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THE UNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY PAVING THE WAY FOR A

KLAN RESERGENCE IN PARKER COUNTY TEXAS – Ed Sebesta 8/6/2020

Mrs. S.E.F. Rose, (Laura Martin), became Historian General of the UDC on the basis
of her pro-KKK writing which eventually became the above book unanimously
endorsed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1913 and the Sons of
Confederate Veteran in 1914 at their national conventions. It was published in 1914.

THE BACK STORY/CONTEXT

The United Daughters of the Confederacy were the leaders in promoting the idea
that the Ku Klux Klan of Reconstruction was the great work of the ex-Confederate
soldier prior to the 1920s when there was there was a new Klan movement. S.E.F. Rose
was so highly thought of for her book on the Klan that at the Nov. 1916 UDC national
convention in Dallas, Texas she was elected Historian General of the UDC.1

However, in the Confederate Veteran, April 1917, page 331, there is an obituary
for her, listing as one of her accomplishments her KKK book. Her replacement is
1
Confederate Veteran, Vol. 25, No. 2, Feb, 1917, page 90.
 Page 2 of 31

announced on the following page, Grace Meredith Newbill, from Pulaski, Tennessee,
another enthusiast historian for the KKK and she has an article on Pulaski as the
birthplace of the Klan on pages 335-6 and the unveiling of a tablet to honor the KKK by
the local chapter of the UDC.2

Newbill’s and Rose’s efforts were part of a neo-Confederate movement to defend

and glorify the KKK starting years earlier.

In an address in the Afternoon Session, Wednesday, June 9, 1909, to the Reunion

of the United Confederate Veterans by Mississippi Thomas Upton Sission, titled,
“Address of Greeting From Sons of Veterans,” made on behalf of the Sons of
Confederate Veterans.3 In the address the KKK is defended. The introduction to the
address in the minutes informs the reader that Sission’s address was “… accorded the
most enthusiastic attention.”

Even earlier the Klan was justified by the Historical Committee of the United
Confederate Veterans report at their Twelfth Annual Meeting and Reunion in Dallas,
Texas in 1902. The report stated:

In conclusion we would call favorable attention to a book recently published,

entitled, “The Leopard’s Spots,” by Thomas Dixon, Jr., of Virginia. Many
favorable and extended notices of this wonderful book have appeared in the
press both North and South. Of it the Manufacturer’s Record of Baltimore,
says:

“In following the many lines laid through the romance and tracing the events
of the wreck of war, the reign of terror induced by carpet-bag rule, with it’s
radical cure, the Ku-Klux Klan, the subsequent revival of many of the of the
evils of reconstruction under scalawagism and the desperate revolution which
restored the whites to power, the reader is convinced that he is dealing with
history, and history presented in a guise which ought to be effective for a better
understanding by men and women of other sections of the great fight which
the Southern whites, crippled and hampered as they have been, have made for
civilization.4
2
Confederate Veteran, Vol. 25 No. 4, April 1917; obituary page 331, announcement of appointment of Newbill
page 332, article about Pulaski as the birthplace of the Klan pages 335-6.
3
Sission, Thomas Upton, “Address of Greeting from Sons of Veterans,” pp. 65 - 82, “Minutes of the Nineteenth
Annual Meeting and Reunion of the United Confederate Veterans Held at Memphis, Tenn. On Tuesday,
Wednesday, and Thursday, June 8th, 9th, and 10th, 1909,” published by United Confederate Veterans, New Orleans.
4
“Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Meeting and Reunion of the United Confederate Veterans held at Dallas,
Texas,” April 2 to 25, 1902. The reference to the Klan is in the Historical Committees report on pages 54-58, which
is adopted on page 59. The reference to the Klan is on page 58.
 Page 3 of 31

The two books, “The Leopard’s Spots,” and the “Clansman,” both by Thomas
Dixon were the basis for the notorious pro-Klan movie, “Birth of a Nation.”

The Confederate Veteran, based in Nashville, Tennessee, was the official

publication of the United Confederate Veterans, the United Daughters of the
Confederacy, the Sons of Confederate Veterans when it formed, and the Confederated
Southern Memorial Associations of the South. They started publication in 1893 soon
after the neo-Confederate groups got organized. From nearly the beginning they had
articles praising the KKK. This is one article from the March 1893 issue in which the
editor is letting the readers know he has histories of the KKK to sell.

Although forgotten now, except at the sight of the frightful name, the “Ku
Klux Klan” was one of the most extraordinary organizations in history. It went
out of life as it came into it, shrouded in deepest mystery. Its members would
not disclose its secrets; others could not. The story was published in the
Century about ten years ago and it appeared at Nashville in book form in 1884.
It is a small book, 116 pages, large print, at 50 cents. I have secured any wanted
of the few hundred left, at 10 cents each. Subscribers to the Confederate
Veteran can have it for that. Postage 3 cents.5

In a review of a novel, “Love and Rebellion,” in the Confederate Veteran in the

Sept. 1893 issue the reviewer praises the book because it “vindicates the Kuklux Klan.”6

As time went on the there would be other articles about the KKK and the movie,
“Birth of a Nation,” based on the novels of Thomas Dixon which glorified the Klan
published in the Confederate Veteran. The author has them in a draft chapter “Terror
Glorified,” but is 84 pages single space, and this paper will be shorter than that.

The one of special interest regarding the Weatherford, Texas UDC would be, “A
Vindication of the Kuklux Klan,” by Robert L. Preston, published in the Feb. 1913
Confederate Veteran7 the reading of which was a Weatherford UDC club activity. The
entire text is in Appendix One of this paper.

Mildred Rutherford was the first Historian General of the UDC from 1911 to 1916,
and her annual addresses to the UDC national conventions for 1912 to 1916 were
published. You can find them online at https://archive.org/index.php and download

5
Editor, “Ku Klux Klan,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 1 No. 3, March 1893, page 66.
6
No author, “Miss Keller’s Books: Love and Rebellion,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 1 No. 9, Sept. 1983, pages 285-6.
In early writing often the spelling of the KKK would be KuKlux Klan, two words.
7
Preston, Robert L., “A Vindication of the KuKlux Klan,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 21 No. 2, Feb. 1913, page 74.
 Page 4 of 31

them. This is a direct link to four of her speeches.

https://archive.org/details/fouraddresses00ruthrich/page/n9/mode/2up

In her 1912 address she states:

Now, just as the Confederate soldier returned after the war and became a
peaceful citizen, because he was a hero, and could rise above the humiliation of
surrender, and from a hero of war become a hero of peace, so should we,
daughters of these Confederate soldiers, emulate their example. The
Confederate soldier fought with honor, surrendered with honor, and abided the
issue with honor. After the war he came back into the Union equal with all
Union men. He is as loyal to the flag today as other Union men. It is true, he
had to fight his way with shackled hands during that awful reconstruction
period; but wise men of the North understand why it was a necessity then. He
was compelled to establish the political supremacy of the white man in the
South. (Applause.) So, too, the Ku Klux Klan was a necessity at that time, and
there can come no reproach to the men of the South for resorting to that
expedient.8

Here Mildred Rutherford is pointing out that the Ku Klux Klan is the work of the
Confederate soldier.

