‘rao oe Oe = 
 
 sett 
 
 oe 
 
 [te eee +2 oR eet 
 
 aes 
 wa 
 
 ~~ 
 
 Par BOR Re ES TS Be ae NY 
 
 i pte A 
 
 t 
 4 
 t 
 
 oi 
 
 ete 
 
 aoe 
 
 p< na 
 
 
 

 
 STEPHEN B. WEEKS 
 
 @|- CLASS OF 1886; PH.D. THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 
 
 a LIBRARY 
 
 © OF THE 
 
 S| UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA 
 | 6 THE Oke ete Ha 
 
 By PD Aah 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT 
 
 A 
 
 00032771901 
 
 FOR USE ONLY IN 
 
 SS OS: DEO Bet Ne 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 THIS ITEM MA’ ep) BE COPIED 
 ON THE SELF-SERVICE COPIER: 
 
 
 

 
 ps 
 
 ae 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 j 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 WADDELL 
 
 * 
 t) 
 
 ® 
 — 
 
 & 
 
 ¥ 
 
 OF NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 
 
 A 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 te 
 
 APRIL 13, 1872. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 & 
 Ps 
 So — 
 o 
 BS 
 48 
 << ? 
 2 8 
 Aq A 
 bi 5 
 HO : 
 aco aie | 
 Zo eS 
 bm 2) 
 oe pee pane 
 MM ‘ 
 <a ff 
 PEE 
 mo 
 fs OH 
 (=) 
 * 32 | 
 ee 
 Es = 
 faa . a 
 Oo é 
 EA 
 a 
 

 
i eae : 
 
 Condition of the South, 
 
 
 
 Mr. WADDELL. Mr. Speaker, I approach 
 the task which my duty as a member of the 
 Committee on Alleged Outrages in the South- 
 ern States imposes upon me with .unfeigned 
 reluctance. ‘lhe country is wearied with the 
 subject, the people are sick of the hollow 
 hypocrisy of this Ku Klux crusade; but, 
 although as an individual I do not claim and 
 cannot expect the same degree of attention 
 which has been and will be accorded to my 
 more distinguished colleagues on the commit- 
 tee, it is still my. misfortune to be the only 
 original member of that committee who is a 
 native resident and Representative of a State 
 affected by this report and the legislation on 
 which it is based, and therefore only I speak. 
 I shall do go very plainly, because I feel very 
 deeply ; but I am not weak enough to suppose 
 
 that anything I may say will affect in the least | 
 
 degree the action of the House; I know that 
 if | should speak with the tongues of men and 
 of angels, and in the spirit of heavenly charity, 
 and should produce proofs as strong as Holy 
 Writ to show the disastrous effects of the estab- 
 _ lished policy of the Government toward my 
 unfortunate countrymen, my words would still 
 be but as sounding brass anda tinkling cymbal. 
 Tam painfully sensible of the fact that south- 
 ern Representatives are powerless here, except 
 to the extent of their votes, and I know full 
 well how futile it is for one of us to protest 
 against the grievous wrongs under which our 
 people have suffered and are suffering. If we 
 bear wituess to them we are discredited ; if we 
 denounce them we are accused of disloyalty ; 
 silence concerning them is misconstrued into 
 acquiescence; approval and justification of 
 them open the only path to preferment. I 
 must not remain silent; I cannot approye then. 
 but in spite of the penalty I will bear witmess 
 and I will denounce. 
 
 Congress passed a bill at the lage session 
 entitled ‘‘ An act to enforce the provisions of 
 
 
 
 { 
 | 
 
 the fourteenth amendment, and for other pur- 
 poses.’’ The other and real purpose, as every 
 intelligent man in the country well knew, was 
 to make political capital for the Republican 
 party so as to carry the next presidential elec- 
 tion. It ebmbined the two usual characteristics 
 of all legislation aimed at the South, namely, 
 bad motive and bald unconstitutionality. I 
 know that in these piping times of central- 
 ism the unconstitutionality of a measure is no 
 argument against it; that the higher law of 
 narty necessity controls; that States have 
 uo rights, reserved or, otherwise, against the 
 encroachments of the ‘‘ central power,’’ as 
 the court journal exultingly terms it, and [ 
 only allude to that as an interesting feature of 
 the bill. The great object in passing it was 
 not to give the President power to crush out a 
 new rebcllion, which ‘‘threatened the life of 
 the nation,’’ but to rouse the passions and ex- 
 cite the fears of the northern people with the 
 pretense that such a conspiracy agaiast the 
 Government really existed, and thus to unite 
 them for the coming campaign. I have until 
 recently sometimes feared that that object has 
 been accomplished, because the perfect in- 
 difference, the utter insensibility exhibited 
 throughout the country in regard to acts of 
 absolute despotism committed by officers civil 
 and military, State and national, were diflicult 
 to account for except upon that hypothesis. 
 Since the passage of the act occurrences which 
 a few years ago would have convulsed the 
 country have happened without producing ai 
 the time aripple upon the surface of public 
 opinion, and all the odium which rightfully 
 attached to them has been skillfully transferred 
 to blameless shoulders by those who are face: 
 tiously termed public servants. 
 Now, cir, [do not intend to occupy the atti 
 tude which some gentlemen seem to think i» 
 
 the appropriate one fur a southern Represent - 
 oP 8 eRe 
 ‘ 
 
 I am not here as the defender of « 
 
 ative. 
 

 
 
 
 constituency of criminals. I have no excuses 
 or apologies to make for them, or for myself. 
 Whatever my deficiencies of intellect or expe- 
 rience may be, I stand here unmuzzled, as 
 your peer, and speak for a constituency in 
 every respect equal to the proudest represented 
 here, and only distinguished from it by sub’ 
 lime fortitude under crushing and relentless 
 calamity and persecution. I intend not to 
 palliate the falsely alleged offenses of my coun- 
 trymen, not to regret that they do not enjoy 
 the peculiar civilization of other parts of the 
 country, with which they are continually and 
 offensively taunted; not to plead for clemency 
 to them, but to denounce the tyranny, the op- 
 pression, the wrong, and robbery which have 
 been practiced upon them for six years, and 
 which, becoming familiar as they have to the 
 American people, threaten to destroy the last 
 vestige of constitutional liberty throughout 
 this land. And in the performance of.this 
 duty I shall not mince my words. 
 
 Let it be understood, too, at the outset that 
 I speak not as a partisan, but as a represent- 
 ative of thousands of free-born American citi- 
 zens. I repudiate utterly, in this connection, 
 any interest whatever in any political party. 
 The southern people have ceased to be enthu- 
 siasts on that subject. It may be very proper 
 for gentlemen representing northern and west- 
 ern constituencies to become excited in regard 
 to questions of finance, the tariff, civil service 
 reform, and the like; but all these things are 
 
 at this time matters of but little moment to’ 
 
 the people of the States purposely, falsely, and 
 insultingly called ‘‘insurrectionary.”’ 
 
 We care nothing about your syndicates, or 
 high tariffs, or foreign relations, or Tammany 
 thefts, or custom-house frauds, or other such 
 questions, so long as you continue, as you have 
 done, to persecute and slander us, to rob us of 
 our right of local self-government, and to legis- 
 late in every way against our interests. 
 
