LIXTO.
Following the withdrawal of the military gov ernments in the South between 1868 and 1870 and the restoration of civil government, the Ku Klux `outrages' increased to such a degree as to threaten the general security. Itepublican legis latures passed stringent acts to break up the Klan and bring its guilty members to justice, but public sentiment was not sufficiently strong against Ku-Klux methods to make the enforce ment of the laws effective. Furthermore, since its deeds were usually committed at night by men in disguise, it was difficult to get sufficient evidence upon which a grand jury could frame a bill, or if that could he done, it was next to impossible to impanel a jury that would find a verdict for the State; few men being courageous (Hough to give testimony that would incriminate a member of the Klan. Consequently the efforts of the Republican State Governments accom plished little toward breaking up the disorder. • On March 23, 1871, President Grant sent a peeial message to Congress in which he declared that life and property were insecure in some of the Southern States, and that mail-carriers and collectors were in danger of personal violence. lie urged Congress to enact appropriate legislation to meet the situation. A joirt select committee of twenty-one members was thereupon appointed to inquire into the condition of affairs in the South. A sub-committee took the testi mony of various persons at Washington, who were partly familiar with the situation in the South, and other sub-committees were appointed to visit and take testimony in the affected States.
Their report showed the existence of but little disorder in Virginia. Florida, or Louisiana, but pointed out that many crimes, some of them revolting in character, had been committed for political reasons only in various localities of Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas, and that life and property were insecure in many locali ties. Without waiting fur the report Congress, on April 20. 1871. passed the Enforcement Act, popularly known as the Ku-Klux Act, or 'Force Bill.' Its most important provision was the ex tension of the jurisdiction of the 'United States courts to all Ku-Klux cases, and the authorization of the President to employ the land or naval forces to suppress disorders and to suspend the writ of habeas corpus during the continuance of the Ku Klux troubles. It also authorized the Federal judges to exclude from the juries those who were believed to be accomplices of persOns engaged in committing Ku-Klux outrages. Although con vi•tions, were not numerous. the law seems to have caused a great falling off in the number of Ku-Klux outrages, and the Klan as an active organization gradually died out.