In her 1913 address she states:

The Ku Klux Klan was an absolute necessity in the South at this time. This
Order was not composed of the “riff raff” as has been represented in history,
but of the very flower of Southern manhood. The chivalry of the South
demanded protection for the women and children of the South.9

The “chivalry of the South” would be the Confederate soldier.

Her 1914 speech, “Was Slavery A Crime and was the slaveholder a criminal?,”
which concluded it wasn’t doesn’t mention the Klan. 10
8
Rutherford, Mildred, “Address Delivered by Miss Mildred Lewis Rutherford, Historian General United Daughters
of the Confederacy,” delivered in Washington, D.C., Thursday, Nov. 14 th, 1912. Rutherford published these both
individually and also in a collection. They are all available on line and with searching the quote can be found. This
paper is only concerning itself with the Weatherford UDC praising and being a part of a KKK revival, but these
pamphlets show what type of racist lunacies the UDC was promoting.
9
Rutherford, Mildred, “Address Delivered by Miss Mildred Lewis Rutherford, Historian General United Daughters
of the Confederacy,” delivered at Grunewald Hotel, New Orleans, La., Thursday, Nov. 13th, 1913.
10
Mildred Rutherford. “Address Delivered by Miss Mildred Lewis Rutherford Historian General United Daughters of
the Confederacy, Wrongs of History Righted,” Savannah, Georgia, Friday, Nov. 13, 1914.
 Page 5 of 31

Her 1915 speech at the UDC national convention in San Francisco, California was
about Reconstruction. These are some extracts.

But since so many are writing to your Historian to ask how far the story of that
period is truthfully represented in the new play “The Birth of the Nation,” she
feels it is best to give authentic facts. Thomas Dixon in his Clansman has been
brave enough to faithfully give the picture of the conditions then, and for this
he has been greatly maligned, but the half he has never told. Thomas Nelson
Page in his “Red Rock” has given but a faint picture of those days.

“The Birth of the Nation,” is not altogether a true presentation of

Reconstruction Days, for it does not tell the half of the story. The humiliation
and mortification endured by the men and women of the South at that time can
never be told by a picture film. Still it is teaching history. I feared to see it, for I
did not wish to live over again those awful experiences even through a moving
picture show. I never heard of a Ku Klux being killed, especially by a negro.
Their superstitious fear lest they should forever be haunted by his spirit would
have made them afraid to do it. In this respect the representation is misleading,
but the South owes a debt of gratitude to Mr. Griffith for having the South’s
side presented in this period of our history. This presentation is opening the
eyes of the North.

At the conclusion besides alluding to African American men as rapists she

recommends S.E.F. Rose’s book on the KKK to be put in the schools.

Dr. Wyeth in his “With Sabre and Scalpel,” published by Harper & Brothers,
New York, says, “None but those who went through this period have any
conception of it. Defeat on battlefield brought no dishonor, but all manner of
oppressions, with poverty and enforced domination of a race lately in slavery
brought humiliation and required a courage little less than superhuman.”

The North said the Freedman’s Bureau was necessary to protect the negro. The
South said the Ku Klux Klan was necessary to protect the white woman.
The trouble arose from interference on the part of the scalawags and
carpetbaggers in our midst, and they were the ones to be dealt with first to keep
the negroes in their rightful place.
 Page 6 of 31

Mrs. Rose’s “Ku Klux Klan” is authority on this subject. Put that book into
your schools.

Incidentally, Rutherford also complains in the conclusion that the South wasn’t
compensated for their freed slaves. This complaint has been revived by the head of the
Sons of Confederate Veterans Heritage Committee in a book. There is a video online at
this URL.11 https://youtu.be/Lr6UDhKc5C0

In her 1916 speech, in Dallas, Texas, in which was mostly focused on what she
thought were the happy days of slavery, does mention the KKK.

The North, at this. time, blundered greatly by allowing Thad Stevens and his
Committee to issue the “Exodus Order” which separated the negroes from
their old owners, and to place in the. South the Freedman’s Bureau with the
promise of “forty acres and a mule”—encouraging shiftlessness!

This unwise policy was the real blow aimed at the overthrow of the civilization
of the Old South. The men of the South were then put under military discipline
which actually tied their hands and only the Ku Klux, the “Chivalry of the Old
South,” could break these bonds that fettered them.

And mentions the Klan in relationship to current politics.

Pres. Wilson sees a great danger to the South coming from this tendency to a
centralized government and stands squarely for State Rights. The South, under
present conditions, cannot afford to surrender her state rights. If she should, a
worse than Reconstruction Period would follow, and no Ku Klux can protect
her.

The North disfranchised the illiterate Indians, the illiterate yellow man, the
illiterate negroes in her midst before the war, yet, after the war, the North
enfranchised 6,000,000 illiterate negroes in the South. This was not just.12

Mrs. S.E.F. Rose, books was unanimously endorsed by the United Daughters of the
Confederacy in 1913 and the Sons of Confederate Veteran in 1914 at their national
conventions.

11
Rutherford, Mildred, “Address Delivered by Miss Mildred Lewis Rutherford,” UDC General Convention, Friday,
Oct. 22, 1915, Civic Auditorium Hall, San Francisco, CA.
12
Rutherford, Mildred, “Address Delivered by Miss Mildred Lewis Rutherford,” UDC General Convention, Thursday,
Nov. 9, 1916, Municipal Hall, Dallas, Texas.
 Page 7 of 31

S.E.F. Rose in the front pages of her book explains its purpose. The following is the
dedication and she wants to inspire the “Youth of the Southland” with the heroic deeds
of the KKK and also wants to teach young people that the KKK was a heroic
accomplishment of the Confederate soldier.

In the “Introduction” to the book she explains, “For the purpose of giving the youth of
our land true history about this remarkable organization whose services were of untold
value to the South, during a dark period of her history, this book is written.”
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In her “Acknowledgements,” she states, “This book goes out to the world with a mission
to perform: ‘To bring these truths of history directly to the youth of our land.’”
Page 9 of 31
 Page 10 of 31

Rose’s book is adopted to instruct

membership for the UDC
historical programs. In the Feb.
1916 UDC and the Dec. 1917
program Rose’s book is listed as a
reference to have.13 In keeping
with Rose’s desire to have young
people think of the KKK as heroes
her book is also mentioned in the
Children of the Confederacy
program for Dec. 1917 also. The
UDC has a children’s auxiliary
which they have run since some
time in the early 20th century to
the present.

The book is available online and

can be downloaded. Make sure
you are sitting down before you
read it.

