A general organization of these societies was perfected at a convention held in Nashville in May 1867, just as the Reconstruction Acts were being put into operation.A constitution called the Prescript was adopted which provided for a national organization.The former slave states, except Delaware, constituted the Empire, which was ruled by the Grand Wizard (then General Forrest) with a staff of ten Genii; each State was a realm under a Grand Dragon and eight Hydras; the next subdivision was a Dominion, consisting of several counties, ruled by a Grand Titan and six Furies; the county or Province was governed by a Grand Giant and four Goblins; the unit was the Den or community organization, of which there might be several in each county, each under a Grand Cyclops and two Nighthawks.The Genii, Hydras, Furies, Goblins, and Nighthawks were staff officers.The private members were called Ghouls.The order had no name, and at first was designated by two stars (**), later by three (***).Sometimes it was called the Invisible Empire of Ku Klux Klan.
Any white man over eighteen might be admitted to the Den after nomination by a member and strict investigation by a committee.The oath demanded obedience and secrecy.The Dens governed themselves by the ordinary rules of deliberative bodies.The punishment for betrayal of secrecy was "the extreme penalty of the Law." None of the secrets was to be written, and there was a "Register" of alarming adjectives, such as terrible, horrible, furious, doleful, bloody, appalling, frightful, gloomy, which was used as a cipher code in dating the odd Ku Klux orders.
The general objects of the order were thus set forth in the revised Prescript:
first, to protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless from the indignities, wrongs, and outrages of the lawless, the violent, and the brutal;to relieve the injured and oppressed; to succor the suffering and unfortunate, and especially the widows and orphans of Confederate soldiers; second, to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and all laws passed in conformity thereto, and to protect the States and people thereof from all invasion from any source whatever; third, to aid and assist in the execution of all "constitutional" laws, and to protect the people from unlawful arrest, and from trial except by their peers according to the laws of the land.But the tests for admission gave further indication of the objects of the order.
No Republican, no Union Leaguer, and no member of the G.A.R.might become a member.The members were pledged to oppose Negro equality of any kind, to favor emancipation of the Southern whites and the restoration of their rights, and to maintain constitutional government and equitable laws.
Prominent men testified that the order became popular because the whites felt that they were persecuted and that there was no legal protection, no respectable government.General (later Senator) Pettus said that through all the workings of the Federal Government ran the principle that "we are an inferior, degraded people and not fit to be trusted." General Clanton of Alabama further explained that "there is not a respectable white woman in the Negro Belt of Alabama who will trust herself outside of her house without some protector....So far as our State Government is concerned, we are in the hands of camp-followers, horse-holders, cooks, bottle-washers, and thieves..
..We have passed out from the hands of the brave soldiers who overcame us, and are turned over to the tender mercies of squaws for torture....I see Negro police--great black fellows--leading white girls around the streets of Montgomery, and locking them up in jails."The Klan first came into general prominence in 1868 with the report of the Federal commanders in the South concerning its activities.Soon after that date the order spread through the white counties of the South, in many places absorbing the White Brotherhood, the Pale Faces, and some other local organizations which had been formed in the upper part of the Black Belt.But it was not alone in the field.The order known as the Knights of the White Camelia, founded in Louisiana in 1867 and formally organized in 1868, spread rapidly over the lower South until it reached the territory occupied by the Ku Klux Klan.It was mainly a Black Belt order, and on the whole had a more substantial and more conservative membership than the other large secret bodies.Like the Ku Klux Klan, it also absorbed several minor local societies.
The White Camelia had a national organization with headquarters in New Orleans.Its business was conducted by a Supreme Council of the United States, with Grand, Central, and Subordinate Councils for each state, county, and community.All communication within the order took place by passwords and cipher; the organization and the officers were similar to those of the Ku Klux Klan; and all officers were designated by initials.An ex-member states that "during the three years of its existence here [Perry County, Alabama] Ibelieve its organization and discipline were as perfect as human ingenuity could have made it." The fundamental object of the White Camelia was the "maintenance of the supremacy of the white race," and to this end the members were constrained "to observe a marked distinction between the races" and to restrain the "African race to that condition of social and political inferiority for which God has destined it." The members were pledged to vote only for whites, to oppose Negro equality in all things, but to respect the legitimate rights of Negroes.
