That there must be disturbances of all kinds in the States of the rebellion there was, of course, no question. That great care and forbearance would be necessary upon the part of the civil authorities was evident; and that it was very desirable to restore the normal condition of society as soon as practicable was unquestionable from the first. It was the duty of the civil officers of those States to postpone appeals to military interference to the last possible moment; and this was most desirable, not only in itself and upon general principles, but, for the Republican party, upon partisan grounds. For it was clear that an appeal to force would injure the party in two ways: first, it would suggest the suspicion that it was, as has been alleged of the present difficulty in North Carolina, oppression for party purposes; and, in the second place, it would be cited as proof of the inefficiency of Republican reconstruction. For every reason, therefore, it was most desirable that the civil authority should be every where paramount.

But it was equally evident that in the condition of society which the war left in the States of the rebellion there must necessarily be such occasional disturbances of the peace, so organized, so persistent, so formidable, that the ordinary civil processes would not avail. It was unreasonable to expect that the disordered States would be restored to a normal situation without very serious troubles, in which military interference would be wholly justified. And precisely this is the case in North Carolina. The crimes of the Ku-Klux defied the civil means of repression. The Governor, who is the responsible executive officer, states, as a fact, what all the probabilities confirm, that the organized ruffians and assassins laughed at proclamations, exhortations, and the civil process, and he was compelled either to tolerate anarchy in the State or to use military force. He decided not to surrender to the rebels, and placed certain counties under martial law, and invoked, as the Constitution authorizes, the assistance of the national power, which was promptly granted. Governor Holden did what Governor King, of Rhode Island, did in the "Dorr war" in that State in 1842.

Of course, a Governor is to be held responsible if he invokes national aid before it is necessary; if he does not exhaust the lawful resources of the State before this final appeal; and if he permits any abuse of the military interference when it becomes indispensable. But the passionate assertion of his partisan opponents can not be accepted as evidence of his guilt. We have the testimony of the Chief Justice of the State, that the power of the civil process was exhausted. And while there is unquestionably exaggeration in all the reports, no one who has been a faithful student of the spirit and methods of the Ku-Klux Klan will believe that the action of the Governor has been merely a partisan trick to carry the election.