The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-25 00:00:00

7HE SO ULHERN S 7 A 7 ES.

ALABAMA.—From Montgomery the news is to
Dee. 2. The House has passed a bill repealing all
laws prohibiting the marriage of blacks and whites.
It is recommended that the rule be so applied that it
shall be held binding evidence of marriage when a
man and woman live together, and in which case
there would be reformation in Alabama morals ;
the House also discussed revenue bills and bills re-
gulating the collection of debts, and the Senate the
Ku-klux Bills. From Florida the only news relates
to the Governor's quarrel. The end of the argu-
ment in the Supreme Court, on Lieutenant-Gover-
nor Gleason's motion, urging want of jurisdiction,
was a decision affirming the jurisdiction of the
Court on December 2, on which Attorney Gene-
ral Meek offered a motion that the rule nisi t,e made
absolute, and an argument on this motion lasted
until the adjournment. The Senate of South Caro-
lina has decided that it has no authority to elect a
Lientenantz•Governor in the place of Mr. Boozer,
who resigned, but that the elect& must be by the
people. The finances of this State, according to the
message sent in by Governor Scott to the L?gisia-
ture on Nov. 30, are in an encouraging condition.
The aggregate receipts for the six mon' hs ending
Oct. 31 were $435,573, and the expenditures
$409,688. The Governor asserts that no State in
the Union has a fairer prospect of meeting her lia-
bilities than South Carolina. The land given by
the United States Government, it is recommended,
should be devoted to the establishment of an edu-
cational institution in Charleston, for instruction
in agriculture and the mechaniell arts and the
higher branches of science and the classics. A
liberal policy in reference to the removal of political
disabilities by the Legislature is recommended.
Governor, Scott, thus alludes in his message to the
the Ku-Klux :

" An armed organization, styling themselves the Nu-
Klux-Klan, uniformed and masked, by their secret meet-
ings and midnight atrocities upon peaceable and unoffend-
ing citizens, and obstructing the laws, have inaugurated a
reign of terror in many neighbourhoods. Imitations of
the secret societies of Europe during the Middle Ages,
they are without their excuse of justification. In those
days their power and their vengeance were directed
against the turbulent nobles and barons who defied the
laws and oppressed the people. Their object was the at-
tainment of justice, not the acquisition of political power.
Their victims were not the law-abiding and the lowly, but
the bold, bad men who trampled on right and outraged
humanity. Their symbols were the dagger and the cord,
fit emblems of their terrible authority and their mode of
exercising it. But even in those days of rapine and mur-
der, the responsibilityof this dangerous power was deemed
so questionable and hazardous as to le id to its suppres-
sbn. In the present condition of our State the existence
or formation of secret political societies is greatly to be
deplored. They will be objects of misgiving and distrust,
and centres of irritation and ex&tement. Secrecy is but
too frequently the covert of crime, and irresponsibility au
incentive to its perpetration. Organizations will beget
counter organizations, and dissensions and disturbances
will be fomented and perpetuated to the interruption of the
peace and prosperity of the whole neighbourhood. I trust
that every well-wisher of peace and progress will dis-
countenance the further continuance of these secret politi-
cal cliques."
The steamship line between Charleston and
Liverpool has been put into operation, the first
vessel, the Golden Horn, having rcently cleared for
Liverpool with a cargo of 2,553 bales of upland
and 188 bags of sea island cotton. The Southern
papers state that a part of the cargo was in the
shape of compressed bales, sent from Selmi, a
point with which Charleston has heretofore bad no
mercantile intercourse. The railroad system of
the South, it is believed, will reach sections now
inaccessible, and that Western products as well as
the cotton crop will hereafter be shipped from
Charleston. The Legislature of North Carolina
when last heard from was engaged in dis-
cussing resolutions proposing to raise a com-
mittee on bribery and blackmail. Opposi-
tion was manifested, on various grounds, to the
resolutions as passed by the Senate. No action
was taken, but the resolutions will probably pass,
and the committee go at once to work. The Mayor
and City Council of Atalanta and Georgia have
ordered the postponement of the municipal election
until the assembling of the Legislature in January,
taking the ground that negroes are not entitled to
vote by the legislative law, granting the city char-
ter, and that the election is null and voil unless
the present Legislature strikes out thewori "whi'
in the city charter. The Democrats claim that

