Congress answered this appeal with the noted, not to say notorious, Ku-Klux Act of April 20th, 1871, in which Congress simply threw to the winds the constitutional distribution of powers between the "States" and the United States Government in respect to civil liberty, crime and punishment, and assumed to legislate freely and without limitation for the preservation of civil and political rights within the "States," and for the punishment of the infraction of the same by individual persons conspiring together for that end, and for the punishment of the conspiracy alone, whether the infraction or the conspiracy was executed upon, or directed against, officers of the Government or merely private persons; and {258} in which the act of a combination of private individuals defying successfully the constituted authorities of the United States in a given "State," or those of the "State" concerned, was declared to be rebellion against the United States, upon the happening, and during the continuance, of which the President might suspend the privileges of the writ of Habeas Corpus within such districts as he, by proclamation, might designate. [Sidenote: The unconstitutionality of the Act.] The first part of this Act was, unquestionably, an unconstitutional encroachment upon the powers of the "States," in so far as it is related to the protection of political rights against infraction, or against conspiracy for the purpose of infraction, by private persons. The second part was probably within the powers of Congress, but it was a most extreme use of its powers. The "State" governments in the South were in the hands of the Republican "carpet-baggers" and Republican negroes, and there is no question that the governors and legislatures of these "States" were quick enough to call in the aid of United States troops long before it was necessary to do so. Moreover, the militia of these "States" was composed almost entirely of negroes, and the whites were forbidden to keep arms. Under such circumstances this Act of Congress empowering the President to establish martial law upon his own motion in time of peace within a "State" when combinations of private persons had successfully defied, in any instance, the laws of the "State" was a very stiff measure, and unwarranted by the facts of the situation. [Sidenote: Interference of the United States military power in the affairs of South Carolina.]