The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1877-06-14
From the Cincinnati Gazette.I
Have Law and Justice Failed in Our Re-
public ?-The Southern Murders

If patriotic American (as most of us
claim to be) were told that law was bet
ter enforced and justice more certain in
England than in this republican county,
he would feel indignant, and, if not ia
miliar with English law, as Indignantly
deny it, Yet, England is at this moment
the only country on earth where the life
of single man is sacred, and where for
him, or his property. the whole power of
the government will be put forth. Con-
sideringithat justice is one of the great
ends of republican government, it is sad
to think that our government falls short
in the great and holy office of justice.
And yet does it not2 Will any reader
say that justice is done when numbers Of
the most cruel and horrid murders and
massacres are committed with impunity2
Is it not a notorious fact that the most
barbarous cruelties and wrongs have been
perpetrated in three of the Southern
States, within twelvemonth, nd that
there is no punishment, not even a trial
of the offender, until the trial of the
Ellenton murderers wss begun2 We
sympathize with the Bulgariahs, we are
ready to rush off to punish the Chinese,
to help the Cubans, or to any other part
of the world but our own. Would ii not
be quite as we'll to look at ourselves, and
see how we shall appear in the glass Of
history2 What reply shall we make to
the next traveller who writes us down as
barbarous people2 1t won't do to point
to Ohio and Massachusetts, as samples of
civilized and humane communities, while
South Carolina, Mississippi, and Louis
lana present examples of barbarism equal
to those of Bulgaria. Of these States,
South Carolina is far.n.the most civilized
1. 4 H. - Ioft tho EI1anf0n pfnfopo
and see how poor, innocent negroes were
shot down by such gentlemen-whom the
South calls respectable-as Butler. Read
them and see what justice and civilizd
ton mean there. But some one will say,
"Oh that is only a war OF races the
whites have u natural right to govern
negroes" / don't know where the nat
ural right comes from. IL certainly did
not come from the God OF Nature and
Revelation. But let that pass Let US
admit everything that is said by the vim
dicators of murder and barbarism. Let
us admit, if you please, that the whites
of the South have right to govern and
to murder the poor negroes, simply be-
cause they are negroes and poor. But
does il follow from all this that they have
a right to murder, hack hew, and cruelty
whites The negro argument fails there.
Read il, and then tell US what part the
Turks acted in Bulgaria worse than that.
Men, women and children are shot down
in Mississippi-not because they were
black, not because they were poor, but
because they dared to think and vote as
American citizens. That was the only
reason. What followed Did.Mississippi
rise in manly sympathy with justice?
Did the people of Mississippi require
that the law should be enforced Did
the Sheriff arrest the murderers Did
the Governor insist that the law should
be enforced? Not bit of it, All is ST.
lent, and the murderers 60 home Miss
issippi gives the world to understand
that she has no sense of justice, of mercy,
or of humanity 1t is said that after the
battle of Manassas the Mississippi regi-
ments drank out of the skulls of their
ene.Lies. Was that true2 But if the
Chisholm murders are not avenged, why
should it not be true2 The barbarism
which produced the one is fully equal to
the other. If Mississippi indorses the
Chisholm murders, what from Manassas
to Bulgaria is she not capable Of? But
where is the Governor of Mississippi
His name, it is said, is Stone, and he, too,
is silent; not word to say on what, if
not avenged, must make his State infa-
NOUS through all time. The South has
very seldom put among her public men a
man who is either mean or cowardly. If
she was wrong, she was brave. If she
was selfish, she was not mean. Yet, this
Gov. Stone is both Poor, pitiful crea-
turel He can not see that the good name
of Mississippi is worth a thousand times
the murderers of Chisolm. He does not