The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1872-01-06

~ 9. g. s y, 1adgee Ao14 44And bryan on
the bench.
H Mr.. Oorbin stated 20 the court that
thage Eete tonne seYsntssn prisoners who
desired to plead guilty to the charge Of
conspiracy under the Ku Klux Act.
They werd 4allsd IN, ,tHs loilowiuR order.
and made q formal plea 81 guilty: Aaron
Ekell, Monroe Scrcggs. Alex. Bridges,
!ohn Burnett. Wm. 3. Burnett Stephen
D. Splaun. Marion Gardner. Chesterfield
SornRgs. Henry Sarratt. "A. Kird, Mar.
tan HAmmett. Lewis Henderson, Wm.
Sell, Charles Tate, John B. Tindall,
Melvin q. Blackwell, John T.. Moore,
John Csnssss. Mr. Corbin requested
that the oours pass Judgment on the pri-
Aasohn iEzsn was called Z; up ) an and asked
what he had to say in extenuation Of his
offence. He stated that he had been
forced into the order through fear: had
BEEN on two raids. and whipped three
colOred men. Judge Bond sentenced
him to fine OF $40 and imprisonment
one year.
. Judge Bond called all the prisoners
up. and charged them as follows:
% You have pleaded guilty to An indict-
ment which charges you with oonspir-
ing with other men throughout this
State, to intimidate certain class oi
voters by means Of threats, beating and
even killing, because that class of oiti-.
sens were opposed to the oonspirators in
political opinion. S,,; IN
1--WE acknowledge greas perplsxity in
determining what punishment shall be
meted out to you. We have NO words
strong enough to signify zour horror at
tho means employed to carry out the
purpose of the kIans. Oar difficulty Ia
personal to you.
y You have, as it appears from your
statements to the court, been brought
np in the most 1erlorabie ignorance
AZ the ago Of manhood. bat one or two
2f you can eithattread OF write. and you
nave livedsins = comIhnnity where the
eyideuce aeenp TO ,eotAblish the fact that
she men OF, pfominenbe and education-
those who. by their superiority in these
respects. establish and control public
opinion-were for the most part pastici.
pants In the conspiracy. or 80 much in
tesror OF it that you could obtain from
them neither protection nor advice, had
you sought it.
There is abundant proof Of the nature
aud character of the conspiracy. Evl-
dence of nightly raids by bands of dis
suised men, who brt he into the houses
of negroes and dragged them from their
beds-parents and chlldren-and, tieing
them to trees. nnmeroifuily beat them,
IL exhibited in every case. Murder and
rape are not unfrequent acoompani-
ments, the story of which is too ipde-
cent for public mention. The persons
upon whom these atrocities are commit
ted are almost always oolored people.
Whateyer excuse is given for raid, its
conclusion was almost always accompa
MED by y rebuke for the former exerclse
Ut the suffrage aud b warming as to the
future exercise of the right to vote.
But what liz quite as appalling to the
court as the horrible nature of these Of
fences, is the utter absence, on your
part, and on ths part of others who have
made confession here, of any sense or
feeling that you have done anything
very wrong in your confessed participa-
ton in outrages which are unexampIed
outside of the Indian Territory.
Some of your comrades recite the cir
cumstances of brutal. unprovoked
murder, done by themselves, with as lit
Gle apparent abhorrenoe as they would
relate the incidents of pic. mic; and
you. yourselves, speak Of the number of
blows with a hickory which you inAlct-
ed, at midnight, upon the lacerated,
bleeding back Of defenceless woman,
without 80 much as blush or sigh of re-.
gret. None of you seem to have the
slightest idea OF. or respect for, the ga
oredness OF the human person. Some of
you have yourselves been beaten by the
kians without feeling smart, but the
physical pain. There appears to be- no
woundlng OF the spirit; no suoh sense of
n = 4.
felt by the hnmblest Of your fellow w-citi-
zens IN any other part of the United
States with which am acquainted.
There the citizen upon whom suoh
outrages were perpetrated, stung 70 mad
ness 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
it. You make excuse for this In your
statement to the court that you are very
ignorant; that the klans would have
bsaten you, and even killed you, had you
refused to join them in their crimes.
Some Of you now particularly before
me have actually suffered for your re.
fusal before you really united in mem
bership with them. The court, in an
endeavor to recognize some features of
humanity in you, has considered these
facts which you plead as excuses You
have grown up in q country where
slavery existed for long time. and where
the whIpping-post Was standing insti-
tuition.
To see blacks fagellated was no un-
usual occurrence. The scene often
viewed. with its novelty, lost it's revolt
ing etfect. Aud when it came to bs
understood that the human person was
not so sacred In the colored man as to
secure Immunity from outrage, it did
not take it long to lose it's sacred oharac.
ter in yourselves, and in all other men
who. like the colorsd man. was obliged
to labor. It must be from this cause
that your utter indifference to wrongs