earth, and upon the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God, do, of
my own free will and accord, subscribe to the following
sacred, binding obligation:

I. I am on the side of justice and humanity and
constitutional liberty, as bequeathed to us by our
forefathers in its original purity.

II. I reject and oppose the principles of the radical
party.

III. I pledge aid to a brother of the Ku-Klux Klan in
sickness, distress, or pecuniary embarrassments. Females,
friends, widows, and their households shall be the special
object of my care and protection.

IV. Should I ever divulge, or cause to be divulged, any of
the secrets of this order, or any of the foregoing
obligations, I must meet with the fearful punishment of
death and traitor's doom, which is death, death, death, at
the hands of the brethren.

Murderers, incendiaries, midnight raiders on the "side of justice,
humanity and Constitutional liberty"! Let us see what kind of
"justice, humanity and Constitutional liberty" is meant. In Volume I,
page 21, I find the following:

Taking these statements from official sources, showing the
prevalence of this organization in every one of the late
insurrectionary States and in Kentucky, it is difficult now,