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    "title": "KU KLUX KLAN",
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    "verified_text": "ku klux klan, the name of an american secret association of southern whites united for self-protection and to oppose the reconstruction measures of the united states congress, 1865-1876. the name is generally applied not only to the order of ku klux klan, but to other similar societies that existed at the same time, such as the knights of the white camelia, a larger order than the klan; the white brotherhood; the white league; pale faces; constitutional union guards; black cavalry; white rose; the '76 association; and hundreds of smaller societies that sprang up in the south after the civil war. the object was to protect the whites during the disorders that followed the civil war, and to oppose the policy of the north towards the south, and the result of the whole movement was a more or less successful revolution against the reconstruction and an overthrow of the governments based on negro suffrage. it may be compared in some degree to such european societies as the carbonara, young italy, the tugendbund, the confreries of france, the freemasons in catholic countries, and the vehmgericht. the most important orders were the ku klux klan and the knights of the white camelia. the former began in 1865 in pulaski, tennessee, as a social club of young men. it had an absurd ritual and a strange uniform. the members accidentally discovered that the fear of it had a great influence over the lawless but superstitious blacks, and soon the club expanded into a great federation of regulators, absorbing numerous local bodies that had been formed in the absence of civil law and partaking of the nature of the old english neighbourhood police and the ante-bellum slave patrol. the white camelia was formed in 1867 in louisiana and rapidly spread over the states of the late confederacy. the period of organization and development of the ku klux movement was from 1865 to 1868; the period of greatest activity was from 1868 to 1870, after which came the decline. the various causes assigned for the origin and development of this movement were: the absence of stable government in the south for several years after the civil war; the corrupt and tyrannical rule of the alien, renegade and negro, and the belief that it was supported by the federal troops which controlled elections and legislative bodies; the disfranchisement of whites; the spread of ideas of social and political equality among the negroes; fear of negro insurrections; the arming of negro militia and the disarming of the whites; outrages upon white women by black men; the influence of northern adventurers in the freedmen's bureau (q.v.) and the union league (q.v.) in alienating the races; the humiliation of confederate soldiers after they had been paroled--in general, the insecurity felt by southern whites during the decade after the collapse of the confederacy. in organization the klan was modelled after the federal union. its prescript or constitution, adopted in 1867, and revised in 1868, provided for the following organization: the entire south was the invisible empire under a grand wizard, general n. b. forrest; each state was a realm under a grand dragon; several counties formed a dominion under a grand titan; each county was a province under a grand giant; the smallest division being a den under a grand cyclops. the staff officers bore similar titles, relics of the time when the order existed only for amusement: genii, hydras, furies, goblins, night hawks, magi, monks and turks. the private members were called ghouls. the klan was twice reorganized, in 1867 and in 1868, each time being more centralized; in 1869 the central organization was disbanded and the order then gradually declined. the white camelia with a similar history had a similar organization, without the queer titles. its members were called brothers and knights, and its officials commanders. the constitutions and rituals of these secret orders have declarations of principles, of which the following are characteristic: to protect and succour the weak and unfortunate, especially the widows and orphans of confederate soldiers; to protect members of the white race in life, honour and property from the encroachments of the blacks; to oppose the radical republican party and the union league; to defend constitutional liberty, to prevent usurpation, emancipate the whites, maintain peace and order, the laws of god, the principles of 1776, and the political and social supremacy of the white race--in short, to oppose african influence in government and society, and to prevent any intermingling of the races. during the reconstruction the people of the south were divided thus: nearly all native whites (the most prominent of whom were disfranchised) on one side irrespective of former political faith, and on the other side the ex-slaves organized and led by a few native and northern whites called respectively scalawags and carpet-baggers, who were supported by the united states government and who controlled the southern state governments. the ku klux movement in its wider aspects was the effort of the first class to destroy the control of the second class. to control the negro the klan played upon his superstitious fears by having night patrols, parades and drills of silent horsemen covered with white sheets, carrying skulls with coals of fire for eyes, sacks of bones to rattle, and wearing hideous masks. in calling upon dangerous blacks at night they pretended to be the spirits of dead confederates, \"just from hell,\" and to quench their thirst would pretend to drink gallons of water which was poured into rubber sacks concealed under their robes. mysterious signs and warnings were sent to disorderly negro politicians. the whites who were responsible for the conduct of the blacks were warned or driven away by social and business ostracism or by violence. nearly all southern whites (except \"scalawags\"), whether members of the secret societies or not, in some way took part in the ku klux movement. as the work of the societies succeeded, they gradually passed out of existence. in some communities they fell into the control of violent men and became simply bands of outlaws, dangerous even to the former members; and the anarchical aspects of the movement excited the north to vigorous condemnation.