- tion that prompt and efficient action on the part of the
proper authorities, for the removal of the political disabilities resting upon so many of our people, would heal all the wounds of our State, and make us once more a prosperous, contented, and united people."[1]
This memorial came too late to allay the excited minds of the Radicals. On the 10th of September, the Legislature passed a bill "to preserve the public peace." This bill imposes "a fine of not less than five hundred dollars, and imprisonment in the penitentiary for not less than five years, and renders infamous any person who shall unite with, associate with, promote or encourage any organization of persons who shall prowl through the counties and towns of this State, by day or night, for the purpose of disturbing the peace or alarming the peaceful citizens of any part of the State. In order to secure the proper execution of this act, the same punishment is to be meted out to any person summoned as a witness, who shall fail or refuse to obey the summons, or who shall appear and refuse to testify; the same to any prosecuting attorney who shall be informed of the violation of the act, and fail or refuse to prosecute the person informed on; the same to any officer or other person who shall inform any other person that he was to be summoned as a witness, with the intent of defeating any of the provisions of the act; the same to any one who shall feed, lodge, or entertain or conceal in the woods, or else-*where, any one known to such person to be charged with an offence under the act."
The act further provides, that "no indictment shall be required for prosecution, and no indictments held insufficient for want of form; that where any sheriff or other officer shall return process issued under the act, unexecuted, an alias shall issue, and the officer shall give notice to the inhabitants of the county of such alias by posting a notice
- ↑ See Why the Solid South, by Hilary Herbert, and others.
