CHAPTER III.ToC

[31]It will be remembered that in March, 1867, the Reconstruction Acts were passed and that in April, 1867, the Reconstruction was beginning.—Editor.

[32]"It originated with returned soldiers for the purpose of punishing those negroes who had become notoriously and offensively insolent to white people, and, in some cases, to chastise those white skinned men who, at that particular time, showed a disposition to affiliate socially with negroes. The impression sought to be made upon these latter was that these white-robed night prowlers were the ghosts of the Confederate dead, who had arisen from their graves in order to wreak vengeance on an undesirable class of both white and black men."—Ryland Randolph.

[33]The class called "tories" during the Civil War. They should not be confused with the genuine Unionists.—Editor.

[34]Sometimes called "Loyal League." See in regard to this secret society—Fleming, Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama, Ch. 16, and (West Virginia University) Documents relating to Reconstruction, No. 3.—Editor.

[35]On this point the testimony of Generals Forrest, John B. Gordon and E.W. Pettus, and J.A. Minnis, in the Ku Klux Report, is instructive.—Editor.

[36]Pease, "In the Wake of War," (fiction) gives a very good description of affairs in Tennessee by one who was thoroughly familiar with conditions there.

Until the beginning of the year 1867, the movements of the Klan had, in the main, been characterized by prudence and discretion; but there were some exceptions. In some cases there had been a liberal construction of orders and of what was by common consent the law of the Klan. In some, the limits, which tacitly it had been agreed upon not to pass, had been overstepped.

Attempts had been made to correct by positive means evils which menaces had not been sufficient to remove. Rash, imprudent and bad men had gotten into the order. The danger which the more prudent and thoughtful had apprehended as possible was now a reality. Had it been possible to do so, some of the leaders would have been in favor of disbanding. That could not well be done, because at that time the organization was so loose and imperfect. So to speak, the tie thatbound them together was too shadowy to be cut or untied. They had evoked a spirit from "the vasty deep." It would not down at their bidding.

And, besides, the Klan was needed. The only course which seemed to promise any satisfactory solution of the difficulty was this: To reorganize the Klan on a plan corresponding to its size and present purposes; to bind the isolated dens together; to secure unity of purpose and concert of action; to hedge the members up by such limitations and regulations as were best adapted to restrain them within proper limits; to distribute the authority among prudent men at local centres, and exact from them a close supervision of those under their charge.

In this way it was hoped the impending dangers would be effectually guarded against. With these objects in view the Grand Cyclops of the Pulaski Den sent out a request to all the dens of which he had knowledge, to appoint delegates to meet in convention at Nashville, Tenn., in the early summer of 1867.[37]At thetime appointed this convention was held. Delegates were present from Tennessee, Alabama, and a number of other States. A plan of reorganization, previously prepared, was submitted to this convention and adopted. After the transaction of some further business, the convention adjourned, and the delegates returned home without having attracted any attention.

At this convention the territory covered by the Klan was designated as the "Invisible Empire." This was subdivided into "realms" coterminous with the boundaries of States. The "realms" were divided into "dominions," corresponding to Congressional districts; the "dominions" into "provinces" coterminous with counties; and the "provinces" into "dens."

To each of these departments officers were assigned.

Except in the case of the supreme officer, the duties of each were minutely specified.

These officers were:

The Grand Wizard of the Invisible Empire and his ten Genii. The powers of this officer were almost autocratic.

The Grand Dragon of the Realm and his eight Hydras.

The Grand Titan of the Dominion and his six Furies.

The Grand Cyclops of the Den and his two Night Hawks.

A Grand Monk.

A Grand Scribe.

A Grand Exchequer.

A Grand Turk.

A Grand Sentinel.

The Genii, Hydras, Furies, Goblins and Night Hawks were staff officers. The gradation and distribution of authority was perfect. But for one source of weakness, the Klan, under this new organization, was one of the most perfectly organized orders that ever existed in the world.

As we shall see presently, it was vulnerable and failed because of the character of its methods. Secrecy was at first its strength. It afterwards became its greatest weakness. As long as mystery was conjoined with it, it was strength. When masks and disguises ceased to be mysterious, secrecy was weakness.

One of the most important things done by this Nashville convention was to makea positive and emphatic declaration of the principles of the order. It was in the following terms:

"We recognize our relations to the United States Government; the supremacy of the Constitution; the constitutional laws thereof; and the union of States thereunder."

