Report of the Joint select committee appointed to inquire into the condition of affairs in the late insurrectionary states, so far as regards the execution of laws, and the safety of the lives and property of the citizens of the United States and Testimony taken.

1686 CONDITION OF AFFAIRS IN THE SOUTHERN STATES.
Question. You have heard of a band going from this county to Meridian, Mississippi,
have you not?
Answer. No, sir. I heard of a number of citizens going there, but not in the character of a band or organization, or anything of the kind-just a partyof citizens goingeach one independently, going himiself.
Question. Did you hear that they went armed?
Answer. Some of them, I think, carried arms. How many I don't know.
Question. Did they go by railroad, or on horses?
Answer. It is the custom here now for a great many of the young men to carry smallarms-pistols-habitually.
Question. Is that the general practice of the community?
Answer. It is with some-not with the colmnmnity-but with some of our young men
it is a custom. They wear them almost as regularly as they wear their coats. It is a
custom or habit of theirs. They have done it ever since the war, and probably did it
before; I was not acquainted with them at that time.
Question. Is there anything in the condition of your society, in your opinion, rendering that practice necessary?
Answer. Nothing whatever. I go about myself, where I desire to go or please to go,
but I never find it necessary to carry any arms.
Question. Does the law denounce and punish the secret carrying of arms?'
Answer. I believe it does-the carrying of concealed weapons. The ones I refer to
are not concealed; they are in sight, or partially in sight.
Question. How are they carried?
Answier. By a belt around the waist. There may be others, for aught I know, who
carry concealed weapons; but of course I have no knowledge of that.
Question. Have you not seen them frequently with the handle of the pistol sticking
out of the pocket?
Answer. No, sir; I do not remember of ever seeing an instance of that kind;
those I am accustomed to see carrying weapons of that kind usually carry them in
a scabbard belted around the waist.
Question. That manner of carrying weapons is not prohibited by your law?
Answer. So far as my knowledge of the law extends, it is not. I am no lawyer myself. I know, from what has transpired in our courts, that it is against the law to
carry concealed weapons.
Question. Why should you olject to negroes carrying arms if the whites carry arms?
Answer. I referred to the negroes carrying them on an occasion of public assemblage,
when they were apparently marching and parading in military order-a thing I
never saw among the whites; the arms they carried were principally shot-guns or old
muskets, and under the command of a leader. The leader was wearing a sword, and
attended with a drum. at the head of the procession.
Question. Is there anything in your law prohibiting such a procession?
Answer. I do not know that there is now; there was at the time a command prohibiting it-forbidding it.
Question. Was there great destitution in the country after the war?
Answer. There was.
Question. Much stealing?
Answer. A great deal, and it continued. It was worse some time after the war. I do
not know or hear much of it now. But it existed to such an extent that a number of
planters remarked to me that they had abandoned all attempts to raise hogs. Cows
were frequently killed. It was not an uuusual thing in this neighborhood —I am better acquainted with it-for a i)lanter to find as many as a cart-load of corn-cbs in the
center of his corn-field where the corn had been taken and shelled and taken away, &c.
There was a great deal of stealing.
Question. Were there many poor white people in this county after the war?
Answer. I know of no cases among the whites of destitution. We were all comparatively poor. There were some, though, who owned no lands, and in that respect were
poorer than others. But I know of none outside of the county poor-house who were
not in a condition to maintain themselves.
Qutestion. Before 1867, did you hear of any visitations by bands of men after night at
the houses of negroes-anly punishment inflicted upon negroes by bands of men?
Answer. I could not remember just the dates at which such may have occurred, but
my impression is I never heard of any previous to the year 1867. I have no recollection of it.
Question. Your courts have always dealt with these crimes and misdemeanors by
punishing the parties, wherever they were ascertained, have they not?
Answer. They have in some cases punished; but I will state what is an impression
of mine, and what occurred to me at the time; I think there were many persons acquitted who richly deserved conviction. A great many of these minor offenses, cases
of stealing, and in fact nearly all the cases of stealing and such minor offenses amlong
the negroes, were for two or three years' timle disposed of before the Freedmen's Bureau, and never got into the courts. They were summarily disposed of there.