Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/858

* BECONSTBtrCTION. 758 RECORD. their full positions in the Union, but subject to certain conditions which to some extent im- paired their equality with the original States. Finally, after being twice reconstrvicted, Georgia complied with the new conditions imposed by Congress, and by an act of June 24, 1870, was again restored to her place in the Union and military government was withdrawn. From the technical point of view reconstruc- tion was now conii)lete, but the consequences of what has come to be generally recognized as a mistaken policy were destined during the ensuing years to be far-reaching in their effects upon the reconstructed States. As a result of the dis- franchisement of large classes of whites and the enfranchisement of the negro race, which out- numbered the whites in some of the Southern States, the local and commonwealth governments fell into the hands of unscrujjulous adventurers from the Xorth and West, who controlled the colored vote and excluded the native whites from participation in the administration of the gov- ernment. Xegroes who but a few years earlier were in slavery now filled up the Legislatures, held many of the executive offices, many of the minor judicial positions, and in some cases oc- cupied seats on the benches of the higher courts. An era of extravagance, amounting to outright plunder in some States, now set in. Legislative sessions were frequent and long drawn out, the members voting themselves a large per diem as compensation for their services. Bulky codes were enacted and numerous offices, amounting to sinecures in many cases, were created for the benefit of the 'carpetbaggers,' who now came in great numbers to the South. The rate of tax- ation everywhere was increased out of all pro- portion to the ability of the people to pay in their then impoverished condition. In Missis- sippi the rate rose from one mill on the dollar to fourteen, and resulted in the confiscation of one- sixth of the entire land of the State for non- payment of taxes. In most of the States large debts were created for projected improvements, many of which were never carried out. In Louisiana and South Carolina a wholesale sys- tem of plunder was inaugurated. In the latter Slate the public debt was increased from .$5,000,- 000 in 1868 to .$18,000,000 in 1872, with little to show for it. The tax lew of $500,000 a year was raised to .$2,000,000, although the value of taxable propertv had decreased from $400,000,- 000 to $200,000,000. Soon disorders began to arise in all the Southern States, and presently the Ku-Klux Klan (q.v. ) was organized to ter- rorize the negroes and exclude them from the en- joyment of their newly acquired political rights. Tile disorder became so great that Congress was called upon to take action to preserve order and protect the blacks. By the so-called Enforcement Act of 1870 the Federal courts were given juris- diction of a series of ofl'enses committed with the intention of denving equal rights to anv citizen of the LTnited States. The Federal district at- torneys now bestirred themselves throughout the South, and many indictments were found under the act, but few convictions followed. In the following year Congress passed the so-called Ku- Kliix Act, which authorized the President to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and employ military force for the suppression of violence in any community. Acts were also passed pro- viding for Federal supervision of elections, and finally, in 1875, an act was passed to secure equality of treatment to negroes in theatres, railway cars, hotels, and other public places. This act, however, as well as the chief provision of the Ku-Klux Act, was declared by the Supreme Court to be unconstitutional, not being within the power of Congress, As the extravagance and CTirruption of the carpetbag governments in- creased, the determination of the whites to re- gain control of affaiys became fixed. The with- drawal of the military forces from the South left the reconstruction governments without power to maintain themselves. Already by 1870 North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Georgia, and Virginia had been 'reclaimed' from the Republi- cans, ileantime the wholesale removal of po- litical disabilities by Congress restored to public life many old and respected citizens of the South, This, together with the division of the Southern Republicans into conservative and radical wings, the former coalescing with the Democrats, made possible Democratic success. In 1874 Alabama and Arkansas went Democratic, and the carpet- bag governments in those States came to an end. In the following year a great campaign was waged in Mississippi not unaccompanied by vio- lence, intimidation, and even riots, but which resulted in the defeat of the Republicans. The 'Mississippi plan' was applied with success, in 1876. to the three remaining States of Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida. The 'redemption' of the Southern States was now complete, and was followed by a general emigration of the 'carjietbaggers' to the States of the North and West. The subsequent virtual disfranchisement of the negro race in the South marks the final recession from the status established b3' the process of reconstruction. Consult: Dunning, Essays on I he Civil War and Reconstruction (New York, 1808) ; Burgess, Rcconstnietiun mid the Constitution (New York, 1902) ; Andrews, The United States During the Last Quarter of a Century (New York, 1896, 2 vols,) ; Scott, Reconstruction in Civil War (Bos- ton, 1895) ; JlcPherson, Political History of the Rebellion (Washington, 1864) ; id.. Political History of Reconstruction (Washington, 1871); Herbert, Why the Solid South f (Baltimore, 1890) ; Co.x, Three Decades of Federal Legisla- tion; McCarthy, Lincohi's Plan of Reconstruc- tion (New York, 1901); Blaine, Twenty Years in Congress (Norwich, Conn., 1884). Consult also a series of excellent articles in the Atlantic ilonthly, vols. Ixxxvii and lxx.viii. RECORD ( OF. record, recort, from ML. recor- duni, witness, record, judgment, from Lat. recor- dari, recordare, to remember, call to mind, from re-, back again, anew -|- cor. heart), iTudicial, A written history or account of the entire pro- ceedings in a case. The importance of keeping such records was not recognized until long after regular tribunals of justice had been established. It seems to be undisputed that William the Con- queror introduced the practice into England. .t the early common law it was the custom for the proper court oIlici.Al to enter upon pieces of parchment the pleadings and a brief account of all the steps and proceedings taken in the action, including the judgment. These various pieces were attached together in regular order, and wound into a spiral roll for convenient safe keeping. This was known as the 'judgment roll,' and this term is still applied to the various