The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1871-06-22
Ea1nuiAe, S. C.

/
7os0nville, S. c.
What Horace Greeley Knows about the Ku
Klux and Thieving Carpet. .Baggers.
On his return to New York, Horace Greeley
wos honored with reception, at which the VEN
dress upon his experience in che South. He
alluded in no very f1attering terms to the Ku
Klux and Thieying Carpet-baegers, and as call
the world and rest of mankind" will desire to
know his opinions upon these prominent topics
of discussion in the South, we make the fol-
lowing extracts from the speech:
THE KU-KLUX.
But have been esked: care therea Ku
Klux down South?" Laughter. Yes, Cen
tlemen, there are. They didn't come ur to me
| Laughter. They didn't undertake to perform
| their delicate operations upon me. l should
| have had very much more respect for them if
| they had [Great laughter.
am moved with profound disgust when I
think of these men, covering themselves up
with second rate calico, masking their faces,
arming themselves to the teeth, and riding
around to the cabins of poor harmless negroes,
dragging them from their beds, and whipping
and manning them until they are compelled to
swear they will never again vote the Republi-
can ticket. / hold that to be very cowardly
procedure as well as very base one; and
hold it to be the duty of the Government OF
the Union to oppose with all its power and all
its force every such execrable procedure as this.
Do You tell me that those men are liable to the
State laws for the assaults and batteries they
have committed7 don't doubt it; but l say
they are also in substance and purpose traitors
to the Government, rebels against its authori-
ty, and the most cowardly, skulking rebels ever
known to this or any other country. lAp-
plause.
I I hold our Government bound, by its duty of
protecting our citizens in their fundamental
rights. to pass and enforce laws for the extirpa
ton of the execrable Ku-Klux conspiracy and,
if it has not power to do it, then say our
Government is no Government, but sham.
I therefore, on every proper OCCASION, adyo-
Gated and justified the Ku-Klux act hold it
especially desirable for the South and, If it
does not prove strong enough to effect its pur-
pose, hope it will be made stronger and strong
er. Applause. :.
WHY, fellow-citizens, these very men that
asked me if I saw any -Klux-these very
men have themselves read the returns of the
election in Louisiana, when that State, with 30
600 Black majority on its registers, was made
to vote for Seymour and Blair by more than
30 900 majority; counties which had 5000 ne
gro voters alone giving three, two, one, and in
several instances no votes all, for Grant and
Colfax. Now, friends, you and they know per-
fectly we'll that this result was secured by ter
rot and by violence, by telling those Black
men, 'rYou shall vote for Seymour and Blair,
the enemies of your fundamental rights, or you
shall not vote at all, or yol shall be killed"
That was the way Louisiana was made Demo
cratic in 1865; and that is the way that trust
she will never be made to vote again. There
fore uphold and justify the Ku-Klux law.
Fellow-citizens, the Ku-Klux are no myth, al
though they shroud themselves in darkness.
They are not fitting ghosts, they are bane,
full reality They have paralyzed the Right of
suffrage in many counties throughout the South
and have carried States that they ought not to
have carried but they are not the only ene-
mics to Republican ascendancy in the South.
THE THIEvING CARPET-BAGGERs.
There is another influence equally injurious
with theirs, and great deal more detrimental
to tho fame and character of the Republican
party. I allude to what are known as the
atheiving carpet-baggers." [Applause.] Eel
low Citizens, do not mistake me. ALI the
Northern men in the South arc not thieves:
The larger part of them are honest and good
men, some of whom stay there at the peril OF
their lives, because they believe IL to be their
duty. Next to the noble and true women, who
have gone down South to teach Black children
how to read-nobler there are not on earth than
these, whom stupid, malignant, dilapidated
aristoctacy often sees tit to crowd into negro
novels to live; not allowing them to enter any
white society because they are teaching negro
children-next to these, who rank as the no.
blcst women in the South, are the honest and
worthy Northern men, who iii the face of So
cial prescription and general obloquy and scorn,
stand firmly by the Republican cause:
The public is often heedlessly unjust. Let a
Government have 10000 official subordinates
in mower. of whom $500 are honest and true
men who do their duty faithfully, while hardly
100 are robbers and swinGlers, tho public will
hear great deal more about the LOO robbers
than about the $500 true men. The 100 stand
out in the public eye-they are alw ys doing
something which exposes them to tn, scornful
gaze of the multitude-while the honest and
true men pass along silent and unobserved, and
nothing is said, very little is thought of them.
All attention is concentrated upon the 100, who
are dcfaulting and stealing, and forging, and
running away.
Well gentlemen, the thieving carpet-baggers
are mounful fact; they do exist there, and I
have seen them. Laughter. They are fel.
lows who crawled down South in the track of
our armies, generally very safe distance IN
the rear some of them on suffers wagons
some bear cotton permits; some of them look
inc sharply to see what may turn up; and they
remain rem there. They at once ingratiated them
selves with the blacks, simple, creduleus, igno-
ra rant tn men, very glad to welcome and to follow
any whites who professed TO be the champions
of their rights. Some of these got elected
Senators, others Representatives, some Sherifs,
some Judges, and so on. And there there they
stand, right in the public eye, stealing and
plundering, many of them with both arms
around negroes, and their hands in their rear
pockets, seeing if they cannot pick a paltry
dollar out of them and the public looks at
them, does not regard the honest Northern
men, but calls every 'carpet-basger"' a thief,
which is not the truth by, good deal; But