The policy adopted by the Southern people in concerting resistance to the attacks of these modern Sejanus was the only one which could have succeeded, and, whatever else may be said regarding its morality, was just to themselves and disinterested mankind. They did not as a class, nor as individuals, conceive for a moment that their allegiance to the constitution and laws of their country was involved in the issues of the political war which they waged against Radicalism, though constantly reminded to that intent by their enemies, whose vocabulary of loyal epithets included such choice terms as "rebel," "traitor," "guerilla," "Southern bandit," etc., and their integrity as citizens of the United States government they never ceased to insist upon, though their leaders foretold (and it has since been verified) that they would never succeed in _establishing_ it until the movement, which they had inaugurated under so many difficulties, had accomplished the _disestablishment_ of Radicalism at the national capitol. The details of the political strife of those years are unimportant to our narrative; but the intelligent reader will perceive nothing occult in our purpose if we call attention to the long imprisonments to which many of the leaders of the Southern movement were subjected, the causeless sequestration of public and private properties, the numberless criminal prosecutions inaugurated in obedience to the whims of the "trooly loil," the immense peculations chargeable to the State governments under Radical rule, and, lastly, the open robberies perpetrated under the name and with the sanction of the national legislature. The governments in the South--State, district, and municipal--were negro governments, and if, in a few exceptions, this characterization was but partial, it was where the negro alternated with that pestiferous nomad--the carpet-bagger--in administering government for his late master. Favored by this condition of public affairs, that remarkable secret order--the Loyal League--found its way into the Southern country, and was recommended to the negro by its politics, its dark lantern, its facilities for the transaction of evil deeds, its avenues of escape afforded to the criminal, and, finally, its picturesque ceremonial, in which latter we can see no cause to dispute his taste or judgment. Some description of this singular body, which was, we believe, in a measure unknown to the great mass of the people of the Northern States, will not be deemed digressive at this point.