Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1874-10-01
Senator Morton on the Situation.

the South. he spoke earnestly anu
calmly, and his remarks were applauded
Thousands who came to hear him were
turned away for want of room. The FOL
lowing is condensed report OF his
speech:
We are told that reconstruction is failure,
and that the recent disturbances by the
White Leagues are evidence that it was based
upon false principles dissent from this en-
tirely SO far as reconstruction has failed, 1t
has been by the conduct of its enemies, not
because of the intrinsic defects of the system.
The resistance offered to it by murderers and
desperadoes does not prove 1t unsound any
more than the violation of the criminal law by
felons proves the law to be unsound.
The system of reconstruction is based on
the broadcast principles of justice, equality
and republicanism. The Fourteenth Amend
ment excluded a certain class of rebels from
holding Office, but that class has been dimin-
ished by Congress until it does not number
over $50 men. The resistance to reconstruc
ton grows out of the fierce opposition to the
abolition OF slavery and to the elevation of the
negroes TO civil and political rights. The
proposition to establish white mans gov
ernment excluding the negro from partcipa-
ton, is at war not only with the system OF re-
construction but the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments. The White Leagues are an
armed organization, having but single
principle, which is that all political power
State and National, shall be vested only in
white men, excluding negroes totally. they
recognize no line of demarkation In politics
except the color line; their weapons are MUIR
der and perjury, and they point to their own
deeds of murder as evidence that the system
- of reconstruction is unsound and failure.
The recent outbreak of murder and vio-
lence not only in Louisiana, but throughout
most Of the Southern States, has, in great
part, grown out of notion that the President
could ,nr.A ain Mt tn
lencc in the South and to protect the lives
and liberties of the people and to maintain
the State Governments in the exercise of their
authority, They were mistaken, and the
President has again interposed; has disarmed
the instruction in Louisiana, and has notified
them in other States that he will enforce the
laws for the protection of life, liberty and
property, This shows what would be the
condition Of things in the South if there was
a Democratic administration at Washington
that would not interfere for the protection of
life and property.
For two months in majority of the South
ern States there has been a high carnival OF
murder-a reign of terror has again been es-
tablished the ike of which has not existed
since the war. But a small part Of the crimes
are made known to the Northern public.
When negroes and white Republicans are
shot in droves we hear about it with all the
excuses and justiications that can be offered,
but of the solitary shooting of negroes in the
lonely fields and woods, and in their cabins,
the public hear nothing. The men who send
out the news from the South are, with few
exceptions, Democrats and sympathiZers with
these crimes; sometimes participators. Ii
they give news of even the larger massacres
they accompany it with apologies and
Notifications. The solitary killings pass un-
noticed. In many parts of the South the news
papers dare not publish them; the telegraph
is loaded with reports that the negroes are
..altz .tntl.
whites, and that the whites are standing on
the defensive; but when the facts finally come,
it turns out that only negroes and white Re-
publicans are killed. These stories are dis
gustingly stupid and silly, and when Northern
newspapers republish and credit them they
degrade their own intelligence. We remem
Der how the negroes behaved during the war
when they knew their masters were fighting
for their perpetual slavery All the negroes
ask is to be let alone; they know very well
that they cannot cope with the whites in any
struggle with arms; they have little property
and comparatively few arms; they are not
able to defend themselves.
These wicked calumnies are made the pre-
text for assassnation.s In every part Of the
South the White Leagues, or the ku-kluX, for
they are the same, go cunning for negroes;
they hunt them like squirrels; they murder
them singly and by the score, upon false pre-
texts or none. In many cases white Repub-
icdlls are iltTUtTcu IL 10 lOJ IL wal VI iaNCo
it is a war of one race upon another and,
broadly, il is war against the Republicans
of the South, white and black This is not
from apprehensions of social equality or fear
of the Civil Rights bill, but to make this a
white mans government and reduce negroes
as nearly as possible to slaves. You nave nav.
heard of the butcherics recently committed
in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and other
States. and have not time nor strength to
enumerate them
The recent outbreaks have not been confined
to one State; they run through nearly the
whole South. Louisiana is just now attract
Ing more attention than the other States. On
Monday the White League conspiracy broke
out in Louisiana, overturned the State Gov
eminent, and attempted to establish new
one. In The conflict in New Orleans thirty
men are reported killed, and fifty wounded.
To understand the condition of Louisiana we
must 60 back eight years During that time
the State has been made a vast slaughter
house, the murders extending to almost every
plantation. In 1860 the Republicans in con-
vention at Mechanics Institute to propose
amendments TO the Constitution were setupon
by the police and vast mob of armed ruffians
and more than 200 killed and wounded in less
than thirty minutes. The details OF that
butchery. given by the committee that inves
tigated 1t, are sickening, and never eXcelled in
atrocity. In the spring of 1868, the STATE
being reconstructed, an election was hello
under protection of the Government of The
United States. confessed by all fair election
and the Republicans carried the state b,
25,Oo0 majority. In the summer the ku-klu,
were organized. Between Sept. and the No
remb n election they killed aud wounded owe
200 pc. s0ns. mostly negroes, as shown by tn
report of the committee of Congress
The cruelties perpetrated were neyC
exceeded by the indians, nor did tina
committee examine the whole State. A reig1
OF terror was created; Republicans were KEEP
from the polls, and the Democrats carriet
the November election by 4l,OO0 majority