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diff --git a/33324.txt b/33324.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..79cdf55 --- /dev/null +++ b/33324.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4956 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of K. K. K. Sketches, Humorous and Didactic, by +James Melville Beard + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: K. K. K. Sketches, Humorous and Didactic + Treating the More Important Events of the Ku-Klux-Klan + Movement in the South + +Author: James Melville Beard + +Release Date: August 2, 2010 [EBook #33324] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK K. K. K. SKETCHES, HUMOROUS *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + + + + + K. K. K. SKETCHES, + + Humorous and Didactic, + + TREATING THE MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS OF + THE KU-KLUX-KLAN MOVEMENT + IN THE SOUTH. + + WITH + + A Discussion of the Causes which gave Rise + to it, and the Social and Political + Issues Emanating from it. + + + BY JAMES MELVILLE BEARD. + + + PHILADELPHIA: + CLAXTON, REMSEN & HAFFELFINGER, + 624, 626 & 628 MARKET STREET. + 1877. + + + + + Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by + CLAXTON, REMSEN & HAFFELFINGER, + in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. + + + J. FAGAN & SON, + STEREOTYPERS, PHILAD'A. + + + Selheimer & Moore, Printers, + 501 Chestnut Street. + + + + + INSCRIBED TO + Messrs. Geo. C. Reeler and H. R. and J. M. Park, + BOTH AS A MARK OF THE AUTHOR'S ESTEEM AND A TESTIMONIAL + OF GENEROUS AID RENDERED DURING + THE PROGRESS OF THE "SKETCHES." + + + + +PREFACE. + + +These sketches are placed before the public without other apology for +their appearance than may be found in that demand for information on the +subject treated which renders a work of the character a positive necessity +of the times. The secret political movement here introduced to the reader +has contributed more to the sensational character of American politics, +and, at the same time, proven a more influential factor in those political +questions with which we have dealt as a people, than any or all +contemporaneous issues. And yet nothing has been written on the theme +bearing a just proportion thereto,--absolutely nothing,--if we subtract +the unknown quantity in the news problem of the day from this estimate, +and for reasons as varied as obvious. We shall not weary the reader with a +statement of the latter, nor a recitative of the conditions upon which +they are or may have been based. It is enough that we know that no +consecutive nor reliable history of the Order could have been written at +an earlier period; and even at this date, so broken and fragmentary are +those passages referring to its active career, compiled during months of +arduous labor, that the author has been necessitated to group them in a +series of historical sketches, or pen-pictures, and in treating the +subject to adopt the style of the romancist, rather than that of the +historian. He flatters himself, however, that while the reliability of his +historical information is not impaired by this method, that the work will +thereby be rendered more attractive to a large class of readers; and, on +the other hand, as to facts connected with the _morale_ of the weird +subject, he is not hampered by these considerations, but is enabled to +present them in such a concise form, and as sententiously as regards +style, as their share of the task's importance renders peremptory. + +From the moment that the resolution to compose these sketches in the +interest of the reading public became fixed in the author's mind, he has +been in constant communication with individuals who were not only +influential leaders of the secret movement, but held high official rank +under it; so that the authenticity of his statements affecting its +_regime_ is placed so far beyond question that the reader is at liberty to +take the latter as _ex cathedra_ utterances of this singularly reticent +body. Should those passages which are occupied with the more exciting +events of K. K. K. history be calculated to awaken _sensation_ in the +public breast, it is a _contretemps_ from which the author begs to excuse +himself in the light of the same admission, adding, moreover, that he has +availed himself of those examples which have gone before him in this +department of literature, and reserved his art-flourishes for less +susceptible divisions of the theme. + +The intelligent reader will see no politics, nor evidence of political +bias in the pages of this volume, if he will do the author the simple +fairness of its thorough examination. If in addressing his audience from +the _status in quo_, to which the Ku-Klux troubles were referred in their +origin and bloody career, forcible truths are given their due emphasis, he +begs to assure the public that his utterances are no less strongly +inflected from a standpoint of contrasted locality and habits of political +thought. A man professing no politics but those of his grandfather, and, +despite settled opinions favoring such partisanship, is strongly tempted +at times to question _their_ integrity, would hardly be supposed guilty of +making an obnoxious necessity of some other man's property, in this most +precarious of titled possessions; and lest any should fail to perceive the +allegory which this sentence contains, the author begs to call attention +to it, and to appropriate the _situation_ which it presents. The public +mind is so excited regarding such topics at this moment, that it would +fail to meet expectation, if it should decline to suspect every shadow of +possessing substance, when projected from so suspicious a direction as the +subject chosen; and feeling this, and perceiving the inutility of any +other form of argument, the reader is invited, in conclusion, to adopt the +usual method in such inquiries, and determine for himself the _vexata +quaestio_. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + + CHAPTER I. + + INTRODUCTORY. + + Terms of Southern Surrender in the War of the Rebellion--Candor + of Paroled Troops--"Lee's Ragamuffins"--Generals Grant's and + Sherman's Proposed Amnesty--The "Rump Congress" and + Disfranchisement--What the Latter meant--Issues which the War + Settled--How these were Revived by the Pending Congress--Anarchy + in the South--The Loyal League 13 + + + CHAPTER II. + + CAUSES OF THE K. K. K. MOVEMENT. + + Situation Produced by the War--Discontented Partisans--The War + District in the South--Words of a Northern Tourist--The Curse of + Slavery--President Johnson--How the Work of Reconstruction was + Inaugurated--The Law-making Power vested in Dummy Legislatures-- + Disfranchisement--Enfranchisement--The Color Issue which these + Measures brought--A Singular Peace Policy--The War of the + Conservatives in the South against Radicalism did not Revive + Issues concluded by the late Civil Struggle, as the latter + Boasted--Loyal Epithets--"Traitor," "Guerilla," "Southern + Bandit," etc.--The Shamelessness of the State Officials--The + Uneducated Negro a Law-giver--Organization of the Loyal League-- + Some of its Peculiarities--The K. K. K. Movement as an Offset to + the League 18 + + + CHAPTER III. + + THE KLAN. + + A Stirring Episode--Raising the Dead--Night-Hawk Abroad--Moving + toward the Rendezvous--Grand Cyclops of Den No. 5--Forming the + Magic Circle--K. K. K. Drill--On the March--The _Tout Ensemble_ + of a Raiding Body--Weird Costuming--Banners Inscribed with the + K. K. K. Escutcheon--How the Scene Impressed Beholders 29 + + + CHAPTER IV. + + SUPERSTITIONS REGARDING K. K. K. + + Impressions after a K. K. K. Raid--Will Morning never come?-- + Conjectures Regarding the Subject in the Minds of those who + should have been Prepared to Render an Opinion--What + Superstitious People thought--The Mill Council--K. K. K. + Arraigned on various Charges, and Acquitted for Want of + Testimony--The Subject an Enigma--Man a Superstitious Animal 38 + + + CHAPTER V. + + K. K. K. DEALINGS WITH THE LOYAL LEAGUE. + + A Train which brought Welcome Passenger--Caucusing in the Open + Air a Dangerous Proceeding--Correct Surmises--An Old Church, + Bequeathed from Generation to Generation, and Liable to many + Uses--Brothers and Sisters all--The L. L. in full Bloom--Storm + succeeded by a Calm--Weird Visitors--What they left behind them-- + Sudden Panic--The Rally--Still in Doubt--The Chairman's + Stratagem--How it didn't Work--Despondent Leaguers taught to Act + for Themselves. 49 + + + CHAPTER VI. + + GHOST FEATURE OF THE MOVEMENT. ITS PHILOSOPHY. + + Contrasted Views of the Organization inspired by its Dealings + with the Public--The Colored Man in the South--Kindly Feeling + for the Race cherished by Native Southerners--Households Presided + over by Colored Matrons--Superstitious Tendencies of Cuffey--His + Ideas about "Ghosts," and the Realm which they Inhabit--Spook + Kinsfolk--The ideal "Uncle Tom's Cabin"--Wherein it was a + Failure--The "Infantile Sex" and their Greed for Ghost-lore-- + Painful Reminiscences--Use to which the Aged Patriarch, or Beldam, + as the Case might be, put their Prerogative--Talent for relating + Ghost Stories--The Young White Men of the South trained up in + this School 61 + + + CHAPTER VII. + + DETAILS OF ORGANIZATIONS. + + A Band of Regulators whose Force at this time numbered a Half + Million well-organized and perfectly Drilled Men--Who composed + its Draft--Considerations which recommended it to the Better + Classes of Society--Its Haunts--Oath-bound Covenant, and + Penalties attached--Galloping forth to Predestined Conquest--It + proceeded under a rigid Constitutional System--Territorial + Subdivisions--Empire--Realm--Province--Den--Grand Wizard and his + Cabinet--Grand Giant--The Commander of a Den--Grand Cyclops-- + Night-Hawks, etc.--How Members were Initiated--Proposed Initiates + might Retire if Displeased with the Conditions of Membership--How + far the Klan was "Rebel" in its Draft--Members of the State + Legislatures, Congressmen, and Governors of States, took its Vows + upon them--Its Political Suffrages--Compelling Ignorant Colored + Men to relinquish the Franchise--K. K. K. Placards--Empty Coffins + containing Ukase of Banishment Carted to the Doors of Obnoxious + White Citizens--Its Ideas of Social Decorum 71 + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + K. K. K. CUSTOMS. + + The Klan never did its Work by Halves--How General Orders were + Transmitted--Form of General Order--Its Imbroglios with the + League--Avoided Conflict with United States Troops--League + Informers--K. K. K. Intimidation of Witnesses--_Memento Mori_-- + Crusade of the Ermined Ranks--The Klan a Bitter Enemy of those + Unorganized Parties of Ruffians who made War on their kind in + the former's Name--Its Right to Borrow Sympathy on this Exchange + a Grave Question of Doubt--Vendettas Conducted against the + "Shams." 80 + + + CHAPTER IX. + + THE KLAN IN TENNESSEE. + + Misgovernment in Tennessee--The Loyal League and the State + Administration--The K. K. K. an Outgrowth of the Conditions which + the former Inspired--Rapid Development of the Order on Tennessee + Soil--Its Purposes of Revenge--Legislation on the Subject-- + Militia called out and Detectives Employed--The State pronounced + a Ku-Klux Barracks--A Simultaneous Uprising of the K. K. K. + throughout the State and Concerted Raids against the L. L. + Rendezvous in various Neighborhoods--Military Accomplishments of + the Grand Wizard--Subcommanders in Charge of the Expedition-- + Capture of Secret Papers--Ku-Klux Hollow-square--Oath administered + to Captives 88 + + + CHAPTER X. + + THE LOYAL LEAGUE IN COUNCIL. + + Speech of Hon. Bones Button before the State Council of the Loyal + League--What followed--Amusing Contretemps 97 + + + CHAPTER XI. + + EFFECTS PRODUCED. A PERIOD OF ALARM. + + Excitement throughout the State--Scenes at the Capitol--Government + Officials Notified of the Extent of the Disaster--A Quorum of the + Legislative or Judicial Bodies not Attainable--No Departures from + the City--The K. K. K. Cabal Receiving that Attention from + Caucusing Legislators which its Importance Demanded--A Mob at the + State-House--At Sunset the Situation Unchanged--A Sortie from the + Capitol--Mobs along the Route--Seeking Refuge from the Excited + Populace--Out of Danger--The New Situation--An Ugly Specimen of + the Genus Ku-Klux--The Governor Recovers from the Attitude of a + Suppliant--An Amusing Episode 107 + + + CHAPTER XII. + + KU-KLUX HORRORS IN TENNESSEE. + + The Klan Outlawed--A Rash Act of one of its Dens--Negro + Insurrectionists Placed in the Jail at Trenton--Subsequent + Massacre--Detectives in Pursuit--Members of the Order Indicted-- + Efforts to Convict the Accused--Affair in Obion--Why these + Horrors are Classed as Twin Editions--Description of Madrid + Bend--K. K. K. Transactions in this Remote Quarter--Planters' + Jealousy--Message from Mr. J. to the Leaders of the Party-- + Cool Treatment it Received--The K.'s Declare their Intention of + Punishing one of the Laborers on J.'s Farm--His Defiance--A + Fierce Skirmish--J.'s Flight--Massacre of Fleeing Blacks--Eight + Colored Men taken from the County Jail at Troy--Their Fate a + Mystery 116 + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + KU-KLUX LAW. + + Any person, under color of law, etc., of any State, depriving + another of any rights, etc., secured by the Constitution of the + United States, made liable to the party injured, 7034--Penalty for + conspiring, by force, to put down the government of the United + States, etc., 7035--Conspirator's doing, etc., any act in + furtherance of the object of the conspiracy, and injuring another, + liable to damages therefor, 7035--What to be deemed a denial by + any State to any class of its people of their equal protection + under the laws, 7036 125 + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + THE K. K. K. IN LOUISIANA. + + Adventists--How they Practised on the Parasitical Blacks--A Little + Power is a Dangerous Thing--The Political Situation in '67--The + State Press--The Order of K. K. K. in Louisiana--When the + Government Officials were first Notified of its Presence--The + Feeling in Grant Parish--Riot Growing out of a Personal + Difficulty--Blacks Entrenched in the Court-House at Colfax-- + Parley--Negroes Refuse to Surrender--A Second Defiance--Building + Fired--Massacre and Termination of the Bloody Affair--Statistics + of Losses in the Fight--Who were Responsible--The White League or + Camelias--Occupied the K. K. K. Basis in Externals--New Orleans + Riots--Their Effect on the Returning Boards--Coushatta--K. K. K. + in Texas--Border History Uneventful 134 + + + CHAPTER XV. + + TALLY-HO! + + The Situation in Georgia--Some Things which may be Explained-- + Negro Criminals--Taking Refuge in the Ocmulgee Swamps--Ku-Klux + Ambushed--A Terrible Oath--Uncle Jack B.--"Nigger Dogs" in the + "Goober State"--Uncle Jack Interviewed by the Ku-Klux--What + came of it--Getting Ready for the Chase--A Pack of "Negro Dogs" + described--In the Swamps--The Opening Chorus--A Warm Trail-- + Disappointment--The Lull is Past--A Last Effort--Another Crime + added to the Calendar--A fresh Start--At Bay--Tragical Scene 143 + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + THE "SHAMS." + + The Klan in South Carolina--Officious Interference in Politics-- + Atrocious Performances of Men in Masks--The "Shams," or + Counterfeit Editions of K. K. K.--How Organized--Their Vocabulary + of Crime--South Carolina Fanatics--How the "Sham" Movement + Affected the K. K. K.--A Resolution of _sine die_ Adjournment-- + K. K. K. Horrors on the Increase--Rotten-Egg Battalions--Citizens + sometimes took the Execution of the Law into their Own Hands--A + Case in Point 154 + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + A MORAL POINTED. + + 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--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 161 + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + K. K. K. AS A FACTOR IN POLITICS. + + Late Announcement of the Earl of Beaconsfield before an Assembly + of Englishmen--The Secret Societies of Europe--True Status with + Regard to Current Politics--Combining the Offices of Regulator and + _Vigilante_ with that of Politician--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 172 + + + CHAPTER XIX. + + THE LAST OF THE K.'S. + + A Popular Fallacy--Karl Konstant Kain, Esq.--Awaiting Events--An + Intricate Subject for the Hospitals and Doctors--Getting Even + with the Latter--Yellow Jack on a Raid--K. K. K., Esq. in his + Prison Cell--Promoted to the Hospital--An Uncommon Defiance--K. + Konstant Kain struggles back to Shore--"Do not Weep"--A Critical + Moment--A New Cast and entire Change of Scenery--"Gruel" did it-- + Waited upon by a Deputation of Citizens--"Young Man, Go West"-- + The New Orleans Pest-House--Konfounded, Krooked Konundrum 180 + + + CHAPTER XX. + + CONCLUSION 189 + + + + +KU-KLUX SKETCHES. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +INTRODUCTORY. + + Terms of Southern Surrender in the War of the Rebellion--Candor of + Paroled Troops--"Lee's Ragamuffins"--Generals Grant's and Sherman's + Proposed Amnesty--The "Rump Congress" and Disfranchisement--What the + Latter meant--Issues which the War Settled--How these were Revived by + the Pending Congress--Anarchy in the South--The Loyal League. + + +The treaty concluded between the conquered and conquering States at the +close of the late civil war, while arranging all external differences and +disarming physical resistance, yet did not provide for certain +contingencies arising from the ethics of the dispute, which were destined +to exert a powerful influence over the destinies of the American people. +Undoubtedly the Southern troops surrendered their standards, and accepted +the conqueror's amnesty in good faith, and we can but believe that their +allegiance to the restored Union--which had been promptly tendered--would +have been crowned with this condition but for the disposition manifested +by the civil power to review the pledges of its ambassadors in the field, +and interpose supplementary conditions that could have no other beneficial +effect than might be supposed to result, in a general way, from the +humiliation of the conquered, and which would naturally tend to a revival +of the _casus belli_. Having returned to their homes, and been soothed +into accord with their new surroundings by those domestic Penates which +had escaped the dispensation of fire and sword, through which they had +mutually passed, "Lee's ragamuffins," as they had been styled by the +Jenkinses of the period, set resolutely to work to restore their fallen +fortunes, and, at the same time, so amend the shattered social fabric as +that their personal and property rights might have that organized +protection which cannot always be assured in times of civil disturbance. +That they had forfeited any of those rights common to citizens of the +republic under which they lived, by taking up arms in defence of a great +national doctrine which, they were firmly persuaded, embodied its genius, +if it did not represent its life, was a bombproof theory never seriously +proposed until the glory of Appomattox had passed into history. To be +denationalized, even in the sense which their severer critics ascribed as +one of the conditions of their voluntary withdrawal from the national +compact, carried with it discomforts of no mean significance; but to have +the ill effects of their so-called treason visited upon them in the +commonest concerns of social being, and to be denied a part in the +administration of those State governments for whose (supposed) integrity +they had imperilled their lives, was the harshest of all possible +reconstruction issues, and one which candid thinkers will regard a very +faint reflection of that peace policy which the measure purported to +represent. + +Having determined to supersede the military policy enforced against the +Southern States by the Union generals, with such felicitous results, the +National Legislature, which, immediately upon the close of the war, had +developed those diagnostics which caused fair-minded men of the period to +look upon it as a distempered and revolutionary body (and achieved for it +the title of the "Rump Congress"), resolved to replace it by another, +altogether dissimilar in type, and contrasting strangely with it even in +reference to the objects supposed to be had in view. The people of the +South, contending for the doctrine of State sovereignty, and pledging +their fortunes and their lives in defence of a supposed inalienable right, +and the masses of the North as strenuously opposing this theory, and +asserting that no emergency could arise whereby a member of the Union +might reclaim its sovereignty from the national compact, presented an +issue altogether susceptible of settlement. And, indeed, proceeding upon +the obvious plan that where questions of great practical moment cannot be +adjudicated otherwise, they must submit to the _a fortiori_ of determined +majorities, the Southern people had already been driven to the amplest +concessions regarding this measure; and whatever doubts they may have +retained affecting the metaphysics of the discussion, were quite convinced +that no other plan of adjustment would prove feasible. + +But this inference (and it could be presented in no more tangible shape at +the time) was far from satisfying that singular body of peace +commissioners who, in the capacity of a national legislature, had +assembled at Washington, not only to reaffirm the Southern doctrine, but +to reconsider all the mighty results of Grant's and Sherman's campaigns, +by disallowing the claims of the States lately in rebellion, and forcing +them into that mourning period of so-called reconstruction and social and +political anarchy, lately terminated. And thus, during the few years +succeeding this new legislative departure, was presented the singular +spectacle of States belonging to the National Union, who, by certain +inherent properties of their being, could not forfeit, nor submit to +forfeiture of the bond which established their identity therewith, acting +independently of the national government in all things, save those +non-essentials represented by taxation, the performance of military duty, +etc.; and, at a later period, through the mysterious processes of pardons, +congressional amnesties, and reconstruction, becoming (re)-invested with +the only sovereignty which it was claimed they had ever possessed, that +derived from the national compact. + +It is needless to say that there was no logical plan supporting that +system of political manoeuvres set in motion by the "Rump Congress," +whose earliest and latest results--the social and political emasculation +of the white freeman, and the exaltation, in like respect, of the +negro--provoked that state of anarchy in the South which alone could have +rendered possible the great secret movement whose history we are to +discuss in these pages. + +It may be doubted whether the mere disfranchisement of the citizens of +these States--though that condition were supposed to include every right +and privilege dear to freemen--would have prevailed with this people to +embrace those extreme measures which, soon after this event, they were +driven to adopt with such unanimity. Loyal League supremacy, and the +elevation of the black man to those political rights from which the +Southern white citizen had been so recently thrust down, were far more +conclusive factors of this result; and as such, in all narratives +pretending to authenticity in delivering the political events of this +period, will be more closely blended with the historical fact. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +CAUSES OF THE K. K. K. MOVEMENT. + + Situation Produced by the War--Discontented Partisans--The War + District in the South--Words of a Northern Tourist--Widespread + Destitution--The Curse of Slavery--How its sudden Abolition affected + Community Wealth in the Southern States--The Political Situation even + more Distressing--President Johnson--How the Work of Reconstruction + was Inaugurated--The Law-making Power vested in Dummy + Legislatures--Disfranchisement--Enfranchisement--The Color Issue + which these Measures brought--A Singular Peace Policy--The War of the + Conservatives in the South against Radicalism did not Revive Issues + concluded by the late Civil Struggle, as the latter Boasted--Loyal + Epithets--"Traitor," "Guerilla," "Southern Bandit," etc.--Radical + Rule in the South--The Shamelessness of the State Officials--The + Uneducated Negro a Law-giver--Organization of the Loyal + League--Carpet-Bag Administration thereof--Negro Draft--Some of its + Peculiarities--The K. K. K. Movement as an Offset to the League. + + +When the clouds of passion and prejudice that brooded over the American +States in the beginning of the latter half of the present century had +dropped into the ocean of carnage, which during four years of severe +revolutionary penance deluged all their borders, the return to those +opposite tempers that beget in men a desire to renew the pledges of +ancient covenants, and practise the _ultima thule_ of the Messianic idea, +as delivered to us by the teachers of the Cross (forgiveness), was +pronounced in degree; but while it exceeded the bare tendency looked for +by men, as an outgrowth of the changed order of things, this moral +rehabilitation of the body politic was effected by slow and painful +stages. + +Legions of men might have been found on either side of the sectional +dead-line who cherished animosities which no philosophy born of the +emotions could preach down, and before which even those ministers of red +havoc that had invaded their homes were content to lower their weapons and +view in forbearance a virtue. + +It cannot be denied that while the widespread diffusion of the war burden +and general travail had a tendency to equalize the feeling of the masses, +and awaken a desire to return to the arts of peace, that in not uncommon +instances inhumanities had been practised, and bloody reprisals sought, +whose issues were wounds, for which the angel of peace brought no healing +on his wings. Those more dignified passions which, in the outset of +hostilities, had swayed the common breast in the rush to arms, where they +had not become wholly extinct in a desire for reunion and renewed +fraternity, as we have shown, had thus degenerated into the more human +instincts of individual hate and revenge which, if sometimes less +blameworthy, are far more implacable. Those who cherished the latter, +however, were discounted in all their efforts to discourage peace +proposals by the feeling of distrust which their former actions had +inspired, and, very soon after the Grant and Sherman dictation of peace +terms, were left to those weaker subterfuges that might not hope for +organized support. Many of this discontented class were domiciled on +Southern soil, and it may be surmised that the genius of desolation that +walked forth to meet them on their homeward passage from Appomattox and +Gainesville inspired them with yet warmer resentments against the authors +of the ignominious defeat under which they suffered. + +The war district of the South, in the year of grace which brought about +military amnesty, furnished one of those pictures of "crownless +desolation" in the history of the world's wars for which the art that +decorated St. Peter's with the images of purgatorial griefs could have +possessed no adequate coloring, and in the attempt to portray which +talents and scholarship less consummate than those of the divine Angelo +must have issued in utter failure. + +Cities destroyed; towns and villages laid waste; churches, schools, and +public buildings rotting under the hospital plague, or, more fortunate, +sleeping in the ashes of licensed incendiarism; wealthy plantations +stripped of their agricultural paraphernalia, and relegated to the domain +whence they had been lately redeemed by the good offices of the pioneer; +and in room of these--landscape horrors; vast cemeteries, whose enforced +tribute reached unto all kindreds; flame-scarred wastes memorializing a +past civilization, and extending from the Alleghany hills to the Georgian +forests, and from the rivers to the sea; and brooding over all, sole relic +of the conqueror's power, that grim sentinelcy that looked down from +dismantled ruins, and bleak, wind-shaken towers, upon the burial-place of +the domestic arts. + +A Northern tourist, who, soon after the close of hostilities, followed the +trail of Sherman's army half across the State of Georgia, and explored the +Shenandoah Valley from the mountains at its source to the mountains at its +foot, thus comments upon the scenes which beguiled the earlier and later +moments of his journey: "And this lovely heritage, interspersed by hills +and valleys, lakes and rivers, which but as yesterday, under the +transforming hand of wealth and art combined, blossomed as the rose, and +was lighted by the torch of America's best civilization, now, and under +these severe conditions--alas! that we should be driven to concede it--has +sunk back into aboriginal unsightliness, and many portions thereof become +the fitting abode of those monsters who, warned by an instinct of their +nature, shun the haunts of human progress." + +But not only did this ghost of desolation hold its solemn rounds where +wealth and its monumental insignia had erst been set up--more practical +subjects were included in the fearful summing up of Federal conquest. The +grain crop of four years had been consumed by the requirements of both +armies, or ruthlessly committed to the flames through the weak policy of +military commanders; export products were sacrificed to confiscation +needs; the agricultural districts were bereft of all labor aids, and stood +tenantless and barren; nothing of practical value--not even the currency +of the country, which had been demonetized months before the events of +which we particularly write--greeted the impoverished inhabitant, who, +standing in this presence, could scarce look back upon four years of +bootless strife with regret unmingled with repining. + +Slavery, which was undoubtedly a great evil, and is at this period +conceded to have been such by its most clamorous apologists of _ante +bellum_ times, was nevertheless the great prop of community wealth in +those States where it had been recognized by the government; and when +(keeping in view the wide-spread destitution to which we have called +attention) this