The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-30 00:00:00

THE SOUTHERLY STATES.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
The irrepressible correspondent of the Cincinnati
Commercial has had an interview with General
Forrest, in which that celebratel Confederate officer
went through his facings at the correspondent's word
of command. The Ku-Klux Klan, Forrest avers to
be a genuine organization ramifying over the South.
In Tennessee alone there are 40,000 men enrollel,
and the total number amounts to half a million
combatants. They await Brownlow's action with
the militia when it is ordered out. If the slightest
outrage is attempted, every white Radical in Ten-
nessee, all of whom are marked, would be killed
without mercy. It is vain for the " carpet-baggers"
and the " scallawags" (the difference, it appears,
being that the former are Northern adventurers, and
the latter Southern renegades), to hope that they
may raise the storm and leave the negroes and the
Southerners to fight it out, for arrangements have
been so made that the first victims would be the
Radicals themselves. Such a contest is abhorrent to
himself and his brethren of the South, but they
cannot avoid it if forced upon them. They are
heartily sick of war, and desire, if allowed, to culti-
vate their lands in peace. Forrest spoke out, and
if he did say what the correspondent alleges there
can be little doubt that he means it, for he is not a
dog that only barks, as the bloody annals of Fort
Pillow can testify. The Legislature of Tennessee
has passed a law empowering the Governor to send
troops to any county, when ten loyal freeholders
residing therein, backed by a Judge, member of
Legislature, Sheriff, or Attorney-General, request
it. The county in which the troops are used
shall pay the expenses. In South Carolina the
Legislature has passed a law, under the appre-
hension of a civil war preceding the Novem-
ber elections, clothing Governor Scutt in such
case with the powers of a dictator. A reply
has been published to the appeal of the whites to the
President for protection, denying that the blacks
desire to inaugurate a civil war, though they are
prepared to resist aggression. They assert that the
whites are themselves to blame by their opposition
to the Congressional plan of Reconstruction. Their
words are :—" But we_ cannot surrender the great
palladium of our liberties—the ballot-box—for auy
consideration whatever. And if we are to be massa-
cred because we ref use to vote the Democratic ticket;
if we are to be murdered in cold blood because we
will not sell our manhood, then let it come—we can

die but once ; and if, as you state, thirty millions of
white men are going to fall upon four millions because
they are black, and will not vote for IL Seymour and
F. P. Blair for President and Vice-President of the
United States, both of whom have declared that
the negroes have no right to vote, then we are pre-
pared to die, but not to vote to be killed. With a
strong faith in God and eternal justice, we wait the
decision of high Heaven. If our cause be just God
will not suffer us to fail with a firm faith in the
right. We ask nothing at the hands of our fellow-
man but a fair chance in the race of life, and equal
opportunities for ourselves, our wives, and our chil-
dren. We ask no more." On the Lower Shanty,
where the cultivation of rice prevails, and the ne-
groes are most ignorant and numerous, there
has been rioting, and some disgraceful stories
are told of negro outrages there and elsewhere
throughout the South. The Social Eluality
Bill, announced some weeks ago, has been
passed, but in a very modified form. In Georgia
the principal evtnt is the action of the Legislature
against the negro members, which has astonished the
Nortb, as the Senate will follow the example set
them in the Lower [louse. Considering that the
new State Constitution adopted by the State de-
clares all persons, born or naturalized in the United
States, and resident in the State, citizens of the State,
while it prohibits the passage of any law abridging
these privileges or immunities, the negroe3, not with-
out reason, consider that the carpet-baggers have
sacrificed them to make peace with the Secession-
ists. Bradley, the negro lawyer, who was expelled