New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-07-18
warning 70 southern Men.


Now that the presidential campaign has
begun in earnest we shall hear from the
Southern States frequent rumOrs Of disor-
ders and Ku-Kinx outrages. These rumors
will not be so frequent as they would nave
been had Congress adopted the Presidents
pet scheme Of buying up the telegraph
lines and putting them under the manage
ment Of the POstoffice Department; but
even in private hands the telegraph is not
infallible; operators and reporters are sub
iect to like passions with other men and
the desire for a startling item, which IS con-
slant in the reporters bosom, will help the
manufacturers Of spurious news.
For months past the common testimony
of all has declared the South as peaceful as
Massachusetts. The Ku-Klux organization
is known to have been absolutely aban-
doned. The South, we know, yearns Tor
peace, and Southern men are doing al IN
their power to secure it. On all accounts
we welcome the purpose and the praetlce'
But do they realize how important 1t IS thaU
thew should be on their guard, and conduct
themselves during the canvass with uncom-
mon prudence 2 There will not be wanting
base persons ready and eager t. inttame
the old wounds. to bring on collisions be-
tween whites and blacks, or between Repub-
Gcaus and Democrats, and they may be GER
tain that from now till next November every
affair of ffsticufis in any Southern State will
he magniGed By the Grant papers into
new rebellion, and every murder or wound
ing made to appear to the Northern public
as aEo her Ka-hluX outrage. III a negro
labnrer il discharged, some one will be
bound TO represent this as a prescription
for principles sake: and we do not doubt
that before three weeks are over, the Grant
press will TEEN daily with reports Of MUIR
derous Ku-klux assassinatiOns and a des-
perate attempt will be made to alarm the
Northern v8ters by pictures Of disorder
and laWlessness in the South. The truth
is a good, square, atrooious piece Of law
Iessness and violence in the South would
lust now be a god-send to the Grant party.
ii they could prove, within the next two
months, that half dozen negroes had been
burned at the stake in Alabama, and that
number Of white women and children had
attended the incremation and waved Con
federate flags over the flames, Grants
fuglemen would at once thank God, and
take courage. They are just now little
blue and disheartened, and stand badly in
need Of something of this kind, for they
have no a gune its 0 offer.
We trust Southern Democrats viii give
no occasion for evil reports. 1t is their |
duty, as citizens of free country, and as
the more influential citizens of their States, |
not merely to keep the peace themselves, |
but to see that it is kept. They have a |
right freely to vote themselves, and it is |
their duty to see that their opponents freely |
exercise the same right. They have right |
peacefully to discuss the political questions |
at issue in the campaign; and we can not |
but believe that they can present to their |
own people SO forcible case as to carry |
with them the greater part of the indepen-
dent voters of their States. But their OPP /
ponents have the same right of peaceable |
discussion; and wherever rOWdies or evil /
disposed persons may attempt to interfere |
with this right, Southern Democrats ought |
to be the first and the most conspicuous to
interpose their protecting ARM
There is but one thing, as we believe, and
as many of the Grant managers believe, /
that can reflect Grant; and that is new
Of violence in the Southern States; /
or, what would answer the same purpose,
such plausible false reports of violence in
the South as would thoroughly alarmthe
Northern mind. The Grant leaders and
are everywhere talking about the
They appeal to the "Union
sentiment" They curry favor with the
Union soldiers" as though these had not, /
seven years ago, become citizens; they are
doing their worst to preach up a new cru
SADIE against the South. 1t belongs to the
Southern Democrats to defeat this atrociOus |
and unpatriOtio plot and the way to do it
is to maintain-as they can-even better
order in the South than is observed in the
North. And for the rest when a lie is re-
ported, let it be at once fully and authorita-
lively proved to be lie. That can and
ought to be done. i