The "News-letters" also indicate that the teachings of Simmons are taking firm root in the minds of the religious element of the country. While I may be disputed on this point, I believe, from my observations in various sections of the country which I have visited, that the people of the South as a whole take their churches and their religions more seriously than do people elsewhere. The whole structure of modern Ku Kluxism is an attempt to clothe its real purposes and intentions in the garb of the backwoods religious revival. Its ritualism is of the camp-meeting order, and all its ceremonies, as I shall show later, tend to awaken the emotions of provincial Protestantism. History has shown in numerous instances that where this religious fervor is aroused, it produces a blind fanaticism that is one of the most dangerous forces in the body politic when it is turned loose. The inability of the fanatic to differentiate between the political activities of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy and the Roman Catholic Church as a great religious institution is one of the greatest menaces of the Ku Klux movement. The "News-letters" show further that already the fanatical "citizens" of the "Invisible Empire" are catching hold of the idea of autocracy, and that the "subjects" are addressing their rulers as "Your Majesty." Were the situation not so serious and of such vital moment to the American people, this "Empire" of Ku Kluxism would be one of the greatest pieces of humor ever perpetrated upon the American public. CHAPTER VI THE KU KLUX OATH In the printed literature of the "Invisible Empire," it is stated that those who cannot assume a "real oath," with serious determination to keep same inviolate, are not desired in the ranks of Ku Kluxism. There is no doubt whatever that "Emperor" Simmons, who probably wrote the oath, has produced a "real oath." In making a critical analysis of the oath, I shall first reproduce it in its entirety, and then take it up in sections and show my viewpoint. If this oath is not a dangerous document and likely to imbue people with the spirit of taking the law into their own hands, then a considerable portion of my contention against the Ku Klux Klan must necessarily fail. My case against Ku Kluxism rests to a large extent upon the potential danger to the country from an absolutely secret organization, bound together by this oath, under the sole domination of one man, and likely at any time to draw into its ranks men with no regard for anything but the Ku Klux law.