Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 April 1877 — OUR SOUTHERN BRETHREN. [ARTICLE]

OUR SOUTHERN BRETHREN.

On many occasions The Union has advised moderate, conciliatory measures as. a means to be adopted for the eolation of the southern question. Forbearance and patience have been recommended time and again, both during the heat of aetive political campaigns and in the intermediate hours when passion had subsided and more perfeet reason prevailed. It still has great confidence in the remedy proposed and has faith that under the skillful administration of President Hayes it will prove to be effectual in bringing about the desired result, whicn is the permanent cure of the patient. But like most all patients who have been low with severe illness and are beginning to recover strength, the south is testy, petulant and hasty to say naughty things. To illustrate this statement we reproduce copious extracts from a violent little sheet published at Magnolia, Mississippi, which were written in reply to short squibs that appeared several weeks since iu these columns.

Tu answer to the Union’s proposition. that sectionalism should not dictate who should occupy the presidential office, butthat national men “of broad and high and liberal and progressive principles should preside over” the welfare of fortylive million people it says: The above is from an independent paper, published in Jasper county*, Indiana, andbreathes the right spirit; but when have we had such a president? Not since the Confederate ring, which was unfurled In the interest of constitutional rights and state sovereignty, was lowered at Appomattox. Not since the reiteration ot the federal government through the constitutional provision that each state should be guaranteed a republican form of government. Not since U. S. Grant went into the chair a southern man honored, but which he disgraced by military tyranny practiced on the south. For twelve long, bitter years the south has drank dregs from the cup of your northeru sectional, narrow minded, bigoted, jealous, strutting, swaggering, swearing, drinking presidents. She has borne it with quiet submission while the north has laughed at her sorrow, her famine, her agonies and iter tears. She accepted the terms of the capitulatiou in good faith, and her soldiers, like brave and honoiuble men, returned to their peaceful avocations, with the belief that the government would act honorably toward them; but for their honor and good faith, they received in return, confidence betrayed, property confiscated, disfranchisement, negro supremacy, federal and carpet-bag oppression, robbery, anarchy, chaos. She bore it until forbearance ceased to be a virtu# 1 . Site looked in vain for relief. United, determined, she rose like a giant and, spoke in tones ot thunder on the 7th day of last November. Shestood firm, but her notthern allies deserted her and suffered a mau whom the south opposed, who was not elected, to be inaugurated president of the United States. Now. what can she expect? She must depend on her own growing strength, her own wisdom, her own diplomacy, her own sense ofjttstice and liberality to have her wrongs eventually righted. Northern presidents, as a rule, have been failures, because they were sectional. They have not been men of broad and hisrh and liberal and progressive principles. Name a southern president who has not? Then ffjsjq the south we must dd©sNtS? Bt lfrrian possessing all the characteristics necessary for a great and good ruler. A mun who will give poor downtrodden, oppressed, murdered Louisiana aud South Carolina their rights and do the same justice to Maine and Indiana. The south "has courted peaceful relations with the north, but for her overtures of conciliation she has been met with manifestations of a lackrof confidence. We insist that we want to bury old animosities and be friendly aud we are told that we he, are stigmatized as barbarians, murderers and banditti.

We invite intelligent industrious northern men to come and live with us, aud they demand pledges from us that they shall not be molested. We are not Modocs! Nor are we spaniels that would lick the hand raised to smite us. Our people are honorable, law-abiding and to them, ‘to do justice aud judgment, is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.’ We ask what is right, nothiug more, and we are willing to acuord it to others. Following is an editorial which was inspired by a statement in The Union which gave in condensed form the republ'can side of the Louisiana question as it related to the counting of the votes of the electoral college ot that state for President Hayes. It Will be observed that our southern brother is very bitter and works himself jnto a lowering passion which js

