"MEMPHIS, August 28, 1868.

"DEAR SIR: Your favor of the 26th instant has been received. While I sympathize with your desire to bring those who were guilty of murdering your brother to justice, and would willingly do anything in my power to aid you in this, I cannot consent to become a party, either directly or indirectly, to any act of violence, or to the infringement of any law. On the contrary, all my efforts have been, and shall be, exerted to preserve peace and order, and to maintain the law as far as possible.

"It is especially incumbent upon all good men at this time to keep the peace. Every act of violence, no matter by whom or for what cause committed, works an injury not only to the persons engaged it, but to the community in which it occurs, and through it to the whole South. Our enemies gladly seize upon such acts as the pretexts for further oppressions, and hence it becomes, more than ever before, the duty of every man to refrain from them, no matter how great the provocation he may have received. I beg, and insist therefore, that you abandon the purpose you indicate, and hope that no one will be so unwise as to aid you in carrying it out.

"You will excuse me, I hope, for saying that it was very imprudent to send your letter by mail. If it had fallen into the hands of others it might, without some explanations, have caused some trouble to both of us.

"Hoping that you may receive what I have said in the same spirit in which it is written, I am, your obedient servant,

"J. T. BROWN, Esq., Humboldt, Tennessee.

Original of above mailed August 29, 1868.

"Exhibit A to affidavit of W. A. Goodman."

By the CHAIRMAN :

Question. What was the proposition made in his letter?

"N. B. FORREST.

"W. A. GOODMAN.

Answer. His brother had been killed by some Union men, and he wanted to try and get revenge, and he wrote to me to assist him.

Question. Did he propose to do it by organizing a party for that purpose?

Answer. I do not know that he did. He was an old soldier, and his brother had been murdered, and he wrote to me.

Question. Have you the letter in answer to which this letter of yours was written? Answer. No, sir, I burned his letter.

By Mr. COBURN:

Question. You have said that you were at that time receiving from fifty to a hundred letters a day relating to matters in the South. Have you any of those letters now? Answer. No, sir.

Question. Who was your secretary at that time?

Answer. A young man by the name of Lindsay.

Question. What is his given name?

Answer. I am not able to tell you now.

Question. Is he in Memphis?

Answer. No, sir.

Question. Where is he?

Answer. I do not know where he is. He was a telegraph operator. I have not seen him in eighteen months; perhaps I can ascertain his name.

Question. You say you suppressed the Ku-Klan Klan. How did you do it? By writing letters?

Answer. I wrote a great many letters to people, and counseled them to abstain from all violence, and to be quiet and behave themselves, and let these things take their

course.

Question. Did you get any answers to your letters?

Answer. To some of them I did.

Question. What did you do with them?

Answer. Perhaps I have some of those; but most of the other letters I burned up, for I did not want to get them into trouble; I supposed they were excited at the time; there was a great deal of excitement in 1866 and 1867, immediately after the war.

By the CHAIRMAN :

Question. Were all of these people personal acquaintances who wrote to you?
Answer. A great many of them I never saw.

Question. How came they to write to you?

Answer. I do not know; I suppose they thought I was a man who would do to counsel with.

By Mr. VAN TRUMP:

Question. They of course knew your history, as having been a prominent man in the confederate army ?

Answer. Yes, sir; I was rather a prominent man in the confederate army; I probably fought more battles than any other man in it; I was before the people probably more than any other man that was in it.

By Mr. STEVENSON:

Question. Look at this [handing witness a printed document] and say if it is a copy of the prescript that you received.

Answer. [After loooking at the document.] I cannot say to you whether it is or not. Question. Is it like it in general terms?

Answer. It looks something like it.

Question. To the best of your belief is that or not a copy of the prescript you received?

Answer. It looks very much like it; I would not say from memory that it is a true copy of it.

Question. This is proved to have come from Tennessee, and purports to be a prescript of a secret order there; and to the best of your belief this is a copy of the one you received?