 It seems that a certain class of persons (and 
 unfortunately a ruling class) will never relent 
 or cease to gratify their cowardly malice toward 
 the ruined people of the South. They are, 
 fortunately for the character of the American 
 people, not the class whose courage on the 
 battle-field shed honor upon the American 
 name. The hard-fighting soldiers and sailors 
 of the North, with rare exceptions, have no 
 sympathy with this mean, malignant spirit, 
 and there has not been a day since 1865 when 
 the people of the South would not willingly 
 have committed to their hands the settlement 
 of all questions affecting the public welfare. 
 Even under all their afflictions, which the elo- 
 quent Senator from Missouri—himself once an 
 exile—has pronounced to be without a paral- 
 lel in modern times, they have promptly and 
 faithfully complied with every condition which 
 has been required of them. They religiously 
 
 
 
 abided by the terms of surrender demanded 
 by one whom they then regarded as a mag- 
 nanimous conqueror; notwithstanding their 
 loss of more than three billions of property, 
 their enforced repudiation of debts due to their 
 own people, and their utter impoverishment, 
 they were compelled to pay heavy taxes 
 without representation, one of which taxes, 
 amounting to $65,000,000 was imposed in vio- 
 lation of the Constitution ; they complied with 
 President Johnson’s requirements, and after 
 starting their State governments again, they 
 were compelled to undo all their work and sub- 
 mit to the new requirements of Congress; 
 they were reconstructed over and over again, 
 and were robbed with regularity by the horde 
 of rapacious rascals who were turned loose 
 on them; they were humiliated and degraded 
 in countless ways, but they offered no resist- 
 ance, and only kept up a struggle for bread. 
 Agd although this process has been going on 
 for more than six years, to the disgrace of the 
 country, and, (as another Republican Senator 
 said,) to the disgrace of the civilization of the 
 age, there seems to be no disposition in our 
 rulers to change it, unless for the worse. A 
 leading Republican newspaper (the New York 
 Tribune) recently said that ‘‘the condition of 
 the southern States after six years ,of recon- 
 struction can only be described as pitiful.’’ 
 Now, if this be true, and no one will doubt 
 it, where rests the responsibility for it? Who 
 did the reconstruction that produced it? Did 
 we after the war establish governments for 
 our own degradation and oppression, and organ- 
 ize the system of robbery of our own people 
 which has resulted in the general bankruptcy 
 of those States? Did we organize the secret 
 societies called the ‘‘League,’’ the ‘‘ Heroes 
 of America,’’ and the ‘‘Red Strings,’’ which 
 began the system of intimidating voters by 
 threats and scourgings, and sought revenge by 
 barn-burnings and murder? Did we commit 
 the crime of attempting to set the pyramid of 
 government on its apex instead of its base, 
 which my friend from Indiana [Mr. Voor- 
 HEES] has so forcibly depicted? Did we put 
 on the bench and in other high places rene- 
 gade secessionists, whose highest ambition in 
 life seems to be to hunt down the very men 
 whom they led into resistance to the Federal 
 power? No, we did not; and yet all these 
 things and worse have happened to us. _. 
 The Republican party is responsible for all 
 the troubles which have befallen the southern 
 States since the war. They all resulted from 
 the bad governments established and sustained 
 by that party. Frauds and villainies previously 
 unknown in the history of those States were 
 perpetrated by that party to such an extent as 
 to render disorder and crime inevitable; and 
 then, when the crimes and disorders naturally 
 followed, the virtuous and patriotic officehold- 
 
5 
 
 
 
 
 
 ers raised the cry of ‘‘ Ku Klux,”’ §‘ rebellion,” 
 and ‘‘disloyalty.”’ 
 
 Let me read you the language of an intelli- 
 gent Republican on that subject. I quote from 
 a letter of H. H. Helper to Secretary Bout- 
 well, dated March 23, 1871. After detailing 
 
 numerous acts of infamy committed by officers | 
 
 in North Carolina, and after making an earn- 
 est appeal for reform in the Republican party, 
 Mr. Helper says: 
 
 “One of the greatet evils affecting society in 
 ‘North Carolina may justly be set down to the in- 
 competent and worthless State and Federal officials 
 now in power. They are for the most part pestifer- 
 ous ulcers feeding upon the body-politic. They 
 should be cut down immediately, and left to wither 
 
 and rot on the wayside of Republicanism, or else 
 
 Republicanism will be throttled to death by these 
 villainous rascals. It is through these gentry that 
 the political sty in North Carolina has become so 
 very filthy. It needs to be cleansed by introducing 
 better men into both State and Federal position. 
 So far as Federal places are concerned you have 
 power to act. Shall we-have better men, through 
 whom the State may be redeemed, orshall we dilly- 
 dally along, and thus permit the Republican party, 
 of which I am an uncompromising member for 
 Republican principle only, to go down to irrevoc- 
 able defeat in 1872 with a majority of twenty thou- 
 sand? — 
 
 ““One word more. Reconstruction for North Car- 
 olina, as carried out by Congress and the villainous 
 and incompetent State and Federal officials within 
 her borders, has proved a total failure. When the 
 historian comes to write the history of these evil 
 times, truth will impel him to declare that the Ku 
 Klux business of to-day grew out of things com- 
 plained of in these statements. 
 
 “The only way to effectually rid the country of 
 these wicked midnight assassins is to first remove 
 the cause which brought them into existence, and 
 then apply rigid means for their swift extirpation.”’ 
 
 This Ku Klux business has been a God- 
 send to that party. It has enabled them to 
 make the ery ‘‘ Stop thief’’ successful; it has 
 been skillfully used to divert attention from 
 their own crimes to the crimes of others nat- 
 urally following them; it has been grossly 
 magnified and misrepresented, bad as it was, 
 and has been used entirely for party purposes. 
 Now, sir, I do not hesitate to say that while I 
 have always’in public and private denounced 
 Ku Kluxism, yet when I consider the infam- 
 ously corrupt and tyrannical governments 
 which produced it, the wonder to meis that it 
 has not been much worse. I believe that if 
 the same provocations had existed in the north- 
 ern States, and particularly in New England, 
 which existed in the South, the crime and dis- 
 order would have been infinitely greater, and 
 to sustain the assertion genore the language 
 
 of a northern newspaper, which, in comment: 
 ing upon this report, says: 
 
 “The North has been called phlegmatic. But 
 half the wrong endured here that is endured South 
 would plant a gallows at every cross roads.” 
 
 Even without any such provocation more 
 crimes have been committed in northern than 
 in southern States during the past four years, 
 in which, according to this majority report, 
 these Ku Klux or vigilance committees have 
 been operating. It does not afford me the 
 same pleasure to expose them which other 
 gentlemen seem to take in portraying the 
 alleged ignorance and barbarism of my south- 
 ern countrymen, and I certainly do not intend 
 to follow their example by abusing and malign- 
 ing the whole northern people on account of 
 their criminal records; but justice demands 
 that those who live in glass houses should be 
 taught not to/throw stones. . 
 
 .Recently, when my friend from Delaware 
 [Mr. Biees] was entertaining the House by 
 reading the number and character of the 
 crimes committed in Massachusetts during a 
 period of three or four years, the gentleman 
 from the latter State [Mr. Hoar] tried to have 
 it appear that the native population of his 
 State were a race of innocent lambs, (which 
 if their war record had been the subject of dis- 
 cussion would have been cheerfully acceded 
 to by everybody,) and that the foreign popu- 
 lation there were the criminals, (which if mak- 
 ing up the quota of Massachusetts during the 
 war had been the offense would have been 
 equally true;) but it is well known that the 
 infusion of foreign blood is all that saves that 
 race from rapid extinction; and I think that 
 sort of interference on their part is the worst 
 crime for which the foreign population is 
 chargeable. They have a high appreciation 
 of education there,” however, for [ find ina 
 report of the inspectors of public institutions 
 of Boston that they imprison boys between 
 seven and sixteen years of age for not going 
 to school, sentencing them to terms of from 
 three to twenty-four months, and during six 
 months of the year they are worked ona farm, 
 never entering a school-room or receiving any 
 school education during that time. In other 
 words, if a boy does not go to school they jail 
 him and keep him out of sehool half the year 
 by way of punishment. But, with all their 
 unique appliances for cultivating the mind 
 and heart, the serpent has managed somehow 
 to enter that Eden; for I find in the same 
 report a statement which ought to close the 
 mouth of the gentleman from Massachusetts 
 forever from sneering at the barbarisms of 
 other communities than his own: 
 
