at the court-house door, and if the inhabitants shall permit the defendant to be or live in the county without arrest, they shall be subject to an assessment of not less than five hundred dollars and not more than five thousand dollars; that all the inhabitants of the State shall be authorized to arrest offenders under the act, without process; that every public officer shall swear that he has never been a member of the Ku-Klux Klan." The measure of damages was as follows: For entering the house or place of residence of any officer at night, in a hostile manner, or against his will, ten thousand dollars; and for the killing of any peaceable individual at night, twenty thousand dollars. All other damages were to be assessed in proportion.[1]
Even the passage of this extraordinary law did not satisfy Governor Brownlow. Under his guidance, the Legislature re-enacted the military laws, and conferred upon him the power to declare martial law whenever and wherever he saw fit. He did not suffer this prerogative to remain idle. On the 20th of January, 1868, he called the State Guards into active service. Several days later he issued the following proclamation:
"Whereas, There are now sixteen hundred State Guards
at Nashville armed and equipped under the command of
Joseph Cooper; and Whereas, These troops are intended
to preserve peace and enforce the laws in counties heretofore
in partial rebelion.
"Now, therefore, I, W. G. Brownlow, Governor of Tennessee, do hereby proclaim martial law in and over the following named counties, to wit: Overton, Jackson, Maury, Giles, Marshall, Lawrence, Gibson, Madison, and Haywood.
"And I further direct that General Cooper distribute these troops at once and continue them in service until
- ↑ Acts of Tennessee, Extra Session, 1868, p. 18.
