Smith, Worthington C. Smith, Snyder, Thomas J. Speer, Sprague, Stevens, Storm, Stoughton, Stowell, St. John, Sutherland, Swann, Taffe, Terry, Washington Townsend, Turner, Tuthill, Twichell, Tyner, Waddell, Walden, Waldron, Wallace, Walls, Washburn, Wells, Wheeler, Whiteley, Whitthorne, Willard, Jeremiah M. Wilson, John T. Wilson, Wood, and Young-154. The resolutions were then referred to the Committee of Ways and Means. The following resolution, offered in the Senate by Mr. Anthony, of Rhode Island, was adopted, after a wide range of debate, on the 22d of March: Resolved, That the Senate will consider at the present session no other legislative business than the deficiency appropriation bill, the concurrent resolution for a joint committee of investigation into the condition of the States lately in insurrection, and the resolution now pending instructing the Committee on the Judiciary to report a bill or bills that will enable the President and the courts of the United States to execute the laws in said States, and the report that may be made by the Committee on the Judiciary on that subject. The vote was as follows: YEAS-Messrs. Ames, Anthony, Boreman, Brownlow, Caldwell, Cameron, Chandler, Cole, Conkling, Cragin, Fenton, Ferry of Michigan, Frelinghuysen, Gilbert, Hamilton of Texas, Hamlin, Harlan, Hitchcock, Howe, Lewis, Morrill of Vermont, Morton, Osborn, Patterson, Pomeroy, Pool, Pratt, Ramsey, Sawyer, Scott, Sherman, Spencer, Stewart, West, Wilson, and Wright-36. NAYS-Messrs. Bayard, Blair, Casserly, Cooper, Davis of Kentucky, Davis of West Virginia, Hamilton of Maryland, Johnston, Kelly, Saulsbury, Stevenson, Stockton, Sumner, Thurman, Tipton, Trumbull, Vickers, and Windom-18. ABSENT-Messrs. Buckingham, Carpenter, Corbett, Edmunds, Ferry of Connecticut, Flanagan, Hill, Kellogg, Logan, Morrill of Maine, Nye, Rice, Robertson, Schurz, and Sprague-15. In the Senate, on March 18th, the following resolution, offered by Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, was considered: Resolved, That as organized bands of desperate and lawless men, mainly composed of soldiers of the late rebel armies, armed, disciplined, and disguised, and bound by oaths and secret obligations, have by force, terror, and violence, subverted all civil authority in large parts of the late insurrectionary States, thus utterly overthrowing the safety of persons and property, and all those rights which are the primary basis and object of all civil government and which are expressly guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States to all its citizens, and as the courts are rendered utterly powerless by organized perjury to punish crime: Therefore, The Committee on the Judiciary is instructed to report a bill or bills that will enable the President and the courts of the United States to execute the laws, punish such organized violence, and secure to all citizens the rights so guaranteed to them. Mr. Sherman said: "Mr. President, the condition of affairs in the Southern States is so extraordinary in its character, that I deem it my duty, after a somewhat patient examination for a few days of such testimony as was within my reach, to present to the Senate my view of a state of affairs unexampled, either in ancient or in modern times. It seems to me that the evidence disclosed already by the recent examination made by the committee appointed by the Senate presents us a mass of testimony which, connected with such facts as we can gather from the newspapers of the South, and as are conveyed to us by telegram and by letter, demands at once attention by the Senate, and by the whole people of the United States. This resolution which I have drawn contains nothing but what is literally true. Every statement and every allegation contained in it, although it is a melancholy indictment, is, I am sorry to say, strictly true. No human language can convey the feelings of regret with which I have perused the evidence and become convinced that this state of affairs really exists. That the Ku-klux Klan, as it is called, under various names, is now a formidable military power in eleven States of this Union is shown by all contemporaneous history, as well as by the sworn proof of great numbers of witnesses given before one of the committees of this body. That it is a disciplined band, armed, equipped, disguised, mainly composed of soldiers of the rebel army, is sworn to by the members of the order." Mr. Lewis, of Virginia, said: "The Senator says that this band exists in eleven States. Let me say to him that there is no such band in my State, and that there is as much law and order in Virginia as in any State in this Union. If there is a band of Ku-klux there, it is not known to me." Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said: "When I say that such bands exist in Virginia, it will be time enough to correct me. I intend that every statement I make this day shall be absolutely and strictly true. I said eleven States; and in Kentucky there is a state of horror unequalled almost by any of the late rebel States." Mr. Davis, of Kentucky, said: "Allow me to say that that statement is simply the phantom of a distempered imagination." Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said: "I think I will show my honorable friend from Kentucky, and he will regret it as much as I do, testimony from sources that he will not controvert, that in Kentucky-" Mr. Davis, of Kentucky: "You cannot do that." him from the Democratic organ in Kentucky, Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said: "I can show the Louisville Courier-Journal, a declaration of these facts and a denunciation of these outrages in Kentucky more violent in its tone and words than any language I shall utter this day." Mr. Davis, of Kentucky: "Allow me to say. one single word more, and I shall not trouble my honorable friend again. I do not care who makes the disclosure; to any thing like any considerable extent, it is not true. That there are disorders in Kentucky, rare and occasional, that ought to be put down by the proper authority, I admit, and it will be done sooner and much more safely, if Congress does not interfere, by the proper authorities of Kentucky." Mr. Johnston, of Virginia, said: "I desire to make a single statement. If I understand the resolution-I have not had an opportunity of reading it, and only heard it read-it declares that the state of things set forth in it exists in the late insurrectionary States. I presume the Senator who drew the resolution means to include the State of Virginia as one of the late insurrectionary States, and to declare by resolution that the Ku-klux Klan and organized perjury and resistance to the laws exist in that State. I do not desire to interrupt the Senator any further than to deny positively the statements of that resolution in regard to the State of Virginia, and to declare that they are utterly untrue. nesses, they have brought about a condition of affairs that is revolting to every instinct of humanity. "I have read their oath, showing that here is a political organization, with political ends, political aims; and, although the language is somewhat covert, it shows that the object and effect of that political organization is to prevent large masses of the people of the Southern States from enjoying a right which has been guaranteed to them by the Constitution of our country. "These men are not only armed, disciplined, oath-bound members of the Confederate army, but they work in disguise; and their instruments are terror and crime. Why, sir, we are already familiar, and perhaps too familiar, with the common description of these Ku-klux Klans Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said: "Now, that riding at night over a vast region of country, these armed bands do exist in certain States is going from county to county, coming into a not denied. Senators seem in the outset to be county town, and spreading terror all over a anxious to disclaim that they exist in their own community; and not only that, but they encommunities. I will first deal with the case of deavor to excite superstition. They pretended, North Carolina, where we are fortified by proof I believe, in the outset to be the representative that cannot be gainsaid, by an examination ghosts of the Confederate dead. That was the made by seven of the most intelligent members idea which they sought to give out; the ghosts of this body, among whom were two members of the Confederate dead were coming back to of the minority of this body. Before that com- punish those who had been disloyal to the mittee, judges, lawyers, clerks, officers, and Confederate service; and they terrified men, private citizens of every grade and condition women, and children, white and black. They of society were examined, and their sworn tes- excited the superstition of the ignorant negroes timony is given in the report. And who now, of the South, endeavored to frighten them first in the face of this testimony, will deny that by superstition, and then by intimidation, by there are organized bands of lawless and des- threats, by violence, and by murder. perate men, composed mainly of soldiers of the rebel army, in disguise, working with terror and violence, with murder, whipping, and scourging, and spreading terror over large parts of the State of North Carolina, sometimes embracing whole counties, and whose proceedings are set forth in the report with an amplitude of minutia and detail that is perfectly startling? "Sir, the witnesses show that many of the young men who were arrayed in the Confederate army joined this military organization, with all the benefit of the discipline they had gained while in_armed hostility to the Government of the United States. They are there in violation of the very liberal terms granted them by General Grant, and in violation of the treaty of capitulation under which they surrendered themselves as prisoners of war. They are armed with the very weapons they used against our own soldiers, and arms have flowed freely into North Carolina since the war was over, arms of the best character. They are disciplined and organized, according to the testimony of these high officers, in almost every county of North Carolina; but in most of the counties, perhaps in a large majority of the counties, they have committed no