New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-10-20
rH0 .4RE rBE >oUTHEBN LE1DERSi

WVO 4RE TIE sou IULNN Lf3DEHNf
There are some excellent Son hcrn gentle
men. in Congress and ont of it, who are very
much >hocLod at manifestations of Southern
lawlesspes,. like tie shooting OF a postmaster
i'm BlackVille, the expulsion Of n postmisiross
from Grenada. the murder of Dixon. and the
murder OF the Chisolms but are still more in
dignant al the Northern newspapers which
make the facts public why" they ask,
- Will the Radical press persist in sowing dis
cord between the sections by harping on
these unfortunate occurrences There are
bad and violent men in the South, as there
.'are everywhere else, but they are not the
representatives Of Southern character. We
have right to demand that we shall be
Judged 10y our best people and not 10y our
'worst.n
This would he reasonable rcmonstrance
bat for the announcement circumstance that the
hullies and men of blood have taken the man
agemcnt Of Southern politics into their hands
and are not only running the administration
Of home rule after their peculiar fashion,
bat are applying the same violent methods 10
the government of the whole country. The
manner in which they see lit to elect Congress
men and Legislators and to treat Federal Off
The hulldozer applies the shotgun not merely
to the correction of the political opinions OF
the local niggers." but also TO the suhju-
cation of the free North. Every political out
RAGE in South Carolina and Mississippi is III
effect an attack upon Northern ballct-bOxes.
Every Southern gentleman who Is sent to
Congress 10y a terrorized constituency, to
make laws for the whole Nation. is pTacti-
callv repeating the bludgeon work which
Preston Brooks applied to his controversy
with Charles Sumner. 1t is the height of III
science TO ask lis TO submit to II in silence.
Southern gentlemen so long as they take
Office by the help of such outrages, have no
right to hold themselves above the perpctra-
tors. There l. more than one Southern Sena-
tor whose credentials are dyed IN blood.
There is one who is known TO have been IN
league with gangs OF desperate men To eStab-
hsh by lawless violence the State Government
which afterwards sent him TO Washington.
Yet no Southern Democrat thinks the worse
of these gentlemen because they have stopped
70 take advantage of fraud and murder.
They do not think the worse of themselves.
I'm truth, there is no vigorous public condcm-
nation of political Outrages in the Southern
states. Violence is sometimes lamentcd, be-
cause il has a bad look abroad, or because IT
disturbs the community, or from some such
feeling a. moved the engine-driycr when he
said lee hated TO run over a man-it muSsCd
up the track 50. But of genuine indignation
nj political mob-violence there is hardly Il
trace. \ Mississippi jury would not convict
the ChisOlm muiderers. Republicans IN South
Carolina beg their friends here TO say moth
ing about the murder of Bricc, lest the local
courts and iuries refuse 10 punish the as~as-
sins " if the political features of their crime
are forced INTO prominence"
The South cannot ask to be judged by her
best men until She herself accepts these best
men for guides At present they have no
pelccpiiblc influence upon the behavior Of
their townsmcn. They are models of dcnort-
mcni whom nobody initiates. The neal lead
els are the men with the shOiguns.