DocumentsIllustrative.com Forum Index DocumentsIllustrative.com
Discussions on the TRUE meaning of the U.S. Constitution
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

ENFORCEMENT OF THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT

 
This forum is locked: you cannot post, reply to, or edit topics.   This topic is locked: you cannot edit posts or make replies.    DocumentsIllustrative.com Forum Index -> Essays and Writings Contributed by Forum Members (Locked)
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Administrator
Site Admin


Joined: 11 Dec 2006
Posts: 23

PostPosted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 11:08 am    Post subject: ENFORCEMENT OF THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT Reply with quote

APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE
42d Congress, 1st Session, House of Representatives

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llcg&fileName=100/llcg100.db&recNum=623

Enforcement of Fourteenth Amendment
Speech of Honorable H. E, Havens, of Missouri, In the House of Reps. April 6, 1871

∙∙∙∙∙On the bill (H. R. No. 320) to enforce the provisions of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and for other purposes.

∙∙∙∙∙ Mr. HAVENS. Mr. Speaker, the evil we seek to cure by the passage of this bill emanates from no transient causes and is no danger of momentary existence or trifling import. And we shall deceive ourselves and fail in our duty if we treat it as a mere outbreak of temporary passion, to pass away when hot blood has cooled and reason had time to regain ascendancy. This is a deliberately-planned, cold-blooded conspiracy, designed to affect the future control of the Government and ultimately to destroy some of the most essential and beneficent features of the Constitution. It is the same old enemy with which we have been contending for the last ten years, renewing its warfare upon a new and more dangerous plan of attack, in the desperate hope of defeating the logical consequences of its overthrow upon the field of arms to which it appealed.

∙∙∙∙∙ We cannot shut our eyes to the painful facts before us. The evidence is indisputable. The existence of a secret, oath-bound organization, composed exclusively of Democrats who participated in the rebellion, the members whereof are sworn to violent hostility to the Republican party and to protect each other in crimes committed against the individual members of it by false testimony in the courts and corrupt verdicts as jurymen, is established beyond contradiction. It is a political organization, and its purposes are the accomplishment of political ends by whipping and scourging negroes into the support of the Democratic party. Here in this volume of six hundred pages is the testimony of scores of witnesses, many of them prominent Democrats, who have sworn that these things are true, while the details of the numerous crimes committed under its direction are revolting to humanity and disgraceful to the civilization of the age. The barbarisms of the Indian tribes on our western frontier scarcely surpass in fiendish malignity the heartless cruelties practiced upon the unoffending negroes of the South. But those who vote the Democratic ticket are not molested, and security can he purchased by yielding allegiance to that party and obeying the mandates of its leaders.

∙∙∙∙∙ And, sir, this organization is rapidly spreading itself wherever the rebellion prevailed, and is gathering in all its available forces for the diabolical work it has undertaken. Already the cries of its victims are borne to us upon every breeze that comes from the South. Hundreds have been murdered in cold blood at midnight, and thousands more have been subjected to all the indignities that heartless villains could invent for the persecution of unoffending and defenseless citizens. Officers of the Government, in the honest discharge of their duties, have been the recipients of these cruelties, and forced, under threats of death, to abandon their homes and families, leaving the public revenues to go uncollected, the national interests without a guardian, and a brutal mob to gloat over a petty triumph of hate toward the Government.

∙∙∙∙∙ The monstrous character of this so-called Ku Klux Klan is shown by the testimony of numerous witnesses examined before the investigating committee of the Senate. From the statements of one of them I quote the following:
    Question. Upon the oath administered, the mode of procedure prescribed, and the government of the organization, so far as you have observed, are the members bound to carry out the decrees of the order if they involve murder and assassination?”

    Answer. I think so, sir. If it was decided to take the life of a man, a camp is ordered to execute the sentence, and is bound to do it.”

    Question. If any arrests should be made by the civil authorities for murders or other crimes committed in pursuance of the decrees of a camp, to what extent did the obligations of members bind them to assist and protect each other?”

    Answer. To whatever extent was in their power.”

    Question. Did it go to the extent of giving testimony in behalf of each other or of acquitting if upon a jury?”

