Congress to the necessities of the case, and asked for the requisite appropriation to prevent that very delay, which Congressman Coffroth attempts, by his cunningly-devised resolution, to saddle on the Secretary's shoulders. And what has Congress, under the sway of the Democracy, done with these estimates? They have been referred to committees, and the Senate has actually ordered them printed! The soldiers and soldiers' widows and orphans ask for justice, and the answer is a printer's bill! They clamor for bread, and are fed by resolution! There the estimates sleep in the committee rooms, while Congressman Coffroth, uttering the voice of the Democracy, wants to know why the Secretary of the Treasury doesn't ask for appropriations!

How $114,879, asked for to meet already adjusted claims was omitted by the House, cut down to $100,000 in the Senate, and struck out by the Democratic Conference Committee altogether!

PART II.

Pensions Democratic Opposition -- Representatives Beltzhoover and Ryon prove it. There is considerable complaint all over the country because of the length of time between the making of applications for pensions and action upon the same by the Pension officewhether the case be for invalid pensions, arrearages, or what not. This delay, also, as in the matter of bounties, heretofore referred to, lies entirely at the door of a Democratic Congress, which will not grant the necessary clerical force to put the business more rapidly through, nor the money wherewith to pay them. The plain truth of the whole matter is that the Democratic Congress has inherited a legacy of hate for the Union soldier, and while it would pretend to love him just before an important election in order to catch his vote, the moment it is over-should Hancock be

It needs

aside like a piece of waste paper.
but little evidence, in addition to that already
given, to prove this. Take for instance the
Democratic opposition to the bill voting
arrears of pensions.

This bill was introduced April 2, 1878, into
the House of Representatives, in the second
session of the Forty-fifth Congress, by Hon.
Henry J. B. Cummings, of Iowa. and in the
same session, June 19, 1878, it was passed in
the House-yeas 164, nays 61. The negative
vote was exclusively Democratic and, with
three exceptions, Southern, as follows:
Blount, Boone, Bright, Cabell, J. W. Caldwell, W. P.
NAYS-Messrs. Acklen, Aiken, H. P. Bell, Blackburn,
Caldwell, Candler, Carlisle, J. B. Clarke, Cook, Cravens,
Crittenden, Davidson, J. J. Davis, Dibrell, Durham, Eick-
hoff. Elam, Ellis, J. H. Evins, Felton, Forney, Garth,
Gause, Gibson, Giddings, Goode, H. R. Harris, J.T. Har
ris, Herbert, G. W. Hewitt, Hooker, House, Hunton, J. T.
Jones, Knott, Ligon, Mayham, McKenzie, Mills, Muldrow,
Phelps, Pridemore, Reagan, Riddle, Robbins, Scales,
Schleicher, O. R. Singleton, W. E. Smith, Steele, Throck-
morton, Vance, Whitthorne, J. Williams, A. S. Willis,
Yates-61.

A curious instance of the pretended solici-elected or counted in-they would fling him tude of the Democratic leaders in Congress for the well-being of Union soldiers and their heirs, occurred during this very session, shortly after Mr. Coffroth's insincere resolution was presented. On the 3d day of June, 1880, the Second Auditor reported to the Secretary of the Treasury that the sum of $114,879.83 was needed to meet claims adjusted since the 1st of January. The Secretary promptly laid the matter before Congress, and it was referred to the appropriation committees. The House committee omitted the appropriation from their report. In the Senate committee the amount was curtailed to $100,000; and the bill being finally submitted to a conference committee, of which Senator Beck, of Kentucky, and Representative J. H. Blount, of Georgia, were the chief managers on the part of the Senate and House respectively, was reported for passage with the entire sum asked for struck out! And this, it appears from Senator Beck's remarks in explanation, was done at the instance of the managers from the House, whose chairman was General Blount, of Georgia, one of the rebel generals whom clemency and the shot-gun policy of the South have placed in control of the legislation of the loyal American people! [Congressional Record, June 16, 1880.]

Application of an ex-rebel soldier for bounty!

On July 16, 1880, Robert Hanna, an exrebel soldier, who had previously filed his application in the Pension Office (see part of this chapter for a verbatim copy of it) for a pension, made application in due form to the Second Auditor of the Treasury, at Washington, for bounty under the bounty acts of 1861 and 1866. He certifies that he is the identical Robert Hanna who was a private in Company G of the 15th Regiment South Carolina Volunteers, Confederate States of America, and was discharged at Lynchburg by reason of wounds, The application bears the signatures of witnesses and the official signature and seal of J. H. Keels, clerk of the court of Williamsburg County, S. C.

And to show that that legacy of hate continues to the present moment, witness the thoroughly proved up letters written by two Northern Democratic Representatives to Pennsylvanian constituents, in which one of them, the Hon. F. E. Beltzhoover, Democratic Congressman from the Ninteenth Congressional District of Pennsylvania, declines (April 23, 1880) to introduce and urge the passage of a Pension bill, "because, with the present Democratic House pension bills do not have much favor

*

and the rebel general who is at the head of the Pension Committee in the Senate is still more averse to allowing any such bills to pass;" while the other, the Hon. J. W. Ryon, Representative in Congress from the Schuylkill District of Pennsylvania, also declares in a letter to the same person that "the present House is averse to allowing claims for services rendered in support of the United States during the late war.

