The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-11-05
BY THOMAS DIXON, JR.

! Colonel McAfee was in many re-
] spects d typical leader of the Khan.
| He was in the official Language Of the
| Invisible Empire Grand Titan-that
] IS TO say, the commander of a congress
| sional district The chief was General
: Nathan Bedford Forrest. of Tennessee,
the daring and brilliant cavalry COM
mander OF the confederate forces of the
southwest. His title was Grand Wiz
ard Of the Empire. The Grand Dragon
commanded the state, the Giant a
/ county. the Cyclops 4 Township Den.
He was a man of gentle manners.
I courteous, kindly, brave and consider
ate. an alumnus of the University OF
North Carolina, and a veteran of the
confederate army who led a company
of volunteers to the front the first day
of the war, aud surrendered a shattered
/ brigade with Lee at AppomattoX.
His people in the old world, of the
| clans of McAlpin and Ferguson, were
| of the best blood Of Scotland. They
came 10 America from Down and AM
trim in the north of Ireland with the
great martyr migrations which peopled
America With 100000 Scotch Coven-
anteTs.
The Ku klux Khan was commanded
and led to its triumph by these sturdy
/ clansmen of Scottish ancestry. Cen
erals Forrest, and George Gordon of
Tennessee. and John Il. Gordon OF
Georgia, were all of Scotch blood, and
the hiH countries of the south were the
scenes of their struggles and their vic
tories, in the duel for supremacy be-
tween the Union League" girdled with
| bayOnets, and the Invisible Empire"
No adequate history of America will
/ be written until full credit be given
the people OF Covenanter blood for the
part they played in creating the ma
ton and developing it's life. Here Judge
! TOurgee should have found the secret
of that magnificent audacity which so
captivated his ina gination. The Gov
! enanter of the south. had he dreamed
Of negro domination as the result OF
surrender would have chosen 20 con-
tinue the civil war, and could have
kept an army of half a million men
busy for forty years. His race had de-
fed the crown of Great Britain a hun
dred years from the caves and Wllds OF
Scotland and Ireland, taught the Eng
lish people how to Stay a king and
build a commonwealth. and. driven
| into exile in America, led our revolu-
ton. peopled the hills of the south, and
conquered the west.
! have always felt it a pity that Gov
eTnOr William w. Ho.den of North Car
DINA died unforgiVen by the state for
I
reconstruction. With all his faults he
was u man of genuine culture. and a
high order of talent. When / lived In
| Raleigh he was a forlOrn figure haunt
| ing the capital, petitioning each legis-
J lature TO remove his disabilities. But
| the state refused to forgive the man
who had for any cause suspended the
writ of habeas corpus and raised an
army of aliens to enforce a military
| rule.
The last time I saw the old governor,
he had been partly paralyzed and spoke
with difficulty. I greeted him cordially
and he tried 10 respond, stopped, and
feebly drawing from his pocket an en-
veiope, wrote across it a quotation from
/ Seneca in a quaint old-fashioned style
of handWriting--the hand which wrote
| the fatal signature to a proclamation
which cost him his citizenship. He did
not know that my mother was Colonel
McAfee's sister, and / did not tell him,
for ! felt then, as i do now. that he
| suffered for others sins as well as his
own. and that il would have been a
nobler thing TO have forgiven him.
When Colonel McAfee returned from
the legislature after the overthrow of
the reconstruction government he dis
banded the Ku kluX Khan IN his dis
trict in accordance with General For
rests orders. Younger and more des-
perate men TeOTgapized il as Il local
| fraternity to their own sorrow and the