 ** Indecent Exposureof Women and Girls.—With the 
 exception of the House of Reformation for Juvenile 
 
 Ms 
 

 
 Offenders, and in the boys’ department, which is 
 furnished with one spacious tub in which the frolic- 
 someness of boyhood can disport itself with a quite 
 limited freedom, all the prisons are provided with 
 the ordinary bath-tub, from three to seven in num- 
 ber, and placed side by side, at distances of from 
 twelve to twenty-four inches apart; these are all in 
 open rooms, without any screen or protection what- 
 ever, and in these publicly-exposed tubs the prison- 
 ers, men, women, and girls, in their respective de- 
 partments, in groups of from three to seven, are 
 required to perform their ablutions. Old offenders, 
 young offenders, girls of nine and ten years of age, 
 alike must disrobe themselves, and in full observa- 
 tion of their fellows and officers, in a state of utter 
 nudity, enter thebath, perform its duty; and partake 
 its refreshment. We are far from advocating any 
 sentimental delicacy, but we do submit that there is 
 scarcely any prisoner, however callous in the paths 
 of crime, from however low and degraded a sphere 
 of social life he may have come, that at this required 
 exposure at the bath-tub will not feel his rudi- 
 mental nature at least somewhat shocked. But not 
 all the prisoners are hardened, not all from the lower 
 walks of life, not all are without much of the refining 
 culture of our New England society. All life has 
 here its. representatives; young girls and maidens 
 are here, tender, plastic, sensitive, full of the mod- 
 esty of nature, and it may beculture also; some with 
 no other charge of crime than not habitually attend- 
 ang the public school, and the single question is, is 
 it proper, prudent, reformatory, necessary for any 
 purpose that these should be compelled, promiscu- 
 ously in public nudity, to the bath, when an outlay 
 of from five to ten dollars would afford them a pro- 
 tecting shelter without in any way diminishing the 
 oversight or control of their keepers? It seems to 
 us very clear and admitting but a single answer. 
 We therefore ask that the evil may be at once reme- 
 died and no longer characterize any Suffolk prison. 
 
 * Brutality to Girls—Whipping Boys with Wagon- 
 Whipns.—On the 13th of July, the day previous to 
 the visit of the inspectors, one of the girls in the 
 female department of this house had been severely 
 punished, and it became our painful duty to invest- 
 igate the circumstances. The girl was seventeen 
 years of age, and coming eighteen the ensuing May, 
 in stature a woman grown; it is said she had been 
 avery troublesome girl. On this occasion she was 
 charged with open and direct disobedience of orders 
 and insolence of language; she frankly admitted this 
 offense, and for it was*punished by the superintend- 
 ent in person witha rattan about half an inch in 
 diameter and twenty inches long, upon tke shoul- 
 ders and back of the neck—the number of blows no 
 onecan report. The superintendent says, ‘I struck 
 her with all my might;’ ‘she would not yield, I 
 sent for a larger stick, and then she held out her 
 hand.’ After this beating and this subniission she 
 was committed to the cell and the food of the soli- 
 tary, where we found her on the 8lst day of July. 
 Upon each shoulder the flesh was discolored, blue- 
 
 
 
 a ne 
 
 
 
 — —as 
 
 
 
 black in spots full as large as the palm of the hand, 
 
 and there were perfectly evident traces of blows 
 upon her back and shoulders. She seems to us a 
 
 resolute girl, of more than ordinary strength of pur- 
 pose and character; there were unmistakable evi-. 
 dences also that her feelings were quick to respond 
 
 to appeals of tenderness and good-will as no doubt 
 they are in quick passion. 
 
 ““On the 5th of August we again visited the insti- 
 tution; she was suffering the solitary, it being the 
 seventh day of her incarceration ; her shoulders 
 were still strongly discolored; the same indications 
 of character were manifest; it appeared she had 
 been visited by the matron daily with food, and 
 by the physician, who seems by the rules not to be 
 allowed to ‘hold communication with any inmates 
 except in pursuance of his medical duty.’ She 
 stated she had not been spoken to by any officer of 
 the establishment about her misconduct, her peni- 
 tence, her resolves or purposes, or about anything 
 connected with her imprisonment, and to this ex~ 
 tent her staterfénts were not denied. We repeated 
 these statements to the superintendent, who replted 
 by this question to the girl, ‘Have you ever sent for 
 me?’ to which she answered, ‘No, sir,’?and to which 
 he rejoined, ‘Well, then.’ She was finally released 
 from the cell on the evening of the 5th day of Au- 
 gust, the same day of our second visit. Speaking 
 of the corporeal punishment, the superintendent 
 remarked, ‘It Was the severest flogging I ever had 
 to do.’ Inthe course of this investigation we were 
 informed by this officer that in the boys’ depart- 
 ment the punishments are sometimes inflicted with 
 an ordinary Wagon-whip by the superintendent in 
 person,” - 
 
 All this was going on while those haman- 
 itarians were engaged in buying substitutes to, 
 go down and fight the cruel slave-drivers of the 
 South. It must have been in one of these 
 humane institutions that those boys were edu- 
 cated who some time ago stoned a schuol- 
 mistress to death. | Is it to save their ebildren 
 from this kind.of high civilization that the 
 GREAT CRIME Of New England is so common? 
 lor it is unquestionably true that more human 
 beings are destroyed before they come into 
 existence there in the course of five years than 
 have ever been so destroyed in the southern 
 States since the foundation of the Government. 
 The Ku Klux in North Carolina wait until their 
 victims reach manhood, and until they commit - 
 crime and escape from punishment, before they 
 take them in hand; but the New England ku 
 Klux destroy the innocent unborn. We all re- 
 member the horrible exposé made by the bureau 
 of statistics of that State two years ago, in 
 regard to the cruel and inhuman overworking © 
 of poor little children in the factories. lt 
 was announced in that report that children 
 under fifteen, and some under ten years of 
 age were worked ‘eleven hours a day in. fac- 
 tories all over the State;’’ and one oversecy 
 
 . : 
 
testified that he had seen them go to sleep 
 while standing at their work, and was com- 
 pelled ‘‘to sprinkle water in their faces to 
 arouse them after having spoken to them uptil 
 hoarse.’’? According to the census, there are 
 in North Carolina 214,142 male citizens over 
 twenty-one years of age, and in Massachusetts 
 there are 312,770, and yet, notwithstanding the 
 superior culture and refinement of the latter 
 State, and notwithstanding more than one 
 third of the people of the former are of that 
 class recently held as slaves, the statistics 
 show that for every crime committed in North 
 Carolina there are more than three committed 
 in Massachusetts. 
 
 There is hardly a State of the North in 
 which there have not been bloodshed and riots. 
 I have been told by a citizen of a great north- 
 ern city, within the past fortnight, that it was 
 ‘dangerous to walk upon the streets of that 
 city after sunset; and he is corroborated by 
 the newspapers. In one judicial circuit of the 
 State of Indiana, according to the statement 
 of the judge therein presiding, there have been 
 actually more men murdered by mobs in the 
 past four years than have been killed by Ku 
 Klux in the whole State of North Carolina 
 from their organization to this day. And yet 
 no soldiers have been sent there. 
 
