Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1870-05-13

| nifty, so far as the law is concerned or the ad.
ministraton of the law by its officers, go to the
houses Of colored iaen at thes6ead hours OF night
/ take them oct aud hang them or scourge them
burn down their houses, outrage their families
| one week, but for months and months, where
there is no arresting of the offenders, and it is
made perfectly plain that there ia no security
save one, and that security is announced by these
maraudels and it is to vote the Democratic tick
ct or not vote at ALL ask whether voting could
be free in such a community? It is known that
there is security against outrage. There is one
thing which being agreed to no man fears to be
Ku-Kluxed, and that is, that he is right politi-
| cally in the estimation OF those who conduct
| these outrages. The law and the officers of the
| law give security at all. These men are seen
| in their DISCUSSES the men whom they hang up
| are seen hung up the men whom they scourge
| exhibit the effects of their stripes upon their
backs and no ohBcer OF the law raises his band.
Every man feels and knows that tho law is utter
~ powerless to give him any protection /; yet he
is offered protection if he will abandon the civil
| and political rights which you have thrust upon
him and, sir, he is subjected to these outrages
| because You have thrust them upon him, The
meaning is that the majority of the white people
| in those States mean to control the government
| as in times past, the fifteenth amendment and
your laws under it to the contrary notwithstand-
ing.
x
| But you say call out the militia. Whom will
| you call? You must not have members of this
organization in your militia. If you do, il is of
no effect at all Will you put Democrats in it, in
! whose interests these outrages are committed?
| Ihat would not be considered safe. You
call out militia, then, composed of Republicans,
| a Republican militia. You must not call them
| from the county in which the outrages are COM
mited, for il you do every man upon that militia
| as soon as it is disbandod will bite the dust
You must go to another county and call upon the
Kepubhcens OF some distant county. to do what?
Democrats. Sir. is not that party arrayed
| against party in armsF
But. Mr.. President, suppose you can take
your militia out of the county without a fight
and carry them into the insurrectionary district
| when your militia get there, what is it goirg to
do? At best it is but posse for the Sheriff A
State cannot declare martial law. It is but a
posse for the Sheriff. But one of the precautions
have the Sheriff and his deputies, as well as 9th.
! er officers of the law by come means, and if by
no other. BY intimidation, if not their interest
! at least winking at their proceedings; and you
carry your militia from distant county to act as
q posse to officers whose duty it to summon
a posse OF the citizens TO secure order, aud who
have neglected their duty and that is all the ef-
ficacy of the militia after they get there
But. sir, suppose they are eficacious, what are
| they to do? You say arrest some of these viola
| tors OF law. suppose you can find one and you
! arrest him, what will you do with him? Put him
I IN PRISON! Why, sir the piisol would be broken
| open just as soon as that militia force turns s.
! back upon the house. But suppose you retain
! him in prison; do not he and his friends know
! that there nine chances to one that some OF
| his confederates will be on the grand inrv and
no true bill found,
! But suppose true hill is found az the result
! OF Your militia operation against one of these
offenders. 1 am informed il has TRANSFERRED in
our State that when one Of these men was upon
t,ial before petit Jury it was found that in the
enforcement on the bill Of true bill the word
mot had been prefxed by somebody, so that it
read mot true bill, and they were tying a
| man upon no bill at all. L simply state this to
show the subterfuges that restored to evade
the law.
But, sir, if you bring that offender before a
retit Jury, you are bringing him before petit
jury composed of some meD who have sworn in
the most solemn manner and are bound by the
most horrid obligations one to the other to &C
quit him. cannot see how the militia under
these circumstances would be remedy at all
The addition which the Senator from Missouri
proposes to make to existing lava on this sub
ject Is to allow the President in insurT dictionary
Localities to spsperd the hdbeaS corpus ana de-
clare martial law. Another feature is that he
! allows the levying of contributions upon the
citizens Of that locality to pay the expenses of
the operation. have already said that when
the State Gent tho militia there they would but
be posse Of the sheriff, and l cay now, under
existing lava, ii you send the existing force of
the United States there, When they arrive in the
county they are bEt a posse OF the sheriff If
they arrest a man. whsG will they do with him
They must tGrn him over to the civil authority.
But, cir, the people Of those communities hHVe
t9Arnea hy experience to resp19t ed afes and
they have learned TO know that martial law de-
e'ared is something that cannot be resisted and
something that cannot be successfully and safe
ly cVaded for il is evasion, resistance that
I Is the foundation OF the hopes Of those men who
are creating these disturbances. The efficacy of
the writ of hdbeds corpus may be suspended,
and th&t when ;he military authorities make ar
rests they shsu not be compelled to turn the
offender over TO the civil authorities, to be tried
by jury OF his own cOnfederates. woald not
allow the President to Suspend the writ of hdJeds
corpus il whole State. l would eonfine it. as
tAa Senator from Missouri does to the insurrec-
tionary locality
do not know that any law of the Union has
been violated in the State OF North Carolina by
. these KG-Klux. They mean to render invalid
and Inefficient in its operation the provisions Of
the fifteenth amendment; hut it is done in an
Indirect way. They do not saw lyon shall net
con.e to the ballot-box and vote" Ii they did
they would then be violating law Of the Union.
say, Because you are black you sh all not vote
here II go. possibly they might be violating
sac hfteonth amendment OF the Constitution, but
/ doubt whether they would. I have not the
fifteenth amendment before me. but think it
provinces that no State shall debar a man from
me right 10 vote because of his race, Color or
previous condition and even standing at the
baIlot-box and hopping colOrtd men away by
force would hardly be violation of the laws OF
the Union. they have not done that that is
not the purpose the purpose is to make it unsafe
by terrorism and intimidation TO prevent his ex-
ercising the right.
1t may be said that you can pass law here to
enforce the nftee amendment and make it q |
law Of the United States, and have apv violation
OF 1t indicted before the courts of the United |
St&tes, where men may be tried by an iron.cla |
Jury as the expression Is down in tho States. |
Perhaps that would be very well. That may be |
one of tho remedies which may be adopted in |
part in this case. think it is. It is indispen-
sabe but it still has the defect that other propo-
slt1ons have it can be evaded and will be evaded |
organization which is denominated on this floor |
the Ku-Klux.
Mr.. President, this Ku-Klux organization OF
which you have heard is not an insurrection. ] /
admit it has been declared in one locality by /
the Governor of my own State; but it is mis-.
understanding of terms. An insurrection is open
and active Resistance to our authority. 1t 10 not
a rebellion, That is an effort to break down an
existing Government and set up another in it's
place. They do not propose to resist established
authority They are not engaged just at this
rebellion against the Government of the United |
States. They do not propose to resist tho con-
stitu ted authority of the State. They propose to
evade it, They propose by an organization here
and there, by the number of it's members and by
the oaths and obligations by which they are
bound one to another. to screen each other and
evade the authority of the State; that is to per
ak~oI u.