This was followed on the 3d of May, 1871, by a proclamation by the President, in which he exhorted the people of those parts of the land which was lately the theater of insurrection and military conflict to suppress all such combinations by their own voluntary efforts, and warning them that their failure so to do will "impose upon the National Government the duty of putting forth all its energies for the protection of its citizens of every race and color, and for the restoration of peace and order throughout the entire country." This failing of its desired effect a second proclamation was issued October 12, naming the counties of Spartanburg, York, Marion, Chester, Laurens, Newberry, Fairfield, Lancaster, and Chesterfield, all in South Carolina, as places where organized and armed combinations and conspiracies exist so numerous and powerful as to be able to defy the constituted authorities, and concluding as follows:

Now, therefore, I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States of America, do hereby command all persons composing the unlawful combinations and conspiracies aforesaid to disperse and to retire peaceably to their homes within five days of the date hereof, and to deliver, either to the marshal of the United States for the district of South Carolina, or to any of his deputies, or to any military officer of the United States within said counties, all arms, ammunition, uniforms, disguises, and other means and implements used, kept, possessed, or controlled by them for carrying out the unlawful purposes for which the combinations and conspiracies are organized. "

The five days having expired, and the insurgents engaged in these combinations having failed to disperse, the President next suspended the writ of habeas corpus in the said counties,' and strengthened the Federal troops by the addition of every available man from the adjoining military departments. Troops were stationed at Charleston, Columbia, Chester, Yorkville, Spartanburg, Newberry, Unionville, and Sumter, and numerous other points; all persons known or suspected to be connected with the Ku-Klux-Klan were pursued and arrested. Upward of 600 arrests were made up to January 1, 1872. A supplementary proclamation excepted Marion from the list of counties in which insurrection existed, and the county of Union was added to the number; the trials took place in the United States court at Columbia, and large numbers of the accused were convicted, heavily fined, or imprisoned.

It is not to be understood that all the disorders in the southern tier of States during this period are to be charged to the account of the Ku-Klux organization. In some of the States the brotherhood had no recognized footing, and many disturbances set down to their account were brought about by causes totally different. Of such nature were the disturbances at Augusta, Ga., in July, 1868. The b17 Stat. L., 952, 953, 954.

a 17 Stat. L., 949-950.

Disorders in Gulf States, 1868.

municipal officers had been military appointees, and on the restoration of the State to its former political status, it was claimed by the opposition that all nilitary authority having ceased those officials who derived their powers solely from the military were functus officio. Refusing to vacate they were threatened with summary ejection, and an organization for this purpose was put on foot. The mayor and his associates appealed to the governor, and the latter called upon United States troops for assistance. General Meade referred him to Washington, and the President upon the ground of informality in the call declined to interfere. On the 4th of August a similar request was received from the mayor and council of Montgomery, Ala., and the governor in transmitting the request remarked that until the State could pass a militia law it was expected that United States troops would be permitted to lend their moral support for the preservation of the peace. On the 12th of that month another application came from Florida, followed on the 29th of September by a call from the governor of South Carolina, and on the 7th of October from the governor of North Carolina." To all of these, reply was made that the several State governments must. first exhaust all their resources; that whenever their attempts to execute the laws met with greater resistance than they could overcome the General Government would come to their assistance, but that until that point had been reached, the United States under existing laws was powerless to aid them.”

In harmony with these instructions are those of Mr. AttorneyGeneral Evarts in his letter of August 20, 1868, to the United States marshal of the northern district of Florida. The marshal had requested that instructions be given to the military commander in Florida to aid him when necessary. To this Mr. Evarts replied in part:

The 27th section of the judiciary act of 1789 establishes the office of marshal, and names among his duties and powers the following: "And to execute throughout the district all lawful precepts directed to him, and issued under the authority of the United States, and he shall have power to command all necessary assistance in the execution of his duty, and to appoint, as there may be occasion, one or more deputies." (1 Stat., p. 87.)

