Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-01-18
The KukIux - What They are aud Whal
TheX Have mnnn

In sentencing, at Columbia, Jan. 9TH, about
forty of the kuklux prisoners. who had pleaded
guilty, Judge Bond made the following remarks.
which give in brief compass a history OF the
situation. He said:
"You have pleaded guilty TO an Indictment
which charges you with cOnspiring, with other
men throughout this state, to intImidate GER
tam class of voters by means of threats, beat
ing, and even killing, because that class of citi-
zens were opposed TO the cOnsprators in politi-
cal opinion.
we acknowledge great perplexity in deter.
mining what punishment shall be meted out TO
you. We have no words strong enough to sig-
nifty our horror at the means employed TO carry
out the purpose Of the klans. Our difficulty is
personal 10 you.
You have, as ii appears from your statements
to the court, been brought up in the most de-
plorable Ignorance. At the are of manhood
but one or two of you can either read or write,
and you have lived in a community where the
evidence seems to establish the fact that the men
OF prominence and educatou-tbose who by
thelr superiority in these respects establish and
control public oplnion-were for the most part
participants in the conspiracy or so much
in terror Of it that you could obtain from them
neither protecnon nor advice had you sought it.
"Ihere is abundant proof of the nature and
character OF the conspiracy. Evidence of night
" raids by bands Of disguised men, who broke
INTO the houses of negroes and dragged them
from their beds--parents and cbildren-and, tie
ing them TO trees, numerically beat them, is ex.
hi0ited i'm every case. Murder and rape are NOT
lnlrequent Accomplishments the story of which
is too indecent for pablo mention. The persons
upon which these atrocities are committed are
almost always colored people. Whatever excuse
Is given for raid, its conclusion was almost al
ways accompanied by rebuke for the former
exercise of the suffrage and warning as TO the
future exercise of the right to vote.
But what is quite as appalling to the court as
Tue horrible nature of these oficnses is the utter
absence on your part and on the part of others
wlo nave made confession here of any sense or
Ieenng that you have done anything very wrong
m your confessed participation in outrages
territory. '''"
Some Of your comrades recite the circum-
stances OF brutal, unprOvoked murder. done bv
themselves, with as little apparent abborrence
as they would relate the incidents of a njrnie
ana you yourselves speak OF the number of
blows with hickory, which you inflicted AZ
midnight upon the lacerated, bleeding hack oi
a deienseless woman, without so much as n
blush or sigh of regret. None Of you seem TO
have the slightest idea of, or respect for, the
sacredness OF the human person. Some of Won
have yourselves been beaten by the kaus with.
out feeling a smart but the physical pain. There
appears TO be no wonndlng OF the spirit; no such
sense Of injury to yourself as a man as would be
felt by the humblest of your fellow citizens in
any other pant OF the United States with which
am acquainted"
There tue citizen upon whom such outrages
were perperatcd, stung TO madness by the in
suit 10 his manhood, would be swift 70 follow
The wrony-doer to the end Of the world 10 make
him atone for Ii. You make excuse for this i'm
your statement TO the court, that you are very