Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-04-23

! adjutant general under department
commanders in our army, and from
i the afiidavits OF 600mea who belonged
to the Ku-KluX, but who afterwaro
/ lett it, and from various other sources
he had, as Governor, ascertained to 9
positive certainty that in Arkansas
/ alone the Ku.KluX had nnmered 30,
/ 600 members, and the Democrats Of Ar
kansas to-day dare not deny that so
/ powerful was this organization that
the civil authority in both counties OF
/ the State had been utterly paralyZed,
! and in every portion of it very much
I impaired. Nor was it until he adopted
I the last desperate resort of martial
law, and had placed in the field a
standing force Of over two thousand
men, and caused the arrest and trial
! by military commission Of several
members Of the clan aiterward
CONVICTED AND EXECUTED
that this reasonable organization was
suppressed in Arkansas. Cheers. ]
He had no hesitation in saying that
the adoption Of the lukeWarm and
tempOrizing course that had charac-
terized the administration Of some of
the other Southern States would have
resulted in the utter destruction of the
State government, the sacrifice of hum
dreds of innocent lives, and would
eventually demand the intervention
of the Federal authorities. He regret
ted that the most rigid and summary
measures had not been adopted in
every Southern State to crush out in
its incipiency the wicked Organiza-
ton. But because through a mistaken
place, or in some instances a want OF
moral courage to brave the vitupera-
ton, perhaps because in some cases of
a sympathy by the authorities with
the organization itself, such decided
policy hsd not been adopted, did it
follow that our arms were to be folded,
that we were to stand cOmpiacently
by, while the citizens of the republic,
its defenders and allies in the hour of
its greatest peril, were daily offered as
HUMAN SACRIFICES
to appease the cravings Of this insati-
ate Ku-KluK monster, or were they TO
be restrained T'NO! mol" Cheers
from the exercise of a plain and i'm
perative duty, because for both the
Northern Democracy, sympathizing
as they do with their Southern allies,
saw fit to resort to their old subteT-
fuge of raising Constitutional Objec-
/ tiOns? To have followed the COnsti-
tuition es the Democracy interpreted
it, would have left no national eX-
! istenCe to have preserved, no COnsti-
| tuition to have Obeyed. From the
/ commencement of the war Waged
against the Constitution and for its
destruction, up to the present hour,
| the Republican party had been met
/ at every step by most persistent OppO-
sitiOp of the Democracy, who had
/ from the stump, the pulpit, in Legis-
lative halls and by the press, thun-
/ dered in our ears,s
"THE CONSTITUTION! THE CONsTI-
TUTIoN!"
| Laughter and cheers And one
| would suppose to hear those Demo
/ eric orators declaim that the COnsti-
/ tuition has been torn into millions of
/ infinitissimal fragments and scattered
/ by Radical hands to the four winds of
heaven; but upon examination it was
found that that venerable document
was in a tOlerably fair state of preser-
y
improved by the new provisions that
| had been engrafted on it. The aston
| ishing facility with which the DemOc-
/ racy quoted the Constitution, pre-
cisely as the Evil One is said to allude
to the Holy Scriptores- cheers lis
| only equaled by the ease with which,
when hard pressed, they change their
DEFENSE OF THE KU-KLUX.
In one breath they say the Ku-Klux
is a myth--d mere bugabOo, invented
by frolicsome boys to alright idle
negroes; in the next they acknowledge
that the organization is unlawful, but
assert that it is composed of Radicals
/ in disguise. In this connection, how
| ever, they do not explain the fact that
| none but Radicals are its victims
! Tcheers and then when the evidence
! is indisputable and too strong to be
cOntrOveTted, they, attribute the
! whole thing to the Radical rascality
/ and maladministratiOn of what they
/ style the "carpet-bag'' government OF
! the South. But he had yet to learn,
and he would be glad if some Demo.
crat would enlighten him on thai
point, why it was the
KUK KLUX KLAN FLOURIsHED
with such remarkable vigor in the
/ Democratic State of Kentucky, where
the Democracy had had the admins
| tratiOn of the affairs since the close o
| the war. Cheers. He declared thai
/ the facts justified his assertions thai
/ the Ku Klux Klan was nothing more
/ nor less than the military arm Of the
| Democratic party in the South, organ
lied for the sole purpose Of driving
! therefrOm Northern Republicans who
had come there to settle, and for the
! purpose of intimidating the cOlOred
citizens, and preventing them from
] exercising the right Of suffrage con
/ ferred on them by the Federal COnsti
I tuition. For that purpose, to his
own knowledge, had the Klan been
/ used in Arkansas during the last Pres
] idential campaign, and he verify be-
| lieved it would be used throughout
THE SOUTH IN THE CONTEST OF 1872
if the heel of the law were not put
upon it. The question was, would
! this condition of affairs be permitted
to cOntinue-WOuld impenitent rebels
! be allowed to trample the COnstitu.
| ton under foot and set laws at de-
6ance-Would we fold our arms, shut
! our eyes and close our ears, too, while
! American citizens, almost within sight
! Of the CapitOPs dome, are being sub
! iected to the most cruel oppression
! that has ever caused humanity to
weep? re- No! mo-" cheers If pro.
| lection could not be obtained under
] such circumstances, then, indeed, was
/ our Government a failure. If these
murderers and assassins could
not be reached by the strong
| arm of the law, then ought
the temple Of justice to be closed al
/ once, and if there was no hell here
after for the punishment of these
fiends in human shape, who glOated
in the misery Of the poor and defense.
| less, he believed that that warm in
stitution ought to be abolished and
THE DEVIL HIMSELF MUSTERED OUT
OF SERVICE.
! 1Cheers and laughter But he rej0ices
! that the Republican party, which had
/ Just conquered the rebellion and main
/ tanned the nation intact, which hao
/ made the Constitution conform
to the principles Of the Decla.
ration OF Independence, which
had proved itself to be the friend o
the dOwntrodden and the oppressed
still exists, full Of vigor and equal e
every emergency. He was thankful
that the incumbent Of the Executive
chair was a man who knew the right
and knowing, was prepared to dis
charge ifs requirements. When VIZ
have clothed him with the necessary
power, as by this Ku-Klux bill we in
tend to do, the people might rest as
sured that General Grant would be a,
successful in putting down this second
| rohaIllon IS he haa haan In snnnrass