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diff --git a/2897.txt b/2897.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..724b2ab --- /dev/null +++ b/2897.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6501 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Sequel of Appomattox, by Walter Lynwood Fleming + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Sequel of Appomattox + A Chronicle of the Reunion of the States, Volume 32 In The + Chronicles Of America Series + +Author: Walter Lynwood Fleming + +Editor: Allen Johnson + +Posting Date: January 2, 2009 [EBook #2897] +Release Date: November, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEQUEL OF APPOMATTOX *** + + + + +Produced by The James J. Kelly Library Of St. Gregory's +University, and Alev Akman + + + + + + +THE SEQUEL OF APPOMATTOX + +A CHRONICLE OF THE REUNION OF THE STATES + +By Walter Lynwood Fleming + + + + +CHAPTER I. THE AFTERMATH OF WAR + +When the armies of the Union and of the Confederacy were disbanded in +1865, two matters had been settled beyond further dispute: the Negro was +to be free, and the Union was to be perpetuated. But, though slavery +and state sovereignty were no longer at issue, there were still many +problems which pressed for solution. The huge task of reconstruction +must be faced. The nature of the situation required that the measures of +reconstruction be first formulated in Washington by the victors and then +worked out in the conquered South. Since the success of these policies +would depend in a large measure upon their acceptability to both +sections of the country, it was expected that the North would be +influenced to some extent by the attitude of the Southern people, which +in turn would be determined largely by local conditions in the South. +The situation in the South at the close of the Civil War is, therefore, +the point at which this narrative of the reconstruction naturally takes +its beginning. + +The surviving Confederate soldiers came straggling back to communities, +which were now far from being satisfactory dwelling places for civilized +people. Everywhere they found missing many of the best of their former +neighbors. They found property destroyed, the labor system disorganized, +and the inhabitants in many places suffering from want. They found the +white people demoralized and sometimes divided among themselves and the +Negroes free, bewildered, and disorderly, for organized government had +lapsed with the surrender of the Confederate armies. + +Beneath a disorganized society lay a devastated land. The destruction of +property affected all classes of the population. The accumulated capital +of the South had disappeared in worthless Confederate stocks, bonds, +and currency. The banks had failed early in the war. Two billion dollars +invested in slaves had been wiped out. Factories, which had been running +before the war or were developed after 1861 in order to supply the +blockaded country, had been destroyed by Federal raiders or seized +and sold or dismantled because they had furnished supplies to the +Confederacy. Mining industries were paralyzed. Public buildings which +had been used for war purposes were destroyed or confiscated for the +uses of the army or for the new freedmen's schools. It was months before +courthouses, state capitols, school and college buildings were again +made available for normal uses. The military school buildings had been +destroyed by the Federal forces. Among the schools which suffered +were the Virginia Military Institute, the University of Alabama, the +Louisiana State Seminary, and many smaller institutions. Nearly all +these had been used in some way for war purposes and were therefore +subject to destruction or confiscation. + +The farmers and planters found themselves "land poor." The soil +remained, but there was a prevalent lack of labor, of agricultural +equipment, of farm stock, of seeds, and of money with which to make good +the deficiency. As a result, a man with hundreds of acres might be as +poor as a Negro refugee. The desolation is thus described by a Virginia +farmer: + +"From Harper's Ferry to New Market, which is about eighty miles... the +country was almost a desert.... We had no cattle, hogs, sheep, or horse +or anything else. The fences were all gone. Some of the orchards were +very much injured, but the fruit trees had not been destroyed. The barns +were all burned; chimneys standing without houses, and houses standing +without roof, or door, or window." + +Much land was thrown on the market at low prices--three to five dollars +an acre for land worth fifty dollars. The poorer lands could not be sold +at all, and thousands of farms were deserted by their owners. Everywhere +recovery from this agricultural depression was slow. Five years after +the war Robert Somers, an English traveler, said of the Tennessee +Valley: + +"It consists for the most part of plantations in a state of semi-ruin +and plantations of which the ruin is for the present total and +complete.... The trail of war is visible throughout the valley in +burnt-up gin-houses, ruined bridges, mills, and factories... and in +large tracts of once cultivated land stripped of every vestige of +fencing. The roads, long neglected, are in disorder, and having in many +places become impassable, new tracks have been made through the woods +and fields without much respect to boundaries." + +Similar conditions existed wherever the armies had passed, and not +in the country districts alone. Many of the cities, such as Richmond, +Charleston, Columbia, Jackson, Atlanta, and Mobile had suffered from +fire or bombardment. + +There were few stocks of merchandise in the South when the war ended, +and Northern creditors had lost so heavily through the failure of +Southern merchants that they were cautious about extending credit again. +Long before 1865 all coin had been sent out in contraband trade through +the blockade. That there was a great need of supplies from the outside +world is shown by the following statement of General Boynton: + +"Window-glass has given way to thin boards, in railway coaches and in +the cities. Furniture is marred and broken, and none has been replaced +for four years. Dishes are cemented in various styles, and half the +pitchers have tin handles. A complete set of crockery is never seen, and +in very few families is there enough to set a table.... A set of forks +with whole tines is a curiosity. Clocks and watches have nearly all +stopped.... Hairbrushes and toothbrushes have all worn out; combs are +broken.... Pins, needles, and thread, and a thousand such articles, +which seem indispensable to housekeeping, are very scarce. Even in +weaving on the looms, corncobs have been substituted for spindles. +Few have pocketknives. In fact, everything that has heretofore been an +article of sale in the South is wanting now. At the tables of those +who were once esteemed luxurious providers you will find neither tea, +coffee, sugar, nor spices of any kind. Even candles, in some cases, have +been replaced by a cup of grease in which a piece of cloth is plunged +for a wick." + +This poverty was prolonged and rendered more acute by the lack of +transportation. Horses, mules, wagons, and carriages were scarce, the +country roads were nearly impassable, and bridges were in bad repair or +had been burned or washed away. Steamboats had almost disappeared from +the rivers. Those which had escaped capture as blockade runners had been +subsequently destroyed or were worn out.. Postal facilities, which had +been poor enough during the last year of the Confederacy, were entirely +lacking for several months after the surrender. + +The railways were in a state of physical dilapidation little removed +from destruction, save for those that had been captured and kept in +partial repair by the Federal troops. The rolling stock had been lost +by capture, by destruction to prevent capture, in wrecks, which were +frequent, or had been worn out. The railroad companies possessed large +sums in Confederate currency and in securities which were now valueless. +About two-thirds of all the lines were hopelessly bankrupt. Fortunately, +the United States War Department took over the control of the railway +lines and in some cases effected a temporary reorganization which could +not have been accomplished by the bankrupt companies. During the summer +and fall of 1865, "loyal" boards of directors were appointed for most +of the railroads, and the army withdrew its control. But repairs +and reconstruction were accomplished with difficulty because of the +demoralization of labor and the lack of funds or credit. Freight was +scarce and, had it not been for government shipments, some of the +railroads would have been abandoned. Not many people were able to +travel. It is recorded that on one trip from Montgomery to Mobile +and return, a distance of 360 miles, the railroad which is now the +Louisville and Nashville collected only thirteen dollars in fares. + +Had there been unrestricted commercial freedom in the South in 1865-66, +the distress of the people would have been somewhat lessened, for here +and there were to be found public and private stores of cotton, tobacco, +rice, and other farm products, all of which were bringing high prices +in the market. But for several months the operation of wartime laws +and regulations hindered the distribution of even these scanty stores. +Property upon which the Confederate Government had a claim was, of +course, subject to Confiscation, and private property offered for sale, +even that of Unionists, was subject to a 25 percent tax on sales, a +shipping tax, and a revenue tax. The revenue tax on cotton, ranging from +two to three cents a pound during the three years after the war, brought +in over $68,000,000. This tax, with other Federal revenues, yielded much +more than the entire expenses of reconstruction from 1865 to 1868 and +of all relief measures for the South, both public and private. After +May 1865, the 25 percent tax was imposed only upon the produce of slave +labor. None of the war taxes, except that on cotton, was levied upon the +crops of 1866, but while these taxes lasted, they seriously impeded the +resumption of trade. + +Even these restrictions, however, might have been borne if only they +had been honestly applied. Unfortunately, some of the most spectacular +frauds ever perpetrated were carried through in connection with the +attempt of the United States Treasury Department to collect and sell the +confiscable property in the South. The property to be sold consisted +of what had been captured and seized by the army and the navy, of +"abandoned" property, as such was called whose owner was absent in +the Confederate service, and of property subject to seizure under the +confiscation acts of Congress. No captures were made after the general +surrender, and no further seizures of "abandoned" property were made +after Johnson's amnesty proclamation of May 29, 1865. This left only the +"confiscable" property to be collected and sold. + +For collection purposes the states of the South were divided into +districts, each under the supervision of an agent of the Treasury +Department, who received a commission of about 25 percent. Cotton, +regarded as the root of the slavery evil, was singled out as the +principal object of confiscation. It was known that the Confederate +Government had owned in 1865 about 150,000 bales, but the records were +defective and much of it, with no clear indication of ownership, still +remained with the producers. Secretary Chase, foreseeing the difficulty +of effecting a just settlement, counseled against seizure, but his +judgment was overruled. Secretary McCulloch said of his agents: "I am +sure I sent some honest cotton agents South; but it sometimes seems +doubtful whether any of them remained honest very long." Some of +the natives, even, became cotton thieves. In a report made in 1866, +McCulloch describes their methods: "Contractors, anxious for gain, +were sometimes guilty of bad faith and peculation, and frequently took +possession of cotton and delivered it under contracts as captured or +abandoned, when in fact it was not such, and they had no right to touch +it.... Residents and others in the districts where these peculations +were going on took advantage of the unsettled condition of the country, +and representing themselves as agents of this department, went +about robbing under such pretended authority, and thus added to the +difficulties of the situation by causing unjust opprobrium and suspicion +to rest upon officers engaged in the faithful discharge of their duties. +Agents,... frequently received or collected property, and sent it +forward which the law did not authorize them to take.... Lawless men, +singly and in organized bands, engaged in general plunder; every species +of intrigue and peculation and theft were resorted to." + +These agents turned over to the United States about $34,000,000. About +40,000 claimants were subsequently indemnified on the ground that the +property taken from them did not belong to the Confederate Government, +but many thousands of other claimants have been unable to prove that +their property was seized by government agents and hence have received +nothing. It is probable that the actual Confederate property was nearly +all stolen by the agents. One agent in Alabama sold an appointment as +assistant for $25,000, and a few months later both the assistant and the +agent were tried by a military court for stealing and were fined $90,000 +and $250,000 respectively in addition to being imprisoned. + +Other property, including horses, mules, wagons, tobacco, rice, and +sugar which the natives claimed as their own, was seized. In some places +the agents even collected delinquent Confederate taxes. Much of the +confiscable property was not sold but was turned over to the +Freedmen's Bureau* for its support. The total amount seized cannot be +satisfactorily ascertained. The Ku Klux minority report asserted +that 3,000,000 bales of cotton were taken, of which the United States +received only 114,000. It is certain that, owing to the deliberate +destruction of cotton by fire in 1864-65, this estimate was too +high, but all the testimony points to the fact that the frauds were +stupendous. As a result the United States Government did not succeed +in obtaining the Confederate property to which it had a claim, and the +country itself was stripped of necessities to a degree that left it +not only destitute but outraged and embittered. "Such practices," said +Trowbridge, "had a pernicious effect, engendering a contempt for the +Government and a murderous ill will which too commonly vented itself +upon soldiers and Negroes." + + * See pp. 89 et seq. + +The South faced the work of reconstruction not only with a shortage of +material and greatly hampered in the employment even of that but still +more with a shortage of men. The losses among the whites are usually +estimated at about half the military population, but since accurate +records are lacking, the exact numbers cannot be ascertained. The best +of the civil leaders, as well as the prominent military leaders, had so +committed themselves to the support of the Confederacy as to be excluded +from participation in any reconstruction that might be attempted. +The business of reconstruction, therefore, fell of necessity to the +Confederate private soldiers, the lower officers, nonparticipants, and +lukewarm individuals who had not greatly compromised themselves. These +politically and physically uninjured survivors included also all the +"slackers" of the Confederacy. But though there were such physical and +moral losses on the part of those to whom fell the direction of affairs, +there was also a moral strengthening in the sound element of the people +who had been tried by the discipline of war. + +The greatest weakness of both races was their extreme poverty. The crops +of 1865 turned out badly, for most of the soldiers reached home too late +for successful planting, and the Negro labor was not dependable. The +sale of such cotton and farm products as had escaped the treasury agents +was of some help, but curiously enough much of the good money thus +obtained was spent extravagantly by a people used to Confederate rag +money and for four years deprived of the luxuries of life. The poorer +whites who had lost all were close to starvation. In the white counties +which had sent so large a proportion of men to the army, the destitution +was most acute. In many families the breadwinner had been killed in +war. After 1862, relief systems had been organized in nearly all the +Confederate States for the purpose of aiding the poor whites, but these +organizations were disbanded in 1865. A Freedmen's Bureau official +traveling through the desolate back country furnishes a description +which might have applied to two hundred counties, a third of the South: +"It is a common, an every-day sight in Randolph County, that of women +and children, most of whom were formerly in good circumstances, begging +for bread from door to door. Meat of any kind has been a stranger to +many of their mouths for months. The drought cut off what little crops +they hoped to save, and they must have immediate help or perish. By far +the greater suffering exists among the whites. Their scanty supplies +have been exhausted, and now they look to the Government alone for +support. Some are without homes of any description." + +Where the armies had passed, few of the people, white or black, +remained; most of them had been forced as "refugees" within the Union +lines or into the interior of the Confederacy. Now, along with the +disbanded Confederate soldiers, they came straggling back to their +war-swept homes. It was estimated, in December 1865, that in the states +of Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia, there were five hundred thousand +white people who were without the necessaries of life; numbers died from +lack of food. Within a few months, relief agencies were at work. In +the North, especially in the border states and in New York, charitable +organizations collected and forwarded great quantities of supplies to +the Negroes and to the whites in the hill and mountain counties. The +reorganized state and local governments sent food from the unravaged +portions of the Black Belt to the nearest white counties, and the +army commanders gave some aid. As soon as the Freedmen's Bureau was +organized, it fed to the limit of its supplies the needy whites as well +as the blacks. + +The extent of the relief afforded by the charity of the North and by +the agencies of the United States Government is not now generally +remembered, probably on account of the later objectionable activities +of the Freedmen's Bureau, but it was at the time properly appreciated. +A Southern journalist, writing of what he saw in Georgia, remarked that +"it must be a matter of gratitude as well as surprise for our people to +see a Government which was lately fighting us with fire and sword and +shell, now generously feeding our poor and distressed. In the immense +crowds which throng the distributing house, I notice the mothers and +fathers, widows and orphans of our soldiers. ... Again, the Confederate +soldier, with one leg or one arm, the crippled, maimed, and broken, and +the worn and destitute men, who fought bravely their enemies then, their +benefactors now, have their sacks filled and are fed." + +Acute distress continued until 1867; after that year there was no +further danger of starvation. Some of the poor whites, especially in the +remote districts, never again reached a comfortable standard of living; +some were demoralized by too much assistance; others were discouraged +and left the South for the West or the North. But the mass of the people +accepted the discipline of poverty and made the best of their situation. + +The difficulties, however, that beset even the courageous and the +competent were enormous. The general paralysis of industry, the breaking +up of society, and poverty on all sides bore especially hard on those +who had not previously been manual laborers. Physicians could get +practice enough but no fees; lawyers who had supported the Confederacy +found it difficult to get back into the reorganized courts because of +the test oaths and the competition of "loyal" attorneys; and for +the teachers there were few schools. We read of officers high in the +Confederate service selling to Federal soldiers the pies and cakes +cooked by their wives, of others selling fish and oysters which they +themselves had caught, and of men and women hitching themselves to plows +when they had no horse or mule. + +Such incidents must, from their nature, have been infrequent, but they +show to what straits some at least were reduced. Six years after the +war, James S. Pike, then in South Carolina, mentions cases which might +be duplicated in nearly every old Southern community: "In the vicinity," +he says, "lived a gentleman whose income when the war broke out was +rated at $150,000 a year. Not a vestige of his whole vast estate remains +today. Not far distant were the estates of a large proprietor and a +well-known family, rich and distinguished for generations. The slaves +were gone. The family is gone. A single scion of the house remains, and +he peddles tea by the pound and molasses by the quart, on a corner of +the old homestead, to the former slaves of the family and thereby earns +his livelihood." + +General Lee's good example influenced many. Commercial enterprises were +willing to pay for the use of his name and reputation, but he wished +to farm and could get no opportunity. "They are offering my father +everything," his daughter said, "except the only thing he will accept, +a place to earn honest bread while engaged in some useful work." This +remark led to an offer of the presidency of Washington College, now +Washington and Lee University, which he accepted. "I have a self-imposed +task which I must accomplish," he said, "I have led the young men of +the South in battle; I have seen many of them fall under my standard. +I shall devote my life now to training young men to do their duty in +life." + +The condition of honest folk was still further troubled by a general +spirit of lawlessness in many regions. Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, +and Louisiana recognized the "Union" state government, but the coming of +peace brought legal anarchy to the other states of the Confederacy. The +Confederate state and local governments were abolished as the armies of +occupation spread over the South, and for a period of four or six months +there was no government except that exercised by the commanders of the +military garrisons left behind when the armies marched away. Even before +the surrender, the local governments were unable to make their authority +respected, and soon after the war ended, parts of the country became +infested with outlaws, pretend treasury agents, horse thieves, cattle +thieves, and deserters. Away from the military posts only lynch law +could cope with these elements of disorder. + +With the aid of the army in the more settled regions, and by extra-legal +means elsewhere, the outlaws, thieves, cotton burners, and house burners +were brought somewhat under control even before the state governments +were reorganized, though the embers of lawlessness continued to smolder. + +The relations between the Federal soldiers stationed in the principal +towns and the native white population were not, on the whole, so bad as +might have been expected. If the commanding officer were well disposed, +there was little danger of friction, though sometimes his troops got out +of hand. The regulars had a better reputation than the volunteers. +The Confederate soldiers were surfeited with fighting, but the +"stay-at-home" element was often a cause of trouble. The problem +of social relations between the conquerors and the conquered was +troublesome. The men might get along well together, but the women would +have nothing do with the "Yankees," and ill feeling arose because of +their antipathy. Carl Schurz reported that "the soldier of the Union is +looked upon as a stranger, an intruder, as the 'Yankee,' the 'enemy.'... +The existence and intensity of this aversion is too well known to those +who have served or are serving in the South to require proof." + +In retaliation the soldiers developed ingenious ways of annoying the +whites. Women, forced for any reason to go to headquarters, were made to +take the oath of allegiance or the "ironclad" oath before their requests +were granted; flags were fastened over doors, gates, or sidewalks +in order to irritate the recalcitrant dames and their daughters. +Confederate songs and color combinations were forbidden. In Richmond, +General Halleck ordered that no marriages be performed unless the bride, +the groom, and the officiating clergyman took the oath of allegiance. +He explained this as a measure taken to prevent "the propagation of +legitimate rebels." + +The wearing of Confederate uniforms was forbidden by military order, but +by May 1865, few soldiers possessed regulation uniforms. In Tennessee +the State also imposed fines upon *wear wearers of the uniform. In +the vicinity of military posts, buttons and marks of rank were usually +ordered removed and the gray clothes dyed with some other color. General +Lee, for example, had the buttons on his coat covered with cloth. But +frequently the Federal commander, after issuing the orders, paid no more +attention to the matter and such conflicts as arose on account of the +uniform were usually caused by officious enlisted men and the Negro +troops. Whitelaw Reid relates the following incident: + +"Nothing was more touching, in all that I saw in Savannah, than the +almost painful effort of the rebels, from generals down to privates, +to conduct themselves so as to evince respect for our soldiers, and to +bring no severer punishment upon the city than it had already received. +There was a brutal scene at the hotel, where a drunken sergeant, with +a pair of tailor's shears, insisted on cutting the buttons from the +uniform of an elegant gray-headed old brigadier, who had just come in +from Johnston's army; but he bore himself modestly and very handsomely +through it. His staff was composed of fine-looking, stalwart fellows, +evidently gentlemen, who appeared intensely mortified at such treatment. +They had no clothes except their rebel uniforms, and had, as yet, had no +time to procure others, but they avoided disturbances and submitted to +what they might, with some propriety, and with the general approval of +our officers, have resented." + +The Negro troops, even at their best, were everywhere considered +offensive by the native whites. General Grant, indeed, urged that only +white troops be used to garrison the interior. But the Negro soldier, +impudent by reason of his new freedom, his new uniform, and his new gun, +was more than Southern temper could tranquilly bear, and race conflicts +were frequent. A New Orleans newspaper thus states the Southern point +of view: "Our citizens who had been accustomed to meet and treat the +Negroes only as respectful servants, were mortified, pained, and shocked +to encounter them... wearing Federal uniforms and bearing bright muskets +and gleaming bayonets.... They are jostled from the sidewalks by dusky +guards, marching four abreast. They were halted, in rude and sullen +tones, by Negro sentinels." + +The task of the Federal forces was not easy. The garrisons were not +large enough nor numerous enough to keep order in the absence of civil +government. The commanders in the South asked in vain for cavalry +to police the rural districts. Much of the disorder, violence, and +incendiarism attributed at the time to lawless soldiers appeared later +to be due to discharged soldiers and others pretending to be soldiers in +order to carry out schemes of robbery. The whites complained vigorously +of the garrisons, and petitions were sent to Washington from mass +meetings and from state legislatures asking for their removal. The +higher commanders, however, bore themselves well, and in a few fortunate +cases Southern whites were on most amicable terms with the garrison +commanders. The correspondence of responsible military officers in the +South shows how earnestly and considerately each, as a rule, tried +to work out his task. The good sense of most of the Federal officers +appeared when, after the murder of Lincoln, even General Grant for +a brief space lost his head and ordered the arrest of paroled +Confederates. + + +The church organizations were as much involved in the war and in the +reconstruction as were secular institutions. Before the war every +religious organization having members North and South, except the +Catholic Church and the Jews, had separated into independent Northern +and Southern bodies. In each section church feeling ran high, and when +the war came, the churches supported the armies. As the Federal armies +occupied Southern territory, the church buildings of each denomination +were turned over to the corresponding Northern body, and Southern +ministers were permitted to remain only upon agreeing to conduct "loyal +services, pray for the President of the United States and for Federal +victories" and to foster "loyal sentiment." The Protestant Episcopal +churches in Alabama were closed from September to December 1865, and +some congregations were dispersed by the soldiers because Bishop Wilmer +had directed his clergy to omit the prayer for President Davis but had +substituted no other. The ministers of non-liturgical churches were not +so easily controlled. A Georgia Methodist preacher directed by a Federal +officer to pray for the President said afterwards: "I prayed for the +President that the Lord would take out of him and his allies the hearts +of beasts and put into them the hearts of men or remove the cusses from +office." Sometimes members of a congregation showed their resentment +at the "loyal" prayers by leaving the church. But in spite of many +irritations, both sides frequently managed to get some amusement out +of the "loyal" services. The church situation was, however, a serious +matter during and after the reconstruction, and some of its later phases +will have to be discussed elsewhere. + +The Unionist, or "Tory," of the lower and eastern South found himself, +in 1865, a man without a country. Few in number in any community, they +found themselves, upon their return from a harsh exile, the victims +of ostracism or open hostility. One of them, William H. Smith, later +Governor of Alabama, testified that the Southern people "manifest the +most perfect contempt for a man who is known to be an unequivocal Union +man; they call him a 'galvanized Yankee' and apply other terms and +epithets to him." General George H. Thomas, speaking of a region more +divided in sentiment than Alabama, remarked that "Middle Tennessee +is disturbed by animosities and hatreds, much more than it is by the +disloyalty of persons towards the Government of the United States. +Those personal animosities would break out and overawe the civil +authorities, but for the presence there of the troops of the United +States.... They are more unfriendly to Union men, natives of the State +of Tennessee, or of the South, who have been in the Union army, than +they are to men of Northern birth." + +In the border states, society was sharply divided, and feeling was +bitter. In eastern Tennessee, eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, and parts +of Arkansas and Missouri, returning Confederates met harsher treatment +than did the Unionists in the lower South. Trowbridge says of east +Tennessee: "Returning rebels were robbed; and if one had stolen unawares +to his home, it was not safe for him to remain there. I saw in Virginia +one of these exiles, who told me how homesickly he pined for the hills +and meadows of east Tennessee, which he thought the most delightful +region in the world. But, there was a rope hanging from a tree for him +there, and he dared not go back. 'The bottom rails are on top,' said +he, 'that is the trouble.' The Union element, and the worst part of the +Union element, was uppermost." Confederates and Confederate sympathizers +in Maryland, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, were disfranchised. +In West Virginia, Tennessee, and Missouri, "war trespass" suits were +brought against returning Confederates for military acts done in +war time. In Missouri and West Virginia, strict test oaths excluded +Confederates from office, from the polls, and from the professions of +teaching, preaching, and law. On the other hand in central and western +Kentucky, the predominant Unionist population, themselves suffering +through the abolition of slavery, and by the objectionable operations +of the Freedmen's Bureau and the unwise military administration, +showed more sympathy for the Confederates, welcomed them home, and soon +relieved them of all restrictions. + +Still another element of discord was added by the Northerners who came +to exploit the South. Many mustered-out soldiers proposed to stay. +Speculators of all kinds followed the withdrawing Confederate lines and +with the conclusion of peace spread through the country, but they +were not cordially received. With the better class, the Southerners, +especially the soldiers, associated freely if seldom intimately. But the +conduct of a few of their number who considered that the war had opened +all doors to them, who very freely expressed their views, gave advice, +condemned old customs, and were generally offensive, did much to bring +all Northerners into disrepute. Tactlessly critical letters published in +Northern papers did not add to their popularity. The few Northern women +felt the ostracism more keenly than did the men. Benjamin C. Truman, an +agent of President Johnson, thus summed up the situation: "There is a +prevalent disposition not to associate too freely with Northern men +or to receive them into the circles of society; but it is far from +unsurmountable. Over Southern society, as over every other, woman reigns +supreme, and they are more embittered against those whom they deem +the authors of all their calamities than are their brothers, sons, +and husbands." But, of the thousands of Northern men who overcame the +reluctance of the Southerners to social intercourse, little was heard. +Many a Southern planter secured a Northern partner or sold him half his +plantation to get money to run the other half. For the irritations of +1865, each party must take its share of responsibility. + +Had the South assisted in a skillful and adequate publicity, much +disastrous misunderstanding might have been avoided. The North knew as +little of the South as the South did of the North, but the North was +eager for news. Able newspaper correspondents like Sidney Andrews of +the Boston Advertiser and the Chicago Tribune, who opposed President +Johnson's policies, Thomas W. Knox of the New York Herald, who had given +General Sherman so much trouble in Tennessee, Whitelaw Reid, who wrote +for several papers and tried cotton planting in Louisiana, and John +T. Trowbridge, New England author and journalist, were dispatched +southwards. Chief of the President's investigators was General Carl +Schurz, German revolutionist, Federal soldier, and soon to be radical +Republican, who held harsh views of the Southern people; and there were +besides Harvey M. Watterson, Kentucky Democrat and Unionist, the +father of "Marse" Henry; Benjamin C. Truman, New England journalist and +soldier, whose long report was perhaps the best of all; Chief Justice +Chase, who was thinking mainly of "How soon can the Negro vote?"; and +General Grant, who made a report so brief that, notwithstanding its +value, it attracted little attention. In addition a constant stream of +information and misinformation was going northward from treasury agents, +officers of the army, the Freedmen's Bureau, teachers, and missionaries. +Among foreigners who described the conquered land were Robert Somers, +Henry Latham, and William Hepworth Dixon. But few in the South realized +the importance of supplying the North with correct information about +actual conditions. The letters and reports, they thought, humiliated +them; inquiry was felt to be prying and gloating. "Correspondents have +added a new pang to surrender," it was said. The South was proud and +refused to be catechized. From the Northern point of view, the South, +a new and strange region with strange customs and principles, was of +course, not to be considered as quite normal and American, but there +was on the part of many correspondents a determined attempt to describe +things as they were. And yet the North persisted in its unsympathetic +queries when it seemed to have a sufficient answer in the reports of +Grant, Schurz, and Truman. + +Grant's opinion was short and direct: "I am satisfied that the mass of +thinking men of the South accept the present situation of affairs in +good faith.... The citizens of the Southern States are anxious to return +to self-government within the Union as soon as possible." Truman came to +the conclusion that "the rank and file of the disbanded Southern army... +are the backbone and sinew of the South.... To the disbanded regiments +of the rebel army, both officers and men, I look with great confidence +as the best and altogether the most hopeful element of the South, the +real basis of reconstruction and the material of worthy citizenship." +General John Tarbell, before the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, +testified that "there are, no doubt, disloyal and disorderly persons in +the South, but it is an entire mistake to apply these terms to a whole +people. I would as soon travel alone, unarmed, through the South as +through the North. The South I left is not at all the South I hear and +read about in the North. From the sentiment I hear in the North, I would +scarcely recognize the people I saw, and, except their politics, I liked +so well. I have entire faith that the better classes are friendly to the +Negroes." + +Carl Schurz on the other hand was not so favorably impressed. "The +loyalty of the masses and most of the leaders of the southern people," +he said, "consists in submission to necessity. There is, except in +individual instances, an entire absence of that national spirit which +forms the basis of true loyalty and patriotism." Another government +official in Florida was quite doubtful of the Southern whites. "I would +pin them down at the point of the bayonet," he declared, "so close that +they would not have room to wiggle, and allow intelligent colored people +to go up and vote in preference to them. The only Union element in the +South proper... is among the colored people. The whites will treat you +very kindly to your face, but they are deceitful. I have often thought, +and so expressed myself, that there is so much deception among the +people of the South since the rebellion, that if an earthquake should +open and swallow them up, I was fearful that the devil would be +dethroned and some of them take his place." + +The point of view of the Confederate military leaders was exhibited by +General Wade Hampton in a letter to President Johnson and by General Lee +in his advice to Governor Letcher of Virginia. General Hampton wrote: +"The South unequivocally 'accepts the situation' in which she is placed. +Everything that she has done has been done in perfect faith, and in the +true and highest sense of the word, she is loyal. By this I mean that +she intends to abide by the laws of the land honestly, to fulfill all +her obligations faithfully and to keep her word sacredly, and I assert +that the North has no right to demand more of her. You have no right +to ask, or expect that she will at once profess unbounded love to that +Union from which for four years she tried to escape at the cost of +her best blood and all her treasures." General Lee in order to set an +example applied through General Grant for a pardon under the amnesty +proclamation and soon afterwards he wrote to Governor Letcher: "All +should unite in honest efforts to obliterate the effects of war, and to +restore the blessings of peace. They should remain, if possible, in the +country; promote harmony and good-feeling; qualify themselves to vote; +and elect to the State and general legislatures wise and patriotic men, +who will devote their abilities to the interests of the country and the +healing of all dissensions; I have invariably recommended this course +since the cessation of hostilities, and have endeavored to practice it +myself." + +Southerners of the Confederacy everywhere, then, accepted the +destruction of slavery and the renunciation of state sovereignty; they +welcomed an early restoration of the Union, without any punishment of +leaders of the defeated cause. But they were proud of their Confederate +records though now legally "loyal" to the United States; they considered +the Negro as free but inferior, and expected to be permitted to fix his +status in the social organization and to solve the problem of free labor +in their own way. To embarrass the easy and permanent realization of +these views there was a society disrupted, economically prostrate, +deprived of its natural leaders, subjected to a control not always +wisely conceived nor effectively exercised, and, finally, containing +within its own population unassimilated elements which presented +problems fraught with difficulty and danger. + + + +CHAPTER II. WHEN FREEDOM CRIED OUT + +The Negro is the central figure in the reconstruction of the South. +Without the Negro there would have been no Civil War. Granting a war +fought for any other cause, the task of reconstruction would, without +him, have been comparatively simple. With him, however, reconstruction +meant more than the restoring of shattered resources; it meant the more +or less successful attempt to obtain and secure for the freedman civil +and political rights, and to improve his economic and social status. +In 1861, the American Negro was everywhere an inferior, and most of his +race were slaves; in 1865, he was no longer a slave, but whether he was +to be serf, ward, or citizen was an unsettled problem; in 1868, he was +in the South the legal and political equal, frequently the superior, of +the white; and before the end of the reconstruction period he was made +by the legislation of some states and by Congress the legal equal of the +white even in certain social matters. + +The race problem which confronted the American people had no parallel +in the past. British and Spanish-American emancipation of slaves had +affected only small numbers or small regions, in which one race greatly +outnumbered the other. The results of these earlier emancipations of the +Negroes and the difficulties of European states in dealing with subject +white populations were not such as to afford helpful example to American +statesmen. But since it was the actual situation in the Southern States +rather than the experience of other countries which shaped the policies +adopted during reconstruction, it is important to examine with some care +the conditions in which the Negroes in the South found themselves at the +close of the war. + +The Negroes were not all helpless and without experience "when freedom +cried out."