Richland beacon., 1877-04-21
at HID NO CONNECTTOV 81 I
POLIIICS1

Ii the whole country has not long been
surfeted with and utterly sick and tired of
this stereotvped declaration. that is appended
to the account Of every crime committed in a
Southern State, then we are not in sympathy
'" 18th The country, or rather the sentiments of
the people are not in sympathy with ours.
The fact is, criminal acts committed in the
South have been so long seized upon by
bloody shirt politicians and used for the pur.
pose OF perpetuating carpetbag rule in the
South, by alarming and poisoning the minds
OF those who are not acquainted with the
character, sentiments, disposition. habits and
motives Of our people, that they expect moth.
ing else but that the cry o. political pcrsecu-
ton will be raised every time crime is per-
pe,rated, and they have got into the cronic
habit Of anticipating these bloody shirt reports
by denying the false charges before they are
made, until the denials have become as dis
gushing as the false charges themselves.
If a colored man or white Republican is
killed or gets into fight with another man,
if robbery or namele.s outrage is commit
ted and the brute is summarily dealt with by
an outraged community, some one, with indie
cent haste, rushes into punt with the state
ment that the murderer was of the same
politics with his victim, that the fighters were
Iolitical brethren, or tha, the brute and the
father, brother, son or uncle of his victim were
of the same political faith, and that those
who hung the monster were of both races
and politics. always concluding with the re-
mark, Therefore, it will be seen that politics
had nothing mhaterer TO do rith the matter"
leaving the very natural impression on the
mind Of stranger t. our peculiar political
malady-f such person exis;s-that it is a
very unusual thing for politics no, to have some
connection with the preparation of horrible
and brutal crimes or even with ordinary street
fights. Don't you see how absurd it ise
Every city, town, village and neghbothood
is infested more or less with disreputable and
dangerous characters--and We do not see that
Southern communities as rule are afflicted
with this class Of population more than those of
other countries-and they are generally men
of no political faith, but are enemies to all
mankind and outcasts from society Then
why should their crimes be attributed to politi.
cal motives, simply because they are commit.
ted in Southern State7
II a man is murdered in Northern State
no one ever thinks of inquiring about the
political affiliations of himself or his murder.
er; the cry is not raised that he is martyr to
his political faith; and the bloody shirt crowd
have no'right to charge crimes committed in
the South to the Democratic party, nor has
the country any right to expec, the party to be
always denying the charges before they are
even made. Then let us qui, the disgusting
practice, end when crime is committed,
assist the officers in bringing the guilty party
to justice, and thus prove by our acts that
there are no grounds for such charges We,
however, have reason to feel thankful that
We are not likely hereafter to have such false
charges brought against us, for the bloody
shirt monster is about dead and we hope will
soon be buried so deep that it can never be
resurrected