Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-01-18
Gb aaip spp aamest Gbursoap aromng aanuarp 49, 1872

Ignorant; that the klans would have beaten
you, aud even killed YOU, had you refused to
Join them in their crimes. Some of you now
particularly before me have actually suffered
for your refusal, before you really united IN
membership with them. The court, in an en-
deayOr TO recognize some features of humanitv
in you, has considered these facts which you
plead as excuses. You have grown up in p
county where slavery existed for a long time,
and where the whipping post was standing in
stitution.
"ro see blacks FACILITATED was no unusual oc-
currence. The scene often viewed with its nov
city lost its revolving effect. And when it came
10 be understood that the human person was
not so sacred in the cOloTed man as TO secure
immunity from outrage, it did not take it long
TO lose It's sacred character in yourselves, and in
all other men who, like the colored man, - ere
obliged 10 labor. 1t must be from his cause
that your utter indifference to wrongs which
among freemen 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 persons Of
wealth and education for command and that
you, in your ignorance, had to follow such per-
sons implicitly.
"It will appear strange TO your fellow coun-
trymcn who read your story and that of your
confederates, however willing they may be 10
believe you, that so large portion of the young
white men OF your county can be in such a
state of abject slavery TO the men of property
above them as TO be willing to commit murder
at their command.
ON no case has there been any resistance 10
these midnight raiders except on the part Ut the
colorei people.
You say some of you laid out in the woods
night after night, and have hidden Yourself in
thickets to escape these marauders. None of
you, however, have bad the manliness to defend
your tiresides from the assaults Of these lawlcss
men. There has not been, on your part, so far
as the evidence shows, an assault and batter,
committed in defence of family and home and
all tina. freemen 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
lear Is painful enough, the facts do not excuse
you. They may paliate, in some degree, your
offense, but they cannot justify you. The pun
ishment the court awards is partly inflicted that
you may learn that no amount of threats OF
fear of punishment will JUSTIFY man in unprO-
voked violence to another, unless the danger
Threatened to the wrong doer be imminent or
actually present at the time of his wrong doing,
and even then the danger must be of present
great bodily harm, and of death itself, before
some OF the criminal conduct confessed would
be justified.
sit does not excuse you for participating in
TINS conspiracy and raiding upon inoffensive
colored people, dragging them from their beds,
beating some and hanging Others, that you had
notice if you did not join the klans would visit
you.
"You are bound to run the fisk or seek means
OF protection, rather than to do violence TO your
neighbor. The law and your fellow.citizens
look to you to make this threat of violence diff
cult of execution, by manly resistance or an
enforcement Of the law. You had no right,
when you could escape, to make the price OF
your security the violation of your neghbors.
you and your coniederates must make up
your minds either to resist the kuKux conspir-
acy or the laws of the United States They can
not both exist together; and it only needs lit
tie manlinesS and courage on the part of you
ignorant dupeS of designing men 10 give su-
premacy to the law. Be assured it will not he
taken as an excuse in your case, or in any
other, TO hear it SAID, I slew this man because
the chief ordered it, and | was afraid, and
brushed and raped these others becau Sc
dreaded to be whipped if | did not"
The sentences range from two years and fifty
dollars fine down to three months, and in two
instances sentence was suspended, the parti rs
having proven to the satisfaction of the court
that they were not at all responsible fol- the acts
of which they stand charged.