that they had got so many into the Union League that it would do no good. It was for the purpose of training colored people how to vote.

Question. It was to be established in each district of the county ?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Who was to be the head-center of the organization, the head officer of the State central organization?

Answer. I do not know; I cannot tell you..

Question. Did you have a regular ritual, a charter, by-laws, &c.?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Did you have an oath to be taken by the members?

Answer. If we had an oath it was only an obligation to support good Union men for office.

Question. And your doings were to be kept secret except from your members?

Answer. Yes, sir. And the obligation was that we should support none but good Union men; to hurt no one at all.

Question. That was to be, throughout the State, an oath-bound society?

Answer. Yes, sir; we could organize with nine men.

Question. You went through the State and organized these Grant Rangers in various places?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. How many of these lodges did you yourself organize?

Answer. I did not organize but two or three

Mr. Wallace was the man to do it.

Question. Is he a white man or a colored man?
Answer. He is a colored man; a State senator.

Question. He was to be more active in the matter than yourself?
Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. He proceeded to organize them all over the State?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Now about these Union Leagues. When were they first organized?

Answer. I cannot tell. The first I ever was in was in Macon, before the election in 1868.

Question. Were you initiated in the Union League ?

Answer. Yes, sir; in Macon.

Question. Who initiated you?

Answer. A man by the name of Markham, and a man by the name of James M. Sims; he was a member of the legislature.

Question. Were those organizations formed upon a similar system with that of the Grant Rangers?

Answer. Yes, sir; about the same thing. We were to support nobody but good Union men for office. That was about the strength of it.

Question. Were you bound together by oaths?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. And the affairs of those societies were kept secret, except from their members?

Question. The society was organized for political purposes?

Answer. Yes, sir; we held our meetings once or twice a week, as we wa

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. You held your meeting secretly among yourselves?

Question. Was that order confined chiefly to the colored people through

Answer. There were some white people in it. Mr. Markham was a w suppose we had five hundred members in ours; there were no white men Question. Where was that?

Answer. In Monticello, right in town.

Question. What vote was polled in that county?

Answer. The colored people polled nine hundred and sixty votes, anu tie whites about six hundred. At my election I beat the man I ran against a hundred and thirty votes; I disremember precisely the number of votes polled; but I recollect that at the presidential election General Grant did not get but three votes in the county, two colored men and one white man.

Question. The persons who joined that society were sworn to support none but Union men as candidates for office?

Answer. Yes, sir; but after they killed my brother-in-law, the colored people were afraid to vote.

Question. I mean that the members of that society were sworn not to vote for any but such men?

Answer. Good Union men.

Question. When did this paper come into your posession which you say was served on you?

Answer. When I was running in 1868. It was found in the shop on the first day of the election. We kept in the shop our votes for the colored people who could not read. Question. You say this was found in the shop on the first day of the election?

Answer. Yes, sir; the young man who owned the shop found it and handed it to me. I read it and showed it to the Yankee officers who were there.

Question. The election was conducted in the presence of the military?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Do you know where that paper came from?

Answer. I have no idea; I examined it to see if I knew the handwriting, but I did not.

Question. Have you ever tried to find out in whose handwriting it is?

Answer. Yes, sir; I have tried, but I could not find out.

Question. You do not know who wrote it, where it came from, or anything about it? Answer. No, sir.

Question. It was found in the shop?

Answer. Yes, sir; it was in an envelope.

Question. Where was it found?

Answer. It was found right at the door; it was poked under the door.

Question. Who found it?

Answer. Asbury Kitchen found it and handed it to me.

By the CHAIRMAN:

Question. I understand you to say that the Union League was a secret political organization?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. An organization among those who were Union men for the purpose of seeing that their political strength was given to that classs of men?

Answer. Yes, sir. If a man came in there who did not declare that he would vote for Union men we would not have him.

Question. And the Grant Rangers were substantially the same?

Answer. About the same thing; it was only to take the place of the Union League. The colored people who belonged to the Union Leagues told a great many things about it; they could whip it out of them. We wanted to change the name. Question. Have you found it necessary to have some sort of organization among the colored people to prevent them from being imposed upon and prevented from voting their real sentiments at elections?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. You found it necessary to have an organization to render their right of suffrage efficient and practical?