If these men were plotting treason, it puzzles us to know why they should make such a statement as that in setting forth the principles of the order. The statement above quoted was not intended for general circulation and popular effect. So far as is known, it is now given to the public for the first time. We must regard it, therefore, as accurately describing the political attitude which the Ku Klux proposed and desired to maintain. Every man who became a member of the Klan really took an oath to support the Constitution of the United States.

This Nashville convention also defined and set forth the peculiar objects of the order, as follows:[38]

(1.) "To protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenceless, from the indignities, wrongs and outrages of the lawless, the violent and the brutal; to relieve the injured and the oppressed; to succor the suffering, and especially the widows and orphans of Confederate soldiers.

(2.) "To protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and all laws passed in conformity thereto, and to protect the States and people thereof from all invasion from any source whatever.

(3.) "To aid and assist in the execution of all constitutional laws, and to protect the people from unlawful seizure, and from trial except by their peers in conformity to the laws of the land."

This last clause was the result of the infamous and barbarous legislation of that day. On the 3rd of June, 1865, the Thirty-fourth General Assembly of Tennessee revived the sedition law and restricted the right of suffrage.[39]A negromilitia, ignorant and brutal, were afterwards put over the State, and spread terror throughout its borders. Men felt that they had no security for life, liberty, or property. They were persecuted if they dared to complain. It was no strange thing if they resorted to desperate measures for protection. The emergency was desperate. Taking all the circumstances and aggravations into consideration one cannot but be surprised that men so persecuted and oppressed remained so moderate and forbearing.

The legislation of the Nashville Convention of Ku Klux bears internal evidence of what we know from other sources to be true. Whilst devising measures for protection to life and property, and for the resistance of lawlessness and oppression, whether from irresponsible parties or from those who professed to be acting legally and under cover of authority, they were anxious also to control the Klan itself and to keep it within what they conceived to be safe limits.

Up to this time the majority had shown a fair appreciation of the responsibilities of their self-imposed task ofpreserving social order. But under any circumstances the natural tendency of an organization such as this is to violence and crime—much more under such circumstances as those then prevailing.

Excesses had been committed. Whether justly so or not, they were credited to the Klan. And it was foreseen and feared that if such things continued or increased the hostility of State and Federal Governments would be kindled against the Klan and active measures taken to suppress it. The hope was entertained that the legislations taken by the convention and the reorganization would not only enable the Klan to enact itsroleas Regulators with greater success, but would keep its members within the prescribed limits, and so guard against the contingencies referred to. They desired on the one hand, to restrain and control their own members; on the other to correct evils and promote order in society; and to do the lattersolelyby utilizing for this purpose the means and methods originally employed for amusement. In each direction the success was but partial, as will be told presently.

By the reorganization no material change was made in the methods of the Klan's operations. Some of the old methods were slightly modified; a few new features were added. The essential features of mystery, secrecy and grotesqueness were retained, and steps were taken with a view to deepening and intensifying the impressions already made upon the public mind. They attempted to push to the extreme limits of illustration the power of the mysterious over the minds of men.

Henceforth they courted publicity as assiduously as they had formerly seemed to shun it. They appeared at different points at the same time, and always when and where they were the least expected. Devices were multiplied to deceive people in regard to their numbers and everything else, and to play upon the fears of the superstitious.

As it was now the policy of the Klan to appear in public, an order was issued by the Grand Dragon of the Realm of Tennessee to the Grand Giants of the Provinces for a general parade in the capital town of each Province on the night of the 4th of July, 1867. It will be sufficient forthis narrative to describe that parade as witnessed by the citizens of Pulaski. Similar scenes were enacted at many other places.

On the morning of the 4th of July, 1867, the citizens of Pulaski found the sidewalks thickly strewn with slips of paper bearing the printed words:[40]"The Ku Klux will parade the streets to-night." This announcement created great excitement. The people supposed that their curiosity, so long baffled, would now be gratified. They were confident that this parade would at least afford them the opportunity to find out who were the Ku Klux.

