E668
J69 (LC)

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Phototjrapli b\- J. A. Murdoch, Atlanta, Ga.
Cor.. William Joseph Simmons
Imperial Wizard, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
The Founder of the New Klan

STORYOF THE
KU KLUX KLAN
By COL. WINFIE L D JONES
Of the Washington Corps of Correspondents

Published by the
AMERICAN NEWSPAPER SYNDICATE
512 FOURTEENTH STREET, WASHINGTON, D. C.

CONTENTS PACE
1. Southern Conditions after the Civil War  13
2. Republicans Vindictive Toward South  15
3. Organization of the Ku Klux Klan  22
4. Declaration of First Klansmen  26
5. Why the First Ku Klux Klan Grew  33
6. Work of the First Ku Kiux Klan  36
7. A Real Invisible Empire  40
8. Disbandment of the Klan  46
9. The First Congressional Investigation  50
10. Origin of the New Klan  57
11. Colonel Simmons a Fraternal Organizer   61
12. Statement of Colonel Simmons  65
13. Reconstruction a Tragedy   73
14. The Ku Klux Klan of Today  81
15. Varied Activities of the Klan  88
10. Enemies Begin Attacks on the Klan  94
17. Many Other Witnesses Before Committee  99
18. The Symbol and the Slogan of the Klan  1 02

ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE
Col. William Joseph Simmons, Imperial Wizard  Frontispiece
Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, First Grand Wizard  IS
Gen. Albert Pike, Mason and Klansman  2S
Klansmen of Reconstruction Period  40
The Meeting on Stone Mountain, Ga., Where the New Klan Originated  52
The Imperial Palace in Atlanta, Ga  66
Mounted Klansmen.  76
Main Building of Lanier University, now the University of America  90
Home of Col. William Joseph Simmons  102

PUBLISHER'S NOTE
The author of the story of the Ku Klux Klan is one of the ablest and most
experienced of the Washington journalists. He conducted an extensive in
vestigation of the Klan in the headquarters at Atlanta, Georgia, in Washington,
and elsewhere throughout the country, and made a thorough probe of its entire
organization. His story is eminently fair, and describes only facts concerning
the Ku Klux Klan, past and present.
The old Ku Klux Klan after the Civil War played a prominent part in Re
construction days, one of the most important periods in the history of the United
States. These times are described from an historical standpoint, and make an
interesting story of the efforts made in the South to recover political liberties
that had been lost by the collapse of the Confederacy. Every important fact
concerning the present Klan is described in this book.
The story is not in any sense an "expose" of the Ku Klux Klan, nor is it a
defense, but an accurate description of this national organization, which is re
ported to be increasing its membership at the rate of more than 1,000 a day.
Colonel Jones is not a member of the Ku Klux Klan and was not born in the
South, so that he made his investigation without any prejudice one way or the
other, and solely from the viewpoint of the trained and impartial writer, bent
on getting all the facts concerning the Klan, and writing the story in an accurate
and interesting manner.

PREFACE
When I began to prepare to write the story of the Ku Klux Klan L
knew nothing of the organization except what I had read in the news
papers, and 1 had not been interested in the subject. The task under
taken, however, I determined to get as many facts as possible about
the Ku Klux Klan of the present and the past, and to write a concise,
accurate history of the organization, new and old, without fear or
favor. >o that the truth could be laid before the public from an impar
tial standpoint. I had no interest in the subject other than to write
facts. Therefore I first secured permission from Col. William
Joseph Simmons, Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. at the organ
ization's headquarters in Atlanta, to be given access to all the Klan's
records, rituals, secret work, history, correspondence, books, accounts,
and historical documents, and in fact everything pertaining to the
organization. This permission was obtained with great difficulty and
only after repeated efforts, for the Imperial Wizard was reluctant to
allow anyone to investigate the organization at headquarters, though
Colonel Simmons and his associates had nothing to conceal concerning
the operations of the Klan.
I spent considerable time in the Imperial Palace in Atlanta, and was
given access to everything in that building. I feel sure that all the
affairs of the organization were shown and that nothing was con
cealed. Once I had gained the confidence of the Imperial Wizard
and the high officials they frankly and sincerely laid everything before
me concerning the Order.
After I had secured everything at headquarters of the Klan and
had made a thorough and painstaking investigation at this source,
I ransacked the Congressional Library and other libraries for every
thing that had been printed concerning the old Ku Klux Klan, that
originated soon after the Civil War. In this search I secured a
large amount of extremely interesting information concerning recon
struction days, including many original documents and letters describ
ing episodes and occurrences of those stirring times when the "white
horsemen'' galloped, over the South in their mission to restore the
political and social rule of the Caucasian.
I also attended all the sessions of the Congressional investigation
in Washington, securing a copy of the testimony, and therefore,
when I started to write the story I believed I had obtained most of
the available information on the subject. 11

1. SOUTHERN CONDITIONS AFTER THE CIVIL "WAR
After Appomattox, when the immortal Grant said : "Let us have
peace," the Confederacy lay prostrate in defeat. President Andrew
Johnson, who succeeded the martyred Lincoln, meant well toward the
conquered Southern States, but the national legislative policy between
1866 and 1872 did not carry out Johnson's views concerning recon
struction of the South. When the lamented Lincoln fell before
the assassin Booth's bullet in Ford's Theater, in the National Capital,
he had already planned immediate reconstruction of the Southern
States governments, and had planned, according to historians of that
period, to readmit the conquered sister states into full fellowship with
the victorious northern section. Johnson fully intended to carry out
this policy, but became involved in bitter disputes with Congress audi
the Republican majority in House and Senate, which repudiated the;
Lincoln policy and decided to deal with the Southern States as con
quered provinces and not as states.
Differences between President Johnson and the reconstruction Con
gress began when the President announced his policy toward the
South, which was in practically every particular the Lincoln policy,
but leaders of the Republican majority in House and Senate, em
bittered by the four years of war and the immense losses suffered by
the Union armies, thought otherwise. The fight between Congress and
President Johnson began when the President vetoed the Freedmen's
Bureau Bill in February, 1866. A few months later Congress, in
opposition to the administration, pjssed this bill over_Johnsgn's_yeto.
The Freedmen's Bureau, to be managed by the War Department, gave
complete jurisdiction over practically everything pertaining to the
recently freed slaves. It provided for the employment of agents in all
the southern counties, who might be either from civil life or from the
army, and who had all the autocratic powers of military judges.
The measure abolished ordinary processes of law, set aside the right
of habeas corpus, destroyed the right of trial by jury, as well as the
right of appeaL from sentences. This law gave the Federal agents
of the Freedmen's Bureau, who were soon swarming in every part
of the South, more tyrannical and autocratic powers than were ever
possessed by any Romanoff tyrant or Roman consul. Under the billp
an agent of the Freedmen's Bureau, backed'by Federal bayonets, had
for a time practically unlimited power over life and property in any
county in the South where he set up his authority.
The Freedmen's Bureau Act was followed by three other measures in
13

14 STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
the 1866 Congress, aUproviding for "more efficient government af the
rebel states." All of these measures were passed over President
Johnson's veto, and the conflict between the Executive and Congress
grew more bitter day by day. The measures divided .ten of the
Southern States into five military districts, each m charge of an army
officer who was endowed with absolute and arbitrary powers sucrTas
had hardly existed before in any country. President John^orf bitterly
denounced these bills and flayed Congress in his veto messages. Natur
ally the breach between the President and Congress grew wider.
It cannot be denied that the bestowal of such tyrannical power
upon military satraps in the South led to grave abuses in that section.
Immense stealings and graft of all kinds, tyrannies, and "persecutions
of the deleated population occurred which finally culminated in a
saturnalia of misgovernment which has hardly been paralleled in
history. This condition afterwards was well recognized in the North
and by former Union soldiers. Some Republican members of Congress
were among the chief opponents of this policy.
Under these laws all men who had served in the Confederate Army,
or aided in any way the Confederate States, were disfranchised and
couW not hold any state or Federal _office. This condition continued
alniost universally in the South until 1872. The result was that the
Southern white man had nothing whatever to say concerning his State
or the Federal Government. He was governed by a horde of ^'carpet
baggers'' and scalawags of various kinds who invaded the South in
'large numbers after Appomattox and after the Federal armies were
largely disbanded. With the Caucasian, race disfranchised, negro rule,
led and directed by the white carpetbaggers from the North, followed
as a matter of course.
The legislation provided that the five military districts into which
the ten Southern States were organized should continue until these
States held conventions and adopted new constitutions satisfactory to
Congress. It was also required that their legislatures adopt the
Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and arbitrary rule was to
continue until the Fourteenth Amendment had been adopted by three-
fourths of the States of the LTnion.
Under the urging of Senator Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, the
Civil Rights Bill was then passed. This law authorized the Federal
courts to compel admission of negroes to all public places, and made
mandatory that negroes should serve on juries the same as. whites.
In 1883 the United States Supreme Court held the Civil Rights Law
unconstitutional.

2. REPUBLICANS VINDICTIVE TOWARD SOUTH
Republican members of Congress, who were responsible for the
subjection under which the conquered Southern States groaned, set
up the contention that conditions in the South required martial law.
It is now generally realized, in this enlightened age that such a "procedure
was unwarranted, by conditions, and was largely the result of the bitter
passions caused by the four years' struggle between the States. The
American Constitution provides that a writ of habeas corpus shall not
be suspended except in cases of rebellion or invasion. Every fair-
minded man, after the lapse of the past half century, when the hatreds
of the great war have been abated or been stilled, must acknowledge
there was no excuse for claiming after the war ended that a state of
rebellion existed in the South when the Confederate armies had sur
rendered and disbanded. Certainly there was no invasion of the
South, but the right of habeas corpus was completely nullified by
the military agents who governed the South with iron hands.
Most constitutional lawyers will acknowledge now that the recon
struction laws were -uncoastrttrtional. as well as wrong and vicious.
Their application in the South beld back the economic recoverv of the
Southern States for many years. .With the perspective of fifty years
behind us we now see that these laws were wrong. Under these stat
utes practically the entire white population of the South was dis
franchised. The. former slaves, only a few of whom could read or
write, constituted the entire electorate. The carpetbaggers, some of
whom were the scum of the earth, led this motley array' of negroes
and worked their will with them politically, at the same time that they
plundered the white population of the South. It was not long before
an era of oppression and corruption was in full swing that would have
put to shame the most deplorable conditions in the history of any con
quered country. So bad was the misgovernment in the South, and
so corrupt the conditions prevailing under carpetbag rule, that many
of the- northern papers of that period printed scathing editorials
' against the agents of the Freedmen's Bureau and the Southern mili
tary government.
While the carpetbaggers and rascals of various kinds were mis
governing the South and plundering it. a few good men from the
Northern States had immigrated to the South, and these men, many
of them former Federal soldiers and officers, unhe-itatingly took the
15

1'j STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
part of the oppressed population. Their voices were continually heard
iii protest through communications to northern newspapers, con
cerning the saturnalia of robbery and misgovernment in the Southern
States. Veterans of the Federal armies and the Confederate armies in any
Southern community in the United States, who are still alive, will
personally corroborate these statements, which do not begin to describe
the terrible governmental conditions existing in the South for many-
years after the end of the Civil War.
In fact, the South was rapidly being reduced to a state of complete
ruin by misgovernment of the carpetbaggers and their ignorant negro
followers. The freed slaves, as a class, were good people. They
had been, except in few cases, well treated and well taken care of by
their owners, but in the mass they were illiterate, ignorant, and
superstitious, with a leavening of viciousness. They were as putty
in the hands of their white leaders. It followed that the government
of the Southern States, under such conditions, was undoubtedly one of
the worst ever experienced in the history of the world.
In every Southern State conditions were practically the same, but
a few illustrations will suffice to give an idea of the misgovernment.
In South Carolina the land taxes in 1860 amounted to about
$400,000. In 1871 they amounted to $2,000,000. Thetaxable values
in that period shrank from $490,000,000 to $184,000,000. The taxes
could not be paid. Lands were forfeited and either became waste
places in enormous areas, or were handed over to the negroes. The
state debt increased from $1,000,000 in 1867 to more than $30,000,000
in 1872.
In Mississippi nearly 7,000,000 acres of land were forfeited by
the owners because the state taxes in 1874 had increased fourteenfold.
In a few years the public debt of Louisiana increased from ap
proximately $6,000,000 to $50,000,000. The conditions that existed
in Mississippi, South Carolina, and Louisiana prevailed in the other
conquered Southern States.
While state misgovernment was so serious, the public affairs of cities,
towns, villages, and counties were even in a worse condition, nearly al!
of them being bankrupt and owing public debts they could not pay
and that were never paid. Many of the illegal debts contracted by
states in this period were afterward canceled when the whites ousted
carpetbag rule and again secured control of state, county, and municipal
governments. As government conditions, including cities, towns, and villages, were

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN 1.7
as bad as possible the people suffered greatly. Freed from' the labor
of the plantations, hundreds of thousands of negroes left the land and
crowded into the cities and towns. They were attracted by the hope
of living on the bounty of the Government and securing financial
support of the Freedmen's Bureau ; but most of all they were drawn to
the centers of population by the newly bestowed right of suffrage, and
the hope of securing public offices which would make them the
political superiors of their former masters.
As an illustration of the type of carpetbag and ignorant legislators
during reconstruction days in the South, the South. Carolina State
Legislature of 1868-1872 contained 155 members. With hardly an
exception they were either negroes or the lowest possible type of whites,
and included a large number of carpetbaggers.
Twenty-two members could not read or write. Several were able
to only write their names, and 41 signed official documents with an
X-mark. Ninety-eight of the 155 members were negroes, and of this
number 67 paid no taxes. None of the state officers, with the sole
exception of the lieutenant governor, paid any taxes.
Negro militia companies were organized everywhere, and these were
used as an instrument by agents of the Freedmen's Bureau and the
military government to terrorize the people. The white men were
not allowed to join the militia organizations and, whenever possible,
they were deprived of arms. The agents of the Freedmen's Bureau
and the military judges were bitterly prejudiced against the white
population, favorably inclined to the negro, and as many of these
officials were themselves ignorant, vicious, and of the lowest type
there was practically no justice obtainable by the white man. Federal
troops and the negro militia companies were quartered in the cities
and towns and were the chief instruments to enforce the authority of
the Freedmen's Bureau agents. White men and women were fre
quently arrested at the caprice of these agents and imprisoned for
long periods without being brought before a court. The military
commanders in the five zones sometimes interfered at will with the
civil courts, and procedure of civil law was subject at any time to the
whim of the Freedmen's Bureau agent or a military commander. In
some cities civil officers were arbitrarily removed by military com
manders, citizens were forbidden to assemble at any time, and even
the highest judicial officers of a State Supreme Court were awed or
menaced by armed men. A Louisiana Governor was summarily re
moved by order of a military commander. Military commanders on
more than one occasion resisted court decrees and forced judges to

Itf STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
revoke sentences of their courts. Criminals were forcibly taken from
peace officers by negro militia officers and set free. The white man
^was an object of insult, and women were never safe from the vilest
crimes. Newspapers were suppressed and public lectures forbidden.
The Federal soldiers, including the negro militia, managed elections
and took charge of the ballot boxes. Citizens who had perpetrated
no crimes were seized without authority of law and incarcerated in
"'bull pens" where formerly negro criminals had been confined.
Of course, among the horde of agents of the Freedmen's Bureau
and among the military officers were men of honesty and high char
acter, but they were in the hopeless minority, and while in their
jurisdictions comparatively good government prevailed and justice
was administered fairly, these were isolated instances. Some of these
honest and capable officers, though few in numbers, did not fail to
vigorously protest against deplorable conditions in the South whenever
they returned to the North, and gradually there began to percolate
through the North a feeling that all was not well in the South.
Inflamed by the losses and perils of the four-year struggle, irritated
by the disorganized condition of the North at the end of the
Civil War, and swollen with the elation of victory, the Republican
Congress of that period had very little respect for the President
or even the Supreme Court of the United States. Between 1864 and
1876 Congress treated the United States Supreme Court with the
utmost contempt. When President Johnson attempted to remove
Secretary of War Stanton under the authority of the "tenure of office
act." Congress contemptuously rejected the proposition and attempted
^to impeach Mr. Johnson. The fact is, in this period of our history.
Congress had usurped the duties of the President, the judicial branches
of government, and was unchecked by any authority.
The Constitution did not specify a way to restore government in
the Southern States, and Congress believed that in view' of this
omission the law-making function for the conquered states fell to it.
President Johnson believed that he had authority, as commander-in-
chief of the army and navy, the Constitution failing to provide a
method of restoration by the establishment of military law. The Pres
ident, therefore, began actual reconstruction, evidently with the best
•motives, but Congress overthrew all of his plans and began recon
struction legislation of its own. Many Northern members of Con
gress believed that special and vigorous laws should be passed lo
govern the South, as they feared that the former slaves could nol
defend themselves or secure any of their rights against the intelligence
and courage of the Southern white men.

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Photograph by J. A. Murdoch, Atlanta, Ga.
Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest
Celebrated Confederate Cavalry Leader, and the Grand Wizard
of the First Ku Klux Klan

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAX 21
Lincoln, in '63, had announced his plan of reconstruction in which
he offered pardon to all conquered citizens of the South, with a few
exceptions, if they would swear loyalty to the Union and agree to
abide by the laws and proclamations respecting slavery. The mar
tyred President hoped that the white population in the South would
take the oath, but his assassination completely upset his plans. Had
the great President lived there would have been a peaceful and speedy
reconstruction of the South. Radical leaders thought President Lin
coln too mild toward the conquered South, but from contemporary
newspapers it is known that Lincoln's plan met the approval of the
North, where there was little, if any, desire to punish the South,
particularly among the returned Union soldiers.
During consideration by Congress of reconstruction methods various
theories of the status of the conquered states appeared.
The first was that the Southern States only needed to accept the
fact of the abolition of slavery, agree to the reestablishment of
Federal authority, and resume their former places in the Union. - — :
President Johnson held that when he granted amnesty to the South
ern officials and former Confederate commanders the people of the
South could reform their state governments and resume their places
in the Union. Some of the hot-headed Northern congressmen believed
that the rebels had forfeited their constitutional rights and therefore
the Federal Government, represented byr Congress, had the power to
govern the South as it pleased and to dictate the terms on which the
defeated and erstwhile rebellious states could be readmitted to the
Union. Another theory was that the rebellion had caused the states
to cease to exist as states, that they were now merely conquered
provinces, and that Congress might do as it would with the people and
their territory. Out of these theories grew the Freedmen's Bureau
Bill and the other reconstruction acts.
The South lay prostrate and groaned in her chains. Southern white
men believed that something had to be done immediately, or all
culture would perish south of the Ohio River, to be succeeded by a
mongrel civilization which would absorb or extinguish the old Anglo-
Saxon race and blood. The conditions were deplorable and the white
men were desperate. Armed resistance and another rebellion were
out of the question, though writers of that period are practically-
unanimous in the opinion that if the conditions had continued longer
without check guerrilla warfare would have begun everywhere in the
South. A remedy against carpetbag domination and negro rule
had to be found. It was found by the Southern white man in the
secret organization known as the Ku Klux Klan.

