The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1884-03-13
The Solid South.


senator FRYE talks very freely of the Copiah
investigation. He said that it would have been
useless to have endeavored to hold the sessions
of the committee at Hazlehurst, Copiah county.
there is but one small hotel there, without
accommodations; but the determining reason
was the fact that the hundred and fifty respect
able Democrats who organized club to pre-
vent Republicans from voting and to resort to
murder if necessary still patrol the county and
maintain a reign of terror there. ''Why," said
Mr.. Frye. "thc half has not been told. had
never supposed that it could be possible for
such a state of things TO exist. There is no re-
publican from of government in Mississippi"
Mr.. Frye said that the Democrats under oath,
men called respectable, leaders in society. had
said that ii was Unsuitable to kill negroes if that
WAS necessary to prevent them from securing
majority, and that it was the duty of the inteli-
gent minority to crush the ignorant majority by
all possible means. There was no dispute of
the essential facts of the Copiah outrage, and it
is only the Democratic members of the commit
tee who admit any explanations of it. The
only explanation that the bulldozers of Copiah
county made was that they shot and whipped
because 1t was necessary to Intimidate the Re
publican vote and put the minority in power.
Print Matthews. who was murdered in cold
!
the bad man that the Democrats had tried to
paint him. On the contrary, he and his family
for fifty years have been the leading family of
Copiah county. They have been among the
wealthiest men in the county, owned large
plantations, Were the leading men in business
enterprise, built churches and school houses.
and We're men whose characters and bravery
the whites admitted. The white men respected
and stood in awe of them. as they were always
ready 10 take their lives in their hands for their
convictions. The colored men loved them. The
trouble was not of recent origin i'll Copiah
county. 1t dates from the beginning of the
war. when Print Matthews stood BY the Union
and remained Il >teadfa>t Union man to the end,
being too lame to be conscripted for the Con-
federate army. He made speech after the or
dlnance of secession was passed. and some of
the Witnesses who denounced HIM bad man
admitted on cross-eXaminaton that his villainy
consisted in the fact that he made that Union
speech. The situation,' said Mr.. Frye. lis
bad. beyond the power of language to describe.
and the pitful thing is that this great Govern
ment Is too weak or too contemplate even to
protect the poor witnesses who will go back
there. many of them doubtless to be killed"
PLAIN TALK FROM COPIAH COUNTY.
Many Southerners insist--between campaigns
that the colOred people vote as they please
and are not disturbed for exercising their pot
lcai rights. y few days ago, however, Copi-
All county (Mis>.) Democrat informed Senator
send your biggest man General Grant-down
into our county to organize the negroes he
would he killed at once and this expression of
sentiment was applauded by crowd of Dem
ocratir listeners. AS organization is absolutely
necessary to men who expect to w ork together
politically. the rights of coored voters appear
10 amount TO nothing in Copiah county, unless
this witness Is a mere braggart, more fond of
the sound of his own voice than of the truth.
\. Y. Herald.
NOT FIT FOR SELF GOVERNMENT.
There are portions of the South which are so
far behind the times that they do not seem to
belong to this age. ANY community in which a
man cannot live in safety and peace because of
his politics is not fit for Self-government. That
i the condition, evidently, of Copah county
Miss. But political Outrages do not pay.
Shooting down men in cold blood because they
belong TO a different political party, followed
10y praise Of the murderers instead of punish
mem. is not calculated to make states prosper
Gus. Mississippi repealed capital of old by re-
pudlatlon of IFS debts. She now says to all men :
You can come here if you like, but you can
have no guaranty Of protection, especially if
You happen to belong to certain political party.
Boston Herald.
THE ATTITUDE OF NORTHERN DEMOCRATS.
Whether Democrats in the North will endorse
such atlS and opinions as are endorsed and
maintained by their southern brethren in CO.
nlali. and rldlcult the agitation of such matters
rs waving the bloody shirt hardly admits of
a doubt. They have 50 long treated with de-
rision all attempt, to establish Justice in the
South and the holding of free and fair elections,
that II seems impossible to hope for better
things now. The South leads. controls the
Democratic party OF the country, and northern
Democrats bow their necks in subsection to
Their southern masters and dare not raise voice
or hand against the great crimes by which they
keep the south solid for Democracy. [Kenne-
bee journal.
lliE GEORGIA kU kLUX CASES.
The United States Supreme Court rendered
a decision March ID if the Georgia Ku klux
case of arborough and Others They are pc
tltlOn> for WritS of habeas corpus to release a
number Of persons now imprisoned under a
Judgment of the United States Circuit Court
for the Northern District of Georgia, rendered
after Il trial and conviction of the prisoners for
the offence of threatening, beating and other
wise intimidating colored voters at an election
IN Georgia for member Of Congress. The
principal question presented by the case relates
to the con>itutonaity of the law under which
the prisoners are held. The Court holds that
the offence set forth in the Indictment is fully
covered by sections zoos and 1920 of the Revised
statutes and denies them writs of habeas cor
puS.
II WOULD BE CALLED TREASON"
The Republican members of the Copah Com
miltee say that at one of the balls given III New
Orleans at the Madi Gras. Jefferson Davis
with his daughter, the daughter of General
Lee, General Longstreet and some other noted
Confederate Generals, sat in box which was
draped with Confederate flags; that floral
sword decorated with the Confederate cOlors
and addressed simply ito the President was