Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1879 — The Philosophy of the Yazoo Mob. [ARTICLE]

The Philosophy of the Yazoo Mob.

Then Is no doubt about it—we have got to tight the old battle over again! It is a characteristic of American people that they never make preparations to cross a stream until they arrive on its banks. Confronted with the grim necessity of constructing a bridge, they often have to retrace their steps to procure the requisite timber. While the Northern people have been- struggling to save the remnant of their imperiled fortunes, the Southern people have been strengthening their political position. They have secured control of Congress by violence and fraud; they propose to 'secure the Presidency in 1880 by the same means. The Yazoo mob and the Yazoo assassination are essential features‘of the Democratic conspiracy to usurp all the powers of the General Government. It so happens that the affair of Yazoo is too plain to admit of misconstruction. The mob cannot be successfully charged to unreasoning passion. ‘ The three hundred respectable (?) citizens of Yazoo County constituting the mob were all Democrats. They assembled immediately after a consultation held between Mr. E. Barksdale, Chairman of the State Democratic Committee, editor of the Jackson Clarion, and a prominent candidate for the United States Senate, Congressman Singleton, and the regular Democratic leaders of Yazoo County. The Democratic State ExecuIt tertn an and the Demoessman represented to the leaders of Yazoo County Id never do to allow an party to be formed in Yawst be nipped in the bud; izoo and all Mississippi solid.” - The armed mob, ctcd by the Democratic ity, drew up in front of e. It was as cool as an siege to a weak position, ion directed to kill Dixon, orce his retirement from for the shrievalty. Rather ate Dixon the mob nego- •, and by threatening death I its purpose. The second i tragic. Dixon announces of his candidacy. There y for the raising of a mob. atic State authority had m immunity upon condi--ctireme'nt. The original death held good: it only remained th inflict the punishment. James H. I irksdaley a candidate for Chancery C ark on the regulai - Democratic ticket and a nephew of E.Barksdale, Chairu an of the Democratic State Committee, iras selected as the executioner to infl ct the death penalty upon the contuma ious Dixon, who had the temerity to c I'er himself as a candidate for office ainst the regular Democratic organisation.., t • The assassfti chose a shot-gun as his weapon, lay in wait for his victim like a thug, and slot him in the back. We have been thus particular in recalling each successive step of this appalling tragedy in ordkr to show that the act of shooting was the logical sequence of and flowed directly from the consultation of a month! ago between the elder Barksdale, Congressman Singleton and the.regular Demwraticleaders of Yazoo County. Both th® mob which intimi-. dated and threatened and the assassins who killed were tlife authorized agents of the Democratieyparty council; the council decreed, and( the agents carried the decrees into effect to the bloody letter. And all this dccurred in a free country; in the language of the Fourth of July orator,ln the freest country on the Globe!” Citizens of the North, What are you going tp do about it? Are you going to wait mtieh longer on the banks of the stream staring up and down for a ferryman? On will you build a bridge and move across it? How long will you permit the Democratic par.ty of Mississippi, fielding a§, Jt does all the legitimate powers of the State Government, to resort; to k mob violence and assassination as, 9. means of enforcing despotic partisapdecrees? The Nation guarantees a republican. Government to each of t|ie States. Is that a republican Government which permits a political party to usurp all its powers? Is that a Republican Government which voluntarily surrenders its functions to the rule of mobs and assassins? Is that a Republican Government which, although preserving the form, scorns the sul istance of republicanism, and perpetuates itself by acts bf despotism as pronounced as those of the Czar of Russia? Mississippi is, in fact, without adGovernment. Its pretended Government neither protects innocent citizens in the enjoyment of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, nor punishes the Criminals who defy its .laws. The Democratic party of Mississippi usurped the control of its Government by terrorism, assassination and fradd, and it retains control by refusing to execute the laws of the jState, by conniving at mob violence, and consenting to murder. Eb ng before the breaking out of ' the 'Rebellion of 1861 Mr. Lincoln declared solemnly that the Union could not continue to exist half slave and half free. The event justified Mr. Lincoln’s prescience. It is equally evident now that *t6o"couhlr f cUn" never be at rest, and that the Union can never be regarded as safe from the peril of disruption so long as the political events of a dozen States continue to be the sport of mobs and assassins. It is a political axiom that the oppression of one citizen is a menace to the rights of all citizens. We do not propose to deduce frbm this axiom the conclusion that Southern mob violence is destined to spread all over the! North. But we do insist that, if a stop is not put to the Southern method of carrying elections, an effort will be made to carry elections at the North by similar means. And with the Democratic party in power at Washington, those means will preyail in a dozen cities at least. Citizens of the North, this is the sort of stream we are approaching—-a stream whose op- , posite bank will be lined by Democrats with guns in their bands. Then there will be a fight—a civil war to’ deter-' mine whether suffrage is an inanenab|e right or a mere privilege dependent upon the will of the strongestmnob. If the existing mob-rule at the-Sotroh continues much longer, it must be put down by the Government of the United States, or it will eventuate war! The prospect is very disagreeable, but it noneihe less looms up before us. It may, lifee the cloud, be no bigger than a man’s hand, but, like the cloudy it gathers volumd and strength dally; soon it will assume the importance of a tempest black and portentous, threatening to. overwhelm and desolate the whole land.— Chicago Tribune. —A large amount of the A. & W. Sprague estate, including the mansion near Narrangansett Pier recently brqjjght into Conspicuous ijotice, is adby the United States Marshal to be sold at unction, to satisfy a judgment inr behalf of the National Bank of Commerce, New York. - »