fices from the State, city, and Federal Government, for which they are unfit, and to which they have no title other than the color of their skins; the development in their conventions of a spirit of proscription against white radicals and even against honorable republicans who fought in the northern armies for their liberation; their increasing arrogance, which seems to know no bounds; their increasing dishonesty, which they regard as statesmanly virtue; their contemptuous scorn of all the rights of the white man which they dare to trespass upon, all these signs warn us that the calamity which we had long apprehended is now imminent, and that we must prepare for all its consequences. Disregarding all minor questions of principle or policy, and having solely in view the maintenance of our hereditary civilization and Christianity menaced by a stupid Africanization, we appeal to the men of our race, of whatever language or nationality, to unite with us against that supreme danger. A league of the whites is the inevitable result of that formidable, oath-bound, and blindly obedient league of the blacks, which, under the command of the most cunning and unscrupulous negroes in the State, may at any moment plunge us into a war of races. It is with some hope that a timely and proclaimed union of the whites as a race, and their efficient preparation for any emergency, may arrest the threatened horrors of a social war, and teach the blacks to beware of further insolence and aggression, that we call upon the men of our race to leave in abeyance all lesser considerations; to forget all differences of opinions and all race prejudices of the past, and with no object in view but the common good of both races, to unite with us in an earnest effort to re-establish a white man's government in the city and the State.

"Regulators, Jayhawkers, Black-horse Cavalry"

Senate Ex. Doc. no. 6, 39 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 55. From report of Gen.
Davis Tillson, head of Freedmen's Bureau in Georgia. These were
early organizations.
[November 1, 1866]

BANDS of men styling themselves "Regulators," "Jayhawkers," and "Black-horse cavalry," have infested different parts of the State, committing the most fiendish and diabolical outrages on the freedmen. I am unaware of a single instance in which one of these villains has been arrested and brought to trial by the civil authorities. . . I am led to believe that, in some instances, the civil authorities and well disposed citizens have been overawed by these organizations. In others, I fear the civil authorities have sympathized with them. Whenever they have neglected or refused to act, troops have been dispatched to arrest the guilty parties; but, as the outlaws are usually well mounted, have the sympathy of more or less of the inhab itants, are familiar with the country, and have numerous oppor tunities for concealment, they generally escape.

The Transformation of the Klan

Lester and Wilson, Ku Klux Klan, p. 34. Copyright 1884, 1905. Used by permission. Lester was one of the founders of the Klan, which began as a social club.

[1866-1868]

THE prevalent idea was that the Klan contemplated some great and important mission. This idea aided in its rapid growth. And on the other hand the rapid extensions of the Klan confirmed this idea of its purposes. When admitted to membership this conclusion, in the case of many, was deepened rather than removed by what they saw and heard. There was not a word in the ritual or in the obligation or in any part of the ceremony to favor such a conclusion; but the impression still remained that this mysteriousness and secrecy, the high sounding titles of the officers, the grotesque dress of the members,

and the formidable obligation, all meant more than mere sport. This impression was ineradicable, and the attitude of many of the members continued to be that of expecting great developments. Each had his own speculations as to what was to be the character of the serious work which the Klan had to do. But they were satisfied that there was such work. It was an unhealthy and dangerous state of mind for men to be in; bad results in some cases very naturally followed from it.

The impression made by the Klan on the public was the second cause which contributed to its transformation into a band of Regulators. When the meetings first began to be held in the dilapidated house on the hill, passers-by were frequent. Most of them passed the grim and ghostly sentinel on the roadside in silence, but always with a quickened step. Occasionally one would stop and ask: "Who are you?" In awfully sepulchral tones, the invariable answer was: "A spirit from the other world. I was killed at Chickamaugua." Such an answer, especially when given to a superstitious negro, was extremely terrifying. . . There came from the country similar stories. The belated laborer, passing after nightfall, some lonely and secluded spot, heard horrible noises and saw fearful sights. These stories were repeated with such embellishments as the imagination of the narrator suggested, till the feeling of the negroes and of many of the white people, at mention of the Ku Klux Klan, was one of awe and terror.

