Fourteenth: Suitable and necessary legislation should be enacted by Congress and the State legislatures of a general nature which will forever prevent the organization and operation of a secret movement of this character.
The portentous nature of my conclusions, however, weighed heavily upon me, and after the most serious consideration, I finally decided to repudiate the entire organization, and as an American citizen to expose the whole system, calling public attention to what seems to me to be the greatest menace that has ever been launched in this country.
My decision to take this step was a most difficult one to reach. In the first place, to give to the public the facts and inside workings of the “Invisible Empire” means to subject oneself to the penalty of death for disclosing a secret of the order. This is stated unequivocally in the secret Ku Klux ritual. It also means becoming the target for a torrent of abuse that is likely to tear one to shreds before it has spent its fury.
The most disagreeable feature of the whole procedure is the absolute necessity of going on record publicly as violating a solemn oath, a pledge of honor, and an obligation that would ordinarily be considered sacred. Is a man, having taken an oath, ever justified in breaking it? In my opinion, when one is convinced that the oath in question is illegal, and that a certain portion of it is of a nature to incite riot and lawlessness, a man is not only justified in breaking it, but is morally required to break it. It is a public duty he owes the state. The inherent strength of the “Invisible Empire” lies in the fact that its “citizens” having once taken its vicious obligation will not dare to violate it.
I have, therefore, deliberately and with careful thought, decided to violate and repudiate this obligation, with the exception of a certain portion pledging allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and my State, which portion is, in my judgment, mere camouflage for the purpose of concealing the fangs of the rattlesnake. The question as to whether I am right or wrong is one that will have to be decided by public opinion. If I have divulged facts and exposed the secret workings of what is merely a fraternal organization, then I am unquestionably guilty of reprehensible conduct. If I am wrong in my viewpoint, I do not deserve to be allowed to mingle with honorable men and women, and should be set apart from my fellows as a social outcast.
On the other hand, if I am right in the stand that I take, that the Ku Klux Klan is a secret, political, military machine, actually developing into an “Invisible Empire” and possessing potentialities that may undermine the very idea of representative government; if I am correct in my position that the whole scheme is an attempt to create class hatred and antagonism, which in the end will array race against race, class against class, and religion against religion; if my contention is just that the proposition is a money-making scheme; and, if the public adopts my viewpoint to the extent of demanding that the organization be legislated out of existence and made an outlaw in the world of open things, then I shall feel satisfied that the violation of this oath has been a public service.
There is no middle ground. I am either entirely right, or else I am entirely wrong.