Soon after nightfall the streets were lined with an expectant and excited throng of people. Many came from the surrounding country. The members of the Klan in the county left their homes in the afternoon and traveled alone or in squads of two or three, with their paraphernalia carefully concealed. If questioned, they answered that they were going to Pulaski to see the Ku Klux parade. Afternightfall they assembled at designated points near the four main roads leading into town. Here they donned their robes and disguises and put covers of gaudy materials on their horses. A skyrocket sent up from some point in the town was the signal to mount and move. The different companies met and passed each other on the public square in perfect silence; the discipline appeared to be admirable.[41]Not a word was spoken. Necessary orders were given by means of the whistles. In single file, in death-like stillness, with funeral slowness, they marched and counter-marched throughout the town. While the column was headed North on one street it was going South on another. By crossing over in opposite directions the lines were kept up in almost unbroken continuity. The effect was to create the impression of vast numbers. This marching and counter-marching was kept up for about two hours, and the Klan departed as noiselessly as they came. The public were more than ever mystified. Curiosity had not been satisfied, as it wasexpected it would be. The efforts of the most curious and cunning to find out who were Ku Klux failed. One gentleman from the country, a great lover of horses, who claimed to know every horse in the county, was confident that he would be able to identify the riders by the horses. With this purpose in view, he remained in town to witness the parade. But, as we have said, the horses were disguised as well as the riders. Determined not to be baffled, during a halt of the column he lifted the cover of a horse that was near him—the rider offering no objection—and recognized his own steed and saddle upon which he had ridden into town. The town people were on the alert also to see who of the young men of the town would be with the Ku Klux. All of them, almost without exception, were marked, mingling freely and conspicuously with the spectators. Those of them who were members of the Klan did not go into the parade.

This demonstration had the effect for which it was designed. Perhaps the greatest illusion produced by it was in regard to the numbers participating in it. Reputable citizens—men of cool and accurate judgment—were confident that thenumber was not less than three thousand. Others, whose imaginations were more easily wrought upon, were quite certain there were ten thousand. The truth is, that the number of Ku Klux in the parade did not exceed four hundred. This delusion in regard to numbers prevailed wherever the Ku Klux appeared. It illustrates how little the testimony of even an eye-witness is worth in regard to anything which makes a deep impression on him by reason of its mysteriousness.

The Klan had a large membership; it exerted a vast, terrifying and wholesome power; but its influence was never at any time dependent on, or proportioned to, its membership. It was in the mystery in which the comparatively few enshrouded themselves. Gen. Forrest, before the Investigating Committee, placed the number of Ku Klux in Tennessee at 40,000,[42]and in the entire South at 550,000. This was with him only a guessing estimate.[43]Careful investigation leads to the conclusion that he overshoots the mark in both cases. It is an error to suppose that the entire male population of the South were Ku Klux, or that even a majority of them were privy to its secrets and in sympathy with its extremest measures. To many of them, perhaps to a majority, the Ku Klux Klan was as vague, impersonal and mysterious as to the people of the North, or of England. They did attribute to it great good and to this day remember with gratitude the protection it afforded them in the most trying and perilous period of their history, when there was no other earthly source to which to appeal.[44]

CostumesCostumes Worn in Tennessee and North AlabamaFACING PAGE 97ToList

Costumes Worn in Tennessee and North AlabamaFACING PAGE 97ToList

One or two illustrations may here be given of the methods resorted to to play upon the superstitious fears of the negroes and others.[45]At the parade in Pulaski, while the procession was passing a corner on which a negro man was standing, a tall horseman in hideous garb turned aside from the line, dismounted, and stretched out his bridle rein toward the negro, as if he desired him to hold his horse. Not daring to refuse, the frightened African extended his hand to grasp the rein. As he did so, the Ku Klux took his own head from his shoulders and offered to place that also in the outstretched hand. The negro stood not upon the order of his going, but departed with a yell of terror. To this day he will tell you: "He done it, suah, boss. I seed him do it." The gown was fastened by a draw-string over the top of the wearer's head. Over this was worn an artificial skull made of a large gourd or of pasteboard. This with the hat could be readily removed, and the man would then appear to be headless.Such tricks gave rise to the belief—still prevalent among the negroes—that the Ku Klux could take themselves all to pieces whenever they wanted to.

Some of the Ku Klux carried skeleton hands. These were made of bone or wood with a handle long enough to be held in the hand, which was concealed by the gown sleeve. The possessor of one of these was invariably of a friendly turn and offered to shake hands with all he met, with what effect may be readily imagined.