In a short time the Lictor of the Pulaski "den" reported that travel along the road on which he had his post had almost entirely stopped. In the country it was noticed that the noctural perambulation of the colored population diminished, or entirely ceased wherever the Ku Klux appeared. In many ways there was a noticeable improvement in the habits of a large class who had hitherto been causing great annoyIn this way the Klan gradually realized that the most powerful devices ever constructed for controlling the ignorant and superstitious were in their hands. . . Each week some new incident occurred to illustrate the amazing power of the unknown over the minds of men of all classes. Circumstances

ance.

made it evident that the measures and methods employed for sport might be effectually used to subserve the public wel fare to suppress lawlessness and protect property. When propositions to this effect began to be urged, there were many who hesitated, fearing danger. The majority regarded such fears as groundless. They pointed to the good results which had already been produced. The argument was forcible. . . The very force of circumstances had carried the Klan away from its original purpose. So that in the beginning of the summer of 1867 it was virtually, though not yet professedly, a band of regulators, honestly, but in an injudicious and dangerous way, trying to protect property and preserve peace and order. . .

But there were two causes of vexation and exasperation which the people were in no good mood to bear. One of these causes related to that class of men who, like scum, had been thrown to the surface in the great upheaval. . . The majority of the class. . had played traitor to both sides, and were Union men now only because that was the successful side. And worse than all they were now engaged in keeping alive discord and strife between the sections, as the only means of preventing themselves from sinking back into the obscurity from which they had been upheaved. Their conduct was malicious in the extreme and exceedingly exasperating. These men were "a thorn in the flesh" of the body, politic and social...

The second disturbing element was the negroes. . . They were not only unfitted for the cares of self-control, and maintenance so suddenly thrust upon them, but many of them entered their new role in life under the delusion that freedom meant license. They regarded themselves as freedmen, not only from bondage to their former masters, but from the common and ordinary obligations of citizenship. Many of them looked upon obedience to the laws of the State

as in some

measure a compromise of the rights with which they had been invested. The administration of civil law was only partially re-established. On that account, and for other reasons, there was an amount of disorder and violence prevailing over the

country which has never been equaled at any period of its history. If the officers of the law had had the disposition and ability to arrest all lawbreakers, a jail and court-house in every civil district would have been required.

The depredations in property by theft and by wanton destruction for the gratification of petty revenge, were to the last degree annoying. A large part of these depredations was the work of bad white men, who expected that their lawless deeds would be credited to the negroes. But perhaps the most potent of all causes which brought about this transformation was the existence in the South of a spurious and perverted form of the "Union League." . . It is a part of the history of those times that there was a widespread and desperately active organization called the "Union League." It was composed of the disorderly element of the negro population, and was led and controlled by white men of the basest and meanest type just now referred to. They met frequently, went armed to the teeth, and literally "breathed out threatening and slaughter." They not only uttered, but in many instances executed the most violent threats against the persons, families and property of men, whose sole crime was that they had been in the Confederate army. It can not be truthfully denied that the Ku Klux committed excesses and were charged with wrong doing. But they were never guilty of the disorderly and unprovoked deeds of deviltry, which mark the history of the Southern "Union League." It was partly, I may say chiefly, to resist this aggressive and belligerent organization that the Ku Klux transformed themselves into a protective organization.

Whatever may be the judgment of history, those who know the facts will ever remain firm in the conviction that the Ku Klux Klan was of immense service at this period of Southern history. Without it, in many sections of the South, life to decent people would not have been tolerable. It served a good purpose. Wherever the Ku Klux appeared the effect was salutary. For a while the robberies ceased. The lawless class. assumed the habits of good behavior. The "Union League"