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.