Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1871 — Condition of the South. [ARTICLE]

Condition of the South.

It has been the earnest hope of all Republicans that the day for. stem measures on the part pi the General Government towards the States lately in rebellion, and especially for all military occupation of the South, hud passed—the lawless and rebel lious element having been subdned by the better sense of the people of that section. Such is still the general hope among temperate men of all parties; but it must lie confessed that recent developments arc strengthening the friend* ot stringent measures. Such seems to ba 'the opinion of the President, as well as of prominent men in Congress who iiave not been distinguished by any spirit of vindictiveness toward the South, and who would, still less, allow themselves to be instrumental in creating a popular panic for political purposes. As the political purposes to be subserved by a distortion of the facts concerning the Ku Klux element become less possible, we may place the more confidence in the candor of such reports as reach us from the disturbed districts. Accounts of outrages; principally upon colored citizens anil their families, fill the newspapers; but these cannot always be relied upon as authenlie evidence. In the way of official reports, we had, recently, that of the Governor of Texas, of certain notorious outrages in Ilill and Warren counties, of that State, where not only were the murderers of negroes allowed to go unpunished, but they were liken by force from the State authorities, and released by those claiming local authority and apparently having the support of the people in their localities. Governor Holden, of North Carolina, assured the President that allairs in liis State are getting desperate, and that, if not checked by some authority stronger than his own, they will soon drift into utter anarchy. Late advices show a more alarming condition of affairs in South Carolina, where armed men have tom up railroad tracks to prevent the progress of United States troops, and where the Governor has deemed the Legislature in such danger of an attack by insurrectionary forces that he has posted pickets on all the approaches to the Capitol. He has called upon the President for 4,000 troops to suppress the insurrection, and represents the State Government as in an almost helpless condition, owing to the scarcity of funds and the secret opposition of moneyed corporations, including the railroads, which refuse to transport troops and supplies without cash “down.” There seems to be no doubt of the continued existence of the organization known as the Ku-Ivlux Klan. Their- work, done in their peculiar way, a ppcars frequently in nearly all the lately rebellious Slates, and in Kentucky, which was nominally loyal. A recent issue of a Macon, Ga, newspaper, whose editor is evidently, by his speech, in sympathy with the movement, cautions the fraternity against any operations of the mere scarecrow order, characterizing them as “ child’s play,” and advising the league to reserve its es-

forts for deeds that tell. The writer alsocautions the league, of whose strength he boasts in the same breath, against doing anything very violent at present, in view of its apprehended effect on legislstion at Washington. The evidence which the Investigating Committee assigned by Congress to this subject has elicited, has not yet been made public, but the members of that committee authorize the statement that it sustains the claims of the Southern Republicans that a state of lawlessness dangerous to the lives and property of loyal citizens now exists in a large portion of the territory of the late Southern Confederacy. Why not, since the South is reconstructed and readmitted, let the State authorities maintain law, and Congress stand alooff is a pertinent question, after all these facts arc recited. Why not leave the President to aid the Southern Governors as he would the Governor of Illinois in case of an insurrection and a call for help? The answer is that the nation is interested in maintaining the purity 6f elections and the rights of those whom its constitution makes "electors. Butler’s bill, and any other bill which Congress is likely to pass on the subject, will have special reference to elections, and the provisions which it will contain will be those deemed necessary to the enforcement of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, the fact being, as now understood, that the Southern practice of intimidating the weak and the few operates to prevent fail* elections in many localities.— Chicago Tribune, March 8.