' / ^: " LIBRARY • H XI A- OF THE . UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS Horace greeley and the [IS ADVOCACY OF THE KU-KLUX ACT AND OF THE LAW TO ENFORCE THE XVTH AMEND¬ MENT ; OF MIXED SCHOOLS AND OF EQUAL CIVIL RIGHTS. Horace Greeley, long known as one of the bitterest critics of the South and of Southern institutions, is now a candi¬ date for the Presidency of the United States ; and, as such, he is making a bid for Southern votes by professions of friendship and kindly feeling towards the people of that section of the country. Is he sincere in those professions ? The lies,of the New York Tribune, a paper which is liis acknowledged organ, and which was entirely under his editorial control until his nomination by the Cin¬ cinnati Convention in May last, must afford the most authoritative answer. The researches made to find that answer have been confined to a period of three lor four years past, ending with this pres¬ ent one of 1872. Ho evidences of his conversion have been found, and any faithful inquirer must, therefore, be con¬ strained to regard him, in the light of his own recent utterances, as the same envenomed calumniator and critic of the South that he formerly was. No Southern man will disagree with this judgment after reading the following extracts, which have been collected with very few, if any, comments. First, at¬ tention is called to what Mr. Greeley has had to say in reference to the alleged con¬ spiracy, known as TUB KU-KLUX KLAi'sT. “ We have been slow to put faith in the curious stories told of an organiza¬ tion called the Ku-klux klan. But a careful study of facts ah* 5 , sifting of tes¬ timony lead directly to the conclusion that there is solid reality under thestuff and nonsense with which the Southwest¬ ern papers mask this rapidly-spreading organization.” * * * '■•They get up a mysterious fellowship ; adopt a fright* fill disguise ; scatter abroad horribly- worded proclamations; make- sudden forays at midnight; and do all fantastic tricks that may fit their purpose. That purpose is to frighten anti annoy loyal colored men (and white men, too, if they can) so that they will leave the Southern States. •• * “■ * What shall be done? Is it to be tolerated that in a land of civil government an irresponsi¬ ble gang of ruffians shall spread terror far and wide over a third of the national domain, or even over a square mile of that domain ? That there is a powerful organization, composed of the worst men in the South, and aiming at the end3 we have described, no one can doubt. Gov. Brownlow is widely censured for his de¬ nunciations of these rascals, and possi¬ bly bis language is open to critroism in the matter of epithets. But when, in any section of the country, it is possible for armed men to ride abroad in disguise, their faces closely concealed, and order this man to move, that other to stay: drag forth and flog one for loyalty ; burn the house of another ; drive unoffending school mistresses from their homes, and spread terror over a whole 6tatc\ it is high time to pull off the gloves *"”—.New York > Tribune of April G. 18CK, j ‘-Yet the South is not without her re¬ maining scourges; and first among.these are her Ku-klux. These are generally rebels who kept out oT' the Confederate armies under one pretext or another, and thus escaped being whipped into good behavior; but some of them were boys, too young to shoulder a mueket in 1801 and 1864, but now old enough for malig¬ nity and mischief. These malcontents, too cowardly for open rebellion, conspire in secret tomakenight hideous by masks and cowardly raids on inoffensive ne¬ groes, whom they hate, abuse, and rob, because they are free. Though but im V insignificant fraction of the Southern whites are Ku-klux, or give them any positive aid, there must be many who do nothing to expose, denounce, and bring them to justice. All who do not, as well as the masquerading villains they vir¬ tually protect, are enemies of the South .”—New York Tribune of March 29, 1870. “That it will be very difficult to sup¬ press Ku-klux outrages in heavily wooded and thinly peopled regions where nearly every man who either has arms or knows how to use them, is in sympathy with the banded perpetrators, wo readily ad¬ mit. But the Federal Constitution, in- cludingthe thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments, is ‘the supreme law of the land,’ which every citizen is bound to obey, which Congress is ex¬ pressly authorized to fortify and uphold, and which the President is solemnly sworn to enforce. * * * * “Southernreconstruction will be ‘fin¬ ished 5 when all resistance thereto shall have been definitely abandoned or finally crushed out. Until then it is not ‘fin¬ ished,’ and the fault is in no degree that of loyal men, but solely that of the per¬ sistent rebels. Congress and the Execu¬ tive must keep trying until the Consti¬ tution and laws are fully and conclu¬ sively obeyed, and they who complain that reconstruction is never ended have themselves alone to blame .”