Ku Klux Klan, J. C. Lester and D. L. Wilson and Walter L. Fleming

.

Ku Klux Klan

ITS ORIGIN, GROWTH AND DISBANDMENT

BY

J.C. LESTER AND D.L. WILSON

WITH
APPENDICES CONTAINING THE PRESCRIPTS
OF THE KU KLUX KLAN, SPECIMEN
ORDERS AND WARNINGS

WITH
INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY
WALTER L. FLEMING, PH. D.

Professor of History in West Virginia University; Author
of "Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama."

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NOTE OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT.

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CONTENTS

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ILLUSTRATIONS

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INTRODUCTIONToC

BY

WALTER L. FLEMING

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[15]

INTRODUCTION.

By Walter L. Fleming, Ph. D.,

Professor of History in West Virginia University.

Twenty-one years ago there was privately printed in Nashville, Tennessee, a little book by J.C. Lester and D.L. Wilson, that purported to be an account, from inside information, of the great secret order of Reconstruction days, known to the public as Ku Klux Klan. It attracted little notice then; and since that time it has not been given the attention it deserved as a historical document.[1] At the time of writing, sectional feeling was still inflamed; the Northern people were not ready to hear anything favorable about the Ku Klux Klan, which they considered a band of outlaws and murderers; and the Southern people were not desirous of being reminded of the dreadful Reconstruction period. Many of the members of the Klan who had been hunted for their [16]lives, and who were still technically outlawed, were unwilling to make known their connection with the order and some even considered their oaths still binding. But since the book was printed, the Prescripts or Constitutions of the order have come to light, and the ex-members are now generally willing to tell all they know about the organization. As yet, no other member has written an account of the Klan, though several have been projected, and Lester and Wilson's History seems likely to remain the only one written altogether from inside sources.

The authors, Capt. John C. Lester and Rev. D.L. Wilson, were in 1884, when the booklet was written, residents in Pulaski, Tennessee, where the first Den of the Klan was founded. Major Lester was one of the six original members of the Pulaski Den or Circle. He made a fine record as a soldier in the Civil War in the Third Tennessee (Confederate) Infantry, and afterwards became a lawyer and an official in the Methodist Church, and was a member of the Tennessee legislature at the time of writing the book. Rev. D.L. Wilson, who put the account into its present form, was born in 1849, in Augusta [17]County, Virginia. He went to school to Jed Hotchkiss and was graduated as valedictorian of his class from Washington and Lee University, in 1873, and a year later from the Union Theological Seminary, near Hampden-Sidney, Virginia. From 1874 to 1880 he was pastor of a Presbyterian church at Broadway, Virginia, and from 1880 to 1902 he served a church in Pulaski, Tennessee. He died in 1902 after a six months' residence in Bristol, Tennessee, as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. He was not a member of the Klan, but was acquainted with the founders and with many other former members, and had access to all the records of the order that had not been destroyed. In addition to information received from other members, Wilson was assisted by Captain Lester, who furnished most of the facts used, revised the manuscript and the book was printed with both names on the title page.

As a general account of the Ku Klux movement Lester and Wilson's History leaves something to be desired. It is colored too much by conditions in Tennessee. No knowledge is shown of other organizations similar to Ku Klux Klan, [18]when in fact there were several other very important ones, such as the White Brotherhood, the White League, the Pale Faces, the Constitutional Union Guards, and one, the Knights of the White Camelia,[2] that was larger than the Klan and covered a wider territory. Then, too, in an attempt to make a moderate statement that would be generally accepted, the authors failed to portray clearly the chaotic social, economic and political conditions that caused the rise of such orders, and in endeavoring to condemn the acts of violence committed under cloak of the order they went too far in the direction of apologetic explanation. Consequently, the causes seem somewhat trivial and the results not very important.[3] It would seem from their account that after a partial success, the movement failed in [19]its attempt to regulate society, and degenerated into general disorder. This is a superficial conclusion and is not concurred in by the survivors of the period and those who understand the conditions of that time. The remnants of such a secret, illegal order were certain to degenerate finally into violence, but before it reached this stage it had accomplished much good in reducing to order the social chaos.[4]

In view of the fact that the Lester and Wilson account does not mention names it will be of interest to examine the personnel of the original Pulaski Circle, out of which the Klan developed. (See p. 52). There were six young men in the party that first began to meet in the fall and winter of 1865: (1) Captain John C. Lester, of whom something has been said. (2) Major James Richard Crowe, now of Sheffield, Alabama, who was a native of Pulaski and was educated at Waterbury Academy and Giles College. When the Civil War began he was studying law in Marion, Alabama, and enlisted at once in the Marion Rifles, [20]Company "G," Fourth Alabama Infantry. Later he was transferred to the 35th Tennessee Infantry. He was in the battles of Manassas, Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Shelton's Hill, White Farm, Richmond, Perrysville, and others of less importance. Three times he was severely wounded and twice discharged for disability. He was captured with Sam Davis and both were tried as spies; Crowe was acquitted and Davis was hanged. He has held high rank in the Masonic order and has been an official in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. (3) John Kennedy, the only survivor of the original six except Major Crowe. He was a soldier in the 3rd Tennessee Infantry during the Civil War, is a Presbyterian, and an honored citizen of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. (4) Calvin Jones, son of Judge Thomas M. Jones, was a lawyer, and a member of the Episcopal Church. He was Adjutant of the 32nd Tennessee Infantry during the Civil War. (5) Richard R. Reed was a lawyer, a Presbyterian, and during the war had served in the 3rd Tennessee Infantry. (6) Frank O. McCord was editor of the Pulaski Citizen, a Methodist, and had been a private soldier in the Confederate [21]service. Two others came in at the second or third meeting—Capt. J.L. Pearcy, later of Nashville, now of Washington, D.C., and James McCallum.[5] The founders were all of Scotch-Irish descent and most of them were Presbyterians.

In regard to the founding of the Pulaski Circle, Major J.R. Crowe says: "Frank O. McCord was elected Grand Cyclops, and James R. Crowe, Grand Turk. A committee composed of Richard R. Reed and Calvin Jones[6] was appointed to select a name for the organization. The Greek for circle was chosen. We called it Kuklos (Κυκλοσ), which was changed to Ku Klux afterward when the name was proposed to the Circle. John Kennedy suggested that we add another K, and the order was then called Ku Klux Klan.... [22]The mysterious lights seen floating about the ruins (See p. 61) presented a weird and uncanny appearance and filled the superstitious with dread of the place; so we were never disturbed, and it only required a quaint garb and a few mysterious sounds to convince the uninitiated that we were spirits from the other world. We were quick to catch on to this idea and we governed ourselves accordingly.... During our parades or appearances in public the darkies either hid out or remained close in their houses.... The origin of the order had no political significance. It was at first purely social and for our amusement. It proved a great blessing to the entire South and did what the State and Federal officials could not do—it brought order out of chaos and peace and happiness to our beloved South.... The order was careful in the admission of members and I have never known of a betrayal of the secrets of the order. I am proud to say that I never knew of one single act done by the genuine Ku Klux Klan that I am ashamed of or do not now endorse."

Major Crowe and other members repeatedly mention the fact that the [23]membership of the Klan was largely of Scotch-Irish descent. This was bound to be the case since in the territory covered by the Klan proper the great majority of the Scotch-Irish of the South were settled. The Ku Klux Klan extended from Virginia to Mississippi through the white county section—the Piedmont and mountain region. It seldom extended into the Black Belt, though it was founded on its borders. There another similar order—the Knights of the White Camelia—held sway. In the Piedmont region before the spread of the Klan, there were numerous secret protective societies among the whites, and these were later absorbed into the Klan. The Klan led a more strenuous existence than the Black Belt orders. In most of its territory, social conditions were worse than in the black counties. It is a mistake to consider that in 1865-1870, the whites in the densest black districts were in the place of greatest danger. There the blacks were usually the best behaved; there the whites were never divided and never lost their grip on society; there the negro still respected the white people as [24]beings almost superhuman. But race relations were worse in the white districts where there was a lower class of whites, some of whom mistreated the negro and others encouraged him to violence. Here the negro had never had the great respect for all whites that the Black Belt negro had, and here the whites were somewhat divided among themselves. During the war the "tories," so called, or those who claimed to be Union sympathizers and the Confederates, alternately mistreated one another, and the close of the war brought no peace to such communities. To this region escaped the outlaws, deserters, etc., of both armies during the war, and here the wreckage of war was worst. Such was the nature of the country where the Klan flourished. It was a kind of ex-Confederate protest against the doings of the "tories," Unionists and outlaws, and the negroes banded in the Union League. For several years neither the Federal Government nor the State Government gave protection to the ex-Confederates of this region, and naturally secret [25]associations were formed for self-defense. This method of self-defense is as old as history.[7]

The members of Ku Klux Klan are nowadays inclined to consider that their order comprehended all that took shape in resistance to the Africanization of society and government during the Reconstruction period. As one ex-member said: "Nearly all prominent men—ex-Confederates—in all the Southern states were connected in some way with the Klan." This is true only indirectly. Nearly all white men, it may be said, took part in the movement now called the "Ku Klux Movement." But more of them belonged to other organizations than were members of the Klan. The Klan had the most striking name and it was later applied to the whole movement. The more prominent [26]politicians, it is said, had no direct connection with any such orders. Such connection would have embarrassed and hampered them in their work, but most of them were in full sympathy with the objects of the Ku Klux movement, and profited by its successes. Many of the genuine Unionists later joined in the movement, and there were some few negro members, I have been told. Some prominent men were honorary members, so to speak, of the order. They sympathized with its objects, and gave advice and encouragement, but were not initiated and did not take active part. General John B. Gordon, of Georgia, and General W.J. Hardee, of Alabama, were such members. The active members were, as a rule, young men. In this respect the Klan differed from the order of White Camelia, which discouraged the initiation of very young men.

Some well-known members of the Klan were General John C. Brown, of Pulaski, Tennessee; Captain John W. Morton, now Secretary of State of Tennessee; Ryland Randolph, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, editor of the Independent Monitor, the official organ of the Klan in Alabama; General N.B. Forrest and General George [27]W. Gordon, of Memphis, Tennessee; Generals John B. Gordon, A.H. Colquitt, G.T. Anderson and A.R. Lawton, of Georgia; General W.J. Hardee, of Alabama; Colonel Joseph Fussell, of Columbia, Tennessee. General Albert Pike, who stood high in the Masonic order, was the chief judicial officer of the Klan.

