[1550] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test. (Sayre), p. 357; (Governor Lindsay), p. 170; (Nicholas Davis), p. 783; (Richardson), pp. 815, 855; (Ford), p. 684; (Lowe), p. 892; (Forney), p. 487; Miller, “Alabama,” p. 246; Herbert, “Solid South,” pp. 36, 41; also oral accounts.
[1551] There is a copy of the charter of a local council in the Alabama Testimony of the Ku Klux Report, p. 1017. The Montgomery Council was organized June 2, 1866, and three days later General Swayne, of the Freedmen’s Bureau, joined it. It was charged that even thus early he was desirous of representing Alabama in the Senate. Herbert, pp. 41-43.
[1552] N. Y. Herald, Aug. 5, 1867.
[1553] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test. (Lowe), p. 872; (English), pp. 1437, 1438; (Lindsay), p. 170; N. Y. Herald, Aug. 5, 1869, and June 20, 1867; Professor Miller’s account; oral accounts.
[1554] In Sumter County a northern teacher of a negro school informed a planter that the Leaguers were sworn to defend one another, and that he, the planter, would be punished for striking a Leaguer whom he had caught stealing and had thrashed. Selma Times and Messenger, July 21, 1868.
[1555] The Montgomery Council, May 22, 1867, resolved “That the Union League is the right arm of the Union Republican party of the United States, and that no man should be initiated into the League who does not heartily indorse the principles and policy of the Union Republican party.” Herbert, “Solid South,” p. 41. A Confederate could not be admitted to the League unless he would acknowledge that during the war he had been guilty of treason.
[1556] Alcohol on salt burns with a peculiar flame, making the faces of those around, especially the negroes, appear ghostly.
[1557] A copy of the constitution and ritual was secured by the whites and published in the Montgomery Advertiser, July 24, 1867; printed also in Fleming, “Documents relating to Reconstruction,” No. 3.
[1558] The Montgomery Council was composed of white Radicals, and the Lincoln Council in the same city was for blacks. Most of the officers of the latter were whites. Herbert, p. 41.
[1559] This fact will partly explain why there were burnings of negro churches and schoolhouses by the Ku Klux Klan. These were political headquarters of the Radical party in each community.