Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1872-04-19

pardon in the face OF the community, ana
Boosting his immunity from punishment
for future crime. Within Il week he COM
mits another crime, and is in jail within
fortnight Of his former release. He boasts
that he will soon again be free, and assigns
as a reason for his faith that the Governor
will befriend him and all like him. The
friends of his victims WrOnguliy, but hui
manly, determine that he shall not escape .
punishment, and they hang him, where
upon the same cry Of 'Eku-kluX" and ''re-
bellion" is raised. But deputy United
States marshal meets stranger on the
highway, arrests him without warrant, and
without alleging any oflense against him
attempts to take him TO Prison, and when
the prisoner, without any resistance, tries
to run away, he shoots him down, leaves
his body on the roadside, and proceeds Sc
renely about his business. If these things
are told on the streets of your cities the re-
ply is aptto be yawn, a shrug of the
shoulders, and perhaps an inquiry rs to the
price Of Seneca sandstone.
Indeed, it would be exactly in accord
ancc with the policy of this Administration
if each OF these loyal villains shall be pro-
NOTED for his valuable services. Look at
the favors already bestowed on their prede
cessors i'll crime. The late Governor Of
North Carolina, after being inpeached and
removed from office, and after being in
diCtcd III the courts from which he was
fugitive, took refuge here in the bosom Of
the Administration as editor of its organ
Kirk, the cut-throat, whom he imported
from Tennessee to Cypress and outrage his
fellOw-ctiZcns with the bayCnet, a man who
ought to go down to everlasting iniamy for
the murder Of poor, half-witted boy who
knclt pitifulIy to him, and begged for his
life in vain, this Kirk, who also fled from
justice, came here for his reward, and got
it. Bergen, Kinks Lieutenant-COlOnel,a an
other fugitive from justice, was appointed
counsel to PernambucO. The former car
pet-ba1 treasurer Of the city i'll which | live,
and who was Il defaulter in that office, nat
urally gravitated to the Treasury Of the
United States, and was recently promoted
TO the Third Auditors Office, his detalca-
ton being known to the Third Auditor,
and as | have reason TO believe, to the Sec
rotary Of the Treasury also. Ought We not
to expect that the officer who raided into
North Carolina, and the deputy United
States Marshal who Shot down the inOfien-
Sive citizen, will also be promoted:
l could cite numbeIlesS instances Of this
kind, and for each one could find as broad
a contrast. But what would it avail?
am told that the Northern people cannot
be reused by a recital Of these acts Of des-
pOtism III the South; that nothing will
bring them to realization Of the true stu
alton until the armed heel Of the despot
rings before their own doors. If this be
true, can Southern man be expected to
weep when the catastrophe happens? |
think not. If the wrongs and OutrageS and
usurpations practiced on them are matters
of Indifference to their cOuntTymen Of
the North, then are they paving tie way
which leads to a similar experience, and
will deserve no sympathy when they reach
it. If the "natlOn could not exist half
slave and half Free it is very certain that
it cannot and Onght not TO exist with the
people Of one half Of it domineering and
tyrannizing over the other; imposing upon
them more than their full share Of the bur
dens of Government, and denying to them
any part Of its benefits.
You crowned your reconstruction legis-
latiOn, which bauktuptcd and ruined and
degraded those States, by this uncOnStitu-
tional Ku-KlIIX bill; and what have been
its fruits? You succeeded in conyicting
few criminals and alleged criminals. and il
Furnishing them, but the amount Of perjury
and general decentralization which it has
produced, the terror resulting in the eXpa-
triation Of hundreds of innocent families
which it has wrought, the false and perni-
ciOus ideas i'll regard to the relation be-
tween certain class Of citizens and the
government which it has developed, the
antagOniSInS Ofrace. and the bitterness and
hatred which it has fOStered outweigh a
million times the combined benefits which
its most honest advocates ever dreamed it
could effect and to-day the majority of
this committee come before Congress and
ask that its most offensive and outrageous
features may continue to be enforced be-
You'd the time limited in the bill . This,
too, in the face Of the fact that according
to the testimony the bulk Of the crimes
complained of were committed before the
bill passed Congress year AGO.
Gentlemen who wish TO continue this
kind Of legislation must know that tlicy
are alternating the southern people more
and more every day. Those people would
not be human beings, much less cnlightcn-
ed American citizens, if the result could be
otherwise, and therefore, notwithstanding
the profession of a desire to pacjty them
and restore to them good governments, the
conviction forces itself upon them that these
gentlemen do not want them to be peacea-
Die and quiet and prosperous, but would he
glad to goad them to desperation or drive
them into exile. They heard here within
the past few weeks one of them deny that
the caIpct-bag governments Of those States
had been corrupt, and an JtLcr express a
desire to see a hundred southern men
taken out before breakfast every morning
aud shot. They hear on this floor, in al
most every debate which arises, gratuitous
insults hcapcd upon them in regard to their
iliteracy and barbarism by those who
never having she'd drop OF their own or
their enemies blood when war ragged in
the country, now oigualize their patriotism
by throwing dirt in the face of licir pros-
tratc and harmless prisoners.
And when they hear these things rcitc-
rated seven years after the war and feel
the legislation which is the natural result
ot such Il state Of mind, they ask themselves
whether such people can be other than their
bitter enemies. You have done damage
enough already, God knows. Stop this
kind Of legislation. Give us the rights
guaranteed to us by the Constitution, even
as amended by your own hands. Emanc'-
pate those people from the political bondage
in Which they have SO long been held. Stop
sowing the seeds Of hate in their breasts.
Make them feel that you are their country
men and not their enemies Diyest them
Of The conviction which daily grows among
them that you intend to force their support
OF the dominant political party or make
their land Il wilderness.
But the committee recommend general
amnesty-ot course to the Senate, for the
House has already passed it. L trust that
much OF their report will be adopted. Sir,
among the most impressive and suggestive
scenes OF modern times, was that which
the American people have been more than
once called upon to witness within the past
year, wherein fOreign-bOrn American cit
iZen, once an insulTectiOnist and eX lie,
standing upon the floor OF the highest leois-
lative assembly Of the Republic, was seen
eloquently rebuking, III the purest idiomatic
English, his native-born colleagues for their
recreancy TO the fundamental principles of
American liberty. 1t was to me, sir, a
Stlnnoe and sunnnstiNn n1,isoLn II e.