* In the Border States and in the North there were, in 1861, +half a million free Negroes accustomed to looking out for themselves. +Nearly 200,000 Negro men were enlisted in the United States army between +1862 and 1865, and many thousands of slaves had followed raiding Federal +forces to freedom or had escaped through the Confederate lines. State +emancipation in Missouri, Maryland, West Virginia, and Tennessee, and +the practical application of the Emancipation Proclamation where the +Union armies were in control ended slavery for many thousands more. +Wherever the armies marched, slavery ended. This was true even in +Kentucky, where the institution was not legally abolished until the +adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment. Altogether more than a million +Negroes were free and to some extent habituated to freedom before May +1865. + + * A Negro phrase much used in referring to emancipation. + + +Most of these war-emancipated Negroes were scattered along the borders +of the Confederacy, in camps, in colonies, in the towns, on refugee +farms, at work with the armies, or serving as soldiers in the ranks. +There were large working colonies along the Atlantic coast from Maryland +to Florida. The chief centers were near Norfolk, where General Butler +was the first to establish a "contraband" camp, in North Carolina, and +on the Sea Islands of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, which had +been seized by the Federal fleet early in the war. To the Sea Islands +also were sent, in 1865, the hordes of Negroes who had followed General +Sherman out of Georgia and South Carolina. Through the border states +from the Atlantic to the Mississippi and along both sides of the +Mississippi from Cairo, Illinois, to New Orleans, there were other +refugee camps, farms, and colonies. For periods varying from one to four +years these free Negroes had been at work, often amid conditions highly +unfavorable to health, under the supervision of officers of the Treasury +Department or of the army. + +Emancipation was therefore a gradual process, and most of the Negroes, +through their widening experience on the plantations, with the armies, +and in the colonies, were better fitted for freedom in 1865 than they +had been in 1861. Even their years of bondage had done something +for them, for they knew how to work and they had adopted in part the +language, habits, religion, and morals of the whites. But slavery had +not made them thrifty, self-reliant, or educated. Frederick Douglass +said of the Negro at the end of his servitude: "He had none of the +conditions of self-preservation or self-protection. He was free from the +individual master, but he had nothing but the dusty road under his feet. +He was free from the old quarter that once gave him shelter, but a slave +to the rains of summer and to the frosts of winter. He was turned loose, +naked, hungry, and destitute to the open sky." To prove that he was free +the Negro thought he must leave his old master, change his name, quit +work for a time, perhaps get a new wife, and hang around the Federal +soldiers in camp or garrison, or go to the towns where the Freedmen's +Bureau was in process of organization. To the Negroes who remained at +home--and, curiously enough, for a time at least many did so--the news +of freedom was made known somewhat ceremonially by the master or his +representative. The Negroes were summoned to the "big house," told that +they were free, and advised to stay on for a share of the crop. The +description by Mrs. Clayton, the wife of a Southern general, will +serve for many: "My husband said, 'I think it best for me to inform our +Negroes of their freedom.' So he ordered all the grown slaves to come to +him, and told them they no longer belonged to him as property, but were +all free. 'You are not bound to remain with me any longer, and I have a +proposition to make to you. If any of you desire to leave, I propose to +furnish you with a conveyance to move you, and with provisions for the +balance of the year.' The universal answer was, 'Master, we want to stay +right here with you.' In many instances the slaves were so infatuated +with the idea of being, as they said, 'free as birds' that they left +their homes and consequently suffered; but our slaves were not so +foolish."* + + * "Black and White under the Old Regime", p. 158, + + +The Negroes, however, had learned of their freedom before their old +masters returned from the war; they were aware that the issues of the +war involved in some way the question of their freedom or servitude, +and through the "grapevine telegraph," the news brought by the invading +soldiers, and the talk among the whites, they had long been kept fairly +well informed. What the idea of freedom meant to the Negroes it is +difficult to say. Some thought that there would be no more work and that +all would be cared for by the Government; others believed that education +and opportunity were about to make them the equal of their masters. The +majority of them were too bewildered to appreciate anything except the +fact that they were free from enforced labor. + +Conditions were most disturbed in the so-called "Black Belt," consisting +of about two hundred counties in the most fertile parts of the South, +where the plantation system was best developed and where by far the +majority of the Negroes were segregated. The Negroes in the four hundred +more remote and less fertile "white" counties, which had been less +disturbed by armies, were not so upset by freedom as those of the +Black Belt, for the garrisons and the larger towns, both centers of +demoralization, were in or near the Black Belt. But there was a moving +to and fro on the part of those who had escaped from the South or had +been captured during the war or carried into the interior of the South +to prevent capture. To those who left slavery and home to find freedom +were added those who had found freedom and were now trying to get +back home or to get away from the Negro camps and colonies which +were breaking up. A stream of immigration which began to flow to +the southwest affected Negroes as far as the Atlantic coast. In the +confusion of moving, families were broken up, and children, wife, or +husband were often lost to one another. The very old people and the +young children were often left behind for the former master to care for. +Regiments of Negro soldiers were mustered out in every large town and +their numbers were added to the disorderly mass. Some of the Federal +garrisons and Bureau stations were almost overwhelmed by the numbers of +blacks who settled down upon them waiting for freedom to bestow its full +measure of blessing, and many of the Negroes continued to remain in a +demoralized condition until the new year. + +The first year of freedom was indeed a year of disease, suffering, +and death. Several partial censuses indicate that in 1865-66 the Negro +population lost as many by disease as the whites had lost in war. +Ill-fed, crowded in cabins near the garrisons or entirely without +shelter, and unaccustomed to caring for their own health, the blacks who +were searching for freedom fell an easy prey to ordinary diseases and to +epidemics. Poor health conditions prevailed for several years longer. In +1870, Robert Somers remarked that "the health of the whites has greatly +improved since the war, while the health of the Negroes has declined +till the mortality of the colored population, greater than the mortality +of the whites was before the war, has now become so markedly greater, +that nearly two colored die for every white person out of equal numbers +of each." + +Morals and manners also suffered under the new dispensation. In the +crowded and disease-stricken towns and camps, the conditions under which +the roving Negroes lived were no better for morals than for health, +for here there were none of the restraints to which the blacks had +been accustomed and which they now despised as being a part of their +servitude. But in spite of all the relief that could be given there was +much want. In fact, to restore former conditions the relief agencies +frequently cut off supplies in order to force the Negroes back to work +and to prevent others from leaving the country for the towns. But +the hungry freedmen turned to the nearest food supply, and "spilin de +gypshuns" (despoiling the Egyptians, as the Negroes called stealing from +the whites) became an approved means of support. Thefts of hogs, cattle, +poultry, field crops, and vegetables drove almost to desperation those +whites who lived in the vicinity of the Negro camps. When the ex-slave +felt obliged to go to town, he was likely to take with him a team and +wagon and his master's clothes if he could get them. + +The former good manners of the Negro were now replaced by impudence and +distrust. There were advisers among the Negro troops and other agitators +who assured them that politeness to whites was a mark of servitude. +Pushing and crowding in public places, on street cars and on the +sidewalks, and impudent speeches everywhere marked generally the limit +of rudeness. And the Negroes were, in this respect, perhaps no worse +than those European immigrants who act upon the principle that bad +manners are a proof of independence. + +The year following emancipation was one of religious excitement for +large numbers of the blacks. Before 1865, the Negro church members were +attached to white congregations or were organized into missions, with +nearly always a white minister in charge and a black assistant. With the +coming of freedom the races very soon separated in religious matters. +For this there were two principal reasons: the Negro preachers could +exercise more influence in independent churches; and new church +organizations from the North were seeking Negro membership. Sometimes +Negro members were urged to insist on the right "to sit together" with +the whites. In a Richmond church a Negro from the street pushed his way +to the communion altar and knelt. There was a noticeable pause; then +General Robert E. Lee went forward and knelt beside the Negro; and the +congregation followed his example. But this was a solitary instance. +When the race issue was raised by either color, the church membership +usually divided. There was much churchgoing by the Negroes, day and +night, and church festivities and baptisms were common. The blacks +preferred immersion and, wanted a new baptism each time they changed +to a new church. Baptizings in ponds, creeks, or rivers were great +occasions and were largely attended. "Shouting" the candidates went into +the water and "shouting" they came out. One old woman came up screaming, +"Freed from slavery! freed from sin! Bless God and General Grant!" + +In the effort to realize their new-found freedom, the Negroes were +heavily handicapped by their extreme poverty and their ignorance. The +total value of free Negro property ran up into the millions in 1860, +but the majority of the Negroes had nothing. There were a few educated +Negroes in the South, and more in the North and in Canada, but the mass +of the race was too densely ignorant to furnish its own leadership. The +case, however, was not hopeless; the Negro was able to work and in large +territories had little competition; wages were high, even though paid +in shares of the crop; the cost of living was low; and land was cheap. +Thousands seemed thirsty for an education and crowded the schools which +were available. It was too much, however, to expect the Negro to take +immediate advantage of his opportunities. What he wanted was a long +holiday, a gun and a dog, and plenty of hunting and fishing. He must +have Saturday at least for a trip to town or to a picnic or a circus; he +did not wish to be a servant. When he had any money, swindlers reaped +a harvest. They sold him worthless finery, cheap guns, preparations to +bleach the skin or straighten the hair, and striped pegs which, when set +up on the master's plantation, would entitle the purchaser to "40 acres +and a mule." + +The attitude of the Negroes' employers not infrequently complicated the +situation which they sought to better. The old masters were, as a rule, +skeptical of the value of free Negro labor. Carl Schurz thought this +attitude boded ill for the future: "A belief, conviction, or prejudice, +or whatever you may call it," he said, "so widely spread and apparently +deeply rooted as this, that the Negro will not work without physical +compulsion, is certainly calculated to have a very serious influence +upon the conduct of the people entertaining it. It naturally produced a +desire to preserve slavery in its original form as much and as long as +possible... or to introduce into the new system that element of physical +compulsion which would make the Negro work." The Negro wished to be free +to leave his job when he pleased, but, as Benjamin C. Truman stated in +his report to President Johnson, a "result of the settled belief in the +Negro's inferiority, and in the necessity that he should not be left to +himself without a guardian, is that in some sections he is discouraged +from leaving his old master. I have known of planters who considered it +an offence against neighborhood courtesy for another to hire their old +hands, and in two instances that were reported the disputants came to +blows over the breach of etiquette." The new Freedmen's Bureau insisted +upon written contracts, except for day laborers, and this undoubtedly +kept many Negroes from working regularly, for they were suspicious of +contracts. Besides, the agitators and the Negro troops led them to +hope for an eventual distribution of property. An Alabama planter thus +described the situation in December 1865: + +"They will not work for anything but wages, and few are able to pay +wages. They are penniless but resolute in their demands. They expect to +see all the land divided out equally between them and their old masters +in time to make the next crop. One of the most intelligent black men I +know told me that in a neighboring village, where several hundred +blacks were congregated, he does not think that as many as three made +contracts, although planters are urgent in their solicitations and +offering highest prices for labor they can possibly afford to pay. The +same man informed me that the impression widely prevails that Congress +is about to divide out the lands, and that this impression is given +out by Federal soldiers at the nearest military station. It cannot be +disguised that in spite of the most earnest efforts of their old master +to conciliate and satisfy them, the estrangement between races increases +in its extent and bitterness. Nearly all the Negro men are armed with +repeaters, and many of them carry them openly, day and night." + +The relations between the races were better, however, than conditions +seemed to indicate. The whites of the Black Belt were better disposed +toward the Negroes than were those of the white districts. It was in the +towns and villages that most of the race conflicts occurred. All +whites agreed that the Negro was inferior, but there were many who were +grateful for his conduct during the war and who wished him well. But +others, the policemen of the towns, the "loyalists," those who had +little but pride of race and the vote to distinguish them from the +blacks, felt no good will toward the ex-slaves. It was Truman's opinion +"not only that the planters are far better friends to the Negroes than +the poor whites, but also better than a majority of the Northern men +who go South to rent plantations." John T. Trowbridge, the novelist, who +recorded his impressions of the South after a visit in 1865, was of the +opinion that the Unionists "do not like niggers." "For there is," +he said, "more prejudice against color among the middle and poorer +classes--the Union men of the South who owned few or no slaves--than +among the planters who owned them by scores and hundreds." The reports +of the Freedmen's Bureau are to the same effect. A Bureau agent in +Tennessee testified: "An old citizen, a Union man, said to me, said +he, 'I tell you what, if you take away the military from Tennessee, the +buzzards can't eat up the niggers as fast as we'll kill them.'" + +The lawlessness of the Negroes in parts of the Black Belt and the +disturbing influences of the black troops, of some officials of the +Bureau, and of some of the missionary teachers and preachers, caused the +whites to fear insurrections and to take measures for protection. Secret +semi-military organizations were formed which later developed into the +Ku Klux orders. When, however, New Year's Day 1866 passed without the +hoped-for distribution of Property, the Negroes began to settle down. + +At the beginning of the period of reconstruction, it seemed possible +that the Negro race might speedily fall into distinct economic groups, +for there were some who had property and many others who had the ability +and the opportunity to acquire it; but the later drawing of race lines +and the political disturbances of reconstruction checked this tendency. +It was expected also that the Northern planters who came South in large +numbers in 1865-66 might, by controlling the Negro labor and by the +use of more efficient methods, aid in the economic upbuilding of the +country. But they were ignorant of agricultural matters and incapable of +wisely controlling the blacks; and they failed because at one time they +placed too much trust in the Negroes and at another treated them too +harshly and expected too much of them. + +The question of Negro suffrage was not a live issue in the South until +the middle of 1866. There was almost no talk about it among the Negroes; +they did not know what it was. President Lincoln in 1864 and President +Johnson in 1865 had merely mentioned the subject, though Chief Justice +Chase and prominent radical members of Congress, as well as numerous +abolitionists, had framed a Negro suffrage platform. But the Southern +whites, considering the matter an impossibility, gave it little +consideration. There was, however, both North and South, a tendency to +see a connection between the freedom of the Negroes and their political +rights and thus to confuse civil equality with political and social +privileges. But the great masses of the whites were solidly opposed +to the recognition of Negro equality in any form. The poorer whites, +especially the "Unionists" who hoped to develop an opposition party, +were angered by any discussion of the subject. An Alabama "Unionist," +M. J. Saffold, later prominent as a radical politician, declared to the +Joint Committee on Reconstruction: "If you compel us to carry through +universal suffrage of colored, men... it will prove quite an *incubus +upon us in the organization of a national union party of white men; +it will furnish our opponents with a very effective weapon of offense +against us." + +There were, however, some Southern leaders of ability and standing who, +by 1866, were willing to consider Negro suffrage. These men, among them +General Wade Hampton of South Carolina and Governor Robert Patton of +Alabama, were of the slaveholding class, and they fully counted on being +able to control the Negro's vote by methods similar to those actually +put in force a quarter of a century later. The Negroes were not as yet +politically organized were not even interested in politics, and the +master class might reasonably hope to regain control of them. Whitelaw +Reid published an interview with one of the Hamptons which describes the +situation exactly: + +"A brother of General Wade Hampton, the South Carolina Hotspur, was on +board. He saw no great objection to Negro suffrage, so far as the whites +were concerned; and for himself, South Carolinian and secessionist +though he was, he was quite willing to accept it. He only dreaded its +effect on the blacks themselves. Hitherto they had in the main, been +modest and respectful, and mere freedom was not likely to spoil them. +But the deference to them likely to be shown by partisans eager for +their votes would have a tendency to uplift them and unbalance them. +Beyond this, no harm would be done the South by Negro suffrage. The old +owners would cast the votes of their people almost as absolutely and +securely as they cast their own. If Northern men expected in this way to +build up a northern party in the South, they were gravely mistaken. They +would only be multiplying the power of the old and natural leaders of +Southern politics by giving every vote to a former slave. Heretofore +such men had served their masters only in the fields; now they would do +no less faithful service at the polls. If the North could stand it, the +South could. For himself, he should make no special objection to Negro +suffrage as one of the terms of reorganization, and if it came, he did +not think the South would have much cause to regret it." + +To sum up the situation at this time: the Negro population at the close +of the war constituted a tremendous problem for those in authority. The +race was free, but without status, without leaders, without property, +and without education. Probably a fourth of them had some experience in +freedom before the Confederate armies surrendered, and the servitude of +the other three millions ended very quickly and without violence. But in +the Black Belt, where the bulk of the black population was to be found, +the labor system was broken up, and for several months the bewildered +freedmen wandered about or remained at home under conditions which were +bad for health, morals, and thrift. The Northern Negroes did not furnish +the expected leadership for the race, and the more capable men in the +South showed a tendency to go North. The unsettled state of the Negroes +and their expectation of receiving a part of the property of the whites +kept the latter uneasy and furnished the occasion of frequent conflicts. +Not the least of the unsettling influences at work upon the Negro +population were the colored troops and the agitators furnished by the +Freedmen's Bureau, the missions, and the Bureau schools. But at the +beginning of the year 1866, the situation appeared to be clearing, and +the social and economic revolution seemed on the way to a quieter ending +than might have been expected. + + + +CHAPTER III. THE WORK OF THE PRESIDENTS + +The war ended slavery, but it left the problem of the freed slave; +it preserved the Union in theory, but it left unsolved many delicate +problems of readjustment. Were the seceded States in or out of the +Union? If in the Union, what rights had they? If they were not in +the Union, what was their status? What was the status of the Southern +Unionist, of the ex-Confederate? What punishments should be inflicted +upon the Southern people? What authority, executive or legislative, +should carry out the work of reconstruction? The end of the war +brought with it, in spite of much discussion, no clear answer to these +perplexing questions. + +Unfortunately, American political life, with its controversies over +colonial government, its conflicting interpretations of written +constitutions, and its legally trained statesmen, had by the middle +of the nineteenth century produced a habit of political thought which +demanded the settlement of most governmental matters upon a theoretical +basis. And now in 1865, each prominent leader had his own plan of +reconstruction fundamentally irreconcilable with all the others, because +rigidly theoretical. During the war the powers of the executive had +been greatly expanded and a legislative reaction was to be expected. The +Constitution called for fresh interpretation in the light of the Civil +War and its results. + +The first theory of reconstruction may be found in the +Crittenden-Johnson resolutions of July 1861, which declared that the war +was being waged to maintain the Union under the Constitution and that +it should cease when these objects were obtained. This would have +been subscribed to in 1861 by the Union Democrats and by most of the +Republicans, and in 1865 the conquered Southerners would have been glad +to reenter the Union upon this basis; but though in 1865 the resolution +still expressed the views of many Democrats, the majority of Northern +people had moved away from this position. + +The attitude of Lincoln, which in 1865 met the views of a majority of +the Northern people though not of the political leaders, was that "no +State can upon its mere motion get out of the Union," that the States +survived though there might be some doubt about state governments, and +that "loyal" state organizations might be established by a population +consisting largely of ex-Confederates who had been pardoned by the +President and made "loyal" for the future by an oath of allegiance. +Reconstruction was, Lincoln thought, a matter for the executive to +handle. But that he was not inflexibly committed to any one plan is +indicated by his proclamation after the pocket veto of the Wade-Davis +Bill and by his last speech, in which he declared that the question of +whether the seceded States were in the Union or out of it was "merely a +pernicious abstraction." In addition, Lincoln said: + +"We are all agreed that the seceded States, so called, are out of their +proper practical relation with the Union, and that the sole object of +the government, civil and military, in regard to those States is to +again get them into that proper practical relation. I believe that it +is not only possible, but in fact easier, to do this without deciding or +even considering whether these States have ever been out of the Union, +than with it. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly +immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all join in doing +the acts necessary to restore the proper practical relations between +these States and the Union, and each forever after innocently indulge +his own opinion whether in doing the acts he brought the States from +without into the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never +having been out of it." + +President Johnson's position was essentially that of Lincoln, but his +attitude toward the working out of the several problems was different. +He maintained that the states survived and that it was the duty of the +executive to restore them to their proper relations. "The true theory," +said he, "is that all pretended acts of secession were from the +beginning null and void. The States cannot commit treason nor screen +individual citizens who may have committed treason any more than they +can make valid treaties or engage in lawful commerce with any foreign +power. The states attempting to secede placed themselves in a condition +where their vitality was impaired, but not extinguished; their functions +suspended, but not destroyed." Lincoln would have had no severe +punishments inflicted even on leaders, but Johnson wanted to destroy +the "slavocracy," root and branch. Confiscation of estates would, he +thought, be a proper measure. He said on one occasion: "Traitors should +take a back seat in the work of restoration.... My judgment is that he +[a rebel] should be subjected to a severe ordeal before he is restored +to citizenship. Treason should be made odious, and traitors must be +punished and impoverished. Their great plantations must be seized, +and divided into small farms and sold to honest, industrious men." +The violence of Johnson's views subsequently underwent considerable +modification but to the last he held to the plan of executive +restoration based upon state perdurance. Neither Lincoln nor Johnson +favored a change of Southern institutions other than the abolition of +slavery, though each recommended a qualified Negro suffrage. + +There were, however, other theories in the field, notably those of the +radical Republican leaders. According to the state-suicide theory of +Charles Sumner, "any vote of secession or other act by which any State +may undertake to put an end to the supremacy of the Constitution within +its territory is inoperative and void against the Constitution, and when +sustained by force it becomes a practical ABDICATION by the State of +all rights under the Constitution, while the treason it involves still +further works an instant FORFEITURE of all those functions and powers +essential to the continued existence of the State as a body politic, +so that from that time forward the territory falls under the exclusive +jurisdiction of Congress as other territory, and the State, being +according to the language of the law felo de se, ceases to exist." +Congress should punish the "rebels" by abolishing slavery, by giving +civil and political rights to Negroes, and by educating them with the +whites. + +Not essentially different, but harsher, was Thaddeus Stevens's plans +for treating the South as a conquered foreign province. Let the victors +treat the seceded States "as conquered provinces and settle them with +new men and exterminate or drive out the present rebels as exiles." +Congress in dealing with these provinces was not bound even by the +Constitution, "a bit of worthless parchment," but might legislate as it +pleased in regard to slavery, the ballot, and confiscation. With +regard to the white population, he said: "I have never desired bloody +punishments to any great extent. But there are punishments quite as +appalling, and longer remembered, than death. They are more advisable, +because they would reach a greater number. Strip a proud nobility of +their bloated estates; reduce them to a level with plain republicans; +send them forth to labor, and teach their children to enter the +workshops or handle a plow, and you will thus humble the proud +traitors." Stevens and Sumner agreed in reducing the Southern States +to a territorial status. Sumner would then take the principles of the +Declaration of Independence as a guide for Congress, while Stevens would +leave Congress absolute. Neither considered the Constitution as of any +validity in this crisis. + +As a rule the former abolitionists were in 1865 advocates of votes and +lands for the Negro, in whose capacity for self-rule they had complete +confidence. The view of Gerrit Smith may be regarded as typical of the +abolitionist position: + +"Let the first condition of peace with them be that no people in the +rebel States shall ever lose or gain civil or political rights by reason +of their race or origin. The next condition of peace be that our black +allies in the South--those saviours of our nation--shall share with +their poor white neighbors in the subdivisions of the large landed +estates of the South. Let the only other condition be that the rebel +masses shall not, for say, a dozen years, be allowed access to the +ballot-box, or be eligible to office; and that the like restrictions be +for life on their political and military leaders.. .. The mass of the +Southern blacks fall, in point of intelligence, but little, if +any, behind the mass of the Southern whites.... In reference to the +qualifications of the voter, men make too much account of the head and +too little of the heart. The ballot-box, like God, says: 'Give me your +heart.' The best-hearted men are the best qualified to vote; and, in +this light, the blacks, with their characteristic gentleness, patience, +and affectionateness, are peculiarly entitled to vote. We cannot wonder +at Swedenborg's belief that the celestial people will be found in the +interior of Africa; nor hardly can we wonder at the legend that the gods +came down every year to sup with their favorite Africans." + +One of the most statesmanlike proposals was made by Governor John +A. Andrew of Massachusetts. If, forgetting their theories, the +conservatives could have united in support of a restoration conceived in +his spirit, the goal might have been speedily achieved. Andrew demanded +a reorganization, based upon acceptance of the results of the war, but +carried through with the aid of "those who are by their intelligence and +character the natural leaders of their people and who surely will lead +them by and by. These men cannot be kept out forever," said he, "for +the capacity of leadership is a gift, not a device. They whose courage, +talents, and will entitle them to lead, will lead .... If we cannot +gain their support of the just measures needful for the work of safe +reorganization, reorganization will be delusive and full of danger. They +are the most hopeful subjects to deal with. They have the brain and the +experience and the education to enable them to understand... the present +situation. They have the courage as well as the skill to lead the people +in the direction their judgments point.... Is it consistent with reason +and our knowledge of human nature, to believe the masses of Southern men +able to face about, to turn their backs on those they have trusted and +followed, and to adopt the lead of those who have no magnetic hold on +their hearts or minds? It would be idle to reorganize by the colored +vote. If the popular vote of the white race is not to be had in favor of +the guarantees justly required, then I am in favor of holding on--just +where we are now. I am not in favor of a surrender of the present +rights of the Union to a struggle between a white minority aided by +the freedmen on one hand, against the majority of the white race on the +other. I would not consent, having rescued those states by arms from +Secession and rebellion, to turn them over to anarchy and chaos." + +The Southerners, Unionists as well as Confederates, had their views +as well, but at Washington these carried little influence. The former +Confederates would naturally favor the plan which promised best for the +white South, and their views were most nearly met by those of President +Lincoln. Although he held that in principle a new Union had arisen +out of the war, as a matter of immediate political expediency he was +prepared to build on the assumption that the old Union still existed. +The Southern Unionists cared little for theories; they wanted the +Confederates punished, themselves promoted to high offices, and the +Negro kept from the ballot box. + +Even at the beginning of 1866, it was not too much to hope that the +majority of former Republicans would accept conservative methods, +provided the so-called "fruits of the war" were assured--that is, +equality of civil rights, the guarantee of the United States war debt, +the repudiation of the Confederate debt, the temporary disfranchisement +of the leading Confederates, and some arrangement which would keep the +South from profiting by representation based on the non-voting Negro +population. But amid many conflicting policies, none attained to +continuous and compelling authority. + +The plan first put to trial was that of President Lincoln. It was a +definite plan designed to meet actual conditions and, had he lived, he +might have been able to carry it through successfully. Not a +theorist, but an opportunist of the highest type, sobered by years +of responsibility in war time, and fully understanding the precarious +situation in 1865, Lincoln was most anxious to secure an early +restoration of solidarity with as little friction as possible. Better +than most Union leaders he appreciated conditions in the South, the +problem of the races, the weakness of the Southern Unionists, and the +advantage of calling in the old Southern leaders. He was generous and +considerate; he wanted no executions or imprisonments; he wished the +leaders to escape; and he was anxious that the mass of Southerners be +welcomed back without loss of rights. "There is," he declared, "too +little respect for their rights," an unwillingness, in short, to treat +them as fellow citizens. + +This executive policy had been applied from the beginning of the war +as opportunity offered. The President used the army to hold the Border +States in the Union, to aid in "reorganizing" Unionist Virginia and in +establishing West Virginia. The army, used to preserve the Union might +be used also to restore disturbed parts of it to normal condition. +Assuming that the "States" still existed, "loyal" state governments were +the first necessity. By his proclamation of December 8, 1863, Lincoln +suggested a method of beginning the reconstruction: he would pardon any +Confederate, except specified classes of leaders, who took an oath +of loyalty for the future; if as many as ten percent of the voting +population of 1860, thus made loyal, should establish a state government +the executive would recognize it. The matter of slavery must, indeed, +be left to the laws and proclamations as interpreted by the courts, but +other institutions should continue as in 1861. + +This plan was inaugurated in four States which had been in part +controlled by the Federal army from nearly the beginning of the war: +Tennessee (1862), Louisiana (1862), Arkansas (1862), and Virginia after +the formation of West Virginia (1863). For each state Lincoln appointed +a military governor: for Tennessee, Andrew Johnson; for Arkansas, John +S. Phelps; for Louisiana, General Shepley. In Virginia he recognized the +"reorganized" government, which had been transferred to Alexandria +when the new State of West Virginia was formed. The military governors +undertook the slow and difficult work of reorganization, however, +with but slight success owing to the small numbers of Unionists and of +Confederates who would take the oath. But by 1864, "ten percent" state +governments were established in Arkansas and Louisiana, and progress was +being made in Tennessee. + +Congress was impatient of Lincoln's claim to executive precedence in the +matter of reconstruction, and in 1864, both Houses passed the +Wade-Davis Bill, a plan which asserted the right of Congress to control +reconstruction and foreshadowed a radical settlement of the question. +Lincoln disposed of the bill by a pocket veto and, in a proclamation +dated July 8, 1864, stated that he was unprepared "to be inflexibly +committed to any single plan of restoration," or to discourage loyal +citizens by setting aside the governments already established in +Louisiana and Arkansas, or to recognize the authority of Congress to +abolish slavery. He was ready, however, to cooperate with the people +of any State who wished to accept the plan prepared by Congress and +he hoped that a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery would be +adopted. + +Lincoln early came to the conclusion that slavery must be destroyed, and +he had urgently advocated deportation of the freedmen, for he believed +that the two races could not live in harmony after emancipation. +The nearest he came to recommending the vote for the Negro was in a +communication to Governor Hahn of Louisiana in March 1864: "I barely +suggest, for your private consideration, whether some of the colored +people may not be let in, as for instance, the very intelligent, and +especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. They would +probably help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty +within the family of freedom. But this is only a suggestion, not to the +public, but to you alone." + +Throughout the war President Lincoln assumed that the state +organizations in the South were illegal because disloyal and that new +governments must be established. But just at the close of the war, +probably carried away by feeling, he all but recognized the Virginia +Confederate Government as competent to bring the state back into the +Union. While in Richmond on April 5, 1865, he gave to Judge Campbell a +statement of terms: the national authority to be restored; no recession +on slavery by the executive; hostile forces to disband. The next day he +notified General Weitzel, in command at Richmond, that he might permit +the Virginia Legislature to meet and withdraw military and other support +from the Confederacy. But these measures met strong opposition in +Washington, especially from Secretary Stanton and Senator Wade and other +congressional leaders, and on the 11th of April, Lincoln withdrew his +permission for the legislature to meet. "I cannot go forward," he said, +"with everybody opposed to me." It was on the same day that he made his +last public speech, and Sumner, who was strongly opposed to his policy, +remarked that "the President's speech and other things augur confusion +and uncertainty in the future, with hot contumacy." At a cabinet meeting +on the 14th of April, Lincoln made his last statement on the subject. +It was fortunate, he said, that Congress had adjourned, for "we shall +reanimate the States" before Congress meets; there should be no killing, +no persecutions; there was too much disposition to treat the Southern +people "not as fellow citizens." + +The possibility of a conciliatory restoration ended when Lincoln was +assassinated. Moderate, firm, tactful, of great personal influence, not +a doctrinaire, and not a Southerner like Johnson, Lincoln might have +"prosecuted peace" successfully. His policy was very unlike that +proposed by the radical leaders. They would base the new governments +upon the loyalty of the past plus the aid of enfranchised slaves; he +would establish the new regime upon the loyalty of the future. Like +Governor Andrew he thought that restoration must be effected by the +willing efforts of the South. He would aid and guide but not force the +people. If the latter did not wish restoration, they might remain under +military rule. There should be no forced Negro suffrage, no sweeping +disfranchisement of whites, no "carpetbaggism." + +The work of President Johnson demands for its proper understanding some +consideration of the condition of the political parties at the close of +the war, for politics had much to do with reconstruction. The Democratic +party, divided and defeated in the election of 1860, lost its Southern +members in 1861 by the secession and remained a minority party during +the remainder of the war. It retained its organization, however, and +in 1864 polled a large vote. Discredited by its policy of opposition to +Lincoln's administration, its ablest leaders joined the Republicans +in support of the war. Until 1869, the party was poorly represented +in Congress although, as soon as hostilities ended, the War Democrats +showed a tendency to return to the old party. As to reconstruction, the +party stood on the Crittenden-Johnson resolutions of 1861, though most +Democrats were now willing to have slavery abolished. + +The Republican party--frankly sectional and going into power on the +single issue of opposition to the extension of slavery--was forced by +the secession movement to take up the task of preserving the Union by +war. Consequently, the party developed new principles, welcomed the aid +of the War Democrats, and found it advisable to drop its name and +with its allies to form the Union or National Union party. It was +this National Union party which in 1864 nominated Abraham Lincoln, +a Republican, and Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, on the same ticket. +Lincoln's second Cabinet was composed of both Republicans and War +Democrats. When the war ended, the conservative leaders were anxious +to hold the Union party together in order to be in a better position +to settle the problems of reconstruction, but the movement of the War +Democrats back to their old party tended to leave in the Union party +only its Republican members, with the radical leaders dominating. + +In the South the pressure of war so united the people that party +divisions disappeared for a time, but the causes of division continued +to exist, and two parties, at least, would have developed had the +pressure been removed. Though all factions supported the war after it +began, the former Whigs and Douglas Democrats, when it was over, liked +to remember that they had been "Union" men in 1860 and expected to +organize in opposition to the extreme Democrats, who were now charged +with being responsible for the misfortunes of the South. They were in +a position to affiliate with the National Union party of the North if +proper inducements were offered, while the regular Democrats were ready +to rejoin their old party. But the embittered feelings resulting from +the murder of Lincoln and the rapid development of the struggle between +President Johnson and Congress caused the radicals "to lump the old +Union Democrats and Whigs together with the secessionists--and many were +driven where they did not want to go, into temporary affiliation with +the Democratic party." Thousands went very reluctantly; the old Whigs, +indeed, were not firmly committed to the Democrats until radical +reconstruction had actually begun. Still other "loyalists" in the +South were prepared to join the Northern radicals in advocating the +disfranchisement of Confederates and in opposing the granting of +suffrage to the Negroes. + +The man upon whom fell the task of leading these opposing factions, +radical and conservative, along a definite line of action looking to +reunion had few qualifications for the task. Johnson was ill-educated, +narrow, and vindictive and was positive that those who did not agree +with him were dishonest. Himself a Southerner, picked up by the National +Union Convention of 1864, as Thaddeus Stevens said, from "one of those +damned rebel provinces," he loved the Union, worshiped the Constitution, +and held to the strict construction views of the State Rights Democrats. +Rising from humble beginnings, he was animated by the most intense +dislike of the "slavocracy," as he called the political aristocracy of +the South. Like many other American leaders he was proud of his humble +origin, but unlike many others he never sloughed off his backwoods +crudeness. He continually boasted of himself and vilified the +aristocrats, who in return treated him badly. His dislike of them was +so marked that Isham G. Harris, a rival politician, remarked that "if +Johnson were a snake, he would lie in the grass to bite the heels of +rich men's children." His primitive notions of punishment