The Van Buren press., 1871-05-30
A Pretext Wanted.

The following extract from the Macon
(Ga) Telegraph and Messenger, meets
our sentiments on the duty which the Ku
klux bill imposes on the Southern people
as well as tho comments below from the
St. Louis Republican
"Let our people take warning, then
Let them curb their tongues and restrain
their hands. Upon no provocation, short
of intolerable insult, let them resort TO
violence The rote Of the South must b.
counted in 1872 TOR the Democi ATTIC candt-
date. Violence is what Grant wishes, in
order that he may decree that ii shall mol
be cast. See to it that he is disappointed,
remembering, always, that good memory
is as valuable an adjunct of peoples as
of individuals, when the time comes for
righting their wrongs. Patience and
shuttle the cards, " is about the best mot
to the South can adopt under present
circumstances.
The condition of things imposed on
the South by this bill is extremely irk-
SoAuc, iuuccu, IL aihouh'o w PtoStiSai
interdict That which may be done with
perfect propriety in. a Northern State,
may not be done in Southern State. In
the North the press may discuss all sub
jects with the largest liberty of express
sion; and small bodies of people melted
by strong provocation, may take the law
into their own hands, and commit acts of
violence without arousing any other feel
ing than transient interest or curiosity,
A small meeting in Ohio may pass reso-
utons in favor Of repudiating the ma
tional debt /; furious Indiana Democrat
may, in an elaborate and highly artistic
piece of crossroads rhetoric propose to
commit " the party TO notification of
the constitutional amendments mob of
persons in southern Kansas may hang
the suspected horse thieves on the same
tree; a select group of exemplary young
gallants in Michigan may take a scarlet
woman from her house at night and
smear her with tar and feathers and two
or three thousand Welsh miners in Penn
sylvania may disturb the peace Of that
State and impair great industry for
months, without attracting the attention
of the government. All this is American,
nd allowable. But at the South it would
be highly disloyal and criminal Every
piece OF local violence there is invested
with constitutional gravity. 1t means, or
is construed to mean, q defiance of the
Fifteenth amendment, a violation of the
civil rights act, or disrespect to the
third supplementary reconstruction meas
ure. The white people of the South are
in fetters. They are not free to indulge
in American characteristics. Hasty words
are crimes, and violent acts, that would
anywhere else have nothing more than
local significance, are there deemed in
excusable atrocities.
Let the southern people then, be, as
the Telegraph and Messenger counscls,
",wise as serpents and harmless as doves"
If they would but guaranty the peace of
their disordered localities, avoid all col
lisions with authority, break up the law
less bands whose acts inname the north
crn mind against the whole South, and
bear with what patience they can the evils
OF their lot, they would turn the sharp
point of this force bill against the party
that forged it. Grant may do pretty
much what he pleases to do, under that
measure, but he is not likely to do much
without pretext; and if the southern
people are careful to give him no prctext,
every unwarrantcd employment of power
under it will cripple him and his party
n the Nor tn, and increase the chances
of southern disenthrallmcnt'