The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1871-03-21
Condition of Affairs In the Southern
Sinfes.


The report of the Senate Committee
appointed under resolution adopted Jan.
10. 1871 for the purpose Of investigating
1.-THE truth or falsehood Of the crimes and
outrages of a political character alleged
to have been committed in the Southern
States" was made March 10th, and shows
the necessity Of some legislation to pre-
vent their recurrence.
There is conclusive evidence that in
many portions Of the Southern States from
1866 until this time, crimes ranging from
assassination and murder, robbery, theft,
down to the lowest grades of personal
violence have been committed by bands
of persons in disguise and instigated by
political motives, who have escaped all
punishment BY the civil authorities. The
agency through which they have been
committed was the secret, political organ
izaton popularity known as the ku-klux
Khan, whose members and records call
themselves the white brotherhood"
An enumeration of outrages coming to
light during the Investigation, in few
counties of North Carolina alone, is
shocking in the extreme Gould the sta
tistics be obtained from the whole south,
the list ofspeciic cases ofpersona outrage
and crime would shock the national heart
as no revelation Of crime has ever DONE
But disclosure of their secret proceedings
incurs the penalty Of death, and the won-
der is that any evidence Of specific cases
has been obtained. Their report says
that members of the order, unwilling to
20 into details. have, however, stated en-
ough in general confession to authorize
the belief that this organization, by what
ever pretense men were induced to enter
it, stopped short of no means, however
criminal, to accomplish its purpose.
Their conclusions are summed up as
follows:
LIST. That the Ku-Klux organization
does exist, has political purpose, is COM
posed of members of the democratic or
conservative party, has sought to carry
out its purpose by murders, whippings,
intimidations, and violence, against its
opponents.
I'd. That it not only binds its members
to carry out DEGREES of crime, but pro-
tects them against conviction and punish
ment, first by DISCUSSES and secrecy Sec
ond, by perjury, if necessary, upon the
witness. stand and in the jury.box.
Sd. That of all the offenders against
the law in this order, land they must be
many hundreds, if not thousands, because
these crimes are shown to be committed
by organized bands ranging from ten up
to seventy.fve,) not one has yet been con-
victed in the whole State.
Such being the state of affairs, it is
surely not necessary that the committee
should argue the insufficiency of the rea-
sons given for establishing an order which
has led to such results. Whatever may
have been the original purpose OF the
Ku.Klux, or the offenses of those to coun-
teract whom they allege the order was es-
tablished, it now has gone so far as to
present the issue between government
and anarchy and, if it has not reached
it, is fast approaching the point where,
in that issue, there can be no neutrals.
With such an army of criminals at large,
with no power in the State tribunals to
bring them to justice; with their organi-
cation, oaths, and secrecy, battling and
defying all the appliances of the law, and
bringing them to each others aid with
the consciousness that they number en-.
ough to turn the scale of political power
in favor of the party with which they
act, so long as their violence and intimi-
dation are successful against those whom
hey oppose with these facts in view
ae must have credulous nature who be-
lieves that any temporary lull in the ac
tivity of such an agency at once OF crime
and of power, imports continued securi
ty to those who must become either vic
tins of their crime or submissive suppl
ants to their power.