Notwithstanding the partisan purpose and methods of the investigation, the report of the committee and the accompanying testimony constituted a Democratic rather than a Republican document.
It is a veritable mine of information about the South between 1865 and 1871.

The Democratic minority members made skillful use of their opportunity to expose conditions in the South.

They were less concerned to meet the charges made against the Ku Klux Klan than to show why such movements came about.

The Republicans, concerned mainly about material for the presidential campaign, neglected the broader phases of the situation.
Opposition to the effects of reconstruction did not come to an end with the dissolution of the more famous orders.

On the contrary, it now became public and open and resulted in the organization, after 1872, of the White League, the Mississippi Shot Gun Plan, the White Man's Party in Alabama, and the Rifle Clubs in South Carolina.