The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-01-17
MIGRATION OF SOUTHERN NEGROES
Curious Commentary on the
Reported Outrages.
RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CHEYENNE OUTBREAK.
Present and Remote Effect of the Fed
eral Election Law.
FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.

WASHINGTON. Jan. 49, 1879.
A REPUBLICAN SENATOR'S ANXIETY FOR THE
EMINENT
Senator Window illustrated once more to-day the
curious ignorance OF prominent republicans in re-
gard the real condition of the Southern blacks.
He proposed that a committee of Senators shall
devise means for the removal of the negroes
from such parts of the South where they
are refused their rights to other parts
of the country to reservation He appears to be
ignorant of the well known fact that there is, and has
been for years, constant and uniipeded migration
of the blacks. movement which has been aided and
stimulated by organized emigration societies OF
planters in such States Louisiana and Arkansas.
and by colored emigration agents elsewhere acting as
private persons giving intelligence concerning lands
prices. wages. crops, Hundreds of thousands of
negroes have emigrated from Southeastern to South
western States in the half dozen years. and it
would probably amaze Senator Window to know that
Arkansas Louisiana and Mississippi have been
favorite States with industrious colored men seeking
new homes and that in 1875 at the very time when
Senator Morton was vainly trying to persuade the
Northern public that negros life was safe in
Mississippi hundreds Of negro families removed
thther from North Carolina, Georgia and Ten
nessee, attracted by the rich lands of the Yazoo
Bottom. and laughing at the ridiculous
stories of murder and intimidation which they
knew from the reports of their friends who had pre-
coded them false Ii leading republican Sena-
tors would take the trouble to travel through the
Southern States and investigate fairly the condition
of the negroes they would not offer such ridiculous
resolutions. which evidently based upon a sup
position that the Southern blacks serfs Of the
SOIL unable leave the spot where they happen to be
fixed.
THE EXISTING MIDDLE BETWEEN THE MILITARY
AND THE INDIAN NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
FOR THE CHEYENNE oUTBREAK-RADICAL DIF-
FERENCEs OF OPINION.
The Cheyenne troubles show once more the diff
Guilty of fixing the responsibility for maadmnstra-
ton any where power and responsibility
divided The present trouble is only result of
previous occurrence. Nine hundred Cbeyennes were
handed by the military over to the Indian Bureau They
known to be dangerous Indians; they ought OF
course. have been disarmed and deprived of their
ponies-made harmless possible that is to say.
Ii the Senate Indian Committee investigates the
nar. Senator Voorhees, has asked. it will presently
come upon a complaint Of the Indian agent Miles
that the Indians disarmed, they ought to
have BEEN and the charge by Mr. Miles that the army
is in fauit. But against this will appear the test-
mony of army officers that the Indians dissrned
ana deprived of their ponies and that IL they got
arms and ammunition it after they were turned
over to the Indian Bureau.
II il the duty of the army to dsarm the Chey-
ennes it undoubtedly the duty of the Indian
agent not to receive them until they disarmed
II they were dsarlned when he received them, then
the army presumably did its duty, and the Indians
must have got by the negligence fault of the
agent But it is all mudile. The army and the
work in l3rmony, being responsible to different
departments OF the government, and ont OF the
whole middle the only lesson seems to be that, to
manage the Indians successfully, they ought TO be
placed under aud not two sets of rulers that
at least the country will not have. has now. all
the cost and trouble Of an Indian war. and also the
additional worry of interminable disputes to who
is responsible for the hostilities.
THE CHOICE OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS
FEELING IN BOTH PARTIES REGARDING THE
FEDERAL ELECTION LAW.
The movement in the Alabama Legislature To pass
law making the Presidential electors hereafter
elected not by the popular vote but by the Legsla-
ture, after the which originally obtained in
many of the States and up TO 1861 in South Carolina
attracts much attention here. Democrats, at first
blush, think well of il the ground
tina. il would prevent not only the partisan
interference or lufte1 states deputy marshals
and supervisors in the elections. but also all trouble
with returning boards. bodies which have fallen into
suspicion with all decent people. Republicans sug-
gest that the laws which give federal supervision of
elections in which federal officers be returned
would in such case apply also 10 the election
OF members Of the State Legislature, and that
the field of federal interference would be
widened and not diminished Here and
there finds republican who prudcntly desires to
all the federal election laws repealed while it is
yet time. and the hest democrats would gladly join
in such movement. but il is very doubtful whether
majority of the democrats i'm either House would
vote to repeal them. They see that these
laws give enormous power to the party
which has the administration of them and
the selection of the deputy marsha.s aud
supervisors They have end felt the effects of
the gross misuse which the republicans especially
in the Southern States and in the city OF New York
have made of these laws, and they have mind 10
take their turn day with thea. The repub-
lican politicians fully of this danger to
themselves, and it is Of the causes OF their
desperate efforts to retain power