In further consideration of this question, the numbers and extent of the various orders of the Ku Klux Klan, may be taken as a partial guide. The testimony of Gen. N. B. Forrest is pertinent to the point. His position as GRAND CYCLOPS of the Order, lends to his testimony the probability of truth which it would not otherwise possess; and when it is considered that he gave it with the greatest reluctance, one readily arrives at the conclusion that his figures are by no means exaggerated. According to the statements made by Gen. Forrest, the Order numbered not less than _five hundred and fifty thousand men_. According to his estimate, there were _forty thousand Ku Klux in the State of Tennessee_ alone, and he believed the organization still stronger in other States. Here, then, we have a vast array of men banded together with the secret purpose of banishing from the country, or scourging and murdering all who differed from them politically. In view of the numbers and extent of this organization, and the positive evidence of the fearful work of its members, the statement that twenty-three thousand persons have suffered scourging and death at their hands, may be considered under, rather than over, the real numbers. In North Carolina alone, eighteen hundred members of the Order stand indicted for their participation in outrages upon persons and property. In South Carolina, the number reaches over seven hundred. Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas, and other States, swells the aggregate to more than five thousand, and the investigations upon which these indictments have been procured, disclose a condition of affairs, which, it is difficult to conceive, could exist in a civilized community;--much less in a Republic, noted among the nations of the earth for its liberality, its progression, its enlarged freedom, the security of life, liberty, property, and the equal rights of all. THE EXISTENCE OF THE EVILS herein enumerated is placed beyond all doubt and cavil. In the light of the recorded and corroborated facts, the nation will demand to know:-- _First._ How far the present administrators of the Government have fulfilled the duties and responsibilities confided to them by the people? _Second._ What has been done to remedy the evils that have made life in Southern communities intolerable and unsafe? _Third._ What steps are necessary to prevent a recurrence of these evils in the future? Happily the first two questions have been amply answered in the acts of the administration. A careful study of the necessities of the case, the enactment of appropriate laws, applicable thereto, and their vigorous, but humane enforcement, constitute a plan, the successful elaboration of which gives answer to the third question, of "how a recurrence of these evils may be prevented in the future."