Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-03-02
RADICAL DISREGARD OF-THE
RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE.

10y w NNAS 6hse-- - 49, =
trial of Gov. Holden, of North Carolina,
indicates an enormitysof1 eruelty which Is
q disgrace 70 ecivilizatien,, and # these
outrages had beenapracticed by Demo-
cratic officials, they would have been
seized upon as sufficient grounds for, the
reconstruction of the State. For Instance, !
tying, VmanscIing, knocking down, shoot
ing ST, imprisoning, hanging by the neck,
pulipgu up and pulling fdowns and then
pulling up again, were the practices re-
sorted to by the officers Of the tloyal"
militia to force citizens of ,Alsmance and
Casswelf counties to confess TO crimes of
which they were not guilty orto impli-
cate their neighborss in1the commission of
crimes. v1uclen nj. Murray testihes 70
having suffered This sort of treatn emit. in
fiicted by Bergen who said, as testified
to by all the witnesses, that he was acting
under the orders of Gov. Holden. VIM.
Patton testified to having been hung up
by the neck. A pistol was put TO his head
and threats made to shoot him if be did
notTell who killed Outlaw oHe was
brought to Raleigh and made comics
sion that he might be relieved. George
Rogers testified that he was hung up three
several times by the neck. The Ku-Klux
could scarcely have been guilty of
greater loutrages than are established
by these witnesses, and yet Grant and
the Radical party sustain Holden and his
gang of cut-throats in what they did.
This is specimen of the fairness and
honesty of the Radical leaders. They
are content that their tools shall harrass
and annoy the people of the South-that
they shalt manacle, knock down, shoot ST,
impIison and hang until nearly dead,
citizens of the Southern States who are
not Radicals: but if these citizens and
their friends should resist and protect
themselves, then they are lawless and de-
fy the officers of the Government; or if
a negro should report that he had been
threatened or badly treated, why the
people are at once pronounced Ku Klux,
who should be visited with the severest
rigors of the law. If the laws of any
| State had been set at defiance by Demo-
cratic officials, and the lives and property
of the citizens put IN jeopardy,
as they have been IN North Car
DINA by Gov Holden, Grant
and his myrmidons would not have waited
! for MOrton's outrage committee TO hunt
up isolsted cases of feuds between citizens
and magnify them INTO outrages of grave
import, that Congress might have some
pretext, at least in Radical estimation, foI
interfering with State authority. The
work would have been done in hot haste,
and military rule would soon have beer
| the Orler.
In this connection, it may be stated
that the New York Times has an article
on Undiscovered Crimes, in which il
comedies that there is no cause for The
"pharisaical line of thought" by which
people in the North, when stories Of
Southern outrages are reported IN the pa
pers, are apt TO congratulate themselve
upon their superiority to their brethren a
distance The police officers and judge
of the criminal courts in the large cite
could give evidence enough on this sub
ject Yet Congress seems to consider tn
organized tribunals and officers of justic
in the Southern States incompetent TO dea
with crime in this section, and propose
to intervene with federal authority, thu
not only overriding State functions, bu
by such legislation as that contemplate,
in the enforcement bill and in the Ku
Klux act increasing the temptations f
crime by the facility with which subordi
nate officials may perpetrate outrages il
the pretended performance of duty, wit
no responsibility to State courts, and tn
prospect of being leniently dealt with b.
the federal authorities, if indeed any NO
tice at all is taken of their offenses.