Under ordinary circumstances such devices are unjustifiable. But in the peculiar state of things then existing they served a good purpose. It was not only better to deter the negroes from theft and other lawlessness in this way than to put them in the penitentiary; but it was the only way, at this time, by which they could be controlled. The jails would not contain them. The courts could not or would not try them. The policy of the Klan all the while was to deter men from wrongdoing. It was only in rare, exceptional cases, and these the most aggravated, that it undertook to punish.[46]
FOOTNOTES:
[37] "In the spring of 1867," says Wilson in the Century Magazine, July, 1884. May was the month of meeting. This was just after the Reconstruction Acts had been passed.—Editor.
[38] I am convinced that the authors are mistaken in saying that the first convention adopted the Prescript containing these declarations. The Prescript adopted was the one reproduced in Appendix I. The other one, reproduced in Appendix II, was adopted, it is believed, in 1868.—Editor.
[39] Ex-Confederates were practically all excluded from the suffrage.—Editor.
[40] Notices were posted in every public place, and even pasted on the backs of hogs and cows running loose in the streets.—Miss Cora R. Jones.
[41] Most members of the Klan had been Confederate soldiers and were familiar with military drill and discipline.—Editor.
[42] A later estimate places the membership of Ku Klux Klan at 72,000 in Tennessee alone.—Washington Post, August 13, 1905.
[43] Forrest denied that he had made such an estimate. There were many other orders similar to Ku Klux Klan and the total membership was probably about half a million.—Editor.