Refrences

The trial against the governor attempted to answer many questions in order to understand the fault of Holden, who felt that the trial was completely partisan based and he was completely innocent (Holden 1911, 147).  The arguments made against and for Holden surrounded the constitutionality of the Act, of declaring counties into states of insurrections, of raising a militia through state funds, suspending writs of habeas corpus, and maltreatment of prisoners.   Although specific details about each of these arguments were passed back and forth, the question of the existence of a legitimate threat to these counties was the real question being asked.  “It is further urged that there is a secret organization banded for the commission of crime and outrage on unoffending citizens.  This we believe to be false” (Sparrow 1871, 1069-1070). The managers of the trial agreed that the Ku Klux Klan was not a real organization and that it posed no real threat to the government.  They went further to state that the civil authorities have the power to deal with criminals accused of the actions that were subscribed to KKK members.  Here then, the managers in this impeachment are fighting against what Holden’s ultimate purpose is, to re-store civil authority in the counties.  The Shoffner act is permeated with language about the return of power to the counties and the judicial system to punish criminals.  In his address to the General Assembly of North Carolina Holden stresses the importance of an act that will allow him to help counties where criminals are able to evade civil law (Holden, 121).  Regardless of the partisan ideals behind the trial, it becomes clear that those against Holden either do not realize the violence occurring via the Ku Klux Klan, or refuse to acknowledge it.  This becomes Holden’s largest problem because his entire motivation behind his actions was to repair a broken civil authority that could not quell the violence of these secret societies.  It is therefore important to discover how entrenched the Klan was in the crimes committed in the counties mentioned and why Alamance and Caswell were handled in a much more extreme manner then other counties throughout the state.