New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-09-12
The Condition of &he sout11s

The Democratic papers, especially fhSAe
of the ''Liberap' branch OF thepartys have
represented tho reports OF Southern puts
RACES as the invention Of the Republicans
for political etfects The frequency and atrocs
itT of the late crimes have SO disturbed that
theory that it has been nearly abandoned
Some mild suggestions have been made that
the Republicans have themselves perpee
trated the crimes of which they make COM
plant, their purpose being to charge them
on the innocent Democrats. But this theory
was found as little acceptable as the other,
and the plain fact, whether admitted or not,
stands out for everybody to see. that these
outrages are perpetrated with the purpose
OF driving from the South the white Repubo
licans who can go, and of frightening from
the polls the negroes VINO have nOt the
means Of leaving. These crimes have no
better apology than political expediencyo
They are deliberate murders, perpetrated to
keep people from exercising the righs Of
voting; they are done to keep one man from
being Governor ard to elect another. TO
keep one man out of Congress and to put
another man In So much crime for such
cold biooded purposes was never before
committed under representative lnstlt't
lions.
1t the negroes are unfit to share in Che
political power, what shall We say Of the
men who preserve political power by such
means, who offer such illustration of their
fitness to govern the country? What sort OF
society will prevail in the South II these
men are permitted to have their own way.
if, in the words Of the old rebellion, they
are "let alonel" And how this illustration
of their ideas Of government vindicates the
interposition Of Congress for the protection
of those whom the result Of the rebellion
had emancipated. What sort of o rule
would exist there, if there was no restraint
on these men! And there can be NO restaint
except by the power Of the general govern.
ment. They, are the governing class at
home, they have the material power and
they have public opinion. Or rather they
overawe what there is of civilized public
| opinion, Just as the same class of men did
| in the beginning Of the rebellion. 1t is the
same thing over again. Not State in the
| Union. not even South Carolina, would
have passed an ordinance of secession, if
the people could have been left free to
| vote as they pleased. But they were not
| violence. as they are overawed now.
The Ku-Klux, the masked murderers,
who burn negro and hang carpet Dagger
TODAY. will have precisely the same me-
thod for q native Southerner tomorrow if
he dares to vote the Republican ticket. if,
then, the negroes are unit to govern IN the
South, who is fit to govern! Are ignorant
men, who will do as well as they can, less
fit than intelligent men who 60 out with
masks on their faces and reviewers IN their
hands to shoot their political opponents
Or are those men fit to govern who, through
weakness or cOwardice or inability, yield
INCREASINGLY to such proceedingsl Is it a
| fit rule where crime goes unpunsneu ana
unGuestioned, where the nominal law ls
powerless before organized ruffianism! 1t
is much easier to say what shall not De
done than to say what shall be done, and
how to do it. But this the men who are
attempting to wade to power through
blood, to administer law with the bowie
| knife and the revolver, may as well under
stand-that they will not be permitted to
defy the laws Of Congress and the authori-
| ty Of the federal government.
The people Of this country did not fight
the battles of the Union for the fun of it.
They intended practical result, and they
do not mean to have q Ku-Klux govern
ment in any part of it; they mean that the
people of any State shall 60 into any other
State, to remain there peaceably, shall vote
for whom they please. and enjoy all the
rights and privileges which the constitution
and the law give them. They mean that
the perpetrators of these crimes shall be
brought to Justice. They mean that man
who commits murder shall be hanged for
If, although the victim be . negro or q
carpet Dagger. They mean that law and
order and Justice shall prevail from the
Potomac to the Rio Grande. just how they
will accomplish this it is not possible to
say, but that they mean to do 1t, and that
they will do it, is quite Is certain az that
Lee surrendered at Appomattox and that
JEFF Davis ran away in w0man's Clothes
Providence Journal.