The Scheme to Exterminate the Colored Race
From the Southern Christian Intelligencer of Aug. 5. The Scheme to Exterminate the Colored Race.
If one-tenth part of the reports are true in regard to the ill-treatment of the blacks, which are coming from all parts of the South, thicker and faster, a most shocking state of things exists. From localities where there are no National troops, come reports that these unfortunate creatures are being hunted down like dogs, and despatched without ceremony. The newspapers in the South are filled with accounts of these brutal murders, which foot up to an aggregate of several hundred deaths per day, which is doubtless only a small portion of the number noticed. An Alabama paper says that this business has become so extensive and common, that some planters even boast that they could manure their lands with the dead carcasses of the negroes. Seriously speaking, it is a matter that demands the prompt attention of the authorities at Washington. If negroes can be shot down daily in garrisoned towns, where the authorities are unable to stop this state of things, it is very reasonable to suppose that this brutal work is carried on more extensively where the blacks have no protection. This wholesale murdering of human beings is, we fear, the practical working of the conspiracy to exterminate the colored race, which is revolting in the Christian age. A just God will hold the Government of the United States, which is responsible for the welfare of these people, to a strict accountability for every life thus sacrificed. Deserting these innocent and helpless beings, and denying them proper assistance and protection in the hour of need, and thus leaving them to their fate, is an inhumanity as cruel as the grave, a crime for which the Nation will be punished, either by financial bankruptcy, chaotic discord and disunion, or a pestilence which will not leave enough of the living to bury the dead. Our neighbor of The National Democrat, an ex-member of the "Golden Circle," and a reformed Rebel, in referring to this subject, in his recent issue says: "This alarming increase of deaths among the Blacks is, we fear, but the developing of the extensive conspiracy alluded to in our last, which has for its object the re-enslavement of the negroes or their entire extermination, (more likely the latter), which was not expected would be apparent to the public, until after the withdrawal of the national troops and our readmission to the Union had been secured. Good behaviour and discretion having accomplished this, then they, the Knights of the Circle, count on the protection and assistance of the State and local authorities, even if the Southern States are obliged to ratify the Constitutional Amendment, abolishing Slavery, which is claimed, will be a dead letter in any event. The armies disbanded, all fears of renewed hostilities removed, and the ascension of the Democratic party to power, is, according to their figuring, also to be realized as a matter of course. 'Those whom the gods seek to destroy they first make mad.' Therefore we again say, that unless this barbarous work ceases, we fear that Gen. Butler will succeed in his project of organizing a black battalion in every county in the South, to be maintained by the proceeds realized from the confiscated lands of the disloyal, which he claims is the remedy, together with Negro Suffrage, which will secure tranquility to the Government, protection to the colored people, and justice to all concerned. All this will be realized unless the Southern people withhold their sympathy and encouragement from the malcontents. In thus exposing their fiendish designs we hope to destroy their evil intentions, and secure our prompt return to the Union, which will not be accomplished for years to come if these confirmed and irreconcilable Secessionists are left to prosecute their suicidal work." From The Raleigh Progress of Aug. 16. We learn from Col. Lawrence, Commandant of the post at Goldsborough, that six negroes were killed at or near Warsaw some two weeks ago. The facts, as related to Col. Lawrence, were as follows: The former owner of the blacks left on the approach of the Union Army, the blacks remaining. They went to work and made a crop. The former owner returned recently, and ordered them to leave. The negroes refused, and the proprietor of the place, getting some neighbors with arms, ordered them off again, and on their refusal to go they attacked them, killing six. These facts being reported at Wilmington, a company of soldiers were sent up, and the affair will be investigated by the authorities at Wilmington, if it has not been done already.