The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1875-04-13


The Mrs-oovKRNMENr IN.rHE .SourH.:.,. :.
The New York Herald, of the 9th, prints
the first Of series of letters on the COM
dition Of the Southern States from Mr.,
Nordhoff, we'll and favorably known as
an accurate and trustworthS Observer,
and the author Of some admirabla books
of travel, and 80, 8: ,s'
importance to the North, and is at last
generally felt to be so. We cannot at
tain sound or lnsting prosperity,,while
great pnrt of the Union suffers, from
whatever cause. For long time, it has
been the fashion to assert that the South
ern disease was curablc only by bayo-
nets; but it begins to be suspected Mt
last that the bayonet is not good medi-
cine, that force bills nre not curative
agents, and that, as Speaker Blnine
wisely snid in Washington, it is not the
disease but the doctors TINT we ought to
examine, and that it is not the illness
but the medicine that does the HARM
MIR. Nordhoff $ account of the plundering
of Arkansas is certainly astounding. 1t
is impossible, and We hope always will
Le so, that nny part of the American
people should rest contentedly under
VIC iuiC VI poOiiC No DOlu
md 30 merciless as these in Arkansas
appear to have been. The ,public hns
here statement of facts not generally
known before, which put even the acts
of the Tweed ring in tho shade. It is
not q pleasant thing to remember thnt
the Presidents power was put forth
energetically to sustain the men who
were engaged in this act of spolintion.
1t will be seen that in his next letter our
correspondent promises to show by what
means these men preserved their as
cendnncy during six long years.
The country needs to know the truth
about the South, and we have instructed
our correspondent to tell it fearlessly. If
anywhere in the South there is lawless-
ness, violence, interference with the
rights of black men or white he is in
structed to point it out. If anywhere,
as in Arkansas, bad men have mis-go-
verned, robbed and oppressed, we de-
mand to know that. 1t is not to be
tolerated that anywhere in the country,
citizens, white or black, shall he de-
prived of their just rights. The South
ern people should know TINT the North
wants only justice; but it will have that
at all hazards. 1t is the duty of nll
Southern men, their most important
duty, to put down with O stern hand
and by NIL lawful means, every attcmp pit at
oppression or injustice and to maintain
the peace in their States. If they cannot
or will not do that, then the North will
require that the Federal power shall do
it for them. On the other hand, we
assure them that now, far more than
ever before, the eyes of the North
are fixed on the abuses practioed in
Southern States by the agents of recon
struction, and nothing is more certain
than that the North viii insist hereafter
that these abuses shall Be remedied; that
plunderers shall not have the support or
countenance of the Federal power; and
that mal-administration, so fnr as the
Federal agents are concerned, shall cease
But all must be done in peaceable man.
ner. We must adhere to lawful methods
Violence and lnwlessness cannot be tole-
rated, even to remedy the gravest abuses
The peaceable and orderly attitude of
New Orleans, under the acts Of last win
ter, did moro to make the people of the
North feel kindly toward the South, and
to direct their attention to the abuses in
the Southern States, thnn anything TINT
has happened since 1861. We urge,
earnestly, upon all Southern citizens
their solemn duty to preserve the peace,
and to prove to the nation, by patience
under abuses and mal-administration
by preserving order md restraining and
putting down violence, that they are, as
we believe them to be, capable of self
grave duties.