no doubt of the existence of numerous insurrectionary organizations
known as 'Ku-Klux Klans,' who, shielded by their disguise, by the
secrecy of their movements, and by the terror which they inspire,
perpetrate crime with impunity. There is great reason to believe that in
some cases local magistrates are in sympathy with the members of these
organizations. In many places they are overawed by them and dare not
attempt to punish them. To punish such offenders by civil proceedings
would be a difficult task, even were magistrates in all cases disposed
and had they the courage to do their duty, for the same influences which
govern them equally affect juries and witnesses."

Lieutenant-Colonel Lewis Merrill, who assumed command (in Louisiana) on
the 26th of March, and commenced investigation into the state of
affairs, says (p. 1465)--

"From the best information I can get, I estimate the number of cases of
whipping, beating, and personal violence of various grades, in this
county, since the first of last November, at between three and four
hundred, excluding numerous minor cases of threats, intimidation, abuse,
and small personal violence, as knocking down with a pistol or gun, etc.
The more serious outrages, exclusive of murders and whippings, noted
hereafter, have been the following:--"

He then proceeds with the details of sixty-eight cases, giving the names
of the parties injured, white and black, and including the tearing up of
the railway, on the night before a raid was made by the Ku-Klux on the
county treasury building. The rails were taken up, to prevent the
arrival of the United States troops, who, it was known, were to come on
Sunday morning. The raid was made on that Sunday night while the troops
were lying at Chester, twenty-two miles distant, unable to reach
Yorkville, because of the rails being torn up.

Another witness said: "To give the details of the whipping of men to
compel them to change their mode of voting, the tearing of them away
from their families at night, accompanied with insults and outrage, and
followed by their murder, would be but repeating what has been described
in other States, showing that it is the same organization in all,
working by the same means for the same end. Five murders are shown to
have been committed in Monroe County, fifteen in Noxubee, one in
Lowndes, by the testimony taken in the city of Washington; but the
extent to which school-houses were burnt, teachers whipped, and