The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-12-13
THE MODERN INQUIs1T1ON.

1 lied plumber gets thoroughly warmed up to
Il its work, it can put in some OF the heaviest
4 sort Of MISREPRESENTATION. Its capacity fol
maligning the people Of the South is simply
enormous, and it is never so happy as when
it is engaged in circulating statements that
are not only untrue, but so absolutely false
as to make it matter for special wonder how
men who have lived among us for years can
calmly sit down and endeavor to permanent
"a ly iniure those who have never wronged
4 them 1t can cram more malice and unchar-
4 itableness into brief paragraph than all the
other Republican journals in the country put
together, and it is a maddening reflection
that the men who write in this way, the men
y who dip their pens in gall whenever they
write about the South, do not and cannot be-
lieye what they would have their friends in
the North accept as gospel
The following is an instance of the Repub-
Z zicans savagery and unfairness
The White Lacquer has sworn in his wrath
that though the negro may demand and collect
4 pay for his work. he shall never vote in peace,
unless it be reinforcement to the party
whose candidates are always OF one race, while
the old Last Di' cher, the unconverted Bourbon,
the unconquered secessiopist, never has and
never will forgive any one who had any agency
in depriving him Of his slaves. For years this
hostility has been latent or passive, but never
crushed out. Every report Of Democratic VIC
tory vt the North brings out smiling thousands
OF walters aud watchers in the South to cOngrat-
ulate each other upon the prospects Of the tidal
wave, which, like political Messiah, they have
waited for these many years.
This is scandalous There is not syllable
of it that is trne, and either the person who
wrote must have known that it was untrue,
or he has become unable to distinguish right
from wrong, truth from falsehood.
In regard to the allusion about the White
League, nothing could be more unfair or I'M
Just. 1t is not the members OF the White
League who intimidate the negro; it is not
they who threaten the negro; but, strangely
enough, it is the Radicals, white and black,
who have inaugurated reign Of terror in
this State, which, to those unfamiliar with
the facts, would seem to be incredible. 1t is
a fact that not only in this city and through
out the country parishes, it is as much as a
negros life is worth to vote any other than
the straight Radical ticket. On election day
poor ignorant but brave negro came hob
bling into this Office and told us he had just
been shot through the foot by another negro,
BECAUSE he had dared to vote the Democratic
ticket ......@..
Several colored men came round to get
white escorts to conduct them to the polls for
protection, and declared they had been
threatened by leading Radical negroes with
death if they failed to vote the Radical ticket.
This intimidation nnquestionably prevented
several thousand negroes in this city alone
FROM voting with the Conservatives last cleo
ton, and in the country it was much worse.
There the common field hands are victims of
horrible superstitions, and they regard the
President as a sort of god, to offend whom is
to m grit condign punishment. Their super
stitions and their fears are all wrought upon
in the most artful manner by white and black
demagogues, and the powerful influence Of
the church is brought TO bear to keep the de-
luded and ignorant creatures in line
So absolute is the fear inspired by the
dreadful threats of torture and Of witch
craft that the negro has been afraid to men
ton the subject Of politics, or to impart the
ployers or to such white men as they had
reason to believe would do them no wrong. |
They are gradually becoming FESTIVE under
the lash Of their party leaders, and slowly, |
very slowly the light is breaking upon their
benighted visions.
A gentleman. whose name we have not Just
now the authority to use, but whose asser-
tons would be accepted throughout the
Union rs authority, tells us that he has Just
returned from a trip through several Of the
country parishes, and everywhere the negroes
would come to him and tell him with every
appearance Of abject fear, how they wanted
to act with the white people, as they knew it
was to their interest to do SO, but how impos-
sible it was for them to escape the vengeance
of their secret societies.
They said, "Massa, we be killed sure eff we
vote de Demokrackic ticket" What says the |
Republican to that? What say the people of
the North to this dreadful political inquisition,
ms deadly and as all-pervading as that which |
has blackened the history Of Spain? What |
saws President Grant to this refutation Of
his unwaranted assertion in his last stump
speech, that the negroes voted with the Re
publicans because they knew who their friends
We're?
The Republican is correct when it says there
is and has been intimidation exercised in |
Louisiana, but it grossly errs in attributing it |
to the White League instead OF the Radicals, |
black and white.
There is no more crying shame to-day in
this country than the terrorism exercised over
the ignorant negroes Of the South by corrupt
white Radical men and negroes, and the adj
ministration Of Grant has been especially
conspicuous in maintaining this state of
affairs. The President can put an end to this
modern inquisition if he will, and we now
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