Ku Klux Klan: Its Origin, Growth and Disbandment. John C. Lester
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Now that General Forrest's connection with the Klan is known it is amusing to read the testimony he gave before the Ku Klux Committee of Congress in 1871.[9] Though evading questions aimed to elicit definite information, yet he was willing to speak of the general conditions that caused the development of the organization in Tennessee. He stated that it was meant as a defensive organization among the Southern whites to offset the work of the Union League, which had organized, armed and drilled the negroes, and had committed numerous outrages on the whites; to protect ex-Confederates from extermination by Brownlow's "loyal" militia, to prevent the burning by negroes of gins, mills, dwellings, and villages, which was becoming common; to protect white women from criminal negro men; in short to make life and property safe and keep the South from becoming a second San Domingo. He stated that about the time the order arose he was getting as many as fifty letters a day from his old soldiers who were suffering under the disordered conditions that followed the war, whose friends and relatives were being murdered, whose wives and daughters were being insulted, etc. They wanted advice and assistance from him. Not being able to write himself, on account of a wounded shoulder, he kept a secretary busy answering such letters. Most of the defensive bodies, Forrest stated, had no names and had no connection with one another. He admitted that he had belonged to the Pale Faces, and that he fully approved of the objects of the Klan. A copy of the original Prescript was shown to him and he was able to say that he had never seen it before. In his day, the Revised and Amended Prescript was used, which was never discovered by any investigating committee. He maintained that the order was careful in admitting new members, only sober, mature, discreet gentlemen being allowed to join. At one time, Forrest estimated, so a newspaper reporter stated, that the Klan had 40,000 members in Tennessee and 550,000 in the entire South. This estimate was probably not exaggerated if the entire membership of all the orders similar to the Klan be counted in. Forrest refused to give the names of members. It is likely, from several bits of evidence, that he had much to do with consolidating the order, giving it a military organization, and making its work effective.
General John B. Gordon, the most prominent military man, next to Forrest, who was connected with the Klan, gave a clear account of the conditions in Georgia that led to the organization of the defensive societies of whites.[10] In Georgia the state of affairs where General Gordon lived was in some respects unlike conditions in Tennessee. In Tennessee the whites were somewhat divided among themselves and there were not so many blacks. In Georgia, according to Gordon, the principal danger was from blacks, incited to hostility and violence by alien whites of low character. The latter organized the negroes into armed Union Leagues, taught them that the whites were hostile to all their rights, and that the lands of the whites were to be, or ought to be, divided among the blacks. Under such influences the negroes who had not made trouble began to show signs of restlessness; some of them banded together to plunder the whites, and serious crimes became frequent, especially that of rape, and men were afraid to leave their families in order to attend to their business. The whites feared a general insurrection of the blacks, and as Gordon stated, "if the sort of teachings given [to the negroes] in Georgia had been carried out to its logical results the negroes would have slaughtered whole neighborhoods." That they did not do so, was, in his opinion, due to the forbearance and self-control of the whites, and to the natural kindness and good disposition of the negroes and their remembrance of former pleasant relations with the whites. There was no great danger, as one can see today, of the negro uprisings, but the whites thought then that there was. The religious frenzy of the blacks during the year after the war also alarmed the whites. The black troops stationed in Georgia were frequently guilty of gross outrages against white citizens and were a constant incitement to violence on the part of their fellow blacks. The carpetbag government pardoned and turned loose upon society the worst criminals. There was no law for several years. The whites were subject to arbitrary arrest and trials by drumhead courts-martial; military prisoners were badly mistreated. In general, society and government were in a condition of anarchy; the white race was disorganized, and the blacks organized, but not for good purposes.
General John B. Gordon
Head of Klan in Georgia
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General Gordon spoke of another matter often mentioned by the best class of ex-Confederate soldiers: the Southern soldier believed that the "Appomattox Program" had not been carried out. At Appomattox the magnanimity of General Grant and the victorious soldiers had impressed very favorably the defeated Confederates. The latter believed that if Grant and the soldiers who had defeated them had been allowed to settle matters, there would have been no more trouble. Instead, the politicians had taken charge and had stirred up endless strife. No effort at conciliation had been made; and the magnanimity of Grant gave way to the vindictive policies of politicians.[11] The whites believed that the "understanding of Appomattox" had been violated and that they had been deliberately humiliated by the Washington government.
Such were some of the influences, in General Gordon's opinion, that caused the spread of the Klan in Georgia. He says that he heartily approved the objects of the order, that it was purely for self-protection, an organization for police purposes, a peace police, which kept the peace, prevented riots, and restrained the passionate whites as well as the violent blacks. Its membership was, he said, of the best citizens, mostly ex-Confederates, led by the instinct of self-preservation to band together. It was secret because the leaders were sure that the sympathy of the Federal Government would be against them and would consider a public organization a fresh rebellion. It took no part in politics and died out when the whites were able to obtain protection from the police and the courts.
These were the explanations of men who were high in the order but who never attended a meeting and were never in actual contact with its workings. Private members—Ghouls they were called—could have told more thrilling stories. But deficient as the accounts of Gordon and Forrest are in detail they supplement the history of Lester and Wilson in explaining the causes that lay at the bottom of the secret revolution generally called the Ku Klux Movement.
As to the success or failure of the movement, Lester and Wilson, condemning the violence that naturally resulted from the movement, cause the impression (Ch. 4) that the main result was disorder. Such was not the case, nor was it the intention of the writers to create such an impression. The important work of the Klan was accomplished in regaining for the whites control over the social order and in putting them in a fair way to regain political control. In some States this occurred sooner than in others. When the order accomplished its work it passed away. It was formally disbanded before the evil results of carpet bag governments could be seen. When it went out of existence in 1869, there had been few outrages, but its name and prestige lived after it and served to hide the evil deeds of all sorts and conditions of outlaws. But these could be crushed by the government, State or Federal. In a wider and truer sense the phrase "Ku Klux Movement" means the attitude of Southern whites toward the various measures of Reconstruction lasting from 1865 until 1876, and, in some respects, almost to the present day.
Two elaborate Prescripts or Constitutions were adopted by the Ku Klux Klan—the original Prescript (See Appendix I) and the Revised and Amended Prescript (See Appendix II). The ritual and initiatory ceremonies and obligations were never printed. The by-laws and the ritual of the Pulaski Circle or Den were elaborate but were in manuscript only. They were quite absurd and were intended only to furnish amusement to the members at the expense of the candidates for initiation. No oaths were prescribed—only a pledge of secrecy. As the Klan spread among neighboring towns, the Pulaski by-laws and ritual were modified for the use of new Dens. After the Klan had changed character and become a body of regulators, and it was decided that the administration should be centralized, a convention of delegates from the Dens met in Nashville, in April, 1867, and adopted the original Prescript already referred to. Lester and Wilson are mistaken in saying (Ch. 3) that the Revised and Amended Prescript was adopted at this convention. Where and how