In 1861 the Methodist Episcopal Church South had more than 200,000 colored members and 180,000 children under instruction. One year after the surrender of Lee only 78,000 remained.[1841] The Montgomery Conference, in November, 1865, decided that there was no necessity for a change in the church relations of white and black; that in the church there should be no distinction on account of color and race; and that the negro had special claims on the whites. Presiding elders and preachers were directed to do all that lay in their power for the colored congregations, and establish Sunday-schools and day schools for them when practicable.[1842] The Methodist Protestants announced a similar policy.[1843] General Swayne of the Freedmen"s Bureau reported that he received much a.s.sistance toward negro education from the Southern Methodist Church, and especially from Reverend H. N. McTyeire (afterwards bishop).[1844]
The Southern Methodist congregations lost their negro members from the same causes that brought about the separation of the races in other churches. The negroes were told by their new leaders that for their safety they must consider the southerners as their natural enemies;[1845] they were convinced that there was spiritual safety only in the northern or in independent churches. All the forces of social ostracism were employed against those who chose to remain in the old churches. The southern planter was not able to support the missionary who formerly preached to his slaves, the negroes would not pay; and the church treasury was empty.[1846] In 1866 the General Conference directed that the colored members be organized as separate charges when they so desired; that colored preachers and presiding elders be appointed by the bishop, annual conferences organized when necessary, and especial attention be directed towards Sunday-schools for the negroes.[1847]
Against all efforts of the Southern Methodists to work among the negroes, the Northern Methodists struggled with a persistence worthy of a better cause. Missionaries were sent South, narrow and prejudiced, though sincere, men and women, who were possessed with the fixed conviction that no good could come to the negro except from the North; in this conviction schools were established and churches organized. The injudicious and violent methods of these persons and their bitter prejudices caused their exclusion from all desirable society, and naturally they became more violent and prejudiced than ever. Their letters written to their homes showed that they believed the native white to be possessed by an inhuman hatred of the blacks, and that on the slightest provocation the whites would slaughter the entire negro population.[1848] They favored at least a partial confiscation in behalf of the negro. Through the Freedmen"s Aid Society the northern church entered upon work among the whites also, opposing the southern church on the ground that it was sectional and condemning all its efforts among the blacks as useless and harmful. For years there was not a word of recognition of the work done by the southern churches among the slaves.[1849] The missionaries were afraid of "the old feudal forces" which were still working, they thought, under various disguises such as "Historical Societies, Memorial Days, and monuments to the Confederate dead."[1850] Their work was thoroughly done. Two negro Methodist churches, organized in the North, secured the greater part of the negroes.[1851] Some joined the Northern Methodist Church, "which also came down to divide the spoils."[1852]
After 1866 the colored congregations still adhering to the Southern Methodists had been divided into circuits, districts, and conferences. By 1870 political differences and the efforts of other churches had so alienated the races that it was thought best to set up an independent organization for the negroes, for their own protection. This was done in 1870 by the General Conference. Two negro bishops were ordained, and all church property that had ever been used for negro congregations was turned over to the new organization, which was called the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. A few negroes refused to leave the white church, and in 1892 there were still 357 colored members on its rolls.[1853] Until recently there has been strong opposition on the part of the other African churches to the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church because of its relations to the Southern Methodist Church. The latter has continued to aid and direct its protege, and the opposition is gradually subsiding.[1854]
After thirty years" experience, most people who have knowledge of the subject agree that the religious interests of the negro have suffered from the separation of the races in the churches and from the enforced withdrawal of the native whites from religious work among the blacks. The influence of the master"s family is no longer felt, and instead of the white minister came the negro preacher, with "ninety-five superst.i.tions to five eternal truths,"--superst.i.tions, many of them reminiscences from Africa.[1855] There have been too many negro churches; every one who could read and write wanted to preach,[1856] and many of them claimed direct communication with the Supreme Being; every one who applied was admitted to the churches; morality and religion were only remotely connected; leaders of the _demi-monde_ were stout pillars of the church. A Presbyterian minister in charge of negro interests has stated that in his church the personnel of the independent negro congregations is inferior in character and morality to the congregations under the supervision of the whites. In the colored Baptist a.s.sociations it is reported that frequent and radical changes have been the custom. Discontented churches secede and form new a.s.sociations, which exist for a short while, and are then absorbed by other a.s.sociations. The boundaries of the a.s.sociations also change frequently; the church government seems to be in a kind of fluid state. Thoughtful religious leaders now believe that the southern white, for the good of both races, should again take part in the religious training of the negro.[1857] But the difficulties in the way of such a course are almost insurmountable and date back to forced separation of the races in the churches.
