The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1870-04-13

tiO4io VI iSdiIiuS, luOic HcaILI, IQOTG
civilization thsD any place else, the
murder. are by the day ; ANA yet YOU
hear nothing about outrages in the city
Of New York.
What has been the effect, pray, OF
your reconstruction measures, if this is
true? You have had the South un-
der the heel of military men, with the
right to try citizens by military COM
mission, untrammeled by juries. The
senator from Michigan said that juries
would not convict down there. Where,
then, were your military commissions
They would convict, would they not
Who ever heard of a military commits
sion that acquitted? They are COM
missions organized to convict. 1t
would utterly amaze any man to see a
military commission hal failed to con
vict. Why did they not punish these
assassins? Why did they let murder
go UNPUBLISHED because jurors wou d
not find verdicts of guilty, when the
commanding general had it in his pow
or to detail a board of army officers to
try, to convict, and to hang? If this
be true, then your military domino
ton and Your reconstruction acts have
been the most miserable failure that
the world ever saw.
But that is not all. You have
again and again restored you call it
admitting; call it restoring them
states in the south to their rights.
They have Radical governments.
" hat Stl.2 has had i more Radical
government than Tennessee up - the
last year: Ind &c. III Tvnacssec the
hukluX had its origin, according to
all the accounts we have.
Mr.. Fowler. [ believe that is a
mistake.
Mr.. Thurman. I have always
heard it asserted so
Ar. Fowler. I should like the
Senator to give some evidences of it
more than his bare declaration.
Mr.. Thurman. [ am glad to be
corrected. l was only stating it on
Radical authority, and 1 know how
uncertain that is. [LaughteI.] L
stand corrected.
Mr.. Abbott. The honorable senator
from Ohio denies that there are any
kuklux.
Mr.. Thurman. No, sir, I do not
deny any such thing. [ never denied
any such thing. Your reconstruction
acts were calculated to make Ku-klux.
| do not wonder that they did make
ku-kluN. After putting eight mil
lion 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
Constitu ion, and then putting Il set OF
ignorant field negroes above all the in
tclligcnce Of the white race, and using
those instrumentalities to send mcn to
the senate of the United States and to
the house of representatives of the
United States, and put them in the
place Of governors and Judges, mel
who's feet were hardly warm on the
soI, do not wonder it made Kuklux.
L am not i~ustifying the Kuklux.
Mr.. Abbott. | think the senator
makes a very good defense of the Ku
kluX.
Mr. Thurman. The senator may
say so. l say that 1t is quite natural
there should have been KukIux l
am making no defense tor them. Blu;
human nature l. human nature. and
you caunst traiHple put the imuluses
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 loyal men. You had
Tennessee in the hands of the loyal
men; you have had Louisiana in the
hands Of the loyal men; you have get
the old North State in the hands OF
the loyal men you have got Florida
in the hands of the loyal men; you
have got every one of these states in
the hands of the loyal men, and in adj
dition to all this you have had the
military to help you. Now, why, is
it that you have not had law and or.
der and peace? Why is it that in
these states thus governed by Ra
dicaiism there has been this anarchy
which is spoken of? Is it because
they were slave States? Let me call
the attention of the Senator to the
fact that there were three other slave
states. Then was Delaware, there
was Maryland, and there was Ken.
tuc@y. They have not been recon.
slructed; they lave not been under
the rule of the loyal men, according
10 the definition of loyalty on this
floor ; and yet, in all this broad land,
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from
Darieh to the north pole, there have
not been three more orderly states
than Delaware, Maryland and Ken
lucky. Under Democratic admins
t:atiou law and order prevail in them /;
property, life, and liberty are safe. 1t
ought to be so, for the spirit of Demo
cracy is the spirit of obedience TO Con
%stitution and to law. 1t is the every
incarnation Of peace, law, and order,
and the best thing you can do, senators
Of the Republican party, the verybest
thing that could happen to restore
law, order, peace, prosperity and hap
piness to that southern country would
be for Radicalism to abdicate there
and Democracy to be installed in pow
CT.
Mr.. Morrill,, OF Maine. The sen
ator will allow me to suggest. saving
and excepting always the city of New
York.
Mr.. Thurman. "Saving and ex-
cepting the city of New York p" How
is that
Mr.. Morrill,, of Maine. That is
Democratic.
Mr.. Thurman. I thank the SEN
ator from Maine. Who is it that has
been the governing party in New
York since the Radicals have been
possessed of the legislature of that