agues and other
societies were formed; large quantities of arms and ammunition were
imported and distributed to these organizations; military drills, with
menacing demonstrations, were held, and with all these murders enough
were committed to spread terror among those whose political action
was to be suppressed, if possible, by these intolerant and criminal
proceedings. In some places colored laborers were compelled to vote
according to the wishes of their employers, under threats of discharge
if they acted otherwise; and there are too many instances in which, when
these threats were disregarded, they were remorselessly executed by
those who made them. I understand that the fifteenth amendment to the
Constitution was made to prevent this and a like state of things, and
the act of May 31, 1870, with amendments, was passed to enforce its
provisions, the object of both being to guarantee to all citizens the
right to vote and to protect them in the free enjoyment of that right.
Enjoined by the Constitution "to take care that the laws be faithfully
executed," and convinced by undoubted evidence that violations of said
act had been committed and that a widespread and flagrant disregard of
it was contemplated, the proper officers were instructed to prosecute
the offenders, and troops were stationed at convenient points to aid
these officers, if necessary, in the performance of their official
duties. Complaints are made of this interference by Federal authority;
but if said amendment and act do not provide for such interference under
the circumstances as above stated, then they are without meaning, force,
or effect, and the whole scheme of colored enfranchisement is worse than
mockery and little better than a crime. Possibly Congress may find it
due to truth and justice to ascertain, by means of a committee, whether
the alleged wrongs to colored citizens for political purposes are real
or the reports thereof were manufactured for the occasion.

The whole number of troops in the States of Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia,
Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas,
Mississippi, Maryland, and Virginia at the time of the election was
4,082. This embraces the garrisons of all the forts from the Delaware
to the Gulf of Mexico.

Another trouble has arisen in Arkansas. Article 13 of the constitution
of that State (which was adopted in 1868, and upon the approval of
which by Congress the State was restored to re