An editorial in the _Nation_ in 1866 expressed the situation from one point of view very clearly and forcibly: The northern churches claim that the South is determined to make the religious division permanent, though "slavery no longer furnishes a pretext for separation." Too much pains are taken to bring about an ecclesiastical reunion, and irritating offers of reconciliation are made by the northern churches, all based on the a.s.sumption that the South has not only sinned, but sinned knowingly, in slavery and in war. We expect them to be penitent and to gladly accept our offers of forgiveness. But the southern people look upon a "loyal"
missionary as a political emissary, and "loyal" men do not at present possess the necessary qualifications for evangelizing the southerners or softening their hearts, and are sure not to succeed in doing so. We look upon their defeat as retribution and expect them to do the same. It will do no good if we tell the southerners that "we will forgive them if they will confess that they are criminals, offer to pray with them, preach with them, and labor with them over their hideous sins."[1858]
"Reconstruction" in the church was closely related to "Reconstruction" in the state, and was so considered at the time by the reconstructionists of both.[1859] The same mistaken, intolerant policy was followed, on the theory that the southern whites were as incapable of good action in church as in state. Irritating and impossible tests and conditions of readmission were proposed before reconciliation. Later the efforts to weaken and destroy the southern churches after attempts at reunion had failed completed the alienation, which in several organizations seems to be permanent. There was a Solid South in church as well as in politics.
CHAPTER XXI
THE KU KLUX REVOLUTION
The Ku Klux movement was an understanding among southern whites, brought about by the chaotic condition of social and political inst.i.tutions between 1865 and 1876. It resulted in a partial destruction of the Reconstruction and a return, as near as might be, to ante-bellum conditions. This understanding or state of mind took many forms and was called by many names. The purpose was everywhere and always the same: to recover for the white race control of society, and destroy the baleful influence of the alien among the blacks.[1860]
Causes of the Ku Klux Movement
When the surviving soldiers of the Confederate army returned home in the spring and summer of 1865, they found a land in which political inst.i.tutions had been destroyed and in which a radical social revolution was taking place--an old order, the growth of hundreds of years, seemed to be breaking up, and the new one had not yet taken shape; all was confusion and disorder. At this time began a movement which under different forms has lasted until the present day--an effort on the part of the defeated population to restore affairs to a state which could be endurable, to reconstruct southern society. This movement, a few years later, was in one of its phases known as the Ku Klux movement. For the peculiar aspects of this secret revolutionary movement many causes are suggested.
For several months before the close of the war the state government was powerless except in the vicinity of the larger towns, the country districts being practically without government. After the surrender there was an interval of four months during which there was no pretence of government except in the immediate vicinity of the points garrisoned by the Federal army. The people were forbidden to take steps toward setting up any kind of government.[1861] From one end of the state to the other the land was infested by a vicious element left by the war,--Federal and Confederate deserters, and bushwhackers and outlaws of every description.
These were especially troublesome in the counties north of the Black Belt.
The old tory cla.s.s in the mountain counties was troublesome.[1862] Of the little property surviving the wreck of war, none was safe from thievery.
The worst cla.s.s of the negroes--not numerous at this time--were insolent and violent in their new-found freedom. Murders were frequent, and outrages upon women were beginning to be heard of.[1863] The whites, especially the more ignorant ones, were afraid of the effects of preaching of the doctrines of equality, amalgamation, etc., to the blacks. There were soon signs to show that some negroes would endeavor to put the theories they had heard of into practice.[1864]
There was much talk of confiscation of property and division of land among the blacks. The negroes believed that they were going to be rewarded at the expense of the whites, and many of the latter began to fear that such might be the case. The Freedmen"s Bureau early began its most successful career in alienating the races, by teaching the black that the southern white was naturally unfriendly to him. In this work it was ably a.s.sisted by the preaching and teaching missionaries sent out from the North, who taught the negro to beware of the southern white in church and in school.