—New York Tribune , March 10, 1871. “It is incredible that Congress wants further information confirmatory of the voluminous report s of Kn-klux outrages. It has voted to establish a select com¬ mittee to make additional inquiries, to take until December next to do it in, and to report to the House. If action for the protection of Southern loyalists is to be deferred until that time there is a chance that the number to be protected will be considerably diminished. If the Kti-klux are to be permitted to continue •th.*ir organization and to make their pi parations for revolt uninterrupted for nine months longer, it is not at all certain that the existing army can sup¬ press them. Tne action of the House ye.-terday in ordering this committee to inquire into facts already too-well estab¬ lished by painful evidence, is naturally construed as meaning that no bill for protection of the loyal men at the South w ill be immediately adopted. The im¬ portance of earnest action and of unity in this question was evident. Had a united House and Senate promptly passed some measure—any measure of protection—the battle would have been half won, for in their resolutions alone the rebels would have read a warning which would have dispersed them. AYe trust to-day to see the apparent determi¬ nation of^ the House to delay in punish¬ ing the Ku-klux reconsidered and some sound measure passed.”— -Neio York Tri¬ bune, March 16 , 1871 . “The Ku- klux conspiracy is designed to carry the South for the sham Democracy in 1872 by a terrorism so pervading and systematic, as to drive half the blacks from the polls or constrain them to vote the ticket they abhor. Thus several States have been carried in 1870 ; thus it is intended t o carry nearly or quite every Southern State in 1872. And unless some protection can bo afforded by the Union, thus most of those States will be carried. ’''—New York Tribune of March 20, 1871. / . “Butfor the Republican varnish worn by certain venomous traducers of tlu*' recent act of Congress leveled at the Ku- klux conspirators and assassins, we should not interpose ‘a word of vindica¬ tion. The heartily loyal and intelligent can need none. The act in question^'us- tifies itself to every one who heartily up¬ holds the equal rights guaranteed by the later amendments to the Federal Consti¬ tution. It is now the fundamental law of the land that a man’s color or race, however unpopular or despised, shall be no bar to the enjoyment of every politi¬ cal and civil right enjoyed by any citi¬ zen. Averylargeand powerful minority of tlie American people detest this and would gladly subvert it. * * This fact gives existence and impulse to the Ku-klux conspiracy. The chief object of that conspiracy is the incitement of such alarm and terror among the blacks of the South that a large portion of them shall not dare to vote, and some be con¬ strained even to vote for their implaca¬ ble enemies and oppressors. Hence the Ku-klux oaths and ceremonies all point to the reestablishment of a ‘white man’s government.’ * * That this is in essence rebellion, as well as conspiracy, and a very cowardly, sneaking rebellion at that, every truly loyal heart must feel. If it is permitted to succeed, then negro enfranchisement was base treachery and cruelty. * - If Congress had no power to enforce the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the Federal Constitution, then they should never have been passed nor ratified. If it has that power (and the affirmative of this proposition is expressed in the very words of those amendments) then there is no more to be said. Congress has tried to do what the Constitution expressly iv» quires ; yve apprehend that its measure will prove inadequate, because of the intrinsic difficulty of the problem ; but it has acted according to the best light vouchsafed it, and will hereafter tighten the hooks and clench the nails as expe¬ rience shall dictate. ”— N~ew York Tri¬ bune , May 1, 1871. * « “ Enforcing the Ku-klux act is a very different thing from proclaiming martial law, which is'the supremacy of the will of the military commander to all civil law. The Ku-klux act simply provides for the arrest, legal trial, and punish¬ ment of the masquerading villians w r ho prowl over the country at midnight, dragging peaceable citizens (mainly col¬ ored) from their beds, and whipping, beating, and maiming them, until they will take an oath never again to vote the Radical ticket, or killing them in case of obstinate refusal. * * The laws of the country must be enforced. Con¬ gress has properly conferred upon the President the power to suppress the Ku- klux by military measures, and he will exercise his power to the utmost. ’’—New York Tribune , Mav 17, 1871. 