S.E.F. Rose ‘s book started out as

a pamphlet that was advertised in
the Confederate Veteran and
praised by the magazine in
1909.14 There were a series of ads
for her pamphlet then her book.
She wrote articles praising the
Figure North Carolina Division UDC Postcard postmarked
KKK for the Confederate
March 24, 1937. They were proud of this donation.
Veteran.15

13
“U.D.C. Program, February 1916,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 24 No. 1, Jan. 1916, page 39. “U.D.C. Program for
December 1917,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 25 No. 11, Nov. 1917, page 522, also “C. of C. Program for December
1917,” page 522.. The programs for a month were announced in the previous issue of the magazine.
14
“KuKlux Klan – The True and the False,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 17 No. 9, Sept. 1909.
15
A draft document with the articles and pictures of the advertisements is available.
 Page 11 of 31

Another defense that is put out for the UDC is that they rejected the 1920s Klan. You can see here that for their 25th
anniversary, the very important and influential Atlanta Chapter of the UDC was quite willing to accept a KKK ad. In Ed
Sebesta’s collection which he calls “The Library of Evil.”
 Page 12 of 31

A common assertion of neo-Confederate groups is that the KKK in different revivals in

the 1920s and 1960s and other periods of time have misused the Confederate flag is
entirely a misrepresentation. The UDC as well as others taught members and young
people that the KKK was the heroic accomplishment of the Confederate soldier and was
a Confederate group. In reviving a group identified as being Confederate it would be
expected that KKK revivalists would fly Confederate flags since they had been taught
that it was a Confederate group by these neo-Confederate groups.

Picture in Michael Grissom's book, "Southern by the Grace of God," which has been widely
praised and read by neo-Confederates.

Also, even into the 21st century the Reconstruction KKK is still praised by neo-
Confederate groups.

Michael Andrew Grissom, a neo-Confederate free-lance writer, first book was Southern
by the Grace of God, originally published by Rebel Press in 1988, then was picked by
neo-Confederate Pelican Publishing Company in Gretna, Louisiana, in 1988 and there
have been eleven printings as of 2007, there may have been more printings and the book
 Page 13 of 31

is still in print. It is distributed in mainstream bookstores.16 He has since authored a

series of books.

Grissom writes of what he sees as the romance of the Ku Klux Klan, recommends The
Clansman by Thomas Dixon published in 1905 and the 1915 movie The Birth of a
Nation which glorifies the Ku Klux Klan in Reconstruction and quotes Woodrow
Wilson’s praise of it, that it was “history written by lightning.” This book and movie
portray African Americans as beasts and glorifies their subjection by violence. 17

Grissom devotes several pages portraying Louisiana’s violent white supremacist groups,
The Knights of the White Camellia and The White League, as heroes and saviors of
Louisiana.18 About the Knights of the White Camellia Grissom writes:

With a negro police force in Shreveport who cared little for the safety of white
citizens, the white men organized the Knights of the White Camellia. The
Knights in Caddo parish declared “a white man’s government or no
government” and made night rides, breaking up political meetings in which
scalawags and carpetbaggers were instructing and inflaming the gullible
freemen.19
Grissom captions an illustration of a hooded Klansman on a movie poster for D.W.
Griffith's, The Birth of a Nation as follows:

The original Ku Klux Klan (1866-1877) played a vital role in ridding the post-
war South of brutal carpetbagger rule.

The Red Shirts in South Carolina, who violently established white supremacy in South
Carolina are also praised by Grissom. 20

In a short section in the book titled, “Papa and the KKK” Grissom portrays the Klan of
the early 20th century as a benevolent patriotic organization that fought socialism and
communism and did “benevolent work among the poor.” An example given of their

16
Grissom, Michael Andrew, “Southern by the Grace of God,” Pelican Publishing Company, Inc., Gretna,
Louisiana, 1988; Also, Rebel Yell, Nashville, Tennessee, 1988. Michael Andrew Grissom had a website
http://www.michaelandrewgrisssom.com which no longer exists but is archived at www.archive.org. Look at
captures in the years 2007 and prior.
17
Grissom, Michael Andrew, “Southern by the Grace of God,” pp. 180-181, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna,
1992.
18
Grissom, Michael Andrew, “Southern by the Grace of God,” pp. 173-178, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna,
1992.
19
Grissom, Michael Andrew, “Southern by the Grace of God,” pp. 173-4, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna,
1992.
20
Grissom, Michael Andrew, “Southern by the Grace of God,” pp. 181-182, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna,
1992.
 Page 14 of 31

patriotism was in a case of a sugar rationing violation in which “they stopped the man
and gave him a good beating.”21

The United Daughters of the Confederacy helped launch the sales of the book by
running an excerpt in their magazine in 1988 and announcing that the work would soon
be published. The excerpt included an address where readers could order the book.22
Retta D. Tindal, UDC Historian General (2010-2012) in a 2007 article, “Confederate
Classics: For Research, Reference, or Refresher,” enthusiastically recommends
Grissom’s book stating, “If you have a child or a grandchild or a UDC friend or any
friend or family member who loves Confederate history, these books are sure to become
there treasurers, too.” Southern by the Grace of God is one of the books Tindal is
referencing here.

Tindal informs the reader that Southern By the Grace of God, “is a primer of all things
Confederate” and that:

Mr. Grissom wrote this book for four reasons: to offer a firm understanding of
our heritage, to instill pride in being Southern, to pursue the elements that
characterize the South, and to rally Southerners to defend and preserve their
unique heritage.23

Being that Tindal considers this book a “treasure” she sees it as accomplishing
these goals, which gives insight as to how she defines this “unique heritage.” This is a
“heritage” where the KKK are heroes and that is somewhat “unique.”

The UDC has also awarded Michael Andrew Grissom its Jefferson Davis medal,
which is awarded “for outstanding contributions in furthering the study and
preservation of Confederate history through historical research, writing, public
speaking, and other points of special achievement.”24

Other neo-Confederate publications gave Grissom’s book their enthusiastic

endorsement. In the 1989 Confederate Veteran, book editor James N. Vogler Jr. praises
the book as follows:

21
Grissom, Michael Andrew, “Southern by the Grace of God,” pp. 446-448, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna,
1992.
22
Grissom, Michael Andrew, name given as “Mike,” “The Mystery of John Hunt Cole,” The United Daughters of
the Confederacy Magazine, Vol. 51 No. 9, Sept. 1988, pp. 27-29.
23
Tindal, Retta D., “Confederate Classics: For Research, Reference, or Refresher,” United Daughters of the
Confederacy Magazine, Vol.70 No. 10, Nov. 2007, pp. 15.
24
Back outside cover of “American Terrorists,” by Michael Andrew Grissom and published through Create Space in
2016. Purpose of the medal is stated by the United Daughters of the Confederacy on their web site.
http://www.hqudc.org/objectives/, printed out 9/11/2016.
 Page 15 of 31

This is a 569-page love letter to the Southland and the author makes no bones
about it. … As the author reveals at the beginning of the book, if you want to
read something negative about the South you had better pass this one up.25

In 1988 the Southern Partisan review commented:

In attempting to turn the tide on twenty-five years of South bashing by mass

media, liberals, and American history revisionists, Michael Grissom has
produced the first modern Southern survival manual. … Southern by the Grace of
God is well written and very readable. 26

