Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-09-07
TROUBLES IN MISSISSIPPI.

Oiled IN nloo1ooA1A
1t is evidently the determination Of the
Radical leaders in Mississippi to create
disturbances and provoke bloodshed to
the end that Grant may send Phil Sheri-
dan or some such commander to run
over the white people and declare that
another rebellion has been suppressed.
The Northern heart is not SO easily fired
as formerly and it will require the death
of many a deluded Republican voter
and q sprinkle of whites to justify q mil
itary interference before the public. The
taxpayers have been robbed for years
until they have become desperate aud
are determined to make such an effort as
never before to redeem their State from
ignorance and scalawags. The negroes
are we'll drilled in the part they are to
enact in this bloody drama. The prom
Use of two mules and forty acres of land
is still potent, and the hope that booty
and beauty" will be at their disposal
fires their brutal natures. The people
are united and perhaps as near ready
for such an issue as ever they will be.
Riots are Of daily occurrence, the me-
groes always the sggressors, always
greatly in the majority, and invariably
get the worst OF the conflict in the end.
The last and perhaps most brutal out
rage occurred at Clinton last Saturday.
There was a negro gathering twelve hun
bred strong; fifty white men were present.
One of them stepped aside to take a
drink Of whisky from his own bottle.
The marshal forbid him taking the
drink, as it was against the rules, and
knocked the bottle out Of his hands. A
struggle ensued, of course, and the
whole pack set on the white men. Three
white men were killed, two mortally
wounded and several others slightly.
The whites, although overwhelmed by
numbers, showed their superiority in
pluck and skill by killing ten or twelve
negroes and ~wounding as many more.
Two of the white men killed we're
horribly mutilated by the crowd, and
their heads beaten into jelly with fence
rails. The Young man Severly, who had
the bottle, finally surrendered and gave
up his pistol, when the negroes shot him
and stripped his body of clothing and
cut of a finger in order to get his rings.
Another man wa shot and killed in his
yard in the presence Of his family, and
a young lawyer was shot a mile and a
half from the scene of the conflict and
his body stuck full of knives. A train
was fred into that night and a rule of
terror prevailed. 1t seems that the pro.
gress made by the negro. race in such
States as Mississippi, where they are in
the ascendency, is mostly in a develop
ment Of brutal instincts. They are well
nigh as ferocious as when first capturedin
their native jungles for the New England
slave market. The people Of Clinton
very promptly organized, and in q few
hours reinforcements went to their aid
from Jackson and Vicksburg. 1t was
the train from Jackson, carrying rein
forcements, that encountered obstruc-
tons on the track and was fred into.
The blacks took to the bush, as usual,
while their leaders escaped to jackson,
where they will find a refuge from
j~ustice. Their frequent outbreaks
show q deep-seated purpose on
the part Of Radical leaders, and re-
Veals the savage nature of the untu-
tored and superstitious blacks. The
white people of Mississippi may as well
organize and keep their powder dry.
Whenever they assert their rights and at.
tempt to defend their property and FIRE.
sides they will have need Of all their
means of defense. They have under
taken what seems like an unequal con-
test, and these butcheries is the answer
of the Radical party which looks to
Washington for countenance and sup
port. Whether the central government
will take sides when Kukluxism runs
riot and unrebuked in Illinois and In.
diana and whole districts in Pennsylva.
MIA have been for months in the
possession of the Molly Maguires,
remains to be seen. We are
inclined to think that the powers that
be are more interested in the Ohio than
in the Mississippi contest. Loss Of life
is lightly esteemed so the election can be
carried and capital manufactured for the
third farm namnaton