5 hi SPEECH OF Mil. GREELEY’S. ‘■But I have been asked: ‘Are there any Ku-klux down South ?’ Yes, gentle¬ men, there are. They didn’t come up to me and tell me they were Ku-klux, very often. They didn’t undertake to per¬ form their delicate operations upon me. I should have had very much more re¬ spect for them if they had. lam moved with profound disgust when I think of these men covering themselves up with second-hand calico, masking their faces, arming themselves to the teeth, and rid¬ ing around to the cabins of poor, harm¬ less negroes, dragging them from their beds, and whipping and maiming them until they are compelled to swear they will never again vote the Republican ticket. I hold that to be a very cowardly procedure, as well as a very base one, and I hold it to be the duty of the Gov¬ ernment of the Union to oppose with all its power and with all its force every such execrable procedure as this. Do you tell me that those men are liable to the State laws for the assaults and batteries they have committed ? * I don’t doubt it; but I say they are also in substance and pur¬ pose, traitors to the Government, rebels against its authority, and the most cow¬ ardly, skulking rebels ever known to this or any other country. “I hold our Government bound by its duty of protecting our citizens in their fundamental rights, to pass and enforce laws for the extirpation of the execrable Ku-klux conspiracy ; and if it lias not power to do it, then I say our Govern¬ ment is no government, but a sham. I, therefore, on every proper occasion, ad¬ vocated 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. :: * * * Fellow-citizens, the Ku-klux are no myth, although they shroud themselves in darkness. They are no flittingghosts; they are a baneful reality. They have paralyzed the right of suffrage in many counties throughout the South, and have carried States that they ought not to have carried. * * They don’t go for the thieving carpet-baggers, but they skulk around wretched cabins and drag out inoffensive negroes, to lash and t or¬ ture them, merely for standing up Cor their rights as men. For this., I do exe¬ crate the Ku-klux. I say they are a dis¬ grace to Southern chivalry, and they would be drummed out of the South if there was any true chivalry there.”— Extract from a speech of Horace Greeley as■ reported in the Nan. York Tribune of Jane 13, 1871. “All our special correspondent’s let¬ ters have been full of food for profitable reflection. Each of them will repay thoughtful study; but we call especial attention to the following extract from his last, wherein he exposes recent Ku- klux operations in the northwestern counties of Georgia. He says: “‘From all the information I can gather, it appears that, in addition to the political animosity entertained toward the negroes, another cause is operating to produce their persecution, and that is a desire among the poor whites to drive them away, so that they shall not come into competition with them as laborers. These poor whites or ‘crackers, 3 as they are called, compose the active force of the Ku-klux organization. They have become impressed with the belief that if they can drive out the negroes, t lie good lands, now cultivated by the blacks on shares for the planters, will fall into their hands. * * On the same prin¬ ciple, where they see a negro employed in any capacity where he is earning good wages, they hate him and want to run him off, that his place may be obtained for one of themselves. They frequently warn white men to discharge their negro hands, and beat the negroes to force them to leave. K egrties who have ac¬ quired little farms of their own are es¬ pecially detested by these ruffians* “ ‘The real leaders of the Ku-klux are the court-house and tavern politicians, < 4 mm tiio rank and file is composed of the j idle, ignorant, and worthless poor white j element," which is unquestionably the worst class of people to be found any where in the United States. They are deplorably ignorant, but have no desire for education for themselves or their children. They are wretchedly poor, but the desire for wealth neyer stimulates them to steady labor. They are without ambition to better their condition. They are coarse, cruel, and vindictive, and in every way deserve their appellation of the Sow down’ people.’ ■ “Here is information which the whole American people need, but which is sys¬ tematically withheld from one-half of thertf. Hence, honest and passably in¬ telligent men to this day believe the Ku- klux organization and its crimes the coinage of Radical politicians and jour¬ nalists. And being told that the Ku¬ dus act was utterly needless, and only devised to enable General Grant to re¬ elect himself by coercing the voters of the Southern States, or falsifying their verdict, they more than half believe it. —New York Tribune, June 1G, 1S71. “General Napoleon Bonaparte Forrest has.made a clean breast of the Ku-klux business. Examined by the Congress Committee on Southern Outrages, after pooh-poohing the whole subject, lie was obliged to acknowledge that the Ku- klux were in operation throughout the South during the last Presidential elec¬ tion, and that he was a member of the gang*. To.be sure he quibbled about the title of the organization, and said that it was not Ku-klux to which he belonged, but 4 White Camelias afterward he * reckoned ’ it was the Pale-faces to which he adhered. But what’s in a name? Mr. Forrest has acknowledged that lie belonged to a secret body of men, known by various titles, but well understood to bo the Ku-klux Klan. With this forced confession, we are not ■surprised to hear of a petition from over sixty residents of Fayette county, Ala-, bama, asking for protection from the Ku-klux, which such men as Forrest are ready to swear do not exist. After the unpleasant exhibition of this witness before the Ku-klux committee, people will be reluctant to accept any of his voluntary vaporings as truth .”—New York Iribunc , June 28, 1871. ^ Wo submit these (Louisiana) returns without argument. Those who scan them will faiow whether the thousands of black voters (to say nothing of white Republicans) in each of thirty or forty counties unanimously, or with but two or three exceptions, refused to vote at ail, or voluntarily voted for Seymour and Blair. Testimony as to hoio they were deterred from voting, or made to vote as they did, is abundant and positive ; but who reads it?. The official returns need no corroboration. * And tliev prove no isolated raid of a few thought¬ less, reckless boys ; they demonstrate a gigantic, wide-spread, death-denouncing conspiracy to subvert the constitutional amendments and the sacred right of suf¬ frage. “ The Ku-klux act is the national for¬ mula of resistance to any repetition of that momentous wrong. It is fair no¬ tice that who ever attempts hereafter to repeat the crimes whereby Louisiana was gagged, bound, and made to bear false witness against herself and theRe- j public in 1868, shall be dealt with as | the rebels and traitors they truly are. Let none defy the warning!”— NeuJ j York Tribune , June 29, 1871. “The Ku-klux organization may be active in this locality and dormant in that—may seem dead to-day and be re¬ vived to-morrow—but the Ku-klux spirit still lives at the South, and is very form¬ idable. It is grounded in a conviction that the blacks are unfit and not really entitled to vote ; that reconstruction is usurpation ; that This is a white man’s government;’ and that the black vote is somehow to be nullified; by fair means, if practicable; but by some means anyhow. “It is against this spirit and its myriad ! manifestations that the Ku-klux legisla- | tion of Congress is directed—in our judg¬ ment, most righteously and properly. If Congress be not empowered to protect the right of the people to choose their President and Vice-President against such a conspiracy as that which falsified the verdict of Louisiana in 1868, then the Constitution is a sham and the right of suffrage a mockery.”— New York Tri¬ bune ,, July 18, 1871. “Thus far the President’s powers un¬ der the Ku-klux bill have scarcely been exercised for the pacification of the dis¬ orders which have existed in the South. But in South Carolina, and notably in York and Spartanburg counties, there have been such serious and wilful dis¬ turbances that forbearance does not seem longer possible. Fair warning has been given, and unless the perpetrators of outrages there are otherwise brought to j nstice. martial law will be proclaimed, and the Ku-klux will be arrested by mili¬ tary commanders without civil process. There seems to be no other way of reach¬ ing the difficulty; and when military [ law i 3 invoked it should thoroughly erad¬ icate the source of disorder .”