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. Before long
official supervision grew less rigid, or was
less regarded. The membership was steadily
increasing. Among those who were added
were 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
its friends was evoked against the Klan, and
occasion was given its enemies to petition
for the intervention of the Government to
suppress it. This was done. The end came
rapidly. We must now trace the causes which
wrought the decay and downfall of the
“Invisible Empire.”
Men of the character of the
majority of
those who composed this Klan do not disregard
their own professed principles and violate
self-assumed obligations carelessly. To see
men who were just now the advocates of law
and order defying the one and destroying the
other, is a sight singular enough to elicit inquiry
as to the causes that wrought the change.
The transformation of the Ku Klux Klan from
a band of regulators, honestly, but in a mistaken
way, trying to preserve peace and order,
into the body of desperate men who in 1869
convulsed the country by deeds of violence,
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 adequate to
the results produced; causes from which these
results followed naturally and almost necessarily,
and which have never been fully and fairly
followed out. They may be classed under
three heads: (1) unjust charges; (2) misapprehension
of the nature and objects of the
order by 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 its purpose and methods,
sources of weakness. The devices by which
the Klan deceived outsiders enabled all who
were so disposed, even its own members, to
practice deception upon the Klan itself. It
placed in the hands of its members facilities for
doing deeds of violence for the gratification of
innate deviltry or personal enmity, and for having
them credited to the Klan. To evilly disposed men
membership in the Klan was an
inducement to wrong-doing; in fact, it presented to
all men a dangerous temptation. In
{Page 408}
certain contingencies, at any time likely to
arise, it required a considerable amount of
moral robustness to withstand this temptation.
Many did not withstand it, and deeds of violence
were done by men who were Ku Klux,
but who at the time were acting under cover
of their connection with the Klan, but not
under its orders; and, because these men were
Ku Klux, the Klan had to bear the odium of
their misdeeds.
In addition to this, the very
class which the
Klan proposed to hold in check and awe into
good behavior, after a while became wholly
unmanageable. Those who had formerly committed
depredations to be laid to the charge
of the poor negroes now assumed the guise of
Ku Klux, and returned to their old ways with
renewed ardor. In some cases even the negroes played
Ku Klux. Outrages were committed by masked men in
regions far remote
from any Ku Klux organization. The fact
that these persons took pains to declare that
they were Ku Klux was evidence that they
were not.
† In this way it came about that all
the disorder prevailing in the country was
charged upon the Ku Klux. The Klan had
no way in which to refute or disprove the
charge. 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 not wholly unjust that this should be the
case. They had assumed the office of regulators.
It was therefore due society, due the
Government which so far had not molested
them, that they should at least not afford the
lawless class 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. 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 thought
the charge of wrong was unfairly brought
against them. They did worse wrong than
that charged to clear themselves of the charge.
The Klan, from the first, shrouded
itself in
deepest mystery, and out of this 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 that it contemplated some mission
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 to some extent wore off; a
feeling of intense hostility toward the Ku
Klux followed. This feeling was all 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.
These organizations had for their avowed
purpose 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 the state of things became
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 the
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 they felt outraged that they
should be molested and assaulted. The other
party, satisfied that they were acting in self-defense,
felt fully justified in assaulting them.
And so each party goaded the other from one
degree of lawlessness to another.
The following extracts from a
General Order of the Grand Dragon of the Realm of
Tennessee will illustrate the operation of both
these causes. It was issued in the fall of the
year 1868. It shows what were the principles.
and objects which the Klan still professed,
and it also shows how it was being forced
away from them:
“HEAD-QUARTERS REALM No. I.
“DREADFUL ERA, BLACK EPOCH, DREADFUL HOUR..
“GENERAL ORDER No. I.
“
Whereas, information of an
authentic character has.
reached these head-quarters that the blacks in the
counties of Marshall, Maury, Giles, and Lawrence are
organized into military companies, with the avowed
determination 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 institution
of violence, lawlessness, and cruelty; it is not lawless;.
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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 retributions 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. I.
“By the Grand Scribe.”
