Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-03-27
RECOESfRUCIING AND UNRECON
STRUGGLING STATES.

provisional State government, un
der entire military dominat ~
foci says uiaC zen. bullock snl
his immediate supporters In the
Georgia Legislature, in acting on
the proposed fifteenth amendment
10 the constitution, proved them
selves quite as unreliable as the
rebels Of the body, and quite as un.
worthy as they to be iRtrusted with
the the management of the public
affairs of any portion of the people.
He adds:
"The bill reported by Senator
Trumbull from the Senate's Judi
ciary Committee, to the end / indi-
cate above, will pass both Houses
Of Congress by nearly an unani-
NOUS Republican party politically
speaking, and will doubtless be the
last State fully reconstructed. We
shall have more KueKluX Outrages
there, of course, which will be sum
marty punished by military au-
thority. Suca violence must be
promptly met by military punish
ment, as no hope is left that the
civil authorities Of the State will do
aught for its suppression. From
first to last, if l am not greatly
mistaken, the courts of Georgia
have not punished a single Ku-
kluX outrage, though quite as
many if not more have taken place
in Georgia than in any other South
ern State. A dozen drum head
courts martial, and rs many mill
tary executions under sentences Of
such courts, within an hour after
their rendition, will cure Georgia of
Ku- KluXism. Her courts must be
purged of uniaithful judges, clerks,
officers and jurymen, summarily and
thoroughly. Not a man should be
left connected with them who can
not be implicitly relied on TO pro-
tect the lives end rights of all Amer
lean citizens at any possible risk of
his own life How different the
state of things in this respect in
Virginia from that existing to-day
in Georgia"
We hear a great deal Of the new
ideas which the events and exigen-
cies growing out of the late war
have educated the country to accept,
and of the transition state through
which we are passing, but only such
revelations as the above enable us,
says the Baltimore San, to realize
the extent of the progress the cOun
try has made of late years, and in
what direction. If ten years ago
we had read in a public journal the
accommodation of "a dozen drum
head courtssmartial and as many
military executions under sentences
Of such courts within one hour after
their rendition" we should have
exclaimed, "Alas, these poor Poles P!
Will Russia never learn civiliza
uon? 7" Any one who would have
predicted that, within the present
century such would become familiar
language in American newspapers,
would have been looked upon as a
lunatic or idiot. If a prophet from
Heaven had predicted it, we should
have exclaimed, as thy serv-
ant dog, that he would
DO this thing But in great
revolutionary periods the events Of
centuries are crowded into years,
and this country, whose rapidity Of
material development is without a
parallel in the history of nations,
has grown downward politically
with a speed that far Outstrips its
rapid Use in population and wealth.
Drum head courts-martiar' by the
dozen, and a dozen men shot within
an hour after sentence, without a
word said about their guilt or innO-
cence. We have had some expe-
rience of these courts-matial, and
of their ideas Of justice, not to
speak Of mercy. There was the
cOurt-martial that sent Mrs. Surratt
TO the scafiold, but graciously al
lowed her twenty four hours instead
of one after the sentence. We have
seen in the same State of Georgia,
where the "drum- head" etc, is re-
commended, q number of young
men imprisoned and subjected to
the most barbarous treatment on
the charge of killing Ashburn col
ored witnesses tortured to induce
them TO testify against the prison
ers, and a persecution instituted 10y
the military authorities which
would have resulted in their eXecu
ton but for the turning over O
Georgia TO the civil powers. Thes,
Young men are believed 10y all VIII,
know them to be as innocent Of TIA,
otfense charged against them as tn,
members Of the military cour
themselves. But, under the ney
system, they would have been court
martialed and shot to death in a
hour
This is only one feature G
the change that has come over II:
States are reconstructed and the
unrcconstructed, according to th
caprice or interest of the dominaT
party. They are restored, lib
Georgia, to their old status, an
then, because they use what the
Supposed was legitimate functio
of their newborn freedom, the
free will, by rejecting the fifteent
amendment, they are snuaed out {
the national constellation lii