Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1874 — Senator Morton on the Situation. [ARTICLE]

Senator Morton on the Situation.

Indianapolis, Sept. 18. Senator Morton addressed an immense audience at Masonic Hall this evening upon the past and present condition of the South. He spske earnestly and calmly, and his remarks were applauded Thousands who came to hear him were turned away for want of room. The following is a condensed report of his speech: We are tild that reconstruction is a failure, and that the recent disturbances by the White Leagues are evidence that it was based upon false principles. I dissent from this entirely. So far as reconstruction has failed, it has been by the conduct of its enemies, not because of the intrinsic defects of the system. The resistance offered to it by murderers and desperadoes does' not prove it unsound any more than the violation of the criminal law by felons proves the law to be unsound. The system of reconstruction is based on the broadest principles of justice, equality and republicanism. The Fourteenth Amendment excluded a certain class of rebels from holding office, but that class has been diminished by Congress until it does not number over 150 men. The resistance to reconstruction grows out of the fierce opposition to the abolition of slavery and to the elevation of the negroes to civil and political rights. The proposition to establish a white man’s government, excluding the negro from participation, is at war not only with the system of reconstruction but the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. The White Leagues are an armed organization, having but a single principle, which is that all political power, State and National, shall be vested only in white men, excluding.negroes totally. They rfecqgnizatiso line of demarkation in politics color li#c; their weapons are mur■«der airosperjury, and they point to their own deeds of murder as evidence that the system of reconstruction is unsound and a failure. The recent outbreak of murder and violence, not only in Louisiana, but throughout most of the Southern States, has, in a great part, grown out of a notion that the President would not again interpose to suppress violence the South and to protect the lives and»Hberticßof*tlie people and to mairftain the State Governments in the exercise of their authority. They were 'mistaken, and the President has again interposed; has disarmed the insurrection in Louisiana, and has notified them in Other States that he will enforce the laws for the protection of life, liberty, and property. This shows what would be the condition of things in the South if there was a Democratic administration at Washington that would not interfere for the protection of life and property.

For two months in a majority of the Southern States there has been a high carnival of murder—a reign of terror has again been established the like of which has not existed since the war. But a small part of the crimes are made known to the Northern public. When negroes and white Republicans are shot in droves we hear about it with all the excuses and justifications that can be offered, but of the solitary shooting of negroes in the lonely fields and woods, and in their cabins, the public hear nothing. The men who send out the news from the South are, with few exceptions, Democrats and sympathizers with these crimes; sometimes participators. If they give news of even the larger massacres they accompany it with apologies and justifications. The solitary killings pass unnpficed. In many parts of the South the newspapers dare not publish them; the telegraph is loaded with reports that the negroes are rising, and have conspired to exterminate the whites, and that the whites are standing on the defensive; but when the facts fin ally come, it turns out that only negroes and white Republicans are killed. These stories are disgustingly stupid and silly, and when Northern -newspapers republish and credit them they degrade their own intelligence. We remember how the negroes behaved during the war when they knew their masters were fighting for their perpetual slavery. All the negroes ask is to be let alone; they know very well that they cannot cope with the whites in any struggle with arms; they have little property and comparatively few arms; they are not able to defend themselves. These wicked calumnies are made the pretext for assassination. In every part of the South the White Leagues, or the Ku-Klux, for they are the same, go gunning for negroes; they hunt them like squirrels; they murder them singly and by the score, upon false pretexts or none. In many cases white Republicans are murdered. It is not a war of races —it Is a war of one race upon another and, broadly, it is a war against the Republicans of the South, white and black. This Us not from apprehensions of social equality or fear of the Civil-Rights bill, but to make this a white man’s government and reduce negroes as nearly as possible to slaves. You have heard of 'the butcheries recently committed in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and other States, and I have not time nor strength to enumerate them.

The recent outbreaks have not been confined to one State; they run through nearly the whole South. Louisiana is just now attracting more attention than the other States. On Monday the White League conspiracy broke out in Louisiana, overturned the State Government, and attempted to establish a new one. In the conflict in New Orleans thirty men are reported killed, and fifty wounded. To understand the condition of Louisiana we must go back eight years. During that time the State has been made a vast slaughterhouse, the murders extending to almost every plantation. In 1860 the Republicans in a convention at Mechanics’ Institute to propose amendments to the Constitution were set upon by the police and a vast mob of armed ruffians, and more than 200 killed and wounded in less than thirty minutes. The details of that butchery, given by the committee that investigated it, are sickening, and never excelled in atrocity. In the spring of 1868, the State being reconstructed, an election was held under protection of the Government of the United States, confessed by all a fair election, and the Republicans carried the State by 26,000 majority. In the summer the Ku-Klux were organized. Between Sept. 1 and the November election they killed and wounded over 200 persons, mostly negroes, as shown by the report of the committee of Congress. The cruelties perpetrated were never exceeded by the Indians, nor did that committee examine the whole State. A reign of terror was created; Republicans were kept from the polls, and the Democrats carried the November election by 41,000 majority, making a cliange of 67,000 votes. In some parishes the Republicans cast not a single vote, in others two, and in others ten. After that negroes, for some time, were not shot in droves but the stream of solitary dropping murders rolled on. Warmoth, then a young man of character and promise, had been