A trick of frequent perpetration in the country was for a horseman, spectral and ghostly looking, to stop before the cabin of some negro needing a wholesome impression and call for a bucket of water. If a dipper or gourd was brought it was declined, and the bucket full of water demanded. As if consumed by raging thirst the horseman grasped it and pressed it to his lips. He held it there till every drop of the water was poured into a gum or oiled sack concealed beneath the Ku Klux robe. Then the empty bucket was returned to the amazed negro with the remark: "That's good. It is the first drink of water I have had since I waskilled at Shiloh." Then a few words of counsel as to future behavior made an impression not easily forgotten or likely to be disregarded.

Under ordinary circumstances such devices are unjustifiable. But in the peculiar state of things then existing they served a good purpose. It was not only better to deter the negroes from theft and other lawlessness in this way than to put them in the penitentiary; but it was the only way, at this time, by which they could be controlled. The jails would not contain them. The courts could not or would not try them. The policy of the Klan all the while was to deter men from wrongdoing. It was only in rare, exceptional cases, and these the most aggravated, that it undertook to punish.[46]

[37]"In the spring of 1867," says Wilson in theCentury Magazine, July, 1884. May was the month of meeting. This was just after the Reconstruction Acts had been passed.—Editor.

[38]I am convinced that the authors are mistaken in saying that the first convention adopted the Prescript containing these declarations. The Prescript adopted was the one reproduced in Appendix I. The other one, reproduced in Appendix II, was adopted, it is believed, in 1868.—Editor.

[39]Ex-Confederates were practically all excluded from the suffrage.—Editor.

[40]Notices were posted in every public place, and even pasted on the backs of hogs and cows running loose in the streets.—Miss Cora R. Jones.

[41]Most members of the Klan had been Confederate soldiers and were familiar with military drill and discipline.—Editor.

[42]A later estimate places the membership of Ku Klux Klan at 72,000 in Tennessee alone.—Washington Post, August 13, 1905.

[43]Forrest denied that he had made such an estimate. There were many other orders similar to Ku Klux Klan and the total membership was probably about half a million.—Editor.

[44]It made the women feel safer. "And then came the reign of martial law, and the Freedmen's Bureau. Those dark days of the Reconstruction period rapidly followed the horrors of civil war, and the reign of the carpetbagger began, goading the people to desperation. For their protection the younger and more reckless men of the community now formed a secret society, which masqueraded at night in grotesque and grewsome character called the Ku Klux Klan. Always silent and mysterious, mounted on horses, they swept noiselessly by in the darkness with gleaming death's heads, skeletons and chains. It struck terror into the heart of the evil-doer, while the peaceful citizen knew a faithful patrol had guarded his premises while he slept."—Mrs. Stubbs, in "Saunders' Early Settlers of Alabama," p. 31.

[45]A practice not mentioned here was that of sending out the peculiar warnings and orders, specimens of which are printed in Appendix IV.—Editor.

[46]"We had regular meetings about once a week, at which the conduct of certain offensive characters would be discussed, and if the majority voted to punish such it would be accordingly done on certain prescribed nights. Sometimes it was deemed necessary only to post notices of warning, which, in some cases, were sufficient to alarm the victims sufficiently to induce them to reform in their behavior."—Ryland Randolph.

For a while after the reorganization of the Klan, those concerned for its welfare and right conduct congratulated themselves that all was now well. Closer organization and stricter official supervision had a restraining influence upon the members. Many things seemed to indicate that the future work of the Klan would be wholly good.

These hopes were rudely shattered. Ere long official supervision grew less rigid or was less regarded. The membership was steadily increasing. Among the new material added were some bad men who could not be—at least were not—controlled.

In the winter and spring of 1867 and 1868 many things were done by members, or professed members, of the Klan, which were the subject of universal regret and condemnation. In many ways the gravecensure of those who had hitherto been friendly to it was evoked against the Klan, and occasion, long sought for, was given its enemies to petition the intervention of the government to suppress it. The end came rapidly. We must now trace the causes which wrought the decay and downfall of the "Invisible Empire."

