The accounts of the proceedings of the Ku Klux Klan,
pub- lished in the New York papers and taken from the mouths of the accused, show that the action of Congress was not taken a moment too soon. The object of the Society was to reduce the Negroes to their old relation towards the whites by means of terror, and its mode of proceeding was to assemble a few mean whites by night under intelligent leadership, lead them to the house of any negro who voted, or kept or attended school, or had been insolent to a white man, or had stood out for wages above the average, and torture him till he swore to offend no more. They usually re- frained from killing, but flogged husband and wife, frequently compelling the latter to dance naked under the lash. In several counties the Klan had succeeded in reviving the old system, but at last the negroes resisted, and some stronger government became necessary if society was to be held together at all. The instant military force is applied the society melts away, its members usually flying from the district, and labour begins again.
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