The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1871-05-05
KU-KLUx KLAN.
Proclamation by the President.
The Sounding Of the Hew Gag
and the Beating of the
Tom Tom.
WASHINGTON, May 1.
The President issued the following
proclamation to-day:

proclamation to-day:
A PROCLAMATION.
The act Of Congress entitled an act to
enforce the provisions of the Fourteenth
Amendment to the Constitution of the
United States and for other purposes,
approved April 20, A. D. 1871, being a
law OF extraordinary public Importance,
| consider it my duty to issue this my
proclamation, calling the attention Of
the people of the United States
thereto, enjoining upon all good citizens
and especially upon public officers to
be Jealous in the enforcement thereof,
and warning all persons to abstain from
committing any Of the acts thereby pro,
hibited. The law Of Congress applies
to all parts OF the United States, and
will be enforced everywhere to the .ex-
tent of the powers vested in the Execu-
tive; but inasmnch as the necessity
therefor is well known to have been
caused chiefly by persistent violation
of the rights of citizens Of the
United States by combinations Of law
less and disaffected persons in certain
localities, lately the theater of insured
ton and military conflicts, | do partlc-
ularly exhort the people Of those parts
OF the country to suppress all such
combinations by their own voluntary
efforts, through the agency Of local
laws, and to maintain the rights of all
citizens of the United States, and to Sc
cure to all such citizens the equal pro-
lection OF the laws.
Fully sensible Of the responsibility
imposed upon the Executive by the act
of Congress, to which public opinion is
now called, and reluctant to call into
exercise any of the extraordinary pow
ers thereby conferred upon me except
in cases of imperative necessity, do
nevertheless deem it my duty to make
known that | will not hesitate to ex-
haust the power thus vested in the
Executive whenever and wherever it
shall become necessary to 90 SO
for the purpose of securing to all cltl-
zens of the United States the peaceful
enjoyment of the rights guaranteed to
them by the Constitution and laws. 1t
is my earnest wish that peace and cheer
full obedience to the law may prevail
throughout the land, and that all traces
of our late unhappy civil strife may be
speedily removed.
These ends can be easily approached
by acquiescence in the results OF the
conflict now written in our Constitution
and by due and proper enforcement Of
equal, just and impartial laws in every
part of our country. The failure Of
local committees to furnish such means
for the attainment Of results so earnest
ly desired impose upon the National
Government the duty OF putting forth
all its energies for the protection OF its
citizens OF every race and color, and for
the restoration Of peace and order
throughout the entire country.
In testimony whereof / have here
unto set my hand and caused the seal
of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City Of Washington this
third dav o, May, in the year Of our
Lord 1871, and Of the Independence Of
the United States the ninety-ffth.
U. S. GRANT.
By the President,
HAMILTON FISH, Secretary of State.