Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1883-03-10
SOUTHERN cHfvAtRY.

SOUTHERN cHivALRY.
Northern men and Northern ma.
pers are accustomed to ascribe to
the South a quixotism which thew
sneeringly call Southern hivaIry. -
The Southern people are represented
as lacking in the purely practical,
and as cherishing a romantic be-
lief in their proves as men and
their traditions as a people that is
calculated to render them extreme
ly Ridiculous. Our Northern friends
take on themselves the mission of
Cervantes to laugh Southern chiv-
airy" to scorn, and to recommend
us to adopt their own superior COM
mon sense ways of doing and
thinking. So Dersistently has this
coloring been given Southern char
acter that some people seem to have
grown into the belief that it is a
true portrait, and regard US as IA
race of cranks, full of sentimental
pride and foolish fantacies. This IS,
of course, the veriest nonsense.
The Southern people possess that
practicability that is homogeneous
to all Americans, and, in fact, are
not as much given 10 sentimental
ity as the people of New England.
The Hon. Carl Schurtz, recently,
in speaking of Southern homicides,
attributes their distressing frequen-
cy to this supposed spirit of "chiv-
airy" In his opinion the Southern
people pride themselves on being
1.-THE gallant descendants of the cav
alters" and go about killing people
to sustain that character. He goes
seriously to work to dissuade us
from this erroneous way of think
ing, and tells us that the English of
to-day are more of the cavalier
stock than we Southerners, but do
not feel themselves called on to per-
sue murderOus practices in conse-
quence
Now this is all very silly and
shows decided ignorance on Mr..
Schurtz's part-of the important SUBJ
ject on which he proposes TO advise.
1t is probable that large majority
of those who have been parties to
hOmIcides i'm the South didn't
know the difference between Cava-
lier and ROundhead, and Ear from
being the descendants Ofthe former,
it more often the case that their i'm
mediate ancestors were Scotch,
Irish, French, or, like Mr.. Schurtz,
from Germany.
We are not disposed to deny that
hOmicides are of too frequent &C.
currence in the South, it is distress
ingly true, and the great evil needs
correction. But we do think that
Northern papers are prone to give
undue advertisement to killings
that occur In the South as COM
pared to those that are reported
from other sections of the Union.
Northern crime would undoubtedly
outweigh that of the South if the
evil deeds that are done in the two
sections were placed in the balances.
Yet we admit that rash ARRAYS, re-
sulting in death, are more frequent
in the South, among the better
classes. The heInOus and disgust
ing crimes, so common in the
North, are committed by "crimi-
nal class, from which, compare
lively speaking, the South is hap
PLY free.
But the murders and shooting
affrays at the South come from no
sentimental cause. They are the |
result of the habit of going armed,
and that habit grew out of a neces- !
sity. Southern people are undoubt- !
edly spirited and quick to resent |
insult, but such an imputation can
be no stigma on the Southern char
acter. After the war for several |
years, the very disorga nized state |
of affairs at the South made it nee
essary for men to go armed. The
discharged armies turned loose up |
on a country, almost without law
n class of reckless Adventures who
held life in light esteem. The
large mass of liberated negroes
thought that liberty meant license,
and a state of society was created
that brought the "hip-pocket" into
use and made a means of self de-
fence absolutely necessary. This
state of things no longer exists, but
its legitimate aftermath are the
killings that now occur in the
South. The whole cause is the
habit of carrying pistols, and that
habit came into vogue during the
turbulent times that followed the
late war.
As matter of logical sequence it
follows that the remedy for this
great evil is to enforce the disarm-
ing act. Pistols ought not to be
known except as implements of
war. We don't want to lose our
"chIvalry" if that means we are to
become spiritless, but homicide
must be checked, and the practical
way to do that is 10 taboo the pis-
toll.
Mr.. Schurtz, no doubt, meant
kindly in the advice he offered, and
deserves to be thanked for his good
but he was mislead by
the traducers of Southern character,
who harp about our "chivalry."