Answer, Yes, sir. In all those counties of course the colored people are generally very ignorant; the best of us are ignorant, but some know more about things than the others. In my county the colored people came to me for instructions, and I gave themn the best instructions I could. I took the New York Tribune and other papers, and in that way I found out a great deal, and I told them whatever I thought was right. I said to them that I thought they had been freed by the Yankees and Union men, and I thought they ought to vote with them; to go with that party always. They voted just as I voted. I told them how I was going to vote, for the constitution, for Governor Bullock, for General Grant, and that I wanted them to vote as I voted. At the election for the convention I met a Methodist preacher, who was from Vermont; he had been here twenty-five or thirty years. After the election I met him, and he said, "Allen, your people have voted." I said, "Yes, sir." He said, "For the first time in their lives." I said, "Yes, sir." He said, "They never ought to vote again." I said, I think they ought." He said, "I doubt very much if they ever vote again; but if they do, I want to give you one piece of advice; whenever they get ready to vote, you count the number of negro voters, then take a bundle of tickets and throw them into the ballot-box, and let the colored people stay at home and work. I said, "Why?" He said, "Because they vote just as you tell them." I said, "That is what I want, for I tell them just how they ought to vote." Said I, "That is the way you want your men to vote; you would have every one of us vote the democratic ticket for you." He said, "You have just as much right to vote as that horse." I said, "You claim to be a minister, and so am I, but I do not think you told the truth when you said that horse has as much right to vote as a man.". He said, "I can make that horse take a ticket and carry it up to the ballot-box and drop it in there." I said, “You cannot do it; you

may make a circus horse do it, but you cannot make that horse do it." A great many of the colored people are still ignorant. They think this committee is the United States court. Some of them want to come here before this committee and get the committee to help them get their children. One woman told me that she had a child out at Gainesville, and that she supposed this court, as she called it, could get that child for her. They are very ignorant yet.

Question. You have been asked something about schools; how is the school matter regarded in this State?

Answer. I believe the sentiment of the people is getting to be very good about schools. In my county there never has been any trouble. The white people there seem to advocate it, and we went to work there directly after schools came about. Mr. Talmadge, a democrat, and a very clever man, gave us a piece of ground, and we built a log-house and got a democrat to come down there and teach us; after Mr. Eberhart came there, the Government paid him for it. The sentiment in my county is very good about schools. I heard one colored woman here say that they burned a school-house in her county not long ago. But I think the white people throughout the State are in favor of education.

Question. How about the colored people?

Answer. I am sorry to say that they are getting sort of cool about it; they do not know the value of education. In regard to Sabbath schools, you have to talk and work to get them to send their children. Where they know anything about it they send their children to schools. They come in at first by the thousands, and then it is a kind of drag. They do not know the value of education.

Question. Is that the case with all your people?

1

Answer. O, no. I mean with the most ignorant. There are some of them here that are being graduated at the university here. When we had an examination at the close of the last term, Governor Bullock and Governor Brown and a great many men went out there, and they admitted that they were getting along just as well as white people. Question. In what part of the State do you find that the greatest ignorance prevails among your people?

Answer. Generally on large plantations, where people never see anything; where they have been kept down like cattle and horses, bought and sold. A great many of them have been raised on a plantation, and have never seen anything of the world. I heard Mr. Turner say in a speech that if they got into the middle of a plantation they seemed to think that they were right in the middle of the world. Whenever you find any who have been raised with white people as body servants and house servants, they have a great deal of sense. Wherever you find any who have had any chance to enlighten their minds you will find some of the most intelligent; but on the large plantations you will find the most ignorant. The association in this State that I am a member of have about a hundred and eighty churches and about a hundred and thirty ministers. Some of those ministers are educated, and some are ignorant.

Question. Are they all colored?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. What is the feeling among your people in reference to having their schools ind religious associations to themselves; do they prefer to have them of their own color alone or with the white people?

Answer. Most of them prefer to have them to themselves. There are two classes of people here; there are several sects in this State. There is a class known as the Southern Methodists; Bishop Pierce presides over them; a very small portion of the colored people have never gone off from the whites; they are still subject to the jurisdiction of that white conference. But another class have just had their conference here last week; they are known as the Northern Methodists. People from the North and the colored people here generally hang together. But I believe there are no Baptist churches in the State that are mixed. Then there is the African Methodist church.

Question. That church is larger than the Southern Methodist or the Northern Methodist, so far as the number of colored people are concerned?

Answer. Yes, sir.

By Mr. BAYARD:

Question. You say that there is a better feeling growing up in the State in favor of education?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. That feeling extends to both races, white and black?

Answer. Yes, sir; and I am proud to say it, for when they were first emancipated there was a heap of prejudice against them.

Question. Is there a better feeling growing up in the State?

Answer. Do you mean in regard to education?

Question. Yes.

Answer. I think there is.

Question. You do not include anything else but education?

Answer. No, sir. Political affairs are getting worse every day. They never bother us about our religious sentiment at all. In the darkest days of slavery we could worship as we pleased. I used to preach to them then, but we always had to have one or more white men at our meetings.

Question. Your Union Leagues were organized in 1868 ?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Although you joined it in 1868, were you not informed that Union Leagues were organized some time previous to your joining them yourself?

Answer. I heard of them prior to that time.

Question. That was before any voting was done in this State after the war?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. When you organized the first Grant Rangers in the house on the night when that murder had been committed, did you do it under the influence of a great deal of feeling?

