my back upon the past and devote myself
to questions of peace, development, and progress. Still, if these
allegations are true, it would be a cowardly shrinking from the
gravest public duty to allow such events to deepen into precedents
which would subvert the foundation of republican institutions and
convert our elections into organized crimes. I do not say these
allegations are true, but they come to us with such apparent seeming
of truth that we are bound to ascertain their truth or falsehood
by the most careful and impartial inquiry.

"If the events at Danville were the results of a chance outbreak
or riot between opposing parties or different races of men, they
may properly be left to be dealt with by the local authorities;
but if the riot and massacre were part of machinery, devised by a
party to deter another party, or a race, from the freedom of
elections, or the free and open expression of political opinions,
then they constitute a crime against the national government, the
highest duty of which is to maintain, at every hazard, the equal
rights and privileges of citizens.

"If the events in Copiah county, Mississippi (which is a large and
populous county containing twenty-seven thousand inhabitants, and
evidently a very productive county), were merely lawless invasions
of individual rights, then, though they involved murder as well as
other crimes, they should be left to local authority, and if justice
cannot be administered by the courts, and the citizen is without
remedy from lawless violence, then he must fall back upon his right
of self-defense, or, failing in that, he must seek a home where
his rights will be respected and observed. But if these individual
crimes involve the greater one of an organized conspiracy of a
party, or a race, to deprive another party or race of citizens of
the enjoyment of their unquestioned rights, accompanied with overt
acts, with physical power sufficient to accomplish their purpose,
then it becomes a national question which must be dealt with by
the national government.

"The war emancipated and made citizens of five million people who
had been slaves. This was a national act, and whether wisely or
imprudently done it must be respected by the people of all the
states. If sought to be reversed in any degree by the people of
any locality it is the duty of the national government to make
their act respected by all its citizens. It is not now a question
as to the righ