The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1905-09-15

they shall be brought before the
bar of that great tribunal, so to
speak, that incomprehensible
tribunal, there will be found. in
the fact of their penitence, or in
their previous lives, some grounds
upon which God may say par
don"
l think that the explanation of
much that occurred in this region
IN the spring of 1871 is to be
found in social and economic,
rather than in political causes,
and while it is probably true that
the organizers of the Klans
looked to the accomplishment of
some political ends through this
lnstrumentality, their followers
soon got beyond their control
and most of the outrages were
due to the fixed and deliberate.
though probably unavowed pur-
pose, Of driving the negroes out
OF the country.
The first man that was MUIR
dered by the Ku Klux in York
county was Tom Roundtree. a
thrifty, industrious and success
ful negro, who lived near the
North Carolina line, in a COM
munlty where there were but
few negroes. prosecuted three
men for this murder, all of whom
prove allbls to the satisfaction of
the jury.
Two of the men charged were,
l think, innocent: as to the other
there was ground for a reason
able doubt, the men being dis
gulsed there may have been a
mistake as to their identity.
Roundtree held no office, and 1
could see no motive for the kill
ing, except that fierce race
hatred, which is strongest among
those who, in worldly estate, are
most nearly on the same plane,
and most likely to be in compe-
tltlon with the negro as laborer
or as renter of lands.
1t may we'll be asked how it
was that in a country calling
inself Christian and civilized,
such a state of affairs could be
endured. 1t is to our great
shame, discredit and injury that
crime was allowed to run ram
pant and unpunished for so long
time.
Several things may be said, not
by way of excuse for our short
comings, but in explanation.
First, it may be said that an or
ganization that could bring to-
gether upon short notice five
hundred or a thousand horsemen,
armed and disguised and bound
together by most solemn oaths,
moving mysteriously in the dark
ness, already stained with human
blood, and with the callousness
that follows blunted conscience,
was well calculated to excite fear
and in rural community, where
there were no organized forces
of pol ce pr .ctioa, men were
10th to antagonize a power all the
more to be dreaded, because of
the mystery which did not admit
the measuring of it's force.
Second, some of the earlv
demonstrations were secretly ap-
proved of as being directed to-
wards the remedy of real griev-
ances and the punishment of real
criminals.
Third, and chiefly, the State
Government was such that it was
not supported by the public opin-
ion OF the better element of the
State, and there would have been
general acquiescence in it's over
throw by any methods however
violent and revolutionary. 1t is
impossible here to describe fully
the kind of Government that was
established in South Carolina
under the Reconstruction Acts.
Mr.: James S. Pike, a Northern
man and n Republican, who had
been Minister of the United States
at The Hague, appointed by Mr..
Lincoln, and who spent the winter
of 1873 in Columbia, thus describes
it.: