National Republican., 1875-07-24

may require, as we said before, great ex-
ertion 10 forgive him for his te mporary po-
lificsl alteration, he has it in his power to
command that exertion, and as the Repub-
can leader in the next (Democratic) House
we sincerely hope he will see ft to exercise
it. No one will rejoice more than wef~dn
to record the fact, but, as truly independent
journalists, if he does not prove true to his
record, we will not hesitate to do "no spe-
cial good to the party" as the Gazette char
acterizes II, by "berating" him again. Par.
ties and party principles can only be pre-
served by this kind of independence, and
as soon as the Gazette learns that party
leaders are not infallible 1t will acknowl-
edge the good effect of rendering to them
occasionally little wholesome advice.
NoRDHoFF TELLING TIE TRUTH AGAIN.
The Democratic faith in Charles Nord-
hoff may be ftly described as ''the substance
of things hoped for" and expectations that
In his letters from the South he would give
'fhe evidence of things not seen." He did
not disappoint them at first, but latterly,
since our repeated exposures Of his attempts
to misrepresent the true condition of affairs.
he has given abundant proof Of the cruel
disregard of human liberty In the: South on
the part Of even the better classes Of the
whites when the rights Of black person
are involved. In this new departure of
his-a departure from falsehood to truth
his Democratic friends and admirers take
no interest whatever. For example, none
Of them have reproduced the following ex.
tract from one Of his Mississippi letters;
nHere is another incident Of Mississippi life.
About four weeks ago q mulAtto girl, aged 10,
who had been living for some time as servant
IN the house Of farmer, two and half miles
from Verona, In Lee county len her service and
went 10 Verona, where she became house ser
want, In order 10 attend an evening school. She
had been st her new place swesk, when one
day the farmer, her employer, accompanied by
his father and neiehbor, oil armed with shot
guns, appeared before the house. Two OF the
men came IN and demanded the girl, saying
she belonged 10 them. shs refused 70 90 with
them and declared that she was free, which
took her by the feet, dragged her thus through
the house, through the yard, into the street,
her clothing torn and defanged IN the struggle,
and screaming for help, ahd-this was In open
daylight, IN the presence OF several men, Do
sides women and ehildfen-set her on horse
and carried her OF, When they got her home
two Of them tied her TO tree and logged her
bare back with green withes until the blood
ran. Then they took her to the house aud
chained her with trace chain aud paddock to
the bed-post, The next day she was turned TO
work and chained up again at night, After
some days she made her escape, and found
refuge with Southern man, the county super
intendent of education, who, after proper
notice, sent her to the United States district
attorney. From the district attorneys lips
/ received the account of this outrage.
Now, cruelty and violence may and do happen
in any State. The part of the story which
seems most horrible to me Is this Ii is In evi-
dence before the district attorney that the
mayor of Verona, who is its Justice of the
peace, heard the girls cries and saw the strug-
gle, and, when asked why he did not interfere
himself, testified that he thought 1t was none
of his business, as he knew 1t was only negro
girl Several other men testified that they
stood In their doors and saw the girl dragged
by her feet out into the road. 1t was none of
their business either. Finally related this
tale to Democratic judge of the Supreme
Court of the State. He replied that brutality
was found everywhere, North as well as
South; and could not, with all my efforts,
apparently make him understand that what
filled me with indignation and hopeless
disgust was not so much the act itself, but
the fact that an officer of the law and several
citizens could witness it unmoved, because It
was only a negro girl. If 1t had been
white girl, no doubt the mayor would have
interfered, and the Judge would have been in
dignant. If the brutes who should maltreat
white girl so bad had been negroes, the coun-
try would have risen to lynch them, and the
papers all over Mississippi would have yelled
with fury"
1t is to be hoped that some of the Demo-
cratic Gushers who assume to believe that
the Southern whites have all accepted the
results of the war in good faith will explain
the indifference manifested by the Missis-
sippi authorities regarding this infamous
outrage, If is not an attempt to restore
practical slavery, perhaps they will tell US
what it is. They cannot dispute Nord-
hof's testimony with consistency, for he
has been very generally indorsed by them
as o truthful man. Certainly they will not
charge that he is Southern outrage
grinder" and they must remember that
such evidence, coming from one of their
own witnesses, will be exceedingly dam.
aging to them If it is not explained or con.
troverted.