No single instance occurred of the arrest of a masked man who proved to be—when stripped of his disguises—a Ku Klux.
But it came to pass that all the disorder done in the country was charged upon the Ku Klux, because done under disguises which they had invented and used. The Klan had no way in which to disprove or refute the charges. They felt that it was hard to be charged with violence of which they were innocent. At the same time they felt that it was natural, and, under the circumstances, not wholly unjust that this should be the case. They had assumed the office of Regulators. It was therefore due society, due themselves, and due the Government, which, so far, had not molested them, that they should, at least, not afford the lawless classes facilities for the commission of excesses greater than any they had hitherto indulged in, and above all, that they should restrain their own members from lawlessness.
The Klan felt all this; and in its efforts to relieve itself of the stigma thus incurred, it acted in some cases against the offending parties with a severity well merited, no doubt, but unjustifiable.[49] As is frequently the case they were carried beyond the limits of prudence and right by a hot zeal for self-vindication against unjust aspersions.
They felt that the charge of wrong was unfairly brought against them. To clear themselves of the charge they did worse wrong than that alleged against them.
The Klan from the first shrouded itself in deepest mystery; out of this fact grew trouble not at first apprehended. They wished people not to understand. They tried to keep them profoundly ignorant. The result was that the Klan and its objects were wholly misunderstood and misinterpreted. Many who joined the Klan and many who did not, were certain it contemplated something far more important than its overt acts gave evidence of. Some were sure it meant treason and revolution. The negroes and the whites whose consciences made them the subjects of guilty fears, were sure it boded no good to them.
When the first impressions of awe and terror which the Klan had inspired, to some extent, wore off, a feeling of intense hostility towards the Ku Klux followed. This feeling was the more bitter because founded, not on overt acts which the Ku Klux had done, but on vague fears and surmises as to what they intended to do. Those who entertained such fears were in some cases impelled by them to become the aggressors. They attacked the Ku Klux before receiving from them any provocation. The negroes formed organizations of a military character and drilled by night, and even appeared in the day armed and threatening. The avowed purpose of these organizations was "to make war upon and exterminate the Ku Klux." On several occasions the Klan was fired into. The effect of such attacks was to provoke counter hostility from the Klan, and so there was irritation and counter-irritation, till, in some places, the state of things was little short of open warfare. In some respects it was worse; the parties wholly misunderstood each other. Each party felt that its cause was the just one. Each justified its deed by the provocation.
The Ku Klux, intending wrong, as they believed, to no one, were aggrieved that acts which they had not done should be charged to them; and motives which they did not entertain imputed to them and outraged that they should be molested and assaulted. The other party satisfied that they were acting in self-defense felt fully justified in assaulting them, and so each goaded the other on from one degree of exasperation to another.
The following extracts from a general order of the Grand Dragon of the Realm of Tennessee will illustrate the operation of both these causes. It was issued in the fall of the year 1868. It shows what were the principles and objects which the Klan still professed, and it also shows how it was being forced away from them:
Headquarters Realm No. 1,}
Dreadful Era, Black Epoch,}
Dreadful Hour.}
General Order No. 1.