General Forrest heard of the order after it began to spread, and after investigation consented to become its head as Grand Wizard. He was initiated by Captain John W. Morton, who had formerly been his chief of artillery. Under him the order, which was becoming demoralized, was reorganized. As soon as it had done its work he disbanded it. An enterprising newspaper reporter interviewed General Forrest, in 1868, on the subject of Ku Klux Klan and extracted much information;[8] but when before the Ku Klux Committee of Congress, in 1871, the General would make only general statements and he evaded some of the interrogatories. To the committee he appeared to be wonderfully familiar with the principles of the order, but very ignorant as to details. The [28]average member of Congress, ignorant of Southern conditions, did not understand that the members of the order considered themselves bound by the supreme oath of the Klan and that other oaths, if in conflict with it, were not binding. That is, the ex-Confederates under the command of Forrest, Grand Wizard of the Invisible Empire, were obeying the first law of nature and were bound to reveal nothing to injure the cause, just as when Confederates under Forrest, Lieutenant-General of the Confederate Army, they were bound not to reveal military information to the hostile forces. The government, in their view, had not only failed to protect them, but was being used to oppress them. Consequently they were disregarding its claim to obedience.

Now that General Forrest's connection with the Klan is known it is amusing to read the testimony he gave before the Ku Klux Committee of Congress in 1871.[9] Though evading questions aimed to elicit definite information, yet he was willing to speak of the general conditions that caused the development of the [29]organization in Tennessee. He stated that it was meant as a defensive organization among the Southern whites to offset the work of the Union League, which had organized, armed and drilled the negroes, and had committed numerous outrages on the whites; to protect ex-Confederates from extermination by Brownlow's "loyal" militia, to prevent the burning by negroes of gins, mills, dwellings, and villages, which was becoming common; to protect white women from criminal negro men; in short to make life and property safe and keep the South from becoming a second San Domingo. He stated that about the time the order arose he was getting as many as fifty letters a day from his old soldiers who were suffering under the disordered conditions that followed the war, whose friends and relatives were being murdered, whose wives and daughters were being insulted, etc. They wanted advice and assistance from him. Not being able to write himself, on account of a wounded shoulder, he kept a secretary busy answering such letters. Most of the defensive bodies, Forrest stated, had no names and had no connection with one another. He [30]admitted that he had belonged to the Pale Faces, and that he fully approved of the objects of the Klan. A copy of the original Prescript was shown to him and he was able to say that he had never seen it before. In his day, the Revised and Amended Prescript was used, which was never discovered by any investigating committee. He maintained that the order was careful in admitting new members, only sober, mature, discreet gentlemen being allowed to join. At one time, Forrest estimated, so a newspaper reporter stated, that the Klan had 40,000 members in Tennessee and 550,000 in the entire South. This estimate was probably not exaggerated if the entire membership of all the orders similar to the Klan be counted in. Forrest refused to give the names of members. It is likely, from several bits of evidence, that he had much to do with consolidating the order, giving it a military organization, and making its work effective.

General John B. Gordon, the most prominent military man, next to Forrest, who was connected with the Klan, gave a clear account of the conditions in Georgia that led to the organization of [31]the defensive societies of whites.[10] In Georgia the state of affairs where General Gordon lived was in some respects unlike conditions in Tennessee. In Tennessee the whites were somewhat divided among themselves and there were not so many blacks. In Georgia, according to Gordon, the principal danger was from blacks, incited to hostility and violence by alien whites of low character. The latter organized the negroes into armed Union Leagues, taught them that the whites were hostile to all their rights, and that the lands of the whites were to be, or ought to be, divided among the blacks. Under such influences the negroes who had not made trouble began to show signs of restlessness; some of them banded together to plunder the whites, and serious crimes became frequent, especially that of rape, and men were afraid to leave their families in order to attend to their business. The whites feared a general insurrection of the blacks, and as Gordon stated, "if the sort of teachings given [to the negroes] in Georgia had been carried out to its logical results the negroes would [32]have slaughtered whole neighborhoods." That they did not do so, was, in his opinion, due to the forbearance and self-control of the whites, and to the natural kindness and good disposition of the negroes and their remembrance of former pleasant relations with the whites. There was no great danger, as one can see today, of the negro uprisings, but the whites thought then that there was. The religious frenzy of the blacks during the year after the war also alarmed the whites. The black troops stationed in Georgia were frequently guilty of gross outrages against white citizens and were a constant incitement to violence on the part of their fellow blacks. The carpetbag government pardoned and turned loose upon society the worst criminals. There was no law for several years. The whites were subject to arbitrary arrest and trials by drumhead courts-martial; military prisoners were badly mistreated. In general, society and government were in a condition of anarchy; the white race was disorganized, and the blacks organized, but not for good purposes.

General Gordon spoke of another matter often mentioned by the best class of [33]ex-Confederate soldiers: the Southern soldier believed that the "Appomattox Program" had not been carried out. At Appomattox the magnanimity of General Grant and the victorious soldiers had impressed very favorably the defeated Confederates. The latter believed that if Grant and the soldiers who had defeated them had been allowed to settle matters, there would have been no more trouble. Instead, the politicians had taken charge and had stirred up endless strife. No effort at conciliation had been made; and the magnanimity of Grant gave way to the vindictive policies of politicians.[11] [34]The whites believed that the "understanding of Appomattox" had been violated and that they had been deliberately humiliated by the Washington government.

Such were some of the influences, in General Gordon's opinion, that caused the spread of the Klan in Georgia. He says that he heartily approved the objects of the order, that it was purely for self-protection, an organization for police purposes, a peace police, which kept the peace, prevented riots, and restrained the passionate whites as well as the violent blacks. Its membership was, he said, of the best citizens, mostly ex-Confederates, led by the instinct of self-preservation to band together. It was secret because the leaders were sure that the sympathy of the Federal Government would be against them and would consider a public organization a fresh rebellion. It took no part in politics and died out when the whites were able to obtain protection from the police and the courts.

These were the explanations of men who were high in the order but who never attended a meeting and were never in actual contact with its workings. Private [35]members—Ghouls they were called—could have told more thrilling stories. But deficient as the accounts of Gordon and Forrest are in detail they supplement the history of Lester and Wilson in explaining the causes that lay at the bottom of the secret revolution generally called the Ku Klux Movement.

As to the success or failure of the movement, Lester and Wilson, condemning the violence that naturally resulted from the movement, cause the impression (Ch. 4) that the main result was disorder. Such was not the case, nor was it the intention of the writers to create such an impression. The important work of the Klan was accomplished in regaining for the whites control over the social order and in putting them in a fair way to regain political control. In some States this occurred sooner than in others. When the order accomplished its work it passed away. It was formally disbanded before the evil results of carpet bag governments could be seen. When it went out of existence in 1869, there had been few outrages, but its name and prestige lived after it and served to hide the evil deeds of all sorts and conditions of outlaws. But these could be [36]crushed by the government, State or Federal. In a wider and truer sense the phrase "Ku Klux Movement" means the attitude of Southern whites toward the various measures of Reconstruction lasting from 1865 until 1876, and, in some respects, almost to the present day.

Two elaborate Prescripts or Constitutions were adopted by the Ku Klux Klan—the original Prescript (See Appendix I) and the Revised and Amended Prescript (See Appendix II). The ritual and initiatory ceremonies and obligations were never printed. The by-laws and the ritual of the Pulaski Circle or Den were elaborate but were in manuscript only. They were quite absurd and were intended only to furnish amusement to the members at the expense of the candidates for initiation. No oaths were prescribed—only a pledge of secrecy. As the Klan spread among neighboring towns, the Pulaski by-laws and ritual were modified for the use of new Dens. After the Klan had changed character and become a body of regulators, and it was decided that the administration should be centralized, a convention of delegates from the Dens [37]met in Nashville, in April, 1867, and adopted the original Prescript already referred to. Lester and Wilson are mistaken in saying (Ch. 3) that the Revised and Amended Prescript was adopted at this convention. Where and how this Prescript was printed no one now knows. A copy was sent, without notice or explanation, from Memphis to the Grand Cyclops of each Den. It must have been printed in a small printing office since in the last pages the supply of *'s and †'s ran out and other characters were substituted. Many Dens used only this Prescript, and most of the members have never heard of more than one Prescript.

In some respects this first Constitution was found defective and in 1868 the Revised and Amended Prescript was adopted. Who framed it we do not know, but it is known how it was printed. Frank O. McCord, one of the founders of the Pulaski Circle, was editor of the Pulaski Citizen. A relative of his who worked in the printing office of the Citizen, made the following statement some years ago in reference to a copy of the Revised and Amended Prescript.[12]

It will be noticed on comparing the two Prescripts that there are some considerable differences between the two. The Revised and Amended Prescript is eight pages longer than the other; the name of the order is longer; the poetical selections that introduce the first are omitted from the second; the second has Latin quotations only at the top of the page; and the second Prescript throws much more light on the character and objects of the order; the register is changed, and important changes in the administration are provided for.

The imperfect Prescript printed in Appendix III was used in the Carolinas and was evidently written out from memory by some person who had belonged to the genuine Klan. The members were widely scattered and to many of them the entire contents of the Prescript were never known.

When the Klan was disbanded strict orders were issued that all documents [40]relating to the order should be destroyed and few Prescripts escaped. At present only one copy of the original copy is known to be in existence. That one was used by Ryland Randolph, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, formerly Grand Giant of a province of the order, and was given to me by him. It is a little brown pamphlet of sixteen pages, and is reprinted in Appendix I. Randolph stated that he never saw the Revised Prescript. There are two copies of the Revised and Amended Prescript, one in the library of the Southern Society of New York, which is now deposited with the Columbia University Library; the other belongs to Mr. J.L. Pearcy, formerly of Nashville, now of Washington, D.C. From the latter copy the late Dr. W.R. Garrett, of Nashville, had the plates made that are now used in reproducing the Revised and Amended Prescript in Appendix II.