not only very ridiouloua but also wrong, and weak, and foolish, for it cannot do bis friends any possible good while it lowers them in the estimation ot reasonable people by exciting pity if not positive disgust for the termagant, disposition it displ aye. The premises being denied by the republicans do not make them untrue. The supervisors of registration and of election were republicans; the United States marsnals were of republican appointment, the U. 8. army was quartered iu tbfe state to keep the peace and prevent intimidation. The republicans bad control of the ballot boxes from beginning to end and it was out of the question for democrats to stuff ballot boxes, or commit other frauds. For the satisfaction of the Union, however, we will mention a few instances we know of to prove the honesty of the “lawful tribunal” of which it speaks. In the parish of Vernon, where we once lived, Dr. E. E. Smart was elected to the Louisiana Legislature by a majority admitted by his opponent, John Brown, both of whom are democrats, but the lawful tribunal ‘counted iu’ John Brown, Brown has left his opponent in peaceful possession of his seat. James Andrews of Rapides parish was returned elected to the office of district attorney of his district when he acknowledged he was fairly and honestly beaten by his opponent and refused to accept a commission for the office. In one of the Feliciana parishes, a man was returned elected justice of the peace and refused commission on the ground that he was beaten by his opponent and he could not accept an office to which he had not been fairly elected. Who are the men composing your “legal tribunal?” Anderson is a man despised by his people and Is regarded by the best element of them as dishonest, unreliable and possessing a bad character. Kenner is a common ignorant negro, and has uot sense enough to. understand the nature of an oath.

Casanave is a negro barroom keeper, a gambler, a thief and an ex-pen-itentiary convict. Madison Wells is a defaulter of over twelve thousand dollars state taxes, a gambler, a swindler and the murderer of a poor unfortunate Spaniard. He has filed in the United States court a fraudulent claim against the government for over half a million of dollars, and at this writing he stands charged with embezzling a large amount of U. S. custom-house funds, iff New Orleans, and Is known to have been connected with numerous crimes committed within the walls of that mysterious building, for which he is to be prosecuted and, perhaps, sent to the penitentiary. These are the kind of men composing your “Legal Tribunal,” who held in their hands the destinies of forty millions of people and by whose unmitigated scoundrelism. the entire country came near being plunged into a terrible civil war. They have wronged and outraged Louisiana; they have stolen from the treasury, received bribes to. do dirty political work and aided to bankrupt the people and reduce them to poverty and suffering. By their forgery and perjury, they have cheated the people of the Uuited States out of their legally and honestly elected president, and yet meb at the north, aud worse than all, newspaper men, have the unblushing effrontery to assert that Hayes was elected president, and give countenance aud support to the blackest of crimes against the freedom and the rights of the people. We challenge the Union to show a single instance where the democrats iu Louisiana “committed the grossest wrongs at the last electiou,” or at any other time not justified in self defense.

The democrats “thwarted by the honest decision of a tribunal from whose action there is no appeal aud ought to be uone?” You call a decision honest which nullifies the ballots of 2110,000 majority of voters? The infernal regions are full of such honesty aud such men as give countenance an4*us»wlriia the acvfon the Louisiana returning board. In New Orleans, where the democratic majority is over fifteen thousand, one of the most, ponderous, dare-devil acts of villiany was perpetrated by the republioau managers ever known in the history of politics iu this country. by which nearly ten thousand democratic names were stricken from the registration books and prevented from voting. No fraud, nor intimidation was discovered as committed by the democrats. But when it was found that they had a large majority, old Mad. Wells, sitting in the custom house, conceived the idea of trying to prove fraud with affidavits prepared aud sworn to that affiants never saw, as having occurred on the day of election. The ballot boxes were in the hands of the republicans all over the state, and democrats never had a chance to stuff' boxes, not even with their legitimate share of legitimate votes. Wells insisted that certain meu in different parishes were elected aud they as persistly insisted that it was not so and refused to accept commissions. No honest republican in Louisiana denies that the democrats gained a signal victory in that state, and why should meu at the north deny it? But it is useless to argue the question any further. Morrison’s congressional committee investigated the whole matter and decided in favor of Nicholls and the Tilden electors. To their report we refer the Rensselaer Union. The decision and action of the Louisiana returning board is the deepestdyed, unprecedented, barefaced villainy, forgery, perjury and seonndrel}sm ever concocted aud executed

in this country, or submitted to by the people. Rutherford B. Have** is a usurper, placed In the presidential chair by dishonest and fraudulent means, and he knows It, and every honest man in the country knows it. By accepting the presidency, he becomes partieeps crlminls, equally guilty of a crime which is a shame, a disgrace, and an outrage on the right of franchise and of republican government —a cheat and a swindler, as infamous as the combination of thieves whose action placed him there. If Hayes is le•galiy elected president, Packard is legally elected governor of Louisiana; but Packard cannot maintain himself a? such, and if Hayes attempts to establish his government for him, he had better commence with an army of 600,000 men. ‘Them’s our sentiments!’

