CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



179 



ever to charge me with being any friend, any 

 aider, any countenancer of disorder anywhere 

 in the republic. 



" I have only a word to add to what I said 

 just now. I have spoken of the positive man- 

 ner in which it is asserted in the resolution of 

 my colleague that certain facts are proved, and 

 have said that I presumed he referred for that 

 proof to the report made by the select com- 

 mittee of this body on the subject of affairs in 

 the State of North Carolina. I have glanced 

 over that report as fully as I could do in the 

 limited time I have had to examine it and the 

 multitude of other things demanding my atten- 

 tion, and I undertake to say that the result of 

 my investigation is this: that no man ever 

 was convicted in a court of justice of the 

 slightest offence known to the law upon such 

 testimony as is found in that report. 



" More than nine-tenths of all that I have 

 read of the testimony it contains is mere hear- 

 say, witnesses swearing, not to what they 

 knew, not to what they had seen, but simply 

 to what they had heard; and the testimony 

 even of those witnesses who seem to be the 

 most important and most relied upon, the 

 common informers of these Ku-klux men, the 

 men who have turned State's evidence, and 

 some of them with the price of their apostacy 

 in their pockets the testimony even of those 

 men is, more than nine-tenths of it, simple, 

 unaltered hearsay; men who had seen nothing 

 done, who knew of nothing of their own knowl- 

 edge, but who retailed what they had heard." 



The Vice-President: "The question recurs 

 on agreeing to the resolution." 



The question being taken, resulted as fol- 

 lows : 



YEAS .Messrs. Anthony, Boreman, Brownlow, 

 Caldwcll, Chandler, Clayton, Cole, Conkling, Cor- 

 bett, Cragin, Edmunds, Fenton, Ferry of Michigan, 

 Frelinghuysen, Hamilton of Texas, Hamlin, Harlan, 

 Hitchcock, Howe, Logan, Morrill of Vermont, Mor- 

 ton, Nye, Patterson, Pool, Pratt, Kamsey, Rice, 

 Sawyer. Scott, Sherman, Spencer, Stewart, 'Sumner, 

 West, Wilson, Windom, and Wright 38. 



NAYS Messrs. Bayard, Blair, Casserly, Cooper, 

 Davis of Kentucky, Davis of West Virginia, Hamil- 

 ton of Maryland, Kelly, Saulsbury, Stevenson, Stock- 

 ton, and Thurman 12. 



ABSENT Messrs. Ames, Buckingham, Cameron, 

 Carpenter, Ferry of Connecticut, Flanagan, Gilbert, 

 Hill, Johnston, Kellogg, Lewis, Morrill of Maine, 

 Osborn, Pomeroy, Robertson, Schurz, Sprague, Tip- 

 ton, Trumbull, and Vickers 20. 



So the resolution was agreed to as follows : 

 Resolved, That as organized bands of lawless and 

 desperate men, mainly composed of soldiers of the 

 late rebel armies, armed, disciplined, and disguised, 

 and bound by oaths and secret obligations, are proved 

 to exist in the State of North Carolina, and have, by 

 force, terror, and violence, defied civil authority in 

 that State, and by organized perjury have rendered 

 the courts powerless to punish the crimes they have 

 committed, thus overthrowing the safety of person 

 and property, and the rights which are the primary 

 basis of civil government, and which are guaranteed 

 by_ the Constitution of the United States to all its 

 citizens ; and as there is good reason to believe that 

 similar organizations exist, and have produced simi- 

 ar results in many parts of the late insurrectionary 



States: therefore, the Judiciary Committee is in- 

 structed to report a bill or bills to enable the Presi- 

 dent and the courts of the United States to execute 

 the laws, punish and prevent such organized vio- 

 lence, and secure to all citizens the rights so guaran- 

 teed to them ; and that said committee be instructed 

 to report as soon as practicable. 



In the Senate, on March 17th, Mr. Anthony, 

 of Rhode Island, said : " I offer a concurrent 

 resolution, and I wish to state that this con- 

 current resolution covers the same ground as a 

 resolution which passed the House of Repre- 

 sentatives for investigating into the alleged 

 disorders in the Southern States. An investi- 

 gation has been ordered by the House of Rep- 

 resentatives, I suppose it is not improper for me 

 to state, as everybody knows it ; and this is a 

 concurrent resolution proposing that the Sen- 

 ate shall be represented upon that committee ; 

 and it will enable us to dispense, I suppose, 

 with the committee we already have on that 

 subject. The only difference between this and 

 the resolution that ' has been adopted by the 

 House of Representatives, and the committee 

 that has now been appointed in the Senate, is 

 to provide that there shall be one investigation 

 in which both Houses shall participate, and of 

 course the Senators upon both sides of the 

 Chamber will be represented upon the com- 

 mittee. If there be no objection I should like 

 to have it read, and I think it would facilitate 

 business if it were put on its passage." 



The Chief Clerk read the resolution, as fol- 

 lows : 



Resolved ly the Senate of the United States (the 

 House of Representatives concurring), That a joint 

 committee consisting of five Senators and seven Rep- 

 resentatives be appointed, whose duty it shall be to 

 inquire into the condition of the late insurrectionary 

 States so far as regards the execution of the laws 

 and the safety of the lives and property of citizens 

 of the United States, with leave to report at any 

 time the result of their investigation to the two' 

 Houses of Congress, with such recommendations as 

 they may deem expedient ; that said committee be 

 authorized to employ clerks and stenographers, to 

 sit during the recess, to send for persons ana papers, 

 to take testimony, and to visit at their discretion, 

 through sub-committees, any portion of the said 

 States during the recess of Congress, and to print 

 and make public from time to time during the recess 

 the results of their investigations ; and the expenses 

 of said committee shall be paid out of the contingent 

 funds of the two Houses of Congress. 



Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, said : "I would 

 suggest that, upon reflection, it seems to me 

 that committee had better be seven on the 

 part of the Senate, and nine on the part of the 

 House, and I say seven on the part of the 

 Senate because we now have a committee of 

 seven, and I think it would be better to con- 

 tinue those same gentlemen. I suggest it, and 

 perhaps the Senator from Rhode Island will 

 agree to it." 



Mr. Anthony : " I do not see any objection, 

 if Senators around me do not." 



The resolution was subsequently adopted. 



In the House, on March 20th, the above 

 resolution was considered. 



