NORTH CAROLINA. 



549 



NORTH CAROLINA. The reported disor- 

 ders in this State during the year have been of 

 so grave a character as to attract the attention 

 of the General Government, and to form a 

 topic of discussion throughout the country. 

 This condition of affairs has been produced by 

 the alleged outrages of the " Ku-klux," and the 

 efforts on the part of the State government 

 to suppress them. Many complaints were 

 made to the State government by peaceful 

 citizens who were the victims of violence, or 

 tin-eats of violence, and who earnestly sought 

 the protection of the law. A difficulty was ex- 

 perienced by the civil officers in attempt- 

 in^ to bring the guilty parties to justice 

 through the ordinary process of the courts. 

 In many instances grand juries refused to find 

 bills against the offenders; and, when they 

 were found and the parties arraigned, frequent- 



ly the jury, either through sympathy with the 

 accused, or fear of the consequences, failed to 

 convict. "In fine," tho Governor, in juatifi- 

 eation of his coarse in calling out the military, 

 says, "there was no remedy for these evils 

 through tho civil law, and, but for the use of 

 tho military arm, to which I was compelled to 

 resort, the whole fabric of society in th 

 would have been undermined and destroyed, 

 and a reign of lawlessness and anarchy would 

 have been established. The present State 

 government would thus Lave failed in the 

 groat purpose for which it was created, to wit, 

 the protection of life and property under equal 

 laws; and, necessarily, the national Govern- 

 ment would have interfered, and, in all prob- 

 ability, would have placed us again and for an 

 indefinite period under military rule." 



This condition of affairs led tho Governor, 

 early in March, to issue the following procla- 

 mation : 



EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, RALEIGH, ) 

 March 7, 1870. j 



By virtue of authority vested in me by the con- 

 stitution of the State, and by virtue of an act passed 

 at tho present session of the General Assembly, en- 

 titled ''An act to secure the better protection or life 

 and property," ratified the 29th day of January, 1870, 

 and for the reason that the civil authorities of the 

 county of Alamance are not able to protect the citi- 

 zens of said county in the enjoyment of life and 

 property, I hereby proclaim and declare that the 

 county or Alamance is in a state of insurrection. 



On the 26th of November, 1869, a citizen of the 

 United States, who was engaged in teaching a school 

 in said county, was taken from his house by a band 

 of men armed and disguised, and was by them cruel- 

 ly beaten and scourged. 



On the night of the 26th of February, 1870, a citizen 

 of said county was taken from his house by a band 

 of men armed and. disguised, and was by them 

 hanged by the neck until he was dead, on the public 

 square in the town of Graham, near the court-house. 



And more recently the postmaster at Company 

 Shops, in said county, an officer of the Government 

 of the United States, was compelled to flee the 

 county, and while absent a band of men armed and 

 disguised visited his house, with the purpose, doubt- 

 less, of taking his life ; and this within a short dis- 

 tance of Federal troops stationed in said county, not 

 to overawe or intimidate good citizens, but to pro* 

 serve the peace and to protect the innocent and law- 

 abiding. 



In addition to these cases, information has been 

 received at this department that peaceable and law- 

 abiding citizens or tho county aforesaid have been 

 molested in their houses, have been whipped, shot, 

 scourged, and threatened with further visitations of 

 violence and outrage unless they would conform to 

 some arbitrary standard of conduct set up by these 

 disguised assassins and murderers. 



I have issued proclamation after proclamation to 

 the people of the State, warning offenders a,nd wicked 

 or misguided violators of the law to cease their evil 

 deeds, and, by leading better lives, propitiate those 

 whose duty ; t is to enforce tho law. I have invoked 

 public opinion to aid me in repressing these out- 

 rages, and in preserving peace and order. I have 

 waited to see if the people of Alamance would as- 

 semble in public meeting and express their condem- 

 nation of such conduct by a portion of the citizens of 

 tho county, but I have waited in vain. No meeting 

 of the kind has been held. No expression of dis- 

 approval even of such conduct by the great body of 

 the citizens has yet reached this department ; out, 



