The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1872-02-01
Thoughts that Breathe and Words
that Burn.

Thoughts that Breathe and Words
that Burn.
Hon. ID. W. Voorhees,, Of Indiana, was
n member Of the Congressional KukluX
Committee appointed to investigate the
condition Of the South. In recent dc.
bate in the House he delivered n most
eloquent and iorcblc speech, the facts
set forth in which cannot fail to arrest
the attention OF the country. We have
room only for an extract Referring
particularly to the charge that an organ.
izaiion Of the kind existed in the South,
the honorable gentleman said:
1t is true there have been crimes there,
crimes that have made my blood boil
with Indignation when ! heard their
recital. But wacn | traced them back
to their causes found simrly bad gov
ernmcnts making bad citizens. You
made the governments and the conse-
quenccs belong to YOU. When did OPP.
prcssive and corrupt governments fail
to begct lawlcssmcss and crime? If
YOU expect to gain votes by these ,ucs
in the coming campaign, YOU may lay
aside the delusion 1t will not be so,
While you will prove that individual
Ollcnses have been committed, that in
some instances the courts have been
parayzed and not done their duty,
while you will prove midnight scourg-
ings and whippings, and outrages OF
that kind, all of which dcnounce and
abhor, yet You will find at the same
time that by your policy and your sys-
TEN yon had all the powers OF govern
lncnt under your control. YOU had the
courts, in which your judges could not
take a seat upon the bench without tax
ing your tcst.oalh. and in which all the
officials had to join him. The jurors
belong to YOU. and all the officers of the
courts were under your control.
You will find that instead Of their rs.
sisiing to execute the laws of the coun-
try, in many instances they stood in the
way Of their just administration. You
will find, in the case of the Governor of
Georgia, that out Of four hundred and
torty-siX applications for pardon he
granted perhaps three hundred and iif-
ty less than one hundred applications
were denicl. Pardons were granted in
many instances before trial. lie armed
criminals with pardons in advance, that
they might 90 into court and plead them
at the bar and return free, again to prey
upon society. The people of the coun-
try will find in these reasons which |
have given powerful excuses for the
evils and riots and crimes that have
prevailed, ] am sorry to say, in some
sections of the South.
More than that, YOU will find taxation,
the worst curse Of government that
comes upon mankind; you will find
taxation, which is u scourgc and bur-
den even when it is laid by u good gov
eminent and laid ightcously-you
vii. find it there in the most nagiti0us,
corrupt, and devouring forms that the
world cvcrsaw, You will frd that the
fat cattle, well fleshcd and favored,
have been eaten up by the lean and poor
kline. You will find the land swept of
every green thing. Let gentlemen from
the Southern states say what they will
to uphold their State credit. vet almost
from the Potomac here to the Rio
Graude. State bankruptcy universally
prevails at this hour. You may perhaps
except Virginia, but when YOU strike the
North Carolinas and Georgia. and little
Florida, and turn your attention to the
ruined States of Louisiana. Texas, and
elsewhere, Won behold them living and
breathing upon the Indulgence of their
creditors, who have not vet forced them
into absolute bankruptcy. Their ina
biity to meet their liabilities is well
known in financial quarters, and they
are now in many instances issuing new
bonds to pay the interest upon their
bonds already due. This tells the whole
story, and proclairns that form Of repu-
diation which arises not from dishon-
cs,y, but from abjcrt poverty and ruin.
And all this has been the work of only
six years and half of your party as
tendency.
Why. sir, Georgia had no debt when
the war broke out. Eleven years ago,
Mr.. Speaker, when yon and | first met.
she owed nothing. Under the old re-
g'me shareholders may have governed
her; robbers ofother peoples labor. in
the language of the day, may have held
sway; but they dit not steal the public
money. They doubtless had their
Irailtics, in common with all mankind
But from the days of the Revolution,
until the bitter and black cloud OF war
fell upon the land, Georgia was so
governed that she had no debt; she
owed no man anything. And when she
emerged from the fiery conflict of war
when the rebellion clOsed-if she had
contracted any debt during the DAYS of
the Coniederacy. it was wiped out at the