Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1874-10-01

For two months, in a majority O
Southern States, there has been
high carnival of murder. A region
of terror has again been established
the like of which has not existed
since the war. But a small part O
crimes are made known to the North
ern public. When negroes ant
white Republicans are shot in droves
we hear about it with all the excuse:
and Qualifications that can be offered
But of the solitary killing and shoot
ing of negroes in the lonely fields and
woods, and in their cabins, the pub
lie hear nothing. The men who SEND
out the news from the South are
with few exceptions, Democrats, and
sympathizers with these crimes, and
sometimes participators. If they
give news of even the larger massa
cres, they accompany it with apollo.
gies and justifications. The solitary
killings pass unnoticed. In many
parts of the South, the newspapers
dare not publish them. The tele-
graph is loaded with reports that ne
groes are rising and have conspired
to exterminate the whites, and the
whites are standing on the defensive.
But when the facts finally come out,
it turns out that only negroes and
white Republicans are killed. These
stories are disgustingly stupid and
silly, and when Northern Newspapers
republish and credit them, they de-
grade their own intelligence. We re-
member how the negroes behaved
during the war when they knew their
masters were fighting for their per-
petual slavery.
All the negroes ask is to be let
alone. They know very well that
they cannot cope with the whites in
any struggle with arms. They have
little property, and, consequently few
arms. They are not able to defend
themselves. These wicked calumnies
are made the preteXt for assassina-
tions in every part of the South.
The White Leaguers or the Ku Klux
for they are the same thing-go
cunning for negroes. They hunt
them like squirrels. They murder
them singly and by the score, upon
false preteXt or none. In many
cases white Republicans arc murder
ed. 1t is not war of races, it is a
war of one race upon another and
broadly is war against the Repub-
licans of the South, whites and
blacks. This is not from apprehen-
sions of social equality or fear of
the civil rights bill, but to make this
a white mans Government and re-
duce the negroes as nearly as posi-
ble TO slaves. You have heard of the
butcheries recently in Kentucky,
Tennessee, Alabama, and other
States, and l have not time nor
strength to enumerate them.
The recent outbursts have not been
confined to one State. They run
through nearly the whole South.
Louisiana is just now attracting more
attention than others. On Monday
the White League conspiracy broke
out in Louisiana, overturned the
State Government and attempted to
establish a new one. Thirty men
are reported killed, and fifty wound
ed.
To understand the condition of
Louisiana, one must go back eight
years. During that time the State
has been made a vast slaughter
house, the murders extending to al
most every plantation. In 1866, the
Republicans, in a convention at Me
chanics' Institute, to propose amend
ments to the Constitution, were set
upon by the police and vast mob of
armed ruffians, and more than 200
killed and wounded in less than thir-
ty minutes. The details of that
butchery given by the Committee
that investigated it were sickening,
and never eXcelled in atrOcity. In
the spring of 1868, the State being
reconstructed, an election was held
under the direction of the Govern
ment of the United States, confessed
by all a fair election, and the Repub-
licans carried the State by $4,000
majority. In the summer the Ku
Klux were organized. Between Sep
tember and the November election
they killed and wounded over two
thousand persons, mostly negroes, as
shown by the report of the Commit
tee of Congress. The cruelties per-
petrated were never exceeded by the
Indians. Nor did that Committee
examine the whole State. A reign of
terror was created. Republicans
were kept from the polls, and the
Democrats carried the November
election by 41,000 majority, making
a change of $1,000 votes. In some
parishes, the Republicans cast not a
single vote; in others two; in others
ten. After that for some time the
negroes were not shot in droves, but
The stream of solitary dropping muir
lers rolled ON.
Warmoth, then a young man of
character and promise, had been
elected Governor in the spring by
the Republicans, but he turned out
corrupt, engaged in many schemes of
fraud in which most of his partners |.
we're Democrats. In 1871, the Repub-
icans cast him of, and the Admins |
ration at Washington rejected him. I
Then the Democrats who had de-
nounced him as having ruined the
State took him to their embrace and
formed a coalition by which they
we're to carry the State, and he to be
made u. S. Senator in the bargain.
His control of the machinery of efee-
ion, which was all in his hands, as
.he Governor, was counted equal to
10000 votes. Louisiana was noto-
riously Republican as clearly as Yer
mont or Mississippi.
The Democrats believed that War
moth could commit frauds enough to
overcome that majority. Their en-
L n