pet institution was wrecked on the breakers of war, +property affairs in all their borders reached an ebb beyond which, it +would have seemed, they could not have been impelled by even a retribution +born of that highest example of social evil--State treason. The male +inhabitants of the South thus found themselves, at the close of the war, +not only stripped of fortune, and all that pertained to a farmer's +inheritance, in the strictly agricultural communities to which they +belonged, but without business capacity or business employ, had the former +been supplied, and under the explicit disfavor of the government +administration, in all its branches, with all that that implied. + +But while the physical straits to which the inhabitants of these States +were driven almost exceeded belief, and challenged the sympathies of +Christendom, they were met at this time with a yet more incorrigible evil, +as we have already prevised, and one from which all attempts at escape +seemed likely to plunge them into deeper miseries. Despite the generous +policy inaugurated by the commanders of the Federal forces at the close of +the civil conflict, and the good intentions of President Johnson, who had +lately succeeded to the chief magistracy, the Congress of the United +States at this time resolved upon a system of oppressions towards this +people whose parallel is not to be found in modern history. This work was +inaugurated by the passage of laws whose effect was a virtual +dismemberment of the Union; all the efforts of these States to participate +in the administration of the affairs of the general government being in +pursuance thereof promptly discountenanced. + +The movement which followed was in keeping therewith, and involved the +withdrawal from the State governments of all their prerogatives as such. +The civil power was vested in military satraps, who were commissioned to +govern these provinces (for such they had become); or where the work of +reconstructing or radicalizing the populace was more advanced, and it was +necessary to preserve the form of the civil machine, State elections were +improvised and conducted under the shadow of overawing bayonets. The +administration of justice was as summarily withdrawn from the legal +functionaries, and given over to the Federal judicatories; or, what was +far worse, placed in the hands of that most ignorant and despotic of all +judiciary systems--military courts-martial. The law-making power, in its +turn, was farmed out to dummy legislatures, which in their constitution, +if not in the modus of their creation, were _fac-similes_ of the great +"rump" model which had made laws before them, and which, with its +two-thirds majority and grand faculty for caucusing, was quite equal to +all the devices of vetoing chief magistrates. The provision disfranchising +the white men of the South had been contemporaneously declared, and was a +part of that remarkable series which had empanoplied the negro race with +all the political belongings of freedom. + +The policy adopted by the Southern people in concerting resistance to the +attacks of these modern Sejanus was the only one which could have +succeeded, and, whatever else may be said regarding its morality, was just +to themselves and disinterested mankind. They did not as a class, nor as +individuals, conceive for a moment that their allegiance to the +constitution and laws of their country was involved in the issues of the +political war which they waged against Radicalism, though constantly +reminded to that intent by their enemies, whose vocabulary of loyal +epithets included such choice terms as "rebel," "traitor," "guerilla," +"Southern bandit," etc., and their integrity as citizens of the United +States government they never ceased to insist upon, though their leaders +foretold (and it has since been verified) that they would never succeed in +_establishing_ it until the movement, which they had inaugurated under so +many difficulties, had accomplished the _disestablishment_ of Radicalism +at the national capitol. + +The details of the political strife of those years are unimportant to our +narrative; but the intelligent reader will perceive nothing occult in our +purpose if we call attention to the long imprisonments to which many of +the leaders of the Southern movement were subjected, the causeless +sequestration of public and private properties, the numberless criminal +prosecutions inaugurated in obedience to the whims of the "trooly loil," +the immense peculations chargeable to the State governments under Radical +rule, and, lastly, the open robberies perpetrated under the name and with +the sanction of the national legislature. + +The governments in the South--State, district, and municipal--were negro +governments, and if, in a few exceptions, this characterization was but +partial, it was where the negro alternated with that pestiferous +nomad--the carpet-bagger--in administering government for his late master. + +Favored by this condition of public affairs, that remarkable secret +order--the Loyal League--found its way into the Southern country, and was +recommended to the negro by its politics, its dark lantern, its +facilities for the transaction of evil deeds, its avenues of escape +afforded to the criminal, and, finally, its picturesque ceremonial, in +which latter we can see no cause to dispute his taste or judgment. Some +description of this singular body, which was, we believe, in a measure +unknown to the great mass of the people of the Northern States, will not +be deemed digressive at this point. + +The order was subdivided into neighborhood organizations, and the heads of +these were white men, while their vertebral force was recruited from the +voting population above described; the _chef_ being as completely _en +rapport_ with his African brother as if he had been in truth his congener, +and not simply dependent on him for patronage. Their _locus in quo_ was +nowhere and everywhere,--each city and town numbering its lodges and +sub-lodges, and the diffusion thereof, throughout the agricultural +districts, being in the somewhat extravagant ratio of one to the square +mile. Their object was plunder. Their raids, directed against the white +trash, contemplated everything that might be classed under the term +_commissaries_, and ranged from the pig-pen to the poultry-yard, and from +an ear of corn to a well-grown tuber. The "wee sma' hours ayont the twal" +was the festive time of night selected by the "loil" Moses and his dusky +Israel for their exodus from forest or cavern, and, as they marched, the +flesh-pots of the enemy disgorged their treasure, and animated nature held +its breath. The goods and chattels of the unreconstructed were, by act of +Congress, their lawful prey, and if their foraging expeditions were +conducted by moonlight, it was from constitutional considerations, and not +through any well-grounded fear of resistance on the part of the +intimidated whites. + +The conclaves of the society were held nightly, and during the election +campaigns, which progressed with tolerable regularity during eight months +of the year, their _en masse_ assemblages, or political rallies, occupied +each alternate day of the week (the off day being devoted to itinerant +duty among neighboring lodges). A weak solution of the Christian religion +involved in the superstitions which they everywhere practised, aided them +in their delusions concerning politics; and it is not exaggeration to +state that the remaining four months of the year, under the above +estimate, were devoted to their so-called revival meetings, which never +failed to prove an insufferable burden to the pork- and vegetable-raising +communities on which they were billeted. Their religion was, in truth, a +part of their politics, and, on occasion, their ministry their most +serviceable performers on the hustings. + +These twin ideas of religion and politics having been introduced into the +League, dominated the order so completely that its secular business was +often arrested by a call to prayers, and more frequently than otherwise +its order of business terminated by a twilight homily on the total +cussedness and final unreliability of all who anchored their faith to the +Conservative idea in politics. + +This new element, however, was far from benefiting the League; its morals +grew infinitely worse; its larcenies became more frequent, and were +prosecuted on a larger scale; it became more arrogant in its assumption of +exclusive political right on unreconstructed territory; and, finally, +assayed, through the medium of politics, to accomplish a social reform +that would elevate the ignorant and semi-savage race which it represented +to family equality with a class of beings who recognized no title to such +a claim, but that of honorable ancestry and a spotless name. Beyond the +attempt, however, which was warmly seconded by the national Congress, it +is needless to say that nothing was ever done; and this extreme of rash +legislation, undertaken, it would seem at this date, with no other object +in view than the humiliation of a proud and constitutionally sensitive +enemy, proved in the end the downfall of the League. From this moment, it +was met by a counter movement, which, while possessing an organization in +many respects superior to its own, covered its movements with the same +veil of secrecy; caucused with the same regularity; foraged on its enemies +with equal pertinacity and greed; and, finally, proceeded on its mission +with the same fell purpose of triumphing by fair means or foul. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE KLAN. + + A Stirring Episode--Raising the Dead--Night-Hawk Abroad--Moving + toward the Rendezvous--Grand Cyclops of Den No. 5--Forming the Magic + Circle--Raiding Command--K. K. K. Drill--On the March--The _Tout + Ensemble_ of a Raiding Body--Weird Costuming--Arms and + Accoutrements--Banners Inscribed with the K. K. K. Escutcheon--How + the Scene Impressed Beholders. + + +In the month of November, A. D. 1866, in that portion of Western Tennessee +known to dwellers as the Kentucky purchase, was enacted a scene which +possessed romantic features entitling it to rank with the most exquisite +fancies of Lamartine or Moore, and which, conscious of our inability to +improve on its smallest detail, is presented to the reader without any +fictitious adornment whatever. + +In one of the apartments of the elegant mansion of Paul Thorburn, Esq., +was assembled a company of pale watchers, who seemed thoroughly enlisted +in behalf of their sick charge--an adult son of this gentleman, who for +weeks had been prostrated by a virulent fever. It was plainly to be seen +from the countenances of the good Samaritans who had been lingering near +the couch--but now conversed apart, or telegraphed signals to those who +waited without--that all hope of the invalid's recovery had vanished. +Since the physician had passed from the apartment, whispering an attendant +that he would return no more, the furniture of the room had been +readjusted as if in obedience to the crisis in the affairs of its owners; +that portion of the attendants who lingered had left their seats, and +stood with folded arms and reclined heads, and the entire surroundings +wore that abstracted and melancholy air which the reader cannot fail to +have associated in fancy with such scenes. + +The mother of the young man, pale and distraught from long weeping, had +imprinted a kiss of heartbreaking farewell on the brow of her son, and +removed her station to a neighboring window, whence she looked out upon +the autumn landscape, and anon, as if seeking aid from afar, up at the +pale empress of night, which, as it neared the meridian, projected great +bars of golden light into the apartment. Her attitude had not changed for +many minutes, as if the burden of grief that pressed inwardly upon her had +taken away the power of motion, and now reclined against the casement--in +form and feature immobile as sculptured Psyche, the tableau engrossed the +attention of all who lingered in the vicinity. It may have been, too, that +by means of that subtle, unperceivable line of communications, established +between the emotions of beings and coming events which are to effect +their destinies, a signal had been telegraphed to the waiting company; +for from the moment that they had been attracted towards this scene, their +gaze had not once been removed from the form of the pale watcher, who +suddenly, and as if wrought upon by the conditions of some outward wonder, +developed a strong twitching of the facial muscles, and a dilatation of +the pupils of the eye, which took in the landscape in the direction of the +public road; then a nervousness of manner, betokening strong inward +excitement; then an expansion of frame, whose lineaments, clear cut +against the bas-relief of starlight, took on Titanic proportions; and +instantly, as if in keeping with this strange pantomime, a hush, deep, +all-pervading, filled the apartment, broken at length by an audible sigh +from the couch of the invalid, followed by the frightened whisper, +"Mother!" The reply, exploded in clear, ringing tones, was addressed to +nobody, transfixed everybody, and started waves of sound that chased each +other through every nook and angle of the large building--"Ku Klux!" + +Six hours before the occurrence narrated here, a solitary horseman, +mounted on a strong charger, might have been seen galloping along the +highways, and thridding the bridle-paths of the voting precinct, since +famous as Crow Hide township. Except a brace of pistols attached to the +pommel of his saddle, and a something in his deportment which said as +plainly as words, "stand out of the way," there was nothing in the +appearance of the cavalier to excite special wonder; yet he succeeded so +well in drawing upon himself the attention of mortality thereabouts that +there was scarce an inhabitant in all Crow Hide who had not obtained a +glimpse of himself, or his foam-flecked steed, as they flashed by, +convoyed by clouds of dust, and imprecated by all the choristers of the +farm-yard. The windows of habitations along the route were thrown open ere +the apparition was fairly in sight; children at play were attracted by the +strange cynosure, and hurried to obtain counsel of parents regarding it; +horsemen, who were met under whip and spur, drew rein suddenly, and gazed +anxiously after their strange counterpart, and anon, as if slow in making +up their minds at the object which hid him from view; and in fact it was +as clearly apparent, to even such of the hogs and chickens as were not +frightened out of their wits, that a seven days' wonder was being enacted +in Crow Hide, as it was to more sentient creatures that the intangible +something in the wind was not lawful subject for gossip. But if the +majority were involved in doubt, and resolved to forget the incident as +the most comfortable way of disposing of it, some there were who had +cracked the conundrum, as was evident from their knowing deportment, their +desire to avoid conversation on this topic, and finally, a disposition, +plainly manifested, to convert the remainder of the afternoon into a +holiday season. + +As the twilight hour approached, stables were visited, trappings placed in +readiness, and all those indispensables of a scout's toilet which might +be performed in secrecy, executed. These preparations required brief time, +and within an hour after night had fallen, steeds were being caparisoned, +riders were mounting in hot haste and moving off by clandestine routes, +the roads were filling with cavalcades of armed men, who seemed bent on +some undertaking of "pith and moment;" and all these movements proceeding +with such secrecy that even the watch-dogs of the vicinity, though vaguely +notified of the affair, hesitated to interfere. Though moving by different +routes, the various squadrons seemed tending to a common rendezvous +(located at a point on the outskirts of the settlement), a fact which was +made further apparent by the constant recruits which were being added to +each, at points where the highway was intersected by country-roads and +by-paths. + +Approaching a dense forest, a sound resembling the hooting of an owl was +heard, and, turning their horses' heads in the direction whence it +proceeded, the various companies, as yet unorganized, galloped forward. +The Grand Cyclops of Den No. 5, Realm No. 3, accompanied by two of his +faithful Night-Hawks (scouts of the body), had been on the ground in +advance of his most punctual followers, and when the magic circle had been +formed, and the password circulated, that officer presented himself in +their midst, and by the use of a monosyllable, whose signification was +understood by all, indicated that the council-fires would not be lighted. +Nothing was added, and no word spoken in reply; but so thoroughly had his +full meaning been anticipated, that, within thirty minutes from the time +this vague proclamation was issued, the weird brotherhood had dispersed, +and, in full raiding costume and bearing aloft the banners of the order, +were awaiting the commands of their trusted leader at a point two miles +distant. The command moved in obedience to signs, and on this occasion, +notified by a signal which must have been unintelligible to persons not +versed in their strange drill, they wheeled rapidly into line, and +instantly broke off from the right of the column in double files, the +leaders pushing their horses to a gallop. No word was spoken as the +command moved, and so completely had that ghostly spell that attended all +the movements of the night-riders fallen upon the weird column, that even +the horses trod warily, and beasts of the forest, startled by a glimpse of +the dim procession, in vain consulted their organs of hearing for +confirmatory sounds. + +This body of raiders was that viewed from the sick chamber in the Thorburn +mansion, described in the opening of this chapter; and we shall seek at +this juncture to present to the reader a pen-picture of the formidable +apparition as it passed along the highway, in full view, and within fifty +paces of the groups of excited observers who looked out from its windows. + +Perhaps the feature of the pageant that would have been soonest apparent +to the beholder was that representing its means of locomotion. The horses +of the raid were powerful specimens of their race, and furnished with all +those _cap-a-pie_ appointments of K. K. K. regalia that were prominent in +other departments of the expedition. Their bodies were completely +enveloped in curtains of black cloth, worn under the saddle, and fastened +at the neck to a corselet of the same material, the skirts of the former +extending below their knees. Over their heads were masks, much of the same +description as those worn by their riders, the material being of a dark +color, and openings of suitable width having been contrived for the eyes +and nostrils. Each steed was decorated also with a white plume, carried +vertically above the head; and on the right and left of the housings of +black cloth which enveloped their bodies, appeared the mystical letters K. +K. K. Their trappings otherwise were army saddles of uniform pattern, and +bridles supplied with the regulation bit, used in both armies at the close +of the war. + +The riders who bestrode these steeds were even more fantastically arrayed, +and in the uniforms which they wore the same sacrifice of taste to +picturesqueness was to be observed. The most prominent feature of their +ghostly toilet was a long black robe, extending from the head to the feet, +and decorated with innumerable tin buttons, an inch and a half in +diameter, which, under the influence of the starlight, shone like +miniature moons. These robes were slit in front and rear, in order that +they might not impede the movements of the rider, and were secured about +the waist with scarfs of red silk. Over their faces they wore masks of +some heavy material; the apertures for the eyes, nose, and mouth (which +were ample for these purposes) being lined with red cloth. The head-dress +was even more unique, and consisted of tall black caps, helmet-shaped, and +provided with havelocks, resembling those used by the military in the late +war. These were also decorated with the regulation button, and, when worn +by officers of commissioned rank, supplemented by gorgeous plumes, white, +red, or blue, according to rank. Each individual wore about his waist, in +addition to the scarf to which we have called attention, a belt supporting +two large army pistols, in scabbards; and on the flaps of the latter, +embroidered in white characters, appeared the devices of the order--skull +and cross-bones, and mystical K. K. K. The banners which were three in +number, and carried at intervals in the procession, were of black silk, +supporting in the centre two lions rampant on either side of the +regulation skull and cross-bones, and on the right, left, and middle, at +top, the mystic "K." + +Absolute stillness reigned over the weird column, no man being permitted +to speak, even in a whisper, while the large bridle-bits, Texas spurs, and +other appendages of a cavalry outfit likely to create alarm in passing +through quiet neighborhoods were carefully muffled. These details +completed the unsightly pageant; and of the party who viewed it, as it +moved, at funereal pace, through the moonlit precincts of the Thorburn +estate, on the evening referred to, no individual ever forgot the scene, +or was ever known to whisper an irreverent word concerning the objects, +plans, or creed of the festive K. K. K. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +SUPERSTITIONS REGARDING K. K. K. + + Impressions after a K. K. K. Raid--Will Morning never + come?--Conjectures Regarding the Subject in the Minds of those who + should have been Prepared to Render an Opinion--What Superstitious + People thought--The Mill Council--Boys and Colored Men--K. K. K. + Arraigned on various Charges, and Acquitted for Want of + Testimony--The Subject an Enigma--Man a Superstitious + Animal--Education the Best and a Poor Antidote. + + +On the immemorial night referred to Crow Hide slept uneasily, for besides +an indefinable something in the air, that brooded over men's spirits like +a spell from the other world, there were strange sounds from without +creeping into hallways and banging at the doors of apartments; dogs were +disconsolate, and whined incessantly; barn-yard echoes stole in on every +breeze; and the moon-beams, falling into windows, and past the forms of +sleepers, by their jerky, undecided motion, said, as plainly as words, "We +are dissatisfied with ourselves." Children tossed their arms about wildly +as they slept, and when wakened, requested that their couches might be +removed from the neighborhood of windows. A weird somnambulism took +possession of the forms of men and women, leading them to doors and +windows, and sometimes rents in the wall, where they awoke to find +themselves in listening attitudes, and to listen. Horses neighed, cattle +lowed, and chains which might have been attached to watch-dogs, but were +not, made the circuit of buildings, or were tossed against the boundaries +of closes. + +Would morning never come? Girls and timid boys revolved this query in +their minds, building a faint hope thereon; but when they held their +breaths and listened, they found, as their fears had informed them, that +the clock pendulums, hammering away at the seconds, made no gap in time. +Others, who felt no certain fear, but a boding uneasiness, thought to +count the moments on their fingers while the gloom lasted; but so +frequently were they interrupted by strange sounds from without, that they +found themselves ever recurring to the point where they began. Even the +chickens on their roosts were witch-ridden, and crowed lustily for day, +when the half-grown moon had not yet passed meridian. + +But "the longest lane has its turn," at one or both ends, and when the +shadows slept, and the gray messengers of morn tripped along the eastern +hills, the enchanter's wand was lifted from its hills and valleys, and +Crow Hide, unclosing its eyes, gave thanks. Now a breath of peacefulness +had come upon its affairs, and so radiant seemed the morning skies, and so +innocent of evil the sweet landscapes lying bathed in dew-sparkles, that +there were few who looked abroad without being inspired with doubts of +the existence of the latter, even as an abstraction. Even those who had +been controlled by the most abject emotions while the terrors of the night +lasted, when morning came, stood up boldly for a common sense solution of +the mystery. Those who had all their lives been troubled with +superstitious fears, and were in danger of becoming imbued with the error +in its grosser forms, by the aid of such experiences as that through which +they had recently passed, admitted the possibility of this. If, therefore, +it did not come as a positive revelation, it was a relief to all to be +informed, as they were at an early hour, that the initials of the monster +haunt who during the night had managed to reflect as many individualities +as there were farm-houses in the district were K. K. K. But though this +was accepted as a fact by all, seeing that no other theory was advanced, +yet the question remained, did it furnish a satisfactory solution of the +mystery, or, indeed, any solution whatever? According to the neighborhood +version, the Ku-Klux themselves were about as intangible examples of +ghostliness as were ever wrapped in loose-fitting bombazine; and if so, +wherein was gossip made the wiser? The very difficulty which the most +scholarly person would experience in seeking out the words indexed by the +famous K(u) K(lu) K(lan), was enough to evince to the world that there was +something radically wrong with its genealogy. + +On the morning in question, the chore emissaries (boys and negroes) of the +farms for miles around had assembled at the neighborhood mill, awaiting +their turns of grinding, and when rumor brought the subject into the mill +council, the conflict of opinion, involving original arguments advanced +and the weight of authorities adduced, became truly Brobdignagian. The +night raiders had been seen by some of the party, and of this number all +had crossed the boundaries of persuasion, and were absolutely convinced +regarding some physical (if the term may be used) peculiarity of the +ghostly phalanx. + +An urchin of twelve summers, who confessed to _sub rosa_ practices while +the paternal premises were being raided, but nevertheless claimed to get +one eye squarely on them as they rounded a hill, one and three-quarters of +a mile distant, was convinced that the heads of the rear files (front not +visible) extended above the tops of the trees. This statement was +delivered with much earnestness of manner, and at its conclusion all the +saints and martyrs in the calendar were invited to give it their +indorsement. + + * * * * * + +Peter Burleson, aged fifteen, who saw the party ride out of the village +cemetery (a whim of the raiders, inducing the belief that they had +undergone a partial hibernation amid these surroundings), was able to +state something as to its numbers in keeping with the above. According to +this witness, the weird force was composed of two battalions and a +squadron, or about two thousand men and horses, exclusive of a section of +artillery, and an indefinite number of pack-mules. The horses composing +the procession were deep black in color, emitted columns of smoke and +flame from their nostrils (_vide_ pictorial papers), and varied in height +from a lamppost to a telegraph pole. Of the raiders themselves he would +say nothing (under the impression, doubtless, that the theme had been +exhausted); but as to the "rig" they wore, he was morally certain that an +inverted churn constituted the head-dress, a wagon sheet of mammoth +pattern the shoulder-garb, and army canteens (probably bisected and thus +made to do double duty) the button ornaments. + +Observing something at this point in the countenances of his auditors +which he did not quite like, he availed himself of their knowledge of +dictionary superlatives in an exhortation of some length, and concluded by +submitting as his wish that he be "hung, drawn, and quartered," and such +further disposition made of his remains as the skeptics of the crowd might +propose. + +It is really a subject of regret with the writer to be compelled to state +that, notwithstanding the remarkable strength of emphasis employed by this +young man, the beautiful consistency of his narrative (its parts we mean), +and his apparent desire to anticipate and provide against attacks of this +character, that his evidence was discredited in some leading points, if +not altogether overthrown, by the testimony of the witness who followed. +This was Jerry Stubbs, a mill-boy oracle, and a youth whose antecedents +were otherwise good. His first onset was directed against the figures of +his predecessor, which were given a very crooked appearance indeed, when +placed against the fact that the entire raid--artillery, baggage-wagons, +horse, foot, and buttons--had been self-immured in the paternal horse-lot +(80 x 100 feet) of the said Stubbs, for the space of from one to twenty +minutes, or considerably more, or a great deal less--could not be exact as +to time. He had likewise made a critical examination into the equestrian +belongings of the raid, and the horses were not black, but white; and +finally, he felt morally assured, despite the confident utterances of +those who had preceded him, that the raiders were not mounted, but rode in +covered ambulances. + +When the witness had concluded, there was a general clamor of dissent; a +dozen voices were heard attempting to speak at once; and when, by courtesy +of the hearers, each had been allotted a chance at the salient features of +his narrative, perhaps no one was better convinced than J. S. himself that +he had seen none of the occurrences which he had attempted to relate. + +Oliver (colored), the miller, was, perhaps, a more reliable witness than +any of those who had preceded him, not simply because he had greater +experience of men and things, but his opportunities of informing himself +on the occasion referred to had been likewise superior. He had not only +seen the raiders, but had actually been interviewed by them. He slept in +the mill, and during the night had been aroused from his sleep could not +tell how, nor exactly when, but did not doubt that the agency was +supernatural. Proceeding to the door, he saw what he supposed to be +"sperrits," mounted on what he thought resembled horses, though he +afterwards satisfied himself of the fallacy of the latter conclusion. He +could not take observations with any degree of system, however, as he was +kept busy carrying water from the tank to the "thirsty sperrits," who had +made this call, it thus seems, with a selfish end in view. One of the +party, after having replenished his boilers to the tune of a bucketful, +loosened his belt and called for more, remarking aside to him, and +apparently in extenuation of the act, that it was the first he had quaffed +since being condemned to death by fate and the enemy's bullets at Shiloh. + +He confessed to having become somewhat alarmed at this; but when, a moment +later, another individual of the party, mistaking him for the mill owner, +offered sympathies in view of the fact, as he alleged, that the party had +drank the creek in two, at a point a few miles nearer its source, his +courage failed him, and here his narrative suddenly breaks off. + +This witness was sharply cross-questioned by the attorneys, who had by +this time volunteered on both sides of the controversy, but could not be +prevailed on to amend or otherwise detract from the material allegations +set forth in his examination. Neither would he add anything thereto--a +healthy sign which the defence did not fail to appropriate and magnify. +One other witness remained to be examined, and while his testimony +possessed that trait which shone so conspicuously in the allegations of +all those who had preceded him, viz., a tendency to found his own airy +fabric on the spot he had rendered untenable for that of his predecessor, +it was in the main reliable; and if, as was urged against it, its facts +were produced at a late hour, it was altogether attributable to the +witness's modesty, and the fact--which was now elicited for the first +time--that, notwithstanding he had been standing on his head +(metaphorically) for the opportunity, and his well-known dexterity in +wielding syntactical figures of speech, he had been unable to explode his +items fast enough to anticipate those who had occupied the time. + +This boy, Dick Shuttail (white), age not known to self or parents, had +obtained a view of the Kluxes from the airy depths of the family rag-box, +situated in the rear garret, and he was, therefore, able to speak with +emphasis on certain points which had been barely touched upon by +less-favored observers. He testified that the raiders were mounted on +elephants or camels; could not distinguish certainly, but his bias led him +to say the former, and that these beasts were branded on the side with +three corn-droppers (K. K. K.), or, more probably (as suggested by a +hearer), one corn-dropper three times. The raiders were veritable spooks, +as, in the place where eyes, mouth, and nose should have been roundly +visible, the crows had supped, and instead of hair, they were driven to a +subterfuge which closely resembled an inferior article of mosquito bar, +worn, however, _a la pompadour_. Their saddle-bags, loaded, most probably, +with munitions of war, were borne in front of them, and their uniforms +were ornamented not with buttons, but spangles of bright hue and +extraordinary size. + +He was going on to relate that the horses they rode were neither black nor +white, but br----, when he was interrupted by hisses from his audience,--a +circumstance which either aided memory, or sharpened his introspective +organs, for almost immediately afterwards he hung his head, and, covering +by this movement a very sour expression of countenance, retired from view. + +To say, notwithstanding, the beautiful start he made, and the high +dramatic turn he was giving the events of his narrative up to the fatal +moment of collapse, that this witness's testimony went absolutely for +nothing, and that his explanation, tendered at some length and supported +by all those texts of mill-boy verity which had been successfully adduced +by his rivals respectively, was rejected by an indignant auditory, is to +anticipate the reader. + +When, at length, the mill-wheel had performed its last revolution, and the +mill boys, astride their sacks of flour, dispersed to their homes, it was +with the solemn conviction that some great mystery had dawned upon their +young lives, to whose after developments they must look for that rational +sequel which had thus far been denied them. Hundreds there were in this +and other localities of the South who, while they rejected the idea of a +Ku-Klux phantom, were equally slow in accepting the current theories which +dissociated them and their plans from all preternatural agencies. + +In every man's breast there is more or less of that mysterious element +which, under proper conditions of time and place, sees ghosts in shadows, +and hears them in the faintest echo. These attributes (if the term be +admissible) implanted in the breast of the child at its birth, though +weeded with ever so careful a hand during the years of training, still +retain some tendril hold, which no process of metaphysics can uproot, and +which in the future years send out fruit-bearing branches that make and +unmake human destiny. Of the majority of human kind, it may be said that +their lives and possible achievements are covered under a great incubus of +superstitious thought and feeling. And if, at some late period of +existence they take the tide at a favorable turn and struggle up into the +pure surroundings of an honest life, the effort frequently comes too late, +for they see in this change only some postponed dispensation of _luck_ in +their favor, and so are worse bondmen than before. + +Some men there are who will even confess to you that they are governed by +these strange impulses in what they term the "trifling details of life," +but as men who admit "trifling details" into their lives rarely attain to +a higher life than is constituted by the sum of these, their admission +covers a greater scope than they probably intended. Others, equally +candid, adopt a different mode of imparting the same confidence, and +naively tell you that in "the more _important_ concerns of life" they are +indebted for guidance to an unseen agency. But as these men wholly mistake +the meaning of the adjective they use, adjusting it to such retail +considerations as flow from their daily business or dwell at the bottom of +their post-prandial cup, we must take their confession to include both +froth and sediment, the top and bottom of so many human lives. + +After having devoted much thought to this subject, and made many empirical +journeys along the route which leads to men's confidences, without being +suspected of any such deep-laid treason as that which we here confess in +the light of a laudable undertaking, it is our candid opinion that if the +unsuperstitious of earth were doomed to fall by the knife of some avenging +Elijah, the bodies of the slain would no more constitute a Waterloo than +fifty swallows would make a tolerable month of July. So that when we say +this Ku-Klux breeze blew consternation to many timid hearts, both young +and old, great and small, in Crow Hide, we only state in a small way what +might have been true, under slightly amended conditions, of the best +educated of the _oi polloi_ of the largest cities of the greatest +republics. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +K. K. K. DEALINGS WITH THE LOYAL LEAGUE. + + A Train which brought Welcome Passengers--Caucusing in the Open Air a + Dangerous Proceeding--Correct Surmises--An Old Church, Bequeathed + from Generation to Generation, and Liable to many Uses--Brothers and + Sisters all--The L. L. in full Bloom--Storm succeeded by a + Calm--Weird Visitors--What they left behind them--Dummy Constructed + of Cow-bones, and Habited in full Ku-Klux Regalia--Height, Ten + Feet--Sudden Panic--The Rally--Still in Doubt--The Chairman's + Stratagem--How it didn't Work--Despondent Leaguers taught to Act for + Themselves--Finale. + + +On the day preceding the evening to which the fates referred the K. K. K. +demonstration, as aforesaid, a crowd of sable politicians might have been +seen lounging in the neighborhood of the village depot; and a few moments +later, as the train drew up, edging their way through the crowd to the +vicinity of two small dark objects, which, though partially concealed by +the crowd, undoubtedly constituted a part of it, as they were seen to wave +above the heads of the tallest what could hardly have been mistaken for +anything less startlingly suggestive than two glazed carpet-bags. + +When the tumult subsided, and the crowd, after hovering for an instant in +the neighborhood of this pantomime, melted away as depot assemblages are +wont to do, it was plainly to be seen that the sable electors had been in +search of the two men with the glazed carpet-bags, and the two men with +the glazed carpet-bags in search of the sable electors; for these elements +of the crowd had now amalgamated (so to speak) in a loving embrace. + +The ceremony of greeting, as witnessed from a distance by the villagers, +extended to a thousand little personal liberties, which white men would no +more tolerate from each other than would the more dignified of the beasts +of the forest. And when its honey had been extracted by the parties +respectively, they were seen to place their upper extremities near +together in consultation. Some observation of amazing pithiness ran the +gauntlet of woolly crowns; and immediately afterwards a burly politician +withdrew from the caucus, followed by all eyes, and at a point not far +distant drew a diagram on the platform with his cane. Completing the +demonstration, and using, the same weapon, he smote upon the echoing +timbers with loud emphasis, and immediately the olfactory charm was +renewed around the quadrilateral wonder, which, having been viewed by the +crowd with the air of savants, became at once the subject of animated +discussion; and then, as suddenly, of perfect agreement and harmonious +handshaking. + +This seemed a favorable moment for dispersion; and, indeed, the latter +movement must have had partial reference thereto, for instantly the crowd +developed as many moral agents as it had possessed caucusing elements, +who, adopting their several courses, looked neither to the right nor left, +but pushed for the interior with all commendable speed. + +This cloud, "no bigger than a man's hand," but nevertheless boding a +political shower of no mean consequence to dwellers thereabouts had been +viewed, as we have anticipated, by a number of persons, who, in their +anxiety to conceal impressions, did not linger in the vicinity after being +informed, by a glance, of its ominous character. The horseman whom we have +seen in another chapter speeding through the neighborhood on courier duty, +took his cue from a friendly sun-glint shot from the glazed surface of one +of the carpet-bags; and, indeed, all the details of preparation +culminating in the forest meeting of the weird brotherhood, which we have +described, and those events connected therewith, which will demand our +attention as we proceed, were suspended on one of those mere accidents of +discovery which frequently have so much to do with the fate of communities +in times of political disquiet. + +In a retired forest grove, distant from any settlement, was a dismantled +church building, which had been resigned by the white settlers of Crow +Hide to the slave population of the township in _ante bellum_ times, and +the title to which, in obedience to a policy of non-interference on the +part of lawful claimants, had survived to their descendants in the golden +era of freedom. This building performed innumerable offices for the +foundlings of emancipation in those parts--marriages, funerals, revival +meetings, society gatherings, etc., occupying it in turn, and even once in +a while the dark-lantern fiend invading its precincts. From its sacred +desk, battered with age and apostolic blows, and warped by the sunbeams of +three generations, the venerable "parson" was wont to deliver castigations +to the erring of his people on holy days, and anon, to receive from the +High Tycoon of the League--enthroned on the same heights--the most bitter +denunciations of his political shortcomings. Here, the firstlings of the +flock were dedicated to the higher life of Christian rectitude in the holy +rite of baptism. And here, too, the candidate for political preferment was +made to feel the responsibilities of the step by being dipped seven times +in the "witches' cauldron" ere he was referred for those special services +which constitute the "heated gridiron," the most beautifully suggestive of +the ritualistic conditions of League membership. Here sisters and +brothers, giving way to their better instincts, harmonized on meeting +days; and here, brothers and sisters, with a broader display of those +principles which govern human nature--if with less consistency--refused to +harmonize on League days. Here, shouting and singing constituted the +mercurial forces "jurin de roasen 'ere and kant meetin'" solstice, and +here (_in hoc signo_) broken heads and scattered fragments of benches +marked the political temperature, when the League machine held right on +its course, over those sensitive members of the brotherhood, which it +might not be proper to denominate "sore tails" without this +circumlocution. + +It was on this spot, and amid these venerable surroundings, +contemporaneously with the Ku-Klux demonstration to which attention has +been directed, that a scene was enacted which fills an excruciating +passage in our narrative, and which we have only been debarred from +presenting to the reader by the obtrusion of details which could not be +excerpted from the latter without injuring its consistency. + +To say that the L. L. was in full bloom, and moving unflinchingly forward +in the discharge of the numerous obligations which devolved upon it as a +member of society, would be to depose facts that will be brought nearer to +the comprehension of the reader, if we explain that three of its +ablest-(bodied) speakers were coquetting for the favors of the chair, and +denouncing each other in the most incendiary language--despite the +remonstrance of the chair--in the same breath; that the speaker was +hammering on his desk with a vehemence born of despair, and occasionally +interlarding this performance with scowls that would have made his fortune +in the lion-taming business; that the house had risen to its feet for the +third time in a solid vote of remonstrance; and, finally, that two other +members had felt themselves called upon to explain to the rebellious trio +aforesaid the treasonable quality of their offence, the positive madness +of their course, and, when called to order by the speaker, had flown in +the face of that functionary with some very defiant language regarding +their rights as citizens of a free country. + +Maddened by a sense of the cold-blooded contempt aimed at him through this +repeated disregard of his most cherished prerogative, the speaker (a white +man) arose to his feet, and was in the act of aiming an inkstand at the +pyramid of wool which served one of the malefactors the double purpose of +a crown of glory and emblem of loyalty, when, lo! there was a crash, a +mighty upheaval of moral forces, so to speak, a thunderous resurge of the +waves of faction, and _presto_! the scene changes. + +Now the echoes have gone to rest, and a palpable hush reigns over the +assembly. Instead of those savage principles--war and rebellion--how +emphatic the terms of contrast; meek-eyed peace sits enthroned on every +brow. What means that half-suppressed sigh, that groan smothered in +parturition? But hold! "'Sdeath" A creeping dread moves along the serried +benches, laying its hand on the pulse-beat, invading the pants' legs, and +nestling close to the seat of life of the _tableaux vivantes_ who await +destiny (horrible reflection) on the ragged edge of "unfinished business." +Where late stood those mentors of the scene--shaken by the impulse of +"thoughts that breathe," and bandying hot invectives with unsparing +wrath--how changed, alas! the forms of cringing suppliants whose +counterparts might have been spaded from the Theban catacombs any day for +a thousand years. At yonder extremity of the building, surrounded by the +insignia of more than despotic rule, where towered the "thunderer of the +scene," transfixed _in articulo jactanti_, lo! an Ajax defying the +lightning. + +And now what weird forms from the "night's Plutonian shore" are those +which, joined in close procession, invade the folding doors, and with +thunderous steps--matched in echo--storm down the quaking aisles? Doomed +spirits, or ministers of heaven's delayed vengeance, it matters little; +and 'neath such a materialized spell from the echoless lands, who could +doubt, or doubting, live? On they come, looking neither to the right nor +left, neither mending their gait nor halting, until they have plunged _in +medias res_, when, with a scarcely perceptible pause--those ponderous +boot-heels, describing a half circle, smite the puncheon floor--every limb +is adjusted to the most graceful of company manoeuvres; and turning on +their march, they move with the same echoing tread down the aisles, out at +the folding-doors and into the darkness--away--away. + +But stop, ha! that sigh of relief springing to a hundred throats was +premature--the fiend hath but dismissed his attendants, himself remains. +Standing ten feet in his boots, and clad in full Ku-Klux regalia +(described in a previous chapter), an embodiment of rank ghostliness, he +now occupied the centre of the building, and if anything was wanting to +that "ghastly, grim, ungainly" ideal, which those who placed it there were +seeking to embody, it was supplied in the most threatening of tragic +postures, and a gesture whose very fixedness was not its least eloquent +feature. This latter described a horizontal line from the shoulder to the +finger-tips, and, _horribile dictu_, the index-finger was pointed squarely +at the anatomy of the august personage who was--had been, we should +say--presiding over the deliberations of the body. For about twenty +seconds that individual had been viewing the landscape from the _de +mortuis_ standpoint; but being recalled to animation by the excessive +personality of this proceeding, he executed three handslings and a +somersault, and was at rest for the time being in a pile of superannuated +furniture at the far end of the hall. Then there was a rush from the +"third person" element, who could but feel that the grammatical situation +was getting momentarily worse. Benches and desks were overturned; stoves +and stove furniture came tumbling about their heads; a pillar, swept from +its moorings by the human wave, fell with a boom like cannon at sea, and, +hark! louder still, and rising above the din, a human voice hoarsely +bawling, "Take him out!" + +Who is there that has not witnessed examples of fell panic converted into +a gallant defence, or brave onset, by the most seemingly trivial +occurrence? It was so on the present occasion. A section of stove-pipe +being projected against the uplifted arm of the ghostly personage,--who +had, perhaps, contributed more than any other being to the tumult by which +he was surrounded,--that member fell to the floor with a crash, and this +movement having been witnessed by one of the refugees, his emotions took +that form of expression which perhaps was best adapted to arrest the +panic, if not to restore confidence. + +The flying Leaguers turning their heads to discover the author of this +seeming sacrilege, beheld, instead, the accident which inspired it, and +instantly faced about with changed resolution. The individual who first +sounded the alarm, though, evidently, still frightened by the tones of his +voice, repeated it in the same words; and this second reminder was +followed by a feeble rally, directed at the rear of the speaker's body. +While this manoeuvre was in course of evolution, a voice from the rear +files shouted, "Forward!" but the effect of the command was so visible in +widening the distance between the assaulting column and the object of +attack, that a dead silence fell on the assembly, and, for the space of +several minutes, each was busy for himself examining the salient points of +the enemy's position. + +The gallant chairman having recovered his legs by this time, and seeing, +by the spasmodic movement in the crowd, answering to that muscular feat, +that something was expected of him, proceeded instantly to measures. +Wearing a severe countenance, he called the house to order, and, looking +around upon the assembly, announced a committee of five (greatly to the +relief of the remaining threescore), whose duty it should be to rid the +camp of the fell intruder. Why this had not been thought of before is one +of the unsolved conundrums, and why it ever was thought of, the committee +aforesaid are not yet prepared with a reply. Neither is there any good +reason for the state of things which immediately followed, as a dead calm +fell upon the assembly, which probably would not have been disturbed until +this moment, if another of those fortunate occurrences, which seemed made +to order for the occasion, had not reached the tide of League affairs at +its swell. + +Whether the machine was an eight-day affair, and had accomplished the +moments of its destiny, or simply a piece of mechanism poorly planned, we +are quite unable to say. But at the moment when the Quaker period of the +aforesaid conference had reached its most eloquent passage, a cracking +sound was heard in the vicinity of his ghostship, followed by a rattling +explosion, whose fussiness could hardly be resembled to anything but an +avalanche of dry bones hurled from some upper region; and, instantly, in +obedience to this warning, a desire to forsake present surroundings for +some less melancholy region took the form of an inspiration in the breast +of each "politishun." In what way this manoeuvre would have been +executed, if the chairman had persisted in the high-tragedy role he had +assigned himself, by remaining to announce some plan of retreat, is +another mystery connected with this event, with which we are not concerned +beyond the bare announcement. But it is certain that that individual, +taking time by the forelock, had made a successful advance on the rear +window, carrying the sash with him, and that his followers were engaged in +a very animated game of leap-frog, directed towards similar advantages at +other angles of the building. In less time than is consumed by a record of +the event, the doors were blocked with a mass of rolling, tumbling, +somersaulting Leaguers. The windows had their full quota of struggling, +sweating passengers. A large crack in the wall was in labor with three +burly forms, and yet a score or more were unaccommodated, and, with heads +ducked, were hurling themselves endwise against the retreating columns, +with an energy which evinced the strong determination of each to avoid the +fate of that hindmost unfortunate, whom Satan, from time immemorial, has +exacted for toll. + +But, though some confusion waited upon this exodus from the neighborhood +of the big haunt, it was conducted with greater dispatch than had +characterized any similar movement in the history of the rickety old +building, and soon the boss straggler, having eluded the individual on two +sticks by pigeon-winging it through a hole in the roof, rolled upon the +green sward beneath with a grunt of overpowering relief. + +When the building was completely deserted, and the swallows, half in +doubt, had returned to their perch under its eaves, a sound, which could +scarcely have been mistaken for aught but the hooting of an owl, broke the +stillness of the neighboring forest, and was quickly replied to at the +distance of perhaps a furlong in the opposite direction. The echoes +awakened by these signals were still busy at hide-and-seek with the +shadows in the old building, when two forms, clad in long robes and +wearing high-peaked caps, crossed the plateau to its threshold, and giving +way to an involuntary chuckle as they gazed first upon the wrecked +surroundings, passed to its inner precincts. Perhaps a full minute elapsed +before they reappeared at the entrance way, and, being joined here by a +companion with two led horses, they placed their bags of cow-bones on the +latter, and, mounting, galloped swiftly into the darkness. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +GHOST FEATURE OF THE MOVEMENT. ITS PHILOSOPHY. + + Contrasted Views of the Organization inspired by its Dealings with + the Public--Its Political Bearing--Its _Objects_ not deemed Harmful + to Society--New England Transcendentalists, and the Ponderous Science + which they put before the World under the Title of + "Negropholism"--The Colored Man in the South--Kindly Feeling for the + Race cherished by Native Southerners--Households Presided over by + Colored Matrons--Superstitious Tendencies of Cuffey--One of the + Conditions of his Tropical Nativity--Heathenish Lapses--His Ideas + about "Ghosts," and the Realm which they Inhabit--Interviewing the + former--Spook Kinsfolk--He holds them in the highest Veneration--The + ideal "Uncle Tom's Cabin"--Wherein it was a Failure--The "Infantile + Sex" and their Greed for Ghost-lore--Fighting their way through + Legions of Shadowy Foes to their "Curtained Rest"--Young Professors + of the Spiritual Science--Painful Reminiscences--Use to which the + Aged Patriarch, or Beldam, as the Case might be, put their + Prerogative--Talent for relating Ghost Stories--The Young White Men + of the South trained up in this School--Insight into Negro Character + obtained therefrom--K. K. K. Affectation of the Supernatural based + upon the latter. + + +The two preceding chapters may occur to those who were not informed of the +nature and degree of the excitement which waited upon the movements of +these secret organizations in obscure and uninformed neighborhoods, and +among the negroes in various localities, as partaking of the hypercritical +in narrative. But those who, by reason of residence or other accident, +were made conversant with such scenes almost every week in the year, and +who were not unfrequently drawn away from the contemplation of social +misdemeanors or crimes of the most serious import to split their sides +over some ludicrous _faux pas_, or intended farce, of the perpetrators, +will not be slow to discover their basis of fact, nor accord to the author +that honesty of purpose to which he lays claim in the conduct of these +pages. It was stated in a previous chapter that the secret organization +known as the Ku Klux Klan was a political movement intended to offset what +was known as the Loyal League, an order whose draft was taken from the +negro population, but which was controlled by, and in the interest of, a +class of political harpies known as carpet-baggers. The latter element, by +means of this political engine, dominated the politics of the South for a +period of more than five years, and while its power may not have been +broken by the influences set in motion by the counter movement, and though +the latter must be condemned on general principles, yet among the people +where it had its origin, and stripped of the analogies which the +imaginations of fault-finders would be apt to supply, its objects were not +deemed harmful to society. As to its wisdom, there can be no doubt that it +was aimed at the most salient of the enemy's weak points. + +In treating this proposition, we shall seek to avoid that ponderous +science which that branch of transcendentalists who acknowledge Mr. +Wendell Phillips as their leader put before the world under the title of +Negropholism, and deal with the article as we find it--so much on the +greasy surface of the native that the temptation of the carpet-bagger to +use it for base ends must be regarded an uncommon one. + +[The people of the South, young and old, who were brought up under that +social regimen which embodied the negro as a prominent and necessary +feature, will appreciate the feelings of the writer when he states that he +has not, and never can have, any feeling of enmity towards this race. Some +of the tenderest passages in his heart history he is glad to refer to that +period when negroes were not only admitted _en famille_ among the whites, +but in innumerable instances given absolute control over the household +affairs of their masters. He numbers among his cultured acquaintance +scores of young men and maidens who never knew any other parentage, and +who can never admit a dearer relation than their adopted paternity. The +negroes, if vicious and mean, owe it to that cruel divorcement from the +Southern social plan effected by their political leaders, and to the life +of vagabondage to which they are doomed under the new system; they are not +more so by nature than other men. If, therefore, the writer is tempted to +speak of their weaknesses, it is in no irreverential sense, and with a +laudable object in view, to which this policy will be seen to be strictly +antecedent.] + +That the negro is by nature grossly superstitious, no one who has had even +tolerable means of information will deny. In another chapter we have +prevised something on general principles concerning the superstition of +mankind, but the comparison to be drawn between the negro and all other +branches of the Adamic tree, as to this particular fruitage, is so +unequal, that we shall ask the reader to accept the former as a very +modified presentation of a theory that was made to order for the crown of +Cuffey. And however much this may be untrue with regard to other animals, +this faculty of the individual under discussion has nothing whatever to do +with his aesthetical being. It does not in any sense enlist that high +poetic principle which is one of the conditions of his tropical nativity. +Left to himself, with all the appliances of civilization and the +encouragement of its examples about him, his superstition will subject +him, in the short space of a twelvemonth, to heathenish lapses which the +weak-headed Mongolian, under the same outward conditions, has resisted for +a period of six thousand years. Voudooism is, perhaps, the weakest form of +heathen worship which this moral condition has developed, and, despite the +few occasions admitted by the structure of our laws, it is strictly a +native product. Those who contend