172 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



much more safely, if Congress does not inter- 

 fere, by the proper authorities of Kentucky." 



Mr. Johnston, of Virginia, said : " I desire 

 to make a single statement. If I understand 

 the resolution I have not had an opportunity 

 of reading it, and only heard it read it de- 

 clares that the state of things set forth in it 

 exists in the late insurrectionary States. I 

 presume the Senator who drew the resolution 

 means to include the State of Virginia as one 

 of the late insurrectionary States, and to de- 

 clare by resolution that the Ku-klux Klan and 

 organized perjury and resistance to the laws 

 exist in that State. I do not desire to inter- 

 rupt the Senator any further than to deny 

 positively the statements of that resolution in 

 regard to the State of Virginia, and to declare 

 that they are utterly untrue. 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said : " Now, that 

 these armed bands do exist in certain States is 

 not denied. Senators seem in the outset to be 

 anxious to disclaim that they exist in their own 

 communities. I will first deal with the case of 

 North Carolina, where we are fortified by proof 

 that cannot be gainsaid, by an examination 

 made by seven of the most intelligent members 

 of this body, among whom were two members 

 of the minority of this body. Before that com- 

 mittee, judges, lawyers, clerks, officers, and 

 private citizens of every grade and condition 

 of society were examined, and their sworn tes- 

 timony is given in the report. And who now, 

 in the face of this testimony, will deny that 

 there are organized bands of lawless and des- 

 perate men, composed mainly of soldiers of 

 the rebel army, in disguise, working with ter- 

 ror and violence, with murder, whipping, and 

 scourging, and spreading terror over large parts 

 of the State of North Carolina, sometimes em- 

 bracing whole counties, and whose proceedings 

 are set forth in the report with an amplitude 

 of minutiaa and detail that is perfectly start- 

 ling? 



" Sir, the witnesses show that many of the 

 young men who were arrayed in the Confed- 

 erate army joined this military organization, 

 with all the benefit of the discipline they had 

 gained while in armed hostility to the Gov- 

 ernment of the United States. They are there 

 in violation of the very liberal terms granted 

 them by General Grant, and in violation of 

 the treaty of capitulation under which they 

 surrendered themselves as prisoners of war. 

 They are armed with the very weapons they 

 used against our own soldiers, and arms have 

 flowed freely into North Carolina since the war 

 was over, arms of the best character. They 

 are disciplined and organized, according to 

 the testimony of these high officers, in almost 

 every county of North Carolina ; but in most 

 of the counties, perhaps in a large majority of 

 the counties, they have committed no out- 

 rages; but there they lie quiet, organized,- 

 ready at a moment's notice to spring to arms. 

 In several of the counties of that State, as I 

 will show you by the testimony of these wit- 



nesses, they have brought about a condition 

 of affairs that is revolting to every instinct of 

 humanity. 



" I have read their oath, showing that here 

 is a political organization, with political ends, 

 political aims ; and, although the language is 

 somewhat covert, it shows that the object and 

 effect of that political organization is to pre- 

 vent large masses of the people of the Southern 

 States from enjoying a right which has beeu 

 guaranteed to them by the Constitution of our 

 country. 



" These men are not only armed, disciplined, 

 oath-bound members of the Confederate army, 

 but they work in disguise ; and their instru- 

 ments are terror and crime. Why, sir, we are 

 already familiar, and perhaps too familiar, with 

 the common description of these Ku-klux Klans 

 riding at night over a vast region of country, 

 going from county to county, coming into a 

 county town, and spreading terror all over a 

 community; and not only that, but they en- 

 deavor to excite superstition. They pretended, 

 I believe, in the outset to be the representative 

 ghosts of the Confederate dead. That was the 

 idea which they sought to give out ; the ghosts 

 of the Confederate dead were coming back to 

 punish those who had been disloyal to the 

 Confederate service ; and they terrified men, 

 women, and children, white and black. They 

 excited the superstition of the ignorant negroes 

 of the South, endeavored to frighten them first 

 by superstition, and then by intimidation, by 

 threats, by violence, and by murder. 



"Mr. President, I do not know anywhere 

 an organization similar to this Ku-klux Klan. 

 I have thought of the Thugs of India. They 

 murdered, and they murdered secretly ; but 

 they did not disguise themselves while they 

 were in the act of murder. If any Senator 

 now, in looking over the record of crime in all 

 ages, can tell me of an association, a conspiracy, 

 or a band of men, who combined in their acts 

 and in their purposes more that is diabolical 

 than this Ku-klux Klan, I should like to know 

 where it was. They are secret, oath-bound ; 

 they murder, rob, plunder, whip, and scourge; 

 and they commit these crimes, not upon the 

 high and lofty, but upon the lowly, upon the 

 poor, upon feeble men and women who are 

 utterly defenceless. They go out at night, 

 armed and disguised, under color of supersti- 

 tious forms, and commit their work. They go 

 over vast regions of country, carrying terror 

 wherever they go. In all the record of human 

 crime and God knows it is full enough 

 where is there an organization against which 

 humanity revolts more than it does against 

 this ? I know there is not a Senator here but 

 feels that this thing ought to be put down. 



"As to the extent .of this organization, let 

 me look at the testimony. One or two wit- 

 nesses here state the number of this organiza- 

 tion at forty thousand." 



Mr. Morton, of Indiana : " In one State ? " 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said : " In one State, 