The Bureau broke up the labor system that had been patched up in the summer and fall of 1865, and people in the Black Belt felt that labor must be regulated in some way.[1865] In the white counties the poorer whites, who had been the strongest supporters of the secession movement, not because they liked slavery, but because they were afraid of the compet.i.tion of free negroes, began to show signs of a desire to drive the negro tenants from the rich lands which they wanted for themselves.[1866]
For years after the war it was almost impossible for the farmer or planter to raise cows, hogs, poultry, etc., on account of the thieving propensities of the negroes.[1867] Houses, mills, gins, cotton pens, and corn-cribs were frequently burned.[1868] The Union League was believed by many to be an organization for the purpose of plundering the whites and for the division of property when the confiscation should take place.[1869] It was also an active political machine. Nearly all the witnesses before the Ku Klux Committee who stated the causes of the rise of Ku Klux said that the League was the princ.i.p.al one. The whites soon came to believe that they were persecuted by the Washington government.
The cotton frauds in 1865; the cotton tax, 1865-1868; the refusal to admit the southern states to representation in Congress, though they were heavily taxed; the pa.s.sage of the Reconstruction Acts, by which the governments in the South were overturned, the negroes enfranchised, and all the prominent whites disfranchised,--all combined to make the white people believe that the North was seeking to humiliate them, to punish them when they were weak. They did not contemplate such treatment when they laid down their arms. As one soldier expressed it: the treatment received was in violation of the terms of surrender as expressed in their paroles; the southern soldiers could have carried on a guerilla warfare for years; the United States had made terms with men who had arms in their hands; they had laid them down, and the United States had violated these terms and punished individuals for alleged crime without trial; yet their paroles stated that they were not to be disturbed as long as they were law-abiding; the whole Reconstruction was a violation of the terms of surrender as the southern soldiers understood it; it was punishment of a whole people by legislative enactment, and contrary to the spirit of American inst.i.tutions. It was not a matter of law, but of common honesty.[1870]
General Clanton complained that the southern people pa.s.sed out of the hands of warriors into the hands of squaws.[1871] The government imposed upon Alabama after the voters had fairly rejected it according to act of Congress was administered by the most worthless and incompetent of whites--alien and native--and negroes. Heavy taxes were laid; the public debt was rapidly increased; the treasury was looted; public office was treated as private property. The government was weak and vicious; it gave no protection to person or property; it was powerless, or perhaps unwilling, to repress disorder; and was held in general contempt. The officials were notoriously corrupt and unjust in administration. There were many disorders which the people believed the state and Federal governments could not or would not regulate.[1872] There was a general feeling of insecurity, in some sections a reign of terror. Innumerable humiliations were inflicted on the former political people of the state by carpet-bagger and scalawag, using the former slave as an instrument. Negro policemen stood on the street corners annoying the whites, making a great parade of all arrests, sometimes even of white women. The elections were corrupt, and the law was deliberately framed to protect ballot-box frauds.[1873] The highest officers of the judiciary, Federal and state, took an active interest in politics, contrary to judicial traditions.
Justice, so called, was bought and sold. The most thoroughly political people of the world, the proudest people of the English race, were the political inferiors of their former slaves, and the newcomers from the North never failed to make this fact as irritating as possible, by speech and print and action.[1874]
In short, there was anarchy, social and political and economic. As the negro said, "The bottom rail is on top." The strenuous editor Randolph said, "The origin of Ku Klux Klan is in the galling despotism that broods like a nightmare over these southern states,--a fungus growth of military tyranny superinduced by the fostering of Loyal Leagues, the abrogation of our civil laws, the habitual violation of our national const.i.tution, and a persistent prost.i.tution of all government, all resources, and all powers, to degrade the white man by the establishment of negro supremacy."[1875]
Secret Societies of Regulators, before Ku Klux Klan
On account of the disordered condition of the state in 1865, some kind of a police power was necessary, the Federal garrisons being but few and weak. The minds of all men turned at once to the old ante-bellum neighborhood police patrol.[1876] This patrol had consisted of men usually selected by the justice of the peace to patrol the entire community once a week or once a month, usually at night. The duty was compulsory, and every able-bodied white was subject to it, though there was sometimes commutation of service. The princ.i.p.al need for this patrol was to keep the black population in order, and to this end the patrollers were invested with the authority to inflict corporal punishment in summary fashion.