that it is an African transplant, or +borrowed from the congeners of the race on those shores, are surely not +guided by convictions derived from an examination into its philosophy. +But it is a very radical form of savagism in worship, including human +sacrifices among its rites, and as we have anticipated that it had its +birth in the rice- and cotton-fields of the South, further remark on this +division of the argument is deemed unnecessary. + +In contrast with other races of beings, the world of shadows is to the +imagination of the black man a thing of gloom. The existences who people +this realm are hobgoblins, and the standard of the latter a mild +abridgment of the arch-fiend. He, nevertheless, holds them in the highest +veneration, and is prepared to accept their revelations concerning +himself, and indeed all other subjects of mundane philosophy, as oracular. +He even holds familiar converse with them--when an interview can be +contrived without endangering those barriers of etiquette which preserve +to either a fair start in a foot-race--and calculates with tolerable +accuracy that the churchyard spawn who affect this characterization are +counterfeits. On the latter subject he has doubts, however, which on +occasion might be turned to his disadvantage. + +Whether it is affectation with him, or a kind of prescience with which he +is gifted in view of his moral structure, we do not pretend to decide; but +he boasts a knowledge of the private affairs of his spook kinsfolk (they +are invariably uncles, aunts, grand relations, etc.) which would be +considered sacrilege in another being. If he deems you worthy of such +confidence, he will describe to you the ghostly raiment they wear, +diversified in other particulars, but always sombre-hued, and in no +recorded instance cut bias. He is rarely at fault in assigning the period +of antiquity from which they date, and if opportunity served, could lead +you to the exact spot where their archaeological remains "smell sweet." He +can give, with that emphasis of detail which grows out of perfect +familiarity with his subject, their occupations--ranging from +yacht-building, horse-culture, and other of the fine arts, all the way +down to book-making. And finally, if pressed for information, can state +some astonishing facts with regard to their phrenological development. +With him these essences are always evil spirits, and though he views them +in the constant performance of deeds that would quickly promote them to +the hangman's offices if enterprised in the flesh, yet his philosophy so +confounds the means and extremes relating to the transaction, that he can +see no way out of the difficulty but to respect the latter as proceeding +from the former. + +Though they cherish a causeless animosity against himself and his kind, +and war on the latter with a chronic wastefulness of the vital spark, +which could only proceed from a want of appreciation of this blessing +inseparable from their standpoint, yet he cannot go behind his apotheosis +to find fault with the system of government upon which it proceeds. In +fact, though he avoids the "ghoul-haunted" precincts with which his +neighborhood abounds, and trembles when he recites the deeds of valor +performed by some warlike example against fleshly hosts, yet when he has +taken his distance, and duly calculated the chances in his favor, he +delights, above all things, to gather about himself the philosophic +weaklings of his race, and, having launched upon his theme, observe the +absolute failure of the kink in the woolly crown of each as a thing to be +depended on in time of emergency. + +The ideal "Uncle Tom's Cabin" had very little of the ghost element in its +construction. In this respect, as in some others, it was a miserable +failure. The real structure was a ghost's palace, where they came and went +at pleasure, and not unfrequently took up their abode. To this habitation, +in _ante bellum_ times, presided over by Uncle Dick or Aunt Rachel, it +mattered little--for both were magicians of no mean order--the juveniles +of both races flocked after nightfall for supplies of ghost-lore; and to +say that they were accommodated will but faintly describe, we fear, that +anguished state of soul (what Southern boy or man does not drop a tear on +this reminiscence?) with which, a few hours later, they passed out into +the darkness and fought their way through legions of shadowy foes to their +"curtained rest." + +These ghost stories, which always resulted disastrously for flesh and +blood, and had a churchyard twang about them that came with peculiar +relish to the youngster under a strong glare of candle- or fire light, +were the very apple-pie of farm-life to the "infantile sex," despite the +after-piece, which, after all, was a contingency that might be disposed of +at will by the philanthropic source of the mischief. How often have we +observed a circle of these young professors of the spiritual science +defiantly "lean back" in their proclivities when the crooning narration +began, and the great fireplace sent out effulgent rays, suddenly alter +their manner for one of marked deference as the ghost-character came on +with stately tread and took its place in the forefront of thrilling +reminiscence; and then, as the rays of firelight went to sleep with the +embers one by one, hitch up their seats within the margin that remained, +getting nearer by degrees, until at length, as the story grew towards its +denouement and the fire hung over its ashy tomb, crowding from all +quarters, they threatened to overturn the narrator--so great was the +terror inspired by the shadows which lay behind them. + +But to no one had these performances such constant and deep relish as the +aged patriarch or beldam, as the case might be, who was elevated by their +young suffragans to the post of mentor for the time being. They revelled +in this employment, first, because it suited their talents; and second, +because it was perfectly adapted to their emotional nature. An African, +moreover, is gratified beyond expression by the knowledge that he +possesses authority, no matter how brief or weak in extent, which may be +exercised over his fellows; and there is not, we believe, a living party +to such a bequest of social right and liberty over conscience as that to +which we have referred, who was not a sufferer under the arrangement to an +extent which he rarely admits to stranger confidences. But this +improvement of the occasion which came to him on the part of the +fiction-vender was not always done in mere wantonness. Not unfrequently +the result achieved was without design, and when the contrary was true, +the design was quite an intelligent one. When he acted intelligently, the +object kept in view was to gain such an ascendency over the minds of his +young auditory that he might reap either present benefits, or call it up +to advantage in the future; and when we reflect that his audiences were +largely composed of his young masters and mistresses, whose influence was +great at head-quarters, and who would one day succeed to the estate, the +wisdom of his conclusions must be conceded. + +Trained up in this school, and knowing by their later experience of men +the precise extent to which the plantation darkey was controlled by the +superstitious notions which he disseminated (for he was no hypocrite), the +young white men of the South were at no loss in adopting countervailing +forces when the Loyal League storm burst upon the country. The +superstition of the negro was not a weakness, but a ruling characteristic; +and at this central idea of his being the Ku-Klux movement was directed. +Being thus addressed to his fears, it will be seen, by any one wishing +information on the subject, that the latter was designed to whip him into +obedience to what was then thought, but is now known, to be the ruling +element in Southern politics. We do not assert that it was a just +expedient; we cannot believe, in view of later developments in our local +politics, that it was a wise one; but its transactions have passed into +history, and it is with them that we are concerned. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +DETAILS OF ORGANIZATION. + + A Band of Regulators whose Force at this time numbered a Half Million + well-organized and perfectly Drilled Men--Who composed its + Draft--Considerations which recommended it to the Better Classes of + Society--Its Haunts--Oath-bound Covenant, and Penalties + attached--Panoply of Lower Regions--Its Raiding Rendezvous--Galloping + forth to Predestined Conquest--It proceeded under a rigid + Constitutional System--Territorial + Subdivisions--Empire--Realm--Province--Den--Grand Wizard and his + Cabinet--Grand Giant--The Commander of a Den--Grand + Cyclops--Night-Hawks, etc.--Recruiting Agents--How Members were + Initiated--Proposed Initiates might Retire if Displeased with the + Conditions of Membership--How far the Klan was "Rebel" in its + Draft--Members of State Legislatures, Congressmen, and Governors of + States, took its Vows upon them--Its Political Suffrages--Compelling + Ignorant Colored Men to relinquish the Franchise--K. K. K. + Placards--Empty Coffins containing Ukase of Banishment Carted to the + Doors of Obnoxious White Citizens--Its Ideas of Social Decorum. + + +The mystic order of K. K. K. had scarcely emerged from its +swaddling-clothes, as things go in the material universe, ere it had +developed into a giant that filled the Southern zodiac, as effectually as +the almanac dummy comprehends in his physical outlines the cardinal points +of the seasons. Moving from county to county, and from one State to +another, it invaded the most remote communities--until within three months +from the time that the slogan call had been sounded on the eastern shore +of the Mississippi, its bannerets formed a cordon around the Gulf and +Atlantic coasts, and its dominion over the Trans-Mississippi country was +undisputed. A band of regulators, whose force at this time numbered a half +million well-organized and perfectly drilled men, it aimed at nothing less +than the subjection of the pending elements in the Southern State +governments, and as a means thereto, the total overthrow and dispersion of +all secret subsidiary agencies. In its ranks all conditions of white +society in the South were represented--attracted partly by the weighty +political considerations upon which the movement rested, and in not a few +instances by its outside of novelty and vague promise of sensation. +Proceeding under an oath-bound covenant, it invoked, seemingly--by +adopting the emblems of their rule--the powers of darkness to assume the +protectorate over its affairs, and levied on the code of pirates for a +rule of discipline that should awe the stoutest hearts into meek +submissiveness. To break the least of its commandments was esteemed a +crime for which death would be a weak expiation, and to retreat from its +enterprises, good or evil, bold or weak, was to be exposed to a fate more +horrible than the chain and vulture. Their periodical gatherings, or dark +seances, were held in caves in the bowels of the earth, where they were +surrounded by what might be aptly termed the panoply of the lower +regions--rows of skulls, coffins and their furniture, human skeletons, +ominous pictures _copied_ from the darkest passages of the Inferno or +Paradise Lost; and, brooding over all, that spell-like mystery which +waited ever as an inspiration from the tomb upon the movements of the +weird brotherhood. Here, habited in full regalia, and seated in alignment +on raised benches, the members of the Order were wont to receive trembling +initiates, commune together about affairs of government, and plan midnight +raids against mortal enemies. Frequently these conferences were brief, but +the fires were always lighted, in order that the still inspiration of the +scene might not be wanting to the business of the evening--the +ever-recurring raid on jail, or state-house, or Forest League. Gowned and +helmeted, and mounted on strong chargers, invested, as far as possible, +with the character of their riders, the ghostly phalanx galloped forth to +predestined conquest, for an invisible host fought at its side, and each +man bore a talisman in his outer garb which might have affrighted the +armies of an empire from the field. + +The government of the Klan proceeded under a rigid constitutional system +that was rarely or never amended. Its chief officer, or ruler of what was +known as the _Empire_, was elected to an unlimited term of office, and +entrusted with the means of despotic rule. His official title was Grand +Wizard, and he was, by virtue of his first appointment, +commander-in-chief of the army or military force constituted under the +Empire. The officers under the latter held their appointment from him, and +composed his counsel, or cabinet. The Grand Division, or Empire, was +subdivided into Realms, Provinces, and Dens. The geographical boundaries +of the Realm corresponded with those of the congressional districts in the +several States under Klan dominion, and hence were equal in number. The +chief officer of a Realm was distinguished by the title of Grand Vizier. +His territory, as we have indicated, was subdivided into Provinces, whose +territorial limits were identical with those of counties in the same +location. The ruler of a Province was termed a Grand Giant. Under +Provinces, Dens were organized, which, so far as territorial dominion is +concerned, had only a neighborhood signification. But they were really the +executive force, and through them, as individuals, all the work was +accomplished. The commander of a Den, contradistinguished from those of +Realms and Provinces, owed his rank and authority to the suffrages of +those whom he immediately ruled. He was entitled Grand Cyclops, and under +him was an officer known as Exchequer, whose duties had a twofold +signification, and applied to the administration of the treasury and +recording secretaryship. There were from four to six scouts belonging to +the Den, who performed courier duty, and to whom was applied the titular +distinction of Night-Hawks; and in addition to these, and also in the +non-commissioned rank, each thoroughly organized Den had its Conductors +and Guardians, who were local, and the tenor of whose duties is +sufficiently indicated by their titles respectively. + +The Dens were the recruiting agencies, and the officers to whom was +assigned this duty conducted the work with the utmost secrecy and caution. +No individual was approached who was not known by his voluntary avowals to +be in sympathy with the movement. When such a confession (which must have +been made in public) was reported to the Den Council, if no objection was +alleged against the individual, a committee was appointed to canvass the +subject and report at some future day. Afterwards, if no local +disqualifications were still urged, recruiting agents were sent to +interview the candidate, who proceeded with such circumspection that they +rarely failed to obtain a reply to the inquiries they brought without +committing themselves or their cause. A candidate for membership who had +been approved was conducted to the Den Council in the night season and by +circuitous and unknown routes. He was also securely blindfolded, and the +Conductors (officers of escort) were forbidden to communicate with him, +until their destination had been reached. Arriving in some sequestered +forest grove, he was commanded to dismount, and with eyes still bandaged, +and the former policy of secrecy maintained in all particulars, was +conducted into the presence of the council. Here, without being permitted +to ask questions, he was requested to give heed to what was about to be +said, and when the Cyclops, or some individual commissioned by him, had +revealed to him the objects and polity of the organization known as K. K. +K., and the quality of allegiance exacted from those who entered its +ranks, he was requested to state whether he still wished to carry out his +original design of connecting himself with the Order. If this +interrogatory was replied to in the negative, some very positive oaths and +threats enjoining secrecy as to what had transpired were delivered to him, +and he was permitted to retire. [This policy was invariably pursued by the +Klan, and it is not probable that its vows were ever committed to an +individual who had not obtained the full consent of his mind to the +concessions he was required to make.] On the contrary, if an affirmative +reply was given, the ceremony of initiation was proceeded with,--a formula +which we shall not describe in this place, further than to say that the +vows, which were delivered in a kneeling posture, were of the most +approved iron-clad pattern, and that to each was attached a string of +penalties, categorically presented, which aimed at nothing less than the +annihilation of the transgressor. + +It is wrong to infer, as many have done, that because the political views +maintained by the Klan corresponded to those which were avowedly held by +ex-Confederate soldiers at that period, that the former was recruited +from the latter in large measure, or, as the enemies of both were apt to +suggest, as an entirety. Though occupying the territory in which they were +domiciled, it is improbable that one-half the available force which the +former boasted was derived from the latter source, and it is certain that +a majority of the latter did not give their sanction nor countenance to +the measures adopted by the Klan in seeking redress for alleged political +wrongs. But a very large number of ex-Confederates entered its ranks, and, +perhaps for prudential (not political) reasons, the administration of Klan +affairs was, in a large measure, committed to this element. Its force, as +has been anticipated, was recruited from the entire white population of +the States which it occupied; and it certainly was not wanting in that +_respect_ for which such movements are almost wholly dependent on the +character of their constituency. Members of State legislatures, +congressmen, and governors of States, took its vows upon them, and were +not unfrequently to be found at its midnight gatherings. In all National +and State elections the Klan gave its political suffrages to members of +the Order, or known sympathizers. Indeed, to effect its political ends +(which were the ends of its organization), there were few extremes of +contumacious conduct which it did not practise towards the existing State +governments. Not only did it throw the weight of its suffrages in behalf +of favorites--it forbade others the exercise of this privilege. Freedmen +who were deemed too ignorant to cast an intelligent ballot were visited at +their homes in the small hours of the night, and by measures of +intimidation, which not unfrequently included the lash, were driven to +accept an oath of lengthy abstinence from the League and the polls. White +men, who were obnoxious because of their too active instrumentality in +League affairs, or their excessive fondness for the class of society which +they encountered at its meetings, were equally unfortunate. During the +quiet hours of the night ghostly placards, bearing the caption K. K. K. in +large letters, and inscribed with the escutcheon of the Order (skull and +cross-bones), were posted on their doors, commanding them to "skip out" (a +technicality invented by the Klan), or expect the utmost vengeance of the +Order. Where the rank of the offender required that some more dignified +means of notification be employed, or where the individual was deemed to +represent very obdurate qualities of soul, instead of the ordinary method +aforesaid, an empty coffin was carted to his door, and in this horrible +symbol of its anathemas was placed the order of ejectment. + +The social system was sought to be renovated in the use of the same +summary methods, and upon crimes of this nature the severest examples of +Klan disfavor were constantly visited. The carpet-bag element recently +introduced into the country suffered most frequently in this category; and +it is not too much to say, that the strict construction placed upon the +social laws of the country, and upon social decorum as an abstraction, by +the weird fraternity, was to this class one of the most intolerable +burdens of Southern exile. To miscegenate was quite bad enough (and a +privilege which the State laws denied them), but to be permitted to go a +step further, and "conglomerate," was not to be thought of, and Klan +discipline was brought to bear--one of its few acts which has received the +unconditional endorsement of both Northern and Southern society. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +K. K. K. CUSTOMS. + + The Klan never did its Work by Halves--How General Orders were + Transmitted--Form of General Order--Its Imbroglios with the + League--Avoided Conflict with United States Troops--Ku-Klux + Prosecutions a Weakness of the Courts--League Informers--K. K. K. + Intimidation of Witnesses--_Memento Mori_--Crusade of the Ermined + Ranks--Misdirected Prosecutions--Obligation to Disregard Judicial + Oaths when they Conflicted with the Plans and Policy of the Order--No + Patch-spots in its System of Government--Weird Drill--Absenteeism not + one of the Strong Points of the Brotherhood--The Klan a Bitter Enemy + of those Unorganized Parties of Ruffians who made War on their kind + in the former's Name--Its Right to Borrow Sympathy on this Exchange a + Grave Question of Doubt--Vendettas Conducted against the "Shams." + + +The Klan never did its work by halves, nor never pronounced a meaningless +threat. If an individual was warned to leave the country at a certain +date, there was no help for it, neither were there any extensions of time +or modifications of original orders. Had members of the Order been +incarcerated in a county prison for Klan offences, and a rescue been +planned, the bars must yield at a certain hour. If some poor wretch was +doomed by order of the Council to suffer under its laws of extradition, +the weird scout was "over the borders and away" ere its absence could be +noted, or electric messages sent to notify the authorities of the +impending outrage. + +When the Grand Wizard wished to promulgate an order, the newspapers were +the medium commonly sought. His commands in the use of this means were +delivered to the next in rank, and by him transmitted to the Grand Giant +of the province named, an officer who maintained constant communications +with the Den system. No Den was required to execute a general order within +the territory which it occupied, and in but rare instances did it proceed +to enforce its own _local_ measures. This force was, in almost every +instance, employed beyond its own boundaries, and not unfrequently crossed +the borders of the province, and even the realm to which it belonged, in +the execution of raiding commands. The territorial subdivisions of the +Order were each numbered according to class, a precaution which was found +to be indispensable in the transmission of "general orders." The latter +were usually in the following form: + + _To the Grand Cyclops of Den No. 5, Province No. 4, Realm No. 3._ + + Greeting: You are hereby commanded to report with your entire command + to the Grand Giant of your province for duty in D. 6, P. 5, R. 4. + + Speed. G. W. + +These titles were not always employed in the published orders; but where +they were omitted, some descriptive term equally well understood was +substituted. + +The raiding force always moved in the night season, and members of the +Order never exhibited themselves in the Ku-Klux role in the daytime. When +the cock crew, no churchyard edition of the animal ever sought the +friendly shadow of the daisies with greater precipitancy than did the +individual K. K. K. the inner chambers of the Den. + +Their imbroglios were in almost all cases with the organization known as +the Loyal League; but though they bore arms, and waged a campaign whose +avowed object was the annihilation of this hated enemy, yet in their +dealings with its members their ultimatum rarely bore an emphasis strong +enough to excite the opposition of the local authorities. And to their +credit it must likewise be said (a fact that was considered by the State +authorities at a recent date in promulgating pardons to members of the +Klan), that they avoided collisions with the United States troops, and in +no instance, though frequently pursued, and sometimes driven to the wall +by the exertions of the latter when employed in behalf of their enemies, +were they ever known to burn powder against their country's armed +servitors. Neither did they interfere with the courts of the country in +administering the laws from a national standpoint, though in some +instances criminals were taken from the county jails before "oyer" had +been pronounced in their cases. + +Members of the Order did not, nor could not, according to their +construction of Klan government, belong to the jurisdiction of the courts, +more especially the Federal courts. And though trials were never +interfered with until their officers had satisfied themselves that it +would be impossible to convict one of its members on a charge of +complicity in its affairs, yet in the event of an unfavorable verdict and +attempted sentence, it is certain that resistance of some character would +have been offered. Ku-Klux trials were one of the weaknesses of the courts +at this period, and while numbers were arraigned on this charge who were +guilty, and merited discipline, it may be safely estimated that a majority +of these prosecutions were conducted against persons who were not only +innocent of collusion in its affairs, but who execrated the Klan as +heartily as did their over zealous inquisitors. Members of the League were +the informers, and not unfrequently the only witnesses in these trials; +and when it is remembered that their zeal for justice, as the blind +goddess was viewed by them, burned with about equal warmth against that +portion of the white population who were symbolized in this way and those +who were not, the farcical nature of these proceedings in numberless +instances will be understood. But when it was known that testimony had +been suborned against members of the Order, the Klan proceeded to extreme +lengths in construing the statute for perjury, and in visiting its +penalties on the offender. Not only so, but on the eve of these judicial +examinations, the Dens, as well as individual members thereof, were +particularly active in the work of destroying testimony by intimidating +witnesses, a common form of the threats employed being the words _memento +mori_ written plainly on a blank sheet of paper, and clandestinely +conveyed to the suspected party. To ignorant persons, the mystery of this +latter proceeding alone went not a little way towards accomplishing the +object in view. + +While such precautions were taken, and no doubt proved of vast service in +enabling the Order to resist that crusade of the ermined ranks to which we +have referred, the leaders of the K. K. K. succeeded in obtaining, from +the membership at large, a very important concession in morals affecting +this subject, and one which we believe has been hitherto resisted by the +draft of secret societies on this continent, viz., an obligation to +disregard judicial oaths where they conflicted with the plans and policy +of the Order. To illustrate this point, a leading form of the +interrogatory propounded to witnesses in these trials was: "Are you aware +of the existence of a secret political organization known as the Ku Klux +Klan?" and though parties thus addressed were often possessed of the most +incontestable evidence of the truth sought to be elicited, it was not +deemed dishonest, nor in any sense immoral, to reply negatively. The oath +of secrecy which members (voluntarily) took upon themselves when they +entered the Klan was supposed to extinguish the guilt of this +transaction, though we are not told precisely in what way the _double +entendres_ and tricks of evasion, practised by such witnesses at +subsequent stages of the trial, were to be construed. + +But as we shall have occasion to refer to this topic from time to time, as +the work progresses, we will not at present allude further to the subject +of Ku-Klux trials and their furniture of fiction. + +The Klan was thoroughly organized. There were no patch-spots in its system +of government. Its tactics of drill were in some sense peculiar, but it +sufficiently resembled that adopted by the cavalry branch of the United +States army to be mistaken for it in all the leading manoeuvres. The men +were perfect in company drill, and were required to attend all Den +meetings, or be assessed onerous fines or other penalties. Absenteeism was +not, however, one of the strong points of the brotherhood; and a Den +rarely moved towards raiding territory without its full quota of men. The +raids moved with astonishing celerity--a circumstance which was rendered +necessary to the most perfect secrecy of these movements, and was also +imperative in view of the long distances to be traversed. The hours +between twilight in the evening and dawn, according to a Medean law of the +K. K. K., as we have anticipated, could only be appropriated to this +labor; and when it is explained that companies of men frequently left the +Den rendezvous for raiding objectives forty miles distant, and returned +to the former point without dismounting, our conclusion above will be seen +to be authorized. + +The Grand Cyclops was not only the chief of the Den Council and an +absolutist in authority as to its domestic affairs, but was also the chief +officer in command of a raid, and must have been looked to for all special +directions regarding its conduct. The Exchequer possessed a similar +prerogative, and became the orderly or adjutant on the march. + +The Klan was the bitter enemy of those unorganized parties of ruffians who +made war on their kind in the former's name, and the sum of whose +villanies never failed to be debited in this way. Hardly a week passed, +during the excitement which gave rise to both, and which they, in turn, +converted into a reign of terror whose strong points the Duke of Alva +might have studied to advantage, in which the secret organization was not +made to suffer under some such confidence arrangement; and to say that its +adipose suffered under this bereavement of men's regards which it could so +illy spare, will not, we fear, adequately present the situation. It, +however, had placed itself in a position by which its motives were liable +to be misinterpreted; and as one of its professed foibles was its ability +to cover up its tracks in the least mysterious of its transactions; and, +as during the French Renaissance, times analogous to these, to wear a mask +was esteemed a crime from which all other crimes might be inferred, we +doubt whether its right to borrow sympathy on this exchange could be +logically maintained. + +But while the Klan was doomed to nurse its woes of this character in not a +few instances, they proved immedicable wounds; and where the perpetrators +became known, or even suspected, it conducted a vendetta against the +individual conspirators which proved far more effective than all the +organized efforts of the "best government." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE KLAN IN TENNESSEE. + + Misgovernment in Tennessee--The Loyal League and the State + Administration--The K. K. K. an Outgrowth of the Conditions which the + former Inspired--Rapid Development of the Order on Tennessee + Soil--Its Purposes of Revenge--Legislation on the Subject--A + Governor's Proclamation--Militia called out and Detectives + Employed--The State pronounced a Ku-Klux Barracks--The Loyal League + in various Localities Succumbing to the New Element of Conquest--A + State Council of the League Summoned to meet at Nashville--The + Governor to Preside--The Secret out, and Counter Measures Resolved + upon by the Rival Party--Spies sent to Nashville--League Places of + Rendezvous throughout the State subjected to Espionage--A War of + Extermination against the Latter--A Simultaneous Uprising of the K. + K. K. throughout the State and Concerted Raids against the L. L. + Rendezvous in various Neighborhoods--Military Accomplishments of the + Grand Wizard--Subcommanders in Charge of the Expedition--Capture of + Secret Papers--Ku-Klux Hollow-square--Oath administered to + Captives--Success of the Undertaking--Shifting of Conditions. + + +As early as the spring of 1866, the head of the Order announced that the +recruiting-books for the State of Tennessee showed a force of eighty +thousand men; and it was here, and about this date, that some of the most +eventful scenes connected with the history of the K. K. K. were enacted. +This State had been committed to League control early after peace was +declared by the general government, and the bitter proscription at once +inaugurated against the white race, under the combined patronage of the +League and the existing State government, not only excited the strenuous +opposition of all those who anchored their faith to the Conservative idea +in politics throughout this and neighboring States, but called forth a +warm protest from those disinterested partisans at the North who had +recently been erected into what is known as the moderate Republican or +Independent party. Disfranchisement, in its most radical form, excluded +the intelligent voters of the State from all participation in its affairs; +tax laws came up for amendment at each session of the State legislature, +and in connection with other expenses of government (for such they had +become), were sextupled in the end; the most quiet and law-abiding +neighborhoods were placed under military surveillance, or driven to suffer +the penalty of confiscation acts whose terms might have included the +entire race of mankind; and finally, every device of ignorant and +intemperate legislation applied, whose effect would be to render the +government unsuited to the wants of the people, and convert the latter +into a body of malcontents. This end appears, indeed, to have been +contemplated by the League faction at that stage of its supremacy when its +attainment seemed most improbable; but when the reality, or something +which very much resembled it, came upon them, they disowned the abortion, +and invited their friends at the North to behold with what consistency +the old rebel stump was putting forth green shoots of disunion. + +We shall not express a preference for either of these bad extremes of the +politics of that period, but in order to a proper understanding of the +question, we deem it no impropriety to state that it was a fact well +known, and illustrated elsewhere, that wheresoever the League animal +deposited its spawn, with due regard for atmospheric conditions, the K. K. +K. insect would shortly drop its chrysalis. + +In looking over the history of those times in Tennessee, the student need +be at no loss in seeking out the exact causes of the Ku-Klux movement as +it existed on her soil, nor of finding its dimensions from this given +mean. As large as was the Klan force, it probably did not exceed the +League in numbers, and had many disadvantages to meet which the latter, +helped forward by its government patronage, did not regard as impediments. +But it had injuries to redress, burning wrongs to avenge, and cherishing +these incentives, it laughed at legislative penalties, and burned to join +battle with those dispensers of Ku-Klux halters who dealt in this and like +judicial pleasantries at their expense. + +Having had its birth in the western district of the State, where the +elements of a rapid growth were found, it was quickly communicated to the +central counties and the neighborhood of the capital, and finding its way +thence over the Cumberland Mountains--before its presence was even +suspected in that loyal quarter--developed a shamrock growth on the soil +of East Tennessee. Within three months from the time the first Den was +organized on her territory, the K. K. K. had reached its highest growth in +numbers and strength of resources, and announced itself ready and anxious +to meet the army in buckram, whom it asserted represented the cause of +misgovernment on Tennessee soil. Its plans were quickly developed, and the +destruction of a half dozen or more dark-lantern societies, which lay more +on the surface of things than was thought to be polite, alarmed the State +functionaries, and called attention to their proceedings in a form quite +as disagreeable as the most ultra of the party could have desired. The +subject first came before the legislature, and steps were taken which it +was presumed would "put a head on the monster" (to literally quote one of +the Buncombe addresses before that august body), but the indescribable +nonchalance of the proceedings, which seemed directed at a child's +toy-house rather than a nest of boa constrictors, only excited the K.'s to +new activity. A Governor's proclamation was next called for; soon +afterwards secret measures were instituted looking to the employment of a +force of detectives; and finally, the militia were summoned to assemble, +but, despite all, the crooked wonder grew, and the more industrious the +efforts put forth to curtail its existence the more it grew and the +greater the occasion it saw for this exertion. + +In the summer of this year, the members of the legislature of Tennessee, +in council assembled, pronounced the State a Ku-Klux barracks, and +resolved themselves unsafe in their granite citadel at Nashville. The +League head-quarters in various parts of the State were succumbing one by +one to the new element of conquest, and, indeed, the State seemed on the +eve of a revolution, by which, if no more serious results were attained, +its territory would be rendered untenable for that class of its population +which was known to its enemies as the dark-lantern faction. In this +emergency, the leaders of the L. L. resolved to call a State council of +the Order, over whose deliberations the Governor should preside, and whose +object would be to devise ways and means for the destruction of their +troublesome enemies. Great preparations were made accordingly, and without +divulging their plans, it was resolved, at the conclusion of the secret +proceedings, to hold a mass meeting at the capital which should review the +whole subject. This body assembled at the specified date, but not before +the rival party had become fully acquainted with its plans and purposes, +and in convention assembled resolved upon counter measures. + +On the very evening which the Council had set apart for its introductory +proceedings (in the city of Nashville), the indefatigable K.'s had issued +commands throughout the State requiring every member of the Order to +report at his Den head-quarters for special service. A force of spies was +dispatched to the neighborhood of the League Council, and the brief +period which was to elapse before the Solons would arrive and enter upon +the solemn business in hand was appropriated by these secret agents, and +their co-conspirators in other neighborhoods, to the work of obtaining +information from deserters, chance prisoners, etc., as to the exact +location and surroundings of the League places of rendezvous throughout +the State. Indeed, while the League had busied itself with a very red +conflagration devoted to the Ku-Klux fat, whensoever they should overtake +that slippery substance, the much persecuted "krookeds" had doubled back +on them, and only awaited a fair wind to convert their little game into a +"double reversible," quite as complicated as any that had dawned upon the +patent-machine mind previous to that date. + +A war of extermination against the League had been resolved upon months +before by the leaders of the Klan, but a favorable moment for a decisive +blow, or the emergency requiring it, had not arrived, until both were +visible in the proposed State council of the Order and the objects it +would consider. Now, destiny seemed rushing upon them, and the time almost +too brief to make an intelligent feint on the enemy's front. But +promptness of stratagem, and rapid development of passing advantages, was +perhaps the strongest point in the military character of the distinguished +leader of this movement, for where others halted, awed by the proportions +of an undertaking, or the suddenness of combinations effected in their +front, he only felt an inspiration to go forward. The force which +participated in the attack on the evening of ---- 19th, 1866, did not fall +far short of one hundred thousand men, and yet, thirty-six hours previous +to this time, the occasion had not presented itself to the mind of the +veteran who planned the attack as suitable therefor. A well organized and +lightly-equipped force proved unquestionably a _sine qua non_ in rendering +the dispositions of the commander successful; but we doubt if it would be +fair to subtract this circumstance from the glory of the undertaking, if +the reader is informed that it had been developed from the same ingenious +source with special reference thereto. + +In the attack which followed, each Den constituted an independent force, +and was under the immediate command of the Grand Cyclops. Indeed, no other +officer was known on the field, though it was sufficiently apparent, at +the time, that each had received his allotted task from a superior, and it +was afterwards divulged that they had acted under written orders. At ten +o'clock precisely, the commands moved (from the various points of +rendezvous selected), and were allotted one hour to each ten miles of +distance to be traversed. They were in full uniform, and though they +carried arms, were commanded not to fire, nor to return a fire, except +under orders. _En route_ they avoided public roads and dense settlements, +and on approaching their destination changed the order of march (by twos) +to close column by fours, when the command was "charge." After the +building, which formed the object of attack, came in view, no time was to +be lost, and its investment completed as rapidly as possible. Attempted +refugees were to be forced back within the walls, and in no event was an +escape to be permitted. A party of six resolute men were detached from +each squadron for special duty, in securing the papers, books, and other +written documents of the League meeting, and this movement was so far +pivotal in its character, that their comrades were commanded to keep their +proceedings in view, and be ready at a signal to render them assistance. +After a thorough search of the premises had been accomplished, the +dismounted men without were commanded to take their station within the +building, and form the hollow-square of the order. + +As so much has been said concerning this feature of their drill, and so +little really known, we give the exact figure in the cut below. It may be +imitated by arranging two letters K with their backs to each other, and +doubtless originated from this device. + + [Illustration: Ku-Klux Hollow-square.] + +This ghostly evolution having been performed, and the trembling Leaguers +finding themselves invested at every point, the Grand Cyclops had orders +to ascend the rostrum, and from that elevated position deliver to the +(constructive) culprits an oath whose principal features were as follows: +To forever abjure all allegiance to the secret organization known as the +Loyal League; to cease to employ the elective franchise as an instrument +of oppression against the white population of the State; to forsake the +acquaintance of all men, irrespective of party, who sought to profit by +their votes; and finally, to abstain, under pain of the severest +penalties; from all efforts to investigate or otherwise disturb the +mystical beings who stood before them, and who, at some future time, if +deemed expedient, would accord them further and more convincing proofs of +their ghostly genealogy. This command having been executed, the lights +were to be blown out at a signal, and the parties, disappearing by the +most secret routes possible, to hasten forward to a point of rendezvous +one mile distant. + +Such was the plan of campaign resolved upon by the Grand Wizard and his +advisers; and that it was successful in every particular is a fact which +we need hardly repeat, in view of the numerous hints conveyed in the +written history of those times. While the State Council of the Loyal +League was guessing itself dry over the great "konundrum," and, at the +same time, making such a _sine die_ disposition of its remains as was +rendered feasible by broadsides of eloquence and sixthlies of courageous +resolve, that lively "korps(e)" had frisked from its abode, and with the +alacrity of a "monkey on a trapeze-bar" (in the language of the +oil-regions) "went through them." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE LOYAL LEAGUE IN COUNCIL. + + Speech of Hon. Bones Button before the State Council of the Loyal + League--What followed--Amusing Contretemps. + + +Mr. Cheermon, and Gemmens: Der crisis am upon us. I repeats, surs, and +wishes dat dis obserwashun should sink down into de conclusibness ob ebery +individooal who heers me. Der Ku--crisis am upon us. As a member of dis +spectifle body, I am de las' pusson who would wish to use my perfesshun to +cover up dis sollum trufe. We is stannin', Mr. Cheermon, upon de ragged +confouns ob de bloody kazzum; and I repeats, dat de question for us to +solve dis ebenin' is: Shall we go fowards, or be pushed fowards. +[Sensation.] Fur be it frum me to "sing de song ob de sirum" when de +liberties ob de black man am inwaded, and de nasshumal honor is bein' +piled in de dust by de rabble (rebel) asstocracy. But, surs, lookin' up to +de umbragus folds ob dat spar-strangled banner, I is impressed with anoder +conclushun, and it is in dese wurds follerin, to wit: We is occupyin' de +ticklish edge ob a dillemmer, in de lite ob which de man who crossed de +Rubimcom am but a faint epistle. Yes, my spectifle feller-bredren, to use +a catephoricle flower ob de tropics, we have arriv' at a tite spot. We am +obfusticated, so to speak. [Assenting groans throughout the assembly.] Den +de riddle for us to read dis ebenin', in de light ob dese distressin' +surkumstances, is: What ar' to be did? In addressin' de collectiv' wisdum +of dis orguss resemblage, I axes, is we to go fowards? Is we to wait till +de nex' ebenin' or de nex' year? Is we to fold our hans behind our bax, +and hole our bref suspinely until de Klu-Krux animile has squatted hisself +squar' down on our liberties? Is we, I ax, to bump down in de middle ob +dat rode whar' de Klu-Krux Juggernox goes tootin' majestercally along over +de dethroned carcasses ob de black man, and whar you may holler peace! +peace! but you can't be heard; and you wouldn't be notissed if you was. + +But, Mr. Cheermon, before perceedin' fudder wid de docturnal pints of dis +discusshun, I shall have sumfin to say in respex to Klu-Krux-Klam from a +scienticular pint of obserwashun. How is dis, I ax? Whar is de gettin' out +place, de tail, so to speak, of dis conundrum? [A pause, during which +several members are observed to scratch their heads meditatively.] Dar am +a proverb which says, "Ketch a Klu-Krux before you puts him to _def_," or +words to dat effec. Dat feature of de bizness I disposes to ten' to in +pusson, Mr. Cheermon, and if I can git de contention of de brilyunt +dissembly what sits in judgment upon dis and oder topics dis ebenin', I +will open de merits of dis opinyun to de verymost chile in understandin'. +Sposen dat we takes dese wurds, "Klu Krux Klam," as dey 'peers in de +original Greek, and transplants dem into de original Inglish. Take de word +Klu, dat wurd about which dare has been so much unsiantickle sputin, and +what is dare in it? Is dare an individooal under de soun' of my voice who +duzzent know de orfograthy of a wurd of three monysimples? Is dare, I +axes, in dis orguss body, a pusson who is sich a babe in understandin' dat +he duzzent know dat b-a-k-e-r spells baccer? Den I say to my spectifle +feller-sitterzens, dat if you will take de wurd Klu, and hang its ole +fashyun'd Inglish close on it, dat it will spell "clew," and if dat is so, +what fudder clew could you have to dis whole subjec'? [A member here rose +to a point of order, objecting to the "orfograthy" of the Hon. Bones' +premise, and claiming that the word under discussion was not "klu," but +"ku." There is no telling what this might have resulted in, if the +individual had been provided with documentary proof of his statement; but +as he was not, he was compelled to retire amid the jeers of the audience +and the loud taunts of the speaker, who elevated himself on a bench in +order that his rhetoric in this instance might have its full effect.] Den, +my feller-sitterzens, if de wurd "klu" means what it says it duz, de wurd +"krux" means krux, and de wurd "klam" means klam--dat is to say, if the +wurd klu means _clew_, neither of dese wurds means nuffin'. Dat pint is +suffishuntly clur to a man up a tree, and no doubt is understood by de +gemmen who spells "klu" widout a l. + +But, cummin' back to de merits of de discushun, I disposes now, Mr. +Cheermon, to angeline de word klu, which, as I has before tuk occashun to +say, is de clew to dis whole mystery. Let us taik de consummant k, which +is de indecks letter, and pints to what follers. Duz dis letter have any +siggerfication apart from its connectin' links in dis wurd, or duz it hav +such a siggerfication? I beleevs dat de intellumgence of every pusson in +dis orgunce, if I may except one individooal, will bar me out dat it duz. +Dat pint bein' settled in a excloosive way, which, I may sugges', is much +de smallest part of de wurk, we must now perceed to find de siggerfication +aforesed, and de logickle delusions upon which it rests. What, may I ax, +duz de letter k stan' fur? Duz it stan' for cow? Is dare a pusson in dis +orgunce, who will lif' his head and dissert that k stans for cow? Wall, if +it duzzent stan' for cow, is it a far prejux for crow? Would a cup set on +its flatness, Mr. Cheermon, with rich a handle as k to it? Will the gemmen +who spells klu widout a l, pertend to spell cat widout a c? I persoom not. +Wall, then, my feller-sitterzens, if k duzzent stan' for cow; if it is too +crooked for cup; if it wooldn't spell crow widout bein' turned wrong side +foremos'; if it duzzent suit the gemmen's noshuns of cat; an' is too +crooked and not crooked enough for "crooked," den what, may I ax, duz dis +unekest of alfybetic frenonymongs outline wid de adumkate purpyscruity. If +it am eber used as de forefix fur knife, knot, knob, knock-under, and sich +like, it ar' bekase its crookedness let it out'n de rite paf, and not +'kase it felt called on in de way of tendin' to its own bizness. + +But no diffunce if it do fail in oder respex, my feller-sitterzens, it +won't do to say dat dis consummant k am a failure, and ostrumsize it from +de langwidge. I am not one ob dose dat am committed to de beleef dat it am +a bow-legged nonjuscrip, a onaccountable freak of de English alfybet, an' +good for nuffin but to lean up agin more spectifle consummants, and thow +de lines out'n shape. + +An' if dat be de sollum trufe, I pauses once more to ax whar is de stitch +in de temple of langwidge dat dis alfumbettycle beformity was made to +order to fit into, so to speak. What ar' its mishun in de worl', and how +is we to arrive at dat pint. In diggin' about de roots of dis boss +conundrum, Mr. Cheermon, we wants to have nuffin to do wid scientifficle +reductions, nor logickle abscraptions, as we understans de metumsquizzicle +bearin' ob dose terms; but, on de oder han', if the court am exquainted +wid her own diktum, and she think she do, we feels bemooved to argify +strate to de pint in hand. Now, in respex to de consummant beforesed, I +taiks de hi groun' dat if dere is any offis dat it can fill better than +any oder consummant, dat, dat am its mishun. Or to miscomterpret my +persac meanin' wid more purpyscruity, if dare is enny spot in de presinks +of de langwidge dat can't navumgate widout it, and dat it can't navumgate +widout, dat, _dat_ am de shoo fur it to war. Havin' adjostled dat pint to +de weakes' understandin', we nex' inquire if dere is enny wurd in de +dickshummary dat can't be spelt into a syllumble widout de ade of dis +consummant. I taix it upon miself to say, Mr. Cheermon, dat dere is such a +word, and widout enny furder surcumloscrution, or bein' too pertickler +about de orrytorrycal effec of mere metumsquorricle figgurs of speech, I +will perceed to denounce it in your heerin'. (Sotto voce.) Kill. (A pause, +followed by a lumbering sound and the disappearance of two woolly crowns.) + +I trus', Mr. Cheermon, dat dis am considered no interbumption, an' if enny +oder brudder should feel discomposed to roll off de bench jurin de fudder +discontinuance of dese remarks, it won't be tuk as no mark of misrespex to +the gemmen who has de floor. But, to rejerk to de subjec' in ban'. De bes' +excepted, and de only excepted, siggerfication of de consummant k, am de +mistickle wurd just denounced in your hearin', and I shall ax you to +squeeze dat pint, while I maix a rapid sarch over dickshummary groun' for +de indecks belongins of de rejineder part of dis word klu, dat is, de +consummant l, and de avowal u. In respex to de consummant l, I would wish +to say in de fust place, fustly, dat the mixtur' of learned doubts +enterin' into its conjugation am not near so obfusticatin' as de las' +beforesed, an' dat havin' obtaned de persac fractional squantum of de +befogoin, we can, as it wur, look fowards to subsumquent revolutions of de +topic. Darfore, widout enterin' into de rejux system of argyfyin fudder +dan to appli de rools dat was foun' to wurk so hamboniously in respex to +de las' named, we arrives at de delusion dat de mos' acceptumble +renderation of de consummant l is to be foun' in de mistickle terms lick, +licks, and "lick 'em," or de las' beforesed in purtickler, or all three in +purpentickler. Now, if enny brudder whose sperience and obserwashun am +purtickler sensitiv on dis pint, feels cauled upon to say dat de most +pinted complication of dis consummant is to be foun' in de word "lam," or +dat it was made to order for de word "lash," or was put into de alfumbet +wid special reffermence to de wurd "larrup," or was made out'n whole clof +as a prehitch for "lambaste," I will 'low him dat privumlege, and widout +been outdone in dishonorableness, will give him de floor when I discludes. + +In pointrefax, Mr. Cheermon, when we looks at all de crosses and dotses of +dis argyment, when we sees all its pros and cros, de delusion am forced +upon us, _roles bolus_ (nolens volens), so to speak, and in de langwidge +of one of our country's most illustrious poicks, "Dat do settle it." + +Havin' foun' den, my feller-sitterzens, by jiggernometrical injuction, de +persac valyer of de quantitums k and l in de trombonial k-l-u, we will +now perceed to exburden our conshusness of sum thoughts havin' reffermence +to de avowal u. If dat which needs no splainin' may be made de subjec' of +splainatory logic, widout on de oder han' rejucin' de speaker to de +distressin' condishun of hyperbolus, I shall, in a brefe space of time, +more or less, egshibit to dis orgunce de close anallumgy dat exists +betwixt de avowal u, and de pussonal pronoun "you." I takes it for +granted, Mr. Cheermon, dat every individooal dat has a place in dis orguss +resemblage, am fermilliar, either by "hearsay" or "theysay," wid dat +principul of de Common Law dat purvides dat whar wurds are to be +miscomterpreted, dat de meanin' is to be fastened onto um what am neares' +at han', and dat if dey am already purvided wid a resonably far +siggerfication, dat it shall be onlawful to prowl off in sarch of one what +soots yer better. Dat pint bein' settled, I will not do enny gemmen in dis +orgunce de misrespex to persoom dat if a Klu-Krux wur to pint a six-bar'l +blunderbuss under his oil-factory of smell, and say "you," as loud and +suddint as a clap of armytillery, dat he would disclude dat he meant sum +odder feller, and fail to locomoshy in de odder direction. Takin' den, my +feller-sitterzens, de consummants k and l in de trombonial (trinomial) +k-l-u, and it will be seen dat dey have close refermence to de avowal u, +and _visum versum_, and dat in dese three alfumbettycle cosines, and de +mistickle siggerfication detached to each, ar' de whole substanshuation +of de mystiffercation of de Klu-Krux-Klam. + +Den, Mr. Cheermon and feller-sitterzens, if dese be de mos' obdurous +intenshuns of dose ruffumlians, duz it not, let me ax, bemoove this loil +body to take immejit steps to surcumvalidate, deturrimerate, +homswogglemerate, and murder-r-r-- [This expression stuck in the speaker's +throat, for, being attracted from the up-stairs of his eloquence by what +he at first mistook for an outburst of enthusiasm on the part of his +hearers, but was afterwards induced to believe proceeded from some more +serious cause, he looked around him upon great waves of panic that lashed +the building from side to side--at first converting all obstacles into a +causeway for their terror, but at length flowing into currents that beat +strongest where the drifts of wrecked and storm-tossed furniture formed +artificial banks. Having the organ of comparison well developed among the +other faculties, the brain of the statesman took in the situation at once; +for, observing with what success doors and windows were swept from their +moorings at the heads of the retreating columns, he saw the twenty or more +ghostly embodiments that occupied his rear in imagination only, and, +hesitating for one instant, he joined the assault on the "imminent +breach," ballasting his flight with cries that bore a marvellous +resemblance to the changes of which the last word of the "befogoin" is +susceptible. Reaching a neighboring window at the end of two vigorous +jumps, he passed out into the night--a distance of "eighteen foot in the +clur," as he afterwards testified--and regaining his feet and the top of +his bent simultaneously, "the startled ear of outer darkness" heard +something like the report "murder," at brief intervals of time +accommodated to long intervals of space, for about the period employed by +an Erie express train in exhausting a winter horizon.] + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +EFFECTS PRODUCED. A PERIOD OF ALARM. + + Excitement throughout the State--Scenes at the Capitol--Metropolitan + Arrests resisted--Secret Police--Government Officials Notified of the + Extent of the Disaster--A Quorum of the Legislative or Judicial + Bodies not Attainable--No Departures from the City--The K. K. K. + Cabal Receiving that Attention from Caucusing Legislators which its + Importance Demanded--What the State Judiciary Demanded--A Mob at the + State-House--At Sunset the Situation Unchanged--A Sortie from the + Capitol--Mobs along the Route--Seeking Refuge from the Excited + Populace--Out of Danger--The New Situation--Governor Brownlow + Escaping from the Temporary Fortress by an Alley-way--An Ugly + Specimen of the Genus Ku-Klux--The Governor Recovers from the + Attitude of a Suppliant--An Amusing Episode--"But how many suns, O + Man, would look upon the Deed Unavenged?"