The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-03-14

IL
every man will feel that that is a
just and fair law, and there will
be no further ground for complaint.
Congress cannot exercise any control
IN local affairs in the southern states, and
does not claim the right to do so; but what
we insist upon is that there shall be law
TO protect the right of suffrage, and that
that no man dare to expose himself to its
penalties
BUTLER REPLIES.
Mr.. Butler replied to Mr.. Sherman. He
said that if the debate mad accomplished
nothing else, it had shown, by the state
ments of the senators from Ohio and Massa-
chusetts, that suffrage had been conferred
upon the negro of the south not because he
was entitled to it, not because he was quail
lf1ed to execute it, but because of GER
tain laws passed by some of the
southern states Immediately after the
war; There was, for instance, the
which he was very glad to be able to say he
had voted against in the legislature, because
he thought it unwise and because he
thought there was no justification for such
laws He thought that they we're as I'M
wise as had been the laws of MASSACHUSETTS,
and Connecticut which sent men to the
stake because of their religious belief or for
witchcraft The admission of the Senator
from Ohio, he thought, would go a long
way in throwing light on any future discus
sion as to the right of the negro to vote in
the south
PRESIDENT JoHNsoN'S DECREE.
Referring to the administration of Pres-
Johnson. Mr.. Butler said that one of the
most unfortunate days that had ever come
over the country was the day that brought
about the conflict between the chief execu-
tive and legislative department of the
United States. President Johnson had in
sisted that his policy should be carried out
in the south. He Lad said: "This is NV
policy. say, as commander in chief
of the army of the United States that this
shall be the settlement on which you
are to return.' He (Alr. Butler) had acqui-
esced in that, and then he had been met
with the conflict between President John
son and the legislative department Of the
government, which had inaugurated
another policy Of its own. Between the
upper and neither milestone, between the
executive policy on one side and the legis-
lative policy on the other, the south had
been ground to powder.
NEGROES AND THE OFFICES.
Mr.. Butler went on to speak of the ex-
clusion of the colored men in the northern
states from all political offices, and
said that on the contrary there was
no discrimination in the laws of South
Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana or Georgia
against man on account of his race, color
or previous conaition of servitude, and that
number of colored people in these states
were holding offices today, and one COL
ored man was representing a district of
North Carolina. So that he would say to
the senator from Ohio, who had remarked
with such patronizing attitude that the
south should do so and SO, that if the
northern states would do right to
the colored people, good deal of
friction would disappear. This very day
and very hour and for the last week the
newspapers had been teeming with accounts
| of white men in the territory of Oklahoma
| and republicans among them, announcing
| to the world that if the colored people
dared TO assert their right to control that
territory by reason Of their superiority of
numbers they would drive them out at the
| point Of the bayonet.
oUTRAGES IN THE NORTH.
He had seen within the last month &C.
counts of outrages upon colored people in
| Ohio and Indiana, and of their being pur-
sued to death by white mobs, and yet be
had not heard one syllable of protest. He
| believed that the great body of the people
of the north were kindly disposed toward
the people of the south, and that that kind
ness had been very much stimulated by the
| fact that millions Of money were being
| sent into the south for investment; and he
would tell the senator from Ohio that when
ever he attempted to carry out his
threat of another crusade upon the
| south through supervisors and United States
ma shas for the purpose of dominating the
elections there he would have fire in his
| rear from men who had carried their money
and their industry into the south. Those
people would be found side by side, shoulder
to shoulder, through evil report and good
report, in preserving in those southern state:
the same character Of government that ex.
isted there to-day. That was because they
understood and knew that it was through
the power and influence of just such gov
ernments that their investments in the south
could be preserved
OHIO WOULD BE AGAINST HIM.
The senator would find whenever he at
tempted to re-establish IN the south those
reconstruction governments which had left
in their train black mark of spoliation, of
would always be a reproach to the history
OF this country, protest IN his
own state and in his own county
that would cause him to hesi-
tate before he carried it out to its fullest
extent. He (Mr. Butler) would not ex-
change one hour of good order in the south
for all the political power that negro suf-
frage had given to the south.
II he had the power tomorrow,
he would transfer every atom of
that political power to the north and
wish the north godspeed in the solution and
management of it. He appealed to the
senators and he appealed to the people OF
the north to believe southern men when
they said they were far more interested in
an orderly, humane, honest settlement OF
the question than the people of the north
could possibly be.
This closed the discussion and then the
Senate went into executive session and at
5:15 o'clock adjourned until tomorrow.
CrrpDUn IT'D rr1u QuMarr