The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1871-03-02
Emerson: on. JJntell.lllgelrter> Il
49, From the Charleston Nescs. ~
J. : THE KUT KLUX. KHAN.
Origin and Aims Of the Mysterious. Organi-
'ss7s 'se5''e cation.
UNION, S. c., Feb. 16, 1871.

- = UNION, S. c., Feb. l6, 1871.
The mystery which surrounds the movements
of the Ku Klux Klan, has led the superstitious
to regard them as spirits of the disembodled,
while the educated, beyond the field of opera
ton, have believed the whole story to be myth;
But of their, existence, as an organized body OF
living men, we, who have seen them, entertain
no doubt ,Of,their numbers and extent, it
is impossible to speak. There must be, one
thousand in q days march OF Union, You
have them, no doubt, in Charleston, and they
certainly can be found throughout Georgia,
North Carolina and Tennessee. They occa-
sionally leave behind them letters explanatory
of their purposes. Those of them who operate
in South Carolina, say that they want peace,
but must have justice; that the courts are
guided by weak judges; and juries composed
of ignorant negroes that thief, convicted
with much cost of time, money and labor to
the prosecutor, remains at the penitentiary
scafcelya week, and then returns home with q
pardon, prepared to steal again. They say that
when their race have justice and are,no longer
robbed by public thieves, their mission will
end. ef's 'l - ''-'
There are some erroneous opinions enter
tained as to the feelings of the people of Upper
South Carolina towards the Ku KluX. <. M They
are not a band of cut -throats and desperadoes,
they universally approved of by the white peo-
ple here. They are men of firnlness and nerve,
who strike because they believe it necessary for
the protection of their life, property and liber-
ty; they strike at night, because circumstances
render It imperative. But very many citizens
disapproye and condemn the acts of violence
committed by the Klan. We feel the oppres-
sion of the present State government, but we
would not have it overturned with violence.
We might indulge in hard words against the
Ku Klux, but we find that they desplse our
structures. and The State officials believe all-of
us to, be members of the band, no matter how
much we abuse it.. -. So. ~. rsas
Now, sur, before we can successfully oppose
and end this evil, we must appreciate the
causes. It is bad practice to administer rem
eey before we make u diagnosis. If we went
back to- first causes We would indicate the Re-
construction acts, the greatest political blunder
of the country, as the inciter of the Ku Klux:
In our State however, the organization would
never have taken root if we had been spared
the late iniuuitous election laws, the arming OF
negroes with guns and cartridges, 1.-THE latter
being unnecessary for purposes OF drill the
gross frauds of the election in October, the
numerous pardons issued by the Governor, and
the wholesale robbery by State officials OF
money wrung from our people by enormous
taxation. And again, it is well known that
Joseph Crews, prominently connected with the
State government, honored by the speaker OF
the House, and the travelling companion OF our
Governor, in effect encouraged murder, arson
and rapine, last summer, in Laurens: What
might have been the consequences OF that ad-
vice. it is fearful to contemplate. He may be
mere successful next summer.
In September or October last, June Mobley,
member of the Legislature, informed his negro
friends that ten white men should be killed for
eyery negro murdered. Little did June then
think that ais threat against our race would so
literally be fulfilled against his own. The ant
mus of the black race and their advisers to-
wards the white people may be also gathered
from the murderous plans of Crews and others
fthen and now State officials) towards citizens
of Union and Laurens, so recently exposed
through your columns by Kerrlgan and his
men, 1t was only q further proof OF what we
already felt, that the white race would be taxed
out, driven out or killed out-by negroes and
their allies--if possible.
Here were the causes which operated to plant
the Ku Klux in South Carolina. The murder
of Mat Stevens gave them great strength. 1t
was a foul rnurder-the foullest ever known III
this State. A one-armed, inoffensive white
man, of good character, who toiled honestly
for mis- daily bread and did harm to one; he
was waylaid and cruelty murdered because he
had 'white skim. The murderers were q
BODY of negro militia, at least twenty-five, and
more probably forty in number; inStisated, the
white people of Union believe, and may in
time be able to prove, by Ellick Walker, cap
tain of militia, and June S. Mobley, leglsla-
tor. Bad rs this murder was it was sign of
worse things ito see the entire negro race OF
Union in active sympathy with the murderers:
Had it been left with the negroes, not one OF
them would have been arrested, although they
proclaimed their guilt wherever they went
among their own people. 1t is within bounds
to assert that two hundred negroes in Union
county were accessories after the fact to the
murder of Stevens, and that there are not two
dozen of that class who would have refused to
shield the criminals. Ten prisoners have been
taken out of the Jail by the Ku Klux and killed,
nine of whom were ;murderers of Stevens; the
tenth was the negro who shot the constable
(Smith} on the first of January. We condemn
the act as unlawful and criminal but for the
victims we have nofsympathy. The negroes,
on the contrary, regard with Indifference the
deed in the abstract their only feeling IS SYM
pattiy. for the murdered prisoners. ,ro..
: The manifesto left here by the Ku Klux sllt-
ficiently explains the immediate cause OF the
last raid on our Jail. To take these prisoners
two of them red to the elbow with the blood
of Stevens INTO Columbia, where the Legislature
Yas, in session, composed, it was believed of
men in active sympathy with the murderers,
was thought to be tantamount to release; 1t
was unfortunate that Judge Thomas did not
order the return. to the writ,of habels corpus to
be made before him at Union, or at his home,
which, tits presumed, is withinthelimits of his
= circuit kTheletter of the Judge indicates that
he would sacrifice the peace of society here,
and turn the prisoners loose, to save his office.
The Ku Klux thought the escape of the pris'
eners would be an evil, compared to which the
loss of Judge Thomas to the bench of the
Sixth Circuit would be insignificant. Such
escape would be wrong to their race, and one
of those wrongs which could find redress only