CONGEESS, UNITED STATES. 



171 



Smith, Worthington C. Smith, Snyder, Thomas J. 

 Speer, Spra<rue, Stevens. Storrn, Stoughton, Stowell, 

 St. John, Sutherland, Swann, Taife, Terry, Wash- 

 ington Townsend, Turner, Tuthill, Twichell, Tyner, 

 Waddell, Walden, Waldron. Wallace. Walls, Wash- 

 burn, Wells, Wheeler. Whiteley, Whitthorne, Wil- 

 lard, Jeremiah M. Wilson, John T. Wilson, Wood, 

 and Young 154. 



The resolutions were then referred to the 

 Committee of Ways and Means. 



The following resolution, offered in the Sen- 

 ate by Mr. Anthony, of Rhode Island, was 

 adopted, after a wide range of debate, on the 

 22d of March : 



Resolved, That the Senate will consider at the pres- 

 ent session no other legislative business than the de- 

 ficiency appropriation bill, the concurrent resolution 

 for a joint committee of investigation into the condi- 

 tion of the States lately in insurrection, and the reso- 

 lution now pending instructing the Committee on the 

 Judiciary to report a bill or bills that will enable the 

 President and the courts of the United States to exe- 

 cute the laws in said States, and the report that may 

 be made by the Committee on the Judiciary on that 

 subject. 



The vote was as follows : 



YEAS Messrs. Ames, Anthony, Boreman, Brown- 

 low, Caldwell, Cameron, Chandler, Cole. Conkling, 

 Cragin, Fenton, Ferry of Michigan, Frelinghuysen, 

 Gilbert, Hamilton of Texas, Hamlin, Harlan, Hitch- 

 cock, Howe, Lewis, Morrill of Vermont, Morton, 

 Osborn, Patterson, Pomeroy, Pool, Pratt, Eamsey, 

 Sawyer, Scott, Sherman, Spencer, Stewart, West, 

 Wilson, and Wright 36. 



NAYS Messrs. Bayard, Blair, Casserly, Cooper, 

 Davis of Kentucky, Davis of West Virginia, Hamil- 

 ton of Maryland, Johnston, Kelly, Saulsbury, Ste- 

 venson, Stockton, Sumner, Thurman, Tipton, Trurn- 

 bull, Vickers, and Windom 18. 



ABSENT Messrs. Buckingham, Carpenter, Cor- 

 bett, Edmunds, Ferry of Connecticut, Flanagan, 

 Hill, Kellogg, Logan, Morrill of Maine, Nye, Bice, 

 Eobertson, Schurz, and Sprague 15. 



In the Senate, on March 18th, the following 

 resolution, offered by Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, 

 was considered : 



Resolved, That as organized bands of desperate and 

 lawless men, mainly composed of soldiers of the late 

 rebel armies, armed, disciplined, and disguised, and 

 bound by oaths and secret obligations, have by force, 

 terror, and violence, subverted all civil authority in 

 large parts of the late insurrectionary States, thus 

 utterly overthrowing the safety of persons and prop- 

 erty, and all those rights which are the primary 

 basis and object of all civil government and which 

 are expressly guaranteed by the Constitution of the 

 United States to all its citizens, and as the courts are 

 rendered utterly powerless by organized perjury to 

 punish crime : Therefore, 



The Committee on the Judiciary is instructed to 

 report a bill or bills that will enable the President 

 and the courts of the United States to execute the 

 laws, punish such organized violence, and secure to 

 all citizens the rights so guaranteed to them. 



Mr. Sherman said : " Mr. President, the con- 

 dition of affairs in the Southern States is so 

 extraordinary in its character, that I deem it 

 my duty, after a somewhat patient examina- 

 tion for a few days of such testimony as was 

 within my reach, to present to the Senate my 

 view of a state of affairs unexampled, either 

 in ancient or in modern times. It seems to 



me that the evidence disclosed already by the 

 recent examination made by the committee 

 appointed by the Senate presents us a mass 

 of testimony which, connected with such facts 

 as we can gather from the newspapers of the 

 South, and as are conveyed to us by telegram 

 and by letter, demands at once attention by 

 the Senate, and by the whole people of the 

 United States. This resolution which I have 

 drawn contains nothing but what is literally 

 true. Every statement and every allegation 

 contained in it, although it is a melancholy 

 indictment, is, I am sorry to say, strictly true. 

 No human language can convey the feelings of 

 regret with which I have perused the evidence 

 and become convinced that this state of affair* 

 really exists. That the Ku-klux Klan, as it 

 is called, under various names, is now a for- 

 midable military power in eleven States of this 

 Union is shown by all contemporaneous his- 

 tory, as well as by the sworn proof of great 

 numbers of witnesses given before one of the 

 committees of this body. That it is a disci- 

 plined band, armed, equipped, disguised, mainly 

 composed of soldiers of the rebel army, is sworn 

 to by the members of the order." 



Mr. Lewis, of Virginia, said : " The Senator 

 says that this band exists in eleven States. Let 

 me say to him that there is no such band in 

 my State, and that there is as much law and 

 order in Virginia as in any State in this Union. 

 If there is a band of Ku-klux there, it is not 

 known to me." 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said: "When I say 

 that such bands exist in Virginia, it will be 

 time enough to correct me. I intend that 

 every statement I make this day shall be ab- 

 solutely and strictly true. I said eleven States ; 

 and in Kentucky there is a state of horror 

 unequalled almost by any of the late rebel 

 States." 



Mr. Davis, of Kentucky, said : " Allow me 

 to say that that statement is simply the phan- 

 tom of a distempered imagination." 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said : " I think I will 

 show my honorable friend from Kentucky, and 

 he will regret it as much as I do, testimony 

 from sources that he will not controvert, that 

 in Kentucky " 



Mr. Davis, of Kentucky : " You cannot do 

 that." 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said: "I can show 

 him from the Democratic organ in Kentucky, 

 the Louisville Courier-Journal, a declaration 

 of these facts and a denunciation of these out- 

 rages in Kentucky more violent in its tone and 

 words than any language I shall utter this 

 day." 



Mr. Davis, of Kentucky : " Allow me to say 

 one single word more, and I shall not trouble 

 my honorable friend again. I do not care who 

 makes the disclosure; to any thing like any 

 considerable extent, it is not true. That there 

 are disorders in Kentucky, rare and occasional, 

 that ought to be put down by the proper au- 

 thority, I admit, and it will be done sooner and 