Answer. I see there are some things in it, while I cannot say it is verbatim ; it looks a great deal like it. I have not seen one of them since 1868.

Question. If you want to examine it further you can do so.

Answer. I do not think that is necessary; I would not be able to say positively that it is or is not.

Question. It looks like it?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Do you think this differs from the other in any respect?

Answer. I think there are several things if I could recollect them; but I do not know that I can explain them now.

Question. If you see any important difference you can state it.

Answer. [After examining the document again.] This is not what I saw.

Question. It has a general resemblance to it?

Answer. Something similar, but this is not what I saw.

Question. You think you saw something additional to this?

Answer. Something different; I do not know that it was additional, because I do not think I ever saw this before.

Question. Did you ever see anything like it?

Answer. It was gotten up something on this plan, but I do not think it was this; I could not say this was the same.

Question. Something on this general plan?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Were the same terms used?

Answer. No, sir, I do not think they were.

Question. None of them?

Answer. There may have been some of them used; but I do not think the other used all these terms.

Question. What were the terms used in the other differing from those used in this? Answer. As I said to you to-day, I could not tell; it was two or three years ago; I have been very busily engaged; it was a matter that gave me but very little thought at the time, and of course I did not charge my memory with it, for I was engaged in other matters.

Question. Do you think you would know the prescript now if you saw it?
Answer. I doubt it; I doubt whether I would know it if I should see it.

Mr. STEVENSON. I ask that this document be attached to the testimony of this witness. It will be found in Miscellaneous Document No. 53, second session Forty-first Congress, House of Representatives; being one of the papers in the contested election case of Sheafe vs. Tillman, from the fourth congressional district of Tennessee. (See page 35 of this testimony.)

By Mr. COBURN:

Question. You have said something about a war of races being apprehended. Had you any more reason to apprehend a war of races after the rebellion was over than during the rebellion?

Answer. A great deal more.

Question. Why was that?

Answer. For the reason that during the war the negroes remained at home working and were quiet, and were not organized. After the war, they left their homes, traveled all over the country, killed all the stock there was in the country to eat, were holding these night meetings, were carrying arms, and were making threats.

Question. Is not the negro naturally submissive and quiet?

Answer. Generally so.

Question. Were they suffering from the hands of the white men as many wrongs after the war as before and during the war

Answer. I think more; I do not think they were suffering any during the war.
Question. What wrongs?

Answer. They were dissatisfied and disposed to fight and be abusive. They would kill stock, and when arrested large crowds of them would gather around the magistrates' offices, and threaten to take them away, and they did in several instances; and they had fights.

Question. You say there was a general apprehension throughout the whole country that there would be a war of races?

Answer. I think so; there was great fear.

Question. What class of men organized to prevent this war of races; were they rowdies and rough men?

Answer. No, sir; worthy men who belonged to the southern army; the others were not to be trusted; they would not fight when the war was on them, and of course they would not do anything when it was over.

Question. Do you think that had any effect throughout the South to prevent a war of races?

Answer. I think the organizing of these men, and showing a disposition that we were prepared to resist it, prevented it.

Question. You think the negroes understood that to be the fact, that there was an organization throughout the South of that kind?

Answer. I think so.

Question. And hence they behaved themselves better?

Answer. I think so; I know one man in Maury County told me that he had lost nearly everything that he had; that the pike that passed his house used to be lined from dark till daylight with negroes traveling forward; that these men traveled up the road one night, about twenty of them, in disguise; that it had been a month since those men had passed up the road, and he had not seen a negro there at.night since then. Question. Were there no lawless white men who went around robbing? Answer. I think so, and on the negroes' credit, too.

Question. By what means did these "Pale Faces" expect to prevent these disorders? Answer. By organizing themselves and holding themselves in readiness to resist anything of that sort that did occur.

Question. By what means?

