and we have an array of facts in support of these principles, surpassing
all theories and arguments.
THEN, only white male citizens, twenty-one years of age and over, were
voters.
NOW, _all_ male citizens of twenty-one years and over, having the
necessary qualifications of residence, etc., have the right of suffrage.
THEN, voting was _viva voce_.
NOW, it is by ballot.
THEN, there was no registry of voters.
NOW, all electors are required to register before voting.
THEN, "returning officers," and those issuing commissions, were bound by
the arithmetical results of the polls, and were required to give the
commission or certificate of election to the person having the highest
number of votes.
NOW, there are boards of canvassers who are required not only to count the
returns, but to pass upon questions of violence and fraud, and to exclude
returns from precincts where they find the elections to have been
controlled by such means.
THEN, the basis of representation was property, or property and slaves, or
slaves by enumerating three-fifths of all.
NOW, it is all the _inhabitants_ of the land.
THEN, white male citizens, and, in some localities, property holders only,
were eligible to office.
NOW, _all_ male citizens, save the few under disabilities by the
Constitution of the United States, are eligible.
Coming down to a later period in the history of the country, from the time
when the death of the lamented Lincoln had left the Republic in the hands
of its worst enemies, to the presidential election in 1868, and what is
the situation?
THEN, the leaders had succeeded in ripening the people for a revolution
against law and order, if that were necessary for the maintenance of
issues, differing in character, but similar in design and spirit, to those
sought to be gained by the war of the rebellion.
THEN, a reign of terror had been inaugurated in the community which
compelled the tacit acquiescence of those who, desiring to express their
opinions, were denied the right through the fear of social and political
ostracism and physical violence.
THEN, the Government was in the hands of Andrew Johnson, and the hopes of
good and just men everywhere, in all sections of the country, of arriving
at a peaceful solution of the difficulties through reconstruction, were
blasted, and gave no signs of verification in fruition.
THEN, the same spirit was rampant that plunged the country into a
sanguinary war, and did not hesitate to express itself in a determined
resistance to the new order of things produced by that war.
THEN, men embraced and kissed their wives and children at night, as if
leaving them for a far-off journey, not knowing, when they lay down,
whether they should awake to peaceful sunlight or to a cabin strewn with
the bodies of the loved ones.
THEN had begun the first fruits of the great judgments through which the
people were eventually to pass, and by which alone, it appeared they could
be redeemed.
AND NOW CAME THE PROMISE of a new order of things. The political situation
of the country had changed. The reins of government passed into the hands
of men of whom much was expected. Three years have intervened. The false
issues that had been raised among the masses are _now_ being swept away.
The disorganizing elements are tottering to a fall, and those who had
fostered them are seeking to excuse and palliate their course.
They complain that the civil government of the Southern States had passed
into the hands of carpet-baggers, who had been forced upon them, who were
engaged in plundering the people, encouraging the negroes to pillage and
destroy the property of the country, and placing them in positions where
they could rule over white men.
But this was not in any manner the real trouble. The same oppressive
spirit that actuated these men during the days when slavery was a
recognized institution among them, still obtained. Neither the men of the
South nor the sojourners from the North were allowed in those days to
freely express their opinions, if those opinions chanced to be in
opposition to slavery.
What was treason _then_ against the social and political rights of these
would-be-masters of a race, is treason _now_ in their minds; for they have
not yet learned to tolerate the free expression of sentiments in such
exact antipodes to their early educational training.
To preach the principles of republicanism, to advocate the education of
the negro, to urge his right to the elective franchise, were deemed
seditious practices, and were opposed _then_ just as they are _now_; there
is simply a difference in the mode by which this opposition is manifested.
THEN, it was by argument, supported by local and Federal legislation.
NOW, it is by violence, and the subversion of all law.
THEN the North reasoned and counselled with the South; endeavored to show
them the great wrongs done to the bondman, and that the nation could not
prosper under the terrible curse of slavery.
