The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-05-17

Louisiana seems resolved to destroy the
democratic party. Two years ago, when the
country was on the point Of accepting the
HEnALD's idea Of National Convention Of
Peace and Reconstruction, the White
Knights, or some such gang. overturned the
regular government compelled General
Grant to issue warlike proclamation and
revived in an hour the spirit of Sumter. In
an hour all hope of any such convention
faded away. Now, ON the eve of most inn
portant election for the Presidency-an cleo
ton that will determine the control of the
nation for four and perhaps forty years-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" An
other source reports:-"S Sixty blacks killed"
Another says:-"Three whites killed" The
Sheriff reports:-sSeventeen colored men
killed and many wounded"
In noting this occurrence we may say, in
the first place. that all news from the South,
from the Associated Press reporters and the
newspaper correspondents, may be accepted
as friendly toward the democrats and the
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. It is certainly painful
story. We talk of reconstruction, of pure
government, of bringing the old sections to-
gether. The majority of citizens in the
North have no purpose SO dear to them as
the political, personal, social and commercial
restoration of the Union. To bring about
these results, to forever extinguish the pain
full memories of the war, to enable the South
to resume her once proud position there is
nothing we would not do, nothing except to
cancel the results Of the war. And vet
there seems to be Q party in the South
This party recognizes that the negro has been
freed from personal slavery, but it proposes
to reduce him to political slavery. 1t was
conquered by the rife; it proposes to con-
quer by the shotgun.
1t is time for us to speak with the utmost
plainness to our friends in the South. There
can only be one end to this shotgun policy.
These constant stories ASSASSINATION on the
Red River. of conventions dissolved by force
of riots, with s'twenty negroes killed and one
white man wounded = of revolutions like
that against Ames in Mississippi; this
prescription Of Northern men as carpet
baggers" and of Southern republicans as
''scalawags," this assumption that because
citizen of New York removes to North
Carolina and dares to 60 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, inhuman 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 misgoyernment 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 Chicago 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 mo-
ment if the reign of 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 shot-guns 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 gen.
eral government will. Even if there were n
democratic majority in the House as large
again as the present the people Of this
Republic-who fought the war for the
Union--would never submit in silence to
union which permits the repeated assassi-
nation of citizens for their principles Upon
this point there must be no misunderstood
ing 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 Camelias, are
assassins, cowardly and cruel, because they
select their victims from an inferior, help
less, amiable and inoffensive race-is ter
minated; unless the best sentiment in the
South at once Furnishes these men
and prevents recurrence of their
crimes, the strong arm of the general
government will fall upon them. Once CON-
pei Grant to draw the sword "for the pro-
lection of Union men" and there will be no
need of a campaign for the Presidency.