Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-04-19

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The changes on Ku-Klux outrages in /
the Southern States are still rung in Con-
gress. A couple of weeks ago Mr.. VIII i
son, of Massachusetts,, declared in The i
Senate that S'there have been more assas- I
in the South since Lees surren-
der, than there were men lost on any field |
of stricken battle during the four years OF
the war;" On the 14th inst. MIR. Morton,
of Indiana, read to the Senate carefully
prepared speech, of which the Philadel-
phia Press gives this brief synopsis:
ssHe depicted the outrages and violence
committed by Ku-Klux and other secret
organizations in the South, whose purpose
was to drive out Republicans. He at
tributed their existence to the teachings OF
Northern Democratic Conventions, and
particularly of the National Convention
of that party in New York city in 1865.
He charged the responsibility for the
present reign of terror in the South upon
the Democratic party of the North, and
proceeded to argue that if Federal inter
vention in reconstructed States was MADE
il should be in the interest of loyal friends
of the government, and not of its enc
mics.
che detailed many instances of outrage
by secret political organizations IN the
South, and charged that freedom of opin-
ion did not exist in many districts of Ten
nessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Louisi-
ana. Texas and Georgia. The Kuklux
Khan, in the interest of the Democratic
party, were creating reign of terror, as
a means of silencing prominent Republi-
cans, and driving others to seek protec-
ton in flight. United by secret oaths and
signs, they spread terror through whole
communities, and when apprehended
eyaded conviction through public sympa-
thy and perjury. This was the legitimate
result of the teaching of Northern Demo-
cratic politicians in denouncing the recon-
struction acts as unconstitutional and void,
and advising resistance to them on the
part of the South. The responsibility
for the present disturbed social condition
of the South was upon the Democratic
party, for their National Convention in
1868 virtually advised the Southern peo-
pie to resist Congress, this portion of the
platform being adopted on the suggestion
of one of the Governments bitterest
enemies.
This is the sort of stuff which fanati-
cism and wickedness retails to the coun-
try through the Senate of the United
States, for the purpose of the effecting
the reconstruction of such Southern
States as have passed from under Radical
control or are likely to do SO. Senator
Thurman, of Ohio, answered Wilson con-
clusively, and his answer will apply
equally to Motion. Mr.. Thurman said
that in all the years during which these
outrages and violence and anarchy are
said to have prevailed, the Southern
States had raised crops of cotton, but for
which greenbacks would not be woiih
more than sixty cents on the dollar. The
cotton thus raised had nearly brought us
to specie payment. No country where
anarchy prevails could do such thing as
this; nor a country through which rail
roads are being made at the rate of a
thousand miles year, and which is re-
gaining its lost wealth and capital. Mr..
Abbott, of North Carolina, asked Mr..
Thurman if he denied that there were
| Ku-Klux, to which the latter replied:
No, sir, l do not deny any such thing.
l never denied any such thing. Your re-
construction acts were calculated to make
Ku-Klux. / do not wonder that they die
make Ku-Klux. After putting eighi
million people under the heel of military
men, with power to try them by court
martial and military commission, and
hang them, in plain violation of the con-
stitution, and then putting set of igno-
rant field negroes above all the intelligence
of the white race, and using those instru-
mentalities to send men to the Senate of
the United States and to the House OF
Representatives of the United States, and
put then in the place of Governors and
Judges, men whose feet were hardly warm
on the soil, do not wonder it made Ku-
Klux am not justifying the Ku-Klux
Mr.. Abbott think the Senator makes
a very good defense of the Ku-Klux.
Mr.. Thurman-The Senator may say
SO. l say that it is quite natural there
should have been KuKlux. l am making
no defense for them. But human nature
is human nuture, and you cannot trample
out the impulses of the human heart by
any laws you may make, not even by the
code of Draco itself. Sir, you put these
States in the hands of the 'Goyal' men.
You had Tennessee in the hands of the
loyal men; you have had Louisiana in the
hands of the loyal men; youhave got every
one of these States in the hands of the
loyal men, and in addition to all this you
have had the military to help you. Now,
why is it that you have not had law and
order and peacel Why is 1t that in
these States thus governed by Radical
ism there has been this anarchy which
is spoken off, Is it because they were
slave States Let me call the attention
of the Senate to the fact that there were
three other slave States. There was Del
eware, there was Maryland and there was
Kentucky. They have not been under
the rule of the loyal men, according TO
the definition of loyalty on this floor; and
yet, in all this broad land, from the At
lantic to the Pacific, from Darien to the
north pole, there have not been three more
orderly States than Delaware, Maryland
and Kentucky. Under Democratic ad-
ministration law and order prevail in
them; property, life and liberty are safe.
1t ought to be so, for the spirit of De
mocracy is the spirit of obedience to con-
stitution and to law. 1t is the very in
carnation of peace law and order, and
the best thing you can do, Senators of the
Republican party, the very best thing that
could happen to restore law, order, peace,
prosperity and happiness to that Southern
country would be for Radicalism to abdi-
cate there, and Democracy to be installed
in power.