Year: 1875

a scratchl They knew that the colorei men
were unprepared, and therefore did not hesi-
tate, towards and assassins as they are, to at
tack their victims. In concluding its account
of the affair the Monitor says: s-,t


The whole affair teaches one lesson: That the
siOns have been 50 wrought upon By the oatrsTes
and insults they have had to endure that the
least thing is sufficient to rend away the fra bar
riers and precipitate conflict.


That is to say, If colored man declares that
the Declaration Of Independence meant nothing
to black men until Lees surrender, kill him.
White men cannot bear that. II be says that
the Declaration now means that all men are
equal-white and black-shoot him downl
''White men have been so wrought upon by
the outrages and insults they have had to
endure that the least thing is sufficient to
rend away the frail barriers and precipitate a
conflict"


And yet that is what General Forrest told
the colored people of Memphis on the Fourth.
That is what the Democratic platform declared
in 1872, and that is what the cut-throats of
Vicksburg would glibly utter to-day If they
could thereby make votes for themselves. We
have not words to characterize such work as
this. And the certainty that the assassins will
escape without punishment increases the indig-
nation with which we contemplate it. There are
q score of wretches stalking about the streets
of Vicksburg to day whose hands are red with





butchered like brutes only six months ago.


The scoundrels who committed the assault
the other day have entitled themselves to a
position with the brigade of murderers who
preceded them, and the honor will be gladly
accorded. But no one will be punished, no
one will be fnterfered with; the chiyalric gen.
tlemen who have thus distinguished them
selves Will rest for a time, and prepare them
selves for new display of courage whenever
they can find q body of unarmed men, women
and children to fall upon. 1t is standing
shame and disgrace to the city of Yicksburg,
the State of Mississippi, and the nation itself,
that such political murders can be committed
with impunity inside their limits. A foreign
born citizen of this Union is deprived of his
liberty in the old country, and Immediately
the whole power of the country is invoked for
his release. But citizens in our midst can be
deprived of the liberty to celebrate the birth
day of the nation, and can be shot down like
dogs, and no arm is raised to save or avenge
them. Shame and confusion on such i'm
becilityl


While deeds like these can be perpetrated
there's but one issue before the country, and
there ought to be but one, and upon that alone
the absolute protection of every citizen in his
guaranteed rights-the Republican party ought
to make the Centennial fight against Democ-
racy, rebels and assassins combined Much as
we regret the necessity for another campnign
in which sectional feeling must be appealed to,
there seems no other way to secure the observ
ance of the Constitution and the rights of all
men under the law ! In spite of all efforts to
conceal the real purposes of the Southern peo-
pie, their designs crop out and show US that
we are not yet through with the question of
liberty. So thinks the Southern Christian Ad-
uoedte, the organ of the Methodist Episcopal
Church in the far South, the reasons therefor
being given in an able article copied else
where. 1t shows US what we may expect, and
what we ought to prepare for.