Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-08-16
NO. 1873.


as Judas betrayed his Master with q kiss.
General Candy and Mr.. Thomas went of their
own accord into the Modoc camp, and then we're
slam. But they had no promise Of protection from
as ships are by the false lights of the wrecker
And yet how our outraged conscences demanded
vengeance upon the treacherous murderers. No
pursuit of them was swift enough to please our
vengeful feeling; no cost of war was deemed ex-
travagant; but Homer Twitchell and his brothers.
in-law were promised protection. TWAS said also
that unless they yielded to the suggestion there
would probably be a massacre of negroes; their
humanity was appealed to; they would save them
selves and hundreds Of others by yielding to the
friendly request Of their neghbors. Thus appealed
killed.
Official reports show that these murders amount
TO thousands. No scenic effects are needed. We
may not try to make the case appalling by draw
ing upon our imagination for tragic drapery. 1t
is a ST. Bartholomew in detail; q stream of blood
which makes up in continuity Of How what it lacks
in volume.
Some affect to disbelieve, and 1 would that for
the honor Of humanity, and especially for the fair
fame of our own land, there were some room for
DOUBT. The fact that We are Americans would
lead US to desire to doubt. But there is DO more
doubt that thousands have been murdered in the
South since the war than there is to doubt whether
fact in the history of France than is the reign Of
terror fact in large sections of the South to-day
And there Is as little room to doubt that the vast
majority Of them are political assassinations.
They are not the result Of sudden passion, but Of
settled hate; they are not the issue of indivdusi
suarrels, but are deliberately planned for the &C.
complishment of Interior ends.
Sometimes in the North mob breaks into jail
and hastens what it calls an execution of justice
against some gross offender, and in very rare in
stances we almost feel that there 10 some show Of
reason for the madness of the mob. But almost
none have been convinced or even accused of any
grave otfense. The bullet has smitten the inno-
cent, and the knife has cut the unohending.
1t is not necessary to disguise the fact that in
some cases bad men have been lifted into places
Of power in the Southern States; adventurers
and .ortune-hunters from the North, many of
whom should be removed by legal processes from
the positions which they hold. But when men
appeal to this fact in vindicaton of assassinatiOns
and massacres, their logic becomes as imbecile as
their feelings are diab0lical. The corruptions of
occasional officeholders are no apology for whole
sale murder, and no distortion Of logic can make
them so.
A NoN-PARTIsAN LOOK AT THE SITUATION.
Now, let us forget that we are either Repubi-
cans or Democrats, and for a moment leok at this
state of things as American citizens and Christians.
AS an element of free government it is IN in
consistency which no words of mine can ftly
characterize The granite on which our govern
ment rests is the declaration that "all men are
created free and equal, and are endowed with
NSttoh ihohCu"oiC lIkhtS, nuOuk WuiCu BIG lllcs
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" This is
our boast; we have proudly faunted it in the
faces OF emperors and kings; it is the weapon
with which we have made our merciless assaults
upon the desrotisms of the world; by it we have
Judged the governments of all history and ex-
planned the mystery of their destruction; it has
pointed our logic, inspired our oratory, and in
famed our national pride.
And within the last fifteen years thousands
upon thousands of persons have been killed in
raaa Iarr nIar al
There is no other civilized semi-civilized nation
on the globe, republican, monarchical, or auto
cratic. in which One-tenth IS many victims have
fallen by assassination for similar reasons in the
same time. Freedoms plague spot is the south
ern section Of this Union; the strongest argument
in favor of centralized government which the
world now furnishes is that same section Of this
country. 1t would be relief to fly to despotism
from such democracy.
All nations curse the Romish hierarchy for its
Inquistion and deservedly so. 1t thrilled Europe
with terror; it threw over the intellect of the
tlons an almost starless night of stAgnation. 1t
the ages, and HURLED them terror
stricken at the feet Of pontiffs who grew cruel
through excess of absolutism and puerile through
excess of security. 1t brought hell on earth and
cast the nations intoit
But even the Inquisition tried men; it Knocked
them it is true, but it was in formal phrases Of le-
gal import; they were arraigned, condemned and
punished under some form of law. But this pro-
scription assails men in open day; murders them
as they sit by their fresides calls them to their
DOORS and when they answer the summons shoots
them in the very presence Of wives and children;
SEXES them and then carries them to cOrn-helds
and turns them loose and shoots them Is they run
for their lives, just brutal sportsmen turn rats
out for terriers in rat-pts; murders teacbers who
are peacefully engaged in that work of education
which has been both our necessity and our boast
since l716. And all this in America, where we,
the other day, celebrated our centennial Fourth
of ,JuIy. when the whole w resOnant with
voices Of orators and thunder of guns, and all for
freedom; where we make the valleys and bills
and mountains, and the very heavens, luminous
with liberty's beacon fires and flaming rockets.
If dead men know anything of what transpires
on earth, what an infinite burlesque all this must
have seemed to the men and women who have
fallen under the assassns hand through these
years.
1 repeat that as an element of our boasted free
government this state of things is an inconsisten-
y which l have no language to characterize.
And it is not necessary; it characterizes itself.
10 sensitive and unbiased minds it is sufficiently
appalling without tragic accompsniments. Re-
move all this from the field of politics and it would
BY that band Of robbers in Missouri the other dav
Dut how the news shot through the land like
shock from some huge galyanic battery. Military
Interference had been called for, and large re-
wards offered for the arrest OF the marauders.
And this is WELL This is IS it should be- But at
about the same time ten c0lored men were killed
IN South Carolina in 3 conflict which the whites
provoked and began. and some Of the victims
we're set loose and shot - they ran. How does
hat affect us Are rewards offered for the mur-
lerers' Does an outraged nation call for ven-
,cance.
There is something here to think about.
Such state Of things brings popular govern
nent into disrepute. Such . state of things is
lot government at all, but anarchy, mobocracy,
IN unlimited caricature of government. 1t would
make us jest among the nations if it were not so
nonstrous as to be appalling. 1t would make
laugh only that II amazes them with
norror. If Turkey should practice such proscrip-
lions through . term of years it would demand
The Intervention of Europe, and the monarchies
Of the old World would engage in 3 war for the
rights of man.
The shame which came upon US from ninety
years of slavery has been perpetusted through
fifteen years of assassinations and terrorism, and
unless we can in some way get deliverance from
these woes we must become byword and . hiss-
ing among the nations. This state of things car
ries destruction in its right hand. 1t palsies bus
mess and mildews social life. Men who kill their
neghbors for political reasons in that act commit
suicide upon their ewn interests. The South has
a sunny climate and rich soil. but European
immigration shuns its disturbed territory - men
avoid contagion. Men who fly from the oppres-
sions Of monarchy do not seek shelter under the