Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1868-11-20
GEN. THOMAS.
The Department of the Cum
berland.
A Radical Partisan Report of
Affairs.

affairs In the Department Of the Cumber
land, opens with the disposition of tn,
troops and an account of the assistanc,
rendered Gen. Foreman, of West Vir
glnla, In preventing trouble at Phillippi
The condition of the troops in the depart.
ment is greatly improved in all respects
The General thinks suffers should be al.
lowed at all military posts. The duties OF
the troops are much the same as last wear.
The necessity for them is the same. The
state of society, regarding no observance Of
law, aud the insecurity Of life, has not at
all improved, and in some sections ia much
worse. Good crops and increased pros
| perity seem to have caused more active
exhibitions of the spirit of lawlessnel 9.
The report contains a very exhaustive
history of the operations Of the Ku-Klux.
from their first appearances in Giles
county, Tennessee. II details FIRST the
statement sent to Washington and allowed
to be published as is here known by the
President, and the bad effect of the publi-
c,liOn. At times the General is quite severe
upon those Northern men in Nashville
who joined the Rebels in denying the ex-
istenCe of the Khan. He styles them ga few
amiable persons Of Northern birth, who
were living in Nashville under the protec-
ton of well organized police force" The
various acts Of the forces in helping Gov.
Brown!ow topreserve the peace are given,
in a very interesting form, and the details
Of these movements and their causes help
to complete the history of the Ku.Klux,
The difficulties arising from resistance TO
revenue officers have given considerable
employment to troops. Very great diff
Guilty exists throughout the Department in
obtaining justice for UniOnists, even in the
United States Courts. The force in the De-
partment has constantly been less than was
needed to preserve the peace, In one case
the General ordered the arrest of an
ex-Rebel soldier, for violating his parole,
by asssulting Union man, and ordered
his trial by Military Commission. The
case was referred to the Attorney General
of the United States, who held that the
prisoner had violated no military law.
"After that" the report continues, mo
further attempt was made to afford pre-
teclion to Union citizens by enforcing the
obligation of paroles, as the latter seem of
little value except to the paroled" The
General is very severe upon the delay Of
several of the railroads in his department
in paying their debts, and gives an opinion
that it is in the hope that their claim for
use during the war will yet be allowed. He
recommends that they be compelled to pay
up promptly. 1t is notifying TO acknOwl-
edge that State and local laws, and the
more powerful force of public opiuioD, DO
not protect citizens of the department from
violence. Ia fact, crime ia committed be-
cause public opinion tayOrs it. A criminal
who il popular with the mob, can set law
at defiance, but if man il only suspected
OF crime. who is inimicAl to the cOmmu-
nifty, he Is likely TO be hung TO the nearest
tree, or sho. down at his own door. The
report closes as follows:
"The causes of this lawles4ness are diff
ferent in different States, and apply more
particularly to Kentucky and Tennessee
than to West Virginia. From the latter
State there have been no complaints re-
ceived, other than that Of the Governor in
his application for troops, before men
toned, the sending of which accomplished
the objects for which they were needed. In
Tennessee, where majority Of late Rebels
are disfranchised, they and sympayhizars
with them have 4 hatred for the State aU-
thOrities which i5 unconcealed and ag-
gressive in localities where the disfr1n.
chised element is strong \ spirit of per-
secution toward those in sympathy with
the authorities, those who recognize the pO-
liticaI rights of the enfranchsed negroes,
and the negroes themselves, especially
shows itself in utter contempt of all re-
speCt for law. Violence Is openly talked
Of, the editorials of the public press are
such as to create most intense hatred in
the breasts of ex Rebels and their sympa-
thizers The effect Of this is TO cause dis
turbance throughout the State, by melting
the ruffianly portion of this class of citi
zens to murder, rob aud maltreat white
Unionists aud colored people. In loc4li
ties where there are no United States troops
stationed, the local authorities often have
not the will, and more OtteI have not the
power, to suppress orprevent these Outrsges.
In Kentucky Acknowledgement can not be
alleged as a reason for the disturbance
Here the mass of the people are in sympa-
thy with the State authorities, aud those
politically opposed make no attempt to re-
sist them. The colored people are quiet
and peaceablc. They have no political
rights, not being enfranchised, yet rufilns
are permitted to tyrannize over them with
out fear of punishment. The testimony of
negroes is refused in the State courts, and
United States courts are difficult of access
to an ignorant people without friends or
influence. In some districts some ex-
Union soldiers are prosecuted by their nu-
merou5 Rebel neighbOr7, until they are
forced into a resistance, which sometimes
ends 9th loss of their lives, or they are
compelled, in selfdefense, to emigrate.
Aa appeal to the courts affords but little
hope for redress, as magistrates aHd jlEies
too often decide 10 accordance With their
preiudices, without regard to justice. The
controlling cause of the unsettled condition
of affairs in the department Is that the
greatest efforts made BY The defeated in
surgents since the close OF the war have
been to promulgale the idea that the cause
Of liberty, justice, humanity, equality ard
all the calendar Of virtues of freedmen suf-
fered violence and wrong when the effort
for Southern independence failed.
This ia, of course, intended as 4 species
'of political court, whereby the crime of
treason might be covered with a counter
felt varnsh of patriotism, 50 that partici-
patOrs Of rebellion might 90 down in his
tory hand in hand with the defenders Of
the government, thus wiping out with their
own hands their own stains, a species Of
selEforgivness amazing in its effrontery
when it considered that life and property
Justly forfeited by the laws of the country,
Of war and of nations, through the magna-
nimity of the government Of the people
WAS not exacted from them. Under this
inspiration the education Of the great body
of the people, moral, religious and political,
has been turned into channels wherein all
might unite in common, the impoyerish-
ment of the South, resulting from war and
i.s conc2mitauts, the emancipation of slaves
and consequent loss Of substance, the am
biguiiy and uncertainty Of political rights
and financial values, as we'll as personal
rivalries, have all combined to strengthen
the effJrts Sof pernicious teachers. The
evil done has been great, and it is not dis
cernable that an immediate improvement
may be expected"
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