The New York herald., 1871-03-09


proceedings in the impeachment trial Of Gov
ernor Holden, which throws some light on the
character. materials, organization and savage
atrocities of that mysterious Southern organi-
zation of assassins. the Ku Klux Klan. To
his bold repressive measures against this
secret organization Governor Holden is in
debted for the position in which he stands
to-day as criminal offender against the rights
and liberties of the people of the State He
pushed his measures Of repression so far as to
create widespread reign Of terror and confn-
sion, especially among the poor negroes, from
which the unterrifed democracy, by rousing
majorities, carried the last elections for the
State Legislature; and hence this impeach-
ment Of the Governor and this suggestive testi-
mony in his defence concerning the Ku Klux
| Klan. At the same time it is understood that
Mr. Morton's Ku Klux investigating committee
| of the United States Senate have been sitting
the outrages oil these moss troopers to the
| bottom and have been so much occupied with
them in North Carolina and South Carolina,
that they have only as yet barely touched
upon the labors before them in Georgia, Ala
bama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ar
kansas, Louisiana aud Texas. .....
1t has been broadly limited, however, from
the committee that upon these Ku Klux Klans,
in all the States concerned south and west Of
Virginia, sufficient evidence has been collected
to show that the Southern blacks and North
ern settlers and adventurers in the South
known as ''carpet baggers" are at the mercy
Of these Ku-Klux regulators of Southern
society, law and politics, and that unless
Congress shall provide some remedy against
| the desperadoes of these white vagabondizing
| vigilance committees the Southern blacks
more than ever heretofore, will be frightened
| or driven away from the polls, and that the
Southern elections will thus be completely
under the terrorism of the Ku Klux and their
| democratic allies. Our daily news dispatches
from the South, meantime, indicate anything
| but peace and harmony or security to life and
property in the cotton States, and anything
but submission to reconstruction by the still
unreconstructed State of Kentucky. Only the
other day band Of four or five hundred
armed white men broke into Jail In South
Carolina and took out and carried off into the
woods dozen or more of negro prisoners, and
there promptly disposed Of them by shooting
them. On Tuesday last, at Meridian, Miss,
black desperate shoots the Judge in open
court, whereupon there Is, naturally enough,
| terrible row, which eliminates in the
| shooting of half dozen negroes, and ends
only in the expulsion Of the Mayor from the
town, and with the understanding that he
is never to return. But why this expul-
sion and this understanding For the
objectionable crime to the party expel led, as
it appears, of being, as Northern white
man, elected by negro vot ers Mayor of q
| Southern town. We have reports of such
Southern scenes of violence and bloodshed
almost every day, and if they did not occur in
such variety OF shapes and forms they would,
from their frequent repetition, become as
monotonous as the drunken orgies and brawls
of Saturday night and Sunday morning in the
sums of this city. e..
But what does all this signify? After such
four years war as that of our late Southern
rebellion can it be expected that the people
subdued can quietly adapt themselves in five
years, ten years or twenty years to revolu-
ton which has torn up their political and
social system by the roots? Can it be ex-
pected that the Southern whites, accustomed
| to rule under the constitution as masters, and
| to look upon their blacks as an inferior race
and as slaves by divine authority-can it be
| supposed that because these whites have been
subdued in war they will surrender their con-
victions, prejudices and principles as condi-
| tions of peace? No. In spite of your eman-
cipation DEGREES and civil rights bills, and
| constitutional amendments establishing negro
civil and political equality, the Southern
whites do not believe in this equality, and
| they submit to II as the French submit to the
| loss of their Rhine territories-from necessity,
| aud with the hope Of satisfaction hereafter.
How is this difficulty to be reached by acts of
! Congress, especially when all these Southern
States have been restored as completely to
their local rights in the Union as New York
and New Jersey? What more can Congress
| do with the Ku Klux cutthroats of North
| Carolina than with the roughs of New York
city, now that Southern recons truction is
fnished2
Let US see. The first section of the four
teenth amendment or article of the constitu-
ton ordains that call persons born or natural
lied in the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United
States and of the State wherein they reside;"
that mo State shall make or enforce any law
which shall abridge the privileges or immuni-
ties Of citizens of the United States, nor shall
any State deprive any person of life, liberty or
property without due process Of law, nor deny
to any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws" Very good But
suppose this State, that State and other States
pay no attention to this first section of this
fourteenth article, what then? Why, then the