The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-09-08
nissi.sippl and Georgia.

| is no doubt at all that the great mass OF the
Mississippi whites are honest, law-abiding
citizens; but there is no doubt either that
they have among them considerable num-
Der of staggering, whiskey- drinking, pistol
shooting DULLES, and that they give to this
rufianly class great deal too much license.
Take as case in point the Clinton affair
last Saturday.
The colored people at Clinton held barbe-
cue on that day, and there being large
assembly they very wisely prohibited the
sale and use of liquor on the grounds. They
showed, as everybody must acknowledge, q
fine sense of propriety in this regulation,
which one might be surprised to find among
people so recently enslaved, and still SO
generally ignorant. They had also, it seems,
officers on the ground to maintain order and
see that the regulations of the day were OBJ
served. All this is very creditable to the
colored people and the day appears to have
gone on quietly, as was to be expected under
the circumstances, until some of the so-called
superior race" came, unlimited, upon the
ground, and, being ruffians-or gentlemen"
as in our despatch they are called-at once
/
colored man, told the gentleman" to put
away his bottle of whiskey, which he was
hourishing around in the manner of one of
the superior race" in those parts; and when
the Marshal attempted to take the bottle of
whiskey away he was struck over the head
with it. Thereupon a colored State Senator
came forward to restore order. The demo-
cratic account says that he was followed by
twenty indignant negroes, whom however,
he ordered back; but crowd quickly gath
cred, into which Sively, the white black
guard, who had just broken his whiskey
bottle over the colored Marshals head,
proceeded to fire all the shots in his re-
volver; and this pleasantly over, we read,
'the gentleman surrendered and immedl-
| ately had his brains knocked out" thus rid
ding the State of Mississippi of at least one
of a too numerous class of white ruffians,
whose impudent lawlessness does more to
keep wealth and population out of that State
than all her good citizens can do to
bring them in. There followed a general
battle, in which, we are glad to notice,
whites as we'll as blacks were killed and
after more or less promiscuous shooting dur
ing Saturday night and Sunday, done, so far
as we have any accounts, altogether by the
superior race" quiet was restored. But
not until the white people of Clinton had
used the occasion to ''organize for self-pro-
lection and send to Vicksburg for reinforce
ments-an absurdity which reminds us of
the early days of the late war-when, no
sooner did the enemy run away, than the
victorious party began to intrench itself and
send word home that everybody was now
safe.
Unfortunately for Mississippi this is not
an isolated case of unprovoked outrage upon
colored people within few months. On the
Fourth of July, when the blacks of Vicks-
burg met quietly in the Court House to cele-
brate the day, few white ruffians intruded
on the meeting, and after insulting and noisy
demeanor, began to shoot right and left and
broke up the assemblage. There was not the
least excuse for this but we do not remem-
Der that any one was punished for it, though
the men were very well known. Within the
last month there have been several little
"scrimmages" between whites and blacks in
the State showing good deal of bad blood
and readiness on the part of the superior
race" to shoot the inferior on very slight
provocation, or none at all.
Now, we beg the good people of Missis-
sippi to compare this condition of affairs in
their State with the recent conduct of their
neighbors in Georgia, under what was to
hundreds of them a very real provocation to
bloodshed and abuse of the blacks. Nothing
is more natural and almost inevitable, wher-
ever two races occupy the same territory,
than that rumors of conspiracy and intended
instruction by the lower and more ignorant
should arouse the higher race to a relentless
fury which exhibits itself in unreasoning
bloodshed and murder. This has been
common incident in other countries than our
own, and with us the Coushatta massacre is
a notable instance in point But in Georgia
the people of the counties in which negro
instruction was apprehended conducted
! themselves with remarkable calmness the
Governor promptly took the whole affair in
his own charge; all attempts at lawlessness
and abuse of negroes were put down, and the
courts proceeded with conspicuous impair
TALLY to investigate the matter.
The reason for this difference is that in
/ Georgia the substantial, law-abiding citizens
appear to have assumed and kept the control
of affairs in their own hands. In Mississippi
these sit still and suffer the lawless class to
do its murderous will. Public opinion SUI
pinely tolerates these outrages on the weak
and the unofTending.
That is bad thing just now in several
ways. In the first place, it is easy to see
that such brutality as this Clinton out
rage is Of the greatest use to Northern
demagogues who want to "hoist the bloody
shirt" The white people Of Mississippi
ought to understand that the Northern peo-