K. K. K. sketches, humorous and didactic

by James Melville Beard

THE K. K. K. IN LOUISIANA.

Adventists—How they Practised on the Parasitical Blacks—A Little Power is a Dangerous Thing—The Political Situation in ’67—Whites Refraining from Participation in Election Campaigns—The State Press—The Order of K. K. K. in Louisiana—When the Government Officials were first Notified of its Presence—The Feeling in Grant Parish, a Shire Division of the State created for Political Purposes—Riot Growing out of a Personal Difficulty—Blacks Entrenched in the Court-House at Colfax—Besieged by a Force of from Three Hundred to Four Hundred Men—Parley—Negroes Refuse to Surrender—A Second Defiance—Building Fired—Massacre and Termination of the Bloody Affair—Statistics of Losses in the Fight—Who were Responsible—The White League or Camelias—Occupied the K. K. K. Basis in Externals—New Orleans Riots—Their Effect on the Returning Boards—Coushatta—K. K. K. in Texas—Border History Uneventful—Texas Legislature Interferes.

In the States of Louisiana and South Carolina the war between the K.’s and Loyal League waged fiercest, and was longest protracted, for here the fires of political proscription were earliest lighted, and the boundaries of party maintained with the greatest fortitude. In the former State, a party of men, who were known in certain quarters by the derisive title of “Adventists,” had assumed to control its affairs, not so much in the interest of, as by the use of, as a means, the negro element of its population. Practising upon the credulity of this unenlightened class, it is not too much to say that they effected their object; and for a period of more than seven years around these central suns of the political firmament the parasitical blacks fluttered. Governors, congressmen, and legislators were created from this material without any reference whatever to the legal attainments or other qualifications of the aspirants, and with a view only to such class legislation as could be made available to the negro rings, and destructive to the people’s interests in that quarter.

Placed in control of affairs, these men, having suffered under the dispensation which the poet sought to describe in the words, “A little learning is a dangerous thing, etc.,” and suspecting, moreover, that his meaning had not been fully brought out in that expressive stanza, astonished even their followers with an example which said “a little power is a dangerous thing.” Legislating, mainly, with a view to continuance in authority, and arbitrarily seizing the elective machinery of the State, they had, independently of the League, under the existing conditions, an unlimited lease of the State administration. Nor did they fail to realize the advantages that came to them under the system of government which they had adopted. Having found a precedent for the most pronounced transgressions of a written law in the acts of their co-conspirators in other States, and an excuse in the resistance which they inspired, they proceeded to lengths of usurpation which those interested for the cause of liberty on those shores viewed with surprise and dismay. The fullest use was made of every prerogative, and in innumerable instances they were subjected to that stretching process which has been commonly found so destructive to the article.

So rapid was the transition from the war period to that of political anarchy, which followed in obedience to these conditions, that as early as the year 1867 the State was hopelessly committed to an ignorant and unprincipled minority, and in every portion thereof the white masses refrained from even attending the polls, so well assured were they that the fair majorities which they could score would be displaced by the most barefaced fictions. The opposition or conservative press, on the other hand, never ceased to perform its whole duty, representing to the people the true condition of affairs at the capital, the constant abuses of the legislative functions, the enormous treasury shortages, judicial tyrannies, etc., etc.; though, as was indicated by their course subsequently, to the more intelligent of those whom were addressed, this seemed but a citation of evils that were remediless; and where plans of relief were suggested, of remedies that were placed hopelessly beyond their reach. Even in the city of New Orleans, where these exhortations were most frequently heard, the municipal elections not unoften went by default to the minority representatives; and multitudes (who have since testified their devotion to the cause of right), attracted by the patronage of the winning power, while refusing to give them aid, tendered them congratulations.

Others to whom these philippics came, and who in their country homes had been subjected to the intolerable rigors of League politics, took the appeals even more seriously than they were intended, and began that secret warfare on the agents of oppression in their midst, which, however effectual it may have proven in the end, must always be deprecated on the ground of those inequalities of principle which it represented, and of means it employed.

The first secret political organization enterprised against the Radical power in Louisiana was unquestionably that edition of the K. K. K. which we have been treating, and which proved so effective in disestablishing the various isms of the party in other sections; but it is no less certain that, at no advanced stage of its existence on Louisiana soil, it underwent a very positive metempsychosis, and became, thereafter, the White League, or White Camelias as sometimes addressed representatively. But no matter by what appellative known, nor under what constitutional emendations proceeding, the idea was nowhere more aggressively employed in the work of uprooting the Radical succession, and rendering Southern hospitality, as applicable to its agents, a thing of unmitigated terror. For a year or more after its organization had been completed, little was done apparently, but during this time the League in all its departments had been subjected to a rigid espionage, and the communications of the former with the transactions of government at the capital, established by the same means.

A slight difficulty in one of the Northern parishes, growing out of an election issue, was perhaps the first intimation conveyed to the Louisiana State authorities that they were to encounter opposition of this character. It, however, was local in its belongings, and though widely published by the organs of the League at the North, was not deemed worthy of attention by the State press. In Grant Parish, a new shire division of the State, created with a view to political ends, the quarrel of the factions assumed a serious shape at an early day, and here eventually transpired one of the most fearful tragedies of this bloody epoch. A remarkable feature of this affair was that it grew out of a purely personal matter, if we may except the contrast of races involved. The details of the private quarrel would of course be uninteresting, and the bloody particulars which followed may be recited in a few words.

An issue of races having been distinctly made, the two parties assembled in force; the blacks, after some preliminary manœuvring, entrenching themselves in the court-house at Colfax, and bidding defiance to their enemies. They were at once closely besieged by a force equalling, or possibly barely exceeding, their own (three hundred to four hundred men), and, after some parleying, an unconditional surrender demanded. This was resisted on the expressed condition that the entrenched force, though in the minority, were “able to defend themselves,” and would do so at every hazard. An irregular skirmish followed, pending which no advantage resulted to the attacking party, and seeing which, the leaders of the movement resolved on bolder measures: The blacks were again notified that they must vacate their quarters, or submit to the torch, as the besiegers were fully resolved upon dispossessing them of that stronghold. This they seem to have regarded as a mere threat, impossible of execution, and continued to throw out defiances and fire an occasional shot into the enemy’s ranks. The whites, on the other hand, unawed by their manner, and fully decided to adopt this measure as a dernier ressort, sent forward parties commissioned for the dangerous service. It is not known what resistance, if any, was offered to this stratagem, but very soon the building was in flames from pillar to turret, and the terrified blacks rushing forth in mad haste, to encounter a fate scarcely less terrible than that of being roasted in the flames. As they emerged from the burning building, the attacking columns threw themselves on their flanks, and poured volley after volley into their now fairly stampeded ranks. Scores fell under the first deadly assault, and as they passed on in their flight they were intercepted or overtaken by their infuriated pursuers, the massacre continuing a full hour after the terrified rout had begun to issue from the building.

The statistics of the loss on either side in this engagement have never been given with accuracy, and there is good reason to believe that many of the approximations that have gone to the world have embodied intentional errors. From those who were participating in the affair, and represented the hostile factions in about equal proportion, we obtain the following estimate of their respective losses: Blacks killed, ninety; wounded, twenty-five. Whites killed, five; wounded, three. In the skirmish but few of the whites wore masks, and this affair has generally been regarded the fruit of a popular uprising, and not strictly chargeable to any secret organization, or body of men banded together for political purposes. It occurred, moreover, at a time when partisan feeling in that section had reached a strong ebb, and men were incensed against each other as they rarely become in the light of such incentives. That the Klan was officially represented in the affair was generally conceded.