Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-04-13

| erS.
Aud the breeze far over the sea whis
pers the words to the angels of Heaven.
The Ku-KIux-HOw the Society i.
Composed-Its objects and Obliga
tfOns.
From the evidence given by North Car
olinians, who were all Democrats, ,anc
some of them candidates for office at the
last election, it appears that the "Ku-Klu1
Klan" is general name used to cover
three separate societies, which were intro
duced into North Carolina by Gen. For
rest of Tennessee, in 1868. The first anc
most numerous of these societies or cor
ders" is the constitutional Union Guard,
consisting of privates only, all sworn t.
obey without question the commands o
their officers. who are all taken from the
second "order," known as the "White
Brotherhood" which has always many
members. The third and highest order
small in number, and of which little il
known, is called the "Invisible Empire,
and it rules and directs, unseen, the acts
of the other two while the three consti
tute the Ku-Klux Khan.
There are ten klans, or camps, in the
county of Alamance, and over 10000
members of the association reported il
the State of North Carolina alone. These
klans have secret signs known only to the
initiated, by which they appoint meet
ings, either by day or night. The rule il
that no khan shall meet twice in the same
place. The members are united by oaths
which repudiate all other oaths, and all
obligations to uphold the laws and gov
ernment. They swear hatred to the Re.
publican party and the negro race, to pre-
serve the secrets of the khan, go to the
rescue of member at all hazards, swear
for him as witness, and acquit him as q
juror.
The constitutional Union Guard" in
Almance county, adopted black disguise
and wore black cap with horns and
hood" as the name implies, wore a dis
guise consisting of a white gown reach
ing near the ankles, and cap of white
cloth made to pull over the head, with
places for mouth. eyes, a long snout for a
nose, and five or six horn-like things at
tached to the top of the cap, stuffed 80 as
to make them stand out, ornamented on
the tips and at differen: places with red
etc. The "Invisible Empire" Seams to
have been strictly invisible, and nobody
describes it's toggery. The oath of the
three orders were different; but for the
"White Brotherhood" according to John
W. Long, who joined it in Alamance
county, some of the requirements were
these:
"The oath required me to do all could
to overthrow the Republican party also
to do all could, as q good citizen, to pre-
vent the negroes from enjoying their
rights under the Constitution. l should
protect brother members at all hazards
swear falsely. or get jnriAa and give
false verdicts 1 did not swear that
would swear falsely, or get on juries and
give false verdiots, etc. I don't regard
burning house as big crime as going
into court and swearing a lie; if the chiei
had ordered me to murder a man, burn 9
house, whip or scourge any one, would
have done it but had he ordered me to
90 into court and swear falsely, would
not; and I doubt whether l would have
given false verdict on jury, though the
oath required such of me; part of the
obligation was to deprive the negroes oi
all rights under the laws; the main OBJ
iect WIS to prevent negroes from voting
by going around disguised, and frighten
them so they would not go to the polls
In confederation of this statement, an
other witness, James E Boyd, testified
that he understood the oblig alton to be
such that If a member knew another
member had committed crime he could
not say go. either on jury or as wit
ness, without forfeiting the obligation
it was not in the oath, but the under
standing of the order, that its members
were to be protected in all things, by all
means and under all circumstances; II
was part of the oath that no member
should give States evidence against q
member, but should even swear falsely.
A correspondent volunteers the follow,
ing information regarding the origin OF
the name Ku Klux:
The bowie-knife got its name from two
or more brothers, desperadoes, by the
name of Bowie. They figured in Texas
during the days of David Crockett and
Sam Houston. On the borders of Texas,
near the Rio Grande, there lived a man
by the name of Nal. K. Xulkuk, pro-
nounced in the gutteral Mexica. Zulzas
He, too, like the Bowies, was a desperate
but, like them, he fought against and de-
predated upon Americ IN settlers. He is
still remembered in Texas by many who
have seen and heard of him, as we'll as
dreaded him. His motto was to seek un'
ceasingly to avenge a real or faneied
wrong to himself, his followers, or his
name spelled backwards, gives us Ku'
Klux-Klan.