in June, 1871, pleaded guilty at the December term of the
court, and it also appears that the sentence was not car-
ried into execution. The district attorney reported that no
parties had been convicted except those who pleaded guilty,
as the time of the court, up to the date of his reappointment,
had been occupied in hearing petitions for writs of habeas
corpus and motions to quash indictments, generally upon the
ground of the unconstitutionality of the Kuklux law. In a
subsequent report he gave the names of 678 persons who
were indicted in the northern district. Three hundred and
twenty-five of these cases were disposed of during the year
1872, there being 262 convictions. ¹ During the year ending
June 20, 1873, 268 cases were disposed of, 184 of which
were convictions. On July 1, 1874, 171 cases were pending.

Mr. Jacobson, the United States attorney for the southern
district, reported February 17, 1872, the names of 152 persons
who had been indicted for violation of the Kuklux Act, the
majority of the cases being "conspiracies to injure citizens
because of the exercise of the right of free speech." He gave
the names of twelve persons who had confessed their guilt.
It appears that there had been no convictions, up to the time
of his report. ²

It remains to be said in conclusion that much of the re-
sponsibility for these so-called Kuklux disorders must rest
ultimately upon the authors of the congressional policy of
reconstruction. The policy by which political power in the
South was suddenly transferred from the hitherto dominant
class to a race emerging from slavery was one of the most
dangerous experiments ever undertaken by the law-makers of
any country. That such a policy could have been carried
through, unattended by social and political disorders, espe-
cially in view of all the attendant circumstances, no intelligent
man will for a moment expect. History abounds with illus-
trations of the truth that the secret conclave, the league, and
the conspiracy are the sequences of political proscription and
disfranchisement. The Illuminés in France, the Tugendbund
in Germany, the Carbonari in Italy, and Nihilism in Russia,
are notable examples. In the Southern states, opposition to
the congressional policy of reconstruction did not take the
form of armed and organized resistance, but of secret retalia-
tion upon its agents, and especially favored beneficiaries,
regardless of race, color, or nativity.

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