hung down my head and studied, and said, "I have done nothing to be whipped for; and I don't think I can open the door." My wife jumped up to open the door; they said, "Open the door, Adeline;" . . They said, "Lewis, you get up and come out." . . After so long a time I went to the door. Then one come running right up to me, a great big fellow. he says, "Come down on the ground, by Christ, among your friends!" I says, "I can do that and let the trouble be over with; short or long, let it be over with," and out on the ground . I went. Says he, "How did you vote?" I says, "I voted the radical ticket." "You has, sir?" he says. I says, "Yes, sir." "Well, by Christ," says he, “Ain't you had no instruction?" I says, "I can't read, and I can't write, and I can't much more than spell." . . I says, "How can a black man get along without there is some white gentleman or other with them? We go by instructions. We don't know nothing much." "O, by Christ," says he, "you radicals go side by side with one another, and by Christ us democrats go side and side with one another." I says, "I can't help that." He says, "You can't by Christ." I says, "No sir; I can't." He says, “Well, sir, are you going up in the morning to see to your crop, and go to work?" I says, "Just as quick as I get my breakfast I am going." He says, "Is you tending to your crop?" I says, "Yes, I am." He says, "Is there any grass in your crop?" I says, "Yes, a little; according to the chances, I had a little grass there." He says, "By Christ, you have got to tend to the crop." I says, "I am tending to it." I says, "When I get out of corn and out of meat both, and anybody has got corn and meat, I jump out and work for a bushel of corn and a piece of meat, and work until I get it." 1. . I says, "What do you want to whip me for? I have done nothing." "Come out in the road," he says. I stopped and studied and hung down my head. "I can't study up nothing," I said, "for what you ought to whip me." They said, "You didn't think about this when you voted the radical ticket." One of them threw a pistol right up here under my chin, and one grabbed 1. This was and is still a custom of negro share tenants and work elsewhere for cash or supplies. to neglect their own crops me by the sleeve, and he says, "You must come." says I am a good hand; . . and anybody that wants to know whether I am a good hand or not needs no more than to go and look at my crop." He says "Get in the road and march," and in the road I went. They took me up the road pretty near to the edge of the woods; . . Says he, "Off with your shirt." I says, "What do you all want to whip me for; what have I done?" "By Christ," he says, "Off with your shirt; if you don't you shall go dead. dead. We come from Manassas grave-yard; and by Christ we want to get back to our grave-yard and cover up before day, by Christ." . I threw my shirt off. The one talking to me says, "You must hit him forty;" the other says, "thirty will do him." He says, "Now Lewis, by Christ, you get down on your knees." I says, "It is hard to get down on my knees and take a whipping for nothing." Then I dropped down. He says, "By Christ, don't you get up until we get done with you." They set to work on me and hit me ten or fifteen licks pretty keen, and I raised up. "Get down," he "Get down," he says; "if you ever raise up again you'll go dead before we quit you." Down I went again, and I staid down until they got done whipping me. Says he, "Now, by Christ, you must promise you will vote the democratic ticket?" I says, "I don't know how I will vote; it looks hard when a body thinks this way and that way to take a beating." .. "You must promise to vote the democratic ticket, or you go dead before we leave you," he says. Then I studied and studied. They gathered right close up around "Come out with it-come, out with it, by Christ." Then I says, "Yes, sir, I reckon so." Well, after I told them that, they said, "By Christ, now get up and put on your shirt." .. I stopped and studied, and had to put on my shirt. "Now," he says, "by Christ, you go; we are done with you; . . if you let it get out you must go dead for it all; I will come back." I says, "Yes," and back I went to my house, and off they went. me. "A Decent Man is Safer" Ku Klux Report, South Carolina testimony, p. 57. Statement of D. H. Chamberlain, attorney general, later governor, of South Carolina, Radical. [1871] I THINK the class who have suffered most from Ku-Klux outrages have been all bad office-holders. . . I think.. that the ground of the Ku-Klux movement was political. But I think it has been greatly aggravated by the misconduct of the republican party. . . I think that in South Carolina a man is safer — I feel bound to say that, as bad as the Ku-Klux may be I think that a man is safer in their hands if he conducts himself decently. 4. THE KLANS OUTLAWED Anti-Kuklux Statute Acts of Alabama, 1868, p. 444. The other reconstructed states passed similar laws. For federal legislation see the Enforcement Acts, pp. 102-123. [1868] WHEREAS, There is in the possession of this General Assembly ample and undoubted evidence of a secret organization in many parts of this State, of men who, under the cover of masks and other grotesque disguises, armed with knives, revolvers and other deadly weapons, do issue from the places of their rendezvous, in bands of greater or less number, on foot or mounted on horses, in like manner disguised, generally in the late hours of the night, to commit violence and outrages upon peaceable and law-abiding citizens, robbing and murdering them upon the highway, and entering their houses, tearing them from their homes, and the embrace of their families, and with violent threats and insults, inflicting on them the most cruel and inhuman treatment; and whereas, this organization has become a widespread and alarming evil in this commonwealth, disturbing the public peace, ruining the happiness and prosperity of the people, and in many places overriding the civil authorities, defying all law and justice, or evading detection by the darkness of night, and with their hideous costumes; therefore Section 1. Be it enacted. . That any person appearing away from his home by night or by day, in company with others, or alone, wearing a mask, or disguised in other costume, or both, shall be held guilty of a high crime and misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be fined in the sum of one hundred dollars and be imprisoned in the county jail not less than six months nor more than one year, at the discretion of the court having jurisdiction of the same. Sec. 2. Any such [disguised] person . . shall be held guilty of a felony, and his disguise shall be sufficient evidence of his evil intent and of his guilt, and on conviction shall be fined one thousand dollars, and be imprisoned in the peniten tiary not less than five years nor more than twenty years at the discretion of the court trying the same; and any one who may shoot, or in any way kill or wound such person, while under the cover of such disguise, and while in the act of committing, or attempting or otherwise to commit such violence or trespass, shall not be held guilty before the law of any offense against such person or the State, or be made to suffer any penalty for such act. Sec. 3. If any person or persons so disguised, or with out disguise, shall unlawfully and with force, demolish, pull down, or destroy by fire or otherwise, or begin to demolish, pull down, or set fire to, or destroy any church, or chapel, or meeting house, for religious worship, or school house, or other building used or intended for educational purposes, or any other building used for private or public use, shall be guilty of a felony, and upon conviction, shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary not less than ten nor more than twenty years, at the discretion of the court trying the same... Sec. 6. [If] any magistrate, to whom any complaint is made, or designated in section five of this act, or any sheriff or other officer, shall refuse or neglect to perform the duty required of such magistrate or officer, by this act, shall, on conviction, thereby forfeit his office, and shall be fined the sum of five hundred dollars. Martial Law in Tennessee Proclamation of Senate Doc. no. 209, 57 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 118. Governor Brownlow, January 20, 1869. This calling out of the militia resulted in the overthrow of the Radical government at the polls and the central organization of the Klan then disbanded. [1869] WHEREAS, there exists in middle and west Tennessee law. less bands who set at defiance civil law, and in certain localities render it impossible for civil officers to enforce the laws of the State; and whereas, those masked villains, called Ku-Klux, are taking prisoners from jails and hanging them without trial, and are abducting passengers from railroad trains and notify ing conductors of Northern birth to leave the State, thus hav ing driven four conductors from one road, . . and whereas, |