Moore replied: “There is a movement on foot all over the South that will drive every d——d Yankee out of it before long, and give us things all our own way.”
“Good,” said the laborer, “I’d like to know the programme, and get posted in that thing; I’d take a big hand in it!”
Moore being now convinced that he had the right kind of a tool for the intended work, then said:
“We’ve got the right thing now to fix all the niggers and Yankees with that don’t go as we want them to; we don’t care a d—— for the general government. It can go to ——, where it ought to. They may pass an hundred more Ku Klux bills, and it won’t do them a bit of good. The Ku Klux are resting just now; but they are not asleep. They have got the niggers and radicals in pretty good train, so they don’t dare say anything. All we want is a Democratic President, and that must come sure the next election, and then we can run things to suit ourselves.”
If Mr. Moore ever sees this faithful transcript of his disloyal speech, delivered upon his own plantation, on the 12th of September, 1871, he may begin to get some idea that the farm hands by whom he was surrounded were not all as badly poisoned with hatred to the radicals as he was, and that one of them at least had the temerity to treasure up and repeat the above conversation. It is here produced as an evidence of the sentiments that pervaded the minds of the leaders; and to set all doubt at rest as to its authenticity, it may be added that it is a matter of record, to be seen and read of all men.
Outrage Upon Persons in Texas.
As an evidence that neither color or nationality formed any protection against the evil machinations of the Ku Klux Klan, the case of Henry Kaufmann, a well-to-do German residing in Bell County, Texas, may be cited.
Kaufmann had come to this country after the war of the Rebellion, and, having some means and an extensive knowledge as a stock raiser, made his way South, finally locating in Texas, as the place best adapted for the business of raising stock, which was one he intended to pursue. His family consisted of his wife and two children, a boy and girl, aged respectively nine and eleven years.
Texas at this time was the scene of many outrages, but the good-natured German was for a long time unable to comprehend their significance. Like most of his countrymen, he entertained republican sentiments; they were the sentiments of his heart, while at home, in the land of his fathers, and he had supposed, that in America, the asylum of the oppressed of all nations, he would find them in all their purity, upheld and expressed without fear, and honored by all.
In this respect, he was doomed to bitter disappointment. The nearest neighbor to Kaufmann, was a man named McPherson, originally from the North, but who had for some years resided in Texas, and was a thorough-going Unionist. He did not hesitate, even among all the tumult and disorder, by which he was surrounded, to express his union sentiments, and had been repeatedly warned by the Ku Klux that he must change his course.