The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1874-09-16
{. TaR TENNESSEE MASSACRE"

{. TaE TENNESSEE MASSACRE"
The Memphis Avalanche, Of the
Goth ult., publishes in full the speech
es made, at the Meeting in Memphis
held to give expression to the senti-
ments Of the people, concerning the
recent outrages in Gibson County, in
that State. The meeting was CON-
posed almost exclusively Of business
and the better class Of mechanics,
the men who pay taxes and work.
Among the many eminent men, who
addressed the assemblage was Jeffer-
son Davis and here is what he had
to say:
Friends and countrymen, you have
assembled tonight not for the bare
purpose Of giving that expression
which humanity demands, but you
have assembled for a holier duty. It
is what you owe to yourselves; what
you owe to your posterity; what you
owe to the living; what you owe to
the gallant dead who died fighting
for the sacred cause of Southern in
dependence. And you men of Polk,
Of Grundy, of Gibson, beware that
you do not dishonor the dead nor tar
nish the living. You are not here to
express your horror Of particular
crime. 1t is a crime to be punished
and to be punished as it deserves; a
crime that appeals to the officers of
the law that they will do their duty.
You have come here to appeal to the
country abroad that you are not a
race Of assassins, that you don't wear
masks, and that in asserting your
rights you will 60 forward to the end
ofyour lives never wearing a mask
nor even blackening your face. ZAP
plause.) Twas the other day partic-
ularly struck at reading the testimo-
ny of a negro before one of those in
yestigating committees in South Car
DINA. He was asked if he knew
Wade Hampton? Oh, yes, they had
been raised together, from childhood.
Did he believe that he was engaged
in any Of those Ku-Klux outrages :?
No, he did not. Why? because"
said the negro "ifMassa Wade Hamp-
ton had had anything to do with
those men, it would have been the
white men that he would have been
after, aud not the negroes" ZAP
plause.) The Southern men are the
only friends the negro has in any
part Of the world. 1t becomes us to
be their friends. Every Southern
man, memory runs back to the good
old black woman who nursed him in
his infancy, and then to the boy who
hunted and fished with him, and the
man who learned him to ride. All
remember with what joy and mani
festations Of love the nurse welcomes
him back home after he had reached
manhood. While these memories
cluster around him he can never for
get them when they stood in those
relations which I believe God intend
ed that they should occupy. If all
these relations have been disturbed
it has been by those incendiaries who
have come in among us only to stir
up strife. 1t not rests with you to
show to the world that you are inca
.pable Of secret crime; that you hate
the men who wear the mask or, black
the face, and that whatever is neces-
sary for the public peace that you
will do in an open manner with the
visor raised and the helmet OPEN
(Applause.) The colored people re-
quire the white man to provide for
and look after them now as much as
they ever did. Now there are men
who think that in the event of a war
of races the blacks would be EXTERN
mated, and that we would then have
a happy and roseate feature. Ihave
no sympathy with those men. The
negroes were my friends in the olden
time, and took care Of our wives and
children and homes in the time of
war. They brought this grand Miss
issippi valley into cultivation, and
are the only ones, I think, that can
or will be ever able to successfully
cultivate it. (Applause.) But I dc
not intend to touch upon a question
upon which every man has already
formed an opinion. l have no feel.
ing against the colored men. The
Onlv INDIGNATION which T fool is