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  “LET US HAVE PEACE!”


  REMARKS
  OF
  LOGAN H. ROOTS,
  ON THE
  Assassination of Hon. James Hinds,
  DELIVERED IN THE
  HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
  WASHINGTON, D. C.,
  On Friday, January 22, 1869.


  WASHINGTON:
  1869.




  REMARKS
  BY
  HON. LOGAN H. ROOTS.


MR. SPEAKER--

The sad subject occupying the attention of this honorable body is
one that bears upon my mind with peculiar force. I was personally
acquainted with JAMES HINDS during a busy portion of his eventful life,
and it was in the district that I have the honor to represent in which
he met his terrible death by political assassination.

His life, though short, was long enough for many hundreds to have
become so endeared as to have wished it longer. His life, though
short, was long enough to afford a wonderfully instructive lesson of
encouragement to all those in this crowded world struggling against the
barriers of poverty. Its history is an account of the child of poverty,
developed into the honored man by its own exertions. Its history
recounts what mighty results may be accomplished on no other capital
than a clear intellect under the impetus of an indomitable will.
Generally, when one falls so young the exclamation is, “Oh! what might
have been.” In this instance imagination might feast itself on such a
theme _ad libitum_; but that is not necessary, it is grand enough to
say, “See what was!”

Only twenty years ago JAMES HINDS was a fatherless, penniless lad. But
so determined was he to acquire knowledge that he attended school
when he only did so by hiring a room, doing his own housekeeping,
and working enough beside outside of school hours to earn the means
of paying for his school expenses and daily living. Such earnest
perseverance created success even under the most lowering clouds of
adversity.

Traveling by such rugged steps he did not come upon the stage of
manhood a mere hot-house production of opulence, but an earnest,
laborious youth, gradually developed into a self-made, self-reliant
man. Experience taught him to never wait for the coming of success
or friends, but first make success, and then friends would come. His
nature and training alike rendered it equally impossible for him to
play sycophant to the rich or oppressor to the poor. His warm sympathy
with the oppressed and downtrodden touched a responsive chord in men’s
hearts that returned him in a remarkable degree the affection of the
masses. The humblest and most friendless loved him without fear of
being repulsed, and learned to regard him as their especial champion.

When the great struggle came between human oppression and the nation’s
life, he was at once found positively on the side of his country, and
he went forth to do battle upon the side of loyalty, of freedom, and
justice to humanity.

It is now, though, nearly four years since the happy moment arrived
when he considered the struggle ended. We all proudly felt that
henceforth free speech and free men were to be as universal south
of Mason and Dixon’s line as they long had been north. It was at
that happy period that Mr. HINDS was allured by the genial clime and
inviting features of the Southwest to make his home in Arkansas, and
engaged in the practice of his profession with an assiduity that
received merited success.

Alas! it was not long until the fact was developed that the fierce
fires built on human oppression to destroy and keep destroyed the
relations of the State to the nation were not extinguished, but only
smoldering; compressed and changed, but not abated. When this fact was
developed, and the question arose as to whether or not Arkansas should
make an effort to regain her lost sisterhood in the great family of
States, notwithstanding the odium and dangers with which those who
had severed the State from her proper relations cast about such a
course, JAMES HINDS became an earnest advocate of her return to the
loyal household. Elected to the Constitutional Convention by one of
the largest majorities in the State, he soon became recognized as one
of the prominent leaders, and to him the humble, toiling citizen of
that State owes a debt of gratitude he can never repay; for in the
construction of the fundamental law of the State he was most active
in the introduction and riveting of those points which are barriers
of protection for the many weak against the few strong, and for the
securing to the humblest all the rights of citizenship granted to the
proudest.

After the adjournment of the convention and the submittal of its
work to the people, he was elected by a remarkably large vote to
a seat in this body, and even in the brief period of his presence
here he exhibited a lively interest in the welfare of the State and
indefatigable efforts to promote her good without failing to strive for
the greatest weal of the whole nation.

