11. Governor Holden, however, seemed not to be satisfied with the Shoffner bill, for on the 10th of March he wrote* to the President, asking that stringent orders be sent to the commanding general, and stating that if "criminals could be arrested and tried before military tribunals and shot, there would soon be peace and order throughout the country. The remedy," he said, "would be a sharp and bloody one, but indispensable as was the suppression of the rebellion." The 14th he wrote to the members of Congress from North Carolina**, beseeching them to induce Congress to author the President to declare martial law in certain localities, so that he might "have military tribunals, by which assassins and murderers can be summarily tried and shot," and telling them at the same time that he could not have such tribunals unless the President was authorized to suspend the habeas corpus. *For letter in full, see Governor's Letter-book, page 328. **For letter in full, see Governor's Letter-book, page 329. 12. At the time when the Governor was so anxious thus "summarily" to try and shoot people, not a single man had been killed in Caswell, and only one in Alamance. It might be borne in mind, too, that the men whom he refers to, and whom he afterwards arrested as assassins and murderers, were among the best men in all the land, many of them venerable for age as well as respected for personal integrity and Christian character. QUESTIONS. 1. How did our people take the many changes in State polity? 2. What was done with the University? 3. How was the manner of electing judges changed? What was the effect of this change? 4. What secret organization was formed at this time? 5. What is said of the Ku-Klux? 6. Can you tell something of the condition of society? 7. How are the doings of the Ku-Klux considered? 8. What was done by the Governor in regard to the Ku-Klux? 9. What occurred in Alamance county? 10. What was the general effect produced by the Federal troops? 11. What was the next step taken by Governor Holden? 12. Who were the men arrested by order of the Governor? CHAPTER LXVII. THE RESULTS OF RECONSTRUCTION--Continued. A. D. 1868 TO 1870. On the 21st of May, John W. Stephens, then a Senator from Caswell county, was secretly murdered in an unused room in the courthouse at Yanceyville. A large concourse filled the house when the deed was committed, the occasion being a Democratic political gathering, and Stephens was seen and talked to at the meeting, being there as a spectator. Strange to say, however, it is a mystery to this day as to who committed the crime. 2. It was insisted by Governor Holden and his party that Stephens had been murdered by the Ku-Klux. This however, was as stoutly denied, and the assertion added that, as Stephens was an object of derision and contempt rather than of hatred, there was neither desire nor cause to put him to death.