The Prescript of the original Ku Klux Klan was adopted in Nashville in April 1867 and is available here. As with all documents from clandestine organizations, its provinance is not certain.
Interestingly, the document, which looks like a set of bylaws, begins with two presumably spooky poems:
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.
The Klan acknowledges the supremacy of God and the Federal government:
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.
The titles of the officers of the Klan have always seemed comical to people. Here they are:
Titles.
Art. II. The officers of this * shall consist of
a Grand Wizard of the Empire and his ten Genii;
a Grand Dragon of the Realm and his eight Hy-
dras; a Grand Titan of the Dominion and his six
Furies; a Grand Giant of the Province and his four
Goblins; a Grand Cyclops of the Den and his two
Night Hawks; a Grand Magi, a Grand Monk, a
Grand Exchequer, a Grand Turk, a Grand Scribe,
a Grand Sentinel, and a Grand Ensign.
Sec. 2. The body politic of this * shall be des-
ignated and known as “Ghouls.”
The Klan judicial body were a bunch of Yahoos:
Judiciary.
Art. VI. Sec. 1. The Tribunal of Justice of this
* shall consist of a Grand Council of Yahoos, and
a Grand Council of Centaurs.
Sec. 2. The Grand Council of Yahoos, shall be
the Tribunal for the trial of all elected officers, and
shall be composed of officers of equal rank with the
accused, and shall be appointed and presided over
by an officer of the next rank above, and sworn by
him to administer even handed justice. The Tribu-
nal for the trial of the Grand Wizard, shall be com-
posed of all the Grand Dragons of the Empire, and
shall be presided over and sworn by the senior
Grand Dragon. They shall have power to summon
the accused, and witnesses for and against him, and
if found guilty they shall prescribe the penalty and
execute the same. And they shall have power to
appoint an executive officer to attend said Council
while in session.
Sec. 3. The Grand Council of Centaurs shall be
the Tribunal for the trial of Ghouls and non-elective
officers, and shall be composed of six judges appoint-
ed by the Grand Cyclops from the Ghouls of his Den,
presided over and sworn by him to give the ac-
cused a fair and impartial trial. They shall
have power to summon the accused, and
witnesses for and against him, and if found guilty
they shall prescribe the penalty and execute the
same. Said Judges shall be selected by the Grand
Cyclops with reference to their intelligence, integri-
ty and fair-mindedness, and shall render their ver-
dict without prejudice or partiality.
This is the original prescript, composed by the several highly-literate founders. The prescript was soon simplified, editing out most of the incomprehensible spooky stuff. Then, when individual “dens” metastasized all over the South, the prescript was simplified much further, or even abandoned except for a perfunctory oath. It’s clear from the federal joint committee investigation into the KKK that most rank and file Klansmen and aspiring terrorists never saw anything as complicated as the original prescript. The drawing of the threatened lynching is by Ryland Randolph, editor of the scaberous Tuscaloosa Monitor, an intensely pro-Klan newspaper. Randolph was a real piece of work — a well-educated provocateur, Klan leader, elected representative, duelist, passionate white supremacist, and all-around awful person.