Such pacific methods were successful to a considerable degree until the carpetbaggers and scalawags were placed in office under the Reconstruction Acts.Then more violent methods were necessary.The Mans patrolled disturbed communities, visited, warned, and frightened obnoxious individuals, whipped some, and even hanged others.Until forbidden by law or military order, the newspapers were accustomed to print the mysterious proclamations of the Ku Klux.The following, which was circulated in Montgomery, Alabama, in April 1868, is a typical specimen:
K.K.K.Clan of Vega.HDQRS K.K.K.HOSPITALLERS.
Vega Clan, New Moon, 3rd Month, Anno K.K.K.1.
ORDER No.K.K.
Clansmen--Meet at the Trysting Spot when Orion Kisses the Zenith.The doom of treason is Death.Dies Irae.The wolf is on his walk--the serpent coils to strike.Action! Action!! Action!!! By midnight and the Tomb; by Sword and Torch and the Sacred Oath at Forrester's Altar, I bid you come! The clansmen of Glen Iran and Alpine will greet you at the new-made grave.
Remember the Ides of April.
By command of the Grand D.I.H.
Cheg.V.
The work of the secret orders was successful.As bodies of vigilantes, the Mans and the Councils regulated the conduct of bad Negroes, punished criminals who were not punished by the state, looked after the activities and teachings of Northern preachers and teachers, dispersed hostile gatherings of Negroes, and ran out of the community the worst of the reconstructionist officials.
They kept the Negroes quiet and freed them to some extent from the influence of evil leaders.The burning of houses, gins, mills, and stores ceased;property became more secure; people slept safely at night; women and children walked abroad in security; the incendiary agents who had worked among the Negroes left the country; agitators, political, educational, and religious, became more moderate; "bad niggers" ceased to be bad; labor became less disorganized; the carpetbaggers and scalawags ceased to batten on the Southern communities.It was not so much a revolution as the defeat of a revolution.
Society was replaced in the old historic grooves from which war and reconstruction had jarred it.
