Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1871-06-24
oRIeIN OF THE KU.KLUx.

Boston is entitled 10 the circuit VI
originating Ku-Klux or masked ma
rouders What was the throwing over
hoard of the tea in Boston harbor by
masked men but genuine Ku-Klux out
rare2 But that was right. Was itf
Who said it was? From what stand
point do you deliver your Judgment
From Lord Norths council chamber, or
from the resolves of little bands OF men
assembled in the wilds of the colonies
resolves breathing treason to England,
and vengeance to her carpet baggers
who were eating out their substanceG
You see there are two sides to the ques-
ton. That Ku-Klux outrage was treason
on one side of the water, and glori-
GUS act of patriotism on the other.
Boston incurred severe penalties for its
rashness; but it made it famous. The
interests of the rebellion then going on
required the destruction of the tea. 1t
could only be accomplished by stealth,
disguise and surprise. If there had been
other means of accomplishing the end,
we should not, perhaps, read the story
as it is recorded in our history. Those
who admit that the Ku-Klux had real
existence in the South within the past
FIVE years, allege that the law was i'm
potent to reach q class of offenses be-
coming fearfully common. We need not
state what they were. The local gov
ernments were taken from the hands of
the white people and turned over to ne
groes and hostile Adventures. The
courts, as they were organized, could not
afford that protection which honor de-
manded. The original Ku-Klux, in vim
dicating their honor and assuring the
safety of defenseless communities, per-
formed acts as necessary to be performed
Is was that which has rendered the Ku-
Klux, or masked marauders of Boston,
famous for all time to come. As
in the case of the Boston tea party,
there are two points from which to
regard it. One is from Washing
ton. where the white inhabitants Of
the South are hated and prosecuted I'M
der the forms of law. Another is from
community far away in the interior,
overrun with beastly blacks, whose in
stincts, quickened by the glare Of new
found freedom, and stimulated by mer
cenary whites from the North, regarded
no law and submitted to no control but
that of force, swift, unheralded, but GER
tain as destiny. And so, like the masked
marauders Of Boston, when there was
no longer occasion for masking and ma
rauding, they quietly burned their masks
and quit the practice. But they had
their successors, and they were and are
spurious Ku-Klux-hired, perhaps, to
make political thunder for party that
is growing too weak to reverberate.
Had a horde of freed slaves and
human vampires been turned loose
on Massachusetts in 1865, as they
were upon the South, her Puritan
blood would have boiled over, and her
Puritan hands would have been stained
with murder. She would have organized
Ku-Klux She would have organized
devils, if they could have been whistled
up from below Every good man de-
plores a bad example, but in this wicked
world it is sometimes indispensable to
take ones protection into ones own
hands. The people of Boston started
the Ku-Klux. Let them be slow in con-
demning the South for following their
example.