There were about two companies, of six men and a captain each, to every township where there was a dense negro population. The attentions of the patrol were not confined to negroes alone, but now and then a white man was thrashed for some misdemeanor.[1877] In this respect the patrol was a body for the regulation of society, so far as petty misdemeanors were concerned, and every respectable white man was by virtue of his color a member of this police guard. He had the right, whether in active patrol or not, to question any strange negro found abroad, or any negro travelling without a pa.s.s, or any white man found tampering with the negroes. It was to some extent a military organization of society. Much of this was simply custom, the development of hundreds of years, not a statute regulation, for that was a recent thing in the history of slavery. It was the old English neighborhood police system become a part of the customary law of slavery. After the war some regulation was necessary; the whites were accustomed to settling such matters outside of law or court; it was bred into their nature, and they returned perhaps unconsciously to the old system.[1878]
But now, under the regime of the Freedmen"s Bureau backed by the army, the old way of dealing with refractory blacks was illegal. As a matter of fact there was no legal way to control them. The result was natural--the movement to regulate society became a secret one. The white men of each community had a general understanding that they would a.s.sist one another to protect women, children, and property. They had a system of signals for communication, but no disguises, and the organization was not kept secret except from the negroes. In one locality the young men alone were united into a committee for the regulation of the conduct of negroes. They requested the women who lived alone on the plantations, the old men, and others who were likely to be unable to control the negroes, to inform the committee of instances of misconduct on the part of the blacks. When such information came, it was immediately acted upon, and the next day there were sadder and better negroes on some one"s plantation.[1879] As a rule one thrashing in a community lasted a long time. In Hale County a vigilance committee was formed to protect the women and children in a section of the black country where there were few white men, most having been killed in the war. They had a system of signals by means of plantation bells. There were no disguises, and there was a public place of meeting.[1880] In the same county, in the fall of 1865, the whites near Newberne asked General Hardee, then living on his plantation, to take command of their patrol. His answer was: "No, gentlemen, I want you to enroll my name for service, but put a younger man in command. I have served my day as commander. I will be ready to respond when called upon for active duty. I want to advise you to get ready for what may come. We are standing over a sleeping volcano."[1881] In Limestone County a similar organization was composed of peaceable citizens united to disperse or crush out bands of thieves.[1882] This was in a white county in the northern section of the state, where the people had suffered during the war, and were still suffering, from the depredations of the tories. In Winston and Walker counties the returning Confederate soldiers banded together and drove many of the tories from the country, hanging several of the worst characters.[1883] In central and southern Alabama the citizens resolved themselves into vigilance committees and hanged horse thieves and other outlaws who were raiding the country, some of them disguised in the uniforms of Federal soldiers.[1884]
In Marengo County while negro insurrection was feared a secret organization was formed for the protection of the whites. The members were initiated in a Masonic hall. Regular meetings were held, and each member reported on the conduct of the negroes in his community. There were no whippings necessary in this section, and after a few night rides the society dissolved. The Bureau and Union League were never successful in getting absolute control over the "Cane Brake" region, and therefore the negroes were better behaved and there was less disorder.[1885]
Before Christmas, 1865, when there seemed to be danger of outbreaks of that part of the negro population who were disappointed in regard to the division of property, there was a disposition among the whites in some counties, especially in the eastern Black Belt, to form militia companies, though this was forbidden by the Washington authorities. Some of these companies regularly patrolled their neighborhoods. Others undertook to disarm the freedmen, who were purchasing arms of every description, and in order to do this searched the negro houses at night. General Swayne, recognizing the dangerous situation of the whites, forbore to interfere with these militia companies until after Christmas, when, the negroes remaining peaceable, he issued an order forbidding further interference;[1886] but the militia organizations persisted in some shape until the Reconstruction Acts were pa.s.sed.
