The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1916-10-01
THE XII KLUX KHAN.

I
New York Times in reference to
Thomas Dixon's proposal to erect a
statute to a famous Ku Klux in Shelby
n. {. The utterance is especially not
able because Of its clear and true
PERCEPTION OF the crisis out OF which
the Ku Klux emerged and it's sympa-
thetic understanding of the motive of
the men who rescued the South from
the unspeakable damnation of Re
construction.
in the beginning, however it was
an uprising like that Of the San Fran
cisco Vigilance Committee, for which
no Californian Will dream of apollo
giving. 1t was the uprising Of Con
federate soldiers against an intoler
able tyranny. 1t was violent and law
less, but 50 was the San Francisco re
volt; both cases where civilization
was PROSTATE under the feet of ignor-
ancc and vice. II is more the
North than the South that has reason
to blush at the name of the Ku KluX
Khan, that name recalls a time when
men took the law into their own
hands, but it recalls still more the
unclean tyranny that forced them to
do SO; and OF that tyranny the North
has long repcnted," says The Times.
Extraordinary crises demand extra
ordinary remedies. The California
Vigilantes sprang from the dctcrmi- |
nation of the law-abiding to strike :
down the lawless in self-defense. The !
ku KluX Khan was not evolved until |
the liberty of the white manhood the
sanctity Of the white WomanhOod. and |
the racial integrity of the white peo-
pie were threatened by the hordes of
tho blacks, the carpetbaggers and the
scalawags. 1t was struggle for self
preservation by white civilization; |
and elf-preservatiOn is the supreme !
inferior law and rules by sheer ne
cessity.
The history of the Reconstruction
era in Georgia seems now only
horrid dream, but the memory of that
reign of terror abides with us ever
more. 1t Is almost unthinkable that
such outrageous tyranny existed in a
republic OF freemen. Republicanism
has mover gained foothold in the real
South since that dark epoch and new
er will until the South forgets-and
the south remembers. Especially is
this true Of Georgia whose people re
collect the day when the wrath Of Re
descended upon them
and subjected them to indescribable
shame and humiliation. Innocent men
were murdered in their homes, wom-
en- were freely and grossly insulted,
law was dead and conquered nation
lay prostrate under the heavy yoke.
Armed hordcs of negroes. under the
saction of the Federal Government,
license for liberty and
roamed over tho country, footing and
mcnaeing the safety and the lives of
law abidiug folk. A white renegade
was governor and a black andtan leg
stature, in an orgy of robbery. bank
rupted the State and burdened its
people with tremendous debt. The
Negro ana his inferior, the white rep
lesentative of the scum and riff-rai
OF Ike North. were in the saddle, rid
ing over helpless race.
1t was then and no, until then tnat
The IN Kux Khan. swift and deadly as
lightning. rose in rebellion and beat
back the forces that were at the
throat of Anglo-Saxon civilization.
They struck in selfdefense for them
selves, their country and their God.
Desperation banded them together,
and. when they had wrested the land |
from atrocious misrule they disap'
peared, Their record is not written
in the black letters of shame, but |
CLEANS as splendid page in the !
chronicle of heroic patriotism. For
them the South has no apology OF
whom shall the South be proud, if not
Of her sons who saved her from the
doom that was more terrible than
death?