The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-05-22
ABUSE OF THE NEGRO.

The North is morbidly sensitive on
the subject of the South's treatment of
the negro, and many of the papers
throughout the Northern and Western
States teen with reports Of all the unfor-
tunate occurrences in which the negro is
a party, embellishing by addition or
otherwise such portions of the tales as do
not come up to the necessary standard of
horror. We expect this course from the
Republican press, but 't is matter of no
little astonishment to find paper so we'll
informed and usually so sensible as the
New York Herald taking an active part
in the repetition and Inagni6cation of
these occurrences. In recent issue it
says:
Nobody will find it difficult to under
stand the negro exodus who will take the
pains to watch from day to day for a
month only the chronicles of outrages
inflicted upon negroes or persons who
sympthize with them which find their
way into the newspapers in various parts
of the country. Since the redhot repub-
lican leaders abandoned "lhe bloody
shirt" as an unsatisfactory standard no.
body has been at special pains to gather
up and report at large these painful sto-
ries, and such of them rs see the light
come out rather by accident than other
wise and somewhat against the grain, save
in the rare cases in which they are told
with exultation as if it were heroic for
mob to discipline some frightened
wretch with bludgeons and firearms. Be-
cause they are not culled for the pur-
pose reports Of this nature present safer
picture of the life the colored men lead
in the South than could he otherwise
drawn. Perhaps we hear of one of these
stories for hundred that happen, and il
one in mere recital produces painful
| impression at distance how much the
hundred act upon the minds of the poor
creatures who are the victims The story
of an incident in Arkansas, told in the
Herald yesterday, is characteristic one,
and proves that there are no authorities
in that State with energy or courage
enough to face the rulianly opinion that
believes it proper to deal with the negro
as if he were q wild beast. AS that
opinion exists in the South-as there are
no authorities that can prevent its SUBJ
stitution for the law-the negro ac.s on
ly upon ordinary human impulses in his
effort to get away.
Such articles as this from the Herald
are doing the South very great injury
both materially and politically. There
are unfortunate instances of violence to-
wards negroes by white men in the South,
but they are not sustained by law nor are
they supported by public opinion. 1t is
also true that there are more cases of vio-
lence between whites than of whites to-
wards negroes, and also more instances
of violence towards whites by negroes
than of violence to negroes by white per-
sons. In many instances where white
persons are violent towards negroes j: is
in self-defense, but there are also some
outrageous cases which are disgraceful to
our country and are universally regret
ted by our people, and when the guilty
parties are caught mcrited punishment
is inflicted. These cases, however much
to be regretted, are no worse than hum
dreds which occur through the North
and West, not with negroes, because they
are not there, but with the very class OF
population which most nearly approaches
to our colored population. If the North
and West would look little nearer at
home it might be of service to them.
We of the South realize the misfortune
of more lawlessness than we ought to
have, and are using vigilant efforts to
suppress it. If the North succeeds as
we'll as the South has done, and will con-
tinue to do, it will have cause for graft
tude. The color question ought to have
nothing to do with crime. The true test
of the relative lawlessness of the sections
is the whole amount of crime in each.
Morally and before the law it is as great a
crime to kill a negro as to kill white
man, but it is not greater crime, and
therefore until the North can stop the
killing of men in her States, the press
would do we'll to moraize little on mat
tiers at home as we'll as to spend the time
in prating about distant subject of
which they know little or nothing. In
the meantime we of the South ought to
strive to remove entirely this cause of
censure by rigidly enforcing the law ire
spec:ive of race or color. Men of all
races should be made to realize that
crime will be punished, and that neither
the great nor the humble can disobey the
laws of the government without rcaping
a proper penalty therefor.