K. K. K. Sketches, Humorous and Didactic Part 6

The "sham," or counterfeit edition of the K. K. K., had no organized existence in either of the remaining Southern States; but here it not only possessed this groundwork of system, but possessed it to advantage, and in numbers and influence (if political rank can bestow the latter) probably excelled the body which they affected to parody, and, giving the joke a serious turn, did injure. Their plan embodied as many of the K. K. K.

secrets as they could contrive to capture, and scorning illiberality even in outward things, prescribed the regalia and mask feature, with an expansiveness of detail that must have affected the cotton-market. Its chief place of rendezvous was the capital of the State, and it is believed by many that His Excellency, the Governor, was, if not its visible head, at least its trusted adviser and friend. Their object was the aggrandizement of party; and this they proposed to accomplish by rendering the State a revolutionary h.e.l.l, tenantable only for soldiers, black militia, and that currish type of the politician then in vogue, and who had been found, by actual experience, best adapted to these elements. If a county, State, or general election were to be held, these men, getting themselves up in approved Ku-Klux toilet, went forth to lay their knives at the throats of a sufficient number of innocents to afford a text for b.l.o.o.d.y-shirt invectives, and straightway the political sky rained soldiers enough to garrison the polls of a small empire. Murder, arson, rape, robbery, etc., all had a place in their vocabulary, not indeed as we would speak of them in the abstract, but with all those horrible belongings of sentimentality which attach to each when enterprised wilfully, cheerfully, and with scarcely a selfish end in view. Warring against women and children was a foible of the society, which they carried to such a state of development that it became first an _attribute_, and then a furious _pa.s.sion_; insomuch that, if a faithful history of their exploits were written, the n.o.ble patriots of Maine and Ma.s.sachusetts would execrate them, as they do not, could not, those secret enemies who war against social virtue in their midst, and the book could have no other t.i.tle than "Murderers of the Innocents."

But, in exposing the _wrongs_ of this people, we do not become their champion, nor even so much as pretend to a.s.sume that they possessed _rights_. If fanaticism, or, to use a stronger term, transcendentalism, morally speaking, or radicalism in politics, exists in the South (and we leave this problem to the _Science Monthly_), it has its fullest development on South Carolina soil. Her people have always shown themselves jealous of individual rights, and disposed to clannishness, where concessions affecting these have been made. They have attempted to secede from the Union on two occasions, and the latter of these became the political herald of the great civil war, whose incidents are remembered with tears by every patriot. The K. K. K. found her climate congenial, and from the first her people were mad against reconstruction; and while the writer may express no opinion on the subject, these things are spoken of to her disadvantage. But admitting that they were true, and that she occupies that revolutionary extreme in politics a.s.signed her by the most reliable histories of the period, could that justify the course of her domestic enemies towards her, and should it chain the expression of the undissembling chronicler of such events?

We need hardly state that this emetic proved too much for the K. K. K.

animal, and that all its movements thereafter indicated not only a badly disordered stomach, but moral functions so much impaired that it was constantly ruled by a tendency to ask everybody pardon for sustaining this relation to society, and to accuse itself of crimes for which it could only a.s.sign somnambulistic causes. Indeed, about the year 1871, it was completely parodied out of the field, and if Ku-Klux horrors were far more frequent in this State after that period than previously, the reader, with the lights before him, is asked to a.s.sume the responsibility of the seeming paradox. It not only had no government patronage at its back, but, on the other hand, viewed a brilliant perspective of government halters, and seeing how unequal the rivalry must prove in more respects than one, wisely concluded to retire from business. A resolution of _sine die_ adjournment was actually pa.s.sed, and the members having exchanged sad farewells and wept on each other's necks in view of the gloomy prospect before them, the "Shams," as they were derisively called, became masters of the situation. (If we except the Hamburg affair in the summer of 1876, and one other occurrence of merely local import, the white element of South Carolina has been guilty of no overt act since the period named implying contumacy towards the State government or the const.i.tutional rights of the citizen.)

