party with a well-understood and a well-determined purpose. [Sidenote: North Carolina's rapid recovery from negro rule.] Of all the "States" included in the Congressional Act of June 25th, 1868, only North Carolina had been fortunate enough to rid herself, before 1872, of the rule of the adventurers and their ignorant negro support. This happened because matters were driven to a crisis sooner here than elsewhere. The legislature of 1868 had proceeded promptly to authorize the issue of $25,000,000 of bonds, when the whole taxable property of the "State" was not over $125,000,000. From the first moment the people were threatened with confiscation, and when to this was added the legislative act, known as the Schaffner law, authorizing the Governor to suspend civil government, and institute martial law in any part of the "State," and when he actually undertook to do so in three counties of the "State," the whites came together in the election of 1870, captured the legislature and redeemed the "State" from the hideous tyranny with which it was threatened. {250} [Sidenote: The Loyal League.] Already before the Reconstruction Acts were passed, the political adventurers in the South had begun organizing the negroes into secret bodies, known later as the Union or Loyal League. The members of these bodies were sworn to obey the decisions of the organization and to execute them. The original idea seems to have been a combination for protection against bands of lawless white people, and for mutual aid and assistance in the hard struggle for existence to which the freedmen were now exposed. The League soon took on, however, a political character, and became a sort of Republican party organization in the South. [Sidenote: Origin of the K. K. K.'s.] It is difficult to determine whether the Ku-Klux organization preceded that of the Loyal League and provoked it or not. So far as we know, both of them were first heard of in the year 1866. It is probable that the Ku-Klux had its origin a little farther north than the Loyal League. It is said by those who profess to know most about it, that the first appearance of this body was in one of the southern counties of Tennessee, Giles County; that it was first organized by a lot of young loafers, probably ex-Confederate soldiers, who lived in the town of Pulaski, the county town of that county; and that their first purpose was the playing of practical jokes upon the ignorant and superstitious negroes of the neighborhood. They operated in the night-time, went disguised, travelled on horseback, their horses being also disguised, and were oath-bound to execute the decisions of the organization, and to protect each other. Whatever may have been its origin, this body also soon found its political usefulness. It soon proved to be a powerful means for intimidating and terrorizing the negroes, and also white men acting with the negroes. {251} [Sidenote: Methods of the Ku-Klux.]