In regard to the doings of the Ku Klux two extreme positions have been advocated. On the one hand, it is asserted that the Ku Klux committed no outrages. On the other, that they were the authors of all the depredations committed by masked and disguised men in the Southern States from 1865 to 1869. The truth lies between these two extremes. Great outrages were committed by bands of disguised men during those years of lawlessness and oppression. And the fact must be admitted that some of these outrages were committed, if not by the order and approbation of the Klan, at least by men who were members of it.[47]

The thoughtful reader will readily understand how this came about.

There was a cause which naturally and almost necessarily produced the result.Men of the character of the majority of those who composed the Klan do not disregard their own professed principles and violate self-assumed obligations without cause. We have seen that the Klan was in the main composed of the very best men in the country—peaceable, law-loving and law-abiding men—men of good habits and character—men of property and intelligence.

We have seen that the organization had no political significance; they expressly and in solemn secret compact declared their allegiance to the constitution and all constitutional laws, and pledged themselves to aid in the administration of all such laws. To see such men defying law and creating disorder, is a sight singular enough to awake inquiry as to the causes which had been at work upon them. The transformation of the Ku Klux Klan, from a band of regulators, honestly trying to preserve peace and order, into the body of desperate men who, in 1869, convulsed the country and set at defiance the mandates of both State and Federal governments, is greater than the transformation which we have already traced.

In both cases there were causes at work adequate to the results produced; causes from which, as remarked before, the results followed naturally and necessarily.

These have never been fully and fairly stated. They may be classed under three general heads: (1). Unjust charges. (2). Misapprehension of the nature and objects of the order on the part of those not members of it. (3). Unwise and over-severe legislation.

As has already been pointed out, the order contained within itself, by reason of the methods practiced, sources of weakness. The devices and disguises by which the Klan deceived outsiders enabled all who were so disposed, even its own members, to practice deception on the Klan itself. It placed in the hands of its own members the facility to do deeds of violence for the gratification of personal feeling, and have them credited to the Klan. To evilly-disposed men membership in the Klan was an inducement to wrongdoing. It presented to all men a dangerous temptation, which, in certain contingencies at any time likely to arise, it required a considerable amount of moral robustness to resist. Many did notwithstand it. And deeds of violence were done by men who were Ku Klux, but who, while acting under cover of their connection with the Klan, were not under its orders. But because these men were Ku Klux, the Klan had to bear the odium of wrongdoing.[48]

In addition to this, the very class which the Klan proposed to hold in check and awe into good behavior, soon became wholly unmanageable. Those who had formerly committed depredations to be laid to the charge of the negroes, after a brief interval of good behavior, assumedthe guise of Ku Klux and returned to their old ways, but with less boldness and more caution, showing the salutary impression which the Klan had made upon them. In some cases the negroes played Ku Klux. Outrages were committed by masked men in regions far remote from any Ku Klux organizations. The parties engaged took pains to assert that they were Ku Klux,which the members of the Klan never did. This was evidence that these parties were simply aping Ku Klux disguises. The proof on this point is ample and clear. After the passage of the Anti Ku Klux Statute by the State of Tennessee, several instances occurred of parties being arrested in Ku Klux disguises; but in every instance they proved to be either negroes or "radical" Brownlow Republicans. This occurred so often that the statute was allowed by the party in power to become a dead letter before its repeal. It bore too hard on "loyal" men when enforced.

The same thing occurred in Georgia and other States. (See testimony of General Gordon and others before the Investigating Committee.)

No single instance occurred of the arrest of a masked man who proved to be—when stripped of his disguises—a Ku Klux.

But it came to pass that all the disorder done in the country was charged upon the Ku Klux, because done under disguises which they had invented and used. The Klan had no way in which to disprove or refute the charges. They felt that it was hard to be charged with violence of which they were innocent. At the same time they felt that it was natural, and, under the circumstances, not wholly unjust that this should be the case. They had assumed the office of Regulators. It was therefore due society, due themselves, and due the Government, which, so far, had not molested them, that they should, at least, not afford the lawless classes facilities for the commission of excesses greater than any they had hitherto indulged in, and above all, that they should restrain their own members from lawlessness.

The Klan felt all this; and in its efforts to relieve itself of the stigma thus incurred, it acted in some cases against the offending parties with a severity wellmerited, no doubt, but unjustifiable.[49]As is frequently the case they were carried beyond the limits of prudence and right by a hot zeal for self-vindication against unjust aspersions.

They felt that the charge of wrong was unfairly brought against them. To clear themselves of the charge they did worse wrong than that alleged against them.

