Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-09-03
Duty OF REPUBLICANS.

| DUTY OF REPUBLICANS.
We fear that the republicans of Maine
and other northern States do not appreciate
properly the situation in the Southern
States. They seem to think that the bloody
occurrences which have taken place re-
Gently in the South are of little conse-
uuence, or at least do not concern us in
this latitude. Is it small matter that
sixteen colored persons were taken from
a Jail in Tennessee by whites, some shot to
death, and the lifeless bodies of some lett
suspended to the trees where they had been
murdered, as terror to the other blacks? Is
it nothing that six others were treated IN
the same manner in Louisiana? Is 1t OF
no consequence that acts OF violence are
common in all parts OF the South, all d.
rected to one object-the subsection of the
colored voters to the democratic party?
Reliable reports from the South inform us
that the victims of the Ku-Klux and other
secret and oath-bound associations of like
character are reckoned since 1866 by thou
sauds. Single counties furnish their hun
dreds of murders.
7 The democratic papers North and South
studiously cover up and falsify the real
facts At first they deny that any murders
or outrages are committed upon the ne
groes. atlribut:ng the reports TO the
schemes of the republican politicians, but
when the truth has at length found its way
North in undeniable shape, they change
their ground and charge the negroes
with grand conspiracy to destroy the
whites, and the cause of the bloodshed
which is perpetrated In all cases the ne
groes are the greatest and almost the only
sufferers by outbreaks of lawlessness,
which is a strange result if they are the ag-
gressors-if they are armed, organized and
prepared as parties of conspirators
would be. Take the recent case in Ten
nessee, where sixteen negroes were MUIR
dered. The assassins justify themselves
by spreading report that the victims were
engaged with the great body Of blacks in
a wide spread conspiracy to rise and
murder the whites throughout the State.
This might possibly be believed were the
negroes in Tennessee equal to or greater
than the whites in that State in number,
but since the blacks are only about one
third the number Of the whites the absurdity
of the report is at once apparent war
of races inaugurated by the negroes with
such great odds against them would be
madness, and they know it as we'll as the
whites. If it takes three whites to be equal
to one negro in the South, what becomes
OF the boosted superiority of the white
race
The sole purpose of the outrages against
the blacks is political. 1t is not race hate
red for the white masters sought the illegit-
| innate embraces of their female slaves be-
| fore the war, and in thousands of cases it
would be difficult to tell to which race
individuals belong. They kept them as
body servants, rode with them, and had
their children nursed by them. If the ne
groes would vote the democratic ticket
there would be no difficulty. Because
they vote the republican ticket these mid
night raids and murders are committed
upon them to brighten them away from
the polls, to reduce the republican vote so
that the democrats may control the cleo
tons. This is the secret Of Ku-Klnx-
ism and White Leagues and all the other
Internal Vaccinations against the blacks
by which the South is cursed.
This state of things has continued some
years, but never was so terrible as at the
present time, when it seems to have con-
verted that section into pandemonium.
The outrages of the border ruffians in Kan
sas were small compared with the wicked
ness practised against the black and white
republicans of the South These extend
over wider theatre, and the blood
shed and oppression are greater than
those which Kansas suffered in its early
days. Is the party that then rose in ir-
resistible strength and protested at the
polls with righteous Indignation against
ruffianism to be silent and passive under
the enormities of the Ku-Klux? We trust
all friends OF humanity will see their
duty to utter their protest against
the cruelties and wrongs heaped upon
the blacks, and to do it effectually they
must work within and for the re-
publican party. If they have been
Indifferent they should change to earnest
ness. There is no apology sufficient for
any republican who neglects to enlist
with heart and hands against the rnffians
of the South.
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