The New York herald., 1874-08-18
The Race Conflict in the South.

We print letter this morning from cor
respondent at Austin, Mississippi, which de-
tails the recent difficulty at that place and the
troubles which preceded it in other parts OF
the same section Of the country. The letter is
a clear and unimpassioned narrative Of the
white view Of the situation, and up to the
present time it is the best statement which has
been made of the race conflict in the South.
In order that this conflict may be still better
understood we append to the letter an article
in reply to the HERALD from the Columbus
miss. Inder, and another, of a different way Of
thinking, which we find in the Columbia(S. c.
Unioa-H Herald The letter and these newspaper
opinions give us very clear ground for form
ing an opinion of our own, and, after re-
viewing the whole situation. we see no
reason for changing our original view.
The more closely we examine the
question the more are we convinced
of the ihSignifcance Of the race issue.
The outbreaks> that have taken place SO far
were mere brawfs. The fight at Austin was
one that might have taken place anywhere
where the law is loosely administered -Innp
the law was not properly enforced with regard
to the bailing of Df. Smith we lave no doubt;
but the only moral that we can draw from the
whole case is that the negroes were unneces-
sarily incensed and the whites thoroughly
and almost ludicrously frightened. Ii was
the same kind Of trouble which might have
BEEN occasioned in Pennsylvania twenty years
ago, when Judge Black used to deal out very
stern justice to the negroes and comparatively
mild purishments to the whites for the same
grade of offences. Outside of this view Of the
case there was no race issue at Austin at all,
military company from Memphis was absurd.
Our correspondent letter clearly proves this,
and it shows that the previous troubles were
equally insignificant.
There is another view of this question, how
ever, which is of O much more serious charac-
ter. While it has been our object to discour-
age any race issue among the people of the
South, we are equally outspoken in our desire
to encourage honest government in the South
ern States. 1t is as much the interest Of the
negroes as of the whites to overturn many Of
the existing State governments But this
good result is to be obtained by discouraging
rather than fomen6ng race issues. The badex
scarcely does us justice in regard to our
treatment of Southern questions. This we
can afford to forgive however, for it is often
the case that local politicians overrate their
own and under estimate other peoples knowl-
edge Of affairs. For instance, there is
State in New England not much larger than
tenpenny nail where the people fondly believe
that their triplex politics can be understood
by no one except native. This seems to be
the trouble with the bader, but if
we are agreed not to quarrel with its opinion
of Tweed and Havemeyer, it certainly will
not be very much displeased with our views
of the Austin and other so-called race diff
culties in Mississippi. But we cannot accept
its dicta that the outbreaks and strifes of which
we have heard so much lately are really
''tokens of deeper trouble than any which
sends the combings of shallow waves to break
forth upon the HERALD's page" If the
whites are wise and considerate there will be
no social difficulties with the negroes of any
very great moment, whatever may be the po-
litical troubles in Mississippi and other
Southern States.