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INTRODUCTORY.

The facts contained in the succeeding pages, have been compiled from authenticated sources, and with especial reference to their truthfulness.

That portion derived from the diary of a gentleman, twelve years a resident of the South, was not originally intended for public circulation; but this, with a variety of other matter obtained from official records, formed the basis of a lecture delivered at Tremont Temple, in the city of Boston, on the evening of March 27th, 1872, and excited a great degree of interest among the people to learn more of the subject-matter treated upon.

Communications relating thereto came in from all parts of the country, and it was decided by the friends of the compiler to present all the facts in convenient form for general circulation, as the best means of complying with this demand.

They are here given with such additions to the original matter, as will enable the general reader more fully to comprehend the origin, rise and progress of the various orders of the Ku Klux Klans, their social and political significance, and their general bearing upon the welfare of the nation at large.

The thrilling stories of outrage and crime herein narrated, are authenticated beyond the power of refutation.

“Against all such crimes, as well as against incompetency and corruption in office, the power of an intelligent public sentiment and of the courts of justice should be invoked and united; and appealing for patience and forbearance in the North, while time and these powers are doing their work, let us also appeal to the good sense of Southern men, if they sincerely desire to accomplish political reforms through a change in the negro vote. If their theory is true that he votes solidly now with the republican party, and is kept there by his ignorance and by deception, all that is necessary to keep him there is to keep up by their countenance, the Ku Klux Organization. Having the rights of a citizen and a voter, neither of those rights can be abrogated by whipping him. If his political opinions are erroneous, he will not take kindly to the opposite creed when its apostles come to inflict the scourge upon himself, and outrage upon his wife and children. If he is ignorant, he will not be educated by burning his school houses and exiling his teachers. If he is wicked, he will not be made better by banishing to Liberia his religious teachers. If the resuscitation of the State is desired by his labor, neither will be secured by a persecution which depopulates townships, and prevents the introduction of new labor and of capital.”

That these pages may be received in the same spirit of charity and kindly feeling in which they have been penned, is the sincere and earnest wish of

THE COMPILER.

THE NATION’S PERIL.

The transition of the social status of the colored classes in the South, from a condition of abject servitude to one of the most enlarged freedom, crowned with that dearest of all rights to the heart of the freeman, the elective franchise, although gradual, and attended with difficulties that have seemed at times almost insurmountable, goes steadily forward, under the hand of a beneficent and all seeing God, who watcheth alike over the just and the unjust, enjoining upon them, in return for his goodness, a strict observance of his commands towards one another.

Human progress in this country, during the past ten years, has taken giant strides, although met by obstacles of a character so formidable as to impose a most extraordinary task upon those engaged in the great work of social reform and the establishment of the rights of all to civil, religious and political liberty, as guaranteed by the Constitution. The spirit of the age is reformatory. Religion, politics, art and the sciences have ever been the subjects of reformation and progression, and by these have been lifted from comparative darkness in the past to the broad fields of light in the more intelligent present. In the grand plan of an all-wise Creator, nothing has been allowed to permanently obstruct the onward march of the races and nations of the earth; and for the accomplishment of this glorious purpose, no sacrifice, it appears, has been deemed too great that would aid in its fulfillment. The travail and labor of nations, the desolation and destruction of whole communities, and in some instances the entire annihilation of races of men, have been the penalties demanded and paid for their long persistence in the ways of sin and wickedness.

The American Republic has been no exception to the imperative rule. It bore within its folds the crime and curse of slavery, a foul and corroding ulcer that could only be burned out and destroyed by the terrible visitations of fire and the sword, and in the eradication of which all the wisdom of the nation’s greatest counselors, all the terrible enginery of modern warfare, and the skill and persistence of the chosen leaders of the people were to be brought into requisition. A fierce and sanguinary contest of four years’ duration ended, under the hand of God, in the grand triumph of the right; but the war of the rebellion left the South in a state of social disintegration, in which the leading spirits who had fomented the internecine contest assumed to control the masses, and perpetuate under another form, and accomplish by other means, that which had been lost to them in the surrender and disorganization of their armies.

The condition of the South, during the past twelve years, is vividly illustrated in a series of letters written by Mr. Justin Knight, a gentleman of undoubted integrity, a resident of the South during the period referred to, and which are here given in a narrative form for the better convenience of the reader. Speaking of himself and the peculiar circumstances that brought him to the Southern States, Mr. Knight says:

“Born in close proximity to the metropolis of New England, where I received the advantages of a collegiate education, and the religious instruction of parents who, without bigotry, were opposed to every species of wrong, I early conceived a desire to enter upon the ministry, which I did in 1857, almost immediately after the close of my collegiate life.