elected Governor in the spring by the Republicans, but he turned out to be corrupt, and engaged in many schemes of fraud, in which most of his partners were Democrats. la 1871 the Republicans cast him off, and the Administration at Washington rejected him. Then the Democrats, who had denounced him as having ruined the State, took him to their embrace and formed a coalition by which they were to carry the State, and he was to be made United States Senator in the bargain. His control of the machinery of election, which was all in his hands as Governor, was counted equal to 20,000 votes. Louisiana was notoriously Republican as clearly as Vermont and Mississippi. The Democrats believed that Warmoth could commit fraud enough to overcome that majority. Their entire hopes were based on fraud. They Went into the election with the full knowledge that they could only succeed by fraud. It was the most fraudulent election ever held in the United States. Senator Carpenter and the majority of the Senate Committee declared it an organized fraud and void. Republicans went into it,knowing they were to be swindled. When the election was over they still claimed that they carried toe State by 4,000 or 5,000 majority, and that if the election had been fair they would have had 15,000 or 20,000 majority. It was proven before the Senate Committee that returns from seven parishes, that were relied on to elect McEnery, were forgeries out and out The majority of the Senate Committee, through Mr. Carpenter, reported a bill to provide for a new election, and that nobody was elected. I made a minority report insisting that Kelwas elected, having a majority. Notwithstanding, it seems to be understood by many that toe majority reported in favor of McEnery; they did no such thing. They reported that he was not elected. Ido not say that toe Republicans did not also commit frauds; to use toe language of toe committee, they determined to fight toe devil with fire. The Senator then proceeded to discuss toe composition and proceedings of the Returning Board that counted the votes. The Supreme Court, three of the four members of which had been elected four years before, and were not connected in any way with these troubles, declareddhat the Lynch Returning Board was the lawful board, and that their decision that Kellogg was elected was conclusive. The Senator described the interference of United States Judge Durell and its effect. He did not justify the interference of him nor toe irregularities of toe Lynch Board, but that interference did not change toe question of right or invalidate what had been done. The Supreme Court has repeatedly decided that toe Kellogg Government is toe lawful Government. The President, in five different ways, has recognized it; the House of Representatives recognized it by admitting a member on Kellogg’s certificate; toe Senate did so by repeatedly refusing to pass the bill for a new election.

The Senator reviewed the Colfax massacre, where 100 colored men were killed under circumstances of peculiar atrocity, and only one white man was hurt. He then sketched the Coushatta murders. For all these inhuman crimes not a man has been punished. lam no advocate of Kellogg, but it is only justice to say that he has not belonged to any of the plundering rings, and no robbery or stealing has been Brought home to him. 4The Republicans of Louisiana are not free from fraud. I havesao apology for them. But they are trivial when compared with the system of tnurder by which their ranks have been decimaftd and the whole State demoralise. A relgif of terror destroys the integrity of men as well as their courage. Their enemies in Louisiana claim that charges of corruption and misgovernment which they _ make against Republicans shall sbscure and hide the fact that Louisiana has been one vast scene of murders during the last eight years. If the people of Louisiana would not prove their State to be blighted they must stop the murder business. They cannot expect the Government to. We have got past the point where it was necessary to inquire who was elected. Government cannot exist in any State without there be some tribunal to determine who has been elected; without something can be considered settled. The Kellogg Government has gone on nearly two years. The seizure of the State by the McEnery faction was in the nature of a Mexican pronunciamento. If it is tolerated in one State it will be adopted In others. It would be the introduction of Mexican politics. There is one salvation for the South, the recognition of the equal civil and political rights of the colored people, the protection of lire, liberty, and property. There must be toleration for all opinions and for all parties; it must be as safe tor Republicans as for Democrats. Whatever may be said of the irregularities by which the Kellogg Government was established it is undoubtedly true that it represented a majority of the people of the State. But if McEnery had been placed in ofllce it would have been by a fraud unequaled in extent and wickedness. To expect the negroes of Louisiana to observe the laws sensibly and maintain order upon all occasions while they were being murdered on every hand was absurd. Two apologies are offered for the murder of black and white Republicans throughout the South generally: that whites are driven to it by the robberies of the carpet-baggers. This is a self-evident, weak and senseless falsehood, for the murders and punishments have never fallen upon the thieves, but upon the innocent and the poor. The thieves have always found Democratic partners; when discovered and kicked out of the Republican party they have been warmly received by the Democratic party. The case of Warmoth is a notable fact. Gov. Moses, of South Carolina, is not a carpetbagger, but a native, and is said to have some of the best blood in the State in his veins. He has been kicked overboard by the Republicans. If he offers to join the Democratic party he will probably be received, and thenceforth they will be silent as to his crime*. The next excuse is that the negroes have conspired and armed themselves to exterminate the whites, and these murders are committed by whites in self-defense, These are stupid lies, manufactured by knaves to be believed by idiots. . Gov. Hendricks, in hi* speech the other night, complained that the Government was sending troops into the South, but made no mention of the causes for which they were sent, no allusions to murders and massacres which have taken place; he left his audience to infer that it was simply an outrage on the part of the Government and without cause, and then went on to tell how the white people were outraged and exasperated by the formation of oath-bound, armed leagues of negroes. That was an old story thathad done service in 1868,1870 and 1872. It was impossible for the Governor to pick it out of the gutter, put it on its legs again, and make it serve as an for these murders. The beginning of all improvement and all restoration in the South must consist in the cessation of murder. While that prevails it is idle to hope for reform. It is the greatest of all crimes, and where it prevails it demoralizes and destroys the integrity and character of the people. Nothing Is so destructive to all characteristics of a nation as a reign of terror, and until the stream of murder is dried up people will net go to the South to live, and many who are there will get away as fast as they can. There can be no improvement, education, agriculture, manufactures, nor in any department of business until there Is security for life and property. Excellent Common Cake. —Two cups of sugar, one cup of butter, four cups of flour, one cup of sweet milk, whites of six eggs, three or four teaspoonfuls of baking powder, or one teaspoonful of soda and two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar. —Lemonade Ice. —One quart of nice lemonade, whites of six eggs lieaten to a froth; freeze it.