New Orleans Republican., 1875-09-08
THE MISSISSIPPI LESSON.

| tue Stale, anu VINO are Ill eNeIy way an.
in every place endeavoring to provoke
| conflict of races, should pause and con
slider what their madness is to cost and
how it will end. 1t can not be expected
that the colored man will always remair
content to- be target for white men tc
! shoot at; it will be too much to believe
| that the colored man-who tills the soil
who raises the crops; who is every day in
creasing in importance as citizen, ano
improving in education and intelligence
as man, and upon whose labor the pros
perity of the Southern States depends,
since the white men of the South, with
rare exceptions, will not work in the
felds--it will be too. much to be.
lieve that the colored' men, under such
circumstances, will always consider
it as a favor to be shot down
by white men. In the course Of
human events and reasoning, it must
be expected that some time the eolored
men will resist when too hardly perse-
cuted. A worm tranpled upon will turn
against its enemy in agony. How can the
White Line soldiers Of Mississippi expect
to always have the privilege of killing coll
ored men without incurring the risk Of
being killed themselves As the Repub-
licans will continue to hold public meet
ings in the coming campaign, believing in
their right to do SO, it will be interesting
to study the percentage of White Line
men killed when making their attacks, in
comparison with the colored men who are
to be attacked. When the White Liners
routed the fourth of July meeting at Vicks-
burg they had it all their own way, and
succeeded in killing three colored men
without suffering casualties in their own
ranks. They were nearly ts successful at
the attack on the Republican meeting of
Yazoo, and managed to assassinate white
Republican as lagniappe. At the Clinton
outrage, commenced by bottle of Demo-
cratic whisky in the hands Of Democratic
young man who insisted upon violating
the rules of the Republican meeting, and
pouring Democratic logic down his throat,
the White Liners suffered the loss OF three
of their braves killed, but had the salts
faction of slaughtering from ten to forty
negroes, according to the conflicting dis
patches. Wien the White Line reserves
came up on the special train from Vicks-
burg and jackson of course very many
more colored men would have been killed
if they had remained together listening to
Republican speeches. In considering the
damages to be done to the White Line
soldiers by the colored men in resisting
them, of course the advantages which
each party has must also be considered
1t is probable that the next time Repub-
hcans attempt to hold public meeting
in Mississippi the White Line officers will
have their reserves near. at hand, and
as soon as they make the attack will be
able to move up their forces and make
the slaughter complete; though some of
the colored men may escape, and some
may file upon their oppressors in the
confusion.
Tracing the unproyoked murders of col
ored men, from the Fort Pillow massacre
down to the campaign shooting of Missis-
sippi, it must be said that they have
shown remarkable patience and forbear-
ance while being killed. and the white
gunners have come to consider them easy
game. At the disturbance in New Or
leans, in 1866, only one white anti-Re-
publican was killed, and he was nom
combatant killed by accident; but in that
unequal contest thirty-four colored men
were killed outright and one hundred
and nineteen wounded, to say nothing Of
the killing and wounding of white Re-
publicans. At the Colfax slaughter about
seventy colored men were killed, the most
of whom had surrendered and abandoned
the arms used when they were first at
tackled.
The unequal contest in Mississippi can
not always go on, and result in battle
fields where the corpses left are to be Of
one color. If the White Line soldiers
desire to be of service to the State, they
will lay down their arms and hold the Off
GERS of the Law responsible for peace and
order and the good conduct of colored
men. As many stories of the causes of
riots may be told as there are riots
through all the campaign disturbances in
Mississippi must be seen the fact that the
meetings broken up are Republican meet
ings; no party disputes the rights of
Democrats to hold meetings and make
speeches, and they are not disturbed in
so doing; but whenever colored Repub-
licans are gathered together there are the
White.Liners also; and there Is shooting.
Is. there one decent man in the. Democratic
party who will stop and inquire what it is
all about and why such things are? Are
the issues now before the people of that
State worth the arming and transporting
Of White Line. soldiers from one place
to another, as we have seen done within a
week. Is the sending Of Mr.. Lamar back
to- Congress, and the election of Mr..
Granger Hemmingway to the Office of
State Treasurer, Of sufficient importance