right over to them, and even obstructed Reconstruction itself in every way that he could. This sullenness on the part of the Southerners at last found vent in the organization of a secret and murderous conspiracy called the Ku-Klux-Klan—whoever was guilty of inventing such an ugly name! This Ku-Klux-Klan reached for their shot-guns, and went forth by night, and shot down the carpet-baggers and their like, like crows. This was soon after the first election of President Grant, an election, by the by, in which the rebels took no part, but they now determined to spoil that which they were unwilling to mend. These wicked Ku-Klux sought to obstruct the courts of justice, harass and trouble the colored people in every possible way, and cripple the local governments. The terror that spread all over the South at the time was perfectly dreadful. People were shot down everywhere, colored churches and school-houses were burned to the ground in the night, and the work of revenge and destruction went on night and day. It seemed as if the late rebel soldiers, who had been beaten in the field by the North, were once more trying to raise a rebellion in a new form. The writ of habeas corpus was suspended for a time, and Uncle Sam put his heavy foot down upon the whole matter. The powers of the day went forth; arrests were made; the trials and convictions of many of those bad men were secured, and some of the penitentiaries were filled with the enemies of law and order. Then for a time, at least, followed a pause in the obstructing work of the reconstruction of the late rebellious States, and the governments by colored legislators, scalawags and carpet-baggers went on as before. How much better it would have been if all parties, both white and black, had been harmonious and agreeable after Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House! But instead of that the defeated rebel went home, nursed his wrath to keep it warm. Robbing and stealing from the injured freedmen followed, and then he went out working mischief after dark with the aid of his shot-gun. CHAPTER XIII. _Reconstruction in the South—Great Progress in Education—The Fifteenth Amendment—Message of President Grant—Certificate of Mr. Secretary Fish Regarding the Same—Great Joy Over Amendment—It Goes to Work._