were evident +in 1865 when he advocated imprisonment, execution, and confiscation; but +like other reckless talkers he often said more than he meant. + +When Johnson succeeded to the presidency, the feeling was nearly +universal among the radicals, according to Julian, that he would prove +a godsend to the country, for "aside from Mr. Lincoln's known policy of +tenderness to the rebels, which now so jarred upon the feelings of the +hour, his well known views on the subject of reconstruction were as +distasteful as possible to radical Republicans." Senator Wade declared +to the President: "Johnson, we have faith in you. By the gods, there +will be no trouble now in running the Government!" To which Johnson +replied: "Treason is a crime and crime must be punished. Treason must +be made infamous and traitors must be impoverished." These words are +an index to the speeches of Johnson during 1863-65. Even his radical +friends feared that he would be too vindictive. For a few weeks he was +much inclined to the radical plans, and some of the leaders certainly +understood that he was in favor of Negro suffrage, the supreme test +of radicalism. But when the excitement caused by the assassination of +Lincoln and the break-up of the Confederacy had moderated somewhat, +Johnson saw before him a task so great that his desire for violent +measures was chilled. He must disband the great armies and bring all war +work to an end; he must restore intercourse with the South, which had +been blockaded for years; he must for a time police the country, look +after the Negroes, and set up a temporary civil government; and finally +he must work out a restoration of the Union. Sobered by responsibility +and by the influence of moderate advisers, he rather quickly adopted +Lincoln's policy. Johnson at first set his face against the movements +toward reconstruction by the state governments already organized and +by those people who wished to organize new governments on Lincoln's ten +percent plan. As soon as possible the War Department notified the Union +commanders to stop all attempts at reconstruction and to pursue and +arrest all Confederate governors and other prominent civil leaders. The +President was even anxious to arrest the military leaders who had been +paroled but was checked in this desire by General Grant's firm protest. +His cabinet advisers supported Johnson in refusing to recognize the +Southern state governments; but three of them--Seward, Welles, and +McCulloch--were influential in moderating his zeal for inflicting +punishments. Nevertheless, he soon had in prison the most prominent of +the Confederate civilians and several general officers. The soldiers, +however, were sent home, trade with the South was permitted, and the +Freedmen's Bureau was rapidly extended. + +Previous to this Johnson had brought himself to recognize, early in +May, the Lincoln "ten percent" governments of Louisiana, Tennessee, and +Arkansas, and the reconstructed Alexandria government of Virginia. Thus +only seven states were left without legal governments, and to bring +those states back into the Union, Johnson inaugurated on May 29, 1865, +a plan which was like that of Lincoln but not quite so liberal. In his +Amnesty Proclamation, Johnson made a longer list of exceptions aimed +especially at the once wealthy slave owners. On the same day he +proclaimed the restoration of North Carolina. A provisional governor, W. +W. Holden, was appointed and directed to reorganize the civil government +and to call a constitutional convention elected by those who had taken +the amnesty oath. This convention was to make necessary amendments +to the constitution and to "restore said State to its constitutional +relations to the Federal Government." It is to be noted that Johnson +fixed the qualifications of delegates and of those who elected them, +but, this stage once passed, the convention or the legislature would +"prescribe the qualifications of electors... a power the people of the +several States composing the Federal Union have rightfully exercised +from the origin of the government to the present time." The President +also directed the various cabinet officers to extend the work of their +departments over the Confederate States and ordered the army officers +to assist the civil authorities. During the next six weeks, similar +measures were undertaken for the remaining six states of the +Confederacy. + +To set up the new order, army officers were first sent into every county +to administer the amnesty oath and thus to secure a "loyal" electorate. +In each state the provisional governor organized out of the remains of +the Confederate local regime a new civil government. Confederate local +officials who could and would take the amnesty oath were directed to +resume office until relieved; the laws of 1861, except those relating to +slavery, were declared to be in force; the courts were directed to +use special efforts to crush lawlessness; and the old jury lists were +destroyed and new ones were drawn up containing only the names of those +who had taken the amnesty oath. Since there was no money in any state +treasury, small sums were now raised by license taxes. A full staff +of department heads was appointed, and by July 1865, the provisional +governments were in fair working order. + +To the constitutional conventions, which met in the fall, it was made +clear, through the governors, that the President would insist upon three +conditions: the formal abolition of slavery, the repudiation of the +ordinance of secession, and the repudiation of the Confederate war debt. +To Governor Holden he telegraphed: "Every dollar of the debt created to +aid the rebellion against the United States should be repudiated finally +and forever. The great mass of the people should not be taxed to pay a +debt to aid in carrying on a rebellion which they in fact, if left to +themselves, were opposed to. Let those who had given their means for the +obligations of the state look to that power they tried to establish in +violation of law, constitution, and will of the people. They must meet +their fate." With little opposition these conditions were fulfilled, +though there was a strong feeling against the repudiation of the debt, +much discussion as to whether the ordinance of secession should +be "repealed" or declared "now and always null and void," and some +quibbling as to whether slavery was being destroyed by state action or +had already been destroyed by war. + +In the old state constitutions, very slight changes were made. Of +these the chief were concerned with the abolition of slavery and the +arrangement of representation and direct taxation on the basis of white +population. Little effort was made to settle any of the Negro problems, +and in all states the conventions left it to the legislatures to make +laws for the freedmen. There was no discussion of Negro, suffrage in the +conventions, but President Johnson sent what was for him a remarkable +communication to Governor Sharkey of Mississippi: + +"If you could extend the elective franchise to all persons of color +who can read the Constitution of the United States in English and write +their names, and to all persons of color who own real estate valued at +not less than two hundred and fifty dollars and pay taxes thereon, +you would completely disarm the adversary and set an example the other +states will follow. This you can do with perfect safety, and you would +thus place Southern States in reference to free persons of color +upon the same basis with the free states.... And as a consequence the +radicals, who are wild upon Negro franchise, will be completely foiled +in their attempts to keep the Southern states from renewing +their relations to the Union by not accepting their senators and +representatives." + +In deciding upon a basis of representation, it was clear that the +majority of delegates desired to lessen the influence of the Black Belt +and place the control of the government with the "up country." In the +Alabama convention Robert M. Patton, then a delegate and later governor, +frankly avowed this object, and in South Carolina, Governor Perry urged +the convention to give no consideration to Negro suffrage, "because this +is a white man's government," and if the Negroes should vote they would +be controlled by a few whites. A kindly disposition toward the Negroes +was general except on the part of extreme Unionists, who opposed any +favors to the race. "This is a white man's country" was a doctrine to +which all the conventions subscribed. + +The conventions held brief sessions, completed their work, and +adjourned, after directing that elections be held for state and local +officers and for members of Congress. Before December the appointed +local officials had been succeeded by elected officers; members of +Congress were on their way to Washington; the state legislatures were +assembling or already in session; and the elected governors were +ready to take office. It was understood that as soon as enough state +legislatures ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to make it a part of the +Constitution, the President would permit the transfer of authority to +the new governors. The legislature of Mississippi alone was recalcitrant +about the amendment, and before January 1866, the elected officials were +everywhere installed except in Texas, where the work was not completed +until March. When Congress met in December 1865, the President reported +that all former Confederate States except Texas were ready to be +readmitted. Congress, however, refused to admit their senators and +representatives, and thus began the struggle which ended over a year +later with the victory of the radicals and the undoing of the work of +the two Presidents. + +The plan of the Presidents was at best only imperfectly realized. It was +found impossible to reorganize the Federal Administration in the South +with men who could subscribe to the "ironclad oath," for nearly all who +were competent to hold office had favored or aided the Confederacy. +It was two years before more than a third of the post offices could be +opened. The other Federal departments were in similar difficulties, and +at last women and "carpetbaggers" were appointed. The Freedmen's +Bureau, which had been established coincidently with the provisional +governments, assumed jurisdiction over the Negroes, while the army +authorities very early took the position that any man who claimed to be +a Unionist should not be tried in the local courts but must be given a +better chance in a provost court. Thus a third or more of the population +was withdrawn from the control of the state government. In several +states the head of the Bureau made arrangements for local magistrates +and officials to act as Bureau officials, and in such cases the two +authorities acted in cooperation. The army of occupation, too, exerted +an authority which not infrequently interfered with the workings of the +new state government. Nearly everywhere there was a lack of certainty +and efficiency due to the concurrent and sometimes conflicting +jurisdictions of state government, army commanders, Bureau authorities, +and even the President acting upon or through any of the others. + +The standing of the Southern state organizations was in doubt after the +refusal of Congress to recognize them. Nevertheless, in spite of this +uncertainty they continued to function as states during the year of +controversy which followed; the courts were opened and steadily grew +in influence; here and there militia and patrols were reorganized; +officials who refused to "accept the situation" were dismissed; +elections were held; the legislatures revised the laws to fit new +conditions and enacted new laws for the emancipated blacks. To all this +progress in reorganization, the action of Congress was a severe blow, +since it gave notice that none of the problems of reconstruction were +yet solved. An increasing spirit of irritation and independence was +observed throughout the states in question, and at the elections the +former Confederates gained more and more offices. The year was marked +in the South by the tendency toward the formation of parties, by the +development of the "Southern outrages" issue, by an attempt to frustrate +radical action, and finally by a lineup of the great mass of the whites +in opposition to the Fourteenth Amendment and other radical plans of +Congress. + +The Joint Committee on Reconstruction, appointed when Congress refused +to accept the work of President Johnson, proceeded during several months +to take testimony and to consider measures. The testimony, which was +taken chiefly to support opinions already formed, appeared to prove that +the Negroes and the Unionists were so badly treated that the Freedmen's +Bureau and the army must be kept in the South to protect them; that free +Negro labor was a success but that the whites were hostile to it; that +the whites were disloyal and would, if given control of the Southern +governments and admitted to Congress, constitute a danger to the nation +and especially to the party in power. + +To convince the voters of the North of the necessity of dealing +drastically with the South a campaign of misrepresentation was begun +in the summer of 1865, which became more and more systematic and +unscrupulous as the political struggle at Washington grew fiercer. +Newspapers regularly ran columns headed "Southern Outrages," and every +conceivable mistreatment of blacks by whites was represented as taking +place on a large scale. As General Richard Taylor said, it would seem +that about 1866 every white man, woman, and child in the South began +killing and maltreating Negroes. In truth, there was less and less +ground for objection to the treatment of the blacks as time went on and +as the several agencies of government secured firmer control over the +lawless elements. But fortunately for the radicals their contention +seemed to be established by riots on a large scale in Memphis and New +Orleans where Negroes were killed and injured in much greater number +than whites. + +The rapid development of the radical plans of Congress checked the +tendency toward political division in the South. Only a small party of +rabid Unionists would now affiliate with the radicals, while all +the others reluctantly held together, endorsed Johnson's policy, and +attempted to affiliate with the disintegrating National Union party. +But the defeat of the President's policies in the elections of 1866, the +increasing radicalism of Congress as shown by the Civil Rights Act, the +expansion of the Freedmen's Bureau, the report of the Joint Committee +on Reconstruction, and the proposal of the Fourteenth Amendment led +farsighted Southerners to see that the President was likely to lose in +his fight with Congress. + +Now began, in the latter half of 1866, with some cooperation in the +North and probably with the approval of the President, a movement in the +South to forestall the radicals by means of a settlement which, although +less severe than the proposed Fourteenth Amendment, might yet be +acceptable to Congress. One feature of the settlement was to be some +form of Negro suffrage, either by local action or by constitutional +amendment. Those behind this scheme were mainly of the former governing +class. Negro suffrage, they thought, would take the wind out of the +radical sails, the Southern whites would soon be able to control the +blacks, representation in Congress would be increased, and the Black +Belt would perhaps regain its former political hegemony. It is hardly +necessary to say that the majority of the whites were solidly opposed to +such a measure. But it was hoped to carry it under pressure through +the legislature or to bring it about indirectly through rulings of the +Freedmen's Bureau. + +Coincident with this scheme of partial Negro suffrage an attempt +was made by the conservative leaders in Washington, working with the +Southerners, to propose a revised Fourteenth Amendment which would +give the vote to competent Negroes and not disfranchise the whites. A +conference of Southern governors met in Washington early in 1867 and +drafted such an amendment. But, it was too late. + +Meanwhile the Fourteenth Amendment submitted by Congress had been +brought before the Southern legislatures, and during the winter of +1866-67 it was rejected by all of them. There was strong opposition +to it because it disfranchised the leading whites, but perhaps the +principal reason for its rejection was that the Southern people were not +sure that still more severe conditions might not be imposed later. + +While the President was "restoring" the states which had seceded and +struggling with Congress, the Border States of the South, including +Tennessee (which was admitted in 1866 by reason of its radical state +government), were also in the throes of reconstruction. Though there was +less military interference in these than in the other states, many of +the problems were similar. All had the Freedmen's Bureau, the Negro +race, the Unionists, and the Confederates; in every state, except +Kentucky, Confederates were persecuted, the minority was in control, and +"ring" rule was the order of the day; but in each state there were +signs of the political revolution which a few years later was to put the +radicals out of power. + +The executive plan for the restoration of the Union, begun by Lincoln +and adopted by Johnson, was, as we have seen, at first applied in all +the states which had seceded. A military governor was appointed in each +state by the President by virtue of his authority as commander in chief. +This official, aided by a civilian staff of his own choice and supported +by the United States army and other Federal agencies, reorganized the +state administration and after a few months turned the state and local +governments over to regularly elected officials. Restoration should +now have been completed, but Congress refused to admit the senators +and representatives of these states, and entered upon a fifteen +months' struggle with the President over details of the methods of the +reconstruction. Meanwhile the Southern States, though unrepresented +in Congress, continued their activities, with some interference from +Federal authorities, until Congress in 1867 declared their governments +nonexistent. + +The work begun by Lincoln and Johnson deserved better success. The +original plan restored to political rights only a small number of +Unionists, the lukewarm Confederates, and the unimportant. But in spite +of the threatening speeches of Johnson, he used his power of pardon +until none except the most prominent leaders were excluded. The +personnel of the Johnson governments was fair. The officials were, +in the main, former Douglas Democrats and Whigs, respectable and +conservative, but not admired or loved by the people. The conventions +and the legislatures were orderly and dignified and manifested a desire +to accept the situation. + +There were no political parties at first, but material for several +existed. If things had been allowed to take their course, there would +have arisen a normal cleavage between former Whigs and Democrats, +between the upcountry and the low country, between the slaveholders +and the nonslaveholders. The average white man in these governments was +willing to be fair to the Negro but was not greatly concerned about his +future. In the view of most white people, it was the white man who was +emancipated. The white districts had no desire to let the power return +to the Black Belt by giving the Negro the ballot, for the vote of the +Negroes, they believed, would be controlled by their former masters. + +Johnson's adoption of Lincoln's plan gave notice to all that the +radicals had failed to control him. He and they had little in common; +they wished to uproot a civilization, while he wished to punish +individuals; they were not troubled by constitutional scruples, while he +was the strictest of State Rights Democrats; they thought principally +of the Negro and his potentialities, while Johnson was thinking of the +emancipated white man. It is possible that Lincoln might have succeeded, +but for Johnson the task proved too great. + + + +CHAPTER IV. THE WARDS OF THE NATION + +The Negroes at the close of the war were not slaves or serfs, nor were +they citizens. What was to be done with them and for them? The Southern +answer to this question may be found in the so-called "Black Laws," +which were enacted by the state governments set up by President +Johnson. The views of the dominant North may be discerned in part in +the organization and administration of the Freedmen's Bureau. The two +sections saw the same problem from different angles, and their proposed +solutions were of necessity opposed in principle and in practice. + +The South desired to fit the emancipated Negro race into the new social +order by frankly recognizing his inferiority to the whites. In some +things racial separation was unavoidable. New legislation consequently +must be enacted, because the slave codes were obsolete; because the +old laws made for the small free Negro class did not meet present +conditions; and because the emancipated blacks could not be brought +conveniently and at once under laws originally devised for a white +population. The new laws must meet many needs; family life, morals, and +conduct must be regulated; the former slave must be given a status in +court in order that he might be protected in person and property; the +old, the infirm, and the orphans must be cared for; the white race must +be protected from lawless blacks and the blacks from unscrupulous and +violent whites; the Negro must have an opportunity for education; and +the roving blacks must be forced to get homes, settle down, and go to +work. + +Pending such legislation the affairs of the Negro remained in control +of the unpopular Freedmen's Bureau--a "system of espionage," as Judge +Clayton of Alabama called it, and, according to Governor Humphreys of +Mississippi, "a hideous curse" under which white men were persecuted and +pillaged. Judge Memminger of South Carolina, in a letter to President +Johnson, emphasized the fact that the whites of England and the United +States gained civil and political rights through centuries of slow +advancement and that they were far ahead of the people of European +states. Consequently, it would be a mistake to give the freedmen a +status equal to that of the most advanced whites. Rather, let the United +States profit by the experience of the British in their emancipation +policies and arrange a system of apprenticeship for a period of +transition. When the Negro should be fit, let him be advanced to +citizenship. + +Most Southern leaders agreed that the removal of the master's protection +was a real loss to the Negro which must be made good to some extent by +giving the Negro a status in court and by accepting Negro testimony in +all cases in which blacks were concerned. The North Carolina committee +on laws for freedmen agreed with objectors that "there are comparatively +few of the slaves lately freed who are honest" and truthful, but +maintained that the Negroes were capable of improvement. The chief +executives of Mississippi and Florida declared that there was no danger +to the whites in admitting the more or less unreliable Negro testimony, +for the courts and juries would in every case arrive at a proper +valuation of it. Governors Marvin of Florida and Humphreys of +Mississippi advocated practical civil equality, while in North Carolina +and several other States there was a disposition to admit Negro +testimony only in cases in which Negroes were concerned. The North +Carolina committee recommended the abolition of whipping as a punishment +unfit for free people, and most States accepted this principle. Even in +1865, the general disposition was to make uniform laws for both races, +except in regard to violation of contracts, immoral conduct, vagrancy, +marriage, schools, and forms of punishment. In some of these matters the +whites were to be more strictly regulated; in others, the Negroes. + +There was further general agreement that in economic relations both +races must be protected, each from the other; but it is plain that the +leaders believed that the Negro had less at stake than the white. The +Negro was disposed to be indolent; he knew little of the obligations +of contracts; he was not honest; and he would leave his job at will. +Consequently Memminger recommended apprenticeship for all Negroes; +Governor Marvin suggested it for children alone; and others wished it +provided for orphans only. Further, the laws enacted must force the +Negroes to settle down, to work, and to hold to contracts. Memminger +showed that, without legislation to enforce contracts and to secure +eviction of those who refused to work, the white planter in the South +was wholly at the mercy of the Negro. The plantations were scattered, +the laborers' houses were already occupied, and there was no labor +market to which a planter could go if the laborers deserted his fields. + +What would the Negro become if these leaders of reconstruction were +to have their way? Something better than a serf, something less than a +citizen--a second degree citizen, perhaps, with legal rights about equal +to those of white women and children. Governor Marvin hoped to make of +the race a good agricultural peasantry; his successor was anxious that +the blacks should be preferred to European immigrants; others agreed +with Memminger that after training and education he might be advanced to +full citizenship. + +These opinions are representative of those held by the men who, +Memminger excepted, were placed in charge of affairs by President +Johnson and who were not especially in sympathy with the Negroes or +with the planters but rather with the average white. All believed that +emancipation was a mistake, but all agreed that "it is not the Negro's +fault" and gave no evidence of a disposition to perpetuate slavery under +another name. + +The legislation finally framed showed in its discriminatory features the +combined influence of the old laws for free Negroes, the vagrancy laws +of North and South for whites, the customs of slavery times, the British +West Indies legislation for ex-slaves, and the regulations of the United +States War and Treasury Departments and of the Freedmen's Bureau--all +modified and elaborated by the Southern whites. In only two states, +Mississippi and South Carolina, did the legislation bulk large in +quantity; in other states discriminating laws were few; in still other +states none were passed except those defining race and prohibiting +intermarriage. + +In all of the state laws there were certain common characteristics, +among which were the following: the descendant of a Negro was to be +classed as a Negro through the third generation,* even though one parent +in each generation was white; intermarriage of the races was prohibited; +existing slave marriages were declared valid and for the future marriage +was generally made easier for the blacks than for the whites. In all +states the Negro was given his day in court, and in cases relating to +Negroes his testimony was accepted; in six states he might testify +in any case. When provision was made for schooling, the rule of race +separation was enforced. In Mississippi the "Jim Crow car," or separate +car for Negroes, was invented. In several states the Negro had to have +a license to carry weapons, to preach, or to engage in trade. In +Mississippi, a Negro could own land only in town; in other states he +could purchase land only in the country. Why the difference? No one +knows and probably few knew at the time. Some of the legislation was +undoubtedly hasty and ill-considered. + + * Fourth in Tennessee. + + +But the laws relating to apprenticeship, vagrancy, and enforced punitive +employment turned out to be of greater practical importance. On these +subjects the legislation of Mississippi and South Carolina was the most +extreme. In Mississippi orphans were to be bound out, preferably to a +former master, if "he or she shall be a suitable person." The master +was given the usual control over apprentices and was bound by the usual +duties, including that of teaching the apprentice. But the penalties for +"enticing away" apprentices were severe. The South Carolina statute was +not essentially different. The vagrancy laws of these two states were in +the main the same for both races, but in Mississippi the definition +of vagrancy was enlarged to include Negroes not at work, those "found +unlawfully assembling themselves together," and "all white persons +assembling themselves with freedmen." It is to be noted that nearly all +punishment for petty offenses took the form of hiring out, preferably +to the former master or employer. The principal petty offenses were, it +would seem, vagrancy and "enticing away" laborers or apprentices. The +South Carolina statute contains some other interesting provisions. A +Negro, man or woman, who had enjoyed the companionship of two or more +spouses, must by April 1, 1866, select one of them as a permanent +partner; a farm laborer must "rise at dawn," feed the animals, care for +the property, be quiet and orderly, and "retire at reasonable hours;" +on Sunday the servants must take turns in doing the necessary work, and +they must be respectful and civil to the "master and his family, guests, +and agents;" to engage in skilled labor the Negro must obtain a license. +Whipping and the pillory were permitted in Florida for certain offenses, +and in South Carolina the master might "moderately correct" servants +under eighteen years of age. Other punishments were generally the same +for both races, except the hiring out for petty offenses. + +From the Southern point of view none of this legislation was regarded +as a restriction of Negro rights but as a wide extension to the Negro of +rights never before possessed, an adaptation of the white man's laws +to his peculiar case. It is doubtful whether in some of the states +the authorities believed that there were any discriminatory laws; they +probably overlooked some of the free Negro legislation already on the +statute books. In Alabama, for example, General Wager Swayne, the head +of the Freedmen's Bureau, reported that all such laws had either been +dropped by the legislature or had been vetoed by the governor. Yet the +statute books do show some discriminations. There is a marked difference +between earlier and later legislation. The more stringent laws were +enacted before the end of 1865. After New Year's Day had passed and the +Negroes had begun to settle down, the legislatures either passed mild +laws or abandoned all special legislation for the Negroes. Later in +1866, several states repealed the legislation of 1865. + +In so far as the "Black Laws" discriminated against the Negro they were +never enforced but were suspended from the beginning by the army and the +Freedmen's Bureau. They had, however, a very important effect upon that +section of Northern opinion which was already suspicious of the good +faith of the Southerners. They were part of a plan, some believed, to +reenslave the Negro or at least to create by law a class of serfs. This +belief did much to bring about later radical legislation. + +If the "Black Laws" represented the reaction of the Southern +legislatures to racial conditions, the Freedmen's Bureau was the +corresponding result of the interest taken by the North in the welfare +of the Negro. It was established just as the war was closing and arose +out of the various attempts to meet the Negro problems that arose +during the war. The Bureau had always a dual nature, due in part to its +inheritance of regulations, precedents, and traditions from the various +attempts made during war time to handle the many thousands of Negroes +who came under Federal control, and in part to the humanitarian impulses +of 1865, born of a belief in the capacity of the Negro for freedom and +a suspicion that the Southern whites intended to keep as much of slavery +as they could. The officials of the Bureau likewise were of two classes: +those in control were for the most part army officers, standing as +arbiters between white and black, usually just and seldom the victims of +their sympathies but the mass of less responsible officials were men of +inferior ability and character, either blind partisans of the Negro or +corrupt and subject to purchase by the whites. + +In view of the fact that the Freedmen's Bureau was considered a new +institution in 1865, it is rather remarkable how closely it followed in +organization, purpose, and methods the precedents set during the war by +the officers of the army and the Treasury. In Virginia, General Butler, +in 1861, declared escaped slaves to be "contraband" and proceeded to +organize them into communities for discipline, work, food, and care. His +successors in Virginia and North Carolina, and others in the Sea Islands +of Georgia and South Carolina, extended his plan and arranged a labor +system with fixed wages, hours, and methods of work, and everywhere +made use of the captured or abandoned property of the Confederates. In +Tennessee and Arkansas, Chaplain John Eaton of Grant's army employed +thousands in a modified free labor system; and further down in +Mississippi and Louisiana Generals Grant, Butler, and Banks also put +large numbers of captured slaves to work for themselves and for the +Government. Everywhere, as the numbers of Negroes increased, the army +commanders divided the occupied Negro regions into districts under +superintendents and other officials, framed labor laws, cooperated +with benevolent societies which gave schooling and medical care to the +blacks, and developed systems of government for them. + +The United States Treasury Department, attempting to execute the +confiscation laws for the benefit of the Treasury, appears now and then +as an employer of Negro labor on abandoned plantations. Either alone +or in cooperation with the army and charitable associations, it even +supervised Negro colonies, and sometimes it assumed practically complete +control of the economic welfare of the Negro. This Department introduced +in 1864 an elaborate lessee and trade system. The Negro was regarded as +"the ward of the nation," but he was told impressively that "labor is a +public duty and idleness and vagrancy a crime." All wanted him to work: +the Treasury wanted cotton and other crops to sell; the lessees and +speculators wanted to make fortunes by his labor; and the army wanted +to be free from the burden of the idle blacks. In spite of all these +ministrations, the Negroes suffered much from harsh treatment, neglect, +and unsanitary conditions. + +During 1863 and 1864, several influences were urging the establishment +of a national bureau or department to take charge of matters relating to +the African race. Some wished to establish on the borders of the South a +paid labor system, which might later be extended over the entire +region, to get more slaves out of the Confederacy into this free labor +territory, and to prevent immigration of Negroes into the North, which, +after the Emancipation Proclamation, was apprehensive of this danger. +Others wished to relieve the army and the treasury officials of the +burden of caring for the blacks and to protect the latter from the +"northern harpies and bloodhounds" who had fastened upon them the lessee +system. + +The discussion lasted for two years. The Freedmen's Inquiry Commission, +after a survey of the field in 1863, recommended a consolidation of all +efforts under an organization which should perpetuate the best features +of the old system. But there was much opposition to this plan in +Congress. The Negroes would be exploited, objected some; the scheme +gave too much power to the proposed organization, said others; another +objection was urged against the employment of a horde of incompetent and +unscrupulous officeholders, for "the men who go down there and become +your overseers and Negro drivers will be your broken-down politicians +and your dilapidated preachers, that description of men who are too lazy +to work and just a little too honest to steal." + +As the war drew to a close, the advocates of a policy of consolidation +in Negro affairs prevailed, and on March 3, 1865, an act was approved +creating in the War Department a Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and +Abandoned Lands. This Bureau was to continue for one year after the +close of the war, and it was to control all matters relating to freedmen +and refugees, that is, Unionists who had been driven out of the South. +Food, shelter, and clothing were to be given to the needy, and abandoned +or confiscated property was to be used for or leased to freedmen. At +the head of the Bureau was to be a commissioner with an assistant +commissioner for each of the Southern States. These officials and other +employees must take the "ironclad" oath. + +It was planned that the Bureau should have a brief existence, but the +institution and its wards became such important factors in politics that +on July 16, 1866, after a struggle with the President, Congress passed +an act over his veto amplifying the powers of the Bureau and extending +it for two years longer. This continuation of the Bureau was due to many +things: to a belief that former slaveholders were not to be trusted in +dealing with the Negroes; to the baneful effect of the "Black Laws" +upon Northern public opinion; to the struggle between the President +and Congress over reconstruction; and to the foresight of radical +politicians who saw in the institution an instrument for the political +instruction of the blacks in the proper doctrines. + +The new law was supplementary to the Act of 1865, but its additional +provisions merely endorsed what the Bureau was already doing. It +authorized the issue of medical supplies, confirmed certain sales of +land to Negroes, and provided that the promises which Sherman made in +1865 to the Sea Island Negroes should be carried out as far as possible +and that no lands occupied by blacks should be restored to the owners +until the crops of 1866 were gathered; it directed the Bureau to +cooperate with private charitable and benevolent associations, and +it authorized the use or sale for school purposes of all confiscated +property; and finally it ordered that the civil equality of the Negro be +upheld by the Bureau and its courts when state courts refused to accept +the principle. By later laws the existence of the Bureau was extended to +January 1, 1869, in the unreconstructed States, but its educational and +financial activities were continued until June 20, 1872. + +The chief objections to the Bureau from the conservative Northern +point of view were summed up in the President's veto messages. The laws +creating it were based, he asserted, on the theory that a state of war +still existed; there was too great a concentration of power in the hands +of a few individuals who could not be held responsible; with such a +large number of agents ignorant of the country and often working for +their own advantage injustice would inevitably result; in spite of +the fact that the Negro everywhere had a status in court, arbitrary +tribunals were established, without jury, without regular procedure +or rules of evidence, and without appeal; the provisions in regard to +abandoned lands amounted to confiscation without a hearing; the Negro, +who must in the end work out his own salvation, and who was protected +by the demand for his labor, would be deluded into thinking his future +secure without further effort on his part; although nominally under the +War Department, the Bureau was not subject to military control; it was +practically a great political machine; and, finally, the states most +concerned were not represented in Congress. + +The Bureau was soon organized in all the former slaveholding States +except Delaware, with general headquarters in Washington and state +headquarters at the various capitals. General O. O. Howard, who was +appointed commissioner, was a good officer, softhearted, honest, +pious, and frequently referred to as "the Christian soldier." He +was fair-minded and not disposed to irritate the Southern whites +unnecessarily, but he was rather suspicious of their intentions +toward the Negroes, and he was a believer in the righteousness of the +Freedmen's Bureau. He was not a good business man; and he was not beyond +the reach of politicians. At one time he was seriously disturbed in his +duties by the buzzing of the presidential bee in his bonnet. The members +of his staff were not of his moral stature, and several of them were +connected with commercial and political enterprises which left their +motives open to criticism. + +The assistant commissioners were, as a rule, general officers of the +army, though a few were colonels and chaplains.