deeds. There is not one extenuating circumstance to temper the
indignation of him who believes in justice and humanity.

As I stand before the thirteen bulky volumes, comprising the "Ku Klux
Conspiracy," being the report of the "Joint Select Committee, to
inquire into the condition of affairs in the late Insurrectionary
States," on the part of the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States, reported February 19, 1872, my blood runs cold at the
merciless chronicle of murder and outrage, of defiance, inhumanity and
barbarity on the one hand, and usurpation and tyranny on the other.

If the shot upon Fort Sumter was treason, what shall we call the
bloody conflict which the white men of the South have waged against
the Constitutional amendments from 1866 to the murder of innocent
citizens at Danville, Virginia, in 1883--even unto the present time?
If the shot upon Fort Sumter drew down upon the South the indignation
and the vengeance of the Federal government, putting father against
son, and brother against brother, what shall we say the Federal
Government should have done to put a period to the usurpation and the
murders of these leagues of horror?

The entire adult male population of the South, though no longer in
armed "Rebellion," appeared to be in league against the government of
the United States. The arm of State authority was paralyzed, the
operation of courts of justice was suspended, lawlessness and
individual license walked abroad, and anarchy, pure and simple,
prevailed. Under the name of the "Ku Klux Klan," the South was bound
by the following oath, ironclad, paradoxical and enigmatical as it is:

I, [name] before the great immaculate Judge of heaven and