Whether one looks upon the methods of the Ku Klux Klan as wise and humane or as rough and cruel, the fact remains that its work was accomplished, and state governments under carpetbag control, negro militia, acts of Congress and proclamations of the President though backed by the army of the United States, made but little headway against the silent force of white men which was making a last desperate stand for all they held sacred. Lester and Wilson in commenting on the work of the Klan, even before it was transformed into a movement of regulators say: "The order contained within itself, by reason of the methods practiced, sources of weakness. The devices and disguises by which the Klan deceived outsiders enabled all who were so disposed, to practice deception on the Klan itself. It placed in the hands of its own members the facility to do deeds of violence for the gratification of personal feeling, and have them credited to the Klan. To evilly disposed men membership in the Klan was an inducement to wrongdoing. It presented to all men a dangerous temptation, which, in certain contingencies at any time likely to arise, it required a considerable amount of moral robustness to resist. Many did not withstand it. Up to this time, the majority had shown a fair appreciation of the responsibilities of their self-imposed task of preserving social order. But under any circumstances the natural tendency of an organization such as this is to violence and crime--much more under such circumstances as those then prevailing." In September, 1868, Governor Brownlow of Tennessee called the legislature into session, and caused a drastic act to be passed comparable only to the Reconstruction Acts of Congress. Under its terms association or connection with the Ku Klux Klan was punishable by a fine of $500 and imprisonment in the penitentiary for not less than five years. Any inhabitant of the State was constituted an officer possessing power to arrest without process any one known to be or suspected of being a member of the organization; and to feed, lodge or conceal a member was made a criminal offense punishable by fine and imprisonment, and informers were allowed one-half the fine. In spite of this drastic law, the Klan continued to actively operate in Tennessee for over six months. Partly because of this law, and partly because of the fact that in many cases some of the "Dens" had gone beyond their instructions in coping with the situation, and were showing a tendency to get beyond the control of the men who were trying to conduct the movement honestly, but principally because the purpose of its regulation work had been accomplished and there remained no reason for its existence, General Forrest, in the latter part of February, 1869, issued a proclamation as Grand Wizard declaring the Ku Klux Klan dissolved and disbanded.