Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-07-12
I}IOOdshcd in the South.

Another negro massacre in the South,
in which, as usual, according to the re-
ports sent out by the democrats who con-
troll the telegraph lines, the blacks We're
entirely to blame, armed TO the teeth and
aggressive, while the whites were limo
cent and presented and acted only on the
defensive. 1t is remarkable that all the
reported negro 'outragcs" in the South
wind up with large slaughter of blacks
and few or no whites hurt or killed. 1t
was so in Mississippi last year it has been
the same in Georgia before, also in Ala
bama, Louisiana. and in fact wherever
these cottages" have occurred. How
the poor, dcftnceless, harmless, perse-
cuted whites can succeed Id protecting
themselves in all eases against the reported
lerocity and large numbers of the colored
rioters, butchering SO many of the blacks
and suffering so little themselves, is what
surprises men of common sense at the
North. 1t is also peculiar to these massa-
ores that they occur usually when cleo
tons are impending, and are particularly
frequent and severe in the year of the
Presidential election. Yet if republican
papers or speakers make bold to say that
these massacres are deliberately planned
by the whites to ovcrawe and control the
blacks, to prevent them voting the repub-
lican ticket, that they are shameless, bru
tai, coward.y butcheries perpetrated by
whites and not by blacks, as is evident
when it is seen which party suffers the
most,-why then the cry goes up from the
ex-Confederates and their doughface allies
in the North, you are raising the bloody
shirt" and with storm Of ridicule they
attempt to conceal facts which cry to
heaven for vengeance against the demo-
cratic party.
The New York Herald has in times past
been shrieker about the raising of the
"bloody shirt, but this last outrage APP
pears to have opened its eyes. Its re-
marks that 1.-The whites write the nara
tives, while the negroes are killed. and
that lone white man and six negroes dead
is about the fair average in these disturb
ances," are suggestive of the terrible
truth which lies at the bottom Of all these
bloody negro butcheries in the South.
We have Il series of dispatches from
Augusta, Ga, describing a conflict be-
tween militia company composed of
negroes and white company, which, ac-
cordlng to the report, assembled for the
purpose of compelling this negro company
to respect the decision of negro Judge
The reasons leading to this collision are
given with that vagueness which gener-
ally characterizes dispatches from the
South detailing any quarrel between
blacks and whites, a vagueness which may
be attributed in most cases to the fact that
the whites write the narratives, while the
negroes are killed. The practical point
in this South Carolina quarrel is that the
militia negro company was dispersed with
canister; that at two in the morning -four
prisoners were shot" and the rest re-
leased; that the full extent of casualties
are unattainable, but that our CORES
pondent "counted one white man and six
negroes dead
"One white man and six negroes dead
is about the fair average in these disturb.
ances. Is it any wonder that Senators
like Morton raise the bloody shrt9 Is it
any wonder that peaceful men in the
North mourn over this bloodshed and ask
if there can be law and order where pub
lie opinion ,lustities these outbreaks? We
await with deep interest the full detail, of
this new contest SO far as the report
now goes it looks as if tlese Southern
white madmen had resolved to elect Hayes
and Wheeler. They are doing yeoman'>
service in Augusta. One or two Ham
burg riots will settle the business