The SCV started offering Grissom’s book for sale in Confederate Veteran in 2001
in the “Classic Southern Reprints,” section with the notice, “Celebrates in photographs
and text the enduring legacy of being a Southerner. Issues a clarion call for those who
love the South to defend and maintain that heritage.”27 It is currently offered for sale by
the SCV online with the notice, “The essential handbook for Southerners-proudly
proclaims the traditions, the culture and the values that have long distinguished the
South from the rest of the nation.”28 It was offered for sale in the SCV Merchandise
Catalogs for 2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2011-2012, and 2015-
2016. 2016-2017, with the same book notice.29 It was also offered for sale in the SCV
Merchandise Catalog 2013-2014 which was an insert in the Sept/Oct. 2013 Confederate
Veteran but without a caption.30

However, none of these ads or book reviews or articles mention the book’s
references to the Ku Klux Klan or any of Grissom’s views about race, slavery,
Reconstruction, or other white supremacist groups or Grissom’s account of a lynching in
Ada, Oklahoma. If a person was to pick up one of the neo-Confederate magazines or
view an advertisement online none of these things would become evident. This is a key
aspect of the neo-Confederate agenda. They are quite aware of the need to manage their
image and it appears that often the communication of ideas that would injure their
image is out of the general public’s view.

25
Vogler, James N. Jr., “Books In Print,” Confederate Veteran, Sept. – Oct. 1989, page 37.
26
Hilderman, Walter, C., “Book Notes,” Southern Partisan, Vol. 8 No. 3, Fall 1988, page 45.
27
No author, “Classic Southern Reprints,” Confederate Veteran, Vol. 3 2001, pages 42-43, book notice on page 42.
28
https://scv.secure-sites.us/store.php, printed out 5/26/2013.
29
Sons of Confederate Veterans Merchandise Catalog 2004-2005, page 29; Sons of Confederate Veteran
Merchandise Catalog 2005-2006, page 29; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2008-2009, page 28;
Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2009-2010, page 28; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise
Catalog 2011-2012, page 28; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2015-2016, page 28; Sons of
Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2016-2017, page 32. Note, the author only possesses six of these
catalogs, there may be others which might also have this book listed.
30
2013-2014 SCV Merchandise Catalog, pp. 15, insert after page 20 in Confederate Veteran, Vol. 71 Nol. 5,
Sept./Oct. 2014.
 Page 16 of 31

While the SCV passes resolutions against the contemporary Ku Klux Klan,
however, it has a long history of praising the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan. As
mentioned before when United Daughters of the Confederacy General Historian S.E.F.
Rose first published her enthusiastic praise for the Ku Klux Klan in 1914 it was endorsed
by the Sons of Confederate Veterans at their 1914 Jacksonville convention. Such SCV
venerations of the Reconstruction Klan are not, however, only a century old.31

In Vol. 1 2001 issue of the Confederate Veteran in a section titled “Classic

Southern Reprints,” a video of the notorious film Birth of a Nation, which glorifies the
Ku Klux Klan is for sale. The SCV notice for the book doesn’t mention the Ku Klux Klan
stating:

… [D]irector D.W. Griffith recreates the human tragedy of the War Between
the States and Reconstruction in the South after the downfall of the
Confederacy. Filmed just fifty years after the end of the war, this epic motion
picture takes a controversial look at the birth of Lincoln’s “new nation” out of
the ashes of the Constitutional Republic.32

In the Volume Three 2001 Confederate Veteran ad for the video the notice is
changed to read, “Relive history with this classic silent film from 1915, D.W. Griffith’s
masterpiece takes a controversial look at the birth of Lincoln’s ‘new nation’ out of the
ashes of the constitutional republic.”33 The idea that this film is historical instead of
shrieking bigotry is laughable and calling it a “masterpiece” is an endorsement of the
film.

The Volume Two 2002 Confederate Veteran laments that “Birth of a Nation,” is
“So demonized in today’s politically correct climate that it is no longer shown
publicly.”34

It is also currently (6/18/2016) offered for sale online by the SCV with the
comment, “his silent film masterpiece made in 1915. An epic account of The War
Between the States and Reconstruction. So Politically incorrect it hasn’t been shown in
years!”35

It was also offered for sale in the SCV Merchandise catalogs for 2004-2005,
2005-2006, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2011-2012, 2015-2016, 2016-2017, with the
comment, “An epic account of The War Between the States and Reconstruction. So

31
Rose, S.E.F., “The Ku Klux Klan or Invisible Empire,” published L. Graham Co. Ltd., New Orleans, 1914. Quote
in unpaginated front pages. To read excerpts of the book go to www.confederatepastpresent.org and use search term
“Klan” to find other books praising the Klan published by neo-Confederates.
32
No author, “Classic Southern Reprints,” Confederate Veteran, 2001 Vol. 1, pages 28-29, quote from page 28.
33
No author, “Classic Southern Reprints,” Confederate Veteran, 2001 Vol. 3, pages 42-43, quote from page 43.
34
No author, “Classic Southern Reprints,” Confederate Veteran, 2002 Vol. 1, pages 44-45, quote from page 45.
35
https://scv.secure-sites.us/store.php, printed out 5/25/2013.
 Page 17 of 31

Politically incorrect it hasn’t been shown in years!”36 It was also in the SCV Merchandise
Catalog 2013-2014 which was an insert in the Sept/Oct. 2013 Confederate Veteran but
without a caption.37

What seems to be the avoidance of actually mentioning that this film is about the
Ku Klux Klan is, to the author, typical of how the SCV appears to seemingly promote the
Reconstruction KKK as heroes. They praise a pro-Klan work, but at the same time it is
not apparent from their promotion of the video that film they promote is pro-Klan. The
sales of the video stopped in the “Confederate Gifts” ad section of their magazine.
Though in online ads and in the catalogs you do see the image of a Klansman on a horse
on the DVD cover. (Note: This film has stopped being offered and the last catalog to
have it was 2016-2017. One reason is likely that Ed Sebesta was making it widely known
they were selling this movie.)

Incidentally pro-KKK books and movies is not the scariest thing the SCV sells, it
is a book, “The South Under Siege,” by Frank Connor, a Dylann Roof worthy book. But
that is another story.

This context is provided to pro-actively rebut various excuses and rationalizations

about this being in the past or was just one rogue chapter of the UDC and to put the
actions of the Weatherford UDC in the larger historical context.

ON TO WEATHERFORD

The local San Lanham chapter of the UDC in Weatherford, Texas also
participated in defending and promoting the KKK. In April 19, 1913 issue of The Daily
Herald of Weatherford is a notice of a chapter meeting. One of the activities is reported
as follows:

“Vindication of the Ku Klux Klan,” a paper by Robert L. Preston was read

with much effort by Mrs. T.P. Everett.38

This paper is in Appendix One of this paper.

