New-York tribune., 1871-05-01

fspp1fS
senate are ) Republicans and 5 " Democrats
with vacancies. The seats OF 4 " Democrats"
in the House will probably be contested There
is q grand chance here for some easy kepuph-
can to sell ont, but the awful Fate OF Nlnans
in this State viii perhaps operate as u warn
inc against such trcachcry. A political traitor
in Ncy-Hampshiie would he likely to have a
hard time OF it, and get precious little money
after all. "
KUKLUX LEGISLATION-ITS ASSAILAN1S
AND THEIR PR0IOTYPES.
But for, the Republican varnish wo,n by Ger
tain venomous tTaducers of the recent act Oh
Congress- icvoIed at the Ku-Klux conspirators
and assassins, we should not interpose word
of vindication The heartily loyal ana ntelli-
gent can need none. The act in Question JUS
flies itself to every one who heartily upholdS
the Equal Rights guaranteed 10y the later
Amendments to the Federal Constitution. 1t
is now thc Fundamental law of The land that
q mars color or race, however unpopular or
desJiscd, shall be no bar to the enjoy
mcnt of every political aud civil right en-
i0yed by any citizen. very large ana
powerful minority of the American People
detest this and would gladly subvcrt it. To
secure this end. even ImBcrfcctly, they
Tcust achieve power. But if every legal voter
! exercises his Right of Suffrage unawcd and
untrammeed, this cannot he. 1t is absolutely
indispensable TO the triumph of what is called
Democracy that a considerable portion OF the
| Rcpubliaans of the late Slave States shall
either be constrained To vote against their own
convictions and aspirations, or deferred from
voting at all. This fact gives existence
and impulse TO the Ku-khX conspiracy.
| The cLief object of that conspiracy is the
incitemcnt of such alarm and terror among the
| Blacks of The South that a large portion OF
| them shall not dare TO vote, aud some he con-
| strained even to vote for Their implacable enc
mics and OpprcssOrs. Hence the Ku-klux 0at1s
and ceremonies all point to the rcGstablish-
ment OF ga White Mans Government" Just
as "the Rights of the South" In the Terri
tories were the watckword OF " he knights of
"the Golden Circle" and kindred conclaves in
18JG-60, so the mdefcasible right of Whites
| to give law to Blacks is the basis Of the
| diverse but kindred sec9et organizations which
now distract the South. OF course, they all
detest "carpet- baggcrs" Repubcan immi-
grants from the North or Wes) and "scala-
"wags" (Southern White Republicans, since
these are known or presumed to incite and
lead the Blacks i'll their opposition to their
own Acknowledgement and degradation; but
they are less apt to attack these,
because midnight forays on the Blacks
are at once safer and more efficient
The Blacks mainly live in cabins easily
broken into; their huts are scattered
over wide and partly wooded plantations; few
of them possess arms, while still fewer arr
adopts in their use; and thousand may
he terrified into impotence by whipping a
dozen and killing two or three. Georgia and
Louisiana were made to vote against Grant
and Colfax in '68 by violence and terrorism !;
North Carolina and Alabama were last year
carried Democratic by kindred performances;
and it is calculated that most Of the lately
Rebel States may be so carried in 1872 at the
cost Of not more than ten thousand midnight
whippings and two or three hundred lives
That this is in essence rebellion as well as
| conspiracy, and a very cOwardly, sneakiDg re-
! beliOn at that, every truly loyal heart must
| feel. IF it is permitted to succeed, then Negro
Enfranchisement was base treacheIy and cru
city. Remember how Andrew johnson, in the
early days of his apOstasy, used to proclaim
| Gn eflecD that the Blacks ought not to be
| DNNiuct, IL thNg oh''iu W. 'h'
Whites would Kill them. The Ku-Klux are
working hard to fulfill this baleful prophecy;
the Republicans in Congress are endeavoring
to defeat them. He who says, 81 stand up FOR
Impartial Suffrage, but am opposed to the
"Ku-Klux act Of Congress" holds like ground
with the old Public Functionary and his
henchman, Jerry Black, when they gravely
argued to the country that though States had
10 right to secede, yet, if they wOuId do so,
there was no rightful power to prevent them.
Ii is hard to exercise due patience in con-
templating such logic. If Congress has no
power to enforce the XlVth and XVIII
Amendments to the Federal Constitution, then
they should never have been passed nor rat
fled If it has that power (and the affirm
ative of this proposition is expressed in the
very words of those Amcndments,) then there
! is 10 more to be said. Congress has tried to
do what the Constitution expressly requires
we apprehend that its measure viii prove in
adequate, because of the intTin.,c difficulty
of the problem; but it has acted according to
the best light vOuchsafed it, and will here
after tighten the hooks and clench the nails
as experience shall dictate
AS TO the violence which the Ku-Klur oct j.
alleged to have done the Constitution. tbo
charge is plausible or absurd according os vou
do or do not recognize the three anti-Saverv
Amendments as integral parts of that Consti.
tuition. From Toombs, John Forsyth or JEFF.
Davis, the charge seems in character: from q
professcd Republican, it strikes lis as a self
exposed absurdiy. George Washington, when
the Constitution was scarcely six years old,
was confronted by quasi rebellion in Western
pnnnsulrnnin funded in rOnnlar hate nf tLn