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[[stamp]] THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE UNITED STATES [[/stamp]]

S 167

The Pillsburgh Gazette.

PUBLISHED BY
THE GAZETTE PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1865.

UNION STATE TICKET.
FOR AUDITOR GENERAL:
GEN. JOHN F. HARTRANFT,
Of Montgomery county.
FOR SURVEYOR GENERAL:
COL. JACOB M. CAMPBELL,
Of Cambria county. 

UNION COUNTY TICKET
FOR DISTRICT ATTORNEY:
LEVI [[illegible]]

S 167

FOR COUNTY CONTROLLER:
HENRY LAMBERT, Pitt Township.
FOR TREASURER:
DAVID AIKEN JR., of Liberty Township
FOR STATE SENATE:
JAMES L. GRAHAM, Alleghany.
FOR ASSEMBLY:
[[GEO?]] Y. McKEE, North Fayette Township.
HANS B. HERRON, McCandless Township
ALFRED SLACK, of Allegheny.
DAVID SHAFER, Upper St. Clair.
J,[[?]] GLASS, Pittsburgh.
JOHN A. DANKS. Shaler Township.
FOR COUNTY COMMISSIONER
JONATHAN NEELY of Lower St. Clair Tr
FOR COUNTY SURVEYOR:
R. L. McCULLEY, of Birmingham.
FOR DIRECTOR OF POOR
MOSES CHESS of Chartiers Township.

ARMING THE SOUTHERN MILITIA.

We do not like the policy which the President has adopted in Mississippi of arming the Militia of that state to preserve order locally, with a view to the total withdrawal of the National forces thereform. 

GOV. SHARKEY, originally urged the "young men of the State of Mississippi, who have so distinguished themselves for gallantry" under the rebel banner, and who have recently laid down their arms, to form military companies, one of cavalry and one of infantry in each county, to maintain order in the state, the chief object being to get rid of the colored troops by substituting these recently disarmed rebels in their place. 

Gen. SLOCUM resisted and prohibited the enforcement of this scheme of GOV. SHARKEY, stating clearly and doubtless truly, that the only class in this State needing a military force to keep it in order, consisted of these "young men who had so distinguished themselves" in the rebel service. The breaches of order, says Gen SLOCUM, consists mainly in the "murdering of freedmen. and in outrages upon Northern men and Government couriers." at the hands of these late rebels just surrendered by FORREST and DICK TAYLOR. To suppress these disorders, GOV. SHARKEY selects the class who commit them.

In the face of the facts presented by Gen SLOCUM, the President has set aside his order annulling that of GOV. SHARKEY, thus permitting the Governor's plan to be put in operation. As there are 69 counties in Mississippi, this is equivalent to raising and equipping an army of 15,000 men, every man of which is hostile to the Union and the government. It is in effect re-arming that portion of the rebel army which was raised in Mississippi.

The pursuance of a similar policy throughout the South would end in raising a standing army from 150,000 to 200,000 secessionists, under whose sway the negro race would soon be exterminated or re enslaved.

We cannot think it possible that the President took into consideration the results that must inevitably flow from following out this policy. The idea of the President, that "the people must be trusted with the government," is correct, if properly carried out; but he seems to forget that the freedmen of the South are now an integral part of "the people," and that GOV. SHARKEY's scheme not only excludes them from all share in "their government," but puts into the hands of a minority of the people the right and the power to oppress and destroy the majority.

If white people of the South are to be considered as exclusively "the people" then we dissent in toto from the President's idea that the [white] people must be trusted with their "government." They are not fit to enjoy any such trust. Every day demonstrates this to be true. They need years upon years of tutelage and submission to fit them for that trust. Men taken red handed with treason and rebellion, ith their hearts embittered against the freedmen, by four years of strife, are in no way qualified for a trust that requires qualities not one of which they possess. As well might a city, after quelling a formidable riot, put into the hand of the rioters the preservation of its future peace.

S 167

NEGRO INSURRECTIONS.

We have looked in vain for any item of news, even the slightest, to give confirmation to the report sent to Washington from Virginia that there was danger of a negro insurrection in that State. Not a single fact has transpired to justify such a report, or to warrant a belief in any quarter that the negroes entertained any such purpose.

The report probably originated among the ex-slaveholders, who construe the existence of a determined spirit among the negroes not to be imposed upon, to be incipient insurrection. With them, any assertion of manhood on the part of the negro, is equivalent to open revolt; and if, as we trust they have, the freedmen of Virginia have shown the proper pluck in resisting the efforts of their late masters to practically re-enslave them, it is not to be wondered at that some half crazy loons should stand aghast and cry out "Insurrection." Under slave rule, if a slave resisted so slight a thing as a slap on the cheek, it was thought prima facie evidence of the existence of a conspiracy to rebel; and now when not one of them will allow themselves to be chastised or defrauded, the evidence of "Insurrection" must, to the minds of the woman-whipping chivalry, be conclusive.
 
Our only wonder is that the head of the Freedmen's Bureau permitted himself to be drawn into the trap set for him by these men who are determined that the negro shall not be free. He has, it seems, authorized the revival of that infamous slave institution, the Patrol-the very thing the ex-slave masters wanted. The Patrol was, with them, one of the most powerful instruments of oppression. As long as it was in force, no negro was safe out of his house after dark; and under its re-establishment it will be made the means of inflicting every possible cruelty upon the freedmen. The laborer on his way from one plantation to another, after his day's work, to see wife or children, will be arrested, imprisoned, and punished as only slave-drivers know how to punish, and thousands of pretexts will be conjured up for arresting by the patrol any one who, by asserting his independence, becomes obnoxious to the late ruling class.

We object to this whole system of treating the negro as a speciality, and dealing with him as a dangerous element in society. All he wants is to be let alone. Give him a fair chance and he will take care of himself. All he wants is protection against those who have been his oppressors, and security in the enjoyment of his freedom. He is not to be treated as a babe, or a child, but as a man, with all the rights and privileges of a man, and with all the duties of a man upon him. The whites of the South have got to learn this lesson, sooner or later, and the sooner the better. The Freedmen's Bureau can very properly give its attention to imparting this lesson to them, and it will then secure itself from the disgrace of establishing patrols and relapsing into the other barbarities of slavery.