36
Sons of Confederate Veterans Merchandise Catalog 2004-2005, page 37; Sons of Confederate Veteran
Merchandise Catalog 2005-2006, page 37; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2008-2009, page 36;
Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2009-2010, page 36; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise
Catalog 2011-2012, page 36; Sons of Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2015-2016, page 36; Sons of
Confederate Veteran Merchandise Catalog 2016-2017, page 40. Note, the author only possesses seven of these early
catalogs, there may be others which might also have this video listed.
37
2013-2014 SCV Merchandise Catalog, pp. 17, insert after page 20 in Confederate Veteran, Vol. 71 Nol. 5,
Sept./Oct. 2014.
38
“U.D.C. Chapter,” The Weekly Herald, April 19, 1913. The paper has only four pages per issue.
 Page 18 of 31

The attendance of the meeting are listed as “Mesdames” Robert Lowe, Frank
Carter, Jno. Hart, T.P. Everett, May Arnett, Robert Bonner, Hunnewell, Oscar Barthold,
J.C. Massey, Claude Strickland, C.F. Drake, “Misses” Laughter, Mrs. And Miss Hamill,
Mrs. And Miss Springer. UDC members if married always went by their husband’s
names and often what their names were is not known.

The Daily Herald of Weatherford serialized the entire address that Mildred
Rutherford had given regarding Reconstruction at the UDC General Convention in San
Francisco in 1915 in its Feb. 12, 19, and 26th 1916 Saturday issues. The first part of the
series is Appendix Two of this paper.

In a preface to the Rutherford address, are the instructions:

All members of the Daughters of the Confederacy are asked to save this article
as the lesson for the next meeting of Sam Lanham Chapter will be taken from
it.

In the Feb. 12th issue the Klan is brought up in the opening of the address:

RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH.

I come to a period of history about which the South still feels sore, and a
period I fain would pass without a comment. I refer to the Reconstruction
Period following the War between the States. But since so many are writing to
your Historian to ask how far the story of that period is truthfully represented
in the new play “The Birth of the Nation,” she feels it is best to give authentic
facts. Thomas Dixon in his Clansman has been brave enough to faithfully give
the picture of the conditions then, and for this he has been greatly maligned,
but the half he has never told. Thomas Nelson Page in his “Red Rock” has
given but a faint picture of those days.

“The Birth of the Nation,” is not altogether a true presentation of

Reconstruction Days, for it does not tell the half of the story. The humiliation
and mortification endured by the men and women of the South at that time can
never be told by a picture film. Still it is teaching history. I feared to see it, for I
did not wish to live over again those awful experiences even through a moving
picture show. I never heard of a Ku Klux being killed, especially by a negro.
Their superstitious fear lest they should forever be haunted by his spirit would
have made them afraid to do it. In this respect the representation is misleading,
but the South owes a debt of gratitude to Mr. Griffith for having the South’s
 Page 19 of 31

side presented in this period of our history. This presentation is opening the
eyes of the North.

Rutherford feels that D.W. Griffith under represents how awful Reconstruction
with its racial equality was for the former Confederate states. Rutherford quotes a
professor Walter Henry Cook, of Western Reserve University, of Cleveland, Ohio to
explain the how Reconstruction was oppressive.

“A new economic system could have been built up by the men and women of
the South with freed slaves had they been let alone. The policy of Thad Stevens
and Charles Sumner after Lincoln’s death stirred up ex-slaves to hate the white
men of the South, especially when they preached a gospel of social equality for
which the men of the South would not stand under any circumstances.”

At the end of this installment of the address, the Klan is again brought up.

The North said the Freedman’s Bureau was necessary to protect the negro. The
South said the Ku Klux Klan was necessary to protect the white woman.

The trouble arose from interference on the part of the scalawags and
carpetbaggers in our midst, and they were the ones to be dealt with first to keep
the negroes in their rightful place.

Mrs. Rose’s “Ku Klux Klan” is authority on this subject. Put that book into
your schools.39

The other two installments in The Daily Herald don’t mention the Klan.

In the Feb. 17, 1916 The Daily Herald, a notice of the UDC program will have Mrs.
Lee Walker present on, “Give origin of Ku Klux Klan.”40

In the Feb. 21, 1916 The Daily Herald it is reported that “For the first time since
taking possession of their new home on West Oak street, Mrs. J. Tom Pickard opened
the doors of her spacious new residence to the monthly meeting of the United Daughters
of the Confederacy.” After discussing what a nice home it was the topic of the Klan is
brought up:

39
Rutherford, Mildred, “Historical Sins of Omission and Commission,” The Daily Herald, Feb. 12, 1916.
40
No author, “U.D.C. Program,” The Daily Herald, Feb. 17, 1916.
 Page 20 of 31

… the historian, Mrs. Oscar Barthold, led a program which was extremely
gratifying to the loyal members of the Chapter, embracing as it did, the
discussion of the dark days of the reconstruction period, when the South was
trampled beneath the iron heel of the invader. A few of the elder members
could speak personally of their knowledge of the Ku Klux Klan, that “invisible
empire” which restored to the men and women of the South their birthright of
independence and racial pride. 41

Likely older members could speak personally because family members had been
involved.

The Daily Herald on Nov. 10, 1916 ran an Associated Press story about Mildred
Rutherford’s speech in Dallas, Texas at the UDC General Convention. The article reports
that Rutherford stated that, “The institution of slavery caused the civilization of the Old
South.” Also quoted from the speech is:

“The black man should thank God for the institution of slavery as it existed in
the South – the easiest road that any slave people ever passed from savagery to
civilization under the kindest and most human masters.”

The Daily Herald, in its Dec. 22, 1916 issue, announced that the movie, “Birth of
a Nation,” was going to be playing at the local Lyric Theater next week. It praised
enthusiastically the movie stating:

This realistic picture of history in the making is of untold value to both old and
young. Besides the historical worth of this great spectacle the constant
emotional throb of the romantic story thrills the hearts of all. It is the supreme
achievement of modern histrionism in its new guise untrammeled by the
limitations of the theater.42

J.E.H. Railey was the Business Manager and the only person listed on the
masthead for the newspaper for this issue.