--A Canard which Grew out of + this Affair. + + +On the day following the grand _coup de main_ of the Klan to which we have +directed attention in the previous chapters, and which, in bringing +depression to League affairs, sent the former's mercury to a feverish +height, great excitement prevailed throughout the State; and at the +business centres, and more especially the capital, something like a +popular demonstration greeted the arrival of news from provincial +quarters. The wires had been buzzing with intelligence of the disaster +since early dawn, and yet the news and telegraph offices found it +impossible to throw off the steaming bulletins giving additional +particulars, or summing up the history of the exploit in localities +already heard from, with sufficient speed to meet the cravings of the +multitude. The streets of the capital were filled with passengers, who, +with white faces and lips compressed, seemed as firmly intent on reaching +some point of general rendezvous as it was indubitably certain that they +had nothing definite in view, but were tossed to and fro by a burning +thirst for news that must and would not be satisfied. Occasionally, as the +crowd kept this frantic pace, individuals would suffer themselves +buttonholed, and made the subjects of lengthy confidences, but rarely, as +one man's property in the commodity of the hour was something which all +might share at the bulletin-board; and so all day long the human tides +ebbed and flowed along the news-channels, never manifesting impatience, +but ever quickening their speed to keep pace with the now fairly excited +messengers. Merchants and shop-keepers stood in their doors wearing +prurient countenances, and anon, sending would-be purchasers away with +curt replies; for since the sun rose on that eventful morn, had not +traffic grown out of fashion? Women and children kept within doors without +commands to that effect, for there was something in the very air of the +crowds without that not only did not invite confidence, but positively +frowned upon all advances thereto. The Metropolitan guards, who had +special instructions, and whose force had been doubled since morning, +moved along their beats wearing grave countenances, and occasionally +scanning the faces of the crowd with furtive stare, as if in search of +some secret which they half suspected lay hidden there. Once they ventured +upon an arrest, being guided by their suspicions only, as was evident from +their embarrassed movements; but though they employed a strong guard, and +sought out the most thinly peopled avenues in making away with their +prisoner, they had not proceeded above two blocks before they were set +upon by the crowd, and compelled not only to relinquish their charge, but +to seek safety in flight. It was even whispered that there was a secret +police force abroad, deriving its authority from the opposition element in +politics; but this was industriously denied in quarters where the facts +should have been known, and after it became a rumor, every effort was made +to quell suspicion. But, however that may have been, after the +unsuccessful feint to which we have called attention, no further effort +was made to interfere with the calm-faced crowds which, looking neither to +the right nor left, persevered in that unvarying procession which led them +to and from the news centres. A K. K. K. placard, which had been posted at +a popular street corner during the previous night, and which, for +contrasted reasons, had been given a wide berth by the rival factions, +became, as the evening wore along, the one subject which seemed to +possess sufficient interest to attract the regards of passers-by, and it +is probable that its importance (like some sentient wonders that we wot +of) was derived from the circumstance of its connection with weightier +subjects. + +It was probably past the hour of noon before the extent of the Ku-Klux +raid was certainly known to the State authorities, and to say that the +intelligence cast a palpable gloom over the various departments of +government, would hardly particularize the situation with that +definiteness which the curiosity of the reader may demand. After the noon +recess it was found impossible to assemble a quorum of either the +legislative or judicial functionaries, and when visitors sought +individuals belonging to these branches, with a view to conference on +private topics, they were, oftener than not, sent away with the +intelligence that they had left the city. But this was scarcely true in +any case, for not only was there no hegira of State officers from the +scene of their labors on this day, but out-bound trains flew along the +landscapes with hardly any reasonable ballast in the way of passengers. +The secret of the whole business, as revealed soon after, showed that some +very extensive caucusing was being done, and that the K. K. K. cabal, for +the first time in its history, was receiving that attention from the +government authorities which its importance demanded. It is not known with +certainty what was resolved upon at these meetings, but it may be guessed, +with tolerable assurance, that those bold measures soon afterwards +instituted in the House (though enterprised too late for any practical +use) received their inspiration from this excited period. And it was soon +after published as an item of news, that the judiciary demanded of their +law-making colleagues some immediate legislation that would enable them to +grapple with the new problem in jurisprudence which the movement +presented. + +About the middle of the afternoon there was a popular demonstration in the +neighborhood of the capitol, the crowds lounging in that direction in an +objectless kind of way, but when, finding themselves under the shadow of +the great building, developing a sudden enthusiasm for something, or some +individual, they scarce knew what. For more than an hour they besieged the +State functionaries with loud huzzahs, and only when they saw that the +demonstration had been misunderstood, or that they would be given the cold +shoulder, in any event, did they relinquish the purpose of hearing some +report from their law-givers, and being heard in return. But when the +countermarch movement began, very little time was consumed by the crowd in +transporting itself out of sight and hearing--individuals, and especially +those who had been conspicuous in the movement, walking hurriedly, and +with their heads down, as if to conceal an expression of chagrin that +lurked in their countenances. + +At sunset the situation was unchanged, the main streets emptying +themselves of their human currents, in obedience to some suburban +attraction at intervals, only to be filled next hour with the chaffering +multitudes, who resumed their fatuous pursuit of the unknown quantity in +the news-problem with the same heat that it had been undertaken in the +early portion of the day. It was at this precise hour that the Governor +was observed to leave the State-house, accompanied by two gentlemen of his +staff, and walk hurriedly along Cedar Street, in the direction of the +public square. The crowds seemed determined to place their own +interpretation on this movement, and having assembled in large force at +the point where College street intersects that along which the party were +passing, loud hootings were indulged in, and in forcing a passage through +the crowd, the obnoxious individuals subjected to rougher jostling than +was thought to be required by the emergency. Turning to reply to some +taunt volunteered from the crowd, one of the gentlemen lost his hat by a +blow from behind, and was deprived of the gratification which he might +otherwise have received upon relieving himself of a few sentences of +eloquent invective, by a storm of derisive cheers, which drowned every +other sound. At the next crossing the demonstration was equally as large, +if not so aggressive, and when the official trio reached a neighboring +building, and immured themselves within its walls, they doubtless looked +back upon the reminiscence with feelings of relief. But from after +developments, it may be inferred that they had no sooner felt themselves +exempt from the perils which had lately beset them, than they entered upon +a conference to devise ways and means of escape from their temporary +fortress (for such the building in which they had taken refuge proved to +be). This would not have been difficult of accomplishment, in any event, +and the tactics resolved upon by the besieged rendered it comparatively +easy of attainment. + +In less than ten minutes the throngs, who had assembled with no more +serious object in view than to gratify an idle curiosity, and express +their unfriendliness to their taskmasters by the methods usually adopted, +had been taken up by the absorbent elements of the crowd flowing newsward, +and were no more. If the Governor's party had expected resistance of this +character, they were to be deceived, for by the time the lamps were +lighted, almost a calm pervaded that quarter; and when, a few moments +later, the first of the party (who proved to be Governor Brownlow) left +the building by a postern-gate in the rear, he was seen by none but the +spies who had been set to watch. Hurrying along an alleyway, the honorable +refugee had crossed two squares ere he emerged upon the broad street which +led across an unfrequented portion of the city, to the vicinity of the +mansion which he occupied. Halting here to reconnoitre and indulge a +moment of quiet reflection, after the exciting events through which he had +passed, he was suddenly encountered by a form of the peril from which he +was seeking to escape that had more than once been suggested to his fancy, +but which now presented itself in such palpable outline, and with an +attitude so positively menacing, that his courage forsook him for the +moment, and he recovered from the manner of a suppliant just in time to +save himself from a very humiliating scene. The _thing_ in question was an +ugly and even frightful embodiment of the genus Ku-Klux, which, having +been successful in its contemplated surprise, was very naturally disposed +to dictate terms to its victim. As no violence was intended, it had time, +however, for but a few tragic sentences, adopted from a repertory prepared +for the occasion, before the frightened official had recovered his wits +and his Greek. + +Raising himself to his full stature, the Governor denied the assumed +ghostliness of his interlocutor in these precise words: "Do you not know, +fiend, that I possess the authority to have you shot or hung, and that I +am strongly persuaded to exercise it?" + +To which the "fiend" retorted in the following laconism "But how many +suns, O man! would look upon the deed unavenged?" and realizing that they +were quits, the parties to this amusing by-comedy went their respective +ways. + +The report of this transaction reaching the public ear via the +sensation-mongers, a few hours later, it was taken up in its amended form +and bandied about the coffee houses and street-corner gatherings until it +finally lost all proportions, and at nine o'clock, precisely, was guilty +of sending an old gentleman to bed, on the outskirts of the city, under +the conviction that Governor Brownlow had been murdered by the Ku-Klux. + +But though for twenty hours her streets had flowed with lava tides of that +wild element of which mobs are made, and whatsoever was leonine in her +temperament had been appealed to by rumors of war, that rode past on every +breeze, somewhere in the "wee sma' hours ayont the twal," the last star +had paled in the news' firmament without witnessing anything more tragical +than may be found among the occurrences related in this chapter, and the +tired city slept. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +KU-KLUX HORRORS IN TENNESSEE. + + The Klan Outlawed--A Price set upon the Heads of its Membership--A + Rash Act of one of its Dens--Strong Provocations--Negro + Insurrectionists Placed in the Jail at Trenton--Prisoners Wrested + from the County Authorities by Two Hundred Men Disguised as + Ku-Klux--Subsequent Massacre--Detectives in Pursuit--Members of the + Order Indicted--Efforts to Convict the Accused--Failure of + Prosecution--Affair in Obion--Why these Horrors are Classed as Twin + Editions--Description of Madrid Bend--K. K. K. Transactions in this + Remote Quarter--Planters' Jealousy--Message from Mr. J. to the + Leaders of the Party--Cool Treatment it Received--The K.'s Declare + their Intention of Punishing one of the Laborers on J.'s Farm--His + Defiance--Arming the Blacks--A Fierce Skirmish--J.'s Flight--Massacre + of Fleeing Blacks--Eight Colored Men taken from the County Jail at + Troy--Their Fate a Mystery. + + +In Tennessee, where the Klan took the form of a political party, which +bitterly antagonized the Brownlow administration in every issue of +government, the principles which it supported (despite the bad qualities +inherent in its organization) gave it a success altogether unproportioned +to the means employed. Notwithstanding it was outlawed by act of the +Legislature, and a price set upon the heads of its membership, it +continued to flourish long after Brownlowism had ceased to be an element +in the politics of the State. But, after a comparatively uneventful +history during the years which intervened, in the summer of 1874 a rash +act of one of its Dens, located in Gibson county, in the western portion +of the State, operated such a loss of influence to the body throughout the +State, that it at once became ineffective; and here, in the autumn of this +year, the latest remnant of the organization on Southern soil fell into +disintegration, and ceased to exist. + +A brief history of this transaction may prove not uninteresting to the +reader, as it was one of the most daring and venal of all the acts of +these regulators, and influenced national affairs as has no other local +event within the present century. In a remote settlement in the eastern +portion of this county, a party of negroes had organized themselves into a +military company, which not only conducted night drills and made +occasional raids into the surrounding settlements, but threatened that at +no distant day they would devastate the neighboring country, and prove the +heralds of an insurrection that would give the Southern country into the +hands of their race. The whites in the immediate vicinity bore their +midnight levies with tolerable resignation, and would, doubtless, have +dismissed their taunts as meaningless, if these had not been supported by +acts which left no doubt as to the warlike quality of their designs. They +had proceeded so far as to procure arms and ammunition, and nominate a day +for the threatened outbreak before any interference was attempted, and +when this was finally resolved upon, it was effected quietly by arresting +some of the more prominent conspirators at their homes. These parties were +incarcerated in the county jail at Trenton, and though the feeling of +indignation ran high in every portion of the county, it is believed that a +resolution to drop the subject here, or submit to such meagre satisfaction +as it was in the power of the courts to render in such cases, was general. +Such peaceful and eminently wise counsels were not to prevail, however, +and on the night succeeding that upon which these prisoners had been +committed to the county authorities for safe keeping, a large body of men +(estimated at from two to three hundred), disguised as Ku-Klux, rode into +the town, and laying siege to the jail, soon effected their object of +taking from thence the alleged insurrectionists. In view of the formidable +force employed, no resistance was offered, and the prisoners, being tied +securely on horses, which had been provided for that purpose, were placed +at the head of the column and conducted six miles from Trenton in an +easterly direction. Here a parley was called, and some dispute arising as +to what disposition should be made of the prisoners, they were commanded +to make their escape, and at the same instant fired upon, the volley being +repeated twice. Of the company of ten who were commended to this terrible +fate, two were killed outright, two were badly wounded, and the remainder +(disappointing the wishes of their captors, it is thought), made good +their escape. The news of this event spread rapidly, and as it met with +almost universal condemnation, a vigorous pursuit was organized, and every +effort which a thoroughly aroused and indignant community would be likely +to employ, undertaken to discover and arrest the perpetrators. Knowing +that disaffection had existed among the raiders, and a large portion, if +not a majority of their number, had refused to participate in the +massacre, this clew was adopted by the authorities, and a detective force +employed, which it was thought could not fail of success. Several days +were consumed in the pursuit and investigation, and at the end of that +time it was announced that one of the party had become "State's witness," +and that a full expose of the affair would follow. + +The faith that was reposed in this story shows how unequal was the +estimate which the State authorities placed upon the resources and +influence of their secret enemy, and how illy adapted to the ends in view +was the machinery of prosecution employed by the courts in this and +similar causes. The party who had professed a willingness to betray his +associates in this affair could only be prevailed upon to embrace a very +small number in the accusations he made, and, at the subsequent trial, +completely failed to sustain the points of the indictment which had been +founded on his sworn admissions. + +The arrests were made, however, and after a long and tedious contest +between the State and Federal courts, regarding the subject of their +jurisdiction--which could not fail to prove advantageous to the +accused--the trial, or something which bore a resemblance thereto, was +proceeded with. Viewing the resources of the two parties to the +presentment, and the efforts put forth by each, it could not have been a +success on any terms, and, under the existing conditions, proved a +judicial farce of the first magnitude. The negroes who had made their +escape from the scene of the massacre, and who had held out promises that +they could identify their would-be lynchers, failed to meet the tests +which were imposed at the trial; and the State's witness, mainly relied +upon, either could not, or would not, criminate his associates beyond a +few general statements, that would not have justified even a partial +verdict. After a lengthy trial, pending which the State authorities put +forth their utmost exertions to establish the guilt of the accused, it was +announced that an _alibi_ had been proven in each case; and so ended the +Gibson county horror. + +In Obion, a county adjoining Gibson on the west, the details of even a +bloodier affair than that recounted above were given to the public a few +years earlier, but which, for some reason, never found its way into the +courts. We give the outlines in this place, because these horrors, in view +of the _locus in quo_, will always be classed as twin editions in future +histories of the Ku-Klux riots. + +In what is known as Madrid Bend, a peninsular territory formed by a curve +in the Mississippi River at its junction with Reelfoot Lake (which +occupies the rear of the district), are situated a number of large farms, +supporting hundreds of negro laborers, and here, as might have been +expected, that doctrine of cause and effect, inversely applied, to which +we have referred in a previous chapter, had its perfect work. On such soil +the K. K. K. vine could not fail to prosper; and accordingly, at an early +day, a Den was organized, which soon afterwards took upon itself the duty +of regulating the affairs of the little kingdom. Loyal League meetings +were broken up; carpet-baggers were requested to skip on brief notice; the +enfranchised masses were not permitted to vote too early, nor too often; +but, what is sincerely to be regretted by the honest historian, called +upon to chronicle these events, and the law-loving public at large, +matters did not stop here. The weird brotherhood went further still, in +enforcing their ideas of good government, and were wont, at those periods +of the "calm, still night" when the queen of its realm did not exercise +her beams too freely, to visit the neighboring farms, and, at the end of +the lash, administer lessons in morals, social polity, etc. The "man and +brother" was not permitted to offend in too palpable breaches of morals, +even on his own territory, and certain home duties were strictly enjoined +upon him. These _ex cathedra_ performances proceeded in fact to great +lengths, and naturally gave dissatisfaction to the controllers of the +farming interests in the Bend. + +One of these, whom we shall designate as Mr. J., a large proprietor, who +felt himself particularly outraged, in view of the fact that his farm had +been several times visited in this clandestine manner, finally protested, +and signified to those whom he regarded as the leaders of the movement his +perfect ability to control his own affairs. No reply was made at the time, +but not long after this one of the negro laborers on J.'s farm had the +misfortune to commit a misdemeanor amenable to severe punishment under the +K. K. K. code, and it soon after became apparent that the neighborhood Den +would adopt the usual plan in meting out justice to the offender. Upon +receiving this intelligence, J., seeing that his authority was not only +set at nought, but defied, became enraged, and notified the parties that +they must proceed at their peril, as he would arm the negroes on his +plantation, and lead them in an effort to resist the proposed attack. +Unawed by this proclamation, the Klan made its dispositions, and at about +twelve o'clock on the night designated, appeared on the scene. A fierce +skirmish ensued, as was to have been expected. The negroes had not only +been fully equipped, as their employer had threatened, but were stationed +behind barricades, with which their wooden houses were lined, and hence +fought to the best advantage. The attacking party, on the other hand, was +compelled to occupy open ground, and so far from being shielded by the +darkness, the relative situation of the parties adjudged that circumstance +favorable to the enemy. The combat was a brief one, and under the +conditions which they were forced to accept, could not have resulted +favorably to the besiegers. They finally withdrew, having had one man +killed and three wounded in this ill-advised affair. The negroes, on their +part, suffered no loss whatever. + +But the end was not yet, and while fortune favored the cause of the +resisting faction in the skirmish of which we have given brief +particulars, they must have realized, from their knowledge of their +surroundings, that the blood which had been shed would be required at +their hands. The scene, moreover, was remote from any garrisoned point +whence they might have received aid from government troops in the event +that the attack was renewed. + +The news of the affair, as was to have been expected, spread rapidly, and +as great excitement ensued, J., feeling the insecurity of his position, +fled by steamer to Memphis, at the same time counselling the negroes to +place themselves under the protection of the authorities. Troy, the seat +of justice of Obion, was distant from the scene of rencontre about twenty +miles, and thither, at an early hour of the day, the negroes, adopting +by-paths and unfrequented routes, turned their steps. But despite the +precautions against discovery which they adopted, their movements were +closely spied, and before they had proceeded many miles a large force of +their enemies was in pursuit. Riding at a break-neck speed, the pursuing +party gained on them rapidly, and as they kept out flankers, in order +that none of the party might be overran and thus suffered to escape, ten +of the refugees were overtaken and put to death ere the raiders were +warned that they were trespassing too far on neutral territory. + +Eight of the eighteen succeeded in reaching Troy, and at their request +were placed in jail, and a strong guard detailed for their protection. +Even these extraordinary precautions, however, proved unavailing, and on +the first night of their incarceration a large force of disguised men +invested the prison, and having intimidated the guard, carried them away +prisoners. Further than this, no report has ever been given of the affair, +but it may be guessed, with tolerable assurance, that they shared the fate +of their companions. + +This affair created a profound sensation throughout the entire country, +and to it, as much as any other single deed of the night-riders, are due +those prompt measures on the part of the general and State governments +which operated as such an emphatic check on their movements. Soon after +this the Congress of the United States passed a law virtually outlawing +the body; and later, in view of certain phases of the subject which best +adapted it to the special legislation of which they were capable, +relegated the question to the State governments, reserving only the right +to adjudicate such causes where States were indisposed to afford their +citizens adequate protection. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +KU-KLUX LAW. + + Any person, under color of law, etc., of any State, depriving another + of any rights, etc., secured by the Constitution of the United + States, made liable to the party injured, 7034--Penalty for + conspiring, by force, to put down the government of the United + States, etc., 7035--Conspirator's doing, etc., any act in furtherance + of the object of the conspiracy, and injuring another, liable to + damages therefor, 7035--What to be deemed a denial by any State to + any class of its people of their equal protection under the laws, + 7036--What unlawful combination to be deemed a rebellion against the + government of the United States (obsolete), 7037--Certain persons not + to be jurors in certain cases, 7038--Jurors to take oath; false + swearing, in taking this oath, to be perjury, 7038--Any person + knowing that certain wrongs are about to be done, and having power to + prevent, etc., neglects so to do, and any such wrong is done, is made + liable for all damages caused thereby, 7039. + + +_Act of the Congress of the United States. An Act to enforce the +provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United +States, and for other purposes._ + +ART. 7034. [1.] Any person, who, under color of any law, statute, +ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage of any State, shall subject, or +cause to be subjected, any person within the jurisdiction of the United +States, to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities, +secured by the Constitution of the United States, shall, any such law, +statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage of the State to the +contrary, notwithstanding, be liable to the party injured in any action at +law, suit in equity, or other proceeding for redress; such proceeding to +be prosecuted in the several district or circuit courts of the United +States, with, and subject to the same rights of appeal, review upon error, +and other remedies provided in like cases, in such courts under the +provisions of the Act of the 9th of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, +entitled "An Act to protect all persons in the United States in their +civil rights, and to furnish the means of their vindication," and the +other remedial laws of the United States which are, in their nature, +applicable in such cases. + +ART. 7035. [2.] (1.) If two or more persons within any State or Territory +of the United States, shall conspire together to overthrow, or to put +down, or to destroy by force the government of the United States, or to +levy war against the United States, or to oppose, by force, the authority +of the government of the United States, or by force, intimidation, or +threat, to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the +United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the +United States, contrary to the authority thereof, or by force, +intimidation, or threat, to prevent any person from accepting or holding +any office of trust, or place of confidence, under the United States, or +from discharging the duties thereof, or by force, intimidation, or +threat, to induce any officer of the United States to leave any State, +district, or place where his duties, as such officer might lawfully be +performed, or to injure him in his person or property on account of his +lawful discharge of the duties of his office, or to injure his person +while engaged in the lawful discharge of the duties of his office, or to +injure his property, so as to molest, interrupt, hinder, or impede him in +the discharge of his official duty, or by force, intimidation, or threat, +to deter any party or witness in any court of the United States from +attending such court, or from testifying in any matter pending in such +court, fully, freely, and truthfully, or to injure any such party or +witness, in his person or property, on account of his so having attended +or testified, or by force, intimidation, or threat to influence the +verdict, presentment, or indictment of any juror or grand juror, in any +court of the United States, or to injure such juror in his person or +property, on account of any verdict, presentment, or indictment, lawfully +assented to by him, or on account of his being or having been such juror, +or shall conspire together, or go in disguise upon the public highway, or +upon the premises of another for the purpose, either directly or +indirectly, of depriving any person or class of persons of the equal +protection of the laws, or of equal privileges or immunities under the +laws, or for the purpose of preventing or hindering the constituted +authorities of any State from giving or securing to all persons within +such State the equal protection of the laws, or shall conspire together +for the purpose of in any manner impeding, obstructing, hindering, or +defeating the due course of justice in any State or Territory, with intent +to deny to any citizen of the United States the due and equal protection +of the laws, or to injure any person in his person or property for +lawfully enforcing the right of any person or class of persons to the +equal protection of the laws, or by force, intimidation, or threat, to +prevent any citizen of the United States lawfully entitled to vote from +giving his support or advocacy, in a lawful manner, towards or in favor of +the election of any lawfully qualified person as an elector of president +or vice-president of the United States, or as a member of the congress of +the United States, or to injure any such person in his person or property, +on account of such support or advocacy: each, and every person so +offending, shall be deemed guilty of a high crime, and upon conviction +thereof, in any district or circuit court of the United States, or +district or supreme court of any Territory of the United States, having +jurisdiction of similar offences, shall be punished by a fine not less +than five hundred nor more than five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment, +with or without hard labor, as the court may determine, for a period not +less than six months, nor more than six years, as the court may determine, +or by both such fine and imprisonment, as the court shall determine. (2.) +And if any one or more persons engaged in any such conspiracy shall do, +or cause to be done, any act in furtherance of the object of such +conspiracy, whereby any person shall be injured in his person or property, +or deprived of having and exercising any right or privilege of a citizen +of the United States, the person so injured or deprived of such rights and +privileges may have and maintain an action for the recovery of damages, +occasioned by such injury or deprivation of rights and privileges against +any one or more of the persons engaged in such conspiracy, such action to +be prosecuted in the proper district or circuit of the United States, with +and subject to the same rights of appeal, review upon error, and other +remedies provided in like cases in such courts under the provisions of the +Act of April ninth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, entitled "An Act to +protect all persons in the United States in their civil rights, and to +furnish the means of their vindication." + +ART. 7036. [3.] In all cases where insurrection, domestic violence, +unlawful combinations or conspiracies in any State shall so obstruct or +hinder the execution of the laws thereof, and of the United States, so as +to deprive any portion or class of the people of such State of the rights, +privileges, immunities, or protection named in the Constitution and +secured by this act, and the constituted authorities of such State shall +either be unable to protect, or shall from any cause fail in or refuse +protection of the people in such rights, such facts shall be deemed a +denial by such State of equal protection of the laws of the United States, +to which they are entitled under the Constitution of the United States; +and in all such cases; or whenever any such insurrection, violence, +unlawful combination, or conspiracy shall oppose or obstruct the laws of +the United States, or the due execution thereof, or impede, or obstruct +the due course of justice under the same, it shall be lawful for the +President, and it shall be his duty, to take such measures, by the +employment of the militia or the land and naval forces of the United +States, or of either, or by other means, as he may deem necessary for the +suppression of such insurrection, domestic violence, or combinations; and +any person who shall be arrested under the provisions of this and the +preceding section, shall be delivered to the marshal of the proper +district, to be dealt with according to law. + +ART. 7037. [4.] Whenever in any State, or part of a State, the unlawful +combinations named in the preceding section of this act shall be organized +and armed, and so numerous and powerful as to be able by violence to +either overthrow or set at defiance the constituted authorities of such +State and of the United States, within such States, or when the +constituted authorities are in complicity with or shall connive at the +unlawful purposes of such powerful and armed combinations; and whenever, +by reason of either or all of the causes aforesaid, the conviction of such +offenders and the preservation of the public safety shall become in such +district impracticable, in every such case such combinations shall be +deemed a rebellion against the government of the United States, and during +the continuance of such rebellion, and within the limits of the district +which shall be so under the sway thereof, such limits to be prescribed by +proclamation, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States, +when in his judgment the public safety shall require it, to suspend the +privileges of the writ of _habeas corpus_, to the end that such rebellion +may be overthrown. _Provided_, That all the privileges of the second +section of an act entitled "An Act relating to _habeas corpus_, and +regulating judicial proceedings in certain cases," approved March third, +eighteen hundred and sixty-three, which relates to the discharge of +prisoners other than prisoners of war, and to the penalty for refusing to +obey the orders of the court, shall be in full force, so far as the same +are applicable to the provisions of this section. _Provided, further_, +That the President shall first have made proclamation, as now provided by +law, commanding such insurgents to disperse. _And provided, also_, That +the provisions of this section shall not be enforced after the end of the +next regular session of Congress. + +1872. The foregoing section was re-enacted in the Senate (1872) but it +failed in the House. Hence, by limitation, it became obsolete June 10th, +1872. Action was taken under it by President Grant in several counties in +South Carolina while the law was in force. + +ART. 7038. [5.] No person shall be a grand or petit juror in any court of +the United States upon any inquiry, hearing, or trial of any suit, +proceeding, or prosecution based upon or arising under the provisions of +this act who shall, in the judgment of the court, be in complicity with +any such combination or conspiracy; and every such juror shall, before +entering upon any such inquiry, hearing, or trial, take and subscribe an +oath in open court that he has never, directly or indirectly, counselled, +advised, or voluntarily aided any such combination or conspiracy; and each +and every person who shall take this oath, and shall therein swear +falsely, shall be guilty of perjury, and shall be subject to the laws and +penalties declared against that crime; and the first section of the +article entitled "An Act defining additional causes of challenge, and +prescribing an additional oath for grand and petit juries in the United +States' courts," approved June 17th, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, be, +and the same is hereby repealed. + +ART. 7039. [6.] Any person or persons having knowledge that any of the +wrongs conspired to be done and mentioned in the second section of this +act are about to be committed, and having power to prevent or aid in +preventing the same, shall neglect or refuse so to do, and such wrongful +act shall be committed, such person or persons shall be liable to the +person injured, or his legal representatives, for all damages caused by +any such wrongful act, which first-named person or persons by reasonable +diligence could have prevented; and such damages may be recovered in an +action on the case in the proper circuit court of the United States, and +any number of persons guilty of such wrongful neglect or refusal may be +joined as defendants in such action. _Provided_, That such action shall be +commenced within one year after such cause of action shall have occurred; +and if the death of any person shall be caused by any such wrongful act +and neglect, the legal representative of such deceased person shall have +such action therefor, and may recover not exceeding five thousand dollars' +damages therein, for the benefit of the widow of such deceased person, if +any there be, or if there be no widow, for the benefit of the next of kin +of such deceased person. + +ART. 7040. [7.] Nothing herein contained shall be construed to supersede +or repeal any former act or law, except so far as the same may be +repugnant thereto; and any offences heretofore committed against the tenor +of any former act shall be prosecuted; and any proceeding already +commenced for the prosecution thereof, shall be continued and completed, +the same as if this act had not been passed, except so far as the +provisions of this act may go to sustain and validate such proceedings. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE K. K. K. IN LOUISIANA. + + Adventists--How they Practised on the Parasitical Blacks--A Little + Power is a Dangerous Thing--The Political Situation in '67--Whites + Refraining from Participation in Election Campaigns--The State + Press--The Order of K. K. K. in Louisiana--When the Government + Officials were first Notified of its Presence--The Feeling in Grant + Parish, a Shire Division of the State created for Political + Purposes--Riot Growing out of a Personal Difficulty--Blacks + Entrenched in the Court-House at Colfax--Besieged by a Force of from + Three Hundred to Four Hundred Men--Parley--Negroes Refuse to + Surrender--A Second Defiance--Building Fired--Massacre and + Termination of the Bloody Affair--Statistics of Losses in the + Fight--Who were Responsible--The White League or Camelias--Occupied + the K. K. K. Basis in Externals--New Orleans Riots--Their Effect on + the Returning Boards--Coushatta--K. K. K. in Texas--Border History + Uneventful--Texas Legislature Interferes. + + +In the States of Louisiana and South Carolina the war between the K.'s and +Loyal League waged fiercest, and was longest protracted, for here the +fires of political proscription were earliest lighted, and the boundaries +of party maintained with the greatest fortitude. In the former State, a +party of men, who were known in certain quarters by the derisive title of +"Adventists," had assumed to control its affairs, not so much in the +interest of, as by the use of, as a means, the negro element of its +population. Practising upon the credulity of this unenlightened class, it +is not too much to say that they effected their object; and for a period +of more than seven years around these central suns of the political +firmament the parasitical blacks fluttered. Governors, congressmen, and +legislators were created from this material without any reference whatever +to the legal attainments or other qualifications of the aspirants, and +with a view only to such class legislation as could be made available to +the negro rings, and destructive to the people's interests in that +quarter. + +Placed in control of affairs, these men, having suffered under the +dispensation which the poet sought to describe in the words, "A little +learning is a dangerous thing, etc.," and suspecting, moreover, that his +meaning had not been fully brought out in that expressive stanza, +astonished even their followers with an example which said "a little power +is a dangerous thing." Legislating, mainly, with a view to continuance in +authority, and arbitrarily seizing the elective machinery of the State, +they had, independently of the League, under the existing conditions, an +unlimited lease of the State administration. Nor did they fail to realize +the advantages that came to them under the system of government which they +had adopted. Having found a precedent for the most pronounced +transgressions of a written law in the acts of their co-conspirators in +other States, and an excuse in the resistance which they inspired, they +proceeded to lengths of usurpation which those interested for the cause of +liberty on those shores viewed with surprise and dismay. The fullest use +was made of every prerogative, and in innumerable instances they were +subjected to that stretching process which has been commonly found so +destructive to the article. + +So rapid was the transition from the war period to that of political +anarchy, which followed in obedience to these conditions, that as early as +the year 1867 the State was hopelessly committed to an ignorant and +unprincipled minority, and in every portion thereof the white masses +refrained from even attending the polls, so well assured were they that +the fair majorities which they could score would be displaced by the most +barefaced fictions. The opposition or conservative press, on the other +hand, never ceased to perform its whole duty, representing to the people +the true condition of affairs at the capital, the constant abuses of the +legislative functions, the enormous treasury shortages, judicial +tyrannies, etc., etc.; though, as was indicated by their course +subsequently, to the more intelligent of those whom were addressed, this +seemed but a citation of evils that were remediless; and where plans of +relief were suggested, of remedies that were placed hopelessly beyond +their reach. Even in the city of New Orleans, where these exhortations +were most frequently heard, the municipal elections not unoften went by +default to the minority representatives; and multitudes (who have since +testified their devotion to the cause of right), attracted by the +patronage of the winning power, while refusing to give them aid, tendered +them congratulations. + +Others to whom these philippics came, and who in their country homes had +been subjected to the intolerable rigors of League politics, took the +appeals even more seriously than they were intended, and began that secret +warfare on the agents of oppression in their midst, which, however +effectual it may have proven in the end, must always be deprecated on the +ground of those inequalities of principle which it represented, and of +means it employed. + +The first secret political organization enterprised against the Radical +power in Louisiana was unquestionably that edition of the K. K. K. which +we have been treating, and which proved so effective in disestablishing +the various isms of the party in other sections; but it is no less certain +that, at no advanced stage of its existence on Louisiana soil, it +underwent a very positive metempsychosis, and became, thereafter, the +White League, or White Camelias as sometimes addressed representatively. +But no matter by what appellative known, nor under what constitutional +emendations proceeding, the idea was nowhere more aggressively employed in +the work of uprooting the Radical succession, and rendering Southern +hospitality, as applicable to its agents, a thing of unmitigated terror. +For a year or more after its organization had been completed, little was +done apparently, but during this time the League in all its departments +had been subjected to a rigid espionage, and the communications of the +former with the transactions of government at the capital, established by +the same means. + +A slight difficulty in one of the Northern parishes, growing out of an +election issue, was perhaps the first intimation conveyed to the Louisiana +State authorities that they were to encounter opposition of this +character. It, however, was local in its belongings, and though widely +published by the organs of the League at the North, was not deemed worthy +of attention by the State press. In Grant Parish, a new shire division of +the State, created with a view to political ends, the quarrel of the +factions assumed a serious shape at an early day, and here eventually +transpired one of the most fearful tragedies of this bloody epoch. A +remarkable feature of this affair was that it grew out of a purely +personal matter, if we may except the contrast of races involved. The +details of the private quarrel would of course be uninteresting, and the +bloody particulars which followed may be recited in a few words. + +An issue of races having been distinctly made, the two parties assembled +in force; the blacks, after some preliminary manoeuvring, entrenching +themselves in the court-house at Colfax, and bidding defiance to their +enemies. They were at once closely besieged by a force equalling, or +possibly barely exceeding, their own (three hundred to four hundred men), +and, after some parleying, an unconditional surrender demanded. This was +resisted on the expressed condition that the entrenched force, though in +the minority, were "able to defend themselves," and would do so at every +hazard. An irregular skirmish followed, pending which no advantage +resulted to the attacking party, and seeing which, the leaders of the +movement resolved on bolder measures: The blacks were again notified that +they must vacate their quarters, or submit to the torch, as the besiegers +were fully resolved upon dispossessing them of that stronghold. This they +seem to have regarded as a mere threat, impossible of execution, and +continued to throw out defiances and fire an occasional shot into the +enemy's ranks. The whites, on the other hand, unawed by their manner, and +fully decided to adopt this measure as a _dernier ressort_, sent forward +parties commissioned for the dangerous service. It is not known what +resistance, if any, was offered to this stratagem, but very soon the +building was in flames from pillar to turret, and the terrified blacks +rushing forth in mad haste, to encounter a fate scarcely less terrible +than that of being roasted in the flames. As they emerged from the burning +building, the attacking columns threw themselves on their flanks, and +poured volley after volley into their now fairly stampeded ranks. Scores +fell under the first deadly assault, and as they passed on in their flight +they were intercepted or overtaken by their infuriated pursuers, the +massacre continuing a full hour after the terrified rout had begun to +issue from the building. + +The statistics of the loss on either side in this engagement have never +been given with accuracy, and there is good reason to believe that many of +the approximations that have gone to the world have embodied intentional +errors. From those who were participating in the affair, and represented +the hostile factions in about equal proportion, we obtain the following +estimate of their respective losses: Blacks killed, ninety; wounded, +twenty-five. Whites killed, five; wounded, three. In the skirmish but few +of the whites wore masks, and this affair has generally been regarded the +fruit of a popular uprising, and not strictly chargeable to any secret +organization, or body of men banded together for political purposes. It +occurred, moreover, at a time when partisan feeling in that section had +reached a strong ebb, and men were incensed against each other as they +rarely become in the light of such incentives. That the Klan was +officially represented in the affair was generally conceded. + +It was about this time, or a little previously, that the famous White +League came into existence, occupying the K. K. K. basis as to politics, +and in all essentials of its organization formulated upon the same model. +This society assumed the duty of regulating the political affairs of the +State, and that it succeeded to some extent in purifying the constitutions +of the Returning Boards, those monster instrumentalities of fraud +belonging to the Radical elective system here, there can be no doubt. It +was, however, open to many objections, and on equitable grounds must have +been defeated by the same testimony that in some instances was made +available against the Klan. It was responsible for the New Orleans riots +of December 1874, in which hundreds of lives were sacrificed, and which +subjected the party which it assumed to represent to a manifest loss of +influence. The Kellogg, or Radical faction, however, received severe +punishment at their hands, and made many valuable concessions under the +election issues, from which the troubles grew; and it was in this affair, +likewise, that the Returning Boards, above mentioned, were made to feel +their power, and "by the same sign" induced to amend their ways. A bloody +affair at Coushatta, in the Red River country, followed in the succeeding +year; but as the transactions of this body are not strictly within the +purview of the present work, we refrain from a statement of the +particulars. + +The Klan, finding its services no longer available here, in obedience to +its nomadic instincts crossed the Texas border, and for a year or two +following [Davis, Radical, being at that time Governor], assisted in the +administration of Texas affairs. But while it proved a factor of no mean +consequence in almost every political measure which agitated the Border +mind, and numerous local raids were reported by the State journals, its +frontier history was made up of unimportant details, whose want of +adaptation to the plan of this volume must be our excuse for omitting +them. The following statute, referring to the subject, was enacted by the +Texas Legislature of contemporaneous date: + + _Unlawfully appearing in disguise as Ku-Klux, White Camelias, and + other Deviltry, punished._ + + ART. 6508. [1.] The penal code for the State of Texas shall be + amended as follows, by inserting after Act 363 the following: [363] + _a_ If the purpose of the unlawful assembly be to alarm and frighten + any person, or persons, by appearing in disguise, so that the real + persons so acting and assembling can not be readily known, and by + using language or gestures calculated to produce in such person or + persons the fear of bodily harm, all persons engaged therein shall be + punished by fine not less than one hundred, nor more than one + thousand dollars each; and if such unlawful assembly shall take place + at any time of the night--that is, between sunset and sunrise--the + fine shall be doubled; and if three or more persons are found + together disguised and armed with deadly weapons, the same shall be + _prima facie_ evidence of the guilty purpose of such persons, as + above described; and if any other unlawful assembly, mentioned in + this chapter, consist in whole or in part of persons disguised and + armed with deadly weapons, the fine to be assessed upon each person + so offending shall be double the penalty hereinbefore described. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +TALLY-HO! + + The Situation in Georgia--Bullock Usurpation--Some Things which may + be Explained--Negro Criminals--Taking Refuge in the Ocmulgee + Swamps--A Brutal Murder--Ku-Klux Ambushed--A Terrible Oath--Uncle + Jack B.--A Brief Memoir--"Nigger Dogs" in the "Goober State"--Uncle + Jack Interviewed by the Ku-Klux--What came of it--Getting Ready for + the Chase--A Pack of "Negro Dogs" described--In the Swamps--The + Opening Chorus--A Warm Trail--Swimming the + Ocmulgee--Disappointment--The Lull is Past--The Cheering Notes of the + Chase--Blood of the Martyrs! can it be?--A Last Effort--Another Crime + added to the Calendar--A fresh Start--Baffled Again--At Bay--Tragical + Scene. + + +As the K. K. K. influence was not felt in the politics of the south-west +after the events which we have narrated, and the scope of this work +forbids our entering into such details as comprised the Chicot county +affair in Arkansas, and the Vicksburg (Miss.) _emeute_, which was +unquestionably due in part to other influences, we yield to the +eccentricities of our theme, and find ourselves under the shadow of that +towering usurpation--the Bullock administration in Georgia. The +organization of the Klan in this State was perhaps more extensive and +efficient than elsewhere on Southern soil,--proving a complete offset to +the Loyal League in the important work of influencing party discipline, +and, after a time, effecting its other aim--of rendering it physically +_hors du combat_. We shall not pretend, however, to follow it through the +various stages of its development on Georgia soil, nor give what might be +deemed a correct history of its movements, as we are concerned rather with +the issues which grew out of the latter, and that which will prove far +more interesting to the reader--the _modus_ of its operations. + +A single feature of the campaign in this region we will endeavor to make +prominent, without a design of saddling its individuality on this State, +or insinuating that that branch of the pet institution vulgarly known as +"nigger dogs" was not as widely diffused as its popular derivative, and +far too fossilized in its structure to submit to any merely sentimental +changes in types of government. So far as that phase of the subject may +tend to obtrude difficulties upon the reader, the writer will volunteer +the information that he was recently placed by accident at a point where +his sensorium covered three large well-trained kennels of these brutes; +and that it has been his good fortune, on more occasions than one, since +liberty resumed its old-time inheritance in the "land we love," to follow +the panting "Ketch," where none dare go before, along the redolent trail +of the criminal--black or white. Nor is there anything more remarkable +about the circumstance that the body of men known as Ku-Klux should, upon +certain contingencies, avail themselves of the services of this sagacious +brute, than that the same men, by accident or otherwise, should be +employed on a righteous mission like the following: + +In the year 1862, in that portion of Telfair county where the _Elk_ river +has its confluence with the Ocmulgee, a larger stream, a negro slave of +Mr. ---- committed a brutal rape on one of his master's household, and +fled to the neighboring wilderness. He was not pursued at the time, as, in +view of the recent conscript levies and the unsettled state of the +country, there were no available means at hand; and, aided by individuals +of his own color, whose race prejudices at this time had reached a state +of savage excitement, he found safe harborage and a precarious livelihood +in the river-swamps during the entire period of the war. Pending his +exile, and soon after it began, he was joined by an only brother, a +brother-criminal likewise, who had been forced to fly the settlements; +and, having formed an alliance--_sun_ and _ek_--the predatory excursions +of this twain became thereafter the special terror of dwellers in that +exposed region. Nothing, however, particularly worthy of mention marked +their exploits until the year following the close of hostilities, when +they emerged from their fastnesses, and having made their way to a +neighboring settlement, occupied by an old gentleman and an only son, a +youth of twelve years, put them both to death with every circumstance of +horrible detail. This affair occurred in the latter part of the year +1865, and, as was to have been expected, created a wide-spread sensation. + +Within a few hours after the deed had been committed, a well-equipped +party of horsemen started in pursuit, and for more than a week conducted a +thorough campaign through that division of the Ocmulgee swamps that was +supposed to have furnished a retreat to the murderers. They did not +succeed, however, further than to obtain a view of the refugees, and +salute them with a volley at long range; and seeing that their efforts +would prove fruitless, returned to their homes. Here the matter rested +until the following spring, when a party of Ku-Klux, raiding in that +vicinity, were fired upon from the brush, and one of their number killed, +by two men who were positively recognized as the swamp-ruffians. Having +buried their dead companion, in obedience to the strange ceremonies in +vogue with them, the members of the Klan assembled around his grave, and +recorded an oath "never to relent from their purpose of revenge, nor cease +the pursuit of his murderers, while the Ocmulgee contained water, and the +region fertilized by it and its tributaries supported an inch of +unexplored territory." + +Not far from the scene of the last occurrence lived Uncle Jack B----, a +character in the neighborhood prior to Sherman's raid and reconstruction, +but who, since those events, in view of a somewhat disproportioned record, +had been singing exceedingly small. In _ante bellum_ times, this old +gentleman had been looked up to, by both whites and blacks of his +vicinity, as in some sense the reigning monarch of the locality, and one +between whose smiles and frowns lay considerations that might engage the +attention of much weightier personages than any whom the countryside +supported. In brief, Uncle Jack had been the proud proprietor of the +largest and best known pack of "nigger dogs" in the "Goober State," with +all that that implied in the language of the reconstructionists; and if he +did not still possess that distinction, it was altogether attributable to +the circumstance that the office which it involved had ceased to be a +sinecure, and the property in question was no longer quoted among +commercial values. But though the old man and his beasts bowed their heads +under the in _terrorem_ of the new order of things, they well knew that +this _dies irae_ could not last always, and were, moreover, fully persuaded +of the truth of the old proverb which insures to every well-behaved canine +a "dish" in passing events. That they were not sophists in this matter +will be sufficiently demonstrated by the remaining events of this chapter. + +At precisely twelve o'clock on the night succeeding that which witnessed +the tragical event last narrated above, Uncle Jack held a long conference, +at the outer gate of his premises, with three mounted men, and shortly +thereafter might have been observed to visit his stable and dog-kennel, +lingering for some time in the vicinity of each. A half-hour or more was +consumed by the details of a preparation from which it was plain to be +seen some mystery was in course of evolution, and the old man, mounted on +his now full-rigged hunter, and swept forward in a tempest of dolorous +howlings, turned an angle of the close, and joined his weird visitors. + +It will hardly be necessary to inform the reader that these men were K. K. +K. emissaries, who had been dispatched to secure the hunter and his dogs +to aid them in the difficult enterprise which they had undertaken; and +looking from one to the other of the new levies, he would have no +hesitancy in making up his mind that "Barkis was willin'," and the "yaller +beauties," as he was wont to term them, "spilin'" for nigger meat. These +latter were composed of a dozen brace of the best Florida breed of the +hybrid blood- and sleuth-hound, fat and frolicsome, wearing sleek coats of +yellow, and as to size, if put to the test, the runtiest of the runts +would have kicked the beam at fifty pounds. Leashed in couples, they made +rapid circuits around the now galloping horsemen, filling the night with +the music of their weird chorus, and falling to an indiscriminate and +discordant baying whenever hog or cow or other animate thing, startled +from their covert, stood still to guess at the intrusion. Three miles from +the point of starting, the main company was reached, and soon afterwards, +passing into the edge of the bottom, the dogs were released from their +slips, and at a word from the hunter, and directing a premonitory sniff at +their surroundings, sped into the darkness. For an hour or more the +hunters pressed their way through the pitchy swamps, now following a +scarcely distinguishable stock trail, now lightened upon by a gleam of +starlight from above, and not unfrequently committed for guidance to the +instincts of the animals they bestrode, without other report from the +excited yelpers than was too timidly given to be accounted much worth, or +called forth the response from some guttural cavity of the forest, "a +lie." Reaching the banks of the river, at a point five miles below the +swamp line at which their road had intersected the bottom, a halt was +called, and the company sat peering into the darkness, for the first time +doubtful of their enterprise, when lo! within ten feet of the rearmost +file a welcome sound broke the stillness--at first low and doubtful, but +gaining in volume and flowing into blended notes--one--two--three--and +then a stunning, Wagnerian chorus, that lifted every horseman from his +stirrups, and sent the wood echoes rolling in sonorous waves along the +breast of the forest. A loud hurrah from the hunters attested their equal +joy, and