Immediately upon the closing of the summer session he went to his
home and entered vigorously into the canvass for freedom, peace, and
prosperity against caste, oppression, revolution, and murder. I know,
sirs, many of you may think that the party which Mr. HINDS opposed was
equally anxious for peace with the party whose principles he espoused.
That might have been the case in other places, but in Arkansas, at
least, their acts showed that the Republican party advocated peace with
a desire that the beloved white-winged spirit of peace might settle and
abide in the land. But when the Democracy did for a moment advocate
peace, their desire seemed to be for pieces of Radical skulls. To
advocate real peace was not entering upon a holiday pleasure excursion,
but was to brave death and tread on the very verge of eternity. All
this JAMES HINDS knew, yet faltered not. A few days before his death he
wrote to a friend:

  “We must win the election, stand a fight, or leave the State, and it
  is sad to think that many of our number, perhaps myself included,
  must be murdered before seeing the ides of November, to know whether
  we win, fight, or leave.”

On the day of his murder he was in a county which he considered less
dangerous than some through which he had traversed, and he so expressed
himself, but added:

  “With men all over the country bound by terrible oaths to take
  Radical lives, we do not know where there is any safety. Oh! it is
  terrible. But it may be that it is all for the best, for they say the
  ‘blood of the martyr is the seed of the church,’ and it may be that
  the loyal blood now drenching this land will arouse those criminally
  timid men who had the power and withheld the grant of arms to our
  State authorities, and arouse the patriotic masses to realize it is
  the nation’s duty to protect the nation’s citizens.”

Oh! little did he think at that moment that ere the sunlight of that
beautiful October day should give way to the cold dew of night his own
soul would be driven from his body by the cold damp of death. He was
traveling with Hon. Joseph Brooks, another tried and valiant soldier
in the great cause of freedom and equal rights. They were to speak
that day about six miles from the village of Indian Bay. They had been
refused passage on a steamboat because they were Radicals, and so were
belated. Some hundreds of eager, expectant Republicans were awaiting
their arrival. To this meeting the officers of the Democratic club
had gone as advocates of the adoption of “joint peace resolutions.”
The Republicans said that several Radicals had then recently been
killed in the county and no Democrats; and therefore they thought if
the Democracy had suddenly acquired a desire for peace no resolutions
were necessary; but although some of them thought it merely a cloak
for Democratic villany, they were willing to bind themselves in
resolutions to do what they intended doing anyhow, and they therefore
unanimously adopted the resolutions. One of the principle signers and
most apparently earnest advocates was George W. Clark, secretary of
the Democratic club. But as soon as he had signed them he returned to
his home, arriving there before Messrs Brooks and HINDS had reached
that far, and himself gave the fated ones direction as to the road.
When they had ridden on he got his gun, saddled his horse, and rode
after them. The intended victims were riding along with their greatest
solicitude at the moment, being anxious though to reach the waiting
crowd. The horses being differently gaited, Mr. Brooks was at the
moment some fifty yards ahead. The man with grayish suit on rode up
near, but a very little in the rear of Mr. HINDS, smiling as Judas may
have smiled when he kissed his Lord and Master, he engaged in pleasant
conversation. For a second the three thus rode on, the victims wholly
unsuspecting, and the smiling murderer, with cold-blooded calculation,
waiting for a better opportunity to make sure of both. An illustration
of the meaning of Democratic peace resolutions is about to be made. The
same hand which a few hours before signed peace resolutions now grasps
the assassin’s weapon, within a very few feet of Mr. HINDS’ back,
the gun is suddenly raised. Click, click, hear the triggers! Oh! the
terrible instant! bang, bang, goes the gun. Mr. Brooks’s horse, stung
with buck-shot, bounds ahead with a wounded rider, while the second
horse madly leaps forward riderless, and JAMES HINDS lies on the ground
motionless, dying. Another order of the Ku-Klux-Klan has been executed;
smiling with a fiend’s smile upon his features stands the Democratic
assassin; the soul of another martyr is sent unshriven before the
arbitrator of eternity; dying, shot in the back, lies the Radical
Congressman. Would to God the curtain of oblivion might drop over the
scene forever!

JAMES HINDS’ spirit has passed from earth, but his life, deeds, and
death will not soon pass from memory, so well he lived, so hard he
toiled, so young was he gathered into the unseen fold, that when we
think of him we cannot avoid to lament that:

  “The hand of the reaper
    Takes the ears that are hoary,
  But the voice of the weeper
    Wails manhood in glory.”

