The Morning Star And Catholic Messenger

[Every reader of the Irish World will bear us witness that we have never helped to foster any sectional jealousy or ill-feeling, but, on the contrary, have always zealously labored to establish harmony and good will. We have read this correspondent's letter carefully, and from what he discloses, as well as from information sent us by other trustworthy persons, we are forced to believe that the negro in many parts of the South is subjected to intimidation of various kinds. It would be the veriest hypocrisy on our part to denounce the "religious test" in New Hampshire, or the "property qualification" for adopted citizens in Rhode Island, if we remained dumb as to the "bulldozing" of colored men in Mississippi. We feel satisfied that the mass of the white people down South are loyally disposed to accept the results of the war, including the Reconstruction Acts. But they have among them a mischievous set of men who, though they never struck a blow for the Confederacy, are now foremost in talking gore and exciting evil passions. By giving any color of approval to the acts of those disturbers, or by trying to abridge the political rights of the colored man, the South will only prolong its own agony and retard the progress of desirable reforms throughout the whole nation. The South must in the end accept the logic of events, and it can gain much more by conciliating than by intimidating the negro.—Ed I. W.]