 In his charge to the grand jury touching the 
 murder of the Park family in Clark county, 
 
 . Indiana, and the hanging of the three negroes 
 charged with the commission of the murder, 
 Judge Dunham said: 
 
 ‘Within the last four years, in this judicial cir- 
 cuit, there have been thirteen men murdered before 
 these three. Five were hung upon the beech trees 
 below Seymour—I speak words plainly; I do not 
 mince them—one of whom was an orphan boy, just 
 arrived at the age of maturity, left without mother, 
 worse than fatherless. I think he was less than 
 twenty-one. He was one of the victims of that mur- 
 der. Two more were hung in the court-house yard 
 at Brownstown; four in the jail-yard in the very 
 heart of New Albany, one of whom the whole com- 
 
 _ munity now believe innocent—I mean the youngest 
 victim of the murder; two south of Orleans, between 
 there and Seymour. I believe if you count them 
 you will find they number thirteen. Thirteen men 
 
 jung by the neck in this State; more men than 
 ele =e ALY © been judicially hanged in this State, in my 
 
 i‘ opinion, since Indiana has been a State.” 
 
 The men who hanged those three negroes 
 were said to have been disguised, and were, 
 therefore, Ku Klux I suppose; but was there 
 anything in the social and political condition 
 of that State which could by possibility ex- 
 tenuate such crimes? The editor of the New 
 York Tribune seemed to think there was; 
 for in his paper of December 13 last, in com- 
 menting upon this case, he says: 
 
 “When lynching becomes fashionable it is fair to 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 assume that the laws are not honestly executed and 
 the courts are not pure. It is because judges were 
 believed to be corrupt and timid, prosecutors un- 
 faithful, or jurorsin complicity with the criminals, 
 that Indiana mobs took the privilege of punishment 
 into their own hands, and whenever and wherever 
 justice is similarly prostituted we shall have murder 
 usurping the functions of the law.” 
 
 I emphasize the last two lines because they 
 contain the whole philosophy of Ku Kluxism. 
 The people of North Carolina experienced for 
 years that same prostitution of justice, and 
 are now suffering from it. Lawless men in 
 organized bands did usurp the functions of the 
 law, because justice was prostituted under the 
 influenceof other wicked and dangerous organ- 
 izations to which they opposed themselves. If 
 there had been no secret societies such as the 
 ‘Red Strings,’’ ‘‘ Heroes of America,’’ and 
 
 ‘‘Union Leagues,’? whose members commit- ~~ 
 
 ted murders and rapes, burned barns, and 
 intimidated voters by threats and scourgings, 
 and then escaped punishment, there never 
 would have been any Ku Klux. The one 
 begot the other and always will do it in any 
 country. It is all wrong, to be sure, but it 
 is intensely human. 
 
 I purpose confining my remarks to events 
 which have occurred in my own State, because 
 the condition of the other southern States has 
 been and will be fully discussed by other mem- 
 bers of the committee whose duties, as such, 
 have brought them more particularly under 
 their notice. : 
 
 I shall not go back to the year 1672, as this 
 majority report does on page 278, and discuss 
 the general wickedness of the Government of 
 Sir John Yeamans.in Carolina, because 1 do 
 not see its immediate bearing on the question 
 before the Housé. There was no evidence 
 before the committee going to show that Sir 
 John Yeamans was a Ku Klux in 1672, and 
 that therefore the habeas corpus ought to be 
 suspended in 1872, although it would be quite 
 as logical and reasonable to do so as to sus- 
 pend it for offenses committed several years 
 ago, as the committee proposes. 
 
 I shall, in a few words, simply contrast the 
 condition of North Carolina before the war 
 with her present state. ‘There was no land on 
 the globe inhabited by a braver, purer, more 
 honest and hospitable people than that State 
 wag. Containing no great citiés and few rail- 
 roads, her citizens were plain, unpretending 
 agriculturists. It was on her soil that the first 
 Declaration of Independence was made, on the 
 20th of May, 1775, more than a year before Jef- 
 ferson penned, in almost the same language, his 
 immortal paper. Her people, while devoted to 
 the Union, loved her more; for she was their 
 mother before the Union had any existence. 
 Rejoicing in peace, they always responded 
 
ene enengeseemearsunnmnnmessnaersnsmnsenemammenseressernsasnamsreeenencemeeneeree asc 
 
 
 
 promptly to the call of their country in every 
 war in which it was engaged, and when our late 
 unhappy revolution was inaugurated, though 
 they entered it sorrowfully, they fought through 
 it splendidly; and to-day, beneath the melan- 
 choly mounds with which that southern land 
 is billowed, there are more North Carolinians 
 
 sleeping, in proportion to the population of | 
 
 the State, than there are soldiers from any 
 other State on either side. 
 economical government, and a very learned 
 and spotless judiciary, against whom no sus- 
 picion was ever breathed. And I will add, 
 for the benefit of the gentleman who so elab- 
 orately tabulated their illiteracy, that before 
 the war they had, besides their colleges, acad- 
 emies, and high schools, thirty-five hundred 
 common schools, attended by one hundred and 
 fifty thousand children, or two thirds of all in 
 the State, between five and twenty-one years 
 ‘ of age, and owned a school fund larger by 
 $500,000 than the State of Massachusetts had. 
 The State debt was comparatively small, taxes 
 
 were light, the administration of justice cheap, | 
 
 and official corruption unknown. 
 Such was their happy condition twelve years 
 ago. Whatis itnow? Let the figures furnished 
 by a former State treasurer, published in the 
 minority report of this committee, on page 378, 
 tell, so far as the financial situation is con- 
 cerned. They are summed up as follows: 
 
 Taxable property of the State of North Carolina in 
 18604...... Ree, Ler ce culevesteoercnens $292,297 ,602 
 Taxable property of North Carolina in 
 
 g BST Bek cs os STEN AEA ES RRA AC ii AO 130,378,622 
 Taxation for State purposes in 1860......... 543,643 
 Taxation for State purposes in 1870.......... 1,160,413 
 Taxation for county purposes in 1860...... 255,117 
 Taxation for county purposes in 1870...... 923,624 
 Average cost of conducting the State 
 
 government for three years, (1858, 1859, 
 
 BET LOD) peatcrts cece cceneee dnaniteceerttenttas ertshcess 137,977 
 Average cost for three years, (1868, 1869, 
 
 AUTVCS LO TO) eee cecre cnc ents eaten ceeeettce Aipsbirgy ei abe) 576,738 
 Public debt of North Carolina in 1861...... 9,699,500 
 Publie debt of North Carolina in 1871...... 34,887,465 
 
 From these figures it appears that the State 
 debt has been increased nearly fourfold since 
 the war, (for the war debt is excluded,) as 
 also have been the yearly expenses of the State 
 and the county taxes each; while, although the 
 taxable property has decreased one half, the 
 taxation for State purposes has doubled. These 
 figures are more eloquent than any speech can 
 be, and contain an epitome of the history of 
 Radical reconstruction. In them can be found, 
 too, one of the causes of Ku Kluxism, but by 
 no means the only one. 
 
 I shall now proceed to discuss in a general 
 way some of the other features of. our situ- 
 ation. 
 
 And first, I wish to say that the effort which 
 
 They hada simple, 
 
 ee 
 
 
 
 has been made to identify the Democratic or 
 Conservative party of my State with the Ku 
 Klux, and to make the terms convertible, is 
 grossly unjust, and most discreditable to those 
 making the charge. I do not know of a single 
 public man of that party who has not publicly 
 denounced Ku Kluxism as not only criminal 
 per se, but when committed by Democrats, as 
 disastrous in a party point of view. And still 
 the allegation is persistently made that they are 
 responsible for all these offenses, and the par- 
 tisan press still continues to denounce every 
 man “opposed to the Radical infamies which 
 have disgraced the State as one of the ‘‘Ku 
 Klux Democracy.’’ 
 
