New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-02-09
4 TREACHEROUS PEACE.

Most men would prefer to be killed in
stantly by cannon-ball rather than to be
stupg to death by mosquitoes. Southern De-
mocracy has tried both methods of dealing
with Repubhcanism at the South, and seems
to regard the slow torture as the more eilec-
tive As long rs men were mastered by
scores; as long, even, as the systematic
assassination of leading and active individ
uals was the method pursued, il was found
that more Republican votes were made
at the North than were exterminated at
the South and the Democratic cause
made no progress. But the plan of
unceasing prescription in business, social
ostracism, legislative unfairness. industrial
balf-servitude, and personal insult 1t is
hoped will offer no handle winch Northern
censure can grasp, no striking facts to arouse
Northern feeling. and yet will make an end
of Republcanism in politics and OF real free
dom in labor quite as surely as any method
of greater apparent harshness. Thus 1t comes
TO pass that The World congratulates Demo
Gratis that no "politcal reign OF terror ex-
ISIS. and no political murders are now reported,
in any part of the South. For, it says,
not a single case of the sort could
occur without being known all over the country
within a week." Nevertheless, Southern Re
nubhcans by the thousand are fugitives i'll
Northern States, colored voters and workers
by the thousand are emigratlng to regions OF
less cOngenial climate, and Congressional
committee is investigating the cause OF the
exodus. Among the witnesses on Saturday
was an intelligent emigrant from North Caro-
lima, whose testimony The World thus men
| tiOns:
lie does allege that the laws OF North Carolina are In
some particulars hard upon the negoesnOt or course
as egroe tenants and abOrers and he declares
further that the laws not fairly administered be-
tween Whites and negroes In ali cases. without de-
| tailed knowledge Of the conditions OF society
| in North Carolina it is impossible 10 make out
| how much foundation there 10 for this charge
| We need say that 1t behooves the people
Of North Carolina and OF every other Southern State 10
see TO Il that shall be foundation whatever for
such charge either against the law or against those
! who adninlsterit. The Southern people must
perceive ~ behooves them alike as matter Of
duty and as Of policy to make the equality Of
all men before the law established and undis-
| puted fact.
The advice is good. 1t does behOove the
| Southern Democrats, alike as a matter of duty
| and as matter of policy, to treat men who
differ from themselves in opinion so fairly and
Justly that they shall not fly from their homes.
| The naked fact is that they have not done so.
| It behooves them to maintain such state of
things that free labOrers, and enterprising and
energetic men of every class, shall be disposed
to 90 thither to build up the land, to de-
velop its resources. and to make the South rich
strong and prosperous. The naked fact is that
| they have not done so. Men may differ widely,
| as to the cause of the refusal OF emigrants to
| 60 to the South, or as to the cause Of the mi
grafton of Republicans white and black, from
| the South. But there can be no dispute abont
| the fact Emigration does not go to the
| South Colored laborers do fly from the South
in large numbers. Ii white Republican
cares so little 70 his opinions that he is will
ing to change or suppress them for the sake
of peace or gain, he can get on at the South
well enough. If colored man cares so little
for his race, its wrongs, its rights, and its real
| freedom that he can become Democrat he can
stay at the South, and receive especial favor.
| But he who cares to be free citizen OF free
country, if he is out of the South prefers to
stay out, and if he is at the South desires to
get away. The love of freedom is something
more than phrase. Real freedom does not
exist. and never has existed, at the South, and
until it does the land is cursed Not all its
beauty, not all its fertility, not all its wonder
| full resources, can attract men thither nor
| keep them there, so long as genuine freedom
of opinion is unknown.
Besides persecution for opinions sake, there
is also at the South great injustice toward the
laboring class, both in the laws and in their
enforcement. This is natural in land where
labor was for many generations considered
the doom of an enslayed, ignorant and de-
spised race. For many years to como it will
never be quite possible at the South to get
laws enacted which shall be strictly just to
the labor1ng class. nor to get laws for the
protection of that class enforced with strict
impartiality. But the injustice would be very
much less than 1t is II tho laboring class was