—New York Tribune, September 2, 1871, “Nobody need expect that alldawless- ness in the South can be put down by any scheme which it is possible for the ingenuity of man to invent. Peoplefor- get, in their impatience with 'the delay which attends the return of the South¬ ern States to order, that before the war there was always an easy license for vio¬ lent men, and that Judge Lynch is not a new character in the lately rebellious States. There has always been a spirit oE lawlessness abroad in the more sparse¬ ly settled regions of the South; and in town, as well as in country, that ele¬ ment of brutality which we consider an inevitable adjunct of the old system of slavery has ever been dominant. * * The fact is, the violence and outrages of which we complain are the legitimate growth of the imperfect civilization of the South, aggravated bv a variety of recent circumstances. We have nothing to expect of a reorganized Democracy in the South any more than in the North. ' :f So long a3 State laws and State officers aro nob equal to the emergency, the laws and officers of the United States must be iuvokcd to supplement the weaker and more inefficient organiza¬ tion. That there will be disorders is evident; that a military force must, to some extent, reinforce the civil author¬ ity seems t!o be equally true now.”— New York Tribune , September 30, 1871.. “The Southern people profess to be sat¬ isfied with the constitutional amend¬ ments; to be convinced at any rate that the suffrage once granted must not be taken away. But while they are clam¬ oring for political equality, the poor blacks are quivering under the lash of midnight ruffians, or fleeing from their burning cabins, or perishing by the as¬ sassin’s ballet. * * * Men are taken from their homes at night and scourged. Republicans dare not sleep in their own houses, butassembleat nightin large and well-armed bodies. :f * -- These Ku-klux ruffians and their champions have a marvelous reverence for the constitution and respect for the laws ! It is tlieir devotion to 1 the cause of liberty throughout the. world’ that impels them to whip and maim their humble neighbors who have the impu¬ dence to vote the Republican ticket in defiance of these prowlers’ known wishes. When they shall have learned to respect the constitional and legal guaranties of those neighbors’ dearest rights, includ¬ ing the right to live, the Ku-klux law and its enforcement will give no sort of trouble .”—New York Tribune , October 2G, 1871. ‘•There is a large class of our fellow- citizens who are exercised by a contem¬ plation of what they call ‘military des¬ potism,’ ‘bayonet rule,’ and [inaccurate¬ ly] ‘martial law,’ in certain portions of the South. We heartily agree with them that such rule is undesirable per se , and should be brought to a close as speedily as is consistent with the maintenance of order and the security of personal rights. We dislike the spectacle of citizens ar¬ rested by a military force, and marched off to jail between files of soldiers; but if there be no other way of stopping mid¬ night raids on the homes of peaceful, humble laborers, in order to drag out the inmates and lash them into swearing that they will never again vote as they are well-known to feel and think, we can stand the military arrests, and so, we are confident,can the country .”—New York Tribune , December' 11, 1871. “The Columbia, S. O., trials, which have just been concluded, were, in some respects, the most remarkable which over took place in the country. The evi¬ dence, as now summed up in the Tribune correspondence, establishes these facts: The Ku-klux organization was created for the sole purpose of coercing voters into forsaking the Republican party; the leaders \7ere Democrats, men of educa¬ tion and social standing; the rank and tile were the ‘poor whites, ’ who were com¬ pelled to join the conspiracy and do its work, or become its victims; it was bro¬ ken up by the indictment of the leaders when the baser sort made clean breast of all they knew about it. * * The story of brutality, crime, violence, and moral degradation made up from the revelations of the witnesses, is too re¬ volting for recital; it is a dark chapter in the history of civilization; it is a burn¬ ing disgrace to the party which organ¬ ized the conspiracy, aided and abetted its agents, and did its best to suppress the evidence now published to the world .”—New York Tribune , January 10, 1872. Having thus far permitted Mr. Gree¬ ley to speak for himself, it must be said upon this point that his pretensions of friendship towards the South can not hold their ground for a moment against this flood-tide of rancorous expression, which indicates too clearly the true char¬ acter and animus of the man. But even if those pretensions could be shown to be well-founded, still Mr. Greeley, first, witli his openly avowed hostility to the feelings and associations of the South; and, secondly, with his sickly, sentimen- b tal philanthropy, which prompts him, ever and anon, to make fierce onslaughts i upon.all the barriers with which the South is desirous of guarding the purity of social life and manners, is by no means the man to be elevated to the Presiden¬ tial chair by her electoral votes. Upon the first point, we have only to instance his position in 1870, when Congress was debating what is known as the ‘bayonet law.’ Here, too, out of his own mouth let Mr. Greeley be condemned by citing editorials of his. favoring the passage of the law for ENFOKCISG the 15th amendment. “We have not hitherto urged the pas¬ sage by Congress of Judge Davis’s bill regulating elections for representatives in Congress and Presidential electors, and punishing frauds in the casting and return of votes. Now, we do urge it. Let us have the bill passed at this ses¬ sion, and made so stringent in its penal¬ ties that villains will not dare to defy them.”— New York Tribune, May 19, 1870. “We call upon Congress fora law that will confine voting to legal voters by providing the ways and means of punish¬ ing those who vote in fraud of those vo¬ ter’s rights. * * * Congress must protect the ballot-boxes. That is the first step required. We ‘fly from petty tyrants to the thronfe.’ Congress may not be able to protect us fully, but it must try and its effort cannot be wholly fruitless.”— New York Tribune , May 2u, 1870. “The Senate finally passed its bill to enforce the fifteenth amendment at day¬ light on Saturday. After a stormy night- session the vote revealed that there was nobody opposed to it except the eight Democrats, and that the week’s debate had been totally unnecessary—a mere vexation of Senatorial spirit and a trifl¬ ing with public patience. * The President is authorized to employ the army and navy in enforcing the law. The trial of all persons charged with holding office contrary to the fourteenth amendment, is given precedence over all other cases, and the punishment on con¬ viction is fixed at $1,000, or imprison¬ ment, or both. There are other provi¬ sions enforcing the rights of colored per¬ sons in the Territories, reenacting the civil rights bill of 1807, punishing ‘re¬ peating’ and fraudulent registering by a line of $500, or imprisonment, or both, and authorizing a candidate defeated for office by reason of the refusal to receive a single legal vote to recover possession of and hold the office. The bill is cer¬ tainly sweeping enough. * * * The House bill differs materially from this measure, but there is a hope that the two houses will ultimately .agree on a bill essentially thesame as the one adopted by the Senate.”— New York Tribune , May •23, 1870. “We have before called attention to the provisions of the stringent bill for enforcingtbe fifteenth amendment lately adopted by Congress * * * It is in¬ teresting to note that the. jurisdiction of the offenses enumerated in the bill is not to rest with tlie^State courts, but is vested solely in the United States courts. We have lately had in Brooklyn illustrations of the manner in which corrupt judges of election are punished by State laws and courts. * * * We believe that the new law will not bo thus adminis* tered or enforced by tho United States authorities, but that the full penalties for the crime will be pronounced and will have to be paid. “ It is urged by the Democratic organs and speakers that the law is to be en- forced in State and municipal elections. This is done to make it more obnoxious, if that be possible, to their party. But, unfortunately, this is an error. Thelaw clearly applies only to Presidential and Congressional elections,though we heart¬ ily wish it could be made to apply to all others.”— Neiv York Tribune , May 31, 1870. Upon the second point made as to why Mr. Greeley ought not t^\be a Presi¬ dential candidate acceptable to, and fa¬ vored by, the South, it can be shown that only seven or eight years ago he favored the doctrine of social equality even to the extent of becoming A champion of miscegenation. Upon Hie point un¬ der consideration, as upon others, it is only necessary to cite Mr. Greeley’s ut¬ terances within the last three or four years. Here are some things that he lias had to say within the period mentioned upon the question of MIXED SCHOOLS. t appears that, by the present pro- vi non, the colored children in the Dis¬ trict of Columbia are gathered together in separate schools. This was probably the best possible arrangement so long as the question was whether these children should have separate schools or none ; bat such a plan at tuis time (if it be not unconstitutional, as we suspect,) is at leasUcalculated to perpetuate prejudices and social distiucLions, which there is an absolute political necessity for dis¬ carding. * ' x ‘ bo long as the colored children are herded together, like lepers iii ;i ffizar-house, so long will they bo. cruelly despised and not seldom mal-1 treated. The general objections to all | class schools apply in this case with un- j answer aide force.”