Granting that this order expressed the principles which the Klan was honestly trying
to maintain, it also illustrates how it was
driven to violate them by the very earnestness and vehemence with which they attempted
to maintain them. If it is asked why,
under these embarrassing circumstances, the
Klan did not disband and close its operations,
the answer is plain. The members persuaded
themselves that there was now more reason
than ever for the Klans existence. They felt
that they ought not to abandon their important and needful work because they encountered
unforeseen difficulties in accomplishing
it. It is an illustration of the fatuity which
sometimes marks the lives of men, that they
did not perceive that these evils grew out of
their own methods, and must continue and
increase while the Klan existed. Men are
not always wise. They frequently persist in a
course which, to others differently situated,
appears not less absurd than wicked. We
cannot apologize for their course. We cannot
excuse it. But justice requires that a fair and
truthful statement be made of the embarrassments and temptations which surrounded
them.
Matters grew worse and worse, till it was
imperatively necessary for the State authorities to interfere. There was a general feeling
that legislation on the subject was necessary.
But few were prepared to expect such legislation as that enacted by the famous—or
infamous, as the reader chooses—Legislature
called together by Governor Brownlow in September, 1868.
Tennessee was the first State to pass an
anti-Ku Klux statute. In September, 1868,
Governor Brownlow called the Legislature
together in extra session to devise measures
for the suppression of the order. A relentless
and bloody statute was passed; and to enforce it the Governor was authorized, if he
deemed it necessary, to declare martial law
on the “infected counties and to call out troops.
The law passed, and the method of enforcing
it increased rather than quieted disorder. The
statute is long, and, as a whole, not worth
quoting. Its leading provisions were the following:
(1) For association or connection with the Ku Klux
a fine of five hundred dollars and imprisonment in the
penitentiary not less than five years; and “
shall be
rendered infamous.” (2) Persons impaneled for jury
service were required to answer under oath whether they
were obnoxious to the first section of the act. (3) Prosecuting
attorneys and grand jurors were directed to
summon persons whom they suspected “or had cause
to suspect,” and to force them to testify what they knew
of the Ku Klux. If those so summoned failed to appear or
refused to testify, the penalty was a fine of
five hundred dollars. (4) Every “inhabitant” of the
State was constituted an officer extraordinary, with
power “to arrest without process” any one known or
suspected to be a Ku Klux. (5) To feed, lodge, entertain,
or conceal a Ku Klux exposed the offender to infamy,
a fine of five hundred dollars, and imprisonment
for five years. (6) It was made unlawful to publish
any order emanating from the Klan. (7) There was
but one clause in the law which bears the semblance
of mercy. Its provisions are so odious as to be shocking.
The one way by which a man could relieve himself of
liability to this law was by turning informer.
As additional inducement to do this a reward of half
the fine was offered. (8) But, most remarkable of all,
the statute was made penal against offenses committed
previous to its passage. The last section of it reads:
“Nothing herein contained shall be so construed as
to prevent or exempt any person heretofore guilty of
any of the offenses herein contained from prosecutions
under the law as it now stands.”
There were hundreds of men in the Klan
who were not law-breakers. There had been
no law against association with the Ku Klux.
They had had no personal participation in
the excesses in which some of the Klan had
indulged. They were ready to admit that the
movement had proven to be injudicious. Good
had been done, but harm had followed. They
{Page 410}
would cheerfully have obeyed a legal command to
sever their connection with the Ku
Klux and desist from further operations. But
when these men were declared infamous,
made liable to fine and imprisonment, and
exposed to arrest “without process” by any
one who chose to inform against them, the
effect was to drive them to absolute desperation.
In some sections of the State a reign of
terror followed the passage of this act. The
Ku Klux were now almost in the attitude of
men fighting for life and liberty. There was
no hope in submission except on terms which
to men of honor were more hateful than
death.
†
Source:
The Ku Klux Klan, Its Origin, Growth, and Disbandment, by D.L. Wilson, published in
The
Century, Volume 28, Issue 3, July 1884. Transcribed and annotated by Giles County TNGenWeb
Researcher Nancy Brown from
page
images mounted at
The Nineteenth Century in Print: Periodicals, Cornell University Library.
Intro Editorial Part I
Part II Part III Part IV Part V
