Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1876-06-01
The SHOTGUN Policy i'm the
South,


New York Tribune.
t The SHOTGUN Policy i'm the
South.
From the New Herald.l
Louisiana seems resolved to destro,
the Democratic party. Two years ago
, when the country was on the point o
accepting the Herdld's idea of a Ma
tional Convention of Peace and Recon
structiOn, the White knights, or som,
such gang, overturned the regular gov
ernment, compelled General Grant t.
issue war like proclamation and re
vived in an hour the spirit of Sumter
In all hour all hope of such convention
faded away. Now, on the eve of mos
important election for the Presidency
an election that will determine the
the control of the nation for four and
perhaps forty yeafs-we have news Of
another outbreak in Louisiana. The
results Of this we sum up as follows
Eight colOred men shot; four hanged;
twenty wounded; no whites killed."
Another source reports: "Sixty blacks
killed." Another says: "Thrte whites
killed" The Sheriff reports: Seven
teen colored men killed and many
wounded"
In noting this occurrence we msy
say, in the first place, that all news
from the South, from the Associated
| Press reporters and the newspaper cor
respondents, may be accepted as friend
ly toward the Democrats and whites.
1t has been so at least since the war
closed. Therefore, if these accounts
have been exaggerated, it. is in favor of
the whites and not the negroes. The
whites write and talk and use the
wires; they have the ear of the country,
and it is their story upon which we now
comment. 1t is certainly a painful
story. We talk of reconstruction, of
pare government, Of bringing the old
sections together. The majority of
citizens in the North have no purpose
so dear to them as the political, person
al, social and commercial restoration of
the Union. To bring about these re-
suits, to forever eXtinguish the painful
memories of the war, to enable the
South to resume her once proud posi-
ton, there is nothing we would not do,
nothing except to cancel the results of
the war. And yet there seems to be
party in the South which will have
peace on no other terms. This party
recognizes that the negro has been
freed from personal slavery. 1t was
conquered by the rifle; it proposes to
conquer by the shotgun.
1t is time for US to speak with the ut
most plainnesS to our friends in the
South. There can only be one end to
this shotgun policy. These constant
stories OF assassination on the Red
river, of conventions dissolved by
force, of riots, with "twenty negroes
killed and one white man wounded;"
of revolutions like that against Ames
in Mississippi; this prescription of
Northern men as ''carrpet-baggers"
and of Southern Republicans as "scala-
wags," this assumption that because.
citizen of New York removes to North
Carolina and dareS to go into politics
as Republican he must necessarily be
scamp and only to be treated AS an
outlaw, this ostracism and prescription,
and, above all, these cruel, brutal, in
human murders of negroes that we
have seen in New Orleans, Memphis,
Vicksburg and Colfax, and which we
now witness at Bayou Sara, only defer
true reconciliation between the sec
tiOns. 1t is no answer to say that these
outbreaks result from the misgOvern-
ment of men like Moses, Whipper and
the rest. We admit their errors. We
have censured the General Government
for permitting them to hold power.
But this is no excuse for the scenes that
take place in louisiana. See how
New York was misgoverned five years
ago. See the misgovernment in Chi
cago to-day. There is nothing in the
history of the South to compare with
it. But neither New York nor Illinois
would stand excused for a moment if
tho reign OF the thieves had given
place to the reign of assassins.
We can only attribute riots like those
we have seen SO often in the South, and
which we now see in Louisiana, to the
reign of assassination. The law-abiding
men of that State must deplore it as
much as we do in New York, and we
trust they will take up arms and
suppress it. We cannot think of the
gallant sons of Louisiana-the men who
followed Beauregard over so many
bloody fields-going with shotguns into
the swamps to murder negroes. We
appeal to these men to put an end to
this reign of assassination; for, if they
do not, the General Government will.
Even if there were Democratic ma
jority in the House as large again as
the present, the people of this Repub-
lic-who fought the war for Union the
would never submit in silence to
union which permits the repeated as
sassination of citizens for their princi-
pies. Upon this point there must be
no misunderstanding. We differ about
hundred things, but on this point
we do not differ. Unless there is an
end to this negro killing; unless this
reign of assassins-who, whether they
call themselves Ku-KluX or White Ca
melias, are assassins, cowardly and
cruel, because they select their victims
from an inferior, helpless, amiable and
inoffensive race-is terminates; unless
the best sentiment in the South at once
Furnishes these men and prevents re-
currence of their crimes, the strong
arm of the General Government will
fall upon them. Once compel Grant
to draw the sword "fOr tAD protection
of Union men" and there will be no
need of a campaign for the Presidency
Once revive the Sumter spirit, and the
st. Louis delegates may as well remain
at home. Bayou Sara "riots" will de-
4o.,, "a fh a cu pvocr xUa oil ~ar,or, hor