrage in the
main are true. Men are taken from their
homes at night and scourged. Republicans
dare not sleep in their own houses, but as
semble at night in large and well armed bodies.
Our correspondent at Spartanburg learned that
within q few weeks, in single South
Carolina county, three men were killed,
thirty or forty were shot, but not IA
tally, and hundreds were whipped. In
ONLY one instance was an arrest made for
these crimes, and in that case the Grand jury
found no bill, and the Justice who issued the
warrant was driven out of town. Revenue
officers are in danger of their lives, and appeal
to the President for protection. No Ofiense is
charged against the victims of the Khan ex-
cept that of voting for the Republican party.
In the most disturbed districts the freedom OF
election is for the time abolished and the exc
cution of the laws suspended. The object OF
the Khan is avOwed. If they cannot secure
the control of the State Government by the
exercise of the suffrage, they will get 1t by
means of the bullet and the lash.
1t is evident that such course of outrage
aggravates and prolongs the evils against
which it is q sort of villainous protest. The
laws of the country must be enforced. Con-
gress has properly conferred upon the Presi-
dent the power to suppress the ku-klux by
military measures, and he will exercise his
power to the utmost. And when the Khan Is
suppressed, will not the cOrruptions of local
government be worse than they are now and
more difficult of cOrrectionf The violence of
the Southern whites is creating an antagonsm
of races which it will need generation or two
to overcome. The negro vote must largely con-
troll the Southern States in any case; and the
Southern chivalry are doing their best to make
it impossible for that vote ever to be given to
Southern Democrat. They are dividing So
ciety into two bitterly hostile parties. They
complain that one party is composed of thieves /;
do they wish to convince the world that the
other is composed of assassins 7