The Nation's Peril Part 12

THEN AND NOW--

and we have an array of facts in support of these principles, surpa.s.sing all theories and arguments.

THEN, only white male citizens, twenty-one years of age and over, were voters.

NOW, _all_ male citizens of twenty-one years and over, having the necessary qualifications of residence, etc., have the right of suffrage.

THEN, voting was _viva voce_.

NOW, it is by ballot.

THEN, there was no registry of voters.

NOW, all electors are required to register before voting.

THEN, "returning officers," and those issuing commissions, were bound by the arithmetical results of the polls, and were required to give the commission or certificate of election to the person having the highest number of votes.

NOW, there are boards of canva.s.sers who are required not only to count the returns, but to pa.s.s upon questions of violence and fraud, and to exclude returns from precincts where they find the elections to have been controlled by such means.

THEN, the basis of representation was property, or property and slaves, or slaves by enumerating three-fifths of all.

NOW, it is all the _inhabitants_ of the land.

THEN, white male citizens, and, in some localities, property holders only, were eligible to office.

NOW, _all_ male citizens, save the few under disabilities by the Const.i.tution of the United States, are eligible.

Coming down to a later period in the history of the country, from the time when the death of the lamented Lincoln had left the Republic in the hands of its worst enemies, to the presidential election in 1868, and what is the situation?

THEN, the leaders had succeeded in ripening the people for a revolution against law and order, if that were necessary for the maintenance of issues, differing in character, but similar in design and spirit, to those sought to be gained by the war of the rebellion.

THEN, a reign of terror had been inaugurated in the community which compelled the tacit acquiescence of those who, desiring to express their opinions, were denied the right through the fear of social and political ostracism and physical violence.

THEN, the Government was in the hands of Andrew Johnson, and the hopes of good and just men everywhere, in all sections of the country, of arriving at a peaceful solution of the difficulties through reconstruction, were blasted, and gave no signs of verification in fruition.

THEN, the same spirit was rampant that plunged the country into a sanguinary war, and did not hesitate to express itself in a determined resistance to the new order of things produced by that war.

THEN, men embraced and kissed their wives and children at night, as if leaving them for a far-off journey, not knowing, when they lay down, whether they should awake to peaceful sunlight or to a cabin strewn with the bodies of the loved ones.

THEN had begun the first fruits of the great judgments through which the people were eventually to pa.s.s, and by which alone, it appeared they could be redeemed.

AND NOW CAME THE PROMISE of a new order of things. The political situation of the country had changed. The reins of government pa.s.sed into the hands of men of whom much was expected. Three years have intervened. The false issues that had been raised among the ma.s.ses are _now_ being swept away.

The disorganizing elements are tottering to a fall, and those who had fostered them are seeking to excuse and palliate their course.

They complain that the civil government of the Southern States had pa.s.sed into the hands of carpet-baggers, who had been forced upon them, who were engaged in plundering the people, encouraging the negroes to pillage and destroy the property of the country, and placing them in positions where they could rule over white men.

But this was not in any manner the real trouble. The same oppressive spirit that actuated these men during the days when slavery was a recognized inst.i.tution among them, still obtained. Neither the men of the South nor the sojourners from the North were allowed in those days to freely express their opinions, if those opinions chanced to be in opposition to slavery.

What was treason _then_ against the social and political rights of these would-be-masters of a race, is treason _now_ in their minds; for they have not yet learned to tolerate the free expression of sentiments in such exact antipodes to their early educational training.

To preach the principles of republicanism, to advocate the education of the negro, to urge his right to the elective franchise, were deemed seditious practices, and were opposed _then_ just as they are _now_; there is simply a difference in the mode by which this opposition is manifested.

THEN, it was by argument, supported by local and Federal legislation.

NOW, it is by violence, and the subversion of all law.

THEN the North reasoned and counselled with the South; endeavored to show them the great wrongs done to the bondman, and that the nation could not prosper under the terrible curse of slavery.

NOW the strong arm of the Government is put forth to compel a respect for the rights accorded to _all_ under the law; a situation which, it appears, nothing but the determined front presented by the Administration will lead the people of the South finally to accept.

The efforts of the wicked leaders to misguide the ma.s.ses are persistent.

Many right-minded people of the South are misled by the false statements put forth by those who should, and do know, better, and the pernicious results of whose influence time and the dissemination of truthful intelligence can alone eradicate.

In many instances Republicans have been elected to office, and these are the so-called carpet-baggers. In some localities negroes and mulattoes have been elevated to places of power and trust, and, for this, the people of the South are largely indebted to their own willful neglect.

The Joint Select Committee to inquire into the condition of affairs in the late insurrectionary States, allude to this subject in the following language:

"The refusal of a large portion of the wealthy and educated men to discharge their duties as citizens, has brought upon them the same consequences which are being suffered in Northern cities and communities from the neglect of their business and educated men to partic.i.p.ate in all the movements of the people which make up self-government. The citizen in either section who refuses or neglects from any motive to take his part in self-government, has learned that he must now suffer and help to repair the evils of bad government. The newly-made voters of the South at the close of the war, it is testified, were kindly disposed toward their former masters. The feeling between them, even yet, seems to be one of confidence in all other than their political relations. The refusal of their former masters to partic.i.p.ate in political reconstruction necessarily left the negroes to be influenced by others. Many of them were elected to office and entered it with honest intentions to do their duty, but were unfitted for its discharge. Through their instrumentality, many unworthy white men, having obtained their confidence, also procured public positions. In legislative bodies, this mixture of ignorant but honest men with better educated knaves, gave opportunity for corruption, and this opportunity has developed a state of demoralization on this subject which may and does account for many of the wrongs of which the people justly complain."

