the Citadel Academy, are flourishing, with Clemson and Winthrop swiftly grown to maturity and great influence. Of the denominational and endowed colleges, we shall speak in another chapter. In every city and town, and, in some places in the country, handsome schoolhouses attest the people's devotion and determined spirit in the cause of education. But not from material wealth will come the State's restored prestige in the Union and in the world. Only through the cultivation of the mind, through the elevation of the moral character, through refinement of sentiment, and gentleness of manners can come influences of a high order. In the handsome educational buildings that now sentinel the State we should place full libraries and well-equipped laboratories, and we should remember that, above all else, we must have the literature and history of our own people in the most attractive form possible in these libraries and the faces of the great men and women of our past ornamenting the walls of our homes, schoolrooms, and public halls, as an inspiration to our people.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE KUKLUX KLAN

Kuklux Movement. It is not proper, nor will a faithful historian try, to evade matters of error on the part of the people of whom he writes; and if we conceived that there were great errors and outrages committed in the Kuklux Klan movement, we should feel none the less under obligations to give it a place in this history, frankly telling of the injury done by its existence. We shall not be able in this volume to give much detailed information, but enough, we hope, to awaken curiosity to find out more about the order.

The Klan did not reach as high development in this State as it did in some of the other Southern States, nor are the names connected with it of equal prominence. Yet a considerable number of our people were identified with the order and its work was of great importance, particularly in the upper part of the State.

General Forrest's View of the Klan.-The Kuklux Klan has been pictured as vicious in its conception, and cruel and brutal in its work, yet such men as Gen. John B. Gordon and Gen. N. B. Forrest, were high officers in the order. General Forrest, at one time the head of the Klan, is universally regarded as one of the loftiest and most chivalrous characters in American history; and General Gordon, particularly in his latter days, was one of the most beloved citizens in the Union. There

was no man, not even Henry Grady, that the North seemed so fully to understand and appreciate as a patriot in the South, working for the noblest ends of citizenship. In treating of the causes that gave rise to the order, the testimony of these two eminent men is of the highest value. Forrest said:

"It was meant as a defensive organization among the Southern whites, to offset the work of the Union League, which had organized, armed, and drilled the negroes and had committed numerous outrages on the whites; to protect ex-Confederates from extermination by 'Loyal Militia;' to prevent the burning by negroes of gins, mills, dwellings, and villages, which was becoming common; to protect white women from criminal negro men; in short, to make life and property safer and keep the South from becoming a second San Domingo."

General Forrest also stated to a commission that was investigating the order that at the time it was organized he "was getting as many as fifty letters a day from his old soldiers, who were suffering under the disordered conditions that followed the war, whose friends and relatives were being murdered, whose wives and daughters were being insulted. They wanted advice and assistance from him. He admitted that he belonged to the 'Pale Faces,' and that he fully approved of the objects of the Klan."

General Gordon's Views.-Gen. John B. Gordon gave, in a similar statement, a clear account of the organization of the Klan. The band was organized to protect the white people "against dangers from the blacks, in

cited to hostility and violence by alien whites of low character, who organized the negroes into armed Union Leagues, taught them that the whites were hostile to all their rights and that the lands of the whites were to be, or ought to be, divided among the blacks. Under such influences the negroes, who had not made trouble, began to show signs of restlessness; some of them banded together to plunder the whites, and serious crimes became frequent, especially outrages upon women, and men were afraid to leave their families in order to attend to their business. The whites feared a general insurrection of the blacks, and if the sort of teaching given to the negroes had been carried out to its logical results, the negroes would have slaughtered whole neighborhoods. That they did not do so was, in his opinion, due to the forbearance and self-control of the whites and to the natural kindness and good disposition of the negroes and their remembrance of former pleasant relations with the whites. The religious frenzy of the blacks during the year after the war also alarmed the whites. The black troops stationed in the South were frequently guilty of gross outrages against the white citizens and were a constant incitement to violence on the part of their fellow blacks. The carpet-bag government pardoned and turned loose upon society the worst criminals. There was no law for several years. The whites were subjected to arbitrary arrests and trials by drumhead courts-martial, military prisoners were badly mistreated. In general, society and the government were

in a condition of anarchy; the white race was disorganized and the blacks organized, but not for good purposes. The Southern soldier believed that the 'Appomattox Program' had not been carried out. At Appomattox the magnanimity of General Grant and the victorious soldiers had impressed very favorably the defeated Confederates. The latter believed that if the soldiers who had defeated them had been allowed to settle matters, there would have been no more trouble. Instead, the politicians had taken charge and had stirred up endless strife. No effort was made at conciliation, and the magnanimity of Grant at the surrender gave way to the vindictive policies of politicians. The whites believed that the understanding at Appomattox had been violated, and that they had been deliberately humiliated by the Washington Government."

Such were some of the influences, in General Gordon's opinion, that caused the organization and growth of the Kuklux Klan. He said that he "heartily approved of the objects of the order, that it was purely for self-protection, an organization for police purposes, a peace police, which kept the peace, prevented riots and restrained passionate whites as well as the violent blacks. Its membership," he said, "was of the best citizens, mostly ex-Confederates, led by the instinct of self-preservation to band together. It was secret, because the whites were sure that the sympathy of the Federal Government would be against them, and would consider a public organization a fresh rebellion. It took no part in poli