The Daily Herald in its Dec. 27, 1916 issue publishes a review titled, “‘Birth of a
Nation’ A Grand Spectacle,” full of enthusiastically praise for the movie for its scenes of
which one will show, “the harsh radical policy to the stricken south, and the overthrow
of the carpetbagger regime,” which it assures, like other scenes, will “pass in review
before the thrilled spectator.” It praises the musical score of the film how it interprets

41
No author, “Mrs. Pritchard Entertains U.D.C.,” The Daily Herald, Feb. 21, 1916.
42
No author, “‘The Birth of a Nation’ At Lyric Next Week,” The Daily Herald, Dec. 22, 1916.
 Page 21 of 31

scenes such as “… or the welcome Ku Klux Klan call that fell so gratefully on the ear of
Southern whites sorely oppressed by the ‘servants in the master’s hall’ …”43

The March 15, 1917 Daily Herald announces an upcoming UDC chapter meeting
in which one of the activities will be, “Table talk, Ku Klux Klan – Confederate Veterans.”
The historian is listed as Mrs. Oscar Barthold.44
The Dec. 20, 1917 Daily Herald announces an upcoming UDC chapter meeting in
which item 3 on the program is “The Ku-Klux-Klan,” with presenter Mrs. C.D. Drake.
The historian is listed as Anne Binkley Evans.45
The Jan. 17, 1917 Daily Herald announces an upcoming UDC chapter and they
are having yet again as part of their program, “The Ku-Klux-Klan,” and the historian is
Anne Binkley Evans.46
With all this praise by neo-Confederate groups such as the United Daughters of
the Confederacy and others it would not be surprising that the movie “Birth of a Nation”
would be widely accepted. It would not be surprising that someone might think it would
be good to revive the KKK.
What also isn’t surprising is that it was the United Confederate Veterans
organization which provided the introduction of the 1920s Klan into Texas.
It was the United Confederate Veteran reunion grand parade at their convention
in Houston in 1920 which introduced the KKK to Texas with its pernicious and nearly
disastrous results.

It was the efforts of neo-Confederate groups and newspapers like the Dallas
Morning News with their promotion of the idea of the Ku Klux Klan of Reconstruction
as great Confederate heroes that had plowed the ground to make way for the seeds of
hate of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.

The Confederate Reunion was held in Houston from October 6 to 9, 1920 and
there are descriptions of the Klan participation the reunion parade. In the parade train
of dignitaries in automobiles there were some automobiles with “plastered banners”
saying “Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Atlanta, Ga.,” with one of them carrying “Imperial
Grand Wizard” William Joseph Simmons. Later in the parade was a Ku Klux Klan
contingent with marchers and horsemen and a float.

43
“’Birth of a Nation,’ A Grand Spectacle,” The Daily Herald, Dec. 27, 1916.
44
“U.D.C. Meeting,” The Daily Herald, March 15, 1917.
45
“U.D.C. Program,” The Daily Herald, Dec. 20, 1917.
46
“U.D.C. Program,” The Daily Herald, Jan. 17, 1918.
 Page 22 of 31

The appearance of the Klan in the Confederate Veterans parade generated

interest and that night, Oct. 9, 1920, the first chapter, “Sam Houston Klan No. 1” was
formed. From Houston the Klan grew rapidly in Texas.47

Again it isn’t surprising that Klan revivals during the civil rights era and later fly
Confederate flags, the neo-Confederate groups have been telling generations that the Ku
Klux Klan was the great work of the Confederate soldier.

It would not be that much longer before the KKK reached Weatherford, Texas
where the idea of the KKK being heroic effort of the Confederate soldier to prevent racial
equality had been promoted at least for nearly a decade by the Waterford UDC and
longer nationally by neo-Confederate groups.

And so in The Daily Herald, August 25, 1922, on the 2nd page of a four page
newspaper is a full page ad of screaming Ku Klux Klan hate.

The front page of Dec. 14, 1922, Weekly Herald sympathetically reports the
speech G.C. Minor, a Christian minister of Ladonia, Texas given at the District Court
room. The article reports that Minor explained how the Klan defines white supremacy:

He said that it does not mean that a White man must be supreme over the
Negro along, as many people seem to believe. He explained that the principle
deals with the entire world, and the Klan believes in the supremacy of the white
race over the yellow race, the brown race, black men, red men.

Minor thought it was “the most degrading spectacle” to see European leaders
“bowing down before the unspeakable Turk.”

The Weekly Herald uncritically reported in the conclusion of their article the
following:

He referred to the more than 150 whippings recorded in the city of Dallas and
said that $1500 had been in the hands of Mayor Aldredge for weeks put there
by the Ku Klux Klan as a reward for information showing that the Klan had
any connection whatever with the whippings.

As before mentioned his talk was very free from vituperation or abuse, and he
was not at any time questioned or heckled, and at the conclusion of his address,

47
Alexander, Charles C., “Crusade for Conformity: The Ku Klux Klan in Texas, 1920-1930,” Texas Gulf Coast
Historical Association, Publication Series, Vol. 6 No. 1, August, 1962. The participation in the parade are pages 1-2,
organizing of first Klan chapter pages 4-5, and rapid expansion in Texas, 5-10.
 Page 23 of 31

there were a number of prominent men who congratulated him on his speech
who a short time ago were opposed to the Ku Klux Klan.48

The Ku Klux Klan had now come to Weatherford, Texas and the local San
Lanham chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy had helped open the door
for the Klan to come to Weatherford.

This is just a part of the heritage, a hateful heritage, the neo-Confederate

heritage, which the Confederate monument brings into the future of Weatherford,
Texas.

48
“Principles of the Klan Expounded by Nat’l Lecturer, De. Minor,” The Weekly Herald, Dec. 14, 1922, page 1.
 Page 24 of 31

APPENDIX ONE

Confederate Veteran, Vol. 21 No. 2, February, 1913, page 74.

A VINDICATION OF THE KU¬KLUX KLAN.

BY ROBERT L. PRESTON, WASHINGTON, D, C.

In a recent editorial in the Boston Transcript readers of the paper are instructed as to
the history and meaning of the Ku-Klux Klan. The editor writes in part: “The New
Englander of twenty-two or twenty-three is pardonable if he asks, ‘What was the Ku-
Klux Klan?’ It was the ‘Black Hand’ in politics, used for politics, though it never sank to
the level of blackmail. Its purposes were to frighten negroes out of voting the Republican
ticket, to paralyze the Freedmen’s Bureau, to run out carpetbaggers, Northern
schoolteachers, and, in general, by terror to unsettle the results of the war. In the
beginning it was little more than a secret vigilance committee which kept the recently
emancipated slaves in order, enforced law, and, in general, took the place of the old
machinery of justice which had not recovered from the war. It soon passed under the
control of a more brutal element which saw its political possibilities. The founders
dropped out and the Ku-Klux, stopping at nothing, made itself felt by fire, blood, and
suffering. It developed into an atrocious organization for whose suppression it was
necessary to pass a Federal law known as the ‘Ku-Klux Act.’”

Verily, the New England historians, great and small, have followed the Biblical
injunction: “Feed me with food convenient for me.” Is it not time now, forty-seven years
after the war, to strengthen the diet of “the New Englander of twenty-two or twenty-
three,” to give him more nourishing food, and to cease coddling him with the broth that
has for so many years been served up to him? Would it not be safe now to give him an
insight into some of the horrors of Reconstruction in the Southern States and to tell him
the facts?

