Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1878-11-15
MISUNDERSTANDING WITH
THE PRESIDENT.

The manner in which the recent
political canvass was conducted in
South Carolina, Mississippi and
Louisiana has aroused g deep feeling
in the North, and places the Demo
cratic managers of those States in
an unenviable light before a civil
lied world. The fact that they have
violated all the pledges made to the
President and failed to accord to
the blacks their rights and privileges
Of citizenship, will, under all the
circumstances attract more than or
binary attention. A reporter of
the National Republican has inter
viewed the President on the subject.
lie was asked how he accounted for
the result of a solid South in the
face of pledges of fair dealing by
leading Southern Democrats. We
copy the interview as reported:
e The President That question
leads directly I'd discussion OF what
has been latteFly termed the Southern
policy of tie Administration. When
mat policy was InauEurated it was
with al earnest desire 10 COuciIiaie the
Southern leaders, To round OF the
sharp angles OF sectional difference,
and 10 soften the a=peTtties Of political
strife. M one viii deny that The at
tempt to enforce this policy was II 50
earnestly made, nor that ii was carried
uur with conscientious desire TO ac
UuuIpiish the result for which il had
been iuaUguTated. OF the personal
and partisan sacrifices I made in this
effort and of tue consequent iuteTTlI-
uuu If certain relations which had uEe
vioussy existed between myself aud
some of my supporters, I have nothing
TO say just now. Butitappears thatthe
leaders who made those pledges either
dtd not exert themselves to keep them,
or were unable ~ do So. lie fact, I am
reluctantly forced 10 admit that the c.
pertinent trsS Tai ure. The first
election Of Importance held since il
WAS attempted has proved that fair
elections, with free suffrage for every
voter III the South, are an impossi-
bility under the existing condition o.
things
'Interviewer-' And the Republi-
can party, except i'm North Carolina,
has thereby been wiped out OF exist
ence in the South :?
"'rhe President-iIt is not because
the Republican party appears as the
sufferer IN these results that / COM
plain. II is because free suffrage and
freedom II politi al rights have been
interleT-d with that am called upou
To take COgniz4uce Of these di.tuTban-
ce7. 1.-THE fac.s were exactly reversed,
and IL the Republicans had committed
these OutTAges upon the Democrats,
my duty would De the same. 1t Will
not do for me, or for any official before
whom these questions may come, 20
tre4t them otherwise than in a nom
partisan way. The partisan press viii
naturally take d partisan view Of the
case, and / will be held TO account for
aiding the Republicans, the Stalwarts,
4 mean, in Hunting the bloody SHIRT,
as il is called
"In,ervteaer-'Yes; i. has been
charged that you are following in the
footsteps of your predecessor
The President-'WeIl, I expect
that; all that aud more. / cant ex-
poet 10 hold tHe Office l do without
being kicked aud cuEed q little, you
know. But for ali that | shall do my
duty As the Chief Magistrate OF all the
people, Democrats and Republicans
alike, and If, in the faithful execution
of the laws, justice shall demand the
punishment of this or that man, |
VIVA ever his political connections I
may be, l shall not be deferred by /
partisan criticism. All that / know /
L. that great crimes have been com I
mjtted, aud il is my duty to aid ia the |
punishment of the crimiuals'
"IntervieWer-'And you do not
think the Southern leaders, the Dem
Ocrats, / IL can, who have promised so
often 10 protect the blscks of the
South in the exercise of their rights
are responsible for these crimes? -
The President Frankly, do not.
Governor Hampton, for example, has
tried repeatedly TO TepTess the violence
which has characterized the campaign
in South Carolina and failed. Such
Republicans as Judge Lee and Mr..
kaIney ana ex-senator SWails, OF that
State, have advised me of these facts.
They say that Hampton can not con-
troll the Red Shirts, as they call them,
and they have repeatedly Informed me
of speeches he has made deprecating
violence in the conduct of the cam
paign. And il appears that Governor
Nichols, in Louisiana, Is earnestly OPP
posed TO these proceedings or the same
kind of violence in his State
"Iuterviewer-'Fh the officers of !
the Department of Justice have been |
instructed to carry out the proceedings !