My constitution, at no time robust, was entirely inadequate to the labors imposed upon me by the duties of this new position. My health continued gradually to give way until the winter of 1859, when my physician decided that a change of climate was essentially necessary to my well-being, and under his advice I proceeded to Charleston, S. C., and took up my residence with a married sister, then living there in affluent circumstances.

At this peculiar epoch in the history of the country the political atmosphere of the South was literally pestilential. Under the manipulation of skillful, but unscrupulous leaders, whole communities had become imbued with a spirit hostile to the governing powers. They were led to believe that the time for argument had past, and that nothing was now left them, but to make a demand for what they were pleased to consider their inherent rights;—that of keeping their fellow men in bondage—and if this were refused, to declare themselves for war. The portentious clouds of the impending crisis continued gathering thick and fast, and it required no prophet’s eye to discern, or voice to foretell that they must soon burst upon the country in a deluge that could only be stayed by an enormous waste of blood and treasure.

A sojourn of nearly eighteen months among the southern people, and the facilities afforded me from the position occupied by my sister’s family, gave me an unusual opportunity to observe the passing pageant of events. The masses had been gradually worked over to the interests of the more intelligent leaders, until reason and argument ceased further to influence them. They seemed wholly given up to the one idea of slavery, or war, and they had been led to believe that the first demonstration of organized resistance to the regularly constituted powers, would bring the North at their feet in abject supplication for peace. I was anxious to know how the defiant and belligerent attitude that was being assumed would be received in the land of my birth, and as my health had sufficiently improved to warrant my again returning there, I did so at the earliest opportunity, only to realize that the people of the North were buckling on their armor, with the deep seated purpose of going forth to battle for the right.

There was a significance in all “this busy note of preparation,” that I could fully understand and appreciate. I had seen enough to convince me that nothing but the severest chastisement, administered by the hands of the Lord through the instrumentality of his chosen people, could bring our misguided brethren of the South to a just and proper sense of their duty to God and their fellow-men. They had long “eaten of the bread of wickedness; and drank the wine of violence,” and they had utterly forgotten that “righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people.”

An opportunity was speedily afforded me to accompany a regiment to the field as chaplain, and I soon found myself marching southward with a body of noble men who had been foremost in responding to the call of President Lincoln, to defend the Union and preserve the integrity of the nation. The incidents of the four years of bloody strife that ensued, need not be alluded to here. They were passed by me, in the midst of danger, offering consolation to the dying, caring tenderly for the dead, when circumstances permitted, and coming out of all, through the hand of God, unscathed.

The results aimed at upon the part of the ruling powers, seemed to have been accomplished. The Proclamation of Emancipation had gone forth from the executive head of the nation, and solid rows of glittering steel had followed it up, and compelled its enforcement. The foulest blot upon the pages of our history as a Republic had been erased, and its down-trodden children liberated from a thraldom more humiliating in design, and wicked in purpose, than that which yoked the children of Israel under the hands of the Egyptian task masters. In them the promise of the Great Jehovah had been verified: “Wherefore:—say unto the Children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians.” The right had been vindicated; the shock of contending armies was over, and the nation waited patiently to see in what condition the contest had left the conquered.

It is my purpose, in these pages, to give the exact facts, “nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice.” I shall endeavor neither to exaggerate the history, or conceal the truth. I am aware that the revelations which follow are so terrible in their nature as to almost pass the bounds of belief; that the agonizing scenes herein depicted, and which have been the results of the same demoniac spirit which actuated and prolonged the war, had they been told as occurring among the semi-barbaric nations in the uttermost parts of the earth, might be the more readily received by my countrymen as truthful relations; but which, transpiring at our own doors, within the sound and under the shadow of the Gospel, appear like the mythical creations of a distorted imagination rather than actual revelations from real life.

In the interest of all progress, and for the sake of God and humanity, I would it were so; but the contrary is the fact. Hundreds of living witnesses stand ready to verify the statements under oath. Scores of the unoffending skeletons of gibbeted negroes and whites attest the solemn truth. The exact localities, the names and residences of the victims, the hour and day, the month and year of their murderous whipping and ignominious death, are given with a fidelity that challenges contradiction, and forms an array of evidence at once incontrovertable and overwhelming.

