Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1868-09-04
BEN. HILL.
Extract from MS Speech at Forsyth
GeOrgia.


The following Is an extract from a
speech recently delivered at Forsyth,
Ga, by the Hon. Ben. II. Hill:
. In his opinion the evils
which threaten the country are in
finitely greater than any ever presen-
ted before. Constitutional govern
ment Is on trial. Thought the peo-
pie committed an error when they
seeded from the Union. / never
thought II a crime; for they had a
right to secede. But did think they
committed themselves to be subiuga-
ted. Three months from to-day will
settle whether we shall have free
government. The question was not
who shall vote, but whether we shall
have q free government. This is the
stake. / shall consider the election
of Grant and Colfax the end of writ
ten constitutions. Shall we avert
this calamity? People say L am
hard--that | use harsh language in
dealing with the political questions of
the day; but / tell them l am not
hard enough. If had the power
would penetrate the rhinoceros hides
of some people. Many people a year
ago accepted the constitutional
amendments and reconstruction
measures of the radical Congress in
despair, and thinking it was the best
thing we could do. He had nothing
to say against them. He differed
with them now, but he invited them
all to abandon the idea and come
back. The speaker now entered into
long discussion of the political af-
fairs of the State of Georgia. There
was a class, he said, called relief men.
He was sorry for them. He was for
some measure Of relief himself q
measure which would do justic
alike to both debtor, And creditor.-
But it was the swindle and the swind-
lers in the Atlanta constitution which
he would denounce. The ffamers of
that instrument put the relief clause
in that instrument for the deliberate
purpose of swindling the people, and
intended from the start Congress
should strike it out. Honest men
voted for 1t, against whom he had
nothing to say, but he had an itlex-
pressible contempt for those who had
the fraud. l hate the
men who swindled you. The men
who assembled at Atlanta i'm conven-
ton were u miserable set of rogues
and thieves. AS soon as their consti-
ton went to Washington relief was
stricken out. They didnot strike it out
because it was unconstitutional, but
because some Ofthose debts were owed
North. You ought to hate those ras-
calls. Facing the black portion of the
audience, he said: They say the
Democrats, and especially myself, are
especially severe upon the black peo-
pie. But he believed that the white
people of this country were under
every obligation to protect the black
people. They want your votes to put
them in power, and after theyget
your votes they won't care one fig for
you. Why do they say all shall vote?
Are they sincere In this? In the
very law which gave you the right TO
vote, they took 1t away from twenty
thousund white men In Georgia. He
could not hold Office, yet he was
born, reared, and educated here. Yet
he had never advocated secession,
Why do they want to include you
and exclude twenty thousand intelli-
gent white men from the elective
franchise-the best and the wisest
men in the State? 1t was because if
they We're allowed to vote and hold
office the carpet -baggers would be cut
out from those offices. But when
everand wherever the question of bcs-
towing the right to vote upon your
race had been presented in a Northern
State it was voted down by from ten
to fifty thousand. But if they get the
power, they will take this right away
rom black and white alike, in all the
Southern States. They have already
taken the right to vote away from
the people of Florida and Ala
bama. He would impress one more
fact upon the colored people. You
know that no government can last
here unless it is sanctioned by the
people. Instead of following the adj
vice of men you have lived with all
your lives, you followed the advice of
little carpet~baggers who came down
here for the purpose of getting into
Office and stealing. The member of
the Legislature from this county had
been sent home to tell you not to
come to this meeting because they
knew he would be therean tell them
they were set of thieves and rogues.
lie was in favor of remembering the
colorcd men hereafter who acted with
US now. Again to the front audiences:
Those miserable native renegades
whom God had made white by mis-
take, these thieves and rogues-and
when l call them that | will prove
tt-ktiew the Reconstruction measures
were unconstitutional. They con-
ceived these measures for the purpose
OF making the Southern States radi-
cal. But Meade has told them, and
1t Is the only truth he ever knew
Meade to tell, that Georgia would go
Democratic by thirty thousand. In
view of this fact they are trying TO
take the right to vote for President
from the people and give it TO the
Legislature. They are working for
despotism. They are Just such men
as spring up in every commonwealth.
home, GREECE, India, and England
had them: The Bible speaks Of trem:
''The wicked abound on every hand
and the vilest rule" These men are
hlse to thclrowrrace. They viii de-
GeiNe ana ucmorlliZe your society
But there Is one remark he wished the
people to ponder woll-"I hate them"
1t is Christian duty to hate thcm.-
NO man will ever get 10 heaven UNI
hess he hates them. | hate their dis
honesty, Your wives your property,
nor anything you have can be safe
while these carpet-baggers are prowl-
ing through the country. They are
turning loose the vilest demons of
passions amongyou. Our homes will
no longer be safe unless the progress
of radicalism is stayed. Unless this
Is stopped no tongue can tell what will
he the consequences. lean see revolu-
ton coming and an watching when
society Will begin To dissolve. Men