The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1876-04-14
HOW THE REBEL SOUTH OBTAINS
CONTROL.

That the sectional spirit which pro-
duced our civil war in the interests OF
slavery and Democracy is not dead, but
that it exists in other and more danger
GUS forms, because more insidious, has
been made evident from the conduct of
the Democratic majority in the present
House of Representatives.
1t is noteworthy, as wei! as alarming
fact to observe that since the exrebel
States have been readmitted to represen-
tation in Congress but two men have
been elected thereto by Southern Dem
ocratic votes, who were in any way
identified with the Union cause. These
are Andrew Johnson, elected to the
United States Senate by a Democratic
Legislature, though in the main opposed
by its ex-rebel members, and Represen-
tative John Hancock, of Texas, who
held Brigadier's commission in the I'm
on service.
The manner, too, in which the Con-
federate Democracy have almost wholly
obtained control of all the Southern
States is in keeping with the spirit
which inaugurated the Shareholders re-
bellion. The ex-rebel states returned
fifty-six Democrats and seventeen Re-
prblicans to the present House; while
in the Senate they are now represented
by eleven Democrats, and ten Republi-
cans, Zone seat being vaeant). OF the
Democratic Senators six were rebel army
officers, one a judicial officer, and one
other (CapertoD, of West Virginia. was
Senator in the Confederate Congress.
One republican Senator (Alcorn) was in
the Rebel State service, and another
(Robertson) resided South during the
progress of the civil war In the House,
of the fifty six Democrats, forty-one
held prominent positions in the Confed-
eracy; thirty three being military Off
GERS, seven being in the Confederate Con-
gress, one being its Vice President, and
another a member of the rebel Cabinet.
Others occupied State positions of i'm
portance. The ex-Confederates are
from Missouri and Kentucky,
The manner in which the South has
been possessed by the counter-rebellion
ought to be well understood by this time
Yet there are those who dispute the
truth of history. OF the sixty-three
representatives now in Congress from
the States that rebelled, ut least twenty
two of them hold such seats in conse-
quence of organized social ostracism,
violence and murder. The malfeasance
of Mr. Belknap is crime committed by
one nan, for which, when proven, a
severe punishment is justly due, and
will be surely meted out to the offender.
But how much greater is that offense
through which men, three at least, hold
seats from the State Of Mississippi in
the National House of Representatives
by reason of an organized system of
intimidation, outrage and assassination,
general and personal, set in motion for
political purposes, and carried out as a
party measure by the obedient and
willing members of the Southern De-
mocracy. Belknap's act was personal,
and not partisan. That system of or
ganized assassination by which the Con-
federate Democrats obtain seats in Con-
gress, and in so doing destoy the rights
of citizens, is National outrage and an
atrocious crime against liberty. The
twenty-five seats now fraudulently occu-
pied offset the honest representation
from the States of Connecticut, Co.,
Rhode Island, (2), New Hampshire, 90,
Massachusetts,. QD; in all twenty-five
members. The processes by which this
has been accomplished were recently
reviewed by Senator Morton. Every
statement made by that Senator is un-
der not overdrawD- On the authority
of Gen. Sheridan, it has been stated
that in Louisiana alone there were Of
persons killed and wounded for political
reasons, since 1866, and up to Feb. 8,
1875, not less than ,256, of whom 2, ,141
were killed. This statement is to be
found in the report made to the Forty
third Congress by committee of which
the Hon. q. E. Hoar, of Massachusetts,,
was chairman. Another committee
reported from Alabama list of several
hundred similar outrages. The Joint
Committee on Ku-Klux, in 1870, return
ed a siekeniDg list of such crimes, length
ening into the thousands. Under the
Enforcement act of 1871, $50 persons
were indicted in Mississippi; in North
Carolina, $40; in South Carolina, !, 1S6
in Florida, "a: in Alabama, $50; in
Georgia, 235; in Tennessee, IS, and in
Kentucky, 80; in all, 1865 large num-
Der were convicted but unsenteDced.
several score were sent to the penifenti-
ary: all have since been pardoned, the
object being 10 break up shameful and
wicked conspiracy, for which corsi6-
erable proportion of the Southern eoss-
rnunity, rather than individuals, were
mainly responsible. 1t was, and D,
regarded as a social and political rather
than as an individual offense.
Yet by this system of terrorism South
ern Republican States have been over
thrown, their governments and National
representation seized, and the rights OF
the majority put in peril It was BY
this system that the Shareholders Con-
federaey, once supposed TO be destoyed
has revived, and is now encamped with
in the National Capitol They occuPy
its Southern wing; let US see to il that
the loyas men, North and South, vote
as they shot, and rising in their might
drive them out at the ballot box nexf
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