the State Convention and the Reconstruction
laws give the negroes the right to vote, the muni-
cipal laws to the contrary notwithstanding, and
propose holding a regular election, allowing the
blacks to vote, and leaving the Legislature t. de-
cide as to its legality. The Columbia and Au-
gusta Railroad is finished from Columbia to
Greenville, ten miles from Augusta, where
it connects with the South Carolina Rail-
road, and trains ran through November 30.
The Advocate, New Orleans, has just published an
expOsure of the Knights of the White Camellia,
otherwise, the Ku-Klux, giving startling particulars
of the purposes and objects of the organization.
The state of the city and the district around for
some time preceding the election is described as a
reign of terror. Five hundred murders were com-
mitted within two months ; there was no protection
to the peaceful and no hindrance or punishment to
those who enforced opinions with knife and bullet.
A correspondent of the Tribune writing from New
Orleans, Nov. 24, tells the following stories :
"As an instance of the state of affairs, two gentlemen,
one the Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives the
Hon. William Vigers and the other Minute Clerk called
on General Rousseau in the midst of the excitement and
asked him for protection, stating that they had trustworthy
information that their houses would be visited that night
by the mob. General Rousseau replied to them that he
had not sufficient troops to give protection to them; but,
in his opinion, if they would resign their positions, they
would not be molested, as the Government was ob-
noxious to the people ; that it would be necessary to
have 20,000 men to maintain the State Government,
and that he did not intend to have his men killed for
the sake of a few officeholders ; 'though,' said he, I
am sent here to keep order, and I intend to do it at all
hazards.' Another little incident about the same time :—A
deputation of Democratic citizens from Algiers, which
is in this Meoropoliten District., waited on the Super-
intendent of Police to inquire if they would be allowed to
patrol their town for the protection of their property.
Gen. Rousseau was present in the office. The Superin
tendent referred them to him. The General replied that
he knew of no law to prevent a man from standing guard
over his own property, and that there would be no objection
to such a patrol. Dr. Mackay, a well-known and respected
Republican of this city, was present, and said to the Gene-
ral—' how is it about the coloured people ? Will
they, too, be allowed to patrol their property ?' Whereat
the General, after a slight musing, turned fiercely to the
questioner and said—' Sir, you are one of the very class of
tnen who are stirring up all this trouble."
"Perry Puller, Esq., Collector of Customs, returned
yesterday, and was welcomed back by his host of friends.
I must tell you a story of Perry. Although a strong De-
mocrat, and in full communion with the ' chivalry' here,
he has his full share of that sturdy Northern independence
which so strongly contrasts with the servile gregarious-
/less of the chivalry. Perry, one bright day, forgetting for
the nonce that he was in New Orleans
walked down
Canal-street, horrid to tell, with Gen.
L. a loading Re-
publican. Not many hours afterward, two' gentlemen of
the other persuasion waited on Majote Fuller, and the fol-
lowing colloquy ensued :—' Major, we have taken the re-
sponsibility to deny a rumour the streets which is
seriously affecting your ste:dding, socially and Politically ;
and we have come to see if we did right.' What is it,
gentlemen ‘• Why, it is currently reported that you wore
seen `calking on the streets with Gen. L--.' That is true,
gentlemen; I did walk with Gen. L —; and, what is more,
I have received him at my house.' Then, Major, we must
express our surprise, and assure you that such conduct
Swill be extremely distasteful to our people.' Perry, rising
about two inches in his boots, replied, 'Look here, gentle-
men ; I am as good a Democrat as any man in New
Orleans, and I always expect to be ono ; but I have always
boon accustomed to walk with whom I please, receive
whom I please, and visit whom I please; and 1 intend to
do so here. If anybody don't like it, tell them from me to
go to h--11.'"

The d;scussion as to the sate of Tex i=, which
originated in the Daily News, has been transferrel
to America. Flake's Bulletin, a Republican news-
paper, of Galveston, couplain3 of not being able t.
make Ncrthern men understand the real stato
things in Texas. It explain 3 that the country is so
large and unsettled that in the wil.ler parts every
man must be a law unto himself. " The revolver
is the only executive, and a man's conscience, if hi
has any, the only judiciary. Therefore it come€
that deeds of violence take the place of judi-
cial executions." . . . ,4 But this wild state of
nature," the Bulletin goes on, " is taken advantage

of by roving bands of outlaws," and these bands,
being composed of " old Confederate soldiers,"
" naturally oppress, maltreat, and murder Union

men and negroes. . . .

. Let them murder a

Confederate, and the public conscience would be
outraged ;" but the political feeling of the people
permits the murder of the'black or white loyalists.
Besides these chronic murderers and pillagers, there
is another excellent class of persons who inhabit the
more settled portions of the State, and whom the
Bulletin describes as " friends and acquaintances of
the regular banditti," and " who will do killing on
very small provocation, and, in many cases, without
provocation at all." Finally comes " Galveston,
and places situated like it"—and exceedingly few
such places there are—where the negro has " every
protection, privilege, and immunity that he has in
Boston."

A cargo of coolies is reported to have arrived re-
cently at Galveston, Texas. These unfortunate
Chinese labour ers, it is stated, were consigned as
merchandise with the ordinary bill of lading, and
were to be sold at auction to pay freight and charges.
Two-thirds of the coolies were females.