The Sweetwater enterprise. (Sweetwater, Tenn.) 1869-187?, 1871-05-18
THE ENTERPRISE.
Sweetwater. Thursday, May Is, 1871,
The Ku-KluX Bill-NO Remedy for
the Real Evils of the South,

the Real Evils of the South.
The New York Sun, says, that the
Tribune, recently published q letter
from a correspondent in South Carolina,
in which a new aspect is given to the
alleged Ku-Klux conspiracies in the
Southern States. According to this
writer, the real purpose Of these combi-
nations is to force the United States to
annul the carpet-bag governments by
which the South has been so terribly
robbed, and to substitute for them a
system of military administration with
officers of the army at its head. This
design is expressed in the Tribune as
follows
".There will be a hundred Cutrages
for every one you hear of now, until the
United States will be obliged to put us
under military government That is
what we want. The army officers are
honest men and won't steal from us.
They will sympathize with the white
people 1 told him that the people OF
the North generally believe that the
disturbances in the South arise from q
hatred of the National Government.
That mistake hereplied. We don't
want any trouble with the General Coy
ernment We have had enough Of war,
and we want 'peace, but we can't sit
still and see a gang Of thieves, sustained
by horde of ignorant niggers, take
our property from u.s. l find this to be
the general sentiment among the white
population. They declare that they have
no desire to resist the Federal authority,
and that their troubles all spring from
bad State and local government. An in
telligcnt man, who said he helped to
fire the first gun ON Fort Sumter and
served through the war until Johnston's
surrender, coming out of the wreck Of
tue Confederacy with no other property
tdan a gray mule, talked with me the
other day with more moderation than is
usually shown. He said the white peo-
pie of South Carolina would be glad il
Congress would remand the State to a
territorial condition, and send down
good men from the North to govern it.
Or if they could have q military govern
ment, as no one would object, for moth
ing could be as government of igno'
rai c., indigence and fraud.
The Sun also remarks, in commenting
ON the above, that "this feeling is nNtu-
ral and not without Justification. Most
of the intelligent, upright citizens of the
South--we mean those who were born
and reared there, and who have had ex-
perience i'll public nilairs--are dislran.
chiscd by reason of their share in the
rebellion while their States are gov
erned for the most part by ignorant ne
groes and imported white robbers. ThC
DISTINGUISHED men have no voice in thC
legislation or the administration, bu
they are not exempt from paying thu
taxes. Thus they suffer from evils whicl
they are pOwerless to prevent If th'
States could be Temanded into u terri
torial condition, Or put under the con
troll Of military officers, this class OF cit
liens would lose nothing, for they
would have just as much poitica
power as they have now while they
would gain greatly by thosupclior cheap.
ness and honesty of the territorial Oh
military administrations.
But however desirable it might be tC
these disfranchised citizens to have then
present State governments abolished
and to be put under the control of ter
ritorial or military governors, there is
no means Of gratifying their wishes
The Carolinas, Florida, Arkansas, Lou.
isiana, all the Southern States, are now
fully in the Union, possessing cqua.
rights and privileges with the Other
States Whatever frauds and villainieS
may be pe1petrated by their carpet-bag
governments, Congress has no right tt
interfere. So long as the State authori
ties preserve u republican form, they
may continue their robbcries and then
crimes, and the nation can do nothing
to correct them All that is in itspowe1
is to pass an act of complete amnesty
removing the political disabilities of al
who were engaged in the rebellion, anC
enabling them once more to participate
in the control of their States. There is
no authority anywhere by which Con
gress can overthrow State government
and put territorial OF military govern
ment in its place.
Nor does the Ku-Klux Force bill, from
which the discontented SOutherners ap
pear to hope SO much, offer them any
remedy Indeed, it was not passed witt
any Sach intention. Its sole object is tC
enable President Grant to send troops
into the Southern States to dictate wha
shall be done in the elections, under the
pretext of putting down the Ku-Klux
1t is nothing but an electioneering de
vice. 1t may control the elections, bu
it will do nothing to abate the outrage
of the legalized banditti that have takel
so many of the Southern States by tn
throat, and are plundering their pcopl
without let or hindrance.
A Visit to the Home of JEFF. Davis
A private letter received by q citizel
Of Chicago from gentleman at Vicks