The Klan from the first shrouded itself in deepest mystery; out of this fact grew trouble not at first apprehended. They wished people not to understand. They tried to keep them profoundly ignorant. The result was that the Klan and its objects were wholly misunderstood and misinterpreted. Many who joined the Klan and many who did not, were certain it contemplated something far more important than its overt acts gave evidence of. Some were sure it meant treason and revolution. The negroes and the whites whose consciences made them the subjects of guilty fears, were sure it boded no good to them.

When the first impressions of awe and terror which the Klan had inspired, to some extent, wore off, a feeling of intense hostility towards the Ku Klux followed. This feeling was the more bitter because founded, not on overt acts which the Ku Klux had done, but on vague fears and surmises as to what they intended to do. Those who entertained such fears were in some cases impelled by them to become the aggressors. They attacked the Ku Klux before receiving from them any provocation. The negroes formed organizations of a military character and drilled by night, and even appeared in the day armed and threatening. The avowed purpose of these organizations was "to make war upon and exterminate the Ku Klux." On several occasions the Klan was fired into. The effect of such attacks was to provoke counter hostility from the Klan, and so there was irritation and counter-irritation, till, in some places, the state of things was little short of open warfare. In some respects it was worse; the parties wholly misunderstood each other. Each party felt that its cause was the just one. Each justified its deed by the provocation.

The Ku Klux, intending wrong, as they believed, to no one, were aggrieved that acts which they had not done should be charged to them; and motives which they did not entertain imputed to them and outraged that they should be molested and assaulted. The other party satisfied that they were acting in self-defense felt fully justified in assaulting them, and so each goaded the other on from one degree of exasperation to another.

The following extracts from a general order of the Grand Dragon of the Realm of Tennessee will illustrate the operation of both these causes. It was issued in the fall of the year 1868. It shows what were the principles and objects which the Klan still professed, and it also shows how it was being forced away from them:

Headquarters Realm No. 1,}Dreadful Era, Black Epoch,}Dreadful Hour.}General Order No. 1.Whereas, Information of an authentic character has reached these headquarters that the blacks in the counties of Marshall, Maury, Giles and Lawrence are organized into military companies, with the avowed purpose to make war upon and exterminate the Ku Klux Klan, said blacks are herebysolemnly warned and ordered to desist from further action in such organizations, if they exist.The G. D. [Grand Dragon] regrets the necessity of such an order. But this Klan shall not be outraged and interfered with by lawless negroes and meaner white men, who do not and never have understood our purposes.In the first place this Klan is not an institution of violence, lawlessness and cruelty; it is not lawless; it is not aggressive; it is not military; it is not revolutionary.It is, essentially, originally and inherently a protective organization. It proposes to execute law instead of resisting it; and to protect all good men, whether white or black, from the outrages and atrocities of bad men of both colors, who have been for the past three years a terror to society, and an injury to us all.The blacks seem to be impressed with the belief that this Klan is especially their enemy. We are not the enemy of the blacks, as long as they behave themselves, make no threats upon us, and do not attack or interfere with us.But if they make war upon us they must abide the awful retribution that will follow.This Klan, while in its peaceful movements, and disturbing no one, has been fired into three times. This will not be endured any longer; and if it occurs again, and the parties be discovered, a remorseless vengeance will be wreaked upon them.We reiterate that we are for peace and law and order. No man, white or black, shall be molested for his political sentiments. This Klan is not a political party; it is not a military party; it is a protective organization, and will never use violence except in resisting violence.Outrages have been perpetrated by irresponsible parties in the name of this Klan. Should such parties be apprehended, they will be dealt with in a manner to insure us future exemption from such imposition. These impostors have, in some instances, whipped negroes. This is wrong! wrong! It is denounced by this Klan as it must be by all good and humane men.The Klan now, as in the past, is prohibited from doing such things. We are striving to protect all good, peaceful, well-disposed and law-abiding men, whether white or black.The G. D. deems this order due to the public, due to the Klan, and due to those who are misguided and misinformed. We, therefore, request that all newspapers who are friendly to law, and peace, and the public welfare, will publish the same.By order of the G. D., Realm No. 1.By the Grand Scribe.

Headquarters Realm No. 1,}Dreadful Era, Black Epoch,}Dreadful Hour.}

General Order No. 1.

