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.

1704 CONDITION OF AFFAIRS IN THE SOUTHERN STATES.
By Mr. BUCKLEY:
Question. Is it not a violation of law for then to appear il disguise?
Answer. It is now, in this State.
By the CIAIRMAN-:
Question. That has been so for a year or two past?
lAnswcer. It has been for a year or more, but I was speaking of the time when this was
not the case.
By Mr. BUCKLEY:
Question. Has it not been so since December 26, 1868?
Answer. I do not remember the date. I was referring to the fact that the peculiar
manner in which they committed the violence would not affect the quality of the act,
the act itself; that where a band of that kind of men to which you refer would go and
murder a man, and another band of men, not going in the same way, but in a more
irregular way, and mIurder a man, the one would be as bad as the other, in my estimation, though in the one case there might be more premeditation shown than in the
other.
Question. How could there be more regularity and concert of action and premeditation than in the several attacks on your jail?
Answer. It is more than I could say, how there might have been greater concert of
action. I cannot say how much concert of action there was, further than there was
a party of several with the same object in view and participating in its accomplishment.
Question. Is not that all you have heard predicated of any Ku-Klux band?
Answer. I have read of Ku-Klux bands-whether burlesques, or what, I cannot sayof regular organizations, holding meetings, with a regular ritual and all that sort of
thing.
Question. I am speaking of their enterprises.
Anszwer. I say that, so far as their acts are concerned, I do not see any difference.
Question. They may belong, then, for aught you know, to the same general organization?
Ansvwer. For all personal knowledge I have, they may.
Question. You never were approached by a member of such an organization?
Answer. No, sir.
Questiotn. Never were asked to become a member?
Answer. No, sir.
Question. You never saw the ritual of one of those secret organizations?
Answver. I never did.
Question. You know nothing of any of its signs or pass-words?
iAnswer. Nothing whatever.
Question. Never heard of them?
Alnswer. No, sir. I do not believe there is, or ever has been, such a thing in this
State. I have never been convinced that there is.
Question. In no part of the State?
Answer. No part of the State.
Question. Not even in 1868?
lAswer. Not even in 1868; that is, such an organization as you speak of, with rituals, and holding regular meetings, &c. I believe there have been men banded together
in various parts of the State, as, on occasions, here, with the intention of committing
outrages; but I do not believe that there ever has existed in this State an organization
such as we speak of-men banded together with anything like permanency.
Question. Do you not believe that in 1868 there was an organization here, composed
exclusively of democrats, banded together, with disguises, pass-words, and signs, whose
purpose was to promote the success of the democratic party at the election of 1868?
Answeser. No, sir; I do not believe a word of any such thing.
Question. Did you not see, in 1869, a publication in some of the democratic papers in
the northern part of the State, some order of a cyclops disbanding one of these organizations?
Answer. I do not remember of any particular one. I have seen many professed orders
from a grand cyclops. I copied some, as a matter of curiosity, into my paper.
Question. Give the date, or substance, of one of them.
Answer. I could not do it now. It was published as a matter of amusement, and I
myself regarded it as a hoax, a mere fabrication. I never had any belief in the real
existence of anything of the kind. I remember of some of them. I think the first
occurred in Tennessee, where a couple of themn came along where some carpenters were
working on a, house and ordered the workmen away; they wanted the use of the building, and upon being denied, one of them picked up a hand-saw and swallowed it. That
was attributed to the Ku-Klux. I did not believe that; it was improbable, impossible.
Question. Did you ever hear that such an order-no matter about its name-having
a political object, originated in Tennessee?