Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1875-11-05
A Plea for Assassination.

The Shreveport Times of the 10th has a
leading editorial which coolly advises the
forcible overthrow of the negro vote In
Louisiana. IL is piece of satanic writing
as bold as any we have seen IN many a
day. 1t is seditious, brutal, disgraceful,
and illustrates the extent 20 which liberty
Of speech can be abused. Here are pro-
visions of the United States Constitution
assuring the political equality of every
citizen of the land. Those provisions are
theoretically accepted by all parties and
by all classes, including that for which
the Shreveport editor speaks. There are
none more ready than he to proclaim
their submission to and acquiescence in
the constitutional amendments; and yet,
in newspaper pretending to represent
the public sentiment of the Southern peo
pie, this man boldly proclaims the doctrine
of determination against a mdj0rity of the
people of Louisiana.
1.-THE sum and substance Of our side Of the ar
gument is he SAYS, " that the white people OF
Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina have
one OF two things 10 do. They must either assert
and establish their supremacy In their respective
States or abandon them to the negroes"
Now in each Of the States named the
colored race arc in large majority. How
docs the editor of the Shreveport Times
propose to establish "white supremacy"
He answers this himself, frankly, shame
lessly thus:
We must meet the Issue that Ia upon ms and we
must meet II honestly, squarely and courageously.
We must fight the devil With fire if we would whip
him. We must appeal to the higher law, as
the Felicianas have done.
How the Felicianas" appealed to the
"higher law" has been told in our dis
patches. They have brutally shot down
innocent colored men, driven the Judge
of the Circuit Court from his home, muir
dered the Sheriff and even imbued their
hands in the blood of innocent women to
carry out their designs. This is the
higher law' which the cowardly and
contemplate poltroon who edits the
Shreveport Times proposes to invoke, even
while proclaiming loudly that the South
amendments as a final settlement of the
status of the colored man. We tell this
man and the whole gang of cut-throats he
represents that they cannot begin their
work any too soon if y is to be begun at
all. If this issue is to be forced upon the
country, IL cannot come in o better time
than the present. We want next year to
decide whether the Government of the
country is TO be one that protects all its
citizens, without regard to color or
condition, or whether it is to be one
that stands by and indirectly assists in
crushing out one half of the population of
the South. We have been told time and
again that the Shreveport Times is not a
fair representative of Southern sentiment;
that it is controlled by acharacterless gang
Of men, without influence or standing
We have at times been disposed to accept
this explanation; but month after
month and year after year we have
seen its advice adopted by the white
people, while the pacific utterances
of newspapers of more pretensions have
been disregarded. Its promptings to muir
der have been followed, and they will be
followed again. In the light of such
demonstration it is idle 10 tell the people
of the North that such papers do not
speak the sentiments of those who control
Southern affairs. If it is otherwise, why
are not these shameful utterances publicly
denounced and such bushwhackers driven
from the cover Of their sanctums into an
open and fair fight with the people they
fear but pretend to dcspiseG Why are the
pledges OF peace and goodwill so glibly
pronounced by Lamar and others violated
again and again under the advice of such
paper as the Times without a protest
from their authors? We challenge the
world to produce a country so ripe in
treachery. so full of assassins, so big with
hypocrisy and broken promises as the
southern half of this Union And the
editor of a scraggy newspaper whose
chiet end in life seems TO be the degrada-
ton of an humble people whom he fears
will Outstrip him in the race of life talks
about the intelligence and culture of
Louisianians! Heaven save the mark!
And he is afraid the State will be " con
quered to barbarism" We submit that it
can be conquered to nothing that will not
be an improvement on its present stand
ing. To parody the famous sentence of
Nine. Roland, we may exclaim: so Civ
ilizationl What crimes have been commit.
ted in thy nameP'-Chicago Iater.0ceaa.