In the eastern counties of the state there was in 1865 and 1866 an organization, preceding the Ku Klux, called the "Black Cavalry." It was a secret, oath-bound, night-riding order. Its greatest strength was in Tallapoosa County, where it was said to have 200 to 300 members. It was not only a band to regulate the conduct of the negroes, but there was a large element in it of the poorer whites, who wanted to drive the negro from the rich lands upon which slavery had settled them, in order to get them for themselves. This was generally true of all secret orders of regulators in the white counties from 1865 to 1875, and exactly the opposite was the case in the Black Belt, where the planters preferred the negro labor, and never drove out the blacks. The "Black Cavalry," it is said, drove more negroes from east Alabama than the Ku Klux did.[1887]
There were local bands of regulators policing nearly every district in Alabama. Few of them had formal organizations or rose to the dignity of having officers or names, but there were the "Men of Justice," in north Alabama, princ.i.p.ally in Limestone County, and the "Order of Peace,"
partially organized in Huntsville early in 1868,[1888] and many other local orders.
The Origin and Growth of Ku Klux Klan
The local bands of regulators in existence immediately after the war were a necessary outcome of the disordered conditions prevailing at the time, and would have disappeared, with a return to normal conditions under a strong government which had the respect of the people. But during the excitement over the action of the Reconstruction convention in the fall of 1867 and the elections of February, 1868, a new secret order became prominent in Alabama; and when, after the people had defeated the const.i.tution, Congress showed a disposition to disregard the popular will as expressed in the result of the election, this order--Ku Klux Klan--sprang into activity in widely separated localities. The campaign of the previous six months had made the people desperate when they contemplated what was in store for them under the rule of carpet-bagger, scalawag, and negro. The counter-revolution was beginning.
The Ku Klux Klan originated in Pulaski, Tennessee, in the fall of 1865.[1889] The founders were James R. Crowe, Richard R. Reed, Calvin Jones, John C. Lester, Frank O. McCord, and John Kennedy. Some were Alabamians and some Tennesseeans. Lester and Crowe lived later in Sheffield, Alabama. Crowe and Kennedy are the only survivors. It was a club of young men who had served in the Confederate army, who united for purposes of fun and mischief, pretty much as college boys in secret fraternities or country boys as "snipe hunters." The name was an accidental corruption of the Greek word _kuklos_, a circle, and had no meaning.[1890] The officers had outlandish t.i.tles, and fancy disguises were adopted. The regalia or uniform consisted of a tall cardboard hat covered with cloth, on which were pasted red spangles and stars; there was a face covering, with openings for nose, mouth, and ears; and a long robe coming nearly to the heels, made of any kind of cloth--white, black, or red--often fancy colored calico. A whistle was used as a signal.[1891]
This scheme for amus.e.m.e.nt was successful, and there were plenty of applications for admission. Members went away to other towns, and under the direction of the Pulaski Club, or "Den" as it was called, other Dens were formed. The Pulaski Den was in the habit of parading in full uniform at social gatherings of the whites at night, much to the delight of the small boys and girls. Pulaski was near the Alabama line, and many Alabama young men saw these parades or heard of them, and Dens were organized over north Alabama in the towns. Nothing but horse-play and tomfoolery took place in the meetings. In 1867 and 1868 the order appeared in parade in the north Alabama towns and "cut up curious gyrations" on the public squares.[1892] The Klan had not long been in existence and was still in this first stage, and was rapidly speeding, when a pretty general discovery of its power over the negro was made. The weird night riders in ghostly disguises frightened the superst.i.tious negroes, who were told that the spirits of dead Confederates were abroad.[1893] There was a general belief outside the order that there was a purpose behind all the ceremonial and frolic of the Dens; many joined the order convinced that its object was serious; others saw the possibilities in it and joined in order to make use of it. After discovering the power of the Klan over the negroes, there was a general tendency, owing to the disordered conditions of the time, to go into the business of a police patrol and hold in check the thieving negroes, the Union League, and the "loyalists." From being a series of social clubs the Dens swiftly became bands of regulators, adding many fantastic qualities to their original outfit. All this time the Pulaski organization exercised a loose control over a federation of Dens.
