Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-09-03
Democratic and Conservative Party.
For Governor.
JAMES D. PORTER, of Henry County.
rHE Duty oF THE HOUR.


The Congressional Convention which
met yesterday at GAINESVILLE denounced
Ithe outrages in Gibson county, and SO
has every meeting Of political char
acter which has assembled in the State
since those outrsges were committed.
The entire press of the State, without ?.
solitary exception, have united IN de-
nouncing mob law and violence. The
Governor has issued strong prociama-
ton on the subject, and the whole peo-
ple seem to feel aggrieved and deeply
indignant that such occurrences should
disgrace the State. Such is the popular
feeling from one end of the State to the
other. Yet the Northern Radical press
take pains to conceal this fact and to
make the impression that the people OF
the entire State are lawless; that
they approved those outrages re-
Gently, and that life and property are
insecure here. A falsehood answers their
purposes as well as the truth would and
travels the world over uncontradicted.
These papers assume to know all about
our affairs down here. They interpret
events to suit themselves, appeal to old
prejudices and look on the Gibson
county murders as a god.send to save
their corrupt party from falling to pieces.
This affair attracts attention from all
their internal dissensions and gives them
the capital they so much needed for the
fall campaign. The passage of the civil
rights bill has been urged from calcula-
ting, cold. blooded standpoint, not to
benefit the negro in the least, but
to antagonize the two races in
the South and create disturbance
in a few localities, which could be
used as evidence that spirit of rebel
lion still exists, requiring harsh meas
ures and strong centralized govern
ment. Their fondest hopes have been
realized without the passage of the bill
and it seems altogether likely that if the
President were to convene Congress in
extra session at present, the bill would
speedily become law, and then our
real troubles would begin sure enough.
The people of the North never see our
papers, and what information they get
from their own papers is colored to suit
the prejudices Of that section and party
necessities. The South to-day is almost
as isolated from the world, except
through: mere commercial transac-
tons, as during the war. We may de-
nounce mob law as much as we please;
it is hardly known in the North, and our
sincerity will be questioned so long as
the perpetrators go unwbipt of justice.
Our only recourse is in the speedy pun.
ishment Of the offenders. Let the
wretches who killed Julia Hayden, the
colored school-teacher, be hunted down,
tried and hung. Let the Governor, if
necessary, summon a thousand men to
apprehend the ringleajers Of mobs in
any county, and let the majesty Of the
law be indicated by their speedy pun
ishment, and we may expect TO counter
act the evil influences which have been at
work, and to redeem our fair fame. Let
this be the answer to the aspersions cast
upon Tennessee from thousand presses
in the land, and to be taken up on every
Northern stump, and it will silence our
bitterest enemies as well as subserve the
ends Of justice and public safety.