Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1879-10-03
Chalmers Defends the Chisholm Muir
derers.

1t was to be expected, as a matter of
course, that the hero of Fort Pillow
would come to the defense of the Mis-
sissippi barbarians that slaughtered the
Chisholm family, and place on record
his approval of the verdict of the Mis-
sissippi jury that, contrary to the plain
est evidence, recently acquitted one of
the bloodiest of the murderous lot. 1t
is a proceeding consistent to the char
acter of Mr.. Chalmers, and in keeping
with the record of his career as a sol
dier of the lost cause. To expect him to
be convinced by the most conclusive
evidence of his guilt that the murderer,
II. j. Gully, was not as innocent as
white-robed purity itself, would imply
ignorance of the fact that the constitu-
ton of his mind is a habit of prejudice
in favor of the peculiar method of local
self-government which barbarism prac-
tices in Mississippi.
The Nation must not assume to re-
strain barbarism in the dominion of
Mississippi, Mr.. Chalmers says. This,
at all events, is the meaning he express
es in the following words:
"The cry of the Northern press that
bhO ObtbbubCo DilOulu bC w bSb
if some means can not be found where
by the Nation can protect its citizens,
means that a new batch of reconstructed
laws are demanded, under which the
bloody scenes of judicial murder under
Jetfreys and Scroggs may be re-enacted.
This is the fate that the South may ex-
pect from the Republican party, and
yet she is denounced for being solid
against it."
If an American citizen is slain by the
savages in Montana, the Nation finds
means to execute justice upon the as
sassin. So, too, if an American be
murdered in Asia, or on the remotest
island in the sea. The power of the
Nation to protect the lives of its citi-
zens, or to punish those who by lawless
violence destroy their lives, goes with
its flag to every place on this habitable
globe-egcept Mississippi (according to
Mr.. Chalmers). Though whole fam
lily of American citizens be assassinated
in Mississippi, the Nation has no power
to punish the assassin $50 thinks Mr..
Chalmers). Mississippi is a self-gov-
ing dominion-a sovereign State; if
American citizens are murdered there,
it is the function of the Mississippi gov
ernment to proceed against the muir
derers. And if the Mississippi govern
ment, instead of fulfilling the function
of civilized Government by executing
justice upon the murderers, chooses to
show itself an agency of barbarism by
setting them at liberty and rewarding
them for killing American citizens, and
encouraging them to kill some more, it
has the sovereign right to do so, and
the American Government must not in
any way interfere TO protect the lives of
its citizens against the sovereign Mis-
sissippi barbarians. This is the doc
trine held by Mr.. Chalmers, who gives
us to understand that it is to uphold
that the South (Of the feminine gender)
is I" solid against the North"
So be it. 1t is then, upon exactly
the onposite of this, doctrine that the
North is, and in all time to come un-
doubtedly will be, solid against the
South. To the Southern doctrine the
North opposes, not Northern but
an American doctrine, and says:
This shall all the inhabitants of
America accept and abide by.
1t is the function of the American
Nation to protect the lives and liberties
of the American citizens who compose
it. For this purpose the Nation has in
stituted divers agencies called govern
ments the National Government, the
Territorial Government, the Local Gov
ernment, called States, and so on. II
the Local Governments fulfill their
functions by protecting the lives and
liberties of American citizens within
their several jurisdictions, the Nation
will not require its supreme govern
ment to exercise its function in the
premises. But if the Local Govern
ments abdicate their functions or re-
fuse, or fail, or by reason of barbar-
ism or other cause, show their in.
capacity to fulfill their functions, then
the fulfllment of them will devolve up.
on the supreme American Government,
which has Powor to do, and will do,
whatever may be necessary to execute
justice and protect the lives and liber-
ties of all American citizens. Mr.. Chal-
mers may express it in whatever terms
are most pleasing to him; but he and
every other apologist for or defender OF
Mississippi barbarism can be confident
ly assured that this is the fate which
the South may expect, unless the local
Governments in that section fulfill the
functions of civilized Governments -
ChicGQO Times Ind. Dem.