Morton and the Klan continued....
"They turned south into High Street, and ladies began to wave their handerchiefs from windows and men to shout and cheer from sidewalks. The scalawag police heard these shouts with supressed oaths. At last they began to summon citizens to aid them in the arrest of the clansmen. The citizens laughed at them.
"On reaching Broad Street, Morton, who rode at the head of the squadron, observed a line of police drawn across the street with the evident intention of attempting to stop or arrest the riders. Turning to Mart N. Brown, a gallant clansman, who rode by his side, Morton said: 'What shall we do, Mart?"
" 'Turn into Vine Street,' he quickly answered. 'Pass around them.'
" ' No; ride straight through them without a change of gait,' was Morton's order. [Morton wrote in the third person]
"And they did. The astonished police, dumfounded at the insolence of the riders, opened their lines and the horsemen rode slowly through without a word.
"They passed a large frame building used a a carpetbag militia armory on Vauxhall Street. It was full of negroes that Brownlow was feeding at the State's expense. Morton ordered several clansmen to dismount and knock at each door. It was a bright night and the negroes rushed to the front windows, and when they saw the ghostlike figures they mad a rush for the back and jumped out. Many of them wore window sashes home for collars.
"The clansmen silently wheeled again into double columns and rode toward their old rendezvous. They had overthrown the carpetbag negro regime and restored civilization. The last act was a warning. A handful of the men boldly slapped the face of the hostile authorities before the new administration entered upon its work, and dared them lift a hand again.
"Outside the city they entered the shadows of a forest. Down it's dim cathedral aisles, lit by trembling threads of moonbeams, the white horsemen slowly wound their way to their appointed place. For the last time the chaplain led in prayer, the men disrobed, drew from each horse his white mantle, opened a grave and solemnly buried their regalia, sprinkling the folds with the ashes of the copy of the burned ritual. This weird ceremony thus ended the most remarkable revolution of history."*
*Morton referenced Metropolitan Magazine, September 1905, pages 657-669.