There was danger, as the Dens became more and more police bodies, of some of the more ardent spirits going to excess, and in several instances Dens went far in the direction of violence and outrage. Attempts were made by the parent Den to regulate the conduct of the Dens, but owing to the loose organization, they met with little success. Some of the Dens lost all connection with the original order.
Early in 1867 the Grand Cyclops of the Pulaski Den sent requests to the various Dens in the southern states to send delegates to a convention in Nashville. This convention met in May, 1867. Delegates from all of the Gulf states and from several others were present, and the order of Ku Klux Klan was reorganized. There were at this time Dens in all the southern states, and even in Illinois and Pennsylvania.[1894] A const.i.tution called the "Prescript" was here adopted for the entire order. The administration was centralized, and the entire South was placed under the jurisdiction of its officials. The former slave states except Delaware const.i.tuted the Empire, which was ruled by the Grand Wizard[1895] with a staff of ten Genii; each state was a realm under a Grand Dragon and eight Hydras; the next subdivision was the Dominion, consisting of several counties,[1896]
ruled by a Grand t.i.tan and six Furies; the county as a Province was governed by a Grand Giant[1897] and four Goblins; the unit was the Den or community organization. There might be several in each county, each under a Grand Cyclops and two Night Hawks. The Genii, Hydras, Furies, Goblins, and Night Hawks were staff officers. Each of the above divisions was called a Grand *. The order had no name, and at first was designated by two **, later by three ***. The private members were called Ghouls. The Grand Magi and the Grand Monk were the second and third officers of the Den, and had the authority of the Grand Cyclops when the latter was absent. The Grand Sentinel was in charge of the guard of the Den, and the Grand Ensign carried its banner on the night rides.[1898] Every division had a Grand Exchequer, whose duty it was to look after the revenue,[1899]
and a Grand Scribe, or secretary, who called the roll, made reports, and kept lists of members (without anything to show what the list meant), usually in Arabic figures, 1, 2, 3, etc. The Grand Turk was the adjutant of the Grand Cyclops, and gave notice of meetings, executed orders, received candidates, and administered the preliminary oaths. The officers of the Den were elected semiannually by the Ghouls; the highest officers of the other divisions were elected biannually by the officers of the next lower rank. The first Grand Wizard was to serve three years from May, 1867.[1900] Each superior officer could appoint special deputies to a.s.sist him and to extend the order. Every division made quarterly reports to the next higher headquarters. In case a question of paramount importance should arise, the Grand Wizard was invested with absolute authority.[1901]
The Tribunal of Justice consisted of a Grand Council of Yahoos for the trial of all elected officers, and was composed of those of equal rank with the accused, presided over by one of the next higher rank; and for the trial of Ghouls and non-elective officers, the Grand Council of Centaurs, which consisted of six Ghouls appointed by the Grand Cyclops, who presided.[1902]
A person was admitted to the Den after nomination by a member and strict investigation by a committee. No one under eighteen was admitted. The oath taken was one of obedience and secrecy. The Dens governed themselves by the ordinary rules of deliberative bodies. The penalty for betrayal of secret was "the extreme penalty of the Law."[1903] None of the secrets was to be written. There was a Register of alarming adjectives used in dating the wonderful Ku Klux orders.[1904]
In the original Prescript no mention was made of the peculiar objects of the order. The Creed acknowledged the supremacy of the Divine Being, and the Preamble the supremacy of the laws of the United States.[1905] The Revised and Amended Prescript sets forth the character and objects of the order: (1) To protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenceless from the indignities, wrongs, and outrages of the lawless, the violent, and the brutal;[1906] to relieve the injured and oppressed; to succor the suffering and unfortunate, and especially the widows and orphans of Confederate soldiers. (2) To protect and defend the Const.i.tution of the United States and all laws pa.s.sed in conformity thereto, and to protect the states and people thereof from all invasion from any source whatever.