Answer. Of course they had but one way to resist; they did not expect any assistance from the government of the State of Tennessee.

Question. Prevent it by punishing the offenders?

Answer. And defending themselves.

Question. Suppose an outrage was committed and they caught the offender, what would they do?

Answer. There was more or less mob law about that time through the Southern States.

Question. The object was to resist outlawry and punish offenders?

Answer. Yes, sir; I do not think the people intended to go and violate or wrong any one; but it was to punish those men who were guilty, and who the law would not touch; and to defend themselves in case of an attack.

Question: What reason have you to believe that they have disbanded?

Answer. From the fact that I do not hear anything of them, and it was generally understood that they were to be disbanded; it was generally understood throughout the country I have been in that they have disbanded, that there was no organization, and nothing in that line, except amongst lawless men-men who were trying to do something they ought not to do, to violate the law.

By the CHAIRMAN:

Question. You desired time to consider whether you would give us the names of those persons whose names were asked of you?

Answer. I cannot give you the names of those people; I do not recollect them. Question. You gave the name of one man who was dead; another who was also dead you did not give the name of?

»Answer. Two of these men have gone out of the country; they are not in the country

now.

Question: Who are they?

Answer. One was named Jones.

Question. What was his first name?

Answer. He has gone to Brazil, and has been there for two or three years.

Question. What was the name of the other?

Answer. I am trying to think who he was; I cannot call his name to mind new.

Question. Are those all the names you wish to give or can give?

Answer. I might give you more names if I had time to think about the thing. Of course I have not had time to think this thing over since we spoke about it a while ago, for I have been interrogated all the time busily.

Mr. STEVENSON. I should like to have it understood that this witness will give us these names as soon as he can remember them. If he cannot remember them in time to appear before the committee and give them, then that he will send in writing to the chairman a list of such names as he may hereafter remember.

The CHAIRMAN. That will be very desirable.

The WITNESS. I am disposed to do all I can to try and fetch these troubles to an end. I went into the army as a private, and fought my way up to the rank of lieutenant general. I tried to do my duty as a soldier, and since I have been out of the war I have tried to do my duty as a citizen. I have done more probably than any other man in the South to suppress these difficulties and keep them down. While I have been vilified and abused in the papers, and accused of things I never did while in the army and since, I have no desire to hide anything from you at all. I want this matter settled; I want our country quiet once more; and I want to see our people united and working together harmoniously.

By the CHAIRMAN:

Question. So far as this secret organization is concerned, the purpose of this committee is not merely to ascertain who are members of it for the purpose of prosecuting them for crime, but to ascertain whether it continues to exist, and who are responsible for the present commission of crimes of this charater, wherever they occur in the Southern States.

Answer. I am satisfied, from my knowledge of the affair, that no such organization does exist; that it was broken up in 1868, and never has existed since that time as an organization.

Question. Do you mean that to apply to all the late insurrectionary States ?
Answer. I mean that to apply to this organization of the Ku-Klux Klan.
Question. In Tennessee,?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. And Alabama and Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina ?

Answer. So far as I know; that was the understanding, that it was to be broken up wherever it existed, and to be no longer countenanced.

Question. Can you say that other men who were in the organization, and who felt differently from you, have not kept it alive for political purposes?

Answer. I do not think it has been done as an organization; I think all this that has been done in the course of eighteen months has been done by parties who are not responsible to anybody.

Question. Were those who were in the organization, which you say you believe has been disbanded, principally men who had been soldiers in the confederate army? Answer. I think they were.

Question. Almost entirely?

Answer. Yes, sir.

By Mr. STEVENSON:

Question. You say they were men of character and position?

Answer. Well, they were men who it was thought would behave themselves, and act friendly, and do discreetly.

Question. Not rash, wild men ?

Answer. No, sir. The object of the organization was to keep out everything of that sort, and to prevent difficulty as far as it could.

