rmed "Rebellion," appeared to be in league against the government of
the United States. The arm of State authority was paralyzed, the
operation of courts of justice was suspended, lawlessness and
individual license walked abroad, and anarchy, pure and simple,
prevailed. Under the name of the "Ku Klux Klan," the South was bound
by the following oath, ironclad, paradoxical and enigmatical as it is:

I, [name] before the great immaculate Judge of heaven and
earth, and upon the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God, do, of
my own free will and accord, subscribe to the following
sacred, binding obligation:

I. I am on the side of justice and humanity and
constitutional liberty, as bequeathed to us by our
forefathers in its original purity.

II. I reject and oppose the principles of the radical
party.

III. I pledge aid to a brother of the Ku-Klux Klan in
sickness, distress, or pecuniary embarrassments. Females,
friends, widows, and their households shall be the special
object of my care and protection.

IV. Should I ever divulge, or cause to be divulged, any of
the secrets of this order, or any of the foregoing
obligations, I must meet with the fearful punishment of
death and traitor's doom, which is death, death, death, at
the hands of the brethren.

Murderers, incendiaries, midnight raiders on the "side of justice,
humanity and Constitutional liberty"! Let us see what kind of
"justice, humanity and Constitutional liberty" is meant. In Volume I,
page 21, I find the following:

Taking these statements from official sources, showing the
prevalence of this organization in every one of the late
insurrectionary States and in Kentucky, it is difficult now,
with the light that has recently been thrown upon its
history, to realize that even its existence has been for so
long a mooted question in the public mind. Especially is
this remarkable in view of the effects that are disclosed by
some of this documentary evidence to have been produced by
it. That it was used as a means of intimidating and
murdering negro voters during the presidential election of
1868, the testimony in the Louisiana and other
contested-election cases already referred to clearly
establishes.

Taking the results in Louisiana alone as an instance, the
purpose of the organization at that time,