Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-04-14

House will allow that to be published Tor
the OBLIGATION of the people to show what
unprincipled men will swear to.
MIR. Eldridge: Why was It not pub
lished9
Mr.. Beck: Because those of us who
knew that the charges were false got the
Governor of Tennessee, the Speaker of
the House, and the President of the Sen
ate of Tennessee to come here and con-
tradict them. We brought Federal Off
GERS and Federal soldiers, aud Confederate
officers and Confederate soldiers, and the
best citizens of the State, and they united
in branding as liars, and as peIjurers,
those who had made these false state
ments against the State of Tennessee, so
that even the men who brought the
charges skunk away from the committee
room, and it was never reported to Con.
gress and now lies amid the rubbish of
that committeeman.
In the same discussion Mr.. Maynard
read an extract from the Chattanooga
Times to establish the existence of the
Ku-Klux Khan. After Mr.. Maynard con-
cluded, Mr.. Eldridge said:
Mr.. Speaker, the gentleman from nli-
nols (Mr. Farnsworth) yields to me in
order that may read the whole sentence,
which was cut in two and only one half
of it read from the Chattanooga Daily
Times by the gentleman from Tennessee
(Mr. Msynard) who has just addressed
the House. That gentlemen has been the
great reservoir of facts scandalous and
slanderous of the people of the South;
and if his statements are as truthful, as
fair, and as just as his representation of
the editor of the Chattanooga Daily
Times, the House will know precisely
how to appreciate those sentiments. The
gentleman read or proposed TO read some
statement from that paper; and / now
here charge that he cut the sentence in
two, in the middle; thath didnot finish the
sentence in the paper from which he read.
When l called his attention to this fact
he said if could make more of the paper
than he could he would allow me to read
it. thank him for that opportunity.
The gentleman read this portion of the
sentence:
''Now no person pretends to deny that
crimes, 'Outrages' if you will, are COM
miited in the South by organized bodies
of masked maraudeIs, some of whom
probably belong TO a secret political so
ciety known to the world as Ku-Klux."
There the gentleman ended the sen
tence, and left the House under the i'm
preston that what l have read was in
tended to express the opinion of the editor
of the Chattanooga Daily Times. But
the editor proceeds to finish the sentence,
only one half of which the gentleman
from Tennessee quoted, as follows:
''But the greater portion of them were
committed to serve private malice by vii
lains who take advantage of the vague
dread of Ku,Klux under which TO mask
their operations.
That portion of the editorial, that last
half of the sentence, was left out by the
gentleman from Tennessee. asked him
to read the whole of It, but he refused to
do so. But that editor, in the very same
article, goes on still further to say:
"The whole outrage business is simply
pretext to station troops in the South,
TO carry the next Presidential election by
force, for the Republican party. We
believe the attempt will fail, and We
know of no other benefit which the Radi-
cal party can secure by sending more
troops into the South. 1t can only serve
to fan into life the fast expiring embers
of civil strife, and while the presence Of
troops may keep down the manifestations
Of protection for GOyalists,' if we may
consider any of the reported Ku-Klux
outrages as s&ch manifestations (Which is
doubtful the spirit which would prompt
such 'Outraaes' will only be made more
bitter when it exists, and might be
aroused in the breasts of those by whom
it was never harbOred before"
He then closes the article as follows:
'But while the Ku-KluX bills are as
yet unenac;ed, it is the duty of the
Southern people TO purge themselves Of
the disgrace which must rest upon them
so long as crime and lawlessness are per
mitted to go unpublished. They should
do this, not from fear Of congressional
interference, but from proper regard
for their own reputation. The final rem
eGy lays in the cultivation of a proper
public spirit, which will demand the en-
fOTCement Of the laws. Congressional
Interference, military reconstruction,
bayonet rule, have all been tried and
found TO sggrayate rather than suppress
the evil complained of. The same result
will follow the reappICation of the same
remedies. So long as the people of any
community, North or South, find an out
side power taking charge of the preser-
walton of order il their midst, they will
take no interest in the matter themselves,
because they feel no responsibility"
That is the article from which the gen.
tlenan from Tennessee would have the
House understand that an argument in
favor OF the propositions of this bill was
made by The editor of the Chattanooga
Daily Times. have never heard but
one thing to equal this fraud attempted to
be practiced on this House, and that was
when it was said by some one, l do not
know who, that there was no God. "The
fool hath said IN his heart there is no
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