In summarizing the oath of the “Invisible Empire,” there are three salient things that stand out very prominently:
First: It binds men to obey unconditionally laws they know nothing about, and laws which will be enacted in the future, and to follow blindly an organization which is largely a one-man affair.
Second: It places the Ku Klux obligation prior to the obligation to the government of the United States.
Third: Its last paragraph is illegal, and is nothing more or less than the condonement of mob rule and the use of methods in carrying out its views that are contrary to all the basic laws of the land.
CHAPTER VII
The Ku Klux Ritual
This chapter might well be entitled “Ku-Kluxing a Sacrament,” or “How the Kleagles, for Ten Dollars, profane Christianity’s Holiest Rite.”
On the title page of the fifty-four page booklet is the imprint “Copyright 1916, by W. J. Simmons, Atlanta, Ga.”