The Beltzhoover Letter to Mr. Curriden.
Following is the letter of Representative
Beltzhoover:

"HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Į
"WASHINGTON, D. C., April 23, 1880.
"DEAR SIR: Your favor was received. I would most

cheerfully introduce and urge the passage of a bill such as you suggest, but with the present Democratic House pension bills do not have much favor. It has become almost impossible to get consideration of such a bill at all, and when considered its chance of passing the House is very remote, and the rebel general who is at the head of the Pension Committee in the Senate is still more averse to allowing any such bills to pass. It would not be at all probable, therefore, that the bill will be got through. I will confer with your brother. If he thinks there is anything in the matter, I will very cor-degrading badges. dially act in the matter. Very truly,

[FAC-SIMILE OF ORIGINAL COPY.]

SEE INSTRUCTIONS AT THE BOTTOM.

"A" Declaration for Original Invalid Pension. “A”

On this 16th day of June, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and Eighty, personally appeared before me, J. H. Keels, Clerk; the same being a Court of Record of the County and State aforesaid, Robert Hanna, a resident of

County of Williamsburg, State of S. C., who being by

me duly sworn according to law, on his solemn oath, deposes as follows, to wit: "I am the identical Robert Hanna who was enrolled on the... day of August, 1861, in Company of the 15 Reg't of South Carolina C. S. A. Vol's., commanded by Captain Mc Gutchen, and I was honorably discharged at Lynchburg, Va., on the day of Feb., 1565, and my age is now 3 years. While in the service aforesaid, and in the line of my duty, I received the following disability, to wit:

aim

I claim pension on account of wound of rightrec'd Oct. 19, 1864, which caused the aim to be amputated to shoulder. The wound breaks out and I am

abled thereby

I was treated at Lynchburg hospital.

seriously dis

I have never been employed in the Military or Naval Service of the United States otherwise than set forth above. Since leaving the Service, I have resided at C., and my occupation has been stock heider, before my entry into the Service aforesaid I was of good, sound physical health, being at enrollment a farmet, and I am Dow very much disabled from obtaining my subsistence by manual labor by reason of my disabilities above stated, received in the service of the United States, and I make this Declaration for the purpose of being placed on the Invalid Pension Roll of the United States. I hereby appoint and empower, with full power of substitution, NATHAN W. Fitzgerald, of WASHINGTON CITY, D. C., my true and lawful Attorney to prosecute my claim. My Post Office address is Graham × Roads, County of Williamsburg, State of S. C.

his

Probert Hanna.

mark.

(Claimant's Signature.)

This Declaration MUST be made before some Clerk of a Court of Record. If acknowledged before a Notary or Justice, it will be worthless.

CHAPTER XII.

Recent Outrages in the "Solid South."

"It is this organization (the Democratic) that has come back to rule and that means to rule.”— Hon. J. C. Blackburn, Ky.

in 1878-The Massacres in Louisiana-Five Men Hung in one lot for Attending a Republican Club-Seventy or Eighty Colored Men Killed in one parish-Reducing Republican Majorities.

Political Assassination in the Assassination and Intimidation South-Ghastly Record ofTwenty Thousand Crimes-The way a "Solid South" was secured. The country is familiar with many of the most infamous occurrences in the South, during the period from the close of the war to the last Presidential election, in which it has been shown by official investigation, that twenty thousand persons mostly colored were killed, maimed, or cruelly beaten, for the purpose of intimidating them from the exercise of their civil and political rights.

Democratic "excuse" for these crimes.

While the Demoratic party at the South, in whose service these crimes were committed, claimed that this wholesale killing and whipping was necessary, the Northern wing denied their commission until denial was no longer possible, and then "excused" them on the ground of the natural indisposition of the respectable people of the South to be outvoted by "scalawags, carpet-baggers and niggers.' It was said that when the Democrats should get control of the Government of all the Southern States, all outrages would cease in them and the colored people would be petted like favorite children.

It was supposed that the possession of absolute power in the State, accompanied with the great powers of the executive and legislative branches over local matters, would render bulldozing unnecessary in Louisiana after the accession of the Nicholls' administration. But

the dominant party in the South was not willing that the Republicans of parishes, where they were in overwhelming majority, should fill any of the few elective offices to which they were entitled, nor be represented in the State Legislature, or in Congress, and the shotgun and whip were accordingly, in 1878, again brought into service.

Bulldozing in Point Coupee Parish.

The investigation made by the Senate Com- . mittee showed that nearly all the active Republican leaders in this parish were whipped or run off before the election; that one colored man, in response to a demand to change his politics, said "he would rather die than throw a Democratic ballot," was taken out of his house and killed.