You will observe from this that the only measure of the assistance which you have power to command is its necessity for the execution of your duty, and upon your discreet judgment under your official responsibility, the law reposes the determination of what force each particular necessity requires. This power of the marshal is equivalent to that of a sheriff, and, with either, embraces, as a resort in necessity,

a See also 43 V, A. G. O., 1870; 1240, A. G. O., 1870; 1751, A. G. O., 1871; 506, A. G. O., 1871; 60, A. G. O., 1871.

b375 A, A. G. O., 1868, and accompanying papers.

cAlso published in General Orders, No. 96, A. G. O., September 7, 1876.

the whole power of the precinct (county or district) over which the officer's authority extends. In defining this power, Attorney-General Cushing—and, as I understand the subject, correctly-says it "comprises every person in the district or county above the age of 15 years, whether civilians or not, and including the military of all denominations-militia, soldiers, marines-all of whom are alike bound to obey the commands of a sheriff or marshal."

While, however, the law gives you this "power to command all necessary assistance," and the military within your district are not exempt from obligation to obey, in common with all the citizens, your summons in case of necessity, you will be particular to observe that this high and responsible authority is given to the marshal only in aid of his duty "to execute throughout the district all lawful precepts directed to him, and issued under the authority of the United States," and only in case of necessity for this extraordinary aid. The military persons obeying this summons of the marshal will act in subordination and obedience to the civil officer, the marshal, in whose aid in the execution of process they are called, and only to the effect of securing its execution. @

This special duty and authority in the execution of process issued to you must not be confounded with the duty and authority of suppressing disorder and preserving the peace, which, under our Government, belongs to the civil authorities of the States, and not to the civil authorities of the United States Nor are this special duty and authority of the marshal, in executing process issued to him, to be confounded with the authority and duty of the President of the United States, in the specific cases of the Constitution and under the regulations of the statutes, to protect the States against domestic violence, or with his authority and duty, under special statutes to employ military force in subduing combinations in resistance to the laws of the United States. For neither of these duties or authorities is shared by the subordinate officers of the Government, except when and as the same may be specifically communicated to them by the President.

I have, thus, called your attention to the general considerations bearing upon the subject to which your letter refers, for the purpose of securing a due observance of the limits of your duty and authority in connection therewith. Nothing can be less in accordance with the nature of our Government or the disposition of our people than a frequent or ready resort to military aid in execution of the duties confided to civil officers. Courage, vigor, and intrepidity are appropriate qualities for the civil service which the marshals of the United States are expected to perform, and a reinforcement of their power by extraordinary means is permitted by the law only in extraordinary emergencies.

If it shall be thought that any occasion, at any time, exists for instructions to the military authorities of the United States, within any of the States, in connection with the execution of process of the courts of the United States, these instructions will be in accordance with the exigency then appearing.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WM. M. EVARTS,
Attorney-General.

While the Ku-Klux movement is not known to have reached Arkansas, there were serious and disgraceful disturbances in various parts

a But see to the contrary Mr. Attorney-General Devens (16 Opin., 162), as well as the fifteenth section of the act of June 18, 1878: "From and after the passage of this act it shall not be lawful to employ any part of the Army of the United States as a posse comitatus, or otherwise, for the purpose of executing the laws, except in such cases and under such circumstances as such employment of said force may be expressly authorized by the Constitution or by act of Congress.”

of the State through much of the year 1868. Especially was this the case in the counties of Conway, Perry, and Columbia, where the law

Lawlessness in Arkansas, 1868.

was openly defied, court officials driven from their seats, and enormities perpetrated that were disgraceful to the name of humanity. These counties were in open and defiant rebellion against the laws of the State; the courts of justice were broken up, and the civil authorities overpowered by bodies of armed men who rode about the country driving peaceable citizens from their homes, burning their houses and crops, and destroying all they were unable to carry away. In Perry County several men were assassinated; hundreds shot at and wounded. In this emergency the legislature authorized the enrollment of a militia, which was set immediately on foot and rapidly proceeded with, until a force of some 1,500 had been raised and organized. On the 27th of August, 1868, the governor issued a proclamation reciting the facts as above stated, and concluding as follows:

Now, therefore, I, Powell Clayton, governor of the State of Arkansas, do hereby enjoin upon all persons within said State to keep the peace, and command all bodies of armed men (not organized in pursuance of the laws of the State, or of the United States) to immediately disperse and return to their homes.