The "Shams" were opposed in their movements not only by the party who had formerly upheld the K. K. K. idea as an alleged necessity of the times, but by that more conservative influence which, though maintaining the same political views as the latter, contemned the use of all secret agencies in politics. When it was possible to antic.i.p.ate their raids, rotten-egg battalions were formed, which, in their efforts to deter them from their purpose, employed every character of violence that did not involve the commission of crime. Not unfrequently their places of meeting were discovered, and when this was the case, a descent was planned, and the subject of "unfinished business" rendered one of lively interest to its membership. But, frequently, organized resistance, from the very nature of the case, was out of the question, and where citizens were placed at the mercy of their raids, they sometimes took the execution of the law into their own hands. An instance in point, which has been given to the public in different forms, but never correctly, has been related to the writer.

In the western portion of the State lived a farmer who had so frequently suffered from the incursions of these gentry, that he resolved on retaliatory measures, and loading his shot-gun lay in waiting. The corn-crib seemed to have been a favorite objective with them, and as he had stationed himself where his gun commanded the approaches thereto, he quietly bided the moments. His calculations were well taken, for in a brief time a party of five men, gowned and otherwise disguised, rode to the neighborhood of his concealment, and taking sacks from their saddles proceeded to the crib. Here their movements were guided by a plan that was unique if not original. Obtaining a rail from a neighboring fence, one end thereof was inserted under the corner of the building, and their combined strength applied to the other; a leverage which easily gave a sufficient aperture to admit their bodies. One of their number was now stationed on the end of the improvised lever as a teetering weight, and the party proceeded to business.

While matters were progressing thus favorably for the marauders, our hero's feelings may be better imagined than described, and observing with what a saucy air the individual who balanced the fulcrum performed his other duty of sentinelcy, he took steady aim and fired.

The result, as ascertained some hours afterwards, was truly wonderful, and deserves, if it has not received, a place in the archives of the Moses'

administration. The bodies of four dead negroes were found, one pierced with bullets, and the remainder having their necks broken. We will not offend against good taste by giving further details, and especially desire that the plausibility of this story may be seen in the readiness with which the reader comprehends the mystery of their deaths respectively.

It is needless to state that this affair was heralded to the world as a Ku-Klux murder, and as the parties wore uniforms, and affected the characterization, some doubt touching the integrity of the announcement may have existed in the minds of those best acquainted with the facts.

CHAPTER XVII.

A MORAL POINTED.

A Problem for the Phrenologists--"Self-Preservation is [said to be]

the First Law of Life"--A Mooted Question put at Rest--Experiments in Metaphysics--An Anecdote Dealing with the Characteristics of some People--Another--Peculiarities of the Caucasian--Ditto of the African--An "Awakening" among the Children of the New Abrahamic Covenant--"Brudder Jones's Preechin'"--What it Wrought--Unpleasant Truths--Sins of Omission and Commission--The Pale-Faced Settlers in Distress--An "Artifice" of Retrenchment--Eloquent Discourse--Nineteenthly, and what followed--K. K. K.

_redivivus_--"Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys are Marching, etc."--A Break for Tall Timber--The Best Time on Record.

Whether it is located in the brain, or has its seat in that sentient organ of the body which physiologists indicate as the seat of life, we are left to conjecture; but it is certain that there exists somewhere in the anatomy of man an essence, or attribute, which, under certain outward conditions, becomes the tyrant of his movements, and renders the disposition to cultivate acquaintance with other vistas a pa.s.sion too strong to be resisted. Philosophers tell us that "self-preservation is the first law of life," but their efforts to connect this postulate with some rational conclusion deduced from the organism of the animal under discussion, is so egregiously wanting in the elements of a sound syllogism, that we are led to believe that it has no foundation in fact, and that they only meant to say that where the emotion denominated _fear_ a.s.sumes the reigns of physical government, an open road and fair play are all that is required to render the proposed achievement a success. It is useless to tell us that men, adopting the improved modes of destroying life which this Christian age has developed, stand up to explode missiles at each other under the persuasion that they are doing something that will tend to preserve life; or, if that were not false doctrine, who that ever attended one of these tournaments of bad shooting is unable to testify to the overpowering conviction that the parties thereto would have enjoyed themselves better in a free exercise of their limbs--

"Over the meadows and far away."

