A Grand Scribe.
A Grand Exchequer.
A Grand Turk.
A Grand Sentinel.
The Genii, Hydras, Furies, Goblins and Night Hawks were staff officers. The gradation and distribution of authority was perfect. But for one source of weakness, the Klan, under this new organization, was one of the most perfectly organized orders that ever existed in the world.
As we shall see presently, it was vulnerable and failed because of the character of its methods. Secrecy was at first its strength. It afterwards became its greatest weakness. As long as mystery was conjoined with it, it was strength. When masks and disguises ceased to be mysterious, secrecy was weakness.
One of the most important things done by this Nashville convention was to make a positive and emphatic declaration of the principles of the order. It was in the following terms:
"We recognize our relations to the United States Government; the supremacy of the Constitution; the constitutional laws thereof; and the union of States thereunder."
If these men were plotting treason, it puzzles us to know why they should make such a statement as that in setting forth the principles of the order. The statement above quoted was not intended for general circulation and popular effect. So far as is known, it is now given to the public for the first time. We must regard it, therefore, as accurately describing the political attitude which the Ku Klux proposed and desired to maintain. Every man who became a member of the Klan really took an oath to support the Constitution of the United States.
This Nashville convention also defined and set forth the peculiar objects of the order, as follows:[38]