3. ORGANIZATION OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
Like many other great organizations, the Ku Klux Klan started with
a >mall beginning.
The original Ku Klux KlaiT_wasj3rj*i^^
town of Pulaski, TeuiTessee7~Life"\vas_dull jn_rju^ki,.Jjjniiej.=£e,-in
1866. ^ At that time it wa- a meTe'villagef the writer visited Pulaski,

which is now a thriving town of about 3,000 people. Some of the first
Ku Kluxers are still alive. In that month and year, six youngmen.
some of whom were former Confer^a^e_sj^ier£^happened to_meet
jogcther- in an office one night, and as time hung heavy_on_thejr hands
in. such a small village as Puja£ki7one~of these young.. nien_-LwJao5e
n^ineniaTnljnSeeirpreserved to posterity) suggested thajrthey . organize
a sodelyTbTTFie puFpoIF ofTnutual entertainment. Old residents of
pTu^iskTtffffeT on whether the meeting was held in the office of a
young lawyer of the town, or in the office of a physician over a
drug store, or whether it was held in an abandoned brick house.
At any rate the young men held the meeting and decided to organize
the new society. LProbably nothing was further from their thoughts
when they met that night than that the organization wa* destined to
grow into what it afterward became}
At this meeting one of the young men suggested they call the new
society "Kuklos," from the Greek word "Kuklos,'' meaning '"circle."
aud another young man suggested an improvement on that rame. so
that by unanimous consent they decided to call the new organization
"Ku Klux." Someone then suggested that the word "Klan"' be added
in order to make an alliterative name. Stories published later to the
effect that the Ku Klux Klan had derived its name from the ancient
Scottish clans are erroneous. This idea probably started from the
fact that part of the paraphernalia in the ritual work of the Ku
Klux Klan includes a fiery cross. The Scottish clans, when they
summoned their men to war, sent a messenger around who bore a
blazing cross, and from this fact writers concerning the Ku Klux
Klan fell into the error that the Klan's fiery cross originated with
the Scottish cross.
Another meeting was held by the young men, and the organization
was perfected as far as it went then. Various devices were invoked
to arouse the curiosity of the public and surround the organization
with an atmosphere of mystery. An oath was devised which bound

MORI OF THE KU KLUX KLAN" >.i
each member to absolute secrecy regarding anything pertaining to the
Klan, and he also swore that he would never tell he was a member
of the Ku Klux. nor would he ever disclose the name of any other
member. At the third meeting of the new organization it was decided to
have a regalia consisting of a long white robe, with a white mask,
and a very tall hat made of white pasteboard wkh a projecting spike
in the crown. The officers of the original organization of the young
men's society included a "Grand Cyclop-." who was the president
or presiding officer; a "Grand Magi," who was a sort of vice-presi
dent; a '"Grand Turk," who was the marshal or master of ceremonies.
The "Grand Exchequer" was the treasurer. There were two Lie tors
who were the inner and outer guards on the meeting place, which
was called the "Den." Themeetings there were always held at night
in an old brick house, which had been deserted for some years, on the
outskirts of Pulaski.
For a long time the only business conducted by the parent Ku Klux
Klan was the initiation of new members, and the only purpose of the
organization then was to have an enjoyable time and to mystify the
inhabitants of Pulaski.
Newspapers in Giles County, in which Pulaski is located, began to
discuss the new organization, and within a few months the membership
increased. It was not very long before other "Dens" were organized
throughout Giles County. Red lights and horseplay used at initiations,
which were often conducted in graveyards and deserted houses, soon
began to be noticed by the negro population. It was a favorite joke
for the white-robed Ku Kluxers to make solitary patrols along the
roads of the count}-, and thejgnoj^irt^nd_sjtipejjJiUou.s_Jiegroe as
well as some of the white people, began to discuss the mystery and
apparent menace of the white riders. A story got abroad among the
ignorant negroes that the K11 KJMergjyje1'6 the ghosts of ConjEedgxate
iioldiers, and it was not long before the negroes were afraid to ven
ture out of their cabins at night.
It is difficult to imagine the dark superstition and universal ig
norance of the negro race in the South during slavery times and for
years afterward. The Ku Kluxers seemed to the ignorant negroes to
have some connection with their beliefs of various kinds in the powers
of Satan, and the. tales spread until soon it was difficult to induce
any negro to leave his home after dark. The Pulaski Ku Klux
and the other organizations throughout Giles County which had sprung
from the parent organization had no intention of terrorizing the.

24 STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
negro population, which in Tennessee in that year was comparatively
peaceful. It was not very long until the prime movers in the Ku Klux Klan
were aware that their actions and mysterious movements exercised a
profound impression on the negro population and "poor white trash."
It then[occurred to them that a power had been placed in their hands
that could be used to keep the recently freed negroes peaceful and law
abiding, and they were not slow to take advantage of this factj
In 1867 the rapidity with which the Ku Klux Klan spread throughout
the State of Tennessee was little short of marvelous. Scores of
"Dens" were inaugurated and the Order soon numbered many thou
sands in the old Volunteer State. From Tennessee the movement
spread to Mississippi and Alabama with great rapidity. From these
states it extended to all of. the Southern States and penetrated the
South as far as parts of Texas. There were in all probably 4,000
to 5,000 "Dens" in the South, but each "Den" was an individual
organization, answerable to itself alone. There was no central organ
ization or federation of the "Dens."
In the early part of 1867 some of the Pulaski leaders sent out a
request to all the "Dens" of which they had knowledge to send
delegates from each "Den" to a convention to be held in Nashville,
Tennessee. These delegates met secretly in Nashville in the spring
of _186jL and organffced a national organization, which, however, in
cluded only the Southet»-States. It was here that the name of
"Invisible Empire" originated, and the "Invisible Empire" meant the
whole territory in which the Klans existed. The National Convention
divided the "Invisible Empire" into Dominions, which corresponded
to Congressional Districts, and each Dominion was divided into Prov
inces, each Province consisting of a county, in which county or
Province were "Dens," or the local Klans.
The National Convention elected a head of the Order who was
called the "Grand Wizard." Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, celebrated
Confederate cavalry leader, whose home was in Memphis, Tennessee,
was the first "Grand Wizard." It is an interesting coincidence that
his son, Nathan Bedford Forrest, of Atlanta, Georgia, is the business
manager of Lanier University, which is owned by the present Ku
Klux Klan. The chief judicial officer of the original Ku Klux Klan
was the celebrated Gen. Albert Pike, of Arkansas, father of Scottish
Rite Masonry in the United States. Many former Confederate officers
of high rank were among its chief officers. Gen. John B. Gordon

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAX 25
of Georgia, Gen. W. J. Hardee of Alabama, Wade Hampton of South
Carolina, and A. H. Colquitt of Georgia were among these men.
The ruler of the dominion or congressional district was the "Grand
Titan," that of the province or a county was called a "Grand Giant,"
and the head of a "Den" was denominated a "Grand Cyclops."
It is to be regretted from an historical standpoint that the names
of the men who attended the secret convention where the Ku Klux
Klan really sprang into being are not obtainable, but even newspapers
in Nashville at that time did not know the convention was held, and
many of the records of the meeting have disappeared, as diligent
search in the headquarters of the Ku Klux Klan in Atlanta and else
where failed to disclose these documents.
The National Convention gave a tremendous impetus to the organ
ization, and by the end of 1868 the Klans practically dominated many
large portions of the South. Of its total membership we have no
knowledge at this time, but it must have been very large, several
hundred thousand at least. One writer of the time declares that the
Klan numbered at the crest of its power and influence more than
600,000 men,, many of whom were former Confederate soldiers and
officers. Some of the "Grand Titans" and "Grand Giants" had held
high rank in the Confederate army.
There is one striking fact in an investigation of the documents- of
the old Ku Klux Klan, and that is the{oath taken by every Klansman
always included an obligation to support the Constitution of the
United States, the cause of humanity and justice, and there was a
special obligation to protect all widows and orphans?)
While the supreme authority of the "Invisible Empire" was vested
in the "Grand Wizard," just as it is vested today in the "Imperial
Wizard" of the modern Klan, Col. William J. Simmons, and the chief
office was held for life, the authority of the "Grand Wizard" was very
loosely held, because of the disturbed conditions surrounding com
munications in the South at that time. The writer has been told by
several of the old Ku Kluxers that the "Grand Wizard," the "Grand
Titans," and the "Grand Giants" always sent their orders to the "Grand
Cyclops" of a "Den" by mounted messenger, and nothing was ever
entrusted to the mails. Then, too, owing to the rather loose organ
ization of the "Invisible Empire" and the difficulty of communication
except by messenger, the "Grand Cyclops" and commander of a "Den"
and his assistants were practically a law unto themselves, and all
activities in their neighborhoods or counties usually originated in
the "Den."

4. DECLARATION OF FIRST KLANSMEN
While most of the records of the Nashville secret convention are
lost, there is in existence a statement of the chief principles of the
Order which contains the following:
"We recognize our relation to the United States Government, the
supremacy of the Constitution, the Constitutional laws thereof, and the
Union of the States thereunder."
The special objects of the Order were set out as follows :
"1. To protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless from the
indignities, wrongs, and outrages of the lawless, the violent, and the
brutal; to relieve the injured and the oppressed; to succor the suffering
and unfortunate, and especially the widows and orphans of Con
federate soldiers.
"2. To protect aud defend the Constitution of the United States
and laws passed in conformity thereto, and to protect the states and
people thereof from all invasion from any source whatever.
"3. To aid and assist in the execution of all Constitutional laws,
and to protect the people from unlawful seizure, and from trial
except by their peers in conformity with the laws of the land."
Fleming's "Documentary History of Reconstruction" give- the fol
lowing declaration of the Nashville convention :
"This organization shall be styled and denominated the Order of
the Ku Klux Klan.
"We, the Order of the Ku Klux Klan. reverentially acknowledge
the majesty and supremacy of the Divine Being, and recognize the
goodness and providence of the same. And we recognize our relation
to the Lmited States Government, the supremacy of the Constitution,
the Constitutional Laws thereof, and the Union of States thereunder.
,. "This is an institution of Chivalry, Humanity. Mercy, and Patriotism ;
embodying in its genius and its principles all that is chivalric in
conduct, noble in sentiment, generous in manhood, and patriotic
in purpose; its peculiar objects being,
"First: To protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless, from
the indignities, wrongs, and outrages of the lawless, the violent, and
the brutal; to relieve the injured and oppressed; to succor the suf
fering and unfortunate, and especially the widows and orphans of
Confederate soldiers.
"Second: To protect and defend the Constitution of the United
26

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAX 27
States, and all laws passed in conformity thereto, and to protect the
States and the people thereof from all invasion from any source
whatever. "Third: To aid and assist in the execution of all Constitutional laws,
and to protect the people from unlawful seizure, and from trial ex
cept by their peers in conformity to the laws of the land.
"Section 1. The officers of this Order shall consist of a Grand
Wizard of the Empire, and his ten Genii ; a Grand Dragon of the Realm,
and his eight Hydras ; a Grand Titan of the Dominion, and his six
Furies ; a Grand Giant of the Province, and his four Goblins ; a Grand
Cyclops of the Den, and his two Night-hawks; a Grand Magi, a Grand
Monk, a Grand Scribe, a Grand Exchequer, a Grand Turk, and a
Grand Sentinel.
"Section 2. The body, politic of this Order shall be known and des
ignated as 'Ghouls.'
"Section 3. The territory embraced within the jurisdiction of this
Order shall be coterminous with the States of Maryland, Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Missis
sippi. Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, and Ten
nessee ; all combined constituting the Empire
"Section 4. The Empire shall be divided into four departments,
the first to be styled the Realm, and coterminous with the boundaries
of the several states; the second to be styled the Dominion, and to
be coterminous with such counties as the Grand Dragons of the several
Realms may assign to the charge of the Grand Titan. The third to
be styled the Province, and to be coterminous with the several coun
ties; provided, the Grand Titan may. when he deems it necessary,
assign two Grand Giants to one Province, prescribing, at the same
time, the jurisdiction of each. The fourth department to be s.tyled
the Den, and shall embrace such part of a Province as the Grand
Giant shall assign to the charge of a Grand Cyclops."
The following questions were asked of candidates for membership :
"1st. Have you ever been rejected, upon application for membership
in the Ku Klux Klan, or have you ever been expelled from the same?
"2d. Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Radical
Republican party, or either of the organizations known as the 'Loyal
League' and the 'Grand Army of the Republic'?
"3d. Are you opposed to the principles and policy of the Radical
party, and to the Loyal League, and the Grand Army of the Republic,
so far as you are informed of the character and purpose of those
organizations?

2S STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
"4th. Did you belong to the Federal army during the late war,
and fight against the South during the existence of the same?
"5th. Are you opposed to negro equality, both social and political?
.. "6th. Are you in favor of a white man's government in this country?
"7th. Are you in favor of Constitutional liberty, aud a government
of equitable laws instead of a government of violence and oppression?
"8th. Are you in favor of maintaining the Constitutional rights
of the South?
"9th. Are you in favor of re-enfranchisement and emancipation of
the white men of the South, and the restitution of the Southern people
to all their rights, alike proprietary, civil, and political ?
"10th. Do you believe in the inalienable right of self-preservation
of the people against the exercise of arbitrary and unlicensed power?"
While the candidate^ was being initiated with impressive rites, in
the presence of the flaming cross, and surrounded by the white robed
brotherhood of the "Den," the following charge was administered :
"You have been initiated into one of the most important OrderS
which have ever been established on this continent : an Order which,
if its principles are faithfully observed and its objects diligently
carried out, is destined to regenerate our unfortunate country and to
relieve the White Race from the humiliating condition to which it
has lately been reduced in this Republic.
, "Our main and fundamental object is the MAINTENANCE OF
THE SUPREMACY OF THE WHITE RACE in this Republic.
History and physiology teach us that we belong to a race which nature
hTs^nrrdrjvv^rlvifr j^odier^races^aHd-that
tTTenvTaT<eT7j^thlis~elevating us. above "thT common standard of human
creation, has intended to give us over inferior races a dominion from
wliicJi_jio_buman laws can permanently derogate. The experience of
ages demonstrate that, from the origin of the world, this dominion
has always remained in the hands of the Caucasian Race; whilst all
the other races have constantly occupied a subordinate and secondary
position; a fact which triumphantly confirms this great law of nature 
And it is a remarkable fact that as a race of men is more remote from
the Caucasian and approaches nearer to the black African, the more
fatally that stamp of inferiority is affixed to its sons, and irrevocably
dooms them to eternal imperfectibility and degradation.
/"Convinced that we are of these elements of natural ethics, we
know, besides, that the government of our Republic was established
by white men, for white men alone and that it never was in con
templation of its founders that it should fall into the hands of an in-

*:fi.:

fe",

- '¦"•'¦¦•iLVt v' '^>Jlv ""*•-¦¦
•mis

|§fH
JSafr

Photograph by J. A. Murdoch, Atlanta, Ga.
Gen. Albert Pike
Father of Scottish Rite Masonry in the United States, and Chief Judicial
Officer of the Klan in the Reconstruction Period. His statue stands in
Washington, D. C.

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN 31
ferior and degraded race. We hold, therefore, that any attempt
to wrest from the white race the management of its affairs in order
to transfer it to the control of the black population, is an invasion of
the sacred prerogatives vouchsafed to us by .the Constitution, and
a violation of the laws established by God himself; that such en
croachments are subversive of the established institutions of our
Republic, and that no individual of the white race can submit to them
without humiliation and shame.
"As an essential condition of success, this Order proscribes ab
solutely all social equality between the races. If we were to admit
persons of African race on the same level with ourselves, a state of
personal relations would follow which would unavoidably lead to
political equality ; for it would be a virtual recognition of status, after
which we could not consistently deny them an equal share in the
administration of our public affairs. The man who is good enough to
be our familiar companion is good enough also to participate in our
political government; and if we were to grant the one there could be
no good reason for us not to concede the other of these two privileges.
"There is another reason, Brothers, for which we condemn this
social equality. Its toleration would soon be a fruitful source of
intermarriages between individuals of the two races; and the result of
this miscegenation would be gradual/amalgamation JWid the production
of a degenerate and bastard . offspring, which would soon populate
these "States with a degraded and ignoble population and unfitted to
support a great and powerful country^ We, must maintain the purity
of the white blood, if we would preserve for it that natural superiority
with which God has ennobledjt. r™-»u
"To avoid these evils, therefore, we take libe' obligation TO OB
SERVE A MARKED DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE TWO
RACES?
"Our statutes make us bound to respect sedulously the rights of
the colored inhabitants of this Republic, and in every instance, to give
them whatever lawfully belongs to them. It is an act of simple justice
not to deny them any of the privileges to which they are legitimately
entitled; and we cannot better show the inherent superiority of our
race than by dealing with them in that spirit of firmness, liberality and
impartiality which characterizes all superior organizations. Besides,
it would be ungenerous for us to exercise certain rights, without con
ceding to them, at the same time, the fullest measure of those which we
recognize as theirs; and a fair construction of a white man's duty
towards them would be, not only to respect and observe their acknowl-

32 STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
edged rights, but also to see that these are respected and observed
by others.
"From the brief explanation which I have just given you, you must
have satisfied yourselves that our Association is not a political party,
and has no connection with any of the organized parties of the clay.
Nor will it lend itself to the personal advancement of individuals, or
listen to the cravings of any partisan spirit. It was organized in
order to carry out certain" great principles, from which it must never
-werve by favoring private ambitions and political aspirations. These,
as well as all sentiments of private enmity, animosity and other persona!
feelings, we must leave at the door before we enter this Council. You
may meet here, congregated together, men who belong to all the
^political organizations which now divide, or may divide this country."
\ No distinction was made in the original Klan concerning Jews and
Catholics, as is done by the present Klan. Negroes, of course, were
/not admitted to membership in the old Klan. Many Jews and Cath
olics, former Confederate soldiers, belonged to the original Klan.

