The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-11-20

State by an act of Congress.
What would the people of any Northern
State do under like circumstances?
What would any brave people do who
were thus despoiled-despoiled of their
political rights by strangers and the
most degraded class of their own citi-
zens. and then plundered of their in
dividual property, and made bankrupt
as 1t community?
These oppressive and humiliating
measures. imposed by Congress upon a
vanquished and unhappy people, follow
ed by the spOliation described by the
witnesses whose testimony we have
given, have without doubt caused bitter
ness of feeling and led to outbreaks and
Outragcs. The evidence taken
before the committee shows that there
never has been II case of forcible re-
sistance, or resistance of any kind, to
any civil or criminal process issued by
any court in the State.
Every judge and every solicitor in
! the State was radical. There were
| localities in the State in which the radl-
| Gals predominated overwhelmingly, ana
! if crime was committee where the IN
fuence of the Ku KluX prevented a
| conviction it was only necessary Tor
| the solicitor to make a motion, ana the
Judge could order the removal Of the
case from county to county untll Il
satisfactory result was reached.
ut is perfectly evident from the evil
dcnce that the process Of the courts
/ could be executed without military
force: that no resistance was offered to
! its execution. 1t is clear also that the
yp1
| any place to some county in which Il
/ fair trial might have been had Why,
then. did the Governor prefer to resort
to the extreme measure of proclaimIng
i the counties Of Alamance and Caswell
in insurrection rather than use the
4 remedies ready to his hand of removing
the causes to counties in which convic-
tions might have been obtained? Why
did he call on the President for troops
set ON foot his negro militia. led by ruff
:, fans imported into the State on account
of their extraordinary brutality, and
j, proceed to seize, imprison, insult and
torture his prisoners? There is but one
, explanation. His object was to strike
terror to the people and drive them from
, the polls, and thus carry the elections
/, and maintain himself and his fellow
| ullSCTpdIlS III DbAtls anu lIu9 w 1ii'ADAN'
to continue to plumber and tyranniZt
over the unhappy people who had beer
subjected to his sway by the direct ac
ton of the Congress of the Unitec
| States.
''North Carolina is one of the larges
States. territorially. in the Union, and i
divided into eighty -seyen counties, an(
contains nearly one and a half million
. of people No act of lawlessness is ac
tualy proven to have been committed
a excepting in one or the other of six
perhaps eight of these counties; and ye
it is proposed to employ violent ant
stringent measures of coercion or re
: preston to the remaining nine-tenths o
I a State against which no breath of eyi
| dence or proof of lawlessness has eve
: been adduced; but which on the con
. trary, exhibits a condition of quiet al
: most suggesting the insensibility of de
spar What cause can be alleged, wha
: Justification to the American people car
I be urged for this renewed and wantOI
invasion of n peaceful community? The
I statement that anarchy there exists Is
absolutely untrue, and the testimony
q now laid before the Senate overwhelm
+ ingly establishes its untruth."
THOMAS NJ pITIAIAN.