"Appomattox Program" had not been carried out. At Appomattox
the magnanimity of General Grant and the victorious soldiers had
impressed very favorably the defeated Confederates. The latter
believed that if Grant and the soldiers who had defeated them had been
allowed to settle matters, there would have been no more trouble.
Instead, the politicians had taken charge and had stirred up endless
strife. No effort at conciliation had been made; and the magnanimity
of Grant gave way to the vindictive policies of politicians.[11] The
whites believed that the "understanding of Appomattox" had been
violated and that they had been deliberately humiliated by the
Washington government.

Such were some of the influences, in General Gordon's opinion, that
caused the spread of the Klan in Georgia. He says that he heartily
approved the objects of the order, that it was purely for
self-protection, an organization for police purposes, a peace police,
which kept the peace, prevented riots, and restrained the passionate
whites as well as the violent blacks. Its membership was, he said, of
the best citizens, mostly ex-Confederates, led by the instinct of
self-preservation to band together. It was secret because the leaders
were sure that the sympathy of the Federal Government would be against
them and would consider a public organization a fresh rebellion. It
took no part in politics and died out when the whites were able to
obtain protection from the police and the courts.

These were the explanations of men who were high in the order but who
never attended a meeting and were never in actual contact with its
workings. Private members--Ghouls they were called--could have told
more thrilling stories. But deficient as the accounts of Gordon and
Forrest are in detail they supplement the history of Lester and Wilson
in explaining the causes that lay at the bottom of the secret
revolution generally called the Ku Klux Movement.

As to the success or failure of the movement, Lester and Wilson,
condemning the violence that naturally resulted from the movement,
cause the impression (Ch. 4) that the main result was disorder. Such
was not the case, nor was it the intention of the writers to create
such an impression. The important work of the Klan was accomplished in
regaining for the whites control over the social order and in putting
them in a fair way to regain political control. In some States this
occurred sooner than in others. When the order