The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-10-09
Southern Barbarism.

there we're ten or fifteen more of him
who were not foully assassinated. They
were all " influential politicians" who
religiously believed in the dogma of
local sef-government. They met in
general assembly at their gin house,
and deliberated upon the mode of self
government they would pursue. 1t was
enacted that they should assemble on a
certain Sabbath day, armed with double
barreled shot-guns, and proceed to the
residence of a reputable citizen who was
their political adversary. They pro-
ceeded to carry the law made at the gin
house assembly into effect. Armed and
equipped for the work of slaughter they
invaded the premises of their political
enemy, entered his domicile, seized him
without warrant or other law than that
made by themselves at the gin house,
carried him to the appointed slaughter
house, called the Jail, and there pro-
ceeded further to enjoy and exerci- e
the right of local self-government by
numbering him, his daughter, his young
boy, and two of his friendly neighbors.
Having 9. finished the work for which
they came"-these were the words of
their leader-they shouldered their
double-barreled shotguns and returned
to their homes, rejoicing in their " con-
stitutional right of local self-govern-
ment," and singing psans to the "prin-
ciples of Democracy"
His name was Gully. There were q
great many of him, and all of him con-
stituted an important factor in the poll
tics of that charming and self-govern-
ing country. One of him had been
foully assassinated, and it devolved up
on the rest of him, by virtue of the right
of local self-government, to avenge his
death by assassinating the foremost
man of the opposite party, together
with his daughter, his son, and such of
his neighbors as ventured to object to
such exercise of that right by the rest
of the iberty-loving Mr.. Gully. The
pretense of the rest of him that he had
been foully assasinated by the money of
his political adversary was grotesquely
absurd. Had it been warranted pre-
tense it would have furnished not the
least justification, legal or moral, of
the butchery that was done by the -ad-
mirers of local self-government. But
it was a pretense without the least
in any fact. After the rest
of him had butchered five innocent and
citizens, the murderer of
Gully was discovered in the person of
a negro fugitive from justice, who mis-
took his victim for an officer pursuing
to arrest him. That negro displayed
very little wisdom. Had he been wise,
instead of fleeing from justice, and
shooting the influential Mr.. Gully in
mistake for an. officer, he would have
Joined the Gully party and aided them
in practicing the great constitutional
right of local self-government in the
determination of their political adver-
saries. He would then have stood in
no danger of molestation by any officer
of Justice. At all events, this is war
ranted inference from all the facts in
the case.
Now. there are those who assume to
say that the Times is not warranted in
the opinion that these facts prove the
state of that self-governing society to
be the state called barbarism. What
is that state? Of course it can only be
by comparison to the state
called civilization. The two are the
opposites of each other, and each is
more clearly marked as the distance
between it and the other recedes from
the point of likeness. There are many
indices of each. Ignorance,
savageness, cruelty, fero-
city, disregard of the personal and prop
erty rights of others, inhumanity, in
tolerance of opposite opinions, disre-
gard of law and an inclination to settle
by acts of personal vio-
lence, such as dueling, =" bull-dozing"
and the drgun,entum bGculi,sun of the
shotgun, all these are indices of bar
barism. and the contrary of these are
indices of civilization. OF course bar
barism is not wholly limited to barba-
rous countries. In every civilized
country where the civil law is broken
by acts of individual violence there are
But the character of
society, whether civilized or barbarous.
is not determined by individual barba-
rians, nor by isolated instances of bar
barism; it is determined by that char
acter of its members which predomi-
mates in the social body. If its polity be
as in this country, its
character will be manifested in its regu-
lative administration; and in that or
ganized community where not only the
law is habitually superseded by vio-
lence, but where public opinion pre-
vents the execution of the law against
its violators, the predominant charac-
ter of society is the barbarious charac-
ter. The evidence that society in Miss
issippi is in the state of barbarism is
n Ill s~~A h.