New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-07-18
Horace Greeley On ku.Klux and
The enforcement Act.

On the 18th of June, 1871, Mr.. Greeley
made a speech to some citizens of New York,
who met in that city to welcome him home
from his Southern trip. In that speech he thus
replied to the question he said he was fire.
quently asked, whether there were any Ku-
klux down South:
Yes, gentlemen, there are. They didn't
come up to me and tell me they were Ku-
klux very often. lLaughter.] They didn't
undertake to perform their delicate opera
tons upon me. | should have had very much
more respect for them if they had. lGrcat
laughter
| am moved with profound disgust when
think OF these men, covering themselves up
with second-rate calico, masking their faces,
aming themselves to the teeth, and riding
around To the cabins of poor harmless ne
groes, dragging them from their beds, and
whipping and manning them until they are
compelled to swear they will never again
vote the Republican ticket. | hold that to
be a very Cowardly procedure As well as a
very base one : and hold it to be the duty
Of the Government Of the Union to oppose
with all its power and all its force every such
eXccrablo procedure as this Do YOU tell me
for the assaults and batteries they have COM
mitted: L don't doubt it; but / say they
are also in substance and purpose traitors to
the Government, rebels against its author
lily, and the most cOwardly, skulking rebels
ever known TO this or any other country.
Applause
hold our Government bound, by its duty
OF protecting our citizens in their fundamental
rights, To pass and enforce laws for the ex-
tirratiOn Of the cXecrable ku-Klux cOnspir-
acy; and, if it has not power to do it, then |
say our Government is no Government, but
sham. /, therefore, on every proper occa-
sion, advocated and justified the Ku-Klux
act. L hold it especially desirable for the
South; and, if it does not prove strong
enough to effect its purpose | hope it will
be made stronger and stronger. Applause.
Why, fellow-citizens, these very men that
| asked me if l saw any ku-kluX-these very
men have themselves read the returns Of the
election in Louisiana, when that State, with
$4,000 black majority on. its registers, was
made to vote for Seymour and Blair by more
than $4,000 majority; counties which had
5000 negro voters alone giving three, two,
one, and in several instances no vote at all,
for Grant and Colfax. Now, friends, YOU
and they know perfectly well that this result
was secured by terror and by violence; by
| telling those black men, " You shall vote for
Seymour and Blair, the enemies of Your fun
damental rights, or you shall not vote nj all,
or you shall he killed" That was the way
Louisiana was made Democratic in ] S6s; and
that is the way that | trust she will never be
made to vote so again. Therefore uphold
and Justify the ku-KluX law. Fcllow-cit
zens, the ku-killN are no myth, although
they shroud themselves in darkness. They
are no fitting ghosts they are a baneful
| reality They hayn ,ho r;.h, IS
suffrage in many counties throughout the
South, and have carried States that they
ought not TO have carried; but they are not
the only enemies tn Republican ascendancv
in the South.
Though the ku-klux are as rampant now
as they were when this speech was made,
and though the same necessity exists for the
enforcement law now as then, Mr.. Greeley not
only opposes all military interference with
the assassins, but denOmces General Grant
as tyrant and usurper for enforcing the law
that he then so emphatically declared he up
held and justified. A year ago he declared
it the duty Of the Government to pass and
enforce laws for the eXtirpation of the exc
cradle ku-klux conspiracy. Then he had
not been seized with the Presidential fever,
or, if he had, he had not resolved TO sell
himself to the rebel Democracy to secure it,
Since then the disease has seized him and is
raging with fatal violence. Principle, hon
esty, consistency, patriotism, have all been
thrown to the four winds of heaven in his wild
and headlong race for the prize. His course
on this ku-Klux question is a painfully strik
| inc illustration of tho affact If hos bad on his
mind and character.