The curious orders and warnings printed in Appendix IV had several purposes. They were meant to warn and frighten evil-doers, to mystify the public, and to give notice to members. Parts of the orders were written in cypher which could be interpreted by the initiated. The rest [41]was gloomy sounding nonsense calculated to alarm some obnoxious person or persons. The cypher used is found in the Register of the Prescript. All orders that I have seen were written according to the Register of the first Prescript. This may be accounted for by the fact that in 1868 it was generally forbidden by law or by military order to print or distribute notices from the Ku Klux Klan. About all that the cypher was used for, I have been told, was to fix dates, etc. There are thirty-one adjectives in the Register, one for each day of the month, the first twelve for the morning hours, the last twelve for the evening hours, and the seven in the middle for the days of the week. The last word—"Cumberland"—is said to have been a general password. At first the orders were printed in the newspapers, and during the winter of 1867-1868 and the spring of 1868 many of them appeared. As to the significance of the orders printed in Appendix IV, Ryland Randolph wrote: "I well remember those notices you saw in The Monitor for they were concocted and posted by my own hand, disguised, of course." ... "You ask if any of the notices you saw in The Monitor had any [42]real meaning. Well, they had this much meaning: the very night of the day on which these notices made their appearances, three notably offensive negro men were dragged out of their beds, escorted to the old bone-yard (¾ mile from Tuscaloosa) and thrashed in the regular ante-bellum style until their unnatural nigger pride had a tumble, and humbleness to the white man reigned supreme."

Some of the illustrations used are of historical interest. The cartoon opposite p. 192 is taken from the Independent Monitor of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, a Ku Klux newspaper. The hanging carpetbagger was Rev. A.S. Lakin, of Ohio, a Northern Methodist missionary to the negroes, who had succeeded in getting himself elected President of the University of Alabama. The other hanging figure represents Dr. N.B. Cloud, the scalawag superintendent of public instruction who was assisting Lakin to get his position. They were both driven from Tuscaloosa by the Klan. The wood-cut from which this picture was printed was fashioned by Randolph himself in The Monitor office. The picture was eagerly welcomed by the [43]Reconstructionists as an evidence of the state of affairs in Alabama, and it was reproduced far and wide during the Presidential campaign of 1868. Randolph's brother Democrats were furious because he had furnished such excellent campaign material to the other side. In one of Randolph's letters he states: "The name of the Ohio newspaper that republished my famous wood-cut was the Cincinnati Commercial. I have good authority for stating that said paper issued 500,000 copies for distribution throughout Ohio during the Seymour-Grant campaign. Not only this, but a Columbus, Ohio, paper also issued a large edition."

The cartoon opposite p. 113 is reproduced from "The Loil Legislature," a pamphlet by Capt. B.H. Screws, of Montgomery. The Alabama Reconstruction Legislature was the first to make an investigation of Ku Klux Klan and Sibley and Coon were two carpetbaggers active in the investigation.

Opposite p. 196 is a typical warning sent to persons obnoxious to the Klan. It is taken from the Ku Klux Report, Alabama Testimony.

The costumes represented opposite p. 58 were captured in Mississippi and were [44]worn both in Mississippi and in Western Alabama. The costumes represented opposite p. 97 were captured after the famous Ku Klux parade in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1868. Federal soldiers donned the captured disguises and were photographed. During the campaign of 1868 the pictures were reproduced in the Reconstructionist newspapers.

Miss Cora R. Jones kindly furnished a drawing (see outside cover) of the badge worn by the higher officials of the Klan, and a sketch of the room (see p. 53) in which the Klan was founded. Her uncle, Calvin Jones, was one of the founders, the father, Charles P. Jones, was also a member and the badge mentioned belonged to him.

The text of the Lester and Wilson History is reprinted without change.

West Virginia University,
October, 1905.

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FOOTNOTES:

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[45]

KU KLUX KLAN

ITS ORIGIN, GROWTH AND DISBANDMENT

BY

J.C. LESTER AND D.L. WILSON

[46]

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[47]

KU KLUX KLAN

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CHAPTER I.ToC

THE ORIGIN.

There is no stranger chapter in American history than the one which bears for a title "Ku Klux Klan." The organization which bore this name went out of life as it came into it, shrouded in deepest mystery. Its members would not disclose its secrets; others could not. Even the investigation committee, appointed by Congress, were baffled. The voluminous reports containing the results of that committee's tedious and diligent inquiry do not tell when and where and how the Ku Klux Klan originated. The veil of secrecy still hangs over its grave. We propose to lift it.

The time has now arrived when the history of the origin, growth and final decay of "The Invisible Empire" may be given [48]to the public. Circumstances not necessary to detail have put it in the power of the writer to compile such a history. For obvious reasons the names of individuals are withheld. But the reader may feel assured that this narrative is drawn from sources which are accurate and authentic.

The writer does not profess to be able to disclose the secret signs, grips and pass-words of the order.[14] These have never been disclosed and probably never will be. But we claim to narrate facts relating to the order, which have a historic and philosophic value. It is due to the truth of history; to the student of human nature; to the statesmen, and to the men who were engaged in this movement, that the facts connected with this remarkable episode in our nation's history be frankly and fairly told.

A wave of excitement, spreading by contagions till the minds of a whole people are in a ferment, is an event of frequent occurrent. The Ku Klux movement was peculiar by reason of the causes [49]which produced and fed the excitement. It illustrates the weird and irresistible power of the unknown and mysterious over the minds of men of all classes and conditions in life. And it illustrates how men, by circumstances and conditions, in part of their own creation, may be carried away from their moorings and drifted along in a course against which reason and judgment protest.

The popular idea supposes the Ku Klux movement to have been conceived in malice, and nursed by prejudice and hate, for lawlessness, rapine and murder. The circumstances which brought the Klan into notice and notoriety were of a character to favor such conclusions. No other seemed possible. The report of the Congressional Investigating Committee confirmed it.[15] Even if that report be true, like everything else which is known of the Ku Klux, it is fragmentary truth. The whole story has never been told. And the [50]impression prevails that the Ku Klux Klan was conceived and carried out in pure and unmixed deviltry. The reader who follows this narrative to its end will decide, with the facts before him, whether this impression is just and true.

The Ku Klux Klan was the outgrowth of peculiar conditions, social, civil and political, which prevailed at the South from 1865 to 1869. It was as much a product of those conditions as malaria is of a swamp and sun heat.

Its birthplace was Pulaski, the capital of Giles, one of the southern tier of counties in Middle Tennessee. Pulaski is a town of about three thousand inhabitants. Previous to the war its citizens possessed wealth and culture—they retain the second—the first was lost in the general wreck. The most intimate association with them fails to disclose a trace of the diabolism which, according to the popular idea, one would expect to find characterizing the people among whom the Ku Klux Klan originated. A male college and a female seminary are located at Pulaski, and receive liberal patronage. It is a town of churches.

[51]There, in 1866, the name Ku Klux first fell from human lips. There began a movement which in a short time spread as far north as Virginia[16] and as far south as Texas, and which for a period convulsed the country and attracted the attention of the civilized world. Proclamations were fulminated against the Klan by the President and by the Governors of States; and hostile statutes were enacted both by State and National Legislatures.

It was finally quieted, but not until there had become associated with the name Ku Klux gross mistakes and lawless deeds of violence. To this day there are localities where the utterance of it awakens awe and fear.

During the entire period of the Klan's organized existence, Pulaski continued to be its central seat of authority. Some of its highest officers resided there. This narrative, therefore, will relate principally to the growth of the Klan and the measures taken to suppress it in Tennessee. It is necessary to a clear understanding of the movement to observe that the history of the Klan is marked by two distinct and well defined periods. The first period [52]covers the time from its organization, in 1866, to the summer of 1867. The second from the summer of 1867 to the date of its disbandment in the early part of the year 1869.[17]

The first period contains but little of general interest, but it is necessary to describe it somewhat minutely, because of its bearing on subsequent events. When the war ended, the young men of Pulaski, who had escaped death on the battlefield, returned home and passed through a period of enforced inactivity. In some respects it was more trying than the ordeal of war which lay behind them. The reaction which followed the excitement of army scenes and service was intense. There was nothing to relieve it. They could not engage at once in business or professional pursuits. In the case of many, business habits were broken up. Few had capital to enter mercantile or agricultural enterprises. There was a total lack of the amusements and social diversions which prevail wherever society is in a normal condition.

[53]One evening in May, 1866,[18] a few of these young men met in the office of one of the most prominent members of the Pulaski bar.[19] In the course of the conversation one of the number said: "Boys, let us get up a club or society of some description." The suggestion was discussed with enthusiasm. Before they separated it was agreed to invite others, whose names were mentioned, to join them, and to meet again the next evening at the same place. At the appointed time eight or[20] ten young men had assembled.

A temporary organization was effected by the election of a chairman and a secretary. There was entire unanimity among the members in regard to the end in view, which was diversion and amusement. The evening was spent in discussing the best means of attaining the object for which they were seeking. Two committees were appointed, one to select a name,[21] the [54]other[22] to prepare a set of rules for the government of the society, and a ritual for the initiation of new members. The club adjourned to meet the following week to hear and act upon the reports of these committees. Before the arrival of the appointed time for the next meeting, one of the wealthiest and most prominent citizens of Pulaski went on a business trip to Columbus, Miss., taking his family with him. Before leaving he invited one of the leading spirits of the new society to take charge of and sleep at his house during his absence. This young man invited his comrades to join him there. And so the place of meeting was changed from the law office to this residence. The owner of it outlived the Ku Klux Klan and died ignorant of the fact that his house was the place where its organization was fully effected.

This residence afterwards came into the possession of Judge H.M. Spofford, of Spofford-Kellogg fame.[23] It was his [55]home at the time of his death, and is still owned by his widow.

The committee appointed to select a name reported that they had found the task difficult, and had not made a selection. They explained that they had been trying to discover or invent a name which would be, to some extent, suggestive of the character and objects of the society. They mentioned several which they had been considering. In this number was the name "Kukloi" from the Greek word Kuklos (Kuklos), meaning a band or circle. At mention of this some one cried out: "Call it Ku Klux." "Klan" at once suggested itself, and was added to complete the alliteration. So instead of adopting a name, as was the first intention, which had a definite meaning, they chose one which to the proposer of it, and to every one else, was absolutely meaningless.