Answer. I did it with this feeling

Question. I presume you felt very much exasperated and shocked by what had occurred?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. And instantly started this organization there among your friends?
Answer. I thought it was the best thing I could do.

Question. Did that organization include preparations for the defense of people of your own color?

Answer. I am not prepared to state. Mr. Wallace organized it; I was with him. I told him the men I thought would be best for managers of it; I was going to leave the county. That organization was to take the place of the Union League; only the name was changed.

Question. This act of violence having been committed, was it to be an armed organization if necessary?

Answer. No, sir; there was no arming mentioned at all; but they were to try and elect the President.

Question. Were you combined by force to defend yourselves; that is what I mean?

Answer. No, sir; I do not think there was anything of that kind meant.

Question. Have you got that oath?

Answer. I did not take it.

Question. Mr. Wallace had it?

Answer. Yes, sir; he was to go from there and organize others, as I understood.

Question. It was his intention to have had a public meeting there?

Answer. Yes, sir. He was going to speak in town that night, and then we were to organize and get as many in the club as we could.

Question. The killing of your brother-in-law broke up the meeting?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Has there been any armed organization among the colored people in this State?

Answer. No, sir.

Question. You think the condition of political affairs here is getting worse?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. What do you mean by that?

Answer. I mean that a colored man would not dare to say now what he could say two years ago; if he did he would stand no chance.

Question. What would be done?

Answer. They would murder him, or run him out of the county, as they did Mr. Turner.

Question. In broad daylight?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Was he disguised?

Answer. No, sir. This Reed just rode up to him and shot him.

By the CHAIRMAN :

Question. Have you told us all that you know about this matter?
Answer. Yes, sir.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA, October 26, 1871.

ANDERSON FERRELL (colored) sworn and examined.

By the CHAIRMAN :

Question. What is your age, where were you born, and where do you now live? Answer. I will be forty-five years old next February; I was born in Monroe County, in this State, and I now live in this city.

Question. How long have you been here?

Answer. I have been here ever since Christmas.

Question. Where did you come from when you came here?

Answer. From Troup County.

Question. How long had you lived there?

Answer. My master moved to Troup County about the time I was four years old, and I lived there until last Christmas.

Question. Do you know any people in that county called Ku-Klux?

Answer. I know some there who have been Ku-Kluxing.

Question. What do you know about them?

Answer, In the first place, I know I was Ku-Kluxed among them.
Question. When?

Answer. On the 28th day of last May, twelve months ago.
Question. Tell us all about it?

Answer. In the first commencement of it I was asleep; I did not know when they came, or how they came. My wife came to the bed and said to me that the house was surrounded by men, and that they wanted to search the house for Charley Ramsey. He was a colored man who had killed his wife a few days before that, and they had taken him and put him in jail. They said that he had broken out of jail, and they had an order to search every house in the settlement. I got up and they came to the door and hollered to me to make up a light. I told them there was no fire in the house at all. Another boy got a light, one of my sister's sons. One of them said, "Anderson, we don't intend to interfere with you at all; open the door and let us in." I said, “I will, as soon as I get my pants on." My wife had not gone to bed; she was ironing. I opened the door; it would not come more than half way open, as it would hit upon the floor. One of them said, "Anderson, there will be no disturbance here; nothing shall be interfered with if you are willing to let us search your house; Mr. Calloway [Mr. Calloway is the justice of the peace] told us to be particular and not disturb you too much, as you were here attending to Mr. Ferrell's business." My wife said, "Anderson, go and open the door." I went to the door, and caught hold of the knob, and fetched it open, and said, "Come in, gentlemen." They came in; some had pistols in their hands, and one of them was disfigured. He was a young man, but he had a false gray mustache on his lip; I thought I knew him. There was another young man who lived at the same place where I thought this young man lived. I asked him if that was not Mr. Hutchinson. He said nothing, and I asked again, and he shook his head. They searched my house all over. There were four rooms in the house. They went to the other room, and they said, "Don't be alarmed, Lucy." I said "Lucy, where is the key?" I opened the door and said, "This is the doctor's room, where he stays at night when he is here." They went in there and searched the room. They came back and went into another room. Then they wanted to go into a room where the doctor kept some ginned cotton-a kind of a store-room. I said, "Be very particular how you do there; there is ginned cotton in there." They said, "Don't fetch the light in; stand at the door with it." I did not mistrust anything in the world. These men searched through the room, and came back. They kept talking, and one of them said, "Isn't there an up-stairs to this house?" I said, "Yes." They said, "How do you get up there?" I said, "By the stairs outside." "Well," said he, "I don't reckon, boys, that he is here; surely he would not come where Anderson is." My gun was lying up in the rack, over the bed. One of them said, “Is that that good gun I heard them talking about?" I said, "I reckon it is." They said, "Is there any harm to look at it ?" I said, "No." He took it down, and said, "Does this gun shoot as well

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