outrages; but there they lie quiet, organized, ready at a moment's notice to spring to arms. In several of the counties of that State, as I will show you by the testimony of these wit "Mr. President, I do not know anywhere an organization similar to this Ku-klux Klan. I have thought of the Thugs of India. They murdered, and they murdered secretly; but they did not disguise themselves while they were in the act of murder. If any Senator now, in looking over the record of crime in all ages, can tell me of an association, a conspiracy, or a band of men, who combined in their acts and in their purposes more that is diabolical than this Ku-klux Klan, I should like to know where it was. They are secret, oath-bound; they murder, rob, plunder, whip, and scourge; and they commit these crimes, not upon the high and lofty, but upon the lowly, upon the poor, upon feeble men and women who are utterly defenceless. They go out at night, armed and disguised, under color of superstitious forms, and commit their work. They go over vast regions of country, carrying terror wherever they go. In all the record of human crime-and God knows it is full enoughwhere is there an organization against which humanity revolts more than it does against this? I know there is not a Senator here but feels that this thing ought to be put down. "As to the extent of this organization, let me look at the testimony. One or two witnesses here state the number of this organization at forty thousand." Mr. Morton, of Indiana: "In one State?" North Carolina. It seems to me that that must be an exaggeration, because it would be entirely out of proportion to the white voting population of North Carolina. But suppose there are but ten thousand, and no man can read this evidence without being convinced that there are at least ten thousand. In some counties, according to the testimony, seven or eight hundred of these men are in the Klan. "It is also shown by conclusive evidence that this organization extends through every county of North Carolina. One of the judges of the Supreme Court of that State, who was examined by both sides, and who seems throughout to have testified fairly, said he believed the organization extended into almost every county in North Carolina, but that in many counties they had never committed any outrage; and he said that in some of the strongest Democratic counties they dared not show their heads in open violence. Wherever there is a strong Republican majority or a strong Democratic majority, this organization lies quiet; but wherever there is a close county, and terror is necessary to enable them to carry the election, there they rise. Wherever the negro population preponderates, there they hold their sway; for a few determined men, disciplined as these men are, can carry terror among ignorant negroes, uneducated, full of superstition, without arms, equipment, or discipline. The testimony shows that this organization is powerful in that State; and it extends to the other States, as I shall show you hereafter. "Mr. President, it may be said that these cases of crime are only isolated cases; that they do not pervade large communities, and are not numerous. That is not so, unfortunately. This report contains, on pages 18-20, specific cases which show that they are general. For instance, in the single county of Lincoln, within eighteen months, there were twenty-one cases of whipping, murder, and other crimes of violence committed by the Ku-klux Klan. In another county, the county of Alamance, there were thirty-eight cases within the period of twenty-four months; and other testimony, to which I shall advert presently, shows that since this list was made up other crimes of a similar character have been committed in those counties. "In Catawba County we find a list of twenty or thirty cases. I do not know precisely the number. Then there is here a list of outrages in other counties referred to." Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, said: "Without interrupting the honorable Senator from Ohio, merely that there may be an intelligent comprehension of this evidence as we go along, I ask him if he knows within what dates that whole list of outrages has occurred? How long a period of time is embraced in the occurrence of that long list? There is something in that, I think." Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said: "I see in the report of the Senator from Pennsylvania, from the 1st of December, 1868, to the 22d of December, 1870, a period of a little more than two years, a list of thirty-eight cases referred to as having occurred in Alamance County; and the same report says that they are only a portion of the cases occurring in that county.' Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, said: "Now, in the presence of the Senator from Pennsylvania, whom the Senator gives as his authority, I ask whether, from the testimony taken before that committee, he derives those dates and those facts?" Mr. Scott, of Pennsylvania: "Those dates refer to the President's message.' Mr. Bayard, of Delaware: "I thought so. There was no testimony about them." Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said: "I think a gentleman so distinguished for candor as my friend from Delaware will hardly dispute the fact when he comes to reply to me (as he will, no doubt, in due time, as I shall have occasion to refer to his report after a while and he will have occasion to reply) that the multitude of these crimes, spreading over vast regions of country, occurring so frequently, shows a revolting state of society which no man can justify. But, instead of giving long lists of crime that have been committed from time to time, it is sometimes best to illustrate the nature of these crimes; and I propose to give now four or five specimen cases of the offences that have been committed and are here reported to us by this sworn testimony. [Here Mr. Sherman stated several cases.-ED.] "Mr. President, these are all the cases that I shall bring before the Senate, not because there are not many more, for I have here, in the clearest and strongest testimony, in newspapers and in various forms, innumerable cases that would occupy me for days in merely reading a short abstract and statement of them. I appeal now to Senators whether there is not a condition of society in the South that calls for our action if we intend to retain a republican form of government, if we intend to hold up this Government of ours as a pattern for other nations. If we do, we must, without regard to party, in the language of the judge of Kentucky, put down this condition of things in some way or other. "I have confined myself, thus far, to a simple delineation of the character of this organization, of the nature of its crimes, of the extensiveness of its crimes, and of the strength and power of the organization. There are two or three peculiarities about it which are as striking as are these other matters. The first is, that all these crimes are committed upon Republicans. The judge who made the charge to the grand-jury in Kentucky says this is not a political organization, but he had not at that time read the testimony here containing the oath, and all this multiplied testimony, showing that it is a political organization, not approved by all Democrats, I know. It is a rebel organization; it is flaunting again the rebel flag in our faces; but,tead of open and manly warfare, it is assassination substituted for war. "Mr. President, there is another remarkable 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 exception, and that is pointed out by the minority report, is where three or four negroes undertook to disguise themselves as Ku-klax, 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 account for murder, robbery, scourging, whipping. Why, sir, it is an appalling fact. În regard to Texas the matter was discussed here some time ago; and now from Texas to North Carolina how many crimes have been committed 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 convict, and there is no punishment 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 statements 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 committee, 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 allegations made by the majority report. I do not understand them to deny, except in lawyerlike, general phraseology, the material allega tions made by the majority, that this is a political 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 associations of men bound together for a lawful purpose? What does this book show in regard to 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 resolution, he made a most nnjust 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 William 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 organization is composed of rebel soldiers? So far from it, he says it is not a political organization. The very charge of Judge Prior, who is a Southern man, and was for freedom of opinion, but for nothing else, ruthlessly banished by Federal power during the war, constitutes 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 political opinion, when restored to the circuit bench by a most unprecedented majority, wherever he sees the least disorder, the least violence, he makes it the subject of a special charge, in order that these violators of law may be brought to justice. "I do not deny the fact that occasional acts 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 of that sort, and to suggest that they should be put down at any cost and at every hazard. Perhaps, during the last three and a half years that I administered the government of that State, a dozen instances of violence did occur, not more; and what did they amount to? There was no evidence that they were the act of any secret political organization in that State. I know there are bad men in both parties; bad men do wrong everywhere; but I aver that I do not believe that the organization committing these outrages amounted to fifty men, and they confined to one locality. "What evidence is there that they were Confederate soldiers? There is no proof of it. That outrages have been committed I do not deny; but I undertake to say that if the gentleman will give me an investigating committee I can go to the great capital of Ohio, which the honorable Senator represents, and show