The Ku-Klux-Klan Principles (1868)

The Ku-Klux-Klan was the most famous secret organization of the citizens of the South who did not want to accept the new political reality. The birth of the

organization dates back to 1866 when six former soldiers of the Confederate Army met in Fort Pulaski (Tennessee) and decided to establish an organization which would help the soldiers of the CS Army returning from the war. The Ku-Klux-Klan soon had many adherents. At their first meeting, in spring 1867, important structural and ideological changes took place. After Congress had enacted military

reconstruction of the South, the Ku-Klux-Klan’s aim was to defend the rights of the white majority in the South. Its small and scattered units were to be united and given a hierarchical structure. It is believed that in 1869, in all the former Confederacy states, the organization had 550 thousand members. The Klan unleashed terror aimed mostly at blacks, but also at the whites who were supporting the military reconstruction of the South. During the first years of the Ku-Klux-Klan’s activity, its

members killed 35 thousand people. In 1869, when the 15lh Amendment to the Constitution was introduced, General Nathaniel Forrest, leader of the Ku-Klux-Klan, formally dissolved the organization. Nevertheless, it has never ceased to exist and remains active even today.

„The Ku-Klux-Klan Organization and Principles, 1868 Appellation

This Organization shall by styled and denominated, the Order of the [three asterisks]

Creed

We, the Order of the [three asterisks], reverentially acknowledge the majesty and supremacy of Divine Being, and recognize the goodness and providence of the same. And we recognize our relation to the United States Government, the supremacy of the Constitution, the Constitutional Laws therof, and the Union of States thereunder.

Character and objects of the Order

This is an institution of Chivalry, Humanity, Mercy, and Patriotism; embodying in its genius and its principles all that is chivalric in conduct, noble in sentiment, generous in manhood, and patriotic in purpose; its peculiar objects being

First: To protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless, from the indignities, wrongs, and outrages of the lawless, the violent, and the brutal; to relieve the injured and oppressed; to succor the suffering and unfortunate, and especially the widows and orphans of Confederate soldiers.

Second: To protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and all laws passed in conformity thereto, and to protect the States and the people thereof from all invasion from any source whatever.

Third: To aid and assist in the execution of all constitutional laws, and to protect the people from unlawful seizure, and from trial except by their peers in conformity to the laws of the land.”

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„Titles Section 1.

The officers of this Order shall consist of a Grand Wizard of the Empire, and his ten Genii; a Grand Dragon of the Realm, and his eight Hydras; a Grand Titan of the

Dominion, and his six Furies; a Grand Giant of the Province, and his four Goblins; a Grand Cyclops of the Den, and his two Night Hawks; a Grand Magi, a Grand Monk, a Grand Scribe, a Grand Exchequer, a Grand Turk, and a Grand Sentinel.

Section 2.

The body politic of this Order shall be known and designated as „Ghouls.”

Territory and its Divisions Section 1.

The territory embraced within the jurisdiction of this Order shall be coterminous with the States of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee; all combined constituting the Empire.

Section 2.

The Empire shall be divided into four departments, the first to be styled the Realm, and coterminous with the boundaries of the several States; the second to be styled the Dominion and to be coterminous with such counties as the Grand Dragons of the several Realms may assign to the charge of the Grand Titan. The third to be styled the Province, and to be coterminous with the several counties; provided the Grand Titan may, when he deems it necessary, assign two Grand Giants to one Province, prescribing, at the same time, the jurisdiction of each. The fourth department to be styled the Den, and shall embrace such part of a Province as the Grand Giant shall assign to the charge of a Grand Cyclops…

Interrogations to be asked

1st Have you ever been rejected, upon application fro membership in the Ku-Klux-Klan, or have you ever been expelled from the same?

2nd Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the Radical Republican party, or either of the organizations known as the „loyal League” and the „Grand Army of the Republic?”

