Show LATEST TELEGRAMS 1 p II 1 HAMPTON AND SHERMAN j Hampton Asks Sherman if lie Meant what Ha Bald Sherman Sam He Did Nor bat And thel > > fceqael lfft 10 Come 1 Washington 18 Secretary Shei manjiaa furnished for pu lical oa tbe following DAGGERSSpaisas Sept 20 1880 To Eon John Sherman Secretary of the Treasury Sir Some days ago I aw a report of your speech at a conference held by the national republican committee commit-tee at the Fifth Avenue Hotel New York and you a ere quoted as having used the followipg language And all now you are fiEkea to surrender you have done into tbe hands of Wade Hampton thQ kuklux and the little segment in the north that is called the democratic parly May I ask if you used these words and if you did so did you mean to connect me directly or indirectly with what was known as the kuklux klan Requesting an early reply addressed ad-dressed to me in care of Augustas Sob ell Eiq New York I am vary respectfully year obedient servant Signed WADE HAMPTON WABHISCTON Sept 21 1880 Honorable Wade Hampton care Augustus Au-gustus Schett New York SirYour note of the 17th inst received in which you inquire etc JLu7 reply I hays to advise you that while I do not remember re-member the precise language I presume the reporter correctly stated in a condensed way hs idea of what I said I hare no doubt that I spoke of you as the leading representative of the democratic party in the south and referred fo the knklux klan as the representative of the barbarous agencies by which the democrat bave subverted the civil and political rights the republicans of tbe south I do not connect you personally with the kuklux klan Icdaed I know you had in one or two important instances in-stances resisted and defeated its worst impulse I appreciate the cease of honor which makes you shrink from being named in connection with it still you and your associate leading men in the toatb now enjoy tbe benefits of the political power derived from the atrocities of the kuklux klan in which phrase I include the numerous numer-ous aliases by which it has from time to time been known in the faoutb Your power in the southern states rest upon actual crimes ef every grade in the code of crimes from murder to the meanest form of ballot box stuffing committed by the k klux klan and its hundred associates I associ-ates As you know some of the worst of them have been committed since 1877 when you and they gave the most solemn assurances of prctection to the freedmen of the south These crimes are all aimed at tbe civil and political rights of the republicans in She south and as I be live but for these agencies every state that you represent as well as many other states in the south could be represented both in tbs Senate and House by republicans but for these crimes The boast attributed to rou that 138 solid southern votes would Here the report breaks offEDs |