New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-10-28
Al ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN.

Al ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN.
So long as nothing worse than the
Hamburg massacre, the killing of half
dozen Republican colored men here and
there, Just to let them know they lived in
fraternal land, and such like little a.
fairs occurred in South Carolina, every
thing was satisfactory to tho Democrats.
But the Republicans-the real people Of
that stiff.necked and afflicted State-did
not relish that sort of civilization, and
they have successfully appealed to q
power that can neither be scared mol
cheated of justice by plausible falsehoods,
whether Endorsed by parties who testify
to each others responsibility or not.
Now that tho dance of death has been
summarily stopped in South Carolina,
and all panic and terror banished by
the few hundred blue coats who have
just appeared on the troublous scene,
the parsons and money changers have
united in grand lament over the i'm.
minent danger of the overthrow of thei,
civilization" It is doubtless Q blessed
thing to overthrow civilization that per
mits such carvings on as have, for the
past few years, disgraced the very name
of humanity in South Carolina-a civil.
ization that permits, in the language Of
the United States military officers, the
organization of "well digested plans,
which, if carried out, would have resulted
in the slaughter of nearly every negro in
the place." We think it high time to
overthrow this kind of civilization, and if
it happens that the hypocritical preach
ers and money grubbers Of Charleston 60
with it, it will be all the better for the
cause Of religion and honesty.
We may charitably suppose the silk
gown and silk stocking gentry of Charles
ton are not personally cognizant Of the
frightful outrages the troops were sent to
stop. They may have never heard of the
finding of the bodies of the three negroes
on the road from Rouse's bridge to Ellen
ton, or the report Of five more dead men,
as they read none but the Democratic
papers and herd with none but the access
SORES to the murders Perhaps they were
not really aware that within . week more
than eight hundred armed white men,
from Georgia. Edgedeld, Aiken and Barn
we'll, were engaged in first class riot at
Cainhoy when the troops arrived. Per-
haps these elegant reoluses knew nothing
of what was going on out in the country.
But they were not justified in publishing
such q manifesto Is they have signed,
without first looking about them. Their
credibility as witnesses is destroyed,
either because Of their incapacity or I'M
truthfulness. While the interior of the
State was boiling and surging with COM
motion and destructive war of races,
provoked by the aggression Of the whites,
was raging near Aiken, these pious sepul-
chres certified to all the world that peace
abided throughout all the regions of
South Carolina, and the only danger to
be apprehended is that civilization will be
overthrown by eighteen hundred or two
thousand United States troops.
We must either rate the intelligence or
the piety and financial integrity of Char
lesion at very low degree if this mani
festo is fair specimen. Not only its
spirit but nearly every statement, aver
ment, inference or suggestion is absolutely
at variance with the facts as furnished by
witnesses on the spot. Yet the piety and |
financial reputation of Charleston is relied
upon to overturn the positive and accu-
evidence of ten thousand unani-
nous witnesses, who stamp their every
averment as falsehood. Somebody ought
to do q little missionary work among the
bishops, preachers, bankers and presi-
dents Of the incorporated companies in
Charleston. They should first be taught |
of the local history of their
State, and then admonished to speak the
ruth, or at least to make sure that what
hey say is true before it is published to q
critical world. But with their manifesto
before the American people, carried on
he wings of ten thousand newspapers and
scattered throughout the land by the in
liant lightning, they present a pitiful
'pectacle. Their dogmatic negatives are
confronted with the damning evidences af-
orded by the affirmative testimony of
,onest and intelligent witnesses, and their
lypocritical appeals for sympathy neu-
rallied by the plainest proofs that they
re based upon ignorance, deception,
,igotry and intolerance.
The very fact that the white people had
'etitioned the troops for assistance from
be infuriated negroes in some localities
there the blacks had made little show
+ manliness, is concealed by the preach
RS. They see in the troops not the gen.
rous deliverers of their State from the
orrors of civil wal, but the destroyers
f what they most ignorantly and wan
only name ''civilization." Fine judges
f civilization they are! So long as they
an sit in their elegant parlors, preach
lit edge sermons to fashionable sinners,
r loll back in their corporation chairs in
,e enjoyment of fat salaries, they can
either know of, nor care for, the priva-
ons, sufferings and miseries of that race
hich is struggling to take its place in the
anks Of the commonest humanity, and