The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-03-31
Debate on the xu-KIux BIZ.

The debate on Shellabargers bill il
| going on in the House. The following i.
from yesterdays Chronicle
Mr.. Hoar said, from many States, In every
issue OF the press, and in every pulsation Of
the telegraph, come complaints that large
number OF our fellow. citizens are deprived ol
the rights of citizenship; that their lives and
property DO not secure the protection of the
law; that their homes are not safe; that they
| are in imminent danger of death and torture
worse than death. If anything could add
| gravely to these representations it was the
TACT that these citizens so outraged, murdered,
or outlawed, suffer because of their attachment
to the country, their loyalty to the flag or be-
cause their,opinions on public questions coin
eide with those of the majority of the Ameri.
can people.
The great and leading purpose Of the franz
ers OF our constitution was to place the funda-
mental civil rights of the people under the pro-
lection OF the strongest and sublmest power
known to our laws, namely, the General Gov
ernment. While we leave local power to
State governments, this does not impair or i'm
peril the right and duty of our protecting the
fundamental human rights of the people. The
Declaration of Independence was the sublime
interpreter of the constitution. Over every
line that Declaration shed its blazing light.
The power of the executive, the judiciary, and
the legislature was conferred only to secure
those rights. This principle, however, was
long anterior to the constitution and the De.
claration of Independence. 1t was embodied
In Magma Charta. For seventy years there
were but two instances where there was d.
rect exercise of the national authority in the
interest of despotism-the one BY the fugitive
slave law, the other by President Buchanan.
VINO sought to force proslavery constitution
on the people of Kansas. Both were signal
failures, short lived, and impotent, which
reused the indignation of the nation, bringing
ABOUT s In the end the destruction of slavery.
This part OF history Mr.. Hoar contrasted with
the frequent resistance of certain States to the
general government.
Mr.. Whitthorne Ia member of the commits
tee) said 1t was not true that there is in the
South an organized opposition to the constitu-
tion and laws of the United States There
were, however, local disturbances, threatening
danger to life and property, which, of course,
ne did not justify. The people of the South |
had been aggravated by the peculiar condition |
OF OF society, the result Of the war, which, like |
the %, Hood, left its drift and scum as deposits.
Inc secret societies were personal, not political. |
Iney were deemed necessity by some of the |
@hite race to protect themselves against orr
{anized bands of armed negroes. Turning to
me bill, he argued il was violation of the
constitution, revolutionary iu its purposes.
tfiklng down State governments, changing
he form of the general government, and con-
oildating all power in one head, to the de-
truction of civil liberty.
Mr.. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, said this state
# things in the South is to be attributed to the
ystem of slavery, which denied wages to
aoor, and robbed capital of itsreward. After
peaking OF the dangers to which Republicans
re subject in the South, he said he and his
rlends contemplated no retracing of their
tePs they meant to go right onward, under
tod, till they had given full force and power
D every. provision of the American constitution
nd embodied, not only in law, but in the
ally habits OF the people, the great prophecy
lade in the Declaration of Independence,
ntil every man within our broad limits is free
the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness
le admitted that there might be some sections I
the South where good order prevails. but
here is not general domestic tranquility in
lat part of the country. q
The bill under consideration proposed to
1force obedience to the laws. 1t proposed no a
ore than he would desire for his own State.
proposed to do no more than Congress- did
hen some of the citizens of Pennsylvania re. q
sted the nited States laws, and when Wash.
gton marched his troops into that State and
stored order. Pennsylvania found none of
sr rights invaded. When lawless men be. II
me stronger than the State it is the duty of
{, government to step in and restore peace I
I'd order. T
Mr.. Eldridge-I understand you to deny the
sertions OF Southern men as to the condition
that part of the country. should like the 81
'ntleman to tell what, in his judgment, is the IL
use OF such things as he says exists--whether ct
is not the fact Of the legislation of Congress %
ID the course pursued by the general govern .. >.
snt toward the people of the Southern States ~ ~
pugnant to their nature. tt
Mr Aelley.-l decline to yield for a speech. b,
attribute it, as did the outbreak of the re- ar
lion, to the Southern people being misled \,
the Democracy of the North, in the belief "
at the cowardly people of the North would
quiesce, and there would be no war. l at
butte the present state of things to these SYM -.
thetic speeches of the Northern Democrats, VI
the support of Democratic presses Those
10 argue that there is no power to suppress Sc
'se great wrongs are Kissing ths lawless tn
nds on to slaughter. ps
Mr.. Eidridge said the gentleman had not Z,
swered his question. A.
hr. Kelley repeated that we are in war, and
ID from the testimony of the Senate select
nmittee on Southern outrages to chow the
ent of lawless combinations. th