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."