Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-02-19

I
in 1860, when their affairs were
managed by their own people,
and county taxation in 1860 on all
property they then owned was $3,-
lis, ,184, while now under caFpetbsg
and negro rule il is $14, ,278, $50, or
seven millions more On the remnant
still in existence than 1t was on the
whole property they owned when
war begun. In view of the
ENORMOUS DEBTS
which ii is shown have been Wantonly,
corruptly and fraudulently heaped
upon a people as poor as the census
reports show, with five-eights of their
property gone and taxation on the
remnant nearly four-fOld as much as
it was on the whole when the affairs
were honestly managed, is it to be
expected that the people of these
States will have either love or respect
for the men or party by whom
they have been thus plundered?
No man can look over our testimony
taken before the committee without
coming to the conclusion that no peo-
pie have ever been 80 mereilessly
robbed and plundered so wantOnly,
and causelessly humiliated and de-
| graded, so recklessly exposed to the
rapacity and lust of the ignorant and
vicious portion of their own eommu-
nifty and of other States, as the peo-
pie of the South have been during the
past six years. History, until now,
| gives no account Of
A CONQUERoR so CRUEL
as to place his vanquished foes under
the dominion of their former slaves.
| That was reserved for Radical rulers
in this great Republic. This is so to-
day in South Carolina, Texas and
Arkansas, and in 1866 and 1868 it was
so in Tennessee and elsewhere.
The emancipeted slave regiments
parade in State or Federal uniforms,
armed cap.a-pie with the most ap-
proved weapons, paid for by taxation
| imposed on their former masters,
while white men are denied the right
to bear arms or to
ORGANIZE AS MILITIA
for the protection of their houses, their
property or the persons of their wives
and children. The minority say that
"When the testimony before US is ana
| lyzed, and the ignorance and degrada-
ton of the Southern negro is under
stOOd-When, as General Grant said in
December, 1868, they believed that the
property of their former masters of
right belonged to them; when, as all
! the testimony shows, the carpet
baggeTs, bureau-agents and loyal
leagueTs who went to these states
made the wrongs the negroes had
suffered and right they had to take
whatever kthey pleased of property
they had labored to acquire for their
masters, the theme of their harangues,
when in secret sworn organizations
HATRED OF THE WHITE RACE.
of the South was instilled into the
minds of these ignorant people by
| every art and every vile that bad men
could devise. When the negroes were
formed into militia organizations, and
the white people of these States were
| denied the use of arms; when arson,
rape, robbery and murder were things
| of daily occurrence; when the great
mass of the most intelligent whites
were disfranchised, and the ballot was
put into the hands of the negro by the
government at Washington; when
| every promise was made, and every
law enacted was broken and disre-
gaTded by
FEDERAL AUTHORITIES
whenever it suited their purpose to
do so, and even courts were closed
and federal officers who were made
by congress absolute rulers and dis
pensers of what they called justice,
ground, insulted and trampled on
the rights OF the ostraeized and disiran-
chised white man, while the officials
pandered to the enfranchised negro
on whose vote he relied to obtain a
seat in congress, to be made governor
or other high official In the State over
which he ruled. In short when the
PEOPLE SAW THEY HAD NO RIGHTS
which were respected, no protection |
from insult, no security for their wives |
and little ones, and what little |
they had saved from the TavageS |
of the war was being confiseated |
| by taxation and rendered value |
| less by debts for which men, who |
owned nothing, had pledged it, and |
saw that all their complaints and re-
! mOnstTances, however honestly and /
humbly presented to congress, were /
either wholly disregarded, or regard
ed as evidence of the rebellious and
unsubCu ued spirit, many of them took
the law into their own hands and did
deeds OF violence which we neither
justify nor excuse. Situated and cir
cumstanced as they were, and una
BILE, as the evidence shows, to keep |
anything that could be carried away
their hogs, sheep, poultry, corn, in
deed everything being seized upon as
though the owner had no rightor in
terest in it-When a
GUILTY NEGRO
was arrsigned and his guilt proved,
the carpet-bsg military official who
wanted his vote discharged him, or
he was pardOned by so called cover.
nors, who had taught the negroes in
their harangues that property was of
right theirs; there was but little left
for them except to stop these things
as best they could. To these enor-
nous expressions, ETC., was to be
added the plundering by the freed
mems bureau agencies, the cotton
thieves and military, to an extent
exceeded only by the local carpet-bag
government which succeeded them.
The minority review these subjects
at length, and repeat that they feel
confident that they are sustained in
the assertion that there is nothing In
the evidence tending to show that
there Is any
COMBINATION, CONSPIRACY, DESIGN
Oh DESIRE
on the part Of any respectable number
OF the people Of the South to deprive
the colored race of any of the civil
or political rights, and there Is Ger.
tainly none either to subvert or inter-
fere with the legitimate authority Of
the Federal or State governments.
Appended to the views Of the mi
nOrity is a paper drawn up by
Mr.. Van Trump, minority member
Of the subcommittee visiting the
State Of South Carolina. He states
that the election In 1870 took place on
the 18th of October. In looking over
the official reports of the Adjutant and
Inspector General 1t would be OBJ
served that, while the distribution OF
arms to negroes extends up to the very
day OF election, not gun was placed
in their hands after the day OF elee-
tion and the expiration of ten days al
lowed for
REPUBLICAN ELECTION CoMMIssIcN-
ERs
to retain the ballot-boxes In their pos
session. This was the exciting cause
Of whatever trouble and disturbance
existed in South Carolina in 1870. 1t
was then that ku kluxism showed
Its head; and even the miserable tes-
hmOny OF the negroes themselves
showed that the principal object OF the
kuklux visitation was to search for
these very arms distributed among
them by the governor. The report OF
the minority covers 800 printed pages.
FOREIGN TELEGRAMS.