cipal plank in the party
platform.

On the 6th of December, 1876, President Grant in a message to
Congress transmitted the evidence of these horrible crimes
against the colored race, committed in the name and in the
interest of the Democracy. They are not mere estimates nor
conjectures, but the names of the persons murdered, maimed and
whipped, and of the perpetrators of the crimes, the places where
they occurred, and the revolting circumstances under which they
were committed, are all set forth in detail. This shocking record
embraces a period of eight years, from 1868 to 1876, inclusive,
and covers ninety-eight pages of fine type, giving an average of
about one victim to each line. We have not counted the list, but
it is safe to say that it numbers over four thousand.

These crimes did not end in 1876 with the accession of the
Democracy to control of the State administration. The witnesses
examined by your committee gave numerous instances of like
character which occurred in 1878. Madison Parish may serve as an
illustration. This parish, which furnished perhaps the largest
number of refugees to Kansas, had been exceptionally free from
bull-dozing in former years. William Murrell, one of the
witnesses called by the committee, states the reasons for the
exodus from that parish as follows:

You have not read of any exodus yet as there will be from that
section this summer, and the reason for it is that, for the first
time since the war in Madison Parish last December, we had
bull-dozing there. Armed bodies of men came into the parish--not
people who lived in the parish, but men from Ouachita Parish and
Richland Parish; and I can name the leader who commanded them. He
was a gentleman by the name of Captain Tibbals, of Ouachita
Parish, who lives in Monroe, who was noted in the celebrated
massacre there in other times. His very name among the colored
people is sufficient to intimidate them almost. He came with a
crowd of men on the 28th of December into Madison Parish, when
all was quiet and peaceable. There was no quarrel, no excitement.
We had always elected our tickets in the parish, and we had put
Democrats on the ticket in many cases to satisfy them. There were
only 238 white voters and about 2,700 colored registered voters.

M