hue and cry being joined, the panic of pursuit began. Straight up +the river bank the roaring pack held on their course, not once veering to +the right nor left, nor never slackening speed, and timid horsemen, that +erst had shivered if their steeds but stumbled in the darkness, now rode +abreast of the panting "leader," swelling the volume of sound with their +loud halloos, and leaping branch and inlet sound with the agility of the +frightened deer that sped before. Even the "Ketch," usually sedate and +disallowing confidences, had been momentarily thawed by the all-pervading +enthusiasm, and joining the pack just where the fun grew furious, howled a +dismal accompaniment to the cheering notes of the chase. On, on, into the +darkness beyond, sped the tempest of pursuit--now wedged into narrow +passes and involved in a hundred confused knots, now unravelling on the +open plains beyond and flowing on in currents bold and free as those that +kissed the shore beneath them, now leaping brake and fell, now skirting +hazardous banks, now hugging obtrusive shores, and hark! at a sharp signal +from the "leader" all sounds are hushed,--followed by a plunging boom, +and, churned into a thousand eddies, the bold Ocmulgee supports the rout +of panting men and beasts, who have no sooner recovered from the chilling +baptism than each bends forward in a mad struggle to reach first the +yonder shore and herald this clamorous invasion to its phantoms of +darkness. But so close on the heels of the dripping "leader" pressed the +frantic crew--who owed him fealty come life or death--that his opening +chorus was echoed by a hundred lesser sounds that were not echoes, and +with a mighty effort the panting "Ketch," leaping sheer from the waves to +the upper bank, was not too late with his base variation. And now the wild +pursuit is begun anew, for the tardiest horseman is spurring into the +depth of the forest beyond, and skurrying out of sight and hearing if that +were possible--the wailing wood notes have a story to whisper to the +deserted shore. + +But "the best laid plans of mice and men aft gang aglee," and not above a +half mile from their watery exodus the puzzled yelpers vary their chorus +and slacken speed, and, warned by a ringing blast on the huntsman's horn, +the whole company of baffled pursuers double on their track, and by twos, +and threes, and then in larger squads, rejoin their river base. Here the +huntsmen consult together, and the pack renew their frenzy, frisking along +the river shore, scouring the woods, and soon afterwards, indicating by a +yelping chorus far down the stream that the stratagem of the refugees led +them that way. The impatient horsemen soon gallop at their heels, and +after one or two dissentient howls from the aged skeptics of the pack, +they one and all run full upon the warm scent, with a clamor that causes +the woods to "ring again," and sends the vital current tingling along the +veins of the coldest-blooded horseman. And now the lull is past, and the +thunder of pursuit once more greets the forest echoes. Away, away, +distancing the swamp tracts and riding into the region of the morning, for +its first beams, striking through the tree-boughs, sprinkle their forms +and play in feathered jets along the bosom of the forest. Away, away, +riding neck and neck with the fleet-footed swamp-hare, and crossing the +hurricane's track with a rush and sound that might have been its refrain. +Away, away, emerging upon the broad plateau, and yelling, yelping, +whooping, cursing, but never slackening speed. Away, away, vanishing +through lanes, disappearing over hill-tops, and clattering through the +valleys beyond, with a mighty hubbub that jars the base of the hills, and +sends the round echoes careering at their backs. + +Blood of the martyrs! can it be? Just at the apex of yonder rise which the +feet of the pursuers take hold upon, lives an unprotected widow and her +daughter, and with ominous precision of stride the hue and cry points that +way. + +The instincts of both men and beasts instantly acquaint them with the +situation, and, bending forward in one last despairing effort, they +emulate the rush of the tornado as they bear down the enclosures and sweep +up the incline, just in time to witness the most piteous spectacle that +men with emotions were ever invited to commiserate. The panting pack, +first on the scene, leap on the frightened and weeping women with furious +growls, licking their faces and hands, sniffing at their forms, and baying +from all quarters, until, driven from thence, they rush into the single +apartment, leap on the beds, drag them to the floor, and falling to, with +the fury of wild beasts disappointed of their prey, tear them into +shreds.[A] Being expelled from thence, the hunters hear the dolorous +narrative of the women, cross-question them as to particulars which may +aid them in the pursuit, and having lost but little time, follow the now +furious hounds in a noisy detour around the little farm. Again and again +this is repeated, and men and dogs are fairly baffled. The former dismount +and examine the ground for visible signs, but are unrewarded, and seem +ready to despair, when one of the pack, having leaped to the close fence, +follows it for some distance, and finally breaks forth into that ominous +bark which criminal never heard undaunted. Instantly he is joined by his +impatient companions, and the welkin rings with their loud acclaim. The +hunters follow, but almost too late, as the sequel proves; for having +invaded the barn, a few rods distant, and discovered there the objects of +their rage, the excited pack had well-nigh ended this series of tragedies. +The mangled remains of one of the criminals was dragged forth a lifeless +corpse, and his associate, defending himself with a clubbed gun, had +disabled half the number of his assailants when he in turn was +overpowered, and but for the intervention of his pursuers must have +suffered a like fate. + +But the rescue proved ill-timed, in one sense at least, for no sooner had +the ruffian been disengaged from his dilemma and lifted from the building, +than a shot was heard from behind, and, bleeding from twenty wounds, he +rolled lifeless on the sward. + +Looking in the direction whence the report came, the hunters saw the form +of the girl who, a little while ago, had engaged their attention as a pale +and woe-begone Lucrece, now expanded into a Hebe, and, still unrevenged, +levelling her smoking weapon at the form of the African. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE "SHAMS." + + The Klan in South Carolina--Officious Interference in + Politics--Atrocious Performances of Men in Masks--The "Shams," or + Counterfeit Editions of K. K. K.--How Organized--Purposes of the + Organization--Their Vocabulary of Crime--South Carolina Fanatics--How + the "Sham" Movement Affected the K. K. K.--Parodied out of the + Field--A Resolution of _sine die_ Adjournment--K. K. K. Horrors on + the Increase--The "Shams" were Opposed in their Movements not only by + the Party who had formerly Upheld the K. K. K., etc.--Rotten-Egg + Battalions--Citizens sometimes took the Execution of the Law into + their Own Hands--A Case in Point. + + +While the K. K. K. influence was bad enough, in all conscience, and the K. +K. K. embodiment a trifle worse, it had imitators in both these elements +of its being who cherished even Satanic designs, and we doubt if so much +could be written of the former. That the Klan was organized on South +Carolina soil, and did much mischief to the Conservative party and +influence there by assuming to be its exponent on the most untoward +occasions, and at the moment when its services were least desired, is +something which is admitted in the former case, and its stupidity heartily +cursed with in the latter. But it is equally true that many of the +atrocious performances of men in masks which invariably fell to the K. K. +K. score were bastardies, and unless, for the sake of imaginative persons, +it is admitted that Satan was involved in the fatherhood of both, it may +be doubted if even the claim of _illegitimate_ kinship could be sustained. + +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 hell, 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 +bloody-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 +_passion_; insomuch that, if a faithful history of their exploits were +written, the noble patriots of Maine and Massachusetts 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 title 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 assume 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 assigned 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 assign 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 assume 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 passed, 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 constitutional +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 anticipate 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 passion 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_ +assumes 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 +shores. 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 homogeneity. + +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 ashore, 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 pass to the rear; but, looking +around upon the broadly smiling crowd, they were reassured for the moment, +and each grasping the other's horny 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 space which rescues them +from all further connection with this narrative. + +So thin is the partition 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 appetite and other serious bodily symptoms would +undoubtedly ensue. + +We have volunteered these remarks and illustrations, 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', bumpin', +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 "bumped" 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 grassy 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 +class of commissaries, had arrived at such a desperate strait that, in +convention assembled, 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 mass of excruciating hurts on +the outskirts of the assembly. 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 assembly, and reaching _terra firma_, one mile from the +point of embarkation, and seeing nothing in the homogeneity 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 constituency 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 multitude 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 Assembly 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 assembly 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 multitude 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 analogy, 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 retarded +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 masses of those who wield +the franchise, and in not unfrequent instances, as we have anticipated, +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. Assuming 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 nobody, for even its externals were +forbidding; and the ignorant and educated classes 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 reassuring 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, anticipated 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. + +THE LAST OF THE K.'S. + + A Popular Fallacy--Karl Konstant Esq.--A Fit Companion for the + Wandering Jew--Awaiting Events--The First Visitation--An Intricate + Subject for the Hospitals and Doctors--Getting Even with the + Latter--Put Away--Yellow Jack on a Raid--K. K. K., Esq., in his + Prison Cell--Promoted to the Hospital--An Uncommon Defiance--A + Picturesque Outside--Waiting for the End--K. Konstant Kain Struggles + back to Shore--"Do not Weep"--A Critical Moment--A New Cast and + entire Change of Scenery--"Gruel" did it--Waited upon by a Deputation + of Citizens--"Young Man, Go West"--The New Orleans + Pest-House--Konfounded, Krooked Konundrum. + + +Some dealer in those cheap apothegms which commend themselves to the +public gullibility, through the public tendency to moralize concerning +subjects of which it knows nothing, has rendered himself famous, and the +great majority of mankind asses, by the announcement that "everything must +have an end." Without a design of reopening a dead controversy, or so much +as mentioning the word "fossil," we must be permitted to record a belief +that the author of this sage prophecy had never heard of the +mathematician's war involving the crookedness of the half circle, and was +grossly uninformed on the topic of the great Woman's Rights movement and +those leaders who have concerned themselves about its temperature for the +past two hundred years. And while the cause of orthodoxy might be safely +entrusted to two such examples of + + "The few immortal _things_ + That were not born to die," + +it is in no sense of triumphing over a fallen adversary that we add the +conviction that the beaming countenance of Karl Konstant Kain, the last of +the K.'s, had never dawned upon this prophet's sense of the ridiculous. + +We shall introduce him to the reader as he was, and is, and without any +reference to a future--that with him is but a name, a fleeting shadow. And +in order that this reminiscence may be perfect, it will be needful to +relate that he had reached, at this period of his existence, a climax of +loneliness and gaunt despair that would have rendered him a fit companion +for the "Wandering Jew," and a most unfit one for anything less +ludicrously ideal. Though it had been of his own choosing, a shadow +pursued him and would not let him rest: it was the ghost of the murdered +K. K. K. He had been with it in its prosperity; had eaten its bread in its +adversity; and since above the spot of its interment the daisies were +developing into types of its departed beauty, he had given himself to the +magnanimous resolve of perpetuating its genius in other climes. + +Having chalked a freight car, "Through without delay," he deposited his +remains on the inside, and four days thereafter found himself at the door +of a cheap hashery, in the thriving little city of Columbus, Texas. Here +he refreshed the inner man on a promise to pay, rendered subsequent to the +meal, and having been damned for a "blister," and a "cooter," and a +"scorpion," wandered forth, that image of "blank dismay" which we have +already depicted to the reader. Destiny was now begun with him in earnest, +and it was only necessary for him to sit still and "administer upon the +fluttering pasteboards," with that resignation of soul which should +characterize the man who has given five points in the game, and occupies +the losing seat. Mounting a goods-box on a neighboring corner, he adjusted +his unshapeliness to its angles in a posture that would have been an easy +one for another man, and awaited events. They were not slow in coming. In +fact they came in troops, and awaited their turn with a constancy of +resolve that would have frightened a less Napoleonic structure. The first +visitation comprised two Hibernians of smiling aspect, who, observing this +unusual tableau, affected to note a disposition to sneeze in the subject. +Instantly our hero accepted the challenge (_ad hominem et sine +exceptione_), and leaping from his perch engaged his persecutors with the +desperation of a man who feels that he would be made happier if soundly +whipped. Striking right and left, he provoked his adversaries to do their +worst, and soon brandishing huge knives, they made inroads upon his +anatomy which left him an intricate subject for the hospitals and doctors. +Twenty-two wounds in all had severally penetrated his lungs, severed his +carotid artery, atrophied his liver, wasp-nested his umbilicus, riddled +his facial parts, and bereft him of five fingers and the arm to which +their five fellows were attached,--and yet he would not die, could not see +it to his interest to die, felt that it would not be destiny to die,--and +four weeks thereafter exhibited himself in public to a goodly number of +false prophets, who, excusing him and themselves on the ground of a +miracle, tendered him congratulations. + +But if Karl Konstant was some the worse for wear, he was none the worse +for something to wear, having levied on a full cloth rig and watch, +belonging to one of the hospital doctors, as some remuneration for the +torturing exercises in surgery which had been directed at his corporosity. +Walking the streets with the air of a man whom melancholy has marked for +her own, and yet attracting the notice of passers-by through a subdued +emphasis of gait and manner, which could hardly have proceeded from a less +philosophic cause than good clothes, and a chronometer that would +unfailingly chronicle the hash hour, he was next interviewed by two +policemen with drawn clubs, who, by virtue of his late condition of +mayhem, subjected him to but one-half the regulation mauling, and having +divested him of his borrowed plumage, jugged him, and corked him, and +expressed through the bars a wish to kiss him for his mother-in-law. + +About this time "Yellow Jack," in making his decennial tour of the +Southern cities of Texas, debarked at Columbus, and for a period of four +weeks lent his energies to a most devastating epidemic. Thousands were +stricken, hundreds rendered their final account, and the undertakers, +protesting that it was an ill-wind, took orders for coffins. Karl Konstant +Kain beheld the public dismay through his prison bars, and despaired. He +knew that it would come; fate had whispered him that it would come--and +feeling this, his anxiety on the subject soon developed into a wish that +it might come. He was not disappointed; and when it came and lodged a +great pain in his side, and touched up his pulse an half hundred degrees +or so, it did not conclude its labors, but promoted him to the hospital +and doctors, and bade him look about him for means of offsetting the +latter. + +But we regret to state that, notwithstanding these small but disinterested +attentions, K. K. K., Esq., murmured, and the very day upon which he was +transferred to hospital sumptuousness, confronted his yellow-visaged enemy +with a challenge to do his worst. That individual hesitated, and objected +that the combat would prove an unequal one; but soon seeing that any +explanation which might be rendered would be construed into a possible +desire to avoid defeat (and becoming the least bit enraged in view of such +an uncommon defiance), began his dispositions. + +And now the battle of the giants raged in good earnest; and as there was a +kind of Pindaric grotesqueness about it which could not fail to attract +observers, it became first the hospital talk, and then the subject of no +inconsiderable amount of by-betting, with the odds in favor of "Yellow +Jack." One week from the period of his inoculation, the victim had +developed the most picturesque outside that it is possible for any man to +possess east or west of the Malayan dominions, and inwardly, a type of the +black vomit that would have set an undertaker's teeth on edge. The +doctors, examining their watches at a safe distance, thought that he could +not last twenty-four hours, and the subject of the disorder, transferring +an abandoned kerchief to the rear of his shirt front, gave himself but +half that time. But doctors, though controlling the other features of the +business with tolerable accuracy, are not always infallible as to "time +when." It was three days before a coffin was ordered, and pending the half +hour required to produce a fair example of pest-house carpentry, Karl +Konstant struggled back to shore with the announcement that he had changed +his mind, and a sarcastic appeal to his medical attendants "not to weep." +The "box" was found to square the dimensions of a stiff in a neighboring +ward, who had accomplished the stormy voyage in forty-eight hours, and +into it he was jammed, and committed to the cartman with an injunction to +drive fast. + +K. K. K., Esq., was now billed "for five days, only with a new cast and +entire change of scenery," the latter part of this announcement referring +to an abandoned hut on the river shore, one mile below the city. The +doctors, despairing of the disease, declared that the stench in his body +would suffocate him in twenty-four hours (extending the time as above, to +avoid accidents), and dismissed him to an aged negress, with instructions +to draw on the city for boneyard supplies. Situated in this quiet retreat, +our hero could lie "heels uppermost," and number his waning breaths, or +hearken to the death-rattle in his throat, without aught to molest or make +him afraid, and controlled by that sweet imperturbability of temper so +necessary to perfect rest amid such scenes. He had enjoyed his new lease +of happiness two full days before it was thought necessary to apply to his +city correspondents, and as there was some delay in forwarding the +stipulated articles, it is needless to say that when they arrived the +subject had "limbered up," and the cartman found it necessary to imitate +his example, and drive back a sadder man. + +Five days came and went, and still Karl Konstant Kain lingered above +ground, viewing the shadows go up and down on the pine box destined for +his remains (a standing menace of this character now occupied one corner +of his apartment), and realizing that his symptoms grew hourly worse. His +old friends, the doctors, feeling some anxiety, came to examine into the +matter, but after a careful diagnosis of the patient, they left with very +marked abridgments of countenance and their pills. Under the +circumstances, they felt that pills would only hasten the sad event. And, +indeed, their prognostications seemed not ill-founded. Six hours later, a +fearful coma seized his struggling anatomy and held it fast, and in a few +minutes, at farthest, the last mournful rites would be in order. The pulse +had become quite motionless, the suppressed breathing grew momentarily +fainter,--and, aha! hold a light, nurse. + +What a moral is pointed in that much quoted sentiment referring to the +"fate of men and empires." 'Twas but a drop of water trickling from the +rain-drenched roof, and yet it had power to call a human being to life. + +K. K. Kain, Esq., now sat bolt upright in his straw-bed and +demanded--shall we write it--would it be politic--in a word, would it be +accepted as true? In such an emergency there is no alternative left to the +undissembling chronicler of fact, nor do we seek one. K. Konstant Kain +demanded gruel, and indeed from this moment conceived such an attachment +for gruel, that it was with difficulty that their separation could be +accomplished for any considerable portion of his waking moments. Nor can +it be denied that gruel aided his convalescence and his complexion as +nothing else but tolerably regular doses of Blooming Cereus could have +done. (This joke is paid for, and on that ground it is hoped there will +be no objection to it.) In two weeks, time gruel stood him on his two legs +and bade him "view, the landscape o'er." In three it had brought its +magician's art to bear on his sunken cheeks, and converted the yellow rose +of Texas into a lively peach bloom. And in the short space of one month it +had so far rehabilitated his battered hulk, that he was enabled to receive +a deputation of citizens with a purse of Mexican coin, and a "gruel" +request to convey himself across that border. It is needless to say that +Mr. Kain accepted the _douceur_ and stood not upon the order of his going. + +Arrived in that sun-burnt clime, one of his first acts, according to the +Texas journalists, was to involve himself in a railroad smash-up, with a +loss of his dexter leg and a head, but as he was shortly afterwards +advertised to appear in a Greaser circus combination as a tight-rope +performer, it is apprehended that some of the facts were suppressed. +Terminating his engagement in debt to the managers, he reached the city of +New Orleans by "hook or crook," or both, and more of the former, and a +good deal of the latter, and was last heard of as one of the inmates of +the famous pest-house of that city. How he escaped from this institution, +and resumed his peripatetic career, would doubtless make a very pretty +romance, but we must be pardoned, if we assert that we know no more about +this _konfounded, krooked konundrum_ than does the reader, and drop our +quill. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +CONCLUSION. + + The Author has no Explanations to Offer--Such as it is, it is--The + Chief of Two Reasons for Holding it in Esteem--A Whim that has been + Gratified--Mischievous Results of Confiding a Secret to One Female + Acquaintance instead of Fifty--Can anything be more Ridiculous than + to Suppose that there is a Word of Fiction Connected with the + foregoing Chapters?--Lakeside Publishers--The Public Invited to + Pocket their Scruples and Read History--Finale. + + +Positively, we must depart from a time-honored custom of the bookmaker, as +we confess with blushes that we have no confidences to exchange with the +reader, no explanations to offer to the public, and no fine epigrams to +repeat concerning that aged word--farewell. Such as it is, it is, and we +have no idea of making it better, by any such _supra legem_ performance. +If the reader is satisfied, we are; and if he is not, and will signify +that remarkable conclusion to the author, he shall have his money back, +together with fair wages for such portion of his valuable time as may have +been squandered on its pages. We could not think of taking such a mean +advantage of any one's talent for promiscuous reading, and beg to repeat +this announcement as a request. + +If anybody's party-feeling has been ruffled, it may be taken in some sense +as a natural conclusion, for, besides having none ourselves, and treating +the subject from all sides, we may have had some such _dernier_ purpose in +view. Political tastes are so varied that they can rarely be consulted +with success in a literary venture of reasonable magnitude, and where this +is true, it can be no more than fair to ignore them. + +The work has many imperfections, as all can see--imperfections which +cannot be cured, and hence resemble it so much to human nature that we +must be pardoned for alleging that circumstance as the chief of two +reasons (both disconnected from those philoprogenitive impulsions that we +sometimes hear of from mawkish writers) for holding it in esteem. The sun +has spots, and we once knew a critic whose grammar was execrable. Lest, +however, some persons should officiously infer that we mean to wrong a +very excellent class of people, we will state that the analogy between the +last-named objects does not cease here. + +What we wish to say most in this concluding chapter, is that the work was +not written to invite anybody's pique, nor to avoid it, nor to flatter +anybody, nor to parody anybody, but to gratify a whim, and as it has been +announced that there would be no explanation, and the completion of the +task leaves us in a mood for conundrums, we shall not interfere with the +reader's prerogative of guessing its import. But it was a mere whim, and +now that it has been gratified, we feel better--vastly improved, in +fact--so much improved that, in order to reach a superlative that will fit +our case precisely, we find it necessary to go beyond the dictionary +standard, and adopt the beautiful newsboy euphemism, hunky-dory. And then, +too, the author has that self gratulation which could not fail to proceed +from the knowledge that, from the beginning, a brave effort was maintained +to avoid that notoriety which comes of even remote connection with such +labor as he has performed,--and which must have succeeded but for his +inadvertence in confiding the secret to one female acquaintance instead of +fifty. Now that the mischief has been performed, his partiality for the +sex leads him to say that he will be more thoughtful in the future. + +An old friend, whose sagacity regarding such subjects is approved, has +informed us confidentially that the book will sell, and if it sells, can +it be anybody's business whether it is read or not? After revolving this +query in our mind, and inducing a fair analogy between what would be just +to the outside world and profitable to ourselves, we are left _statu quo_ +until such time as the neighborhood debating society can be heard from. + +Can anything be more ridiculous than to suppose that there is a word of +fiction connected with the foregoing chapters? A half-wit acquaintance, +who plumes himself on the accident which enables him to write M. C. after +his name, has obtruded this difficulty upon the author, and been +handsomely objurgated for his pains. Did we not do right? and why is it +that these men are permitted to lounge away from their places of +confinement at the most dangerous season of the year? + +We here make the announcement, boldly and without fear of successful +contradiction (this form of expression is copied from J. Billings, with +some amendments in spelling), that nobody's facetiousness is chargeable +with one syllable of these sketches; and if they do not suit the public +palate, it is altogether attributable to the fact that that organ is in a +badly disordered state, and requires stimulants of a nature which the +Lakeside publishers will have no difficulty in supplying at the regulation +price for compounded drinks. More than this we do not feel at liberty to +divulge at present, but we do sincerely trust that those who compromise +their doubts far enough to purchase the book, will pocket their scruples +and read history. + + +THE END. + + + + +Footnotes: + +[A] The reader's fancy, aided by the hints supplied in the text, has +doubtless informed him that these females had fallen victims to the lust +of the flying desperadoes; for, perceiving the hand of fate in the +impending catastrophe, and having nothing to hope from the indulgence of +their pursuers, they realized that this startling crime could only hasten +the denouement, not add to their weight of doom. + +[B] An individual of the gowned fraternity, six feet six inches in height, +borne upon the shoulders of a comrade, who approximated the latter +condition. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of K. K. K. Sketches, Humorous and +Didactic, by James Melville Beard + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK K. K. K. 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