3rd Are you opposed to the principles and policy of the Radical party, and to the Loyal League, and the Grand Army of the Republic, so far as you are informed of the character and purposes of those organizations?

4th Did you belong to the Federal army during the late war, and fight against the South during the existence of the same?

5th Are you opposed to negro equality, both social and political?

6th Are you in favor of a white man's government in this country?

7th Are you in favor of Constitutional liberty, and a Government of equitable laws instead of a Government of violence and oppression?

8th. Are you in favor of maintaining the Constitutional rights of the South?

9th Are you in favor of the re-enfranchisement and emancipation of the white men of the South, and the restitution of the Southern people to all their rights, alike

proprietary, civil, and political?

10th. Do you believe in the inalienable right of self-preservation of the people against the exercise of arbitrary and unlicensed power? …

… 9. The most profound and rigid secrecy concerning any and everything that relates to the Order, shall at all times be maintained.

10. Any member who shall reveal or betray the secrets of this Order, shall suffer the extreme penalty of the law.”

Source: Afro-American Almanac, http://www.toptags.com/aama/docs/kkk.htm

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6.8. Amendments 13, 14, 15 (1865-1870)

Towards the end of the war, on January 31, 1865, Congress enacted the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which meant the end of slavery in the country. The procedure of ratification in every state lasted until December 1865. The 14th

Amendment was enacted by Congress on June 13, 1866. Its aim was to eliminate all doubts connected with the Bill of Rights and additionally to ensure that it could not be repealed. The first paragraph of the amendment stated that people who were born or naturalized in the United States were American citizens as well as citizens of the state they lived in. The second paragraph did not explicitly give the black community the right to vote, but declared that any state that would not accept blacks’ right to vote would automatically lose a proportional number of delegates in the House of Representatives. The third paragraph banned people who joined the Confederacy but previously had taken the oath of allegiance to the Constitution to hold offices. The fourth paragraph confirmed the validity of debts incurred by the Union and at the same time canceled the Confederation's debts together with all claims connected with the loss of slaves. The process of ratification of the 14th Amendment came to an end on July 9, 1868. As the 14th Amendment did not say precisely whether black citizens had the right to vote or not, on February 26, 1869, Congress accepted the resolution which became the basis for the 15th Amendment that guaranteed the right

to vote to all black men. The process of ratification of the 15th Amendment was completed on March 30, 1870.

„Amendment 13 Section 1.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment 14 Section 1.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

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„Section 2.

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3.

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President

and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4.

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing

insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5.

The Congress shall have power to enforce by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Amendment 15 Section 1.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Section 2.

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

Source: Basic Readings in U.S. Democracy,

http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/ democrac/6.htm

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6.9. Further Readings

Carter, Dan T., When the War Was Over, The Failure of Self-Reconstruction in the South, 1865-1867. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1985.

Craven, Avery, The Coming of the Civil War. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1957.

Foner, Eric, Reconstruction. America's Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877. New York:

Harper and Row, Publishers, 1988.

Korusiewicz, Leon, Wojna Secesyjna 1860-1865. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1985.

Oates, Stephen B., Lincoln. Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1991.

Paquette, Robert Louis, Ferleger, Louis A. (eds.), Slavery, Secession and Southern History. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000.

Parrish, William E., The Civil War. A Second American Revolution? Malabar: Robert E. Krieger Publishing Company, 1978.

Scheiner, Seth M., Reconstruction. A Tragic Era? Malabar: Robert E. Krieger Publishing Company, 1978.

Sewell, Richard H., House Divided. Sectionalism and Civil War, 1848-1865.

Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988.

Stampp, Kenneth M., The Era of Reconstruction, 1865-1877. New York: Vintage Books, 1965.

Trelease, Allen W., White Terror: The Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy and Southern Reconstruction. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995.

Wills, Gary, Lincoln at Gettysburg. The Words That Remade America. New York: A Touchstone Book, 1992.

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