New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-07-23

Judicial District of Georgia THAT the organization
is intended to control the colored race in every re-
spect, politically well as every other way and
to keep them in subsection TO the whites Ana peo-
pie Justify il upon the ground that 1t is 10
keep the negroes in subsection" There never has
been any dispute that the freedmen were uniformly
peaceful inoffensve and tmid but the first opera
ton of the Ku-Klux was almost always to make
raid upon their houses and seize all the weapons
they could find.
Next TO voting the Radical ticket. however. the
most henous offence in the eyes Of the Ku-kux
was teaching niger school" The Rev. Charles
Wallace Howard, a Presbyterian clergyman OF
Georgia q native of the State, SAID: Our women
are not inclined to look favorably even upon North
ern ladies who here, far their social rela
tons are concerned They just let them
alone. They do not disturb them. | know nothing
of the Northern females who came to teach col
orcd schools: never spoke to one. They
were vigorously excluded from good society"
Judge Tourgee speaks Of one of these females"
who was shot dead at her post and another who
fled for her life from the burning schoolhouse.
| Many others were threatened and driven away.
Male teachers were most brutally logged, dragged
from their houses at night stripped naked, scourged
| shot and hanged SchOol-houses innumerab'e were
burned to the ground; colored churches were dis
| posed of in the way even white schools fell
| under the ban of the Ku-Kux. They served notices
upon tie students of the University of Alabama, of
| which the following are specimens: You nor no
other id son of a id Radical traitor shall stay
at our University. The State is ours. and so shall
the University be- 1--WE are resolved it shall not
be carried on under the present faculty" "Iou
had better get back where you came from. We
| don't want any ID YanlI at our colleges. On
| you, we will show you that you shall not stay, you
nor no one else in that college," They say You
are of good Democratic family. If You are. leave
! the University. and that quick. We don't intend
that the concern shall run any longer. We ,rHhave
GOOD Southern men there or none" " The students
| left" says the witness who exhibited these letters;
they were smart enough for that"
| The methods empo Dyed by the Ku-Klux societies
are but too well known. and Judge Tourgee docs
not attempt to make catalogue OF their bloody
work. But the murders undoubtedly num-
bered by thousands and other outrages by tens of
! thousands The Investigating Committee made
| list of ~ Ku-K.ux murders in the comparatively
"qulst" State of Georgia, and 100 in quiet" Ala
baIna previous to the year 1872. These were only
tic cases in regard to which the committee took
testimony. In south Carolina single witness was
able to give the names of OPT persons IN & single
county who had been whipped" " shot,
whipped and shot" and made the victims of nu-
merous other outrageS including the burning CT
their houses ana the cropping OF their cars, and SO
| of these sufferers women. In some cases en-
tire families were eXtermnated; and the crimes
were accompanied by brutalities impossible 10 de-
scribe All the testimony goes to show that the men,
beIs OF the order included persons of high social
| position Ladies met together in sewlng-cIrcles
TO make the di guises Churches used places
| Of assembly Children were intrusted with secrets
which will make them shudder in old age" Yet the
assassins were rarely betrayed The whole commu-
nltv stood by them Ii was a holy trust which
! the Southern cause had east upon them.
! Whenever positive information has been obtained
as to membership of the Klan 1t has been shown to
have had its fall proportion of the best classes.
Two Judges, two Sheriffs, one State Solicitor, one
leading editor tOuT members of the Legislature one
Congressman, and numerous lawyers. and planters,
and professional men, are shown by the testimony
of one state alone to have been among It's members.
| The confession of members showed the officers and
leading men of the Klans always TO have been men
of standing and influence in their communities"
We are told now that we ought TO forget all these
things; that the past is dead and ought to be
buried. But the past is not dead. The Invisible
Empire" and its kindred associations have sue
ceeded in their purpose. They have overthrow the
reconstruction policy they have practically put
an end 70 negro suffrage. so far that the negro may
not vote unless he i'll vote the Democratic ticket
have nullifed the Constitutional Amendments and
the Civil Rights legislation; they have shown
that conspiracy and revolution are the shortest,
easiest and surest method of obtaining public
honor and preferment ut tie South, and that the
ballot there does not rule. The midnight raiding
by masked assassins has ceased; but 1t has ceased
only because it has done It's infamous work. " With
the suppression of the negro and Republican vote,
and the establishment of the old minority rule, its
purpose was ACCOMPLISHED. As consequence what
"A termed peace has succeeded TO the reign of
violence and terror But it is the peace OF force, OF
suppression of subverted right, Of trampled and
defed law"
And finally continued Judge Tourgcc, the
spirit and anImus of this organization still remain
Sis not dead, but scepeth only. Whenever Occa-
SION shall serve 1t may be again invoked by the bold
potcal buccaneers WHO lead and control the senti-
ment of its members. and required to DO their bid
ding and subservc their purposes. Anyone who will
east his memory back but three years will recall
with what marvellous readiness armed forces
sprang into existence in Louisiana and South Caro-
iiua--not wild, undlsciplined, dis0rganiZed and
freuzicd mobs; nothing Of the kind; but cool or
ganZed battaliOnS, carving the most improved re-
peang arms Obedient to orders, and SubserYlent t.
discipline as any army which ever mustered on the
| continent" The author believes that national
system of education is the only cure for the alarm
| ing disorders of our political system. That is al
best SLOW remedy, and II is which the south Is
nrmly resolved not to take. But the first thing
necessary is correct diagnosis of the case; and vi
are not aware of any publication which gives sC
able statement of tie condition of the South rs
| this remarkable novel