The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-04-09
The mIsgOvsrnmsnt in the south.

The MfsEovernment In the South'
We print this morning the first of series
of letters on the condition OF the Southern
States from Mr.. Nordhof well and favorably
known as an accurate and trustworthy OBJ
server and the author Of some admirable books
of travel
The condition of the South is of vital i'm
portance to the North. and is at last generally
felt to be So We cannot attain o sound or last
ing prosperity while great part OF the Union
suffers, from whatever cause. For long
time it has been the fashion to assert that the
Southern disease was durable only by bayo-
nets; but it begins to be suspected at last that
the bayonet is not good medicine, that Force
bills are not curative agents, and that, as
Speaker Blaine wisely said in Washington,
it is not the disease but the doctors that we
ought to examine, and that it is not the i'll
ness but the medicine that does the harm
Mr.. Nordhof's account of the plundering
of Arkansas is certainly astounding. 1t is
impossible, and we hope always will be so,
that any part OF the American people should
rest contentedly under the rule OF public
plunderers SO bold and SO merciless as these
in Arkansas appear to have been. The public
has here a statement of facts not generally
known before, which put even the acts of the
Tweed Ring in the shade. 1t is not pleas
ant thing to remember that the Presidents
power was put forth energetically to sustain
the men who were engaged in this act OF
spoliation. 1t VIII be seen that in his next
letter our correspondent promises to show by
what means these men preserved their as
cendancy during six long years.
The country needs to know the truth about
the South, and we have instructed our CORE
spondent to tell it fearlessly. If anywhere in
the South there is lawlessness, violence, inter
ference with the rights of black men or white,
he is instructed to point it out. If anywhere,
as in Arkansas, bad men have misgoverned,
robbed and oppressed, we demand to know
that It is not to be tolerated that anywhere
in the country, citizens, white or black, shall
be deprived of their just rights. The Southern
people should know that the North wants
only justice; but it will have that at oil
hazards. 1t is the duty of all Southern men,
their most important duty, to put down with
stern hand, and by all lawful means, every
attempt at oppression or injustice and to
maintain the peace in their States. If they
cannot or will not do that then the North
will require that the federal power shall do it
for them.
On the other hand, we assure them that
now, far more than ever before, the eyes Of
the North are fixed on the abuses practised in
Southern States by the agents Of RECONSTRUCT
ton, and nothing is more certain than that
the North will insist hereafter that these
abuses shall be remedied, that plunderers
shall not have the support or countenance of
the federal power, and that maladministra-
ton, so far as the federal agents are con-
cerned, shall cease.
But all must be done in peaceable man
ner. We must adhere to lawful methods
Violence and lawlessness cannot be tolerated,
even to remedy the gravest abuses The
peaceable and orderly attitude Of New Or
leans, under the acts Of last winter, did more
to make the people Of the North feel kindly
toward the South and to direct their attention
to the abuses in the Southern States than any
thing that has happened since 1861. We urge
earnestly upon all Southern citizens their sol
emn duty to preserve the peace, and to prove
to the nation, by patience under abuses and
maladministration, by preserving order and
restraining and putting down violence, that
they are, as we believe them to be, capable Of
self-government and fit to be trusted with its
grave duties.