The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1871-04-13
TIE KUKLUX SHAM.
A Republican Itebulte Of Radical
UsurpatiOn.

From Don Piatt's letter to the Cincinnati
COMMERCIAL
Congress is detained here tor the
purpose Of further lcgislating for the
South. There Is not n solitary man
who is acting in good faith about CHI
business, and our owu people cannot
look each other in the face, while talk
ing about Southern ou.ragcs and the
necessary legislation, without laughing,
One of the most singular things to
me in this connection is tue strange
ignorance existing as to the real con
dition of the South. There is an adj
mlrablc sense Of fair play in the Amer
lean Stature, and if the facts could be
known | doubt very much whether
KukluX organizations would he 50 un
popular AS they are. In this recon.
struc,ion Of ours every solitary South
ern State with the exception OF Mis-
sissippi,) has passed into the hands Of
the men who have fairly swamped it
for their " private benefit. The
treasury is empty, but their pockets are
full, and in addition tn that they have
crowded on a hopeless mass Of lndebt
edncss.
This is the financial condition; the
political is yet worse, Ignorant ne
grocs, but lately slaves and yet semi
barbarians, are actually the officials OF
the country, while the cultivated white
element, heretofore the governing ele-
mcnt of the South, is entirely ruled
out. Socially the situation is, if any
thing, worse. Our worthy Commits
sioncrs and their crowd Of correspond.
ents refused to eat dinner upon a Poto-
mac steamer the other day because
Fred Douglas was not allowed to sit
down with then. The fact is, ! believe
that the hungry quill drivers had made
up their minds to retain their very ex.
%cel!ent appetitcs until they reached
Washington, but it was well enough to
demonstrate their principles. A gen,
tleman from South Carolina, an old
free soil abolitionist, Republican and q
soldier, born in Connecticut, described
to ms last night, at a dinner party,
reception that he witnessed at the Elk
e|cutive mansion, given by Governfl
Scott. Two-thirds Of those present,
in the brilliantly lighted aud decorated
rooms, were negroes, male and female,
and, mixing with these was about the
lowest white element possible to be
collected together
Negro men were gallanting white
women to and fro, and the white men
returned the compliment by ~gallantly
escorting the daughters of Africa.
Tables were set tor the refresh nent OF
the guests with the choicest wincp and
the best Havana cigars, and these the
ColOrcd men partoOk OF, generally
sticking one in their mouth and smo.
king in the face Of the company while
putting handSful in their pockets
All this is paid for out Of the State
Treasury, and thciving is as open and
mscruptlous (thongi, not quite so
extensive or on so large y scale) as in
Washington city itself. Bat II col
ored friends are apt schOlors in that
! direction, and the man who was sent
to the Legislature from the fields OF
the plantation, and could be bought
for three dollars and thirty. seven and
one-half cents, now demands as many
thousand and the only limit there is
to the theft may be found IN the fact
that nothing more has been left to
steal, The State is bankrupt. The
condition of Mexico and the greater
part 0fSouth America, upon which we
have looked with SO much commiser
alton, and generally contempt, has
been realized in these Southern States.
There is no political morality, no sta
bility, no constitutional rights aud no
social decency left, and yet Congress
sits here day after day lesislating for
u process by which the President a
march an army down and enforce and
perpetrate this sort OF thing upon these
wrctchsd people. An appeal, made to
the sense Of fair play, as l have said
before. at the North, with all the facts
fairly stated, would have its results,
and not only the Democratic party,
but what is left of the deccncy of the
Republican organization, would rise
up in wrath and put down this sort of
despotism.
The Portsmouth States and Union,
with other good things, has this to say
giving something Of an idea why all
these things are thus in slaid and sober