* Nearly half of them had +during the war been associated with the various attempts to handle the +Negro problem, and it was these men who shaped the organization of the +Bureau. While few of them were immediately acceptable to the Southern +whites, only ten of them proved seriously objectionable on account +of personality, character, or politics. Among the most able should +be mentioned Generals Schofield, Swayne, Fullerton, Steedman, and +Fessenden, and Colonel John Eaton. The President had little or no +control over the appointment or discipline of the officials and agents +of the Bureau, except possibly by calling some of the higher army +officers back to military service. + + * They numbered eleven at first and fourteen after July + 1866, and were changed so often that fifty, in all, served + in this rank before January 1, 1869, when the Bureau was + practically discontinued. + + +As a result of General Grant's severe criticism of the arrangement +which removed the Bureau from control by the military establishment, +the military commander was in a few instances also appointed assistant +commissioner. Each assistant commissioner was aided by a headquarters +staff and had under his jurisdiction in each state various district, +county, and local agents, with a special corps of school officials, +who were usually teachers and missionaries belonging to religious and +charitable societies. The local agents were recruited from the +members of the Veteran Reserve Corps, the subordinate officers and +non-commissioned officers of the army, mustered-out soldiers, officers +of Negro troops, preachers, teachers, and Northern civilians who had +come South. As a class these agents were not competent persons to guide +the blacks in the ways of liberty or to arbitrate differences between +the races. There were many exceptions, but the Southern view as +expressed by General Wade Hampton had only too much foundation: "There +MAY be," he said, "an honest man connected with the Bureau." John Minor +Botts, a Virginian who had remained loyal to the Union, asserted that +many of the agents were good men who did good work but that trouble +resulted from the ignorance and fanaticism of others. The minority +members of the Ku Klux Committee condemned the agents as being +"generally of a class of fanatics without character or responsibility." + +The chief activities of the Bureau included the following five +branches: relief work for both races; the regulation of Negro labor; the +administration of justice in cases concerning Negroes; the management of +abandoned and confiscated property; and the support of schools for the +Negroes. + +The relief work which was carried on for more than four years consisted +of caring for sick Negroes who were within reach of the hospitals, +furnishing food and sometimes clothing and shelter to destitute blacks +and whites, and transporting refugees of both races back to their homes. +Nearly a hundred hospitals and clinics were established, and half a +million patients were treated. This work was greatly needed, especially +for the old and the infirm, and it was well done. The transportation +of refugees did not reach large proportions, and after 1866 it was +entangled in politics. But the issue of supplies in huge quantities +brought much needed relief though at the same time a certain amount of +demoralization. The Bureau claimed little credit, and is usually +given none, for keeping alive during the fall and winter of 1865-1866 +thousands of destitute whites. Yet more than a third of the food +issued was to whites, and without it many would have starved. Numerous +Confederate soldiers on the way home after the surrender were fed by the +Bureau, and in the destitute white districts a great deal of suffering +was relieved and prevented by its operations. The Negroes, dwelling for +the most part in regions where labor was in demand, needed relief for +a shorter time, but they were attracted in numbers to the towns by free +food, and it was difficult to get them back to work. The political value +of the free food issues was not generally recognized until later in 1866 +and in 1867. + +During the first year of the Bureau an important duty of the agents was +the supervision of Negro labor and the fixing of wages. Both officials +and planters generally demanded that contracts be written, approved, and +filed in the office of the Bureau. They thought that the Negroes would +work better if they were thus bound by contracts. The agents usually +required that the agreements between employer and laborer cover such +points as the nature of the work, the hours, food and clothes, medical +attendance, shelter, and wages. To make wages secure, the laborer was +given a lien on the crop; to secure the planter from loss, unpaid +wages might be forfeited if the laborer failed to keep his part of the +contract. When it dawned upon the Bureau authorities that other systems +of labor had been or might be developed in the South, they permitted +arrangements for the various forms of cash and share renting. But it +was everywhere forbidden to place the Negroes under "overseers" or to +subject them to "unwilling apprenticeship" and "compulsory working out +of debts." The written contract system for laborers did not work out +successfully. The Negroes at first were expecting quite other fruits of +freedom. One Mississippi Negro voiced what was doubtless the opinion of +many when he declared that he "considered no man free who had to work +for a living." Few Negroes would contract for more than three months and +none for a period beyond January 1, 1866, when they expected a division +of lands among the ex-slaves. In spite of the regulations, most worked +on oral agreements. In 1866 nearly all employers threw overboard the +written contract system for labor and permitted oral agreements. Some +states had passed stringent laws for the enforcing of contracts, but in +Alabama, Governor Patton vetoed such legislation on the ground that it +was not needed. General Swayne, the Bureau chief for the state, endorsed +the Governor's action and stated that the Negro was protected by his +freedom to leave when mistreated, and the planter, by the need on the +part of the Negro for food and shelter. Negroes, he said, were afraid of +contracts and, besides, contracts led to litigation. + +In order to safeguard the civil rights of the Negroes, the Bureau was +given authority to establish courts of its own and to supervise the +action of state courts in cases to which freedmen were parties. The +majority of the assistant commissioners made no attempt to let the state +courts handle Negro cases but were accustomed to bring all such cases +before the Bureau or the provost courts of the army. In Alabama, quite +early, and later in North Carolina, Mississippi, and Georgia, the +wiser assistant commissioners arranged for the state courts to handle +freedmen's cases with the understanding that discriminating laws were to +be suspended. General Swayne in so doing declared that he was "unwilling +to establish throughout Alabama courts conducted by persons foreign +to her citizenship and strangers to her laws." The Bureau courts were +informal affairs, consisting usually of one or two administrative +officers. There were no jury, no appeal beyond the assistant +commissioner, no rules of procedure, and no accepted body of law. In +state courts accepted by the Bureau, the proceedings in Negro cases were +conducted in the same manner as for the whites. + +The educational work of the Bureau was at first confined to cooperation +with such Northern religious and benevolent societies as were organizing +schools and churches for the Negroes. After the first year, the Bureau +extended financial aid and undertook a system of supervision over Negro +schools. The teachers employed were Northern whites and Negroes in about +equal numbers. Confiscated Confederate property was devoted to Negro +education, and in several states the assistant commissioners collected +fees and percentages of the Negroes' wages for the benefit of the +schools. In addition the Bureau expended about six million dollars. + +The intense dislike which the Southern whites manifested for the +Freedmen's Bureau was due in general to their resentment of outside +control of domestic affairs and in particular to unavoidable +difficulties inherent in the situation. Among the concrete causes of +Southern hostility was the attitude of some of the higher officials and +many of the lower ones toward the white people. They assumed that the +whites were unwilling to accord fair treatment to the blacks in the +matter of wages, schools, and justice. An official in Louisiana declared +that the whites would exterminate the Negroes if the Bureau were +removed. A few months later General Fullerton in the same State reported +that trouble was caused by those agents who noisily demanded special +privileges for the Negro but who objected to any penalties for his +lawlessness and made of the Negroes a pampered class. General Tillson +in Georgia predicted the extinction of the "old time Southerner with his +hate, cruelty, and malice." General Fisk declared that "there are some +of the meanest, unsubjugated and unreconstructed rascally revolutionists +in Kentucky that curse the soil of the country... a more select number +of vindictive, pro-slavery, rebellious legislators cannot be found than +a majority of the Kentucky legislature." There was a disposition to +lecture the whites about their sins in regard to slavery and to point +out to them how far in their general ignorance and backwardness they +fell short of enlightened people. + +The Bureau courts were frequently conducted in an "illegal and +oppressive manner," with "decided partiality for the colored people, +without regard to justice." For this reason they were suspended for a +time in Louisiana and Georgia by General Steedman and General Fullerton, +and cases were then sent before military courts. Men of the highest +character were dragged before the Bureau tribunals upon frivolous +complaints, were lectured, abused, ridiculed, and arbitrarily fined or +otherwise punished. The jurisdiction of the Bureau courts weakened the +civil courts and their frequent interference in trivial matters was not +conducive to a return to normal conditions. + +The inferior agents, not sufficiently under the control of their +superiors, were responsible for a great deal of this bad feeling. Many +of them held radical opinions as to the relations of the races, and +inculcated these views in their courts, in the schools, and in the new +Negro churches. Some were charged with even causing strikes and other +difficulties in order to be bought off by the whites. The tendency of +their work was to create in the Negroes a pervasive distrust of the +whites. + +The prevalent delusion in regard to an impending division of the +lands among the blacks had its origin in the operation of the war-time +confiscation laws, in some of the Bureau legislation, and in General +Sherman's Sea Island order, but it was further fostered by the agents +until most blacks firmly believed that each head of a family was to get +"40 acres and a mule." This belief seriously interfered with industry +and resulted also in widespread swindling by rascals who for years made +a practice of selling fraudulent deeds to land with red, white, and blue +sticks to mark off the bounds of a chosen spot on the former master's +plantation. The assistant commissioners labored hard to disabuse the +minds of the Negroes, but their efforts were often neutralized by the +unscrupulous attitude of the agents. + +As the contest over reconstruction developed in Washington, the +officials of the Bureau soon recognized the political possibilities of +their institution. After midyear of 1866, the Bureau became a political +machine for the purpose of organizing the blacks into the Union League, +where the rank and file were taught that reenslavement would follow +Democratic victories. Nearly all of the Bureau agents aided in +the administration of the reconstruction acts in 1867 and in the +organization of the new state and local governments and became officials +under the new regime. They were the chief agents in capturing the solid +Negro vote for the Republican party. + +Neither of the two plans for guiding the freedmen into a place in +the social order--the "Black Laws" and the Freedmen's Bureau--was +successful. The former contained a program which was better suited to +actual conditions and which might have succeeded if it had been given a +fair trial. These laws were a measure of the extent to which the average +white would then go in "accepting the situation" so far as the blacks +were concerned. And on the whole the recognition of Negro rights made in +these laws, and made at a time when the whites believed that they were +free to handle the situation, was remarkably fair. The Negroes lately +released from slavery were admitted to the enjoyment of the same rights +as the whites as to legal protection of life, liberty, and property, as +to education and as to the family relation, limited only by the clear +recognition of the principles of political inferiority and social +separation. Unhappily this legislation was not put to the test +of practical experience because of the Freedmen's Bureau; it was +nevertheless skillfully used to arouse the dominant Northern party to a +course of action which made impossible any further effort to treat the +race problem with due consideration to actual local conditions. + +Much of the work of the Freedmen's Bureau was of only temporary benefit +to both races. The results of its more permanent work were not generally +good. The institution was based upon the assumption that the Negro +race must be protected from the white race. In its organization and +administration it was an impossible combination of the practical and +the theoretical, of opportunism and humanitarianism, of common sense and +idealism. It failed to exert a permanently wholesome influence because +its lesser agents were not held to strict accountability by their +superiors. Under these agents the alienation of the two races began, and +the ill feelings then aroused were destined to persist into a long and +troubled future. + + + +CHAPTER V. THE VICTORY OF THE RADICALS + +The soldiers who fought through the war to victory or to defeat had +been at home nearly two years before the radicals developed sufficient +strength to carry through their plans for a revolutionary reconstruction +of the Southern states. At the end of the war, a majority of the +Northern people would have supported a settlement in accordance with +Lincoln's policy. Eight months later a majority, but a smaller one, +would have supported Johnson's work had it been possible to secure a +popular decision on it. How then did the radicals gain the victory over +the conservatives? The answer to this question is given by James Ford +Rhodes in terms of personalities: "Three men are responsible for the +Congressional policy of Reconstruction: Andrew Johnson, by his +obstinacy and bad behavior; Thaddeus Stevens, by his vindictiveness and +parliamentary tyranny; Charles Sumner, by his pertinacity in a misguided +humanitarianism." The President stood alone in his responsibility, +but his chief opponents were the ablest leaders of a resolute band of +radicals. + +Radicalism did not begin in the Administration of Andrew Johnson. +Lincoln had felt its covert opposition throughout the war, but he +possessed the faculty of weakening his opponents, while Johnson's +conduct usually multiplied the number and the strength of his enemies. +At first the radicals criticized Lincoln's policy in regard to slavery, +and after the Emancipation Proclamation they shifted their attack to his +"ten percent" plan for organizing the state governments as outlined in +the Proclamation of December 1863. Lincoln's course was distasteful to +them because he did not admit the right of Congress to dictate terms, +because of his liberal attitude towards former Confederates, and because +he was conservative on the Negro question. A schism among the Republican +supporters of the war was with difficulty averted in 1864, when Fremont +threatened to lead the radicals in opposition to the "Union" party of +the President and his conservative policy. + +The breach was widened by the refusal of Congress to admit +representatives from Arkansas and Louisiana in 1864 and to count the +electoral vote of Louisiana and Tennessee in 1865. The passage of the +Wade-Davis reconstruction bill in July 1864, and the protests of its +authors after Lincoln's pocket veto called attention to the growing +opposition. Severe criticism caused Lincoln to withdraw the propositions +which he had made in April 1865, with regard to the restoration of +Virginia. In his last public speech, he referred with regret to +the growing spirit of vindictiveness toward the South. Much of the +opposition to Lincoln's Southern policy was based not on radicalism, +that is, not on any desire for a revolutionary change in the South, but +upon a belief that Congress and not the executive should be entrusted +with the work of reorganizing the Union. Many congressional leaders were +willing to have Congress itself carry through the very policies which +Lincoln had advocated, and a majority of the Northern people would have +endorsed them without much caring who was to execute them. + +The murder of Lincoln, the failure of the radicals to shape Johnson's +policy as they had hoped, and the continuing reaction against the +excessive expansion of the executive power added strength to the +opposition. But it was a long fight before the radical leaders won. +Their victory was due to adroit tactics on their own part and to +mistakes, bad judgment, and bad manners on the part of the President. +When all hope of controlling Johnson had been given up, Thaddeus Stevens +and other leaders of similar views began to contrive means to circumvent +him. On December 1, 1865, before Congress met, a caucus of radicals held +in Washington agreed that a joint committee of the two Houses should be +selected to which should be referred matters relating to reconstruction. +This plan would thwart the more conservative Senate and gain a desirable +delay in which the radicals might develop their campaign. The next day +at a caucus of the Union party the plan went through without arousing +the suspicion of the supporters of the Administration. Next, through the +influence of Stevens, Edward McPherson, the clerk of the House, omitted +from the roll call of the House the names of the members from the +South. The radical program was then adopted and a week later the Senate +concurred in the action of the House as to the appointment of a Joint +Committee on Reconstruction. + +On the issues before Congress both Houses were split into rather clearly +defined factions: the extreme radicals with such leaders as Stevens, +Sumner, Wade, and Boutwell; the moderate Republicans, chief among whom +were Fessenden and Trumbull; the administration Republicans led by +Raymond, Doolittle, Cowan, and Dixon; and the Democrats, of whom the +ablest were Reverdy Johnson, Guthrie, and Hendricks. All except the +extreme radicals were willing to support the President or to come to +some fairly reasonable compromise. But at no time were they given an +opportunity to get together. Johnson and the administration leaders did +little in this direction and the radicals made the most skillful use of +the divisions among the conservatives. + +Whatever final judgment may be passed upon the radical reconstruction +policy and its results, there can be no doubt of the political dexterity +of those who carried it through. Chief among them was Thaddeus Stevens, +vindictive and unscrupulous, filled with hatred of the Southern leaders, +bitter in speech and possessing to an extreme degree the faculty of +making ridiculous those who opposed him. He advocated confiscation, the +proscription or exile of leading whites, the granting of the franchise +and of lands to the Negroes, and in Southern states the establishment +of territorial governments under the control of Congress. These states +should, he said, "never be recognized as capable of acting in the +Union... until the Constitution shall have been so amended as to make +it what the makers intended, and so as to secure perpetual ascendancy to +the party of the Union." + +Charles Sumner, the leader of the radicals in the Senate, was moved less +than Stevens by personal hostility toward the whites of the South, but +his sympathy was reserved entirely for the blacks. He was unpractical, +theoretical, and not troubled by constitutional scruples. To him the +Declaration of Independence was the supreme law, and it was the duty of +Congress to express its principles in appropriate legislation. Unlike +Stevens, who had a genuine liking for the Negro, Sumner's sympathy +for the race was purely intellectual; for the individual Negro he felt +repulsion. His views were in effect not different from those of Stevens. +And he was practical enough not to overlook the value of the Negro vote. +"To my mind," he said, "nothing is clearer than the absolute necessity +of suffrage for all colored persons in the disorganized states. It will +not be enough if you give it to those who read and write; you will +not, in this way, acquire the voting force which you need there for the +protection of unionists, whether white or black. You will not secure +the new allies who are essential to the national cause." A leader of the +second rank was his colleague Henry Wilson, who was also actuated by +a desire for the Negro's welfare and for the perpetuation of the +Republican party, which he said contained in its ranks "more of +moral and intellectual worth than was ever embodied in any political +organization in any land... created by no man or set of men but brought +into being by Almighty God himself... and endowed by the Creator with +all political power and every office under Heaven." Shellabarger of Ohio +was another important figure among the radicals. The following extract +from one of his speeches gives an indication of his character and +temperament: "They [the Confederates] framed iniquity and universal +murder into law.... Their pirates burned your unarmed commerce upon +every sea. They carved the bones of the dead heroes into ornaments, +and drank from goblets made out of their skulls. They poisoned your +fountains, put mines under your soldiers' prisons; organized bands whose +leaders were concealed in your homes; and commissions ordered the torch +and yellow fever to be carried to your cities and to your women and +children. They planned one universal bonfire of the North from Lake +Ontario to the Missouri." + +Among the lesser lights may be mentioned Morton and Wade, both bluff, +coarse, and ungenerous, and thoroughly convinced that the Republican +party had a monopoly of loyalty, wisdom, and virtues, and that by any +means it must gain and keep control; Boutwell, fanatical and mediocre; +and Benjamin Butler, a charlatan and demagogue. As a class the Western +radicals were less troubled by humanitarian ideals than were those of +the East and sought more practical political results. + +The Joint Committee on Reconstruction which finally decided the fate +of the Southern states was composed of eight radicals, four moderate +Republicans, and three Democrats. As James Gillespie Blaine wrote +later, "it was foreseen that in an especial degree the fortunes of the +Republican party would be in the keeping of the fifteen men who might +be chosen." This committee was divided into four subcommittees to take +testimony. The witnesses, all of whom were examined at Washington, +included army officers and Bureau agents who had served in the South, +Southern Unionists, a few politicians, and several former Confederates, +among them General Robert E. Lee and Alexander H. Stephens. Most of +the testimony was of the kind needed to support the contentions of the +radicals that Negroes were badly treated in the South; that the whites +were disloyal; that, should they be left in control, the Negro, free +labor, the nation, and the Republican party would be in danger; that +the army and the Freedmen's Bureau must be kept in the South; and that +a radical reconstruction was necessary. No serious effort, however, was +made to ascertain the actual conditions in the South. Slow to formulate +a definite plan, the Joint Committee guided public sentiment toward +radicalism, converted gradually the Republican Congressmen, and little +by little undermined the power and influence of the President. + +Not until after the new year was it plain that there was to be a fight +to the finish between Congress and the President. Congress had refused +in December 1865, to accept the President's program, but there was still +hope for a compromise. Many conservatives had voted for the delay merely +to assert the rights of Congress; but the radicals wanted time to frame +a program. The Northern Democrats were embarrassingly cordial in their +support of Johnson and so also were most Southerners. The moderates were +not far away from the position of the President and the administration +Republicans. But the radicals skillfully postponed a test of strength +until Stevens and Sumner were ready. The latter declared that a +generation must elapse "before the rebel communities have so far been +changed as to become safe associates in a common government. Time, +therefore, we must have. Through time all other guarantees may be +obtained; but time itself is a guarantee." + +To the Joint Committee were referred without debate all measures +relating to reconstruction, but the Committee was purposely making +little progress--contented merely to take testimony and to act as a +clearing house for the radical "facts" about "Southern outrages" while +waiting for the tide to turn. The "Black Laws" and the election of +popular Confederate leaders to office in the South were effectively used +to alarm the friends of the Negroes, and the reports from the +Bureau agents gave support to those who condemned the Southern state +governments as totally inadequate and disloyal. + +So apparent was the growth of radicalism that the President, alarmed by +the attitude of Sumner and Stevens and their followers, began to fear +for the Constitution and forced the fight. The passage of a bill on +February 6, 1866, extending the life of the Freedmen's Bureau furnished +the occasion for the beginning of the open struggle. On the 19th of +February, Johnson vetoed the bill, and the next day an effort was made +to pass it over the veto. Not succeeding in this attempt, the House +of Representatives adopted a concurrent resolution that Senators and +Representatives from the Southern states should be excluded until +Congress declared them entitled to representation. Ten days later the +Senate also adopted the resolution. + +Though it was not yet too late for Johnson to meet the conservatives +of Congress on middle ground, he threw away his opportunity by an +intemperate and undignified speech on the 22d of February to a crowd at +the White House. As usual when excited, he forgot the proprieties and +denounced the radicals as enemies of the Union and even went so far +as to charge Stevens, Sumner, and Wendell Phillips with endeavoring +to destroy the fundamental principles of the government. Such conduct +weakened his supporters and rejoiced his enemies. It was expected that +Johnson would approve the bill to confer civil rights upon the Negroes, +but, goaded perhaps by the speeches of Stevens, he vetoed it on the 27th +of March. Its patience now exhausted, Congress passed the bill over +the President's veto. To secure the requisite majority in the Senate, +Stockton, Democratic Senator from New Jersey, was unseated on technical +grounds, and Senator Morgan, who was "paired" with a sick colleague, +broke his word to vote aye--for which Wade offensively thanked God. The +moderates had now fallen away from the President, and at least for this +session of Congress, his policies were wrecked. On the 16th of July, the +supplementary Freedmen's Bureau Act was passed over the veto, and on +the 24th of July Tennessee was readmitted to representation by a law +the preamble of which asserted unmistakably that Congress had assumed +control of reconstruction. + +Meanwhile the Joint Committee on Reconstruction had made a report +asserting that the Southerners had forfeited all constitutional rights, +that their state governments were not in constitutional form, and that +restoration could be accomplished only when Congress and the President +acted together in fixing the terms of readmission. The uncompromising +hostility of the South, the Committee asserted, made necessary adequate +safeguards which should include the disfranchisement of the white +leaders, either Negro suffrage or a reduction of white representation, +and repudiation of the Confederate war debt with recognition of the +validity of the United States debt. These terms were embodied in the +Fourteenth Amendment, which was adopted by Congress and sent to the +States on June 13, 1866. + +In the congressional campaign of 1866, reconstruction was almost the +sole issue. For success the Administration must gain at least one-third +of one house, while the radicals were fighting for two-thirds of each +House. If the Administration should fail to make the necessary gain, the +work accomplished by the Presidents would be destroyed. The campaign +was bitter and extended through the summer and fall. Four national +conventions were held: the National Union party at Philadelphia made a +respectable showing in support of the President; the Southern Unionists, +guided by the Northern radicals met at the same place; a soldiers' +and sailors' convention at Cleveland supported the Administration; and +another convention of soldiers and sailors at Pittsburgh endorsed the +radical policies. A convention of Confederate soldiers and sailors at +Memphis endorsed the President, but the Southern support and that of the +Northern Democrats did not encourage moderate Republicans to vote for +the Administration. Three members of Johnson's Cabinet--Harlan, Speed, +and Dennison--resigned because they were unwilling to follow their chief +further in opposing Congress. + +The radicals had plenty of campaign material in the testimony collected +by the Joint Committee, in the reports of the Freedmen's Bureau, and in +the bloody race riots which had occurred in Memphis and New Orleans. The +greatest blunder of the Administration was Johnson's speechmaking tour +to the West which he called "Swinging Around the Circle." Every time he +made a speech he was heckled by persons in the crowd, lost his temper, +denounced Congress and the radical leaders, and conducted himself in an +undignified manner. The election returns showed more than a two-thirds +majority in each House against the President. The Fortieth Congress +would therefore be safely radical, and in consequence the Thirty-ninth +was encouraged to be more radical during its last session. + +Public interest now for a time turned to the South, where the Fourteenth +Amendment was before the state legislatures. The radicals, taunted with +having no plan of reconstruction beyond a desire to keep the Southern +States out of the Union, professed to see in the ratification of the +Fourteenth Amendment a good opportunity to readmit the States on a safe +basis. The elections of 1866 had pointed to the ratification of the +proposed amendment as an essential preliminary to readmission. But +would additional demands be made upon the South? Sumner, Stevens, and +Fessenden were sure that Negro suffrage also must come, but Wade, Chase, +Garfield, and others believed that nothing beyond the terms of the +Fourteenth Amendment would be asked. + +In the Southern legislatures there was little disposition to ratify the +amendment. The rapid development of the radical policies during 1866 had +convinced most Southerners that nothing short of a general humiliation +and complete revolution in the South would satisfy the dominant party, +and there were few who wished to be "parties to our own dishonor." The +President advised the States not to accept the amendment, but several +Southern leaders favored it, fearing that worse would come if they +should reject it. Only in the legislatures of Alabama and Florida was +there any serious disposition to accept the amendment; and in the end +all the unreconstructed States voted adversely during the fall and +winter of 1866-67. This unanimity of action was due in part to the +belief that, even if the amendment were ratified, the Southern states +would still be excluded, and in part to the general dislike of the +proscriptive section which would disfranchise all Confederates of +prominence and result in the breaking up of the state governments. +The example of unhappy Tennessee, which had ratified the Fourteenth +Amendment and had been readmitted, was not one to encourage conservative +people in the other Southern states. + +The rejection of the amendment put the question of reconstruction +squarely before Congress. There was no longer a possibility of +accomplishing the reconstruction of the Southern states by means of +constitutional amendments. Some of the Border and Northern states were +already showing signs of uneasiness at the continued exclusion of the +South. But if the Constitutional Amendment had failed, other means +of reconstruction were at hand, for the radicals now controlled the +Thirty-ninth Congress, from which the Southern representatives were +excluded, and would also control the Fortieth Congress. + +Under the lead of Stevens and Sumner, the radicals now perfected their +plans. On January 8,1867, their first measure, conferring the +franchise upon Negroes in the District of Columbia, was passed over the +presidential veto, though the proposal had been voted down a few +weeks earlier by a vote of 6525 to 35 in Washington and 812 to 1 in +Georgetown. In the next place, by an act of January 31, 1867, the +franchise was extended to Negroes in the territories, and on March 2, +1867, three important measures were enacted: the Tenure of Office Act +and a rider to the Army Appropriation Act--both designed to limit the +power of the President--and the first Reconstruction Act. By the Tenure +of Office Act, the President was prohibited from removing officeholders +except with the consent of the Senate; and by the Army Act he was +forbidden to issue orders except through General Grant or to relieve him +of command or to assign him to command away from Washington unless at +the General's own request or with the previous approval of the +Senate. The first measure was meant to check the removal of radical +officeholders by Johnson, and the other, which was secretly drawn up +for Boutwell by Stanton, was designed to prevent the President from +exercising his constitutional command of the army. + +The first Reconstruction Act declared that no legal state government +existed in the ten unreconstructed states and that there was no adequate +protection for life and property. The Johnson and Lincoln governments +in those States were declared to have no legal status and to be subject +wholly to the authority of the United States to modify or abolish. The +ten states were divided into five military districts, over each of which +a general officer was to be placed in command. Military tribunals were +to supersede the civil courts where necessary. Stevens was willing to +rest here, though some of his less radical followers, disliking military +rule but desiring to force Negro suffrage, inserted a provision in +the law that a State might be readmitted to representation upon the +following conditions: a constitutional convention must be held, the +members of which were elected by males of voting age without regard +to color, excluding whites who would be disfranchised by the proposed +Fourteenth Amendment; a constitution including the same rule of suffrage +must be framed, ratified by the same electorate, and approved by +Congress; and lastly, the legislatures elected under this constitution +must ratify the proposed Fourteenth Amendment, after which, if +the Fourteenth Amendment should have become a part of the Federal +Constitution, the State should be readmitted to representation. + +In order that the administration of this radical legislation might be +supervised by its friends, the Thirty-ninth Congress had passed a law +requiring the Fortieth Congress to meet on the 4th of March instead of +in December as was customary. According to the Reconstruction Act of the +2nd of March, it was left to the state government or to the people of a +state to make the first move towards reconstruction. If they preferred, +they might remain under military rule. Either by design or by +carelessness no machinery of administration was provided for the +execution of the act. When it became evident that the Southerners +preferred military rule, the new Congress passed a Supplementary +Reconstruction Act on the 23d of March designed to force the earlier act +into operation. The five commanding generals were directed to register +the blacks of voting age and the whites who were not disfranchised, +to hold elections for conventions, to call the conventions, to hold +elections to ratify or reject the constitutions, and to forward the +constitutions, if ratified, to the President for transmission to +Congress. + +In these reconstruction acts the whole doctrine of radicalism was put on +the way to accomplishment. Its spread had been rapid. In December 1865, +the majority of Congress would have accepted with little modification +the work of Lincoln and Johnson. Three months later the Civil Rights Act +measured the advance. Very soon the new Freedmen's Bureau Act and +the Fourteenth Amendment indicated the rising tide of radicalism. The +campaign of 1866 and the attitude of the Southern states swept all +radicals and most moderate Republicans swiftly into a merciless course +of reconstruction. Moderate reconstruction had nowhere strong support. +Congress, touched in its amour propre by presidential disregard, was +eager for extremes. Johnson, who regarded himself as defending the +Constitution against radical assaults, was stubborn, irascible, and +undignified, and with his associates was no match in political strategy +for his radical opponents. + +The average Republican or Unionist in the North, if he had not been +brought by skillful misrepresentation to believe a new rebellion +impending in the South, was at any rate painfully alive to the fear that +the Democratic party might regain power. With the freeing of the slaves, +the representation of the South in Congress would be increased. At first +it seemed that the South might divide in politics as before the war, but +the longer the delay the more the Southern whites tended to unite +into one party acting with the Democrats. With their eighty-five +representatives and a slight reaction in the North, they might gain +control of the lower House of Congress. The Union-Republican party had +a majority of less than one hundred in 1866, and this was lessened +slightly in the Fortieth Congress. The President was for all practical +purposes a Democrat again. The prospect was too much for the very human +politicians to view without distress. Stevens, speaking in support of +the Military Reconstruction Bill, said: + +"There are several good reasons for the passage of this bill. In +the first place, it is just. I am now confining my argument to Negro +suffrage in the rebel states. Have not loyal blacks quite as good a +right to choose rulers and make laws as rebel whites? In the second +place, it is necessary in order to protect the loyal white men in the +seceded states. With them the blacks would act in a body, and it is +believed that in each of these states, except one, the two united would +form a majority, control the states, and protect themselves. Now they +are the victims of daily murder. They must suffer constant persecution +or be exiled. Another good reason is that it would insure the ascendancy +of the union party.... I believe... that on the continued ascendancy +of that party depends the safety of this great nation. If impartial +suffrage is excluded in the rebel states, then every one of them is +sure to send a solid rebel electoral vote. They, with their kindred +Copperheads of the North, would always elect the President and control +Congress." + +The laws passed on the 2d and the 23d of March were war measures and +presupposed a continuance of war conditions. The Lincoln-Johnson state +governments were overturned; Congress fixed the qualifications of voters +for that time and for the future; and the President, shorn of much of +his constitutional power, could exercise but little control over +the military government. Nothing that a state might do would secure +restoration until it should ratify the Fourteenth Amendment to the +Federal Constitution. The war had been fought upon the theory that the +old Union must be preserved; but the basic theory of the reconstruction +was that a new Union was to be created. + + + +CHAPTER VI. THE RULE OF THE MAJOR GENERALS + +From the passage of the reconstruction acts to the close of Johnson's +Administration, Congress, working the will of the radical majority, was +in supreme control. The army carried out the will of Congress and +to that body, not to the President, the commanding general and his +subordinates looked for direction. + +The official opposition of the President to the policy of Congress +ceased when that policy was enacted into law. He believed this +legislation to be unconstitutional, but he considered it his duty to +execute the laws. He at once set about the appointment of generals to +command the military districts created in the South,* a task calling for +no little discretion, since much depended upon the character of these +military governors, or "satraps," as they were frequently called by the +opposition. The commanding general in a district was charged with many +duties, military, political, and administrative. It was his duty +to carry on a government satisfactory to the radicals and not too +irritating to the Southern whites; at the same time he must execute the +reconstruction acts by putting old leaders out of power and Negroes +in. Violent opposition to this policy on the part of the South was not +looked for. Notwithstanding the "Southern outrage" campaign, it was +generally recognized in government circles that conditions in the +seceded states had gradually been growing better since the close of +the war. There was in many regions, to be sure, a general laxity in +enforcing laws, but that had always been characteristic of the newer +parts of the South. The Civil Rights Act was generally in force, +the "Black Laws" had been suspended, and the Freedmen's Bureau was +everywhere caring for the Negroes. What disorder existed was of recent +origin and in the main was due to the unsettling effects of the debates +in Congress and to the organization of the Negroes for political +purposes. + + * The first five generals appointed were Schofield, Sickles. + Pope, Ord, and Sheridan. None of these remained in his + district until reconstruction was completed. To Schofield's + command in the first district succeeded in turn Stoneman, + Webb, and Canby; Sickles gave way to Canby, and Pope to + Meade; Ord in the fourth district was followed by Gillem, + McDowell, and Ames; Sheridan, in the fifth, was succeeded by + Griffen, Mower, Hancock, Buchanan, Reynolds, and Canby. Some + of the generals were radical; others, moderate and tactful. + The most extreme were Sheridan, Pope, and Sickles. Those + most acceptable to the whites were Hancock, Schofield, and + Meade. General Grant himself became more radical in his + actions as he became involved in the fight between Congress + and the President. + + +Military rule was established in the South with slight friction, but it +was soon found that the reconstruction laws were not sufficiently clear +on two points: first, whether there was any limit to the authority +of the five generals over the local and state governments and, if so, +whether the limiting authority was in the President; and second, whether +the disfranchising provisions in the laws were punitive and hence to +be construed strictly. Attorney-General Stanbery, in May and June +1867, drew up opinions in which he maintained that the laws were to +be considered punitive and therefore to be construed strictly. After +discussions in cabinet meetings, these opinions received the approval of +all except Stanton, Secretary of War, who had already joined the radical +camp. The Attorney-General's opinion was sent out to the district +commanders for their information and guidance. But Congress did not +intend to permit the President or his Cabinet to direct the process +of reconstruction, and in the Act of July 19, 1867, it gave a radical +interpretation to the reconstruction legislation, declared itself in +control, gave full power to General Grant and to the district commanders +subject only to Grant, directed the removal of all local officials who +opposed the reconstruction policies, and warned the civil and military +officers of the United States that none of them should "be bound in his +action by any opinion of any civil officer of the United States." This +interpretive legislation gave a broad basis for the military government +and resulted in a severe application of the disfranchising provisions of +the laws. + +The rule of the five generals lasted in all the States until June 1868, +and continued in Mississippi, Texas, Virginia, and Georgia until 1870. +There had been, to be sure, some military government in 1865, subject, +however, to the President, and from 1865 to 1867 the army, along with +the Freedmen's Bureau, had exerted a strong influence in the government +of the South, but in the regime now inaugurated the military was +supreme. The generals had a superior at Washington, but whether it was +the President, General Grant, or Congress was not clear until the Act of +July 19, 1867 made Congress the source of authority. + +The power of the generals most strikingly appeared in their control of +the state governments which were continued as provisional organizations. +Since no elections were permitted, all appointments and removals were +made from military headquarters, which soon became political beehives, +centers of wirepulling and agencies for the distribution of spoils. At +the outset civil officers were ordered to retain their offices during +good behavior, subject to military control. But no local official was +permitted to use his influence ever so slightly against reconstruction. +Since most of them did not favor the policy of Congress, thousands were +removed as "obstacles to reconstruction." The Governors of Georgia, +Louisiana, Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas were displaced and others +appointed in their stead. All kinds of subordinate offices rapidly +became vacant. New appointments were nearly always carpetbaggers +and native radicals who could take the "ironclad" oath. The generals +complained that there were not enough competent native "loyalists" +to fill the offices, and frequently an army officer was installed as +governor, treasurer, secretary of state, auditor, or mayor. In nearly +all towns, the police force was reorganized, and former Federal soldiers +were added to the force, while the regular troops were used for general +police purposes and for rural constabulary. + +Over the administration of justice the military authorities exercised a +close supervision. Instructions were sent out to court officers covering +the selection of juries, the suspension of certain laws, and the rules +of evidence and procedure. Courts were often closed, court decrees set +aside or modified, prisoners released, and many cases reserved for trial +by military commission. Some commanders required juries to admit Negro +members and insisted that all jurors take the "ironclad" test oath. +There was some attempt at regulating the Federal courts but without much +success. + +Since the state legislatures were forbidden to meet, much legislation +was enacted through military orders. Stay laws were enacted, the color +line was abolished, new criminal regulations were promulgated, and the +police power was invoked in some instances to