NOW the strong arm of the Government is put forth to compel a respect for
the rights accorded to _all_ under the law; a situation which, it appears,
nothing but the determined front presented by the Administration will lead
the people of the South finally to accept.
The efforts of the wicked leaders to misguide the masses are persistent.
Many right-minded people of the South are misled by the false statements
put forth by those who should, and do know, better, and the pernicious
results of whose influence time and the dissemination of truthful
intelligence can alone eradicate.
In many instances Republicans have been elected to office, and these are
the so-called carpet-baggers. In some localities negroes and mulattoes
have been elevated to places of power and trust, and, for this, the people
of the South are largely indebted to their own willful neglect.
The Joint Select Committee to inquire into the condition of affairs in the
late insurrectionary States, allude to this subject in the following
language:
"The refusal of a large portion of the wealthy and educated men to
discharge their duties as citizens, has brought upon them the same
consequences which are being suffered in Northern cities and communities
from the neglect of their business and educated men to participate in all
the movements of the people which make up self-government. The citizen in
either section who refuses or neglects from any motive to take his part in
self-government, has learned that he must now suffer and help to repair
the evils of bad government. The newly-made voters of the South at the
close of the war, it is testified, were kindly disposed toward their
former masters. The feeling between them, even yet, seems to be one of
confidence in all other than their political relations. The refusal of
their former masters to participate in political reconstruction
necessarily left the negroes to be influenced by others. Many of them were
elected to office and entered it with honest intentions to do their duty,
but were unfitted for its discharge. Through their instrumentality, many
unworthy white men, having obtained their confidence, also procured public
positions. In legislative bodies, this mixture of ignorant but honest men
with better educated knaves, gave opportunity for corruption, and this
opportunity has developed a state of demoralization on this subject which
may and does account for many of the wrongs of which the people justly
complain."
Had the evil ended simply in a neglect upon the part of leading citizens
to discharge their duties as such, the remedy might have the more speedily
been applied. But the views of these men were to be carried far beyond a
mere declination to take part in the political reconstruction. They
determined that others should not do it and live at peace. Threats and
violence were brought into requisition to intimidate and prevent the well
meaning from using their efforts to render the political situation such
that society could improve rather than be retarded under it.
Evidences of the wide-spread defection are not wanting. That the various
orders of the Ku Klux Klans, were guided by men of intelligence, is amply
shown these pages; and the fact is corroborated by testimony taken before
the Investigating Committee above referred to.
One of the witnesses before this Committee was Gen. N. B. Forrest, of
Tennessee, late of the rebel army, and to whom a vast array of
circumstances pointed as being the GRAND CYCLOPS of the Ku Klux Orders.
The fact that he was in receipt of from fifty to one hundred letters per
day from all parts of the South upon the subjects of the Order; that he
was present in person in districts of the South where its members were
placed upon trial; that he had the general conduct and management of
affairs at such trials, hovering near the courts, though not appearing in
them; that when asked if he had taken any steps in organizing the Order,
he made reply that he did not think he was compelled to answer any
question that would implicate him in anything; that when asked if he knew
the names of any members of the Order, he declined to answer, and finally
said he could only recollect one name, and that was Jones; these, and
numerous other circumstances which the investigations have developed, but
which a want of space forbids reciting here, lead to the inevitable
conclusion that Gen. Forrest was at the head of the Order.
Some care has been taken to arrive at this fact, as it is evident that a
man of enlarged experience and liberal education, as General Forrest is
known to be, would draw about him men of equal caliber, thus
substantiating the assertions that the operations of the Ku Klux Klans
were guided by men of intelligence, education, and influence, who had been
violent secessionists, who had rebelled against the Government, and who
were determined to thwart all its endeavors to restore peace and harmony
to the distracted country.