    Answer. I think that was one of the objects and intentions of the organization, that a person on the witness-stand, or in the jury-box, should disregard his oath in order to protect a member of the organization.”

    Question. Having stated in general terms the objects of this organization to be the overthrow of the reconstruction policy and the disfranchisement of the negro, state now by what means these objects were proposed to be accomplished.”

    Answer. Well, I think the contemplation was almost any means that were necessary to secure the supremacy of the party opposed to the recent amendments to the Constitution; if it was necessary to whip a man to break down his influence against us, they would do it; if necessary to kill him, they would do that.”

    Question. What extent of means was to be used to influence elections?”

    Answer. We can only judge of that by the manner in which the organization has operated to influence elections, by riding around in the night-time disguised to the houses of poor white men and negroes, and informing them that, if they went to the election, such and such would be their fate–proceedings of that kind; and by whipping, and at the same time informing them that a part, at least, of their offense was having voted the Republican ticket.”

    Question. In speaking about the punishing of men on these raids in the first part of your testimony what do you mean ?”

    Answer. Whatever punishment was passed upon in the camp.”

    Question. For what were they punished?”

    Answer. I do not know; just whatever they saw proper, If they thought the man ought to be killed for being too prominent in politics they would have a meeting and pass sentence upon him. I have no doubt in my own mind (though I have no information from others that such was the case) but what Outlaw was killed in order to break up the organization of the colored voters in my own county, or frighten them away from voting.”

    Question. Were there any whippings in the county?”

    Answer. Yes, sir. I believe there were one hundred or one hundred and fifty in the last two years in the county, white and black. Some have been whipped two or three times.”
∙∙∙∙∙This witness was at one time a member of this organization, though it appears that he abandoned it without participating in any of its criminal acts. He is a lawyer and a Democratic politician. The committee state that he bears a good character in his profession and as a citizen. His testimony is corroborated by scores of other witnesses, and stands uncontradicted. To further show the infamous character of this organization I quote from the testimony of Thomas F. Willeford, on page 240. This witness was persuaded by big friends to join the organization, but becoming alarmed with its dangerous tendencies withdrew from it, and ceased to participate in its crimes:
    Question. What was its object and how did it carry out its object?”

    Answer. Well, I believe it carried it out by all the meanness it could. The intention of it was, so the leading men told me, to overthrow the Republican party and put the other party in power. That is the way the oath was administered to me.”

    Question. After you had taken this oath, state whether there was any explanation given as to what it meant.”

    Answer. Well, it meant the overthrow of the
    Republican party and injure it all that they could, and have the other party come in power.”

    Question. What did they tell you then was the object of the organization?”

    Answer. They told me it was to damage the
    Republican party as much as they could—burning, stealing, whipping negroes, and such things as that.”

    Question. Murder.”

    Answer. The leading men it was to murder.”

    Question. State to what extent this Ku Klux Klan was to go in breaking up what they called the Radical party.”

    Answer. Well, we was to put it out of the way some way or another, if not kill and burn, till we got the
    Democrats into power.”

    Question. That was the direction you had from the Klan?”

    Answer. Yes, sir; the direction that they gave me and all the balance that was in there when I was.

    Question. Was that carried out?”

    Answer. Yes, sir; I believe so; it has the power, any how.”
∙∙∙∙∙ Mark the fact that this testimony shows what I have stated to be true, that this organization is political in its character, that its purpose is the disfranchisement of the negroes, the overthrow of the amendments to the Constitution and the reconstruction laws by any species of bloody violence toward members of the Republican party that it may deem necessary. And this testimony is corroborated by numerous other witnesses, as well as by the startling facts that come to us daily through the ordinary channels of information.

∙∙∙∙∙The details contained in this volume of the fiendish brutality of these hands are absolutely shocking. The following cases, mentioned in the testimony of Thomas Settle, a judge of the supreme court of North Carolina, are not more brutal than hundreds of others, and much less so than many:
    “Two magistrates had issued a warrant for parties charged with whipping an old negro man over seventy years of age, very feeble and partially blind. The magistrates attempted to make an investigation. Some seventy or eighty men gathered around at the trial, and made such a disturbance that the magistrates were very glad, as they told me, to make a compromise to keep the man safe.”

