was _ex post facto_, as expressly
declared by Section 24 of it. (2). It presented no way in which a man
could relieve himself from liability to it, except by turning
informer, and as an inducement to do this a large bribe was offered.
(3). It encouraged strife, by making every inhabitant of the State an
officer extraordinary with power "to arrest without process" when he
had ground to suspect. (4). It must be remembered that in those days
in Tennessee "to be loyal" had a very limited meaning. It meant simply
to be a subservient tool and supporter of Governor Brownlow. If a man
was not that, no matter what his past record, or what his political
opinion, he was not "loyal." (5). While the law professed to be aimed
at the suppression of all lawlessness, it was not so construed and
enforced by the party in power. The "Union" or "Loyal" League was
never molested, though this organization met frequently, and its
members appeared by day and by night, armed, threatening and molesting
the life and property of as peaceable and quiet citizens as any in the
State. No attempt was ever made to arrest men except in Ku Klux
disguises. But as before remarked there is no instance on record of a
Ku Klux being arrested, tried and convicted. Invariably the party
arrested while depredating as Ku Klux turned out to be, when stripped
of their disguises, "loyal" men.

In some sections of the State a perfect reign of terror followed this
anti-Ku Klux statute. The members of the Klan were now in the attitude
of men fighting for life and liberty. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of
them were not lawbreakers, and did not desire to be. There had been no
law against association with the Klan; they had conceived and done no
wrong during their connection with it. They had had no participation
in or knowledge of the excesses in which some of the Klan had indulged
or were charged with having indulged in. But now their previous
connection with the Klan was made a penal offense; and they had no
hope except on terms which to men of honor and right principle were
more odious than death.

These men were made infamous, made liable to fine and imprisonment,
exposed to arrest without process by any malicious negro or mean white
man; and even their wives and children were outlawed and exposed to
the same indignities; and it is no strange thing if they were driven
to the very verge of desperation. It is not denied that they did many
things for which the world has be