tremes and for
that reason were not so much used. In Bullock County, Alabama, a council
of the League was organized under the direction of a Negro emissary, who
proceeded to assume the government of the community. A list of crimes
and punishments was adopted, a court with various officials was
established, and during the night the Negroes who opposed the new
regime were arrested. But the black sheriff and his deputy were in
turn arrested by the civil authorities. The Negroes then organized for
resistance, flocked into the county seat, and threatened to exterminate
the whites and take possession of the county. Their agents visited
the plantations and forced the laborers to join them by showing orders
purporting to be from General Swayne, the commander in the state, giving
them the authority to kill all who resisted them. Swayne, however, sent
out detachments of troops and arrested fifteen of the ringleaders, and
the League government collapsed.

After it was seen that existing political institutions were to be
overturned in the process of reconstruction, the white councils of the
League and, to a certain extent, the Negro councils were converted into
training schools for the leaders of the new party soon to be formed in
the state by act of Congress. The few whites who were in control were
unwilling to admit more white members to share in the division of the
spoils; terms of admission became more stringent, and, especially
after the passage of the reconstruction acts in March 1867, many white
applicants were rejected. The alien element from the North was in
control and as a result, where the blacks were numerous, the largest
plums fell to the carpetbaggers. The Negro leaders--the politicians,
preachers, and teachers--trained in the League acted as subordinates
to the whites and were sent out to drum up the country Negroes when
elections drew near. The Negroes were given minor positions when offices
were more plentiful than carpetbaggers. Later, after some complaint, a
larger share of the offices fell to them. The League counted its largest
white membership in 1865-66, and after that date it steadily decreased.
The largest Negro membership was recorded in 1867 and 1868. The total
membership was never made known. In North Carolina the order claimed
from seventy-five thousand to one hundred and twenty-five thousand
members; in states with larger Negro populations the membership was
probably quite as large. After the election