justify sweeping measures, +such as the prohibition of whisky manufacture in North Carolina and +South Carolina. The military governors levied, increased, or decreased +taxes and made appropriations which the state treasurers were forced to +pay, but they restrained the radical conventions, all of which wished to +spend much money. According to the Act of March 23, 1867, the generals +and their appointees were to be paid by the United States, but in +practice the running expenses of reconstruction were paid by the state +treasurers. + +Any attempt to favor the Confederate soldiers was frowned upon. Laws +providing wooden legs and free education for crippled Confederates were +suspended. Militia organizations and military schools were forbidden. +No uniform might be worn, no parades were permitted, no memorial and +historical societies were to be organized, and no meeting of any +kind could be held without a permit. The attempt to control the press +resulted in what one general called "a horrible uproar." Editors were +forbidden to express themselves too strongly against reconstruction; +public advertising and printing were awarded only to those papers +actively supporting reconstruction. Several newspapers were suppressed, +a notable example being the "Tuscaloosa Independent Monitor", whose +editor, Ryland Randolph, was a picturesque figure in Alabama journalism +and a leader in the Ku Klux Klan. + +The military administration was thorough and, as a whole, honest +and efficient. With fewer than ten thousand soldiers, the generals +maintained order and carried on the reconstruction of the South. The +whites made no attempt at resistance, though they were irritated +by military rule and resented the loss of self-government. But most +Southerners preferred the rule of the army to the alternative reign +of the carpetbagger, scalawag, and Negro. The extreme radicals at the +North, on the other hand, were disgusted at the conservative policy of +the generals. The apathy of the whites at the beginning of the military +reconstruction excited surprise on all sides. Not only was there no +violent opposition, but for a few weeks there was no opposition at all. +The civil officials were openly unsympathetic, and the newspapers voiced +dissent not untouched with disgust; others simply could not take the +situation seriously because it seemed so absurd; many leaders were +indifferent, while others among them, Generals Lee, Beauregard, and +Longstreet, and Governor Patton--without approving the policy, advised +the whites to cooperate with the military authorities and save all they +could out of the situation. General Beauregard, for instance, wrote in +1867: "If the suffrage of the Negro is properly handled and directed, +we shall defeat our adversaries with their own weapons. The Negro is +Southern born. With education and property qualifications he can be made +to take an interest in the affairs of the South and in its prosperity. +He will side with the whites." + +Northern observers who were friendly to the South or who disapproved +of this radical reconstruction saw the danger more clearly than +the Southerners themselves, who seemed not to appreciate the full +implication of the situation. In this connection the New York "Herald" +remarked: + +"We may regard the entire ten unreconstructed Southern States, with +possibly one or two exceptions, as forced by a secret and overwhelming +revolutionary influence to a common and inevitable fate. They are all +bound to be governed by blacks spurred on by worse than blacks--white +wretches who dare not show their faces in respectable society anywhere. +This is the most abominable phase barbarism has assumed since the dawn +of civilization. It was all right and proper to put down the rebellion. +It was all right perhaps to emancipate the slaves.... But it is not +right to make slaves of white men even though they may have been former +masters of blacks. This is but a change in a system of bondage that is +rendered the more odious and intolerable because it has been inaugurated +in an enlightened instead of a dark and uncivilized age." + +The political parties rapidly grouped themselves for the coming +struggle. The radical Republican party indeed was in process of +organization in the South even before the passage of the reconstruction +acts. Its membership was made up of Negroes, carpetbaggers, or Northern +men who had come in as speculators, officers of the Freedmen's Bureau +and of the army, scalawags or Confederate renegades, "Peace Society" +men,* and Unionists of Civil War times, with a few old Whigs who could +not yet bring themselves to affiliate with the Democrats. At first it +seemed that a respectable number of whites might be secured for the +radical party, but the rapid organization of the Negroes checked the +accession of whites. In the winter and spring of 1866-67, the Negroes +near the towns were well organized by the Union League and the +Freedmen's Bureau and then, after the passage of the reconstruction +acts, the organizing activities of the radical chieftains shifted to +the rural districts. The Union League was greatly extended; Union League +conventions were held to which local whites were not admitted; and +the formation of a black man's party was well on the way before the +registration of the voters was completed. Visiting statesmen from the +North, among them Henry Wilson of Massachusetts and "Pig Iron" Kelley +of Pennsylvania, toured the South in support of the radical program, and +the registrars and all Federal officials aided in the work. + + * See "The Day of the Confederacy", by Nathaniel W. + Stephenson (in "The Chronicles of America"), p. 121, + footnote. + + +The whites, slow to comprehend the real extent of radicalism, were +finally aroused to the necessity of organizing, if they were to +influence the Negro and have a voice in the conventions. The old party +divisions were still evident. With difficulty a portion of the Whigs was +brought with the Democrats into one conservative party during the summer +and fall of 1867, though many still held aloof. The lack of the old +skilled leadership was severely felt. In places where the white man's +party was given a name, it was called "Democratic and Conservative," to +spare the feelings of former Whigs who were loath to bear the party name +of their quondam opponents. + +The first step in the military reconstruction was the registration of +voters. In each State a central board of registrars was appointed by the +district commander and a local board for every county and large town. +Each board consisted of three members--all radicals--who were required +to subscribe to the "ironclad" oath. In several states one Negro was +appointed to each local board. The registrars listed Negro voters during +the day, and at night worked at the organization of a radical Republican +party. The prospective voters were required to take the oath prescribed +in the Reconstruction Act, but the registrars were empowered to +go behind the oath and investigate the Confederate record of each +applicant. This authority was invoked to carry the disfranchisement of +the whites far beyond the intention of the law in an attempt to destroy +the leadership of the whites and to register enough Negroes to outvote +them at the polls. For this purpose the registration was continued until +October 1, 1867, and an active campaign of education and organization +carried on. + +At the close of the registration, 703,000 black voters were on the rolls +and 627,000 whites. In Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida, and +Mississippi there were black majorities, and in the other States the +blacks and the radical whites together formed majorities. The white +minorities included several thousand who had been rejected by the +registrars but restored by the military commanders. Though large +numbers of blacks were dropped from the revised rolls as fraudulently +registered, the registration statistics, nevertheless, bore clear +witness to the political purpose of those who compiled them. + +Next followed a vote on the question of holding a state convention +and the election of delegates to such a convention if held--a double +election. The whites, who had been harassed in the registration and who +feared race conflicts at the elections, considered whether they ought +not to abstain from voting. By staying away from the polls, they might +bring the vote cast in each State below a majority and thus defeat the +proposed conventions for, unless a majority of the registered voters +actually cast ballots either for or against a convention, no convention +could be held. Nowhere, however, was this plan of not voting fully +carried out, for, though most whites abstained, enough of them voted +(against the conventions, of course) to make the necessary majority in +each State. The effect of the abstention policy upon the personnel of +the conventions was unfortunate. In every convention there was a radical +majority with a conservative and all but negligible minority. In South +Carolina and Louisiana, there were Negro majorities. In every State +except North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia, the Negroes and the +carpetbaggers together were in the majority over native whites. + +The conservative whites were of fair ability; the carpetbaggers and +scalawags produced in each convention a few able leaders, but most +of them were conscienceless political soldiers of fortune; the Negro +members were inexperienced, and most of them were quite ignorant, though +a few leaders of ability did appear among them. In Alabama, for example, +only two Negro members could write, though half had been taught to sign +their names. They were barbers, field hands, hack drivers, and servants. +A Negro chaplain was elected who invoked divine blessings on "unioners +and cusses on rebels." It was a sign of the new era when the convention +specially invited the "ladies of colored members" to seats in the +gallery. + +The work of the conventions was for the most part cut and dried, the +abler members having reached a general agreement before they met. The +constitutions, mosaics of those of other states, were noteworthy only +for the provisions made to keep the whites out of power and to regulate +the relations of the races in social matters. The Texas constitution +alone contained no proscriptive clauses beyond those required by +the Fourteenth Amendment. The most thoroughgoing proscription of +Confederates was found in the constitutions of Mississippi, Alabama, and +Virginia; and in these states the voter must also purge himself of guilt +by agreeing to accept the "civil and political equality of all men" or +by supporting reconstruction. Only in South Carolina and Louisiana were +race lines abolished by law. + +The legislative work of the conventions was more interesting than the +constitution making. By ordinance the legality of Negro marriages was +dated from November 1867, or some date later than had been fixed by the +white conventions of 1865. Mixed schools were provided in some States; +militia for the black districts but not for the white was to be raised; +while in South Carolina it was made a penal offense to call a person a +"Yankee" or a "nigger." Few of the Negro delegates demanded proscription +of whites or social equality; they wanted schools and the vote. The +white radicals were more anxious to keep the former Confederates from +holding office than from voting. The generals in command everywhere used +their influence to secure moderate action by the conventions, and for +this they were showered with abuse. + +As provided by the reconstruction acts, the new constitutions were +submitted to the electorate created by those instruments. Unless a +majority of the registered voters in a State should take part in the +election, the reconstruction would fail and the State would remain under +military rule. The whites now inaugurated a more systematic policy of +abstention and in Alabama, on February 4, 1868, succeeded in holding +the total vote below a majority. Congress then rushed to the rescue of +radicalism with the act of the 11th of March, which provided that a +mere majority of those voting in the State was sufficient to inaugurate +reconstruction. Arkansas had followed the lead of Alabama, but too late; +in Mississippi the constitution was defeated by a majority vote; in +Texas the convention had made no provision for a vote; and in Virginia +the commanding general, disapproving of the work of the convention, +refused to pay the expenses of an election. In the other six States the +constitutions were adopted.* + + * Except in Texas, the work of constitution making was + completed between November 5, 1867, and May 18, 1868. + +These elections gave rise to more violent contests than before. They +also were double elections, as the voters cast ballots for state and +local officials and at the same time for or against the constitution. +The radical nominations were made by the Union League and the Freedmen's +Bureau, and nearly all radicals who had been members of conventions were +nominated and elected to office. The Negroes, expecting now to reap some +benefits of reconstruction, frequently brought sacks to the polls to +"put the franchise in." The elections were all over by June 1868, +and the newly elected legislatures promptly ratified the Fourteenth +Amendment. + +It now remained for Congress to approve the work done in the South +and to readmit the reorganized states. The case of Alabama gave some +trouble. Even Stevens, for a time, thought that this state should stay +out; but there was danger in delay. The success of the abstention +policy in Alabama and Arkansas and the reviving interest of the whites +foreshadowed white majorities in some places; the scalawags began +to forsake the radical party for the conservatives; and there were +Democratic gains in the North in 1867. Only six states, New York and +five New England States, allowed the Negro to vote, while four states, +Minnesota, Michigan, Kansas, and Ohio, voted down Negro suffrage after +the passage of the reconstruction acts. The ascendancy of the radicals +in Congress was menaced. The radicals needed the support of their +radical brethren in Southern States and they could not afford to wait +for the Fourteenth Amendment to become a part of the Constitution or +to tolerate other delay. On the 22d and the 25th of June, acts +were therefore passed admitting seven states, Alabama included, to +representation in Congress upon the "fundamental condition" that "the +constitutions of neither of said States shall ever be so amended or +changed as to deprive any citizens or class of citizens of the United +States of the right to vote in said State, who are entitled to vote by +the constitution thereof herein recognized." + +The generals now turned over the government to the recently +elected radical officials and retired into the background. Military +reconstruction was thus accomplished in all the States except Virginia, +Mississippi, and Texas. + + + +CHAPTER VII. THE TRIAL OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON + +While the radical program was being executed in the South, Congress +was engaged not only in supervising reconstruction but in subduing the +Supreme Court and in "conquering" President Johnson. One must admire the +efficiency of the radical machine. When the Southerners showed that they +preferred military rule as permitted by the Act of the 2nd of +March, Congress passed the Act of the 23d of March which forced the +reconstruction. When the President ventured to assert his power in +behalf of a considerate administration of the reconstruction acts, +Congress took the power out of his hands by the law of the 19th of July. +The Southern plan to defeat the new state constitutions by abstention +was no sooner made clear in the case of Alabama than Congress came to +the rescue with the Act of March 11, 1868. + +Had it seemed necessary, Congress would have handled the Supreme Court +as it did the Southerners. The opponents of radical reconstruction were +anxious to get the reconstruction laws of March 1867, before the Court. +Chief Justice Chase was known to be opposed to military reconstruction, +and four other justices were, it was believed, doubtful of the +constitutionality of the laws. A series of conservative decisions gave +hope to those who looked to the Court for relief. The first decision, in +the case of ex parte Milligan, declared unconstitutional the trials of +civilians by military commissions when civil courts were open. A +few months later, in the cases of Cummings vs. Missouri and ex parte +Garland, the Court declared invalid, because ex post facto, the state +laws designed to punish former Confederates. + +But the first attempts to get the reconstruction acts before the Supreme +Court failed. The State of Mississippi, in April 1867, brought suit to +restrain the President from executing the reconstruction acts. The Court +refused to interfere with the executive. A similar suit was then brought +against Secretary Stanton by Georgia with a like result. But in 1868, +in the case of ex parte McCardle, it appeared that the question of +the constitutionality of the reconstruction acts would be passed upon. +McCardle, a Mississippi editor arrested for opposition to reconstruction +and convicted by military commission, appealed to the Supreme Court, +which asserted its jurisdiction. But the radicals in alarm rushed +through Congress an act (March 27, 1868) which took away from the Court +its jurisdiction in cases arising under the reconstruction acts. The +highest court was thus silenced. + +The attempt to remove the President from office was the only part of +the radical program that failed, and this by the narrowest of margins. +During the spring and summer of 1866, there was some talk among +politicians of impeaching President Johnson, and in December a +resolution was introduced by Representative Ashley of Ohio looking +toward impeachment. Though the committee charged with the investigation +of "the official conduct of Andrew Johnson" reported that enough +testimony had been taken to justify further inquiry, the House took no +action. There were no less than five attempts at impeachment during the +next year. Stevens, Butler, and others were anxious to get the President +out of the way, but the majority were as yet unwilling to impeach for +merely political reasons. There were some who thought that the radicals +had sufficient majorities to ensure all needed legislation and did not +relish the thought of Ben Wade in the presidency.* Others considered +that no just grounds for action had been found in the several +investigations of Johnson's record. Besides, the President's authority +and influence had been much curtailed by the legislation relating to the +Freedmen's Bureau, tenure of office, reconstruction, and command of +the army, and Congress had also refused to recognize his amnesty and +pardoning powers. + + * Senator Wade of Ohio was President pro tempore of the + Senate and by the act of 1791 would succeed President + Johnson if he were removed from office. + +But the desire to impeach the President was increasing in power, and +very little was needed to provoke a trial of strength between the +radicals and the President. The drift toward impeachment was due in +part to the legislative reaction against the executive, and in part +to Johnson's own opposition to reconstruction and to his use of the +patronage against the radicals. Specific grievances were found in +his vetoes of the various reconstruction bills, in his criticisms of +Congress and the radical leaders, and in the fact, as Stevens asserted, +that he was a "radical renegade." Johnson was a Southern man, an +old-line State Rights Democrat, somewhat anti-Negro in feeling. He knew +no book except the Constitution, and that he loved with all his soul. +Sure of the correctness of his position, he was too stubborn to change +or to compromise. He was no more to be moved than Stevens or Sumner. To +overcome Johnson's vetoes required two-thirds of each House of Congress; +to impeach and remove him would require only a majority of the House and +two-thirds of the Senate. + +The desired occasion for impeachment was furnished by Johnson's attempt +to get Edwin M. Stanton, the Secretary of War, out of the Cabinet. +Stanton held radical views and was at no time sympathetic with or loyal +to Johnson, but he loved office too well to resign along with those +cabinet members who could not follow the President in his struggle +with Congress. He was seldom frank and sincere in his dealings with +the President, and kept up an underhand correspondence with the +radical leaders, even assisting in framing some of the reconstruction +legislation which was designed to render Johnson powerless. In him the +radicals had a representative within the President's Cabinet. + + +Wearied of Stanton's disloyalty, Johnson asked him to resign and, upon +a refusal, suspended him in August 1867, and placed General Grant in +temporary charge of the War Department. General Grant, Chief Justice +Chase, and Secretary McCulloch, though they all disliked Stanton, +advised the President against suspending him. But Johnson was +determined. About the same time he exercised his power in removing +Sheridan and Sickles from their commands in the South and replaced +them with Hancock and Canby. The radicals were furious, but Johnson had +secured at least the support of a loyal Cabinet. + +The suspension of Stanton was reported to the Senate in December +1867, and on January 13, 1868, the Senate voted not to concur in the +President's action. Upon receiving notice of the vote in the Senate, +Grant at once left the War Department and Stanton again took possession. +Johnson now charged Grant with failing to keep a promise either to hold +on himself or to make it possible to appoint some one else who would +hold on until the matter might be brought into the courts. The President +by this accusation angered Grant and threw him with his great influence +into the arms of the radicals. Against the advice of his leading +counselors, Johnson persisted in his intention to keep Stanton out of +the Cabinet. Accordingly on the 21st of February he dismissed Stanton +from office and appointed Lorenzo Thomas, the Adjutant General, as +acting Secretary of War. Stanton, advised by the radicals in Congress to +"stick," refused to yield possession to Thomas and had him arrested for +violation of the Tenure of Office Act. The matter now was in the courts +where Johnson wanted it, but the radical leaders, fearing that the +courts would decide against Stanton and the reconstruction acts, had the +charges against Thomas withdrawn. Thus failed the last attempt to get +the reconstruction laws before the courts. On the 22nd of February, the +President sent to the Senate the name of Thomas Ewing, General Sherman's +father-in-law, as Secretary of War, but no attention was paid to the +nomination. + +On February 24, 1868, the House voted, 128 to 47, to impeach the +President "of high crimes and misdemeanors in office." The Senate +was formally notified the next day, and on the 4th of March the seven +managers selected by the House appeared before the Senate with the +eleven articles of impeachment. At first it seemed to the public that +the impeachment proceedings were merely the culmination of a struggle +for the control of the army. There were rumors that Johnson had plans to +use the army against Congress and against reconstruction. General +Grant, directed by Johnson to accept orders from Stanton only if he were +satisfied that they came from the President, refused to follow these +instructions. Stanton, professing to fear violence, barricaded himself +in the War Department and was furnished with a guard of soldiers +by General Grant, who from this time used his influence in favor of +impeachment. Excited by the most sensational rumors, some people even +believed a new rebellion to be imminent. + +The impeachment was rushed to trial by the House managers and was not +ended until the decision was taken by the votes of the 16th and 26th of +May. The eleven articles of impeachment consisted of summaries of all +that had been charged against Johnson, except the charge that he had +been an accomplice in the murder of Lincoln. The only one which had any +real basis was the first, which asserted that he had violated the Tenure +of Office Act in trying to remove Stanton. The other articles were +merely expansions of the first or were based upon Johnson's opposition +to reconstruction or upon his speeches in criticism of Congress. Nothing +could be said about his control of the patronage, though this was one of +the unwritten charges. J. W. Schuckers, in his life of Chase, says +that the radical leaders "felt the vast importance of the presidential +patronage; many of them felt, too, that, according to the maxim that +to the victors belong the spoils, the Republican party was rightfully +entitled to the Federal patronage, and they determined to get possession +of it. There was but one method and that was by impeachment and removal +of the President." + +The leading House managers were Stevens, Butler, Bingham, and Boutwell, +all better known as politicians than as lawyers. The President was +represented by an abler legal array: Curtis, Evarts, Stanbery, Nelson, +and Groesbeck. Jeremiah Black was at first one of the counsel for the +President but withdrew under conditions not entirely creditable to +himself. + +The trial was a one-sided affair. The President's counsel were refused +more than six days for the preparation of the case. Chief Justice Chase, +who presided over the trial, insisted upon regarding the Senate as a +judicial and not a political body, and he accordingly ruled that only +legal evidence should be admitted; but the Senate majority preferred +to assume that they were settling a political question. Much evidence +favorable to the President was excluded, but everything else was +admitted. As the trial went on, the country began to understand that the +impeachment was a mistake. Few people wanted to see Senator Wade made +President. The partisan attitude of the Senate majority and the weakness +of the case against Johnson had much to do in moderating public opinion, +and the timely nomination of General Schofield as Secretary of War after +Stanton's resignation reassured those who feared that the army might be +placed under some extreme Democrat. + +As the time drew near for the decision, every possible pressure was +brought by the radicals to induce senators to vote for conviction. To +convict the President, thirty-six votes were necessary. There were only +twelve Democrats in the Senate, but all were known to be in favor of +acquittal. When the test came on the 16th of May, seven Republicans +voted with the Democrats for acquittal on the eleventh article. Another +vote on the 26th of May, on the first and second articles, showed that +conviction was not possible. The radical legislative reaction was +thus checked at its highest point and the presidency as a part of +the American governmental system was no longer in danger. The seven +Republicans had, however, signed their own political death warrants; +they were never forgiven by the party leaders. + +The presidential campaign was beginning to take shape even before +the impeachment trial began. Both the Democrats and the reorganized +Republicans were turning with longing toward General Grant as a +candidate. Though he had always been a Democrat, Nevertheless, when +Johnson actually called him a liar and a promise breaker, Grant went +over to the radicals and was nominated for President on May 20, 1868, by +the National Union Republican party. Schuyler Colfax was the candidate +for Vice President. The Democrats, who could have won with Grant and who +under good leadership still had a bare chance to win, nominated Horatio +Seymour of New York and Francis P. Blair of Missouri. The former had +served as war governor of New York, while the latter was considered an +extreme Democrat who believed that the radical reconstruction of the +South should be stopped, the troops withdrawn, and the people left to +form their own governments. The Democratic platform pronounced itself +opposed to the reconstruction policy, but Blair's opposition was too +extreme for the North. Seymour, more moderate and a skillful campaigner, +made headway in the rehabilitation of the Democratic party. The +Republican party declared for radical reconstruction and Negro suffrage +in the South but held that each Northern State should be allowed to +settle the suffrage for itself. It was not a courageous platform, but +Grant was popular and carried his party through to success. + +The returns showed that in the election Grant had carried twenty-six +States with 214 electoral votes, while Seymour had carried only eight +States with 80 votes. But an examination of the popular vote, which was +3,000,000 for Grant and 2,700,000 for Seymour, gave the radicals cause +for alarm, for it showed that the Democrats had more white votes than +the Republicans, whose total included nearly 700,000 blacks. To insure +the continuance of the radicals in power, the Fifteenth Amendment was +framed and sent out to the States on February 26, 1869. This amendment +appeared not only to make safe the Negro majorities in the South but +also gave the ballot to the Negroes in a score of Northern States +and thus assured, for a time at least, 900,000 Negro voters for the +Republican party. + +When Johnson's term ended and he gave place to President Grant, four +states were still unreconstructed--Virginia, Texas, and Mississippi, +in which the reconstruction had failed, and Georgia, which, after +accomplishing reconstruction, had again been placed under military rule +by Congress. In Virginia, which was too near the capital for such +rough work as readmitted Arkansas and Alabama into the Union, the new +constitution was so severe in its provisions for disfranchisement that +the disgusted district commander would not authorize the expenditure +necessary to have it voted on. In Mississippi a similar constitution had +failed of adoption, and in Texas the strife of party factions, radical +and moderate Republican, had so delayed the framing of the constitution +that it had not come to a vote. + +The Republican politicians, however, wanted the offices in these States, +and Congress by its resolution of February 18, 1869, directed the +district commanders to remove all civil officers who could not take +the "ironclad" oath and to appoint those who could subscribe to it. An +exception, however, was made in favor of the scalawags who had supported +reconstruction and whose disabilities had been removed by Congress. + +President Grant was anxious to complete the reconstruction and +recommended to Congress that the constitutions of Virginia and +Mississippi be re-submitted to the people with a separate vote on the +disfranchising sections. Congress, now in harmony with the executive, +responded by placing the reconstruction of the three states in the hands +of the President, but with the proviso that each state must ratify the +Fifteenth Amendment. Grant thereupon fixed a time for voting in each +state and directed that in Virginia and Mississippi the disfranchising +clauses be submitted separately. As a result, the constitutions were +ratified but proscription was voted down. The radicals secured control +of Mississippi and Texas, but a conservative combination carried +Virginia and thus came near keeping the state out of the Union. Finally, +during the early months of 1870 the three states were readmitted. + +With respect to Georgia a peculiar condition of affairs existed. In June +1868, Georgia had been readmitted with the first of the reconstructed +States. The state legislature at once expelled the twenty-seven Negro +members, on the ground that the recent legislation and the state +constitution gave the Negroes the right to vote but not to hold office. +Congress, which had already admitted the Georgia representatives, +refused to receive the senators and turned the state back to military +control. In 1869-70, Georgia was again reconstructed after a drastic +purging of the legislature by the military commander, the reseating +of the Negro members, and the ratification of both the Fourteenth and +Fifteenth Amendments. The state was readmitted to representation in July +1870, after the failure of a strong effort to extend for two years the +carpetbag government of the state. + +Upon the last states to pass under the radical yoke, heavier conditions +were imposed than upon the earlier ones. Not only were they required +to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment, but the "fundamental conditions" +embraced, in addition to the prohibition against future change of the +suffrage, a requirement that the Negroes should never be deprived of +school and office-holding rights. + +The congressional plan of reconstruction had thus been carried through +by able leaders in the face of the opposition of a united white South, +nearly half the North, the President, the Supreme Court, and in the +beginning a majority of Congress. This success was due to the poor +leadership of the conservatives and to the ability and solidarity of the +radicals led by Stevens and Sumner. The radicals had a definite program; +the moderates had not. The object of the radicals was to secure the +supremacy in the South by the aid of the Negroes and exclusion of +whites. Was this policy politically wise? It was at least temporarily +successful. The choice offered by the radicals seemed to lie between +military rule for an indefinite period and Negro suffrage; and since +most Americans found military rule distasteful, they preferred to try +Negro suffrage. But, after all, Negro suffrage had to be supported by +military rule, and in the end both failed completely. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE UNION LEAGUE OF AMERICA + +The elections of 1867-68 showed that the Negroes were well organized +under the control of the radical Republican leaders and that their +former masters had none of the influence over the blacks in political +matters which had been feared by some Northern friends of the Negro +and had been hoped for by such Southern leaders as Governor Patton and +General Hampton. Before 1865 the discipline of slavery, the influence of +the master's family, and of the Southern church had sufficed to control +the blacks. But after emancipation they looked to the Federal soldiers +and Union officials as the givers of freedom and the guardians of the +future. + +From the Union soldiers, especially the Negro troops, from the Northern +teachers, the missionaries and the organizers of Negro churches, from +the Northern officials and traveling politicians, the Negroes learned +that their interests were not those of the whites. The attitude of the +average white in the South often confirmed this growing estrangement. It +was difficult even for the white leaders to explain the riots at Memphis +and New Orleans. And those who sincerely wished well for the Negro and +who desired to control him for the good of both races could not possibly +assure him that he was fit for the suffrage. For even Patton and Hampton +must tell him that they knew better than he and that he should follow +their advice. + +The appeal made to freedmen by the Northern leaders was in every way +more forceful, because it bad behind it the prestige of victory in war +and for the future it could promise anything. Until 1867, the principal +agency in bringing about the separation of the races had been the +Freedmen's Bureau which, with its authority, its courts, its rations, +clothes, and its "forty acres and a mule," did effective work in +breaking down the influence of the master. But to understand fully the +almost absolute control exercised over the blacks in 1867-68 by alien +adventurers, one must examine the workings of an oath-bound society +known as the Union or Loyal League. It was this order, dominated by a +few radical whites, which organized, disciplined, and controlled the +ignorant Negro masses and paralyzed the influence of the conservative +whites. + +The Union League of America had its origin in Ohio in the fall of 1862, +when the outlook for the Union cause was gloomy. The moderate policies +of the Lincoln Administration had alienated those in favor of extreme +measures; the Confederates had won military successes in the field; the +Democrats had made some gains in the elections; the Copperheads* were +actively opposed to the Washington Government; the Knights of the Golden +Circle were organizing to resist the continuance of the war; and the +Emancipation Proclamation had chilled the loyalty of many Union men, +which was everywhere at a low ebb, especially in the Northern cities. +It was to counteract these depressing influences that the Union League +movement was begun among those who were associated in the work of the +United States Sanitary Commission. Observing the threatening state of +public opinion, members of this organization proposed that "loyalty be +organized, consolidated and made effective." + + * See "Abraham Lincoln and the Union", by Nathaniel W. + Stephenson (in "The Chronicles of America"), pp. 156-7, + 234-5 + + +The first organization was made by eleven men in Cleveland, Ohio, in +November 1862. The Philadelphia Union League was organized a month +later, and in January 1863, the New York Union League followed. The +members were pledged to uncompromising and unconditional loyalty to the +Union, to complete subordination of political views to this loyalty, and +to the repudiation of any belief in state rights. The other large cities +followed the example of Philadelphia and New York, and soon Leagues, +connected in a loose federation, were formed all through the North. They +were social as well as political in their character and assumed as their +task the stimulation and direction of loyal Union opinion. + +As the Union armies proceeded to occupy the South, the Union League sent +its agents among the disaffected Southern people. Its agents cared for +Negro refugees in the contraband camps and in the North. In such work +the League cooperated with the various Freedmen's Aid Societies, the +Department of Negro Affairs, and later with the Freedmen's Bureau. Part +of the work of the League was to distribute campaign literature, and +many of the radical pamphlets on reconstruction and the Negro problem +bore the Union League imprint. The New York League sent out about +seventy thousand copies of various publications, while the Philadelphia +League far surpassed this record, circulating within eight years four +million five hundred thousand copies of 144 different pamphlets. The +literature consisted largely of accounts of "Southern outrages" taken +from the reports of Bureau agents and similar sources. + +With the close of the Civil War the League did not cease its active +interest in things political. It was one of the first organizations to +declare for Negro suffrage and the disfranchisement of Confederates; it +held steadily to this declaration during the four years following the +war; and it continued as a sort of bureau in the radical Republican +party for the purpose of controlling the Negro vote in the South. Its +representatives were found in the lobbies of Congress demanding extreme +measures, endorsing the reconstruction policies of Congress, and +condemning the course of the President. After the first year or two of +reconstruction, the Leagues in the larger Northern cities began to grow +away from the strictly political Union League of America and tended to +become mere social clubs for members of the same political belief. The +eminently respectable Philadelphia and New York clubs had little in +common with the leagues of the Southern and Border States except a +general adherence to the radical program. + +Even before the end of the war the League was extending its organization +into the parts of the Confederacy held by the Federal forces, admitting +to membership the army officers and the leading Unionists, though +maintaining for the sake of the latter "a discreet secrecy." With the +close of the war and the establishment of army posts over the South, +the League grew rapidly. The civilians who followed the army, the Bureau +agents, the missionaries, and the Northern teachers formed one class of +membership; and the loyalists of the hill and mountain country, who had +become disaffected toward the Confederate administration and had formed +such orders as the Heroes of America, the Red String Band, and the +Peace Society, formed another class. Soon there were added to these the +deserters, a few old line Whigs who intensely disliked the Democrats, +and others who decided to cast their lot with the victors. The +disaffected politicians of the up-country, who wanted to be cared for in +the reconstruction, saw in the organization a means of dislodging from +power the political leaders of the low country. It has been estimated +that thirty percent of the white men of the hill and mountain counties +of the South joined the Union League in 1865-66. They cared little about +the original objects of the order but hoped to make it the nucleus of an +anti-Democratic political organization. + +But on the admission of Negroes into the lodges or councils controlled +by Northern men the native white members began to withdraw. From the +beginning the Bureau agents, the teachers, and the preachers had been +holding meetings of Negroes, to whom they gave advice about the +problems of freedom. Very early these advisers of the blacks grasped the +possibilities inherent in their control of the schools, the rationing +system, and the churches. By the spring of 1866, the Negroes were widely +organized under this leadership, and it needed but slight change to +convert the Negro meetings into local councils of the Union League.