West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1906-03-22

nut thc League uld its work well
By promises TO the slaves of fort,
acres of land OF their former mas
tiers linked with the widest ,heorie
OF equality and dominion over thos,
who once ruled them, by drill il
arms and the backing of trained
garrisons gulf between the whit,
man of the South and the Negro
was dug which time can neve,
bridge. It's passions have becom,
part OF the very heart beat of both
races
The Union League Of Americs
was organized in Cleveland, Ohio,
during the war by the friends OF
Ihaddeus Stevens, the Radical lead.
er OF Congress. Its prime object
was the conhscation of the property
of the South. The chief obstacle
to this program was Abraham Lin
coin. Hence the first work of the
League was to form a conspiracy to
destroy Lincoln and prevent his re-
nomination for a second term.
They accordingly nominated John
{. Fremont for President before the
convention met in Baltimore to
name Lincoln's successor, and bold
ly proclaimed war to the knife
agains, the President They figured
on Fremont's prestige as the first
formidable candidate of their party,
his record as pathfinder and his
grievances against the Administra-
ton, but they forgot that he was
born in South Carolina. Fremont
himself gave the League a mortal
blow in its first political program by
boldly repudiatlng their platform of
vengeance and confscation. They
then turned on their own candidate,
cursed him as a fool, and helped
nominate and elect Lincoln as the
lesser of the two evils.
Upon the assassination of the
President, Thaddeus Stevens soon
became dictator of the nation, and
the Union League grew rapidly into
restless political power. Within
two years almost every negro in the
South had been admitted to mem.
bership, drilled in It's anarchIstic
program and the manual of arms.
When the time was ripe, Mr..
Stevens, in 1867, destroyed the
State governments in the South
which had been established by Presi-
dent Johnson, permitting the former
slave to vote to enfranchlse himself
and disfranchise his master at the
same election. He divided the ter
ritory from the James to the Rio
Grande into FIVE military satrapies
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 bayonet at the breast of every
white man.
The South felt that no people had
ever been so basely betrayed or so
wantonly humilialed
Judge Albion w. Tourgee, author
of "a Fools Errand," which is the
carpet-bagger's story of the Kan,
pays tribute in this book to the
organizers of the Invisible En-.
Pire," which is very remarkable,
when we remember that he was writ.
ing of enemies who had on more
than one occasion sought his life.
He says: "Such, however, was
the indomItable spirit Of the South
ern people that they scorned to
yield to what they deemed oppres
sion, protesting with indignation,
denouncing with rage and fercely
submitting almost with tears. No
conquered foe ever passed under the
yoke, which they conceived to mean
seryitude and infamy with more
unwilling step or more deeply NUT
tered curses. The Ku Klux Order
was daring conception for a con
quercd people. Only a race Of wal
like instincts and regal pride could
have conceived 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 magnificent conception and
in a sense deserved success. Il diff
tered from all other attempts at re-
volution in the caution and skill,
with which it required to be con
duc,ed. II was a movement made
in the face Of the enemy and an
enemy Of overwhelming strength.
Should it succeed it would be the
most brilliant revolution ever &C
complished. Should It fail-weH,
those who engaged TO il felt that
they had nothing more to lose.
Judge Tourgee was, in my opin-
ion the noef brilliant cer,.t ~,