Year: 1878

lima is to carry the State at any cost.
Counties where there are two or three thou
sand clear Republican majority are overrun,
and the Republican maiorties are crushed |
out by the HAMPTON Red Shirts, with arms |
in their hands, who are acting under the |
order TO carry the State at any cost" The
laws and law officers Of the Government are |
openly defed, and the rights of citizenship |
are trampled upon, and whole communities |
are intimidated by an organized force, un-


til terror rules and the people are subju- |
gated into meek submission to q ruthless,
unlawful, and criminal domination. It Is
in this way that the election Is rendered q
mere mockery and the majority is trampled |
upon by the minority, who are acting un-
der State authority to carry the State
at any cost. If Republican
in South Carolina insists upon asserting his |
rights as q citizen he Is adjudged dis
turbcr of the peace and is arrested and
dragged to prison by his Democratic perse-
cutors. lie becomes the aggrcssor when he
assumes to express his opinions and assert
his principles by his vote, and so long as
the State government, with all its machinery,
is arraycd against him, he must either sur
render his rights and his principles or be
plunged in n felon's cell.


This Is the republican form of govern
ment that HAMPTON administers under the
Constitution of the United States, and he
has been INDUCED in this line of policy until
he has no more respect for the Constitution
and laws of the United States than he
had during the years that he was
in open and armed rebellion against
the authority Of the Federal power.
| How long the country will feel con-


strained by considerations of peace to stand


listlessly and without formal protest, and


see the mnjorities of States forced into sub


mission to the will of the minority by the


force of arms, remains to be seen. We do


not believe that the sickly sentimentality


of State Sovereignty has so far spread


throughout the loyal sections of the coun-


try that these things can be continued for


any length of time with impunity. We


cannot think that the Republicans of the


late insurgent States can be treated as scrfs


and be totally suhiugated to the will of the


Democrats, without sooner or later calling


forth an ayenging hand.


The events of the present crisis show how


great n mistake the conquerors Of the rebel


lion made when they consented to amnesty


and to reconstruction upon any other terms


than such as would have held those


States as conquered provinces. under ter


ritOrial relation TO the Federal Govern


ment, until the virus of treason and


rebellion had died out with the


generation which had asserted their dsloy-


atty and hatred for tho Union and Consti-


tuition in force, resulting in bloodshed 1t


was the height of clemency to allow the en-


ginccrs and participants in the attempt to


take the national life to live under the pro-


lection Of Government that they would


have destroyed, without recognizing them as
full citizens, covered and filed as they were


with reasonable hate aud rebcllious re-


venges. The want of respect now mani


tested for the guarantees of the Constitu-


tion; the disregard that is everywhere in


dicated in the South for the rights of citi-
zens who are Republicans; the cheapness of


life so far as white or colored Republicans


are concerned; the hatred for the old flag
which excludes. it from military organiza-
tions and public paradcs in the late insur-
gent Statcs-all these things, which are as


patent now as the rising and setting
sun, 90 to show that the clemency


extended was serious mistake that
must be endured or corrected through au-


other bloody struggle. The Democratic
: South, which is really the rebellious South,
have no appreciation of the great forgive


ness which attended the amnestes granted
r them when they affected to accept the situ,
, alton at the close of the struggle; neither
, have they any apparent gratitude that they
were exempted from the most serious con.


sequences which treason and rebellion are
deemed TO merit in all civilized countries
, They, with an air of injured innocence, as


sumo that those who sustained the integ
rty of the Government against their armed
, assaults were the aggressors, and that they
? who failed to destroy the Government by
severing the bond of Union are now the in
, jured and wronged party in that bloody


contest They now contend with grea
q complacency that they must be allowed tC
a occupy the position of conquerors in tina
, conflict, and that the real conquerors shal
now take back seats while they
r assume the control of a Government
, which was rescued from their treason ant
! rebellion. All this renders the mistake
made by the conquerors the more apparent
+ A sterner sense of justice and a alower stand
D ard of generosity would have saved thu
loyal people of the nation in that tryint
i crisis the deep sense of modification thai
q. now attends this renewed attack upon the
4 Constitution and the rights of citizenship
i This much, however, We can assure the in
5 solent men who were saved from the jus
consequences of their crimes under Northern
: ! rlrmencY that the natienCe of an insmltcl