* As +soon as it seemed likely that Congress would win in its struggle with +the President the guardians of the Negro planned their campaign for the +control of the race. Negro leaders were organized into councils of +the League or into Union Republican Clubs. Over the South went the +organizers, until by 1868 the last Negroes were gathered into the fold. + + * Of these teachers of the local blacks, E. L. Godkin, + editor of the New York Nation, who had supported the + reconstruction acts, said: "Worse instructors for men + emerging from slavery and coming for the first time face to + face with the problems of free life than the radical + agitators who have undertaken the political guidance of the + blacks it would be hard to meet with." + + +The native whites did not all desert the Union League when the Negroes +were brought in. Where the blacks were most numerous the desertion of +whites was general, but in the regions where they were few some of +the whites remained for several years. The elections of 1868 showed a +falling off of the white radical vote from that of 1867, one measure of +the extent of loss of whites. From this time forward the order consisted +mainly of blacks with enough whites for leaders. In the Black Belt the +membership of native whites was discouraged by requiring an oath to the +effect that secession was treason. The carpetbagger had found that he +could control the Negro without the help of the scalawag. The League +organization was soon extended and centralized; in every black district +there was a Council; for the state there was a Grand Council; and for +the United States there was a National Grand Council with headquarters +in New York City. + +The influence of the League over the Negro was due in large degree to +the mysterious secrecy of the meetings, the weird initiation ceremony +that made him feel fearfully good from his head to his heels, the +imposing ritual, and the songs. The ritual, it is said, was not used +in the North; it was probably adopted for the particular benefit of the +African. The would-be Leaguer was informed that the emblems of the +order were the altar, the Bible, the Declaration of Independence, the +Constitution of the United States, the flag of the Union, censer, +sword, gavel, ballot box, sickle, shuttle, anvil, and other emblems of +industry. He was told to the accompaniment of clanking chains and groans +that the objects of the order were to preserve liberty, to perpetuate +the Union, to maintain the laws and the Constitution, to secure the +ascendancy of American institutions, to protect, defend, and strengthen +all loyal men and members of the Union League in all rights of person +and property, to demand the elevation of labor, to aid in the education +of laboring men, and to teach the duties of American citizenship. +This enumeration of the objects of the League sounded well and was +impressive. At this point the Negro was always willing to take an oath +of secrecy, after which he was asked to swear with a solemn oath to +support the principles of the Declaration of Independence, to pledge +himself to resist all attempts to overthrow the United States, to strive +for the maintenance of liberty, the elevation of labor, the education +of all people in the duties of citizenship, to practice friendship and +charity to all of the order, and to support for election or appointment +to office only such men as were supporters of these principles and +measures. + +The council then sang "Hail, Columbia!" and "The Star Spangled Banner," +after which an official lectured the candidates, saying that though +the designs of traitors had been thwarted, there were yet to be secured +legislative triumphs and the complete ascendancy of the true principles +of popular government, equal liberty, education and elevation of the +workmen, and the overthrow at the ballot box of the old oligarchy of +political leaders. After prayer by the chaplain, the room was darkened, +alcohol on salt flared up with a ghastly light as the "fire of liberty," +and the members joined hands in a circle around the candidate, who was +made to place one hand on the flag and, with the other raised, swear +again to support the government and to elect true Union men to office. +Then placing his hand on a Bible, for the third time he swore to keep +his oath, and repeated after the president "the Freedmen's Pledge": +"To defend and perpetuate freedom and the Union, I pledge my life, my +fortune, and my sacred honor. So help me God!" "John Brown's Body" was +then sung, the president charged the members in a long speech concerning +the principles of the order, and the marshal instructed the neophyte +in the signs. To pass one's self as a Leaguer, the "Four L's" had to +be given: (1) with right hand raised to heaven, thumb and third finger +touching ends over palm, pronounce "Liberty"; (2) bring the hand down +over the shoulder and say "Lincoln"; (3) drop the hand open at the side +and say "Loyal"; (4) catch the thumb in the vest or in the waistband and +pronounce "League." This ceremony of initiation proved a most effective +means of impressing and controlling the Negro through his love and fear +of secret, mysterious, and midnight mummery. An oath taken in daylight +might be forgotten before the next day; not so an oath taken in the dead +of night under such impressive circumstances. After passing through the +ordeal, the Negro usually remained faithful. + +In each populous precinct there was at least one council of the League, +and always one for blacks. In each town or city there were two councils, +one for the whites, and another, with white officers, for the blacks. +The council met once a week, sometimes oftener, nearly always at night, +and in a Negro church or schoolhouse. Guards, armed with rifles and +shotguns, were stationed about the place of meeting in order to keep +away intruders. Members of some councils made it a practice to attend +the meetings armed as if for battle. In these meetings the Negroes +listened to inflammatory speeches by the would-be statesmen of the new +regime; here they were drilled in a passionate conviction that their +interests and those of the Southern whites were eternally at war. + +White men who joined the order before the Negroes were admitted and +who left when the latter became members asserted that the Negroes were +taught in these meetings that the only way to have peace and plenty, to +get "the forty acres and a mule," was to kill some of the leading whites +in each community as a warning to others. In North Carolina twenty-eight +barns were burned in one county by Negroes who believed that Governor +Holden, the head of the State League, had ordered it. The council +in Tuscumbia, Alabama, received advice from Memphis to use the torch +because the blacks were at war with the white race. The advice was +taken. Three men went in front of the council as an advance guard, three +followed with coal oil and fire, and others guarded the rear. The +plan was to burn the whole town, but first one Negro and then another +insisted on having some white man's house spared because "he is a good +man." In the end no residences were burned, and a happy compromise +was effected by burning the Female Academy. Three of the leaders were +afterwards lynched. + +The general belief of the whites was that the ultimate object of the +order was to secure political power and thus bring about on a large +scale the confiscation of the property of Confederates, and meanwhile +to appropriate and destroy the property of their political opponents +wherever possible. Chicken houses, pigpens, vegetable gardens, and +orchards were visited by members returning from the midnight conclaves. +During the presidential campaign of 1868, the North Carolina League sent +out circular instructions to the blacks advising them to drill regularly +and to join the militia, for if Grant were not elected the Negroes would +go back to slavery; if he were elected, the Negroes were to have farms, +mules, and offices. + +As soon as possible after the war the Negroes had supplied themselves +with guns and dogs as badges of freedom. They carried their guns to the +League meetings, often marching in military formation, went through the +drill there, marched home again along the roads, shouting, firing, and +indulging in boasts and threats against persons whom they disliked. +Later, military parades in the daytime were much favored. Several +hundred Negroes would march up and down the streets, abusing whites, +and shoving them off the sidewalk or out of the road. But on the whole, +there was very little actual violence, though the whites were much +alarmed at times. That outrages were comparatively few was due, not +to any sensible teachings of the leaders, but to the fundamental good +nature of the blacks, who were generally content with mere impudence. + +The relations between the races, indeed, continued on the whole to +be friendly until 1867-68. For a while, in some localities before the +advent of the League, and in others where the Bureau was conducted by +native magistrates, the Negroes looked to their old masters for guidance +and advice; and the latter, for the good of both races, were most eager +to retain a moral control over the blacks. They arranged barbecues and +picnics for the Negroes, made speeches, gave good advice, and believed +that everything promised well. Sometimes the Negroes themselves arranged +the festival and invited prominent whites, for whom a separate table +attended by Negro waiters was reserved; and after dinner there followed +speeches by both whites and blacks. + +With the organization of the League, the Negroes grew more reserved, +and finally became openly unfriendly to the whites. The League alone, +however, was not responsible for this change. The League and the Bureau +had to some extent the same personnel, and it is frequently impossible +to distinguish clearly between the influence of the two. In many ways +the League was simply the political side of the Bureau. The preaching +and teaching missionaries were also at work. And apart from the +organized influences at work, the poor whites never laid aside their +hostility towards the blacks, bond or free. + +When the campaigns grew exciting, the discipline of the order was used +to prevent the Negroes from attending Democratic meetings and hearing +Democratic speakers. The leaders even went farther and forbade the +attendance of the blacks at political meetings where the speakers were +not endorsed by the League. Almost invariably the scalawag disliked the +Leaguer, black or white, and as a political teacher often found himself +proscribed by the League. At a Republican mass meeting in Alabama, a +white Republican who wanted to make a speech was shouted down by the +Negroes because he was "opposed to the Loyal League." He then went to +another place to speak but was followed by the crowd, which refused to +allow him to say anything. All Republicans in good standing had to join +the League and swear that secession was treason--a rather stiff dose for +the scalawag. Judge (later Governor) David P. Lewis, of Alabama, was a +member for a short while but he soon became disgusted and published +a denunciation of the order. Albion W. Tourgee, the author, a radical +judge, was the first chief of the League in North Carolina and was +succeeded by Governor Holden. In Alabama, Generals Swayne, Spencer, and +Warner, all candidates for the United States Senate, hastened to join +the order. + +As soon as a candidate was nominated by the League, it was the duty of +every member to support him actively. Failure to do so resulted in a +fine or other more severe punishment, and members who had been expelled +were still considered under the control of the officials. The League +was, in fact, the machine of the radical party, and all candidates had +to be governed by its edicts. As the Montgomery Council declared, the +Union League was "the right arm of the Union-Republican party in the +United States." + +Every Negro was ex colore a member or under the control of the League. +In the opinion of the League, white Democrats were bad enough, but +black Democrats were not to be tolerated. It was almost necessary, as +a measure of personal safety, for each black to support the radical +program. It was possible in some cases for a Negro to refrain from +taking an active part in political affairs. He might even fail to vote. +But it was actually dangerous for a black to be a Democrat; that is, to +try to follow his old master in politics. The whites in many cases were +forced to advise their few faithful black friends to vote the radical +ticket in order to escape mistreatment. Those who showed Democratic +leanings were proscribed in Negro society and expelled from Negro +churches; the Negro women would not "proshay" (appreciate) a black +Democrat. Such a one was sure to find that influence was being brought +to bear upon his dusky sweetheart or his wife to cause him to see the +error of his ways, and persistent adherence to the white party would +result in his losing her. The women were converted to radicalism before +the men, and they almost invariably used their influence strongly in +behalf of the League. If moral suasion failed to cause the delinquent to +see the light, other methods were used. Threats were common and usually +sufficed. Fines were levied by the League on recalcitrant members. In +case of the more stubborn, a sound beating was effective to bring about +a change of heart. The offending party was "bucked and gagged," or he +was tied by the thumbs and thrashed. Usually the sufferer was too afraid +to complain of the way he was treated. + +Some of the methods of the Loyal League were similar to those of +the later Ku Klux Klan. Anonymous warnings were sent to obnoxious +individuals, houses were burned, notices were posted at night in public +places and on the houses of persons who had incurred the hostility of +the order. In order to destroy the influence of the whites where kindly +relations still existed, an "exodus order" issued through the League +directed all members to leave their old homes and obtain work elsewhere. +Some of the blacks were loath to comply with this order, but to +remonstrances from the whites the usual reply was: "De word done sent to +de League. We got to go." For special meetings the Negroes were in +some regions called together by signal guns. In this way the call for a +gathering went out over a county in a few minutes and a few hours later +nearly all the members in the county assembled at the appointed place. + +Negroes as organizing agents were inclined to go to extremes and for +that reason were not so much used. In Bullock County, Alabama, a council +of the League was organized under the direction of a Negro emissary, who +proceeded to assume the government of the community. A list of crimes +and punishments was adopted, a court with various officials was +established, and during the night the Negroes who opposed the new +regime were arrested. But the black sheriff and his deputy were in +turn arrested by the civil authorities. The Negroes then organized for +resistance, flocked into the county seat, and threatened to exterminate +the whites and take possession of the county. Their agents visited +the plantations and forced the laborers to join them by showing orders +purporting to be from General Swayne, the commander in the state, giving +them the authority to kill all who resisted them. Swayne, however, sent +out detachments of troops and arrested fifteen of the ringleaders, and +the League government collapsed. + +After it was seen that existing political institutions were to be +overturned in the process of reconstruction, the white councils of the +League and, to a certain extent, the Negro councils were converted into +training schools for the leaders of the new party soon to be formed in +the state by act of Congress. The few whites who were in control were +unwilling to admit more white members to share in the division of the +spoils; terms of admission became more stringent, and, especially +after the passage of the reconstruction acts in March 1867, many white +applicants were rejected. The alien element from the North was in +control and as a result, where the blacks were numerous, the largest +plums fell to the carpetbaggers. The Negro leaders--the politicians, +preachers, and teachers--trained in the League acted as subordinates +to the whites and were sent out to drum up the country Negroes when +elections drew near. The Negroes were given minor positions when offices +were more plentiful than carpetbaggers. Later, after some complaint, a +larger share of the offices fell to them. The League counted its largest +white membership in 1865-66, and after that date it steadily decreased. +The largest Negro membership was recorded in 1867 and 1868. The total +membership was never made known. In North Carolina the order claimed +from seventy-five thousand to one hundred and twenty-five thousand +members; in states with larger Negro populations the membership was +probably quite as large. After the election of 1868, only the councils +in the towns remained active, many of them transformed into political +clubs, loosely organized under local political leaders. The plantation +Negro needed less looking after, and except in the largest towns he +became a kind of visiting member of the council in the town. The League +as a political organization gradually died out by 1870.* + + * The Ku Klux Klan had much to do with the decline of the + organization. The League as the ally and successor of the + Freedmen's Bureau was one of the causes of the Ku Klux + movement, because it helped to create the conditions which + made such a movement inevitable. As early as 1870 the + radical leaders missed the support formerly given by the + League, and an urgent appeal was sent out all over the South + from headquarters in New York advocating its reestablishment + to assist in carrying the elections of 1870. + + +The League had served its purpose. It had enabled a few outsiders +to control the Negro by separating the races politically and it had +compelled the Negroes to vote as radicals for several years, when +without its influence they would either not have voted at all or would +have voted as Democrats along with their former masters. The order was +necessary to the existence of the radical party in the Black Belt. No +ordinary political organization could have welded the blacks into a +solid party. The Freedmen's Bureau, which had much influence over the +Negroes, was too weak in numbers to control the Negroes in politics. +The League finally absorbed the personnel of the Bureau and turned its +prestige and its organization to political advantage. + + + +CHAPTER IX. CHURCH AND SCHOOL + +Reconstruction in the state was closely related to reconstruction in the +churches and the schools. Here also were to be found the same hostile +elements: Negro and white, Unionist and Confederate, victor and +vanquished. The church was at that time an important institution in the +South, more so than in the North, and in both sections more important +than it is today. It was inevitable, therefore, that ecclesiastical +reconstruction should give rise to bitter feelings. + +Something should be said of conditions in the churches when the Federal +armies occupied the land. The Southern organizations had lost many +ministers and many of their members, and frequently their buildings +were used as hospitals or had been destroyed. Their administration was +disorganized and their treasuries were empty. The Unionists, scattered +here and there but numerous in the mountain districts, no longer wished +to attend the Southern churches. + +The military censorship in church matters, which continued for a year in +some districts, was irritating, especially in the Border States and in +the Union districts where Northern preachers installed by the army were +endeavoring to remain against the will of the people. Mobs sometimes +drove them out; others were left to preach to empty houses or to a few +Unionists and officers, while the congregation withdrew to build a new +church. The problems of Negro membership in the white churches and of +the future relations of the Northern and Southern denominations were +pressing for settlement. + +All Northern organizations acted in 1865 upon the assumption that a +reunion of the churches must take place and that the divisions existing +before the war should not be continued, since slavery, the cause of the +division, had been destroyed. But they insisted that the reunion must +take place upon terms named by the "loyal" churches, that the Negroes +must also come under "loyal" religious direction, and that tests must be +applied to the Confederate sinners asking for admission, in order that +the enormity of their crimes should be made plain to them. But this +policy did not succeed. The Confederates objected to being treated as +"rebels and traitors" and to "sitting upon stools of repentance" before +they should be received again into the fold. + +Only two denominations were reunited--the Methodist Protestant, the +northern section of which came over to the southern, and the Protestant +Episcopal, in which moderate counsels prevailed and into which +Southerners were welcomed back. The Southern Baptists maintained their +separate existence and reorganized the Southern Baptist Convention, to +which came many of the Baptist associations in the Border States; the +Catholics did not divide before 1861 and therefore had no reconstruction +problems to solve; and the smaller denominations maintained the +organizations which they had before 1861. A Unionist preacher testified +before the Joint Committee on Reconstruction that even the Southern +Quakers "are about as decided in regard to the respectability of +secession as any other class of people." + +Two other great Southern churches, the Presbyterian and the Methodist +Episcopal, grew stronger after the Civil War. The tendency toward +reunion of the Presbyterians was checked when one Northern branch +declared as "a condition precedent to the admission of southern +applicants that these confess as sinful all opinions before held in +regard to slavery, nullification, rebellion and slavery, and stigmatize +secession as a crime and the withdrawal of the southern churches as a +schism." Another Northern group declared that southern ministers must +be placed on probation and must either prove their loyalty or profess +repentance for disloyalty and repudiate their former opinions. As a +result several Presbyterian bodies in the South joined in a strong +union, to which also adhered the synods of several Border States. + +The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was confronted with conditions +similar to those which prevented the reunion of the Presbyterians. The +Northern church, according to the declaration of its authorities, also +came down to divide the spoils and to "disintegrate and absorb" the +"schismatic" Southern churches. Already many Southern pulpits were +filled with Northern Methodist ministers placed there under military +protection; and when they finally realized that reunion was not +possible, these Methodist worthies resolved to occupy the late +Confederacy as a mission field and to organize congregations of blacks +and whites who were "not tainted with treason." Bishops and clergymen +charged with this work carried it on vigorously for a few years in close +connection with political reconstruction. + +The activities of the Northern Methodists stimulated the Southern +Methodists to a quick reorganization. The surviving bishops met in +August 1865, and bound together their shaken church. In reply to +suggestions of reunion they asserted that the Northern Methodists had +become "incurably radical," were too much involved in politics, and, +further, that they had, without right, seized and were still holding +Southern church buildings. They objected also to the way the Northern +church referred to the Southerners as "schismatics" and to the Southern +church as one built on slavery and therefore, now that slavery was +gone, to be reconstructed. The bishops warned their people against the +missionary efforts of the Northern brethren and against the attempts +to "disintegrate and absorb" Methodism in the South. Within five years +after the war, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was greatly +increased in numbers by the accession of conferences in Maryland, +Kentucky, Virginia, Missouri, and even from above the Ohio, while +the Northern Methodist Church was able to organize only a few white +congregations outside of the stronger Unionist districts, but continued +to labor in the South as a missionary field.* + + * The church situation after the war was well described in + 1866 by an editorial writer in the "Nation" who pointed out + that the Northern churches thought the South determined to + make the religious division permanent, though "slavery no + longer furnishes a pretext for separation." "Too much pains + were taken to bring about an ecclesiastical reunion, and + irritating offers of reconciliation are made by the Northern + churches, all based on the assumption that the South has not + only sinned, but sinned knowingly, in slavery and in war. We + expect them to be penitent and to gladly accept our offers + of forgiveness. But the Southern people look upon a 'loyal' + missionary as a political emissary, and 'loyal' men do not + at present possess the necessary qualifications for + evangelizing the Southerners or softening their hearts, and + are sure not to succeed in doing so. We look upon their + defeat as retribution and expect them to do the same. It + will do no good if we tell the Southerner that 'we will + forgive them if they will confess that they are criminals, + offer to pray with them, preach with them, and labor with + them over their hideous sins.'" + + +But if the large Southern churches held their white membership and even +gained in numbers and territory, they fought a losing fight to retain +their black members. It was assumed by Northern ecclesiastics that +whether a reunion of whites took place or not, the Negroes would receive +spiritual guidance from the North. This was necessary, they said, +because the Southern whites were ignorant and impoverished and because +"the state of mind among even the best classes of Southern whites +rendered them incapable... of doing justice to the people whom they +had so long persistently wronged." Further, it was also necessary for +political reasons to remove the Negroes from Southern religious control. + +For obvious reasons, however, the Southern churches wanted to hold their +Negro members. They declared themselves in favor of Negro education and +of better organized religious work among the blacks, and made every +sort of accommodation to hold them. The Baptists organized separate +congregations, with white or black pastors as desired, and associations +of black churches. In 1866 the Methodist General Conference authorized +separate congregations, quarterly conferences, annual conferences, even +a separate jurisdiction, with Negro preachers, presiding elders, and +bishops--but all to no avail. Every, Northern political, religious, or +military agency in the South worked for separation, and Negro preachers +were not long in seeing the greater advantages which they would have in +independent churches. + +Much of the separate organization was accomplished in mutual good +will, particularly in the Baptist ranks. The Reverend I. T. Tichenor, a +prominent Baptist minister, has described the process as it took place +in the First Baptist Church in Montgomery. The church had nine hundred +members, of whom six hundred were black. The Negroes received a regular +organization of their own under the supervision of the white pastors. +When a separation of the two bodies was later deemed desirable, it was +inaugurated by a conference of the Negroes which passed a resolution +couched in the kindliest terms, suggesting the wisdom of the division, +and asking the concurrence of the white church in such action. The white +church cordially approved the movement, and the two bodies united in +erecting a suitable house of worship for the Negroes. Until the new +church was completed, both congregations continued to occupy jointly the +old house of worship. The new house was paid for in large measure by the +white members of the church and by individuals in the community. As soon +as it was completed, the colored church moved into it with its pastor, +board of deacons, committees of all sorts, and the whole machinery +of church life went into action without a jar. Similar accommodations +occurred in all the states of the South. + +The Methodists lost the greater part of their Negro membership to +two organizations which came down from the North in 1865--the African +Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Church, +Zion. Large numbers also went over to the Northern Methodist Church. +After losing nearly three hundred thousand members, the Southern +Methodists came to the conclusion that the remaining seventy-eight +thousand Negroes would be more comfortable in a separate organization +and therefore began in 1866 the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, with +bishops, conferences, and all the accompaniments of the parent Methodist +Church, which continued to give friendly aid but exercised no control. +For many years the Colored Methodist Church was under fire from the +other Negro denominations, who called it the "rebel," the "Democratic," +the "old slavery" church. + +The Negro members of the Cumberland Presbyterians were similarly set off +into a small African organization. The Southern Presbyterians and the +Episcopalians established separate congregations and missions under +white supervision but sanctioned no independent Negro organization. +Consequently the Negroes soon deserted these churches and went with +their own kind. + +Resentment at the methods employed by the Northern religious +carpetbaggers was strong among the Southern whites. "Emissaries of +Christ and the radical party" they were called by one Alabama +leader. Governor Lindsay of the same state asserted that the Northern +missionaries caused race hatred by teaching the Negroes to regard the +whites as their natural enemies, who, if possible, would put them back +in slavery. Others were charged with teaching that to be on the safe +side, the blacks should get into a Northern church, and that "Christ +died for Negroes and Yankees, not for rebels." + +The scalawags, also, developed a dislike of the Northern church +work among the Negroes, and it was impossible to organize mixed +congregations. Of the Reverend A. S. Lakin, a well-known agent of the +Northern Methodist Church in Alabama, Nicholas Davis, a North Alabama +Unionist and scalawag, said to the Ku Klux Committee: "The character of +his [Lakin's] speech was this: to teach the Negroes that every man that +was born and raised in the Southern country was their enemy, that there +was no use trusting them, no matter what they said--if they said they +were for the Union or anything else. 'No use talking, they are your +enemies.' And he made a pretty good speech, too; awful; a hell of a one; +... inflammatory and game, too.... It was enough to provoke the devil. +Did all the mischief he could... I tell you, that old fellow is a hell +of an old rascal." + +For a time the white churches were annoyed by intrusions of strange +blacks set on by those who were bent on separating the races. Frequently +there were feuds in white or black congregations over the question of +joining some Northern body. Disputes over church property also arose +and continued for years. Lakin, referred to above, was charged with +"stealing" Negro congregations and uniting them with the Cincinnati +Conference without their knowledge. The Negroes were urged to demand +title to all buildings formerly used for Negro worship, and the +Constitutional Convention of Alabama in 1867 directed that such property +must be turned over to them when claimed. + +The agents of the Northern churches were not greatly different from +other carpetbaggers and adventurers taking advantage of the general +confusion to seize a little power. Many were unscrupulous; others, +sincere and honest but narrow, bigoted, and intolerant, filled with +distrust of the Southern whites and with corresponding confidence in the +blacks and in themselves. The missionary and church publications were +quite as severe on the Southern people as any radical Congressman. The +publications of the Freedmen's Aid Society furnish illustrations of the +feelings and views of those engaged in the Southern work. They in turn +were made to feel the effects of a merciless social proscription. For +this some of them cared not at all, while others or their families felt +it keenly. One woman missionary wrote that she was delighted when a +Southern white would speak to her. A preacher in Virginia declared that +"the females, those especially whose pride has been humbled, are more +intense in their bitterness and endeavor to keep up a social ostracism +against Union and Northern people." The Ku Klux raids were directed +against preachers and congregations whose conduct was disagreeable to +the whites. Lakin asserted that while he was conducting a great revival +meeting among the hills of northern Alabama, Governor Smith and other +prominent and sinful scalawag politicians were there "under conviction" +and about to become converted. But in came the Klan and the congregation +scattered. + +Smith and the others were so angry and frightened that their good +feelings were dissipated, and the devil reentered them, so that Lakin +said he was never able to "get a hold on them" again. For the souls lost +that night he held the Klan responsible. Lakin told several marvelous +stories of his hairbreadth escapes from death by assassination which, if +true, would be enough to ruin the reputation of northern Alabama men for +marksmanship. + +The reconstruction ended with conditions in the churches similar to +those in politics: the races were separated and unfriendly; Northern and +Southern church organizations were divided; and between them, especially +in the border and mountain districts, there existed factional quarrels +of a political origin, for every Northern Methodist was a Republican and +every Southern Methodist was a Democrat. + +The schools of the South, like the churches and political institutions, +were thrown into the melting pot of reconstruction. The spirit in which +the work was begun may be judged from the tone of the addresses made at +a meeting of the National Teachers Association in 1865. The president, +S. S. Greene, declared that "the old slave States are to be the new +missionary ground for the national school teacher." Francis Wayland, the +former president of Brown University, remarked that "it has been a war +of education and patriotism against ignorance and barbarism." President +Hill of Harvard spoke of the "new work of spreading knowledge and +intellectual culture over the regions that sat in darkness." Other +speakers asserted that the leading Southern whites were as much opposed +to free schools as to free governments and "we must treat them as +western farmers do the stumps in their clearings, work around them and +let them rot out"; that the majority of the whites were more ignorant +than the slaves; and that the Negro must be educated and strengthened +against "the wiles, the guile, and hate of his baffled masters and their +minions." The New England Freedmen's Aid Society considered it necessary +to educate the Negro "as a counteracting influence against the evil +councils and designs of the white freemen." + +The tasks that confronted the Southern States in 1865-67 were two: +first, to restore the shattered school systems of the whites; and +second, to arrange for the education of the Negroes. Education of the +Negro slave had been looked upon as dangerous and had been generally +forbidden. A small number of Negroes could read and write, but there +were at the close of the war no schools for the children. Before 1861, +each state had developed at least the outlines of a school system. +Though hindered in development by the sparseness of the population and +by the prevalence in some districts of the Virginia doctrine that free +schools were only for the poor, public schools were nevertheless in +existence in 1861. Academies and colleges, however, were thronged with +students. When the war ended, the public schools were disorganized, +and the private academies and the colleges were closed. Teachers and +students had been dispersed; buildings had been burned or used +for hospitals and laboratories; and public libraries had virtually +disappeared. + +The colleges made efforts to open in the fall of 1865. Only one student +presented himself at the University of Alabama for matriculation; but +before June 1866, the stronger colleges were again in operation. The +public or semi-public schools for the whites also opened in the fall. +In the cities where Federal military authorities had brought about +the employment of Northern teachers, there was some friction. In +New Orleans, for example, the teachers required the children to sing +Northern songs and patriotic airs. When the Confederates were restored +to power, these teachers were dismissed. + +The movement toward Negro education was general throughout the South. +Among the blacks themselves there was an intense desire to learn. They +wished to read the Bible, to be preachers, to be as the old master and +not have to work. Day and night and Sunday they crowded the schools. +According to an observer,* "not only are individuals seen at study, and +under the most untoward circumstances, but in very many places I have +found what I will call 'native schools,' often rude and very imperfect, +but there they are, a group, perhaps, of all ages, trying to learn. Some +young man, some woman, or old preacher, in cellar, or shed, or corner +of a Negro meeting-house, with the alphabet in hand, or a town +spelling-book, is their teacher. All are full of enthusiasm with the new +knowledge the book is imparting to them." + + * J. W. Alvord, Superintendent of Schools for the Freedmen's + Bureau, 1866. + + +Not only did the Negroes want schooling, but both the North and the +South proposed to give it to them. Neither side was actuated entirely by +altruistic motives. A Hampton Institute teacher in later days remarked: +"When the combat was over and the Yankee school-ma'am followed in the +train of the northern armies, the business of educating the Negroes was +a continuation of hostilities against the vanquished and was so regarded +to a considerable extent on both sides." + +The Southern churches, through their bishops and clergy, the newspapers, +and prominent individuals such as J. L. M. Curry, John B. Gordon, J. +L. Orr, Governors Brown, Moore, and Patton, came out in favor of Negro +education. Of this movement General Swayne said: "Quite early.... the +several religious denominations took strong ground in favor of the +education of the freedmen. The principal argument was an appeal to +sectional and sectarian prejudice, lest, the work being inevitable, +the influence which must come from it be realized by others; but it is +believed that this was but the shield and weapon which men of unselfish +principle found necessary at first." The newspapers took the attitude +that the Southern whites should teach the Negroes because it was their +duty, because it was good policy, and because if they did not do so some +one else would. The "Advertiser" of Montgomery stated that education +was a danger in slavery times but that under freedom ignorance became +a danger. For a time there were numerous schools taught by crippled +Confederates and by Southern women. + +But the education of the Negro, like his religious training, was +taken from the control of the Southern white and was placed under the +direction of the Northern teachers and missionaries who swarmed into the +country under the fostering care of the Freedmen's Bureau, the Northern +churches, and the various Freedmen's Aid Societies. In three years the +Bureau spent six million dollars on Negro schools and everywhere it +exercised supervision over them. The teachers pursued a policy akin +to that of the religious leaders. One Southerner likened them to +the "plagues of Egypt," another described them as "saints, fools, +incendiaries, fakirs, and plain business men and women." A Southern +woman remarked that "their spirit was often high and noble so far as the +black man's elevation was concerned, but toward the white it was bitter, +judicial, and unrelenting." The Northern teachers were charged with +ignorance of social conditions, with fraternizing with the blacks, and +with teaching them that the Southerners were traitors, "murderers of +Lincoln," who had been cruel taskmasters and who now wanted to restore +servitude. + +The reaction against Negro education, which began to show itself before +reconstruction was inaugurated, found expression in the view of most +whites that "schooling ruins a Negro." A more intelligent opinion was +that of J. L. M. Curry, a lifelong advocate of Negro education: + +"It is not just to condemn the Negro for the education which he received +in the early years after the war. That was the period of reconstruction, +the saturnalia of misgovernment, the greatest possible hindrance to the +progress of the freedmen.... The education was unsettling, demoralizing, +[and it] pandered to a wild frenzy for schooling as a quick method +of reversing social and political conditions. Nothing could have been +better devised for deluding the poor Negro and making him the tool, +the slave of corrupt taskmasters. Education is a natural consequence +of citizenship and enfranchisement... of freedom and humanity. But with +deliberate purpose to subject the Southern States to Negro domination, +and secure the States permanently for partisan ends, the education +adopted was contrary to commonsense, to human experience, to all noble +purposes. The curriculum was for a people in the highest degree of +civilization; the aptitude and capabilities and needs of the Negro were +wholly disregarded. Especial stress was laid on classics and liberal +culture to bring the race per saltum to the same plane with their former +masters, and realize the theory of social and political equality. A race +more highly civilized, with best heredities and environments, could +not have been coddled with more disregard of all the teachings of human +history and the necessities of the race. Colleges and universities, +established and conducted by the Freedmen's Bureau and Northern churches +and societies, sprang up like mushrooms, and the teachers, ignorant, +fanatical, without self-poise, proceeded to make all possible mischief. +It is irrational, cruel, to hold the Negro, under such strange +conditions, responsible for all the ill consequences of bad education, +unwise teachers, reconstruction villainies, and partisan schemes." + + * Quoted in "Proceedings of the Montgomery Conference on + Race Problems" (1900), p. 128. + + +Education was to be looked upon as a handmaid to a thorough +reconstruction, and its general character and aim were determined by +the Northern teachers. Each convention framed a more or less complicated +school system and undertook to provide for its support. The Negroes in +the conventions were anxious for free schools; the conservatives were +willing; but the carpetbaggers and a few mulatto leaders insisted in +several States upon mixed schools. Only in Louisiana and South Carolina +did the constitutions actually forbid separate schools; in Mississippi, +Florida, Alabama, and Arkansas the question was left open, to the +embarrassment of the whites. Generally the blacks showed no desire for +mixed schools unless urged to it by the carpetbaggers. In the South +Carolina convention, a mulatto thus argued in favor of mixed schools: +"The gentleman from Newberry said he was afraid we were taking a wrong +course to remove these prejudices. The most natural method to effect +this object would be to allow children when five or six years of age to +mingle in schools together and associate generally. Under such training, +prejudice must eventually die out; but if we postpone it until they +become men and women, prejudice will be so established that no mortal +can obliterate it. This, I think, is a sufficient reply to the argument +of the gentleman." + +The state systems were top-heavy with administrative machinery and were +officered by incompetent and corrupt officials. Such men as Cloud in +Alabama, Cardozo in Mississippi, Conway in Louisiana, and Jillson in +South Carolina are fair samples of them. Much of the personnel was taken +over from the Bureau teaching force. The school officials were no better +than the other officeholders. + +The first result of the attempt to use the schools as an instrument +of reconstruction ended in the ruin of several state universities. +The faculties of the Universities of North Carolina, Mississippi, and +Alabama were made radical and the institutions thereupon declined to +nothing. The Negroes, unable to control the faculty of the University +of South Carolina, forced Negro students in and thus got possession. +In Louisiana the radical legislature cut off all funds because the +university would not admit Negroes. The establishment of the land grant +colleges was an occasion for corruption and embezzlement. + +The common schools were used for radical ends. The funds set aside for +them by the state constitutions or appropriated by the legislatures for +these schools seldom reached their destination without being lessened +by embezzlement or by plain stealing. Frequently the auditor, or the +treasurer, or even the legislature diverted the school funds to other +purposes. Suffice it to say that all of the reconstruction systems broke +down financially after a brief existence. + +The mixed school provisions in Louisiana and South Carolina and the +uncertainty of the educational situation in other States caused white +children to stay away from the public schools. For several years the +Negroes were better provided than the whites, having for themselves both +all the public schools and also those supported by private benevolence. +In Mississippi, Louisiana, and South Carolina the whites could get no +money for schoolhouses, while large sums were spent on Negro schools. +The Peabody Board, then recently inaugurated,* refused to cooperate +with school officials in the mixed school states and, when criticized, +replied: "It is well known that we are helping the white children +of Louisiana as being the more destitute from the fact of their +unwillingness to attend mixed schools." + + * To administer the fund bequeathed by George Peabody of + Massachusetts to promote education in the Southern States. + See "The New South", by Holland Thompson (in "The Chronicles + of America"). + + +As was to be expected, the whites criticized the attitude of the school +officials, disapproved of the attempts made in the schools to teach +the children radical ideas, and objected to the contents of the history +texts and the "Freedmen's Readers." A white school board in Mississippi, +by advertising for a Democratic teacher for a Negro school, drew the +fire of a radical editor who inquired: "What is the motive by which this +call for a 'competent Democratic teacher' is prompted? The most damning +that has ever moved the heart of man. It is to use the vote and action +of a human being as a means by which to enslave him. The treachery and +villainy of these rebels stands without parallel in the history of men." + +A Negro politician has left this account of a radical recitation in a +Florida Negro school: + +After finishing the arithmetic lesson they must next go through the +catechism: + +"Who is the 'Publican Government of the State of Florida?" Answer: +"Governor Starns." + +"Who made him Governor?" Answer: "The colored people." + +"Who is trying to get him out of his seat?" Answer: "The Democrats, +Conover, and some white and black Liberal Republicans." + +"What should the colored people do with the men who is trying to get +Governor Starns out of his seat?" Answer: "They should kill them.".... + +This was done that the patrons, some of whom could not read, would be +impressed by the expressions of their children, and would be ready +to put any one to death who would come out into the country and say +anything against Governor Starns. + +The native white teachers soon dropped out of Negro schools, and those +from the North met with the same social persecution as the white church +workers. The White League and Ku Klux Klan drove off obnoxious teachers, +whipped some, burned Negro schoolhouses, and in various other ways +manifested the reaction which was rousing the whites against Negro +schools. + +The several agencies working for Negro education gave some training to +hundreds of thousands of blacks, but the whites asserted that, like the +church work, it was based on a wrong spirit and resulted in evil as +well as in good. Free schools failed in reconstruction because of +the dishonesty or incompetence of the authorities and because of the +unsettled race question. It was not until the turn of the century that +the white schools were again as good as they had been before 1861. +After the reconstruction native whites as teachers of Negro schools were +impossible in most places. The hostile feelings of the whites resulted +and still result in a limitation of Negro schools. The best thing for +Negro schools that came out of reconstruction was Armstrong's Hampton +Institute program, which, however, was quite opposed to the spirit of +reconstruction education. + + + +CHAPTER X. CARPETBAG AND NEGRO RULE + +The Southern States reconstructed by Congress were subject for periods +of varying length to governments designed by radical Northerners and +imposed by elements thrown to the surface in the upheaval of Southern +society. Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina each had a brief +experience with these governments; other States escaped after four +or five years, while Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida were not +delivered from this domination until 1876. The states which contained +large numbers of Negroes had, on the whole, the worst experience. Here +the officials were ignorant or corrupt, frauds upon the public were the +rule, not the exception, and all of the reconstruction governments were +so conducted that they could secure no support from the respectable +elements of the electorate. + +The fundamental cause of the failure of these governments was the +character of the new ruling class. Every state, except perhaps Virginia, +was under the control of a few able leaders from the North generally +called carpetbaggers and of a few native white radicals contemptuously +designated scalawags. These were kept in power by Negro voters, to +some seven hundred thousand of whom the ballot had been given by the +reconstruction acts. The adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment in March +1870, brought the total in the former slave states to 931,000, with +about seventy-five thousand more Negroes in the North. The Negro voters +were most numerous, comparatively, in Louisiana, Mississippi, South +Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia. There were a few thousand carpetbaggers +in each State, with, at first, a much larger number of scalawags. The +latter, who were former Unionists, former Whigs, Confederate deserters, +and a few unscrupulous politicians, were most numerous in Virginia, +North Carolina, Texas, Arkansas, and Tennessee. The better class, +however, rapidly left the radical party as the character of the new +regime became evident, taking with them whatever claims the party had to +respectability, education, political experience, and property. + +The conservatives, hopelessly reduced by the operation of disfranchising +laws, were at first not well organized, nor were they at any time as +well led as in antebellum days. In 1868, about one hundred thousand +of them were forbidden to vote and about two hundred thousand were +disqualified from holding office. The abstention policy of 1867-68 +resulted in an almost complete withdrawal of the influence of the +conservatives for the two years, 1868-70. As a class they were regarded +by the dominant party in state and nation as dangerous and untrustworthy +and were persecuted in such irritating ways that many became indifferent +to the appeals of civil duty. They formed a solid but almost despairing +opposition in the black districts of Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, +and South Carolina. For the leaders the price of amnesty was conversion +to radicalism, but this price few would pay. + +The new state governments possessed certain characteristics in common. +Since only a small number of able men were available for office, full +powers of administration, including appointment and removal, were +concentrated in the hands of the governor. He exercised a wide control +over public funds and had authority to organize and command militia and +constabulary and to call for Federal troops. The numerous administrative +boards worked with the sole object of keeping their party in power. +Officers were several times as numerous as under the old regime, and all +of them received higher salaries and larger contingent fees. The moral +support behind the government was that of President Grant and the United +States army, not that of a free and devoted people. + +Of the twenty men who served as governors, eight were scalawags and +twelve were carpetbaggers, men who were abler than the scalawags and who +had much more than an equal share of the spoils. The scalawags, such as +Brownlow of Tennessee, Smith of Alabama, and Holden of North Carolina, +were usually honest but narrow, vindictive men, filled with fear and +hate of the conservative whites. + +Of the carpetbaggers half were personally honest, but all were +unscrupulous in politics.' Some were flagrantly dishonest.* Governor +Moses of South Carolina was several times bribed and at one time, +according to his own statement, received $15,000 for his vote as speaker +of the House of Representatives. Governor Stearns of Florida was charged +with stealing government supplies from the Negroes; and it was notorious +that Warmoth and Kellogg of Louisiana, each of whom served only one +term, retired with large fortunes. Warmoth, indeed, went so far as to +declare: "Corruption is the fashion. I do not pretend to be honest, but +only as honest as anybody in politics." + +The judiciary was no better than the executive. The chief justice +of Louisiana was convicted of fraud. A supreme court judge of South +Carolina offered his decisions for sale, and Whipper and Moses, +both notorious thieves, were elected judges by the South Carolina +Legislature. In Alabama there were many illiterate magistrates, among +them the city judge of Selma, who in April 1865, was still living as +a slave. Governor Chamberlain, a radical, asserted that there were two +hundred trial judges in South Carolina who could not read. + +Other officers were of the same stripe. Leslie, a South Carolina +carpetbagger, declared that "South Carolina has no right to be a state +unless she can support her statesmen," and he proceeded to live up to +this principle. The manager of the state railroad of Georgia, when asked +how he had been able to accumulate twenty or thirty thousand dollars on +a two or three thousand dollar salary, replied, "By the exercise of the +most rigid economy." A North Carolina Negro legislator was found on one +occasion chuckling as he counted some money. "What are you laughing at, +Uncle?" he was asked. "Well, boss, I'se been sold 'leben times in +my life and dis is de fust time I eber got de money." Godkin, in the +"Nation", said that the Georgia officials were "probably as bad a lot of +political tricksters and adventurers as ever got together in one place." +This description will fit equally well the white officials of all the +reconstructed states. Many of the Negroes who attained public office +showed themselves apt pupils of their carpetbag masters but were seldom +permitted to appropriate a large share of the plunder. In Florida the +Negro members of the legislature, thinking that they should have a part +of the bribe and loot money which their carpetbag masters were said to +be receiving, went so far as to appoint what was known as a "smelling +committee" to locate the good things and secure a share. + +From 1868 to 1870, the legislatures of seven states were overwhelmingly +radical and in several the radical majority held control for four, +six, or eight years. Negroes were most numerous in the legislatures of +Louisiana, South Carolina, and Mississippi, and everywhere the votes of +these men were for sale. In Alabama and Louisiana, Negro legislators had +a fixed price for their votes: for example, six hundred dollars would +buy a senator in Louisiana. In South Carolina, Negro government appeared +at its worst. A vivid description of the Legislature of this State in +which the Negroes largely outnumbered the whites is given by James S. +Pike, a Republican journalist*: + + *Pike, "The Prostrate State", pp. 12 ff. + + +"In the place of this old aristocratic society stands the rude form of +the most ignorant democracy that mankind ever saw, invested with the +functions of government. It is the dregs of the population habilitated +in the robes of their intelligent predecessors, and asserting over them +the rule of ignorance and corruption.... It is barbarism overwhelming +civilization by physical force. It is the slave rioting in the halls of +his master, and putting that master under his feet. And, though it is +done without malice and without vengeance, it is nevertheless none +the less completely and absolutely done.... We will enter the House of +Representatives. Here sit one hundred and twenty-four members. Of +these, twenty-three are white men, representing the remains of the old +civilization. These are good-looking, substantial citizens. They are men +of weight and standing in the communities they represent. They are all +from the hill country. The frosts of sixty and seventy winters whiten +the heads of some among them. There they sit, grim and silent. They feel +themselves to be but loose stones, thrown in to partially obstruct a +current they are powerless to resist.... + +"This dense Negro crowd... do the debating, the squabbling, the +lawmaking, and create all the clamor and disorder of the body. These +twenty-three white men are but the observers, the enforced auditors of +the dull and clumsy imitation of a deliberative body, whose appearance +in their present capacity is at once a wonder and a shame to modern +civilization.... The Speaker is black, the Clerk is black, the +doorkeepers are black, the little pages are black, the chairman of the +Ways and Means is black, and the chaplain is coal black. At some of the +desks sit colored men whose types it would be hard to find outside of +Congo; whose costumes, visages, attitudes, and expression, only befit +the forecastle of a buccaneer. It must be remembered, also, that these +men, with not more than a half dozen exceptions, have been themselves +slaves, and that their ancestors were slaves for generations... + +"But the old stagers admit that the colored brethren have a wonderful +aptness at legislative proceedings. They are 'quick as lightning' +at detecting points of order, and they certainly make incessant and +extraordinary use of their knowledge. No one is allowed to talk five +minutes without interruption, and one interruption is a signal for +another and another, until the original speaker is smothered under an +avalanche of them. Forty questions of privilege will be raised in a +day. At times, nothing goes on but alternating questions of order and +of privilege. The inefficient colored friend who sits in the Speaker's +chair cannot suppress this extraordinary element of the debate. Some of +the blackest members exhibit a pertinacity of intrusion in raising these +points of order and questions of privilege that few white men can +equal. Their struggles to get the floor, their bellowings and physical +contortions, baffle description. + +"The Speaker's hammer plays a perpetual tattoo to no purpose. The +talking and the interruptions from all quarters go on with the utmost +license. Everyone esteems himself as good as his neighbor, and puts +in his oar, apparently as often for love of riot and confusion as for +anything else.... The Speaker orders a member whom he has discovered to +be particularly unruly to take his seat. The member obeys, and with the +same motion that he sits down, throws his feet on to his desk, hiding +himself from the Speaker by the soles of his boots .... After a few +experiences of this sort, the Speaker threatens, in a laugh, to call +the 'gemman' to order. This is considered a capital joke, and a guffaw +follows. The laugh goes round and then the peanuts are cracked and +munched faster than ever; one hand being employed in fortifying the +inner man with this nutriment of universal use, while the other enforces +the views of the orator. This laughing propensity of the sable crowd is +a great cause of disorder. They laugh as hens cackle--one begins and all +follow. + +"But underneath all this shocking burlesque upon legislative +proceedings, we must not forget that there is something very real +to this uncouth and untutored multitude. It is not all sham, nor all +burlesque. They have a genuine interest and a genuine earnestness in the +business of the assembly which we are bound to recognize and respect.... +They have an earnest purpose, born of conviction that their position and +condition are not fully assured, which lends a sort of dignity to their +proceedings. The barbarous, animated jargon in which they so often +indulge is on occasion seen to be so transparently sincere and weighty +in their own minds that sympathy supplants disgust. The whole thing is a +wonderful novelty to them as well as to observers. Seven years ago these +men were raising corn and cotton under the whip of the overseer. Today +they are raising points of order and questions of privilege. They find +they can raise one as well as the other. They prefer the latter. It +is easier and better paid. Then, it is the evidence of an accomplished +result. It means escape and defense from old oppressors. It means +liberty. It means the destruction of prison-walls only too real to them. +It is the sunshine of their lives. It is their day of jubilee. It is +their long-promised vision of the Lord God Almighty." + +The congressional delegations were as radical as the state governments. +During the first two years, there were no Democratic senators from the +reconstructed states and only two Democratic representatives, as against +sixty-four radical senators and representatives. At the end of four +years, the Democrats numbered fifteen against seventy radicals. A Negro +succeeded Jefferson Davis in the Senate, and in all the race sent two +senators and thirteen representatives to Congress; but though several +were of high character and fair ability, they exercised practically no +influence. The Southern delegations had no part in shaping policies but +merely voted as they were told by the radical leaders. + +The effect of dishonest government was soon seen in extravagant +expenditures, heavier taxes, increase of the bonded debt, and depression +of property values. It was to be expected that after the ruin wrought +by war and the admission of the Negro to civil rights, the expenses of +government would be greater. But only lack of honesty will account for +the extraordinary expenses of the reconstruction governments. In Alabama +and Florida, the running expenses of the state government increased +two hundred percent, in Louisiana five hundred percent, and in Arkansas +fifteen hundred percent--all this in addition to bond issues. In South +Carolina the one item of public printing, which from 1790 to 1868 cost +$609,000, amounted in the years 1868-1876 to $1,326,589. + +Corrupt state officials had two ways of getting money--by taxation and +by the sale of bonds. Taxes were everywhere multiplied. The state tax +rate in Alabama was increased four hundred percent, in Louisiana +eight hundred percent, and in Mississippi, which could issue no bonds, +fourteen hundred percent. City and county taxes, where carpetbaggers +were in control, increased in the same way. Thousands of small +proprietors could not meet their taxes, and in Mississippi alone the +land sold for unpaid taxes amounted to six million acres, an area as +large as Massachusetts and Rhode Island together. Nordhoff* speaks of +seeing Louisiana newspapers of which three-fourths were taken up +by notices of tax sales. In protest against extravagant and corrupt +expenditures, taxpayers' conventions were held in every state, but +without effect. + + *Charles Nordhoff, "The Cotton States in the Spring and + Summer of 1875". + + +Even the increased taxation, however, did not produce enough to support +the new governments, which now had recourse to the sale of state and +local bonds. In this way Governor Holden's Administration managed in two +years to increase the public debt of North Carolina from $16,000,000 to +$32,000,000. The state debt of South Carolina rose from $7,000,000 to +$29,000,000 in 1873. In Alabama, by 1874, the debt had mounted from +$7,000,000 to $32,000,000. The public debt of Louisiana rose from +$14,000,000 in 1868 to $48,000,000 in 1871, with a local debt of +$31,000,000. Cities, towns, and counties sold bonds by the bale. The +debt of New Orleans increased twenty-five fold and that of Vicksburg +a thousandfold. A great deal of the debt was the result of fraudulent +issues of bonds or over-issue. For this form of fraud, the state +financial agents in New York were usually responsible. Southern bonds +sold far below par, and the time came when they were peddled about at +ten to twenty-five cents on the dollar. + +Still another disastrous result followed this corrupt financiering. In +Alabama there was a sixty-five percent decrease in property values, +in Florida forty-five percent, and in Louisiana fifty to seventy-five +percent. A large part of the best property was mortgaged, and +foreclosure sales were frequent. Poorer property could be neither +mortgaged nor sold. There was an exodus of whites from the worst +governed districts in the West and the North. Many towns, among them +Mobile and Memphis, surrendered their charters and were ruled directly +by the governor; and there were numerous "strangulated" counties which +on account of debt had lost self-government and were ruled by appointees +of the governor. + +A part of the money raised by taxes and by bond sales was used for +legitimate expenses and the rest went to pay forged warrants, excess +warrants, and swollen mileage accounts, and to fill the pockets of +embezzlers and thieves from one end of the South to the other. In +Arkansas, for example, the auditor's clerk hire, which was $4000 in +1866, cost twenty-three times as much in 1873. In Louisiana and South +Carolina, stealing was elevated into an art and was practiced without +concealment. In the latter state, the worthless Hell Hole Swamp was +bought for $26,000 to be farmed by the Negroes but was charged to the +state at $120,000. A free restaurant maintained at the Capitol for the +legislators cost $125,000 for one session. The porter who conducted it +said that he kept it open sixteen to twenty hours a day and that someone +was always in the room eating and drinking or smoking. When a member +left, he would fill his pockets with cigars or with bottles of drink. +Forty different brands of beverages were paid for by the state for the +private use of members, and all sorts of food, furniture, and clothing +were sent to the houses of members and were paid for by the state as +"legislative supplies." On the bills appeared such items as imported +mushrooms, one side of bacon, one feather bed, bustles, two pairs of +extra long stockings, one pair of garters, one bottle perfume, twelve +monogram cut glasses, one horse, one comb and brush, three gallons of +whisky, one pair of corsets. During the recess, supplies were sent out +to the rural homes of the members. + +The endorsement of railroad securities by the state also furnished +a source of easy money to the dishonest official and the crooked +speculator. After the Civil War, in response to the general desire in +the South for better railroad facilities, the "Johnson" governments +began to underwrite railroad bonds. When the carpetbag and Negro +governments came in, the policy was continued but without proper +safeguards. Bonds were sometimes endorsed before the roads were +constructed, and even excess issues were authorized. Bonds were endorsed +for some roads of which not a mile was ever built. The White River +Valley and Texas Railroad never came into existence, but it obtained +a grant of $175,000 from the State of Arkansas. Speaker Carter of the +Louisiana Legislature received a financial interest in all railroad +endorsement bills which he steered through the House. Negro members were +regularly bribed to vote for the bond steals. A witness swore that in +Louisiana it cost him $80,000 to get a railroad charter passed, but that +the Governor's signature cost more than the consent of the legislature. + +When the roads defaulted on the payment of interest, as most of them +did, the burden fell upon the state. Not all of the blame for this +perverted legislation should be placed upon the corrupt legislators, +however, for the lawyers who saw the bills through were frequently +Southern Democrats representing supposedly respectable Northern +capitalists. The railroads as well as the taxpayers suffered from this +pernicious lobbying, for the companies were loaded with debts and rarely +profited by the loans. Valuation of railroad property rapidly decreased. +The roads of Alabama which were valued in 1871 at $26,000,000 had +decreased in 1875 to $9,500,000. + +The foundation of radical power in the South lay in the alienation of +the races which had been accomplished between 1865 and 1868. To maintain +this unhappy distrust, the radical leaders found an effective means in +the Negro militia. Under the constitution of every reconstructed state, +a Negro constabulary was possible, but only in South Carolina, North +Carolina, Louisiana, and Mississippi were the authorities willing to +risk the dangers of arming the blacks. No governor dared permit the +Southern whites to organize as militia. In South Carolina the carpetbag +governor, Robert K. Scott, enrolled ninety-six thousand Negroes as +members of the militia and organized and armed twenty thousand of +them. The few white companies were ordered to disband. In Louisiana the +governor had a standing army of blacks called the Metropolitan Guard. In +several states the Negro militia was used as a constabulary and was sent +to any part of the state to make arrests. + +In spite of this provocation there were, after the riots of 1866-67, +comparatively few race conflicts until reconstruction was drawing to +a close. The intervening period was filled with the more peaceful +activities of the Ku Klux Klan and the White Camellia. But as the +whites made up their minds to get rid of Negro rule, the clashes came +frequently and always ended in the death of more Negroes than whites.* +They would probably have continued with serious consequences if the +whites had not eventually secured control of the government. + + * Among the bloodiest conflicts were those in Louisiana at + Colfax, Coushatta, and New Orleans in 1873-74, and at + Vicksburg and Clinton, Mississippi, in 1874-75. + + +The lax election laws, framed indeed for the benefit of the party in +power, gave the radicals ample opportunity to control the Negro vote. +The elections were frequently corrupt, though not a great deal of money +was spent in bribery. It was found less expensive to use other methods +of getting out the vote. The Negroes were generally made to understand +that the Democrats wanted to put them back into slavery, but sometimes +the leaders deemed it wiser to state more concretely that "Jeff Davis +had come to Montgomery and is ready to organize the Confederacy again" +if the Democrats should win; or to say that "if Carter is elected, he +will not allow your wives and daughters to wear hoopskirts." In Alabama +many thousand pounds of bacon and hams were sent in to be distributed +among "flood sufferers" in a region which had not been flooded since +the days of Noah. The Negroes were told that they must vote right and +receive enough bacon for a year, or "lose their rights" if they voted +wrongly. Ballot-box stuffing developed into an art, and each Negro was +carefully inspected to see that he had the right kind of ticket before +he was marched to the polls. + +The inspection and counting of election returns were in the hands of +the county and state boards, which were controlled by the governor, and +which had authority to throw out or count in any number of votes. On +the assumption that the radicals were entitled to all Negro votes, the +returning boards followed the census figures for the black population in +order to arrive at the minimum radical vote. The action of the returning +boards was specially flagrant in Louisiana and Florida and in the black +counties of South Carolina. + +Notwithstanding the fact that the very best arrangements had been made +at Washington and in the states for the running of the radical machine, +everywhere there were factional fights from the beginning. Usually the +scalawags declared hostilities after they found that the carpetbaggers +had control of the Negroes and the inside track on the way to the best +state and federal offices. Later, after the scalawags had for the most +part left the radicals, there were contests among the carpetbaggers +themselves for the control of the Negro vote and the distribution of +spoils. The defeated faction usually joined the Democrats. In Arkansas +a split started in 1869 which by 1872 resulted in two state governments. +Alabama in 1872 and Louisiana in 1874-75 each had two rival governments. +This factionalism contributed largely to the overthrow of the radicals. + +The radical structure, however, was still powerfully supported from +without. Relations between the Federal Government and the state +governments in the South were close, and the policy at Washington was +frequently determined by conditions in the South. President Grant, +though at first considerate, was usually consistently radical in his +Southern policy. This attitude is difficult to explain except by saying +that Grant fell under the control of radical advisers after his break +with Johnson, that his military instincts were offended by opposition +in the South which his advisers told him was rebellious, and that he was +impressed by the need of holding the Southern radical vote against +the inroads of the Democrats. After about 1869, Grant never really +understood the conditions in the South. He was content to control by +means of Federal troops and thousands of deputy marshals. For this +policy the Ku Klux activities gave sufficient excuse for a time, and the +continued story of "rebel outrages" was always available to justify +a call for soldiers or deputies. The enforcement legislation gave the +color of law to any interference which was deemed necessary. + +Federal troops served other ends than the mere preservation of order and +the support of the radical state governments. They were used on occasion +to decide between opposing factions and to oust conservatives who had +forced their way into office. The army officers purged the Legislature +of Georgia in 1870, that of Alabama in 1872, and that of Louisiana in +1875. In 1875 the city government of Vicksburg and the state government +of Louisiana were overturned by the whites, but General Sheridan at once +intervened to put back the Negroes and carpetbaggers. He suggested to +President Grant that the conservatives be declared "banditti" and he +would make himself responsible for the rest. As soon as a State showed +signs of going over to the Democrats or an important election was lost +by the radicals, one House or the other of Congress in many instances +sent an investigation committee to ascertain the reasons. The Committees +on the Condition of the South or on the Late Insurrectionary States +were nearly always ready with reports to establish the necessity of +intervention. + +Besides the army there was in every state a powerful group of Federal +officials who formed a "ring" for the direction of all good radicals. +These marshals, deputies, postmasters, district attorneys, and +customhouse officials were in close touch with Washington and frequently +dictated nominations and platforms. At New Orleans the officials acted +as a committee on credentials and held all the state conventions under +their control in the customhouse. + +Such was the machinery used to sustain a party which, with the gradual +defection of the whites, became throughout the South almost +uniformly black. At first few Negroes asked for offices, but soon the +carpetbaggers found it necessary to divide with the rapidly growing +number of Negro politicians. No Negro was elected governor, though +several reached the office of lieutenant governor, secretary of state, +auditor, superintendent of education, justice of the state supreme +court, and fifteen were elected to Congress.* It would not be correct +to say that the Negro race was malicious or on evil bent. Unless +deliberately stirred up by white leaders, few Negroes showed signs +of mean spirit. Few even made exorbitant demands. They wanted +"something"--schools and freedom and "something else," they knew not +what. Deprived of the leadership of the best whites, they could not +possibly act with the scalawags--their traditional enemies. Nothing was +left for them but to follow the carpetbagger. + + * Revels, Lynch, and Bruce represent the better Negro + officeholders; Pinchback, Rainey, and Nash, the less + respectable ones; and below these were the rascals whose + ambition was to equal their white preceptors in corruption. + + + +CHAPTER XI. THE KU KLUX MOVEMENT + +The Ku Klux movement, which took the form of secret revolutionary +societies, grew out of a general conviction among the whites that the +reconstruction policies were impossible and not to be endured. Somers, +an English traveler, says that at this time "nearly every respectable +white man in the Southern States was not only disfranchised but under +fear of arrest or confiscation; the old foundations of authority were +utterly razed before any new ones had yet been laid, and in the dark and +benighted interval the remains of the Confederate armies--swept after +a long and heroic day of fair fight from the field--flitted before the +eyes of the people in this weird and midnight shape of a Ku Klux Klan." +Ryland Randolph, an Alabama editor who was also an official of the Klan, +stated in his paper that "the origin of Ku Klux Klan is in the galling +despotism that broods like a nightmare over these Southern States--a +fungus growth of military tyranny superinduced by the fostering of Loyal +Leagues, the abrogation of our civil laws, the habitual violation of our +national Constitution, and a persistent prostitution of all government, +all resources and all powers, to degrade the white man by the +establishment of Negro supremacy." + +The secret orders, regardless of their original purposes, were all +finally to be found opposing radical reconstruction. Everywhere their +objects were the same: to recover for the white race their former +control of society and government, and to destroy the baneful influence +of the alien among the blacks. The people of the South were by law +helpless to take steps towards setting up any kind of government in a +land infested by a vicious element--Federal and Confederate deserters, +bushwhackers, outlaws of every description, and Negroes, some of whom +proved insolent and violent in their newly found freedom. Nowhere +was property or person safe, and for a time many feared a Negro +insurrection. General Hardee said to his neighbors, "I advise you to get +ready for what may come. We are standing over a sleeping volcano." + +To cope with this situation ante-bellum patrols--the "patter-rollers" +as the Negroes called them--were often secretly reorganized. In each +community for several months after the Civil War, and in many of them +for months before the end of the war, there were informal vigilance +committees. Some of these had such names as the Black Cavalry and Men of +Justice in Alabama, the Home Guards in many other places, while the +anti Confederate societies of the war, the Heroes of America, the Red +Strings, and the Peace Societies, transformed themselves in certain +localities into regulatory bodies. Later these secret societies numbered +scores, perhaps hundreds, varying from small bodies of local police to +great federated bodies which covered almost the entire South and even +had membership in the North and West. Other important organizations were +the Constitutional Union Guards, the Pale Faces, the White Brotherhood, +the Council of Safety, the '76 Association, the Sons of '76, the +Order of the White Rose, and the White Boys. As the fight against +reconstruction became bolder, the orders threw off their disguises and +appeared openly as armed whites fighting for the control of society. +The White League of Louisiana, the White Line of Mississippi, the White +Man's party of Alabama, and the Rifle Clubs of South Carolina, were +later manifestations of the general Ku Klux movement. + +The two largest secret orders, however, were the Ku Klux Klan, from +which the movement took its name, and the Knights of the White Camelia. +The Ku Klux Klan originated at Pulaski, Tennessee, in the autumn of +1865, as a local organization for social purposes. The founders were +young Confederates, united for fun and mischief. The name was an +accidental corruption of the Greek word Kuklos, a circle. The officers +adopted queer sounding titles and strange disguises. Weird nightriders +in ghostly attire thoroughly frightened the superstitious Negroes, +who were told that the spirits of dead Confederates were abroad. This +terrorizing of the blacks successfully provided the amusement which the +founders desired, and there were many applications for admission to the +society. The Pulaski Club, or Den, was in the habit of parading in full +uniform at social gatherings of the whites at night, much to the delight +of the small boys and girls. Pulaski was near the Alabama line, and +many of the young men of Alabama who saw these parades or heard of them +organized similar Dens in the towns of Northern Alabama. Nothing but +horseplay, however, took place at the meetings. In 1867 and 1868, the +order appeared in parade in the towns of the adjoining states and, as we +are told, "cut up curious gyrations" on the public squares. + +There was a general belief outside the order that there was a purpose +behind all the ceremonial and frolic of the Dens; many joined the order +convinced that its object was serious; others saw the possibilities of +using it as a means of terrorizing the Negroes. After men discovered +the power of the Klan over the Negroes, indeed, they were generally +inclined, owing to the disordered conditions of the time, to act as a +sort of police patrol and to hold in check the thieving Negroes, the +Union League, and the "loyalists." In this way, from being merely a +number of social clubs the Dens swiftly became bands of regulators, +taking on many new fantastic qualities along with their new seriousness +of purpose. Some of the more ardent spirits led the Dens far in the +direction of violence and outrage. Attempts were made by the parent +Den at Pulaski to regulate the conduct of the others, but, owing to +the loose organization, the effort met with little success. Some of the +Dens, indeed, lost all connection with the original order. + +A general organization of these societies was perfected at a convention +held in Nashville in May 1867, just as the Reconstruction Acts were +being put into operation. A constitution called the Prescript was +adopted which provided for a national organization. The former slave +states, except Delaware, constituted the Empire, which was ruled by +the Grand Wizard (then General Forrest) with a staff of ten Genii; +each State was a realm under a Grand Dragon and eight Hydras; the next +subdivision was a Dominion, consisting of several counties, ruled by +a Grand Titan and six Furies; the county or Province was governed by +a Grand Giant and four Goblins; the unit was the Den or community +organization, of which there might be several in each county, each under +a Grand Cyclops and two Nighthawks. The Genii, Hydras, Furies, Goblins, +and Nighthawks were staff officers. The private members were called +Ghouls. The order had no name, and at first was designated by two stars +(**), later by three (***). Sometimes it was called the Invisible Empire +of Ku Klux Klan. + +Any white man over eighteen might be admitted to the Den after +nomination by a member and strict investigation by a committee. The +oath demanded obedience and secrecy. The Dens governed themselves by the +ordinary rules of deliberative bodies. The punishment for betrayal of +secrecy was "the extreme penalty of the Law." None of the secrets was to +be written, and there was a "Register" of alarming adjectives, such +as terrible, horrible, furious, doleful, bloody, appalling, frightful, +gloomy, which was used as a cipher code in dating the odd Ku Klux +orders. + +The general objects of the order were thus set forth in the revised +Prescript: first, to protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless +from the indignities, wrongs, and outrages of the lawless, the violent, +and the brutal; to relieve the injured and oppressed; to succor the +suffering and unfortunate, and especially the widows and orphans of +Confederate soldiers; second, to protect and defend the Constitution +of the United States and all laws passed in conformity thereto, and to +protect the States and people thereof from all invasion from any +source whatever; third, to aid and assist in the execution of all +"constitutional" laws, and to protect the people from unlawful arrest, +and from trial except by their peers according to the laws of the land. +But the tests for admission gave further indication of the objects of +the order. No Republican, no Union Leaguer, and no member of the G. +A. R. might become a member. The members were pledged to oppose Negro +equality of any kind, to favor emancipation of the Southern whites +and the restoration of their rights, and to maintain constitutional +government and equitable laws. + +Prominent men testified that the order became popular because the whites +felt that they were persecuted and that there was no legal protection, +no respectable government. General (later Senator) Pettus said that +through all the workings of the Federal Government ran the principle +that "we are an inferior, degraded people and not fit to be trusted." +General Clanton of Alabama further explained that "there is not a +respectable white woman in the Negro Belt of Alabama who will trust +herself outside of her house without some protector.... So far as our +State Government is concerned, we are in the hands of camp-followers, +horse-holders, cooks, bottle-washers, and thieves.. .. We have passed +out from the hands of the brave soldiers who overcame us, and are +turned over to the tender mercies of squaws for torture.... I see Negro +police--great black fellows--leading white girls around the streets of +Montgomery, and locking them up in jails." + +The Klan first came into general prominence in 1868 with the report +of the Federal commanders in the South concerning its activities. Soon +after that date the order spread through the white counties of the +South, in many places absorbing the White Brotherhood, the Pale Faces, +and some other local organizations which had been formed in the upper +part of the Black Belt. But it was not alone in the field. The order +known as the Knights of the White Camelia, founded in Louisiana in 1867 +and formally organized in 1868, spread rapidly over the lower South +until it reached the territory occupied by the Ku Klux Klan. It was +mainly a Black Belt order, and on the whole had a more substantial and +more conservative membership than the other large secret bodies. Like +the Ku Klux Klan, it also absorbed several minor local societies. + +The White Camelia had a national organization with headquarters in New +Orleans. Its business was conducted by a Supreme Council of the United +States, with Grand, Central, and Subordinate Councils for each state, +county, and community. All communication within the order took place by +passwords and cipher; the organization and the officers were similar to +those of the Ku Klux Klan; and all officers were designated by initials. +An ex-member states that "during the three years of its existence here +[Perry County, Alabama] I believe its organization and discipline were +as perfect as human ingenuity could have made it." The fundamental +object of the White Camelia was the "maintenance of the supremacy of the +white race," and to this end the members were constrained "to observe a +marked distinction between the races" and to restrain the "African race +to that condition of social and political inferiority for which God +has destined it." The members were pledged to vote only for whites, +to oppose Negro equality in all things, but to respect the legitimate +rights of Negroes. + +The smaller orders were similar in purpose and organization to the Ku +Klux Klan and the White Camelia. Most of them joined or were affiliated +with the large societies. Probably a majority of the men of the South +were associated at some time during this period with these revolutionary +bodies. As a rule the politicians, though approving, held aloof. Public +opinion generally supported the movement so long as the radicals made +serious attempts to carry out the reconstruction policies. + +The task before the secret orders was to regulate the conduct of the +blacks and their leaders in order that honor, life, and property might +be secure. They planned to accomplish this aim by playing upon the +fears, superstitions, and cowardice of the black race--in a word, by +creating a white terror to counteract the black one. To this end they +made use of strange disguises, mysterious and fearful conversation, +midnight rides and drills, and silent parades. As long as secrecy and +mystery were to be effective in dealing with the Negroes, costume was +an important matter. These disguises varied with the locality and often +with the individual. High cardboard hats, covered with white cloth often +decorated with stars or pictures of animals, white masks with holes +cut for eyes, nose and mouth bound with red braid to give a horrible +appearance, and frequently a long tongue of red flannel so fixed that +it could be moved with the wearer's tongue, and a long white robe--these +made up a costume which served at the same time as a disguise and as a +means of impressing the impressionable Negro. Horses were covered with +sheets or white cloth held on by the saddle and by belts, and sometimes +the animals were even painted. Skulls of sheep and cattle, and even of +human beings were often carried on the saddlebows to add another element +of terror. A framework was sometimes made to fit the shoulders of a +Ghoul which caused him to appear twelve feet high. A skeleton wooden +hand at the end of a stick served to greet terrified Negroes at +midnight. For safety every man carried a small whistle and a brace of +pistols. + +The trembling Negro who