The ever changing current of events again called me to the South. My sister’s family had been almost destroyed by the death of her husband, who had cast his fortunes with the cause of the rebellion and had paid the penalty with his life, and it was necessary I should aid her in adjusting the affairs of the estate which had been left in a very unsettled condition, and required much time to properly arrange. I was glad of the opportunity thus afforded me to observe the effects of the struggle that had just closed; and prepared my mind to take a calm and dispassionate view of the situation, as became a seeker for the truth who was desirous of arriving at the hidden springs underlying the social crust, with a view to the remedy of the impending evil, if such could be found. I believed in the integrity of the great mass of the people, and could see that they had been deceived and led on to destruction by the ingenious plans of men, skilled in human diplomacy, and having a profound knowledge of the character of the people whom they designed to move for their own wicked purposes.

The spirits of these leaders chafed under the bitter disappointment of defeat. It was apparent they would continue to foster seditions, organize conspiracies against the powers that be, and use every effort to fan into life the dying embers of the “lost cause.” These men controlled certain portions of the local press, and either threw obstacles in the way of the dissemination of proper and just principles, or used the power in their hands to sow the seeds of dissention broadcast throughout the States so lately in insurrection.

All the misery that had accrued from the war, the families that had been sundered; the blood of loved ones that had watered the various battle-fields of the South, and the bones of beloved kindred that lay whitening there; the numerous sacrifices of wealth, family, and social position that had been made, the property lost and destroyed; the general stagnation and prostration of business, and the feeling of dread and insecurity that followed, were all attributed to the rule of the republican North.

There were mutterings of revenge and breathings of threats and slaughter against the race that had just been raised up out of bondage. Slavery, the former bane and curse of this country, was already dead. Its putrid carcass was no longer of the material things of earth, but its ghostly spirit still stalked abroad among its mourners to keep alive the memory of its wicked example in the minds of those who, born and reared in the folds of its garments, and nurtured at its breast, could not cast aside their early prejudices and banish from their hearts, its former evil influences. They no longer remembered that “the way of the Lord is strength to the upright,” and that “destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.” Thousands of misguided and misdirected men cherished in their bosoms a spirit of animosity toward those who had aided with their blood and money in the liberation of the slave; and it was this very spirit of hatred which had in a manner demoralized the South and created a feeling of uncertainty and insecurity among men of capital, that proved a serious barrier to their investing in our railroads and factories, and the improvement of our lands; and, as a natural sequence, retarded our social and financial progress.

Society at this time was divided into several classes. Many who were disposed to accept and abide by the new order of things, dared not express their real sentiments from fear of social and political ostracism. Men of intelligence and education, but who had allowed the thirst for power and political preferment to absorb and swallow up the promptings of their better nature, had begun the process of gaining over to their interests the very worst elements in the social circle beneath them, with a view to carrying out their unholy designs. This class in turn, and under the management of the more intelligent, intimidated still another class and compelled them to join in a crusade that had for its objects the most infamous ends ever attempted to be gained by men. A complete connection had thus been formed, reaching from the unscrupulous leaders, to the masses, and embracing in its chain every class of society needed for the success of the general plan.

The standard bearers of the devil himself, coming direct from the lowest depths of the infernal regions, with seething vials of wrath and an earnest intention to do the bidding of their master, could scarcely have set on foot a conspiracy more damnable than this. Men, women and children were to be included in the portending storm, religion and human decency were to be outraged, the law of the land and its administrators defied, and justice scoffed at in the pillory. The ordinary safe-guards to the social well being of the community were to be swept away whenever they became inimical to the designs and objects of the unholy alliance thus formed. Men were to be banded together and bound by oaths that ignored all others and made these supreme. Where the life or liberty of one of the brotherhood was in jeopardy, he was to be saved at all hazards. Perjury and subornation of perjury were to over-ride courts of justice and render abortive, any attempt to bring these lawless bands to punishment through their instrumentality. Nothing was to be too sacred for the vandal hands of these marauders who, under the guidance of the more intelligent leaders, were to go abroad like a consuming flame, until the land, that God had made pre-eminently beautiful for the abode of peace and contentment, had been smitten with a scourge of fire and blood, and their own wicked purposes had been accomplished. It seemed as if the voice of the Lord had again spoken through the prophet Ezekiel, “say to the forest of the South, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree; the flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the South to the North shall be burned therein.”

It was to be a dual struggle. The colored races were to be subjugated or destroyed; and the humane efforts of the Government and the Administration to restore peace and harmony, and commercial prosperity, and to give to the citizens, of every creed and color, free and equal rights was everywhere to be opposed, that the experiment of reconstruction might become a hissing and a by-word, and go forth to the world an ignominious failure.