 A year ago, when, after defeating a native 
 Radical who commenced the canvass with 
 about two thousand majority, I applied for 
 admission to my seat, a petition, purporting 
 to be signed by fifteen hundred names, was pre- . 
 sented in the Senate protesting against the ad- 
 mission of Governor Vance and myself upon 
 the ground that we ‘‘ were elected by system- 
 atic violence and bloodshed, for which we were 
 individually responsible,’’ when the facts, so 
 far as | was concerned, were that during a 
 heated canvass of twelve counties, including 
 the day of election, there was not throughout 
 the entire district a single breach of the peace, 
 nor any complaint that a single human being 
 had been interfered with in the slightest de- 
 gree in the exercise of his right of suffrage. 
 The great mass of the ostengible signers of 
 the petition were colored men who could not 
 write, and some of them came to me apd told | 
 me they never authorized the use of their 
 names, While others said they had been de- 
 ceived as to the character of. the petition. 
 When the matter was exposed in the Senate. 
 the base libelers who had prepared the peti- 
 tion added the crime of perjury to the previous 
 one of forgery by swearing thatthey had signed 
 the names by authority and under circum: 
 stances involving a physical impossibility. 
 This, however, is but a weak illustration of 
 the uniform rascality which has characterized 
 he career of the Republican party of that — 
 State. : 
 
 Take one of the latest specimens, which is 
 furnished by the case of my colleague, [Mr. 
 Leacu.] According to the affidavits of re- 
 spectable men of both political parties, it is as 
 clear a case of malicious prosecution and per- 
 secution for political reasons as ever disgraced 
 the judicial annals of any State. He is one 
 of those true sons of the soil whose services in 
 exposing and denouncing the crimes of that 
 party aud in defeating one of its best candi- 
 dates in a large Republican district, have made 
 him an object of terror to its aspiring states- 
 men. It was necessary to get him out of the 
 way, and it was thought best to charge him 
 with being a Ku Klux. The attempt was made 
 

 
 by one of the leading Republicans of that part 
 of the State, a Federal officeholder, and the 
 result was that the witness introduced to estab- 
 lish the charge confessed, on cross-examina- 
 tion, that he was instigated by that officer 
 under a promise that he would be discharged 
 from a prosecution for violating ihe revenue 
 laws, and was told by him that Leacu must be 
 got rid of and his popularity broken down, for 
 the Government officer wanted his (Leacu’s) 
 place in Congress. It was further proved by 
 Democrats and Republicans alike that my col- 
 league had, when invited, refused to join a 
 _ secret political society, had warned his fellow- 
 _ Citizens against it, had denounced it asillegal, 
 and had actually broken it up. 
 
 And yet so great is their fear of his popular- 
 ity, and so determined are they to‘hunt him 
 down, that they have gotup a new indictment 
 against him in the United States court for ‘in- 
 timidating voters,’’ and a part of the pro- 
 pramme is to have his case taken up during 
 the next summer term, so as to keep him out 
 
 of the coming canvass as much as possible. : 
 
 They are certainly welcome to all the votes 
 they make by that proceeding. I have cited 
 these two instances to show how the politicians 
 of that party illustrate its ‘‘ great moral ideas.’’ 
 I will now give you a specimen or two of the 
 judicial officers of that party, upon whom has 
 devolved the task of purifying the morals of 
 that community. A witness who sustains a 
 high character as a lawyer and gentleman, 
 testified before our committee in regard to 
 one judge (who still rides a large circuit) as 
 follows: 
 
 **He took a prisoner out of jail at twelve o’clock 
 at night and offered him amnesty and pardonif he 
 would swear enough to convict me. Another per- 
 son, a deputy marshal of the United States, stated 
 in a public crowd that he was authorized by Judge 
 Logan to say that any man who would swear enough 
 to convict me of being the chief of the organization 
 
 in Lincoln county should have amnesty and pardon.” 
 
 The same witness filed as part of his testi- 
 mony a copy of a memorial signed by thirty- 
 two lawyers, including every ‘one of both 
 parties practicing in that circuit, (except the 
 solicitor of the court, and two State senators, 
 who would have been his judgeg in case of 
 impeachment, and whose official position, 
 therefore, made it improper for them to take 
 part in the proceedings of the bar, but who 
 approved them,) wherein it is alleged that jus- 
 tice had been impeded, confidence in the efh- 
 ciency,of the Government and laws had been 
 impaired, crimes had been multiplied, &c., by 
 reason of the ‘‘incompetency,’’ as they termed 
 it, of that judge; and the witness testified that 
 
 ‘his partisan administration of justice’’ was } 
 
 what was referred to by the word incompe- 
 tency. Healso said that that partiality ‘‘ was so 
 
 gross as to be observed byeverybody,’’ and he 
 cited instances of it to the committee in which 
 the judge would fine a Democrat $100 for a 
 trifling offense, and when a Radical who had 
 cruelly beaten a Democrat with a slung-shot 
 without any provocation was convicted he 
 would fine him a penny and costs. 
 
 That judge has made most ‘‘loyal’’ efforts 
 in behalf of the Government against the Ku 
 Klux in the way I have mentioned, but although 
 he added to ignorance and partisanship what 
 a meeting of the bar solemnly resolved was 
 ‘* a willful violation of the plain letter of the 
 law,’? and although the memorial was pre- 
 sented to the late Democratic Legislature, they 
 refrained from impeaching him, because of 
 their anxious desire to avoid even the appear- 
 ance of partisanship, and to keep down polit- 
 ical excitement. Another one cf the Radical 
 judges resigned after steps had been taken for 
 his impeachment, another has been publicly 
 charged with receiving a bribe, others with 
 habitual drunkenness and the grossest igno- 
 rance; but life is too short, to say nothing of 
 my brief hour, for a recital in detail of all 
 these things. The conduct of these officers,” 
 and of the United States deputy marshals and 
 detectives, destroyed all confidence among the 
 people in the courts, anda few of the more 
 reckless of them, consequently, sometimes 
 took the law into their own hands. . They were 
 nothing more nor less than vigilance commit- 
 tees, such as have existed in other parts of the 
 country, and they never embraced any consid- 
 erable number of the citizens ; but’their exist- 
 ence has been made the pretext for maligning 
 the whole population of the State, not only 
 by a partisan press, but in the official docu- | 
 ments of the executive department of the 
 Government. 
 
 The President, in his message, while appear- 
 ing to desire to harmonize public sentiment 
 and inaugurate long-demanded reforms, in- 
 dulged in the usual misrepresentation of the 
 southern people, and foreshadowed the report 
 of the majority of this committee. By what 
 authority he undertook to say what the com- 
 mittee would report Ido not know. The com- 
 mittee did not confer with him upon the sub- 
 ject, and they authorized no one to do so, or 
 to say what their report would be. However 
 that may be, the facts alleged by him as to the 
 state of society in the South are not true, but 
 they were sufficient, perhaps, for.the accom- 
 plishment of the desired purpose. The Presi- 
 dent in that message, among other baseless 
 assertions, says that in every case of arrest in 
 South Carolina during the time the Aabeas 
 corpus was suspended, there was ‘‘indubitable 
 evidence of the guilt of the parties seized,’’ and 
 yet I know that one gentleman, a descendant 
 of a judge of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, and a grandson of a distinguished Gov- 
 
ernor of North Carolina, was arrested and 
 confined for thirty-four days and nights in a 
 
 dungeon, a part of the time in the same cell | 
 
 with a negro felon, before he was informed of 
 the accusation against him, and when at the 
 expiration of that time he was informed of the 
 charge, so promptly and conclusively proved 
 its falsity that even his military persecutors 
 were compelled from mere shame to release 
 him at once. That gentleman has no redress, 
 and his case is by no means a solitary one. 
 Perhaps the most pitiful complaint in that 
 message against our people was one which was 
 worn out by the carpet-bag thieves and Freed- 
 men’s Bureau bummers several years ago. If 
 allude to the whine about social ostracism. 
 That is a erime which it is impossible to per- 
 petrate against a gentleman, and therefore it 
 findsa place in the catalogue of offenses com- 
 plained of by the Executive against the southern 
 people. What proper connection that has with 
 our duties as citizens of the General Govern- 
 
 ment, and how it is to be made a subject of ff 
 
 legislation by Congress are questions which 
 stagger me. The Secretary of War, too, found 
 if necessary to give an excuse for the eampaign 
 in the South, inasmuch as the Army was 
 needed elsewhere, and, with a decidedly muli- 
 tary emphasis worthy of the war minister of a 
 military Government, he, scorning the assist- 
 ance of any evidence, proclaims as a fact. that 
 ‘‘a second rebellion exists, the suppression 
 of which requires the presence of the Army.’’ 
 He says, too: 
 
