.

[Footnote 1: As the men were not natives of the South, had no property
there, and were mostly political adventurers, they were called
"carpetbaggers," or men who owned nothing save what they brought in
their carpetbags.]

Now, you must remember that in many of the Southern states the negro
voters greatly outnumbered the white voters, because there were more
black men than white men, and because many of the whites were still
disfranchised; that is, could not vote. When these men, who were
property owners and taxpayers, found that the carpetbaggers, by means of
the negro vote, were plundering and robbing the states, they determined
to prevent the negro from voting, and so drive the carpetbaggers from
the legislatures. To do this, in many parts of the South they formed
secret societies, called "The Invisible Empire" and "The Ku Klux Klan."
Completely disguised by masks and outlandish dresses, the members rode
at night, and whipped, maimed, and even murdered the objects of their
wrath, who were either negroes who had become local political leaders,
or carpetbaggers, or "scalawags," as the Southern whites who supported
the negro cause were called.

%501. The Fifteenth Amendment.%--To secure the negro the right to
vote, and make it no longer dependent on state action, a Fifteenth
Amendment was passed by Congress in February, 1869, and, after
ratification by the necessary number of states, was put in force in
March, 1870. As the Ku Klux were violating this amendment, by preventing
the negroes from voting, Congress, in 1871, passed the "Ku Klux" or
"Force" Act. It prescribed fine and imprisonment for any man convicted
of hindering, or even attempting to hinder, any negro from voting, or
the votes, when cast, from being counted.

[Illustration: U. S. Grant]

%502. Rise of the Liberal Republicans.%--This legislation and the
conflicts that grew out of it in Louisiana kept alive the old issue of
amnesty, and in Missouri split the Republican party and led to the rise
of a new party, which received the name of "Liberal Republicans,"
because it was in favor of a more liberal treatment of the South. From
Missouri, the movement spread into Iowa, into Kansas, into Illinois, and
into New Jersey, and by 1872 was serious enough to encourage the leaders
to call for a national convention which gathered at Cincinnati (May,
1872), and, after declaring for amnesty, universal suffrage, civil
service reform, and no more land grants to rai