— New York Tribune ,! May 3, 1870. 14 Let the whitt-s eagerly cooperate with them (the blacks) in beljalf of universal education. Let them resolutely stamp out the mean prejudice which says, ‘My children must not go to any school where negro children are taught; I cannot ride in any stage or car where negroes are allowed, except as servants to whites.’” —-New York Tribune , November 8, 1871. “ We, then, having attended the same school with colored children, sat on the same bench, studied from the same book, and recited in the same class without receiving a particle of damage, protest against the assumption that schools must inexorably be separate as inhuman, unchristian, and a disgrace to the 19th century.”— New York Tribune , December \ 9, 1871. But it is not upon the question of mixed schools alone that Mr. Greeley has proved himself to be, when no chances of a Presidential election were befdre him, thus radically at variance with the South. He has sustained the “civil rights” policy. If any proof of this be needed, we have only to state that, in 1870, Senator Sumner brought forward the first draft of his favorite measure known as “the civil rights bill.” In order that it may be understood, the latest form that it has assumed is here given, after being cleared by legislative criticism and pruningof some of its most offensive redundancy of language. SENATOR SUMNER’S CIVIL RIGHTS BILi. “lie it enacted , &c., That no citizen of the.United States shall, by reason of! race, color, or previous condition of ser-j vitude, be excepted or excluded from the full and equal enjoyment of any accom¬ modation, advantage, facility, or privil-1 egc furnished by inn-keepers; by com¬ mon carriers, whether on land or water; by licensed owners, managers, or lessees ; of theaters, or other places of public amusement; by trustees, commissioners, superintendents, teachers, and other offi¬ cers of common schools and public insti¬ tutions of learning, the same being supported by moneys derived from gen¬ eral taxation or authorized by law; also of cemetery associations and benevolent associations supported or authorised in the same way: Provided , That private schools, cemeteries, and institutions of learningestablished exclusively for white or colored persons, and maintained re¬ spectively bv voluntary contributions, shall remain according to the terms of the original establishment. “ Sec. 2 . That any person violating any of the provisions U the foregoing sectipn, or aiding in their violation, or inciting thereto, shall, for every such offense, forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred dollars to the person aggrieved thereby, to be recovered in an action on the case, with full costs, and shall also, for every such offense, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than five hundred nor more than one thousand dollars, or shall be imprisoned not less than thirty davs nor more than one year: Provided , That the party aggrieved shall not recover more than one penal¬ ty; and when the offense is a refusal of burial, the penalty may be recovered by the heirs-at law of the person whose body has been refused burial. “Sec. 3. That the same jurisdiction and powers are hereby conferred and the duties enjoined upon the courts and officers of the United States in the execution of" this act as are conferred and enjoined upon such courts and offi¬ cers in sections three, four, five, seven, and ten of an act entitled ‘An act to protect all persons in the United States in their civil rights, and to furnish the means of their vindication,’passed April ninth, eighteen hundred and sixty- six, and these sections are hereby made a part of this act; and any of the afore¬ said officers failing to institute and prosecute such proceedings herein re- j quired shall, for every such offense, for- i feit and pay the sum of five hundred j dollars to the person aggrieved thereby, j to be recovered by an action on the case, i with full costs, and shall, on conviction I thereof, be deemed guilty of a misde¬ meanor, and be lined not less than one thousand dollars nor more than five thousand dollars. “Sec. -1-. That no citizen possessing all other qualifications which are or may be prescribed by law shall be disqualified for service as juror in any court, national or State, by reason of race, color, or previous condition of servitude; and any officer or other persons charged with any duty in the selection or summoning of jurors who shall exclude or fail to summon any citizen for. the reason above named shall, on conviction there¬ of, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and be fined not less than one thousand dollars nor more than five thousand dol¬ lars. 5. That every discrimination “Sec. s against any citizen on account of color by the use of the word 44 white,” or any other term in any law, statute, ordi¬ nance, or regulation, is hereby repealed and annulled.” Such is Senator Sumner’s most cher¬ ished and most persistently-urged meas¬ ure. What are Mr. Greeley’s views in relation to it? Let him still speak for himself: “In the Senate yesterday Mr. Sumner introduced a bill to secure equality of rights regardless of color in cars, ou steamboats, &c., &c. That is right, and we trust it may prevail.”