beings almost superhuman.

But race

relations were worse in the white districts where there was a lower class of whites, some of whom mistreated the negro and others encouraged him to violence. Here the negro had never had the great respect for all whites that the Black Belt negro had, and here the whites were somewhat divided among themselves. During the war the "tories," so called, or those who claimed to be Union sympathizers and the Confederates, alternately mistreated one another, and the close of the war brought no peace to such communities. To this region escaped the outlaws, deserters, etc., of both armies during the war, and here the wreckage of war was worst. Such was the nature of the country where the Klan flourished. It was a kind of ex-Confederate protest against the doings of the "tories," Unionists and outlaws, and the negroes banded in the Union League. For several years neither the Federal Government nor the State Government gave protection to the ex-Confederates of this region, and naturally secret asso

ciations were formed for self-defense. This method of self-defense is as old as history.1

The members of Ku Klux Klan are nowadays inclined to consider that their order comprehended all that took shape in resistance to the Africanization of society and government during the Reconstruction period, As one ex-member said: "Nearly all prominent men-ex-Confederates-in all the Southern states were connected in some way with the Klan.” This is true only indirectly. Nearly all white men, it may be said, took part in the movement now called the "Ku Klux Movement." But more of them belonged to other organizations than were members of the Klan. The Klan had the most striking name and it was later applied to the whole movement. The more prominent pol

1 Examples in European history are the Carbonari of Italy, the Tugenbund and the Vehmgericht of Germany, the Klephts of Greece, Young Italy, the Nihilists of Russia, the Masonic order in most Catholic countries during the first half of the Nineteenth Century, Beati Paoli of Sicily, the Illuminati, etc. The "Confréries" of Medieval France were similar illegal societies formed “pour défendre les innocentes et reprimer les violences iniques."-Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Generale, Vol. 2, p. 466.

iticians, it is said, had no direct connection with any such orders. Such connection would have embarrassed and hampered them in their work, but most of them were in full sympathy with the objects of the Ku Klux movement, and profited by its successes. Many of the genuine Unionists later joined in the movement, and there were some few negro members, I have been told. Some prominent men were honorary members, so to speak, of the order. They sympathized with its objects, and gave advice and encouragement, but were not initiated and did not take active part. General John B. Gordon, of Georgia, and General W. J. Hardee, of Alabama, were such members. The active members were, as a rule, young men. In this respect the Klan differed from the order of White Camelia, which discouraged the initiation of very young men.

Some well-known members of the Klan were General John C. Brown, of Pulaski, Tennessee; Captain John W. Morton, now Secretary of State of Tennessee; Ryland Randolph, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, editor of the Independent Monitor, the official organ of the Klan in Alabama; General N. B. Forrest and General George

W. Gordon, of Memphis, Tennessee; Generals John B. Gordon, A. H. Colquitt, G. T. Anderson and A. R. Lawton, of Georgia; General W. J. Hardee, of Alabama; Colonel Joseph Fussell, of Columbia, Tennessee. General Albert Pike, who stood high in the Masonic order, was the chief judicial officer of the Klan.

General Forrest heard of the order after it began to spread, and after investigation consented to become its head as Grand Wizard. He was initiated by Captain John W. Morton, who had formerly been his chief of artillery. Under him the order, which was becoming demoralized, was reorganized. As soon as it had done its work he disbanded it. An enterprising newspaper reporter interviewed General Forrest, in 1868, on the subject of Ku Klux Klan and extracted much information;1 but when before the Ku Klux Committee of Congress, in 1871, the General would make only general statements and he evaded some of the interrogatories. To the committee he appeared to be wonderfully familiar with the principles of the order, but very ignorant as to details.

1 See Ku Klux Report, Vol. 13, p. 32.

The

average member of Congress, ignorant of Southern conditions, did not understand that the members of the order considered themselves bound by the supreme oath of the Klan and that other oaths, if in conflict with it, were not binding. That is, the ex-Confederates under the command of Forrest, Grand Wizard of the Invisible Empire, were obeying the first law of nature and were bound to reveal nothing to injure the cause, just as when Confederates under Forrest, Lieutenant-General of the Confederate Army, they were bound not to reveal military information to the hostile forces. The government, in their view, had not only failed to protect them, but was being used to oppress them. Consequently they were disregarding its claim to obedience.

Now that General Forrest's connection with the Klan is known it is amusing to read the testimony he gave before the Ku Klux Committee of Congress in 1871.1 Though evading questions aimed to elicit definite information, yet he was willing to speak of the general conditions that caused the development of the organ

1 Ku Klux Report, Vol. 13, Florida and Miscellaneous, p. 3.