New-York tribune., 1875-09-01

ventlOD OF Few fOOllSn uarkleS WIN h"u ho
grievances to complain of, and mo distinct
plans to compass, except perhaps the election
of military general" for parade purposes,
and the purchase of drum to carry ut the
head of their professions. And yet in attain
ing this comparatively modest ambition they
were ready, if their own confessions are to be
believed, to advise wholesale pillaSe and
slaughter, with vague idea that somebody
they did not know whO-was keeping them out
of certain of their rights-they did not know
what. For it is a curious fact that while the
ultimate purpose of the plot was so trivial the
measures to be adopted to secure its success
were violent in the extreme.
Just how much the original handful of half
witted cOnspirators meant to do is by no
means certain but it was probably not the
tenth'part of what their followers imagined.
The thick headed field hands who heard the
prOclamatiOns of General Morris" and the calls
to meetings and conventions read out IN their
churches, got the idea somehow that they
were bound to "Obey ORDERS" and II they
stood by their color and insisted upon their
rights, the time was close at hand when they
would get the lOng-prOmised boon of the
freedman-forty acres and a mule. The story
told so many years ago that the Southern
negro generally expected this allowance as the
natural consequence of emancipation was not
fiction The Alabama investigation last year
showed the same rosy expectation subsstlng
in that State and the developments OF to-day
prove that it still survives in Georgia. IL the
whites resisted the appropriation of their prop
| erty, it might become necessary to kill them
in obedience to orders but that Georgia was
ever very near the brink of actual massacre
we must take leave to doubt.
The "great insurrection " however has done
good by the strong light It has thrown upon
the condition of the two races in this part OF
the South If there was disposition any
where to harass and Opprcss the negro we
might have looked for it here. The political
power is all in the hands of the whites, but
the colored people are so numerous as to be a
perpetual menace to the white supremacy
lust the situation of things to stimulate
Ku-Klux violence and make it tolerably
safe and easy. Yet VIC find the ex-
master and the ex-slave living together
in peace. The ruling race is just; the sub
ject race is generally happy and contented.
Even when a crack-brained conspiracy has
been discovered, the white man, born in the
fear of negro instructions, does not rush for
his gun and revolver but merely calls out the
constable, and insists that the accused shall
have perfectly fair trial. There is not even
| an attempt to make political capital out OF an
affair which does really illustrate some OF the
worst mischiefs INTO which the carpet-bag
system of managing the negroes by extrava-
CANT promises and secret organizations has led
| n,,l nt tn
had occurred during the memorable "outrage
campaign" we doubt whether the Depart
ment of Justice would have allowed the
occasion to pass without the intervention OF
the troops But it ought to be plain now that
the Southern people have respect for law and
ORDER and are capable of behaving admirably
under the strongest prOvOcaton, and the les
son will not be lost upon the country.