The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-05
RW-KLUX LEGISLATION.

RU-KLUX LEGISLATION.
51NoE the commencement of the present ses-
sion of Congress, if we except the Sumner
Sohurz attacks upon the President in the
matter of the San Domingo annexation
scheme, little else has been done but to talk
Ku-klux. The speeches that have been made
on this subject have, however, failed to make
that impression upon the public mind that
they should, for the good and sufficient reason
that the average American voter and tax
payer has begun to lose faith in the utility of
further Congressional interference in the
affairs of the Southern States, and the ques-
tion is seriously asked whether the evils likely
to result from the various anti-Ku-kl mea-
sures now before Congress will not be greater
than those they are designed to cure. Many of
the disorders which now render portions of
the Southern States anything but pleasant
places of residence are the results of the
policy which excluded the best and most in
telligent citizens of the South-the men who
most cordially accepted the results of the
war-frOm all participation in the govern
mental affairs. We have earnestly supported
the Congressional reconstruction policy, and
think now, as we have always thought, that,
under all the circumstances, it was the
wisest that could have been adopted but it
was unfortunate in many respects that Con-
gress should have been driven by force of un-
foreseen circumstances to take the decided
stand it did, and, with different President
than Andrew johnson in the Executive chair
during the first four years of peace, the pro-
liabilities are that the state of affairs at the
South would be widely different from what it
is to-day. There is no use. however. in sigh
ing for what might have been, and it is the
duty of practical statesmen to consider calmly
and dispassionateIy whether at this day a
forcible policy is likely to accomplish any
permanently satisfactory results in encour-
aging spirit of loyalty in the late Rebel
States.
Yesterday both houses of Congress dis
cussed the Ku-klux, but without apparently
arriving any nearer to definite conclusion
as to what had best be done with regard to
them than they were at the beginning Of the
session. In the Senate Mr.. Blair, who, con-
trary to our earnest Recommendation, was not
chosen King of Spain-the Spanish treasury
is in O rather low condition at present, and
the Blair family and it's collaterals was doubt
less considered too heavy a load to carry
demonstrated to his own satisfaction that the
Ku-klux did not exist at all, or if they did
exist that they we're negroes and Republicans,
and that their victims were harmless, un
offending Democrats. In the House Genera
Butler made very able, and for him very
temperate speech, in which he certainly
demonstrated that very unpleasant state Of
affairs exists in many of the Southern States
and in which he urged in forcible and eloquent
terms that it was the duty of Congress tC
interfere for the preservation of order ant
the protection of loyalmen. Other Republicans
notably MIR. Garfield, took the opposite ground
and contended that Congressional interfer
anoe was at least unadvisable, and that the
surest, safest, and speediest way to cure the
evils which now afiict the South is to allow
them to wear themselves out and to trust tc
time and the influence of citizens whose ma
teria interests are injured to bring
about an improvement 1t may be pos
sible for the Government to put dowr
always subject the South to military rule, ant
the longer the policy of repression and force
Is continued the longer will the permanent
pacihoation of the late Rebel States be DELAYED
The disorders which now exist at the South
are in q great measure the result of the ole
slave system, aggravated by the war and by
the reconstruction policy Congress found il
necessary to adopt. Their cure must, in any
case, be left in very great measure to time
and to the influences which immigration
greater development of the RESOURCES of the
country, and the gradual Introduction of new
blood and new ideas, will undoubtedly exert
If by forcible measures Ku-kluxism cU,Id
be eradioated at once, root and branch
it might be worth while to try
fOrCsi bat as a question of practical states
nAnship, does General Butler or any othe
member Of either branch of Congress really
imagine that any permanent benefits will bt
asEiYsd from either Of the Ku-klWx bills nov