Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1878-02-08
January 8, lS7s

Your noHlD!e servant, JAMES
o.Kentucky.
January 8, 1875
We do not need to call attention to the
cordial and kindly temper of this communi-
cation. it speaks for itself, in that respect.
The writer is evidently a thoroughly
"pacifed" Southerner Having found that
he must live with his Northern brothers,
under one flag, he has evidently made up his
mind to love them, and love them hard. The
possessor OF so sweet and forgiving spirit
has right to claim that all the pacifcation
ought not to be on his side.
But what does his defence OF Southern
lawlessness amount to? At best it is but
the old reply, You're another" If all he
says were so, two wrongs do not make one
right. But bis facts and logic are equally
faulty. Murder is murder, he tells US,
North as well as South and since there are
murders in New England as well as Missis-
sippi, it follows that the latter is as
orderly a community as the former ,
The absurdity of this reasoning is too
plain to need comment. The alarming feat
ure of Southern lawlessness is not that crime
exist. there. No community is free from
crimes and there are times of business
stagnation, when work is slack and men get
desperate, and epidemics Of crime seem to
sweep over the country, from which the
most orderly communities do not escape.
The difference between the sections is that in
the North murder is treated as a crime,
while in the South crime-especially crimes
resulting from political or race animosities-
largely goes UNPUBLISHED. A political muir
der in Mississippi, which is followed by no
arrests, by not even pretence of execution
of justice, as, We beg leave to say to our Ken
lucky correspondent, far worse than the
murder of farmer and bis wife in Massa-
chusetts. which was followed by the prompt
arrest of the murderer, who lies in Jail
awaiting trial, and will in due time, doubt
less, expiate his crime on the gallows. The
execution Of mob law in South Carolina is
worse than threat Of lynch law in Massa-
chusetts. The massachusetts lynchers"
threatened to take the law into their hands ;
but We remember no case in which such a
threat has been carried into act In New Eng
land. When the same can be said of South |
Carolina and Mississippi, We will cease to
talk of Southern lawlessness. One of the |
leaders of the mob of murderers who took |
the life Of Judge Chisolm, and shot down |
his daughter, as she tried to shield |
her fathers body with her own,
was not arrested, tried and hung
bat was run for sheriff, at the next election,
and Through some hocus- Focusing of the
ballot boxes to be sure) was declared elect
ed-a murderer and lsncher selected to ex-
ecute the laws When a case of that kind
occurs in New England, We viii! cease to
talk about Southern law!essness The Gov
ernor of Mississippi, in a public message,
called attention to the way in which terrible
crimes passed without pretence of investi-
CATION or punishment in that State. When
a New England Governor is compelled to
make such a notifying revelation, We will
cease to talk about Southern lawlessness.
When New England Senator takes his
place in the Senate, with hands red with
the blood of massacre, we will cease to
talk about Southern lawlessness
We trust the time is coming when law
and order shall have 50 far established their
sway in every State of the Union, that the.o
,hall'be no more occasion to talk of Southern
-eckessuess of life and defiance of Justice,
han Of Northern crimes Of the SINE cast
But it is not likely to come, es long as men
# the spirit of this Kentucky Democrat rule
public opinion in their section 1t will be
orry day for the colored men, for men of
Northern birth and sympathies at the South,
md for the Union, when men like this de-
ender of political murderers, this hearty
later of the men who struck down the re-
,ellion and liberated the slaves, shall control
rot only the State governments Of the South,
,ut the General Government. May such
lay be long averted.