Having examined into the philosophy of this question, with a view solely of removing certain doubts inherited from the professions of a warlike ancestry, and, predisposed to err in the opposite direction, we have arrived at the conclusion, _once for all_, that the "git up and git"

tendencies of mankind, when the proper incentives are at hand, are as absolutely irresistible as the water-fall at Niagara, and as necessary to the happiness of the subject as the barriers that separate him from his mother-in-law. Having solved this problem, and satisfied ourselves of the universality of its conditions, it next occurred to us to examine its terms as applicable to the different races of men. And here we found that while all races are equally gifted in this respect, yet its elementary conditions are not always the same in different branches of the Adamic tree. Taking the extremes in color as the representatives of a fair contrast in other respects, we have confined our investigations to the white and black races,--and with a view to our own profit, and to being fully comprehended by the reader,--these races as they exist on our own sh.o.r.es. Without any reference whatever to the vain science known as metaphysics, our conclusions are as follows: With the white man this element of his being is less on the surface, and he wears it uneasily, as though it were foreign to his genius, and at the same time a curb on his actions. With the other it is a loose-fitting garment, worn on the outside, and he seems rather pleased than otherwise that he is thus rendered a spectacle to his fellow-men. The white man attempts to conceal it, and above all would persuade himself that it is an illusion of the fancy. The black, contrariwise, has no qualms of conscience on the subject, and if pressed for argument, might adduce it as a crowning evidence of his h.o.m.ogeneity.

Two incidents have come under our notice which set forth this distinction more forcibly than any form of words we could employ. A farmer living in the back country, near the city of Shreveport, brought his son--a youth whose adolescency would hardly have escaped the notice of strangers--to that thriving burg to view the sights. The steamboat feature was down in the programme, of course, and reaching the wharf, the youngster was commissioned to go aboard and obtain the exact "geography" of "the thing."

This he proceeded to do with all haste, exploring the quarter-deck, rummaging through the cabins, and finally bringing up before the engine with a manner that said as plainly as words, "the thing is inconceivable."

The engineer, standing not far off, observed this movement, and, probably without contemplating such serious results, stepped briskly forward and touched the safety-valve. Startled beyond all "fancy fathoms" by the earthquake of sound, "country" accomplished a rapid retrograde movement, which soon involved him in conflict with the waves, whence, floundering and spluttering, after the fashion of a porpoise, and having absorbed a barrel or more of river water, he was with difficulty rescued. Being dragged ash.o.r.e, and before the agonies of drowning had fairly relinquished his frame, a sympathizing bystander asked if he had been much scared. His reply was characteristic of the Caucasian blood, "No-o-o (splutter); I've (splutter) seen the critters afore."

Not many hundred miles north of the city of Galveston, while the Texas Central Railroad was in course of construction, and at a little town which formed its northern terminus for the time being, occurred the following:

Two individuals of African lineage, hailing from the upper districts of the State, who had never seen an "ingine," but had long promised themselves that felicity, stood at the depot awaiting with some impatience the arrival of the evening train. Standing hand in hand, and conversing excitedly on the topic uppermost in their minds, their _outre_ appearance, coupled with the exceeding verdancy of some of their observations, became the subject of attention, and then of amused remark from the bystanders.

This they were unable to appreciate for various reasons, and soon the appearance of the winged monster around a neighboring curve, with appalling and most unpreconceived suddenness, took away their breaths and rocked their bodies with shivers of dread. Their first impulse was to dismiss their corner of the meeting and pa.s.s to the rear; but, looking around upon the broadly smiling crowd, they were rea.s.sured for the moment, and each grasping the other's h.o.r.n.y palm with a grip which evinced their respective determinations not to be left, whatever might happen, they stood hearkening to the thunderous echoes, and noting with special wonder the cow-catching and other aggressive features of the steadily approaching monster. It had now stolen by slow degrees to within twenty feet of the spot which they occupied, and the whistle breaking into a peculiarly loud accompaniment to the huff--huff--huff of the bellowing engine, the expression, "Dar, she's busted!" startled even the man of iron at the throttle-valve, and prefacing the exertion with a ten-feet leap into the air, the panic-stricken darkies broke across the landscape with a yearning desire for tall timber that was eloquently depicted on every motion of the supple limbs, and in each sway of the backward leant and pendulous cerebellums. The cheers of the crowd, and a few extra flourishes on the big horn, served to augment their weight of conviction, and buckling to their labor with saw-mill regularity of stroke, and a settled determination not to be overtaken by slower time, they soon blended with the verge of the horizon, and took that leap into s.p.a.ce which rescues them from all further connection with this narrative.

