The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1872-04-25
Tae charleston Ku Klux Trials.

being put upon their trial for the novel offence
of interfering with the rights of their political
opponents, made criminal by two acts of the
United States Congress. If he does not stop
to question the policy of such laws nor consider
how much of danger to civil liberty they In
yoiye, he will be infinitely surprised to know
that the court itself, the prosecuting officer, the
marshal and ali his deputies are members OF
the opposite party from that to which the ac-
cused belong. But this will seem to be slight
matter when the stranger is informed that the
Jurors who sit as the grand inquest to pass upon
Che finding of the Indictment, and the petit
jurors whe are to try the cases. are composed
almost exclusively of their political enemies.
He will hear this stated, on all hands, in the
court, and out of doors, and he will be further
told that those few jurors who are not OF such
political complexion ara merely put upon the
panel of the Jury as fois to set off the symme-
try Of tie whole array. This will very natu-
rally suggest the inquiry, How can one charged
with q political offence have even the approx
NATION to an impartial trial under such cirenm-
stances
The astonishment of the visitor at these trials
will become almost cons ternation when he mo-
tices another prominent fact, At the elbow OF
MI. Corbin, the District Attorney, will be seen
an Individual dressed in a dark blue undress
military coat. This is Colonel Lewis Merrill,
of the Seventh United States Cavalry, COM
manding the nine insurrectionary counties, and
cfief engineer of the prosecutions He will
be observed constantly in consultation with the
District Attorney, referring to his books and
papers, suggesting questions for witnesses, ana
in many cases a witness himself against the
persons upon trial. One will, perhaps, not
have time to consider how such an unknown
proceeding has been brought about, and per-
haps the conclusion viii be arrived at, that
there is some provision of the law itself which
gives to the military officer concurrent au-
thority with the regular prosecuting attorney
appointed by law; but the lawyer will at once
saw that; the law under which these prosecu-
tions are had contemplates the bare aid 10 the
United States Marshal by the military in ma
king the arrests, and th,lt only where the mar
shall shall feel himself incompetent to. make
such arrests. Then a very natural inquiry will
suggest itself, how far have the military author
ities interfered in the execution and admlnis-
tration of these laws. 1t will be found out
that although it was never in theory intended
to declare martial law, yetin the counties un-
der the ban it has prevailed in its most strin-
gent form. In the hanGs of Colonel Merrill, it
will be found, have been the liberty and even
the iires of hundreds of persons. That the
information upon which arrests have been
made was his-that witnesses and prisoners
have been exclusively In his CONTROL and that
his nod will either send man to trial or dis
charge him, accordingly as the accused may be
frowned upon or bask in the smile of the die
tator of nine counties of this State.
IF onr friend, say from Massachusetts,, sits
down in court among che lawyers he will at
once grasp the method and manner of the
prosecutions. First, the prisoner will be con.
fronted with three witnesses Davis, Berry and
Gunthorpe, who are used to establish general
conspiracy. The District Attorney, when the
first named witness takes the stand, produces
dirty and much-used roll of paper which is
read to Davis, and which contains most diabol-
ical oaths; rules and regulations. Davis re-
cognizes it in moment; it is the record OF the
conspiracy in which he was I; he read it by q
small fire. Light in creek bottom at the dead
of night. Berry, the next fellow, Is equally
fortunate in having good memory, and swears
willingly and positively to the same facts
This, then, is the Ku Klux organization, and
being thus established, it 10 used by the gov
ernnent as an India-rubber blanket under
which the entire world can be covered In the
fold of this dire conspiracy. Ihe prisoners on
trisii may never have seen or heard OF Davis or
Berry and their Invisible Brotherhood, or may
not have lived within five hundred miles OF
those two worthless; yet the elastic nature OF
that battered, dirty and dog-eared constitution
and bylaws, of which the District Attorney
makes so mach USE will be sufficient to include
under its cover the entire South.
But there is another feature in the testimony
Of these standing witnesses of the government
quite noticeable. Although they describe the
most diabolical, unprovoked murders OF In
offending colored men, with the most intense
particularity, by the conspiracy Of which they
were part and parcel, these two above named
are never present at the commission OF the
crimes, disapproved of the organization from
the commencement, and would have 1T believed
that they are as repentant sinners as they are
yeracious witnesses.
On the trial of Leaader Spencer and VIII
liam Smith, on Tuesday last, the District At
torney made new venture in the production
of q witness for the government, which, the
best lawyers have informed us, is neither sane
toned by law or precedent. One William
White was sworn, who testified that he delibe-
rately shot q harmless negro by name Charles
Good, the victim having been first tied to
sapling; and who set up as an excuse for COM
mftting this outrageous murder, that he was
forced by fear of death, at the hands of one
Wesley Smith, to commit the deed.
If the Government of the United States ex-
meets to convict criminals upon charges OF SO
yery grave character, it will be seen at once
that it cannot be done before any honest or
conscientious jury upon the testimony OF the
principal felons. Lawyers of ability have in
formed us that the principal felon can never be
put up as a witness against his accessory-hls
testimony is considered as entirely inadmissible
for reasons which are obvious, and not necessa-
~ here to mention. This man White, by his
own confession, committed an appalling MUIR
der, .unprovoked; and yet he is used by the gov
ernment to convict those in lesser degree I'M
plicated, and it is expected of jurymen to
believe such witnesses. 1t simply impossible.
And Just here it might become the subject of
inouiry how this murderer, White, came to be
q witness? The District Attorney, who has
the reputation of being good lawyer, must
have known that he was an incompetent wit
ness. Yet, the government having used him as
a witness Las we are told by lawYers.l he is rs