In the decade between 1860 and 1870 the admission of four new States-- Kansas in 1861, West Virginia in 1863, Nevada in 1864, and Nebraska in 1867--had raised the total number of States to thirty-seven. In addition, six new Territories had been organized--Colorado and Dakota in 1861, Idaho and Arizona in 1863, Montana in 1864, and Wyoming in 1868. The admission of these new States, the completing of the railroad, the discovery of precious metals, and the general awakening of the North caused a large increase in the population, especially in the West. The total population of the country in 1870 was 38,558,371, of which 4,880,009 were negroes, about 4,400,000 of them living in the Southern States. The second session of the Forty-first Congress met December 6, 1869. The President in his message advocated the refunding of the National Debt, and this was done by the Act of July 14, 1870, which authorized the refunding of the debt at five, four and one-half and four percent, payable in coin and exempt from taxation. The sentiment in favor of a general amnesty of all persons who had engaged in the rebellion was now growing in the North, and in December, 1869, and March, 1870, Acts were passed removing legal and political disabilities from a large class of persons in the South, but a full pardon was not yet extended to all. The South at this time was most bitter against negro suffrage, and the opposition was shown in a series of most violent outrages and murders perpetrated by the Ku Klux Klans and other similar organizations formed for the purpose of preventing the negro from voting and the "carpet bagger" from living in the community. The outrages and murders done by these organizations became so flagrant that Congress passed a special Act on April 20, 1871 (the Ku Klux Act), to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment.