Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1873-06-12

ted by the most rigid conservative at the
South that the conduct Of the colored
population was admirable. When the
plantations were deserted by their owners
who were fighting to bind anew the bonds
Of the escaping slaves, when none but
women and children were found in the
lonely mansion or the unprotected village,
the colored people, conscious to remark
able degree of the true meaning of the
contest, yet abstained from all deeds of
violence. They waited patiently for the
result. They still performed their house
hold or plantation duties with perhaps
more than ordinary care. They watched
over the white women an children
tenderly And only when the Union
armies approached the solitary plantation
or the fallen city did the slave proclaim
that he was free.
His fidelity and forbearance were repaid
with pitiless ingratitude by the lawless
portion Of the Southern whites. Scarcely
was the war over when they formed an
association to control the colored vote by
terror and by acts Of rare cruelty. In
stead of rewarding the generosity and the
humanity of the former slaves by teach
ing them the kindly arts of civilization,
the worst class of the Southern popula-
ton, always apparently the masters
Of the rest, began that series Of
horrible outrages known as the Ku-Klux
conspiracy. 1t was against the inotfens-
i've and, often industrious and deserving
negro that all this childish paraphernalia
and all the excess Of wickedness were di-
rected. For five years the colored popu-
lation in almost every Southern State have
been made the victims of midnight raids
q Il ~ cuff
told oppression at the hands Of the South
ern conservatives. Yet they have rarely
returned blow No inhumanity is ever
| laid to their charge Where they hold
! the political power life is safe, and VIC
lence discountenanced. They ask only
the privilege of labor, and when they
take part in politics it is with the convic-
! ton that only by exercising the right of
suffrage can they secure themselves from
the pitiless cruelty Of men like those who
drove their victims from the polls at Col
| Tax, md then burned them in the court
| house or flung them into the river.
We trust that the large majority Of the
white population at the South have al
ready become shocked and indignant at
the cruelty of their lawless companions.
There is, indeed, but one course for the
Southern whites to adopt toward the new
| citizens that can insure peace and progress
sive ease to their fertile territory. 1t is to
protect the right of every citizen to vote
with the utmost freedom; to defend the
privileges of the colored population as
they would their own; to punish with ex-
emplary severity every desperate politician
VINO strives to rule by terror; to repay the
humanity Of their former slaves by giving
them liberal education; to win their
votes, if necessary, by the exhibition of
equity and justice. Let the Southern
whites drive from power every politician
who has Joined in the desperate deeds OF
the ku-kluX or protited from its labors,
and liberal share of immigration and
commerce will soon blend together the
united community. In such course they
will have the aid Of the honest of every
color or sect and ii will be found that the
white and black races are both capable of
producing good men and patriotic offic-
ials.
If the Southern whites had pursued a
moderate and kindly policy toward the
cOlored citizens, they might long ago have
won easily their confidence and support
They might have ruled in the States where
they are now in a poor minority. But
they chose to encourage the lawless out
RACES Of the ku-klux. They carried the
elections of Georgia by violence, and hop
ed to rule Louisiana or Arkansas by the
same means Their Democratic and Lib
eral Republican allies at the North helped
to confirm them in their error, and strove
TO profit by the merciless deeds of South
ern outlaws and the miseries Of the color
ed race; and the fatal results of the pitiless
intrigues of the opposition politicians and
Journals may be seen in the disorder and
decay, the deserted farms and wasted
trade, of too many of the Southern States.
-Ha1per'S Weekly.