New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-07-26
TOLERATI0N Is NOT LIBERTY.


since the war, but the platform on which
it rests is yet far short of what 1t should
be. At present the average politician is
unable to go further in the right direction
than to accord qualified liberation to
political opponent or an adversary whom II
may be locally popular and, therefore,
safe to Cypress. When accused OF deny
| ing to the native coiored and white Re-
publicans and to Northern men the p0iit-
ical and civil rights guaranteed by the
laws to all citizens of the United States,
they deny the charge with heated in.
| dignation and declare themselves friendly
| to all who come to live in the South, to
bring their capital and skilled labor here,
to work for living and build themselves
| homes, SO long as they 60 not NEEDLE nor
interfere in our affairs This qualification
is fatal to the character for fairness OF
those who adopt it. Its constant use by
! Democratic orators, congressman, journal
lists, clergymen and all unquiet agitators
proves that the true spirit of American
| liberty is not within them, and that they
are attempting to palm off conditional
liberation for that perfect liberty which is
the natural right Of every American. Be-
| sides, this liberation is not perfect in
every locality. Mems opinions are closely
scrutinized by rivals in business, and
| every advantage which a well known
popular prejudice can supply is artfully
used to the injury of those whose politics
are not strictly Southern.
Mr.. Jones, of Tennessee; Butler, Of
South Carolina; Hill, of Georgia, and all
the other self-satisfed blind leaders of the
blind, profess to regret the necessity which
they claim existed for the slaughters of
Coushatta, Coltax, Clinton, Hamburg, and
hundred otEer places in the South. They
invariably declare that the victims Of some
of the most cowardly and brutal assassina-
tons which ever disgraced humanity were
brought upon the victims by themselves.
A special plea for the murderers is entered
in every CASE Sometimes it is one thing
and sometimes another In Colfa1 it was
pretended that at some future day the
negroes intended to sack and burn the
farm houses and outrage the women;
at Coushatta the old chronic fear of
negro rising was appealed to for the pur-
pose of dispatching six men in cold blood
and robbing them Of their personal ef-
fects; Messrs. Pierson and Twitchell, it
was pleaded by way of excuse, made them
selves obnoxious to tie communities in
which they lived by their alliance with
the Republican party; John Gair and his
helpless sister-in-law were murdered upon
malignant rumor, based upon no evil
dence at all, Of having killed by poison a
man who did not die; and the poor ne
groes Of Hamburg were ru.hlessly butch
cred because two young scions of an etfete,
decayed aristocracy were not permitted to
drive horse and buggy through the
ranks Of military company.
It has been contended that there never
would have been any disturbance in
either of the above cases had the negroes
stuck to the hoes and plows of the planta-
tons, and the white Republicans let
politics alone. Under the conditions
prescribed by the unwritten laws of
Southern Democratic prejudice and big
otry, there would have been some sort OF
liberation for the slain men, whose bones
whiten the shores of Red river; and our
spread eagle orators could have continued
to pirate of liberty which is really
stranger in any community dominated by
Southern Democracy.
We are willing to concede all that the
Jones, Buffers, Hills, and their fellow
politicians, may claim. We admit that
negro who does not dare to assert his po-
litical rights, or Northern Republican
who will surrender his right of free
thought to the old slaveholding gentry,
will be permitted to enjoy sort Of toler-
ated immunity. SO long as either class
is satisfied with the degraded plane as
signed them they may delve and toll, and
serve their masters and employers, and
receive wages when they happen to find
solvent patrons, and merit the praise
due to hard-workea cattle. But this is
much nearer to serfdom than American
liberty, and it is not what the bone and
sinew, the virtue and honesty, of this fair
land of the South demand and are entitled
to. Hence the conflict will be continued
till one side or the other is no long
er able to strike q blow. 1t is
an issue forced upon the country,
not by the negroes, not by the Repub-
leans, but by those who for want Of |
better name call themselves anti-Repub- |
leans, and it has been accepted by the |
defenders Of the rights Of humanity every |
where. The result Of such conflict can |
not be doubtful. The wrong is always |!
weaker than the right, though it some
times gains transitory advantages in the |
outset. Those who now instigate bad,
men to deeds of violence and
apologize for and defend them, are en-
gagged in losing game, and the sooner
hey find out the difference between the !
limited tolerance of which they boast so
oudly, and the true liberty for which the
party is contending, the
sooner there will be peace in the land.