The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1874-04-02

"a
upon the interest which begins to be
excited in regard to the affairs of "the
g PROSTATE State Of South Carolina
and the indignation with which mis-
government there is beginning to be
Viewed. saws: "General Grant pulled
e out the wrong tooth in the ku-Klux
stimes, The patient is still suffering
isWith the toOthache, which shows he
sought to have looked more carefully
sard pulled out the carpet-baggers. +"
This was the conclusion to which Mr..
Greeley came, and upon which he act
ed. after a very cursory inspection of
the wounds of the South. Indeed, it
was the result to which GeneralGrant'
tour of inspection in the South brought
him. and the opinion to which he held
until supposed political exigencies
constrained him to alter it. The griev
ance of the South is and has been sim
plv bad government, nothing more;
and this bad government has proceed
ed entirely from the political opera
tions of the Federal Government in
the Southern States. 1t is to be hop
ed that Senator Edmunds, in his trip
to the South for health, may come to
understand this, and to know, what is
the undoubted fact, that the acts and
agents of the Federal Government are
responsible not only for all the dis
orders that have visited the Southern
States and the burden of debt, corrup-
ton, and plunder under which those
States have groaned since the war, but
also for all the lies and misrepresen-
tations that have tended to keep up
| ilI-feeling between the sections. Sem
ator Morton gets all his stock of ''blood
and arsonn from thel carpet-baggers
whose policy and whose business it is
| to keep him handsomely supplied and
| it has been easy for them, in the past
temper of the public mind, to invent,
where they could not find, way to
sire the Northern heart" Upon this
subject little intelligent testimony
/ before the Ku-Klux Investigating
| Committee in 1871 reveals much. SEN
ator Scott, Chairman of the sub-eom-
| mittee in South Carolina, was inter-
rogating Mr. I. ID. Witherspoon, an
| influential gentleman of Yorkville,
upon the state of feeling in that COM
munity towards the North, which, the
t Senator insisted, was bitterly hostile.
THAT is altogether a mistake" said
Mr.. Witherspoon (and his words de-
serve to be well Weighed), "and my
| s.impression is that the few Office
seholders of the South have done more
| sthan any one else to create that i'm
uDression. = Then do at to
.skeep up strife and to keep themselves
SIN position, 1 do think-now L am
talking to You frankly, gentlemeA-I
edo think we have some miserable
! "specimens, whilst we have some per-
sfect specimens, of Northern descent.
I'VE have some miserable specimens,
s.iudgihg by their acts and public re-
'1putation. On that point, sir, l be-
:aieve that such is the anxiety here to
"brfng in Northern thrift and North
s'ern enterprise to build up the waste
"pIaces of this country, that I could
-day induce men to sell yOW land
fchedpel than they acould sell 10 d
ssneighbor," And when Senator Scott
asked how the negro was to live in
South Carolina without the protection
of Federal bayonets, Mr.. Witherspoon
answered: "Gtve as correct State
'.GoceYnment and I qoiH assdre yoa,
"thGt the laU aotU be administered
''without fear or .fdroy, inpartially.'
But General Grant pulled out the
wrong tooth, and South Carolina il
what it is to-day.-World.