Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1876-08-17
How the Rebel South Obtained Cor
troll.

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4
How the Rebel South Obtained Cor
troll.
That the sectional spirit whio
produced our civil war in the intere
of slavery and Democracy is nJ
dead, but that it exists in other NOR
dangerous forms, because more il
sidious, has been made evident FROM
the conduct Of the Democratic ma
jority in the present House of Repre-
sentatives.
1t is a noteworthy, as well as alarm
ing fact, to observe that since the ex1
rebel States have been re-admitted to
representation in Congress but two
men have been elected thereto BY
Southern Democratic votes, who
were in any way identified with the
Union cause. These are Andrew
Johnson, elected to the United
States Senate by Democratic l.egis
lature, though in the main opposed by
its ex-rebel members, and Represen-
tative John Hancock, of Texas, who
held a Brigadier's commission in the
Union service.
The manner, too, in which the
Confederate Democracy have almost
wholly obtained control of all the
Southern States is in keeping with
the spirit which inaugurated the
s ss Tfbeli9n Tbs otfse
House while in the Senate they are
now represented by eleven Demo-
crat and ten Republicans, Gone seaG
being vacanD. Of the Democratic
Senators, six CO. were rebel army
officers, and one judicial officer, and
the other, (Caperton of West Vir-
ginia,) was a Senator 10 the Confeder-
ate Congress. One Republican Sena-
tor (Alcorn) was in the rebel State
service, and another (Robertson) re.
sided South during the progress of
the civil war In the House, OF the
fifty-six (56) Democrats, forty-one
(4l) held prominent positions in the
Confederacy thirty-three being mill.
tary officers, seven being in the Con-
federate Congress, one being its Vice
President, and a member of the rebel
Cabinet. Others occupied State posi-
tons Of Importance. The remaining
ex Confederates arc from Missouri
and Kentucky.
The manner in which the South
has been possessed by the counter-re-
bellion ought to be we'll 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 rebel
led, at least twenty two (22) of them
had such seats in consequence of
organized social ostracism, violence,
and murder. The malfeasance of
Mr.. Belknap is crime committed by
one man, for which when proven a
severe punishment is justly due, and
will be surely meted out to the often
der. But now 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 in intimidation,
outrage, and assassination, general
and personal, set in motion for polit.
ical 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
organized assassination by which the
Confederate Democrats obtain seats
in Congress, and in so doing destroy
the rights Of citizens, is national
outrage and atrocious crime against
liberty. The twenty-five seats now
fraudnlently occupied offset an honest
representation from the State of Con-
necticut, co. Rhode Island, )2,) New
Hampshire, go Massachusetts,, (l10
in all, twenty-five members. The
processes by which this has been ac-
complished were recently reviewed
by Senator Morton. Every state
ment made by the Senator is under,
not overdrawn. On tho authority of
General Sherman, it has been stated
that in Louisiana alone there were of
persons killed and wounded for polit-
ical reasons, since 1866, and up TO
February 8, 1875. not less than 4,25e,
Of whom 2,141 were killed. This
statement is TO be found in the re-
port made to the forty-third Congress