He had so many noble qualities and won so many strong friends we can
very easily drop the veil of charity over his faults, whatever they may
have been. Had he been faultless he could not have been human. It is
said a death-bed is a detector of human hearts. If so, it is pleasing
to know that in his expiring moments, lying with no more friendly touch
than the breast of mother earth, his few words were not concerning his
own death tortures, but were expressions of solicitude for his wife
and two sweet daughters whom he loved so dearly. Could you, sirs, have
seen the hundreds of compressed lips and wet eyes which spoke in an
eloquence and intensity of grief words could not be framed to utter
when his remains passed through the City of Little Rock. You would have
exclaimed, “Behold, how they loved him,” and certainly he who has thus
won the love of man must have a strong claim on the mercy of God.

But ceremonies in honor of the dead can only be beneficial in so far as
they affect the actions of the living. Could the spirit of JAMES HINDS
speak to us to-day it would not be with an effort to induce fulsome
eulogies upon those who are beyond mortal aid, but from the portals of
the dead he would say protect the living.

The nation has the power to obey such a request, and when the people
arose in their might and majesty on the 3d day of November, it was
to declare in unmistakable terms their heartfelt approbation of the
promise of him whom they felt had the power to execute the promise
that freedom and protection should be guarantied as well on the warm
gulf coast as on the cold lake shores. That was the key-note of the
entire canvass. The mighty leader of the loyal hosts was a popular
man, remarkably, deservedly popular for his glorious services to
his country. But he was most popular from the full confidence that
the people had in him that he had the will and the power to speak
into peace and tranquility the angry waves of prejudice and passion
that were raging in the South, crimsoned with human gore. It was
the embodiment of that will and power for which the nation in such
overwhelming numbers spoke its preference, and the present is an
auspicious moment to inaugurate obedience to the people’s behests. Many
good men who have always wanted peace, but could not tear themselves
loose from political thraldom in the heat of political excitement, now
express their earnest, anxious longing for protection of life and the
restoration of peace to the country.

The very leaders of the political assassinations themselves seem now
to be partially revolting from the horrible atrocities of the execution
of their own schemes and orders, which feeling, added to the wholesome
belief they have that the authorities will be sustained, lives will
be protected, and peace will be maintained, is making even them for
the time converts to the great loyal heart’s desire for restoration of
peace and protection.

It is not indemnification for the past that is asked, it is only
security for the future. The murdered cannot be brought to life, but
the murderers can be made to spare the living. Honeyed words alone
cannot accomplish this, but men must be made to feel that protection
will prove more profitable than assassination; kind words may do the
work if it is positively known that the nation supports the State
authorities, so that there is a reserve of sterner power which can be
brought to the support of kindness on any instant of emergency. Let
party lines be obliterated in this desire for the maintainance of peace
and protection. Let partisans now be absorbed in patriots, so that all
men, Republicans and Democrats alike, will feel an inspiration of such
God-given patriotism as found utterance from the steps of this building
when nearly four years ago he who spake as one with less in him of
earth than heaven, said: “With malice toward none, with charity for
all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let
us strive to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting
peace.” His words fell with magic effect, because, while he extended
the olive-branch with the left, in his right hand he wielded the great
American Army, the most potential power on the face of the earth. The
olive-branch should still be extended, but it will only be to loose the
hand that offers it unless it is demonstrated that the strong arm of
power will be used whenever necessary to overwhelm the crushing tyranny
of lawlessness and oppression.

Ages gone the great Omnipotent who snatched time from eternity and
spoke system from chaos, said “Let there be light,” and the sacred
chronicler informs us “there was light.” To-day the mighty people who
have saved the nation’s life in the sanguinary struggle and declared
freedom in the kingdom of slavery, have said “let us have peace.” Shall
not the historian who records the doings of this year be allowed to say
“there was peace!”

Oh, shall it not be so! The spirit of JAMES HINDS unites with hundreds
(you know not how many) of other spirits of treacherously murdered
men in beseechingly asking the question. Their suffering widows and
orphans, without even the little comforting crumb of a Government
pension, are weepingly asking the question. The hundreds of thousands
of maimed and crippled loyal men who fought and suffered beside
comrades who, fighting, fell to establish peace and protection, are
earnestly asking the question. Thirty-eight million inhabitants in
these United States whose prosperity can only be commensurate with the
maintenance of peace and protection, all join in prayerfully asking the
question. The countless lovers of freedom throughout the whole world
with one accord are looking to this nation and anxiously asking the
question. And, sirs, remember the Representatives of the people and the
Government must be responsible for the answer.




TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:


Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

Archaic or alternate spelling has been retained from the original.