Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-01-12
THE KU-KLUx TRIALS ENDED.


THE KU-KLUx TRIALS ENDED.
The Ku Klux trials at Columbia, South
Carolina, have been brought to a close for
the present. To break up the imaginary
organization the writ Of hGbeGs cOrpGs has
been suspended, respectable citizens have
been incarcerated, whole counties have
been given over to be pillaged by the
negroes and through packed juries, corrupt
judges and perjured witnesses, some scores
of innocent people have been deprived of
their liberty. And now, after all this has
been done, and after the expenditure of a
vast amount of the public money, skepti-
cal public are less disposed than ever to be-
lieve in the existence of a Ku-Klux organi-
zaticn. True, numbers of prisoners when
brought to trial have confessed to being
members of such an association, and there
has been an unlimited supply of
evidence TO the same effect taken, but it
could not deceive any one who desired to
know the truth of the matter. 1t was too
>spondents of independent newspapers, who
communicated to the public, North and
South, the facts of the case. We have,
from time to time during the progress of
these trials, referred to them, and shown
that the grand juries were composed exclu-
sively of negroes; the witnesses were ne
groes and white men of no character, hired
to give evidence to convict; the juries were
negroes, and, in every case in which a con-
fession of guilt was made, the peni-
tent was some worthless scoundrel
without a stake in the country.
Awell-authenticated story may be mention
ed to illustrate the character Of the evidence
taken during the trials "a certain planter
was accused before the nearest military
officer of whipping one of his hands. The
negro wore point-blank that he had been
fogged, giving, at the demand Of his en-
ployer, the day and hour. The planter i'm
mediately put on the stand four of the
injured darkey's fellowlSborers, who swore
point-blank that at the time named their
employer was off with them in
a distant field. As a matter Of course the
officer at once released the planter, WHO
then asked him if the case was over. Ger
tainly, he replied, you cannot be troubled
again. To which the planter responded: /
can have you proven guilty of murder for
IS; did whip that negro, and my other
hands sWore me of, as they would for the
same money testify in themost circumstan-
tial manner that they bad seen you cut a
mans throat"
While the trials lasted Columbia was
crowded with worthless negroes and the
scum of the white population of the State,
all seeking employment as witnesses, and
offering to swear anything that would suit
the requirements of the highest bidder.
Acts of violence had been committed in
various parts of the State, but
none so outrageous and uncalled for as that
which recently occurred in Rochester. The
Charleston Courier, a journal not at all dis
posed to be lenient in dealing with lawless-
ness of any description, refers to these local
disturbances as follows:
"According to the evidence, these had
nothing to do either with the reconstruction
acts or with any attempts to deprive the
colored man Of suffrage. Democrats and
Republicans were punished alike. The or
ganization was neither more nor less than
local bands of regulators, without political
uir Nr VI
State government had failed to furnish
security for person, life and prop
erty, and where the people
were, in a great measure, left to
their own defence. In other words, after
the most careful survey, there can be no
question that the Councils Of Safety, called
elsewhere Ku-KlUx, were not political or
CARNATIONS, had no political purpose, no
hostility either to the Government or Con-
s,itution of the United States, or any inten-
ton to interfere with the rights of suffrage.
They were local organizations of the people
who undertook to administer justice where
the laws were silent and imperative, by
reason of an indiscriminate and general use
of the pardoning power. They were, of
course, organizations illegal in their charac-
ter, and, therefore, to be condemned. But
the testimony, taken as a whole, shows that
the character of the illegality went to this
extent and no more"
Thus endeth the first act in the Ku-Klux
drama: the second will, no doubt, be
played in Congress, and the evidence taken
a. Columbia will furnish material for few
buncOmbe speeches. The third act, if the
public do not force the Radical harlequin'
To ring down the curtain, will be played al
the elections next fall. 1t may find an au
djence in some Of the obscure communite!
of New England. Perhaps the creduloul
inhabitants of some thriving settlement or
the banks of the SkoodoowabskOokois
among the fragrant pine forests of Maine
may believe it, but in the States where civi
ization triumphs and the people are too in.
teligcnt to be imposed upon by clumsy
fabr cations, any one who calls up the Ku
Klux bugbear for political effect, will bt
laughed from the hustings for his pains.