Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-11-24
PLAYING WITH FIRE.
Facts that Address Themselves to
Every Good Citizen, no Matter
where He Lives. Nor from
what state He Halls.

New York World: "a private letter
from lady in Louisiana has been
put into our hands, which throws
strong light on the folly and wickedness Of
those northern politicians who insist on try
ing to blind the northern people to the fact
that what they represent as q social war
at the south is really a struggle of the vice,
ignorance, poverty and lawlessness of the
community against its virtue, intelligence,
thrift and order, and In no true sense OF the
phase struggle of the black race against the
white The writer of this letter found her.
self In the heart of the late riots in Louisiana,
having left New Orleans with her family to
escape the yellow-fever. She says that all
the trouble in the region round about her
home was fomented by the harangues of the
lower grade of Republican politicians,
who grew desperate when they
saw the more respectable classes of
all colors deserving their ranks. These
were in danger of being e-ensaved, and
that if they wished to preserve their liberty
they must kill the whites and burn their
property. The deluded blacks were further
told that northern opinion would uphold
them in pillage, arson and murder in such
cause. A certain Captain Peck went, &C.
cording to this account to demonstrate with
one of the leaders among the negroes and
was shot dead as he approached the house.
A report was instantly spread that five hun
died whites had gathered to avenge Captain
Peck's death, whereupon three or four thou
sand negroes, armed with old United States
muskets, pistols and shotguns, surrounded
Waterproof and occupied all the roads lead
ing to it for miles, the whole neighbor-
hood as the writer says, presenting the
appearance of New York during the riots
These crowds declared that they would kill
every white man, woman and child in
| the town, and all efforts at pacify-
oat INIT
cess. Imagine a woman with several young
daughters In the center of such an excitement
Happily the militia from Natchez appeared
before anything worse than the burning of a
mill and some cotton had been attempted.
| The truth seems to be hat the least reputable
| of the negroes, under the demoraizng rule
| OF reconstruction, have had things their own
way SO long, in regard to politics and labor
| contracts, that in the rural regions they have
| become intolerant of opposition. 1t is not the
| instinct OF race but the law of self-protection
| which is driving all the better elements of the
! community into union against them. 1t is not
| because they are black that they are dreaded,
| out because they represent actual idleness and
| impending anarchy. Setting aside the color
| question altogether, can anything be more
| monstrous and absurd than to find northern
| speakers and writers bounding on black labor
ers intoa social war against the weather. and
more intelligent classes at the south, while
| tGey uenOUHC0 every sign OF union ana CO.
| oper alton among the white laborers of the
north as leading directly to agrarianism and
| communism Who are SO loud in their
| clamor against the southern people to- day
as those who most enthusiastically called fol
grape and canister during the social dis
turbances of last year at the north? People
| who watch such men as Schwab and kear-
ney with IA jealous anxiety, waiting only for q
single transgression of the law to make ex-
anples of them and their followers, are not
ashamed to array themselves against all the
elements of social order and good govern
ment of the south as the allies of a class
compared with which every element of oul
northern population, black or white alike
may be considered we'll equipped for citizen
ship. If ever there was case of playing
with fire this Is such a case. 1t may not be
poor against the rich even in thi;
country, which our fathers fancied would
be forever exempt from such trials. But
the flames of such a contest lighted at the
south will spread inevitably to the west anC
the north. The philanthropists who are
more than suspected of putting the suffrage
into the hands Of the freedmen of the south
rather as weapon against the southern
whites than as an instrument OF southern
prosperity, have already laid themselves oper
to the suspicion of attempting to take the
suffrage out of the hands of the laborins
whites of the north. If the right TO rul(
| States is claimed for the negro laborer at the
south, not because he Is a laborer but be-
cause he is negro, it may not be long before
the right to rule States is asserted by the
white laborer at the north, not because he i.
white but because he is q laborer; and j
would be hard to show that the second claim
is not a far sounder claim aud far more com
patible with the interests of society aud O.
| civilization than the former