Under these conditions the taxpayers grew restless and disorders began to occur here and there. They naturally chafed under the rule of their former slaves who were controlled by strangers possessing no permanent interest in the South. Wherever the negroes were in the majority they carried the elections and con trolled the government. The extravagance and corruption of their rule aroused the whites to adopt concerted measures for counteracting the political power of the negroes by terrifying them and keeping them away from the polls at election times. This was effectively accom plished by the organization of secret bands, the best known of which was the so-called Ku 1 Klux Klan, said to have originated in Giles County, Tenn., in 1866. At first it was intended to serve as a disciplinary organization for scar ing the superstitious blacks into good behavior, but with the ascendency of the negro to politi cal power with its resulting imbecility and cor ruption the purposes of the Ku-Klux Klan were changed to meet the new situation. Its juris diction was styled the °Invisible the chief functionary was the Grand Wizard; each State was a realm ruled over by a Grand Dragon. Then there were Dominions, Provinces and Dens presided over by Grand Titans, Grand Cyclopses, Ghouls, etc. The organization was elaborate and mysterious; there was a constitu tion and a solemn ritual and a gruesome mode of initiation. All of which appealed to the curious and at the same time excited the fear of the superstitious blacks. The members of the Klan when in service wore hideous dis guises, the sight of which terrified the negroes and sent them running to their cabins. Prom inent negro politicians, obnoxious carpet-bag gers and scalawags, Northern teachers of negro schools, were the most common victims of the Ku-Klux activities. Usually the Klan made known its orders by a warning couched in mysterious language, but always intelligible enough to convey its meaning. After the with drawal from the South of the military govern ments between 1868 and 1870 Ku-Klux outrages threatened the peace and security of the South. Republican legislatures passed anti-Ku-Klux acts and Republican governors offered large re wards for persons guilty of going in disguise to commit crime, but public sentiment was too much in favor of Ku-Klux methods to make either effective. Besides, it was next to im possible to convict anyone if caught and put on trial. Upon the recommendation of President Grant Congress appointed a joint committee to make a thorough investigation of conditions in the South and the voluminous testimony which it took showed conclusively that hun dreds of murders had been committed in the Southern States by Ku-Klux bands, besides many outrages of a less flagrant character. To meet the situation Congress passed, in 1870, the so-called Enforcement Act giving the Fed eral courts jurisdiction over certain offenses committed with the intent of depriving colored persons of their rights as citizens of the United States. In April of the following year Con gress passed another Enforcement Act which . further extended the jurisdiction of the United States courts and authorized the President to employ the army and navy and to suspend the writ of habeas corpus if necessary to put an end to Ku-Klux outrages. It also empowered Federal judges to exclude from juries persons believed to be in sympathy with the Klan. In pursuance of this act the Federal attorneys in the Southern States made special exertions to secure the indictment of those engaged in the Ku-Klux outrages and hundreds of indictments were found, but few convictions followed, owing to the sympathy of the juries for the accused. Acts were also passed for the super vision of Federal elections in the hope of secur ing to colored voters the unobstructed enjoy ment of the right of suffrage which the 15th Amendment had conferred upon them. But all the efforts of Congress to secure the political, rights of the freedmen failed because it in volved negro domination and this had proved intolerable to the whites. See Ku-Ki.ux KLAN.
The Undoing of For a time the reconstructionists in the South were able, with the air of Federal troops, to maintain their power, but as the extravagance and corrup tion of their rule increased the discontent of the native whites, who were the chief sufferers, became more general. Organized intimidation and ballot-box frauds were openly committed for the purpose of defeating the Republicans in the elections. Race collisions and election riots were of frequent occurrence, and in all of them the blacks were the chief sufferers. In several States rival governments were set up and civil war threatened. Negro militia companies were organized, but they were ineffective and served only to inflame the passions of the whites and increase their determination to overthrow the Republican government by violence. The gov ernment at Washington showed less readiness to call out troops to interfere at the elections and a growing disposition to leave the Southern State governments to take care of themselves. Under these as early as 1870 the Democrats had regained control of North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Georgia and Virginia. Meantime the progress of the Southern movement was aided by the wholesale removal by Congress of the political disabilities of the Southern whites and the division of the Southern Republicans into radical and conservative wings, the latter of which joined with the Democratic organizations. In 1874 Alabama and Arkansas were carried by the Democrats and the carpet-bag, governments in those States came to an end. In the following year, after a remarkable campaign, characterized by violence, riots and wholesale intimidation, Mississippi was carried by the Democrats, who speedily got rid of three of the State officers, including the governor, by means of impeach ment. In the following year the "Mississippi plan') was employed with success in the three remaining Southern States which were still "un reclaimed," namely, Louisiana, Texas and Flor ida. Solid Democratic delegations were now sent to Washington, most of the carpet-baggers returned to the North and the Southern whites were left in control. The subsequent disfran chisement of the negro race in Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama, North Caro lina and Virginia and the judicial approval by the Supreme Court of these disfranchising con stitutions ensured the permanent rule of the white race and thus marked the final and com plete undoing of reconstruction so far as its political effects were concerned.
E. B.,