te. Since 1860 four states had been added to the Union.
These were Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada, and Nebraska. There were now
thirty-seven states in all.

[Sidenote: The carpetbaggers. _McMaster_, 439-414.]

[Sidenote: The Ku-Klux-Klan.]

[Sidenote: The Force Acts.]

449. The Southerners and the Negroes.--The first result of the
Congressional plan of reconstruction was to give the control of the
Southern states to the freedmen and their white allies. Some of these
white friends of the freedmen were men of character and ability, but
most of them were adventurers who came from the North to make their
fortunes. They were called the "carpetbaggers," because they usually
carried their luggage in their hands. The few Southern whites who
befriended the negroes were called "scalawags" by their white neighbors.
Secret societies sprang into being. The most famous was the
Ku-Klux-Klan. The object of these societies was to terrorize the
freedmen and their white friends and to prevent their voting. This led
to the passage of the Force Acts. These laws provided severe penalties
for crimes of intimidation. They also provided that these cases should
be tried in United States courts. Federal soldiers, stationed in the
South, could be used to compel obedience to the law.

[Sidenote: Relations with Great Britain.]

[Sidenote: Treaty of Washington, 1871. _Source-Book_, 355-358.]

[Sidenote: The Geneva Award.]

450. The Alabama Claims.--During the Civil War vessels built in
British shipyards, or refitted and supplied with coal at British ports,
had preyed upon American commerce. The most famous of these vessels was
the _Alabama_. The claims for losses caused by these vessels which the
United States presented to Great Britain were therefore called the
"Alabama Claims." There also were disputes with Great Britain over the
fisheries and over the western end of the Oregon boundary. In 1871 the
United States and Great Britain made an arrangement called the Treaty of
Washington. By this treaty all these points of dispute were referred to
arbitration. The Oregon boundary was decided in favor of the United
States, but the fishery dispute was decided in favor of Great Britain.
The "Alabama Claims" were settled by five arbitrators who sat at Geneva
in Switzerland. They decided that Great Britain had not used "due
diligence" to prevent the abuse of her ports by the Confederates. They
condemned her to pay fifteen and one-half million dollars