UNITED STATES. 



UNI VERBALISTS. 



733 



report theroon. North Carolina having been 

 in.-ulu the subject of a special communication 

 from President Grant, the committee at once 

 entered upon the investigation of the condition 

 .>f Hitaiis ia that State, and submitted their 

 report early in the year 1871. In prosecuting 

 tlu-ir inquiries, the committee summoned b<-t'..iv 

 tin-in representatives of all shades of political 

 opinion. "State and Federal judges, proso- 

 aitiiig officers, political editors, ministers of 

 1 iospcl, private citizens (both white and 

 colored), members of what is properly known 

 as the 'Ku-klux Klan,' magistrates, con- 

 stables, members of the bar, men who have 

 been scourged and abused by bands of men in 

 disguise; and, indeed, all classes of persons 

 from whom it was reasonable to expect such 

 testimony could be elicited as would form the 

 basis of a reliable judgment upon the subject 

 of inquiry." Of the- fifty-two witnesses ex- 

 amined twenty -nine were Republicans, and the 

 remainder belonged to the Democratic or Con- 

 servative party. From the evidence thus ob- 

 tained by the committee, it appears that the 

 secret organization known as the Ku-klux 

 Klan, with stern obligations and extreme pen- 

 alties for revealing its secrets imposed upon its 

 members, was instituted in North Carolina 

 some time during 1868, and prior to the presi- 

 dential election of that year, and that it has at 

 different stages adopted the names of "The 

 White Brotherhood," "The Constitutional 

 Union Guards," and " The Invisible Empire." 

 Soon after the organization of the order, the 

 whipping of negroes and threats of violence to 

 prominent men, because of their political opin- 

 ions, were commenced, in many instances the 

 names of the victims and the outrages to bo 

 committed having been voted upon in secret 

 meeting. The message of the President shows 

 that up to the 27th of October, 1870, twenty- 

 one cases of whipping and shooting were re- 

 ported as having occurred in Lincoln County ; 

 and from the 1st of December, 1868, to the 

 22d of December, 1870, a list of thirty-eight 

 cases of outrages is furnished as having occur- 

 red in Alamance Connty. The committee give 

 the names of ninety blacks and forty-four 

 whites in the counties of Lincoln, Alamance, 

 Catawba, Craven, Caswell, Chatham, Jones, 

 Orange, Rockingham, Rutherford, Wake, and 

 others, "nearly all of whom were whipped, 

 and the remainder were shot, robbed, hanged, 

 or driven from their homes," by the Ku-klux 

 Klan, and allege that in none of these instances 

 were the guilty parties convicted or punished. 

 It is further asserted that the outrages per- 



Ejtrated were inflicted upon members of the 

 epublican party, both white and colored. 

 Having concluded the investigation with re- 

 ference to North Carolina, the conclusions, 

 sealed and submitted to the Senate in the 

 majority report, signed by five of the com- 

 mittee, were : 



First. That the Ku-klux organization does exist, 

 has a political purpose, and is composed of members 



of the Democratic or Conservative party ; that it ha 

 ought to carry out ita purpose by murders, whip- 

 ping, intimidation*, and violence, against Ita oppo- 



ln-lits. 



Steond. That it not only bind* its members to carry 

 out decree* of crime, but protects them against con- 

 viction and punishment, first by disguise* and secrecy, 

 and secondly by perjury, If neoessary, upon the wit- 

 ness-stand and in the iury-box. 



Third. That of all the offenders against the law in 

 this order and they must be many hundreds, if not 

 thousands, because these crimes are shown to be com- 

 mitted by organized bands, ranging from ten up to 

 seventy-five not one has yet been convicted in the 

 whole State. Such being the state of affairs, it is surely 

 not necessary that committees should argue the in- 

 sufficiency of the reasons given for establishing an 

 order which has led to such results. Whatever may 

 have been the original purpose of the Ku-klux, or 

 the offences of those to counteract whom they allege 

 the order was established, it now has gone so far as to 

 present the issue between government and anarchy, 

 and, if it has not reached it, is fast approaching the 

 point where in that issue there can be no neutrals. 



A minority report, signed by Senators Blair 

 and Bayard, was submitted, denying the above 

 conclusions. They say : 



The number of these outrages, detestable and 

 wicked as they are, is nevertheless grossly and wildly 

 exaggerated, and this no one can doubt who will ex- 

 amine the testimony and who has had any knowledge 

 of the credulity and inaccuracy of statements charac- 

 teristic of our well-meaning colored people. North 

 Carolina is one of the largest States, territorially ? in 

 the Union, and is divided into eighty-seven counties, 

 and contains nearly one and a half million of people. 

 No act of lawlessness is actually proven to have been 

 committed, excepting in one or the other of six, per- 

 haps eight, of these counties, and yet it ia proposed 

 to employ violent and stringent measures or coercion 

 and repression to the remaining nine-tenths of a State, 

 against which no breath of evidence or proof of law- 

 lessness has ever been adduced, but which, on the 

 contrary, exhibits a condition of quiet almost suggest- 

 ing the insensibility of despair. What cause can be 

 alleged, what justification to the American people can 

 be used, for this renewed and wanton invasion of a 

 peaceful community ? The statement that anarchy 

 there exists is absurdly untrue, and testimony now 

 laid before the Senate overwhelmingly establishes its 

 untruth. If aggressive laws are to be enacted, let 

 all disguise be cast off and the true reason avowed. 

 It will not be less violent or wrong, but it will be leaa 

 hypocritical and more manly. To any fair-minded 

 man we confidently commit the proofs contained in 

 the testimony now presented by the committee, and 

 aver that in the face of such wrongs as have been in- 

 flicted upon our unfortunate and crushed people by 

 the rulers placed over them, not by their own con- 

 sent, but by thu exercise of despotic powers by the 

 Congress of the United States, no such example of 

 equal submissiveness and patient endurance can be 

 found in history as is now presented by the people 

 of the State of North Carolina. 



For the financial condition of the United 

 States, see the article FINANCES. The foreign 

 relations of the country are presented under 

 the title DIPT OMATIO CORRESPONDENCE, and in 

 the President's Message for December, 1870, 

 for which see PCBUO DOCUMENTS. For the 

 military and naval affairs of the country, we 

 ARMY and NAVY, respectively; and for the 

 general condition of internal affairs, tee CON- 

 OBB88 and the States, respectively. 



UNI VERSALISTS. The Universalist Bgu- 

 ter and Almanac for 1871 reports the follow- 