    “This offense was even more shocking than the murder. They took this old man, stripped him perfectly naked, and gave him some fifty stripes with switches. Then they took his two daughters, who were living in the house, stripped them down to their chemises, and whipped them. Then they took a young negro man who was in the house that night and whipped him.”

    “Another instance occurred where there was something said about voting. The men went into a cabin where there was a little deformed, humpbacked negro by the name of Watt Richardson, and they whipped him severely.”

    “They whipped this little negro, and then commenced whipping another negro and his wife. Seeing them draw some pistols, the woman began to cry out murder and make a great noise. There was a large fire burning on the hearth, and one of the men seized a chunk of burning wood and thrust the fire-brand down her mouth. They said it was six weeks before the woman recovered. The information came to me from the husband and other negroes. There was one other case. They went to another house of an old colored man named Lindsey Poindexter.” * * * * “They fired into the cabin of the old colored man, as usual; the shot struck him in the toe, and took one of them off. He jumped up and succeeded in getting away. It was dark, and he ran off. They then went to the fire-place and picking up the contents of it, threw them into the bed, where his wife and little children were. The woman and children jumped out as quick as they could; being a straw bed it caught fire, and the house and everything in it was burned up. These were the most aggravated offenses. A great many more were whipped terribly; they came to me and showed their scars.”
∙∙∙∙∙ But, sir, the outrages of these lawless bands are not confined to negroes alone. White Republicans in numerous instances have been the victims of their cruel violence. The following is a specimen case of hundreds, illustrating the manner in which white men, for daring to vote the Republican ticket, are awed into silence and driven from their homes into exile:
    Question. Were you visited at any time by men in disguise? If so, state briefly at what time and what they did.”

    Answer. On the evening of the 26th of November, 1869, I preached to the colored people at their request, during a revival which they had; there were some noises about the window during the evening; I went home; at twelve o’clock at night something was thrown on the roof of the house which waked myself and wife, and then a rail came against the door and broke the lock; in came five men; I was rising from my bed; two of them seized me by my legs and dragged me out of the door; soon two others took me by the arms, and four of them in that way carried me in double quick time about a mile and a half and set me down in a thicket and began to beat me with hickory sticks. I felt relief then, for I thought they were not going to hang me. I felt three blows; the next day revealed thirty marks on my back; I have the scars now. I fainted; the first I knew they kicked me in the side and said, ‘Get up;’ I rose part way and fell back; they lifted me up; and one of them shaved my hair close, one half of it, and with a sponge painted half of my face black.”

    “My knee was callous; I have a callous joint. They pulled it out straight and I screamed. They told me to hush up (we were passing a house) or they would blow my brains out, and they struck me with a revolver over my eye-lid.”
∙∙∙∙∙ This poor cripple had committed no offense. Nothing was alleged against him but his adherence to the faith of the Republican party. But his treatment was scarcely less brutal and revolting than that of scores of others of the highest standing and respectability. Men holding high offices under the Government have been the victims of similar brutalities, and driven out of their States under threats of speedy death, merely because their political influence was feared.

∙∙∙∙∙ Here are more than four hundred pages, detailing the operations of this organization in a single State, of which the foregoing are but average specimens. Is it any wonder that with this powerful ally the Democracy were able to carry North Carolina and impeach and remove a Republican Governor from office? Is it strange that they boast of assured victory in all the southern States not yet under the domination of these criminal conspirators against the freedom of the ballot?

∙∙∙∙∙Sir, are not these things of awful import? And when we reflect that they are occurring every hour, carrying fear and terror to the homes of thousands, and that there is no hope nor pretense of protection from the local governments, ought we not promptly to extend the fullest power of the Federal authority over them for their security? No man has yet been punished for these crimes, and they are perpetrated with absolute impunity.

∙∙∙∙∙The following testimony of one of the judges of the supreme court of North Carolina, confirmed by the testimony of several other judges, who were sworn before the Senate committee, explains one of the means by which the law is evaded. He says:
    “I suppose any candid man in North Carolina would tell you it is impossible for the civil authorities, however vigilant they may be, to punish those who perpetrate these outrages. The defect lies not so much with the courts as with the juries. You cannot get a conviction; you cannot get a bill found by the grand jury, or if you do, the petit jury acquits the parties. In my official capacity I sit with Judge Pearson and Judge Dick. Judge Pearson issued a bench warrant last summer for some Parties, and had them brought before him at Raleigh. He requested Judge Dick and myself to meet him. We did so, and the trial extended over three weeks, and there it came to our knowledge that it was the duty and obligation of members of this secret organization to put themselves in the way to be summoned as jurors, to acquit the accused, or to have themselves summoned as witnesses to prove an alibi. This they swore to; and such is the general impression. Of course it must be so, for there has not been a single instance of conviction in the State.”
∙∙∙∙∙ The strangest and most alarming feature connected with this subject is that this organization is countenanced and encouraged by a large portion of what is known as the better class of southern people. The victims are invariably Republicans, both white and black; and their destruction seems to be regarded as a work of Christian charity by many who would be foremost in suppressing ordinary crimes. No such organization could exist for a day in any community if the moral sentiment of the people were resolutely against it. Let such a band of disguised marauders commence their midnight rides in almost any locality of the North, and no eye would sleep until they should be brought to justice and the authority of the law vindicated. How sad and discouraging, sir, is the picture of the moral condition of those great communities where these startling crimes and cruel barbarisms proceed without molestation or interference; and how more than discouraging, how full of danger, is the fact that partisans for partisan purposes tacitly encourage the growth and spread of these organizations, or, as is shown in this testimony to be frequently the case, connect themselves with them. Witnesses of the highest standing and respectability have sworn that though many Democrats in the South condemn these outrages, the influence of the party, as a whole, is in their support.

∙∙∙∙∙ That this organization is a political one, and is tacitly countenanced by a large portion of the Democratic party of the South, is shown by the testimony of numerous witnesses, as well as by the known course of the leaders of the party in making no effort for its suppression, and by the expressions of a considerable portion of the press. One leading Democratic newspaper in the South has had the courage and patriotism to denounce these outrages and rebuke a Democratic Legislature for refusing to pass a law for their suppression; but the conclusion is irresistible that the weight of the moral sentiment of the southern Democracy is not favorable to any action tending to suppress them. Unable to command the Army to go into the South to “drive out the carpetbag State governments at the point of the bayonet,” as the Democratic candidate for the Vice Presidency in 1868 demanded should be done, these Ku Klux bands seem to have been called into service by the Democratic party to do the work by midnight, violence and murder. When, sir, in the history of civilization was a more monstrous crime ever attempted? Is it not absolutely without a parallel anywhere?

∙∙∙∙∙ It is shown, sir, in this testimony that in the meetings of these camps questions concerning the disposition to be made of Republicans who are thought to be too prominent and influential are presented, deliberately discussed, and determined. The decree of the Klan is ordered to be carried out by men detailed for the purpose. The victim is either hung or shot, or whipped and ordered to leave the country. Thus the lives of men are made to depend upon the action of desperate, irresponsible bands in midnight council, before whom the accused is not permitted to appear, and of whose deliberations he is ignorant and unsuspecting. His first information of the verdict against him is the horrid yells of the bloodthirsty executioners around his home at midnight and the volleys from their shot-guns and revolvers, which not unfrequently include the horror-stricken wife and children in the fate of the real object of vengeance. Democrats, this work is yours! It proceeds because you have not the courageous patriotism to rebuke it and put it down. These men are members of your party, organized avowedly to exterminate Republicans and secure power for you. Your condemnation would disband them in a day and give security to the country, but you do not give it.

∙∙∙∙∙ Sir, the evidence before us is startling. Local causes may occasionally breed violence and crime in any community, but this organization of lawless conspirators spreads over half the territory of the Republic, and violence and terror and persecution follow wherever its camps are established. In a single State its numbers are estimated at forty thousand. Its entire force would make up powerful armies. Against such an organization, thoroughly disciplined and moving in disguise at unsuspected moments, the unprotected objects of its malignity are powerless to interpose successful resistance, while the local authorities either cannot or will not afford protection. In many cases the local officers are in sympathy with the marauders, and in others they are themselves members of their organization; and so, for all the, many hundred acts of violence and outrage committed by these bands, not a single man has been brought to punishment, and the, evil is growing and spreading every hour.

