New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-02-23
AN OLD SUBJECT,

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will be read by all the sensible people in
Louisiana. The committee discharged it's
duty faithfully and fairly, extenuating
nothing, nor setting down aught in malice.
After months Of patient labor and con-
scientious search for the truth, the
members returned to Washington with
well matured convictions based upon
sworn and undisputed facts. They not
only discovered that the barbarians of the
Ku-Klux organization were veritable ex-
istences, but they probed the matter until
they found the reason why this extraordi-
nary evilhad its existence. To read the
report reminds us of reading the REPUB-
LICAN itself, for the statements and deduc-
tons of the committee are identical with
the conclusions which have been expressed
in these columns time and again, not, as
some suppose, for the purpose OF scandal
izing the South, but to call her attention
to the fact that an evil existed in her midst
which it would be to her interest, and to
our interest, to have corrected.
AS we said, the fact that the ku-klux
did exist in certain parts of the South has
been fully established, for the members OF
the organization have confessed to their
offenses and admitted their wickedness'
A prominent officer of the organization re-
lated the details after he had been con-
victed before jury that he himself ad-
mitted to have been al honest one. He
confessed that negroes had been unmerci-
fully whipped by masked men because they
voted the Republican ticket; and white
schoolmasters were gagged and scourged
because they taught negro schools. These
were not isolated cases, but extended
throughout South Carolina, North Caro-
lima and Northern Georgia. The same
condition of. affairs, though less violent,
was discovered in Mississippi and Ala
bama, and its verify was so thoroughly
established that no man who is willing to
the existence of any evil that
has been demonstrated to his senses will
deny it.
The committee, having established the
existence of the Ku-klux organization,
traces its origin to the prejudices Of the
people among whom it was allowed to flour
ISL. The responsible classes of the COM
munity did not feel disposed to exert their
influence to suppress the disorder; and
the lower order of white people felt that
they could only prevent the negroes from
claiming an equality with themselves at
the ballot-box by violently refusing to
allow them to exercise the right of suffrage.
Bad men took advantage of the times to
secure Offices for themselves, which they
abused, and this the committee alleges as
a partial excuse for the inactivity and
enmity of the intelligent property holders
against the governments that were sprung
upon the Southern States under the
reconstruction laws. These bad men
were not confined to any one party, but
the decentralization in public office was
as much a sin with the Democrats as 1t
was with those who pretended to be Re
publicans.
While deploring the causes that led to
the organization of the Ku-klux, and
while deprecating the manifest distrust and
antagonism which exist between the col
ored people and the whites, the committee
can not consent that the laws that check
the barbarous and impolitic practices that
are practiced upon the negroes shall be at
all abated in their force and efficiency. The
suspension of the writ Of habeas corpus III
certain portions of South Carolina has had
a good effect, and the committee recon-
mends that it be extended until the close
of the next session of Congress, since it
will be impossible to try all the cases that
have been presented to the federal courts
under the special laws Of Congress, before
that time.
What the REPUBLICAN has sought to ar
rive at, and what the committee recon-
mends as proper to be done, are as iden-
teal as if the one had been copied from
the other. If it required forty years to
foster discomfort into treason, we shall be
most happy if within ten years the spirit
of discomfort that resulted from the sup
preston of the rebellion and the enfran-
chisement of the negroes is converted
into renewed respect for the Union and an
acceptance of the political dogma that all
men are entitled to the same rights. This
object can only be obtained by enforcing
equal laws for the benefit of all The
strong must be made to feel that there is
a power that can and will curb their ag-
gressions upon the weak; and the weak
must be taught to love and venerate the
strength that protects them, while it will
not permit them to combine their greater
numbers to Cypress or injure those who
would abuse them but for the superinteDd-
ing protection of tie State The more
responsible members of society must be
induced to assume their proper share IN
the duties of the government in order to
their own security, both against the vexa-
tious interference Of the government and
the disorders of that class of the COM
munity that scourge ali classes by attempt
ing to remedy temporary evils by resorting
to violence, which is not only the worst of
all evils, but is the author of multitudinous
wickedness.
The recommendations Of the committee
are directed to the extirpation of the Ku-