Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-02-22
ALLEGED OUTRAGES.
Washington County Outrages Discussed
in the Senate-TwO Days of Debate.
The Partisan Speeches of Chandler and Evarts
Senator Coke's Reply-Character
of the MemoriaIists.
corresponaence Of the Gazette.

has been trying Tor Two DAYS 10 EeNFS
sectional feeling in the senate. 1t is not
difficult to understand why every crime IN
the South has a political or party bearing
while the same offenses in the North are
accredited to the original sin of man,
and to the account Of the wrong-doer
with society Every community in the
South repudiates the attempt to charge
the murder of Clayton on the people of
Arkansas as much as they regret the
event from the stand-points of courage,
humanity, and interest in their own
prosperity. The Republicans of the
EvaFts stamp cannot expect the restora-
ton of military governments in the South
and they must realize that sucn
agitation as is now attempted must nave
q reflex action on Northern Interests,
and sentiments calculated TO weaken the
Republican party soon TO take control OF
the government. But it Is some conso-
lation to know that these leaders OF the
new crusade viii not enlist III their I'M
patriotic ranks even respectable fol-
lowing Mr.. Evarts and Mr.. Chandler
wearied the senate and their hearers by
an unsuccessful harrangue on the bad
drew woeful pictures of the future for
that section which they look upon as
sort of haven for murderers, cut-thrOats,
thieves, lawless cowboys, and where the
pistol is brandished from morning till
night Such was the burden of their
song, which was ably replied to by SEN
ator Coke, who said:
Mr. President. / listened yesterday
evening with pleasure TO the amIable
and even tempered statement of the SEN
ator from New York Mr.. Evarts with
reference to the resolution now before
the senate and to the investigation re-
Gently made of matters ia Washington
county, TEX, and l would have been
glad to have said nothing had the re-
marks of the senator not been supple
mented by the adoption of the report of
the committee on privileges and elections
and the publication of that documeR in
the Congressional Record as part of his
remarks.
Under ordinary circumstances the SEN .
ators who compose the committee on
privileges and elections are gentlemen
upon whose judgment and discretion and
sense of justice / should be perfectly will
ling to rest any rights 1 or my cOnstItu-
ents might have or claim, but in this
matter of the investigation in Washing
ton county l am not willing that the re-
port of that committee, highly as l es-
TEEN the honorable senators who COM
pose it, honorable and conscientious
gentlemen as l admit them to be, to go
TO the country unchallenged. That re-
port, 1 say upon my responsibility as
man and senator, is unjust, is one
sided, is partisan, and is colored by par
tisan political feeling TO the extent that
the justice and impartiality which should
characterize it as report from high
committee of this senate has been utterly
lost sight of
say further, Mr.. President, that if
this committee had been prosecutors, in
stead of judges, if the proceeding had
been q political prosecution and not q
judicial hearing, all the testimony, every
incident, every circumstance, every con-
dition mculpatOry could not have been
more thoroughly cOngTegated and
summed up and marshaled than they
have been in this report, while all the
testimony eXculpatory, which mOdities,
which explains, which eXtenuates, or
which justifies, has been with equal as
siduity thoroughly excluded from it.
And vet this is the report Of an honor /
able committee of the senate upon a !
proceeding presumed to have been judi |
cial in its character.
As 1 remarked awhile ago, there is no /
claim Of right that l would not be will |
ing to submit to these same gentlemen |
on the judicial bench in a matter re- |
moved from politics. / have that conf /
dence in their learning, their ability, |
their honor, and their integrity; but let |
the senate remember, and let the cOun-
try remember, when reading this report,
that this is political report.
This proceeding for the investigation of /
disturbances in Washington county, /
Tex, was commenced upon the memo
rial of three persons-Stephen A. Hack /
worth, James L Moore and Carl Schutze .
who alleged that they were citizens of /
that county, and, among other things,
that they were driven from their homes /
and eSiled because of being Republicans.
The conclusions of the report of the COM
mittee on privileges and elections were
based substantially and mainly upon the
testimony of these three persons. If you
viii strike out from this record the testi- .
mony of Stephen Hackworth. of James
l. Moore and Of Carl Schutze, you IA
tally wound the case made on the part of .
th5 committee against the people of .
Washington county, Tex.
Let anybody read this report, let them
examine it from beginning to end, and ii
they can find any observation OF the COM
mittee upon II which speaks disparagingly
or which mentions n doubt as to the cred .
Utility of the testimony of either one of
these three persons, he viii find some
thing that 1 have overlooked. Yet I .
have here in this volume the testimony OF
twenty-seven witnesses which was lying
before that committee when this report
was made, all or nearly all of whom tes-
tify that Hackworth and SchutZe are men
of infamous character and unworthy of .
credit, and as to Moore. the third one,
some of them say that he had been good /
man, but hey generally concur in the |
opinion that he had become is bad as
SChutZe and HackwOrth.
These are the memorialists who bring
this case here. Their memorial is print
ed in this testimony, and l invoke the /
attention Of senators to the testimony
and ask them to read il and understand I
il. No man can read il without rising
from its perusal convinced that these
three persons, who iudict as they do the
state Of Texas and Washington county,
are men who ought not to have been
noticed in the senate Of the United
States.
in saying that I do not pretend to
aver that there have not been violations