Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1871-11-03
The Poison Spreading.

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The Chicago fire has aroused great alarm
in most of the towns of the North. We
are told that the police force in Syracuse,
for example, has been doubled and ordered
to shoot on the spot any person detected
in an attempt at incendiarism. We have
already mentioned, in these columns, how
Sheridan and his soldiers added to the aw-
full horrors of the late great confagrat1on
by free use of the bullet and bayonet.
Abiding to these things the New York
World remarks "Such measures may be
we'll calculated to diminish the chances of
intentional fire but the question is, who
has authority, under our nominal form OF
government, to order capital punishment
without trial ?"
"Aye, there's the rub" The experience
of the last three or four years in these
Southern States should be sufficient to
show the New York World and the "world"
at large, that, if the Government has not
the authority, 1t has still exercised, with
high hand, the authority, to order capital
punishment without trial,-or, what is in
finitely worse, through the corrupt and
periured fundamentally of mock trials
Is it one whit worse to hang or shoot,
without warning or question, than to ar
rest men without warrant or explanation,
drag them from their families and homes,
imprison them in filthy cells and subject
them to the horrible sham Ct trial before
packed jury, with the lingering certainty
OF conviction We trow not. And yet
This is, and has been, the every day ex.
perience in these Southern States--the
home of men as devoted to the principles
OF Constitutional Government and as dear
lovers of Republican liberty as any that
the world has ever seen.
Why. at this very hour cruel, actual acar
is being waged by Grants orders upon
helpless, unresisting and law abiding cit:-
zens Of the United States, in South Caro-
lima. Under the pressure OF the negro
government Of the State, companies of
United States cavalry (habeds corpus sus-
Pended) are arresting in nine counties
nearly all the white citizens, and lodging
them in jail to await mock trial amid the
ashes that Sherman made of Celumbis.-
A correspondent of Northern journal de-
EcrIDeG now the enlDS is done
"The Rubicon is crossed, and this great Cipsar
turns his soldiers loose upon his own countrymen
and fellow-citizens. For over two weeks this
mighty army has marched nearly every night flor
some weighty reason they don't travel in the
broad day light in the country, and with military
preoAution, having surrounded the home of some
pesooful farmer. proceed with loud noises to
The ian 10 full already. and still the work goes
On, 70 stop no one knows where Were these
men guilty Of crime were they rebellious against
the government, were they even members or par
6cipatofs In the silly dOings Of the Ku-K lux,
while We would deplore the mode of their arrest,
% III becoming free republic, We would at least
@ upon yourselves. But when it is known that
from any connection with the Ku Klux as even
this great Cesar himself, how great should be
our Indignation and how earnest our protests
against this worse than tyrannyl"
And yet, in view Of these atrocities,
these crimes against law, humanity and
civilization, the Northern mind is neither
shocked nor indignant, so far as we may
Judge from the popular sentiment as ex-
pressed in the late elections. Well, they
VIII Jet realize that they cannot assist in
sowing the wind without reaping the
whixlwind. These great enormities cannot
60 on without injecting the whole land
The poison injected into one portion of
tho system will spread, until the whole
BODY corporate is filed with the mortal
venom. The recent reckless disregard of
shs forms OF laws and human life, in Chi 1
cago and elsewhere, are the legitimate
ens-croppings Of that very spirit of Fed.
~ violence and lawlessness which have
N holding high and bloody carnival in
%uth % long. and are now running
the unfortunate Radical.aud-neero