The Leavenworth weekly times. [volume] (Leavenworth, Kan.) 1870-1880, 1875-01-21
Taeeklp Gimes
THURSDAY, JANUARY q, 1875.
: The Woes Of Eixie-Who is to Blame

A disposition is manifested in certain
quarte-s to hold the administration, or Con-
gress, or the party in power, responsible for
things that occur or exist quite indepen-
IDENTIFY of parties, Congresses or Presidents.
For instance, il a gang of desperadoes in
Louisiana, Mississippi or Tennessee, arm
themselves with shot-guns, rifles and pis-
tols, and 60 cunning for niggers, these BIZ
assed partisan critics instantly charge all
the blame upon The wicked radicals" who
enfranchised the "nigger," and the detesta-
Bile carpet-bagger who induces the niger TO
vote for him. Ii the chivalric Southerners
organize armies, drill in secret, provide
themselves with all the engines of war,
and, when all is ready, deliver battle and
force county, municipal and State officers to
abdicate, and if the President in response
TO a requisition duly made, sends troops to
disperse the insurgents, these irrational
critics hasten to denounce the President as
despot, and the troops as a bloodthirsty
gang, deiishting in nothing 70 much as 'in-
timidating" Southern white men. OF
course thee white men are in no wise re-
sponsible for their acts, and wonld not be if
ery white man who declines to vote the
White League ticket They are long-suf-
fering innocen,s, driven to desperation BY
series of intolerable wrongs and entitled to
the sympathy Of everybody who doesn't
happen TO lie exactly Of the Southern per
suasion. |
Now, unquestionably there are some very
rascally carpet-baggers in the South. I'm |
questionably the fruits Of unlimited suffrage
are not altogether sweet But everybody |
who knows anything about the Southern |
character everybody ought to know |
something about it by this time-knows that |
the blame does not attach to the negro, the |
carpet-bagger, the Republican party, and |
the President, more than TO those worthless /
who fought for four years, with a courage i
iegotten of gunpowder and whisky, to es-
tablish a slave empire ON this continent.
The gentlemen who, before the war had a
summary way of disposins of Northern men
who went among them and were suspected
OF differing from them in political senti-
ment were not transformed into lambs by
the emancipation and enfranchisemeht OF
the negro. They are substantially the same
as they were dozen years ago and more,
which is equivalent 10 saying that they have
yet TO learn the meaning of freedom and
justice and tolerance. Such is the testimony
borne by Mr. w. Stanly in the Times of yes
terday morning, and such, doubtless would
be the testimony Of nine out of every ten
Northern men who, like Mr.. Stanly, have
attempted since the war TO earn a living in
the Southern States, and who, like him,
have not been willing TO surrender their
freedom Of thought and action for the pri-
vilege OF occupying the same meek of woods"
with the chivalry.
1t was not to be expected that everything
would move on smoothly and harmoniously
in the Southern States after the war, and
especially after emancipation. On the one
hand il was not 10 be expected that the
blacks-savages civilized only by the lash,
and kept in state of helpless ignorance
during their long bondage-would be trans
formed instantly into good citizens of free
State by a simple decree of emancipation. |
1t was natural that they should regard their
former masters as their enemies, especially
in view OF the "labor laws" enacted by
Southern white mems legislatures under
the regime Of Andrew johnson. 1t was
equally natural that they should regard
their emancipators as their friends, and
vote In droves for the representatives of the
party to which they were mainly indebted
for their freedom and enfranchisement.
without stopping to weigh very nicely the
virtues OF particular candidates. 1t is not
therefore, that in some localities
the misrule of tyrants has been replaced
by the misrule of Adventures and rascals.
On the other hand, it was not to be ex-
pected that the whites, snarting under de-
feat, cherishing no very friendly sentiments
toward the Union, enraged at emancipation,
by which they thought themselves robbed
Of at least 81 ,0O0,0O0 900 worth Of prop
erty, hating the negro as a freeman, and
still more as political equal, and trained
in the school of slavery TO indulge rather
than govern their passion-it was not to be
expected that such men would instantly
conform to the new order of things On
the contrary it was to be expected that
they would cherish resentments, and assert
violently the authority they had
been accustomed TO exercise.
Either serious disorder, or rank and re- ,
Voting injustice, or both, was inevitable at
the South after the war. There was no .
party, no craftsmanship, no wisdom in the
that could have prevented one or
the other or both Of these things. There is no
party, no craftsmanship, no wisdom in the ,
country to-day that is able to cure the evils
from which the Southern States suffer.
DouToon stateinansnip WouiQ conduct
the South from one bad extreme to another
as bad or worse. The most it can do is to
white despotism for black ignor- ,
ance and carpet-bag rascality. None but
a narrow and bigoted partisan will ascribe
everything that goes wrong to Grant, or
Congress, or the Radicals. Those on the
one hand who complain of misrule and ras-
rality, and those on the other who COM
plain of violence and intolerance, have
their quarrel not 40 much with a political
party or political system as with human
nature. They will never succeed in rene
dying existing evils by a change of politi-
cal policy. A cure can only be effected By
lifting one race out of barbarism, and
another which has been
out of shape by the institution of
slavery; and that cannot he done in day,
Or year, or a decade.-Chioago Times.