∙∙∙∙∙ Sir, what does all this mean? Are we deceiving ourselves as to the character of this dark conspiracy and the meaning of these dark deeds? I trust that we are not. It means that the Republican party of the South is to be crushed out. It means that the colored voters are to be terrorized into submission to the political purposes of their old masters. It means that the Democratic party, the ally and reserve force of the rebellion and disloyalty, is to seize control of the Government in 1872, if violence and outrage can succeed in wresting from the Republican voters of the South the free exercise of the elective franchise. These things are but the opening skirmishes of the campaign of next year, the early development of the tactics by which the freedom of the ballot is to be overthrown to make way for Democratic victory.

∙∙∙∙∙ General Grant lost the electoral vote of New York in 1868 by reason of frauds in New York city unparalleled in the history of free government; but the end sought was not reached. Another desperate struggle is to be made to secure the power so much coveted; and this time whole States are to be given over to mob violence, and a reign of terror inaugurated in order that that power may be secured. The Ku Klux bands are but the agencies through which Democratic victories are to be won over the intimidated and fear-stricken victims of midnight violence and wrath.

∙∙∙∙∙ Sir, what are we to do? Are the appeals which come to us for protection every hour to go unheeded? Can we give no security to these people in the rights which are theirs under the Constitution of their country? I answer that it is our plain duty to bring the power of the Government to bear to bring peace to these communities and security to every fireside. Let the authority that has thundered its demands in the face of a foreign Power when the rights of a single American citizen have been invaded be invoked now to give protection to the thousands on our own soil whose lives are in constant peril, and whose most sacred rights are being trampled under foot by a worse than foreign foe. We cannot shirk this duty without proving false to a most sacred trust. The Constitution has conferred certain rights upon its citizens, and guarantied them protection and security in their enjoyment; and we, as the guardians of those rights, would be worse than cowards, and subjects of the scorn and contempt of those who sent us here, if we should abandon these people to the violence of the mob without an effort in their behalf.

∙∙∙∙∙ Mr. Speaker, the whole South is fast drifting into a condition of chronic rebellion. The hopes inspired that through a Democratic victory in the nation the dead rebellion may be quickened into vigorous life is arousing once more the evil spirit of disloyalty and calling into action the devilish agencies through which it has ever sought to accomplish its desperate purposes. The poison of disloyalty has permeated deep into the heart of the South, and is ever ready to break forth in dangerous if not incurable sores. It is, perhaps, ineradicable; but the skillful hand may control it and check its further progress. And this must be done, and done speedily, or the whole body-politic will become involved in the disease. The South cannot drift into anarchy and war without dragging the North into the disastrous contest. A war of races and of parties cannot be inaugurated and perpetuated there without spreading its evil influences over the North and ranging corresponding forces in hostile attitude.

∙∙∙∙∙ I repeat that the disorders breaking out so threateningly in all parts of the South portend evils of no ordinary magnitude and danger. We comforted ourselves in 1860 and 1861 with the reflection that the dangers that threatened us did not mean war. Let us not deceive ourselves again. These clouds have no rainbow tints in them. The South did not contemplate a bloody war, in which slavery would be uprooted, when she began to pass ordinances of secession, but the movement once begun became uncontrollable and had to be followed through seas of blood to a legitimate conclusion. And so now this dangerous organization, composed of tens of thousands of trained soldiers fresh from the rebel armies, well armed and under the control of dangerous and unscrupulous men, may carry us all beyond the point now contemplated by the Democratic leaders. It is in their service, and it may require some self-sacrifice for them to disown and condemn it; but let them look well to the dangers they invoke and pause before they thrust themselves immovably in the way of all measures for its extinction. These crimes cannot always go on unmolested and unresisted. Retaliation will begin sooner or later, and bloody revolution must follow. Consider well before you drive this patient people to this last alternative. In the great heart of the people there is no sympathy with cruelty and injustice, and you may push your mad work too far.

