B. Gordon, of Georgia, and General W.J.
Hardee, of Alabama, were such members. The active members were, as a
rule, young men. In this respect the Klan differed from the order of
White Camelia, which discouraged the initiation of very young men.

Some well-known members of the Klan were General John C. Brown, of
Pulaski, Tennessee; Captain John W. Morton, now Secretary of State of
Tennessee; Ryland Randolph, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, editor of the
_Independent Monitor_, the official organ of the Klan in Alabama;
General N.B. Forrest and General George W. Gordon, of Memphis,
Tennessee; Generals John B. Gordon, A.H. Colquitt, G.T. Anderson and
A.R. Lawton, of Georgia; General W.J. Hardee, of Alabama; Colonel
Joseph Fussell, of Columbia, Tennessee. General Albert Pike, who stood
high in the Masonic order, was the chief judicial officer of the Klan.

General Forrest heard of the order after it began to spread, and after
investigation consented to become its head as Grand Wizard. He was
initiated by Captain John W. Morton, who had formerly been his chief
of artillery. Under him the order, which was becoming demoralized, was
reorganized. As soon as it had done its work he disbanded it. An
enterprising newspaper reporter interviewed General Forrest, in 1868,
on the subject of Ku Klux Klan and extracted much information;[8] but
when before the Ku Klux Committee of Congress, in 1871, the General
would make only general statements and he evaded some of the
interrogatories. To the committee he appeared to be wonderfully
familiar with the principles of the order, but very ignorant as to
details. The average member of Congress, ignorant of Southern
conditions, did not understand that the members of the order
considered themselves bound by the supreme oath of the Klan and that
other oaths, if in conflict with it, were not binding. That is, the
ex-Confederates under the command of Forrest, Grand Wizard of the
Invisible Empire, were obeying the first law of nature and were bound
to reveal nothing to injure the cause, just as when Confederates under
Forrest, Lieutenant-General of the Confederate Army, they were bound
not to reveal military information to the hostile forces. The
government, in their view, had not only failed to protect them, but
was being used to oppress them. Consequently they were disregarding
its claim to obedience.

[Illustration: GENERAL N.B. FORREST
Grand Wizard of Ku Klux Klan
FACING PAGE 28]

Now tha