Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1875-02-11
Scene in the House Of Representatives.

Mr. brown SAID he did not propose
now to discuss the legal aspects of the
bill. He had done that at the last
session. He had hoped the bill would
fail, but it was manifestly a foregone
conclusion, and that to-day's sun would
set upon it as the law. of the land
Men on the other side had been dra
gooned into the adoption of a daring
and revolutionary alteration of the
rules by which it could be passed. The
bill was born in maiignity, passed in
defiance and violation and bloodshed,
he feared.
Mi. Hale, of New York, called Mr.
Brown to order, and asked that the
words spoken be taken down.
Mr. Brown: The point is puerile.
The gentleman was silent when other
language was used yesterday.
Mr.. Hale: The gentleman is not ST.
lent to day.
The words as taken down were then
read, and s@' a.s-
The Speaker said he did not t! ink
the language transcribed the limits Of
parliamentary debate.
MIR. Brown, resu,ning, said he re.
garded this bill as part of the. mach-
inery set in motion for the campaign
of 1876. He believed deliberate eon
spiracy had already been formed to-
overthrow constitutional liberty in the
States.
Mr.. Brown was proceeding to speak
to the Republican side when he was
reminded by. the Speaker that he should
address the Chair. ....s...
Mr. Brown, resuming, said: Your
conduct, MIR. Speaker, laugkter,] in
this and other matters reminds me of a
passage in Junius, where he described
bad tenant who had notice to quit,
and broke up the furniture, and dam,
aged the house, and did all in his power
to vex the landlord.
The people of the South, he said,
were lying in helplessness and distress,
their houses dilapidated, their fields
wasted, and on the verge of bank.
raptcy. Was there nothing in their
condition to excite sympathy or secure
some degree of justice? In 1872, he
Sid, a conspiracy was formed by the
Attorney General, Kellogg, and
drunken Federal judge, by which
sovereign State was overthrown. That
subjugation had been perpetuated by
bayonets, and recently one of your
Generals entered a Legislature, as
Cromwell entered, and drove out the
members. On and on they went, in
defiance of the sentiments of the coun
try, without pity or justice, to Cypress
the people of the South and give their
roofs to the flames. Their General
had sent telegram to the world de-
nouneing the people of Louisiana as
banditti: Elsewhere they bad heard
that language repeated, with the ad
dition of thieves and murderers. The
clergy of that State, both Jew and
Gentle, had denied it, and a committee
of this House, with majority of Re
publicans, had given solemn contra
diction to it, and nailed the SANDER to
the counter. This accusation had
come from one who is outlawed in his
own home by respectable society, whose
nature is the synonyme of falsehood,
whose chief business had been to de-
fend frauds, the apologist of thieves,
such an apologist of vice that imagina.
ton sickens and invective exhausts
itself in attempting to describe. In
Scotland years ago there was a man
whose trade was murder, and whose
business was. selling his victims for
gold. He linked his name with his
crime.
The Speaker asked ifthe gentleman
was speaking of any member of the
House? ..
Mr.. Brown said no; he was describ-
ing man he had in his minds eye.
The Speaker Does the gentleman
refer to any member of the House?
Mr.. Brown: No, sir; / have called no
names; and continuing, said: This mans
name was linked to his crime, and
the world it was known as
''Burking." IT he was to describe
everything pusillanimous in war, inhu
man in peace, forbidden in morals, and
infamous in politics, he would call it
"Butlerism." Sensation.
The Speaker said he did not think
the gentleman had answered in good
faith.
Mr.. Brown: The Chair had no right
to anticipate what | was going to saw.