This trivial and apparently accidental incident had a most important bearing on [56]the future of the organization so singularly named. Looking back over the history of the Klan, and at the causes under which it developed, it is difficult to resist the conclusion that the order would never have grown to the proportions which it afterwards assumed, or wielded the power it did, had it not borne this name or some other equally as meaningless and mysterious—mysterious because meaningless.

Had they called themselves the "Jolly Jokers" or the "Adelphi," or by some similar appellation, the organization would doubtless have had no more than the mere local and ephemeral existence which those who organized it contemplated for it. Hundreds of societies have originated just as this one did, and after a brief existence have passed away. But in this case there was a weird potency in the very name Ku Klux Klan. Let the reader pronounce it aloud. The sound of it is suggestive of bones rattling together! The potency of the name was not wholly in the impression made by it on the general public. It is a singular fact that the members of the Klan were themselves the first to feel its weird influence; they had adopted a mysterious name. Thereupon the [57]original plan was modified so as to make everything connected with the order harmonize with the name.

Amusement was still the end in view. But now the method by which they propose to win it were those of secrecy and mystery. So when the report of the committee on rules and ritual came up for consideration, the recommendations were modified to adapt them to the new idea. The report as finally adopted, provided for the following officers: a Grand Cyclops, or President; a Grand Magi, or Vice-President; a Grand Turk, or Marshal; a Grand Exchequer, or Treasurer; and two Lictors. These were the outer and inner guards of the "Den," as the place of meeting was designated.

The one obligation exacted from members was to maintain profound and absolute secrecy with reference to the order and everything pertaining to it. This obligation prohibited those who assumed it from disclosing that they were Ku Klux, or the name of any other member, and from soliciting any one to become a member. The last requirement was a singular one. It was enacted for two reasons. First, it was in keeping with the determination to [58]appear as mysterious as possible, and thus play upon the curiosity of the public. Secondly, and mainly, it was designed to prevent unpleasantness following initiations. They wished to be able to say to novices: "You are here on your own solicitation, and not by invitation from us." They desired accessions; to have them was indispensable; but they knew human nature well enough to know that if they made the impression that they wished to be exclusive and select, then applications for membership would be numerous. The result showed that they reasoned correctly.

Each member was required to provide himself with the following outfit: A white mask for the face, with orifices for the eyes and nose; a tall, fantastic cardboard hat, so constructed as to increase the wearer's apparent height; a gown, or robe, of sufficient length to cover the entire person. No particular color or material were prescribed. These were left to the individual's taste and fancy, and each selected what in his judgment would be the most hideous and fantastic, with the aim of inspiring the greatest amount of curiosity in the novice. These robes, of different colors, often of the most flashy [59]patterns of "Dolly Varden" calicos, added vastly to the grotesque appearance of the assembled Klan.[24]

Each member carried also a small whistle, with which, by means of a code of signals agreed upon, they held communications with one another. The only utility of this device was to awaken inquiry.[25]

And the object of all this was amusement—"only this, and nothing more." A few young men debarred for the time by circumstances from entering any active business or professional pursuits, and deprived of the ordinary diversions of social life, were seeking in this way to amuse and employ themselves. The organization of this Klan was to them both diversion and occupation. But where, it may be asked, did the fun come in? [60]Partly in exciting the curiosity of the public, and then in baffling it; but mainly in the initiation of new members.

The ritual used in the initiation was elaborate, but not worthy of reproduction. It is enough to say that it was modeled on and embraced the leading features of the ritual of an order which has long been popular in colleges and universities under various names.[26] In one place it is the "Sons of Confucius;" in another, the "Guiasticutus;" but everywhere, the "Ancient and the Honorable," and the "Mirth-Provoking."

The initiations were at first conducted in the law office, where the suggestion for the formation of the Klan had been made. But it was not a suitable place. The room was small. It was near the business portion of the town, and while in session there, they never felt entirely free from apprehensions of interruption.[27]

[61]They soon found a place in every respect better adapted to their purposes. On the brow of a ridge, that runs along the western outskirts of the town, there used to stand a handsome and commodious residence. The front, or main building, was of brick, the "L" of wood. In December, 1865, the brick portion of this house was demolished by a cyclone. The "L" remained standing, but tenantless. It consisted of three rooms. A stairway led from one of them to a large cellar beneath. No other house stood near. Around these ruins were the storm-torn, limbless trunks of trees, which had once formed a magnificent grove. Now, they stood up, grim and gaunt, like spectre sentinels. A dreary, desolate, uncanny place it was. But it was, in every way, most suitable for a "den," and the Klan appropriated it.[28]

When a meeting was held, one Lictor was stationed near the house, the other fifty yards from it on the road leading [62]into town. These were dressed in the fantastic regalia of the order and bore tremendous spears as the badge of their office.

As before stated, and for the reasons assigned, the Ku Klux did not solicit any one to join them; yet, they had applications for membership. While members were not allowed to disclose the fact of their membership, they were permitted to talk with others in regard to anything that was a matter of common report with reference to the order. If they chose, members were allowed to say to outsiders: "I am going to join the Ku Klux." If the persons addressed expressed a desire to do likewise, the Ku Klux would say, if the party was a desirable one: "Well, I think I know how to get in. Meet me at such a place, on such a night, at such an hour, and we will join together." Other similar subterfuges were resorted to, to secure members without direct solicitation. Usually, curiosity would predominate over every other consideration, and the candidate would be found waiting at the appointed place.

As the Ku Klux and the candidate approached the sentinel Lictor, they were [63]hailed and halted and questioned. Having received the assurance that they desired to become Ku Klux, the Lictor blew the signal for his companion to come and take charge of the novices. The candidate, under the impression that his companion was similarly treated, was blindfolded and led to the "den." The preliminaries of the initiation consisted in leading the candidate around the rooms and down into the cellar, now and then placing before him obstructions which added to his discomfort, if not to his mystification. After some rough sport of this description, he was led before the Grand Cyclops who solemnly addressed to him numerous questions. Some of these questions were grave, and occasionally a faulty answer resulted in the candidate's rejection. For the most part they were absurd to the last degree. If the answers were satisfactory, the obligation to secrecy, already administered, was exacted a second time. Then the Grand Cyclops commanded:

"Place him before the royal altar and adorn his head with the regal crown."

The "royal altar" was a large looking glass. The "regal crown" was a huge hat bedecked with two enormous donkey [64]ears. In this headgear the candidate was placed before the mirror and directed to repeat the couplet:

As the last word was falling from his lips, the Grand Turk removed the bandage from his eyes, and before the candidate was his own ludicrous image in the mirror. To increase the discomfiture and chagrin which any man in such a situation would naturally feel, the removal of the bandage was the signal to the Klan for indulgence in the most uproarious and boisterous mirth. The Grand Cyclops relaxed the rigor of his rule, and the decorum hitherto maintained disappeared, and the "den" rang with shouts and peals of laughter; and worse than all, as he looked about him, he saw that he was surrounded by men dressed in hideous garb and masked, so that he could not recognize one of them.

The character of these initiatory proceedings explains why, from the very first, secrecy was so much insisted on. A single "tale out of school" would have spoiled the fun. For the same reason the Klan, [65]in its early history, was careful in regard to the character of the men admitted. Rash and imprudent men—such as could not be confidently relied upon to respect their obligation to secrecy—were excluded. Nor were those admitted who were addicted to the use of intoxicants. Later on in the history they were not so careful, but in the earlier period of its existence the Klan was composed of men of good habits.[29]

In some instances, persons not regarded as eligible to membership, or not desirable, were persistent even to annoyance in their efforts to gain admission to the order. Such persistence was occasionally rebuked in a manner more emphatic than tender.

One young man had a consuming desire to be a Ku Klux. The sole objection, to him was his youth. When he presented himself to the Lictor, the latter received him kindly, and led him blindfold, "over the hill and far away" to a secluded spot, [66]and left him with the admonition to "wait there till called for." After hours of weary waiting, the young man removed the bandage from his eyes and sought the shelter of the paternal roof.

Another of riper years, but for some reason not acceptable to the order, made repeated efforts to join the Klan. For his special benefit they arranged to have an initiation not provided for in the ritual. A meeting was appointed to be held on the top of a hill that rises by a gentle slope to a considerable height, on the northern limits of Pulaski. The candidate, in the usual way—blindfold excepted—was led into the presence of the Grand Cyclops. This dignitary was standing on a stump. The tall hat, the flowing robe, and the elevated position made him appear not less than ten feet tall. He addressed to the candidate a few unimportant and absurd questions, and then, turning to the Lictors, said: "Blindfold the candidate and proceed."

The "procedure" in this case was to place the would-be Ku Klux in a barrel, provided for the purpose, and to send him [67]whirling down the hill! To his credit, be it said, he never revealed any of the secrets of the Ku Klux Klan.[30]

These details have an important bearing on the subsequent history of the Ku Klux. They show that the originators of the Klan were not meditating treason or lawlessness in any form. Yet the Klan's later history grew naturally out of the measures and methods which characterized this period of it. Its projectors did not expect it to spread. They thought it would "have its little day and die." It lived; it grew to vast proportions.

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[68]

CHAPTER II.ToC

THE SPREAD OF THE KLAN.

The devices for attracting attention were eminently successful. During the months of July and August, 1866, the Klan was much talked about by the citizens of Pulaski. Its mysteriousness was the sensation of the hour. Every issue of the local paper contained some notice of the strange order. These notices were copied into other papers, and in this manner the way was prepared for the rapid growth and spread of the Klan which soon followed.

Six weeks or less from the date of the organization the sensation in Pulaski had reached its height and was waning. Curiosity in regard to it had abated to such a degree that the Klan would have certainly fallen to pieces but for the following circumstances:

By the time the eligible material in the town had been used up, the young men [69]from the country, whose curiosity had been inflamed by the newspaper notices, began to come in and apply for admission to the Klan. Some of these applications were accepted. In a little while the members from the country asked permission to establish "dens" at various points in the county. No provision had been made for such a contingency, but the permission was granted; had it not been, the result in all probability would have been the same.