General Terry, commanding military district of Georgia, makes report as
early as August, 1869, to the Secretary of War, in which he says:
"There can be no doubt of the existence of numerous insurrectionary
organizations, known as the Ku Klux Klans, who shielded by their
disguises, by the secrecy of their movements, and by the terror which they
inspire, perpetrate crimes with impunity. There is great reason to believe
that in some cases _the local magistrates are in sympathy with the members
of these organizations_."
General Terry's testimony is borne out by that of the United States
officials and secret agents and the evidence of recanting members of the
order. The cases of Harry Lowther, Ex-sheriff Deason, Susan J. Furguson,
Edward Thompson, and hosts of others, show men to have been engaged in
these murderous outrages, who were leading lights in the various
communities in which they lived. It is not therefore true, as has been
attempted to be made out by the Democratic party, that it is the rabble
only who are engaged in the treasonable movement.
It is not contended here that all the Democrats of the South are Ku Klux,
but it has been most conclusively shown that all the Ku Klux are
Democrats, and that they are sworn to oppose the spread of Republican
principles. They are determined to rule, and to rule with a rod of iron.
They have settled in their minds that "no government but the white man's
shall live in this country, and that they will forever oppose the
political elevation of the negro to an equality with the whites."
The report of the above committee, alluding to this condition of affairs,
very justly says:
"The facts demonstrate that it requires the strong arm of the Government
to protect its citizens in the enjoyment of their rights, to keep the
peace, and prevent this threatened--rather to say this initiated--war of
races, until the experiment which it has inaugurated, and which many
Southern men pronounce now, and many more have sworn shall be made a
failure, can be determined in peace. The race so recently emancipated,
against which banishment or serfdom is thus decreed, but which has been
clothed by the Government with the rights and responsibilities of
citizenship, ought not to be, and we feel assured will not be left
hereafter without protection against the hostilities and sufferings it has
endured in the past, as long as the legal and constitutional powers of the
Government are adequate to afford it. Communities suffering such evils,
and influenced by such extreme feelings, may be slow to learn that relief
can come only from a ready obedience to and support of constituted
authority."
That communities in some portions of the South are still suffering from
the evils herein referred to is an established fact, and the testimony is
not confined to the cloud of witnesses herein cited. The existence of the
Orders of Ku Klux Klans, and the allegations of the outrages perpetrated
by its members, have been proven before courts of justice. The most
learned advocates employed to defend these criminals have not attempted to
deny it.
No less a legal light than the Hon. Reverdy Johnson, of counsel, who
appeared, to defend persons charged with the commission of crimes similar
to those narrated in the foregoing pages, has admitted it. The trials in
which Mr. Johnson appeared as such counsel were had before the November
(1871) term of the United States Circuit Court, at Columbia, S. C.
On the sixteenth day of the proceedings, the evidence for the Government
having closed, Mr. Johnson made his opening for the defense; and although
standing before the court as the legal defender of the members of one of
the most terrible organizations known to modern times, he was compelled,
in justice to human decency, and in acknowledgment of the truth of the
statements presented to the court by the United States Attorney, to use
the following language in his address to the jury:
"I have listened with unmixed horror to some of the testimony which has
been brought before you. The outrages proved are shocking to humanity;
they admit of neither excuse or justification; they violate every
obligation which law and nature impose upon them; they show that the
parties engaged were brutes, insensible to the obligations of humanity and
religion. The day will come, however, if it has not already arrived, when
they will deeply lament it. Even if justice shall not overtake them, there
is one tribunal from which there is no escape. It is their own
judgment--that tribunal which sits in the breast of every living man--that
small, still voice that thrills through the heart, the soul of the mind,
and as it speaks gives happiness or torture--the voice of conscience--the
voice of God.
"If it has not already spoken to them in tones which have startled them to
the enormity of their conduct, I trust, in the mercy of heaven, that that
voice will so speak as to make them penitent, and that, trusting in the
dispensations of heaven--whose justice is dispensed with mercy--when they
shall be brought before the bar of their 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: PARDON."