[1] the united states congress in 1871-1872 enacted a series of \"force laws\" intended to break up the secret societies and to control the southern elections. several hundred arrests were made, and a few convictions were secured. the elections were controlled for a few years, and violence was checked, but the ku klux movement went on until it accomplished its object by giving protection to the whites, reducing the blacks to order, replacing the whites in control of society and state, expelling the worst of the carpet-baggers and scalawags, and nullifying those laws of congress which had resulted in placing the southern whites under the control of a party composed principally of ex-slaves. authorities.--j. c. lester and d. l. wilson, _ku klux klan_ (new york, 1905); w. l. fleming, _civil war and reconstruction in alabama_ (new york, 1905), and _documentary history of reconstruction_ (cleveland, 1906); j. w. garner, _reconstruction in mississippi_ (new york, 1901); w. g. brown, _lower south in american history_ (new york, 1901); j. m. beard, _ku klux sketches_ (philadelphia, 1876); j. w. burgess, _reconstruction and the constitution_ (new york, 1901). (w. l. f.) footnote: [1] the judgment of the historian william garrott brown, himself a southerner, is worth quoting: \"that violence was often used cannot be denied. negroes were often whipped, and so were carpet-baggers. the incidents related in such stories as tourgee's _a fool's errand_ all have their counterparts in the testimony before congressional committees and courts of law. in some cases, after repeated warnings, men were dragged from their beds and slain by persons in disguise, and the courts were unable to find or to convict the murderers. survivors of the orders affirm that such work was done in most cases by persons not connected with them or acting under their authority. it is impossible to prove or disprove their statements. when such outrages were committed, not on worthless adventurers, who had no station in the northern communities from which they came, but on cultivated persons who had gone south from genuinely philanthropic motives--no matter how unwisely or tactlessly they went about their work--the natural effect was to horrify and enrage the north.\" kuku khoto (chinese _kwei-hwa_), a city of the chinese province of shan-si, situated to the north of the great wall, in 40° 50 n. and 111° 45 e., about 160 m. w. of kalgan. it lies in the valley of a small river which joins the hwang-ho 50 m. to the south. there are two distinct walled towns in kuku khoto, at an interval of a mile and a half; the one is the seat of the civil governor and is surrounded by the trading town, and the other is the seat of the military governor, and stands in the open country. in the first or old town more especially there are strong traces of western asiatic influence; the houses are not in the chinese style, being built all round with brick or stone and having flat roofs, while a large number of the people are still mahommedans and, there is little doubt, descended from western settlers. the town at the same time is a great seat of buddhism--the lamaseries containing, it is said, no less than 20,000 persons devoted to a religious life. as the southern terminus of the routes across the desert of gobi from ulyasutai and the tian shan, kuku khoto is a great mart for the exchange of flour, millet and manufactured goods for the raw products of mongolia. a catholic and a protestant mission are maintained in the town. lieut. watts-jones, r.e., was murdered at kwei-hwa during the boxer outbreak in 1900. early notices of kuku khoto will be found in gerbillon (1688-1698, in du halde (vol. ii., eng. ed.), and in astley's _collection_ (vol. iv.) kulja (chinese, _ili-ho_), a territory in north-west china; bounded, according to the treaty of st petersburg of 1881, on the w. by the semiryechensk province of russian turkestan, on the n. by the boro-khoro mountains, and on the s. by the mountains khan-tengri, muz-art, terskei, eshik-bashi and narat. it comprises the valleys of the tekez (middle and lower portion), kunghez, the ili as far as the russian frontier and its tributary, the kash, with the slopes of the mountains turned towards these rivers. its area occupies about 19,000 sq. m. (grum-grzimailo). the valley of the kash is about 160 m. long, and is cultivated in its lower parts, while the boro-khoro mountains are snow-clad in their eastern portion, and fall with very steep slopes to the valley. the avral mountains, which separate the kash from the kunghez, are lower, but rocky, naked and difficult of access. the valley of the kunghez is about 120 m. long; the river flows first in a gorge, then amidst thickets of rushes, and very small portions of its valley are fit for cultivation. the narat mountains in the south are also very wild, but are covered with forests of deciduous trees (apple tree, apricot tree, birch, poplar, &c.) and pine trees. the tekez flows in the mountains, and pierces narrow gorges. the mountains which separate it from the kunghez are also snow-clad, while those to the south of it reach 24,000 ft. of altitude in khan-tengri, and are covered