Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-02-10

NOuAlnoE c1VIl rights OH. (LaugnDer.1
Three Grand CyclOps.
Mr.. Edmunds said that this Striking out
exceptions] would make it not an amnesty
bill but bill providing that certain per-
sons guilty ofperjury in addition to treason,
shall be entitled to hold Office and exercise
the powers of the government in those
States. For instance it would admit three
men who were shown by evidence now in
possession Of the Government to be, or to
have been until lately, the advisory Board
ofthe Ku-Klux Klan in South Carolina,
Gems. Hampton, Butler and Kershaw.
Mr.. Sawyer said Mr.. Edmund's state
ment about those three gentlemen might be
true or might not, but if it were true, he
d yet to learn that keeping men under
the disabilities imposed by the fourteenth
amendment was wise or an adequate
punishment for crimes committed by Ku-
Kux. The opponents of this amnesty bill
sought to kill it by amendments, and he
feared they had already done so. Evidently
there were Senators who wished that politi-
cal disabilities should never be removed.
Mr.. Morton said the effect of the amend
ment proposed by Mr.. Sawyer would be to
make amnesty universal, and to declare
that, in the opinion of the United States,
treason is no crime. .--
Mr.. Wilson protested against Mr.. Saw
yer's imputation on the motives of Senators
who voted to amend the amnesty bill. he
was as sincerely in favor Of amnesty as any
one. He would vote for the House bill,
and go further, for he would be willing to
except none but members Of the Cabinet,
of the Supreme Court and of Congress who
took part in the rebellion.
Mr.. Robertson said if Gems. Hamton,
Kershaw or Butler should be elected to
Governor of South Carolina it must be by
the votes of the colored people, who had a
majority of $4,000 in that State. he didn't
believe the charges against those gentlemen.
They were honorable men who would scorn
to aid or countenance such outrages.
Mr.. Scott said Hamton and Butler had
by circular solicited subscription for the de-
fence of the Ku-Klux. The disabilities of
Butler had already been relieved, so the
fears of Edmunds came too late.
Mr.. Morrill,, of Vermont, thought it would
be rs well now to strike out all relating to
Amnesty and pass the Supplementary Civil
Rights Bill, and then pass another Amnesty
bill.
Mr.. Blair thought Mr.. Scott had no right
W l1SlupdOC lllCAA VI OOuIh
Carolina in Ku-Klux outrages by reading a
circular.
Mr.. Scott did not say that they were
members of the organization.
Mr.. Blair-I think the Senator is disin-
genuous. Now consider the circumstances
under which that circular was issued.
Martial law declared in eight or nine coun-
| ties, men dragged from their homes on the
accusations of the lowest and vilest in the
State. This was the condition of things
when these gentlemen came forward and
appealed to their fellow-citizens to contrib
ute for the defense of the men so outraged.
Now state here, and cannot be truthfully
contradicted, that there was no disturbance
in that part of South Carolina, and no
ground which authorised the President to
declare martial law. The arrests were
made for crimes alleged to have been
committed one, two and even three
years before the passage of the act of
Congress. Yet the whole community was
put under martial law by the President.
We know it was done for political purposes.
The whole nation knows it. Yet, because
these men contributed for the defense of
men, many of them wholly innocent, they
are branded as belonging to the Ku-Klux.
do not believe the charge and do not be-
lieve that any man who knows either of
these gentlemen will believe it for a mo-
ment. believe that man accused of
crime is entitled to a fair trial and to be
considered innocent until proved guilty. l
do not believe with the President that those
who took means to avoid arrest under his
| illegal declaration of martial law thereby
| confessed themselves guilty.
Mr.. Scott said the time would come for
| the discussion of the question whether the
President was justified in suspending the
! writ of habeas corpus in the counties re-
/ ferred to, and when the time comes be
| would be prepared to vindicate the Presi-
| dents action, but as Mr.. Blair had raised
| the question of the condition of society
| there he would mention two or three facts ::
! The Grand jury, at recent term of the
! Circuit Court, had presented a great many
! persons for these Kuklux Offenses, aud the
| evidence showed that within six months a
| large number of victims had been whipped
! or killed in the counties of York, Union
| and Spartanburg, three of the counties in
! which the habeas corpus had been sus-
| pended. If Mr.. Blair would read the testi-
mony, he would see, for instance, that a
| prominent man in York county, leading
| physician, was the leader of band of XII
klux who, at night, dragged from his house
and hanged, in the presence Of his <Vife, an
unofending citizen.
Mr.. Norwood asked Mr.. Edmunds to
state the proofs of his charge against Gems.
! Wade Hampton, Butler and KershaW.
Mr.. Edmunds said he had already stated
that he was informed from the best author
ity that the Executive Department Of the
Government of the United States had the
evidence showing that those persons he had
named were at this moment, or were a
month ago, the advisory board of the Ku-
Klux Kan, whatever that was. Perhaps
the Senator, (Mr. Norwood,) as he lived
nearer the locality, could tell better than he
could.
Mr.. Blair thinking Edmunds referred to
him) said he did not live near the locality,
but he had been there, and he had heard tes-
timony on the subject, and he would just as
readily believe him (Edmunds) capable of
being a Ku-Klux as Gems. Hampton, But
Ter and Kershaw.
Mr.. Edmunds-Undoubted We all
know that in the honorable Senator's opin-
ion, reconstruction is disgrace to the age
and the country, but it is not disgrace and
an outrage that there should be an organi-
cation for the commission of murder, arson
and all other kinds of outrages.
Mr.. Blair-I prefer to stigmatize those
who caused these Outrages.
Lively Sparring.
Mr. Edmunds made a remark implying
that Mr.. Blair, as he did not denounce the
outrages, must approve them.
Mr.. Blair-UpOn the same principle l
might charge the Senator with approving
the thieVing and robberies of the infamous
carpet-bsg governments that he helped to
establish in the South, for he has never
since condemned them,
Mr.. Edmunds-I will be more candid
than Blair, have not condensed the thieV-
ing of the carpet bag governments
as he calls them, because do not believe
it. Laughter deny that the carpet
bag governments at the South are
thieving governments in the sense in which
he uses them, but have no doubt that in
the South as in the North there are men in
office who do not administer rightly the
duties and functions intrusted to them, and
so soon as it is declared that any govern
ment in the South, or elsewhere, is not
faithful to its trust in the highest degree,
M 70 ~ thu