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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



aroused ? Can our Eepublican friends be so 

 blinded by party as not themselves to become 

 aroused to the dangerous precedent for the 

 ultimate overthrow of the Constitution which 

 the enactment of this measure must inaugu- 

 rate. There is, there can be no exigency 

 that demands it now or will demand it here- 

 after. Why, Mr. President, I have seen and 

 known from my boyhood samething of the 

 South. I have talked with eminent men and 

 women unsurpassed in all that adorns the 

 highest type of manhood or womanhood, and 

 that heart must be as cold and callous as 

 stone that would not be touched by the merci- 

 less inhumanity and atrocities under which 

 through Federal agencies this generous people 

 are now being crushed. And yet we are told 

 that the perils to the public safely demand it. 

 How? Where? What Senator I care not 

 who will point out in this mass of testimony 

 the proof of any overt act of the Ku-klux or- 

 ganizations in the South threatening the subver- 

 sion of Federal or State Governments ? Has 

 an iota of proof been introduced going to 

 show any such intent ? To say that a rebel- 

 lion or insurrection exists in any part of our 

 country is a sham, a mockery. It is not true 

 in law; it is not true in fact. Secret com- 

 binations, illegal combinations, have existed, 

 as I have already admitted. They have com- 

 mitted acts of violence that call for sup- 

 pression. I am not the apologist for force or 

 violence anywhere. The majesty of the Con- 

 stitution and the laws constitutes our safely. 

 But it is untrue, as I believe, that these organ- 

 izations are political. It is equally untrue 

 that they cannot be suppressed and put down 

 by the laws and through the courts. These 

 disorders exist everywhere. Can you point 

 me to a State north or south of the Ohio 

 River where outbreaks and secret combina- 

 tions or mobs do not occasionally commit vio- 

 lence ? They exist in Indiana, and, from a 

 recently-published judicial charge of Judge 

 Durham, more violent deaths have recently 

 occurred in that State than in any other north 

 or south of the Ohio River immediately adja- 

 cent to it." 



Mr. Morton, of Indiana, said : " What is the 

 proposition established by this testimony, 

 overwhelmingly, conclusively, so that there is 

 no doubt left, and no man who reads it can 

 doubt it, unless he begins to read with a preju- 

 dice and with a passion that take from his 

 mind the capacity to gather and to compre- 

 hend truth, that there is an organized society 

 armed and equipped, a homogeneous society, 

 as much so as Masonry or Odd-Fellowship, 

 Laving a uniformity of signs, of pass-words, of 

 grips, of ceremonies, of oaths, and a unity of 

 purpose, existing in nine States of this Union? 

 This organization in Mississippi is the same as 

 it is in South Carolina, and the same that it is 

 in North Carolina, sometimes carrying one 

 name for temporary convenience and safety, 

 and sometimes carrying another, embracing 



thousands. We have the testimony of General 

 Forrest that at one time there were forty 

 thousand in the single State of Tennessee. 

 We cannot doubt that it embraced hundreds 

 of thousands taking those nine States through. 

 It is distinguished by its disguises, its hideous 

 uniform, travelling at night, committing like 

 crimes ; one gang going from Mississippi over 

 into Alabama, if you please, to commit a 

 crime, travelling forty or fifty miles, while 

 another gang from Alabama will pass into 

 Mississippi to a place where they are total 

 strangers, and having received their orders 

 there to commit a murder or several murders, 

 there to whip, to outrage, and to burn. This 

 proposition is fully, overwhelmingly estab- 

 lished by the evidence, and cannot be shaken 

 by the honorable Senators any more than they 

 can shake Washington Monument down here 

 by putting their fingers upon it. 



" The character of that organization is also 

 completely established. What is it ? First, that 

 it is political in its character; that it is aimed 

 at the Republican party so called. It is aimed 

 particularly at the colored people, first, -be- 

 cause they are Republicans; secondly, be- 

 cause they are colored people, and are invested 

 with political rights. They were recently 

 slaves, and the men who held them as slaves, 

 many of them not all; there are some noble 

 exceptions cannot endure to see them as free- 

 men clothed with equal civil and political 

 rights. This organization is political, thor- 

 oughly and completely in every part, although 

 it has undoubtedly sometimes been employed 

 for purposes of private malice or of private 

 gain. 



"Then what is its machinery? Murder, 

 scourging, arson, crimes without a name, 

 atrocities of every kind. The principal ma- 

 chinery is perjury, perjury for self-protection 

 and perjury for the assault of its enemies. Its 

 members are required to commit perjury in 

 court to protect their fellow-members upon 

 trial, and are required to commit perjury to 

 blacken the character, destroy the influence, 

 or imprison its enemies. This history and fea- 

 ture of this organization are overwhelming- 

 ly established. They have got witnesses; of 

 course they have. The Ku-klux can furnish 

 witnesses upon any subject to any required 

 point. They can prove any thing that may be 

 required. If necessary, they can go into court 

 or they can go before this examining commit- 

 tee and swear that they were Republicans, and 

 walked three miles on their hands and feet, as 

 I believe one of them said he had, to vote the 

 Republican ticket." 



Mr. Fenton, of New York, said: "I do not 

 like to be discourteous to any gentleman who 

 wishes to speak, and still I feel that this ses- 

 sion ought to close ; and, for the purpose of 

 testing the sense of the Senate on the subject 

 of getting away from here, I move to lay the 

 bill on the table." 



The Presiding Officer : " The Senator from 



