ter a long and tedious contest
between the State and Federal courts, regarding the subject of their
jurisdiction--which could not fail to prove advantageous to the
accused--the trial, or something which bore a resemblance thereto, was
proceeded with. Viewing the resources of the two parties to the
presentment, and the efforts put forth by each, it could not have been a
success on any terms, and, under the existing conditions, proved a
judicial farce of the first magnitude. The negroes who had made their
escape from the scene of the massacre, and who had held out promises that
they could identify their would-be lynchers, failed to meet the tests
which were imposed at the trial; and the State's witness, mainly relied
upon, either could not, or would not, criminate his associates beyond a
few general statements, that would not have justified even a partial
verdict. After a lengthy trial, pending which the State authorities put
forth their utmost exertions to establish the guilt of the accused, it was
announced that an _alibi_ had been proven in each case; and so ended the
Gibson county horror.

In Obion, a county adjoining Gibson on the west, the details of even a
bloodier affair than that recounted above were given to the public a few
years earlier, but which, for some reason, never found its way into the
courts. We give the outlines in this place, because these horrors, in view
of the _locus in quo_, will always be classed as twin editions in future
histories of the Ku-Klux riots.

In what is known as Madrid Bend, a peninsular territory formed by a curve
in the Mississippi River at its junction with Reelfoot Lake (which
occupies the rear of the district), are situated a number of large farms,
supporting hundreds of negro laborers, and here, as might have been
expected, that doctrine of cause and effect, inversely applied, to which
we have referred in a previous chapter, had its perfect work. On such soil
the K. K. K. vine could not fail to prosper; and accordingly, at an early
day, a Den was organized, which soon afterwards took upon itself the duty
of regulating the affairs of the little kingdom. Loyal League meetings
were broken up; carpet-baggers were requested to skip on brief notice; the
enfranchised masses were not permitted to vote too early, nor too often;
but, what is sincerely to be regretted by the honest historian, called
upon to chronicle these events, and the law-loving public at large,
matters did not sto