Ku Klux Klan: Its Origin, Growth and Disbandment Part 5

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

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

CHAPTER IV.

THE DECLINE.

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

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

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

In regard to the doings of the Ku Klux two extreme positions have been advocated. On the one hand, it is a.s.serted that the Ku Klux committed no outrages. On the other, that they were the authors of all the depredations committed by masked and disguised men in the Southern States from 1865 to 1869. The truth lies between these two extremes.

Great outrages were committed by bands of disguised men during those years of lawlessness and oppression. And the fact must be admitted that some of these outrages were committed, if not by the order and approbation of the Klan, at least by men who were members of it.[47]

The thoughtful reader will readily understand how this came about.

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

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

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

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

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

In addition to this, the very cla.s.s which the Klan proposed to hold in check and awe into good behavior, soon became wholly unmanageable.

Those who had formerly committed depredations to be laid to the charge of the negroes, after a brief interval of good behavior, a.s.sumed the guise of Ku Klux and returned to their old ways, but with less boldness and more caution, showing the salutary impression which the Klan had made upon them. In some cases the negroes played Ku Klux.

Outrages were committed by masked men in regions far remote from any Ku Klux organizations. The parties engaged took pains to a.s.sert that they were Ku Klux, _which the members of the Klan never did_. This was evidence that these parties were simply aping Ku Klux disguises. The proof on this point is ample and clear. After the pa.s.sage of the Anti Ku Klux Statute by the State of Tennessee, several instances occurred of parties being arrested in Ku Klux disguises; but in every instance they proved to be either negroes or "radical" Brownlow Republicans.

This occurred so often that the statute was allowed by the party in power to become a dead letter before its repeal. It bore too hard on "loyal" men when enforced.

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

_No single instance occurred of the arrest of a masked man who proved to be--when stripped of his disguises--a Ku Klux._

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

The Klan felt all this; and in its efforts to relieve itself of the stigma thus incurred, it acted in some cases against the offending parties with a severity well merited, no doubt, but unjustifiable.[49]

As is frequently the case they were carried beyond the limits of prudence and right by a hot zeal for self-vindication against unjust aspersions.

They felt that the charge of wrong was unfairly brought against them.

To clear themselves of the charge they did worse wrong than that alleged against them.

The Klan from the first shrouded itself in deepest mystery; out of this fact grew trouble not at first apprehended. They wished people not to understand. They tried to keep them profoundly ignorant. The result was that the Klan and its objects were wholly misunderstood and misinterpreted. Many who joined the Klan and many who did not, were certain it contemplated something far more important than its overt acts gave evidence of. Some were sure it meant treason and revolution.

The negroes and the whites whose consciences made them the subjects of guilty fears, were sure it boded no good to them.

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

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

The following extracts from a general order of the Grand Dragon of the Realm of Tennessee will ill.u.s.trate the operation of both these causes.

It was issued in the fall of the year 1868. It shows what were the principles and objects which the Klan still professed, and it also shows how it was being forced away from them:

HEADQUARTERS REALM NO. 1,} DREADFUL ERA, BLACK EPOCH,}

DREADFUL HOUR.}

_General Order No. 1._

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

The G. D. [Grand Dragon] regrets the necessity of such an order.

But this Klan shall not be outraged and interfered with by lawless negroes and meaner white men, who do not and never have understood our purposes.

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

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

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

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

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

We reiterate that we are for peace and law and order. No man, white or black, shall be molested for his political sentiments.

This Klan is not a political party; it is not a military party; it is a protective organization, and will never use violence except in resisting violence.

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

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

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

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

By the Grand Scribe.

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

The question naturally arises, Why, under the embarra.s.sing circ.u.mstances, did not the Klan disband and close its operations?[50]

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: CARPETBAGGERS LISTENING TO A KU KLUX REPORT c.o.o.n and Sibly of the Alabama Legislature. Cartoon from Screw's "Lost Legislature."