The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1875-01-06

The Situation i'm the South.
/ The military establishment IF the
government cost us last year $31 ,O0O,-
600. Unless affairs take more
peaceful turn. we should not be sur
prised to see the expenditures reach
SIC, 600 900 or even S5O,OOO,O 900 during
the present fiscal year
1t would be interesting to know
just how much of this is expended in
the effort to maintain order and put
down mobs and masked murderers in
the South. Are not the people of the
North tired Of paying taxes to sup
press disorder among these pardoned
traitors who show their ingratitude
by defying the law and ignoring the
fruits OF our great contest, purchased
and paid for at such cost? Let
there be no mistake about the issue.
AS result OF the war, the following
cardinal principles were incorporated
in the Constitution of the country.
]. The right of citizens of the
| United States to vote shall not be
abridged by the United States or by
| any State on account of race, color, or
previous condition of servitude.
2. No State shall deprive
any person of life, liberty, or property
without due process of law, nor deny
to any person within its jurisdiction
the equal protection of the laws
How are these provisions, so sacred
ly incorporated in the fundamental
law of the land. observed by the peo-
pie of the South? Have they frankly
accepted them, as people should who
were forgiven their unhOly attempt at
the life of the country; who were only
asked to observe the principles of
universal liberty az a condition prece-
dent to perfect equality?
The answer is written all over the
South in the blood of innocent men,
boon which brave people purchased
and extended to them. White and
black alike ARE refused the equal
protection of the laws" Their rights
ARE abridged and the privileges of
citizenship are denied both to those
who have chosen to make such States
their adopted homes, and to those
who, being natives, desire to honestly
and faithfully accept and obey the
laws. Thus are the efforts of the
North brought to naught. Thus are
the mild conditions of peace broken
and rejected. And to make the offense
still more aggravating. the towards
course has been pursued.
If a suffering people under real or
fancled wrongs rise and boldly pro-
claim their willingness to suffer pun.
ishment rather than submit to de-
grading statute, their action evokes
something of admiration and sympa-
thy, but it has not been so with the
South. Not an iniquity has been per
petrated that the curlprits have not
prefaced it with an announcement to
their perfect acceptance of the princi-
Piles enunciated in the constitutional
amendments. They have professed
attachment to the federal Union
while violating it's organic law, and
have glorified the Fifteenth Amend
ment while butchering the citizens
who was trying to enjoy the privileges
conferred by that amendment.
They drive off the colored voter,
and they prosecute and murder the
white immigrant for doing only what
the American people have declared
they shall be prAected in doing. and
then, with sublimity of impudence
unparalleled, issue pronunciamento,
reaffirming their abiding love and
alteration for the Constitution, the
IL.
amendments honestly and in good |
faith. says one of their addresses,
aud the same mail brings us the par ,
men, shot because they were exercis- |
ing one of the privileges conferred by
these amendments
The North may as well understand
that these people DO NOT accept tie
Constitution. They are determined
that Northern men shall not live in
the South without subscribing to their
views and complying with their pecu-
liar notions. When the war closed,
the victors supposed that one question
had been settled beyond dispute and
that was that citizen of any State
had thereafter the right to pitch his
tent where he would in all this wide
domain and call that spot his home.
But the suppOsitlon was erroneous,
and to-day we behold the same ostra-
cism that prevailed before the war;
worse than this even, for soldiers of
the Republic who fought their way to
the sea and the gulf, and gained by
their valor the right to live unmolest-
ed there, are subjected to insults and
midnight attacks from those who
failed to win in fair fight what they
are now determined to secure by
stealth and assassination.
The question arises, are the people |
of this country prepared to forego
their'victory? Are they willing to be |
debarred from a portion of the COM
mon territory? The President, after
appealing in vain to the judgement and
humanity of these lawless men. has at
last determined that they SHALL obey |
the laws. Will the people now come |
forward and uphold him in this effort |
to enforce the great doctrines which !
their sovereign voice proclaimed as
law and which are now in danger of |
destruction and overthrow ?-Inter-
Ocean