The age-herald., 1901-05-19
..Ku klux and Democracy.
BY JOHN wlTHERsPooN DUsosE.

that we hold fraudulent elections, and
 we are too honest to be priggish over the
 charge. We are going to pay our own
 expenses. examine the fact and correct the error, if any, not as fools "befooled"
 or as towards, ruled by fear, or as
 knaves urged by false generations of us.
 Put up the standard of abstract public
 ethics at the ballot box, take the meas
 ure of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
 Indiana, Illinois and other participants in
 the political life of the country" too
 numerous to mention, and call on Ala
 bama in justice and judgment to throw
 the first stone! Yet we are willing and
 resolved to renew our political life at the perpetual fountain of free institutions
 the courage. the fidelity and the wisdom
 of the masses.
 Have we not done only those things of valor and virtue that a Southern people can do or ever did do these thirty years past Did we not Kuklux tho infamous carpet baggerS out of the State? Have we not displaced the negro government set up by the sword and put in its place white supremacy that Is irrefragable as the Alps? What of our State penol- ogy, what of Dr. Peter Bryce and his world famous work. what of our noble polytechnic, our blooming normal, Mon tevallo, Booker Washington, Owen! It Is callow and shallow to arraign this people at the bar of public intelligence on specifications of incompetence, bigotry and cowardice in face of the fact of a life time translation of our assailant from the befoolments of Perry County to the literary market of Boston.
 General Grant came to the South soon after the surrender and his official report gives an exact truth upon which the Kuklux in Alabama became natural and commendable organization of citizens. General Grant reported that the planta- tions were worked on shares by the for mer slaves, cotton was high and peace reigned He said further. that the only symptoms of race disturbance were to be traced to the machinations of the government political agency, the Freed mans Bureau. The white owners Of the plantations knew beforehand all that General Grant found out. The bureau was industriously sowing race discontent- The bureau promised the negroes to do
 what John Brown had hoped to do, what General Sherman in the valley Of the Ten nessee what General Hunter on the coast of South Carolina had promised to do for them and that, in plain words, was to divide the lands between the blacks and get rid of the whites. That was the sit uation in the black belt when, in the fall of 1885, some gentlemen in the V1cin- ity of Newberne, as a typical instance
 sent for General Hardee who lived on his plantation near by. They invited this glorious soldier and wisest of men to take command of their patrol, Kuklux CT what not as you may phrase it. "No gentlemen" was the ready reply. T want you to enroll my name for service, but put a younger man in command. nave served my day as commander l will be- ready to respond whenever called on for active duty. I want to advise you to get ready for what may come! We are standing over a sleeping volcano (his own words) and wisdom requires that we shall know the truth while it is not yet too late"
 The Klans in Alabama did not find much to do. When Billy Jones ran for Sheriff of Marengo County he, being the star among scalawags, was notified to elect the Democratic nominee, Harrison. He obeyed. Later on Billy was permit ted to be elected Probate Judge, when Houston was first elected Governor In the fall of 1874, because it was desired to make the Houston battle as square as
 possible But Billy never qualified and that was the pre-arranged sequel. sHe left for Louisiana, where he was murdered by negro some time later.
 We have to admit that when Brecken- ridge Democrats, Douglas Democrats, Watts State Rights Whigs and Langdon consolidation Know Nothings were first brought together Tn AlaDama the hukiuX
 was the first form of organization. In 1866 General James H. Clanton called the
 white men of the State to meet at Mont gomery The Bureau caused the negroes to threaten to drive the delegates out of Montgomery. Clanton was not drivable. The Conservative party was then and there organized The fight began on political party lines and the Kuklux dis
 solved The Democratic and Conserva-
 tive party succeeded to power and we
 know the rest.
 MT. Brown has labor ahead to show
 when and how Alabama has ever de-
 clined participation in the political life of the country" We sent Parsons and Winston to the Senate in 1S66 the door
 was barred against them. We elected Patton Governor apd General Assembly and Supreme Court. Congress destroyed the State government, dissolved the union
 and set up a military government Our
 legal General Assembly participated by
 rejecting the fourteenth amendment, sub
 mitted to it. We were refused participa
 tion by act of Congress, declaring the
 amendment ratified that had been reject