"Mr.  Graham  :  I  object  to  the  question  beyond  the  county  of
"  Alamance.  They  are  the  people  who  have  been  denounced
"•'  and  imprisoned  as  in  insurrection  against  the  law,  and  the
"  inquiry  is  whether  they  were  connected  with  an^^thing  of  the
"  sort.""  Then  follows  the  debate,  and  on  page  567  will  be
found  the  vote  on  the  admission  of  the  testimony  r  joorded,
the  result  being  yeas  13,  nays  30.  I  have  nothing  further  to
say.
Mr.  SMITH.  Mr.  Chief  Justice  and  Senators,  that  vote,  as
I  understood  it,  was  taken  on  the  proposition  when  there  had
been  no  evidence  whatever  introduced  of  the  existence  of  any
organization  in  the  counties  of  Alamance  and  Caswell.  It  was
an  attempt  to  prove  the  existence  of  the  organization  elsev/here,
when  no  proof  had  been  adduced  showing  the  existence  of  it  in
the  counties  proclaimed  in  insurrection,  as  a  part  of  tlie  whole.
Since  that  time  we  have  shown  the  fact  that  this  orsjanization
passed  over  county  lines,  and  in  some  instances  have  shown
outrages  perpetrated  in  Orange  and  Chatham  by  men  residing
in  Alamance.  We  have  shown  the  oro-anization  consisted  of
these  department  branches,  not  only  co-extensive  witli  Ala-
mance, but  taking  in  contiguous  counties,  and  if  we  can  show
the  existence  of  these   organizations   banded   together   within


2012  COURT  OF   IM:^EACBMENm

sustaining  distance  of  each  otber^  and  calculated  to  aid  and
encourage  and  strengthen  each  other  in  their  efforts  to  resist
civil  authority,  we  think  it  is  competent  for  us  to  do  so  on  the.