— New York Tribune , May 14, 1870. “Senator Sumner, in his speech yester¬ day, makes a powerful and feeling plea in behalf of a proscribed race, which he thinks is deprived unjustly of many rights and privileges, lie thinks that equality before the law is not enough for the new- made citizen, and that in a multitude of ways lie is reminded of the ancient bond¬ age which he suffered and the prejudice which still follows him. The case is well put, and will convince many who have heretofore doubted the expediency of further legislation on this subject.”— New York Tribune , January 16,1872. The civil rights measure having failed because its author persisted in trying to tack it as an amendment to the amnesty bill, Mr. Greeley improved the occasion by writing an article which he entitled C; A WOIiD WITH THE CniVALIiY. “Xow, that the scheme of attaching civil rights to amnesty lia3 resulted in the temporary defeat of both, we ask the sometime aristocracy of the South to look at civil (if you please social) rights in the light of these accomplished and undeniable facts. It is a fact that the blacks are here—nearly live millions of them—and are not going away. * * It is a. fact that l hev are free and cannot be reenslaved. " * It is afact that they vote as others do, and are eligible to office. Six or eight of them are now members of Congress, as more will be, since a majority of the voters are black in at least twenty distriots. Do you sup¬ pose, can you imagine, that these colored members of Congress are always to jour¬ ney to and from Washington in smoking cars? Can you really afford to insist that: they shall ? * * * Men of the South 1 you were once accounted shrewd politicians. .Does this look like it? Are you not aUmving your women to rule you? We entreat you to heed the Eng¬ lishman’s exhortation to his departing friend: 4 lie good to yourself, John.’ We need no civil rights bill, if you will only evince a little homely common sense. But shoving your representatives in Con¬ gress and their wives into filthy smoking cars, while you compel them to pay first- class fare,is a folly which you will surely be ashamed of whenever your heads are cool. Is not it the wise way to do what you ultimately must, while yet you grace¬ fully may?”— New York Tribune , Febru¬ ary' 12, 1872. Among the latest expressions of Mr. Greeley’s hopes and wishes in reference to the civil rights bill is the following : 44 Senator Sumner, always in advance as a champion of equal i ights, has pro¬ posed that blacks shall have equal access with whites to all public conveyances, hotels, and public entertainments. This has, thus far, been baffled; but it seems likely to prevail at the present session. And once enacted it may, in some in¬ stances, be disobeyed, but can hardly be reversed.”— New York Tribune , April 17, 1872. Such is Mr. Greeley’s portrait as painted by himself. As a sort of com¬ panion picture, we shall close by giving a view of his opponent. General Grant, complainingly sketched by Senator Sum¬ ner because of Grant’s supineness in the matter, so dear to the Senator’s heart: 44 Other things might bo mentioned, showing the sympathies of the Presi¬ dent, but I cannot forget the civil rights bill, which is the cap-stone of that equality before the law to which all are entitled without distinction of color. President Grant, woo could lobby so as¬ siduously for his St. Domingo scheme, full of wrong to the colored race, could do uothingfor this beneficent measure. Duringa long session of Congress it was discussed constantly, and Lie colored people everywhere hung upon the de¬ bate*, but there was no word of 4 heart¬ felt sympathy ’ from the President. At last, just before tho nominating conven¬ tion, he addressed a letter to a meeting of colored fellow-citizens in Washing¬ ton, called to advance this cause, when he avoided the question by declaring himself in favor of * the exercise of those rights to which every citizen should be justly entitled,’ leaving it uncertain whether colored people are justly en¬ titled to the rights secured by the pend¬ ing bill. I understand that Horae# Greeley lias been already assailed by an impracticable Democrat as friendly t