Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-05-31
A String Of Bald, UnrelieVed False.
hoods, Deliberately Framed with
COld.BlOOded Purpose to Per-
petaate the Feeling out OF
which Grew the Civil
War.

We invite the special attention of all
classes of our people to the following arti-
Giles, one of them from a magazine, Serb
ner's, edited by the American Upper
DIR. Holland, formerly of Vicksburg-the
other from leading newspaper OF Chicago
the Tribune-the opportunities of which to
learn the truth are unlimited, but which pre-
ters to lie maliciously, as in this case, when
it serves a brutal party purpose. The last
paragraph of the Tribnne'S article Is an
especial falsehood-a lie out Of whole cloth
made purposely by the writer in order to
round out his feAdishly malicious misrepre-
sensations of people whose courage under
repeated misfortunes is only equaled by
their industry and the rapidity with which
they have rehabilitated their homes and re-
placed to some extent the fortunes lost by
the civil war:
southern Civilization.
Scribner's Magazine: We wonder if the
south knows how hard 1t is making it for Its
friends and those who would think well of
its spirit and society. We know there are
two souths, but everybody does not know it.
We are quite aware, and every one Is likely
to be so, that the south is politically unit
for its own purposes. Even in this we think
southerners make grave mistake, as south
ern solidarity will be sure to beget northern
solidarity, and the south knows what that
means for them and their views of national
policy. But for this we have no disposition
to blame them. We understand in this quar-
ter that the south has no great love for the
national flag as such, and that the lost
cause" is still very precious to its politicians
and its people. We understand this, we say,
! and we expect in all their dealings with ma
tional affairs only such policy as would
naturally be dictated by the circumstances In
which they are placed, and the unrepentant
spirit which still possesses them and on
which they take their stand and boldly make
their boast. With this we do not quarrel.
| We expect it. It is the most natural thing
in the world that we should have it; but GER
tain events have occurred in the south of late
| with astounding frequency, which betray a
condition of morals and society that makes
every true friend of the south and
| EVERY TRUE AMERICAN HANG HIS HEAD IN
SHAME.
Murder after murder Is perpetrated in high
life with the coolest blood, and nobody is ar
rested for 1t and nothing is done about it.
Now, as we have said, we are perfectly aware
that however much of a unit the south may
be politically, there are socially two souths.
There is a law-loVing and abiding south,
and there is a south that is neither the one
nor the other. We understand perfectly
that to great number of southern people
| such a beastly murder As that OF Judge Chs
holm and his family is horrible. We under
stand that to these people such notable MUIR
ders as have taken place all over the south
during the last three months are great
| shock and great sorrow. The feeling finds
expression IN some of their best newspapers,
| but the trouble Is that this south is utterly
ogerawed by the other south, so that no man
dares to move for the maintenance of law
and the puni'hment of crime. Murder is
| committed and
THE MURDERER SHAKES HIS BLOODY HANDS
AT THE LAW EVERYWHERE,
| and walks the streets with entire freedom
and impunity. Human life Is accounted of
| no sacredness whatever, and law and the
executors of law are held in perfect contempt.
| The Judge upon his bench is not safe. Even
| the lawyer who tres a case that involves any
serious personal relations takes his life in his
hands when he does so. The most trivial
cases seem sufficient to awaken the brutal in
stincts of men and to induce the extreme
| of violence. Fighting weapons seem
to be in every man. pocket, as if he lived in
| a state of war, and he does not hesitate to
use them on the smallest provocation. We
| read of 5dnditti in Italy who make it unsafe
| for traveller who has any money to get out
/ side the lines of ordinary travel, and we won
der at the imbscllity of government that
| can give him no protection, and at the low
state of civilization that renders such abuses
| and outrages possible. We have no longer
| any reason to look abroad for anomalies of
| this sort. These southern murders give evil
| dence of lawlessness and
A DEGRADED CIVILIZATION
| much more notable than anything that can
be found among the Italian wilds and noun
tains. They are abominabls beyond the
power of an ordinary pen to characterize.
| There is nothing whatever to be said in
apology for them. The American, when he
reads OF them, can only hang his head in
horror and shame, and groan over the fact
that such fendish deeds can be perpetrated
under his national flag without punishment,
| and without even the notice of those who
pretend to administer the law. We warn
this better south OF which we have spoken
! that it must arouse itself and assert itself, If
1t would save the section of the country
which 1t so enthusiastically loves from ire
| deemable disgrace. The thing has gone too
far already, and unless these people are will
| ing to pass the south into the undisputed pos
session Of
THE MEN WHO DEsPIsE THE LAW
| and propose to take its administration into
| their own hands, they must arouse them
selves, and become the sworn and devoted
indicators of the law. When a man takes
| the life OF a brother man he must be made
to suffer the legal penalty. They cannot but
see that the matter ia growing worse from
| year to year. Any man eau commit MUIR
| der now, if he be in high life and do it for
| personal reasons, and bear white skin,
with great degree of certainty that nobody
| connected with the law will take any notice
| of 1t; and SO long as this fact obtains, the
murders will go on, and nobody will be safe.
A man might as well live in hell as in COM
munity where the law has no force and life
has no sacredness. As an American who
loves his country,
| WE ARE ASHAMED OF THESE oUTRAGEs
UPON CHRISTIAN DECENCY
and modern civilization. and they are, indeed,
burning shame upon the nation, and es-
pecially that part of the nation which has
been in the habit of claiming for itself a very
high stand In all those matters that relate to
social purity and high breeding. We assure
the south that outside of politics, among the
great christian people of the north vino wish
them well, and who, In any calamity that
may befall them, will always be their sympa-
thetic friends and helpers, there is great grief
over what they hear of violence and outrage
upon the blacks as well as whites. The
stories told by
THE POOR CREATURES NOW ENGRAVING
PROM THE SOUTH TO KANSAS,
Drawing cold and want and almost certain
death, to get away from homes where they
nave NO ptOUecGlOn from the rapacltY and
cruelty OF a race whose education gives them
an advantage, are sufficiently instructive.
Indeed, the emigration itself, with its at
tending circumstances, is a terrible story
The air is full of them, and we cannot doubt
that they are mainly true, because they are
so directly accordant with the line of notori-
GUS facts which pass unchallenged in every
quarter. All these things are sad beyond
our power to express, and in the friendliest
spirit we call upon that better south which
we know exists, to assert itself, and declare
that these things, SO cruel and disgraceful,
shall no longer degrade the American name.
Southern Poverty.
Chicago Tribune: Taken collectively, the
people who inhabit the old slave States are
as near to practical pauperism as it is either
comforting or pleasing for them to become.
This Is not said in haunting spirit, for no
true patriot can look upon the impoverished
and poverty stricken condition of those who
Lob Gfok L., Il