5. WHY THE FIRST KU KLUX KLAN GREW
One of the causes of the immense growth of the Ku Klux Klan
throughout the South was the organization of Union Leagues. Union
Leagues were organized everywhere throughout the South and they
were composed principally of negroes with a sprinkling of white
officials. History is repeating itself according to the ancient dictum,
for even now there is in process of organization in the United States,
with headquarters in Washington, D. C, the Anti-Ku Klux Klan
Society, whose officers are negroes and its chief advisers certain
members of Congress from the Northern States, only with this dif
ference—that whereas one of the principal reasons for organization
and spread of the Ku Klux Klan after the secret Nashville Convention
was the Union Leagues throughout the South, organization of the
new Anti-Ku Klux Klan Society followed the recent Congressional
investigation of the present Ku Klux Klan.
\After 1868 there were rivals of the Ku Klux Klan in the South.
These included "Knights of the White Camelia," for a time a powerful
federated society having its largest membership in LouisianaJ The
"Constitutional Union Guards," the "White Brotherhood," the "Coun
cil of Safety," the " '76 Association," and the "Pale Faces" were others.
After 1868 all these organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan, were
societies of armed whites actually struggling for control of government
in the South and for white supremacy. Later were organized fhe
"White Line of Mississippi." the "White League" of Louisiana, and
the "Rifle Clubs" of South Carolina. These were all manifestations
of the Ku Klux spirit which had at its roots the determination of the
white man to control government in the South, and to wrest that
control from negroes and carpetbaggers.
All these secret societies, but more particularly the Ku. Klux Klan,
operated, one might say, on a local basis. That is, a Ku>Klux "Den"
of Pulaski, Tennessee, or one anywhere else, decided upon what it
should do with very little reference to the authority of the Grand
Wizard. These activities were, however, local, as the men of the local
Klan were better able to judge of local affairs. In all other matters
the authority of the Grand Wizard was always recognized. Ac
tivities of the "Den" varied according to circumstances. Some were
purely protective in purpose and existed only to check the excesses
of the newly freed blacks, who, suddenly released from slavery, i3

3-1 STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
perpetrated serious crimes and misdemeanors. Those punished or
intimidated by the Klansmen often became, if not good citizens.
at least quiet negroes. Some of the "Dens" expelled vicious county
and town public officials. Some acted as regulators of the morals of
tlie public, others worked to keep the negroes from securing land.
and the chief object of other "Dens" was to drive the blacks away
from the plantations where they were born, and upon which they had
been placed by agents of the Freedmen's Bureau.
It cannot be denied that the work of the Ku Kluxers was both
good and bad. They kept the negro quiet, made life and. property safe,
^protected womanhood, stoppedriTiceiKfiarism, and in a great many sec
tions terrorized the agents of the Freedmen's'Bureau, many of whom
'would have become, without some sort of check, the most despicable
local tyrants. The Klan put to death a few of the worst of the Fed
eral agents and ran others out of the country.
The Ku Klux Klan led the fight in the Southern States for the
white population to secure control of government from the blacks
and the carpetbaggers. On the other hand, much evil sprang from
the activities of the Ku Klux Klan. Lawless men made use of
The organization as a cloak to cover their misdeeds of various kinds,
and as a vehicle for taking vengeance on private enemies.
The real explanation of these disordered times was that the laws
were bad aud viciously administered. Therefore the people as a mass
were aroused to secure self-protection.
As an illustration of conditions which existed in the old Ku Klux
days, and the disorder which was prevalent in practically every
community in the South, we find that in Orange County. North
Carolina, three persons were hung for burning barns, one was hung
for theft, and another for committing rape. Whether or not the
local Ku Klux "Den" acted as the instrument of justice was never
known, but at that time it was certain that the carpetbag officials
were unable or unwilling to control criminals. At that date in North
Carolina the carpetbaggers and negroes had three secret organizations
of their own — the "Union League," the "Red Strings," and the
"Heroes of America."
Conditions such as are _descxLberL_in. ihis story are lamentable
but true. In 1870 and 187PCeorge Simmers', an Englishman, traveled
throughout the South. Sumner was an impartial foreign observer of
conditions in the South. Here is what he said coucernino a General
survey that he made of ten of the Southern States:
"The white people in the South at the close of the war were alarmed

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN 3i
not so much by the threatened confiscation of their property by the
Federal Government, as by more present dangers of life and property,
virtue and honor, arising from the social anarchy around them. The
negroes were disorderly. Many of them would not settle down to
labor on any terms, but roamed about with arms in their hands and
hunger in their bellies, and the governing power, with the usual blind
determination of a victorious party, was thinking only all the while
of every device of suffrage and reconstruction by which the 'freedmen'
might be strengthened and made, under Northern dictation, the ruling
power in the country. Agitators of the loosest fiber came down among
the towns and plantations, and organizing a Union League, held mid
night meetings with the negroes in the woods, and went about
uttering sentiments which, to say the least, in all circumstances were
anti-social and destructive. Crimes and outrages increased. The
law, which must be always more or less weak in thinly populated "
countries, was all but powerless, and the new governments in the
South were unable to repress disorders or to spread a general sense
of security throughout the community. A real terror reigned for a
time among the white people, and in this situation the Ku Klux
started into being. -. It was one of those secret organizations which
spring up in disordered states of society, when the bonds of law and
government are all but dissolved, and when no confidence is felt in
the regular administration of justice. But the power with which
the Ku Klux moved in many parts of the South, the knowledge it dis
played of all that was going on, the fidelity with which its secret
was kept, and the complacency with" which it was regarded by the
general community, gave this mysterious body a prominence and
importance seldom attained by such illegal and deplorable associations.
(Nearly every respectable man in the Southern States was not only
disfranchised, but under fear of arrest or confiscation; tb.e_jild_icjmda:
tions of authority were utterly razed befj3r^^ny_.uejv_ojTejJhad y^et
been laid, and in the dark jind t^nighted_ interval the remains of the
Confederate armies — swept, a fter-a long and Jieroic day of fair fight,
from theJM_d^j_tl£dJ3£fiDr-e^ and
midnight shape_pX.a_^Ku Khix Klan.' "

•«ft  ^Tr^rSJ^1  rj^

6. WORK OF THE FIRST KU KLUX KLAN
An air of mystery and secrecy always surrounded the operations of
a local "Den" of the Ku Klux Klan. No person not a member of the
"Den" ever knew when the "Den" met. and in some "Dens" the
members did not know each other. Only the "Grand Cyclops" and
his assistants had the membership roll, and knew by name and usually
by sight the whole local membership.
Fair-minded investigators agree that in reconstruction days the
Ku Klux Klan performed many acts of 'violence and intimidation,
but in a search of the old records and newspapers of those times it
has been impossible to find any- instance where the Ku Klux Klan,
regularly organized as a local "Den," maltreated or molested in any
wayjjieaceful and quiet citizens, either white or blackj The activities
of the white-clad riders were invariably directed against bad white men
and disorderly negroes. In a large majority of cases the work of
the Klan did not involve personal violence, and in most instances
the mere knowledge of the fact that the Ku Kluxers were organized
in any neighborhood wd~- sufficient to make that section law abiding.
quiet, and orderly.
Often written warnings were sent to objectionable men among the
white and black population, and these communications usually were
pinned at night upon the doors of the houses of those who were warned.
A rude scrawl, decorated with skull and cross bones, and signed Ku
Klux Klan, was usually sufficient to cause the objectionable white
or black to speedily mend his ways. If he persisted in being obnoxious
to the neighborhood, a solitary Ku Kluxer, robed in white, would rap
at his door at night and personally serve notice on him that if he
persisted in his evil ways the Klan would take strong measures. Only
a few acts of violence were perpetrated in places where the local
"Dens" were well organized, and any visitations from the Klan which
involved bodily punishment were nearly always, it must be acknowl
edged. _deservecL by ,jthe_ victim,, provided the local law had ignored
l-us-juisckeds. The times were extraordinarily disorderly, and while
the Ku Klux Klan operated, in defiance of organized law, the or
ganized law itself, in many sections, was powerless or ineffective.
Under such conditions it was natural that some force for law and
order, such as the Ku Klux Klan, existed.
In many instances where Union Leagues held meetings at night,
36

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN" 3/
or where unruly or disorderly negroes gathered in considerable num
bers, the white-clad horsemen silently appeared on the roads leading
to the meeting places, and usually this warning was sufficient without
any act of violence.
The superstitious or criminally inclined negroes and whites were
watched closely everywhere, and sometimes a "Den"' would divide
itself into squads and ride all night, appearing in widely separate
sections of the country, where their mere appearance was sufficient
to intimidate the unruly whites and the superstitious negroes. It was
a favorite .warning of the Ku Kluxers to have one of their number
appear at the cabin of a marked negro at night and ask for a drink
of water. The Klansman would apparently drink a whole bucket
of water, the fluid being contained in some receptacle, rubber bag or
canteen, concealed on his person, and after the enormous draft had
been swallowed, he would remark to the already frightened negro
that it was the first drink he had received since he had been killed
at the Battle of Shiloh. People who have spent any time in the
South, even in these times, can readily understand how the extremely
superstitious negro could be frightened, no matter how unreasonable
this incident would seem.
In other cases, where warnings were not sufficient to curb un
desirable characters, particularly .drunkards, disord^riypersons. and
li©r-se^n4~<^it£l£~t-b-ieve-s^ methods
.were adopted. -The- ^-ictim-Ai•J^ld_b£^eb;ed_at_uigJlL.^nd_taken to the
weeds-err- a~ nearfby corn field and soundly beaten. He would then
be released with the injunction to "go and sin no more," and usually
one visitation of this kind was sufficient to accomplish the purpose
sought. Where more serious crimes were committed, such as nu+FC-ler,
robbery, or rape, the culprit was taken at night and hung to a tree on
the puJ2licliigh\yay^or_.ii iiot executed in this manner he was shot.
In all the history of the operation of the Ku Klux Klan in the
South there is not one recorded instance, as far as the writer can
find, where any woTnlihTw1itte'~of'black, was molested by the Klansmen.
Occasionally it_^caure?rThat the carpetbag officials of a county
or an agent of the Freedmen's Bureau were obnoxious to the popula
tion. The Klan would serve notice to depart from the neighborhood,
and in most instances these men left between suns. If they did not
heed the warnings they were seized and thrashed, and, in some
isolated cases, hung or shot.
On more than one occasion the carpetbag officials, backed by the
bayonets of the negro militia, refused to heed the warnings, and a

3< STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
pitched battle, usually at night, would occur, in which the Ku Kluxers
nearly always came off victorious. Many were killed or wounded
on both sides in the>e sanguinary affrays.
The Klan paid particular attention to righting wrongs of widows
and orphans. Any person who oppressed the defensele-s was certain
to receive a warning from the Klan, aud unless he speedily corrected
his ways a visitation of the night riders would occur which gave
him considerable bodily pain and, in extreme cases, cost his life.
The Klan also marked with its all-seeing eye persons who endeavored
to incite the blacks against the whites, and also those who advocated
social equality between the races. These persons were warned to
leave the neighborhood, and if they did not leave they suffered serious
consequences. Usually one warning was enough, and the person who
had incurred the displeasure of the Klan was only too glad to rlee.
The Klansmen always organized on a military or a semimilitary
basis, and included in their organization many of the men who had
served in the cavalry of the Confederate Army. They had proved
themselves formidable foes on many battlefields. All were expert
riders and good shots. Their weapons were usually the old style
cap and ball Colt six-shooter, which was such an effective weapon
in the hands of the Confederate and Union cavalry.
On rare occasions the Ku Kluxers would invade the quarters of an
obnoxious carpetbag county judge or prosecuting attorney and shoot
him offhand, two or three members of the "Den" acting a> execu
tioners. Any public official who used his office to oppress a citizen in any
way was speedily made aware of the fact that the Klan had its eve
on him. The local "Dens," while themselves operating in defiance of
all law, exercised a salutary effect in preserving law and order during
reconstruction. Encounters often reaching the magnitude of small pitched battles
occasionally occurred between the negro militia and the Klansmen.
When this happened victory nearly always perched upon the standard
of the "Flaming Cross."
The Klan, too, made its force felt in another way, which was almost
a.? effective as its violent methods. The carpetbaggers, negro officers
and other persons who had incurred the dislike of the Southern
population, were rigidly ostracized. They were ignored in all the
walks of life, and in churches, schools and public meetings, as well
a.- in all business matters, an effective personal boycott was established
against them. With this in operation it was not very long before

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN 39
many of the carpetbag officers thought the county too unpleasant or
unhealthy for them, and they migrated back to the North from
whence they had come. The consequence of this policy was that
many of the invaders from the North were also forced to associate
only with the negroes, and few of them could stand treatment of
that kind long. The policy of ostracizing obnoxious officials and
others proved as effective in causing them to seek new pastures as
the more violent operations of the Klansmen.
Because the membership and operations of the Klan were invariably
held in secret, it was often put in a position where it could not defend
itself against accusations which were made against it. Many crimes
and misdemeanors were perpetrated in the South in these times by
others than Klansmen, who used the Order to cover their personal
misdeeds. Then, too, as in every organization, bad men gained ad
mission to the "Dens," and some of them used their membership in
the Order to satisfy private hatreds and grudges on their neighbors.

7. A REAL INVISIBLE EMPIRE
We have seen in the new Ku Klux Klan a parallel to these condi
tions, in that various disorders which have occurred, particularly in.
Texas, were traced by the Atlanta Klan Headquarters to men who had
no official connection with the local Klan. Wherever this happened
the Imperial Wizard, according to evidence obtained at Atlanta head
quarters, invariably endeavored to assist the local officers in prose
cuting the guilty. In all great organizations undesirable members
often secure admittance, even in the churches and fraternal orders.
This fact is well known to everybody who belongs to a fraternal order
or a church. The Klan in the old days, as well as in present times, has
often been blamed for crimes and misdemeanors with which it had
no connection whatever.
"The Invisible Empire" was well named, for it was really an in
visible empire. While its work was crude and often violent, it
exercised a potent influence in recovering white supremacy in the
South, and was undoubtedly the chief factor in the political recon
struction of the South which resulted in the white people regaining
control of their governments. The state and county governments
were in the hands of war governors and other officials, appointed
from Washington, as well as agents of the Freedmen's Bureau, and
the military commanders, were all hostile to the Klan.
Repeatedly, in nearly every section where a "Den" existed, the
constituted authorities made desperate efforts to obtain a list of the
members of the Klan and to break up the local "Den." For a former
Confederate soldier to be found with a Klan uniform on his premises
was always followed by immediate arrest and imprisonment, and in
some cases the discovery of the white regalia resulted in a summary
execution. Dut the Klan was so thoroughly organized everywhere and so
bound together by mutual interests that there is not known a single
instance in reconstruction times where a military commander was able
to discover any of the secrets of the Klan or cause disbandment of a
"Den." Klansmen practiced absolute loyalty to their "Grand Cyclops," and
"Den" members maintained the secrecy and the cardinal principles
upon which the Order was founded. Usually the "Grand Cyclops"
was the most prominent citizen in his community and a man of standing
40

Photograph by /. A. Murdoch, Atlanta, Ga.
Ci.axsmi.x of Reconstruction Period

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN" 4J
influence, and good character. His assistants were nearly always of
the same type, and these level-headed men were dominated only with
the purpose to prevent misgovernment and to punish the guiltv in
their neighborhood. This was the general policy throughout alt their
local "Dens." There were, however, instances of abuse of the power
possessed by a "Den."
A local "Den" never had a regular meeting place. This was for
the purpose of securing greater secrecy. The Klan nearly always
met at night, when there was moonlight, and usually in woodland
or abandoned farming land, where it was unlikely anyone would
discover the masked riders at assembly. Every member of the Klan
was obligated to hasten to the meeting place when summoned. The
policy that was always followed in regard to persons who had to
be corrected in the neighborhood was to consider their case at the
Klan's meeting, and it was the invariable practice to first serve
warning on the obnoxious one. If he did not speedily reform, another
meeting of the Klan decided on his punishment. Notices were pre
pared in an illiterate manner so as to mystify the recipient and better
preserve the secrecy. Such warnings were always posted at night.
From a study of reconstruction it is evident that the Klan's secret
methods certainly subdued or intimidated the negro and bad white
men. and caused the white people to feel that an invisible power
existed for their protection, under which they felt secure, much more
so than they regarded the local laws and the carpetbag officers as
means of protection to life and property.
Occasionally it happened that the "Grand Cyclops" of a Klan was
an incapable person, and under his leadership the Klan sometimes
committed indiscretions in direct contradiction to its principles. Some
times it occurred that former Confederate soldiers, young men of
an adventurous disposition, made up the membership of a Klan, and
an organization of that kind also sometimes deviated from the purpose
for which it was organized. Law-abiding and honest men who found
themselves in such "Dens" took the first opportunity to withdraw.
Manv men in these circumstances were glad to renounce their mem
bership without appearing to be traitors to the oath they had taken.
The Klan also played an important part in politics, and in neighbor
hoods where a "Den" was strongly organized and numerous in mem
bership the members intimidated the negroes and kept them from the
polls in elections. Often men in large numbers, who were thought
to be Klansmen, attended the polls, and, heavily armed, by a threatening
attitude prevented the negroes from electing their candidate. They

^ STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
were thus able to convince the negro that it was not wise for the
black race to participate actively in political affairs, and this contrib
uted probably more than any other maneuver of the whites in wresting
control of their governments from the hands of the carpetbaggers.
It not infrequently happened that the activity of the local "Den"
met the approval of the Federal garrisons, and instances are known of
former Union soldiers and officers who settled in the South after the
end of the war who were members of the Ku Klux Klan, and who were
thoroughly in sympathy with the efforts of the white population to
establish law and get control of their government. There was hardly
ever personal animosity between Union soldiers who settled in the
South after the war and the Confederates. Rather a spirit of soldierly
comradship existed between the former foes. Few indeed of the
carpetbag officials or agents of the Freedmen's Bureau had served in
the Union Army.
A strategic policy of the Klan, which proved very effective in
preventing Federal army commanders from tracing their movements
or gaining information concerning their night riding, was that non
resident "Dens" would carry on operations, the local "Dens" where
the action was taken remaining quiescent. A "Den" near the Alabama
State line would raid into Mississippi, riding at night perhaps a
distance of 25 or 30 miles, visit punishment on a victim marked out
by the Mississippi "Den," and by daylight be back over the Alabama
line and disbanded at their homes. Under such procedure it was
practically impossible for Federal army commanders to gain any
information of the activities of the horsemen who rode by ni<dit.
Following is an official order of the Pulaski "Den," published in
1869. It a type of similar orders and Klan proclamation used
throughout the South: "LIeadquarters Realm No. 1,
Dreadful Era, Black Epoch,
Dreadful Hour.
"General Order No. 1,
"Whereas, information of an authentic character has reached these
headquarters that the blacks in the counties of Marshall, Maury,
Giles, and Lawrence are organized into military companies, with the
avowed purpose to make war upon and exterminate the Ku Klux Klan,
said blacks are hereby solemnly warned and ordered to desist from
further action in such organizations, if they exist.
"The Grand Dragon regrets the necessity of such an order. But
this Klan shall not be outraged and interfered with by lawless negroes

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN 45
and r.ieaner white men, who do not and never have understood our
purpose. "Ii the first place this Klan is not an institution of violence, law
lessness, and cruelty; it is not lawless; it is not aggressive; it is not
military; it is not revolutionary.
"ft is, essentially, originally, and inherently a protective organiza-
tioi . It proposes to execute law instead of resisting it ; and to
protect all good men, whether white or black, from the outrages and
atrocities of bad men of both colors, who have been for the past
three years a terror to society and an injury to us all.
"The blacks seem to be impressed with the belief that this Klan
is especially their enemy. We are not the enemy of the blacks, as
long as they behave themselves, make no threats upon us, and do not
attack or interfere with us.
"But if they make war upon us they must abide the awful retribu
tion that will follow.
- "This Klan while in its peaceful movements, and disturbing no one,
has been fired into three times. This will not be endured any longer ;
and if it occurs again, and the parties be discovered, a remorseless
vengeance will be wrecked upon them.
"We reiterate that we are for peace and law and order. No man,
white or black, shall be molested for his political sentiments.
"Outrages have been perpetrated by irresponsible parties in the
name of this Klan. Should such parties be apprehended, they will
be dealt with in a manner to insure us future exemption from such
imposition. These imposters have, in some instances, whipped negroes..
This is wrong! It is denounced by this Klan, as it must be by all
good and humane men."

