Year: 1876

The first century of the Government of
these United States has been marked, PIE.
eminently, as period distinguished by the
supremacy of law over violence. From
the earliest days Of the confederation down
to the breaking out Of the late civil war the
majesty of the law was generally recognized
as supreme Outbreaks of the mobocracy
and demonstrations of violence have been
the exception rather than the rule in all
parts of the country. The exceptions to
the rule have usually occurred upon the
frontiers OF upon the Pacific coast, or in
the Southwest and in the more newly and
sparsely settled portions of those sections.
The late wal, however, was an outcropping
of resistance to the will of the majority as
expressed in the constitutional election of
Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency. The re-
bellion was nothing more nor less than
resistance on the part of the minority to
the will of the majority the assertion by
an organized mob of its right to rule against
the will of the whole people, as constitu-
tional,y expressed-the first attempt in this
country to subordinate the constitutional
government and its laws to the will of the
mob. Happily, this attempt was failure
in the field, but recent events indicate that
the serpent of treason was only scotched.
not killed there. The spirit Of lawless
violence in the South has only been trans
ferred from the camp to the ambush,
changed from the hands of an organized
army to those of guerrillas and bush
whackers and self constituted vigilance
committees The statutes in that section
for the projection Of life and property ap-
pear to be dead letter as applied to the
late slave and the obnoxious stranger and
sojourner. The capacity of people for
selEgovernment is determined by its re-
specs for law and order. In the proper
tion which this spirit maintains the as
tendency is the competency ofa people
to sustain popular form Of government
evinced. 1t is quite clear from present ap-
pearsnces that large proportion of the
white people in several of the Southern
States have ceased to have any proper re-
spect for the laws of the land, but are de-
termined TO be q law unto themselves.
This causes such state of anarchy in that
portion of our territory as threatens,
within q few years, to reduce it to a semi
barbarous condition. 1t debars from it i'm
migration, capital, and paralyzes labor
It imparts a sense of uneasiness, if not
real danger to every class of population,
which is utterly fatal to production and
thrift. In such a state Of society intelli-
gence, education and culture are smothered,
and physical strength, brute courage, the
biudgeon of the bully and the knife and
pistol of the assassin hold a reign of terror.
This we find to be the condition at the
opening of the second century of our
national existence of several Of the States
in this Union. Those who haYe inaugu-
rated and seem determined to maintain
this species .of anarchy constitute but
small minority of the whole people; but
having formed an alliance with the Demo.
Gratis of the North for the purpose of aid
ing the latter to obtain possession of the
Government they are rapidly and insidi-
ously difusing this spirit of lawlessness
into that powerful organization. The
little leayen is expected to leayen the
whole Democratic party.


It question which now demands the
most serious consideration Of all true pa
triots whether this mob spirit can be sup
pressed or transformed into law-abiding,
pcace.loving, labor-protecting practice,
which is alone consistent with prosperity
and selfgovernment, and if so, how can it
he best accomplished? This question meet