The masses were kept in utter ignorance of these designs. They were in a state bordering upon absolute frenzy at the losses they had incurred from the fratricidal war that had left them bankrupt as individuals and communities, and with the peculiar anxiety that seems to pervade the hearts of all men, to endeavor to find some reasonable excuse for sins committed, they accepted the theories that had been so ingeniously prepared, and so carefully put before them, and became, like the clay in the hands of the potter, ready to be fashioned in any manner of form that might be decided upon by their wicked counselors.

There was an oppressive and an ominous calm in the atmosphere of the South at this time (1866) that foreboded no good. Men viewed each other with distrust. Those who seemed well-disposed at first, and who had been casting about themselves and gathering up the fragments, with a view to renewing their peaceful pursuits, suddenly abandoned their labors. Rumors of outrages upon persons and property, vague at first and without apparent authenticity, began to fill the air. Bands of armed and disguised men were said to be travelling the highways, burning the dwellings, and robbing and murdering inoffensive citizens under the most revolting circumstances. The scriptural command to “devise not evil against thy neighbor, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee,” had seemingly become obsolete among the people. It was evident that the mysterious order, the existence of which had so long been hinted at, had begun its fearful work, and under the then complexion of affairs in the nation at large, none could divine the end.

The death of President Lincoln had left the Executive, in this the hour of the nation’s great peril, in the hands of one from whom the disorganizing elements of the South had much to hope. The hand of justice was for the time being paralyzed, and the occasion seemed most opportune for the conspirators to perfect their terrible organization, and set in motion the secret machinery by which it was hoped to accomplish their base purposes.

It was evident from such facts as could be gathered relative to these outrages, that there was a distinction as to the classes of people who were the sufferers. The negroes were, of course, the objects upon which the wrath of the new order was vented; but there were numerous instances, as will be observed in the succeeding pages, where whites were scourged and murdered as well. The fact that certain citizens, who had committed no offense against the laws, were selected from the various communities, and subjected to the grossest indignities, led to inquiry as to the causes that had brought these inflictions upon them.

It was ascertained that, in the preponderance of cases, warnings had been sent to the victims demanding that they must retract their political faith, cease to side with radicals, and abandon their interest in the negro, or they must leave the country; failing in this, they were to be scourged to death.

Negroes who approached the ballot-box to exercise the newly conferred right of suffrage were watched as to how they voted, and warned that they must not vote the “radical ticket.” If they paid no heed to this warning, and were detected in the independent exercise of the right of suffrage, they received a visitation; their houses were pillaged, the persons of their women violated, their children scattered, and themselves hung, shot or whipped to death. The reader, in perusing the chapter of authenticated outrages that follows will agree with the writer that there is no exaggeration of language here, nor need of any. Nothing is stated that has not been put to the severest test of truth; and nowhere are these incidents recorded, in which the living witnesses have not been found, and the facts obtained from them.

I was long in believing that such deeds, worthy alone of the incarnate fiend himself, could be perpetrated in a civilized community. I made all possible allowance for the political and social situation. I determined to know whereof I affirmed, and resolved that when I obtained this knowledge, I would give the information to the country. I was as free from political bias as it was possible for a man to be who felt it to be a part of the duty he owed to society to exercise the elective franchise. I had never mingled in politics, but had uniformly cast my vote with either political party which I deemed had the best interests of the nation, and the welfare and advancement of the people, at heart, and could not bring my mind to believe, at first, that there was a deep political significance underlying this movement, and that it had its ramifications from State to State, all leading to one great center, with one common head who, in the interest of any political party, governed and directed the dreadful machine, and that it meant nothing less than the subversion of the popular government.

The facts and figures gradually undeceived me. I could see that there was a mysterious something at work that had closed men’s mouths most effectually, and that disaffection, consternation and terror gained ground daily. Even, my brethren of the pulpit, with whom I was associated in the different places I visited, were affected to such a degree that they no longer dared to preach the free sentiments of their hearts.

No one but an actual resident of the South, at this time, can form anything like an adequate idea of the reign of terror, that this condition of affairs had inaugurated during the succeeding two years and more, of President Johnson’s administration. Everywhere throughout the South that I travelled, the hydra headed monster met me. I tried to believe in all charity that the movement sprung from the ignorant and uneducated masses who saw, or thought they saw, the origin and cause of all their misfortunes in the negro, and the liberal minded whites of the South who had countenanced and urged his enfranchisement in the interest of human progress; but the facts were everywhere against the theory.

It was evident that a formidable organization, the result of intelligent men counseling together, and devising wicked plans for the accomplishment of wicked purposes, existed in all the Southern States; that it had its ritual, its oaths, its signs, tokens and passwords, its constitution, by-laws and governing rules, its edicts, warnings, disguises, secret modes of communication, intelligent concert of action, and all framed and planned in a manner that showed the authors to be men of education and superior minds. In North and South Carolina, in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee, in Florida, Mississippi and Kentucky, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, it existed in a greater or less degree, and its advent was everywhere marked with the most brutal outrages.