As the ritual followed by the Pulaski Klan could not be conveniently carried out in the country, various modifications and changes were permitted. But the strictest injunctions were laid on these new lodges, or dens, in regard to secrecy, mystery and the character of the men admitted. The growth in the rural districts was more rapid than it had been in the town. Applications for permission to establish "dens" multiplied rapidly.

The news that the Ku Klux were spreading to the country excited the attention of the country people more generally than the existence of the Klan in town had done. The same cause rekindled the waning interest of the town people. Every issue of the local papers in the [70]"infected regions" bristled with highly mysterious and exciting accounts of the doings of the "fantastic gentry."

During the fall and winter of 1866 the growth of the Klan was rapid. It spread over a wide extent of territory. Sometimes, by a sudden leap, it appeared in localities far distant from any existing "dens."

A stranger from West Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama or Texas, visiting in a neighborhood where the order prevailed, would be initiated, and on his departure carry with him permission to establish a "den" at home. In fact, it was often done without such permission. The connecting link between these "dens" was very fragile. By a sort of tacit agreement the Pulaski Klan was regarded as the source of power and authority. The Grand Cyclops of this "den" was virtually the ruler of the order, but as he had no method of communicating with subjects or subordinates, and no way in which to enforce his mandates, his authority was more fancy than fact. But so far there had appeared no need for compact organization, rigid rules and close supervision. The leading spirits of the Ku Klux Klan [71]were contemplating nothing more serious than amusement. They enjoyed the baffled curiosity and wild speculations of a mystified public even more than the rude sport afforded by the ludicrous initiations.

Such is the account of the Ku Klux Klan in the first period of its history from June, 1866 to April, 1867;[31] yet all this time it was gradually, in a very natural way, taking on new features not at first remotely contemplated by the originators of the order; features which finally transformed the Ku Klux Klan into a band of "Regulators."

The transformation was effected by the combined operation of several causes: (1) The impressions made by the order upon the minds of those who united with it; (2) The impressions upon the public by its weird and mysterious methods; (3) The anomalous and peculiar condition of affairs in the South at this time.

The mystery and secrecy with which the Klan veiled itself made a singular impression on the minds of many who united with it.

[72]The prevalent idea was that the Klan contemplated some great and important mission. This idea aided in its rapid growth. And on the other hand the rapid extensions of the Klan confirmed this idea of its purposes. When admitted to membership this conclusion, in the case of many, was deepened rather than removed by what they saw and heard. There was not a word in the ritual or in the obligation or in any part of the ceremony to favor such a conclusion; but the impression still remained that this mysteriousness and secrecy, the high-sounding titles of the officers, the grotesque dress of the members, and the formidable obligation, all meant more than real sport. This impression was ineradicable, and the attitude of many of the members continued to be that of expecting great developments. Each had his own speculations as to what was to be the character of the serious work which the Klan had to do. But they were satisfied that there was such work. It was an unhealthy and dangerous state of mind for men to be in; bad results in some cases very naturally followed from it.

The impression made by the Klan on the public was the second cause which [73]contributed to its transformation into a band of Regulators. When the meetings first began to be held in the dilapidated house on the hill, passers-by were frequent. Most of them passed the grim and ghostly sentinel on the roadside in silence, but always with a quickened step. Occasionally one would stop and ask: "Who are you?" In awfully sepulchral tones the invariable answer was: "A spirit from the other world. I was killed at Chickamauga."

Such an answer, especially when given to a superstitious negro, was extremely terrifying, and if, in addition, he heard the uproarous noises issuing from the "den" at the moment of a candidate's investiture with the "regal crown," he had the foundation for a most awe-inspiring story. There came from the country similar stories. The belated laborer, passing after nightfall, some lonely and secluded spot, heard horrible noises and saw fearful sights. These stories were repeated with such embellishments as the imagination of the narrator suggested, till the feeling of the negroes and of many of the white people, at mention of the Ku Klux, was one of awe and terror.

[74]In a short time the Lictor of the Pulaski "den" reported that travel along the road on which he had his post had almost entirely stopped. In the country it was noticed that the nocturnal perambulation of the colored population diminished, or entirely ceased, wherever the Ku Klux appeared. In many ways there was a noticeable improvement in the habits of a large class who had hitherto been causing great annoyance. In this way the Klan gradually realized that the most powerful devices ever constructed for controlling the ignorant and superstitious were in their hands. Even the most highly cultured were not able wholly to resist the weird and peculiar feeling which pervaded every community where the Ku Klux appeared. Each week some new incident occurred to illustrate the amazing power of the unknown over the minds of men of all classes.

Circumstances made it evident that the measures and methods employed for sport might be effectually used to subserve the public welfare—to suppress lawlessness and protect property. When propositions to this effect began to be urged, there were many who hesitated, fearing danger. [75]The majority regarded such fears as groundless. They pointed to the good results which had already been produced. The argument was forcible—almost unanswerable. And the question was decided without formal action. The very force of circumstances had carried the Klan away from its original purpose. So that in the beginning of the summer of 1867 it was virtually, though not yet professedly, a band of regulators, honestly, but in an injudicious and dangerous way, trying to protect property and preserve peace and order.[32]

After all, the most powerful agency in effecting this transformation, the agency which supplied the conditions under which the two causes just mentioned became operative, was the peculiar state of affairs existing at the South at that time.

[76]As every one knows, the condition of things was wholly anomalous, but no one can fully appreciate the circumstances by which the people of the South were surrounded except by personal observation and experience; and no one who is not fully acquainted with all the facts in the case is competent to pronounce a just judgment on their behavior. On this account, not only the Ku Klux, but the mass of the Southern people, have been tried, convicted and condemned at the bar of public opinion, and have been denied the equity of having the sentence modified by mitigating circumstances, which in justice, they have a right to plead.

At that time the throes of the great revolution were settling down to quiet. The almost universal disposition of the better class of the people was to accept the arbitrament which the sword had accorded them. On this point there was practical unanimity. Those who had opportunity and facilities to do so, engaged at once in agricultural, professional or business pursuits. There was but little disposition to take part in politics.

But there were two causes of vexation and exasperation which the people were in [77]no good mood to bear. One of these causes related to that class of men who, like scum, had been thrown to the surface in the great upheaval.[33]

It was not simply that they were Union men from conviction. That would have been readily forgiven then, as can be shown by pointing to hundreds of cases. But the majority of the class referred to had played traitor to both sides, and were Union men now only because that was the successful side. And worse than all, they were now engaged in keeping alive discord and strife between the sections, as the only means of preventing themselves from sinking back into the obscurity from which they had been upheaved. Their conduct was malicious in the extreme and exceedingly exasperating. These men were a "thorn in the flesh" of the body, politic and social; and the effort to expel it set up an inflammation which for a time awakened the gravest apprehensions as to the result.

The second disturbing element was the negroes. Their transition from slavery to citizenship was sudden. They were [78]not only not fitted for the cares of self-control, and maintenance so suddenly thrust upon them, but many of them entered their new role in life under the delusion that freedom meant license. They regarded themselves as freedmen, not only from bondage to former masters, but from the common and ordinary obligations of citizenship. Many of them looked upon obedience to the laws of the state—which had been framed by their former owners—as in some measure a compromise of the rights with which they had been invested. The administration of civil law was only partially re-established. On that account, and for other reasons, there was an amount of disorder and violence prevailing over the country which has never been equaled at any period of its history. If the officers of the law had had the disposition and ability to arrest all law-breakers, a jail and court-house in every civil district would have been required.

The depredations on property by theft and by wanton destruction for the gratification of petty revenge, were to the last degree annoying. A large part of these depredations was the work of bad white [79]men, who expected that their lawless deeds would be credited to the negroes. But perhaps the most potent of all causes which brought about this transformation was the existence in the South of a spurious and perverted form of the "Union League."[34]

It would be as unfair to this organization as it existed at the North, to charge it with the outrages committed under cover of its name, as it is to hold the Ku Klux Klan responsible for all the lawlessness and violence with which it is credited.

But it is a part of the history of those times that there was a widespread and desperately active organization called the "Union League." It was composed of the disorderly element of the negro population and was led and controlled by white men of the basest and meanest type just now referred to. They met frequently, went armed to the teeth, and literally "breathed out threatening and slaughter." They not only uttered, but [80]in many instances executed the most violent threats against the persons, families and property of men, whose sole crime was that they had been in the Confederate army. It cannot be truthfully denied that the Ku Klux committed excesses and were charged with wrongdoing. But they were never guilty of the disorderly and unprovoked deeds of deviltry which mark the history of the Southern "Union League." It was partly, I may say chiefly, to resist this aggressive and belligerent organization that the Ku Klux transformed themselves into a protective organization.[35]

Whatever may be the judgment of history, those who know the facts will ever remain firm in the conviction that the Ku Klux Klan was of immense service at this period of Southern history. Without it, in many sections of the South, life to decent people would not have been tolerable. It served a good purpose. Wherever the Ku Klux appeared the [81]effect was salutary. For a while the robberies ceased. The lawless class assumed the habits of good behavior.

The "Union League" relaxed its desperate severity and became more moderate. Under their fear of the dreaded Ku Klux, the negroes made more progress, in a few months, in the needed lessons of self-control, industry, and respect for the rights of property and general good behavior, than they would have done in as many years, but for this or some equally powerful impulse.

It was a rough and a dangerous way to teach such lessons, but under all the circumstances it seemed the only possible way.

Of course, these men were trying a dangerous experiment. Many of them knew it at the time, and did not expect it on the whole to turn out more successfully than others of a similar character. But there seemed to be no other alternative at the time. Events soon occurred which showed that the fears of those who apprehended danger were not groundless, and it became evident, unless the Klan should be brought under better control [82]than its leaders at this time exercised over it, that while it suppressed some evils, it would give rise to others almost, if not fully, as great.[36]

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[83]

CHAPTER III.ToC

THE TRANSFORMATION.

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 that [84]bound 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 the [85]time 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.

[86]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 make [87]a 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]

[88](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 negro [89]militia, 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 of [90]preserving 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 its role as 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 latter solely by 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.

[91]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 for [92]this 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. After [93]nightfall 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 was [94]expected 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 the [95]number 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] [96]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]

[97]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. [98]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 was [99]killed 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]

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[100]

CHAPTER IV.ToC

THE DECLINE.