 “Tt is a painful fact that in some portions of the 
 South freedom of opinion is not tolerated if that 
 opinion is expressed in opposition to the doctrines 
 of the late rebellion f”’ 
 
 As the Secretary in 1861 was afraid the re- 
 bellion would not succeed,and vexed his soul 
 with anxiety on that subject, perhaps he ought 
 to know the ‘‘doctrines’’ on which it was based. 
 The generally receivéd opinion, I believe, is 
 
 that those ‘‘doctrines’’ were the right of a | 
 
 State to secede, and the right to hold slaves. 
 The allegation of the Secretary, therefore, is 
 that a new rebellion exists, and that the south- 
 ern people will not tolerate opposition to se- 
 cession and slavery—an assertion which illus- 
 trates alike the veracity of the Secretary and 
 the extent of his confidence in the intelligence 
 of the people. 
 
 Why did not the President and the Secretary 
 tell you that in a county of the district which 
 
 one 
 murdering white men with impunity ;-that they 
 have killed twenty-four respectable citizens, 
 (more than the Ku Klux have ever killed in 
 the whole State ;) that the citizens had begged 
 for United States soldiers, and that a squad 
 was sent there, and, like the army of the king 
 
 
 
 I represent, a band of negro outlaws, led by | 
 Lostes, have for years been robbing and | 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 | of France, had ‘‘ marched up the hill and then 
 
 marched down again,’’ their only experience 
 being to hear the crack of Lowrey’s rifle within 
 two hundred yards of their camp, and to see a 
 murdered citizen lying on the highway? If 
 Lowrey’s gang had been Ku-Klux, and the 
 victims had been negroes or Republicans, does. 
 anybody believe they would now be roaming 
 through the eountry producing a reign -of 
 terror ? 
 
 Why did they not tell you thai their soldiers, 
 not content with running riot over the poor, 
 degraded, humiliated State of South Carolina, 
 had, with all the panoply of war, invaded North 
 Carolina, where the machinery of civil govern- 
 ment was quietly at work, and had arrested the 
 chairman of the board of commissioners of 
 Cleveland *county and three other citizens, 
 had abducted them by forge out of the State, 
 and had impris@ned them without form or 
 color of law in South Carolina,where the habeas 
 corpus was suspended, and where they could 
 not even inquire into the cause of their arrest, 
 or get the least redress for such an outrage ? 
 Why did they not tell you that some of the — 
 United States marshals in North Carolina go 
 about with pistols in their belts and cowhides 
 in their hands insulting and brow-beating citi- 
 zens, exacting legal fees from and black- 
 mailing them, arresting and imprisoning them 
 upon the merest pretext, and then discharging 
 them without a trial; that one of them had 
 shot down with impunity and left:lying on the 
 roadside an inoffensive citizen, against whom 
 he had no process, and who had offered him no 
 resistance, because he would not go to jail at 
 his bidding, and that this official assassin had 
 gone scot-free? Whichof the gentlemen so 
 eager to punish Ku Klux and protect the peo- 
 ple in the enjoyment of their rights and liber- 
 ties has anything to say about these and other 
 similar outrages? What Republican news- 
 papers of the North have even commented on 
 them? Who has condemned them? 
 
 I state facts. A poor, hard-working farmer 
 
 | has toiled a whole year to make bread for his 
 
 family; he has gathered his little crop and 
 housed it; he eats his frugal evening meal, 
 and with cheerful gratitude goes to his humble 
 bed; he is roused at midnight by the crackling 
 flame which glevours the whole fruits of his 
 year’s labor, his all, while the loyal Union 
 League incendiary walks away in the light of 
 the conflagration. Heis arrested, tried, con- 
 victed; a corrupt judge sets aside the verdict, 
 or a corrupt Governor pardons him. The law 
 gives no redress. The farmer, im despairgt the 
 prospect of starvation before his family, blows. 
 his own brains out; his outraged neighbors 
 take the law into their own hands and hang the 
 incendiary, and immediately the whole coun- 
 try rings with the ery of ‘‘Ku Klux.’’ But 
 when armed soldiers, under command of an 
 
11 
 
 
 
 _ 
 
 officer, make araid from one State into another, 
 arrest, drag off, and incarcerate its citizens in, 
 that other State, where they cannot enjoy even 
 the poor privilege of having their cause invest- 
 ivated, no one of these guardians of public lib- 
 erty lifts his voice in condemnation; and when 
 I, as the Representative of these outraged 
 people, introduce a respectful resolution of 
 inquiry into the crime, it is objected to and 
 not received by this House. 
 
 Hear another case. Another Loyal Leaguer 
 commits a cold-blooded murder; he is con- 
 victed and sent to the penitentiary ; he is soon 
 pardoned out and returns to the scene of his 
 crime, flaunting his pardon in the face of the 
 community, and boasting his immunity from 
 punishment for future crime. Within a week 
 he commits another crime, and is in jail within 
 a fortnight of his former release. He boasts 
 that he will soon again be free, and assigns as 
 a reason for his faith that the» Governor will 
 ' befriend him and all like him: The friends 
 of his victims wrongfully, but humanly, determ- 
 ine that he shall not escape punishment, and 
 they hang him, whereupon the same cry of 
 “Ku Klux’”’ and ‘‘rebellion’’ is raised. But 
 a deputy United States marshal meetsa stranger 
 on the highway, arrests him without warrant, 
 and without alleging any offense against him 
 attempts to take him to prison, and when the 
 prisoner, without any resistance, tries to rua 
 away, he shoots him down, leaves his body on 
 the roadside, and proceeds serenely about his 
 business. If these things are told on the streets 
 of your cities the reply is apt to be a yawn, a 
 shrug of the shoulders, and perhaps an inquiry 
 as to the price of Seneca sandstone. 
 
 Indeed, it would be exactly in accordance 
 with the policy of this Administration if each 
 of these loyal villains shall be promoted for 
 his valuable services. Look at the favors al- 
 ready bestowed on their predecessors in crime. 
 The late Governor of North Carolina, after 
 being impeached and removed from office, and 
 after being indicted in the courts from which he 
 was a fugitive, took refuge here in the bosom of 
 the Administration as editor ofits organ. Kirk, 
 the cut-throat whom he impofted trom Ten- 
 nessee to oppress and outrage his fellow-citi- 
 zens with the bayonet, a man who ought to go 
 down to everlasting infamy for the murder of 
 a poor, half-witted boy who knelt pitifully to 
 him, and begged for his life in vain, this Kirk, 
 who also fled from justice, came here for his 
 reward, and got it. Bergen, Kirk’s lieuten- 
 ant colonel, another fugitive from justice, was 
 appointed consul to Pernambuco. The former 
 carpet-bag treasurer of the city in which [ live, 
 and who was a defaulter in that office, naturally 
 gravitated to the Treasury of the United States, 
 and was recently promoted in the Third Audi- 
 tor’s Office, his defaleation being known to the 
 
 
 
 
 
 Third Auditor, andas I have reason to believe, 
 to the Secretary of the T’reasury also. Ought 
 we not to expect that the officer who raided 
 into North Carolina, and the deputy United 
 States marshal who shot down the inoffensive 
 citizen, will also, be promoted ? 
 
