The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1868-12-04


made by them United States Officers
during the war. suits were brought in
the local courts s<here judge and iury
sympathized with the prosecutors. and
judgments Eere awarded accordingly !:
all testimony rs 70 the official character
of the defendants and their acts at the
time was useless. IS it was not consid-
cred.
Reviewing occurrences connected
with the administration of affairs in the
Department of the past year, can re-
port that TO some extent the presence of
troops has prevented personal collisions
and partisan difflcHlties; but only par
TALLY so, for it Is mOrtifying to acknowI-
edge that the State aud local laws which
| should do SO, and the more powerful
force of public opinion. do not protect
the citizens of the Department from vi
| olence. In fact, crime is committed be-
cause public opinion favors it, or, at
least, acquieses IN il. The local laws
are enforced or not, according to the
controlling opinions of the community.
A criminal who Is popular with the
mob can set the law at defiance; but if
man is only charged with suspicion
of crime, if he is inimical to the COM
munity, he is likely to be hung to the
nearest tree, or shot down at his own
door.
In Kentucky acknowledgements can
not be alleged as reason for the dis
turbances. Here the mass of the peo-
pie are in sympathy with the State au-
thorities, and those politically opposed
make no attempt to resist them. The
eolored people are peaceable; they have
/ no political rights, not being eniran-
chised, yet ruffians are permitted to tyr
annie over tileAs without fear of pun
| ishment. The testimony of negroes is
refused in the State Courts, and the Uni
ted States Courts are difficult of access
to an ignorant people without friends
! or influence. In some districts ex-Un-
| ion soldiers are prosecuted by their more
numerous rebel neighbors until they are
! forced into resistance which some
times ends with the loss of their lives
or they are compelled in self-defence to
emigrate. An appeal to the courts
affords but little hope for redress, as
magistrates and juries too often decide
| in accordance with their prejudices
without regard to justice. The control
ing cause of the unsettled condition OF
affairs in the Department is, that the
great efforts made by the defeated
insurgents, since the close of the war
have been to promulgate the idea that
the cause of liberty, justice, humanity,
equality, and all the calendar of the
virtues of freedom, suffered violence
and wrong when the effort for South
ern independence failed. This is, OF
course, intended as species of politi-
cal cant, whereby the crime of treason
might be covered with counterfeit
varnish of patriotism, so that the precip-
itators of the rebellion might go down
in history hand in hand with the de-
tenders of the Government, thus wiDine
out with their own hands their own
stains--a species of self-for9iveness
amazing in its effrOntery, when it is
considered that life and property Justly
forfeited by the laws of the country, OF
war and of nations, through the mag
nanimity of the Government and peo-
pie, were not exacted from them. I'm
der this inspiration, the education of the
great body of people, moral, religious
and political, has been turned into
channels where all might unite in COM
mon. The impoyerishment of the South
resulting from the war and its concom-
itants, the emancipation of the slaves,
and the consequent loss Of subsistence
the ambiguity and uncertainty of polit-
| zeal rights and financial values, as well
as personal rivalries, have all combined
to strengthen the efforts of pernicious
| teachers.
| The evil done has been great, and
it is not observable that an immediate
improvement may be expected.
l am, General, very respectfully, your
| Obedient servant,
(Signed) GEO. FL. THOMAS.
Major-General Commanding.