∙∙∙∙∙ But we, are told that there is no power in the Constitution to afford the needed protection; that these people must be left to the mercy of the local governments under which they live. This bill is unconstitutional, we are informed from the other side of the House, and we are charged with a purpose to overturn the foundations of popular liberty in seeking us passage. Sir, this is an old and familiar cry. It has been sounding in our ears for the last ten years. We were told in 1861 that there was no power under the Constitution to make war upon the rebellion for the preservation of the Union. We were met, at every stage of the rebellion, in all our efforts for its overthrow, with the cry that what we did was unconstitutional. No single act was ever passed by this body, and no policy ever adopted by the Executive looking to a vigorous prosecution of the war against the rebellion, that did not elicit from the Democracy the cry of unconstitutionality. This was the chief weapon with which they fought, but it was most energetically wielded; and no measure, however plain and simple, could be proposed now for the purpose of suppressing the lawless outrages by which freedom of the ballot is to be crushed out and Democratic victory won that would not be assailed as unconstitutional by the Democratic party.

∙∙∙∙∙ Shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart the Democracy of the North and of the South confront us. There is no issue between them, and their united voice is against any legislation that shall interfere with the means by which they are to grasp power; and these Ku Klux bands are their forlorn hope. The untrammeled voice of the American people has so often pronounced against them that that voice must be stifled and silenced. It is not strange, then, that this bill calls forth bitter opposition. It is not strange that the arguments by which the rebellion was defended and the Government assailed are once more appealed to in this new struggle for the mastery. It seems to be the great idea of the Democratic party that the Government is worth nothing unless they can rule it; and every right of the citizen, and the peace and good order of whole communities and States, are to be sacrificed in their mad struggle, for power.

∙∙∙∙∙ Gentlemen upon the other side have told us that these organizations are not approved by the better class of the southern people nor by the Democratic party. Sir, if they were not tacitly countenanced by the party that is willing to derive the advantages of their operations they could not exist. If the Democratic party would denounce them as they deserve, cease to countenance them by apologizing for them, and join in demanding vigorous measures for their extinction, they would speedily pass away. It is the moral encouragement given them upon this floor and elsewhere by the Democracy, who palliate their crimes and resist legislation for their suppression, that gives them courage and speeds them in their infamous work.

∙∙∙∙∙ We had fondly hoped that by this time the Democracy would have abandoned the issues of the war and directed their energies to the restoration of peace and the rebuilding of shattered interests upon the basis of equal and exact justice to all the people as guarantied by the amended Constitution. But we have been disappointed, and to-day we find the purposes of that party directed to the work of reversing the settlement of those issues in the interests of a dead rebellion, for which it mourns, and for whose fate it refuses to be comforted.

∙∙∙∙∙This purpose is justified by the assertion that the policy of the Republican party has been harsh and cruel, and bears heavily upon the southern people. But how feeble is this pretense in the light of facts! This Government has demanded no drop of blood and no man’s liberty. The enforcement of the laws against treason has never been asked; not even the leading conspirators have ever been punished for their betrayal of the Government. Every northern fireside sorrowed for slaughtered sons and brothers, and widows with broken hearts and orphans left defenseless saddened every neighborhood. Taxation and debt became a burden upon every individual. But all these things did not arouse the North to a spirit of vengeance. And even in the hour of victory, when they might have been cruel, they were generous beyond prudence. Not even the power for future mischief was withheld from those who had made war upon their country; and to-day nearly a score of men who held commissions in the armies of the rebellion and periled their lives to overthrow the Constitution and Government occupy seats upon this floor, the equals in political rights and privileges of the most faithful, and assume to lecture us upon our disregard of the Constitution and the rights of the people. Sir, this talk of injustice and harshness on the part of the Government toward the South can have no force here, and will wake no responsive echoes among the people. There is no foundation for it.

∙∙∙∙∙ But what should we say of that Government which, having thus forgiven its enemies, should refuse protection to us faithful citizens from the persecution and violence of those who have been the recipients of its generous charity?

