ns 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.

Most, if not all, of this information, except what I derived from the
Attorney-General, came to me orally, and was to the effect that said
counties were under the sway of powerful combinations, properly known as
"Kuklux Klans," the objects of which were by force and terror to prevent
all political action not in accord with the views of the members; to
deprive colored citizens of the right to bear arms and of the right to a
free ballot; to suppress schools in which colored children were taught,
and to reduce the colored people to a condition closely akin to that of
slavery; that these combinations were organized and armed, and had
rendered the local laws ineffectual to protect the classes whom they
desired to oppress; that they had perpetrated many murders and hundreds
of crimes of minor degree, all of which were unpunished; and that
witnesses could not safely testify against them unless the more active
members were placed under restraint.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _April 20, 1872_.

_To the House of Representatives:_

I transmit, for the information of the House of Representatives, a
report from the Secretary of State and the copy of the counter case of
the United States in the matter of the claims against Great Britain, as
presented to the board of arbitration at Geneva, which accompanies it.

U.S. GRANT.

[The same message was sent to the Senate.]

WASHINGTON, _April 24, 1872_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States:_

In answer to a resolution of the 22d instant, I transmit to the House
of Representatives a repor