It has been frequently remarked by observing people that those who espouse the wrong side of a question are invariably the most turbulent, implacable and violent, and this is what seems to be the trouble with the author of the following paragraph: Some of the republican papers, since the democrats have got iuto power, now ask that we conduct our future political campaigns without personal bitterness, and that the two parties cultivate friendly relations with each other. They forget that the republican party was the cause of all the bitterness that has been created. They forget that they have wronged, robbed and outraged the white people of this country, bankrupted the treasuries aud paralyzed all branches of business. You want us to take you by the hand and cultivate friendly relations, eh? No, sir; we will remember old scores; we will keep you at a respectful distance. Tue coming campaign in this state will lie conducted with all the tire and vim that It ever was, The democratic party will again have a thorough organization; it has got the thieves out of office and It intends to try to keep them out. We have had enough of radical misrule. Twelve long, bitter years, during which, time we have starved, suffered and shed scalding tears over the piteous cries of our children for bread, while radicals luxuriated, grew fat and strutted over their 111-gotten, gains. Cultivate friendly relations, eh? Well we will see about it! To sum up: While overtures of kindness, acts of the grandest forbearance and most chivalrous forgiveness, and a long season of imperturbable patience seepi only to have made those spoiled children more insolent and intractable, still this may be only the frothy effervescence produced by dropping soda into vinegar, and possibly when their sour stomachs are thoroughly sweetened by conciliatory means they will show a more agreeable temper.- We hope so.

The terse and vigorous editorial articles which appear from week to week in the columns of the Sentinel are a source of never cloying satisfaction to people of cultivation. There is not a better democratic rural newspaper among the exchanges that are received at this office. Brother McEwen is doing a splendid work for his party friends and is entitled to their liberal support. The times are very bard at present and severely test the stanchness of business that has been long established; as a matter of course new craft feel the buffeting .of the e torm ev.gp uuw* «&wreif&«" the necessity of friendly sympathy. There is always more or less speculation when the publication of a newspaper in the interest of the minority is commenced about how long it will be able to sustain itself, and many are the hints and nods and winks and mysteriously whispered prophesies about its early demise; but this is not the right way totreatsuch enterprises. They should be encouraged, whenever respectable and worthy as she Sentinel is, with kindness and generosity. Every newspaper office on a paying basis in country towns furnishes employment to several persons, aud feed and clothe a number of human beings. .These are ail consumers and of necessity add to the prosperity of business. Every editor controls an engine that is powerful to assist in the important work of attracting immigration, capital and trade to thelocility where he livea. Every publisher of a local jonrnal is, from necessity, sincerely and intensely interested in promoting the material welfare of the community and country which supplies him grill) the means to live aud conduct

bis business, hence it .follows tbst money lent in support of his paper is returned with more-than doubled value to benefit the general prosperity of those who loan it. tWe take it that the far-sighted people es Jasper county, and particularly the shrewd business men of Rensselaer, together with all enterprising and intelligent persons ot the democratic faith will recognize their duty in this case, and perform it with cheerful alacrity. Charles G. Powell of the' Herald has been ap(M>inted post master at La Porte vice Dwight Fraser who had held the office eight years. Brother Powell is a worthy man, and we rejoice at his good fortune. Hon. W. S. Raymond and wife have taken their final departure from Monticello and moved to Indianapolis. William 8. Lingle of the Courier has been commissioned postmaster at Lafayette. =============== Willian J. Huff, of the HeruWbtn been repppointed postmaster at Monticello.