Ku Klux Klan: Its Origin, Growth and Disbandment Part 3

By the time the eligible material in the town had been used up, the young men 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 "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 were contemplating nothing more serious than amus.e.m.e.nt. 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.

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 t.i.tles 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 att.i.tude 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 contributed to its transformation into a band of Regulators.

When the meetings first began to be held in the dilapidated house on the hill, pa.s.sers-by were frequent. Most of them pa.s.sed 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 superst.i.tious negro, was extremely terrifying, and if, in addition, he heard the uproarous noises issuing from the "den" at the moment of a candidate's invest.i.ture with the "regal crown," he had the foundation for a most awe-inspiring story. There came from the country similar stories. The belated laborer, pa.s.sing 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.

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 cla.s.s 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 superst.i.tious 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 ill.u.s.trate the amazing power of the unknown over the minds of men of all cla.s.ses.

Circ.u.mstances 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. 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 circ.u.mstances 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.

As every one knows, the condition of things was wholly anomalous, but no one can fully appreciate the circ.u.mstances 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 p.r.o.nounce a just judgment on their behavior. On this account, not only the Ku Klux, but the ma.s.s 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 circ.u.mstances, 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 cla.s.s 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 no good mood to bear. One of these causes related to that cla.s.s of men who, like sc.u.m, 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 cla.s.s 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 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 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 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 effect was salutary. For a while the robberies ceased. The lawless cla.s.s a.s.sumed 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 circ.u.mstances 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 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]

FOOTNOTES:

[31] It will be remembered that in March, 1867, the Reconstruction Acts were pa.s.sed and that in April, 1867, the Reconstruction was beginning.--_Editor._

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

[33] The cla.s.s called "tories" during the Civil War. They should not be confused with the genuine Unionists.--_Editor._

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

3.--_Editor._

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

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

CHAPTER III.

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 pa.s.s, 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 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 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 a.s.signed.