entucky in reference to that State, Mr. Grinnell
remarked: "I can not forget, when I hear these extravagant claims set
up here, that her Governor, in the first year of the rebellion,
refused to honor the call for troops made by the President of the
United States in our darkest hour; nor can I forget that when her
soldiers wished to organize regiments they were obliged to cross the
Ohio River into the State of Indiana, that they might organize them
free from the interference of the power of Kentucky neutrality. That
is a fact in history, and I can not overlook it, when gentlemen here
arraign the President of the United States because he has seen fit to
suspend the privilege of the writ of _habeas corpus_ in the State of
Kentucky."

"Let us see," said Mr. Grinnell, in a subsequent part of his speech,
"what are the laws of Kentucky which are so just and honorable and
equitable. The white man in Kentucky can testify in the courts; the
black man can testify against himself. The white man can vote; the
black man can not. The white man, if he commits an offense, is tried
by a jury of his peers; the black man is tried by his enlightened,
unprejudiced superiors. The rape of a negro woman by a white man is no
offense; the rape of a white woman by a negro man is punishable by
death, and the Governor of the State can not commute.

"A white man may come into Kentucky when he pleases; the free negro
who comes there is a felon, though a discharged soldier, and wounded
in our battles. A white man in Kentucky may keep a gun; if a black man
buys a gun he forfeits it, and pays a fine of five dollars if
presuming to keep in his possession a musket which he has carried
through the war. Arson of public buildings, if committed by a white
man, is punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of
from seven to twenty-one years; if committed by a black man, the
punishment is death. Arson of a warehouse, etc., when committed by a
white man, is punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary from one to
six years; when committed by a negro, the penalty is death.

"If a white man is guilty of insurrection or rebellion, he is punished
by being called 'chivalrous.' I instance the rebel General Forest, who
murdered white men at Fort Pillow, and is reputed the most popular man
South. If a negro rebels, or conspires to rebel, he is punished with
death. These are specimens."

Referring to the benefits conferred by the Freedmen's Bureau upon
Ke