by Charles Lane
Nettleship Daybook, Sept. 19, 21, 22, 28, Oct. 2, 1871, I. C. Nettleship Papers, New Jersey Historical Society, Newark NJ.
See Peter G. Tsouras, ed., Scouting for Grant and Meade: The Reminiscences of Judson Knight, Chief of Scouts, Army of the Potomac (New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2014).
The details of Henry Lowther’s ordeal are derived from the following sources: Whitley KKK Report II; Nation’s Peril, 49–50; KKK Hearings, Vol. 6, 356–63 (Testimony of Henry Lowther). Whitley KKK Report II refers to the fact that Whitley made his first report to Akerman of the atrocity against Henry Lowther in a previous report dated Oct. 16, 1871, of which only the cover sheet survives in the National Archives.
KKK Hearings, Vol. 6, 368–75 (Testimony of John D. Pope).
Ibid.
Hiram C. Whitley to Amos T. Akerman, Oct. 12, 1871, Letters Received by the Department of Justice from the Southern District of New York, Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives, College Park MD.
Ron Chernow, Grant (New York: Penguin Press, 2017), 705.
Grant Papers, Vol. 22, 201.
McFeely, “The Lawyer,” 410.
Ulysses S. Grant, “Third Annual Message,” Dec. 4, 1871, online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29512. See also KKK Hearings, Vol. 1, 99.
Richard Zuczek, “The Federal Government’s Attack on the Ku Klux Klan: A Reassessment,” South Carolina Historical Magazine 97, no. 1 (Jan. 1996), 58–59.
Whitley KKK Report II.
“Secret Service Division,” Washington Chronicle, Jan. 19, 1872.
“The Administration Still After the Ku Klux: Letter from Attorney General Williams,” New York Herald, Jan. 4, 1872.
Kaczorowski, Judicial Interpretation, 80; “United States Attorneys Resigning,” New York Daily Herald, Feb. 29, 1872.
McFeely, “The Lawyer,” 410.
Trelease, White Terror, 417. See also Charles Lane, The Day Freedom Died (New York: Henry Holt, 2008), 139–42.
Hiram C. Whitley to George H. Williams, Feb. 21, 1872, Whitley Official Correspondence; Hiram C. Whitley to Joseph G. Hester, Mar. 7, 1872, ibid.; George H. Williams to Hiram C. Whitley, Feb. 26, 1872, Letters Sent by the Department of Justice, General and Miscellaneous, 1818–1904, Microfilm Publication M699, Vol. 1, Roll 14, Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives, College Park MD.
A. J. Falls to Hiram C. Whitley, Mar. 21, 1872, Letters Sent by the Department of Justice, General and Miscellaneous, 1818–1904, Microfilm Publication M699, Vol. I, Roll 14, Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives, College Park MD.
Hiram C. Whitley to E. A. Ireland, May 15, 1872, Whitley Official Correspondence.
Hiram C. Whitley to Michael G. Bauer, July 8, 1872, Whitley Official Correspondence.
Everette Swinney, Suppressing the Ku Klux Klan: The Enforcement of the Reconstruction Amendments, 1870–1877 (New York: Garland, 1987), 184–85.
Hiram C. Whitley to George H. Williams, July 10, 1872, Letters Received from the Department of Treasury, 1871–1884, Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives, College Park MD; Hiram C. Whitley to George H. Williams, Aug. 15, 1872, Letters Received from the Department of Treasury, 1871–1884, Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives, College Park MD (Hereafter cited as “Whitley KKK Report III”). This document summarizes field reports from spring and early summer of 1872; it includes references to Whitley’s report dated May 6, 1872, which has been lost.
Hiram C. Whitley to George H. Williams, July 10, 1872, Letters Received from the Department of Treasury, 1871–1884, Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives, College Park MD.
Whitley KKK Report III.
Hiram C. Whitley to George H. Williams, July 2, 1872, Letters Received from the Department of the Treasury, 1871–1884, Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives, College Park MD.
Hiram C. Whitley to Michael G. Bauer, July 8, 1872, Whitley Official Correspondence; Hiram C. Whitley to Judson Knight, July 9, 1872, ibid.; Hiram C. Whitley to E. A. Ireland, July 9, 1872, ibid.; George H. Williams to Hiram C. Whitley, July 10, 1872, Letters Sent by the Department of Justice, General and Miscellaneous, 1818–1904, Microfilm Publication M699, Vol. 1, Roll 14, Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives, College Park MD.
Custom House Hearings, 701 (Testimony of Hiram C. Whitley).
