The members are
bound to obedience and secrecy by oaths which they are taught to regard
as of higher obligation than the lawful oaths taken before civil
magistrates.
"They are organized and armed. They effect their objects by personal
violence, often extending to murder. They terrify witnesses; they
control juries in the State courts, and sometimes in the courts of
the United States. Systematic perjury is one of the means by which
prosecutions of the members are defeated. From information given by
officers of the State and of the United States and by credible private
citizens I am justified in affirming that the instances of criminal
violence perpetrated by these combinations within the last twelve
months in the above-named counties could be reckoned by thousands."
I received information of a similar import from various other sources,
among which were the Joint Select Committee of Congress upon Southern
Outrages, the officers of the State, the military officers of the United
States on duty in South Carolina, the United States attorney and
marshal, and other civil officers of the Government, repentant and
abjuring members of those unlawful organizations, persons specially
employed by the Department of Justice to detect crimes against the
United States, and from other credible persons.
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