 I could cite numberless instances of this 
 kind, and for each one could find as broad a 
 contrast. But what would it avail? I am 
 told that the northern people cannot be roused 
 by a recital of these acts of despotism in the 
 South; that nothing will bring them to a real: 
 ization of the true: situation until the armed 
 heel of the despot rings before their own 
 doors. If this be true, can a southern man 
 be expected to weep when the catastrophe 
 happens? I think not. If the wrongs and 
 outrages and usurpations practiced on them | 
 are matters of indifference to their country- 
 men of the North, then they are. paving the 
 way which leads to a similar experience,. and 
 will deserve no sympathy when they réach it. 
 If the ‘‘nation could not exist half slave and 
 half free,’’ it is very.certain that it cannot and 
 ought not to exist with the people of one half 
 of it domineering and tyrannizing over the 
 other; imposing upon them more than their 
 fall share of the burdens of Government, and 
 denying to them any part of its benefits. 
 
 You crowned your reconstruction legislation, 
 which bankrupted and ruined and degraded 
 
 | those States, by this unconstitutional Ku Klax 
 
 bill; and what have been its fruits? You 
 succeeded in convicting a few criminals and 
 alleged criminals, and in punishing them, but 
 the amount of perjury and general demoraliza- 
 tion which it has produced, the terror result- 
 ing in the expatriation of hundreds of inno- 
 cent families which it has wrought, the false 
 and pernicious ideas in regard to the relation 
 between a certain class of citizens and the 
 government which it has developed, the antag-. 
 onisms of race, and the bitterness and hatred 
 which it has fostered, outweigh a million times 
 the combined benefits which its most honest 
 advocates ever dreamed it could effect; and 
 to-day the majority of this committee come 
 before Congress and ask that its most offensive 
 and outrageous features may continue to be 
 enforced beyond the time limited in the bill! 
 This, too, in the face of the fact that accord- 
 ing to the testimony the bulk of the crimes 
 complained of were committed before the bill 
 passed Congress a year ago. y 
 Gentlemen who wish to continue this kind 
 of legislation must know that they are alien: 
 ating the southern people more and more 
 every day. Those people would not be human 
 beings, much less enlightened American citi- 
 zens, if the result could be otherwise, and 
 therefore, notwithstanding the profession of a 
 desire to pacify them and restore to them good 
 
12 
 
 a ED 
 ooo aS NY 
 r 
 
 governments, the conviction forces itself upon 
 them that these gentlemen do not want them 
 to be peaceable and quiet and prosperous, but 
 would be glad to goad them to desperation or 
 drivethem intoexile. They heard here within 
 the past few weeks one of them deny that the 
 carpet-bag governments of those States ,had 
 been corrupt, and another express a desire to 
 see a hundred southern men taken out before 
 breakfast every morning and shot. They hear 
 on this floor, in almost every debate which 
 arises, gratuitous insults heaped upon them in 
 regard to their illiteracy and barbarism by 
 those who never having shed a drop of their 
 own or their enemies’ blood when war raged 
 in the country, now signalize their patriotism 
 by throwing dirt in the face of their prostrate 
 and harmless prisoners. 
 
 And when they hear these things reiterated 
 seven years after the war, and feel the legisla- 
 tion which is the natural result of such a state 
 of mind, they ask themselves whether such 
 
 eople can be other than their bitter enemies. 
 von have done damage enough already, God 
 knows. Stop this kind of legislation. Give 
 us the rights guarantied to us by the Constitu- 
 tion, even as amended by your own hands. 
 Emancipate those people from the political 
 bondage in which they bave so long been held. 
 Stop sowing the seeds of hate in their breasts. 
 Make them feel that you are their countrymen 
 and not their enemies. Divest them of the 
 conviction which daily grows among them that 
 you intend to force their support of the dom- 
 inant political party or make their land a wil- 
 derness. 
 
 But the committee recommend general am- 
 nesty—of course to the Senate, for the House 
 has already passed it. I trust that much of 
 their report will be adopted. Sir, among the 
 most impressive and suggestive scenes of mod- 
 ern times was that which the American people 
 have been more than once called upon to wit- 
 ness within the past year, wherein a foreign- 
 born American citizen, once an insurrectionist 
 and an exile, standing upon the floor of the 
 highest legislative assembly of the Republic, 
 was seen eloquently rebuking, in the purest 
 idiomatic HKnglish, his native-born colleagues 
 for their recreancy to the fundamental prin- 
 ciples of American liberty. It was to me, sir, 
 a strange and suggestive episode. It furnished 
 food for profitable meditation. That citizen, 
 armed with the irresistible weapons of philo- 
 sophic statesmanship, enlarged culture, and 
 practical experience, has, in defiance of the 
 power of party discipline and ‘‘the crack of 
 the party whip,’’ nobly dared to vindicate the 
 honor and character of the American people 
 against the degrading and demoralizing prin- 
 ciples with which his native-born colleagues 
 have sought to discredit them. Itwas indeed, 
 
 
 
 sir,a singular spectacle, and one which ought 
 
 ‘not to be allowed to pass away without impress- 
 
 ing upon the thoughtful American a valuable 
 lesson. 
 
 A student of history and a close observer 
 of events, he has been impelled by a spirit of 
 intelligent patriotism, and an imperative sense 
 of duty, to raise his voice against the danger- 
 ous tendencies of the recent legislation of 
 Congress. In common with his German fel- 
 low-citizens, he loves liberty and hates tyranny 
 and dishonest government. He has my respect’ 
 and sympathy, and doubtless will continue to 
 receive, as he richly deserves, the confidence 
 and support of his admiring fellow-citizens. 
 
 ‘When pleading for amnesty to his southern 
 
 countrymen, whom he had faced amid the 
 blaze and smoke of battle, but against whom 
 he cherishes no animosity, he was asked to 
 point to a single instance in history where con- 
 ciliation and amnesty to rebels had made them 
 good and loyal citizens, and in reply he simply 
 mentioned the name of Count Andrassy in 
 Austria. Doubtless the illustration was lost, 
 for the eyes and ears of his interrogator were 
 most probably innocent of ever having seen or 
 heard that name; but there is a history behind 
 it which might furnish a profound lesson to the 
 would-be statesmen who are refusing amnesty 
 to the southern people and piling up hostile and 
 irritating legislation against them. ‘I’'wenty- 
 three years ago a rebellion broke out in Hun- 
 gary, which, after lasting eleven months, dur- 
 ing which three magnificent though bloody 
 campaigns were fought, was finally. crushed 
 through the intervention of Russia and. the 
 treachery of the Hungarian general, Gorgey. 
 The Archduchess Sophia, mother of the pres- 
 ent emperor of Austria, a relentless and un- 
 merciful despot, undertook to ‘‘ make treason 
 odious,’’ and her executioners drenched Hun- 
 gary in blood. The prayers and tears of even 
 the loyal relatives of the victims for ‘mercy 
 were not heard. Eleven of the most prom- 
 inent generals and statesmen of Hungary 
 perished by the hangman’s hands, besides 
 hundreds of others. Count Andrassy, then 
 Kossuth’s agent at Constantinople, in common 
 with many others who did not fall into the 
 hands of Austria, was sentenced to death and 
 a price placed on his head. Time wore on, 
 and the Nemesis of history drew nearer and 
 nearer, not only to the personal fortunes of 
 the Archduchess, but to those of her dynasty. 
 She lived to see the woful day when all her 
 prayers and tears pleaded in vain for the life 
 of her favorite son, Maximilian. . The Sol- 
 ferino campaign cost Austria the splendid 
 province of Lombardy; with the fearful de- 
 feat of Sadowa went the last of her Italian 
 possessions, and then was forced the conces- 
 sion to Hungary not only of amnesty, resto- 
 
