American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1880-03-06
The Exodus and Civil Rights.

The testimony about the exodus is
all to the same effect upon one point,
and that the most important point i'll
volved in the investigation. The ne
groeS were not g fleeing from oppres-
SION" There was no oppression from
which to flee. This was the case in
North Carolina, as has been shown by
ample testimony No doubt the tecli-
mony from the other parts of the South
from which there has been any con-
siderable movement of negroes will be
to the same effect. The testimony of
the refugees from the Lower MISSISSIPPI
pi has already been taken by reporters
and otherunoiliclale examiners iii St. Lou
is and in Kansas, and the refugees have
agreed that politics, either of parties
or of races, had nothing whatever to
do with their departure. The univcr-
sal desire to better ones condition ac-
counted for some part of the migration,
though this desire has been disappoint-
ed in every case thus far reported.
The devices of railroad runners and of
land agents accounted for much more.
The testimony taken of an emigrant
from North Carolina, who seems to be
man of sense and honesty, shows a
natural disposition to put the best face
possible upon what has turned out to be
a foolish action. He does allege
that the laws of North Carolina
are in some particulars hard upon the
negroes-not, of course, as negroes,
but as tenants and laborers-and he
declares further that the laws are not
fairly administered between whites and
negroes IN all cases. Without a detail
ed knowledge of the conditions of
society in North Carolina it is i'm
possible to make out how much founda-
ton there is for this charge. We need
not say that it behooves the people of
North Carolina and of every other
Southern State to see to it that there
shall be no foundation whatever for
such a charge either against the law or
against those who administer it. The
legislation of Congress makes it all but
impossible that any law should be
passed which discriminates between
whites and blacks, and in deed no such
discrimination is alleged. All that
seems to be alleged is that classes, of
which the negroes compose majority,
are held to obligations which are irk-
some and which they consider unfair,
and this of course is thing which is
likely to happen in any country at any
time. Such accusations as are made
against the courts are too intangible
to be dealt with satisfactorily. But
the Southern people must perceive that
it behoOves them, alike as matter of
duty and as a matter of policy, to make
the equality Of all men before the law
an established and an undisputed fact.
1t will be observed, however, that
nothing is charged which can, by even
the most reckless partisanship, be des-
cribed as oppression. In truth it is
not to be supposed that a single case
of what can fairly be so described could
occur in any Southern State without
being known al! over the country
within a week and brought to the at
tention of every reader of our Republi-
can contemporaries. The 1.-TWO Sec
ond-hand MURDERS which were some
time since inventoried as the political
capital of the Republican party for the
canvass of 1880 have not been increased
in number. 1t is not soothing, but speak
ing seriously, to say that fresh politi-
cal murder or a clear case of ''proscrip-
tom in the South would be worth
many votes to that party. The interest
of the party lies in fomenting outrages
and in giving to any outrages which
may occur the widest possible public
ity. To suppose that political reign
of terror exists or has existed in any
part of any Southern State and has not
been fully made known is to arraign
the managing politicians of the Repub-
lican party for gross incompetency,
crime of which most people will hold
them guiltless. The testimony that
there has been no such condition of
things in those parts of the South from
which the so-called exodus has pro-
cceded is therefore precisely what every
sensible and unbiased person would ex-
pect.-M. y World