The Portland daily press., 1875-01-19
Our New York Letter.
Ronnd-Sheridan's and the Sub. Conn
nnittee's Report-efc., etc.
NEW YORK. Jan. 18. 1875

without being tempted to exclaim with Mer-
Quito "a plague O both your houses" As be-
tween McEnery and Kellogg there is little to
choose. They represent two selfish parties,
each striving to get control of the state, for
their own behoof and advantage. What they
say of each other may generally be accepted as
fact, and if both could be driven out of all partic'
ipation in state affairs it would be an infinite
gain to the peace and welfare of the unoffend-
ing and Industrious yeomanry whose ignorance
of the wiles of politicians makes them an easy
prey to an avaricious and designing minority.
We have heard from Sheridan and we have
heard from Foster, Phelps and Potter. Each of
these sources of information may be counted
reliable, in so far asthe intention and purpose
to represent the reality of the situation is con-
cerned. Whatever differences are manifest in
their respective recitals are easily explained.
Sheridan naturally consorted with original
Union men. He has been there before, and it
has always fallen in his way to be in official
antagonism TO the ex rebel element. He has
soldierly repugnance to consorting with men,
whose loyalty to the flag is equlvocal. So that
what he states about the insecurity of life and
property among the blacks, was elected by in
qury among a class of men, who have no affili-
atoms with the sort of people who had the
Congressional Committee in charge. In other
words they listeLed to entirely different wit
nesses, and as a matter of course, the sto-
ries they heard were correspondingly dissimi-
lar.
Sheridan's report has the merit of greater
conciseness and brevity. His principal aver
ment is corroborated by the record The terri
Bile crimes of numbering negroes admit of no
denial. The Democratic and anti-administra-
ton presses speak of these massacres with
jeeriDg flippancy that CRATES harshy upon gen.
erous ears. But the general, albeit used to the
carnage of war, and accustomed to scenes Of
sanguinary strife teaches lesson of humanity
in his "bandtti' dispatch which civilians may
study with profit. OF what possible moment is
it whether few pretended legislators were
shown the way out of a body in which they
had no right to sit, compared with whether
gangs of ruffians are prowling about in dark
ness and secrecy, laying waste the homes, and
destroying the lives of worthy people, who so
far from ever having given them the smallest
provocation for attack, have patiently BONE
hardships and spoliation all their lives? For
my part admire Sheridan more than ever for
his gallant championship of the poor defence
less race, to whose protection the national hon
or stands irrevocably pledged. 1t shows real
nobility of character. His action requires no
apology nor defence Applause, instant hearty
and enthusiastic should be accorded to him.
We needn't alarm ourselves about the suprem-
acy Of civil law. The people of America are
not such weak creatures, that they must be
perpetually ringing or listening to alarm bells
warning them that their personal rights are in
danger. But it is refreshing to have in the
second place in the army of the Republic
MAN who recognizes the claim of the lowest
citizen to pursue in unmolested security any
honest avocation in which necessity or incina-
ton may lead him to engage; who says in ef
feet, whoever molests such a citizen is an
outlaw, and if am instructed to treat him as
such 1 will soon make it safe for man with
black skin to live in the midst of his former
enslavers.
Now mark how this great essential question
Of justice aud philanthropy is dwarfed and OBJ
scured under a pile of rhetorical rubbish, about
federal interference, state sovereignty and all
that sort of stuff! We live under a constitution
and laws which every body accepts without res
ervation as the guide of governing and gov
erned. The experiment of trampling them un-
der foot has been tried on stupendous scale
failed ignominiousy-an is not likely to be at
tempted again. What we want now is a resto-
ration of the material elements which are in
dispensable to the prosperity of a nation. There
is neither time for nor need of the discussion of
abstract propositions. The black men of che
South must feel certain that they will reap the
fruits of their labor-shat they will be treated
exactly as other citizens are-that they are TO
have opportunities to progress-tEat the means
of educating their children shall be vouchsafed
to them, and then they will become not only
the most law abiding, but the most thrifty aud
valuable citizens of the fertile section whose
soil they are so competent to till, so certain to
make productive.
The Foster Committee fail altogether to
grasp the humanitarian side of the question.
They seem unconsciously to have fallen into
the popular error of treating only whites as the
people of Louisiana. On this assumption their
conclusions are comprehensive and if it were
well founded they would be correct. But on
the hypothesis that the blacks by reason of
their numerical superiority are entitled to gov
ern the state, it is not easy to subscribe to their
statements that there has been practically no
of the blacks, or that the NOvem-
Der election was ''ful, fair and free" OF course
they were told SO. The White Leaguers main |
tain that with entire unapimity. But then if |
we were to believe all or any considerable por-
ton of what they say, we should come TO the
conclusion that Louisiana was on the whole |
the most tranquil, PEACEFUL happy arcadia that |
had ever been inhabited by mortal man. But |
[ am so far sceptcal as to their absolute rela- |
blity, that | should want the evidence of |
who had been in the state more than |
eight days, and had gone at least few miles |
into the interior before should consider the |
case proved beyond dispute. There is reason |
enough NO doubt why the blacks should dis
trust the whites cf both parties. In too many |
Instances they have had to choose between the |
Republicans who would rob them, and the /!
Democrats who would kill them. Either al |
tentative was deplorable, but it is the instinct |
If human nature to feel deeper dread of an |
assassin than of thief, and that is why l |
think it would have been pretty hard work to
ret the Louisiana blacks to vote the Democrat |
C ticket by mere persuasion. Their citizenship |
S new thing to them; they have had small
opportunities to instruct themselves, but they
Ill know that the Republican party was the 1
party that prosecuted the war, .emancpated
and armed their race and amended the consti-
luton so as TO give them equality before the
aw. These are reasons why pretty much all
he colored voters in the southern states, if left
Tree to follow their natural bent, will be as they
have been, on the side of the Republicans,
Independently, however, of the minor ques-
ion whether McEnery or Kellogg has the
,est title to the governors chair, or neither of
hem any title at all, the Presidents attitude
S praiseworthy. He neither put in nor turned
,ut Governor but referred the whole subject
o Congress for its decision, treating the in I
umbent meanwhile as the de flcto executive.
t bewilderS the average Northern man to find
hat it takes sixty days or so to ascertain
which side polled the most votes in an aggre-
rate of 125. 600 or thareahouta That mart of