Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-04-24
MID Destroy their Trades

--. ,,ouId Destroy their Trade"
Every day, almost, develops some new
e.at. showing the deplorable condition
- affairs in the South. Events, every
5ov transpiring, demonstrate that the
al3 rebel proclivities and hate of the
Nth still prevail. Ku Kluxism is not,
~ anv means, rooted out. The people
sftbe South do not accept the thirteenth,
fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to
,bo national constitution as settlement
If the issues of the rebellion. In fact,
lf not in name, the mass of the native
a.bite residents of the South are as far
from being reconstructed" as they
rvere in 1865. 1t may, possibly, have
tson a mistake to grant full and perfect
.,onestv to so many ex-rebels. We be-
Heve. in a large degree, in the forgive
and forget policy. We do Lot, however,
nslIeye that it is good policy to forget
and forgive offenses, when the offenders
continue to pursue the same course as
that for which they seek amnesty. The
g.ors that have passed since the rebel
.rmv laid down their arms and their
LADDERS declared their cause was a lost
.,nspa have, certainly, furnished ample
,i,,,a for the Southerner to learn that
now order of things existed. There has
,aeB nothing in the legislation of the
dominant party to cause them distrust.
f. fs true that slavery has been abolished,
,be rIght of suffrage granted to the
former slave, and the equality of all, in
civil rights declared. This they have
rrof.ssad to acQuiesce in. If they Go
mi. sincerely, heartily, it is all We could
al, of them. But do they thus acquiesc e
IN tine changed condition of affairs? We
need not refer to- the New Orleans riots,
fine outrages in southern Kentucky and
elsewhere, or to the recent horrid mas.
.,r,s at C0lfaX, Louisiana, for an an.
swar although these occurrences supply
all the answer needed. A recent ocru
rpucr-so recent that mention of it first
appeared in the Geographic columns OF
the newspaper press of the country, yes
terday morning-,illustrates more, if il
were possible, the state of feeling at the
south, than even these terrible outrage
80 a hich we have referred. If we haC
ttkrn mp IA paper, casually, and read thu
n9rap,arh. we should have thought
without examining the date, that W,
were reading a newspaper of January
1851. instead of April 21st, 1873. TIL
state vt affairs disclosed was prccisel,
the same as that with which we wer
=, familiar twelve years ago. The Mis-
-jssppi river boats, plying between st
Louis and New Orleans, derive thei
business mainly, if not entirely, iron
the Stat $ of Louisiana. Mississippi. Al
kansas and Missouri. The owners an
captains of these vessels, necessarily
understand the current of public sent
ment. 1t is a necessity of their vOcatio
that they should be familiar with II. W
do not intend. again. to recall the hOl
rors Of Colfax. 1t is not necessary
Tap opinion of the inhabitants of th
country bordering on the Mississippi
river in reference thereto is a matter c
some consequence. 1t shows not onl
their political feelings, but the heartines
and sincerity with which they "accel
the situation" 1t is, also, to some e2
tent, All index to the state Of feeling
o,hrr portions Of the South. The propC
officers of the army, in New Oriean
decided that it was necessary, on aCCOul
of the COlfaX massacre. to send trOOl
no Red river. "All the boats refuse
10 take the troops up Red river, sayil
it would Destroy their trade, - so Gener
Mcdowell telegfaphs General Sherma
The refusal and the reasons theref'
need no further comment. We all Il
well remember the time when such r
fusals and reasons were given every da
We know the feeling it then indicate
Can it have any other meaning no"
We fear not.