13 
 
 ration of confiscated property, and that polit- 
 ical liberty for which she had fought, but 
 
 Austria herself had to descend from her proud . 
 
 position of supreme autocracy to the level of 
 constitutional sovereignty and representative 
 government in which Hungarians have a potent 
 voice, while Andrassy, the sentenced rebel, 
 the exile on whose head a price was fixed, is 
 the president of the Austrian cabinet and 
 the trusted friend and counselor of Francis 
 Joseph. The distinguished ¢Senator might 
 have strengthened his illustration by citing 
 the case of the Vendeans, who, after defeat- 
 ing the proudest armies of Europe with clubs 
 and fowling-pieces under the lead of young La 
 Rochejaquelin of glorious memory, and who, 
 after suffering a butchery at which humanity 
 turned pale, were made the very bulwark of 
 France by the wise policy of conciliation which 
 Napoleon the Great inaugurated toward them 
 
 as soon as he grasped the reins of power.. 
 
 He might have still further-enforced the illus- 
 tration by calling attention to the effects of 
 a repressive policy upon the people of. Ire- 
 land. England put down revolts in Scotland 
 and Wales, but with their suppression she 
 ceased all hostile legislation, and the result 
 has been that the people of those two coun- 
 tries are to-day, and have long been, the most 
 loyal and faithful of British subjects. Toward 
 Ireland, on the contrary, there has been for two 
 hundred years an established system of refined 
 eruelty, and the fruits of it have appeared in 
 the Ku Kluxism of that unhappy country under 
 the names of ‘‘ White Boys,’’ ‘‘ Rapparees,’’ 
 ‘* Ribbon Men,’’ ‘* Mollie McGuires,’’ ‘‘ Peep 
 O’Day Boys,’’ ‘‘ Rockites,’’ &. The more 
 considerate treatment of late years has par- 
 tially allayed the evil, but to-day Ireland is 
 the weak spot in the British armor, through 
 which, if at all, she will receive her death- 
 blow. 
 
 What a lesson there is too, in the course of 
 Charles II, touching the ‘‘act of oblivion,”’ 
 in 1660, and what a striking similarity there 
 is between the conduct of the two branches 
 of his Parliament on that subject and that of 
 the two Houses of Congress in regard to am- 
 nesty. ‘* This act of oblivion,’’ says the author 
 of the debates in the House of Lords, ‘‘ the 
 Commons, after having been quickened by a 
 message from the king, made short work of, 
 and sent up to the Lords, where it met with 
 several obstructions and delays. The Com- 
 mons had excepted only a few of the most 
 notorious regicides, whereas the Lords were 
 for giving their resentment a much larger 
 scope. ‘I'his severity of theirs not suiting, 
 however, with the policy of the times, his 
 Majesty came to the house (July 27) and from 
 the throne expressed himself as follows: 
 
 ** My lords, when I came first hither to you, which 
 was within two or three days after I came to White- 
 
 LEIS ALLELE LL TO LCD DO CL LLY OTT TELE TI 
 
 hall, I did, with as much earnestness as I could, 
 both by myself and the chancellor, recommend to 
 you and the House of Commons the speedy dis- 
 patch of the act of indemnity as a necessary found- 
 ation of that security we all pray for. I did since, 
 by a particular message to the House of Commons, 
 again press to hasten that important work, and did 
 likewise, bya proclamation, publish to all the king- 
 dom that I did with impatience expect that that 
 act would be presented to me for my assent as the 
 most reasonable and solid foundation of that peace, 
 happiness, and security I hope and pray for to 
 myself and all my dominions. I wili not deny it to 
 you that I thought the House of Commons too long 
 about that work, and therefore, now it is come up 
 to you, [ would not have you guilty of the same 
 delay.’”’ 
 
 The chancellor. subsequently called their 
 especial attention to the provisions of the act 
 prohibiting the calling of ‘‘names or other 
 words of reproach any way leading to revive 
 the memory of the late differences or the occa- 
 sion thereof,’’ and appealed to them ‘‘to learn 
 the excellent art of forgetfulness.’’ Cannot 
 Americans in the nineteenth century learn that 
 excellent art practiced by a Stuart two hun- 
 dred years ago? 
 
 Now, while admitting neither the wisdom 
 nor justice of such a course on the part of 
 this Government, I am persuaded that it would 
 have been more merciful to the southern people 
 to have hanged or shot as many of us as would 
 have glutted the vengeance of the politicians 
 immediately after the war, than to have kept 
 up for purely party purposes the system of 
 robbery, fraud, and oppression which has, since 
 the war ended, been unrelentingly exercised 
 over them. That system has but illustrated 
 the truth of what the blessed St. Augustine 
 said concerning such a state of peace as we 
 enjoy: 
 
 ‘* Heec facta sunt in pace post bellum. Pax cum 
 bello de crudelitate certavit, et vicit. Illud enim 
 prostravit armatos, istud nudatos. Bellum erat, ut 
 qui feriebatur, si posset, feriret; pax autem non 
 ut qui evaserat viveret, sed ut moriens non repug- 
 naret.’’ 
 
 Your peace has surpassed war in cruelty. 
 You have struck down the helpless and naked, 
 and now, when the armor has been stripped 
 from your former antagonists, your policy 
 seems to be not only that they shall not live, 
 but that even in dying they shall not defend 
 themselves. It is not too late now to repair 
 your error and to make the southern people 
 your friends. Try it, but not in the way rec- 
 ommended by the majority of this committee, 
 Do not accompany an act of grace. as you term 
 it, with a renewed system of oppression and 
 outrage. If you do, where will be your claim 
 to gratitude? It is a radical error to suppose 
 
| | 14 y i : 
 
 that the men who are iio bare Seomibitoa tiny Enotrane® | by the four- 
 teenth amendment from holding office are con- 
 sumed with a passion to taste of the flesh-pots 
 of this Egypt. There are some things dearer 
 to them than office, and the fear that they will 
 again return to plague the modern exponents of 
 Americanism may be dismissed. I have never 
 considered this amnesty business the only one 
 thingneedful. I have never regarded the with- 
 holding of it by Congress as the cause of all 
 our woes, nor will.the granting of it be a pan- 
 acea for them. It is but one, and by no means 
 the most serious, of the impediments which 
 lie in the way of our return to prosperity; 
 
 but the concession of it will greatly smooth 
 that way. 
 
 And now, Mr. Speaker, I have done. Thave 
 spoken as I felt, and. have uttered feebly, but 
 sincerely, what '[ believe to be the honest sen- 
 timents of every true man south of the Poto- 
 mac. I hope it is the last time I shall ‘ever 
 find it to be my duty to speak in this behalf, 
 but until my tongue is palsied I shall always 
 be ready to do so if occasion shall require, for 
 I jove the land’ of my birth and the people 
 whose afflictions have excited the sympathy, 
 as their fortitude under them commands the 
 admiration, of-the civilized world. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
Photomount 
 Pamphlet 
 Binder 
 Gaylord Bros. 
 Makers 
 Syracuse, N. Y. 
 PAT. JAN 21, 1908 
 
 
 
 aM 
 ;