Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1874-07-18
BILL CRUTCHFIELD'S BLOW.
How He Worried the Civil Rights
COnspirators.
memphis Appeal. July 81

There was never sharper blow de-
livered than that given Ben Butler and
his family and friends of the Eastern
aristocracy by the member of Congress
in the chattanooga district. The jolly,
nervous mountaineer was seemingly the
most ardent friend of the Civil Rights
bill. He sought, at all times, to force
a vote upon the measure. He tortured
poor Maynard most cruelty. Maynard
never voted against Massachusetts in
his life. Nominally a member from
Tennessee, he has faithfully served his
Eastern constituency, and Maynard,
like Barbour Lewis, was most anxious
to prevent a vote. He often endeav-
ored to silence the original, impulsive,
untamed member from Chattanooga.
but always in vain. Never was May
nard's impatience so violent as when
Crutchfeld rose in his place, and to the
utter dismay of Butler and Maynard
and Lewis, and to theconfusion of Rad
iealism in the House, said: Mr..
Speaker have a neat little amend
ment, which think absolutely neces-
sary to the perfection Of the Civil
Rights bill. | will readit, Mr. Speaker,
and move its adoption" 1t was clap
of thunder from clear sky, and the
House listened while Bill Crutchfeld,
in clear voice, read as follows:
Sec. 3.-Be it further enacted, That
any white lady refusing the attention
OF negro, on account of race, color,
or previous condition of servitude,
shall be fined for each and every Of
fense not less than five hundred nor
more than one thousand dollars, and
imprisoned not longer than six months.
We have the original paper In
Crutchfield's own handwriting, as read
before the House, now lying before US.
Tack on this amendment" said
Crutch6eld, when his partisan friends
gathered about him to protest against
this reductio dd dbs1rdWns, tack on this
proper amendment, and I'll vote for
the whole thing" Butler waxed very
wroth. Crutchfeld swore he would
spend his whole salary in testing the
devotion of Butler and his sort to the
negro He did not doubt their earnest
affection and respect for the colored
race, and since social equality was as
desirable North as South, he would
have certainly twenty of the finest
black beaux each session at Washing
ton, selected from the comeliest on his
plantation, and give each Congressman
with marriageable daughters the choic-
est benefactions of social equality
Crutchfeld was not willing that the
operation of the bill should be con-
fined to Southern schools. He pro-
posed to exhaust the scheme of benifi-
eence, as approved by Wharfmaster
Shaw, Of Memphis.
Crutchield was bitterly denounced
by his partisan friends. He has visited
Boston, and was there mercilessly con-
demned for his broad sense of justice
to ''the man and brother" He says
that for the life of him he can'tunder-
stand it. He thought Butler and his
allies in dead earnest, and that they re-
ally esteemed negro as good as them
selves But Crutchfield is brooding
over it to-day in Chattanooga, and is
often heard to soliloquize, What's
sauce for the goose isn't sauce for the
gander. Civil rights are very fine for
southern, but wont do for northern So
ciety."