The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1874-09-23
slT. Q.?. MlaTll's SPEECH,
White League Murders
AND
Democracy in its Purity!

Senator o. p. MORTON addres-
sed an immense audience at Masonic
Hall, indianapolis, upon the past and
present condition of the South. 1t
is one of the most scathing indict-
ments ever made against the Demo-
cratic Party, under the disguise of the
White League" that party has as
sumed in the South, in order to cover
up its deformities and crawl into pow
err Hundreds who came to hear Gov.
Morton were turned away for want of
room The following is condensed
report OK his speech:
We are told that reconstruction is a
failure, and that the recent disturb
ances by the White Leagues are evil
dence that it was based upon false
principles, l dissent from this entire
ly. So far as reconstruction has fail
ed, it 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 despe
radoes does not prove it unsound,aly
more than the violation of the Grimm
al law by felons proves the lawto be a
upsound.
THE SYSTEM OF REcoNsTRUIoN
is based on the broadcast principles of
justice, equality, and republicanlsm.
The Fourteenth Amendment exclud
ed certain class of rebels from hold
ing office, but that class has been d.
mInished by Congress until II does not
number over 100 men. The resist
ance to reconstruction grows out OF
the fierce opposition to the abolition
of slavery md to the elevation of the
negroes to civil and political rights.
The proposition to establish white
man 8 government, excluding the ne
gro from participation, Is at war not
only with the system of reconstruction
but the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments The White Leagues
are an armed organization, having but
a single principle, which is that all
political power, State and National,
shall be vested only in white men, ex-
Guiding negroes totally. They recog-
nize no line of demarkation in poll
ties except the color lines; their werp-
ons are murder and perjury, and they
point to their own deeds of murder as
evidence that the system of recon-
struction is unsound and u failure.
THE RECENT OUTBREAK
of murder and violence, not only in
Louisiana, but throughout most OF
the Southern States, has, in great
part. grown out of notion that the
President would not again interpose
to suppress violence in the South, and
to protect the lives and liabilities of
the people and to maintain the State
governments in the exercise Of their
authority. They were mistaken, and
the President has again lnterposed;
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 Democratic
administration at Washington that
would not interfere for the protection
of life and property.
For two months in majority of the
Southern States there has been high
carnival Of murder-a reign OF terror
has again been established the like 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 III droves we heard about 1t
with all the excuses and justification
that can be offered, but of the solitary
killing and 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, Dem
ocrats and sympathizers with these
crimes; sometimes partlcipators. Ii
they give news of even the larger mas
sacres, they accompany it with apollo
gies and Qualifications. The solitary
killings pass unnoticed. In many
PARTS of the South the newspapers
dare not publish them; the telegraph
Is loaded with reports that the negroes
are rising, and have consplred to ex-
terminate the whites, and that the
whites are standing on the defensive;
but when the fact finally comes, it
turns out that only negroes and white
Republicans are killed. These sto-
ries are disgustingly stupid and silly,
and when Northern newspapers re-
publish and credit them they degrade
their own intelligence. We remem-
Der how the negroes behaved during
the war, when they knew their masters
we're fighting for their perpetual slav-
ery. All the negroes ask is TO be let
alone; they know very we'll 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 them
selves.
THESE WICKED CALUMNIEs
are made the pretext for assassination.
In every part of the South the W hlte
Leagues or the kuklux, for they are
the came, go cunning for negroes;
they hunt them like squirrels; they
murder them singly and by the score,
upon pretexts or none. In many
cases. white Republicans are murder
cd. 1t is not a war OF raees-lt Is a
war of one race upon another, and
broadly, it is war against the he
nublicans 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 white
mans government and reduce negroes
as nearly as possible to slaves. You
have heard of the butcheries recently
committed in Kentucky, Tennessee
Alabama, and other States, and l have
not time nor strength to enumerate
them.
THE RECENT OUTBREAKS
have not been confined to one State
thew run through nearly the whole
South. LOUISIANA is just now attract
ing more attention than the other
States. On Monday the White
aanSn;racr h,,ake ont In I.nuis,