The treatment accorded the Southern States after the war showed how just and well
grounded were their apprehensions when the Republican party in 1861 obtained control
of the government. They felt the beginning of their political extinction, and they saw
with stupefaction that calm, cold, determined band of their enemies in their secret
meetings at the Revere House in Boston—Dr. Howe, known as a philanthropist; Frank
Sanborn, an instructor of youth; Gerritt Smith, also called a philanthropist; and
Theodore Parker, a disciple of the meek and lowly Jesus—calmly arranging the details of
Brown’s venture, furnishing him with arms and supplying him with money, and plotting
an armed invasion. They saw that they were in the house of their enemies, and they
resolved to leave.
 Page 25 of 31

Of the four years of the War of the States the young New Englander has a fair idea, but it
would be well to let him know that soon after the beginning of the war a resolution was
presented and passed both houses of Congress almost unanimously to the effect that the
sole object of the war was the preservation of the Union, and that when that object was
accomplished the army was to be disbanded. With this amount of information to start
with we may omit the war and enlighten him on the subject of the Ku-Klux Klan.

The Ku-Klux Klan was largely instrumental in preserving civilization in the South,
which, thanks to the Thad Stevenses and Sumners of the day, came near being engulfed
in the unfathomable abyss of negro rule. The history of the passage of the Fourteenth
Amendment would be instructive reading. Our young friend would see that it was
fraudulent, the work of negroes and carpetbaggers supported by bayonets. The white
people of the South being prostrate and disfranchised and the negro being in supreme
control, every avenue of hope was closed. The situation was desperate. Helplessness and
despair were on every hand with the black shadow of the negro hovering over all.

At this juncture a few of the representative young men of the South formed an
association for the purpose of getting rid of the negro as their political ruler. Among its
organizers were Gen. George W. Gordon and Gen. N. B. Forrest, and its rank and file as
well as its leaders were composed of many of the highest types of Southern manhood. It
was called the “Ku-Klux Klan,” and the sole object of its formation and existence was the
rescue of the South from the clutches of the destruction that enveloped it. If it was
“dangerous and defiant,” it was so only to the heel of the oppressor. If it was “criminal,”
it was so only to the wreckers of civilization in the exhausted South. If it was the “Black
Hand” in politics, how much blacker were the hands and hearts of the contrivers of the
scheme that condemned that fair land to degradation and decay! That one of its
purposes was “to keep negroes from voting the Republican ticket” showed its sense of
law and the Constitution. The States alone, according to the Constitution, have the right
to determine the qualifications of their electorates, and nothing but violence could
deprive them of it. If one of its objects was “to paralyze the Freedmen’s Bureau,” surely
no indictment can lie against it for its efforts to crush what turned out to be a gigantic
fraud and swindle. If its purpose was “to run out carpetbaggers,” its mission was a most
holy one. The carpetbaggers were the foulest birds of prey that ever sank their talons
into the bodies of their victims; human vultures they were, sucking the last drops of
blood from a helpless and exhausted people. If Northern school¬teachers were run out
by the Ku-Klux Klan, it was a good riddance of a most undesirable and pernicious
element, hostile to the white people of the South and breeders of discord. These teachers
never affiliated with the better classes of the South, because they were their enemies.
They came as aliens and as aliens they remained. Southern schoolteachers had never
invaded the North and stirred up strife in the industrial system of New England or
incited the ground-down mill workers to rise against those who were coining wealth
from their and their children’s overworked bodies and brains. Why did Northern school-
teachers undertake to undermine the social system of the South?
 Page 26 of 31

Finally, it was charged that one of the purposes of the Ku-Klux Klan was “in general by
terror to unsettle the results of the war.” What results? As already stated, the sole object
of the war, as distinctly announced by Congress in the beginning, was the restoration of
the Union. The Union was restored. The South had absolutely surrendered and had put
its State governments into operation.

The Ku-Klux Klan left neither the White Caps nor the Night Riders as its successors, as
the editorial charges, any more than it left the mill strikers of New England or the
Pittsburg rioters or the Chicago anarchists as its successors The White Caps originated
in Indiana thirty years after the war, as did the Night Riders in Kentucky ten years later.
The Ku-Klux Klan left no successors. It did its share in freeing parts of the South from
tyranny and degradation, and to it and the white minorities in all the black districts of
the South that resisted that avalanche of terror should be raised a monument more
enduring than bronze.

The Anglo-Saxon has frequently subjected other races to his own civilization, but history
records no instance in which any other race has robbed him of his own. Utterly crushed
as they were, the fierce fire of the race was not yet extinguished in the Southern people.

The Ku-Klux Klan blazed up as the last flame from the embers of an expiring people.
The fate of a mighty race hung in the balance. It was the last remnant of fast-failing
strength that the South threw into the unequal struggle, and it saved a nation. If
occasional injustices marked the close of its career, they were few and far between, such
as are inevitable in every civil convulsion. It sprang up in the twinkling of an eye as a
mighty protest against a crime unspeakably hideous and disgusting and without a
parallel in the history of the world. Of it it may truly be said: “The evil that men do lives
after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” It did its share in keeping alive the
torch of civilization already so dimly burning in that unhappy land, and in shielding its
women and children from a desolation worse than “the pestilence that walketh in
darkness” or “the destruction that wasteth at noonday.”
 Page 27 of 31

APPENDIX TWO

[Note: Rutherford sed the term “War between the States,” instead of the Civil War and
did not capitalize the word “Negro.” This word usage is left unchanged so the reader can
see exactly Rutherford’s usage.]

Mildred Rutherford, San Francisco, California Friday, Oct. 22, 1915, Civic Auditorium
Hall, “Address,” “Historical Sins of Omission and Commission,” first serialized part in
The Daily Herald, (Weatherford, Texas), Feb. 12, 1916.

RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH. I come to a period of history about which the

South still feels sore, and a period I fain would pass without a comment. I refer to the
Reconstruction Period following the War between the States. But since so many are
writing to your Historian to ask how far the story of that period is truthfully represented
in the new play “The Birth of the Nation,” she feels it is best to give authentic facts.
Thomas Dixon in his Clansman has been brave enough to faithfully give the picture of
the conditions then, and for this he has been greatly maligned, but the half he has never
told. Thomas Nelson Page in his “Red Rock” has given but a faint picture of those days.

“The Birth of the Nation,” is not altogether a true presentation of Reconstruction Days,
for it does not tell the half of the story. The humiliation and mortification endured by
the men and women of the South at that time can never be told by a picture film. Still it
is teaching history. I feared to see it, for I did not wish to live over again those awful
experiences even through a moving picture show. I never heard of a Ku Klux being
killed, especially by a negro. Their superstitious fear lest they should forever be haunted
by his spirit would have made them afraid to do it. In this respect the representation is
misleading, but the South owes a debt of gratitude to Mr. Griffith for having the South’s
side presented in this period of our history. This presentation is opening the eyes of the
North.

Lest our Northern friends may think we have taken advantage of this opportunity to give
vent to our feelings from the Southern point of view and what we may say will seem to
be from prejudice, I shall only quote from fair-minded men of the North, not of the
South, nor will I even tell you the worst things these men of the North have said.

I shall first quote from Walter Henry Cook, a professor in the Western Reserve
University, Cleveland, Ohio, a Northern man by birth and education, one who is trying
to read history with his heart as well as his eyes: “The Northern soldier returned to his
home to find every comfort and convenience. The North was more prosperous than
when the war began. Manufactures had increased; railroads had opened up the West;
immigrants were supplying labor for factory and farm, and while the most destructive
 Page 28 of 31

war in the history of the world had taken place, yet an increase in wealth, population
and power had been the result.

