The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-18

have never known nor heard of a genuine Ku Klux being guilty of a dishonorabie act. though several out rages were committed in the name or the Klan-
 I was not very familiar with the history of the Klan fn your State. but the Ku Klux saved Tennessee. and I presume every State was benefited where the order held sway. Colonel James R. Grove. of Sheffield, Ala. and John B. Kennedy. of Lawrenceburg Tenn, are the only survivors of the original six who organized the Klan. The others have long since crossed the bar" and are resting under the shade of the trees. Peace to their ashesi
 If can serve you at any time. write me. I am willing to do all in my power to get a true history of the Ku Klux Klan.
 "very respectfully yours,
 John B. Kennedy.
 Thus are we informed by one who knows the original of the organiza- ton and It's works.
 Notwithstanding the fact that many. especially those in the South who wit messed the terrible conflict of 1s6o-s5, have no desire to hear the name of war or Ku Klux. but. on the con- trary. would have such thoughts for ever barred from their memory. still no one can doubt but that this secret order has within It's hidden realms an exceedingly interesting and TO- mantic history.
 Indeed do we regret that the sheer necessities of the times demanded such an organization. We admit that 1t was anarchicai in it's nature. but open resistance was impossible and to courageous people who could no longer submit to such government this seemed the only recourse.
 We know that self-pfeservation is natures first law. and. as Professor Hall says Let him that Is without sin among us throw the first stone. we say reverently The nation that holds the continent bought from the Indian with beads and bracelets. or taken from him at the point of the bayonet the nation that gave Spain twenty million dollars for c principalIty. can i'll afford-whether North or South to blame the Anglo-Saxon for using ghosts and goblins to save his prop erty and maintain his civilization"
 Since the order has had its era and has accomplished it's purpose. and the name now suggests. to the ordinary person. merely a weird. hasy idea of a mysterious order connected with a period of the South's history, why SnOuAu uRI tHG bFuS ul6AVEy VT AtAE Klan be revealed to the public7 This order. whose reign lasted from about 1865 to 1876, has behind its mystic name a thrilling history In our own State, as well as in most of the other Southern States.
 Most wary means are being used in the preservation of Nit. Vernon. Wash ingston's home: the same Is trne of the Hermitage" ofd Hickory's man ell aR NAz axsAE of our national air. The Star Spangled Banner: and neither Is money nor means any object of consideration in retatnging in its original state the IIt- tie log cabin of our Rail-splitting President
 These. and many other. deeds are monuments of respect to those whose honors they commemorate. Then, in view of these facts it behooves us to say that at least literary monument. In the form of true history of the or- ter, would be only a slight token of our respect and deference toward those who honorably engaged in the Klan for accomplishing the purposes which demanded the order.
 True. we have some brief accounts of this order. touching upon its work; but. so far as any general. authentic history of the Klan is concerned, 1t WsAA 0S AoA0 SO 4tlus 1HO OCEtAlhlV we have no history of the order in Ala bama.
 g. 6. Cox. in his ''Tnree Decades of Federal Control" gives brief sqetcies Of the order in several of the South ern States, and he would have us be- lleve that those States which tolerat- cd Che KlaA are forever biighted with an irredeemable curse. However that may be the public win regard 1t quite diRAFnnHlU and hfa aNyfAa-An AaR Rga but little weight. for we must re- member that he. though a Democrat. Is from Ohio and, is as very manifest by his writings, 6 bitter enemy of Che South.
 Those. who for 6 moment think of this question realize the existence of only one way by which a reliable his- tory of this organization can be ob- tained and that is from those who &C., tualiy engaged in the work of the klan. Three decades hence, not 6 man will be living who was a mem- Der of the order How, then. are we to get an authentic account of their deeds if we delay further, The only means will then be the grossly unre- liable traditIonary method in vogue among the early Romans in an age when history was preserved solely by tradition, or less often, by being in- scribed upon clay tablets. This meth cd, of course. is wholly at variance with modern customs in so great a nation as ours.
 As has been intITnated, the heroes on both sides of the bloody war be- tween the States. who fought for what each considered his rights, have been celebrated in poetry and song but the world knows little of those who. having returned from the con. test ragged. care-worn. and discourag- ed, had still to protect what was left from the dreadful war--thelr family and their honor. And granting that this was done in more quiet and se- cret manner.--which was the only way possible--it wrought it's effects just the same, and those who did it honorably are not to be blamed but commended.
 Far be 1t from our purpose to label them as angels. for doubtless many unnecessary crimes were committed as is so often the case under similar the prime principle which actuated the forma tioi of the or- der was good. and no one will deign associate. in any sense. the deeds of the KlAn with the heinou depTedations which have recently been committed in ous sister State under the auspices of the Night Riders.
 It may be said by some that such top los as this should be discarded; that they are too delicate" to be displayed before the publicis eye; that dealing with subjects of this nature will do all other than foster and augment amica- ole relations between the two sections of our country with which this subject was most closely connected. But. aft- ST a lapse of some forty years since the mtT