Question. So far as you know, it was composed of the best class of southern citizens? Answer. I do not know whether you might term them the best class or not.

Question. Let us have your understanding of it; were they men of substance and property?

Answer. My understanding is that those men who were in the organization were young men mostly; men who had been in the southern army, and men who could be relied upon in case of a difficulty-of an attack from the negroes-who could be relied upon to defend the women and children of the country.

Question. Were they men of sufficient substance and means to go about from one place to another?

Answer. Well, they were in the habit, about the close of the war, of going almost everywhere and anywhere without much assistance. We traveled about very freely sometimes during the war; this was immediately after the war.

Question. Let me understand; suppose that, when the organization was in full working order, a conflict should have occurred, for instance, at Memphis, between the whites and blacks. The blacks outnumbered you there, did they not?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. And in all that river valley?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Suppose a conflict had occurred there, was the organization composed of such men that they could have come from other parts to assist the whites in that region?

Answer. In a case like that they would have come, from the fact that they would have gathered up everything available in the way of transportation.

Question. From where would they have come?

Answer. From the country wherever they heard of it.

Question. As many as were needed?

Answer. Yes, sir. I will mention one case that occurred in 1868. At Crawfordsville, on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, the citizens and negroes had a difficulty, and the negroes threatened to burn the town. It was telegraphed up to West Point, forty miles above there, and to Columbus also. I was then on my way to Memphis. When I got to the Mobile road I found these men had got all the trains they could and started down, and I went with them. The negroes were about eight hundred strong, and were out at the edge of the town; the people of the town had fortified themselves; the negroes had burned one house. When I got there I got the white people together, organized them, and made speeches to them. I told them to be quiet, and we would see if this could be settled. I then got on a horse and rode over to the negroes and made a speech to them. The negroes dispersed and went home, and nothing was done; there was nobody hurt, nobody molested. But they were just on the point where it was liable that fifty or five hundred men would be killed. Those negroes had fallen out with a young man who was going down the road; his horse had got scared when they came along, had kicked out a little, and run against their trumpeter and knocked him down. They followed him into town to beat him, and then they gathered together. I am satisfied I prevented bloodshed there by getting those men together and talking to them, and by talking to the negroes and getting them to go home.

Question. What do you suppose would have happened if you had not taken the course you did?

Answer. There would have been a general fight.

Question. Suppose the negroes had succeeded and whipped the whites?

Answer. The whites would have called in more help. You would have gone. I reckon, if you had been there. I do not suppose there is a white man that would not take sides against the blacks, and with his own race.

Question. Men at a great distance would not know which side was to blame, would they?

Answer. But in the case of a fight like that

By Mr. VAN TRUMP:

Question. In the event of a war of races down there, do you not think the excitement would reach North?

Answer. I think it would. I think we would find a great many people up here who would go down there and help us if we had the worst of it.

By Mr. STEVENSON :

Question. Might they not stop to inquire who was right and who was wrong ?
Answer. I think they might.

Question. Those people did not, in that case?

Answer. They had not done anything; we were going there to protect the people. They did not fire a gun.

Question. Had they organized?

Answer. Both had organized; the negroes had organized, and the white people had organized. They went there with their arms, but they went there after these people at Crawfordsville had telegraphed that they were about to be attacked by an overwhelming force of armed negroes.

Question. You say you think the people North would join with you in such a war as that?

Answer. I did not say that.

Question. Do you or not think that the people of the North would join in it? Answer. I do not know whether they would or not; but I think their sympathies would be with their own people.

Question. Suppose the whites of the South were getting the worst of it?

Answer. I think if the people of the North have the same feelings that the people of the South have, they would assist them. That is all owing to what is the feeling here; whether they have the same sympathy with the white people, one with another, that they do in the Southern States.

Question. You think they have?

Answer. I have no reason to believe that they have not.

Question. What is your belief as to whether any of these orders extended into the Northern States; those "Pale Faces," or anything of that sort?