So thin is the part.i.tion wall that separates the real from the ideal with these beings, that they continually advertise themselves for a scare, and should they by any accident be deprived of their weekly supply of the element, loss of appet.i.te and other serious bodily symptoms would undoubtedly ensue.

We have volunteered these remarks and ill.u.s.trations, pertaining to the philosophy of this question, with a view of introducing the following occurrence:

In that portion of the State of Mississippi where the pumpkins grow largest, and the mosquitoes are supplied with blood-letting apparatus at both extremities, and at about that period of _post bellum_ history when the K. K. K. rabies had taken strongest hold upon the chivalry of the neighboring hills and valleys, a great "awakening" occurred among the children of the new Abrahamic covenant. In other words, and to quote the language of one of the communicants, "a ole fashyun'd whoopin', b.u.mpin', jumpin,' tumblin,' rousation of de dry bones had superseemed froo de inscroomentality of Brudder Jones's preechin'." For a period of six weeks the lame, halt, and blind of the neighboring plantations had been led into the troubled waters with manifestations of relief that the most skeptical would hardly question, and still, to quote further, "Zion was a wavin', and de onregenerate milyums flockin' abode of de 'gospil car.'" Indeed, the "orfumdoxeky of de new doctorin'" was having its effect everywhere, and old soggy timber that had resisted the improvements in wedges for half a century went to atoms under the vigorous mauling of "Brudder Jones." No sooner had one squad of penitents been "b.u.mped" through and converted into stools for the sisters, than the raw material for another and larger was at hand, and "swingin', whoopin', rollin'," the "thing" held right on its course over the rheumatic toes of the aged and infirm, and into the combative "buzzums" of the young, vigorous, and "kick-him-hard-and-let-him-go."

But though nothing could be more delightful to the writer than to continue the narrative in this strain, recording only the triumphs of "suvverin grace," and concerning himself most with the aesthetic beauties of its "sperimental terms," yet duty compels him to state that while Brother Jones and his militant hosts were pressing hard upon the enemy from their entrenched position, their campaign was far from embodying all the gospel conditions. Though we could wish the sentence blotted out after we had written it, it behooves us to say, in plain words, that sins both of omission and commission soiled their robes, and wrought, or should have done so, a languishing effect on their hosannas. The gra.s.sy cotton-fields and rioting pumpkin vines testified to the former, while the _commission_ department of the offence, with such a paraphrase of that word as may be effected by a slight transposition of accent, was directed with most fatal precision of aim at the henneries and "piggeries" of the neighboring white trash. So constant and regular were their visits to the haunts of the feathered domestics, that the fashion of noting absentees from roll-call became obsolete; and a full chorus of grunts was so foreign to the morning habits of the pig-pen, that such an outburst in that quarter must have affected the nerves of the strongest. Indeed, that division of the pale-faced settlers whose springtime felicity depended largely on this cla.s.s of commissaries, had arrived at such a desperate strait that, in convention a.s.sembled, it was resolved to retrench, and, if we must write it, their "artifice" of retrenchment was levelled at Brother Jones and his "band of robbers," as they were politely termed. The scheme "hit upon,"

and the success which followed it, may be gathered from the following scene:

