706 



TENNESSEE. 



cepted out of the general powers of government, and 

 shall forever remain inviolate. 



At the general election held on March 26th, 

 as previously appointed, the new constitution 

 was ratified by a very large majority. The 

 official returns having been canvassed, it was 

 ascertained that 33,970 ballots had been cast 

 for the " old constitution," and 98,286 for the 

 "new constitution," showing the latter to have 

 received 64,256 votes more than the former. 

 By a proclamation, dated May 5th, the Gov- 

 ernor announced this vote. 



Various offences of a most grave and alarm- 

 ing character, as the murdering of citizens in 

 their own houses, forcibly entered, and the 

 hanging or shooting culprits taken out of the 

 public prisons, or from the hands of the proper 

 officers who had them in custody, were re- 

 ported to have been committed in the State by 

 masked or otherwise disguised persons, who 

 had escaped, unpunished and unknown. On 

 this account, the Legislature passed a bill on 

 January 30, 1870, inflicting special penalties on 

 such offenders, as follows : 



AN ACT TO PRESERVE THE PUBLIC PEACE. 



SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly 

 of (he State of Tennessee, That if any person or per- 

 sons, masked, or in disguise, shall prowl, or travel, 

 or ride, or walk through the country or towns of this 

 State, to the disturbance of the peace or to the alarm- 

 ing of the citizens of any portion of this State, on 

 conviction thereof shall be fined not less than one 

 hundred dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars, 

 and imprisoned in the county jail of the county 

 wherein convicted, at the discretion of the jury try- 

 ing the case. 



SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That if any person 

 or persons, disguised or in mask, by day or by night, 

 shall enter upon the premises of another, or demand 

 entrance or admission into the house or enclosure of 

 any citizen of this State ? it shall be considered 

 prima facie that his or their intention is to commit 

 a felony, and such demand shall be deemed an as- 

 sault with an intent to commit a felony; and the 

 person or persons so offending shall, upon convic- 

 tion, be punished by imprisonment in the peniten- 

 tiary not less than ten years nor more than twenty 

 years. 



SEC. 3. Be it further enacted. That if any person 

 or persons, so prowling, travelling, riding, or walk- 

 ing through the towns or country of this State, 

 masked or in disguise, shall or may assault another 

 with a deadly weapon, he, or they, shall be deemed 

 guilty of an assault with an attempt to commit mur- 

 der in the first degree, and, on conviction thereof, 

 shall suifer death lay hanging : Provided, the jury 

 trying the cause may substitute imprisonment in the 

 penitentiary for a period of not less than ten years 

 nor more than twenty-one years. 



SEC. 4. Be it further enacted, That it shall be the 

 duty of the several judges of the Circuit and Crim- 

 inal Courts of this State to give this act in charge to 

 the grand juries at each term of said Court. 



SEC. 5. Be it further enacted. That the grand 

 juries of this State shall have full power to compel 

 the attendance of witnesses whenever they or any 

 one of their body may suspect a violation of any of. 

 the provisions ot this act. 



SEC. 6. Be it further enacted, That the Governor of 

 the State is hereby authorized to offer a reward of 

 $250 for the apprehension and delivery to the sheriff 

 or jailer of any county in this State any person who 

 may be guilty of a violation of the second or third 

 section of this act. 



SEC. 7. Be it further enacted, That this act shall 

 take effect from aud after its passage. 



W. O'N. PEEKINS, 

 Speaker of the House of Ecpresentatives. 



D. B. THOMAS, Speaker of the Senate. 

 f Passed January 30, 1870. 



Judging the provisions of this law insuffi- 

 cient to reach and cure the evil, the Governor 

 sent a special message to the Legislature at the 

 beginning of February, requesting the passage 

 of a law enabling him to apply the proper 

 remedy, saying : "As not a single arrest has yet 

 been made for the grossest violation of already 

 existing laws, although such violations have 

 been frequent, and the largest rewards allowed 

 have been often if not invariably offered to 

 bring the offenders to justice, it may be fairly 

 concluded that such offenders are protected by 

 organizations adequate, by terrorism, the force 

 of numbers, or other means, to effect security 

 against the ordinary civil process and officers 

 of the law. The public misfortune seems not 

 so much a want of law, as lack of power to 

 enforce that we have." 



A bill was hereupon introduced, but it did 

 not meet all the requirements of the Govern- 

 or's recommendation, " as it restricted him, in 

 the appointment of officers to keep the peace, 

 to the localities where they were to exercise 

 their functions." The General Assembly, how- 

 ever, deeming, perhaps, that the use of mili- 

 tary force was unnecessary to preserve order 

 in the State, closed its session by final adjourn- 

 ment, about a month after the Governor's mes- 

 sage, without having done any thing decisive 

 upon the matter. 



Under the circumstances, Governor Scnter 

 applied to the Federal Government for United 

 States troops, dispatching his private secretary 

 to Washington with a letter to the President 

 for that purpose. Some influential Eepubli- 

 cans in Tennessee and at the Federal capital, 

 including her Representatives in Congress, 

 availed themselves of the Governor's applica- 

 tion for United States soldiers, as a favorable 

 opportunity for executing a seemingly precon- 

 certed plan to bring about a reconstruction of 

 the State and remand her to a territorial con- 

 dition, with a provisory government under mil- 

 itary rule by the intervention of .Congress. 

 They caused a delegation of negroes from 

 Tennessee to go to Washington and lay before 

 Congress a memorial representing that outrages 

 on Union men, especially of their race, perpe- 

 trated by those who in the late war fought for 

 secession, were so frequent, of so heinous a 

 character, yet always unpunished, that the 

 petitioners must implore the Federal Govern- 

 ment to protect them in their lives, and the ex- 

 ercise of their civil rights. Congress took the 

 matter in hand and a Reconstruction Commit- 

 tee convened for the purpose of inquiring into 

 the facts, and ascertaining the condition of 

 affairs by the examination of witnesses, and 

 other evidence. 

 This attempt at reconstruction, and the con- 



