The Ku-Klux | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 29, 1871

The Ku-Klux.

RETURN OF THE SUB-COMMITTEE FROM SOUTH CAROLINA.

WASHINGTON, July 29.—The sub-Ku-Klux Committee, consisting of Senator Scott and Representatives Stevenson and Van Trump, reached Washington to-day, returning from a sojourn of four weeks in various parts of South Carolina, where they have been investigating Ku-Klux outrages on the spots where they occurred.

They first visited the Capital, Columbia. More than 100 refugees, who had fled from violence in various counties, were there; but, after examining witnesses for two days, the Committee determined to go closer to the scenes of alleged violence, and went to Spartanburg. They expected to remain there three or four days, but stayed eleven. When word got out through Spartanburg County that they were there, the whites and negroes, victims of violence, came in by scores every day, from all directions. Murders and cruel whippings by the Ku-Klux bands had so terrified them that in many neighborhoods nearly every negro man and Republican white man had slept in the woods for months every night. They showed scarified backs, gunshot wounds, maimed ears, and other proofs of the violence they had suffered.

In Limestone Springs township, 118 cases of whipping were proved. The Committee awoke every morning to find, in the yard by the hotel, a new crowd of victims of Ku-Klux, some including whites, who had suffered outrages which cannot be described with decency. After being whipped, the victims, if well-known persons, were often commanded, under pain of death, to publish a card renouncing the Republican party. In a file of the South Carolina Spartan, the Democratic newspaper, forty-two such cards were found recently published.

At Unionville, the Committee remained two days. Not an avowed white Republican was found in the place, though privately assured by a few that they would avow themselves if protected. The terror of the negroes here is complete. The last election was carried by a Republican majority, but the Republican county officers received Ku-Klux notices, and all resigned or fled. The policy there has been more toward murder and less toward whipping. The killing of ten negroes, taken from the jail by several hundred Ku-Klux, acting under military organization, was investigated. A prominent lawyer of the place, Mr. Shard, a Democrat, on cross-examination, startled the Committee by stating that he believed almost every respectable unmarried man in the community belonged to the Ku-Klux, and he believed a thousand Ku-Klux were within a day's march of that village. A negro Methodist preacher, named Louis Thompson, who had an appointment June 11 at Goshen Hill church, in Union County, received a Ku-Klux notice, in the usual form, not to preach. He preached, notwithstanding, to a very few, most of the congregation fleeing when they saw the notice. In the evening a clan of twenty mounted Ku-Klux came, tied him and whipped him, led him off several miles, dragging him part of the way tied to the horses, whipped him again until death, mutilated him in a way that cannot with propriety be described, hanged him, and threw the body into the Tiger River, leaving a notice forbidding any one to bury him.

Before the Committee returned, Senator Scott sent Thompson's brother, now a refugee from Columbia, to Union County, with a letter to insure him a strong guard of United States cavalry, to go and bury the body, which was reported to be still lying, half decomposed, on the water's edge.

Two more days were spent in examining witnesses in Columbia. On returning from Spartanburg, one day was occupied in hearing the statements and general views of Gen. Wade Hampton, and Gen. Butler, the Democratic candidate for Governor last fall.

The Committee then visited York County, where they remained nearly a week. They discovered at Yorkville a bitter spirit among the white citizens. At supper at the hotel on the evening of their arrival, Major James Berry threw a pitcher of milk over the Hon. A. T. Wallace, the Representative of the District, and the Hon. J. E. Stevenson of the Committee. They were just seating themselves at the table, and not a word had been spoken. Mr. Wallace jerked out a revolver and raised it to shoot Berry—the ladies screaming—but the landlord threw himself before Berry, and Mr. Stevenson coolly caught Wallace's hand and ordered the landlord to take that man out of the room. Half a dozen friends gathered around Berry, and he went out. In the course of an hour several citizens of prominence called to apologize in the amplest manner on behalf of Berry, who was willing to go on his knees if required for what he alleged was an unintentional affront to Mr. Stevenson. It was subsequently ascertained that the business had been discussed by Berry and his friends during the afternoon it was to be carried out, and that Berry had proposed to use hot coffee, but had finally decided on milk.

The colored band serenaded the Committee later in the evening. A crowd of young white men filled the porch of the hotel and were about the band frequently, cursing the negroes and the Yankees in an insulting manner. As the band went away the crowd followed and nearly filled the sidewalk. The band and those with it (negroes) were kept by two village policemen from the sidewalk. One negro was thrust off by a policeman, who says the negro resisted and struck him. The negro and two men who were close by say the negro struggled to get away from the grip of the policeman, who seized, cursed, and struck him, but that the negro did not strike. As he pulled away, the policeman fired at the negro, and continued firing until he had inflicted five wounds. The man was still living when the Committee left. The testimony taken showed that both policeman and Mayor or intendent were members of the Ku-Klux. No one was arrested.

The community in York County was found to be in almost utter social and political demoralization, the civil authorities being a useless farce and a mockery of the victims of the Ku-Klux Klan. Col. Merrill, in command of a small force stationed there, an officer of high character and great energy, laid before the Committee the details of sixty-eight cases of outrages which he had investigated, some of them most revolting and horrible. It was found impossible for the Committee to examine more than a small part of the crowds of whipped, maimed, or terror-stricken wretches who flocked in upon hearing of their coming. When the Committee adjourned, the building in which they had sat was filled, stairs, halls, and porches, with those waiting to be heard.—N. Y. Tribune.