صفحة 257 من 657

So perfect was the organisation of the society, and so systematic

its methods, that there is hardly a case upon record where any

man succeeded in braving it with impunity, or in which any of its

outrages were traced home to the perpetrators. For some years the

organisation flourished in spite of the efforts of the United

States government and of the better classes of the community in

the South. Eventually, in the year 1869, the movement rather

suddenly collapsed, although there have been sporadic outbreaks

of the same sort since that date.'