ivided and never lost their grip
on society; there the negro still respected the white people as
beings almost superhuman. But race relations were worse in the white
districts where there was a lower class of whites, some of whom
mistreated the negro and others encouraged him to violence. Here the
negro had never had the great respect for _all_ whites that the Black
Belt negro had, and here the whites were somewhat divided among
themselves. During the war the "tories," so called, or those who
claimed to be Union sympathizers and the Confederates, alternately
mistreated one another, and the close of the war brought no peace to
such communities. To this region escaped the outlaws, deserters, etc.,
of both armies during the war, and here the wreckage of war was worst.
Such was the nature of the country where the Klan flourished. It was a
kind of ex-Confederate protest against the doings of the "tories,"
Unionists and outlaws, and the negroes banded in the Union League. For
several years neither the Federal Government nor the State Government
gave protection to the ex-Confederates of this region, and naturally
secret associations were formed for self-defense. This method of
self-defense is as old as history.[7]

The members of Ku Klux Klan are nowadays inclined to consider that
their order comprehended all that took shape in resistance to the
Africanization of society and government during the Reconstruction
period. As one ex-member said: "Nearly all prominent
men--ex-Confederates--in all the Southern states were connected in
some way with the Klan." This is true only indirectly. Nearly all
white men, it may be said, took part in the movement now called the
"Ku Klux Movement." But more of them belonged to other organizations
than were members of the Klan. The Klan had the most striking name and
it was later applied to the whole movement. The more prominent
politicians, it is said, had no direct connection with any such
orders. Such connection would have embarrassed and hampered them in
their work, but most of them were in full sympathy with the objects of
the Ku Klux movement, and profited by its successes. Many of the
genuine Unionists later joined in the movement, and there were some
few negro members, I have been told. Some prominent men were honorary
members, so to speak, of the order. They sympathized with its objects,
and gave advice and encouragement, but were not initiated and did not
take active part. General John