174 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



rebel organization; it is flaunting again the 

 rebel flag in our faces; but, instead of open 

 and manly warfare, it is assassination sub- 

 stituted for war. 



"Mr. President, there is another remark- 

 able feature of this whole proceeding, and 

 that is, that from the beginning to the end, in 

 all this extent of territory, no man has ever 

 been convicted or punished for any of these 

 offences, not one. The only claimed excep- 

 tion, and that is pointed out by the minority 

 report, is where three or four negroes under- 

 took to disguise themselves as Ku-klux, went 

 around murdering and robbing other black 

 people ; but they were not genuine Ku-klux. 

 They were arrested by the authorities, tried, 

 and sent to the penitentiary, and are there 

 now. 



"But, sir, in all this numerous array of 

 crimes there is not one man called to an ac- 

 count for murder, robbery, scourging, whip- 

 ping. Why, sir, it is an appalling fact. In 

 regard to Texas the matter was discussed here 

 some time ago; and now from Texas to North 

 Carolina how many crimes have been com- 

 mitted by this Ku-klux Klan? And yet here 

 is the testimony of a judge in Kentucky that 

 the grand-juries refuse to indict and the petit 

 juries refuse to tfonvict, and there is no punish- 

 ment for this lawless outrage upon human 

 society. 



"I have culled out these cases to show that 

 the broad statement I made is literally true, 

 because, when we come to analyze the state- 

 ments made by the honorable Senator from 

 Tennessee and the honorable Senator from 

 Georgia, they are cases of ordinary crime; 

 they are not the political offences of which I 

 have spoken; and I repeat now as conclusively 

 true, and I assert they cannot be gainsaid, and 

 I ask of my political adversaries to overthrow 

 them if they can : first, that every man who 

 has been outraged by these Ku-klux Klans is a 

 Republican ; next, that every man who did it 

 was a Democrat ; and next, that no man has 

 been convicted for any of this class of offences. 



" I have already consumed all the time on 

 that branch of the case that I desire. I now 

 turn to the report of the minority of the com- 

 mittee, signed by two gentlemen for whom I 

 not only entertain high respect, but whose 

 names ought to carry with them a great deal 

 of respect in the country. 



"In the first place, I do not understand 

 these gentlemen to deny the material allega- 

 tions made by the majority report. I do not 

 understand them to deny, except in lawyer- 

 like, general phraseology, the material allega- 

 tions made by the majority, that this is a politi- 

 cal organization, spreading terror and violence 

 over a vast region of country, outraging its 

 adversaries, and protecting its members from 

 punishment in the courts; but they give a 

 number of apologies, very plausibly stated. 



" But, the chief point of this minority report 

 is, to show that the Ku-klux outrages were 



justified by the organization of secret leagues 

 on the part of the negroes. Let us see what 

 was the character of their secret leagues. 

 Were they any other than ordinary assoch 

 tions of men bound together for a lawful pui 

 pose ? What does this book show in regard 

 the Union Leagues or the secret leagues which 

 it is said the negroes joined? Nothing but 

 what they had a right to do." 



Mr. Stevenson, of Kentucky, said: "Mr. 

 President, when the Senator from Ohio (Mr. 

 Sherman) rose to speak in support of his reso- 

 lution, he made a most unjust and unfounded 

 aspersion, as I think wholly unintentional no 

 doubt on his part upon the Commonwealth 

 which I have the honor in part to represent on 

 this floor. The Senator was pleased to say 

 that the lawlessness and violence of these 

 armed, organized, sworn rebel soldiers were so 

 great in Kentucky as to demand the passage 

 of this resolution. 



"Now, has my honorable friend made good 

 his charge so repeatedly hurled at Kentucky 

 in his speech, that there is a band of armed 

 Confederate soldiers in that Commonwealth 

 bound by secret oaths to overthrow the law 

 and to commit robbery and murder? The 

 charge was distinct. What has been its proof? 

 He reads a charge to the jury made by Wil- 

 liam S. Prior, a circuit judge in one of the 

 judicial districts of Kentucky. I know that 

 gentleman well. His honor and his truth are 

 as pure as the ermine that he wears. Does 

 that judge say that the Ku-klux is a political 

 organization? Does he intimate that the or- 

 ganization is composed of rebel soldiers ? So 

 far from it, he says it is not a political organi- 

 zation. The very charge of Judge Prior, who 

 is a Southern man, and was for freedom of 

 opinion, but for nothing else, ruthlessly ban- 

 ished by Federal power during the war, con- 

 stitutes the highest proof of the injustice which 

 the honorable Senator from Ohio seeks to heap 

 upon the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Exiled 

 during the war for the mere exercise of politi- 

 cal opinion, when restored to the circuit bench 

 by a most unprecedented majority, wherev< 

 he sees the least disorder, the least violenc 

 he makes it the subject of a special charge, 

 order that these violators of law may be brougl 

 to justice. 



"I do not deny the fact that occasional ac 

 of violence have been committed in Kentucky 

 During my late administration of the executive 

 affairs of that State, which I resigned on the 

 13th of February, it was my duty several times 

 to call the attention of the Legislature, in as 

 strong language perhaps as that used by the 

 Courier-Journal of Louisville, to disorders 

 that sort, and to suggest that they should 

 put down at any cost and at every hazf 

 Perhaps, during the last three and a half ye* 

 that I administered the government of 

 State, a dozen instances of violence did occui 

 not more; and what did they amount to! 

 There was no evidence that they wore the 