The intelligence of these wrongs was not spread from one community to another by the newspapers. These, when not in the interest of the order itself, were intimidated into silence. When the outrages were so flagrant as to compel some show of attention, such as necessitated the action of a coroner, juries were selected, the members of which were members of this mysterious order, and the verdict usually was that the victim came to his death by injuries inflicted by himself or by negroes.

The disaffection spread daily. The seeds of the order, and their fruits everywhere manifested, were sown in the courts and grand juries. Under such a condition of affairs there was no longer security for life or property. The idea of obtaining justice for any of the wrongs perpetrated, passed out of the minds of the sufferers entirely. The effect was generally demoralizing. Official incompetency and corruption aided rather than stemmed the rushing torrent that was bearing this section of the Republic to anarchy and financial ruin.

A large class of persons not heretofore alluded to, but who formed a very important part of society, looked on without apparent interest. These were men of wealth and education, who neither sought to justify the wrongs being done, or made any attempt to oppose them, but by their very silence gave a tacit consent to the wicked plans of the conspirators. They were a class “who rejoice to do evil and delight in the forwardness of the wicked.”

A system arose exactly in counterpart with that of the old Spanish Inquisition. Personal hatred toward a citizen, black or white, was sufficient warrant for reporting his name and residence to the members of the order as a “radical republican” and a “negro worshiper,” and he was forthwith warned to leave the place on penalty of being whipped, or suffering a worse fate. Hundreds of young men with whom the writer has conferred, pointed to men of maturer age, property holders and men of influence, and confessed that they had been induced to enter the general conspiracy, because they were told these men were at its head and after joining it learned that they had not been deceived in this respect, and yet they found the order so arranged that they could discover nothing, and were allowed to know nothing, of its workings, beyond the circle to which they had been admitted, and however revolting the practices of their associates were to them, the oath they had taken, and the feeling of terror inspired by the initiation and the penalty attached to recanting members, compelled them to continue their allegiance, and acquiesce and aid in the outrages.

Even the women seemed to have caught the general infection, and sought to justify the dreadful events transpiring about them upon the ground that this was the only way in which the rights and liberties of the South could be preserved.

That men holding high official positions, and moving in the most respectable circles, organized these outrages, selected the victims and accompanied the rabble in the execution of their designs, is indisputable. Inoffensive women seeing their husbands, fathers, and brothers torn from their sides and scourged in their presence, became infuriated at the indecent spectacle, and in their agonized frenzy, rushed upon the assailants and wrenched off the masks behind which they skulked, only to behold the faces of men who, up to that hour, they had deemed the ones to whom, from their superior intelligence, they should have looked for counsel.

Traveling from place to place and directing the general movement, were men who had held positions as generals in the armies of the rebellion. Disappointed political tricksters aiming to elevate to power a party whom they claimed had been in sympathy with the rebel cause North and South; and determined to do this though the land of their birth should go to ruin. Anarchy and confusion usurp the places of law and order, and the blood of the outraged ones reach up to heaven in cries for vengence.

These men overlooked the fact that they were setting in motion a power that was destined to pass from their control, and make them as a people of whom it was written: “I will even give them unto the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life; and their dead bodies shall be as meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth.” They desired to heed no note of warning regarding the future so that the ends of the present were accomplished; and under their guidance, lust and rapine and murder stalked abroad, and the land seemed to be wholly given up to the machinations of the evil one and the unbridled license of his chosen servants.

Nowhere upon the dial plate of the nineteenth century did the index finger of the hand of God point with such unerring and terrible certainty. It seemed as if the Lord had spoken once more as he spake in the days of the Prophet Isaiah:

“What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now go to. I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the walls thereof, and it shall be trodden down. And I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns * * * for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant; and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.”

Good men bowed their heads in anguish. They had lifted their eyes to the far North, from whence should come their help, and they had looked in vain. The body corporate was too fatally diseased to cure itself Rottenness and corruption hung upon its borders, and were slowly sapping the foundations of its life. Its energies were prostrated, its internal recuperative power destroyed. Help must come from without; and the earnest prayers of the devoted and doomed went up to the throne of God in heartfelt supplication, that wisdom might dwell in the hearts of the counsellors to whom the destinies of the nation had been confided; but it seemed as if the heavens were as adamant that could not be pierced, and that no answer would be vouchsafed to the sincere appeal.”

