Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1874-12-18
THE VICKSBURG WAR.

had its origin In Radical mlsruie ana
usurpation. The statement of the
correspondent of the Associated Press
is fully corroborated by the st. Louis
Republican, as reliable a paper as
there is in the Union, and whose
sources are of the amplest and most
accurate character. In its Issue of
Saturday, the Republican says:
The facts are strikingly plain and
grim. Republican government at
Vicksburg has ripened into felony, and
the result is a revolution. Indict-
ments have been found, We are told,
against nearly ali the county officials,
the present Chancery Court Clerk and
his predecessor, and the present Cir
cult Clerk and his predecessor, for
forgery aud larceny. The papers that
we're thought to contain evidence of
their guilt were in possession of the
sheriff, and he, we are told, destroyed
them, or permitted them to be remov-
ed from his office. The sheriff is un-
der no bond, the supervisors having
neglected to exact it of him,
as they were in duty bound to do.
The discovery of these facts, together
with the reckless expenditures and
oppressive taxes levied to make them
good, so inflamed the people that q
mass meeting of citizens assembled to
demand the resignation of all the OBJ
noxious officials. The sheriff was
forced to resign at the command of
the revolutionary mob-for that is
precisely what it was-but the other
officials fled to escape its vengeance.
1t seems that the parish taxes are now
due, ard as the proper authorities
have failed to exact bond of the
sheriff TIE people are not willing to
pay money into his hands.
Commenting on what it justly char
acterises as the revolutionary proceed
ings of the tax payers of Vicksburg,
the Republican goes to tue causes
which have rendered such action not
only excusable. but necessary, laying
the blame where it justly belongs, On
the corrupt and vindictive partizan
Administration of Washington. The
editor continues:
We say that the action of these mass
meetings at Vicksburg and New Or
leans is revolutionary; but we would
like for some skilled champion of re-
publicanism to tell the people of these
cities what they are to do, or what the
people of Boston or Cincinnati or
Philadelphia would do under similar
circumstances. It is we'll enough to
proclaim the supremacy of law and
lawless and disorderly communities,
h. 60 &c IS rfo1, Il
situation must be recognized. When
ons, and authority resolves itself into
the clerks of the courts commit forgery
and larceny, and destroy the records
of their offices to escape detection, sub
mission is impossible. There is but
one remedy-the violent one of revo-
luton, or mobocracy, or whatever
similar form it may lakeland this the
people of "icksburg and New Orleans
have resorted to.
1t is the part of prudence to trace
troubles to their cause and apply the
remedy there, and not to the trouble
itself. What is the cause of the vio-
lence in Vicksburg and New Or
leans ? Is it lawless and disorder:y
spirit among the taxpayers We
assert it is not; their conduct, while
being revolutionary and lawless, has
been singularly methodical, calm
and moderate; indeed, it has been
exemplary. The people of St. Louis,
or of Chicago, could not and would
not have done less under the same
provocation. The real cause is to be
found at Washington City-in the
miserable Southern policy which the
President, the administration and
Congress have enforced for nine years
past. This policy has been revolu-
tionary; it has been policy of rob-
berry, fraud, blood and crime. In a
public sense, and to some extent, in a
personal sense, the felons and robbers
OF the South-Bullock, Whittemore,
Bowen, Moses, the indicted officials at
Vicksburg and New Orleans, and the
official criminals of Arkansas and Ala
bama, have been pets of the Presi-
dent and Congress, and in this fact Is
to be found the explanation Of the i'm
munity with which they have commit
ted their crimes. AS long as the gov
erning party at Washington sets de-
iberateiy to work to provoke revolu-
tions at the South, it is not surprising
that it should be successful; the only
unreasonable thing about it is that it
should complain of its success. If
it invests partisan ruffiars like
Durell, Busteed and Story with
the ermine, how can it expect
the people to do otherwise than des-
pise both the law and the Judge who
administers it :? IF it sends herd of
alien officials like Packard, Casey.
Seelye and Hodgson into Louisiana to
harass the people with an irresponsi-
ble proconsular system, and lend the
Federal power to corrupt sheriffs,
clerks and supervisors, it is itself the
real disturber of the country's peace,
and ought to be held responsible for
the disorders which it provokes. Who
can tell how much strife and suffering
might have been saved to Southern
society, and how much disqniet to the
nation, if the Federal power in the
Southern States had been entrusted to
discreet, upright and honest men p
That it has not been committed to
such men-that it has. on the contrary,
been entrusted to the very vilest mem
oers OF the Republican party, and that
no persuasion and appeals have in
duced the administration to cast off
these unworthy persons and put better
men In their places, is the cause of
the dlstempered condition in that re-
glon which constantly exhibits itself
In outbreaks and violence,