The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-11-05

| part OF the very neafl Deaf OF DOth
| races.
The Union League of America was
| organized In Cleveland, o., during the
war by the friends of Thaddeus
Stevens, the Radical leader of congress.
It's prime object was the cOnfiscation
OF the property Of the south. The chief
obstacle TO this programme was Abra-
ham Lincoln Hence the first work of
the league was 10 form Il conspiracy
To destroy Lincoln and prevent his re-
| nomination for second term.
| They accordingly nominated John c.
| Fremont for president betJre the con-
| vention met in Baltimore to name In
| coins successor, and loudly proclaimed
war TO the knife against the president
/ They figured on Fremonts prestige as
! the first formidable candidate of their
/ party, his record as q pathfinder ana
! his grievances against the admiaistra-
| ton. but they forgot that he was born
| in South Carolina Fremont himself
/ gave the league mortal blow IN IT'S
! first political programme by boldly re-
| pudiating their platform of vengeance
/ and cOnhscatiOn. They then turned on
/ their own candidate. cursed him as a
| fool. and helped roommate and eject
/ Lincoln as the lesser Of the two cNits.
| Upon the assassination of he preSl-
| dent, Thaddcus stevens suddan.Y he
[ came dictator o. the nation, and the
/ Union league grow rapidly int rest
/ less power. Within two years almost
! every negro in the south had been adj
/ United to membership, drilled in its
/ anarchistic programme and in the
/ manual Of arms.
! When the time was ripe Mr.. Stevens,
| in 1867, destroyed the state governments
! in the south which had been estab-
/ lished by President Johnson, permit
/ ting the former slave. TO vote 20 en-
/ franchise himself and disfranchise his
| master at the same election. He divid-
| I'd the territory from the James to the
! Rio Grande into five military satraples
! and sent the armies back into the south
! to enforce compliance with negro rule.
! In short, he placed a ballot in the
/ hands of every negro and a~oayonet
| at the breast of every white man.
The south felt that no people had
/ ever been so basely betrayal or 50
| Waptonly humliated.
! Judge Albion TOurgee, author of "A
i Fools, Errand,' which is the carpet
| hagger's story of the Khan. pays trib-
/ ute in this book 10 the organizers OF the
! Invisible Empire, which is very re-
| markable, when we remember that he
! was writing OF enemies who had on
| more than one occasion sought his life.
He says: Such, however. was the
I indOmitable spirit of the southern peO-
I pie that they scOrned to yield TO what
4 they deemed oppression, protesting with
/ indignation. denOuncing with rage and
| fiercely submitting almost with tears.
| No conquered foe ever passed under
{ the yoke, which they conceived to
mean servitude and infamy with more
| unwilling step or more deeply NUT
| tered curses The Ku Klux order was
/ a daring conception for a conquered
] people. Only q race of Warlike in
I Stincts and regal pride could have con-
/ ceived or executed il. Men, women
! and children must have. and be worthy
/ Of implicit mutual trust. They must
/ be trusted with the secrets of life and
/ death without reserve and without
/ fear. 1t was a magnificent conception
| ana in a sense deserved success. It
! differed from all other attempts at rev.
] olution I'm the caution and skill with
\ which IL required to be conducted. II
! VAS q movement made in the face Of
/ the enemy and an enemy of over
/ whelming strength. Shouls il succeed
/ ii would be the most brilliant revolu-
! ton ever accomplished. Should il fail
well. those who engaged in it felt
I that they had nothing more to lose"
/ Judge TOurgec was i'm my opinion,
I the most brilliant carpet-bagger who
/ found fame and fortune in the refined
/ south. In many ways he was q re-
/ markable man. His death WAS de-
| creed by the ku KluX Khan for the
( part he took in perSuading Governor
Holden TO suspend the writ of habeas
/ corpus in North Carolina. The writ
! had never been suspended for Il mo-
/ ment during the entire history OF the
! commonwealth, not even during the
/ four years Of war when the COnscriDt
| acts We're enforced. a hundred picked
/ men We're commissioned TO execute
/ TOurgee and the governor for this
/ usurpatiOn of power and throw their
! bodies ito the Capitol square at Ra-
/ leigh. They failed only because of a
/ warning received in $,He, And yet
| this big-brained, self-poised yankee sat
J down afterwards and wrote the tribute
/ To his foes ! quote. We southerners
| are much too intense in our feelings
/ 10 do such things.
! il never occurred Ia Judge Tourgee
| al the time he wrote this book that the
! members OF this khan we're merely a
! set Of scoundrels and desperadoes.
/ Nothing perhaps better Illustrates the
/ chaotic condition OF the times than the
/ manner in which Judge Tourgee OBJ
/ tanned his title. He applied TO the SUI
/ pTeme court of North Carolina for IL
/ cense 20 practice law and fell thr0,-h
4
ancient and honorable court, composed
/ of men of great ability. as an aggrega-
+ ton Of solemn asses, Ia n for the legis-
] lature on the negro ticket and was
/ elected, He passed a bill through the
Black parliament to deprive the su-
/ preme court Of the right 10 examine can
! didates for the b9r and placed the priv
/ ilege in the hands of the common JUS
| tees of the peace many of who'll we're
mao NH nar
/ He went before a magiStra{e. paid his
/ Zee OF twenty dollars, got his license To
/ practice law without tiamm1tion. van
| for Judge aud took his sedJ on the
1 bench.
I do not record this fact IN any dis
respect 70 the memory of Judge Tour
/ gee. he was man the people Of
J North Carolina would nave been de-
I lighted TO know under nobler condi-
tons. He was one of the few men in
/ our state government At the time who
/ had any brains or conscience at all
/ he was prince among the Judges"
/ who sat with him in those trying days
! We would have thanked God for The
| privilege OF trading a half dozen scala
/ Waes of the native breed for one such
Yankee OF ability.
When the reign of terror which fol-
/ lowed Negro rule reached its climax
as many as nine burning barns We're
seen from the Court House Square of
the town of Dallas in CASTOR county.
North Carolina
Taxpayer conventions met and ap-
peaied to Washington in vain. The adj
ministration answered by sending more
rifles 10 arm the NEGRO militia.
The laws torbidding the inter-
marriage of races We're repealed by
military proclamation and the com
handing general of North Carolina
took a negro woman with him over the
in lv.Ar.41 l..