The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-03-28
THE PREsIDENT.

TEEN with reckless abuse of the President,
for his recent message and proclamation.
The suppression Of intestine disorders by
tho only authority com mpetent to deal with
them. is denounced as partisan move and
an assault upon the rights of the citizen
Do these gentlemen deny that there are
extended districts Of country where life
and prooerty are insecure--that crime
goes unpunished? If they do, they are at
war with the great lights of their own
party, who admit the facts as beyond con-
troversy. Even Bayard, of Delaware, and
Governor Stevenson, of Kentucky, and all
tho better portion of the Democratic press
unite in tho admission. 1t needs only to
be known that this state Of things exists
to unite all good and patriotic men in
measures for the suppression of disorder.
From the days of the "whiskey rebel
lion" when General Washington awed the
Pennsylvania malcontents by Federal au-
thority. to the time when the United
States Marines were sent to capture John
Brown, and save Virginia from his inva-
ding army, the general government has
frequently entered the States in the inter-
est of order. In any Of these cases, what
would have been said OF parties or papers
which denounced the government, and had
nothing to say of the rereas which re-
qured Federal force for its suppression.
If the consequences were confined to
the papers and partisan leaders who retail
these ISLANDERS, it would be of small conse-
quence; but its influence is to encourage
lawlessness and crime. 1t has no word of
rebuke for the wrong-doing, but embar-
rasses in every way the ministers Of the
Law who seek to protect the innocent and
bring the guilty to justice
Farther than this, it deceives and mis-
leads the great outside public 1t leads
them to believe that the standard of pa
triotism and morality rises to no higher
level than partisanship which employs
scourging and murder and arson to COM
pass its ends
There is not in all Virginia man CT
ordinary intelligence, familiar with public
men, who seriously fears any arbitrary
exercise of power by General Grant. In
all his antecedents aud dealing with the
Southern people, he has shown generous
sympathy and magnanimity. In bis
anxiety to put down disorder, he shows
himself their true friend. Whose interest
is to be advanced by anarchy ? If there
are any such, then let them cry out
when justice moves to punish crime.
When the President uses his powers to
make life and property secure, every man,
not criminally involved, is his debtor. In
we are happily free from Ku-
Klux disturbances. Within our borders
life and property are as secure as at
the North. But when our papers become
the apologists of crime committed 10
any Southern State the taint and damage
rests on. us all. Those. great emigrating
classes North, and across the water, who
have no pronounced political views, dread
anarchy. They instinctively turn away
from districts, where social disorders are
added to the inevitable hardships and pri-
vations Of the new settler They cannot
separate the South from its constituent
States, but give the whole region wide
BERTH
We know that an overwhelming majority
Of our people are kindly disposed and anx-
lous for the Northern men to come here and
build up the waste places in our suffering
land. But this reckless war, transcending
the legitimite limits Of party, pushes back
from us the wave of emigration. Every
such article as those printed to-day, to in-
flame the bad passions of men against
General Grant, strikes not him but every
man who owns a square rod of land in
or whose living is won by labor
within her boundaries.