(3) To aid and a.s.sist in the execution of all "const.i.tutional" laws, and to protect the people from unlawful arrest, and from trial except by their peers according to the laws of the land.[1907]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Facsimile of Page 3 of the Revised and Amended Prescript of Ku Klux Klan.]
The questions asked of the candidate const.i.tuted a test sufficient to exclude all except the most friendly whites. The applicant for admission was asked if he belonged to the Federal army or the Radical party, Union League, or Grand Army of the Republic, and if he was opposed to the principles of those organizations. He was asked if he was opposed to negro equality, political and social, and was in favor of a white man"s government, of const.i.tutional liberty and equitable laws. He was asked if he was in favor of reenfranchis.e.m.e.nt and emanc.i.p.ation of the southern whites, and the restoration to the southern people of their rights,--property, civil, and political,--and of maintaining the const.i.tutional rights of the South, and if he believed in the inalienable right of self-preservation of the people against the exercise of arbitrary and unlicensed power.
The Revised and Amended Prescript, made in 1868, was an attempt to give more power of control to the central authorities in order to enable them to regulate the obstreperous Dens. The purposes of the order, omitted in the first Prescript, was clearly declared in the revision. Little change was made in the administration of the order.[1908]
The order continued to spread after the reorganization in 1867. There were scattered Dens over north Alabama and as far south as Tuscaloosa, Selma, and Montgomery. It came first to the towns and then spread into the country. It was less and less an obscure organization, and more and more a band of regulators, using mystery, disguise, and secrecy to terrify the blacks into good behavior. It was in many ways a military organization, the shadowy ghost of the Confederate armies.[1909] The whites were all well-trained military men; they looked to their military chieftains to lead them. The best men were members,[1910] though the prominent politicians as a rule did not belong to the order. They fought the fight against the Radicals on the other side of the field.[1911]
After the elections in February, 1868, the Ku Klux came into greater prominence in Alabama, especially in the northern and western portions, while south Alabama was still quiet.[1912]
The counties of north Alabama infested were Lauderdale, Limestone, Madison, Jackson, Morgan, Lawrence, Franklin, Madison, Winston, Walker, Fayette, and Blount. In central Alabama, Montgomery, Greene, Pickens, Tuscaloosa, Calhoun, Talladega, Randolph, Chambers, Coosa, and Tallapoosa.[1913] There were bands in most of the other counties, and in the counties of the Black Belt. The order seldom extended to the lower edge of the Black Belt. In the Black Belt it met the Knights of the White Camelia, the White Brotherhood, and later the White League, and in a way absorbed them all.[1914]
The actual number of the men in regular organized Dens cannot be ascertained. It was estimated that there were 800 in Madison County, and 10,000 in the state.[1915] Others said that it included all Confederate soldiers.[1916] The actual number regularly enrolled was much less than the number who acted as Ku Klux when they considered it necessary. In one sense practically all able-bodied native white men belonged to the order, and if social and business ostracism be considered as a manifestation of the Ku Klux spirit, then the women and children also were Ku Klux.
It is the nature and vice of secret societies of regulators to degenerate, and the Ku Klux Klan was no exception to the rule. By 1869 the order had fallen largely under control of a low cla.s.s of men who used it to further their own personal aims, to wreak revenge on their enemies and gratify personal animosities. Outrages became frequent, and the order was dangerous even to those who founded it.[1917] It had done its work. The negroes had been in a measure controlled, and society had been held together during the revolution of 1865-1869. The people were still hara.s.sed by many irritations and persecutions, but while almost unbearable, they were mostly of a nature to disappear in time as the carpet-bag governments collapsed. The most material evil at present was the misgovernment of the Radicals, and this could not last always. But though the organized Ku Klux Klan was disbanded, the spirit of resistance was higher than ever; and as each community had problems to deal with they were met in the old manner--a sporadic uprising of a local Klan. As long as a carpet-bagger was in power, the principles of the Klan were a.s.serted.