Such was the situation at the close of President Johnson’s term of office, and the elevation of General Grant to the presidential chair. It remained to be seen whether the incoming administration would turn the deaf ear to the suffering and disorganized South as its predecessor had done, or whether, under the guidance of its new Executive head, order should be brought out of chaos, the crooked paths made straight, and the prophecy fulfilled: “Behold, I will redeem them with an outstretched arm.”

The recitals that follow give answer to this query more conclusively than the most elaborate of arguments. They show, from statistics gathered under the most favorable circumstances by the writer in person, the existence of a numerous and formidable organization of armed men, working in secret, disguising themselves beyond all hope of recognition, committing depredations upon persons and property, frequently resulting in the total destruction of both, and instituting the most bitter and inhuman persecutions, for opinion’s sake, that ever disgraced the history of a nation.

The facts are beyond all hope of successful denial. They are born out by the records of the local and federal courts, by the testimony of the surviving sufferers and by the voluntary confession of recanting members of the organization.

A full expose of the order, its origin and secrets, its designs and purposes, its operations and results, are related with an unswerving fidelity to the truth, and with all charity to the people with whom it had its rise, and among whom, by the grace of God, and under the firm but humane course pursued by the present administration in the enforcement of the law, and the establishment of the right, it must have its fall. The information came to the knowledge of the writer through those who had been active members of the order, and who had abandoned it the moment the strong arm of the Government had been felt in the vigorous enforcement of the laws, through its secret agents, thus rendering it safe for them to do so.

The revelations that follow, speak in tones that must reverberate throughout the length and breadth of the continent, and are submitted as terrible evidences of the fearful condition to which communities may be reduced, when, ignoring the cardinal principles of right and justice, they abandon themselves to the control of unscrupulous men, whose overweening ambition destroy every other sentiment, and who esteem no measures too vile or inhuman that will lead to the accomplishment of their own base ends.

ORDERS

OF THE

KU KLUX KLANS.

The Constitutional Union Guards.—Knights of the White Camelia.—Order of Invisible Empire.—The White Brotherhood.—Union and Young Men’s Democracy.

ORIGIN, ORGANIZATION, INITIATION, OATHS, OBJECTS AND OPERATIONS.

He discovereth deep things out of darkness; And bringeth out to light the shadow of death. Job. XII., 22.

In the early part of 1866, or nearly a year after the close of the war of the rebellion, there was organized in the Southern States, a secret order, known as the “Constitutional Union Guards,” having a constitution, by-laws, oaths of allegiance, modes of recognition and approach, and a ritual, all of which were legendary and unwritten. Its places of meetings were styled Camps. Its officers were: a “Commander,” “South Commander,” “Grand Commander,” “Chief of Dominion,” and “Grand Cyclops,” or supreme head of the order.

The Commander is the chief officer of a local Camp. He issues the call for, and presides over, all its meetings. Initiates members; administers the oath; invests them with the signs, grips, and passwords necessary in making themselves known as members of the Order; and imparts to them the signal code of sounds by which they are governed in their excursions, and at times when, for obvious reasons, it is not expedient to utter words of command.

The South Commander is, to all appearances, a lay member of the Camp. His power, however, when he chooses to exercise it, is superior to that of the Commander. He is an officer without apparent function, and yet it is a portion of the oath attached to the second, or supreme degree, that he shall be obeyed in preference to any other known or constituted authority. He can prorogue the Camp, or dissolve it altogether, whenever he deems fit, and is amenable to no one inside of the Camp of which he is a member.

The office of this functionary is not an elective one. Whenever a Camp is formed, the authority under which it works assigns to it a South Commander, and he is the only person through whom communications can be received from, or made to, that authority. All the doings of the Camp, the number and names of its members, the warnings issued, the persons visited, and all other proceedings, are carefully noted by the South Commander, and reported by him to the Grand Commander of the District in which the Camp is located, and he is the only member of the Camp who has knowledge of that officer. The South Commander is not permitted to know any Grand Commander save the one to whom he reports, nor does he know to whom his superior is amenable.

The Grand Commander has charge of a District comprising a certain number of Camps (usually seven), from the South Commanders of which he receives reports as above stated. It is his duty to condense these reports into cypher, which he transmits to the officer above him, known as the Chief of Dominion, and from whom he receives the general instructions and orders to be transmitted to the various Camps of his District through the South Commander. He in turn is not permitted to know any Chief of Dominion save the one to whom he reports; and, like his inferiors, is in utter ignorance as to whom his superior is amenable.

