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._

WHEREAS, Information of an authentic character has reached these
headquarters that the blacks in the counties of Marshall, Maury,
Giles and Lawrence are organized into military companies, with
the avowed purpose to make war upon and exterminate the Ku Klux
Klan, said blacks are hereby solemnly warned and ordered to
desist from further action in such organizations, if they exist.

The G. D. [Grand Dragon] regrets the necessity of such an order.
But this Klan shall not be outraged and interfered with by
lawless negroes and meaner white men, who do not and never have
understood our purposes.

In the first place this Klan is not an institution of violence,
lawlessness and cruelty; it is not lawless; it is not
aggressive; it is not military; it is not revolutionary.

It is, essentially, originally and inherently a protective
organization. It proposes to execute law instead of resisting
it; and to protect all good men, whether white or black, from
the outrages and atrocities of bad men of both colors, who have
been for the past three years a terror to society, and an injury
to us all.

The blacks seem to be impressed with the belief that this Klan
is especially their enemy. We are not the enemy of the blacks,
as long as they behave themselves, make no threats upon us, and
do not attack or interfere with us.

But if they make war upon us they must abide the awful
retribution that will follow.

This Klan, while in its peaceful movements, and disturbing no
one, has been fired into three times.