The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1875-02-04
From Harper's Weekly.l
President Grant and His Assailants.
BY EUGENE LAWRENCE.

| amidst q general clamOr OF rage anu ue-
spair from all the adherents of slavery
and rebellion, the patience and the cour-
age of Grant and Sheridan were steadily
sapping the last defenses of treason. No
pretext had been left untried, no threats
nor open defiance spared, to draw them
off from their approaching victory. The
opposition press teemed with calumny
and detraction, and opposition leaders
| encouraged resistance at Richmond, and
labored to stir up riot and disorder in
the North. There were great meetings
held to denounce General Grant, to cut
off the supplies of the army, to menace
the administration, and to shake the
credit of the nation. The most noted
Republican journal of New York, under
some occult influence, began to speak of
compromise even to the perpetuation of
slavery. There was doubt and even de-
spair in many timid but still patriotic
minds. Many noted opposition leaders
now in office plainly desired the success
of Davis, and the revival of that barbar-
Gus and cruel aristocracy which had
driven the Southern States into a ruinous
| rebellion. A secret association had been
formed, with agents in most of the North
ern cities, pledged to excite a counter
revolution, and resolute to bring fire and
the sword into the heart of New York or
Cincinnati. There were threats of assas-
sination, and men prepared for any des-
perate extremity. And the most bitter
and dangerous foes of Lincoln and Grant
were no longer the perishing and dis
heartened Confederates within the lines
of Richmond, but their active adherents
without, who labored to divert the nation
from the support of its armies in the field.
Yet one sure reliance General Grant
found never to fail him amidst the clamor
| +bo Inv of fhnnSon1 ascai1-
ants; the people felt that he was their
truest friend. They had watched his
conduct with appreciation; they gave
their treasures and their lives lavishly to
his support Richmond fell amidst the
acclamations of the working men of
Europe and America, the republic was
saved, and the progress of the New
World assured
Never was victory more generously
used, or fallen rebellion more tenderly
treated. To the generous but misguided
Lee and his soldiers the victors strove to
seem only brothers in arms. No punish
ment awaited the most active and guilty
insurgent; no painful retribution such as
| European governments are accustomed
to impose in similar events. The nation
/ turned at once to heal the woes of civil
war by an unbounded charity, to feed
| the starving South from its own dimin-
ished resources, to build up its cities, to
revive its trade, renew its productiveness,
! and to forget that momentary strife
| had divided those who were still the
members of common family of freemen.
Nor has this liberal and natural policy
ever been departed from through the
brief period that has fed so rapidly by
since Richmond fell and Grant restored
the vigor of the republic There has
been a constant effort on the part of the
general government to win the rebeIlious
district to a better spirit by forbearance
and almost excessive moderation. 1t has
looked on patiently while a violent and
mischievous minority in almost every
| Southern State has violated all the duties
of good citizenship, and driven away
knowledge, progress. and reform; it has
| been forced to see without redress the
rights and lives of its supporters placed
in peril from the Ohio to the Gulf; it has
watched silently while "banditti" no
name can be more appropriate to such
| deeds and such men-and troops of as
sassins for nearly ten years have covered
| Kentucky and Tennessee with deeds of
violence, established a pure Tyranny in
Georgia, and filled Louisiana with sue
cession of horrors. In the latter State
only has the government interfered, be-
cause there the rebels chose to raise the
| Qu0SGlOll Vi IuS IlSuG VI Gn0 udblOu 70
! interfere, and have made the case of Lou
isiana a test case for all the Southern
States. For the points involved in this
matter are exactly those that were sup
| posed to have been decided at Richmond
| Portions Of the State, as General Sheri-
dan plainly shows, have fallen into the
hands of real 'banditti." The ruffians of
| Shreveport seek to control the govern
ment. The Shreveport Times inspires
| their movements, and if the national arm
was withdrawn, Louisiana would be an
independent community ruled by the
murderers of. Coushatta or Grant Parish
In other words, the question raised in
louisiana is whether band of rioters
may seize upon a State government by
violence and intimidation, and defy the
United States officers when they insist
upon obedience to the law.
"Perfdy and cruelty" says great his
torian, "are the distinguishing traits of
barbarous race" OF the cruelty of the
dangerous classes at the South the last
ten years have given fearful proofs; of
their perfdy it should be the first aim of
sensible men to beware. They profess to
obey the national government, but who
can trust the professions of those to
whom murder is a common pastime, and
obedience to the law unknown? 1t is |
the eXtravagant error of some of our |
Northern contemporaries to look upon
the less civilized Southern States as COM |
munities resembling our own, and capa- |
BILE of being governed with equal mild |
ness; those who have examined the real !
condition of Louisiana or Georgia know
that it resembles rather society as it may |
have existed five hundred years ago in |
England, or it lives to-day in portions |
of Italy and Spain. That sacredness of !
human life which has ever been the chief |
mark of advancing civilization is nowhere |
to be found in lands where slavery has |
corrupted the people, and it will be many
years before education and the force of
public opinion shall have wholly eradi- |
Gated from the South its dangerous class |
A reluctant witness, one of the CORES |
pondents of the New York Times, writing
from Columbus, Georgia, confirms at last |
what has been stated in these articles of
the painful condition of Southern society, |
and says, "In Georgia and Alabama, at
least in that section bordering on the
Chattahoochee River it is not usual to
keep a white murderer in jail" He adds
that within the past eighteen months
! fourteen white men had been murdered
in the neighborhood of Columbus alone.
The murderers were at once released on
| bail, were received as usual in society,"
and all escaped punishment through the
| influence of family connections or the
venality of the courts. But if the muir
der of white men is looked upon as so
venial an otfense in these lawless dis
tricts it is easy to conceive that the tor
lures and death of a multitude of harm