The Chief of Dominion has charge of all the operations of the Order in some State assigned to his care. He receives reports from the Grand Commanders thereof; and transmits the same to the “Grand Cyclops,” or supreme head of the Order, and President ex-officio of the “Supreme Grand Council.” This Supreme Grand Council is composed of the Chiefs of Dominions, and from them emanate the instructions which, being decided upon in the conclave of the Council, are promulgated to the rank and file through the Grand Commanders, South Commanders, and Commanders of Camps.

By this peculiar system of organization the moving spirits of the Order are conversant with all that transpires below them, while their own identity is carefully concealed from the masses whom they design to move for their own vile purposes. The objects of the Order are somewhat covertly set forth in the oaths administered to the members, but previous to this time the grand designs intended to be accomplished were known only to the members of the Supreme Grand Council. The initiation is comprised in two degrees, the first or probationary degree being intended to test the members, and the second or supreme degree for those of the first who have been found worthy of advancement. The signs, grips, &c., are the same in both degrees, with the exception of one test word, and a supplementary ritual hereafter to be explained.

ORDER OF INITIATION.

FIRST, OR PROBATIONARY DEGREE.

The first or probationary degree of the Order is intended for the masses. The candidate for initiation is selected, so far as possible, with reference to his political proclivities, if he has any. He must be known to the member proposing him to be opposed to the Radical party; to be or to have been in sympathy with the cause of the rebellion; to be opposed to the elevation of the negro to a social and political equality with the whites; and to have a hatred of negro worshipers, carpet-baggers, and scallawags, as those terms are interpreted in the Order.

These points being satisfactorily settled, he is notified to proceed to a secluded place on a designated night. There he is met by three Conductors, who blindfold and lead him to the vicinity of the Camp, which, in order the more effectually to guard against surprise, rarely assembles twice in the same place. On the way he and his Conductors are encountered by a guard or sentinel, who challenges the party with:

“Who comes here?”

His Conductors reply: “A friend.”

The guard asks: “A friend to what?”

He is answered: “My country.”

The candidate is then allowed to pass into the Camp, and is conducted to the center of the assembled members, when the following oath is administered to him by the Commander:

INITIATORY OATH.

“You solemnly swear, in the presence of Almighty God and these witnesses, that you will never reveal the secrets that are about to be imparted to you, and that you will be true to the principles of this brotherhood and its members; that you are not now a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Red String Order, the Union League, Heroes of America, or any other organization whose aim and intention is to destroy the rights of the South, or to elevate the negro to a political equality with yourself; and that you will never assist at the initiation into this Order of any member of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Red String Order, the Union League, Heroes of America, or any one holding Radical views or opinions. You furthermore swear that you will oppose all Radicals and negroes in all of their political designs, and that, should any Radical or negro impose on or abuse or injure any member of this brotherhood, you will assist in punishing him in any manner the Camp may direct; and you furthermore swear that you will never reveal any of the orders, acts, or edicts of this brotherhood, and that you will obey all calls and summonses from the Chief of your Camp or brotherhood, should it be in your power to do so; and that, should any member of the brotherhood or his family be in jeopardy, you will inform them of their danger, and go to their assistance. You further swear that you will never give the word of distress unless you are in great need of assistance; and should you hear it given by any brother, you will go to his or their assistance; and should any member of this brotherhood reveal any of its secrets, acts, orders, or edicts, you will assist in punishing him in any way the Camp may direct or approve, so help you God.”

During the administration of this oath, the members surround the initiate, dressed in long, white gowns, high, conical shaped, white hats, and their faces shrouded in white masks. At the conclusion of the oath, the candidate is made to kiss the book. The bandage is then removed from his eyes. The Commander approaches, and proceeds to instruct him in the

SIGNS, GRIPS, AND PASSWORD.

Signs of recognition and approach:

First.—Strike the fingers of the right hand briskly upon the hair over the right ear, bringing the hand forward and partially around the ear, as if describing a half moon.

Answer.—Same sign made with left hand over left ear.

Second.—Thrust the right hand into the pant’s pocket, with the exception of the thumb, at the same time bringing the right heel into the hollow of the left foot.

Answer.—Same sign with the left hand, bringing the left heel into the hollow of the right foot.

As a farther precaution search is made by the hailing party as if for a pin in the right lappel of the coat.

Answer.—A similar search in the left lappel of the coat.

The Grip is given by placing the forefinger on the pulse of the person you shake hands with.

Countersign.—If halted by a camp or picket on the public highway at night, the following colloquy ensues:

“Who comes there?”

“A friend!”

“A friend of what?”

“My country!”

“What country?”

“I, S, A, Y.” (Repeating each letter slowly.)

