CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



173 



North Carolina. It seems to me that that must 

 be an exaggeration, because it would be entire- 

 ly out of proportion to the white voting popu- 

 lation of North Carolina. But suppose there 

 .ire but ten thousand, and no man can read 

 this evidenc'e without being convinced that 

 there are at least ten thousand. In some coun- 

 ties, according to the testimony, seven or eight 

 hundred of these men are in the Klan. 



" It is also shown by conclusive evidence 

 that this organization extends through every 

 county of North Carolina. One of the judges 

 of the Supreme Court of that State, who was 

 examined by both sides, and who seems 

 throughout to have testified fairly, said he be- 

 lieved the organization extended into almost 

 every county in North Carolina, but that in 

 many counties they had never committed any 

 outrage ; and he said that in some of the strong- 

 est Democratic counties they dared not show 

 their heads in open violence. Wherever there 

 is a strong Republican majority or a strong 

 Democratic majority, this organization lies 

 quiet ; but wherever there is a close county, 

 and terror is necessary to enable them to carry 

 the election, there they rise. Wherever the 

 negro population preponderates, there they 

 hold their sway; for a few determined men, 

 disciplined as these men are, can carry terror 

 among ignorant negroes, uneducated, full of 

 superstition, without arms, equipment, or dis- 

 cipline. The testimony shows that this or- 

 ganization is powerful in that State ; and it 

 extends to the other States, as I shall show 

 you hereafter. 



"Mr. President, it may be said that these 

 cases of crime are only isolated cases; that 

 they do not pervade large communities, and 

 nre not numerous. That is not so, unfortu- 

 nately. This report contains, on pages 18-20, 

 specific cases which show that they are 

 general. For instance, in the single coun- 

 ty of Lincoln, within eighteen months, there 

 were twenty-one cases of whipping, murder, 

 and other crimes of violence committed by the 

 Ku-klux Klan. In another county, the county 

 of Alamance, there were thirty-eight cases 

 within the period of twenty-four months ; and 

 other testimony, to which I shall advert pres- 

 ently, shows that since this list was made up 

 other crimes of a similar character have been 

 committed in those counties. 



" In Catawba County we find a list of twenty 

 or thirty cases. I do not know precisely the 

 number. Then there is here a list of outrages 

 in other counties referred to." 



Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, said : " Without 

 interrupting the honorable Senator from Ohio, 

 merely that there may be an intelligent com- 

 prehension of this evidence as we go along, I 

 ask him if he knows within what dates that 

 whole list of outrages has occurred ? How 

 long a period of time is embraced in the oc- 

 currence of that long list ? There is something 

 in that, I think." 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said : " I see in the 



report of the Senator from Pennsylvania, from 

 the 1st of December, 1868, to the 22d of De- 

 cember, 1870, a period of a little more than 

 two years, a list of thirty-eight cases referred 

 to as having occurred in Alamance County; 

 and the same report says that they are only a 

 portion of the cases occurring in that county.'" 



Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, said: "Now, in 

 the presence of the Senator from Pennsyl- 

 vania, whom the Senator gives as his author- 

 ity, I ask whether, from the testimony taken 

 before that committee, he derives those dates 

 and those facts ? " 



Mr. Scott, of Pennsylvania : "Those dates 

 refer to the President's message." 



Mr. Bayard, of Delaware: "I thought so. 

 There was no testimony about them." 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said : '* I think a gen- 

 tleman so distinguished for candor as my friend 

 from Delaware will hardly dispute the fact 

 when he comes to reply to me (as he will, no 

 doubt, in due time, as I shall have occasion to 

 refer to his report after a while and he will 

 have occasion to reply) that the multitude of 

 these crimes, spreading over vast regions of 

 country, occurring so frequently, shows a re- 

 volting state of society which no man can jus- 

 tify. But, instead of giving long lists of crime 

 that have been committed from time to time, 

 it is sometimes best to illustrate the nature of 

 these crimes; and I propose to give now four 

 or five specimen cases of the ofiences that 

 have been committed and are here reported to 

 us by this sworn testimony. [Here Mr. Sher- 

 man stated several cases. ED.] 



"Mr. President, these are all the cases that 

 I shall bring before the Senate, not because 

 there are not many more, for I have here, in 

 the clearest and strongest testimony, in news- 

 papers and in various forms, innumerable 

 cases that would occupy me for days in merely 

 reading a short abstract and statement of 

 them. I appeal now to Senators whether 

 there is not a condition of society in the South 

 that calls for our action if we intend to retain 

 a republican form of government, if we intend 

 to hold up this Government of ours as a pat- 

 tern for other nations. If we do, we must, 

 without regard to party, in the language of 

 the judge of Kentucky, put down this condi- 

 tion of things in some way or other. 



"I have confined myself, thus far, to a 

 simple delineation of the character of this 

 organization, of the nature of its crimes, of the 

 extensiveness of its crimes, and of the strength 

 and power of the organization. There are two 

 or three peculiarities about it which are as 

 striking as are these other matters. The first 

 is, that all these crimes are committed upon 

 Republicans. The judge who made the charge 

 to the grand-jury in Kentucky says this is not 

 a political organization, but he had not at 

 that time read the testimony here containing 

 the oath, and all this multiplied testimony, 

 showing that it is a political organization, not 

 approved by all Democrats, I know. It is a 