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 grave [101]censure 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. [102]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.

[103]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 not [104]withstand 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, assumed [105]the 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.)

[106]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 well [107]merited, 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.

[108]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.

[109]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:

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 violate [112]them 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 the [113]temptations 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?

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 will [114]come 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:

The same legislature passed a bill authorizing the Governor to organize, equip and call into active service, at his discretion, a volunteer force, to be known as the Tennessee State Guards; to be composed of one or more regiments from each congressional district of the State; provided always that said Tennessee State Guards shall be composed of loyal men.

[124]And it was further provided by the "Militia Law," that upon the representation of "ten Union men, or three Justices of the Peace in any county in the State," that the presence of these troops were needed, that the Governor might declare martial law in such counties, and send thither troops in such numbers as, in his judgment, were necessary for the preservation of peace and order. And it was provided that the expense of these troops to the State should be collected from the counties where they were quartered.

The reader has now some insight into the character of the legislation direct against the Ku Klux. He will not only note the general severity and harshness of it, but the following features in particular:

(1). The anti-Ku Klux statute was ex post facto, as expressly declared by Section 24 of it. (2). It presented no way in which a man could relieve himself from liability to it, except by turning informer, and as an inducement to do this a large bribe was offered. (3). It encouraged strife, by making every inhabitant of the State an officer extraordinary with power "to arrest without process" when he had ground to suspect. (4). It [125]must be remembered that in those days in Tennessee "to be loyal" had a very limited meaning. It meant simply to be a subservient tool and supporter of Governor Brownlow. If a man was not that, no matter what his past record, or what his political opinion, he was not "loyal." (5). While the law professed to be aimed at the suppression of all lawlessness, it was not so construed and enforced by the party in power. The "Union" or "Loyal" League was never molested, though this organization met frequently, and its members appeared by day and by night, armed, threatening and molesting the life and property of as peaceable and quiet citizens as any in the State. No attempt was ever made to arrest men except in Ku Klux disguises. But as before remarked there is no instance on record of a Ku Klux being arrested, tried and convicted. Invariably the party arrested while depredating as Ku Klux turned out to be, when stripped of their disguises, "loyal" men.

In some sections of the State a perfect reign of terror followed this anti-Ku Klux statute. The members of the Klan were now in the attitude of men fighting for life and liberty. Hundreds, perhaps [126]thousands, of them were not lawbreakers, and did not desire to be. There had been no law against association with the Klan; they had conceived and done no wrong during their connection with it. They had had no participation in or knowledge of the excesses in which some of the Klan had indulged or were charged with having indulged in. But now their previous connection with the Klan was made a penal offense; and they had no hope except on terms which to men of honor and right principle were more odious than death.

These men were made infamous, made liable to fine and imprisonment, exposed to arrest without process by any malicious negro or mean white man; and even their wives and children were outlawed and exposed to the same indignities; and it is no strange thing if they were driven to the very verge of desperation. It is not denied that they did many things for which the world has been exceedingly slow to accept apology or excuse. But history is challenged to furnish an instance of a people bearing gross wrong and brutal outrage perpetrated in the name of law and loyalty with patience, forbearance or forgiveness, comparable to that exhibited [127]by the people of the Southern States, and especially of Tennessee, during what is called the "Reconstruction period," and since.

There may be in their conduct some things to regret, and some to condemn; but he who gets a full understanding of their surroundings, social, civil and political, if he is not incapable of noble sentiment, will also find many things to awaken his sympathy and call forth his admiration.

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[128]

CHAPTER V.ToC

DISBANDMENT.

On the 20th day of February, 1869, Governor Brownlow resigned his position as Governor to take the seat in the United States Senate, to which he had been elected. The last paper to which he affixed his signature as Governor of Tennessee, proclaimed martial law in certain counties, and ordered troops to be sent thither. This proclamation was dated February 20, 1869. In a short while it was followed by a proclamation from the "Grand Wizard of the Invisible Empire" to his subjects.

This proclamation recited the legislation directed against the Klan, and stated that the order had now, in large measure, accomplished the objects of its existence. At a time when the civil law afforded inadequate protection to life and property, when robbery and lawlessness of every description were unrebuked, when all the [129]better elements of society were in constant dread for the safety of their property, persons and families, the Klan had afforded protection and security to many firesides, and, in many ways contributed to the public welfare. But greatly to the regret of all good citizens, some members of the Klan had violated positive orders; others, under the name and disguises of the organization, had assumed to do acts of violence, for which the Klan was held responsible. The Grand Wizard had been invested with the power to determine questions of paramount importance to the interests of the order. Therefore, in the exercise of that power, the Grand Wizard declared that the organization heretofore known as the Ku Klux Klan was dissolved and disbanded.

Members were directed to burn all regalia and paraphernalia of every description, and to desist from any further assemblies or acts as Ku Klux.[53] The members of the Klan were counseled in the future as heretofore, to assist all good [130]people of the land in maintaining and upholding the civil laws, and in putting down lawlessness. This proclamation was directed to all Realms, Dominions, Provinces and "Dens" in "the Empire." It is reasonably certain that there were portions of the Empire never reached by it. The Klan was widely scattered and the facilities for communication exceedingly poor. The Grand Wizard was a citizen of Tennessee. Under the statute just now quoted newspapers were forbidden to publish anything emanating from the Klan. So that there was no way in which this proclamation could be generally disseminated.

Where it was promulgated, obedience to it was prompt and implicit. Whether obeyed or not, this proclamation terminated the Klan's organized existence as decisively and completely as General Lee's last general order, on the morning of the 10th of April, 1865, disbanded the army of Northern Virginia.

When the office of Grand Wizard was created and its duties defined, it was explicitly provided that he should have "the power to determine questions of paramount importance, and his decision [131]shall be final." To continue the organization or to disband it was such a question. He decided in favor of disbanding, and so ordered. Therefore the Ku Klux Klan had no organized existence after March, 1869.[54]

The report of the Congressional Investigating Committee contains some disreputable history, which belongs to a later date, and is attributed to the Klan, but not justly so. For several years, after March, 1869, the papers reported and commented on "Ku Klux outrages" committed at various points. The authors of these outrages may have acted in the name of the Klan, and under its disguises; it may be that in some cases they were men who had been Ku Klux. But it cannot be charged that they were acting by the authority of an order which had formally disbanded. They were acting on their own responsibility.

Thus lived, so died, this strange order. Its birth was an accident; its growth was a comedy; its death a tragedy. It owed [132]its existence wholly to the anomalous condition of social and civil affairs in the South during the years immediately succeeding the unfortunate contest in which so many brave men in blue and gray fell, martyrs to their convictions.

There never was, before or since, a period of our history when such an order could have lived. May there never be again!

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[133]

APPENDIX I.

PRESCRIPT OF KU KLUX KLAN

Adopted at a Convention of the Order
Held in Nashville, April, 1867

Copied from the Original Prescript, line for line and page
for page. The type used here is slightly larger than
in the original document.

[134]

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[135]

Transcription of Appendix I

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[151]

APPENDIX II.

REVISED AND AMENDED PRESCRIPT OF KU KLUX KLAN

Adopted in 1868 (?)

Reprinted in facsimile

[152]

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Transcription of Appendix II

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[177]

APPENDIX III.

CONSTITUTION OF A LOCAL
ORDER MODELED UPON
KU KLUX KLAN

Used in South Carolina and in North Carolina

From The Ku Klux Report, North Carolina Testimony

[178]

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[179]

CONSTITUTION

ARTICLE I.

This organization shall be known as the —— Order, No. —, of the Ku Klux Klan of the State of South Carolina.

ARTICLE II.

The officers shall consist of a cyclops and a scribe, both of whom shall be elected by a majority vote of the order, and to hold their office during good behavior.

ARTICLE III.

Section 1. It shall be the duty of the C. to preside in the order, enforce a due observance of the constitution and by-laws, and an exact compliance to the rules and usages of the order; to see that all the members perform their respective duties; to appoint all committees before the order; [180]inspect the arms and dress of each member on special occasions; to call meetings when necessary; draw upon members for all sums needed to carry on the order.

Sec. 2. The S. shall keep a record of the proceedings of the order; write communications; notify other Klans when their assistance is needed; give notice when any member has to suffer the penalty for violating his oath; see that all books, papers or other property belonging to his office, are placed beyond the reach of any one not a member of the order. He shall perform such other duties as may be required of him by the C.

ARTICLE IV.

Section 1. No person shall be initiated into this order under eighteen years of age.

Sec. 2. No person of color shall be admitted into this order.

Sec. 3. No person shall be admitted into this order who does not sustain a good moral character, and who is in any way incapacitated to perform the duties of a Ku Klux.

Sec. 4. The name of a person proposed for membership must be proposed by the [181]committee appointed by the chief, verbally, stating age, residence, and occupation; state if he was a soldier in the late war, his rank, whether in the Federal or Confederate service, and his command.

ARTICLE V.

Section 1. Any member who shall offend against these articles, or the by-laws shall be subject to be fined and reprimanded by the C., as two-thirds of the members present at any regular meeting may determine.

Sec. 2. Every member shall be entitled to a fair trial for any offense involving reprimand or criminal punishment.

BY-LAWS

ARTICLE I.

Section 1. This order shall meet at ——.

Sec. 2. Five members shall constitute a quorum, provided the C. or S. be present.

[182]Sec. 3. The C. shall have power to appoint such members of the order to attend the sick, the needy, and those distressed, and those suffering from radical misrule, as the case may require.

Sec. 4. No person shall be appointed on a committee unless the person is present at the time of appointment. Members of committees neglecting to report shall be fined 30 cents.

ARTICLE II.

Section 1. Every member, on being admitted, shall sign the constitution and by-laws and pay the initiation fee.

Sec. 2. A brother of the Klan wishing to become a member of this order, who shall present his application with the proper papers of transfer from the order of which he was a member formerly, shall be admitted to the order only by a unanimous vote of the members present.

ARTICLE III.

Section 1. The initiation fee shall be ——.

[183]ARTICLE IV.

Section 1. Every member who shall refuse or neglect to pay his fine or dues shall be dealt with as the chief thinks proper.

Sec. 2. Sickness or absence from the country or being engaged in any important business shall be a valid excuse for any neglect of duty.

