St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1893-03-16
Correspondence.
THE NATURAL FRUIT.

tons of good farming lands arc
abandoned and remain unoccupled
and settlers who are seeking to
locate in the South refuse to make
purchases in these localities; the
climate and soil and prices Offer
every inducement that can be desired
These sections have become terror
lied by gangs of lawless men white
caps, regulators, they style them
selves. The laws and their admins
tration are set at defiance. Hear
what the Times. Democrat OF New
Orleans. saws: 1--WE know quite
well that one OF the great reasons
for the sparse settlement in both
Louisiana and Mississippi, two OF
the finest, most fruitful and most
eligible states in the Union, is the
prevalence Of lawlessncss among us,
which is utterly discreditable to US,
both as states and as individuals.
Settlers from less favored regions
can hardly be expected to come here
while the laws do not guarantee
them protection in their persons,
property and industries This is a
lesson we may all of us lay to heart,
and proceed to govern ourselves ac-
cordingly." We read in this but the
fulGlmcnt of scripture" What a
man soweth, that shall he also
reap" "Thcy SOW to the wind, they
reap the whirlwind,'
Immediately after the war and
during the epoch OF reconstruction,
there were organized bands OF men,
known and fcaredas Ku-kIux. The
avowcd object, at least the real OBJ
ject, was to prevent the colored peo-
pie from taking any part in politics,
and to make it warm" yes, hot,
for Northern men who came to the
South to settle. 1t is not yet strange
that while the sores were yet open
which the war had made, and before
they had had time to break, and
under the provocations which adj
venturous carpet-baggcrs gave to
the South, these very dangerous ex-
pedients to the South itself were re-
sorted to. But the seed they sowed
did net die after these organizations
had passed away.
The autipathy to the citizenship of
the colored man remained, and the
purpose to prevent him from OK
ercising its rights was put in force,
by lawless intimdations, by violence
and bloodshcd, of which the laws. as
in the case OF the Ku-klux,
took little notice. And so it still
continues in many portions of
the South, not so much by violence
and direct interference, as by indirec-
tons, which proved as effectual in
securing the purpose sought. Such
a condition of things must in the
nature of things react upon the COM
munities where they are practiced,
in debauching the sense of justice and
weakening if not annulling the force
of law.
Kindred with these abuses, which
the best men in the South deprecate,
is the lynching of colored men who
are accused of crime; overpowering
the officers, breaking into jails and
hurrying the accused man to the
nearest tree and hanging him or
shooting him down as they would
wild animal, or roasting him alive,
as was done in Texas a few weeks
ago; thus setting at defiance all the
forms, the safeguard, and the
essence of law, without which no
mans life or liberty is safe; without
which society itself is impossible.
This state Of things has become APP
pallingly common in the South,
chronic we might say in some por-
tons. And so we see the old fable
realized; that the sowing of dragons
teeth breeds armed men, armed not
in defense but in defiance of law and
order.
Whatsoever man soweth that
shall he reap" And this is as true
of communities and of nations as of
individuals. And it is law that
holds good in all human experience
that the harvest reduplicates, by
many.iold, the sowings.
The fact is there are many com
munities, in the South, besides those
referred to, where no man whose
complexion is a hue darker than a
Caucasian is safe, however innocent
he may be. Trump up against him
some heinous crime, to which some
vagabond will swear, and the. is
powerless to protect or secure him a
trial. And under such condition