Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-04-26
A Complete Defence and Noble Reply.

An Intelligent, colored reader Of the
CHRONICLE has called our attention to the
speech of Hon. r. r. Elliott, one of the
colored delegation in Congress from South
Carolina, a portion of which is SO complete
an answer to the following extract of the
| Wing and Register in its issue of Thurs
day last, is as follows :..,tw .-oa
1--WE have no doubt there were men in
| the South who associated themselves to-
gether soon after the war for the protection
| of society, more particularly against the
| ignorant and CIdUlesS blacks. This fwas
| more particularly the case where the
| blacks were in the majority. The most
common offence of the blacks was the vio-
| lation of white woman"
The best reply we can give to the above
is from the mouth Of the eloquent colored
Congressman from the Palmetto State,
who in Congress on the 1st of April said !;
| Now, sir, have presented few of the mani
fold proofs that, did time allow, could at once
| present in support of the facts warranting the
| passage of this bill. have shown the declared
purpose of the kuklux organization, and L re-
fer to the official records of nearly every South
ern State during the past. ten months to show
how that bloody purpose has been in part exc
cuted. This bill will tend in some degree 80
prevent its full achievement.
l do not wish to be understood as speaking
| for the colored man alone when demand in
slant protection for the loyal men of the South
No, sir my demand is not so restricted. In
South Carolina alone, at the last election
| twelve thousand of the working white men in
good faith voted the Republican ticket, openly
arraying themselves on the side of free govern,
rnent This class have discovered that the same
| benefcient system that emancipates the laborer
of the one race secures the freedom of the other
| They understand that the shackle that bound
| the arms of the black man threw deep shadow
| on the path of the laboring white. The white
| Republican of the South is also hunted down
and murdered or scourged for his opinions
| sake, and during the past two years more than
six hundred loyal men of both races have per-
| ished in my State alone.
Yes, sir it is true that these masked murder
ers,strike chiefly at the black race And here
rsay that every Southern gentleman should
blush with shame at this pitiless and cowardly
will yield no obedience to the laws of the land
he should at least respect the claims of common
gratitude. To him / say that the negro, whom
you now term barbarian, unfit for and incap
able of self-government, treated you in the day
of your weakness, with forbearanee and mag
nanimity unknown before in the history of a
servile population In the dark days of the
war, when your strong men were far to- the
front, the negro, with no restraint save his own
self-control, titled your your fields and kept
ed dwellings. He guarded the person of your
wife, the chastity of your daughter, and the
helpless infancy of your children, Nobly sup
pressing the manhood that burned within him,
he learned ito labor and to wait. and exhibit
ed through all his weary years of suffering and
llnrequited toll
i "That calm reliance upon God
For justice in his own good time,
That gentleness to which belongs
L. Forgiveness for its many wrongs
And how do you requite him now? Be it
said to the shame of your boosted ehivalry
among men of honor in every land, simply be-
cause he exercises his privileges as an American
freeman, you would drive. him into exile with
the pitiless lash or doom him to swift murder,
seeking your revenge for political power lost by
moving at midnight along the path of the assas-
sin
Tits the custom, sir, of Democratic journals.
to stigmatize the negroes of the South as being
in semi-barbarous condition; but pray tell
me, who is the barbarian here, the murderer or
his victim l fling back in the teeth of those
who make this most false and foul aspersion
upon the negro of the Southern States. l thank
God that in the darkest chapters IN the history
of my race there's no such record as that uIl-
folded by the dread annals that tell the story
of the long-protracted horrors, of Anderson
Vile. 80 &c 4aAs35 = tsAN LII ~
l trust, sir, that this bill will pass quickly and
be quickly enforced. History teaches us that
the adequate policy is the best In one section
of the Union, crime is stronger than law. MUIR.
der, unabashed, stalks abroad in many of the
Southern States. If you cannot now protect
the loyal men of the South, then have the loyal
people of this great Republic done and suffered
much in vain, and your free Constitution is a
mockery and snare. s,,s ve3 90. zrets
It is recorded that on the entry of Louis
XVIII into Paris after the fall of the great
Napoleon, an old Marshal of the empire who
stood in the vast throng, unknown, was ad
dressed by an ardent Bourbon, who expatiating
on the gorgeous splendors that marked the
scene, exclaimed us not this grand Is it
not magnificent? What is there wanting to the
occasion n IN othing,'' said the war-worn vet,
eran, as his mind wandered over Lodi and
Wagram and Austerlitz, and the hundred other
fields of victory where he struck beneath the
eagles of his now fallen chief. Nothing he
answered with tremulous voice; nothing is
wanting to the occasion but the presence Of the
brave men who died to prevent it.
Such, SIR will be the bitter reflection of all
loyal men in this nation, if the Democratic
party shall triumph in the States of the South
through armed violence.