The South Western

Incomprehensible Logic.
In a long article headed
"The Laws of Compensation," the New Orleans Republican deprecates such lawless acts as the recent
killing of Sheriff Wisner and Offutt Johnson in Monroe, (acts that no one deprecates more earnestly than
ourselves), and mixes up some truth with a vast
amount of falsehood—still harping upon the last Congressional election, which it persists in falsely denouncing as being marked by violence and intimidation,
when every fair-minded man knows that moral suasion
was the only argument used with the freedmen. It
argues that such acts will beget imitators and lead to
a resort to lynch law in those northern parishes where
a few "reckless men now carry matters with a high
and bloody hand," and closes with the following, the
logic of which is incomprehensible, so far as the connection between the notices in the conservative press
in regard to the good conduct of the freedmen, and
"that universal law which provides a remedy for
every evil" is concerned.
If the people are unable to bring murderers to justice, through the ordinary tribunals of courts and juries, they will set up Judge Lynch, with his Regulators, and woe then to offenders and their sympathizers.
That something of the kind has long been expected,
is evident from the frequent notices we see in the
conservative papers that the colored people in this or
that locality are quiet and peaceable, and are working
faithfully. It is as much as to say that they have not
yet been goaded to madness by their oppressors. We
all remember the innocent surprise manifested by the
city papers at the quiet and orderly behavior of the
colored people of this city on a recent great occasion.
Those who know this patient, long enduring, law abiding, affectionate people best know they are incapable
of creating an unprovoked public disturbance. But
the mildest of men love justice, and will, after their
patience is exhausted, turn and defend their rights.
Are those reckless men who now carry matters with a
high and bloody hand in the northern parishes of this
State willing to provoke a contest in which blows are
to be received as well as given? Do they wish to
compel the population to hunt them with bands of
regulators, as was recently the case in Texas? We
certainly do not wish to see such a condition of affairs
and hope it may not be necessary, yet it would be a
light evil in comparison to that which has so long afflicted this State, and which yet prevails to some extent.