4?':

8. DISBANDMENT OF THE KLAN
CXhe activities of the Ku Klux Klan aroused great hostility among
the war governors, carpetbag officials, agents of the Freedmen's
Bureau, and the Federal military commanders^
The first legislative action by a Southern State to curb the activity
of the Klan was begun in 1868. In September of that year Governor
Brownlow, familiarly known as "Parson" Brownlow, governor of
Tennessee, called the State Legislature in session and had an act
passed placing a rigid ban on the Klan. This act provided that any
person who iJiaj3_jUTy^connection _ .with the ICan~was_to blfjfmed'TioT
less than $500 and imprisoned in the penitentiary _for not less than
five~years. TcTgive aid or comfort, or to shelter or feed any Klu
Kluxer subjected any person to the same penalty. In an endeavor to
make the statute effective, informers were to receive, where a con
viction occurred, half of the $500 fine. This law also provided that
any citizen had authority to summarily arrest a Klansman anywhere
within the bounds of the state without process of law, and it even
went so far as to give authority to any citizen to arrest a person
under suspicion of being a Klansman. Few arrests were made, and
the law was practically a dead letter. The Klan was particularly
well organized at that time in Tennessee, having about 40,000 members."
Instead of informers prosecuting the Klansmen, the new law at first
had the effect of increasing the determination of the white population
to assist the Klan more than ever. "Parson" Brownlow made vig
orous efforts to enforce the law while he was governor of Tennessee.
but was not able to accomplish much toward breaking up the Klan
in that state.
Notwithstanding the severe provisions of the law, the Klan operated
in Tennessee successfully for nearly a year. It disbanded, not because
of the law, but because conditions had changed. The Tennessee law
was followed by similar action in other states, notably Alabama and
Mississippi. Alabama passed a law in 1868 modeled on the Tennessee
law, and the Mississippi Legislature acted in 1870. Two years later
the Congressional investigation of the Klan occurred.
In February, 1869, Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, the "Grand
¦Wizard" of the organization, issued a proclamation to' the members
of the "Invisible Empire." This proclamation described the action
of the Tennessee Legislature against the Klan, and went on to state
46

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN 47
that the Klan had largely accomplished the purpose for which it
had been organized, and that robbery, crime, and lawlessness had
been suppressed. Present conditions, said the "Grand Wizard."'
afforded adequate protection to property, life, and society. The South
was not longer fearful for lives or property. The "Grand Wizard"
declared that he had complete authority to do anything that he wished
for the benefit of the Order, and he therefore declared the Klan dis
solved and disbanded. The proclamation was addressed to all of the
subdivisions of the "Invisible Empire." Some of the Klans obeyed
the proclamation and some did not. In Tennessee the "Dens" were
soon disbanded because that state had recovered Constitutional gov
ernment and the reconstruction regime had practically ended.
Though many "Dens" were disbanded in Tennessee in 1869 and
1870, in other states, particularly Mississippi and Alabama, the local
Klans continued their operations as late as the fall of 1873.
Nathan Bedford Forrest was undoubtedly the best man in the entire
South to serve the organization as the "Grand Wizard." He acquired
a reputation as a great strategian, tactician, and hard fighter in the
Confederate Army during the Civil War, second to no other general
in ejther Union or Confederate army. A man of dauntless courage,
great resourcefulness, and unbounded energy, he was an ideal "Im
perial Wizard" of the "Invisible Empire."
By the end of 1873 the local "Dens" as constituted subdivisions
of the "Invisible Empire," were practically disbanded throughout the
entire South. They ceased their work as organized Klansmen, but
the same movement with many of the same men continued at intervals
for several years afterward. This was done despite the fact that
after 1873 conditions in the South had greatly changed, the white in
habitants had been able to reestablish Constitutional government nearly
everywhere, and to take control of their political affairs.
Though the Klansmen as Klansmen were disbanded, other organiza
tions continued under the names of "The White League," the "White
Brotherhood," "Pale Faces," "Constitutional Union Guards," and
"Knights of the White Camelia." The "Knights of the White Camelia"^
were strong, particularly in Louisiana, practically the entire Klan
membership arraying themselves in the ranks of the new Knights.
In examining old records and documents of the original Ku Klux
Klan interesting rituals were discovered. For instance, the initiation
oath of the "White Brotherhood" was as follows :
"You solemnly swear in the presence of the Almighty God. that
vou will never reveal the name of the person 'who initiated vou ; and

4S STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN"
that you will never reveal what is now about to come to your knowledge ;
and that you are not now a member of the Red String Order. Union
League, Heroes of America, Grand Army of the Republic, or any
other organization whose aim and intention is to destroy the rights
uf the South, or of the States, or of the people, or to elevate the negro
to political equality with themselves ; and that you are opposed to
all such principles ; so help you God."
All these organizations gradually went out of existence and by 1880
it is probable there were no Ku Klux "Dens" or units of the other
organizations in existence.
(^_The real reason for the gradual disappearance of the Ku Klux Klan
^and its successors under various names was that the unbearable condi
tions existing in the Southern States from 1865 to 1873 had disap
peared. The Klan and its successors vanished with these conditionsT}
Lmdoubtedly the flight of the carpetbaggers, withdrawal of the
Freedmen's Bureau agents and military commanders, and the substitu
tion of Constitutional state government for military rule were the real
factors which abolished the Ku Klux Klan and its successors. Had
reconstruction conditions in the South continued the Klan would
have existed coincident with these conditions.
Daniel H. Chamberlain, Reconstruction governor of South Carolina,
said concerning the Southern white man of his day:
"I consider him a distinct and really noble growth of our American
soil. For if fortitude under good and under evil fortune, if endurance
without complaint of what comes in the tide of human affairs, if a
grim clinging to ideals once charming, if vigor and resiliencv of
character and spirit under defeat and poverty and distress, if a stead v
love of learning and letters when libraries were lost in flames and
the wreckage of war, if self-restraint when the long-delayed relief
at last came — if, I say, all these qualities are parts of real heroism.
if these qualities can vivify and ennoble a man or a people, then
our own South may lay claim to an honored place among the differino-
types of our great common race."
The Ku Klux Klan had accomplished the purpose for which it was
organized. However much opinion in the North may differ as to
the justification for the organization it is probable that the cntir
native white population of the South backed the Klan, and all Southern
men were either active members of the "Dens," or secret sympathizers
Methods of reconstruction of the South by the victorious North
are now recognized to have been too drastic and in manv instances
indefensible. Such a policy brought together every element in the

e

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN 49
South against the Republican Party, and we have inherited from those
days the "Solid South," which exists today, and which sixty years
after the Civil War still presents an unbreakable front of political
opposition to the Republican Party. The Ku Klux Klan was only
a manifestation of the spirit of opposition to reconstruction measures
taken by the North, and the masked rider in his white robe wa- a
symbol of the spirit of the South in revolt against carpetbag govern
ment and negro misrule. These are facts that cannot be explained
away, and today our Northern historians, no matter how unpalatable
the facts, recognize that conditions existing in the South in recon
struction times were intolerable.
Time is a great healer of all hatreds and all feuds, and the passing
years have done much to nullify the spirit of resentment which
stirred the South in reconstruction days, but that section has in
herited and still possesses the "Solid South" as a tangible result of
reconstruction as administered by the North. The Republican Party,
except in rare instances where political landslides have occurred in
presidential elections, has never since the Civil War been able to
establish itself firmly in the South despite repeated efforts. This
is largely the result of the reconstruction policy of the North after
the Civil War, and in many sections of the South today the Republican
Party is still regarded with a bitter hatred which is hardly under
standable by a new generation in the North.
As the South had been defeated on the battlefields and was ab
solutely bankrupt 'after Appomattox, the Southern people were not in
a position to start another armed rebellion. But the organization of
the Ku Klux Klan undoubtedly was a form of rebellion against the
tyranny of reconstruction policies.
The American Colonies revolted from Great Britain in 1776, under
provocations that were not nearly as irksome and irritating as the
conditions which were imposed on the South during reconstruction.
The Ku Klux Klan, therefore, indirectly is partly responsible today
for the political situation in the United States. This organization
exerted a profound influence on our politics.
All of the similar organizations which succeeded the Ku Klux
Klan, while not as effective or as well organized as the parent body,
were in some states equally as active.

9. THE FIRST CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION
State, county, and city elections in the South in 1870, when the
white population was engaged in taking control of government from
the carpetbaggers, and control of State Legislatures was seized by
the whites, who ousted negro state senators and representatives, caused
much turmoil and excitement south of the Mason and Dixon line.
The Ku Klux Klan participated largely in these elections and was a
potent factor in overthrowing carpetbag and negro rule. There were
many affrays at the polls, and the Ku Kluxers, as well as other
Southern men, used the six-shooter and the shotgun as a method of
direct persuasion at many election places. The negroes were in
timidated and prevented from voting in hundreds of places, and the
carpetbagger, if he insisted upon participating in elections, was terrified
by open threats of violence, which often culminated in shooting af
frays. In this year the whites really regained control of their own
political affairs in the South.
Professor Walter Henry Cook, of the Western Reserve University,
of Cleveland, Ohio, in his "Secret Political Societies in the South
During the Period of Reconstruction," says :
"The Ku Klux accomplished much. From a political viewpoint it
secured home rule for several of the Southern States. It ended the
disgraceful rule of the carpetbaggers therein, and it helped to re
established honest' and efficient governmental institutions. This ex
ample was an inspiration which, after 1872, soon led the men of the
Southern States, still in radical control, to the glorious victory in re
gaining self-government.
"From an economical standpoint, the negroes were frightened into
going to work and were prevented to a large extent from breaking
labor contracts. These were important services in the rehabilitation
of the South.
"From a social standpoint, the Klan protected property, protected
life, and brought order out of chaos."
Woodrow Wilson, War President of the United States, in his
"History of the American People," says :
"Adventurers swarmed out of the North, as much the enemies of one
race as of the other, to cozen, beguile and use the negroes. The
white men were aroused by a mere instinct of self-preservation until
50

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN 51
at last there sprang into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable
Empire of the South, to protect the Southern country."
Many accounts of the election disorders were published in the
Northern newspapers, and much excitement and resentment over the
situation existed in the North. Northern newspapers of that period
bitterly denounced the Southern people and their election methods.
Finally Congress, responsive to the agitation and anti-Klan propaganda
in the North, which was directed more at the Ku Klux Klan than
at the Southern people as a people, on April 20. 1871, passed the
Ku Klux Act. Briefly described, this law authorized the President
to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in order to effectively deal with
the Ku Klux Klan and the other brotherhoods, which were termed
"conspiracies," and it enlarged the powers of the Federal courts.
A congressional committee was appointed to investigate "All affairs in
the late insurrectionary states." Subcommittees of this committee
visited the South and accumulated a great amount of evidence which
fills 13 volumes, copies of which repose on dust-covered- shelves in
the Congressional Library. The investigation had important results
in two ways. From it the Ku Klux Klan was brought to realize
the danger to their Order and similar organizations by interference of
Congressional committees instigated in the North. The investigation
convinced Ku Klux members who had determined upon continuing
the Klan organization that it would be best to dissolve the Klan,
and those Southern white men who had advocated disbanding the
Klans were encouraged by the Congressional committee. The result
was that the remaining Klan organizations in nearly every section
were dissolved.
The Ku Klux Klan had officially ceased to exist, previous to the
congressional investigation, however, by proclamation of the "Imperial
Wizard," General "Forrest. The imperial edict was issued in March,
1869, when the Klan was dissolved.
Prior to the passage of the Ku Klux Act, Congress, spurred on by
the activities of the Ku Klux Klan, and encouraged by the clamor in
the North against the Klan, passed on May 31, 1870, the "Enforce
ment Act." This was planned to protect the rights of citizens to vote
in all elections "without distinction of color or race." The act con
ferred upon United Stales courts the authority to punish persons
going in disguise upon highways, or who operated disguised for the
purpose of intimidating or preventing a citizen exercising his electoral
rights. The old "Civil Rights Act" of 1866 was incorporated in the
new enforcement act, and the principal provision of the 1866 law

?-' STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
was to be enforced by the Federal courts. In 1871 Congress passed a
supplementary Enforcement Act which strengthened the Enforcement
Act of May 31, 1870. President Grant called the attention of Con
gress to the disorderly conditions at elections in the South, and the
Ku Klux Act was then passed. The crux of the Ku Klux Act was
that where unlawful conspiracies, such as the Ku Klux Klan was con
sidered to be by the Republican majority in Congress and the Grant
Administration, existed, the writ of habeas corpus could be suspended
by the President and he could use the military and naval forces of
the United States to enforce the act. The Ku Klux Act was in fact
a bestowal upon the chief magistrate of arbitrary power of the army
and navy to put down disorders in the South. It was, of course,
aimed principally at the Ku Klux Klan. The enforcement of this
legislation, where Federal troops were employed at the polls in the
South, almost caused another armed insurrection and led to continued
agitation and acts of violence between Southern men and Federal
soldiers. Enforcement of the Ku Klux Act and the Enforcement Act caused
more disorders than before, and the legislation did not result in the
.suppression of the Ku Klux and similar orders because the Ku Klux
as an organization had already ceased to exist in 1869 by the edict
of the "Grand Wizard." The law in some sections brought a veritable
reign of terror. Prominent citizens who were under suspicion of
being Ku Kluxers or sympathizers of the organization were often
seized arbitrarily by orders of military commanders and thown into
jail, where they remained without trial, and where they were kept at
the whim of the Federal authorities.
In 1883 the United States Supreme Court declared unconstitutional
interference by Congress with elections in the South. The damage,
however, had already, been done, and the effect of "the law, which the
Southern people believed oppressed them politically and socially, only
had the effect of rendering more stubborn the resistance to Federal
authority and the soldiers by the Southern white man. It further
consolidated and strengthened the "Solid South" as a political entity.
Impartial historians are now agreed that it was a mistake on the
part of Congress to attempt to coerce the South, - and it was also
impolitic for any power to attempt to cause the Anglo-Saxon race in
the South to become submerged under a black political wave. The real
roots of the Ku Klux Klan can be traced back to those qualities
of the Anglo-Saxon race, existing both in the North and the South,
which forbade amalgamation of the white blood with an inferior

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN 55
race, and the possession of a spirit which was determined to be
dominant in government at all hazards. Had conditions been reversed
the Northern people undoubtedly- would have acted exactly as did the
Southerners. In 1872 Congress passed an act restoring' the right to vote and
to hold office by the former Confederates, and it was not long before
the able white leaders in the South had taken direction of all political
affairs in that part of the country. The disorderly conditions gradually-
disappeared, Federal troops were withdrawn, and the South really
began her political recovery. The era of reconstruction ended.
Sentiment in Congress and the North against the Ku Klux Klan
and the terrible political and social conditions which prevailed in the
South prior to 1870 was not all one way, and opinion as to these
conditions and concerning the Ku Klux Klan was divided in the
North. This is shown by the fact that the Congressional Committee
which investigated the Ku Klux Klan presented majority and minority-
reports. The majority reports set forth that a Southern conspiracy of
a political nature existed against constitutional law and the negro
race. The minority report stated that misgovernment and exploitation
of the South by reconstruction officials had provoked the natural
resentment and resistance of the people of that section. Thus the car
petbagger and the negro legislature were officially condemned by a con
gressional committee, though in a minority report.
Before the passage of the Ku Klux Act there had been many-
stirring debates in Congress concerning Southern conditions. These,
carried by the press, served to inform Northern people as to the real
conditions in the South.
After 1872 agitation concerning the Ku Klux practically ended.
A better feeling began to prevail in the South. The North, too.
realized the disadvantages under which the Southern people had
labored, and the two sections once divided by a fratricidal strife
began to have a more friendly feeling.
The Spanish-American War, in 1898, recemented both sections
and performed the final act of reunion which again welded the Re
public into a coherent whole. The son or grandson of the man who
wore the Confederate gray, who marched and fought and died by the
side of his "bunkie," a grandson or a son of Ihe man who had worn
the LTnion blue, both fighting to free the Cuban, both fighting to
strike off the shackles of Spanish tyranny from a helpless people
and an oppressed but alien race, did more to unite the North and the

5<* STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
South than all the reconstruction laws passed by Congress and all
the agitation since 1865.
In Washington, D. C, there is a Camp of the United Spanish-
American War Veterans in which one of the most honored and active
members is a Confederate veteran.
The World WTar further brought the men of the North and the
South aud their descendants together, and today the United States
knows no North and no South, no East and no West. We are all one
glorious American family, if we can ever Americanize our big alien
population.

10. ORIGIN OF THE NEW KLAN
E^ery great movement has behind it a man with an idea. The
man behind the modern Ku Klux Klan is Col. William Joseph.
Simmons, of Atlanta, Georgia, "Imperial Wizard" of the organization.
The primary idea which animated the founder of the new Klan was
patriotism, Americanism, and the supremacy of the Caucasian race.
Colonel Simmons is a remarkable man, mentally and physically. He
admirably fills the part of "Imperial Wizard," to which office he has
been elected for life by the Knights of the "Invisible Empire." In
any sphere of life Colonel Simmons would have been a great success.
Impressions of the ruler of the Invisible Empire were gained by the
writer from many personal interviews with Colonel Simmons and
close association with him for some time in Atlanta, the headquarters
of the Klan, and during the congressional investigation in Washington.
He is a remarkable man in many ways. He is 6 feet 2 inches tall,
weighs about 220 pounds, is perfectly proportioned, has a most engag
ing personality, and the whole impression of the man is pleasing.
His manner is always cordial and gracious to a stranger, and his
assistants and those who know him personally in Atlanta respect
and love him. Colonel Simmons has a well-developed sense of humor
and likes to tell anecdotes and crack jokes with his friends. In other
ages this man undoubtedly would have risen high, for he has an
imposing and majestic presence and great ability. Common sense,
calm judgment, and a vast experience dominate his every action.
There is at all times surrounding him an air of dignity, and he is at
the same time affable to all. His disposition is kindly, and he
possesses a courageous and charitable heart. Colonel Simmons is a
fearless man, and he has never paid attention to the innumerable
anonymous communications threatening his life, which the Klan is
continually receiving in Atlanta. He goes about Atlanta unattended
and unarmed the same as any citizen bent upon his daily business.
Before and after the congressional investigation, however, his host
of friends insisted that some precautions be taken to prevent his
assassination, which was threatened by numerous signed and unsigned
letters. So against his protests guards were provided for his home, -
and for the Imperial Palace, headquarters for the Klan in Atlanta.
These guards were mostly volunteers and members of the Atlanta Klan.
Thev served in relays night and day. 57

5« STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
Colonel Simmons sprang from that sturdy Scotch-Irish and English
stock that carved out a new government and a new land in the South
and the West.
An investigation of the personal history of the man convinces the
observer of two things concerning this really remarkable personage:
1st. The many experiences of his life illustrate his untiring energy,
indomitable courage, and complete devotion to any work; cause, or
ideal in which he may be engaged.
2d. All of his past experiences have been merely a training for
his work in establishing the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
Colonel Simmons has been in turn a student, soldier, Methodist
minister, and an organizer for fraternal orders. In all of these
occupations he was a conspicuous success.
Born on a farm in Alabama, his boyhood was spent in agricultural
pursuits. His father was a practicing physician, and the boy desired
to follow in his parent's footsteps. The Simmons family was not
rich, and the income derived from the father's country practice and
from the farm was not sufficient to give the youth the medical educa
tion he had determined to secure. He went to a wealthy uncle and
risked him to advance the money to pay for a medical education. His
uncle informed him, if he would work his way through the first year
of a medical college, he, the uncle, would loan him the money necessary
to pay for the remaining years of the course.
Young Simmons for two years took a preliminary medical course
under a special preceptor of Johns Hopkins University, of Baltimore,
Maryland, paying his expenses by work of various kinds outside of
study hours. He finished his first two years with credit. When he saw
his uncle and told him what he had done, and asked this relative to
advance the money for the remainder of his medical course his uncle
laughed and informed the crestfallen young student that he was
only joking when he promised to loan the money. This crushed
Simmons completely for the time being and temporarily destroyed
his optimistic and youthful faith in human nature. He could not
understand why his own uncle would repudiate a solemn promise.
Unable to secure the money to finish his medical education, the aspiring
young man did not know what to do.
The war with Spain began, and he determined to adopt a military
career. He went to the nearest recruiting station, enlisted in the 1st
Alabama Volunteer Infantry, plunging into military life with the same
earnestness of purpose which characterized him in all other studies.
He had been in camp but a few days when he asked one of his officers

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN 59
where he could secure a book on military tactics, for he had already
determined to quickly master military tactics and devote his life to the
Army. Colonel Simmons remembet-s to this day the reply of the
officer when he .isked him where he could secure a book on tactics,
The officer said: "What in hell do you want with a book on military-
tactics ?"
The raw recruit insisted that he must get a book on tactics, and
he gave the officer all the money he had to buy the book for him. When
he secured the textbook he often studied it at night when the regiment
was sleeping. The result was that he advanced more rapidly in mili
tary knowledge than the other men of his company, and at the end
of the war was preparing to remain in the Army. As soon as he was
honorably discharged, his discharge reading: "Services honest and
faithful," he hastened back to his Alabama home and there took up
again the burden of helping support his mother and the other children
The young veteran, back on the farm, was converted at a Methodist
camp meeting — "got the old-time religion," as he expresses it. The
conversion was thorough, for young Simmons determined to be
come a minister.
While Colonel Simmons is an intense man of action in many lines
of endeavor, he is also a dreamer. All great men in history have been
men of action and men of dreams. The "Imperial Wizard" says he
does not believe in visions, and yet he relates a mysterious and interest
ing occurrence which he says he does not understand to this day.
He was then a poor minister in Alabama, and one summer night was
sitting at his window watching the clouds as they drifted in front of the
moon. Suddenly he thought he caught sight of something mysterious
and strange in the sky. and as he looked at the clouds a row- of horses
seemed to be galloping across the horizon. White-robed figures were
on the steeds. The clouds seemed to disperse, and a rough outline of
the United States appeared as a background. The horses remained,
and then one big problem after another of American life moved across
the map.
He fell to his knees and offered a prayer to God to help solve the
mystery of the apparitions he had seen in the sky. He then registered
a vow that a great patriotic fraternal order should be builded as a
memorial to the heroes of our nation.
That was the real beginning of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan,
he savs, and set him to dreaming of the time when he would be able
to create the present organization of the "Invisible Empire," now-
existing throughout the United States.

