Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-04-22
NEWS By TELEGRAPH.
THE SENATE.
Report of Proceedings of the sen
ate in Extraordinary Session.

WASHINGTON, ID. O., April Zl.-Ine
Vice President laid before the Senate
the unfinished business, being the
resolution for the election OF Senate
officers.
By unanimous consent, on motion
of Mr.. Edmunds, the papers on the
files of the Senate relating to the
subject of bankruptcy, were referred
to the committee on the Judiciary.
Mr.. Coke took the floor in reply to
portions of Mr.. Frye's speech, which
he declared to be remarkable for the
recklessness of it's statements and
the falsity of its charges. It ar
raigns the people of a whole section,
and made charges which, if true,
proved that those people were not
fit associates for any civilized people:
He did not envy the man who could
find it in his heart thus to speak OF
any portion of the people over which
the flag of his country foated. He
did not believe the people Of Maine
indorsed the denunciations of tho
| Senator.
He believed that they were more
patriotic and had more pride of
country than to indorse it. The
man who fomented strife and stirred
up sectional feeling and inculcated
animosity could not be a statesman,
nor could he be patriot. He then
proceeded to reply to the charges
made by Mr.. Frye of fraud upon the
ballot in Texas, denying explicitly
their truth, and referred to the
charge that in Harrison county, in
that State, violence had been resort-
ed to to keep the Republicans from
the polls. This wholesale charge
against the people of that county,
unverifed by single record, by a
single affidavit, by single statement,
except the statement Of TIE Senator
from Maine, was false. He meant it
in no offensive sense to the Senator,
. who, of course, made his statemel j.
on information, but he branded tn
charge as false from the beg nnlng
to the end The sun of heaven did
not shine upon a land where in
thought, in utterance and in action the
people OF all classes, conditions anG
co ors were more free than IN Texas,
and every allegation to the contr zry,
he stood here to denounce as false
and sIand, rous. The Senator from
Maine had tainted the South with
it's poverty. That poverty lad been
brought about by war and the II
famous carpet>bag governments
which had been placed over the
Southern SAFES under the recon
struction acts. The people Of the
South were now striving IN every
State to make an honorable payment
or an honorable adjustment Of their
debts. They were taxing themselves
to their utmost capacity tor the es-
tablishment of free schools, believ-
| ing tGat universal education must 90
with universal suffrage. The cOlored
children had the same per capitas
raised for them for school purposes
as the white children had all over
the South The people of the South
( would redeem the South; they
would place her where the blood and
lineage of her people, where her
glorious climate and her fertile soil,
deserved that she should be placed,
and the bringing of the bones and
dead issues into this chamber would
not prevent the South from becom-
ing the equal in intelligence, in cult
waiting labor and in aspiration of the
North, East or West. The people
of the South were of the same race
as the people of the Nortk-a "a >
which had never been dom
mated by an inferior race and
never would be. That re- 90
meant to govern in the South, and
forty thousand entering wedges, such
as was supposed to have been in
serted in Virginia, would not deviate
it from its course OF change the re-
suits. He dwelt at some length on
the improving prosperity of his
State, lnstanclng as proof of the
the fact, that in 1866 there were but
800 miles of railroads in that State,
while to day there were 5000 miles
of road in active operation, and
nineteen roads in course of cons
struction. He asserted that the
State had in all other respects in
creased in material prosperity, and
declared that those salient facts gave
the lie direct to every statement in
the speech of the Senator from
Maine Reverting to the question
before the Senate he asserted that
the fight was made by the R-publi-
can party not for a free vote
and fair count, but to obtain polit>
lcal power. AS long as by abiurgas
ton, by denunciation, by slander
and by abuse the Republican party
kept the South under the impression
that. carper-bag government would
be again placed over it, it would be
solid, and could not be broken. It
could be broken only by kindness
and craftsmanship.