Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-04-22
The South Carolina Ku-Klux

Washington, April 10. The President
transmitted the following message to the
House to-day:
To the House of Representatives - In
answer to the resolution Of the House of
Representatives of January %, have the
honor to submit the following, accompanied
by the report of the Attorney General, to
whom the resolution was referred.
Representations having been made to me
that in certain portions of South Carolina
condition of lawlessness and terror exist, l
man) to visit the State. and after personal
examination, to report to me the facts in re-
lation to the subject On the 10th Of Octo-
Der last he addressed communication from
South Carolina, in which he stated that in
the counties of Spartanburg, York, Chester,
Union, Laurens, Newburg, Fairfield, Ian.
caster and Chesterfield there were combine
tons for the purpose of preventing the free
political action of citizens who were friendly
to the Constitution and the Government of
the United States, and of depriying the
emancipated class Of the equal protection Of
the laws. These combinations embrace at
least two-thirds of the active white men of
those counties, aud have the sympathy and
countenance of the majority of the other
third. They are connected with similar
combinations in other counties and States,
and are no doubt part of grand system of
criminal associations prevailing in most of
the Southern States. The members are
bound to obedience and secrecy by oaths
which they are taught to regard as of high
er obligation than the lawful oaths taken be-
fore civil magistrates. They are organized
and armed. They effect their objects by
personal violence, often extending to MUIR
der They terrify witnesses, they control
juries in the State courts, and sometimes the
courts of the United States. Systematic
spying is one of the means by which prose-
cution of the members is defeated. From
information given by officers Of the State and
of the United States, and by credible private
citizens, am justified in affirming that the
instances of criminal violence perpetrated BY
these combinations within the last twelve
months in the above named counties could be
reckoned by thousands. l received informa-
ton of similar import from various sources,
among which were the Joint Committee of
Congress upon Southern Outrages, the Off
GERS of the State, the military officers of the
United States on duty in South Carolina, the
United States Attorney and Marshal, and
other officers of the Government, repentant
and aburng members Of those unlawful
organizations, persons specially employed by
the Department of Justice to detect crimes
against the United States, and from other
credible sources. Most, if not all of this in
formation, except that derived from the
Attorney General, came to me orally, and
was to the effect that the said counties were
under the sway of powerful combinations,
popularity known as the Ku-Klux Khan, the
objects Of which are, by force and terror, to
prevent all political action not in accord with
the views of the members, to deprive colored
citizens of the right to bear arms and of the
right of a free ballot, to suppress the schools
in which coored children were taught, and
to reduce the colored people to condition
closely allied to that of slavery; that these
combinations were organized and armed, and
had rendered the local laws Intellectual to
protect the classes whom they desired to OPP
press; that they had perpetrated many MUIR
ders and hundreds of crimes of minor degree,
all of which were UNPUBLISHED, and that wit
nesses could not safely testify in the courts
there unless the more active members were
placed under restraint.
(Signed) U. S. GRANT.
Executive Mansion, April 10, 1872.