“N, O, T, H, I, N, G.” (Repeating each letter slowly.)

“The word?”

“Retribution!”

These countersigns are issued every three months. The one here given was in vogue at the time of the discovery of the order.

A member of any order of the Ku Klux Klan of the first or probationary degree, in distress, and requiring speedy aid, will use a word signal, or cry of distress: “Shiloh!”

In expeditions conducted under direction of the Commander, or any of the brethren detailed by him to act as head, a code of signals by sounds, made with whistles, is used, in order that the members may not be recognized by their voices.

DIVISIONS OF THE ORDER.

There are several divisions of the order of the Ku Klux Klans, all working under the same ritual and oaths, and having the same signs, grips, passwords, modes of approach, and general conduct of raids and midnight excursions. These are known under the names of “Knights of the White Camelia,” “The Invisible Empire,” “The White Brotherhood,” “The Unknown Multitude,” “The Union and Young Men’s Democracy.” All work in disguise, with the exception of the latter, who work openly as well as in disguise, and are all under the instructions of the “Grand Cyclops” and the Supreme Grand Council. They all have one and the same object, which is as plainly set forth in the oath as it well can be in an obligation of that character.

The difference in names and styles has been adopted for a two-fold purpose. First, to conceal the origin, object, and design of the order, and its founders and directors; secondly, to conceal its extent and numbers, and make it appear a mere local affair that has cropped out in different places without reference to any organized combination with one grand center.

The workings of the Klans over all the Southern country show more conclusively than any amount of subterfuge on the part of the leaders, that one common tie binds them all; that one common interest actuates them; that one common end is to be accomplished. The oath differs slightly in phraseology in different localities, to accommodate the varied circumstances under which it is administered, and with a view to greater concealment—the words “Unknown Multitude,” “Invisible Empire,” and “White Brotherhood” being substituted in North and South Carolina; the words “Union and Young Men’s Democracy,” in Georgia and Mississippi; and the words “Knights of the White Camelia,” in Louisiana and Texas and other States.

THE SECOND OR SUPREME DEGREE.

This degree differs from the first or probationary degree in the fact that those upon whom it is conferred are of the better class of the masses, and take upon themselves a more binding oath, administered under circumstances intended to be more impressive in character. The candidate for this degree is brought blind-folded into the center of the Camp, and caused to kneel at an altar erected for the occasion, his right hand placed upon a Bible, and his left upon a human skull. The Commander then says:

“Brethren, must it be done?”

The members respond, “It must!” and this in a tone intended to strike terror to the heart of the novitiate.

The candidate, of course, has no knowledge of what is meant by the ominous “Must it be done?” and there is a mournful groaning in the response “It must!” indicating that a terrible experience awaits him, which the Brotherhood would gladly spare him if they could.

A death-like silence ensues for a few moments, which seem ages to the candidate, and affords ample opportunity for his imagination to picture the unheard-of horrors through which he may possibly be called to pass. The silence is finally broken by the Commander, who says:

“Brethren, this brother now kneels at the altar of our faith, and asks to be bound to our fortunes by the more solemn and mysterious provisions of our Order. Fortunately for him in this hour of peril, he has been found worthy, and in commemoration of his being made one of the great ‘Unknown Multitude,’ I again ask, ‘Must it be done?’”

The brethren, in solemn tones, again respond, “It must!”

The Commander then says, in a stentorian tone of voice, “Let the blood of the traitor be spilled: bring the victim forth.”

The members here make a rustling noise, to resemble a struggle, a heavy blow is struck upon some appropriate substance, and a few drops of blood are trickled over the hand of the initiate that rests upon the skull. The brethren then surround him with knives and pistols presented in a circle about his head and neck, when the Commander then says:

“Must I swear him by the oath that shall forever bind, and never be broken?”

The brethren, placing their hands upon their left breasts, respond sepulchrally as before, “Swear him!”

The Commander now addresses the candidate as follows:

“My Brother, kneeling at the solemn altar of our faith, as one who desires that no government but the white man’s shall live in this country; and as one who will fight to the death all schisms, and factions, and parties, coming from whatsoever source they may, which have for their design the elevation of the negro to an equality with the white man, I am now about to administer to you the oath of this, the supreme degree, of our Order—that oath which shall forever bind, and never be broken; at the same time informing you that this oath, being taken in a cause which has for its object the deliverance of your country and the land of your birth from the rule of the negro-worshiper and the fanatic, is paramount to every other oath which you have taken, or may hereafter take, outside of this Order. You will now repeat after me, pronouncing your name in full, and your words aloud, on pain of instant death: