The Indianapolis journal., 1883-11-05
TIE KU-KLUx CONVICTIONS.

TIE KU-KLUX CONVICTIONS.
''The Indianapolis Journal, in answer to
the assertion that the government can do
whatever the people desire 1T to do, inquiries:
Can it protect colored manr The Journal
is referred to the conviction of the ku-klux in
Georgia. last Saturday. The men convicted
are white, are possessed of considerable prop
erty, and belong to large and influential
family. y."-Evansviile Tribune-News
We very cheerfully and cordially concede
all the good that may result from the con-
viction OF the Georgia ku- kluxers, which, by
the way, is the first conviction of the kind
in the South. The conviction of the men
who rode through Banks county during the
last campaign committing outrages on ne
groes was certainly not expected, and comes
to all lovers of justice with grateful assur-
ance. The ringeaders are men of property
and of good social standing, Emory Speer,
formerly Democrat, was running as an
independent candidate for Congress- and was
supported by a majority of the colored
voters The ''Pop-and-go Club" as it was
called, initiated the ku-klux of a few years
since, riding through the country at night
and horse-whipping in the most brutal man
ner the prominent negroes. Speer was de-
feated, but has since been appointed United
States district attorney, and has been unaag-
in his efforts to bring the cowardly miscre-
ants to justice. A fair trial was held before
Judge McCay and jury. The evidence was
conclusive.
But while the moral effect of this verdict
will be of great value to Georgia, it is we'll to
remember that one swallow does not make a
summer. While writing of this matter, the
Charleston News and Courier, a representa-
tive Southern paper. came to hand with a
leading editorial, commenting upon the trial
and conviction in the following style:
"The first convictions in ku-klux cases in
Georgia were those which are recorded in the
Sunday News, yesterday. They announce
the opening of the political campaign in
Georgia. 1t is white State, and the mean
ing of the verdict is that the politicians who
manage the department of justice wanted
convictions for political use, and have Sc
cured what they wanted.
"Ku-klux cases, as such, are cases where it
is charged that colored people, because they
are colored people, are beaten or otherwise
injured by white men who have formed a
conspiracy to maltreat them. Even when
there is any fact as the basis of serious
charge, such as an assault or aggravated as
sault, it does not follow that there was any
conspiracy, or that the negro would have
Jared any better if he had been white. Be-
sides this, when the passions of negro wit
nesses are aroused, these witnesses will swear
to anything-on the governments side
There was confirmation enough of this in
the ku-klux cases in South Carolina. Hun
dreds of persons were accused of Infamous
offenses who were as innocent as babes un-
borp.s The appetites of swift witnesses had
been whetted. They could swear to a single
fact and grew willing to swear to a hundred
falsehoods. The court judged them by their
grain of fact.
There in Georgia a political malcontent
runs in opposition to the Democratic candi-
date. He is a so-called independent; a pro-
tectionist like the Augusta Chronicle or a
mere Randallite-a radical in disguise This
macontent, protectionist and Randallite is
defeated at the polls and instantly, as United
States district attorney, causes prosecutions
to be instituted against persons who are
supposed to have prevented colored citizens
from voting for him. The candidate
OF yesterday is the United States
prosecuting officer of to-day. 1t is the pur-
pose of the government to make the voter
ernment candidate, the government will
send after him the defeated candidate, and
prop that candidate up with the Republican
Judge and-in these days-a Greenback
jury.
"The political road in South Carolina is
not improved and smoothed by these Georgia
convictions. There are no ku-klux here, but
there are defeated candidates, and, as we said
the other day, the latest juries, in the United
States Court are made up in large degree
of Independents or Greenbackers."
1t will be observed, even by the E9ans-
vile Tribune-News that the millennium has
not been ushered in by the conviction of six
men in Georgia under exceptional circum-
stances, but that there still remains no little
mission work to be done before the equal
rights which the constitution assures are un-
grudgingly conceded. The talk of "a white
State" does not smack of encouragement in
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