Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1886-04-23
HARPBRS WEEKLY AND THE
SOUTH.

ia 40 wy NtNASAS 0bVAe
the C~arrolltOn affair, it frankly admits
that there are signs Of the gradual dis
appearance Of the distrust of the
South, which so long existed in the
North. While admitting this, it says
the South must protect the negroes
better, or the Republicans will gain
power by agitation of the Southern
question. 1t quotes from the Vicks-
burg COMMERCIAL HERALD, to prove
that there still exists some of the old
spirit in the South.
We fully agree with it,
that the responsibility rests
on the Southern whites of protect
ing the negroes as perfectly as it can
be done. That is nc new doctrine with
us. We have written it for years, and
have practicedit. All reputable citizens
of Mississippi, as far as we know,
heartily endorse that doctrine. They
60 even further. They are in favor of
educating and helping along the black
race to the extent Of their power. They
have done so, and will continue to do
so, for they know that is best for both
races.
How best to do that, is the question.
AS our powerful contemporary says, the
National Government can no longer
deal directly with wrongs to citizens
of any State. Then the State Govern
ments must do it. This State has been
doing better for the colored people
under Democra JIG rule, than under
Radical rule. All the improvement
acknowledged by Harper s Weekly, has
come since the downfall of the concern
which called itself the Southern
Republican party. Our people can
do better by not suppressing any facts
about the race troubles, than by as
Stunning something which is false.
What caused Harper's Weekly to re-
fleet on the Vicksburg Herald's article,
the paragraph, "the whites were
exasperated and committed excuses;
but blood will tell in a race conflict,
and if Ohio or England had as many
colored people as Mississippi, they
would have more trouble with them"
is the exact truth, and it will serve
no good purpose to attempt
to suppress it. And great harm
results from asserting that a body of
white men deliberately massacred a
number of colored men. In all the
hellish troubles, the South has passed
through since the war, there has not
been a single case where white men
have banded together and deliberately
murdered colored men. A race trouble
is, of all others, the most difficult to
deal with. No matter in what
quarter of the globe it &C.
ours, or from what cause, the white
races combine and act very
similarly. We stated that fact,
that our Northern brothers, might be
able to judge more justly of us. Take
the Southern whites as a whole, and
under the lead IF such men as Lamar,
Carlisle, Mills, Hampton, Gibson and
others, they will challenge favorable
comparison, with any people in the
world. Bear in mind the swarms
of negroes that live among
us and W0rk among us, their
ignorance, prejudice, superstition and
many imperfections, and no fair person
will deny that the Southern whites get
along better with them, than the
English, the French, or the citizens of
the North would. In saying this, we
do not claim that there is no room for
Improvement, but we do claim, that
meddlesome, unfair, long range COM.
ments should not be made, and a
standard set up beyond human effort.