Year: 1868

termined to arm one class of our citizens
against the other. With majority IN the
last election approaching twenty thousand
votes in control of the entire Executive
and Judicial Departments of the govern
ment in possession of two-thlrds OF the
county civil organizations, and with every
municipal corporation in the State under
officers appointed by their Governor and
with a Constitution of their own framing
and laws of their own making, they declare
it absolutely necessary, beyondthis, to arm
their partisans for elf-protection and to
nreserve the peace. The mere statement
carries its refutation on its face. Nothing
can be palmer than that the leaders desire
to use these arms to intimidate voters and
to stir up strife and disorder in the State.


At the late election, although there were
not 1.-THE of the troops proposed now TO
be organized and armed in North Carolina,
in the face of the numberless frauds at
every ballot-box committed by the Radl-
Gals, there was not single instance OF dis
turbance throughout the length and
breadth of the State. We have never yet
heard of the slightest interference of Radl-
cal meetings and professions, nor OF the
least violence offered to any man, however
offensive and incendiary may have been
his conduct and his speeches. Our people
nave submitted to disfranchisement have
seen their governments torn down, and
bastards, the offspring of Federal bayonets
and Yankee impudence and negro igno-
rance, set up in their stead have seen
their well-known and well-beloved leaders
banned and prescribed; are ready to
respect the laws of this usurping govern
ment have paid, and stand ready to pay,
the taxes which have and may be levied
upon the property Of the State by mendi-
cants now in office. For no good purposes,
therefore, can these men find excuse to
place arms in the hands of their partl-
sans The white citizens have many causes
for irritation and excitement, which they
have wonderfully confined within peaceful
bounds in order to secure the general
good, and it is the height of folly and mad



yond the point of reasonable and safe en-
durance.


1t was to be hoped that our Governor
and Legislature would heed the lessons
which contemporary governments are teach
ing them Compared to Louisiana and
Tennessee, the quiet condition of North
Carolina is to be envied. The outrages
and crimes which occasionally occur in our
State, and shock the ear with their horrid
recitals, have their foundation for purpo-
ses of plunder, into which idleness has led
negroes in certain portions of the State
But in the States named, secret political soci-
eties upon the one side have givenlif tothose
upon the other. TheUnion League has given
birth to the K. W. G. in Louisiana, and
the Ku-Klux in Tennessee, and assassina-
tions and violence, lawlessness and disor-
der have been the result, until there is al.
most open warfare.


In Louisiana, with at least more show of
reason than with us, it has been proposed
to arm the militia, but the Radical carpet
bag Governor opposes and desires to avert
this movement. "The organization of the
militia" he says in his communication to
the President, sis of very questionable
expediency, inasmuch as it will be, under
"the present excited state of mind, one
"polit1cai party armed to support the
Government against the other" He
closes his appeal for aid by recommen-
dation that all secret political societies be
broken up, which he regards as the source
of all the trouble.


With us there are no secret political So
cieties, except those in the interest of
Radicals. Loyal Leagues among the ne
groes, and Heroes of America among the
whites, constitute the only oath bound, Sc
cret societies in North Carolina. Their
influences are working much evil, and will
yet be the fruitful source of much more.
Unarmed, they have not been able to pro-
woke riots and bloodshed but place arms
in their hands, and protect them by laws
and biased judiciary and Executive,
and how long will peace be maintained ?


Elsewhere we publish an abridged ac-
count of meeting of ex-Confederate Off
GERS in Tennessee in the interest of good
order and quiet, ana to prevent, if posi-
BILE, the arming of the militia, as has been
recommended by Brownlow. The mem
bers of the Legislature agreed that the
arming of the militia was attended with
many dangers, as had been shown the year
before. The conference has done much
good and there is hope of peaceful So
luton of their troubles. The latest advices
even Brownlow as enlisted in the
cause of peace, and there is even some
hope of his recommending the enfranchise-
ment of the eighty thousand whites now
denied the right of suffrage, which is the
pregnant cause of all the trouble.


Without the causes which operate in
those States, in the midst of great excite
ment. unattended as yet with violence or
outbreak, when the best portion of our
people are chafng under insults and hu-
miliations; when strangers are usurpine