The New York herald., 1876-08-03
The President ON the Southern Ques-


The letter addressed to Governor Cham
berlain. Of South Carolina, by the President
of the United States. will be read with sur
prise throughout the civilized world. There
is fervor about it which is not common to
the President. In this letter he denounces
the Hamburg massacre as ''cruel, blood
thirsty, wanton, unprovoked." This is the
opinion of the country; but when he pro-
ceeds to apply the same epithets to the other
Southern States, and notably in Mississippi
and Louisiana" the country will shrink
from accepting what, if untrue, is grave
libel upon many Commonwealths of the
Union. There is no mistaking the ear
nestness of the President. ''Mississippi,'
he says in SO many words, sis governed to-
day by officials chosen through fraud and
violence such as would scarcely be accred-
tied to savages, much less to Christian and
civilized people" Surely these are ter
rible words to be addressed by the President
to the people of a whole State; but General
Grant goes on to say that there are States
where people claim the fright to kill negroes
and republicans without the fear of punish
ment and without loss of caste or reputa-
ton" Unless there is an end of this there
will be revolution, bloody revolution,
where suffering must fall upon the innocent
we'll as the guilty" The President ex-
presses the hope that federal aid will not be
needed in South Carolina; hut, if necessary,
he adds with unmistakable emphasis, II
will give every aid for which I can find law
or constitutional power"
The Presidents letter reads more like an
inAammatory political appeal than the calm,
we'll considered words Of the head of great
government. The Hamburg nffair was q
cruel proceeding, but the President wrongs
the Southern people when he says that it is
only repetition of what has been seen in
the Southern States within the past few
years. There have been riots and outbreaks
and murders, but the people Of the South
the honest, conservative people-are no
more to blame for them than the people of
the North are to blame for the Native Ameri-
can riots thirty years ago or the draft riots
during the war. The President should
remember that society in the South
since the war has been governed by
exceptional influences. There was a
race suddenly transformed from slavery into
independent citizenship. There was
proud, valiant people, who had staked
everything on war, who had been beaten to
the dust and all their hopes destroyed. Not
only were they defeated, but industries were
ruined, commerce was destroyed, and COM
munities once memorable for wealth, splen-
dor and all the accomplishments Of refined
and intelligent society were uprooted. In
addition to this, as if to add humiliation to
defeat, the republicans sent among them
as rulers adventurous, jailbirds, outcasts.
We had Blodgett in Georgia, War
moth in Louisiana, Whipper and
Whittemore in South Carolina. These
rufians, bearing in many cases the
commissions of the federal government,
were enabled, by their influence over the
negroes, to take possession of Common
wealth after Commonwealth and to plunder
them. For much Of this the President and
his party are responsible, and he should not
be surprised if the people of the South
turned upon their oppressors and cast them
out.
This is the side Of the story which the
President does not tell. Butth country has
laid it to heart, and we saw one Of the effects
of it in the tidal wave which overwhelmed
the republicans two years ago and brought
the democrats into power. The country ex-
pected from the President the pacifcation
of the South, and his own letter is
South for failing to do this. But at the
same time there is enough truth in what
prompts the Presidents letter to give the
country food for thought. The time has
come for the people to settle this question.
Johnson failed by attempting to give the
failed by attempting to give the negroes and
Northern adventures power over the South
erners The way to end this business is f1r
honest men of oil races, black and white,
whether native or alien, to come together
and form party of good government. We
know the elements for such party exist in
the South. 1t is not to be found in
the democratic party alone or in the re-
publican alone, but in both. Such q
man as Lamar shows us the way. Let Mr..
Lamar and his friends, the old Confederates,
who are to-day the best citizens in the South,
unite upon policy of peace. Let them
welcome the immigrant, grant the negro
political equality, labor only for good gov
ernment, and not to revive dead issues, and
in few years there will be peace in the
South and . prosperity of which its
people have never dreamed. The President
says truly:-''There has never been a desire
on the part of the North to humiliate the
South" On the contrary there is nothing
the North could do for the South that would
not be done in a cheerful, fraternal spirit