The report of the Congressional Investigating Committee contains some disreputable history, which belongs to a later date, and is attributed to the Klan, but not justly so. For several years, after March, 1869, the papers reported and commented on "Ku Klux outrages" committed at various points. The authors of these outrages may have acted in the name of the Klan, and under its disguises; it may be that in some cases they were men who had been Ku Klux. But it cannot be charged that they were acting by the authority of an order which had formally disbanded. They were acting on their own responsibility. Thus lived, so died, this strange order. Its birth was an accident; its growth was a comedy; its death a tragedy. It owed its existence wholly to the anomalous condition of social and civil affairs in the South during the years immediately succeeding the unfortunate contest in which so many brave men in blue and gray fell, martyrs to their convictions. There never was, before or since, a period of our history when such an order could have lived. May there never be again! FOOTNOTES: [53] In the copy of the Revised and Amended Prescript owned by Columbia University Library is bound a letter in which is mentioned this order of destruction.--_Editor._ [54] The local "Dens" were not affected by this order. Many had already disbanded; many more remained active as long as the Reconstruction regime lasted.--_Editor._ APPENDIX I. PRESCRIPT OF KU KLUX KLAN ADOPTED AT A CONVENTION OF THE ORDER HELD IN NASHVILLE, APRIL, 1867 Copied from the Original Prescript, line for line and page for page. The type used here is slightly larger than in the original document. [Page header: Damnant quod non intelligunt. 1] PRESCRIPT OF THE * * What may this mean, That thou, dead corse, again, in complete steel, Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon, Making night hideous; and we fools of nature, So horridly to shake our disposition, With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls? An' now auld Cloots, I ken ye're thinkin', A certain _Ghoul_ is rantin', drinkin', Some luckless night will send him linkin', To your black pit; But, faith! he'll turn a corner jinkin', And cheat you yet. [Header: Amici humani generis. 2] CREED. We the * * reverently acknowledge the Majesty and Supremacy of the Divine being, and recognize the Goodness and Providence of the Same. PREAMBLE. We recognize our relations to the United States Government and acknowledge the supremacy of its laws. APPELLATION. ARTICLE I. This organization shall be styled and denominated the * * TITLES.