The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-10-10
Southern Ontrages and Their Meaning.

Southern 0utrages and Their Meaning.
Recent brutual and criminal outrages
upon colored people in Tennessee and
Georgia have attracted the attention of
the North, and they have been con-
demned in terms not at all short of their
deservings.
Whether they are the result of wide
spread organization or not is unknown
beyond the circle engaged in these
crimes, but it is not unnatural that their
frequency, the breadth of country over
which they are spread and the imita-
ton of Ku-Klux methods practiced in
their commission should excite the sus-
picion that this new outbreak is the re-
vival of an old conspiracy against the
rights of the colored people.
Hamburg Butler sighs for their re-
moval from his State; many others are
yet openly and notoriouslv unreconciled
to their use of the ballot, and to all in
tents and purposes wherever they are
in majority they are deprived of the
right of suffrage either by fraud or
threatened or open violence.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, comment
ing on the situation, says: eff precedents
are any Indications, it may be the be-
ginning of Democratic proceedings to
make the South solid for the next Pres
idential campaign"
1t is possible that the imputation con-
veyed in this paragraph may be unjust
to the Democracy of the South. We
shall hesitate to accept 1t as a fact, not
withstanding there are numerous facts
all pointing in the same direction. But
the explanations which come up from the
South are not convincing, nor do they
even tend to assure that these outrages
are not the revival of an ancient hatred.
1t is too sad. But Messrs. Turpin and
Dodd will be only too happy to guaran-
tee the apprehensive against robbery
and forgery.
The Louisville Courier Journal
Oemocratic) admits the outrages, but
it affirms they have been committed
"by bands of irrespoI sible and law
less persons in Georgia and Tennessee. {"
This admission is valuable to this ex-
tent, that it removes all doubt of the
commission of the charged outrages.
They are not manufactured for the pur-
pose of infiaming sectional feeling, as
has been affirmed. The criminal out
RACES being admitted, the next thing to
ascertain is their meaning and purpose.
The Louisville Courier-,I0urndl declares
it is "sheer idiocy" to assign to them
any political meaning. As if to clinch
this with proofs the Courier-Jo1rpal
adds: "The old Ku-Klux Klan, with
all its unfortunate and. unforg;vable
sins upon its head, died years ago, and
went to its grave covered with we'll
won infamy, and followed by the ex-
ecrations of all the honest people of
the sections it infested with its pres
ence."
1t is certainly gratifying to have a
distinguished and influential Southern
journal denounce the ''old Ku-Klux
Klann in these strong terms But if
the journal thus denounces and con-
signs to ''well-won infamy'' in the be-
lief that its ''execration" will give weight
to its denial of present outrages it has
a lamentable short memory.
1t is but few years since that paper
denied the existence of the Ku Klux,
which it now admits, and ridiculed
those who affirmed it, Just as it now
denies the existence of the new conspir-
acy and ridicules those who see in the
recent outrages any evidence of il. The
Journal may be right; on that point we
await further developments. But the
outrages are admitted, and the
weight of evidence so far pre-
sented is against the Courier-Journars S
assertion. And the Journal and
other Democratic papers which denied
the existence of the old Ku Klux to the
last, and denounced the evidence of
those crimes as perjuries, after they
have come to admit and also denounce
them, cannot complain if their explana-
ton of the new outbreak is taken with
many grains of allowance.
All our highest interests. commercial
and National, lie in the direction of good
will between the sections. And hei not
the truest patriot who, from light or un.
certain causes, would provoke distrust
On the other hand, he is less than
patriot who will tamely submit to see
the poorest of the people crushed by
brutality, or who will foolishly close his
eyes when great crime against suffrage
and majority rule threatens the safety
of the Government.-Detroit Post and
Tribune.