202 



CONGKESS, UNITED STATES. 



the public safety requires it. The committee 

 of which I have spoken have spent months in 

 taking testimony from every part of the South. 

 We have had volume upon volume of the evi- 

 dence printed, amounting to several thousand 

 pages. The report of the committee and the 

 views of the minority, in which the evidence 

 is summed up, alone amount to over one thou- 

 sand pages. Even the minority do not deny, 

 and I now quote their language, ' that bodies 

 of disguised men have in several of the States 

 of the South been guilty of the most flagrant 

 crimes.' But, sir, who are the guilty parties, 

 and what are their motives? I know what is 

 claimed by the Opposition here, and I know 

 the theory on this subject of those who give 

 tone to public opinion in the South. They 

 pretend that these crimes have no political sig- 

 nificance whatever, but are the work of the 

 poor, the lawless, and irresponsible white 

 men of that region, who, it is said, are the 

 enemies of the freedman, jealous of his lately- 

 acquired civil and political rights, envious of 

 the planter's preference for his labor, and 

 bent on getting rid of his competition. Such 

 is the theory of the minority of the committee. 

 They insist that these outrages are neither 

 committed nor sanctioned by the respectable 

 classes, and that they are not to be held re- 

 sponsible for them. But is this true ? So far 

 from being true, I insist that the investigations, 

 thorough and exhaustive, which have been 

 made by the congressional committee and in 

 the Federal courts, have conclusively impli- 

 cated the intelligent and property-holding 

 classes in these outrages, and fixed the respon- 

 sibility on them for their indulged continu- 

 ance without punishment or prosecution even. 

 From whom but this class come the funds 

 which support these costly military organiza- 

 tions, which supply the horses, equipments, 

 arms, ammunition, and disguises ; the intelli- 

 gence which directs the movements of these law- 

 less bodies and prevents discovery ? Who have 

 the greatest motives forinflicting these punish- 

 ments ? Suppose the charge to be that a freed- 

 man has stolen cotton, corn, or cattle; the 

 planter is the injured party, and not the poor 

 white class, who have nothing to be stolen. 

 He is the one interested in punishing the 

 thief. He may employ these poor whites as 

 his instruments, but he is the moving power ; 

 he is the responsible party. 



"Colored schools are broken up and the 

 school-houses burned by the hundred. This 

 is a favorite pastime with the Ku-klux gentle- 

 men. These brave fellows especially delight 

 to deal with school-mistresses. There is no 

 danger there. But who are most interested 

 in breaking up schools and instigating raids 

 upon the teachers and school-houses? I an- 

 swer, the men of property, the tax-payers, 

 the men who hold tax-payers' conventions 

 and denounce taxes, and compel those who 

 levy them to resign; the men who fill the 

 country with their clamor that they are im- 



poverished, robbed, and plundered, under the 

 new order of things ! " 



Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware, said: "Will 

 the Senator allow me to interrupt him a mo- 

 ment ? Do I understand him to say that the 

 investigation of this committee and the inves- 

 tigation of the Federal courts prove that the 

 property-holders in the South are the respon- 

 sible parties for the outrages that he alleges 

 to have been committed there ? " 



Mr. Pratt: "The Senator understands me 

 correctly." 



Mr. Saulsbury : " Then I ask if he knows of 

 any instance where those men have been pros- 

 ecuted under the provisions of the act passed 

 last session, which gives ample power to pun- 

 ish any person who has entered into any con- 

 spiracy? " 



Mr. Pratt: " Certainly, the records of the 

 courts in three or four States are full of such 

 cases." 



Mr. Saulsbury : " How many ? " 



Mr. Pratt : " If you will examine the report 

 of the majority of this committee you will as- 

 certain how many prosecutions have been in- 

 stituted in North Carolina and South Carolina." 



Mr. Saulsbury : " I beg to be excused from 

 examining the seven thousand pages of testi- 

 mony." 



Mr. Pratt: "I will take great pleasure in 

 showing them to the honorable Senator from 

 Delaware after I get through with my re- 

 marks. The seven or eight thousand pages of 

 testimony the committee have taken form 

 quite a bulky piece of literature, and I com- 

 mend it to my honorable friend upon next 

 Sunday or upon some leisure day for his read- 

 ing. He will find it profitable if not pleasant." 



Mr. Saulsbury: "I certainly would be in- 

 clined to avail myself of any suggestion of the 

 honorable Senator from Indiana in reference 

 to what is profitable reading for the Sabbath ; 

 but he must excuse me if I see proper to turn 

 to the pages of the. old Bible in preference to 

 the report of this committee. But I under- 

 stood the honorable Senator to be indicting 

 the whole class of property-holders in the 

 South. I wanted to call the attention of the 

 Senator from Indiana, before he made the 

 wholesale charge against the respectable prop- 

 erty-holders of the Southern States, to the 

 broad terms of the indictment which he was 

 making against that people. I do not believe 

 that the declaration of the Senator (worthy 

 and highly as he is honored in his own State, 

 in the Senate, and in the country) will have 

 the effect to blast the reputation of the whole 

 Southern people unless he lays his hands on 

 the facts and shows the evidence on which 

 that opinion is founded." 



Mr. Pratt : " If the honorable Senator will 

 hear me through, I hope to convince him be- 

 fore I am done ; and, if he will do the commit- 

 tee the justice to read through the testimony, 

 he will 'find Abundance of cases establishing 

 the propositions that I claim here." 



