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EXECUTIVE MANSION, _April 19, 1872_.
_To the House of Representatives:_
In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 25th
of January last, I have the honor to submit the following, accompanied
by the report of the Attorney-General, to whom the resolution was
referred:
Representations having been made to me that in certain portions of South
Carolina a condition of lawlessness and terror existed, I requested the
then Attorney-General (Akerman) to visit that State, and after personal
examination to report to me the facts in relation to the subject.
On the 16th of October last he addressed me a communication from South
Carolina, in which he stated that in the counties of Spartanburg,
York, Chester, Union, Laurens, Newberry, Fairfield, Lancaster, and
Chesterfield there were combinations for the purpose of preventing the
free political action of citizens who were friendly to the Constitution
and the Government of the United States, and of depriving emancipated
classes of the equal protection of the laws.
"These combinations embrace at least two-thirds of the active white men
of those counties, and have the sympathy and countenance of a majority
of the one-third. They are connected with similar combinations in other
counties and States, and no doubt are part of a grand system of criminal
associations pervading most of the Southern States.
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