Five men hung to scare negroes.
A number of colored men were accused of

attending Republican clubs, and the son of a
Democratic candidate said to have been shot
at. The Senate committee says of this:

either as to the firing or the meetings. But five black "There was no evidence of the truth of these reports, men were seized, tried by lynch law, and although such juries never give the prisoner the benefit of a doubt, as they are organized to convict, there were several of them who refused to concur in the sentence of death; nevertheless the five unfortunates were hanged. The next morning.' says Randall McGowan, Mr. Lewis said there were five men hung. I asked

The South was on its honor. Its white rul-him what for? and he said Thomas Williams, a leader ing class had no near danger to fear from the votes and opposition of its few white Republicans and many blacks. The question uppermost in the minds of the North was:-How would the South use its newly-gained power?

in the fourth ward, was about to organize his club; that it was about time for us to go into the campaign; said they did these things to scare the negroes, so that they and those boys appeared that night * * * They might carry the election.'"-[Senate Report, 855, 1879, page 19.]

Six men hung in Concordia Parish. Armed bodies of men rode through the parish, whipping and hanging enough to "scare the negroes. The coroner testified that he held inquests on the bodies of six men, who had been taken from their homes and hanged; and there were several others who had been hung and killed who were not thus officially recognized.

Wholesale murder in Tensas Parish.

This parish was overrun by Ku-Klux parties, often from adjoining parishes, as it was necessary to wipe out its vote to save the Congressional district. The following is

from the official record:

Alfred Fairfax lived near Waterproof, in the lower part of the parish. On Saturday night, about 8 or 9 o'clock, a band of armed men, variously estimated at from twenty-five to thirty, went to the house of Fairfax. They were under the command of one J. S. Peck, who lived in the Congressional district, but not in the parish. A portion of the force remained in the road, and Peck and a few others invaded the house of Fairfax, who, on their entrance, fled out of the back door followed by bullets from Peck's pistol. A young colored man by the name of Singleton, who was in the house, was shot by Peck; and as he lay on the floor several others shot him also. He subsequently died. A man by the name of Branch crawled under the bed, but was pulled out and shot through the arm and in the back. He was before the committee, and will be a cripple for life. One Kennedy, who ran to the window, was shot from the outside by buckshot and dangerously wounded. Several women in the house made their escape. It appears that when the firing began in the house the men outside fired into the house through the windows. Peck, during the excitement that followed, went out of the house, and was killed, as near as can be ascertained on the gallery, by his own men who were firing in the house."-[Senate Report, 1855, p. 14.]

Five hundred Ku-Klux-Seventy to eighty colored men killed.

"It was in evidence before the committee that not

less than 500 armed white men came into Tensas parish

from Franklin, Catahoula, Concordia, and other parishes between the 12th of October and election day. In addition to these, a company came from Mississippi, bringing with them a cannon; but that company appears not to have been guilty of any outrages.

"While these armed bodies were raiding the parish, the colored people were greatly excited, and very many fled to the woods. One witness swore that four men from his plantation died from exposure in the swamps, and that all the colored labor was for a time almost useless to the planters. It is impossible to say how many colored people lost their lives through this campaign. One witness gave the names of fifteen killed and two wounded; and this list did not include those who died from exposure; nor does it include the killed in the adjoining parish of Concordia, which Governor Nicholls says was eight. One witness swears that he thinks seventy to eighty were killed."-P. 16, same report.]

1

The Caledonia massacre.

U. S. witnesses murdered.

On

Two men who had witnessed the opening of the above massacre, were subpoenaed to attend the U. S. Court to certify in regard to it. the 21st day of December, when, in obedience to the subpoenas, they took the steamer Danube for New Orleans. The next morning, when some distance below Caledonia, the boat was run into the shore at an unusual landing-place, and a gang of armed men came on the boat and, under cover of a warrant in the hands of a negro constable named Jeff. Cole, took the witnesses, White and Clark, from the boat. The warrant has date November 12, and was issued by a justice of the peace at Shreveport. The two witnesses were taken off of the boat in the manner before stated; and the sequel can be better told in the language of the constable, who made an affidavit before the United States commissioner. He says, after detailing the arrest (page 605): At a point near Tone's Bayou, in the woods, he was met by a party of armed men, masked and without coats or shoes, all of whom were unknown to him, who told him to leave the road, which he did. He left the prisoners with them, and does not know what became of them afterward." Nothing has been heard of these men since that time.-[Ib., pp. 9, 10.]

66

The newspapers of the South have generally stopped publishing the details of outrages on the colored people, and the suppres sion of public meetings, and the news of what is going on in that section mainly dribbles through the chance statements of At Caledonia, Caddo parish, the colored persons from there, and letters from individpeople turned out largely in spite of the pre-uals to friends or papers in the North. vious bulldozing in the parish. On the pretense that there were arms stored in a house Suppression of public meetings in Alanear, Lelonging to a colored man who was distributing tickets at the polls, an attack was made on the house when no one was in it but the man's wife and daughter. A general attack was then made on the colored people, and during the day and night twenty colored people were killed-no wounded and no prisoners. No whites killed. Yet it was called the "quelling of a desperate riot."

bama.

The first Republican meeting in Montgomery, Alabama, to ratify the nomination of Garfield and Authur was broken up by a mob. Afterwards another meeting was called for June 26, at which Ex-Senator Warner, ExGovernor Parsons, and other distinguished gentlemen were to speak. General Warner writes of it as follows: