50 THE SOUTHERN KU-KLUX^ — THE TEACHING WOMEN. 



zens in their fundamental rights, to j^ass and enforce laws for the 

 extirpation of the execrable Ku-Klux conspiracy ; and, if it has 

 not power to do it, then I say our Government is no Governrt.ent, 

 but a sham. I, therefore, on every proper occasion, advocated and 

 justified the Ku-Klux act. I hold it especially desirable for the 

 South ; and, if it does not prove strong enough to effect its purpose, 

 I hope it will be made stronger and stronger. [Api^lause.] 



Why, fellow-citizens, these very men that asked nie if I saw any 

 Ku-Klux have themselves read the returns of the last Presidential 

 election in Louisiana, when that State, with 30,000 Black majority 

 on its registers, was made to vote for Seymoiir and Blair by more 

 than 30,000 majority ; counties which had 3,000 negro voters alone 

 giving three, two, one, and in several instances no vote at all, for 

 Grant and Colfax. Now, friends, yoxx and they know perfectly well 

 that this result was seciired by terror and by violence ; by telling 

 those Black men, " You shall vote for Seymour and Blair, the ene- 

 mies of your fundamental rights, or you shall not vote at all, or you 

 shall be killed." That was the way Louisiana was made Democratic 

 in 1868 ; and that is the way that I trust she will never be made 

 so to vote again. Therefore I uphold and justify the Kii-Klux 

 law. 



Fellow-citizens, the Kvi-Klux are no myth, althovxgh they shroud 

 themselves in darkness. They are no flitting ghosts ; they are a 

 baneful reality. They have paralyzed the Right of Suffi-age in many 

 counties throughout the South, and have carried States that they 

 ought not to have carried ; but they are not the only enemies to 

 Hepublican ascendancy in the South. 



There is another influence equally pernicious with theii's, and a 

 great deal more detrimental to the fame and character of the Re- 

 publican party. I allude to what are known as the " thieving carpet- 

 baggers." [Applause.] Fellow-citizens, do not mistake me. All t\\e 

 Northern men in the South are not thieves. The larger part of them 

 are honest and good men, some of whom stay there at the peril of 

 their lives, because tliey believe it their duty. Next to the no- 

 ble and true women who have gone down South to teach Black 

 cliildren how to read — nobler there are not on the earth than these, 

 whom a stupid, malignant, dilapidated aristocracy often sees fit to 

 crowd into negro hovels to live, not allowing them to enter any 

 White society because they are teaching negro children — next to 

 these, who rank as the noblest women in the South, are the honest 



