Year: 1876




WASHINGTON Jan. ii.
BEN. HILLS SPEECH.


The scene in the House was one tC
make one forget that secession is q
crime. or that there has been a civil
war. That Ben. Hill should appear
in the American Congress at all is u
curious political anomoly; that he
should appear as the eulogist of JEFF.
Davis and to defy the loyal North, is
fact which the future historian will
record with incredulity. 1t was a
speech which all Union soldiers will
read with amazement, pain and an
ger. There were in it the crack of
The old slave whip, the truculent
threats, and the plantation swagger
of the old days. The old slave dog
ma that there is no virtue, except in
violence, was again eXemplitied. Ben.
Hill, in the name of the united South,
and speaking of it as of foreign
country, has returned to threaten to
nullify the acts of the government
which he betrayed, and to announce
a determination 10 control the govern
ment which he disowned, and which
has pardoned him. Protesting that
he was a citizen Of the whole country,
the speech was narrow, bigoted, and
meanly sectional. II raked up the
embers OF dead hate. 1t showed
the bitterness OF al uncOnquered and
unsubdued rebel. The ulterior pur-
pose of his speech was very plain; it
was to show the North that the
South has determined to do within
the Union what it found impossible
to accomplish by secession; that the
South intends to take possession of
the government whose life it sought,
and of the flag which it detested, and
to rule the North. His words were
very plain. When the South went
out of the Union she went hugging
the Constitution to her bosom, and
she comes back bringing it with her.
Turning to the Republican side, he
said that the South had been driven
from the Union by n higher law
(fanaticism) which never kept q
pledge, or obeyed law, and that the
South had come back to compel ia
naticism to obey the law and live in
accordance with the Constitution.
Hills words seemed to burn into the
hearts of fStite Republican iaemlaars.
In their fiery, impadent, brutal, ar
-rogant passion, one could almost see
the old camp-fres burning. Hill de
MED that JEFF. Davis knew of the
Andersonville atrocities, when it is d
fact that there are q score of papers
on file in the Confederate archive OF
Inspectors and other officers at An
Jacksonville, showing that Davis
knew of the atrocities there and did
not interfere. These papers are all
written in Davis own hand.


THE DEMOCRATS ALARMED.


There are rumors that the Demo
Gratis, alarmed by the ultra, unrepent-
ant rebel character of Ben. Hills
speech, have endeavored to induce
him to modify it before it appears on
the record, and to strike out some OF
the more Objectionable passages.
These passages can not he erased
from the memories and note books of
all who heard him. Here are some of
his extraordinary statements. Ben.
Hill, an amnestied rebel, sail that he
could forgive-he nsed the word for
give"-the Union soldiers for what
they did to the South, but he would
not forgive the politicians. He con
trasted Gen. Grant with jeff. Davis,
even in connection with Anderson
vile, and thought Davis the better
man. He charged the murder of the
Andersonville prisoners upon Secre-
tary Stanton. He admitted that he
introduced resolution in the Con
lederate Senate declaring that after
the emancipation proclamation every
Union soldier found on Southern soil
should be treated as a murderer. He
justified this resolution in the House
to-day, and was applauded for it by
the Democratic members. Some OF
the Union soldiers among the Demo
Gratis looked on in surprise and silent
main.