retrospect, originated as an
effort to restore order in the war-stricken Southern States. The
secrecy of its methods appealed to the imagination and caused its
rapid expansion, and this secrecy was inevitable because opposition to
reconstruction was not lawful. As the reconstruction policies were put
into operation, the movement became political and used violence when
appeals to superstitious fears ceased to be effective. The Ku Klux Klan
centered, directed, and crystallized public opinion, and united the
whites upon a platform of white supremacy. The Southern politicians
stood aloof from the movement but accepted the results of its work.
It frightened the Negroes and bad whites into better conduct, and
it encouraged the conservatives and aided them to regain control of
society, for without the operations of the Klan the black districts
would never have come again under white control. Towards the end,
however, its methods frequently became unnecessarily violent and did
great harm to Southern society. The Ku Klux system of regulating society
is as old as history; it had often been used before; it may even be used
again. When a people find themselves persecuted by aliens under legal
forms, they will invent some means outside the law for protecting
themselves; and such experiences will inevitably result in a weakening
of respect for law and in a return to more primitive methods of justice.

CHAPTER XII. THE CHANGING SOUTH

"The bottom rail is on top" was a phrase which had flashed throughout
the late Confederate States. It had been coined by the Negroes in
1867 to express their view of the situation, but its aptness had been
recognized by all. After ten years of social and economic revolution,
however, it was not so clear that the phrase of 1867 correctly described
the new situation. "The white man made free" would have been a more
accurate epitome, for the white man had been able, in spite of his
temporary disabilities, to compete with the Negro in all industries.

It will be remembered that the Negro districts were least exposed to the
destruction of war. The well-managed plantation, lying near the highways
of commerce, with its division of labor, nearly or quite self-sufficing,
was the bulwark of the Confederacy. When the fighting ended, an
industrial revolution began in these untouched parts of the Black Belt.
The problem of free Negro labor now appeared. During the year 1865, no
general plan for a labor system w