∙∙∙∙∙ Mr. Speaker, if I occupied the stand-point of a mere partisan I should not regret the existence of these Ku Klux organizations, nor the action of the Democratic party in resisting measures for their suppression. How often has the stupid action of that party forced victory upon our banners! The North, wearied with the continued agitation of war issues, has long sought to abandon them and grapple with new questions. But each indication of flagging purpose has kindled new hope in the South and revived the effort for final victory. And thus the loyal people have been forced again and again to meet these issues and triumph upon them.

∙∙∙∙∙ It seems as if disaster and impending danger have ever been necessary to hold the loyal people to their duty. Bull Run and the early disasters around Richmond filled us with dismay, but they opened our eyes to the magnitude of the struggle in hand, and nerved us for the contest that gave us the emancipation proclamation and Appomattox. And how, when armed hostilities had ceased, we tried to prevail upon the southern people to reorganize their States upon a loyal basis, promising to leave the loyal blacks to depend upon them for the ballot and the protection of their rights. But the fatal error of the South in following the lead of a treacherous Executive, who betrayed us, forced us to do justice, and gave us the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. The bold declarations of a purpose to undo the work of reconstruction by armed force, if necessary, indorsed by the Democratic national convention in the nomination of its candidate for the Vice Presidency in 1868, warned us that our work was not done, and gave us an easy victory and a President of our choice.

∙∙∙∙∙ And so now the bloody work of these bands of Ku Klux in the South, and the action of the Democratic party in palliating their crimes and defending them from hostile legislation, is but a repetition of the history of the past six years, another four years of failure platform; and I hail it as the harbinger of continued triumph, the early assurance of victory in 1872.

∙∙∙∙∙ Mr. Speaker, the bill originally proposed by the distinguished gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. BUTLER] would be more in accordance with my views of the necessities of the emergency we are called upon to provide for than the one before us. But this one, I trust, will be found as efficient as those who prefer it hope that it may be. In dealing with the questions which have grown out of the rebellion radical legislation is wisest. Timid and half-way measures aggravate rather than cure the evils they are designed to reach.

∙∙∙∙∙ The State which I am privileged in part to represent upon this floor furnishes a striking example of the wisdom of courageous and thorough legislation in dealing with this subject. Her loyal people, taught by the experience of four years of bitter, cruel war, which raged around their own homes, sweeping away all that they had but their courage, their honor, and their patriotism, understood the nature of the enemy with which they had to contend; and when victory was won they secured it by boldly withholding all political power from those who bad participated in the rebellion or sympathized with it. The protection of a loyal Government was guarantied to every citizen, and genuine peace came to bless the State. Violence and disorder have been almost unknown, and her growth and development in a period of five years are unparalleled in the history o£ American States. More than half a million have been added to her population, while her material wealth has more than doubled in the same period.

∙∙∙∙∙ Time and the influx of loyal population have so far buried the traces of the war and obliterated its bitter memories that the people last fall restored in their fullest extent the rights which the public safety had required should be temporarily withheld. I trust that they have not done so too hastily. But whether they have or not, they have furnished us with an example from which we may learn much. And I should prefer now some more thorough and rigid measure than the bill before us, believing that in the end it would be best for the South and best for the whole country. All our attempts at bringing peace and order to the South by leniency and forbearance have utterly failed. The burning hate that thirsts for the blood of loyal men and manifests itself in the heathenish barbarisms that are disgracing the civilization of the age in the southern States cannot be subdued by gentle solicitations or soothed by the kiss of kindness. Only the generous and just know how to appreciate generosity. These Ku Klux Klans are in no mood to be brought into peaceable submission to the laws by mild and timid legislation.

∙∙∙∙∙ The sullen, bitter, and vindictive hate which moves them will listen to no appeals of reason and moderation. The whole history of reconstruction shows that in proportion as our policy has been thorough and radical we have approached the solution of the difficulties of the situation. Every attempt at begging for harmonious reunion by half-way legislation has only been accepted as evidence of cowardice and a purpose to surrender the issues at stake, and has invited to fresh hostility and defiance. We must learn this lesson and act upon it before we shall reach the end of the struggle and secure peace and union to the country.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
Display posts from previous:   
This forum is locked: you cannot post, reply to, or edit topics.   This topic is locked: you cannot edit posts or make replies.    DocumentsIllustrative.com Forum Index -> Essays and Writings Contributed by Forum Members (Locked) All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group