The Atlanta "Independent," in discussing the question of who saved Georgia to the Democrats, does not give credit to Benjamin Hill, but to the shot-guns of the Ku-Klux.—Cincinnati Gazette.
GOING TO LEAVE "OLD MISSISSIPPI."
Senator Bruce, colored, of Mississippi, is preparing to shake the dust of that unfriendly stronghold of Democracy from his feet. He realizes that it is not the place where a black man can safely go to grow up with the country. His marriage to a Cleveland belle was only part of the programme he has mapped out for himself. He has bought considerable property in that vicinity, and when his senatorial term has expired he will go to his farms, and let others fight it out on the color line.
HAMPTON'S LEGION OF "CONCILIATORS."
The "Traveller" has all along maintained, in spite of the protests of the Northern doughfaces who worship the ex-Confederate chiefs, that the conciliatory profession of Hampton & Co. is a malicious snare, and the fraternal disposition attributed to their followers is a delusion. As the campaign at the South advances, the truth begins to develop, and even the Northern conciliators begin to acknowledge it. The following information comes in the form of a Washington despatch to one of the most obedient newspaper servants of the Southern chieftains:—
Terrorism in South Carolina.
Information from Abbeville District, in South Carolina, is to the effect that Democrats have already begun a system of terrorism to prevent Republicans from organizing for political purposes. Several of the local papers of that section are charging that Republicans of that vicinity have completed a ticket, and that it is already being circulated secretly among colored voters, and upon this curious charge an attempt is being made to stir up white citizens to take this matter in hand, and act in time, and vigorously. In Edgefield District, one of the local newspapers, in commenting upon this reported secret action on the part of the Republicans, says that something is feared in Edgefield County, and upon this urges that two Republicans, who are supposed to be leaders in this movement, should, if they dared to lift their heads or fingers in political machinations, be seized and hung. To use its own words: "Yes, we mean exactly what we say. If those named, and others, ever dare to inaugurate political schemes in Edgefield again, let us hang them. Not only our own self-respect, but our safety demands it, and that without masks or disguise."
The newspaper quoted is the Edgefield "Advertiser," which contains a long article giving the names of those Republicans against whom it tries to incite the mob. The Abbeville "Medium" joins in the cry against the Republicans, who are exercising their common rights, and advises the Democrats to "throw out pickets" in order to suppress the movement. What all this talk means everybody knows, and the experience of the Southern Republicans shows them what they are to expect if they dare to exercise their privileges as citizens. Extraordinary emphasis is given to this revival of Ku-Kluxism, by the recollection that it is just two years since the horrors of the Hamburg massacre were enacted, on the very ground where this movement finds its inspiration, under the patronage of one who now holds a seat in the United States Senate; and that it is more than one year since the State government of South Carolina was surrendered to Hampton with the assurance that everybody's rights would be protected, and that fraternal relations would be maintained as a result of the conciliatory policy. This melancholy failure of all efforts to compromise with the perfidious ex-Confederates, in South Carolina, is only one in a score of lessons, by which the North has blindly failed to profit. The assassins, who slaughtered the colored Republicans, at Hamburg, are still at large, and ready for more bloody work: and Hampton sits calmly at the head of affairs in his State, deluding the people of the North with promises which he never intends to fulfil. It would seem to be about time for us to recall the language of the Cincinnati platform, declaring it to be "the solemn obligation of the legislative and executive departments of the government" to "secure to every citizen complete liberty and exact equality in the exercise of all civil, political, and public rights." This language was enforced by the imperative demand for "a Congress and a chief executive whose courage and fidelity to these duties shall not falter until these results are placed beyond dispute or recall." It is useless to deny that the signs are ominous in the South. The time seems to have arrived for testing the courage and fidelity of those whom the Republican party called to the duty of protecting the rights of citizenship, and the capability of Republican institutions for the plainest purposes and requirements of a government.
The Portland "Advertiser," a disgruntled sheet of Republican antecedents, says President Hayes has effected a "permanent settlement of the Southern question." That depends. He has secured Democratic ascendency in every Southern State. He has wiped out the Republican party of the South. He has rewarded bull-dozers instead of punishing them for their crimes. He has emasculated the United States flag so that it is no longer the symbol of protection to the newly enfranchised race. But the one thing which would compensate in some degree for these acts, he has not been able to do; viz., make loyal men of the unreconstructed ex-rebels. These are just as bitter, venomous, and implacable to-day as on the day when Gen. Grant's term of office expired. One man, and one only, so far as we know, has been changed by the "new departure," and that man is now a Cabinet officer. Upon the same terms even the Chisholm assassins might be conciliated.—Concord Monitor.
The safest thing to do with the Southern claims of all kinds is to reject them promptly. If the entire batch should be ruled out, some deserving persons might suffer, but the country would be saved the cost of enriching a good many scores of rascally rebels. The claims now on file foot up about three hundred millions of dollars, and we venture to say that not half a million of this amount is honestly due to the claimants.—Philadelphia Bulletin.