Whereas, Information of an authentic character has reached these headquarters that the blacks in the counties of Marshall, Maury, Giles and Lawrence are organized into military companies, with the avowed purpose to make war upon and exterminate the Ku Klux Klan, said blacks are herebysolemnly warned and ordered to desist from further action in such organizations, if they exist.

The G. D. [Grand Dragon] regrets the necessity of such an order. But this Klan shall not be outraged and interfered with by lawless negroes and meaner white men, who do not and never have understood our purposes.

In the first place this Klan is not an institution of violence, lawlessness and cruelty; it is not lawless; it is not aggressive; it is not military; it is not revolutionary.

It is, essentially, originally and inherently a protective organization. It proposes to execute law instead of resisting it; and to protect all good men, whether white or black, from the outrages and atrocities of bad men of both colors, who have been for the past three years a terror to society, and an injury to us all.

The blacks seem to be impressed with the belief that this Klan is especially their enemy. We are not the enemy of the blacks, as long as they behave themselves, make no threats upon us, and do not attack or interfere with us.

But if they make war upon us they must abide the awful retribution that will follow.

This Klan, while in its peaceful movements, and disturbing no one, has been fired into three times. This will not be endured any longer; and if it occurs again, and the parties be discovered, a remorseless vengeance will be wreaked upon them.

We reiterate that we are for peace and law and order. No man, white or black, shall be molested for his political sentiments. This Klan is not a political party; it is not a military party; it is a protective organization, and will never use violence except in resisting violence.

Outrages have been perpetrated by irresponsible parties in the name of this Klan. Should such parties be apprehended, they will be dealt with in a manner to insure us future exemption from such imposition. These impostors have, in some instances, whipped negroes. This is wrong! wrong! It is denounced by this Klan as it must be by all good and humane men.

The Klan now, as in the past, is prohibited from doing such things. We are striving to protect all good, peaceful, well-disposed and law-abiding men, whether white or black.

The G. D. deems this order due to the public, due to the Klan, and due to those who are misguided and misinformed. We, therefore, request that all newspapers who are friendly to law, and peace, and the public welfare, will publish the same.

By order of the G. D., Realm No. 1.By the Grand Scribe.

This order doubtless expresses the principles which the Klan, as a body, was honestly trying to maintain. It also illustrates how they were driven to violatethem by the very earnestness and vehemence with which they attempted to maintain them.

The question naturally arises, Why, under the embarrassing circumstances, did not the Klan disband and close its operations?[50]The answer is, that the members felt that there was now more reasons than ever for the Klan's existence. They felt that they ought not to abandon their important and needful work because they encountered unforeseen difficulties in accomplishing it. It is an illustration of the fatuity which sometimes marks the lives of men that they did not perceive what seems perfectly clear and plain to others. Nothing is more certain than that a part of the evils which the Klan was combating at this period of its history grew out of their own methods, and might be expected to continue as long as the Klan existed. Men are not always wise. But even in cases where their conduct does not permit of vindication and excuse, justice requires that a fair and truthful statement be made of thetemptations and embarrassments which surrounded them. Placing all the circumstances before us fully, who of us is prepared to say that we would have acted with more wisdom and discretion than these men?

Carpetbaggers Listening to a Ku Klux ReportCarpetbaggers Listening to a Ku Klux ReportCoon and Sibly of the Alabama Legislature. Cartoon from Screw's "Lost Legislature."FACING PAGE 113ToList

Carpetbaggers Listening to a Ku Klux ReportCoon and Sibly of the Alabama Legislature. Cartoon from Screw's "Lost Legislature."FACING PAGE 113ToList

Matters grew worse and worse, till it was imperatively necessary that there should be interference on the part of the Government. In September, 1868, the Legislature of Tennessee, in obedience to the call of Governor Brownlow, assembled in extra session and passed a most stringent and bloody anti-Ku Klux statute.[51]This was the culmination of a long series of the most infamous legislations which ever disgraced a statute book.

It began in 1865, as we have seen, in the passage of the alien and sedition act, and grew worse and worse till the passage of the anti-Ku Klux statute in 1868. Sixteen years have passed since then, and many into whose hands this book willcome have never seen the "Anti-Ku Klux Law." We quote it entire, to show the character of the legislation of those times as well as for the sake of its bearing on the matter in hand:

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