The Invisible Empire, as the Klan was called in its organisation in 1867 under the leadership of Grand Wizard, General Nathan Bedford Forrest, and with men like General Dudley Du Bose, of Georgia, for division commanders, had a code that might have served for Arthur's Round Table. Its first object was "To protect the weak, innocent and defenseless from the indignities, wrongs and outrages of the lawless, the violent and the brutal; to relieve the injured and oppressed, to succour the suffering and unfortunate, especially the widows and orphans of Confederate soldiers." Its second: "To protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and all laws passed in conformity thereto." Its third: "To aid and assist in the execution of all constitutional laws, and to protect the people from unlawful seizure and from trial except by their peers in conformity to the laws of the land." "Unlawful seizure" was practiced in South Carolina, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and other States, where white men would be arrested on blank warrants or no warrant at all; carried long distances from home, held for weeks or months; and then, as happened in some famous cases, be released without ever having been brought to trial; in other instances, they were beaten; in others, committed to penitentiaries; in others, it was as if the earth had swallowed them up--they have never been heard from. Some agency was surely needed to effect ends which the Klan named as object of its existence; that the Klan was effective of these ends in great degree no one conversant with facts will deny, nor will they deny that "Tom-foolery" and not violence was its most frequent weapon. Where Ku Klux rode around, negroes ceased to venture out after dark. Some told tales of ghastly nocturnal visitors who plead for a drink of water, saying, "Dee ain' had nay drap sence de Yankees killed 'em at Gettysburg. An' den, suh, when you han' 'em er gode-full, dee say: 'Kin you let me have de bucket? I'se jes come f'om hell an' I'se scotchin' in my insides.' An' den, mun, dat ar hant des drink down dat whole bucket at a gulp, an' I hyern it sizzlin' down his gullet des same ez you done flung it on de coals! I ain' gwi fool longer nothin' lak dat! Some folks say it's white folks tryin' tuh skeer we-all, but, suh, I b'lieve it's hants-er Ole Satan one!" Terrible experience it was when "A hant--or suppin nur--wid er hade mighty nigh high ez er chimley ud meet a nigger in de road an' say: 'I come f'om torment (hell) tuh shake han's wid you!' An' de nigger--he didn' wanter do it, but he feared tuh 'fuse--he tooken shuck han's wid dat ar hant, an' dat ar han' what he shuck was a skelumton's--de bones fa'r rattle!"