Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-05-31
The SHOTGUN Policy in the South.

The SHOTGUN Policy in the South.
Louisiana seems resolved to destroy
the Democratic party. Two years ago,
when the country was on the point Of
accepting the Herald's idea of Ma
tional Convention of Peace Recons.ruc-
tion, the White knights, or some such
gang, overturned the regular govern
ment, compelled President Grant to
issue a war-iike proclamation, and Ie-
vived in an hour the spirit of Sumpter.
In an hour all hope of such convention
faded away. Now, on the eve of
most important election for the Presi-
dency-an election that will determine
the control OF the nation for four and
perhaps forty ysars-we have news of
another outbreak in Louisiana. The
results ef this we sum up as follows:
Eight colored men shot; four hanged
twenty wounded no whites killed."
Another source reports :" Sixteen
blacks killed" Another says ''Three
whites killed" The sheriff reports:
3" Seventeen colored men killed and
many wounded.
In noting this occurrence we may say,
in the first place, :hat all new from the
South, from the Associated Press re-
porters, may be accepted as friendly
toward the Democrats and whites. 1t
has been so at least since the war closed.
Therefore, If these accounts have been
exaggerated, it is in favor of the whites
and not the negroes. The whites write
aud talk and use the wires; they have
the ear of the country, and it is their
story upon which we now comment 1t
is certainly painful story. We talk
of reconstruction, OF pure government,
of bringing the old sections together.
The majority of citizens in the North
have no purpose so dear to them as the
political, personal, social and CONNER
cIal restoration Of the Union. 20 bring
about these results, to forever extin
guish the painful memories of the war,
10 enable the South to resume her once
proud position, there is nothing We
would not do-nothing except to cancel
the results of the war. And yet there
seems to be party in the South which
will have peace on no ether terms
This party recognizes that the negro
has been freed from personal slavery,
but it proposes to reduce him to politi-
cal slavery. 1t was conquered by the
rife; it proposes to conquer by the
shotgun.
1t is time for US to speak with the
utmost plainness to our friends in the
South. There can only be one end to
this shotgun policy. These constant
stories of assassination on tho Red
river, of conventions dissolved by force,
of riots, with twenty negroes killed
and one white man wounded )" of rev.
olutions like that against Ames in Mis-
sissippi, this prescription of Northern
men as ''carpet- -baggers" and of South
ern Republicans as =" ssalawags." this
that because q citizen of
New York removes North Carolina and
dares to % into politics as republican
he must necessarily be scamp ano
only to be treated as an outlaw, this
and prescription, aud, above
all, these cruel, brutal, inhuman muir
derers Of negroes that We have seen in
New Orleans, Memphis, Vicksburg and
Colfax, and which We now witness at
Bayou Sara, only defer true reconcil-
iation besween the sections. 1t is no
answer to say that these outbreaks re
suit from the misgovernment of men
like Moses, Wbipper and the rest. We
admit their errors. We have censured
the General Government for permitting
them to hold power. But this Is no
excuse for the scenes that take place In
Louisiana. See how New York was
misgoverned Eve years ago. See the
mi.government in Chicago to day
There Is nothing in the history of the
South TO compare with it. But neither
New York nor Illinois would stand ex
cused for moment if the reign of
thieves had given place to the reign of
assassias.
We can attribute riots like those we
have seeu so often in the South, and
which We now see in Louisiana, to the
reigu of assassination. The law abid
ing men of that State must depIore it as
much as we do in New York, aud We
trust they will take up arms and sup
press 1T. We cannot think of the gall
liant sons of Louisiana-the men who
followed Beauregard over SO many
bloody ieids-going With shotguns into
swamps to murder negroes. We appeal
TO these men to put an end to this reign
of -.sassination for if they do not,.
the General Government will. Even il
there we're demossatic majority in the
House as large again as <l.e present.
the people of this Republic-who ro-sht
the war for the Union-wou.d never
submit in silence to union which per-
m,ts the repeated assassination of c,ti-
gems for their principles. Cpon this
point there must be no misunderstood
ing. We differ abost hundred things,
but on this point We do not differ. Un.