ARTICLE VII.
Eligibility for Membership
Section 1. No one shall be pressed for admission into the Order until he shall have first been recommended by some friend or intimate who is a member, to the Investigating Committee (which shall be composed of the Grand Cyclops, the Grand Magi, and the Grand Monk), and who shall have investigated his antecedents and his past and present standing and connections, and after such investigation, shall have pronounced him competent and worthy to become a member. Provided, no one shall be presented for admission into, or become a member of this Order, who shall not have attained the age of eighteen years.
Sec. 2. No one shall become a member of this Order unless he shall voluntarily take the following oaths or obligations, and shall satisfactorily answer the following interrogatories, while kneeling, with
Cessante causa, cessat effectus.
his right hand raised to heaven, and his left hand resting on the Bible.
Preliminary Obligation
"I —— solemnly swear or affirm that I will never reveal anything that I may this day (or night) learn concerning the Order of the * * * and that I will true answer make to such interrogatories as may be put to me touching my competency for admission into the same. So help me God."
Interrogatories to Be Asked
1st. Have you ever been rejected, upon application for membership in the * * *, or have you ever been expelled from the same?
2nd. 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?"
3rd. 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 purposes of these organizations?
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?
Cave quid, dicis, quando, et cui.
7th. Are you in favor of Constitutional liberty and 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 the 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?
If the foregoing interrogatories are satisfactorily answered, and the candidate desires to go further (after something of the character and nature of the Order has thus been indicated to him) and to be admitted to the benefits, mysteries, secrets, and purposes of the Order, he shall then be required to take the following final oath or obligation. But if said interrogatories are not satisfactorily answered, or the candidate declines to proceed further, he shall be discharged, after being solemnly admonished by the initiating officer of the deep secrecy to which the oath already taken has bound him, and that the extreme penalty of the law will follow a violation of the same.
Final Obligation
"I —— of my own free will and accord, and in the presence of Almighty God, do solemnly swear or affirm, that I will never reveal to any one, not even a member of the Order of the * * *, by any intimation, sign, symbol, word or act, or in any
Nemo tenetur seipsum accura.
other manner whatever, any of the secrets, signs, grips, pass-words, or mysteries of the Order of the * * *, or that I am a member of the same, or that I know any one who is a member; and that I will abide by the Prescript and Edicts of the Order of the * * *. So help me God."
The initiating officer will then proceed to explain to the new member the character and objects of the Order, and introduce him to the mysteries and secrets of the same; and shall read to him this Prescript and the Edicts thereof, or present the same to him for personal perusal.