more crime and more outrage committed in the single city of Cincinnati than have been committed in the entire Commonwealth of Kentucky for the last ten years. I might go to the State of Indiana and find vigilance committees who hang half a dozen at a time." Mr. Thurman, of Ohio, said: "And not one of the men punished, either." Mr. Stevenson, of Kentucky, said: "I might go to every State; but God forbid that I shall ever seek to seize isolated cases in the calendar of crime in order to obtain materials for a campaign speech for the next presidential election! I doubt whether my friend from Ohio would have done it so early in advance except for the recent family jars in his own party. Desperate diseases require desperate remedies; and I think that the honorable Senator felt that he had to give a slap at Kentucky in order to inflame the public mind and to revive the sinking fortunes of the Republican party." Mr. Sawyer, of South Carolina, said: "Mr. President, I believe the existence of these outrages is in some degree indirectly due to the fact that, when the new State governments were formed in the South, men who by education, by previous social position, and by experience in such affairs were best fitted to become State officers, were by the laws and Constitution excluded from such positions. In South Carolina it is manifest that the discontent, the resistance to law, and the violations of private rights, do not necessarily imply hostility to the United States Government. Doubtless there are attempts there to evade the revenue laws; there have been, I believe, one or two cases where violent resistance has been made to officers attempting to suppress illicit distillation by seizures and destruction of stills. But the same thing has occurred in other parts of the United States where there was no disloyalty suspected, but simply a desire to get unlawful gains and to escape the payment of taxes. It is doubtless a species of disloyalty to evade the payment of whiskey taxes, income taxes, or any other taxes; but, if we reason from such attempts on the part of individuals that the community in which they live needs special legislation to protect loyal men, we shall make an egregious error. "I believe that in South Carolina, at least, and probably in many other States, the turbulent and riotous spirit which induces these out rages comes from opposition to the local administration. I do not think the men who commit the atrocities of which we hear so much are more to be excused for their conduct because their action proceeds from the one cause rather than from the other. But I wish the fact to be clearly understood, that, while here and there the so-called Ku-klux Klan may declare their hostility to the national Government, it is generally against those who support and affiliate with the State officers that their blows are aimed. The pretext for their action is maladministration of State and county affairs. Their devilish doings are claimed by them to be in the interest of just punishment for crimes which otherwise would go unwhipped of justice. "The monstrous character of such a policy needs no comment. All right-minded men see that it is anarchy, and that all the dearest rights of man and of society are sacrificed by its prevalence. When men, on never so plausible an excuse, take the administration of justice from the proper tribunals into their own hands, society is thrown back into a state of barbarism; government, in a proper sense, ceases to exist. If there be power under the Constitution to cure this evil, we cannot afford to refuse or postpone the labor of devising a remedy. "I am not prepared to deny that maladministration has occurred in many of the Southern States. I know such to have been the fact. I do not think it would have been less likely to occur if the government had been in Democratic hands. On the contrary, other things being equal, I think quite the reverse would have been the case." Mr. Thurman, of Ohio, said: "Mr. President, no one underrates the necessity of putting a stop to the outrages spoken of, so far as they exist. There may be a difference of opinion as to the extent to which they do exist; but no one, I am sure, of any party, desires that they should continue. Every one, at least, in this chamber, desires that they should cease. But, desirable as it is that these outrages should cease, important as any Senator may consider it to be that an end should be put to them, there is another thing of more importance than even that; and that is that you shall respect and obey the Constitution of the United States. These evils that exist, great as they may be, admit them to be as great as even exaggeration has depicted them, are not near so great as would be an overthrow of the fundamental law of the land and the assumption of all power by the Congress of the United States. "There have been bills introduced in one or the other House of this Congress by Northern members, and, if any thing could more completely demonstrate than another the danger of proceeding in hot haste upon such a subject, it would be those bills. They are bills that shock every sense of constitutional law in any |