214 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



law for that use? What has that to do with 

 it ? Why, sir, crimes have existed everywhere. 

 Crimes have existed in New England as well 

 as at the South. People have been "hung in 

 New England without judge and jury as well as 

 at the South ; and people have been sentenced 

 there by judicial sentence whose punishment 

 and execution are now looked upon as a blot 

 upon the civilization of the age in which they 

 were executed. Such things have taken place 

 everywhere ; but what has that to do with 

 the question whether the Army of the United 

 States, in violation of the Constitution of the 

 United States, and without any authority of 

 law, has intervened to determine who are the 

 rightful members of a State Legislature and to 

 organize it not by the law but by the bayonet ? 

 That is the question before the Senate. But 

 whenever you touch any such question as that, 

 whenever you point to a violation of law, the 

 old answer, the stereotyped answer, the only 

 song the bird can sing, is 'Ku-klux,' ^ mur- 

 der,' ' assassination,' * outrage ! ' That is the 

 whole of it, sir, and I have no doubt that 

 if the President of the United States to-morrow 

 were to overthrow any government in the 

 Southern States and institute martial law there 

 without authority of Congress, he would be 

 defended exactly by the same cry of ' Ku- 

 klux,' 'White League,' 'murder,' 'homicide." 



"But, sir, that will not do. The time has 

 passed by in the United States when plain 

 violations of law, plain violations of the Con- 

 stitution, can be defended and justified by the 

 cry of 'Southern outrages.' The gentlemen 

 on the other side attempted to work that up 

 last summer. There was a 'Southern out- 

 rage ' mill started ; the Attorney- General of 

 the United States was the head miller ; the 

 grist was ground out ; but the people rejected 

 the product of that mill, and set their seal of 

 condemnation upon the reiterated attempt to 

 keep alive the fires of the late civil war and to 

 still stimulate the hatred of one part of the coun- 

 try toward the other. What do you want to do 

 with' this country? What is your duty Your 

 duty to your country is to harmonize the peo- 

 ple all over the Union, and not to preach sec- 

 tional hatred. Your duty is to bring peace 

 and prosperity upon the country, and not to 

 set the people of one portion against the other 

 by an eternal iteration and reiteration of the 

 doctrine that the people of nearly one-third of 

 this Union are a set of assassins and mur- 

 derers. 



" What warrant has the Senator from Ver- 

 mont for charging the people of Louisiana jj 

 say the people of Louisiana with being a set 

 of assassins and murderers? Because there 

 have been some lives lost down there, does 

 that make the whole people of that State assas- 

 sins and murderers ? Because there have been 

 bad men down there, because there have been 

 bad men down there reckless of their own lives 

 and reckless of the lives of others, does that 

 make the whole community of that great State 



a set of thugs and assassins ? Are the people 

 of Nevada a set of thugs and assassins because 

 bands of men have roamed through there and 

 destroyed the lives of people ? " 



Mr. Edmunds : " I wish to ask the Senator 

 to be good enough to repeat what I said touch- 

 ing the body of people down there being thugs 

 and assassins." 



Mr. Thurman : "If the Senator says they 

 are not, then what justification is there for the 

 General Government to interfere in this man- 

 ner ? " 



Mr. Edmunds: "I have not said they were 

 not or said they were. I am only asking the 

 Senator from Ohio to quote me correctly." 



Mr. Thurman : " What was the whole infer- 

 ence to be drawn from the Senator's speech ? 

 Why does he attempt to picture as he has pict- 

 ured before " 



Mr. Edmunds : " Ah, that is another thing." 



Mr. Thurman : " Does he mean to paint for 

 the purpose of showing that there is a little 

 band here or a little band there of bad men or 

 murderers in Louisiana? Did he not lay it, in 

 effect, at the door of the whole white popula- 

 tion of that State ? Did he not say, in effect, 

 though not in words, that the whole white 

 population of Louisiana were in revolt against 

 the Constitution of the United States, and car- 

 rying out their revolt by assassination and 

 murder? If not, what was the use of his 

 speech ? What was the use of talking about 

 murders and assassinations if they were casual 

 occurrences that have happened in all commu- 

 nities, and especially have happened after the 

 end of a great civil war in every land where 

 such wars have prevailed ? But the Senator 

 says that there are necessary differences with 

 the white population owing to the existence 

 of a black population after the previous exist- 

 ence of slavery down there. I deny that that 

 is any justification, nor is it true in point of 

 fact that there is any such necessary and in- 

 evitable antagonism. Where is there a more 

 peaceful State than Virginia ? Where is there 

 a more peaceful State than North Carolina ? 

 And so of Missouri, my friend (Mr. Bogy) 

 says ; and so I might name State after State. 

 Where is there a more peaceful State than are 

 those States States that were slaveholding 

 States that contain still a large amount of ne- 

 gro population ? 



" No, sir ; it will not do. The Senator knows 

 the reason why Louisiana is agitated. The 

 Senator knows that over two years ago a gov- 

 ernment was foisted upon the people of Loui- 

 siana which was not elected, that the State- 

 house of Louisiana was seized under a midnight 

 order of a Federal judge, an order which our 

 Committee on Privileges and Elections have 

 unanimously declared to be without a parallel 

 in judicial proceedings and utterly void, which 

 he had no jurisdiction to make, which was not 

 even an order of the court, but was the order 

 of the judge at his private house at midnight, 

 without any parties before him, without any 



