Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-04-02
lrha l.xutlur KAN na-wh.t /, Iti

| fanciful title wei q n once suggestive oi
the freaks and fancies Of the last week OF
the Carnival at Rome, and OF a wild
horde OF nomadic Tartars As nothing
which is diabolical in appearance excites
very great surprise in the pandemonium
of the sulpburous Brownlow, but little
signifcance was attached to the first
dress parade OF the Kuklux Klan,
and il was received with broad grin by
the enfranchised negroes and with
smile by the disfranshised white men OF
Tennessee. Its first exhibition In no way
alarmed the voracious aud unprincipled
carpet baggers who are appropriating the
offices and devouring the substance OF
the peopie Of Tennessee, aud the insolent
black suffragans continued to manifest
even more than their usual uncomfortable
insolence towards the hundred thousand
white men Of that State, who have been
deprived Of ell Of their political privi-
leges. .e
But the rapid increase Of this secret
society, and its extension and ramitica-
ton into all parts of the State has ar
rested the attention Of those Radical
emissaries and squatters, who believed
that through the agency of their own
secret leagues they had banded together
the negroes in deadly hostility to the
white race and obtained complete mas.
terry Of Tennessee. They had anticipa-
ted as easy work in prescribing, disfran
chising and pillaging the white men of
that State as is that Of the wolf when he
proceeds to slaughter the timid and un-
resisting tenants of q sheep fold. Sud
denly, however, these base aud cowardly
| oppressors Of the Southern people fad
their secret societies of negroeo and de.
| bauched white vagabonds confronted by
societies whose mysterious objects and
wide spread organization indicate that
| the people Of the South do not intend to
be stripped of liberty and property by
their late slaves and those degraded bum.
mers who acquired a taste for plunder
| when they pillaged the South as Sherman
| laid waste the land with fire and sword.
! II is now very evident that this !" Ku-
Klux Klan : is not meaningless Merry
Andrew organization, but that under its
cap and bells it hides purpose as reso.
lutte, noble and heroic as that which
Brutus concealed beneath the mask OF
we'll dissembled idiotcy. 10 19gsi al
1t is rapidly organizing wherever the
insolent negro, the malignant white trai.
tor to his race and the infamous squatter
are plotting to make the South utterly
| unfit for the residence of the decent white
man. 1t promises, we hope, to bring
into the feld for the defense Of our lives,
liberty and property, hundreds OF
thousands of those heroic men who have
been tried and indurated by the perils,
dangers and sufferings of military SER
vice. 1t is, no doubt, an organization
which is thoroughly loyal to the Federal
Constitution, but which will not permit
the people of the South to become the
victims of negro rule. 1t is purely de-
fensive, and for the protection OF the
white race, and has been rendered ne.
cessary by the organization ofthousands
| of secret negro leagues, whose members
have been stimulated to carry out the
4 work of disfranchisemsn of the whites
by the promise of pillage and Wholesale
| confscation. IT .fae.eg rruysl. 81.
If such is the purpose and real object
| of the new secret society which is rapidly
| increasing in numbers in Tennessee,
Mississippi, Alabama Georgia, North
| Carolina, and the other Southern States,
| II will arr-st The pro ..ress Of that secret
negro conspiracy which has for its object
the establishment of n1gro domination.
We note with peculiar plr asure that
the New York Tribune, which has cast
aside the mask Of Conservative Repub.
licanism, and row fam in the van OF
the mort revolu ior ny journals with q
mendacity which sdrp -sses Forney 9,
and with maligni.y which exceeds
| Stevens, fairly .howls with terror over
what it calls "t-rrorism in Tennessee. =
| The terrorism" in that State, to which
Mr.. Greeley refers, does not mean. the
| cold -blooded murder of thousands of er-
| Confederate soldiers by Brownlow's mill.
] tia. nor the burning Of hundreds OF
houses over ne b ads of those who sym.
| pathized with the late Confederacy, nor
| the innumerable brutaliti of Brownlow,
| the bare recital of which would make the
| devil envious of his earthly prototype,
nor the Acknowledgement OF three
! fourths !: the white men in the State, nor
the corruptness or indifference to justice
| ofthe Radical judges, nor the hundred
| devices of taxation for the spoliation oil
all men who were not infamous traitors
| to that section, nor to the mobs and
armed ruffians who drive gentlemen from
the polls, nor the open election frauds
and ballot stuffing by which scoundrels
are elected to office, and the most brutal
| cut.throats and villains are placed in the
highest offices. To none of these fruits
of Radical ruffianism in Tennessee does
the Tribune refer when it denounces the
terrorism of secret society" which
simply aims to restore order, peace. and
justice, and to rescue and defend the
white race in Tennessee from the ra-
paciiy, violence and malice OF the me-
groes and squatters.
In all ages and among all nations when
the conqueror Expresses and persecutes
with a fendish malignity which renders
life and liberty uncomfortable, the victims
of such oppression form societies for
their mutual defense and protection.
Nothing marks the pressure OF the IRON
heel of the despot upon the liberties OF a
people more surely than these refuges oil
the oppressed. Secret political societies
are short-lived, where they are organized
for proscriptive purposes rather than to
nrotect the oppressed. Hence Know
nothingism sprouted up and perished
like a rank weed. But the secret socie-
ties Of the Middle Ages, those houses Of
refuge for the oppressed masses,were in
destructibIe. and we're the terror Of ty-
rapts The Austrian crushed the liber-
| ties Of the Lombardo Venetian Republics
with his iron hand, but the secret socie-
| ties Of Italy allowed the oppressor not q
moment Of quiet enjoyment Of his power
For nearly twenty years, although de-
feated and held down By the bsyonet,
Hungary, in her secret societies, kept
alive The vestal fres Of that liberty for
which she Tough. 50 rsllanily 10 IL asls, 4 !,