Many years later, a published biography of Whitley noted that he “has written extensively, including a book about the Ku Klux Klan, which was largely circulated by the republican [sic] leaders in pamphlet form.” See William E. Connelley, A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, Vol. V (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1918), 2219.
Nation’s Peril, 143.
“The Ku Klux Convicts,” New York World, Aug. 10, 1872.
“Grant’s Prisoner’s [sic] in Town,” New York Sun, June 12, 1872.
“Republican Party Platform of 1872,” June 5, 1872. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29623.
Untitled news item, Washington Daily Critic, Aug. 12, 1872.
Jacob R. Davis to U. S. Grant, May 29, 1872, and H. K. Thurber to U. S. Grant, Oct. 9, 1872, Grant Papers, Vol. 23, 212–13.
Rossiter, ed., The Federalist, 449.
Grant Papers, Vol. 23, 214.
Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Gerrit Smith: A Biography (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1877), 301–10; Joseph Grégoire de Roulhac Hamilton, ed., The Papers of Randolph Abbott Shotwell, Vol. 3 (Raleigh NC: North Carolina Historical Commission, 1929) (Hereafter cited as “Shotwell Papers”), 234–35. See also “The Albany Bastille,” Daily Phoenix (Columbia SC), Aug. 17, 1872; “Greeley and the Prisoners at Albany,” Southerner (Tarborough NC), Sept. 12, 1872.
“Grant’s Prisoner’s [sic] in Town,” New York Sun, June 12, 1872.
U. S. Grant to Gerrit Smith, July 22, 1872, Grant Papers, Vol. 23, 210.
George H. Williams to Hiram C. Whitley, Aug. 2, 1872, Letters Sent by the Department of Justice, General and Miscellaneous, 1818–1904, Microfilm Publication M699, Vol. 1, Roll 14, Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives, College Park MD.
This account of Hiram C. Whitley’s visit to the Albany Penitentiary, and descriptions of the facility, derive from “The Ku Klux: What Colonel Whitley Says about the Albany Prisoners,” New York Herald, Aug. 14, 1872; Shotwell Papers, Vol. 3, 245–47, 253; Carl Johnson, “The Albany Penitentiary,” Nov. 3, 2010, www.alloveralbany.com; David Dyer, History of the Albany Penitentiary (Albany NY: J. Munsell, 1867); “Annual report of the Attorney General of the United States for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1873,” 16–17, 38–39.
“The Ku-Klux at Albany,” National Republican, Aug. 10, 1871.
“Washington: The Ku Klux Prisoners at Albany,” New York Herald, Aug. 13, 1871.
“The Ku Klux: What Colonel Whitley Says about the Albany Prisoners,” New York Herald, Aug. 14, 1872.
“Trial of the Ku Klux Case,” Carolina Era (Raleigh NC), Sept. 21, 1871; Shotwell Papers, Vol. 3, 54.
“The Ku Klux: What Colonel Whitley Says about the Albany Prisoners,” New York Herald, Aug. 14, 1872. (There had been sixty-five prisoners at the time of Gerrit Smith’s visit, but one died before Whitley’s arrival.)
“Ku Klux Prisoners in the Albany Penitentiary,” New York Herald, Aug. 14, 1872.
Grant Papers, Vol. 23, 228–29.
“Why the Albany Ku Klux Have Not Been Pardoned,” Chicago Post, Aug. 30, 1872. South Carolina Republican officials also weighed in against the pardons. Trelease, White Terror, 416.
Hiram C. Whitley to A. J. Falls, Aug. 20, 1872, Letters Received from the Treasury Department, 1871–1884, Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives, College Park MD.
“Alexander H. Stephens’s Plea for the Ku Klux,” Intelligencer (Anderson SC), Oct. 3, 1872.
Ulysses S. Grant, “Fourth Annual Message,” Dec. 2, 1872, online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29513.
Hiram C. Whitley to Amos T. Akerman, July 14, 1871, Whitley Official Correspondence.
Hiram C. Whitley to George H. Williams, Jan. 2, 1873, Letters Received from the Department of Treasury, 1871–1884, Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives, College Park MD (Hereafter cited as “Whitley Final KKK Report”).
Ibid.
Ibid.
Hiram C. Whitley to A. J. Falls, Nov. 28, 1872, Whitley Official Correspondence.
Whitley Final KKK Report.
Chapter 6
Mrs. J. B. Luckey to Hiram C. Whitley, Dec. 9, 1872, Hiram C. Whitley Papers, Danforth W. Austin Family Collection.
Indenture contract, Supreme Court of New York County, New York, Dec. 13, 1872, Hiram C. Whitley Papers, Danforth W. Austin Family Collection.
Hiram C. Whitley to M. G. Bauer, et al., Aug. 27, 1873, Letters Sent from Headquarters of the Chief in New York, Vol. II, Records of the U.S. Secret Service, Record Group 87, National Archives, College Park MD.
Hiram C. Whitley to M. G. Bauer, et al., Aug. 28, 1873, Letters Sent from Headquarters of the Chief in New York, Vol. II, Records of the U.S. Secret Service, Record Group 87, National Archives, College Park MD.
Hiram C. Whitley to George H. Williams, Report on Outrages in Kentucky, Sept. 24, 1873, Letters Received by the Department of Justice from Kentucky, 1871–1884, Microfilm Publication M1362, Roll 1, Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives, College Park MD.
Hiram C. Whitley to Everett C. Banfield, May 14, 1874, U.S. Secret Service Archives, Washington DC.
Hiram C. Whitley to Everett C. Banfield, Apr. 1870, Whitley Official Correspondence.
Louis Bagger, “The ‘Secret Service’ of the United States,” Appletons’ Journal 10, no. 235 (Sept. 20, 1873), 360–65.
“The Custom House Gang,” New York World, Feb. 8, 1872.
Appendix to the Congressional Globe, May 20, 1872, 374.
KKK Hearings, Vol. 1, 507.
“Congressman Beck’s Exposures,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 18, 1872.
Congressional Globe, Feb. 22, 1873, 1636.
Ibid.
Walter S. Bowen and Harry Edward Neal, The United States Secret Service (New York: Popular Library, 1960), 173. None of the original Secret Service badges survive, but the design Whitley adopted, a five-pointed star, is still incorporated in the agency’s insignia today.
Burnham, Memoirs, 354–56.
Circular of Instructions to Operatives, Secret Service Division, Treasury Department, Letters Received, Secret Service Division, 1863–1895, Records of the Solicitor of the Treasury, Record Group 206, National Archives, College Park MD.
Hiram C. Whitley to Albert C. Falls, May 19, 1873, Letters Received by the Attorney General from the Department of the Treasury, 1871–1884, Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives, College Park MD.
H. V. Boynton, “The Washington ‘Safe Burglary’ Conspiracy,” American Law Review XI, no. 3 (Apr. 1877), 403; The Campaign Text Book: Why the People Want a Change (Democratic Party pamphlet) (New York: 1876), 424–26; “Washington: Astounding Developments by the Ex-Chief of the Detectives,” New York Herald, Apr. 15, 1876.
Whitley, In It, 292–98; “A Daring Swindler,” National Republican, Apr. 17, 1873; Hiram C. Whitley to Orville E. Babcock, Apr. 14, 1873, Letters Sent from Headquarters of the Chief in New York, Secret Service Division, Vol. II, Records of the U.S. Secret Service, Record Group 87, National Archives, College Park MD; Drummond, True Detective Stories, 69–82.
George H. Williams to Hiram C. Whitley, Feb. 19, 1873, Letters Sent by the Department of Justice, General and Miscellaneous, 1818–1904, Microfilm Publication M699, Vol. I, Roll 14, Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives, College Park MD; Hiram C. Whitley to George H. Williams, Mar. 4, 1873, Letters Received from the Department of Treasury, Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives, College Park MD.
The account of Hiram C. Whitley’s use of Secret Service personnel to kidnap Kate Williams’s son James Ivins and remove him from the country is derived from the following sources: Whitley, In It, 257–66; “Gathered Together,” Pomeroy’s Democrat, Apr. 22, 1876; “The Skeleton in the Closet,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, May 22, 1909.
Biographical data for Kate and George Williams, and for her son, James Ivins, are derived from the following sources: Whitley, In It, 257–58; J. M. Reid, Sketches and Anecdotes of the Old Settlers and Newcomers, the Mormon Bandits, and Danite Band (Keokuk IA: Ogden, 1877), 72–73, 176–77; Vertical File Biography for Mrs. George H. Williams, Oregon Historical Society, Portland OR; “Planned Social Conquest: The Bitter Experience of Mrs. Williams in Washington,” Boston Herald, Dec. 18, 1893; 1860 U.S. Census for Kirtland OH; 1920 U.S. Census for Los Angeles CA.
