Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1874-08-29
OPINIONS OF raE CITY PRESS,

0RANADNS OF Akk 4 AAA 4 EAE13s
From the Avalanche of Friday
The horrible crime committed in Glib
son county last Tuesday night must not
be forgotten until the criminals who
were engaged in it shall have been ar
rested, tried, convicted, and hung. Let
the galloEs in Trenton, with the felons
swinging from it, be the evidence that
the State and county authorities are
equal to the emergency. The prophet
Jonah was asked, "Dost thou well to be
angryFn and he answered, ~ do well. I"
The AUGlGHche hss not infiamed the
passions Of one race against the other,
but il is worth while 10 look into the
character OF the crime and the causes
which LED 10 it. The truth plsinly
spoken will do no harm, but may give
ofiensa; but the Avalanche will do its
duty and let the consequences take care
of themselves. The pernicious and un-
lawful haOit of carrying pistols inevitably
leads 10 blOOdshed. Those who are fa-
miliar with the weapons of blood natu-
rally become biCodtbirsty and reckless
of human life. We are sorry to say that
the laws forbidding this are never en-
forced practically, and at every public
and even private gathering the pistol Is
a part OF an outfit, as much as a hat or
pair of boots. But why were there a
hundred or fifty men in Gibson county
who banded together to take the lives Of
sixteen cOlored prisoners in the hands
and custody OF the officers of the law?
1t occurs to US that if public opinion
were sound, if the citizens who love pub
lie iustice-WhO believe in law ana or
der-had made themselves felt, it would
have been i'm possible for fifty cut-throats
to live in Gibson county. The fact
must be admitted that the passions of
the whites have been inhamed against
the blacks, and without sufficient cause
or provOcatiOn; the fact must be ad
mitted that the blacks have been placed
in position by politicians on both sides,
which is untrue and unjust to them.
The internal cry Of a war of races has
not followed but preceded, and led the
way to the horrible and wholesale muir
der in Gibson county. It is time to cry
halt to these enemies of public and pri-
vate peace. The cause of humanity de-
manGs it; every consideration of public
and private interest demands it; cur
own manhood, and q decent regard for
the opinion of all good men and women
everywhere demand that the insane
cry of a war of races in Tennessee
be suppressed and stamped out of all
hearing. The colOred people in Ten
nessee are in a hopeless minority. They
are docile, timid and humble. Now
aud then may be encountered bOisterOus
fellows who talk loud and buster, but
we venture to assert that not ten can be
found in any part Of the State OF Ten
nessee desperate enough TO band to-
gether to murder the whites. All the
Il -, al
of the colored people have existed only
in wild rumOrs, circulated by alarmists,
and the inflammatory style in which
the relations OF the races have been dis
cussed has simply prepared people to
believe every rumOr. Now take the
case in Gibson county, in which there
were given the details of a plot to kill
the whites, and the details given by a
vagaboDd negro, without names and
dates. How easy il would have been
for the supposed ringleaders, who were
in Jail, to have been tried and convicted
under the the law If guilty.
From the Ledger of Friday.l
1t is needless to deny that the negroes,
since the passage of the civil rights bill
by the United States senate, have been
turbulent and aggressive in many Sec
tiOns of the country; and from the con-
fessions of several Of the negroes arrested
in Gibson county, it is evident that they
were organizing to attack the white
people. Not long since the outrages
committed by the Pole Bearers at the
National cemetery, under their military
commander, Swan, excited the liveliest
indignation throughout this portion of
the State. The bloody threats Of the
negro Williamson, in Fayette county,
against the whites are not forgotten.
Nor are the incendiary harangues made
in this city by Shaw, the negro wharf
master of Memphis, and other leading
negroes, who are to-day the deadliest
enemies Of their own race, and ever will
be, because they are inspired with a
hatred against the white race, and are
politicians, who use their own people as
stepping-stOnesi into Office. Tbespeeches
Of Barbour Lewis, Dyer and other white
leaders OF the negroized Radical party
during the late canvass were well calcu-
lated TO create the most intense feelings
of aDimOsity between the races. Lewis
denouncing white men at the Turner
hall and describing In indecent manner
and gesture how the white ladies would
fall into the arms of Ed. Shaw and other
negroes, was vociferously applauded by
the negroes present, whose imaginations
became in1lamed at the picture presented
by this disgraced congressman. The
Somervilie and Austin riots lin both of
which the negroes were at fault, have
added fuel to the flame. Everything