The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-10-30
The South.
From the New York Bulletin. October a.

From the New York Bulletin. October 4.
While the government is gathering
its forces from ali parts of the country
to overawe the dissatisfied element at
the south, how few among US care to
candidly examine into the causes of the
discomfort 1t is easy, when the power
is at hand to put down lawless de-
monsiratiOns; but it is not always so
easy to swallow the bitter blame that
belongs to ourselves for the evils we seek
to repress The disorder prevailing in
Louisiana, and more or less In O,her
states, and the state of III feeling which
shoulders ready to break forth into
worse tumult than any thing we have yet
witnessed, are Dot due to mere wantOn
spirit Of mischief or love of disorder for
its own sake. This state of things ex~
presses the worn out patience of a high
spirited people, who, after being con-
quered, have been subjected to needless
humiliation and oppression. The naked
forms Of liberty have been granted to
them; but in truth they have been gov
erned by legislatures and by federal Of
fciaIs who have paid no respect to their
political prepOssesSiOns, and who have
degraded every form of office and of
A fter ten wears Of such treatment, quiet
" endured, they find nothing to encour>
age hope of early delivery. They are
overwhelmed with debt and taxation.
From sheer inability to pay their politi-
cal debts they are driven into the dis
grace Of reputation. Poverty stares
them 10 the face; their lands are depre-
ciating in value; they are losing the
g., IL q he
credit Of their merchar IS is declining;
and the capital which once couTted their
cities and plantations now shun them
The southern people can distin tly
point to a class of politicians who main
iy have caused this state of things. Ia
every county they know the men who
and ruin that has been brought upon
them. In most eases these men are in
terlOpers and adventurers, the political
scum Of other sections ; SO that they
feel they have been ruled and despoiled
by the stranger. Can one word of this
statement of their case be disputed If
not, is it a matter of surprise that they
are beginning TO lose patience and to
show keen resentment against those to
whom they owe so much of their mis-
other section who would endure such
wrongs more tamely? Have we any
right to expect an unstinted s.. omission
to such misrulo?
However necessary it may be for the
federal authority to step in and see that
the lust indignation Of the so1thern PEG.
pie does not find expression in bloody
revenge, vet all decent regard for the
II
us, requires thai we should not be found
efFectually backing the wrongs to which
the national power may compel the south
to temporarily submit. When the ma
tional constitution pledged the federal
arm for the suppression of internal dis
orders, it was not for the purpose of
nursing domestic expressions, and the
president in his dealings with these
things, as well as congress in the cog
nizance OF them, should let this be IN
1erstood most distinctly. There Is yet
chance for the south being kept togeth-
IT and for the prevention of its becoming
1 mere indolent African settlement
put the only way to effect such saliva
ion is by allowing political ascendancy
% the race which alone is competent to
govern it wisely.
w e make THIS aluslOn 20 question
largely political because upon its sOlu~
ion depends the commercial future of
The south Nothing is more certain
,ha \ that, if the former white popula>
lion Of the south be much longer de-
prived of the control of their interests,
they Will either migrate or sink into the
condition of the poor whites )" which
n cans the agricultural and commercial
ruin of the richest section OF our broad
land. This is, therefore, one of the
most urgent commercial questions of the
times.