•SO STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
Readers will smile or scoff at this story, bu it is a well-known
fact that men who have headed great movements have seen visions.
Scientists have explained this phenomenon as a psychic manifestation
of unconscious desires, but to the. dreamer it seems a visible material
ization of what is probabb' a figment of the imagination.
In the ministry Colonel Simmons manifested the same admirable
qualities that he had shown all his life. Many circuits where he
served the preacher had never received more than $250 salary a year,
and the charge had paid nothing toward the appropriation for various
church causes. All the circuits that he served immediately took on
new life and showed a remarkable growth. Untrained in the arts of
elocution when he began to preach, Minister Simmons rapidly devel-
. oped into one of the most powerful and eloquent orators in the South.
His ability as a speaker was acquired by experience only, yet today
he is one of the most polished orators in American life, able to hold
great meetings spellbound by his eloquence. He is equally at home
in pulpit or on platform.

11. COLONEL SIMMONS A FRATERNAL ORGANIZER
Minister Simmons needed money for his family and dependent rela
tions, and he then entered into the fraternal and insurance field. In
this work his ability and force soon carried him to the front, and in a
short time he was given charge of an entire district in South Georgia
for one of the largest fraternal orders. Soon he had built up a
fraternal insurance business which gave him an income of $10,000
a year. He was commissioned as a colonel by one of the largest
fraternal orders to command and organize five regiments of their
uniform rank. That is where he gets his title. At that time he was
the youngest man in the order holding such rank.
Soon after he moved to Atlanta, and was standing, one day, on a
street corner talking to friends when a large touring automobile
skidded around the corner- The back bumper struck him in the
spine, and he fell to the pavement completely paralyzed. He was
bedridden for six months, and during this time, when he had nothing
to do but think, he conceived and worked out the details of the plan
of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan ; to build the order about which
he had dreamed for years. He had been quietly working and thinking-
out a plan to do this for fifteen years, ever since his vision in the sky,
but it was not until he was laid up in bed, seriously injured, that he
came to a resolution to launch the big enterprise as soon as he recovered.
The accident ended his career as an influential and powerful factor
in the fraternal insurance business, and had it not been for the accident
it is probable he would still be one of the chief officers of that
fraternity. In discussing his life with his friends, and when in a reminiscent
mood, Colonel Simmons expresses his belief that it may be possible that
a higher power took him from the four distinct phases of activity
into which he had previously entered, and finally forced him into his
present work as head of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which he
considers the greatest movement ever started for the preservation,
elevation, and strengthening of the Caucasian race. He was prevented
when he had determined to become a great doctor, he was not able
to devote his life to the military service of his country, he left a
ministerial career of great promise, and when he had achieved large
success in his work in the fraternal insurance business he was kept
from that career by an accident. 61

f'.J STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
All these experiences in life have made Colonel Simmons a wise
and thoughtful man. His habit of mind is extremely cairn and delib
erate, and hatred and passion never disturb his thoughts. He is a
real Christian, and his heart is always responsive to the calls of un
fortunate humanity. Llis experience as a medical student was valu
able, his service in the Army during the Spanish-American War taught
him discipline, his career in the Methodist Church broadened his mind
and made him a great orator, and his work as an organizer of
fraternal societies taught him business methods and gave him an insight
into the customs of men everywhere. Thus, when he began his or
ganization of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, he was as well
qualified for this work as any man in the United States.
Colonel Simmons has been married for many years to an estimable
woman who comes from a prominent Southern family. His wife is
an invalid. He has one son, sixteen years old, who is a student at
the Georgia Polytechnic Institute. This young man resembles his
father and is an ardent military student and an officer in the Student
Officers' Reserve Corps. He is ambitious for a military career and
hopes to become a student at West Point Military Academy.
Colonel Simmons for more than fifteen years had been revolving
in his mind the organization of the Ku Klux Klan. He intended to
continue not only the visible, physical organization of the Ku Klux
Klan. as a memorial, but principally to perpetuate its spiritual purpose,
and to make it a national, standard, fraternal order composed of Amer
ican manhood, who believe in preservation of pure Anglo-Saxon institu
tions, ideals, and principles. There was also the thought to keep alive
the memory of the original Klan, and to collect historical accounts of its
work, principles, and institutions. The new invisible empire of the Ku
Klux Klan was to be, also, a lasting and living memorial to the old
Klansmen. Anybody who knows Colonel Simmons and the high of
ficers of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan who are carrying on (he
work with him must be convinced that the announced plans of the
ne.v Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are founded upon right principles.
an.! that it is a great and patriotic American organization.
Colonel Simmons has always taken great interest in fraternal orders
and he is a member in good standing in 15 such organizations, includ
ing the Blue Lodge Masons and Knights Templars.
There was no thought in the mind of Colonel Simmons to revive in
any way the night-riding, masked operations of the original Ku Klux
Klan, for conditions in the South do not justify such an organization
to. lay, but the principal thought around which centered the idea of

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN 63
reestablishing the Ku Klux Klan was its lofty spiritual purpose, to
be manifested in the new7 organization which would constitute a great
American patriotic and fraternal order.
In October, 1915, Simmons called together a few friends in Atlanta,
Georgia. Among them were three members of the original Klan.
Every person with whom Colonel Simmons conferred was enthusiastic
for reviving the old Klan. or organizing a new one, and in the same
month 34 citizens of Atlanta, many of them the most prominent in
Georgia, held a meeting and signed a petition for a charter of the
New Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
As the Klan had among its 34 charter members three of the
horsemen of the famous old Ku Klux it was declared to be the only
legitimate heir of the parent organization of reconstruction days,
and therefore possessed the sole rights to all of its regalia, ritual, and
symbols. Each year since 1915 the Klan has held an anniversary
celebration, on May 6, the date on which the old Klan was founded.
This annual celebration takes the form of public parades throughout
the South with the Klansmen dressed in the official white costumes.
With the original 34 members, and from this small beginning, the
Klan has spread in the last six years until it has branches in nearly
every State in the Union, and its membership runs into many-
thousands. The following proclamation was issued by Colonel Simmons :
"To all Nations, Peoples, Tribes and Tongues, and to the Lovers
of Law and Order, Peace and Justice, of the Whole Earth, Greetings :
"I, and the citizens of the Invisible Empire through me, proclaim
to you as follows :
"We, the members of this Order, desiring to promote real patriotism
toward our civil government ; honorable peace among men and nations ;
protection for and happiness in the homes of our people; love, real
brotherhood, mirth and manhood among ourselves, justice and frater
nity among all mankind; and believing we can best accomplish these
noble purposes through the channel of a high-class mystic, social,
patriotic, benevolent association, having a perfected lodge system, with
an exalted ritualistic form of work and an effective form of govern
ment, not for selfish profit but for the mutual betterment, benefit and
protection of all our oathbound associates, their welfare physically,
socially, morally and vocationally, and their loved ones, do proclaim
to the whole world that we are dedicated to the sublime and pleasant
duty of providing generous aid. tender sympathy and fraternal assist
ance in the effulgence of the light of life and amid the sable shadows

64 STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
of death; amid fortune and misfortune, and the exalted privilege ot
demonstrating the practical utility of the great, yet most neglected,
doctrine of the Fatherland of God and Brotherhood of Men as a
vital force in the lives and affairs of men.
"In this we invite all men who can qualify to become citizens of the
Invisible Empire, to approach the portal of our beneficent domain
and join us in our noble work of extending its boundaries ; in dis
seminating the gospel of KLANKRAFT, thereby encouraging, con
serving, protecting and making vital the fraternal human relationship
in the practice of a wholesome clannishness ; to share with us die
glory of performing the sacred duty of protecting womanhood; to
maintain forever white supremacy in all things; to commemorate the
holy and chivalric achievements of our fathers; to safeguard the
sacred rights, exalted privileges and distinctive institutions of our
civil government •'to bless mankind, and to keep eternally ablaze the
sacred fire of a fervent devotion to a pure Americanism.
"The Invisible Empire is founded on sterling character, and im
mutable principles, based upon a most sacred sentiment and cemented
by noble purposes ; it is promoted by a sincere, unselfish devotion
of the souls of many men and is managed and governed by the
consecrated intelligence of thoughtful brains. It is the soul of chivalry
and virtue's impenetrable shield, the devout impulse of an uncon-
quered race."
Colonel Simmons is now head of the University of America, f ormerly
Lanier University, at Atlanta. This university has been bought
by the Ku Klux Klan- and is being reorganized. It is not conducted
as a Ku Klux Klan university, but as a non-sectarian institution
for the youth of the South and the North. The courses are all
elective, except Bible study and study of American history and insti
tutions, which are required of all students. Plans are now being
made to make this university one of the largest educational institu
tions in the country, and it probably will have a preparatory school
where the poor white boys and girls of the North and South can
secure splendid educational privileges free or at cost- Negotiations
are under way for additional land in the suburbs of Atlanta, and
Colonel Simmons and his associates plan to make the University of
America one of the really great educational institutions in the country.
The Klan is now raising a $1,000,000 endowment fund. The univer
sity was named in honor of the famous southern poet, Sidney- Lanier.

12. STATEMENT OF COLONEL SIMMONS
Colonel Simmons made the following statement regarding the Invis
ible Empire and the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan :
"Throughout the annals of the ages in all recorded movements for
the betterment of humanity, whether by revolt against tyranny or
along more peaceful lines, we see the manifestation of what justly may
be termed the 'Ku Klux Spirit' — the spirit that rebels at oppression
and even defies law itself when that law, measured by all the standards
of wisdom, justice and moderation, is tyrannical and the instrument
of despotism. It is the antithesis of tyranny and the foe of despotism.
"From the time the human race was created, running through all
the ages and characteristic of all peoples of all lands, the Ku Klux
spirit has fostered freedom and fought tyranny to the death because
Ku Kluxism is the very 'antithesis of tyranny' and has never in history-
been the agency of wrong. It has been the one weapon left to the
hand of mankind when mightier forces had shackled him or had taken
from him his civil or religious liberty. It has been the ceaseless work
ing of this unquenchable and unconquerable spirit, forced as it has
been on innumerable occasions to develop its strength and plan its
campaign in secret, that has set the heel of the oppressed on the neck
of the oppressor in the battle of Right against Might.
"Before the great Persian Empire was created there was an organi
zation formed for the purpose of enforcing justice. It worked secretly,
and it was impelled byr the intolerable conditions surrounding
conduct of the courts to reverse numerous decisions in which there
wras open and brazen miscarriage of justice. Its emblem was the star
and crescent — symbolic of the sovereignty of justice.
"True, this organization did its work in secret and took the law
into its own hands (so to speak), but the attitude and purpose of
this early order, which was one of the first recorded manifestations
of the 'Ku Klux Spirit,' hundreds of years later was indorsed by no
less an authority than Thomas Jefferson when he declared :
" 'Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.'
"And by Patrick Henry, when he shouted in defiance of the tyrannical
British parliament:
" 'Give me liberty or give me death.'
"The history of Continental Europe is filled with instances in which
men who were oppressed and who saw no relief in sight by open
65

(¦f> STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
rebellion because of the superior power of the oppressor, have banded
themselves together in secret with an oathbound determination to die
if by death alone they could free themselves from the rule of the
tyrant. Man of the Anglo-Saxon stock is a sovereign being and he
will wear no man's yoke.
"The followers of Calvin and of Luther and of John Knox in
Scotland exemplified to a high degree the Ku Klux spirit. Because
of the fewness of their numbers and because they faced death or im
prisonment if they waged their fight in the open, they carried on their
work in secret until they felt the time was opportune to bring the issue
to a head.
"The spirit that prompted the followers of Calvin, Luther and
Knox was identical with the spirit that actuated our Revolutionary
fathers and the men of the South in the Reconstruction period.
"The American colonies rebelled against constituted authority and
against the iniquitous tax laws imposed upon them by the mother
country because the laws were unjust and therefore tyrannical, and
because they saw the rights and liberties for which they had braved the
unknown terrors of the sea and the unexplored wilds of the New
World, rapidly receding to the vanishing point.
"They fully understood the superior power arrayed against them
and they realized- that the 'little leaven that leaveneth the whole lump'
must be started working before they openly challenged the power of
British arms. Thus it came to pass that long before the 'shot heard
'round the world' was fired the mighty force was secretly put in opera
tion that cemented the colonies in their determination of 'liberty or
death,' and that made possible the greatest monument of all time to
liberty and justice — the Republic of the United States of America.
"In Revolutionary history we have two noteworthy manifestations
of the Ku Klux spirit. One was the 'Charleston Tea Party' and the
other the 'Boston Tea Party,' which occurred four days after the
former. In the first instance the outraged citizens of the Colonies
recorded their wrath against the tyrannous taxes of the British Gov
ernment by boarding with arms in their hands, and sank the tea ships
by boring holes in their bottoms.
"In the case of the Boston Tea Party the Colonists disguised them
selves as Indians, boarded the British tea ships and dumped their
cargoes into the sea.
"The only difference between the members of the Boston Tea Party
and the. members of the Ku Klux Klan of the Reconstruction period
following the Civil War was that the former were disguised as Indians

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN 69
while the latter disguised themselves with masks and flowing robes.
The actuating cause and the spiritual purpose of the men in both
instances was the same.
"Thus we come clown to that much misunderstood and shamefully-
slandered organization of the Reconstruction period which manifested
on the largest scale of which we have any record the Ku Klux spirit
and which made famous the name by which this spirit — the spirit of
opposition to tyranny and oppression in any form — has become known.
"When the roar of the guns ceased and the smoke of battle lifted
from the South in 1865 it meant the end of the 'War Between the
States,' but it marked the beginning of a new battle for the South —
a battle for its very existence as a free people, for its sacred civiliza
tion and for the exercise of its rights which General Grant had recog
nized and so frankly admitted at Appomattox and which President
Lincoln so emphatically reaffirmed when he declared of the Southern
States :
" 'I shall treat them as if they had never been away.'
"Lincoln's intentions toward the South were honest and sincere,
because they were in harmony with the fundamental principles of
American civilization. The issues which had riven the two sections
had been settled by the arbitrament of the sword and out of the
fairness and brotherly love of his great heart he found it possible
to welcome the men of the South back into the union as brothers
whose misunderstandings had been adjusted.
"And the bullet that snuffed the holy light of Lincoln's life struck
down the most powerful friend the South and civilization had above
the Mason and Dixon line, and made it possible for Stevens and his
unscrupulous henchmen of South-haters to attempt to carry out their
infamous program of establishing a negro empire in the South, and
setting the heel of a brutal and despotic tyranny upon the necks of
a helpless, defenseless, but a sovereign people.
"In this connection Thomas Nelson Page says :
" 'The war between the states destroyed the institution of slavery,
the dark years of the carpetbagger's domination well-nigh destroyed
the South and Anglo-Saxon civilization, for after the sword came the
canker worm and the enforcement of despotic intrigue.'
"After the Confederate soldiers had laid down their arms and
accepted their paroles in good faith, singly, in squads, many of them
on foot, without a dollar in their pockets, they returned to their desolate
homes and began anew to rebuild their vanished fortunes.
"In so far as the Confederate soldier was concerned the war was

70 STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
over; he had fought to the limit of his capacity- for the cause he was
convinced was right ; the issue had been settled by the sword and
he had accepted the decree. The reins of government had again been
placed in the hands of the best men of the South and the voices of
the former army commanders again were heard in the halls of the
National Congress. Little attention was paid by them to the mourn
ings of the 'bloodhounds 'of hate,' directed by Lust and Greed, who,
in peacetime, still refused to leave the track of their infamous con
quest for spoils.
"For over a year peace ostensibly was hovering over the still
smouldering battlefields of the South, but soon the thunder of the
impending storm of Reconstruction was heard in the land. Through
out the North, and especially in New England, meetings were held and
from pulpits, rostrums and public halls enemies of the South preached
a crusade of extermination against the Southern people.
"If Grant's order to Halleck to 'eat out Virginia clear and clean so
that crows flying over it will have, for the balance of the season, to
carry their provender with them,' or his order to Sheridan to hang
without trial any of Mosby's men who were caught, may be excused
on the grounds that they were justified by the exigencies of war, what
excuse is to be made for this tirade delivered after the war was over
by Wendell Phillips from the pulpit of Llenry Ward Beecher's church :
"'I do not believe in battles ending this war. You may plant a
fort in every district of the South, you make take possession of her
capitals and hold them with your armies, but you have not begun to
subdue her people. I know it means something like absolute barbarian
conquest, I allow it, but I do not believe there will be any peace
until 347,000 men of the South are either hanged or exiled.'
"And this, some time later, from 'Parson' Brownlow at a convention
held in New York :
" 'If I had the power I would arm every wolf, panther, catamount
and bear in the mountains of America, every crocodile in the swamps of
Florida, every negro in the South, every devil in hell, clothe them in
the uniform of the Federal army and turn them loose on the rebels
of the South and exterminate every man, woman and child south
of Mason and Dixon's line. I would like to see negro troops, under
the command of Butler, crowd every rebel into the Gulf of Mexico
and drown them as the devil did the hogs in the Sea of Galilee.'
"In another convention held in Philadelphia 'Parson' Brownlow said :
"'I am one of those who believe the war ended too soon. We
have whipped the South, but not enough. The loyal masses constitute

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAX 71
an overwhelming majority of the people of this country and they
intend to march again on the South and intend this second war shall
be no child's play. The second army will, as they ought to, make
the entire South as God found the earth — without form and void.'
"Following Brownlow's speech Governor Yates, of Illinois, rose
in his seat and said :
" 'Illinois furnished 250,000 troops to fight the South, and now
we are ready to furnish 500,000 more to finish the good work.'
"And who was this Butler that 'Parson' Brownlow wished to com
mand an army of negro troops and drive every former Confederate
soldier into the Gulf of Mexico? It was Butler who ordered General
Weitzel to compel the negroes of La Fourche Parish, Louisiana, to
murder the white people of the parish. In reply to this order General
Weitzel wrote:
" 'The idea of my inciting a negro insurrection is heartrending. I
will resign my command rather than induce negroes to outrage and
murder the helpless whites.'
"Indicating the storm of hate let loose upon the South after the
Civil War and for the purpose of disclosing what our histories gloss
over — that the people of the South were compelled to fight a second
war more terrible than the first to preserve their honor and the land
of their birth, the former facts compiled by Lamar Fontaine, C. E.,
Ph.D., of Lyons, Miss., who lived through that perilous period, are
reproduced :
" 'Thus it was that for two years after the close of the great war
in every hamlet and convention hall in the North thousands of
preachers, orators and teachers dinned into the ears of the listening
multitudes their fiendish venom until a wild wave of fanatical, insane
New England Puritan hate swept like an East Indian hurricane
over the entire North. . . . The Southern members of the National
Congress were as impotent to stay the dark whirlwind of Hate as a
cork floating upon the crest of a tidal wave. Then a species of negro
insanity raged among the negrophiles of the New England states and
it too spread like a prairie fire and took possession of the unthinking
masses. Books and pamphlets fell from the New England presses like
hail from a passing cloud. Men and women, from pulpit and rostrum,
advocated the mixing of the negro and the white races and the estab
lishment of a negro republic in the South after its conquered people
had first been destroyed and the land rendered, as Parson Brownlow
expressed, 'as God found it, without form and void.'

