The weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1869-18??, 1870-05-04
'IytSklg Stamhath
For the Standard.
nC,yiI Discord Duty Free.o

The existence of secret organization,
called the Kudlux Khan, Constitutional
Uuion Guard, or Pale Faces, has long since
ceased to be doubted, and is now q well es-
tablished fact Unlike the Leagues, its
members deny the existence of the associa-
= ID their connection with il; and unlike the
ads of Regulators and Lynchers, which
t,nk upon themselves the publication of So
.,.1ty some years ago, on our Southwestern
,r,ntiers, and which went boldly and def
antly to their bloody work in the face OF
;l.ir victims and in the light of the broad
nad open day, this Kuklux Khan pounces
ION the object OF its resentment, under the
{. yer of night, and of disguises and masks,
lies upon its victim, and gloating and
:. .uckling over his defenceless condition,
nqtrages his person and his rights, by tor
lures and mutilations, often worse than the
-.nmary death it inficts. The meet
RS of the Klan are held in hidden and
at of the way recesses 1t has its officers
IL; Commanders, especially its South-com-
,.,tnders, its conductors and its guards.
:. &c members have their signs, grips and
i..~s-wofds; are sworn to the most impene-
,:nle secrecy, and to implicit obedience to
their officers.
In the examination of the Lenoireounty pri
sOners, in this State. before Judge Thomas, the
witnesses for the State, G. w. Tllou, Jos.
P PARROT, Joseph Lassiter, and Others, who
had belonged to the Khan, gave abundant
testimony to the facts of the above state
ments Parrot testified as follows: "We
were instructed that it was our duty to as
siSt each other under any circumstances. If
a member was to be tried, it was our duty
to get in the way of the sheriff, so as to be
placed on the jury and acquit him. fla
member was accused of serious crime, and
would be admitted to bail, it was our duty
TO give bond for him and let him escape. l
think we were instructed to prove an abb,
in case any member-w arrested for-higlA-
crime. understood that if any officer or
dered me to kill man, that it was my duty
to do so-othefs thought so too. Jessie G.
Reanedg ordered Ashe Decane and myself to
Kin james Grant and aoe did &"
Tillou testified: "When we met, the first
tning done was to station guard of armed
men to halt all persons not having the pass
ward. Resolutions tOers adopted for the Iii
Ing of ColgrO0e and IYilkie :, Imet
Il party of men after Colgrove's death, re
turning from his house. IS They
said that they had killed ColgroVe."
Lassiter testified: "The place of meeting
:, IS not known to the public. We met Sc
:. :tly. The members attended armed. The
.,ject of the organization was the overthrow
o. the radical party = We were to
o''ey all orders of the officers, in or out of
the meeting. - If an officer gave me
~, order to kill man Ifelt compelled to do
so-even my own father or brother"
In view of the above facts, which no well
informed man pretends to deny, is it any
wonder that the editor of the Raleigh Stan
dard, is enabled to present the following
catalogue of crimes and outrages:
In Chatham, Luke Wilson, a colored man,
was beaten nearly to death; on the 10th of
September another colored man and wife
whipped and in the same month Atkins
and his wife whipped. In Forsyth, Thos.
Bailey whipped nearly to death. In John
stou, in December last, colored minister
whipped most numerically. In Orange
county, the wife of Madison Mune, a colored
man, whipped; and Sameel Neville, Henry
Hinton. Paul Hinton, and Perry Haughton,
whipped; Dallas, white man, and John
Smith, white in the same county, had their
heads shaved and were whipped, while two
colored men were taken from Jail and shot;
A. Peck, colored, whipped, and Bailey Neill
whipped and partly scalped. Besides this,
houses were broken into and guns destroyed.
In Jones county, Sheriff Colgrove was killed;
three colored men shot. In Lenoier county,
eight colored men were taken from Jail,
killed and thrown into the Neuse river. In
Sampson county, during the Presidential
contest, colored man was shot at his door,
In Alamance county, Caswell Holt, colored,
whipped and afterward shot in his own house
and left for dead. Joe Harvey col whipped,
and his child killed, in the struggle; Len
nard Rippey, white, whipped; VIM. F.
Simpson, white, whipped; John Bass, cas-
trated and dead; Porter Mebane, COL,
whipped; - Sedle, white, whipped; John
Bason, do, whipped; Corliss, the lame
school teacher, whipped; Ringstaff, white,
whipped; - Linnens, white, whipped;
William Hornaday's house fired into and his
wife nearly killed-white; Jos. McAden,
white, coffin and gallows placed at his door;
Jerry Isley, col, whipped and his house
torn down; George Rippey, col, whipped
and Wyatt Outlaw hung. In Rockingham
county, colored woman shot dead in her
bed, andZa colored man whipped. These
are not one tenth of the outrages, which
have been committed in this State, in viola
tion of law, by bands of assassins, &c.
Whose blood does not run cold at this hor
rid recital2 Are we indeed a christian people,
and do we live in land of civil and relig
ious liberty? What friend of law and of
the white nan, the muniments of freedom
and of common humanity will justify these
no 4 trrlll
humanity may groan another Getbsemane,
if it can, but the facts are, that this organi-
zation has its aiders and abettors, not SIM
ply among those who believe the negro has
no rights the white man is bound to respect,
not simply by the openly abandoned and
vicious, but by those occupying positions of
influence, and even of power, in the country.
It is no excuse for all this, that the vic
tins of this Khan are poor and ignorant
generous and brave men scorn to take adj
vantage of the poor and ignorant. 1t is no
excuse that they are corrupt-that they are
guilty of theft OF even of murder; the law
is open to all, and its penalties are sufic-
iently severe. Is it because the negro has
been made free, and admitted to the fran
chises OF citizenship Why punish him I?
What has be done to gain all this He
served US and our fathers for several gener-
ations, with docility and faithfulness He
refused to raise his arm for his own deliver
Gnce in war waged. as he well knows, for
mis- emancipation; and the history of man.
kind furnishes no parallel to the meekness
and almost sublime equinlmity, with which
he has entered upon the civil duties precipi-
tated upon him, as we solennly believe, as
much on account of the folly and madness
Of the Hotspurs of the South, as the cold
and invincible determination of the friends
of the Union, at the North. Isit because of
II settled belief that the national constitu-
ton has been violated2 Who objects? Is
it not those who forced secession BY violent
disruption of the Union, and the constitu-
tlong Is the Republican, the white man OF
the South to be outraged because he accepts
the situation in good faith, comedies to the
colored man, all the rights noio guaranteed
ia him ecerylohere, in every State an the Union
alike, and endeayors to elevate him in the
scale of humanity? No., no, this guerilla,
political warfare-this Khan of outlaws has
its origin in spite and revenge, and its OBJ
ject is the violent overthrow of the State
governments recently established, BY the
same invincible and determined power that
overcame the armies of the Confederacy,
and the installment into, power of those |
whose determination is now, as it was in
former timess to rule or ruin. a,a,i
It is time for the men of law and order to
take the alarm, and present bold and de-
termined front against these disturbers, not
only of the rights of individuals, and the
peace of society, but against those whose
course must otherwise end in the breaking
up of society itself in the South. Every
member of the community is vitality inter
ested In this matter. Like engenders like;
violence begets violence. The Leagues COM
planned of and gone. as we are assured, into
di suse. are sure TO be revived under such
provocaticns !; and the law of retaliation,
blood for blood, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,
will come in the nature of things, however
,,rob oil thic NAV he danrecared Tho