New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-06-24
KNOB NOTHING KUKLUX.

KNOW-HOTHING KU-KLUX
Gen. Napoleon Bonaparte Forrest has felt
called upon TO unbOsom himself TO a news
paper correspondent at Washington on the
subject Of the Ku-Klux, which he exhausts as
promptly as the apOcryphal geographer did
his catalogue of the snakes in Iceland. Mr.
Forrest says that there are no Ku-Klux in the
South. He says if there were any he is just the
sort of man that would know all about it, and
would, doubtless, take hand in any game of
tho kind that was going on. He says that
the negroes and Northern men re very irri-
tating and, of course, are sometimes killed,
but always in q fOrbearing and heightened
manner; that if Northern people would be-
have themselves and keep out of politics they
would not DO molested in the South.
1t is instructive, at q moment when great
Government across the ocean is taking so
bloody vengeance upon its rebels, to observe
the entire Inconsistencies of guilt and the
insolent attitude towards the victorious nation
displayed by our beaten and convicted traitors.
BY all the rules of civilized warfare, ard by
the law of the land, Mr.. Forrest has no right
to the head out of which these braZen
falsehOOds issue. He is not credible witness
on any case of treason or negr0-killIng ;
and if, as reported, Committee of Congress
has sent for him to give evidence in these
matters, the Committee has been led thought
lessly into grave error. He knows as much
in regard to these subjects as any one else, but
he has schooled himself so thoroughly in trea-
sonabe practices and habits of thought, that if
he has any convictions of duty they would teach
him to conceal the truth and assert its oppo-
site in any dealings with the Government OF
the United States.
1t is only when you come to men of the low
grade of intellect and character represented by
this man, that you find sufficient ignorance
and sufficient effrontery to boldly meet the
whole question by denial of all the facts.
They thus save themselves the cumbrous ma
chnery adopted by those who, not having
this cheek of bronze, are forced to palli-
ate or justify the KuKlux outrages, or
to argue in favor of their regulation by State
authority or their punishment by State Courts.
Without creditng Mr. Forrest with much
capacity for observation. it Is not possible
that he does not know that there is Ku-
Klux organization in the South and that out
RACES by them are of frequent occur
and journals which do not believe a
word of what he says give currency to
it nevertheless and strive to deceive their
public on matter of great importance to the
general welfare. Fortunately, they cannot
succeed in doing any special harm. They have
no character to sustain their words. If there
were no evidence to the contrary, thing
asserted by men like Forrest and papers like The
World would create no impression on the minds
of men of ordinary intelligence. But in this case
they are fatty contradicted not only by
cloud of reputable witnesses who have seen or
suffered these outrages, but also by the cor
respondence of The World on days when the
editing has been careless, by men like John
G.. Breckenridge, who denounced the Ku-klux
in open court, by the Governors of half a
dozen States, and by the Judges of Circuit
Courts.
We are also given by telegraph the import
ant information that the Editor of The Mont
gomery State Journal considers himself safe in
person and property. But, like his fellow
eptmist, Forrest, he clearly intimates that low
demagogues (Which in the South means
people who do not agree with you)
are not safe, and ought not to
be. Judging from the tone of this paper, it is
not very creditable to the taste of the citizens
that, in a country where killing is so fashiona-
Bile, this Editor should have survived so long.
In all these so-called denials there is a hint
of the truth. They say no man is in danger as
long as he behaves himself. AS the extreme limit
of misbehavior in the eyes a Southern rufiian
is reached when you differ from him in politics,
the degree of safety indicated by these COM
forting assurances is about equal to that
described by Mississippi captain, of whom
DR.. Russell asked if travelling was not danger
Gus on the river.
mot a mite of danger" said the candid
mariner, "only you've got to be spry with
"your weepins."