Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1876-11-30
The Crimes of the South:

Since the dragonnadeS against the
| Huguenots in the days of Louis XIV,
there has teen no such cold blo0ded,
malignant, and persistent warfare upon
one class of any people, as that of the
Southern people on the freedmen. The
| details which have reached US of the
Outrages practiced during the last Cam
paign, show that they were the fitting
elimination of the Coushatta and
| Vicksburg massacres. Throughout
whole States there was scarcely a pre-.
tense of allowing either black or white
Republicans to vote. Refusal to cast
the Democratic ticket as accompanied
by threats, which were too often carri-
| ed out, of torture and even death.
If these outrages were not so bloody
| in the aggregate as the raids of the
Bashi Bazouks in Turkey, they were
! not perpetrated like them in not blood,
| and in obedience to the dictates OF Mos
lem fanaticism, but coOlly and with
generalization, by nominally Chris
tian people, with the sole object of Sc
curing the triumph OF party. No
supposed regard foT the salvation Of the
victims, as in the war against the
HuguenOts, has impelled the Southern
leaders; only low, selfish, political zeal,
encouraged by the promises of the
Democratic managers at the North.
What must he the cause that develops
such results? ia1
There are still those who believe that
the crimes of men are sooner or later
punished in this world by a Judge of
unerring wisdom. Prof. Morse, in
deed, concludes, taking the Turks as
yln f.,I nUIf
RACES which shOrk us, from time to
time, in the public prints, are not in
stigated by an evil spirit, but the out
bursts of the same savage nature which
found more frequent expression, years
ago and which are still present with
the lower races of to day" The major
ity of thinkers hold the opinion un-
changed that there is an eternal dis
tinctiOn between right and wrong, and
that wrong sooner or later will meet
with the punishment it deserves. If
there be God in Heaven, the venge-
ance that awaits the South will be ter
rible indeed.
If we learn all supernatural issues
out of the question, and regard merely
the violation of the laws of political
economy and common humanity, the
South can still hope for no immunity.
1t has broken all these laws, and only
added weight to the fetters which the
blacks wore before their emancipation.
Four years of war gave it a foretaste of
the doom it brought upon itself, but it
has learned nothing since. Indeed, it
is more joined to its idols than ever.
When one reads of the meanness and
ferocity of the unrepentant rebels of
Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana,
he finds less difficulty in reconciling the
determination of the Canaanites enjoin-
ed on the Hebrews, with the Divine
goodness. No one can wish more sim
cerely than ourselves the prosperity of
the South, and it's development in all
the arts of peace. Yet should the
down trOuden race, driven to frenzy,
at least rise against its Oppressors, the
individual sufferings of unoffending
citizens would be lost sight of in the
feeling that a merited retributiOn was
being visited upon tyrants.
The best way to arrest such disaster
is to remove the circumstances which |
provoke it. The white barbarism of
tie South must rule no longer. The
American people owe it to themselves,
to their prosperity, to the freedom of
the South, and to God, to put speedy |
and effectual check upon the terrorism
tuat now reigns supreme Cincinnati
Gazette.