ARTICLE V.

Section 1. Each member shall provide himself with a pistol, Ku Klux gown and signal instruments.

Sec. 2. When charges have been preferred against a member in proper manner, or any matters of grievance between brother Ku Klux are brought before the order, they shall be referred to a committee of three or more members, who shall examine the parties and determine the matters in question, reporting their decision to the order. If the parties interested desire, two-thirds of the members present voting in favor of the report, it shall be carried.

[184]ARTICLE VI.

Section 1. It is the duty of every member who has evidence that another has violated Article II. to prefer the charges and specify the offense to the order.

Sec. 2. The charge for violating Article II. shall be referred to a committee of five or more members, who shall as soon as practicable, summon the parties and investigate the matter.

Sec. 3. If the committee agree that the charges are sustained, that the member on trial has intentionally violated his oath, or Article II., they shall report the fact to the order.

Sec. 4. If the committee agree that the charges are not sustained, that the member is not guilty of violating his oath or Article II., they shall report to that effect to the order and the charges shall be dismissed.

Sec. 5. When the committee report that the charges are sustained, and the unanimous vote of the members is given thereof, the offending person shall be sentenced to death by the chief.

Sec. 6. The person, through the cyclops of the order of which he is a [185]member, can make application for pardon to the Great Grand Cyclops of Nashville, Tennessee, in which case execution of the sentence can be stayed until pardoning power is heard from.

ARTICLE VII.

Section 1. Any member who shall betray or divulge any of the matters of the order shall suffer death.

ARTICLE VIII.

Section 1. The following shall be the rules of any order to any matter herein not provided for; shall be managed in strict accordance with the Ku Klux rules.

Sec. 2. When the chief takes his position on the right, the scribe, with the members forming a half-circle around them, and at the sound of the signal instrument there shall be profound silence.

Sec. 3. Before proceeding to business, the scribe shall call the roll and note the absentees.

Sec. 4. Business shall be taken up in the following order:

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[187]

APPENDIX IV.

KU KLUX ORDERS, WARNINGS
AND OATHS

[188]

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[189]

KU KLUX ORDERS, WARNINGS, OATHS.

KU KLUX KLAN.

ALERT!

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[193]

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[197]

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FOOTNOTES:

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INDEX

• A.
• Abernathy, Dr. C.C., a member of the Klan, 21
• Admission of members, 147, 170
• Admonition, 176
• Alabama, Costumes worn in, 43, 58, 97;
  • investigation in, 43;
  • Klan extends to, 70
• Amendment of Prescript, 147, 173
• "American Historical Magazine," cited, 39
• Anderson, Gen. G.T., a member of the Klan, 27
• Appellation Official, of the Order, 136, 154
• "Appomattox Program," not carried out, 33
  
  
• B.
• Badges worn by high officials, 59
  • (See also outside cover.)
• Beati Paoli, 25
• Black Belt, Ku Klux Klan mainly outside of, 23
• Bowers, Dr. James, a member, 21
• Brown, Gen. John C., a member, 26
• Brown, W.G., "The Lower South," cited, 18
• Brownlow, W.G., Governor of Tennessee, 1865-1868, 125;
  • his militia a cause of the Ku Klux Movement, 29;
  • proclaims martial law, 128;
  • has "Force Laws" passed, 113;
  • his detective drowned by the Klan, 67
• Brownlow Republicans in Ku Klux disguise, 105
• Burgess, J.W., "Reconstruction and the Constitution," cited, 113
  
  
• C.
• Carbonari, 25
• Carpetbag and negro legislators pass "Force Laws", 113
• Carpetbag rule a cause of the Ku Klux Movement,. 29, 31, 32, 35
• Carter, Dr. Benjamin, a member, 61
• Cartoon from the "Independent Monitor," 42, 192;
  • from the "Loil Legislature", 43, 113
• Causes of the Ku Klux Movement, 24, 28, 31, 50, 75-81
  • (See also Ku Klux Klan.)
• Centaurs, Grand Council of, 144
• "Century Magazine," cited, 53, 84
• Certificate of Laps D. McCord, 38
• "Cincinnati Commercial," prints the Randolph cartoons, 43, 192
• "Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama," by W.L. Fleming, cited, 49, 79, 113
• Character and objects of Ku Klux Klan, 155
• Clanton, Gen. James H., 33
• Cloud, Dr. N.B., driven from Tuscaloosa by the Klan, 42;
  • see cartoon facing page, 192
• Colquitt, Gen. A.H. Colquitt, a member, 27
• Conditions in the South, 75, 76
• Confederates disfranchised, 88
• Confréries, 25
• Congress investigates Ku Klux Klan, 27, 28, 30, 47, 48, 49, 131;
  • passes "Force Laws", 113
• Constitutions, see Prescript.
• Constitutional Union Guards, 18
• Convention of Ku Klux Klan, 36, 37, 84, 133
• Coon and Sibley, carpetbaggers, cartoon of, 43, and facing, 113
• Costumes worn in the Klan, 43, 58, 59, 97
• Council of Centaurs, 144; of Yahoos, 144
• Cox, S.S., "Three Decades," quotation from. 11
• Crawford, F.M., a member, 21
• Creed of the Klan, 136, 154
• Crowe, Major James R., one of the founders of the Klan, 19;
  • first Grand Turk, 21;
  • statement in regard to origin of the Pulaski Den, 22;
  • one of committee to prepare a constitution and a ritual, 54
• Cutler, "Lynch Law," cited, 15
• Cyclops, Grand, an official of the Klan, 57;
  • ruler of a Den, 86;
  • duties, 140, 161;
  • election of, 143;
  • appointment of, 160;
  • in a local order, 179
• Cypher Code, 148, 176
  • (See also Register.)
  
  
• D.
• Decline of the Klan, 100-127;
  • causes of, 103
• Dedication of Prescript, 150, 176
• Den, the lowest division of the Order, 85, 136, 157;
  • at Pulaski, Tennessee, 19-21, 53
• Disbandment of the Klan, 27, 52, 112, 128-130
• Divisions of the Invisible Empire of Ku Klux Klan, 156
• "Documents Relating to Reconstruction," cited, 18, 79
• Dominions or Congressional Districts, 85, 136, 156
• Dracovolans, or Flying Dragon, 147
• Dragon, Grand, ruler of a Realm, 86;
  • duties, 138, 158;
  • how elected, 143;
  • appointed, 157
• Duties of officials, 136-143, 157-165
  
  
• E.
• Edicts, or By-laws of the Order, 148, 174
• Empire, The, 136, 156
• Ensign, Grand, duties, 143
• Ensign or banner of the Ku Klux Klan, 147
• Exchequer, Grand, or treasurer, 57, 86;
  • duties, 142, 163;
  • how elected, 143;
  • appointed, 157-161
• Expansion of the Klan's territory, 68-82, 156
• Expulsion of members, 149, 174
  
  
• F.
• Fleming, W.L., "Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama," cited, 49, 79, 113
• Flying Dragon, 147
• "Force Laws," effect on Klan, 125, 126
• Forrest, Gen. Nathan Bedford, Grand Wizard, 26, 27, 28;
  • testimony before Ku Klux Committee of Congress, 28-30, 80;
  • his estimate of the number of members, 95;
  • his opinion of the character of members, 65;
  • belongs to the order of Pale Faces, 30;
  • disbands the Klan, 27, 52, 112, 128-130
• Founders of the Klan, 19
• Furies, the staff of the Grand Titan, 86, 136, 156, 159, 164
• Fussell, Col. Joseph, a member, 27
  
  
• G.
• Garner, J.W., "Reconstruction in Mississippi," cited, 49
• Garrett, Dr. W.R., makes plates used on pages 153-176 40
• Genii, the staff of the Grand Wizard, 85, 136, 155, 157 164
• Georgia, candidates in Georgia, 31
• Ghouls, private members, 136, 156;
  • elect officials 143, 165
• Giant, Grand, ruler of a Province, duties, 139, 160;
  • how elected, 143;
  • appointed 159
• Giles County, Tennessee 50
• Goblins, 136, 156, 160, 164
• Gordon, Gen. John B., 26, 27, 33;
  • testimony before the Ku Klux Committee of Congress, 30-33, 80, 105
• Grand Army of the Republic 171
• Grant, Gen. U.S., magnanimity of, 33
  
  
• H.
• Hanging picture, cartoon by Ryland Randolph, 42, 192;
  • republished in the North 192
• Hardee, Gen. W.J., a member, 26
• "Histoire Générale," by Lavisse & Rambaud, cited 25
• Huntsville, Alabama, parade of Klan in, 44
• Hydras, the staff of the Grand Dragon, 86, 136, 156, 158 164
  
  
• I.
• "Independent Monitor," cited 26, 41, 192
• Initiations into the Pulaski Den, 60, 63, 64
• Interrogations to be asked candidates for admission, 171
• Investigation of Ku Klux Klan, by Congress, 26, 28, 30, 47, 48, 49, 131;
  • by Alabama, 43
• Invisible Circle 198
• Invisible Empire, 47, 85, 101
  
  
• J.
• Jones, Calvin, one of the founders, 20, 21;
  • on committee to choose a name for the order, 53;
  • Charles P., a member, 21;
  • Miss Cora R., daughter of Charles P., and niece of Calvin, article in "Advance," cited, 61, 92;
  • Judge Thomas M., father of Calvin and Charles P., 20, 53
• Judiciary of the Klan, 27, 144, 166
  
