New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-04-02
MISSISSIPPI GOING TO THE DOGS.

MISSISSIPPI GOING TO THE DOGS.
HER LABoRERs LEAVING BY THE THoUsANp-HER
YOUNG MEN IGNORANT, RUDE AND LAWLESS-
| THE PLANTING INTEREST IN DISTRESS.
| IRON THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT or THE TRIBUNE
| WASHINGTON March 2S.-A gentleman who owns
property in Mississippi and has spent the last year
in that State has recently arrived in this city. he
says that the condition Of affairs IN that State Is
deplOrable Bankers refuse to lend any more money
on real estate security. Merchants find it lmpos-
sible to make advances to planters taking crops as
security In effect he says the entire credit sys-
TEN of the State has been destroyed. There is little
ready money, and distress and ruin stare all
classes in the face The political disturbances
nave driven away the investments of North
ern capital and enterprise. and the pesti-
lence last Summer has finished the work that
the bulldozers began four years ago. Areturn OF
the yellow foyer the coming Summer is generally
expected. He says that in VIcksburg there have
been sporadic cases of the fever all Winter; that
nothing whatever has been done to improve the
sanitary condition of that city, and that already
people are beginning to take the alarm and to make
preparations to flee from the place.
Speaking of the report that large numbers of the
negroes are leaving that State for the North, ne
saws that the movement is fast assuming the pro-
portions of an hegra and is causing general alarm
among the planters throughout the State. From
the river counties of Mississippi below Ncksburg
alone more than 1000 cOlored persons have re-
moved TO the Northern States since the LIST OF Jan
uarv last most Of them bound for Kansas, but
many settling in Illinois and Indiana. He says that
the negroes who thus remove take almost as many
precautions to get away as they formerly did to
escape from slavery Part of a family will board a
boat at one landing and part at another, to avoitl
exciting suspicion.
The local press of the State, he says, IS filed
with dcnuncatlOns of Yankee agents, who are said
to be enticing the cOlOred labOrers to leave the
State and they are threatened with all sorts OF
punishment If caught lie thinks that if an
employer were to be found in Mississippi hiring
negroes to go to a Northern State to work. he
would be likely to receive the same kind OF treat
ment that was melted out to any unfortunate
aboltonist caught in the State during the days of
slavery He SAYS the excitement of the planters on
this subject is so great that they have been trying
TO induce Governor Stone to convene the Leglsla-
ture and secure the enactment of some legislation
to prevent the exodus Of their labOrerS, but the
Governor has thus far declined to do as they de-
sire. The planters too, are beginning to see that
in order to keep their labDrers they must allow
them to think and vote as they choose. and he re-
marks that some of them already begin TO say
openly that the most important matter TO them is
TO have labor TO cultivate their lands and that
politics must give way to this; the negroes must
be allowed to vote and to have their votes fairly
counted. He says that the chief interest of the
State-planting-sb beginning already to suffer from
the natural reaction from the bulldozing.
To show how home rule" works in practice the
gentleman referred to relates incident. Not log
ago one of the Democratic "clubs" in Wilkinson
County Miss. becoming tired of inactiOD, masked
themselves one night, mounted their horses and
rode about the county, firing off their guns
as they halted at the plantations to brighten
the negroes. but committing no acts OF
violence. The next day the frightened colOred
people began to appear In crowds at the county
seat and refused to return the plantations. Tho
planters, to whom every day atthls season is vau-
able were justly indignant, and had several OF the
leaders of the midnight raid arrested and lodged in
iail News of their Incarceration went abroad and
reached West Felicana Parish on the opposite side
of the Mississippi, in Louisiana. company of the
White League from that Parish at once invaded
Mississippi, marched to the town where their COM
rades wero confined in jail and demanded their m
mediate release. saying that themcn had committed
no offence had only been on clark" to inspire the
"niggers' with wholesome fear and concluded their
demand with the threat that unless it complied
with they would burn the town. The prisoners
we're released, and the Nnte Leaguers re-
turned to their Louisiana homes. The plant,
ers fearing that there will be other g larks"
OF the same sort, and finding that the
authorities pOwerleSs to arrest and punish
the guilty, are organizing for Selt-protectlon ana
aT1nng their abOrers One of the leading negroes
on each plantation is appointed captain of this i'm
prOvsed home guard, and his employees enlist as
priyates in the company. Tbs looks as though
under her boosted hoIne-ruie Mississippi has made
long stride toward anarchy.
lie gentleman who gives this information repre-
sents thaI the Young men of the State generally
Io, IN from bnv n
out education There are now few public schools III
the State worthy of the name respect for Law and
order. Thousands of them have become familiar.
as members of the White League, with arson and
murder; and they are generally indoIent, shlftles5
and poor forming dangerous and powerful ele-
ment of society which Is already dreaded by the con-
seryatIYc property owners who are In minority.
lie thinks the State is surely, and not slowly drift
ing into a condition OF anarchy q. L. W.
LETTER FROM CONGRESSMAN PHILLIPS.
THE MEANING OF THE NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. FLEE
ING FROM THE SOUTH BECAUSE NOTHING ELSE
REMAINS FOR THEN TO DO-A LESSON WHICH IT
WILL PAY TO LEARN.
TO the Editor or The Tribune.
SIR: Political events are not always under the
control of political agents 1t is thing to make
Governors and Legislatures and Congresses and
laws; it is another thing to make history. Both
houses of Congress have just passed into the power
of the Democratic party, and when IsaY Democratic
party mean tho party that carried the country
into rebellion eighteen years ago. Our political Rip
Van Wrinkle has come back TO US with the same
ideas he had when he laid down in his drunken spree
with the ghosts Of buccaneers around the shadows Of
Fort Sumter-the Constitution AZ it was" The
eigbteeTyears OF Republican rule are as a horTd
nightmare. The grandest page in the history of the
country is stigmatzed a usurpation a despotisn.
a reign of frahd. We have four and half millions
Of cOlored people, onetenth at least of the popula