That period of the night equally removed from the departed and the coming day, had accomplished its fiftieth revolution, and now hung fire over the eighteenthly of the most eloquent discourse that was ever flattened out over the crowns of an equal proportion of unsuspecting listeners for the same number of times. The cries of the stricken arose from every quarter of the vast audience, and hundreds of the slain had submitted to that elongating process by which their contorted frames were made to do duty for the greatest number of "squatter sovereigns." One brother arose to testify, in a series of whoops, to the pungency of "de brudder's doctorin'," and immediately went to bed to a ma.s.s of excruciating hurts on the outskirts of the a.s.sembly. A sister, racked by the "alloverishes," and knowing the penalty for interrupting the services at this interesting stage, screamed out in affright, and reaching that point over a causeway of the best Boston built brogans, was content to embrace her toes around a neighboring sycamore. Nineteenthly stood up for duty,--arranged its cravat,--tip-toed,--and lo! instead of a chorus of grunts, a chorus of gasps, full-chested, deep drawn, and suffocating. There he stood, or rather towered, just where the rays of light fell strongest, garbed in funereal black, and full twelve feet from crown to sole.[B] Steadying himself after an awkward, but ghostlily impressive bow, there issued from that portion of his corporeal frame which might be supposed to represent the mean in a mathematical estimate of his inches, the following announcement: "I am a Ku-Klux!" and then from the upper extreme the following confirmation of this report: "I have just forded the Tallahatchie River, and am the advance guard of the old original whoopers, surnamed K. K. K.;" and then from mean and extreme, in dismal chorus, "Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching, etc."

Nothing could be further from our purpose than to injure that excellent person, either in the eyes of his contemporaries or of that posterity which he was wont to invoke so confidently from the more thrilling promontories of his discourse; but a decent regard for the "proprieties"

of this narrative compels us to state that the reverend orator observing, or fancying that he observed, something mandatory, and withal personal in the terms of this refrain, at once inaugurated the "tramp" exercise over the heads of the a.s.sembly, and reaching _terra firma_, one mile from the point of embarkation, and seeing nothing in the h.o.m.ogeneity of a mob particularly attractive to a man of genius, proceeded to divest himself of his surroundings in the best executed "lonesome" since the days of Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok. This movement, moreover, possessed a striking appropriateness, inasmuch as it rendered him _practically_ the leader of his flock, and perhaps on no former occasion of his extended ministry did he ever discharge the duties of the "relation" with the same yearning solicitude for the success of the issue, even admitting, in extenuation of the past, that the most lukewarm of his const.i.tuency did their whole duty on this memorable occasion. As the writer has never been successful at equating distances since he was gobbled by the greyhound in connection with his more legitimate prey in the good old days of "academicia," he declines to state just how many furlongs the panic-stricken mult.i.tude had traversed, when a gloaming of red in the east warned them that they had nothing further to fear from the "nocturnal beasts," who had obtruded their heathenish "doxullumgy" on the late exercises, and will not commit himself as to the sequel, further than to say that the results of the "great awakening" were soon after visible in a certain rejoicing tendency of the cotton plant and pumpkin vine of that fertile region.

CHAPTER XVIII.

K. K. K. AS A FACTOR IN POLITICS.

Late Announcement of the Earl of Beaconsfield before an a.s.sembly of Englishmen--The Secret Societies of Europe--Men of Influence in the Southern States Disclaim the alleged Good Offices of the Klan in the Work of Southern Redemption--Its True Status with Regard to Current Politics--Combining the Offices of Regulator and _Vigilante_ with that of Politician--An Absolutist in all Society Matters--Many who advance the Idea that that Complete Renovation of the Social System Effected through its Means could not have been Accomplished in the Use of less Radical Measures--Inhuman Butcheries, etc., Figments of the Scalawag Imagination--Many of its Acts were Lawless, etc.--A Logical Presentation of the True Theory--How it Injured the Common Cause--Its Generical Belongings--Few Friends Unconnected with its Patronage--Negative Issue which it Introduced into the Great Campaign--Occupying a Voice in Southern Counsels--Unprincipled Plagiaries--Dangerous Sentimentalism Awakened at the North--What the Imaginative Prose of the News-Reporter was Calculated to Do--How it (K. K. K.) Prolonged the "Carpet-Bag" Reign of Terror.