with snow and glaciers--the only pass through them being the muzart. forests and alpine meadows cover their northern slopes. agriculture was formerly developed on the tekez, as is testified by old irrigation canals. the ili is formed by the junction of the kunghez with the tekez, and for 120 m. it flows through kulja, its valley reaching a width of 50 m. at horgos-koljat. this valley is famed for its fertility, and is admirably irrigated by canals, part of which, however, fell into decay after 55,000 of the inhabitants migrated to russian territory in 1881. the climate of this part of the valley is, of course, continental--frosts of -22° f. and heats of 170° f. being experienced--but snow lasts only for one and a half months, and the summer heat is tempered by the proximity of the high mountains. apricots, peaches, pears and some vines are grown, as also some cotton-trees near the town of kulja, where the average yearly temperature is 48°.5 f. (january 15°, july 77°). barley is grown up to an altitude of 6500 ft. the population may number about 125,000, of whom 75,000 are settled and about 50,000 nomads (grum-grzimailo). the taranchis from east turkestan represent about 40% of the population; about 40,000 of them left kulja when the russian troops evacuated the territory, and the chinese government sent some 8000 families from different towns of kashgaria to take their place. there are, besides, about 20,000 sibos and solons, 3500 kara-kidans, a few dungans, and more than 10,000 chinese. the nomads are represented by about 18,000 kalmucks, and the remainder by kirghiz. agriculture is insufficient to satisfy the needs of the population, and food is imported from semiryechensk. excellent beds of coal are found in different places, especially about kulja, but the fairly rich copper ores and silver ores have ceased to be worked. the chief towns are suidun, capital of the province, and kulja. the latter (old kulja) is on the ili river. it is one of the chief cities of the region, owing to the importance of its bazaars, and is the seat of the russian consul and a telegraph station. the walled town is nearly square, each side being about a mile in length; and the walls are not only 30 ft. high but broad enough on the top to serve as a carriage drive. two broad streets cut the enclosed area into four nearly equal sections. since 1870 a russian suburb has been laid out on a wide scale. the houses of kulja are almost all clay-built and flat-roofed, and except in the special chinese quarter in the eastern end of the town only a few public buildings show the influence of chinese architecture. of these the most noteworthy are the taranchi and dungan mosques, both with turned-up roofs, and the latter with a pagoda-looking minaret. the population is mainly mahommedan, and there are only two buddhist pagodas. a small chinese roman catholic church has maintained its existence through all the vicissitudes of modern times. paper and vermicelli are manufactured with rude appliances in the town. the outskirts are richly cultivated with wheat, barley, lucerne and poppies. schuyler estimated the population, which includes taranchis, dungans, sarts, chinese, kalmucks and russians, at 10,000 in 1873; it has since increased. new kulja, manchu kulja, or ili, which lies lower down the valley on the same side of the stream, has been a pile of ruins since the terrible massacre of all its inhabitants by the insurgent dungans in 1868. it was previously the seat of the chinese government for the province, with a large penal establishment and strong garrison; its population was about 70,000. _history._--two centuries b.c. the region was occupied by the fair and blue-eyed ussuns, who were driven away in the 6th century of our era by the northern huns. later the kulja territory became a dependency of dzungaria. the uighurs, and in the 12th century the kara-khitai, took possession of it in turn. jenghiz khan conquered kulja in the 13th century, and the mongol khans resided in the valley of the ili. it is supposed (grum-grzimailo) that the oirads conquered it at the end of the 16th or the beginning of the 17th century; they kept it till 1755, when the chinese annexed it. during the insurrection of 1864 the dungans and the taranchis formed here the taranchi sultanate, and this led to the occupation of kulja by the russians in 1871. ten years later the territory was restored to china. kulm (culm). (1) a town of germany, in the province of west prussia, 33 m. by rail n.w. of thorn, on an elevation above the plain, and 1 m. e. of the vistula. pop. (1905), 11,665. it is surrounded by old walls, dating from the 13th century, and contains some interesting buildings, notably its churches, of which two are roman catholic and two protestant, and its medieval town-hall. the cadet school, founded here in 1776 by frederick the great, was removed to koslin in 1890. there are large oil mills, also iron foundries and machine shops, as well as an important trade in agricultural produce, including fruit and vegetables. kulm gives name to the oldest bishopric in prussia, although the bishop resides at pelplin. it was presented about 1220 by duke conrad of masovia to the bishop of prussia. frederick ii. pledged it in 1226 to the teutonic order, to whom it owes its early development. by the second peace of thorn in 1466 it passed to poland, and it was annexed to prussia in 1772. it joined the hanseatic league, and used to carry on very extensive manufactures of cloth. (2) a village of bohemia about 3 m. n.e. of teplitz, at the foot of the erzgebirge, celebrated as the scene of a battle in which the french were defeated by the austrians, prussians and russians on the 29th and 30th of august 1813 (see napoleonic campaigns).",
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