Acts of Congress

This treachery caused the Government to make the most vigorous war upon the Modocs; and before the fist of June they were driven from the lava-beds and were completely subdued. Captain Jack was deserted by most of his followers, and was finally captured, with several of the participants in the murder. They were tried by a court-martial, in August and six of them were condemned to death. Captain Jack and three of his companions were hung on the 3d of October following, at Fort Klamath, in Oregon.

In 1873, public attention, especially in the teeming West, was much occupied with the subject of cheap transportation along the courses of commerce from west to east. The matter was brought before the National Legislature, when it was decided by competent authority, that Congress had, under an express provision of the Constitution, power to regulate commerce carried on by railroads. A bill was introduced, and passed the House of Representatives in March, 1874, for the institution of a board of commissioners (representing the nine judicial districts of the Republic) for the regulation of commerce carried by railroads among the several States. Nothing more was done. In that movement, a new organization known as the "Patrons of Husbandry," took a conspicuous part. It was a secret order for the promotion of the various interests of agriculture, and had then become powerful in numbers and influence. Its growth had been marvelous. It was divided into local associations known as "Granges." There was a central or parent organization, called the National Grange, established at the capital of the Republic. State Granges were formed, with subordinate Granges in towns and counties. The membership consisted of men and women interested in agricultural pursuits.

These Granges first appeared in 1870. Their wonderful growth began in 1871, when there were only ninety in the whole country; in 1876, when they reached their maximum in strength, there were nineteen thousand. As the organization grew into immense proportions, politicians tried to seduce the Granges to their support; but the imperative rule of the Order, that no political or religious topics should be discussed at their meetings, foiled the politicians. In its aim, the organization was an admirable one; and it was the first of the secret societies (for it had secret pass-words and methods of admission) which had admitted women to full membership. How could the Patrons of Husbandry do otherwise, when the work and influence of women in the business of agriculture in our country, is so important? The value of their exertions may be estimated, in a degree, when we consider the vast amount of mental and physical labor now performed, directly or indirectly, by women in the food production of our country, as in all others. In the annual production here of more than six hundred million pounds of butter and two hundred and fifty million pounds of cheese, a very large proportion is the result of woman's labor, besides their attention to poultry, the gathering of honey, and the products of the garden and orchard. In the Great West, and especially among the foreign-born population, women do a vast amount of planting, weeding, cultivating, haying, harvesting, and even caring for live-stock.

During the year 1874, social and political affairs in several of the Southern States, particularly in Louisiana, were so unsettled that much uneasiness was produced in the public mind. Outrages of various kinds, and even murders, were committed in many places for the evident purpose of keeping peaceable citizens from the polls, and an utter disregard for law was shown. In September (1874), when these outrages were increasing in number and violence, the Attorney-General, with the sanction of the President, issued a Circular-letter to the authorities in the States alluded to, expressing his determination to take vigorous steps for upholding the laws and protecting the rights of all citizens of whatever class or hue; and the President directed the Secretary of War to consult and act with the Attorney-General in the matter. By prompt action on the part of the National Government, these outrages were nearly suppressed by the beginning of 1875; but they broke out with greater vehemence in the summer of 1876, and prevailed in fearful force during the canvass for President of the United States, in the autumn of that year. The leaders and inciters of these outrages were members of a secret organization known as the "White League," formed for the purpose of overawing the colored population, and depriving them of the privileges of the ballot.