The late announcement of the Earl of Beaconsfield (Mr. D'Israeli), before an a.s.sembly of Englishmen, that the pending war against Turkey was the war of the secret societies of Europe, conducted through Prince Milan, as their agent, may induce incredulous persons to give greater heed to the statement which we here make that the movement inaugurated by the secret order known as the Ku-Klux-Klan was a war against radicalism as it formerly existed in the Southern States, waged through its ... allies. If the English premier speaks truth, there is a strong probability that the secret purveyors to whom he refers will achieve their aim, and be crowned with the same reflected glory that has availed to cover a mult.i.tude of sins in the instance of the American order, though reflecting people, who take into account the incentives to such measures, can but regard them as intermeddlers of a very base stamp. The cause of religious liberty on the Turkish frontier will not be benefited by this revelation; and, continuing the a.n.a.logy, there are few men of influence in the Southern States who do not make it a point, whenever occasion offers, to disclaim the alleged good offices of the Klan in the work of Southern redemption.

We have before intimated that, in one of these States, the cause of the allied Democrats and Republicans did receive essential aid from this source, and while we shall not enter into any such exegesis of the question as would show just how far the common cause was aided or r.e.t.a.r.ded by the secret measure, we must be permitted to record a belief that its influence was commonly hurtful.

Every secret society, enterprised with a political end in view, must, in the nature of the case, prove unpopular with the ma.s.ses of those who wield the franchise, and in not unfrequent instances, as we have antic.i.p.ated, be deprehended by the very individuals, or parties of individuals, whom they seek to succor. In the instance of the Klan, these conditions were felt with peculiar weight; inasmuch as the people among whom it was domiciled cherished, beside this common feeling, a natural aversion to such influences in politics, derived from their _ante bellum_ experience; and the people of the North, unacquainted with its aims, and grossly unenlightened as to its _materiel_ and claims to social rank, wrote it down a very monster of sedition. It was denounced in public, scoffed at in private, declared to be an outlaw by the legislatures, interpreted as the very essence of crookedness in morals by the courts, fulminated against by the national and State executives, and how, under these severe conditions, it contrived to even exist, is, and must remain, one of the unsolved problems of the "gilded age."

But, aside from any inherited odium of the quality which we have been discussing, the Klan had obliquities of its own, and a record compiled therefrom which could not fail to photograph it to the world in a very disagreeable light, and obtain for it enemies (and sometimes potential enemies), where it would not otherwise have possessed them. Even its interference in politics was of an illegitimate and unnatural kind, and called forth the constant criticisms of such unprejudiced judges as those who were to reap the benefits of their enterprises would likely prove.

But it did not stop here, and combined the offices of regulator and _vigilante_ with that of politician. It was an absolutist in all society matters, and those who offended in this regard could rarely base a hope of immunity from visitation upon any well-defined precedents to be found among its Domus Dei records. [We have seen, in the various sketches of incidents connected with the Order, and based on its history, which have been given in the progress of this work, the idea of its officiousness in such details rendered prominent, and this has been done, in every instance, with a view to subserve the intelligent aim upon which the work is based: in a word, to render it a true reflector of the K. K. K. idea, as it has existed in Southern society and politics.] But, leaving out of the estimate the cruel measures sometimes resorted to in executing its plans, there will be found many who advance the opinion that that complete renovation of the social system accomplished through its means was a necessity of the times which would hardly have been effected so quickly and so thoroughly in the use of less radical measures.

And in this connection, it may not be deemed digressive to say, that the many inhuman butcheries with which it was debited by a _not too discriminative public_, never in reality occurred (in no instance unless through accident or mistake), and were pure figments of the scalawag imagination--an imperent element of Southern politics, whose acts had provoked the reign of terror which it took this dishonest means of deprecating.

