ermit
of vindication and excuse, justice requires that a fair and truthful
statement be made of the temptations and embarrassments which
surrounded them. Placing all the circumstances before us fully, who of
us is prepared to say that we would have acted with more wisdom and
discretion than these men?

[Illustration: CARPETBAGGERS LISTENING TO A KU KLUX REPORT
Coon and Sibly of the Alabama Legislature. Cartoon from Screw's
"Lost Legislature."
FACING PAGE 113]

Matters grew worse and worse, till it was imperatively necessary that
there should be interference on the part of the Government. In
September, 1868, the Legislature of Tennessee, in obedience to the
call of Governor Brownlow, assembled in extra session and passed a
most stringent and bloody anti-Ku Klux statute.[51] This was the
culmination of a long series of the most infamous legislations which
ever disgraced a statute book.

It began in 1865, as we have seen, in the passage of the alien and
sedition act, and grew worse and worse till the passage of the anti-Ku
Klux statute in 1868. Sixteen years have passed since then, and many
into whose hands this book will come have never seen the "Anti-Ku
Klux Law." We quote it entire, to show the character of the
legislation of those times as well as for the sake of its bearing on
the matter in hand:

SEC. 1. _Be it enacted, by the General Assembly of Tennessee_,
That if any person or persons shall unite with, associate with,
promote or encourage any secret organization of persons who
shall prowl through the country or towns of this State, by day
or by night, disguised or otherwise, for the purpose of
disturbing the peace, or alarming the peaceable citizens of any
portion of this State, on conviction by any tribunal of this
State, shall be fined not less than five hundred dollars,
imprisoned in the penitentiary not less than five years, and
shall be rendered infamous.

SEC. 2. _Be it further enacted_, That it shall be the duty of
all the courts in this State, before the impaneling of any grand
jury or petit jury in any cause whatever, to inquire of the
juror, on oath, whether he shall be associated in any way
obnoxious to the first section of this act; and if such juror
shall decline to give a voluntary answer, or shall answer
affirmatively, such persons shall be disqualified as a juror in
any case in any court in this State.