Had the evil ended simply in a neglect upon the part of leading citizens to discharge their duties as such, the remedy might have the more speedily been applied. But the views of these men were to be carried far beyond a mere declination to take part in the political reconstruction. They determined that others should not do it and live at peace. Threats and violence were brought into requisition to intimidate and prevent the well meaning from using their efforts to render the political situation such that society could improve rather than be r.e.t.a.r.ded under it.

Evidences of the wide-spread defection are not wanting. That the various orders of the Ku Klux Klans, were guided by men of intelligence, is amply shown these pages; and the fact is corroborated by testimony taken before the Investigating Committee above referred to.

One of the witnesses before this Committee was Gen. N. B. Forrest, of Tennessee, late of the rebel army, and to whom a vast array of circ.u.mstances pointed as being the GRAND CYCLOPS of the Ku Klux Orders.

The fact that he was in receipt of from fifty to one hundred letters per day from all parts of the South upon the subjects of the Order; that he was present in person in districts of the South where its members were placed upon trial; that he had the general conduct and management of affairs at such trials, hovering near the courts, though not appearing in them; that when asked if he had taken any steps in organizing the Order, he made reply that he did not think he was compelled to answer any question that would implicate him in anything; that when asked if he knew the names of any members of the Order, he declined to answer, and finally said he could only recollect one name, and that was Jones; these, and numerous other circ.u.mstances which the investigations have developed, but which a want of s.p.a.ce forbids reciting here, lead to the inevitable conclusion that Gen. Forrest was at the head of the Order.

Some care has been taken to arrive at this fact, as it is evident that a man of enlarged experience and liberal education, as General Forrest is known to be, would draw about him men of equal caliber, thus substantiating the a.s.sertions that the operations of the Ku Klux Klans were guided by men of intelligence, education, and influence, who had been violent secessionists, who had rebelled against the Government, and who were determined to thwart all its endeavors to restore peace and harmony to the distracted country.

General Terry, commanding military district of Georgia, makes report as early as August, 1869, to the Secretary of War, in which he says:

"There can be no doubt of the existence of numerous insurrectionary organizations, known as the Ku Klux Klans, who shielded by their disguises, by the secrecy of their movements, and by the terror which they inspire, perpetrate crimes with impunity. There is great reason to believe that in some cases _the local magistrates are in sympathy with the members of these organizations_."

General Terry's testimony is borne out by that of the United States officials and secret agents and the evidence of recanting members of the order. The cases of Harry Lowther, Ex-sheriff Deason, Susan J. Furguson, Edward Thompson, and hosts of others, show men to have been engaged in these murderous outrages, who were leading lights in the various communities in which they lived. It is not therefore true, as has been attempted to be made out by the Democratic party, that it is the rabble only who are engaged in the treasonable movement.

It is not contended here that all the Democrats of the South are Ku Klux, but it has been most conclusively shown that all the Ku Klux are Democrats, and that they are sworn to oppose the spread of Republican principles. They are determined to rule, and to rule with a rod of iron.

They have settled in their minds that "no government but the white man's shall live in this country, and that they will forever oppose the political elevation of the negro to an equality with the whites."

The report of the above committee, alluding to this condition of affairs, very justly says:

"The facts demonstrate that it requires the strong arm of the Government to protect its citizens in the enjoyment of their rights, to keep the peace, and prevent this threatened--rather to say this initiated--war of races, until the experiment which it has inaugurated, and which many Southern men p.r.o.nounce now, and many more have sworn shall be made a failure, can be determined in peace. The race so recently emanc.i.p.ated, against which banishment or serfdom is thus decreed, but which has been clothed by the Government with the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, ought not to be, and we feel a.s.sured will not be left hereafter without protection against the hostilities and sufferings it has endured in the past, as long as the legal and const.i.tutional powers of the Government are adequate to afford it. Communities suffering such evils, and influenced by such extreme feelings, may be slow to learn that relief can come only from a ready obedience to and support of const.i.tuted authority."

That communities in some portions of the South are still suffering from the evils herein referred to is an established fact, and the testimony is not confined to the cloud of witnesses herein cited. The existence of the Orders of Ku Klux Klans, and the allegations of the outrages perpetrated by its members, have been proven before courts of justice. The most learned advocates employed to defend these criminals have not attempted to deny it.

No less a legal light than the Hon. Reverdy Johnson, of counsel, who appeared, to defend persons charged with the commission of crimes similar to those narrated in the foregoing pages, has admitted it. The trials in which Mr. Johnson appeared as such counsel were had before the November (1871) term of the United States Circuit Court, at Columbia, S. C.

On the sixteenth day of the proceedings, the evidence for the Government having closed, Mr. Johnson made his opening for the defense; and although standing before the court as the legal defender of the members of one of the most terrible organizations known to modern times, he was compelled, in justice to human decency, and in acknowledgment of the truth of the statements presented to the court by the United States Attorney, to use the following language in his address to the jury:

"I have listened with unmixed horror to some of the testimony which has been brought before you. The outrages proved are shocking to humanity; they admit of neither excuse or justification; they violate every obligation which law and nature impose upon them; they show that the parties engaged were brutes, insensible to the obligations of humanity and religion. The day will come, however, if it has not already arrived, when they will deeply lament it. Even if justice shall not overtake them, there is one tribunal from which there is no escape. It is their own judgment--that tribunal which sits in the breast of every living man--that small, still voice that thrills through the heart, the soul of the mind, and as it speaks gives happiness or torture--the voice of conscience--the voice of G.o.d.