The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-08-11
The Cause of Southern Riots.
washington, Cor. n. Y. Tribune.

| Washington, Cor. n. y. Tribune
| think | have not indicated some of
! the causes which make occurrences like
| the late riot in South Carolina possible.
! First, the dread of a negro uprising,
and the widespread, almost universal
suspicion of the freedmen, when in
fuenced by the advice of bad men /;
second, the fact that the negro is not
| considered quite as good as white man,
and an infringement on his rights not
quite as serious a matter as though a
white man is the victim third, the lax
administration of criminal law in many
parts of the south which prevents crime
from being properly punished. These
three causes prepare the way for the
desperate with his pistol and his shot
gun.
Affairs like that at Hamburg generally
arise in this way: The negroes, putfed
up with their own Importance, neglect
some courtesy which they have been ac-
customed to show the white people, or
perhaps they are insOlent or insulting;
or drunken white man insults a negro,
who does not take it as representatives
Of his race were formerly obliged to,
meekly. The result is bad blood and
threats. if not fight. The negro arms
friends to assist him, when, in the eyes
of the lawless class which / have de-
scribed, and perhaps of Others, he be-
comes dangerous and must be put down
at all hazards. Then there is a fight,
and the negroes being worse armed than
the white men, and unaccustOmed To
handle weapons, suffer most. When
blood has once begun to flow, no one can
tell where the trouble will stop If
white man is killed, his comrsd's are
furious for revenge, and in their frenzy
shoot down unarmed negroes, who are
trying to escape, or even helpless prison
ers. This is substantially the history of
the Hamburg riot. 1t was a disgrace to
South Carolina, where it occurred, and
to Georgia, from which state some of
the murderers went. If Gov. Chamber
lain would send some good detectives to
Augusta and Hamburg, find out who
were the white men who were engaged
in the fight, and convict and hang them,
he would do an inestimable service not
only to his own state but to the whole
south.
| said in the beginning of this letter
that the riot at Hamburg, and similar
ones, could not be prevented by military
interference. No one ever knows when
an affair OF this kind Is going to occur,
and when it does happen it is over be-
fore troops could be used. A larger
force of United States soldiers is now
tationed at Columbia, S. c., than at
any other point in the south, except on
the Texas border, and yet governor
Chamberlain could not have used one OF
them on that fatal Saturday night if he
had bad them all in Hamburg.
Il. Il
from what | have said about the rela-
tions between the two races in the south.
The mistrust of which have spoken is
general in its character and not indi-
vidual. Personally, in ordinary bus
mess transactions and in their inter
course with each other, the whites and
the blacks enjoy each others confidence
to a wonderful degree, and there is moro
harmony and good feeling than could be
expected when the radical change in
their relations il considered