The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-01-08
Judge Bond Makes the Most of ku-
KIu1ism-A Vile Slander-The Spar
tanburg Culprits-Thetr Manner and
Confessions-A Specimen Prisoner.
[FRox OUR own CORRESPONDENCE
CoIuIBrA, s. C January {


the presiding justice, and Judge Bond has
siEce departed for Baltimore, Nd, where q
term of the United States Circuit Court Is to
Hgin next Tuesday. The grand jury was not
discharged, and 1t Is expected that the district
attorney will continue to bring cases before
them for few days longer and until they shall
have passed upon all the parties now under
arrest. The official programme as to those
under indictment is said to be to bind them
over for appearance at the April term OF Gne
court, which will be held In Charleston. FOR
those charged with conspiracy, Involving mur-
der. it is said that heavy bail, with ample sur
eties, will be required, while those accused OF
lesser crimes will be released on small ball or
on their own recognizances.
The court to-day vas wholly occupied with
passing sentences upon the poor wretches VINO
have confessed their connection with the Ku-
Klux.Klan and their participation in all lis
-outragea, and who are the only genuine ku.
Klux That this tribunal, with all lis costly and
machinery, has been able to IND.
Another batch of eighteen wretched specl-
mems of humanity, from Spartanburg County,
= were introduced, at the opening OF The court,
to plead guilty and rehearse the story Of their
crimes. The district attorney made little
speech in their behalf, claiming that they had
been seduced into an organization, py the
orders OF which they had atterward committed
the most ,nhuman atrocities.
Judge Bond then addressed the repentanc
Ku-Klux as follows:
REEARKS OF JUDGE BOND.
You have pleaded guilty to an indictment
which charges you with conspIriDg with other
men throughout this State to intimidate GER
tain class Of voters By means Of threats, beat.
ing, and even killing, because that class OF
citizens were opposed to the consplrators IN
political opinion.
We acknowledge great perple1ity In deter
mining what punishment shall be meted out
r yUa howe @NNHo
slightly our horror at the means employed to
carry out the purpose Of the Klans. Our difh-
Guilty Is personal to you.
You have, as it appears from your state.
ments to the court, been brought up 10 the
most deplorable ignorance. AT the age OF
read or write; and you>have lived In commu-
nifty where the evidence seems to establish
the fact that the men OF prominence and edu-
cation-those who by their superiority IN these
respects establish and control public opinion -
were for the most part participants IN the con-
spiracy, or so much in terror of 1t that you
could obtain from them neither protection nor
advice, had you sought 1t.
There is abundant proof Of the. nature and
character Of the conspiracy. Evidence Of
nightly raids by bands Of disguised men, who
broke Into the houses of negroes and dragged
them from their beds-parents and children
and t.eing them to trees. unmerclfully beat
them, ia exhibited In every case. Murder aud
rape are not unlrequent accompaniments, the
story of which Is too indecent ior public men-
ton. The persons upon whom tnese a!rocl-
ties are committed are almost always celored
people. Whatever excuse is given for raid,
its conclusion was almost always accompanied
by rebuke for the former exercise OF the suf-
frage and warning as to The future exercise
OF the right TO vote.
But what is quite as appalling to the court
as the horrible nature of these offences Is the
utter absence on your part and on the part OF
others who have made confession here OF any
sense of feeling that you have done anything
very'wrong In your confessed participation IN
ou,ra2es which are uuexampled outside OF the
Indian Territory.
Some of your comrades recite the clrcum-
stances of q brutal, unprovoked murder, done
by themselves, with as little apparant aohor-
picnic, and you yourselves speak of: the num-
ber of blows with hickory, which you In
flcted OF midnight upon the lacerated, bleed
inp back Of q defenceless woman, without 80
mach as blush or sigh of regret. None OF
you seem to have the slightest idea OF respect
for the sacredness of the human person.
Some Of you have yourselves been beaten by
the Klans without feeling smart, but the
physical pain. There appears 10 be no wound
Ing the spirit; no such sense OF injury 10
yourself as man as would be felt by the hum
blest Of your .fellow-citiZens In any other part
of the United States with which am ac-
quatnted.
There the citizens upon whom such out
RACES were perpetrated, stung 10 madness by
the Insult to his manhood. would be swift TO
follow the wrong-doer to the end of the world
to make him atone for 1t. You make the ex-
that you are very Ignorant; that the klans
would have beaten you and even Killed you
had you refused to join them In their crimes.
Some of yoH now particularly before me.haVe
actually suffered for your refusal, before you
really united In membership with them. Inc
features of humanity In you, has considered
these facts which you plead as excuses. You
have grown up In country where slavery ex-
isted for long time, and where the whipping
post was standing institution.
To see blacks 6agellated was no unusual 9e-
currence. The scene often viewed, with Its
novelty, lost Its revolving effect. And when
it came to be understood that the human per-
son was not so sacred In the co!ored man as
to secure immunity from outrage. 1t did not
take 1t long to lose It's sacred character IN
yourselves, and in all other men VINO, ihe tue
Colored man, was obliged to labor. It must
be from this cause that your utter indiherenGe
to wrongs, which, among ireemen, would
stir fever in the blood of age, arises.
And then you tell US that you differ from
many other portions Of the country IN this,
that it has always been obligatory upon you,
and the class to which you belong, to look to
nersons of wealth and education for command,
and that you, in your ignorance, had to follow
such persons implicitly.
It will appear strange to your feiio".coun-
trymen who read your story and that OF your
confederates, however willing they may oe
to believe you, that so large portion OF the
Young white men Of your county can be ID
such state of abject slavery 10 the men oi
property above them as to be willing to COM
init murder at their command.
In no case has there been any resistance 10
: these midnight raiders except on the part OIL
the colored people.
You say some OF you s'laid out" In the woods
night after night, and have hidden yourself
In the thickets to escape these marauders.
None Of you, however, have had the manli-
ness to defend your hresides from the assaults
OF these lawiess men. There has not been, on
your pait, so far as the evidence shows, an
assault and battery committed In defence OF
family and home and all that feemen hold
dear.
Admitting all you have said to the court TO
be true, while the story Of your condition and
of your participation in these outrages through
fear is painful enough, the facts do not excuse
- you. They may palIiate, In some degree, your
offence, but they cannot justify you. The
punishment the court awards you Is partly IN,
flicted that you may learn that no amount ol
threats or fear of punishment will justify
man in unprovoked violence to another, un'
1,o1-