James Melville Beard

The Klan in South Carolina—Officious Interference in Politics—Atrocious Performances of Men in Masks—The “Shams,” or Counterfeit Editions of K. K. K.—How Organized—Purposes of the Organization—Their Vocabulary of Crime—South Carolina Fanatics—How the “Sham” Movement Affected the K. K. K.—Parodied out of the Field—A Resolution of sine die Adjournment—K. K. K. Horrors on the Increase—The “Shams” were Opposed in their Movements not only by the Party who had formerly Upheld the K. K. K., etc.—Rotten-Egg Battalions—Citizens sometimes took the Execution of the Law into their Own Hands—A Case in Point.

While the K. K. K. influence was bad enough, in all conscience, and the K. K. K. embodiment a trifle worse, it had imitators in both these elements of its being who cherished even Satanic designs, and we doubt if so much could be written of the former. That the Klan was organized on South Carolina soil, and did much mischief to the Conservative party and influence there by assuming to be its exponent on the most untoward occasions, and at the moment when its services were least desired, is something which is admitted in the former case, and its stupidity heartily cursed with in the latter. But it is equally true that many of the atrocious performances of men in masks which invariably fell to the K. K. K. score were bastardies, and unless, for the sake of imaginative persons, it is admitted that Satan was involved in the fatherhood of both, it may be doubted if even the claim of illegitimate kinship could be sustained.

The “sham,” or counterfeit edition of the K. K. K., had no organized existence in either of the remaining Southern States; but here it not only possessed this groundwork of system, but possessed it to advantage, and in numbers and influence (if political rank can bestow the latter) probably excelled the body which they affected to parody, and, giving the joke a serious turn, did injure. Their plan embodied as many of the K. K. K. secrets as they could contrive to capture, and scorning illiberality even in outward things, prescribed the regalia and mask feature, with an expansiveness of detail that must have affected the cotton-market. Its chief place of rendezvous was the capital of the State, and it is believed by many that His Excellency, the Governor, was, if not its visible head, at least its trusted adviser and friend. Their object was the aggrandizement of party; and this they proposed to accomplish by rendering the State a revolutionary hell, tenantable only for soldiers, black militia, and that currish type of the politician then in vogue, and who had been found, by actual experience, best adapted to these elements. If a county, State, or general election were to be held, these men, getting themselves up in approved Ku-Klux toilet, went forth to lay their knives at the throats of a sufficient number of innocents to afford a text for bloody-shirt invectives, and straightway the political sky rained soldiers enough to garrison the polls of a small empire. Murder, arson, rape, robbery, etc., all had a place in their vocabulary, not indeed as we would speak of them in the abstract, but with all those horrible belongings of sentimentality which attach to each when enterprised wilfully, cheerfully, and with scarcely a selfish end in view. Warring against women and children was a foible of the society, which they carried to such a state of development that it became first an attribute, and then a furious passion; insomuch that, if a faithful history of their exploits were written, the noble patriots of Maine and Massachusetts would execrate them, as they do not, could not, those secret enemies who war against social virtue in their midst, and the book could have no other title than “Murderers of the Innocents.”

But, in exposing the wrongs of this people, we do not become their champion, nor even so much as pretend to assume that they possessed rights. If fanaticism, or, to use a stronger term, transcendentalism, morally speaking, or radicalism in politics, exists in the South (and we leave this problem to the Science Monthly), it has its fullest development on South Carolina soil. Her people have always shown themselves jealous of individual rights, and disposed to clannishness, where concessions affecting these have been made. They have attempted to secede from the Union on two occasions, and the latter of these became the political herald of the great civil war, whose incidents are remembered with tears by every patriot. The K. K. K. found her climate congenial, and from the first her people were mad against reconstruction; and while the writer may express no opinion on the subject, these things are spoken of to her disadvantage. But admitting that they were true, and that she occupies that revolutionary extreme in politics assigned her by the most reliable histories of the period, could that justify the course of her domestic enemies towards her, and should it chain the expression of the undissembling chronicler of such events?

We need hardly state that this emetic proved too much for the K. K. K. animal, and that all its movements thereafter indicated not only a badly disordered stomach, but moral functions so much impaired that it was constantly ruled by a tendency to ask everybody pardon for sustaining this relation to society, and to accuse itself of crimes for which it could only assign somnambulistic causes. Indeed, about the year 1871, it was completely parodied out of the field, and if Ku-Klux horrors were far more frequent in this State after that period than previously, the reader, with the lights before him, is asked to assume the responsibility of the seeming paradox. It not only had no government patronage at its back, but, on the other hand, viewed a brilliant perspective of government halters, and seeing how unequal the rivalry must prove in more respects than one, wisely concluded to retire from business. A resolution of sine die adjournment was actually passed, and the members having exchanged sad farewells and wept on each other’s necks in view of the gloomy prospect before them, the “Shams,” as they were derisively called, became masters of the situation. (If we except the Hamburg affair in the summer of 1876, and one other occurrence of merely local import, the white element of South Carolina has been guilty of no overt act since the period named implying contumacy towards the State government or the constitutional rights of the citizen.)

The “Shams” were opposed in their movements not only by the party who had formerly upheld the K. K. K. idea as an alleged necessity of the times, but by that more conservative influence which, though maintaining the same political views as the latter, contemned the use of all secret agencies in politics. When it was possible to anticipate their raids, rotten-egg battalions were formed, which, in their efforts to deter them from their purpose, employed every character of violence that did not involve the commission of crime. Not unfrequently their places of meeting were discovered, and when this was the case, a descent was planned, and the subject of “unfinished business” rendered one of lively interest to its membership. But, frequently, organized resistance, from the very nature of the case, was out of the question, and where citizens were placed at the mercy of their raids, they sometimes took the execution of the law into their own hands. An instance in point, which has been given to the public in different forms, but never correctly, has been related to the writer.

In the western portion of the State lived a farmer who had so frequently suffered from the incursions of these gentry, that he resolved on retaliatory measures, and loading his shot-gun lay in waiting. The corn-crib seemed to have been a favorite objective with them, and as he had stationed himself where his gun commanded the approaches thereto, he quietly bided the moments. His calculations were well taken, for in a brief time a party of five men, gowned and otherwise disguised, rode to the neighborhood of his concealment, and taking sacks from their saddles proceeded to the crib. Here their movements were guided by a plan that was unique if not original. Obtaining a rail from a neighboring fence, one end thereof was inserted under the corner of the building, and their combined strength applied to the other; a leverage which easily gave a sufficient aperture to admit their bodies. One of their number was now stationed on the end of the improvised lever as a teetering weight, and the party proceeded to business.

While matters were progressing thus favorably for the marauders, our hero’s feelings may be better imagined than described, and observing with what a saucy air the individual who balanced the fulcrum performed his other duty of sentinelcy, he took steady aim and fired.

The result, as ascertained some hours afterwards, was truly wonderful, and deserves, if it has not received, a place in the archives of the Moses’ administration. The bodies of four dead negroes were found, one pierced with bullets, and the remainder having their necks broken. We will not offend against good taste by giving further details, and especially desire that the plausibility of this story may be seen in the readiness with which the reader comprehends the mystery of their deaths respectively.

It is needless to state that this affair was heralded to the world as a Ku-Klux murder, and as the parties wore uniforms, and affected the characterization, some doubt touching the integrity of the announcement may have existed in the minds of those best acquainted with the facts.