Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-04-12

utteranceS, Wnen VleWeu III Ihe llSHI VI
the facts upon which they are supposed
to be based, turn out to be the veriest
buncombe, or in modern phrase, the thin
nest kind of taffy.
The Senator from Massachusetts, Mr..
Dawes, is the latest statesman who has
been found to be possessed with an imagi-
nation. 1t is an unusually potential
imagination-well-c cultivated, of broad
and comprehensive scope and rare devel-
opment. In the course of the recent de-
bates in the Senate he has shown his
ability to present to the country in all
their hideousness those midnight Ku-
Klux, who
''By force of potent spells, of bloody char
acters,
And conjurations, horrible to hear,
Call fends and spectres from the yawning
deep,
And set the ministers of hell at work."
He has recently depicted to the country
the terrible experience of a Massachusetts
man and capitalist-all Massachusetts
men are capitalists-in Mississippi. He
had gone there with the intention of as
sisting in the work of devel-
oping the industry of the State,
and had invested his money in
a cotton warehouse and gin. One night,
however, the Ku-Klux, like the ancient
Assyrian, ''came down like wolf on the
fold" and burned his warehouse. He at
once pulled up stakes and returned to
Massachusetts, where there are no such
things as Ku- Klux or fires. Thus was the
State of Mississippi and the solid South
deprived of the inestimable benefits of the
Massachusetts mans society and enter
prise.
This was a very good story, and well
calculated to illustrate the unregenerate
condition of the people of the South. 1t
showed that they still repel Northern
capital and prosecute Northern men, and
that as a consequence the Republicans
were justified in making the purchase of
Malone and compelling the people to pay
his bride. Some matter of fact person,
however, has taken the trouble to inves-
tigate the records of fires in Mississippi
since the war, and has discovered that in
that lapse of time but one warehouse has
been destroyed by fire. But, sad to relate,
it was not the property of the gentleman
from Massachusetts, but of the senior Sen
ator from Mississippi, the Hon. Lucius
Quintius Curtius Lamar, who was born
in the South, has always lived in the
South, fought for the South, and now
speaks for the South in the Senate. This
''cold cloud of realism" that has envel-
oped Mr. Dawes pretty story has proved
terrible cross to him. 1t has not only
cast suspicion upon his truthfulness,
but has spoiled the lesson it was intended
to convey, which latter is by far the great
est calamity.
There is little doubt but if all the
stories of Southern outrages were traced
to their foundation they would be found
to be as groundless as that about the
Massachusetts, gentleman. There is no
doubt much lawlessness at the South, but
it is no greater than at the North. and
has as little political cause or direction,
The mass of the Southern people respect
the laws and discountenance violence of
every sort, and Southern juries are as
impartial in meeting out justice as are
juries in any part of the country.
Ifthe Republican party is so hard pressed
for capital as to be compelled to resort to
such expedients, it is about time that it
disbanded. If they must have outrages
at the South they should have real ones.
The Republican city of Philadelphia can
furnish thugs capable of committing any
crime for merely nominal sum, and
these should be hired to work them up in
any pattern required. Something of the
sort should be done to save the wear and
tear Of the intellect of Silas Wegg Dawes.