The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-07-25
The ADOIOgV of the Argus.

The Argus has very few words to waste
over the Hamburg massacre. In brief par
agraph respecting the affair it braces up
sufficiently to denounce it and other murders
as Horrible" but before the editor has la
bored through halfdozen lines, he is found
palliating and eXcusing the crime, Gen. But
Ter and his associates. In the first place the
argus undertakes to prove that the Hamburg
ruffians do not represent the sentiment of the
people of their locality, by using the following
Illustration:
The New Jersey murderous outbreak cost six lives
and four persons wounded the Hamburg, S. c.,
mob fight cost six lives and three persons wounded.
Both horrible affairs; but neither is to be taken
an illustration of the character of the people of
the respective states and trust not their aver
age social condition.
The New Jersey bloodshed resulted from a
trouble which originated in the discharge of
the man who commenced the murderous
work from the place where he had been en-
ployed. In South Carolina the murders were
instigated by Gen. G. M. Butler---a promi-
nent and influential citizen of Georgia. In
deed, he was so much of man that Demo-
cratic Congressman, commenting on the
floor of the House upon the massacre, de-
clared that "Gen. Bntler is a gentleman
whose character needs no defender" Proc
tor Knott, chairman of the House Judiciary
Committee, declared that the ex-Confederate
General was chivalrous knight, "sans peur,
armed men. He could have raised two thou
sand in few hours. He had only to say
that "they might be needed at Ham,
burg" Against the negroes of this par
tlcular militia company, these chivalrous
sons of Georgia aud North Carolina
could have no personal feeling. They
simply hate the c9lo-ed man as citizen.
The civilization they represent does not rec
ognize the negro as man. They are hostile
to the new state of things---to the constitu-
ton which gives the eolored man citizenship
and suffrage. They propose to deprive him of
all the benefits of both by murder and intimi-
dation. The New Jersey murderer was an
ignorant man melted by what he conceived
to be personal insult or wrong. The Geor.
gia and North Carolina two hundred who
massacred a few negroes comprised the intel
lgent young men of the section and they
represent the feelings of that locality on that
cratic press applaud the butchery and sup
port Tilden. A few journals of that stripe
deplore the massacre on the ground that it
will hurt the chances of the De Denocratic can
didates in the North. A Democratic paper
! in Richmond openly declares that such bloody
affairss occur because such acts of violence
had met with only the mildest censure in
any rart of the South when censured at all.
Having apologized for its political friends
in the vicinity of the murders, the Argus
concludes that its duty will not be fully dis
charged until it has in some way apolOgized
or palliated the offence of Gen. Butler and
his rebel army, which he does as follows:
| Gov Chamberlain in his letter give details of the
affair differing somewhat from those before published
particularly upon the point that it was the shoot
ing of white man by the negro militia that gave
| the bloody turn to the riotous controversy.
The argus was sure not to publish Gov.
which will be relished by those who feel that
they must apologize for Gen, Butler and his
associate assassins. To see how deliberately
and yet cunningly the Argus reference to
Gov Chamberlain's letter is turned into an
apology for the murderers, let ue reproduce a
portion of thas epistle:
While affairs were in this condition, their being,
according TO all accounts, from 200 to 300 armed
white men from the surrounding country in the
town, demand was made by the whites for the sur
render to them of the of the militia. An hour
or two passed in negotiations concerning this de-
if the arms were not given up in short time (most