Year: 1875

The facts of the extraordinary Sandersvillo
insurrection are coming to light, and grotesque
and horrible as the whole affair is, it is I'M
possible any longer to doubt the reality OF
some kind of plot. We do not believe that,
if the signal for rising had been given, more
than a handful of crazy negroes would have
been ready for deeds of violence, the passion
of these ignorant people for secret meetings,
oaths, pass words, and military pomp satisfy
ing itself easily in the parade OF conspiracy,
without its blOOdshed and danger. But
in such outbreaks the mischief is not
to be measured by the intentions OF
the leaders OF the disposition of their dupes.
Unforeseen disorders are apt to arise from tiiv-
ial and even ridiculous causes, and there Is
always the peril that in an excitable commu-
nifty the suppression of sO-caled seryile IN
surrectiOn may lead to more lamentable ex-
cesses than were ever to be apprehended from
the insurrectiOn itself Hence the vaporlngs
and uncOuth proclamations of the Jake Moor
mans and COrday IIarrises have certain I'M
portance which ought not to he underrated.
The North refused to believe in this plot
principally for the reason that, however it
might be in other States, the negroes in Geor-
gia were generally prosperous and contented.
But they seem to have had a grievance after
all which neither we nor their white nelShb0rs
ever suspected. They believe they are kept
out of their rights because they have never
received the "fOrty acres and mule which
every freedman was taught ten years ago to
expect as his share of the cOniiscatcd estates
of rebels; and the recent talk of third
"term" seems to have put it into their heads
that the time had come to take what belonged
to them "We were all to vote for Gen.
"Grant next year." said Jake MOOrman
TO our correspondent "tO make him king"
When Grant became king, all the land would
be his, and the cOlored people would get it on
easy terms. As for resistance from the whites,
that contingency seems actually to have been
overlooked. When Grant is king, said these
queer children of larger growth. the land
will not belong to the white people any more
so of course they must give it up. Mr.. Jake
Moorman rather thought he would kill re-
calctrant white man if he was "Orered' to-;
but it is plain that he had never given this
branch of the subject much consideration.


After all it is no great wonder that the
Southern negroes have got their heads stuffed
full of such wild and mischievous notions.
CdTpct-DdS pOhti'IthS haNS D'Sh 's''N"Ho 'A''
for ten years that the whites among whom
they live are their natural enemies and Oppres-
sors, and that nothing stands between them and
slavery but the power of the Federal Govern
ment. They have been threatened with
all sorts of evils if they allowed the
Republican party in the South to be
overthrown, and promised all sorts of
blessings if they supported the Admins
tration candidates. And they have had
abundant signs of the authority of the great
ruler in Washington. They have seen his cav
airy securing the country at election time, and
his officers arresting white politicians at pleas
ure for no other crime than opposing the Adj
ministration. In their eyes lie has been al
autocrat of almost unlimited power, and the
carpet-baggcr has assured them that all this
power would be excrted for their benefit; it
was all for the Object typitied in the story of
"forty acres and mule" 1t is not so strange
that they should imagine he is going to be
king next year, and that then call the land
"will belong to him." Really the average
Southern Republican politician of the Moses,
Spencer, and Hays type has reason to congrat-
ulate himself upon the success of bis exreri-
ment in the political education of the negro !;
and the South, we trust, is sensible how much
it ought to feel obliged to him.