  
• K.
• Kennedy, John, one of the founders of the Klan, 20, 21;
  • on committee to prepare constitution and ritual, 54
• Kirk, John H., aided in printing the Prescript, 38
• Klephts, 25
• Knights of the White Camelia, 18, 23
• Ku Klux Committee of Congress, 27
• Ku Klux Klan, causes of, 23, 24, 28, 29, 31, 32, 35, 47-67, 75-81;
  • founded at Pulaski, Tennessee, 19, 21, 51, 53;
  • headquarters at Pulaski, 51;
  • initiations at Pulaski, 61-64;
  • original object, 59;
  • selection of name, 22, 53, 55;
  • costumes worn, 43, 58, 59, 97;
  • expansion, 68-82;
  • transformation, 71, 83-99;
  • reorganized, 84-99;
  • territorial extent, 23, 24, 85, 136, 156;
  • Prescripts, 37, 39, 133-150, 151-176;
  • officers and their duties, 85-86, 136;
  • oaths and obligations, 171, 172, 197, 198;
  • parades, 44, 91;
  • character and objects, 28, 31, 109-111, 155, 171-172;
  • creed, 136, 154;
  • declaration of principles, 87;
  • edicts, 148, 174;
  • admission of members, 147, 170;
  • character and conduct of members, 30, 34, 101, 102;
  • numbers, 30, 95;
  • secrets, 48, 148, 174;
  • revenue, 145, 168;
  • judiciary, 27, 144, 166;
  • convention at Nashville, 36, 37;
  • methods, 71-75, 91, 96-99, 183-196;
  • orders and warnings, 40, 130, 187-198;
  • disciplines its members, 106; outrages, 131;
  • decline and disbandment, 35, 100-127, 128-130;
  • regalia destroyed, 129;
  • investigation by Congress, 27, 28, 30, 43, 47, 48, 49, 131;
  • effect of "force laws;" popular idea of the Klan, 49;
  • results of the Ku Klux Movement, 35, 73, 80, 81;
  • other secret orders, 18
• Ku Klux Klan, Lester and Wilson's History of, 15-19, 35, 37, 47
• Ku Klux Movement, 25
• Ku Klux Report, cited, 18, 27, 28, 33, 49, 52, 65, 80, 196, 197, 198
  
  
• L.
• Lakin, Rev. A.S., president of University of Alabama, driven away by the Klan, 42;
  • see cartoon, 192
• Lavisse and Rambaud, "Histoire Générale," cited, 25
• Lawton, Gen. A.R., a member, 27
• Lester, Capt. J. C, one of the founders of the Klan and one of the authors of the History of Ku Klux Klan, 15, 16, 17, 19;
  • on committee to prepare constitution and ritual, 54
• Lictor, an official title, 57
• "Loil Legislature," by Capt. B.H. Screws, cartoon from, 43, 113
• "Lower South," by W.G. Brown, cited, 18
• Loyal League, 79, 125, 171
  • (See also Union League.)
• "Loyalty," meaning of, 125
• "Lynch Law," by Cutler, cited, 15
  
  
• M.
• McCallum, James, a member, 21
• McCoy, Capt. Thomas, a member, 21
• McCord, Frank O., one of the founders of the Klan, 20, 37;
  • first Grand Cyclops, 21;
  • Laps D., prints the Prescripts, 38;
  • L.W., editor of the "Pulaski Citizen," a Ku Klux newspaper, 38
• McKissick, Alex., a member, 21
• Magi, Grand, 57;
  • duties, 141, 162;
  • how elected, 143, 165
• Martial law proclaimed in Tennessee, 128
• Masonic order, 25
• Members, admission of, 102, 147, 170;
  • expulsion, 149, 174;
  • none ever arrested, 106
• Methods employed by the Klan, 91, 96, 97, 187-196
• Militia law of Tennessee, 124
• Mississippi, Klan extends to, 70;
  • costumes worn in, 43, 58
• Minnis, J.A., testimony, 80
• Mitchell, Capt. Robert, a member, 21
• Monk, Grand, 86;
  • duties, 141, 163;
  • how elected, 143, 165
• "Montgomery Mail," cited, 189
• Moore, John A., a member, 21
• Morton, Capt. John W., a member, 21, 26;
  • initiates General Forrest, 27
• Motto, on ensign, 147
  
  
• N.
• Name of the order, selection of, 53, 55;
  • influence of name on the career of the order, 55, 56, 136, 154
• Nashville Convention of the Klan, 84, 89;
  • adopts Prescript, 33
• Nashville Den drowns a detective, 67
• Negro equality, Klan opposed to, 171
• Negro members of the Klan, 26
• Negro troops, conduct of, 32
• Negroes, 22, 23, 24, 26, 29, 31, 32;
  • conduct of, 77;
  • frightened by Klan, 97-99
• Nelson, J.L., a member, 21
• Newspapers forbidden to print Ku Klux notices, 41, 130
• Night Hawks, the staff of a Cyclops, 86, 136, 156, 161, 164
• Nihilists, 25
• North Carolina, a local order in, 177-186
• Number of members, 30, 95
  
  
• O.
• Oaths and obligations, 146, 147, 171, 172, 197, 198
• Officials of the Klan, duties, 85, 86;
  • how elected, 143, 165
• Order issued by the Grand Dragon of Tennessee, 109-111
• Orders and warnings sent by the Klan, 40, 41, 187-196
• Origin of Ku Klux Klan, 47-67
• Outrages attributed to the Klan, 105
  
  
• P.
• Pale Faces, 18;
  • Gen. Forrest a member of, 30
• Parades of the Klan, 44, 91-95
• Pearcy, Capt. J.L., a member, 21;
  • owns a Revised and Amended Prescript, 40
• Penalty for betrayal of secrets, 149, 176
• Pettus, Gen. Edmund W, 33, 80
• Pike, Gen. Albert, chief judicial officer, 27
• Principles of the Klan, 87, 88, 171, 182
• Province, or county, 85, 136, 156
• Pulaski, Tennessee, description of, 50;
  • conditions in 1865, 52;
  • Ku Klux Klan founded there, 16, 53;
  • Ku Klux parade, 91-95
• Pulaski Den, origin and membership, 19-21, 53, 57, 61
• Prescripts, 16, 30, 36, 87, 88;
  • original, adopted at Nashville Convention, 37, 40, 133-150;
  • Revised and Amended, 37, 38, 40, 151-176;
  • an imperfect copy used by a local order, 39, 177-186;
  • sold by Grand Wizard, 137, 145, 157, 169;
  • dedication, 150, 176;
  • Amendment, 147, 173;
  • Register, 148, 176
• Purpose of the original Den, 22
  
  
• Q.
• Quotations, poetical, in original Prescript, 135;
  • Latin, in the Prescripts, passim, 133-176
  
  
• R.
• Radical Republican party, 171
• Radicals in Ku Klux disguise, 105
• Randolph, Ryland, 26, 40;
  • quoted, 99, 104;
  • author of orders and warnings, 41, 190-192;
  • publishes cartoon of Coon and Sibley, 43, 113
• Realm, or state, 85, 136, 156
• Reconstruction Acts, 71, 84
• "Reconstruction of the Constitution," by J.W. Burgess, cited, 113
• "Reconstruction in Mississippi," by J.W. Garner, cited, 49
• Reed, Richard R., one of the founders, 20, 21;
  • on committee to choose a name for the order, 53
• Regalia and records of Klan destroyed, 129
• Register of the Prescript, 41, 148, 176
• Regulators, 71, 73, 106
• Results of the Ku Klux Movement, 35
• Revenue of the Klan, 145, 168
• Revised and Amended Prescript, 38, 151-176
• Ritual of Pulaski Den, 54, 57
• Rose, W.H., a member, 21
  
  
• S.
• Saunders, "Early Settlers of Alabama," quoted, 96
• Scotch-Irish descent of the members of the Klan, 21, 23
• Screws, Capt. B.H., "Loil Legislature," cartoon from, 43, 113
• Scribe, of a local order, 179
• Scribe, Grand, 86;
  • duties, 142, 164
• Secrets of the Klan, 148, 174;
  • penalty for betrayal of, 149, 176
• Sentinel, Grand, 86;
  • duties, 143, 164
• Shapard, I.L. and Robt., members, 21, 38
• Sibley and Coon, carpetbaggers, 43, 113
• South Carolina, local order in, 177-186;
  • warnings sent by Klan in, 193-196
• Southern Society of New York, owns a Revised and Amended Prescript, 40
• Spofford, Judge H.M., residence used by Klan 54
• Staff officers, 86, 164
• State Guards of Tennessee, 123
• Stubbs, Mrs. Elizabeth, in "Early Settlers of Alabama," quoted, 96
  
  
• T.
• Taxes levied in Klan, 145, 169
• Tennessee, conditions in, 17, 29;
  • the Klan in 51, 70, 95;
  • Confederates disfranchised, 88;
  • State Guards, 123; Militia law, 124;
  • order of a Grand Dragon, 109-111;
  • Anti-Ku Klux law, 113-123
• Term of office, 144, 165
• Texas, Klan extends to, 70
• "Three Decades," by S.S. Cox, quoted, 11
• Titan, Grand, ruler of a Dominion, 86;
  • duties, 138, 159;
  • how elected, 143;
  • appointed, 158
• Titles of officials, 136, 155
• Tories, 24, 77
• Tourgee, "Invisible Empire," cited, 18
• Transformation of the Klan, 71, 83-99
• Tribunal of Justice, 166
• Tugenbund, 25
• Turk, Grand, 57, 86;
  • duties, 142, 163;
  • office first held by Major J.R. Crowe, 21
• Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Klan at, 42
  
  
• U.
• "Understanding of Appomattox," violated, 34
• Union League, a cause of the Ku Klux Movement, 24, 29, 31, 79-81, 125
• Unionists, 24, 26, 77
• University of Alabama, 42
  
  
• V.
• Vehmgericht, 25
• Voorheis, Milton, a member, 21
  
  
• W.
• Warnings sent by the Klan, 40, 43, 196
• "Washington Post," cited, 67, 95
• Waters, Dr. M.S., a member, 21
• Webster's "Unabridged Pictorial," cited, 147
• "Weekly Union Times," cited, 193, 194, 196
• White Brotherhood, 18
• White Camelia, 18
• White League, 18
• "White Man's Government", 171
• Wilson, Rev. D.L., one of the authors of the History of Ku Klux Klan, 15, 16, 17, 19;
  • article in "Century Magazine" cited, 53, 84
• Wizard, Grand, 85;
  • duties, 136, 157;
  • how elected, 143, 165, 166;
  • term of office, 144, 165;
  • disbands the Klan, 128-130
  
  
• Y.
• Yahoos, Grand Council of, 144
• "Yorkville Enquirer," cited, 195
• Young Italy, 25

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Compiled versions of Appendix I and Appendix II

APPENDIX I.

PRESCRIPT OF KU KLUX KLAN

Adopted at a Convention of the Order
Held in Nashville, April, 1867

PRESCRIPT

OF THE

* *

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