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.