The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1872-11-21


The inquiry is anxiousIy made, what
course will the Grant administration in
its second term pursue towards the South?
II lis managers were prompted by the
dictates of policy purely selfish, the
question would be of easy solution.
The result of the elections under all
the adverse circumstances attending the
candidates nominated against the Adj
ministration, would teach them profita-
bic lesson. Why is it that the Southern
States have nearly all arrayed themselves
in hostility toward the Administration
1t was not because they came out of the
war, with a special preference for either
of the old parties that were struggling for
the mastery at its commencement. Dis
appointed, defeated, bankrupt, they
were prepared to embrace any side that
would exhibit the magnanimity of a
stronger power to a weaker one in the
hour of distress. The Radical party re-
PEELED the confidence and friendship
which it might have won, by series Of
unexampled barbarities La the de-
fencelessness Of the Southern States it
tyrannized over them. In their misfor-
tune it added to their SORROWS and, il
their poverty it robbed them. 1t sent
gangs of plunderers, like swarms of
locusts, to devour their substance. 1t
sent hordes of tax-collectors to appro-
pirate whatever they could lay their
hands upon. 1t deprived of all share in
the government, except its burdens,
large numbers of good citizens, irrespec-
tive of former political associations. 1t
arrayed the black race against the whites
and taught the former that the latter
had no rights which they ought to respect.
1t promised the Southern States
equality of privilege in the Union, and
after going through the form of recon-
struction, it punished their politics if not
to its liking, by governing them as con-
quered provinces. 1t converted North
ern penitentiaries into Bastiles for the
punishment of southern citizens on ac-
count of their political opinions. 1t act
ed on the bloody principle of the Spanish
tYrant in the era of the Inquisition, that
it was mercy to behead people for pro-
Tossing the religion they liked.
The effect of all this atrocity has been
to array the Southern States, one after
another, in the ranks of the opposition to
the Administration. At the commence
ment Of its term it claimed them all with
one single exception. Now two-thirds of
them have declared against it, and of
them, all except poor South Carolina, are
held by tenure utterly feeble and unre-
liable
Having tested the policy of hate and
prescription, and found that it is loos-
ing business, 50 far as gaining accessions
is concerned, the Managers of the Admin
istration, If guided by considerations of
selfishness, leaving justice and magnall-
unity out Of view, would change their
treatment of the South during their
second term in their effort 10 regain the
opportunity they have lost. But WIN rney
doit? Leaving to future events the an
swer TO this question, we invoke the peo-
pie of Mississippi to pursue the even
tenor OF their way-obey the laws-keep
the peace-devote themselves to their in
dustries-and strive without ceasipg to
rescue their State Administration from
the clutches Of the harpies who are feed
ing on their vitals.