But as nothing could be further from our purpose than to become the champion of this secret movement--which might be inferred from a too ready condemnation of its enemies--we hasten to add our conviction that many of its acts were lawless, many of its correctives applied to social maladies improportioned in severity, and its entire administration, social and political, an incontinent abuse of usurped prerogative. We have said that in politics its influence was hurtful to those in whose behalf it was officiously employed, and we wish to verify this statement in a logical manner. a.s.suming that our position is fully understood by the reader, the information may be volunteered in its support, that the rank and file of the Order comprised the radical element in Southern politics (native), Democrats and Republicans (and not a few of the latter), a force, which it was reasonable to presume, would enterprise radical measures only in support of its aims. The organization, then, standing alone, and segregated from any influences which itself may have set in motion, could not have failed of ungracious treatment from those domestic surroundings which it had ignored, but upon which it was confessedly dependent. The great _party_ from which it had seceded, controlled by a rigid system of morals in politics, viewed from habit all such movements with suspicion; and as there was nothing in either the manners or the policy of this departure calculated to remove the antipathies of the prejudiced, or to win the affections of the disengaged, reflector of opinion, it failed altogether to secure discriminations in its favor, which would have placed it above such considerations. From this standpoint (_i. e._, its individuality) it conciliated n.o.body, for even its externals were forbidding; and the ignorant and educated cla.s.ses alike--though perhaps from diverse considerations--cherished a suppressed sentiment unfavorable to its affectation of the supernatural, and its partiality for the shadowy in nature.

But while it lost popularity where it should have gained it,--through generical belongings which, possibly, could not have been rendered more in harmony with the public fancy,--there was certainly nothing rea.s.suring to its fellow-citizens in the record which it put before the world. While, as we have said, there was nothing monstrous, nor even designedly criminal in its acts, there was so much that offended against propriety, and required explanation withal, that those who had not been estranged before, as well as those who had, became hopelessly so. It had not been in existence a twelvemonth, before its name, in the localities which it frequented most, became a by-word signifying something very forbidding and disagreeable, if not actually criminal. In the dozen States or more whence its force was recruited, it had not half a hundred friends unconnected with its patronage, and these could hardly have been induced to have made a public profession of their preference.

Its influence on Southern politics, then, could not have been favorable; and having said so much as to the positive effect wrought, we shall briefly examine the negative issue which it introduced into the great campaign. And in doing this, we shall not attempt to penetrate its motives, nor inquire how far it was responsible for acts which but reflected an evil tendency. The reader has, doubtless, antic.i.p.ated us in the statement that it alienated the political mind of the North, reopened the dead issues of secession and war, and licensed a political persecution which, in extent and malignity of design, has not been equalled since the Roman empire dictated government to its conquered dependencies.

Reconstruction, having been inaugurated under favorable auspices, was not to be pretermitted, nor even abated, while this sage Ahithophel occupied a voice in Southern counsels (rendering a war of races possible); and who will affect to say that this policy had no basis of sound reason? The society, a mystery to itself, and sorely misinterpreted by the people among whom it was domesticated, became, of course, a monster of blended secretiveness and iniquity to those who had small means of becoming acquainted with even its aims through unprejudiced sources. Added to this, the most unprincipled plagiaries of its actual history--perpetrated by those local enemies who had most to fear from the movement--found their way constantly into the news mediums of the country, awakening, in the North at least, that dangerous sentimentalism which, more than politics and religion combined, influences the mind of the nation.

Atrocities of which the body could not have been guilty, even in thought--horrors from which it would have shrunk with the same symptoms of dismay that clouded the brow of the Northern reader at their bare relation--were rescued from the carpet-bagger dialect, and rendered into the imaginative prose of the news-reporter, with the design of securing enemies, not for the Ku-Klux movement, but the cause of Conservatism in the South. Many of these slanders never reached the individuals or communities who would have been authorized to refute them, and when their disclaimers were uttered they were either unheard or unheeded.

We do not, of course, affect to say how long the evils of reconstruction were prolonged in the South by means of this influence, but there can be no doubt that it excited such a tendency, and for a long time proved the forlorn hope of the enemies of good government in this section. Many of the wise and good men who had joined the movement in its inception soon became aware of their mistake, and abandoned all connection therewith.

Others followed at a later date, and about the year 1873 a general disbandment ensued, leaving only guerillas in the field.

CHAPTER XIX.