72 STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
"Judge Salmon P. Chase, one of Lincoln's cabinet, paid a visit to
the South after the surrender. Returning home, he said :
" 'I found the whites a worn-out, effete race, without vigor, mental
or physical. On the contrary the negroes are alive, alert, full of
energy. I predict in 25 years the negroes of the South will be at
the head of all affairs, political, religious, the arts and sciences.'
"Henry Ward Beecher asserted :
" 'The negro is superior to the white race. If the latter do not
forget their pride of race and color and amalgamate with the purer
and richer blood of the blacks they will die out and wither away in
unprolific skinniness.'
"The spread of the anti-Southern sentiment throughout the North
forced Congress to act and the Reconstruction Act was the result.
Southern senators and representatives were sent back to their homes,
the entire civil government of the South was disrupted, and the negro
was placed in power in every department, state and national. In
support of this Reconstruction Act in Congress, James A. Garfield,
later elected President of the United States, said :
" 'This act set out by laying hands on all the rebel state govern
ments and taking the very breath of life out of them. In the next
place it puts a bayonet at the breast of every rebel in the South.
In the next it leaves in the hands of Congress utter and absolute
power over the people of the South.' "

13. RECONSTRUCTION A TRAGEDY
"The Reconstruction acts of Congress constitute the most appalling
tragedy in human history. Elections in the South were carried at
the point of the bayonet, white men of the South were forced away
from the polls and negroes and conscienceless carpetbaggers from
the North, who had been in the South only a few weeks, were allowed
to cast ballots and were elected to office. All in violation of our
Constitution and every fundamental principle of Republican
government. "These carpetbaggers and their unscrupulous associates in the North
were NOT the valiant soldiers who fought and bled in the battlefields,
but, using a modern phrase, they were the cowardly 'slackers' of that
time, pie-counter politicians and unreasonable and unreasoning fanatics.
"Constitutional law was stripped by profane hands of her virtuous
vestments ; ignorance,' lust and hate seized the reins of state ; the long-
established order of society was disrupted by the sudden elevation
to power of a grossly inferior race, led by fiends in human form,
and the very blood of the Caucasian race was threatened with an
everlasting contamination.
"The whole land was fastened in the crushing jaws of a ruthless
tyranny enthroned by military despotism; law and order, peace and
justice were things of the past and that sacred bulwark of human
liberty — the Constitution of the United States of America — was in
practice considered a 'mere scrap of paper.' The originators and
perpetrators of this, the darkest epoch in the history of the world,
were NOT the good people of the North because they were in ignorance
of the real facts of what was being done; those responsible for this
unparalleled reign of ruthless despotism were less than a dozen unscru
pulous politicians, prompted by hate and led on in their infamous
purpose by graft and greed.
"The chastity of wife, mother, daughter and sister was imperiled;
life and living were made intolerable. In the name of the Law the
property of the husband and father was ruthlessly snatched from him
without provocation and confiscated and the grim visages of Want,
Hunger, Fear and Woe unutterable were visible everywhere.
"The people of the South turned appealingly to the power of their
national government, but were spurned away with contempt and scorn.
"But the cry of that defenseless, terrorized and bleeding people, 73

74 STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
scorned by their own government to which they had sworn renewed
allegiance and by which they had been guaranteed protection, and with
the treaty of peace signed by Grant and Lee branded by Stevens, in
conduct if not in words, as a 'scrap of paper,' was not to go unanswered.
"The men who for four years had borne upon their bayonets the
Ark of the Confederacy through one of the most savage wars in all
history, heard and answered the cry, and, as Knights of the Invisible
Empire, impelled by an instinct of the race, they leaped into the
saddle, consecrated to their task by the touch of the hot tears of
defenseless womanhood and borne upon the backs of their faithful
steeds, they came — they came, they saw, they conquered !
"From over the mysterious borderland, from the Empire of the
Soul, the Ku Klux came. Out of the sable shadows of the darkest
night that ever afflicted any people they rode with a determined purpose ;
pure, as typified by the snowy white of their ghostly garments ; hearts
loyal as ever pulsated, as typified by the cross on the crimson shield
worn upon their manly breasts ; and a sacred devotion that laughed at
death and faltered not at danger, as typified by the sacrificial cross
of the Christ.
"With the fiery cross, symbol of the purest and most loyal patriot
ism, as their beacon, the Ku Klux rode forth in the cause of humanity,
to save the God-given heritage of racial integrity, restore civilization,
protect the defenseless, shield that which was sacred, avenge the crimes
against the innocent and to restore to a free-born people their sacred
birthright created for them by the shed blood of a noble ancestry'.
"Through the darkness of Reconstruction's night the Ku Klux rode,
dispelled the darkness of that frightful night, and at the dawning of
a glorious dayr they saw the shades of that frightful night receding.
Right had been by them established over Might; the voice of music
was heard again in the land, their purpose and mission were ended,
they laid aside their spotless robes and the noblest order of real chivalry
in the great world's history disbanded — the Ku Klux of vesterday
rode no more.
"In spite of the noble purpose of the Ku Klux .Klan and in spite
of the great service it rendered to both the white and the negro races,
to North as well as South, yes, to ALL America, no organization in the
history of man ever had heaped upon it the abuse and misrepresenta
tion that fell to its lot. Foes of the South and enemies of the Southern
people viciously assailed it as a band of murderers who stopped at
nothing, and who whipped and terrorized both black and white and

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN 75
vented its spite and avenged personal wrongs, real or fancied, upon
whoever incurred its displeasure.
"No fouler slander ever was perpetrated. Instead of being murderers
and cutthroats the members of the Ku Klux Klan were men of the
highest type as a body and they were sworn to and stood firmly upon
the sacred principles of constitutional law. They worked to safeguard
life and property, or what there was left of it ; to ameliorate the ter
rible conditions growing' out of the presence of the carpetbaggers
from the North and the scalawags from the South, who turned traitor
to their own people, and their baneful influence over the negro.
"The Ku Klux of the Reconstruction period was the outgrowth
of a dire necessity born of insufferable conditions forced on the South
ern people by a group of greedy, conscienceless politicians, and the
character of the men who were at its head in the various Southern
states is a lasting rebuke to the charge that it was composed of a
band of outlaws.
"Contrary to popular opinion the Ku Klux Klan was not sectional
except as to territory. Among its members were many men who had
fought in the Federal army and who had. decided to make their homes
in the South after the war. They held no resentment against their
Southern brothers, they realized the insanity of attempting to force
negro domination upon the South and they cast their lot with their
former foes of the battlefield in the movement to restore the South
to its rightful place in the nation.
"In addition to these many of the white soldiers of the Federal army
of occupation who were actually on duty in the South and who were
under orders to kill a member of the Invisible Empire on sight, were
members of the Ku Klux Klan. And connected with the Klan work
were hundreds of negroes who rendered a service of imperishable
value and who suffered torture, and many death, at the hands of
the Union League and the carpetbaggers for their unshakable fidelity.
"We have said that the Ku Klux spirit throughout the ages has
been the antithesis of tyranny, the foe of despotism, and always has
fostered liberty. Why should we call it the Ku Klux spirit rather
than by any other name, and why should we feel warranted in the
assertion that it is the antithesis of tyranny?
"The answer is found in the fact that men — especially men of the
Anglo-Saxon race — have never submitted passively to oppression; his
is an unconquered and unconquerable race. No matter how firmly the
yoke was fixed about his neck, no matter how sharp was the cut of
the lash upon his back, no matter how remote were his chances of

70 STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
securing his liberty, sooner or later he always has rebelled. Sooner
or later his hands were at the throat of the tyrant and even though
he failed aud death was his portion he has died gladly rather than
purchase life at the price of chains and slavery. Tyranny of the
most heartless type, despotism of the most devilish nature and to the
highest and most powerful degree were established upon the ruined
South. Never before was there such conscienceless conduct towards
any people. The people of the South were of and belonged to that
'unconquered race.' In the Reconstruction period tyranny reached
its greatest height, and to successfully combat it in the interest of the
blood-bought human rights of a sovereign people, that spirit which
through the ages has always stood— 'the antithesis of tyranny' — as at
other times, asserted itself as never- before. It flamed in human
breasts, men united in organized form, an instrument of salvation,
and the body, vitalized by this spirit, was called the Ku Klux Klan.
"Wherever and whenever oppression has prevailed that spirit of
resentment, of determination to resist until the shackles are broken
always has been found. So has it been always, is today and will
be forever.
"Sometimes it has smouldered in secret for years and then flashed
up at the psychological moment to ignite a world. Call it by whatever
name you will, the spirit of rebellion against tyranny — the spirit of
the followers of Calvin and Luther and Cromwell, of the Revolutionary
fathers, of the Ku Klux of the Reconstruction period — is indestructible,
and the man in whose breast that spirit lives will never submit to
domination, social, religious or political, by any man or race of men,
and will never acquiesce in the rule of injustice or a reign of wrong.
"The Ku Klux spirit has never manifested itself with force except
when driven to it by the usurpation of power or attempt to usurp it.
Tt has never questioned the right of any man of any race to live his
life and conduct his own affairs as he sees fit so long as such conduct
does not conflict with the established order of society.
"The Anglo-Saxon race, the only race that has ever proved its
ability and supremacy and demonstrated its determination to progress
under any and all conditions and handicaps, owes its high place in the
world today to the fact that this spirit has been kept alive from the
foundation of the world and has never lagged in any land or clime.
"And if the Anglo-Saxon race is to maintain its prestige, if it is to
continue as the leader in the affairs of the world and to fulfill its sacred
mission, it must maintain and jealously guard its purity, its power and
its dignity, and while it should aid aud encourage to the limit of its

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN" 79
ability all men of whatever race or creed, it must forever maintain
its own peculiar identity- as the Anglo-Saxon race and preserve the
integrity of its civilization, for the shores of Time hold the ship
wreck of all the mongrel civilization of the past which is evidence
that in keeping with the laws of creative justice Nature has decreed
that mixed civilizations, together with governments of mixed races,
are doomed to destruction and oblivion.
"From the past the voice of the great Lincoln must be heard :
" 'There are physical differences between the races which would
forever forbid them living together on terms of political and social
equality.' "The imperative call of higher justice to the real patriots of our
nation is :
"In the name of our valiant and venerated dead and in due respect
to their stainless memory, and in the interest of peace and security
of all peoples now living and for the sake of all those yet to be,
keep Anglo-Saxon American civilization, institutions, politics and
society pure and thereby, since we have received this sacred heritage,
transmit it with clean hands and pure hearts to generations yet unborn;
thereby keeping faith with the mind, soul and purpose of our valiant
sires and transmit our name into the future without dishonor and
without disgrace.
"Let the solemn behest of higher duty be promptly and properly
met in all the relationships of life and living without fault, without
fail, without fear and without reproach, now and forevermore.
"The Ku Klux may be antagonized and forced to fight many battles,
but perish, never! To destroy it is an impossibility, for it belongs
in essence to the realms spiritual. It is unshaken by unjust criticisms,
no power can thwart it in its onward conquest of right; it courts not
the plaudits of the populace, nor is it swerved from its course by the
libel of its foes. Attuned with Deity, functioning only for all humanity's
good, misjudged by ignorance, misunderstood by many, slandered by
prejudice, sweeping on under the divine leadership of duty, it never
falters and will never fail.
"The spirit of the Ku Klux Klan still lives, and should live, a price
less heritage to be sacredly- treasured by all those who love our country
(regardless of section) and are proud of its sacred traditions. That
this spirit may live always to warm the hearts of manly men, unify
them by the force of a holy clannishness, to assuage the billowing tide
of fraternal alienation that surges in human breasts, and inspire
them to achieve the highest and noblest in the defense of our country,

SO STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
our homes, humanity and each other, is the paramount ideal of the
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
"The Klan, growing fast in numbers, influence, and power, and
standing for a 100 per cent Americanism, devoted to the purest prin
ciples of patriotism, as well as to charity and fraternalism, has been
attacked by forces represented by the Catholic Church, the negroes.
and the Jews. We have no quarrel and are not opposed to these
sects or races. They, however, are the forces behind the investigation
by the House of Representatives Rules Committee. At this hearing
nothing was developed that could possibly be construed concerning
the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan as derogatory to our great organi
zation. At the hearing we repeatedly urged the Rules' Committee to
order a. full investigation by a special Congressional Committee.' No
action was taken by the committee, which is ample evidence that the
investigation revealed nothing in the history, actions, and records of
the Klan contrary to any accepted American standard of management
for fraternal orders. We do not fear the light on any of our actions,
and we welcome at all times the fullest possible investigation into our
principles and our work for the Republic.
"It is true we bar from membership Jews, Catholics, and negroes.
These classes also bar from membership in their organizations persons
who are not Jews, Catholics, or negroes. We have that same right.
We do not deny that we are strictly a Protestant and American
fraternal order, which is destined to be the greatest brotherly and
patriotic organization in the wide world."

14. THE KU KLUX KLAN OF TODAY
Associated with Colonel Simmons in the supreme office of the
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, at the Imperial Palace in Atlanta, are
some of the most prominent citizens of Georgia. Next in authority
to Colonel Simmons and the chief moving force of the Knights of
the Ku Klux Klan is Edward Young Clarke, of Atlanta.
Mr. Clarke is a young man of tremendous energy and large expe
rience. He is Chief of Staff of the "Imperial Wizard" and his official
title is "Imperial Kleagle." Mr. Clarke, in association with Mrs. Eliza
beth Tyler, has conducted for many years the Southern Publicity
Association in Atlanta. This is an advertising and publicity company
and is the greatest organization of its kind in the South.
Among other work of a public character that it has performed
has been the conduct of various "drives" of a patriotic and humanitarian
kind. It has conducted money raising campaigns at various times, at
which it has been remarkably successful, for the Anti-Saloon League,
the Salvation Army, and other national organizations. Whenever big
organizations in the South desire to launch public movements of various
kinds, so well known is the Southern Publicity- Association, and so
national in scope its reputation, that this organization is the first to
be approached to take charge of such movements. Mr. Clarke is by
profession a newspaper man, and is one of the most experienced and
able publicity directors in the world. He comes of an excellent South
ern family. His brother is managing editor of the Atlanta Constitu
tion, probably the greatest and best known Southern newspaper. His
business partner, Mrs. Elizabeth Tyler, is a remarkable woman. She
is in active charge of the affairs of the Southern Publicity Association.
At the age of 14 Mrs. Tyler was uneducated. She was left a widow
with one child at the age of 15, and she then could barely read or
write. In many ways she acquired a fair education, but her real
education was obtained in large business affairs with which she has
been connected.
Mrs. Tyler has no connection with the Ku Klux Klan, as women
are not admitted to membership in that organization. The Southern
Publicity Association was used as a valuable adjunct to the Depart
ment of Propagation of the Klan, and it is largely due to the ability
and experience of Mr. Clarke and Mrs. Tyler in great publicity cam
paigns that the organization has grown so rapidly.
"Now," said Mr. Clarke, "/I want to tell you what the Ku Klux
81

S-' STORY OF THE KU KLUX ICLAN
organization stands for. First and foremost, the real 100 per cent
American needs to be baptized in the faith of our forefathers. In the
strenuous rush of the big business of this nation we have forgotten
the spirit which came from around that table where sat the real men
who planned for this great nation. We say that a revival in spirit
of real Americanism must start first in the hearts, minds, and souls
of the 100 per cent Americans ; and we are getting these men together
and getting them into this organization. When we get them in, we
propose to rebaptize them in the spirit of Americanism under the
Stars and Stripes, and in the ideals of the men who founded this
nation and upon whose ideals and plans it has grown so great.
"We are building a fellowship, a great social, compact body. We
have drawn a tight line and propose to build a great reservoir of real
Americanism. "White supremacy — I am not afraid of that word— for I can go into
a colored meeting anywhere and talk to them about it; it has been
misused and misrepresented by the enemies of both races who for
various reasons want to see trouble started ; the enemies of real Amer
icans who want to see America manacled, who want to see a polluted
America instead of the America which has been handed down to us
by our forefathers.
"The foreign element in America is attempting to get control of
the reins of government.
"Statements that the Klan has fomented lynchings or race riots are
lies. In not a single place where a Klan is organized and in full
operation has a race riot or lynching occurred. The Klan stands for
all that is great and good in our civilization, and it will exist as long
as the United States endures.
"The organization now has approximately 1,500 chartered Klans,
and the total membership of these Klans is more than 100,000
members actually initiated.* The organization has approximately one
hundred thousand applications of persons desirous of becoming mem
bers, who are being investigated and whose applications will be acted
upon within the next 60 days. Approximately 1,000 members per
day are now being taken in by the organization. Since, the attack of
the New York newspapers, and the hearing before the Congressional
Committee, applications for membership have increased 20 per cent
above the normal average for six months previous to the beginning
of the attacks on the Klan. In order not to take in undesirable persons
as a result of the interest and intensity of feeling aroused throughout
*Jaim?.ry 1, 1922.

