The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1871-04-13
HoYT & CO., Proprietors.
Senator Blair on the Danger to the Country
of the Proposed Ku Klnx Legislation.
WAsnlxeroN Anril 8

Senator Blair on the Danger to- the Country
of the Proposed Ku KInx Legislation.
WASHINGTON, April 8.
In the Senate to-day, after the transaction OF
some unimportant business, debate was resumed
ON Mr. Sherman's resolution calling on the Ju-
dietary Committee to report a bill for the sup
preston of the Ku Klux. -..
Mr.. Blair (Dem., No. quoted from the de-
bates in Congress, when the Fourteenth Amend
ment was under consideration, to show the
construction placed upon it by its authors and
supporters, and held that 1t was plainly LAID
down at the time, that the only power OF legls-
lation which Congress had under 1t was to pre-
vent any violation of its provisions under color
of State law The measure which it was now
proposed to pass was an assumption OF tne
power of Congress to punish violations of State
law. The dangerous power which is now to be
assumed by Congress may, and doubtless will,
be exercised at some future day, by some other
party upon wealthy communities i'll the North.
The design now of this legislation was to carry
out the designs of that remorseless set OF scoun,
drels, the carpet-baggers, and their alders ana
abettors, and to continue General Grant per
petuallv in power The Republicans did not
seem altogether united on this subject; they
had had great deal of caucussing IN the mat
ter, and although majority had agreed, the
minority were not inclined to follow them until
the mandate of the President was sent in, and
then The new crusade against the South was
resolved upon. If he Mr.. Blair was only ac-
tuated by partisan motives, he might be glad 70
see these reconstruction usurpations continued
in the vain hope of controlling the political
power Of the South for political purposes. 1t
was very easy, of course, for the men whom
the South had repudiated to manufacture sto-
ries of outrages to further their efforts to get
back into power. The system of government
under which the South is ruled is the disgrace
of our age. This carpet-bag system is perfectly
infamous, by which strangers, adventures, men
Of no character, are ruling over the people
whose ancestors made these States what they
are. 1t is to the interest of the people of these
the property and pay the taxes; but it is the
interest of these carpet-baggers to manufacture
and magnify them, because it is that upon
which they fatten. The prospects of the Rad
ical party were SO alarming that something
must be done The people were clamoring for
revenue reform; for reduction of the taxes
by which millions were wrung from them for
the benefit of plunderers. They were searching
very closely into the corruptions and venality
of the Radical party The rank and file were
falling away from it, and something desperate
must be resorted to to save-it. The Radical
gong was sounded of outrage and murder,
crime and disorder, excelling in falsehood and
malignity those which had preceded them
There were no allegations against Virginia OF
Ku Klux disorders, although that State had
been able to free herself of those obscure birds
of prey, the carpet-baggers. Why was the
crusade. made against North Carolina9 Simply
because she had succeeded in throwing off the
rule of the carpet-baggers and had returned to
the principles of free government. These sto-
ries of outrages in North Carolina, which had
been related before the committee with closed
doors, with no opportunity for refutation, were
the utterances of men who would not be be-
Iieyed by any one. Out of the mouth of Gov
ernor Holden himself was these falscdoods ex-
posed. In his message to the Legislature,
Governor Holden said distinctly that no dsor-
ders existed in North Carolina. Alluding to
the reconstruction acts, Mr.. Blair said that
whenever the Supreme Court had any opportu-
nifty to pass upon any question connected with
them, it had Invariably pronounced them un-
constitutional, and Congress, knowing they
were unconstitutional, passed an act to prevent
the Supreme Court from passing directly upon
its reconstructed measures. He said the Dem
ocratic party, while it believed these acts to be
unconstitutional, did not, as they had been
charged, intend to overthrow them by force
The only measures to which the Democratic
marty would resort were constitutional meas
Mr.. Scott (Rad, Pa) here interposed and
quoted from the "Broadhead letter" Of Mr..
blair. that the President elect should disperse
the carpet bag governments by force.
Mr. Blair said he was not the Democratic
party, and the Democratic party was not Mr..
Blair, and he repeated that the Democratic
party had never threatened to use violent
means to overthrow the unconstitutional acts
of Congress. He (Mr. Blair had believed, and
did believe, that the President, having taken
ON oath to support that constitution, should
stand to that oath, whether against Congress or
AGAINST individuals, for he believed that Con-
cress violating the Constitution was no more
Than mob. He had said that the army should
he made to undo its work of usurpation, and he
he said so now. But no force would be necessary;
for if the army was withdrawn, the infamous
carpet-bag governments would fall of themselves
Mr. Blair then referred to an address alleged to
hgye been issued during the Presidential cam
vass of 1868 to the negroes of North Carolina,
advising them to burn the barns of the people
who discharged them on account of politics,
and which, on the authority of D. r. Goodioe,
he said, had been written by United States
Senator Pool and Judge Read.
Mr. Pool tRad., n. CO. interrupted to say
that the address bore no such construction, and
no sensible man could put such construction
.-fMr. Blair, resuming, said it was so regarded
at the time and the testimony of negro be,
fore the committee showed that the negroes had
confessed that they were instigated to barn
burning BY Governor Holden and then par
doned When convicted. 1t had been indispu-
tably proved that the origin of the loyal leagues
in the South was for the purpose of compelling
the negroes to vote the Radical ticket. These
ignorant, superstitious negroes-the Senator
from Ohio (Mr.. Sherman) called themITere