04 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



before he allows himself to consider all the circum- 

 stances of time, place, opinion, example, temptation, 

 and obstacle which, though they never authorize a 

 removal of the everlasting landmarks of right and 

 wrong, ought to be well weighed in allotting a due 

 degree of commendation or censure to human actions. 



" Denying that there is any morality in the 

 conduct of the secret societies in the South, it 

 is indispensable to consider the circumstances. 

 "What are they? First, of time. This unlaw- 

 fulness did not appear immediately after the 

 war. The South accepted the arbitration of 

 arms. It began to grow and to grow con- 

 tented. The people South embraced all the 

 conditions proposed in 1867 for their State 

 governments. They abolished slavery, an- 

 nulled the secession ordinances and the rebel 

 debt, accepted negro suffrage, came to Con- 

 gress, and were received how, we know. Then 

 the discontent began. It dates from their 

 repulse here and your breach of faith to them. 

 The inferior race became, under the recon- 

 structed governments and the bureau and 

 Army, more or less troublesome in its new 

 relation. 



"It is a matter of fact that the Ku-klux was 

 organized at first only to ' scare ' the supersti- 

 tious blacks. Horrid tales were told to frighten 

 them from ' roaming about and pilfering.' The 

 testimony collected in Mr. Maynard's speech 

 of February 14th proves this. The Ku-kluxes 

 visited houses ' talking their foolish talk.' They 

 were * muminicking ' about, whatever that 

 means. They carried a ' flesh flag in the shape 

 of a heart,' and went about hallooing for 'fried 

 nigger-meat ' (page 21). One of them (page 8) 

 represented that ' he had been killed six years 

 before at Manassas, and since then they had 

 built a turnpike over his grave, and he had to 

 scratch like hell to get up through the gravel.' 

 It was very common for a Ku-klux to carry an 

 India-rubber stomach, to startle the negro by 

 swallowing pailfuls of water. It is also to be ad- 

 mitted, as stated on page 14 of the same speech, 

 that ' political reasons had their influence after 

 the Ku-klux were under way.' ' They were a 

 disfranchised body,' as one witness says, ' and 

 did not intend to submit to such laws.' They 

 justified their orgies, their names, and their 

 conduct, on political grounds. So that, on 

 weighing their conduct, we perceive that 

 owing to the conduct of the governments, 

 State and Federal, these misguided men seemed 

 to justify themselves. In fact, the worse the 

 governments the worse would, a priori, be 

 the outrages. The sparsely-populated condi- 

 tion of the South; the inflamed opinion con- 

 sequent on subjugation and breach of Federal 

 faith ; the example of their rulers in lawless- 

 ness; the temptation to do in the dark what 

 could not be found out, and the obstacles 

 everywhere met with in their efforts, so often 

 balked here, to arise from the ashes of civil 

 war through amnesty, must all be considered 

 in judging of the remedy to be applied. 



"Let me illustrate by a reference to the 

 model Radical State of South Carolina. The 



President has pursued the Constitution in that 

 case. He is called upon by the Governor, in 

 the absence of the Legislature, though upon 

 what proofs we have no showing. It is proper, 

 however, to assume that he believes the dis- 

 orders there are so prevalent as to be alarming. 

 But to cure them, that is the question; and 

 the question involves first a diagnosis and then 

 a remedy. 



" South Carolina has been infested by the 

 worst local government ever vouchsafed to a 

 people. Ignorance, bribery, and corruption are 

 common in her Legislature. Bonds by the mill- 

 ion are issued, the public debt increased, and 

 nothing to show for it. The debt in 1860 was 

 but $3,691,574. It was last year $11,429,711 ; 

 and this year no one knows whether it is twen- 

 ty or thirty millions, nor how much is counter- 

 feit or genuine ! Her rulers contrived new 

 burdens in order to plunder more. On a full 

 valuation of real and personal property of 

 $183,913,367 the people pay this year sixteen 

 mills on the dollar as a State tax and four 

 mills county tax. This is for 1870 and 1871, 

 and amounts in all to $4,095,047, to which 

 $300,000 is to be added for poll-tax. In other 

 words, the value of the property is reduced from 

 $489,000,000, before the war, to $183,000,000, 

 and the tax raised from $400,000 to $4,250,000, 

 or ten times as much. It is two and a half 

 per cent, on a full valuation, and only chronio 

 insecurity and disorder as the consideration ! 

 This is done by those who pay no taxes, whc 

 squander what is paid, who use the means 

 arm negro militia and create a situation of ter- 

 ror, from which men rush into secret societies 

 for defence of homes, mothers, sisters, wives, 

 and children. 



" Add to these greivances the intolerable ex- 

 actions of the Federal Government, not only in 

 taxes, but in laws, and it should give us pause 

 before we place that people at the mercy of an 

 inferior race, a vindictive party, a court-mar- 

 tial, and a hostile President. The people in 

 their agony in that State actually clamored for 

 United States troops to save them from the 

 rapacity and murder of the negro bands and 

 their white allies. Can we not understand 

 why men, born free, should rise, or, if not rise 

 with safety, that they are compelled to hide 

 in Ku-klux or other secret clans, and strike 

 against this ruin and desolation, peculation 

 and violence, and that, too, when it is done by 

 those who are not of their race, and but lately 

 in their midst ? " 



Mr. Shellabarger, of Ohio, said : " I with- 

 draw the motion to recommit the bill, and 

 offer an amendment, which I send to the desk 

 to be read." 



The Clerk read as follows : 



Strike out the second, third, and fourth sections 

 of the bill, and insert in lieu thereof the following 

 sections : 



SEC. 2. That if two or more persons within any 

 State or Territory of the United States shall conspire 

 together to overthrow, or to put clown, or to destroy 

 by force the Government of the United States, or to 