The account of Joseph G. Hester’s forcible attempted extradition of Klansman James Rufus Bratton from Canada to South Carolina is derived from the following sources: Trelease, White Terror, 404; Jerry West, The Reconstruction Ku Klux Klan in York County, South Carolina, 1865–1877 (Jefferson NC: McFarland & Co., 2002), 126–29; J. Michael Martinez, Carpetbaggers, Cavalry, and the Ku Klux Klan: Exposing the Invisible Empire during Reconstruction (Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007), 193–94; Richard Zuczek, State of Rebellion: Reconstruction in South Carolina (Columbia SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1996), 119–21; “The Canada Outrage,” New York Sun, June 12, 1872; “Abduction of an American Refugee,” New York Herald, June 14, 1872; “The Mysterious Prisoner,” Charleston (SC) Daily News, June 15, 1872; “Kidnapping in Canada,” New York World, June 20, 1872; “A High-Handed Outrage,” Daily Rocky Mountain Gazette (Helena MT), June 26, 1872; Untitled news item, Intelligencer (Anderson SC), June 27, 1872; “Where is Hester?” Raleigh News, July 1, 1872; “The Abduction Case of Dr. Bratton of SC,” Charlotte Democrat, July 30, 1872; Matthew Pearl, “K Troop: The Story of the Eradication of the Original Ku Klux Klan,” Slate, Mar. 4, 2016.
George H. Williams to Hamilton Fish, Nov. 2, 1872, Letters Sent by the Department of Justice, Microfilm Publication M702, Roll 2, Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives, College Park MD; Daniel T. Corbin to George H. Williams, Nov. 5, 1872, Letters Received by the Department of Justice from South Carolina, Microfilm Publication M947, Roll 2, Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives, College Park MD; “British Protection for an American Citizen,” Augusta (GA) Chronicle, Nov. 9, 1872.
Untitled news item (Hester letter of resignation as Deputy U.S. Marshal), Greensboro (NC) North State, Aug. 8, 1872; D. H. Starbuck to John Pool, Nov. 26, 1872 (endorsed and forwarded to George H. Williams by Pool), Letters Received by the Department of Justice from North Carolina, 1871–1884, Microfilm Publication M1345, Roll 1, Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives, College Park MD.
1920 U.S. Census for Los Angeles CA; U.S. Passport Application for James C. H. Ivins, June 29, 1920, Records of the Department of State, Microfilm Publication M1490, Roll 1488, Record Group 59, National Archives, College Park MD; “James C. H. Ivins,” in James Miller Guinn, A History of California and an Extended History of Los Angeles and Environs (Los Angeles: Historic Record Co., 1915), Vol. 3, 582–83.
“Safe Burglary Trial,” National Republican, Sept. 22, 1876.
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nbsp; “Counterfeit Money: The Secret Service Division,” Pittsburgh Evening Telegraph, July 8, 1874.
“The Safe Burglary: Startling Testimony of Colonel Whitley,” New York World, Apr. 8, 1876.
The Washington Safe Burglary Case may qualify as the first scandal involving alleged abuses by a federal covert agency in American history. Certainly it was a pivotal moment in the development of the United States’ national law enforcement and intelligence capabilities, which it may have set back decades. Whatever its long-term impact, the safe burglary counts as a bizarre episode even by the rough-and-tumble political standards of Reconstruction. Even now, almost a century and a half after the events, it is difficult to piece together precisely what happened, much less narrate it succinctly. The most important source of information is the extensive witness testimony gathered by the joint committee of Congress responsible for investigating the affair, compiled in U.S. Congress, House Reports, 43d Cong., 1st sess., no. 785, “Testimony in Relation to the Alleged Safe-Burglary at the Office of the United States Attorney.” The best journalistic narrative is Boynton, “Safe Burglary,” 401–46. The account presented here derives from those two documents, as well as Alan Lessoff, The Nation and Its City: Politics, “Corruption,” and Progress in Washington D.C., 1861–1902 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994), passim; James H. Whyte, The Uncivil War: Washington during the Reconstruction, 1865–1878 (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1958), 262–68; Henry E. Davis, “The Safe Burglary Case: An Episode and a Factor in the District’s Development,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society 25 (1923), 140–81; and numerous press clippings about the case found in the Hiram C. Whitley Scrapbooks, Lyon County History Center, Emporia KS. Many newspapers covered the 1874 and 1876 safe burglary conspiracy trials; for the sake of ideological balance and factual completeness I relied on the detailed coverage of the proceedings by the National Republican of Washington DC, and the Democratic Baltimore Sun.
“Letter from Washington,” Baltimore Sun, Sept. 22, 1876. See also “Safe Burglary Trial,” National Republican, Sept. 22, 1876.