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN S3
the country, the organization is using extra precautions regarding the
new members and instead of holding an application three weeks pre
vious to acting upon it, as has been the custom, instructions have gone
out for all applications to be held 60 days previous to being acted
upon, hoping through this method to eliminate from the applicants any
person who might be applying for membership simply out of curiosity,
or through a certain enthusiasm along religious or racial lines.
"The Klan is now actively operating in 45 states and has a King
Kleagle, or state manager, in 41 states. The state managers have under
them approximately six hundred Kleagles or organizers. The nation
is divided into nine groups known as 'Domains,' with a Director
General in these groups carrying the title of 'Grand Goblin.' The nine.
'Grand Goblins' are located in the cities of Boston, New, York, Phila
delphia, Washington, Chicago, Atlanta, St. Louis, Houston, and Los
Angeles. The organization is now seriously considering the elimina
tion of the fee system, or commission basis in the Department of
Propagation and contemplates placing the Grand Goblins, King Klea
gles, and Kleagles on a straight salary basis.
"The Department of Propagation is a separate division of the work
from the ritualistic activities of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
The Department of Propagation is charged with the duty of organizing
new Klans in places where Klans of the organization have not previ
ously existed, and when these Klans are organized they are turned
over to the Invisible Empire to be chartered. After being chartered
the Department of Propagation has no further interest in or connection
with that particular Klan. New Klans are chartered on the numerical
basis of approximately one-third of the possible total membership of
the Klan in any local community, but the average, number chartered
within the past six months has been approximately on a basis of one-
fourth the approximate final total membership in any one community.
"After being chartered the local Klan retains one-half of the fee
or klectokon, or donation paid by members on entering the organiza
tion, and the other half is sent to the Imperial Palace, and goes into
the treasury of the organization for the general use of the organization
in its work.
"The principles of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, as announced
in all the publications and rituals of the organization, are as follows :
"The purpose of the modern Ku Klux Klan is to inculcate the
sacred principles and noble ideals of chivalry, the development of char
acter, the protection of the home and the chastity of womanhood, the
exemplification of a pure and practical patriotism toward our glorious

S4 STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
country, the preservation of American ideals and institutions, and the
maintenance of white supremacy.
"No man is admitted to the fellowship of the Invisible Empire of
today who hasn't manhood enough to assume a real oath to Right and
Duty with serious purpose to keep the same inviolate. No man is
admitted to fellowship who will not, or who cannot swear an unquali
fied allegiance to the Government of the United States of America,
its flag, its Constitution and its institutions.
"Only native-born white American citizens, who believe in the- tenets
of the Christian religion, and wdio owe no allegiance of any degree
or nature to any foreign government or institution, religious or political,
or to any sect, people, or persons, are eligible for membership.
"While its name would indicate it is purely a Southern organization
such is not the case. It is non-sectional, non-political, and non-sectarian.
It is a purely patriotic, fraternal organization. In fact, the organiza
tion, in the six years of its existence, already has numbered among
its membership many men, some of them nationally known, who have
never lived in the South. As proof of its non-political attitude men
prominent in both Democratic and Republican parties, including mem
bers of Congress, are leaders in the organization. Its compelling
appeal to citizens of all sections lies in the fact that it is strictly an
institution of, by, and for white citizens of the United States, pledged
to fundamental American ideals and institutions.
"While membership in the Ku Klux Klan is open only to white
American citizens the organization wages war on no individual or
organization regardless of race, color, or creed. It takes no part as
an organization in any political or religious controversy, and it con
cedes the right of every man to think, vote, and worship God as
he pleases.
"Because certain individuals at various times have committed acts
of violence under cover of darkness, and shielded by masks and robes
resembling the official regalia of the Ku Klux Klan, they have been
classed as members of this organization. The Ku Klux Klan is a
strictly law-abiding organization and every member is sworn to uphold
the law at all times, and to assist officers of the law in preserving peace
and order whenever the occasion may arise. Any member violating
this oath would be banished forever from the organization. In other
words, it is a practical fraternal order pledged to wholesome service,
and not merely a social association.
"Among the principles for which this organization stands, in addi
tion to those already enumerated, are: Suppression of gr.aft by public

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN" 85
officeholders; preventing unwarranted strikes by foreign agitators;
preventing the causes of mob violence and lynchings; sensible and
patriotic immigration laws ; sovereignty of state rights under the
Constitution; separation of Church and State, freedom of speech
and press, a freedom of such that does not strike at or imperil our
Government or the cherished institutions of our people.
"If there be any white American citizen who owes allegiance to any
flag but the Star Spangled Banner, and who cannot subscribe to and
support these principles, let him forever hold his peace. He is basely
unworthy of the great Flag and its Government that guarantees to
him life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That person who
actively opposes these great principles is a dangerous ingredient in the
body politic of our country, and an enemy to the weal of our national
commonwealth. "The Ku Klux Klan of today rides on, not upon the backs of
faithful steeds but in the mind, heart, and soul of every true white
American citizen who loves our great country and who glories in the
name America, and who is honest enough as a grateful son to per
petually memorialize the heroism of our fathers and transmit the
boon of our priceless heritage untarnished, uncorrupted, and unstained
to the generations who follow us, that the lustre of our age may in
crease in splendor. For he who forgets the heroes of the past is
basely unworthy of the blessings of the present, and he should be
forgotten by posterity."
H. C. Montgomery, "Imperial Treasurer" of the Knights of the
Ku Klux Klan, is one of Atlanta's prominent business men. He
owns a large optical store in Atlanta, is a graduate of the Northern
School of Optometry in Chicago, and has followed his profession
for 22 years.
He is a native of Kentucky, but has lived in Atlanta for many years,
where he has a reputation for integrity and fair business deal
ing. Lie has been a steward in the Methodist Church for some years,
and is a member of Atlanta Commandery No. 9, Knights Templar. He
has been associated with tbe Klan since its foundation in 1915.
Though owning a large and prosperous business in Atlanta Mr.
Montgomery devotes practically all his time to the affairs of the Klan.
"The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are bound together in a great
law-abiding, patriotic American organization," said Mr. Montgomery.
"I shall continue my connection with it as long as I am of use to it."
The "Imperial Klonsel," or supreme attorney, is Paul S. Etheridge.
He is a native of Greensboro, Georgia; was educated at Mercer LTni-

Su STORY' OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
versity. He began the practice of law in Atlanta and is recognized
as one of the leading lawyers of the Atlanta Bar. tie is a deacon
in the Baptist Church. In 1918 he was elected a member of the
Board of Commissioners of Roads and Revenues in Fulton County,
Georgia, in which Atlanta is located, and is now chairman of that
board. No citizen of Atlanta has a higher standing in the public
estimation than Mr. Etheridge.
"The Ku Klux Klan," said Mr. Etheridge, "is a righteous and great
organization, standing for all of that which is best in our civilization;
it stands for righteousness and the right in everything and abhors
lawlessness and crime."
Louis David Wade, "Imperial Secretary," is a native of Oswego,
New York. He moved to Atlanta when fifteen years old and for
niany years was connected with the Southern Bell Telephone and Tele
graph Company, with which corporation he had a fine record. Later
he was superintendent of cotton mills at Cedartown, Georgia ; Bowling
Green, North Carolina ; and Greenville, North Carolina. For some
time he was superintendent of the municipal electric light plant at
Greenville, North Carolina. He is a member of the Methodist Church,
and belongs to a number of secret orders. Mr. Wade bears an excel
lent reputation in Atlanta.
"The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan," said Mr. Wade, "are ani
mated with good purpose. The organization is founded upon right
principles. Its business affairs are conducted with honest, straight
forward dealings ; it is destined to be the greatest order of patriotic
Americans in this country, and it will become, in time, the greatest
fraternal organization in the whole world. I am proud to be an officer
in such an organization."
F. L. Savage, "Grand Goblin," who is head of the Department
of Investigation of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, is a native
of Boston, Massachusetts. He is one of the most experienced and
capable detectives in the United States. For thirteen years he was head
of the Savage Detective Agency, in New York City. He served on
transports during the Spanish-American War, and during the World
War was connected with the Railroad Administration.
In 1921 Mr. Savage was brought from New York to Atlanta, to
head the Investigation Department of the Klan. Lie has organized one
of the most active departments of the Klan. The scope of the Inves
tigation Department is large and important.
"Our biggest problem," said Mr. Savage, "is those who commit
crimes of various kinds in widely separated sections, and charge them

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAX 87
to the Klan. Cowardly acts are committed, laws violated, and
often the scoundrels who perpetrate these acts cover them with the
name of the Klan. It is part of our work to refute these charges
and to investigate practices of this nature. For instance, if a Klan
is charged with tarring, feathering, and whipping a victim anywhere,
we immediately dispatch investigators to the scene of the crime, and
if we find that even one member of a local Klan has been guilty of
such outrages, summary action is taken. The Imperial Palace imme
diately cancels the charter of that whole Klan, and we do everything
in our power to aid the prosecuting attorney and the officers of justice
to arrest the guilty and bring them to trial.
"Our organization abhors every unlawful action of every kind, but
occasionally a man of bad intentions secures membership in the Klan,
and it is a few of these persons who have caused on occasions charges
against the Klan. Our investigations have shown that on many
occasions outrages and crimes of many kinds perpetrated in the South
and North, and charged to the Klan or Klansmen, were done by-
persons who had no connection whatever with the Klan.
"The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are a law-abiding organization,
and they are utterly opposed to any violation of the law at any
time. We shall never tolerate in our membership any person who
violates any law.
"Already we have assisted in bringing to justice persons who have
impersonated Klansmen and perpetrated crimes of various kinds. Our
Investigation Department reaches into every state."

15. VARIED ACTIVITIES OF THE KLAN
Part of the work of the Ku Klux Klan is charitable. It also inter
ests itself in civic welfare work of many kinds. For instance,
September 24, 1920, the Chamber of Commerce of Yoakum, Texas,
accepted an offer of the Yoakum Klan to loan $30,000 to the city
for erection and equipment of a public library. It was stipulated in
the loan by the Klan that six Holy Bibles must be on file in the library,
and the Stars and Stripes must fly at all times over the building.
On September 17* in Richmond, Virginia, a police officer was
killed by a desperado. The Richmond Klan sent $100 to the widow.
Charleston, West Virginia, Klansmen on August 27 contributed
$275 toward the support of the Old Ladies' Home in Kanavvha
County. Last March the Charlottesville, Virginia, Klan gave $1,000 to the
University of Virginia Centennial Endowment Fund.
November 24, the Henderson, Texas, Klan gave $50 to two negroes
in needy circumstances.
October 1, the Atlanta Klan contributed $100 to help pay expenses
of Confederate veterans from Atlanta to Houston, Texas, at the
annual reunion of the United Confederate Veterans.
November 23, the Greenville, Texas, Klan contributed $1,000
toward rebuilding Wesley College at that place, destroyed by fire.
On Christmas Day, 1921, the Atlanta Ku Klux Klan contributed
$125 to the Christmas fund for former slaves.
November 25 the Memphis, Tennessee, Klan gave $100 to the Red
Cross. On November 7, the Goliad, Texas, Klan contributed $50 to a
citizen of that town whose home and personal effects had been de
stroyed by fire.
On June 22 last the San Antonio, Texas, Klan gave $100 to the
local Orphan's Llome.
On July 6, the Wharton, Texas, Klan contributed $50 to a widow
in destitute circumstances.
On July 9, the Cureo, Texas, Klan gave County Judge Boal $60 to
help a man afflicted with tuberculosis.
November 21, the Austin, Texas, Klan gave $100 to the Salvation
Army. On July 20, the Dallas, Texas, Klan sent $100 to the Orphans'
Home.

*The following dates are all in 1920 or 1921.
88

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAX

89

The Atlanta Klan has recently contributed SI. 000 to the Agnes
Scott Girls' School in that city.
November 29 the Washington, D. C, Klan gave $100 to the Salva
tion Army.
More than $15,000 has been loaned by the Atlanta Klan to small
tradesmen who need capital in their business. This money is supplied
without interest. In many other cities where there are large Klans
many thousands of dollars are loaned to small tradesmen.
It is one of the cardinal principles of the Klan to assist each other
in all business and social affairs, and a klansman will always trade
with other Klansmen whenever possible. This same policy is often
pursued, as is well known, by other fraternal organizations.
The Klans everywhere are opposed to lawlessness and disorder.
As organizations they are always ready to assist local civil officers
with money or advice. For instance, on May 19, the South Jackson
ville, Florida, Klan sent a communication to Mayor William Beloit
to the effect that they stood back of him in his efforts to preserve law
and order in that community. There had recently been considerable
disorder in South Jacksonville, and criminals of various kinds had
been giving the authorities much trouble.
Last January at Winter Garden, Florida, there was a race riot. The
local Klansmen helped to suppress the riot, and members of that
Klan stood guard for three days and three nights, protecting lives and
property in the negro quarters.
On February 25, 1921, D. J. Gantt, Federal Supervising Prohibition
Agent for the Southern States, stated in writing :
"I feel that I have the support of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
in. supporting my part of the. law-- — the prohibition part."
J. L. Couch, Mayor of Columbus, Georgia, in an open statement on
February 5, 1921, highly praised the Columbus Klan. He said:
"Seventeen members of the Klan assisted the police department
during an epidemic of burglaries and their services were appreciated
by the police and myself. An organization like the Ku Klux Klan
is a blessing to any community."
In Atlanta a mob formed in the streets to storm the jail and lynch
a negro charged with an atrocious crime. Colonel Simmons happened
to be passing and sent members of the Klan among the mob to
persuade them to disband, which was done. Later when the negro
was carried from the jail to the courthouse to be tried Klansmen
stationed along the way between the two buildings prevented any act
of violence against the accused.

90 STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
The Little Rock, Ark., chief of police received November 25, $1,000
from the Klan at that place, as a reward for the arrest and conviction
of any person attacking a woman. Many of the local Klans have
adopted the motto : "Not for self but for others."
These are only a few instances, of which there are many hundreds
on file in the Imperial Palace in Atlanta, of the charitable actions of
the Klans and their policies in helping to preserve law and order.
As for charges against the Klan that it is hostile to the Catholics,
Jews, and the negroes, Colonel Simmons gave the writer the following-
positive statement :
"We antagonize no man's religion. I have heard of only one case
where a Kleagle circulated anti-Catholic propaganda and he was
instantly^ discharged.
"We are not anti-Jewish ; any Jew who can subscribe to the tenets
of the Christian Religion can get in.
"We are not anti-negro. Scores of other fraternal organizations
do not admit negroes. We are not anti-foreign born, we merely
require that members shall be native born Americans."
Colonel Simmons stated the prereqisites to membership in the In
visible Empire as follows :
"This Order is founded upon dependable character. It is not an
ultra-exclusive institution, but its membership is composed of 'picked
men.' "No man is wanted in the Order who has not manhood enough to
assume a real oath with serious purpose of keeping the same inviolate.
"No man is wanted in this Order who will not or cannot swear an
unqualified allegiance to the Government of the United States of
America, its flag and its Constitution.
"No man is wanted in this Order who does not esteem the Govern
ment of the United States above any other government, civil, political,
or ecclesiastical, in the whole world.
"No man is wanted in this Order who cannot practice fraternity
toward each other and every one of his oath-bound associates.
"Only native-born Americans who believe in the tenets of the
Christian religion and who owe no allegiance of any degree or nature
to any foreign government, nation, institution, sect, people or person,
are eligible."
In Atlanta, the Klan's headquarters, practically the entire popula
tion believes in the Klan and one of the largest local Klans in the
Invisible Empire is located in this city, numbering many thousand
members, including a large number of the most prominent citizens.

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STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN 93
Practically the entire citizenship is back of it, and this fact alone, in
its home city, seems evidence that the Klan must be a good and
reputable organization.
An illustration of how the Klan is regarded in Atlanta is shown by
a sermon delivered by Dr. Caleb A. Ridley, Pastor of the Central
Baptist Church, one of the largest churches in Atlanta, in which the
minister took occasion to criticize newspapers that had attacked the
Klan, and made from the pulpit a vigorous defense of the organiza
tion. Dr. Ridley- is one of the most prominent ministers in the South.
While the Invisible Empire publishes no newspaper aud has no
propaganda or publicity department, it has use of the columns of the
Searchlight, a weekly newspaper printed in Atlanta, which is the
official paper of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics
for Georgia. The editor of this paper is J. O. Wood, and the managing
editor is Howard B. Weaver. It has a very large circulation through
out Georgia and elsewhere, and is at all times a vigorous defender
of the Klan, though having no official connection with the "Invisible
Empire." Georgia daily newspapers are favorable to the Klan and
say so.
Parades of the Klan in their white regalia are always a big event
in Atlanta. The first public appearance of the Klan on a large scale
in Atlanta was during the Confederate Veterans' Reunion in 1919. The
Ku Kluxers paraded clad in their helmets, masks, and long, flowing
white robes, and created a stir along the line of march. They fol
lowed the veterans in the parade.
On January 16, 1920, Atlanta prohibitionists had a great bonfire in
the center of the city, to celebrate the "dry amendment," which marked
the death of John Barleycorn. The Klan on this occasion appeared
again in uniform to emphasize the fact that it stands at all times for
law and order, and for fair and impartial enforcement of all laws,
not only of the prohibition law, but of all statutes.
Colonel Simmons summed up the central idea of the Ku Klux Klan,
by saying :
"The spirit of the Ku Klux Klan still lives, and should live a
priceless heritage to be sacredly treasured by all those who love their
country, regardless of section, and are proud of its sacred traditions.
That this spirit may live always to warm the hearts of manly men,
unify them by the spirit of holy klannishness, and inspire them to
highest ideals and noblest in the defense of our country, our homes,
each other, and humanity, is the paramount ideal of the Knights of
the Ku Klux Klan."

16. ENEMIES BEGIN ATTACKS ON THE KLAN
September, 1921, largely because of its intense activities and the
enemies it had made among certain classes the Klan began to be
attacked in a few newspapers. The attack started with public state
ments, widely carried by the press services, by certain Kleagles, who
had become disgruntled with their positions or who had otherwise
been influenced to abandon their work and assail the organization.
The New York World began a "crusade" against the Klan and
published a series of newspaper articles attacking the Klan and pur
porting to expose its secrets and describe its activities. The principal
fact upon which the World based its attacks was the amount of money
collected by the Klan, and its alleged participation in tarring and
feathering cases which were charged against the Klan and which
were afterward proven to have been perpetrated by individual Klans
men or by persons not having any connection with the organization.
Whether or not the fact that the World is principally owned by
Mr. Pulitzer, a Jew, had anything to do with the crusade, is not
known, but the fact that Jews, as a rule, are ineligible to membership
in the Klan should be taken into consideration in a survey of this attack.
Another fact connected with the World's crusade that may bear on
the situation is, that after the World began to publish the Knights of
the Ku Klux Klan articles its daily circulation increased approximately
100,000, and the Sunday circulation to 125,000 copies, according to a
statement published by the World in a New York trade journal.
It is a fact known by all newspaper publishers that the New York
World has always been noted for "crusades" of various kinds, and
has been the leading propaganda newspaper, advocating and opposing
various things, for many years in New York City.
The New York World syndicated its Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
articles and sold them to a considerable number of daily papers
throughout the country for which, of course, it was paid. So from
a money standpoint the attacks on the Klan were profitable to the
World, aside from any questionable prestige it may have secured from
the publication.
In the whole World series there is hardly a fact borne out by
reliable testimony or evidence that the Klan had been guilty of any
practice or any action contrary to the management of an ordinary
fraternal organization. Those who read the World articles will agree
94

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN 95
that while they were entertainingly written, there was a scarcity ot
facts in the stories.
When it became known in New York that the World had gained
more than 100,000 circulation because of the Knights of the Ku Klux
Klan stories, and circulation in New York means advertising, and
advertising means money, the New York American launched a similar
attack on the "Invisible Empire," and used as its principal medium
in its series of stories a former official of the Klan in New York,
C. Anderson Wright, who had left the organization. The Hearst
stories were about on a par with the World articles, containing a few-
facts, but a large amount of accusation and denunciation. The Hearst
stories were printed in all the Hearst papers throughout the United
States. Publication by the World syndicate and in the Hearst string of
newspapers, of course, secured very wide publicity for the attacks
throughout the country, and while both series were being published
Congress took notice of the matter, and after considerable private
discussion among the members of the House a Congressional attack
was launched on the Klan.
Resolutions were introduced calling on the House Rules Committee
to hold a preliminary investigation to decide whether or not a special
congressional committee should make an investigation of the "Invisible
Empire." These resolutions, practically similar in purpose, were
introduced by Representative Peter F. Tague, of Boston, Massachu
setts ; Representative Leonidas C. Dyer, of St. Louis, Missouri ; and
Representative Thomas J. Ryan, of New York City.
Representative James A. Gallivan, Democrat, of South Boston,
later introduced a resolution calling for a congressional committee
to investigate and determine whether any members of Congress be
longed to the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. This resolution was
not taken seriously, for it was evident to any Washington newspaper
man that Congress would never pass such a resolution.
Some observers professed to see considerable significance in the
resolutions of Messrs. Tague and Ryan, as Mr. Ryan is a Catholic
and a Knight of Columbus, and Mr. Tague is also a Catholic. Repre
sentative Dyer is a Protestant, but has in his constituency in St. Louis,
Missouri, a large number of negro voters.
Messrs. Dyer and Ryan are Republicans, but Mr. Tague is a Demo
crat. Mr. Tague lives in Boston, which has a large Catholic and
foreign-born population. Mr. Ryan's home is in New York City,
which possesses a very large Jewish, negro, and foreign-born population.

9" STORY OF THE KU KLLA KLAN
While few open comments were made concerning these facts during
the investigation by the House Rules Committee, though Colonel
Simmons called attention to it, the inference seemed to be plain that the
House members who had introduced the resolutions to investigate the
Klan were prompted by personal and religious feelings, and it was
evident to all that by their resolutions they had secured considerable
political advantage in their congressional districts.
Representative William D. Upshaw, of Georgia, soon after the
Ryan, Tague and Dyer resolutions were launched, introduced a reso
lution calling upon Congress to investigate all secret societies in the
United States. This created considerable stir throughout the country
and further complicated the already tangled situation.
It was an open secret that several Southern congressmen had
prepared resolutions demanding that Congress investigate the Knights
of Columbus, and the various negro organizations throughout the
country, particularly the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People, headquarters in Boston. These congressmen had
their resolutions ready, but were prevailed upon not to introduce
the resolutions until it was seen what action the Rules Committee
would take toward appointing a special congressional committee to
probe the affairs of the "Invisible Empire." It was well known, how
ever, that the Southern Democrats generally, in the House and Senate,
had determined, if there was to be a special congressional investigation
of the Ku Klux Klan, the House Rules Committee investigation being
merely a preliminary proceeding as to whether or not a special con
gressional committee should investigate the Klan, to force a special
congressional investigation of the Knights of Columbus and all negro
organizations. The result would have been a religious controversy in Congress that
might have led to very serious consequences, and which undoubtedly
would have split the United States into hostile factions. In view of all
the circumstances it is well that the Southern congressmen did not
introduce their resolutions.
Finally- the Rules Committee decided to hold the preliminary investi
gation to decide whether or not a special congressional committee should
investigate the Klan.
The House Rules Committee included : Philip P. Campbell, Kansas;
Bertrand H. Snell, New York; William A. Rodenberg, Illinois;
Simeon D. Fess, Ohio; Aaron S. Kreider, Pennsylvania; Porter H.
Dale, Vermont; Royal C. Johnson, South Dakota-; and Thomas D.
Schall, Minnesota, all Republicans. Edward W. Pou, North Caro-

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN

97

Una; Finis J. Garrett, Tennessee; James C. Cantrill, Kentucky; and
Daniel J. Riordan, New York, were the Democratic members.
Some of the members of the committee did not appear at the
hearing. The chairman, Mr. Campbell, and Representative Roden-
berg. of Illinois, showed by their attitude and questions of the witnesses
that they desired an investigation, and that they were, if not distinctly-
hostile, at least unfavorable to the "Invisible Empire." Other mem
bers occupied a noncommittal and fair attitude. Among the Democrats
Representative Pou and Representative Garrett indicated by their
questions and their attitude during the whole hearing that they were
not only anxious to bring out all the facts concerning the Ku Klux
Klan, but that they were in a favorable frame of mind toward the
organization. So far as known, none of the members of the House
Rules Committee were members of the "Invisible Empire."
Mr. Campbell is a Protestant and so are Mr. Pou and Mr. Garrett..
Mr. Rodenberg is also a Protestant.
The investigation of the House Rules Committee continued for
several days, beginning on October Id .
Mr. Tague appeared and urged that the committee vote for a
congressional investigation.
Mr. Dyer was the next witness and urged a favorable report on his
resolution, as did Mr. Ryan.
Among the witnesses were Roland Thomas, member of the editorial
staff of the New York World, who had charge, for the World, of the
investigation of the Ku Klux Klan. Thomas said he had devoted
July, August, and September to the investigation. Lie made this sig
nificant admission on the stand : "A great deal of what comes to it
(referring to the IVorld) has to come by rumor. I cannot pretend
to go thoroughly to the bottom (referring to the investigation), for
the very fact I have spoken of, that a newspaper has no power of
subpoena or search."
The star witness, however, was C. Anderson Wright, formerly a
member of the New York Klan with title of "King Kleagle," that is,
he was in charge of the whole State of New York as manager.
Wright's testimony, which occupied several of the hearings, was mainly
devoted to statements regarding the financial affairs of the Klan and
its business matters. Nothing was brought out by the former "King
Kleagle" which could be considered as derogatory to the Klan; the
principal burden of his testimony was that the Klan had collected
enormous sums of money. It was shown that the total revenues of the
Klan since it had been organized six years ago had been approxi-

9S STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
mately $1,250,000. A financial statement as to how this money had
been spent was filed with the committee by Colonel Simmons, and
there was nothing in the report which showed any misuse of funds.
The money had been spent to pay organizers' commissions, rentals,
printing, postage, and other usual expenses of a large fraternal
organization.

17. MANY OTHER WITNESSES BEFORE COMMITTEE
O. K. Williamson was the next witness. He is a postoffice inspector
who had made an investigation of the Klan. Mr. Williamson's testi
mony dealt largely- with the purchase of the property- owned by the
Klan in Atlanta, and a home costing $25,000 in that city which had
been purchased by members of the Klan and presented to Colonel
Simmons. 'Mr. Williamson also went thoroughly- into the distribution of the
funds donated by the Klan membership and largely covered the same
ground as C. Anderson Wright.
Representative Gallivan, during the testimony- by Mr. Williamson,
asked the Rules Committee to favorably report his resolution to dis
cover what members of Congress belonged to the Ku Klux Klan.
It may authoritatively be stated that a large number of congressmen
are members of the "Invisible Empire," just as many of them belong
to the Masons, Elks, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Knights of
Columbus, and other large fraternal organizations.
During the whole hearing William J. Burns, Chief of the Bureau of
the Investigation, Department of Justice, and Assistant United States
Attorney General Crimm, with their assistants, occupied seats near
the witness stand and closely observed everything. Mr. Crimm had
been delegated by the Department of Justice to investigate the "Invisible
Empire," and Mr. Burns had been for some time actively engaged in
investigating the organization.
Paul S. Etheridge, of Atlanta, Georgia, the Supreme Attorney for
the Ku Klux Klan, was an important witness. He made out a strong
case for the Klan and all its activities.
Representative William D. Upshaw, of Georgia, was also on the
stand and paid a glowing tribute to the character and personal record
of Colonel Simmons. He declared: "That as a sturdy and inspiring-
personality, as an heroic veteran of the Spanish-American War, and
a Knight Templar, as a consecrated Christian, as a member of a
dozen well-known fraternal organizations and a God-fearing citizen,
Colonel Simmons is as incapable of an unworthy- or unpatriotic motive,
word or deed, as the chairman of the committee, the Speaker of the
House of Representatives, or the President of the United States."
Air. Upshaw then introduced Colonel Simmons to the committee.
Colonel Simmons' testimony required several sessions, and he explained 99

lun STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
everything about the Ku Klux Klan from the time that he had
founded the organization until the present. Nothing in his testimony.
and he was thoroughly cross-questioned by members of the com
mittee, brought out any fact concerning the Klan which could be
construed as damaging to that organization. The organization and
operation of the "Invisible Empire' were gone into by Colonel Simmons
in the minutest detail, and he filed with the committee a complete
financial statement of the Klan, and copies of all its rituals, documents,
records, and papers.
Colonel Simmons asked Chairman Campbell that his testimony be
taken under oath, but this was declined.
The Imperial Wizard declared that the fight conducted against the
Klan was similar to the attacks years ago on the Masons ; as the
same charges were made against them and the same effort to destroy
them was made as has been made against the Knights of the Ku Klux
Klan, this fight on the Masons resulting in the formation of a political
anti-Masonic party at that time.
He denounced the World and declared that if that paper, which
is the chief Democratic organ in New York, could succeed in forcing
a Republican Congress to destroy a great American fraternal organi
zation, it would react against the Republicans in the next elections,
as the Ku Klux Klan, with its hundreds of thousands of friends at
the polls three years hence, would forget party lines and vote the
Democratic ticket.
He declared that the Llearst papers had attacked the Klan purely
from the desire to obtain more circulation.
Colonel Simmons created a very favorable impression on the com
mittee, and he repeatedly declared in his testimony that the Klan
courted the fullest investigation, and that he and his assistants desired
the Rules Committee to report a resolution providing for a special
congressional investigation, that nothing had been developed in cor
roboration of the charges of the World and the Hearst papers except
one fact — that the Klan had collected large sums of money and dis
tributed the same as all other large fraternal organizations do. The
whole testimony did not develop any evidence where the Klan as a
Klan had perpetrated any of the outrages charged against it in some of
the Southern States.
The last day of the hearing, when Colonel Simmons had completed
his testimony, the Associated Press story began with the following
sentence : "The Ku Klux Klan investigation blew up today."
Tt was plain to unprejudiced observers that the investigation

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN 101
conducted by the House Rules Committee had resulted in a vindication
of the Ku Klux Klan, and a repudiation of the charges made by
the New York World and the Hearst papers. In fact, the World
and Hearst attacks on the Klan really resulted in nothing, except
giving the Klan a nation-wide publicity which has been extraordinarily
valuable to it in getting its name and principles before the American
public, and an advertising which could not have been purchased for
many millions of dollars. The Klan greatly profited by the news
paper attacks on it and the congressional investigation because it is
now, as a result of these attacks and the investigation, receiving daily
thousands of applications for membership from all sections of the
United States, and it seems probable that within a short time it will
number more than one million members, all sworn to loyalty to the
Flag, the Constitution, the Republic, and advocating Americanism,
patriotism, and Anglo-Saxon supremacy.

18. THE SYMBOL AND THE SLOGAN OF THE KLAN
The symbol of a well-known life insurance company is that famous
rock which towers above the entrance of the Mediterranean Sea.
I'irtified by Great Britain, it commands the gates to the Atlantic,
and helps mightily to make England mistress of the seas. "Impreg
nable as Gibraltar" is a slogan denoting faith in self and uttering
defiance to all efforts, however gigantic, to pull down the defenses of
a man or the fortifications of an institution.
In Georgia, the Imperial State of the South, where the Ku Klux
Klan was reborn, we have a rock which will become as famous to
American patriots as Gibraltar. Rising from an almost level plain,
as if brooking no precipitous rival, defying the storms of centuries,
stands "Stone Mountain," near Atlanta. It is a solid block of gray
granite, seventeen hundred and eighty feet high, several miles in
circumference at its base, sloping on one side, precipitous on the
other. On the sheer front of the precipice a famous sculptor, in
spired by patriotic women of the South, will carve out of the rock,.
running for hundreds of feet along its face, heroic scenes, figures and
battles of the war between the States, when brothers fought for what
they thought was right. On this gigantic canvas of imperishable
granite we shall see the Blue and the Gray contending- in the mighty-
shock of battle at Chancellorsville and Atlanta, Chickamauga and
Gettysburg; we shall see their leaders — Grant and Lee, Gordon and
Sheridan, and many others of lesser fame, and Lincoln the Great,
and Davis, leader of the ill-starred Confederacy ; and Appomattox
where the fratricidal strife ended, and the Stars and Bars was folded
'in undying memories and the Stars and Stripes became once more
the unsullied flag of a reunited nation, "one and inseparable, now aud
forever." These sculptures on Stone Mountain will be the greatest- in the
world — greater than the Sphinx whose stony lips have kept silence
for centuries along the banks of the Nile, where the Pharaohs forced
their helpless subjects to build marvels of architecture, where the
lotus bloomed in languorous beauty, and where one or more of the
Wise Men, guided by the marvelous Star, rode to find and worship
the world's Redeemer lying a helpless babe in the manger at Beth
lehem. These pictured battles and charging warriors on the precipice
of Stone Mountain will become more famous than the Lion of Lu-
102

Photograph by J. A. Murdoch, Atlanta, Ga. Home of Col. William Joseph Simmons
Imperial Wizard, in Atlanta, Ga. This home was given to him by the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN 105
cerne carved by Thorwaldsen on the face of an alpine cliff as a
memorial to the Swiss Guard who fell in the line of duty.
Only sixteen miles from Atlanta, Stone Mountain, because of its
solitary- and majestic grandeur, will become more and more an object
of national if not international interest. Not only geologists and
other scientists will visit this granite monolith, but also artists and
other lovers of scenic beauty and majesty. Not only those of the
South will come, but also thousands of tourists from colder regions
and foreign lands will visit the homes and haunts of Dixie and learn
of the traditions, the chivalry, and the abounding hospitality of the
South. Why has the Ku Klux Klan chosen Stone Mountain as its symbol ?
Because its beauty, its majesty, its impregnability typified the char
acter, the purposes and the perpetuity of the order. What better
place could be found for the reincarnation of the Ku Klux Klan than
this giant granite monument of Nature? To its summit, during a
stormy night in 1915, while blustering winds blew, Col. William
J. Simmons, who had caught the vision of the great Order, led
thirty-four leading citizens of Atlanta. They were ministers, lawyers,
physicians, judges, merchants, teachers, laborers — a democratic as
sembly where all were equal. These thirty-four men were to consti
tute the solid nucleus around whom should gather good and true
men from every quarter of America, men who, like Sir Philip Sidney,
were cavaliers without fear and without reproach- The fiery Cross
blazed as a gonfalon, striking with wonder the inhabitants of the
villages clustered about the base of the mountain. Its gleaming
arms scintillated as if they were the resounding- voice of a reborn
Stentor announcing to all the world faith in American institutions,
and the hope that white supremacy and true liberty should prevail
from the stormy Atlantic to the golden shores of California lapped
by the rolling Pacific; from New England's rockbound coast to the
orange flowers and magnolia blooms of the land where Ponce de
Leon sought the fountain of perpetual youth ; from the Great Lakes
separating us from our peaceful neighbor, Canada, to the illimitable
plains of Texas and the Rio Grande bordering the land of the Monte-
zumas and the Aztecs shrouded in the mists of history.
Colonel Simmons, the valiant leader of that band of forvvard-look-
ino- patriots, lifted his tall form on the highest peak of the mountain.
The air seemed vibrant with voices out of the heroic past, telling
of the deeds of the fathers, uttering- encouragement for the present,
makin°- prognostications for the future. In earnest aud heart-
compelling words Colonel Simmons told his thirty-four listeners

10o STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN"
that he had been called to the work of reviving the Ku Klux Klan.
aud had not been disobedient to the vision. He said that the Klan
must be made a fraternal order larger and grander than its prototype,
destined, as he hoped, to spread throughout the country until it had
members in every state and section. No one should be allowed to
become a Klansman unless his character was good, his motives altru
istic, his purposes lofty, his honor pledged to law and order, to on^
hundred per cent Americanism, to nation-wide and, finally, world
wide supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon race Lie asserted his appre
hension that an inevitable conflict between the white race on the one
side and the yellow and black races on the other was indicated by
the present international unrest. This conflict would be Armageddon,
unless the Anglo-Saxon, in unity with the Latin and_ Teutonic nations,
should take the leadership of the world and show to all that it had
and would hold the world mastery forever.
Colonel Simmons then gave to the thirty-four present the oppor
tunity of becoming charter members of the new movement. In the
war for Texan independence, the Alamo at San Antonio, with less
than two hundred defenders, was besieged by Santa Ana leading an
army of four thousand Mexicans. Colonel Travis mustered his men
in the court of the old stone church, turned into a fort, and told them
that, if they closed the gates before the siege began, all would die;
but before the gates were closed, there was a chance to escape, and
anyone might take that chance without shame, as life was dear to
al). Then, drawing a line on the floor with the point of his sword,
Travis said : "Each must decide for himself. Let hinv who is willing
to die for Texas independence, cross over the line!" Every man
crossed, and every man died, but Texas was free ! On the monument
erected to their valor in the Capitol park at Austin, is the sentence:
"Thermopylae had her messenger of defeat; the Alamo had none!"
The heroism of Travis and his men was repaid when General Houston
swept Santa Ana and his army to destruction at the battle of San
Jacinto. So, every one who heard Colonel Simmons' call to patriotic service
in a time of peace, knelt on the rocky slope of Stone Mountain, under
the silent, solemn stars, and took the oath of consecration to the ideals,
purposes and work of the Ku Klux Klan.
From this start, awe-inspiring yet humble, the Ku Klux Klan has
had a phenomenal growth. It has been fought from without and
within; investigated by a congressional committee and by judicial
action; charged with crimes and misdemeanors by wicked men who
claimed membership to cover their nefarious deeds ; its leading officials

STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN" 107
traduced and slandered. Yet it has maintained a loyal, successful and
enthusiastic organization to this good day.
What of its future? This is most promising. A storm may be un
pleasant and even terrifying, but it clears the atmosphere. A lightning
bolt may shake the earth, but its fierce flame consumes nephitic vapors
that might cause contagion and death. So, when the Ku Klux Klan
has beaten down all attacks from without; when it has purged itself
from disloyal traitors from within; then, like a giant refreshed by
sleep, it will gird itself for the struggle and run with patience and
increasing success its appointed race.
The Anglo-Saxon is the typeman of history. To him must yield the
self-centered Hebrew, the cultured Greek, the virile Roman, the mystic
Oriental. The psalmist must have had him in mind by poetic imagina
tion when he struck his sounding harp and sang : "O Lord : thou hast
made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with
glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works
of thy hands ; thou hast put all things under his feet." The Ku Klux
Klan desires that its ruling members shall be of this all-conquering
blood. This does not mean prohibition against other white bloods.
The Constitution of the United States ordains that no man shall be
President of this great Republic unless he was born in America. This
is no reflection on Lloyd George, or Poincare, or Albert of Belgium.
It is simply the preference and mandate of our republic. A man
may come to America from other lands who may be a greater man
than the President; but we have decided, and we have the right to
decide, that our President shall be American born. So, the Ku Klux
Klan was planned for the white American. But, as the United States
welcomes to its hospitable shores all who will become Americans by
loyal adoption and by swearing allegiance to the Constitution, so the
Ku Klux Klan welcomes into membership any and all who are white
Americans, speaking one language, glad to live under the aegis of
the Constitution, and thrilled when they see the Stars and Stripes wave
its brilliant folds in the breezes of freedom that fan the cheeks of all
true patriots irrespective of former nationality or political condition.
In brief, the Ku Klux Klan desires to be, hopes to be, plans to be
and will be a great, influential, helpful, patriotic, American fraternal
order, taking its allotted place with similar secret brotherhoods, and
with them working out our Christian civilization, adding to the gifts
and "races, the prosperity and happiness of mankind, and standing
for the noble, the true and the good, for the majesty of law, for the
advancement of the human race.
[the end]

YALE UNIVERSITY

1926897b