The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1876-07-27
The Cause of southeru ou.ra.es.


The causes of Southern riots and
outrages have been made the subject
of an interesting letter by the Wash.
ington correspondent of the New
York Tribune. From what he says it
is very clear that politics have next to
nothing to do with such unfortunate
occurrences. He says that in the cot
ton belt, where the negroes largely
Outnumber the white population. So
ciety is perIneated with the constant
dread of negro insurrection. The
white people know that the negroes
have been under the political control
OF INSCRIPTIONS and desperate carpet
bag adventufers, who have Allied the
heads Of the freedmen with exagerat-
ed notions about their rights, and
there is quite number OF coored
men who believe that their rights in
clude forty acres of land and a mule.
For this reason every secret meeting
of the negroes is looked upon with
suspicion and constant feeling of in
security prevails.
The concluding remarks of the Iri-
6une correspondent are especially in
structive, as going to explain the man
ner in W hich riots like the recent one
at Hamburg occur. They are as iol-
lows:
"Affairs like that at Hamburg gem
| Itl
puffed up with their own importance,
neglect some courtesy which they have
been accustomed to show to white
people, or perhaps they are insolent
and insulting; or drunken white
man insults a negro, who did not take
it as representatives Of his race were
obliged to, meekly. The result is bad
blood and threats, ii not fight. The
negro arms himself for defense, and
gets some of his friends to assist him,
when, in the eyes OF the lawless class
that l have described, and perhaps ol
others, he becomes dangerous and
must be put down at all hazards. Then
there is fight, and the negroes being
worse armed than the white men, anC
unaccustomed to handle weapons, suf
fer most. When blood has once begun
to flow no one can tell where the
trouble will stop. If a white man is
killed, his comrades are furious iol
revenge, and in their frenzy shoot
down unarmed negroes, who are try
ing to escape, or even helpless prison
crs. This is substantially the history
of the Hamburg riot. 1t was a dis
grace to South Carolina, where it Oc
Cured, and to Georgia, from which
state some of the murdercrs went. L
Gov. Chamberlain would send some
} good detectives to Augusta and Ham
burg, find out who the white men
were who were engaged in the fight
and convict and hang them, he would
do All inestimable service not only tC
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 mill.
tary interference. No one ever knows
when an affair of this kind is to occur
and when it does happen it is over be-
fore troops could be used. A larger
force of Unit Ell States soldiers is no "
stationed at Columbia, S. c., than al
any other point in the South. except
on the Texas border, and yet Gov
Chamberlain could not have used one
of them on that fatal Saturday nigh,
| IL he Ildu udu tncItl dll III Hamburg.
| do not wish to be misunderstood
from what have said about the re-
lations between the two races in the
south. The mistrust of which have
spoken is general in its character, and
not individual. Personally, in ordi.
nary business transactions and in
their intercourse with each other, the
whites and blacks enjoy each others
confidence to a wonderful degree,
and there is more harmony aud good
feeling than could be expected When
the radical change in their relations is
considered"