“What a contrast to the South! The Southern soldier returned defeated, sorrowful, ill-
clad, ill-fed, sick in mind and body, to find the South desolate and prostrate. The whole
economic system had been destroyed or confiscated. Factories in ashes, railroads in
ruin, bonds useless, currency valueless, a pitiable condition!

“A new economic system could have been built up by the men and women of the South
with freed slaves had they been let alone. The policy of Thad Stevens and Charles
Sumner after Lincoln’s death stirred up ex-slaves to hate the white men of the South,
especially when they preached a gospel of social equality for which the men of the South
would not stand under any circumstances.”

The next quotation is from Dan Voorhees, Representative for many years, and later a
United States Senator from Indiana. In his speech “Plunder of Eleven States,” made in
the House of Representatives, March 23rd, 1872, he pictures well the animus of
Reconstruction. He said, “From turret to foundation you tore down the government of
eleven States. You left not one stone upon another, you not only destroyed their local
laws, but you trampled upon their ruins. You called Conventions to frame new
Constitutions for these old States. You not only said who should be elected to rule over
these States, but you said who should elect them. You fixed the quality and the color of
the voters. You purged the ballot box of intelligence and virtue, and in their stead you
placed the most ignorant and unqualified race in the world to rule over these people,”
Then taking State by State he showed what Thad Steven’s policy had done.

“Let the great State of Georgia speak first,” he said. ”You permitted her to stand up and
start in her new career, but seeing some flaw in your handiwork, you again destroyed
and again reconstructed her State government. You clung to her throat; you battered her
features out of shape and recognition, determined that your party should have
undisputed possession and enjoyment of her offices, her honors, and her substance.
Then bound hand and foot you handed her over to the rapacity of robbers. her prolific
and unbounded resources inflamed their desires.

“In 1861 Georgia was free from debt. Taxes were light as air. The burdens of government
were easy upon her citizens. Her credit stood high, and when the war closed she was still
free from indebtedness. After six years of Republican rule you present her, to the horror
of the world, loaded with a debt of $50,000,000, and the crime against Georgia is the
crime this same party has committed against the other Southern States. Your work of
destruction was more fatal than a scourge of pestilence, war or famine.

“Rufus B. Bullock, Governor of Georgia, dictated the legislation of Congress, and the
great commonwealth of Georgia was cursed by his presence. with such a Governor, and
such a Legislature in perfect harmony, morally and politically, their career will go down
 Page 29 of 31

to posterity without a rival for infamous administrations of the world. That Governor
served three years and then absconded with all of the gains. The Legislature of two years
spent $100,000 more than had been spent during any eight previous years. They even
put the children’s money, laid aside for education of white and black, into their own
pockets.”

When Senator Voorhees came to South Carolina, the proud land of Marion and Sumter,
his indignation seems to have reached its pinnacle.

“There is no form of ruin to which she has not fallen a prey, no curse with which she has
not been baptized, no cup of humiliation and suffering her people have not drained to
the dregs. There she stands the result of your handiwork bankrupt in money, ruined in
credit, her bonds hawked about the streets at ten cents on the dollar, her prosperity
blighted at home and abroad, without peace, happiness, or hope. There she stands with
her skeleton frame admonishing all the world of the loathsome consequences of a
government fashioned in hate and fanaticism, and founded upon the ignorant and
vicious classes of manhood. Her sins may have been many and deep, and the color of
scarlet, yet they will become as white as snow in comparison with those you have
committed against her in the hour of her helplessness and distress.”

Then he took in like manner State after State, and wound up with this: “I challenge the
darkest annals of the human race for a parallel to the robberies which have been
perpetrated on these eleven American States. Had you sown seeds of kindness and good
will they would long ere this have blossomed into prosperity and peace. Had you sown
seeds of honor, you would have reaped a golden harvest of contentment and obedience.
Had you extended your charities and your justice to a distressed people you would have
awakened a grateful affection in return. But as you planted in hate and nurtured in
corruption so have been the fruits which you have gathered.”

I return now to quote from Walter Cook in regard to Reconstruction graft. “Governor
Warmouth of Louisiana accumulated one and a half million in four years on a salary of
$8,000 a year. Governor Moses of South Carolina acknowledged that he had accepted
$65,000 in bribes. Governor Clayton of Arkansas said he intended to people the State
with negroes. The carpetbag government of Florida stole meat and flour given for
helpless women and children. In North Carolina and Alabama negro convicts were made
justices of the peace, men who were unable to read or write. In South Carolina
Legislature 94 black men were members. The Speaker of the House, the Clerk of the
House, the doorkeeper, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, and the
Chaplain were all black men and some of them could neither read nor write.”

The next is an extract from The Chicago Chronicle, written by a Northern man:
 Page 30 of 31

“The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution grew out of a spirit of revenge, for the
purpose of punishing the Southern people. It became a part of the Constitution by fraud
and force to secure the results of war. The war was not fought to secure negro suffrage.

“The history of the world may be searched in vain for a parallel to the spirit of savagery
which it inflicted upon a defeated and impoverished people, the unspeakably barbarous
rule of a servile race just liberated from bondage. Negro suffrage was a crime against
white people of the South. It was a crime against the blacks of the South. It was a crime
against the whole citizenship of the Republic. Political power was never conferred upon
a race so poorly equipped to receive it.”

Now a last quotation from Charles Francis Adams, the grandson of John Quincy Adams:
“I have ever been one of those who have thought extremely severe measures were dealt
the Southern people after the Civil War, measures of unprecedented severity. The
Southern community was not only desolated during the war, but $3,000,000,000 of
property confiscated after the war. I am not aware that history records a similar act
superadded to the destruction and desolation of war.”

Again: “Their manumitted slaves belonging to an inferior and alien race, were
enfranchised and put in control of the whole administration. Is there a similar case
recorded in history? If so I have never heard of it. It was simply a case of insane
procedure, and naturally resulted in disaster. We stabbed the South to the quick, and
during all the years of reconstruction turned the dagger round and round in the
festering wound. If the South had been permitted to secede slavery would have died a
natural death.”

The United States government is the only government that ever freed her slaves without
giving just compensation for them.

Dr. Wyeth in his “With Sabre and Scalpel,” published by Harper & Brothers, New York,
says, “None but those who went through this period have any conception of it. Defeat on
battlefield brought no dishonor, but all manner of oppressions, with poverty and
enforced domination of a race lately in slavery brought humiliation and required a
courage little less than superhuman.”

The North said the Freedman’s Bureau was necessary to protect the negro. The South
said the Ku Klux Klan was necessary to protect the white woman.

The trouble arose from interference on the part of the scalawags and carpetbaggers in
our midst, and they were the ones to be dealt with first to keep the negroes in their
rightful place.

Mrs. Rose’s “Ku Klux Klan” is authority on this subject. Put that book into your schools.
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