I do furthermore make known that I shall at once cause to be enrolled and organized the reserve militia in pursuance of said act, and shall use, as far as may be necessary, all the power and authority vested in me by the constitution and laws of the State of Arkansas to preserve order, enforce the law, and protect the lives and property of every person within the State.

Contrary to expectations, the appearance of the militia in the field. did not put an end to the disorders in the infected district; they increased in frequency and in extent of territory, so that on the 9th of November the governor placed the ten counties of Ashley, Bradley, Columbia, Lafayette, Mississippi, Woodruff, Craighead, Greene, Sevier, and Little River under martial law. To the determination and energy of the governor, and to his vigorous execution of this measure, which was sustained by a formal act of the legislature and which made repeated appropriations to pay the militia thus called into the field, is due the ultimate suppression of these disgraceful disorders. There was much complaint from the residents of the counties under martial law, who suffered heavy losses both from the insurgents and the militia, and it is believed that this fact had no insignificant bearing upon the final termination of the troubles. At mass meetings held in the ten counties men of both political parties joined in condemnation of these violations of law, engaged to keep the peace themselves, and to cause others to keep it. The United States troops were stationed at various points in the State during this period-at Little Rock, Pine Bluff, Batesville, Fort Smith, Camden, Washington, Madison, Dover, and Fayetteville and by their presence contributed to a suppression of the insurrection, but were not called upon for active service. On

March 22, 1869, the governor announced that the insurrection having been suppressed, martial law would cease throughout the State."

Riot at Camilla, Ga., September 19,

1868.

The constant friction between men of opposite political sentiments in the years following the close of the war was the apparent reason for the formation of political clubs, armed, drilled, and sometimes uniformed, in nearly all of the Southern States. Constant apprehensions of collision between these bodies of men induced the legislature of Georgia in 1868 to empower the governor to prohibit them. This he did by a proclamation, dated September 14 of that year, in which he declared that "no authority has been granted by the executive for the formation of armed or unarmed organizations of any kind or character; that the drilling or exercising in military tactics, with arms, of any organized body of men within the State, except the Army of the United States, is unauthorized, unlawful, and against the peace and good order of the State and must be immediately suspended." About the time of the appearance of this proclamation a mass meeting of Republicans was called at the village of Camilla, in Mitchell County, and was attended by marching clubs of negroes from the surrounding country. A procession of some three hundred, a majority carrying guns and pistols, marched from Albany toward Camilla; they were met just outside the town by the sheriff, who told them of the proclamation and endeavored to persuade them to return or to lay aside their weapons. The negroes refused and the sheriff returned to the town and summoned a posse. On the arrival of the procession a conflict ensued in which eight or nine were killed and twenty or thirty wounded. The governor at once communicated the facts to the legislature and recommended that the Federal Government be called upon for troops to be stationed in Mitchell County. A committee of the legislature visited the section, decided that the civil authorities were fully able to preserve order, and reported that there was no necessity for military interference. General Meade, in reporting this affair, concurred with the committee, but later sent a company of infantry to Albany, and others to Columbus, Macon, Augusta, Washington, Americus, Thomasville, and others, with the following instructions to their commanding officers. As a consequence the elections passed off without serious disturbance:

They will impress on post commanders that they are to act in aid of and cooperation with, and in subordination to, the civil authorities; that they are to exercise discretion and judgment, unbiased by political or other prejudices; that their object should be exclusively to preserve the peace and uphold law and order, and they must be satisfied such is the object of the civil officer calling on them for aid; that they must in all cases, where time will permit, apply for instruction to superior

a Reports, Brevet Major-General Rousseau, Brevet Major-General Smith, Brevet Major-General Gillam, to Adjutant-General, 1868–1869.

Proclamation of Governor R. B. Bulloch, September 14, 1868.