The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1872-01-11

rp,f7 The Ku Klux Trials.
CotuhB1A, 8. O., December 26.-An
i!=:.enss unfinished granite building, at
the South end of Main street, and facing
that leeding thorou9hfare OF the town,
is the State Capitol Of South Carolina. in
which sits the United States circuit and
District Courts, engaged at the present
time in the Ku Klux trials. In four
weeks time, with Radical judges and
packed negro juries, the Government
has succeeded In convioting only one OF
the numerous defendants arrested BY the
military. The last case tried resulted in
q mis.txlal, as the jury failed to agree.
The one defendant convicted was for the
very grave offsnoe of conspiring TO in
timidate certain negro voter, and thus
prevent his free exercise OF the franchise,
For this, he ought, OF course, to be
hing; although learned legal gentlemen
| say he was convicted on evidence which
mo other court would have admitted, and
no other kind Of a jury would have be-
lieved. Very many of the defendants
have olenrly established their innocence
Of any complicity or even sympathy with
the Ku Klux, and yet they have spent
some two months in Jail under military
guard, denied all intercourse with their
families, while those at Yorkyille we're
not allowed by Major Merrill to have
books. papers, writing material, or even
Bible. Ministers asked permission to
visit and preach to them, and this Major
Merrill also refused. ] saw among these
prisoners old white: headed gentlemen
and bright-faced little boys, ouly twelve
years old, against whom some worthless
vagabond had sworn, in revenge, doubt
laoo f0R fonotoa t.,:,,
Some OF the testimony given by negro
women was the most obscene and filthy
conceivable; and, if they told the truth,
the acts complained of and described
could have been committed only by the
lowest and most degraded characters.
Some Of the witnesses we're inforrhers
and acoomplices, who openly admitted
their participation in deeds Of shocking
flthiness, for which they forfeited all
claim to credibility and richly deserved
the halter, whether false or true. To
sum up the whole Of this Ku Klux busi-
ness: In the up-country, the ill-feeling
engendered by Radical leaders between
the two races resulted in the Governors
arming the negroes, organizing them
into militia, and their leaders enoou-
raging them to commit all kinds OF ex-
cesses against the whites, even to the
extent Of numbering the helpless srd
unofending, burning barns, giu-houses
and dwellings,, and creating perfect
reign Of terror. To protect themselves
against these savages, the whites organ
lied In secret associations, and in some
cases Of desperate necessity, applied
Lynch law. To these associations were
imprudently admitted some of the low
est characters, emphaticallv styled tpoor
white trash," and these latter, on several
occasions, issued forth on their own
hook, and, without either the knowledge
cr authority OF the khan proper, INDUCED
in acts of cruelty and low, debasing
deviltry among the blacks for which
they ought to suffer. But when the CO.
horts and courts of the United States
announced crusade against the Ku
Klux, these low fellows of the baser sort
came forward and confessed, aud became
swift witnesses against the gentlemen of
the country, charging them with the
crimes which the informers themselves
had committed, and which the respect
able defendants had never countenanced
or suggested, and of which no man in
his senses could believe them capable.
To illustrates: One filthy-looking fright
OF negress on the stand swore that four
of the khan took her from her house into
the road, and successively ravished and
performed other low and disgusting out.
RACES on her person. This, Mt the trial
Of several gentlemen of wealth and re-
finement, having charming families, ana
to whom even the seductive allurements
of a city oourtezan would appeal in win.
Such men might fight and kill. if need
be, but never could stoop to such deeds
as these informers asserted, and as these
informers alone committed. A look at
the parties was enough to convince one
OF this, without the aid OF the abb,
which, in this instance, the defendants
clearly proved. The negro woman pro-
baby told the truth, but the low white
witnesses against the accused were the
fellows who committed the outrage, for
they know all about the affair. The
court is IL session still. and these trials
! will continue for some time longer. The
up-country is fast becoming wilderness.
One direct result of all this military in
vasion will be the total paralysis of the
planting interest in about e-half, and
the best half. of the State. The whites
will not be able to carry on their farms,
and what will the negroes do for bread?
! Cor. N. Y World.
COUNTY AUDITOR DEAD.-Fields Mont
gomery, Auditor Of Newberry County.
and brother of Senator Chas ". Mont
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