[37] "In the spring of 1867," says Wilson in the _Century Magazine_, July, 1884. May was the month of meeting. This was just after the Reconstruction Acts had been passed.--_Editor._ [38] I am convinced that the authors are mistaken in saying that the first convention adopted the Prescript containing these declarations. The Prescript adopted was the one reproduced in Appendix I. The other one, reproduced in Appendix II, was adopted, it is believed, in 1868.--_Editor._ [39] Ex-Confederates were practically all excluded from the suffrage.--_Editor._ [40] Notices were posted in every public place, and even pasted on the backs of hogs and cows running loose in the streets.--_Miss Cora R. Jones._ [41] Most members of the Klan had been Confederate soldiers and were familiar with military drill and discipline.--_Editor._ [42] A later estimate places the membership of Ku Klux Klan at 72,000 in Tennessee alone.--_Washington Post, August 13, 1905._ [43] Forrest denied that he had made such an estimate. There were many other orders similar to Ku Klux Klan and the total membership was probably about half a million.--_Editor._ [44] It made the women feel safer. "And then came the reign of martial law, and the Freedmen's Bureau. Those dark days of the Reconstruction period rapidly followed the horrors of civil war, and the reign of the carpetbagger began, goading the people to desperation. For their protection the younger and more reckless men of the community now formed a secret society, which masqueraded at night in grotesque and grewsome character called the Ku Klux Klan. Always silent and mysterious, mounted on horses, they swept noiselessly by in the darkness with gleaming death's heads, skeletons and chains. It struck terror into the heart of the evil-doer, while the peaceful citizen knew a faithful patrol had guarded his premises while he slept."--_Mrs. Stubbs, in "Saunders' Early Settlers of Alabama_," p. 31. [45] A practice not mentioned here was that of sending out the peculiar warnings and orders, specimens of which are printed in Appendix IV.--_Editor._ [46] "We had regular meetings about once a week, at which the conduct of certain offensive characters would be discussed, and if the majority voted to punish such it would be accordingly done on certain prescribed nights. Sometimes it was deemed necessary only to post notices of warning, which, in some cases, were sufficient to alarm the victims sufficiently to induce them to reform in their behavior."--_Ryland Randolph._ CHAPTER IV. THE DECLINE. For a while after the reorganization of the Klan, those concerned for its welfare and right conduct congratulated themselves that all was now well. Closer organization and stricter official supervision had a restraining influence upon the members. Many things seemed to indicate that the future work of the Klan would be wholly good.