Reconstruction and the Ku Klux Klan , by T. W. Gregory , a paper read before the Arkansas and Texas Bar Associations, July 10, 1906 (privately printed, pp. 22), is a forceful and suggestive essay in which the raison d'etre of the Klan, the good it accomplished, its abuses, and its unhappy results are alike set forth in frank and impressive statement. It is based partly upon the author's personal recollections and partly on the historical literature of the subject, especially “The Ku Klux Klan,” by D. L. Wilson, in the Century for July, 1884, and “The Ku Klux Movement,” by William Garrott Brown, in the Atlantic for May, 1901. This pamphlet is heartily recommended to all readers of The Quarterly who wish to understand the subject with which it deals.

Lee's Centennial, an address delivered by Charles Francis Adams at Washington and Lee University, January 19, 1907 (Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1907, pp. 76), is an additional bit of the evidence now appearing from time to time that the North and South are at last beginning to understand each other and to appreciate the real difficulties and problems that were created for the honest and conscientious leaders on both sides by sectionalization due to slavery and by the Civil War. Written by a man who served in the Union army throughout the war and who has no apology to offer for having done so, it is at once an unanswerable vindication of Lee and a most magnificent tribute to his achievements and his character. “As to Robert E. Lee, individually,” says Mr. Adams, “I can only repeat what I have already said,—if in all respects similarly circumstanced, I hope I should have been filial and unselfish enough to have done as Lee did” (p. 21). Further on he uses still stronger words: “Speaking advisedly and on full reflection, I say that of all the great characters of the Civil War, and it was productive of many whose names and deeds posterity will long bear in recollection, there was not one who passed away in the serene atmosphere and with the gracious bearing of Lee” (p. 57). More than this, it would be difficult to say.

How to cite:
"Reconstruction and the Ku Klux Klan", Volume 010, Number 4, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 349 - 350. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v010/n4/review_14.html
[Accessed Tue Dec 2 17:55:07 CST 2008]