ran into a gathering of the Ku Klux on his +return from a Loyal League meeting was informed that the white-robed +figures he saw were the spirits of the Confederate dead killed at +Chickamauga or Shiloh, now unable to rest in their graves because of +the conduct of the Negroes. He was told in a sepulchral voice of the +necessity for his remaining more at home and taking a less active part +in predatory excursions abroad. In the middle of the night, a sleeping +Negro might wake to find his house surrounded by a ghostly company, or +to see several terrifying figures standing by his bedside. They were, +they said, the ghosts of men whom he had formerly known. They had +scratched through from Hell to warn the Negroes of the consequences of +their misconduct. Hell was a dry and thirsty land; and they asked him +for water. Bucket after bucket of water disappeared into a sack of +leather, rawhide, or rubber, concealed within the flowing robe. The +story is told of one of these night travelers who called at the cabin +of a radical Negro in Attakapas County, Louisiana. After drinking three +buckets of water to the great astonishment of the darky, the traveler +thanked him and told him that he had traveled nearly a thousand miles +within twenty-four hours, and that that was the best water he had tasted +since he was killed at the battle of Shiloh. The Negro dropped the +bucket, overturned chairs and table in making his escape through the +window, and was never again seen or heard of by residents of that +community. Another incident is told of a parade in Pulaski, Tennessee: +"While the procession was passing a corner on which a Negro man was +standing, a tall horseman in hideous garb turned aside from the line, +dismounted and stretched out his bridle rein toward the Negro, as if +he desired him to hold his horse. Not daring to refuse, the frightened +African extended his hand to grasp the rein. As he did so, the Ku Klux +took his own head from his shoulders and offered to place that also in +the outstretched hand. The Negro stood not upon the order of his going, +but departed with a yell of terror. To this day he will tell you: 'He +done it, suah, boss. I seed him do it.'" + +It was seldom necessary at this early stage to use violence, for +the black population was in an ecstasy of fear. A silent host of +white-sheeted horsemen parading the country roads at night was +sufficient to reduce the blacks to good behavior for weeks or months. +One silent Ghoul posted near a meeting place of the League would be the +cause of the immediate dissolution of that club. Cow bones in a sack +were rattled within earshot of the terrified Negroes. A horrible +being, fifteen feet tall, walking through the night toward a place of +congregation, was very likely to find that every one had vacated the +place before he arrived. A few figures wrapped in sheets and sitting +on tombstones in a graveyard near which Negroes were accustomed to pass +would serve to keep the immediate community quiet for weeks and give the +locality a reputation for "hants" which lasted long. + +To prevent detection on parade, members of the Klan often stayed out +of the parade in their own town and were to be seen freely and +conspicuously mingling with the spectators. A man who believed that he +knew every horse in the vicinity and was sure that he would be able to +identify the riders by their horses was greatly surprised upon lifting +the disguise of the horse nearest him to find the animal upon which +he himself had ridden into town a short while before. The parades were +always silent and so arranged as to give the impression of very large +numbers. In the regular drills which were held in town and country, the +men showed that they had not forgotten their training in the Confederate +army. There were no commands save in a very low tone or in a mysterious +language, and usually only signs or whistle signals were used. + +Such pacific methods were successful to a considerable degree until +the carpetbaggers and scalawags were placed in office under the +Reconstruction Acts. Then more violent methods were necessary. The +Mans patrolled disturbed communities, visited, warned, and frightened +obnoxious individuals, whipped some, and even hanged others. Until +forbidden by law or military order, the newspapers were accustomed to +print the mysterious proclamations of the Ku Klux. The following, which +was circulated in Montgomery, Alabama, in April 1868, is a typical +specimen: + +K. K. K. Clan of Vega. HDQRS K.K.K. HOSPITALLERS. + +Vega Clan, New Moon, 3rd Month, Anno K. K. K. 1. + +ORDER No. K. K. + +Clansmen--Meet at the Trysting Spot when Orion Kisses the Zenith. +The doom of treason is Death. Dies Irae. The wolf is on his walk--the +serpent coils to strike. Action! Action!! Action!!! By midnight and the +Tomb; by Sword and Torch and the Sacred Oath at Forrester's Altar, I +bid you come! The clansmen of Glen Iran and Alpine will greet you at the +new-made grave. + +Remember the Ides of April. + +By command of the Grand D. I. H. + +Cheg. V. + +The work of the secret orders was successful. As bodies of vigilantes, +the Mans and the Councils regulated the conduct of bad Negroes, +punished criminals who were not punished by the state, looked after the +activities and teachings of Northern preachers and teachers, dispersed +hostile gatherings of Negroes, and ran out of the community the worst of +the reconstructionist officials. They kept the Negroes quiet and freed +them to some extent from the influence of evil leaders. The burning of +houses, gins, mills, and stores ceased; property became more secure; +people slept safely at night; women and children walked abroad in +security; the incendiary agents who had worked among the Negroes left +the country; agitators, political, educational, and religious, became +more moderate; "bad niggers" ceased to be bad; labor became less +disorganized; the carpetbaggers and scalawags ceased to batten on the +Southern communities. It was not so much a revolution as the defeat of a +revolution. Society was replaced in the old historic grooves from which +war and reconstruction had jarred it. + +Successful as was the Ku Klux movement in these respects, it had at the +same time many harmful results. Too often local orders fell under the +control of reckless or lawless men and the Klan was then used as a cloak +to cover violence and thievery; family and personal feuds were carried +into the orders and fought out; and anti-Negro feeling in many places +found expression in activities designed to drive the blacks from +the country. It was easy for any outlaw to hide himself behind the +protection of a secret order. So numerous did these men become that +after 1868 there was a general exodus of the leading reputable members, +and in 1869 the formal disbanding of the Klan was proclaimed by General +Forrest, the Grand Wizard. The White Camelia and other orders also +gradually went out of existence. Numerous attempts were made to suppress +the secret movement by the military commanders, the state governments, +and finally by Congress, but none of these was entirely successful, for +in each community the secret opposition lasted as long as it was needed. +The political effects of the orders, however, survived their organized +existence. Some of the Southern States began to go Democratic in spite +of the Reconstruction Acts and the Amendments, and there was little +doubt that the Ku Klux movement had aided in this change. In order to +preserve the achievements of radical reconstruction Congress passed, +in 1870 and 1871, the enforcement acts which had been under debate for +nearly two years. The first act (May 31, 1870) was designed to protect +the Negro's right to vote and was directed at individuals as well as +against states. Section six, indeed, was aimed specifically at the +Ku Klux Klan. This act was a long step in the direction of giving the +Federal Government control over state elections. But as North Carolina +went wholly and Alabama partially Democratic in 1870, a Supplementary +Act (February 28, 1871) went further and placed the elections for +members of Congress completely under Federal control, and also +authorized the use of thousands of deputy marshals at elections. As the +campaign of 1872 drew near, Grant and his advisers became solicitous +to hold all the Southern States which had not been regained by the +Democrats. Accordingly, on March 23, 1871, the President sent a message +to Congress declaring that in some of the states the laws could not be +enforced and asked for remedial legislation. Congress responded with an +act (April 20, 1871), commonly called the "Ku Klux Act," which gave +the President despotic military power to uphold the remaining Negro +governments and authorized him to declare a state of war when he +considered it necessary. Of this power Grant made use in only one +instance. In October 1871, he declared nine counties of South Carolina +in rebellion and put them under martial law. + +During the ten years following 1870, several thousand arrests were made +under the enforcement acts and about 1,250 convictions were secured, +principally in Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and +Tennessee. Most of these violations of election laws, however, had +nothing to do with the Ku Klux movement, for by 1870 the better class of +members had withdrawn from the secret orders. But though the enforcement +acts checked these irregularities to a considerable extent, they +nevertheless failed to hold the South for the radicals and essential +parts of them were declared unconstitutional a few years later. + +In order to justify the passage of the enforcement acts and to obtain +campaign material for use in 1872, Congress appointed a committee, +organized on the very day when the Ku Klux Act was approved, to +investigate conditions in the Southern States. From June to August +1871, the committee took testimony in Washington, and in the fall +subcommittees visited several Southern States. Tennessee, Virginia, +Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas were, however, omitted from the +investigation. Notwithstanding the partisan purpose and methods of +the investigation, the report of the committee and the accompanying +testimony constituted a Democratic rather than a Republican document. +It is a veritable mine of information about the South between 1865 +and 1871. The Democratic minority members made skillful use of their +opportunity to expose conditions in the South. They were less concerned +to meet the charges made against the Ku Klux Klan than to show why such +movements came about. The Republicans, concerned mainly about material +for the presidential campaign, neglected the broader phases of the +situation. + +Opposition to the effects of reconstruction did not come to an end +with the dissolution of the more famous orders. On the contrary, it now +became public and open and resulted in the organization, after 1872, of +the White League, the Mississippi Shot Gun Plan, the White Man's Party +in Alabama, and the Rifle Clubs in South Carolina. The later movements +were distinctly but cautiously anti-Negro. There was most irritation +in the white counties where there were large numbers of Negroes. Negro +schools and churches were burned because they served as meeting places +for Negro political organizations. The color line began to be more +and more sharply drawn. Social and business ostracism continued to be +employed against white radicals, while the Negroes were discharged from +employment or were driven from their rented farms. + +The Ku Klux movement, it is to be noted in retrospect, originated as an +effort to restore order in the war-stricken Southern States. The +secrecy of its methods appealed to the imagination and caused its +rapid expansion, and this secrecy was inevitable because opposition to +reconstruction was not lawful. As the reconstruction policies were put +into operation, the movement became political and used violence when +appeals to superstitious fears ceased to be effective. The Ku Klux Klan +centered, directed, and crystallized public opinion, and united the +whites upon a platform of white supremacy. The Southern politicians +stood aloof from the movement but accepted the results of its work. +It frightened the Negroes and bad whites into better conduct, and +it encouraged the conservatives and aided them to regain control of +society, for without the operations of the Klan the black districts +would never have come again under white control. Towards the end, +however, its methods frequently became unnecessarily violent and did +great harm to Southern society. The Ku Klux system of regulating society +is as old as history; it had often been used before; it may even be used +again. When a people find themselves persecuted by aliens under legal +forms, they will invent some means outside the law for protecting +themselves; and such experiences will inevitably result in a weakening +of respect for law and in a return to more primitive methods of justice. + + + +CHAPTER XII. THE CHANGING SOUTH + +"The bottom rail is on top" was a phrase which had flashed throughout +the late Confederate States. It had been coined by the Negroes in +1867 to express their view of the situation, but its aptness had been +recognized by all. After ten years of social and economic revolution, +however, it was not so clear that the phrase of 1867 correctly described +the new situation. "The white man made free" would have been a more +accurate epitome, for the white man had been able, in spite of his +temporary disabilities, to compete with the Negro in all industries. + +It will be remembered that the Negro districts were least exposed to the +destruction of war. The well-managed plantation, lying near the highways +of commerce, with its division of labor, nearly or quite self-sufficing, +was the bulwark of the Confederacy. When the fighting ended, an +industrial revolution began in these untouched parts of the Black Belt. +The problem of free Negro labor now appeared. During the year 1865, no +general plan for a labor system was formulated except by the Freedmen's +Bureau. That, however, was not a success. There were all sorts of +makeshifts, such as cash wages, deferred wages, cooperation, even +sharing of expense and product, and contracts, either oral or written. + +The employers showed a disposition to treat the Negro family as a unit +in making contracts for labor, wages, food, clothes, and care.* In +general these early arrangements were made to transform slavery with its +mutual duties and obligations into a free labor system with wages and +"privileges." The "privileges" of slavery could not be destroyed; in +fact, they have never yet been destroyed in numerous places. Curious +demands were made by the Negroes: here, farm bells must not ring; there, +overseers or managers must be done away with; in some places plantation +courts were to settle matters of work, rent, and conduct; elsewhere, +agreements were made that on Saturday the laborer should be permitted to +go to town and, perhaps, ride a mule or horse. In South Carolina the +Sea Island Negroes demanded that in laying out work the old "tasks" +or "stints" of slavery days be retained as the standard. The farming +districts at the edge of the Black Belt, where the races were about +equal in numbers, already had a kind of "share system," and in these +sections the economic chaos after the war was not so complete. The +former owners worked in the field with their ex-slaves and thus provided +steady employment for many. Farms were rented for a fixed sum of money, +or for a part of the crop, or on "shares." + + * J. D. B. De Bow, the economist, testified before the Joint + Committee on Reconstruction that, if the Negro would work, + free labor would be better for the planters than slave + labor. He called attention to the fact, however, that Negro + women showed a desire to avoid field labor, and there is + also evidence to show that they objected to domestic service + and other menial work. + + +The white districts, which had previously fought a losing competition +with the efficiently managed and inexpensive slave labor of the Black +Belt, were affected most disastrously by war and its aftermath. They +were distant from transportation lines and markets; they employed poor +farming methods; they had no fertilizers; they raised no staple crops +on their infertile land; and in addition they now had to face the +destitution that follows fighting. Yet these regions had formerly been +almost self-supporting, although the farms were small and no elaborate +labor system had been developed. In the planting districts where the +owner was land-poor, he made an attempt to bring in Northern capital +and Northern or foreign labor. In the belief that the Negroes would +work better for a Northern man, every planter who could do so secured +a Northern partner or manager, frequently a soldier. Nevertheless these +imported managers nearly always failed because they did not understand +cotton, rice, or sugar planting, and because they were either too severe +or too easy upon the blacks. + +No Northern labor was to be had, and the South could not retain even all +its own native whites. Union soldiers and others seeking to better their +prospects moved west and northwest to fill the newly opened lands, while +the Confederates, kept out of the homestead region by the test oath, +swarmed into Texas, which owned its own public lands, or went North +to other occupations. Nor could the desperate planters hire foreign +immigrants. Several states, among them South Carolina, Alabama, and +Louisiana, advertised for laborers and established labor bureaus, but +without avail. The Negro politicians in 1867 declared themselves opposed +to all movements to foster immigration. So in the Black Belt the Negro +had, for forty years, a monopoly of farm labor. + +The share system of tenantry, with its attendant evils of credit and +crop lien, was soon established in the Southern States, mainly in the +Black Belt, but to some extent also in the white districts. The landlord +furnished land, house, fuel, water, and all or a part of the seed, +fertilizer, farm implements, and farm animals. In return he received a +"half," or a "third and fourth," his share depending upon how much he +had furnished. The best class of tenants would rent for cash or a fixed +rental, the poorest laborers would work for wages only. + +The "privileges" brought over from slavery, which were included in the +share renting, astonished outside observers. To the laborer was usually +given a house, a water supply, wood for fuel, pasture for pigs or cows, +a "patch" for vegetables and fruit, and the right to hunt and fish. +These were all that some needed in order to live. Somers, the English +traveler already quoted, pronounced this generous custom "outrageously +absurd," for the Negroes had so many privileges that they refused to +make use of their opportunities. "The soul is often crushed out of labor +by penury and oppression," he said, "but here a soul cannot begin to be +infused into it through the sheer excess of privilege and license with +which it is surrounded." The credit system which was developed beside +the share system made a bad condition worse. On the 1st of January, +a planter could mortgage his future crop to a merchant or landlord in +exchange for subsistence until the harvest. Since, as a rule, neither +tenant nor landlord had any surplus funds, the latter would be supplied +by the banker or banker merchant, who would then dictate the crops to +be planted and the time of sale. As a result of these conditions, the +planter or farmer was held to staple crops, high prices for necessities, +high interest rate, and frequently unfair bookkeeping. The system +was excellent for a thrifty, industrious, and intelligent man, for it +enabled him to get a start. It worked to the advantage of a bankrupt +landlord, who could in this way get banking facilities. But it had a +mischievous effect upon the average tenant, who had too small a share +of the crop to feel a strong sense of responsibility as well as too many +"privileges" and too little supervision to make him anxious to produce +the best results. + +The Negroes entered into their freedom with several advantages: they +were trained to labor; they were occupying the most fertile soil and +could purchase land at low prices; the tenant system was most liberal; +cotton, sugar, and rice were bringing high prices; and access to +markets was easy. In the white districts, land was cheap and prices +of commodities were high, but otherwise the Negroes seemed to have the +better position. Yet as early as 1870, keen observers called attention +to the fact that the hill and mountain whites were thriving as compared +with their former condition, and that the Negroes were no longer their +serious competitors. In the white districts, better methods were coming +into use, labor was steady, fertilizers were used, and conditions of +transportation were improving. The whites were also encroaching on the +Black Belt; they were opening new lands in the Southwest; and within +the border of the Black Belt they were bringing Negro labor under some +control. In the South Carolina rice lands, crowds of Irish were imported +to do the ditching which the Negroes refused to do and were carried +back North when the job was finished.* President Thach of the Alabama +Agricultural College has thus described the situation: + + * The Census of 1880 gave proof of the superiority of the + whites in cotton production. For purposes of comparison the + cotton area may be divided into three regions: first, the + Black Belt, in which the farmers were black, the soil + fertile, the plantations large, the credit evil at its + worst, and the yield of cotton per acre the least; second, + the white districts, where the soil was the poorest, the + farms small, the workers nearly all white, and the yield per + acre better than on the fertile Black Belt lands; third, the + regions in which the races were nearly equal in numbers or + where the whites were in a slight majority, with soil of + medium fertility, good methods of agriculture, and, owing to + better controlled labor, the best yield. In ether words, + Negroes, fertile soil, and poor crops went together; and on + the other hand the whites got better crops on less fertile + soil. The Black Belt has never again reached the level of + production it had in 1880. But the white district kept + improving slowly. + +"By the use of commercial fertilizers, vast regions once considered +barren have been brought into profitable cultivation, and really afford +a more reliable and constant crop than the rich alluvial lands of the +old slave plantations. In nearly every agricultural county in the South +there is to be observed, on the one hand, this section of fertile soils, +once the heart, of the old civilization, now abandoned by the whites, +held in tenantry by a dense Negro population, full of dilapidation and +ruin; while on the other hand, there is the region of light, thin soils, +occupied by the small white freeholder, filled with schools, churches, +and good roads, and all the elements of a happy, enlightened country +life." + +All the systems devised for handling Negro labor proved to be only +partially successful. The laborer was migratory, wanted easy work, with +one or two holidays a week, and the privilege of attending political +meetings, camp meetings, and circuses. A thrifty Negro could not +make headway because his fellows stole from him or his less energetic +relations and friends visited him and ate up his substance. One Alabama +planter declared that he could not raise a turkey, a chicken, a hog, or +a cow; and another asserted that "a hog has no more chance to live among +these thieving Negro farmers than a June bug in a gang of puddle ducks." +Lands were mortgaged to the supply houses in the towns, the whites +gradually deserted the country, and many rice and cotton fields grew up +in weeds. Crop stealing at night became a business which no legislation +could ever completely stop. A traveler has left the following +description of "a model Negro farm" in 1874. The farmer purchased an old +mule on credit and rented land on shares or for so many bales of cotton; +any old tools were used; corn, bacon, and other supplies were bought on +credit, and a crop lien was given; a month later, corn and cotton were +planted on soil that was not well broken up; the Negro "would not pay +for no guano" to put on other people's land; by turns the farmer planted +and fished, plowed and hunted, hoed and frolicked, or went to "meeting." +At the end of the year he sold his cotton, paid part of his rent and +some of his debt, returned the mule to its owner, and sang: + +Nigger work hard all de year, White man tote de money. + +The great landholdings did not break up into small farms as was +predicted, though sales were frequent and in 1865 enormous amounts of +land were put on the market. After 1867, additional millions of acres +were offered at small prices, and tax and mortgage sales were numerous. +The result of these operations, however, was a change of landlords +rather than a breaking up of large plantations. New men, Negroes, +merchants, and Jews became landowners. The number of small farms +naturally increased but so in some instances did the land concentrated +into large holdings. + +It was inevitable that conditions of Negro life should undergo a +revolutionary change during the reconstruction. The serious matter of +looking out for himself and his family and of making a living dampened +the Negro's cheerful spirits. Released from the discipline of slavery +and often misdirected by the worst of teachers, the Negro race naturally +ran into excesses of petty criminality. Even under the reconstruction +governments the proportion of Negro to white criminals was about ten +to one. Theft was frequent; arson was the accepted means of revenge on +white people; and murder became common in the brawls of the city Negro +quarters. The laxness of the marriage relation worked special hardship +on the women and children in so many cases deserted by the head of the +family. + +Out of the social anarchy of reconstruction the Negroes emerged with +numerous organizations of their own which may have been imitations +of the Union League, the Lincoln Brotherhood, and the various church +organizations. These societies were composed entirely of blacks and +have continued with prolific reproduction to the present day. They were +characterized by high names, gorgeous regalia, and frequent parades. +"The Brothers and Sisters of Pleasure and Prosperity" and the "United +Order of African Ladies and Gentlemen" played a large, and on the +whole useful, part in Negro social life, teaching lessons of thrift, +insurance, cooperation, and mutual aid. + +The reconstructionists were not able in 1867-68 to carry through +Congress any provision for the social equality of the races, but in the +reconstructed states, the equal rights issue was alive throughout the +period. Legislation giving to the Negro equal rights in hotels, places +of amusements, and common carriers, was first enacted in Louisiana and +South Carolina. Frequently the carpetbaggers brought up the issue in +order to rid the radical ranks of the scalawags who were opposed to +equal rights. In Florida, for example, the carpetbaggers framed a +comprehensive Equal Rights Law, passed it, and presented it to Governor +Reed, who was known to be opposed to such legislation. He vetoed the +measure and thus lost the Negro support. Intermarriage with whites was +made legal in Louisiana and South Carolina and by court decision was +permitted in Alabama and Mississippi, but the Georgia Supreme Court +held it to be illegal. Mixed marriages were few, but these were made +occasions of exultation over the whites and of consequent ill feeling. + +Charles Sumner was a persistent agitator for equal rights. In 1871 he +declared in a letter to a South Carolina Negro convention that the race +must insist not only upon equality in hotels and on public carriers but +also in the schools. "It is not enough," he said, "to provide separate +accommodations for colored citizens even if in all respects as good +as those of other persons.... The discrimination is an insult and a +hindrance, and a bar, which not only destroys comfort and prevents +equality, but weakens all other rights. The right to vote will have new +security when your equal right in public conveyances, hotels, and common +schools, is at last established; but here you must insist for yourselves +by speech, petition, and by vote." The Southern whites began to develop +the "Jim Crow" theory of "separate but equal" accommodations. Senator +Hill of Georgia, for example, thought that hotels might have separate +divisions for the two races, and he cited the division in the churches +as proof that the Negro wanted separation. + +About 1874, it was plain that the last radical Congress was nearly +ready to enact social equality legislation. This fact turned many of the +Southern Unionist class back to the Democratic party, there to remain +for a long time. In 1875, as a sort of memorial to Sumner, Congress +passed the Civil Rights Act, which gave to Negroes equal rights in +hotels, places of amusement, on public carriers, and on juries. Some +Democratic leaders were willing to see such legislation enacted, because +in the first place, it would have little effect except in the Border and +Northern States, where it would turn thousands into the Democratic fold, +and in the second place, because they were sure that in time the Supreme +Court would declare the law unconstitutional. And so it happened. + +In regions where the more unprincipled radical leaders were in control, +the whites lived at times in fear of Negro uprisings. The Negroes were +armed and insolent, and the whites were few and widely scattered. Here +and there outbreaks occurred and individual whites and isolated families +suffered, but as a rule all such movements were crushed with much +heavier loss to the Negroes than to the better organized whites. +Nevertheless everlasting apprehension for the safety of women and +children kept the white men nervous. General Garnett Andrews remarked +about the situation in Mississippi: + +"I have never suffered such an amount of anguish and alarm in all my +life. I have served through the whole war as a soldier in the army of +Northern Virginia, and saw all of it; but I never did experience... the +fear and alarm and sense of danger which I felt that time. And this was +the universal feeling among the population, among the white people. I +think that both sides were alarmed and felt uneasy. It showed itself +upon the countenance of the people; it made many of them sick. Men +looked haggard and pale, after undergoing this sort of thing for six +weeks or a month, and I have felt when I laid [sic] down that neither +myself, nor my wife and children were in safety. I expected, and +honestly anticipated, and thought it highly probable, that I might be +assassinated and my house set on fire at any time." + +By the fires of reconstruction the whites were fused into a more +homogeneous society, social as well as political. The former +slaveholding class continued to be more considerate of the Negro than +were the poor whites; but, as misrule went on, all classes tended to +unite against the Negro in politics. They were tired of reconstruction, +new amendments, force bills, Federal troops--tired of being ruled as +conquered provinces by the incompetent and the dishonest. Every measure +aimed at the South seemed to them to mean that they were considered +incorrigible and unworthy of trust, and that they were being made to +suffer for the deeds of irresponsible whites. And, to make matters +worse, strong opposition to proscriptive measures was called fresh +rebellion. "When the Jacobins say and do low and bitter things, their +charge of want of loyalty in the South because our people grumble back +a little seems to me as unreasonable as the complaint of the little boy: +'Mamma, make Bob 'have hisself. He makes mouths at me every time I hit +him with my stick.'"* + + * Usually ascribed to General D. H. Hill of North Carolina, + and quoted in "The Land We Love", vol. 1, p. 146. + + +Probably this burden fell heavier on the young men, who had life before +them and who were growing up with diminished opportunities. Sidney +Lanier, then an Alabama school teacher, wrote to Bayard Taylor: "Perhaps +you know that with us of the young generation in the South, since the +war, pretty much the whole of life has been merely not dying." Negro and +alien rule was a constant insult to the intelligence of the country. The +taxpayers were nonparticipants in the affairs of government. Some people +withdrew entirely from public life, went to their farms or plantations, +kept away from towns and from speechmaking, waiting for the end to come. +There were some who refused for several years to read the newspapers, so +unpleasant was the news. The good feeling produced by the magnanimity of +Grant at Appomattox was destroyed by the severity of his Southern policy +when he became President. There was no gratitude for any so-called +leniency of the North, no repentance for the war, no desire for +humiliation, for sackcloth and ashes, and no confession of wrong. The +insistence of the radicals upon obtaining a confession of depravity +only made things much worse. Scarcely a measure of Congress during +reconstruction was designed or received in a conciliatory spirit. + +The new generation of whites was poor, bitter because of persecution, +ill-educated, overworked, without a bright future, and shadowed by the +race problem. Though their new political leaders were shrewd, narrow, +conservative, honest, and parsimonious, the constant fighting of fire +with fire scorched all. In the bitter discipline of reconstruction, the +pleasantest side of Southern life came to an end. During the war and +the consequent reconstruction there was a marked change in Southern +temperament toward the severe. Hospitality declined; the old Southern +life had never been on a business basis, but the new Southern life +now adjusted itself to a stricter economy; the old individuality was +partially lost; but class distinctions were less obvious in a more +homogeneous society. The material evils of reconstruction may be only +temporary; state debts may be paid and wasted resources renewed; but +the moral and intellectual results of the revolution will be the more +permanent. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. RESTORATION OF HOME RULE + +The radical program of reconstruction ended after ten years in failure +rather because of a change in public opinion in the North than because +of the resistance of the Southern whites. The North of 1877, indeed, +was not the North of 1867. A more tolerant attitude toward the South +developed as the North passed through its own period of misgovernment +when all the large cities were subject to "ring rule" and corruption, +as in New York under "Boss" Tweed and in the District of Columbia +under "Boss" Shepherd. The Federal civil service was discredited by the +scandals connected with the Sanborn contracts, the Whisky Ring, and the +Star Routes, while some leaders in Congress were under a cloud from the +"Salary Grab" and Credit Mobilier disclosures.* + + * See "The Boss and the Machine", by Samuel P. Orth in "The + Chronicles of America". + + +The marvelous material development of the North and West also drew +attention away from sectional controversies. Settlers poured into the +plains beyond the Mississippi and the valleys of the Far West; new +industries sprang up; unsuspected mineral wealth was discovered; +railroads were built. Not only bankers but taxpaying voters took an +interest in the financial readjustments of the time. Many thousand +people followed the discussions over the funding and refunding of +the national debt, the retirement of the greenbacks, and the proposed +lowering of tariff duties. Yet the Black Friday episode of 1869, when +Jay Gould and James Fisk cornered the visible supply of gold, and the +panic of 1873 were indications of unsound financial conditions. + +These new developments and the new domestic problems which they involved +all tended to divert public thought from the old political issues +arising out of the war. Foreign relations, too, began to take on a new +interest. The Alabama claims controversy with England continued to hold +the public attention until finally settled by the Geneva Arbitration +in 1872. President Grant, as much of an expansionist as Seward, for two +years (1869-71) tried to secure Santo Domingo or a part of it for an +American naval base in the West Indies. But the United States had +race problems enough already and the Senate, led by Sumner, refused to +sanction the acquisition. Relations with Spain were frequently +strained on account of American filibustering expeditions to aid Cuban +insurgents. Spain repeatedly charged the United States with laxness +toward such violations of international law; and President Grant, seeing +no other way out, recommended in 1869 and again in 1870 that the Cuban +insurgents be recognized as belligerents, but still the Senate held +back. The climax came in 1873, when the Spanish authorities in Cuba +captured on the high seas the Virginius* with a filibustering expedition +on board and executed fifty-three of the crew and passengers, among them +eight Americans. For a time war seemed imminent, but Spain acted quickly +and effected a peaceable settlement. + + * See "The Path of Empire", by Carl Russell Fish (in "The + Chronicles of America"), p. 119. + + +It became evident soon after 1867 that the issues involved in +reconstruction were not in themselves sufficient to hold the North +solidly Republican. Toward Negro suffrage, for example, Northern public +opinion was on the whole unfriendly. In 1867, the Negro was permitted to +vote only in New York and in New England, except in Connecticut. Before +1869, Negro suffrage was rejected in Connecticut, Wisconsin, Kansas, +Ohio, Maryland, Missouri, Michigan, and Minnesota. The Republicans in +their national platform of 1868 went only so far as to say that, while +Negro suffrage was to be forced upon the South, it must remain a local +question in the North. The Border States rapidly lined up with the white +South on matters of race, church, and politics. + +It was not until 1874, however, that the changing opinion was made +generally effective in the elections. The skillfully managed radical +organization held large majorities in every Congress from the +Thirty-ninth to the Forty-third, and the electoral votes in 1868 and +1879 seemed to show that the conservative opposition was insignificant. +But these figures do not tell the whole story. Even in 1864, when +Lincoln won by nearly half a million, the popular vote was as eighteen +to twenty-two, and four years later Grant, the most popular man in +the United States, had a majority of only three hundred thousand over +Seymour, and this majority and more came from the new Negro voters. +Four years later with about a million Negro voters available and an +opposition not pleased with its own candidate, Grant's majority reached +only seven hundred thousand. At no one time in elections did the North +pronounce itself in favor of all the reconstruction policies. The break, +signs of which were visible as early as 1869, came in 1874 when the +Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives. + +Strength was given to the opposition because of the dissatisfaction with +President Grant, who knew little about politics and politicians. He felt +that his Cabinet should be made up of personal friends, not of strong +advisers, and that the military ideal of administration was the proper +one. He was faithful but undiscriminating in his friendships and +frequently chose as his associates men of vulgar tastes and low motives; +and he showed a naive love of money and an undisguised admiration for +rich men such as Gould and Fisk. His appointees were often incompetent +friends or relatives, and his cynical attitude toward civil service +reform lost him the support of influential men. When forced by party +exigencies to select first-class men for his Cabinet, he still preferred +to go for advice to practical politicians. On the Southern question he +easily fell under control of the radicals, who in order to retain their +influence had only to convince his military mind that the South was +again in rebellion, and who found it easy to distract public opinion +from political corruption by "waving the bloody shirt." Dissatisfaction +with his Administration, it is true, was confined to the intellectuals, +the reformers, and the Democrats, but they were strong enough to defeat +him for a second term if they could only be organized. + +The Liberal Republican movement began in the West about 1869 with +demands for amnesty and for reform, particularly in the civil service, +and it soon spread rapidly over the North. When it became certain that +the "machine" would renominate Grant, the liberal movement became +an anti-Grant party. The "New Departure" Democrats gave comfort +and prospect of aid to the Liberal Republicans by declaring for a +constructive, forward-looking policy in place of reactionary opposition. +The Liberal chiefs were led to believe that the new Democratic leaders +would accept their platform and candidates in order to defeat Grant. The +principal candidates for the Liberal Republican nomination were Charles +Francis Adams, Lyman Trumbull, Gratz Brown, David Davis, and Horace +Greeley. Adams was the strongest candidate but was jockeyed out of place +and the nomination was given to Horace Greeley, able enough as editor of +the "New York Tribune" but impossible as a candidate for the presidency. +The Democratic party accepted him as their candidate also, although he +had been a lifelong opponent of Democratic principles and policies. But +disgusted Liberals either returned to the Republican ranks or stayed +away from the polls, and many Democrats did likewise. Under these +circumstances the reelection of Grant was a foregone conclusion. There +was certainly a potential majority against Grant, but the opposition +had failed to organize, while the Republican machine was in good working +order, the Negroes were voting, and the Enforcement Acts proved a great +aid to the Republicans in the Southern States. + +One good result of the growing liberal sentiment was the passage of +an Amnesty Act by Congress on May 22, 1872. By statute and by the +Fourteenth Amendment, Congress had refused to recognize the complete +validity of President Johnson's pardons and amnesty proclamations, +and all Confederate leaders who wished to regain political rights +had therefore to appeal to Congress. During the Forty-first Congress +(1869-71) more than three thousand Southerners were amnestied in order +that they might hold office. These, however, were for the most part +scalawags; the most respectable whites would not seek an amnesty which +they could secure only by self-stultification.* It was the pressure +of public opinion against white disfranchisement and the necessity for +meeting the Liberal Republican arguments which caused the passage of +the Act of 1872. By this act about 150,000 whites were reenfranchised, +leaving out only about five hundred of the most prominent of the old +regime, most of whom were never restored to citizenship. Both Robert E. +Lee and Jefferson Davis died disfranchised. + + * The machinery of government and politics was all in + radical hands--the carpetbaggers and scalawags, who were + numerous enough to fill practically all the offices. These + men were often able leaders and skillful managers, and they + did not intend to surrender control; and the black race was + obedient and furnished the votes. In 1868, with Virginia, + Mississippi, Georgia, and Texas unrepresented, the first + radical contingent in Congress from the South numbered 41, + of whom 10 out of 12 senators and 26 out of 32 + representatives were carpetbaggers. There were two lone + conservative Congressmen. A few months later, in 1869, there + were 64 radical representatives from the South, 20 senators + and 44 members of the House of Representatives. In 1877 this + number had dwindled to two senators and four + representatives. The difference between these figures + measures in some degree the extent of the undoing of + reconstruction within the period of Grant's Administration. + +How the Southern whites escaped from Negro domination has often been +told and may here be sketched only in outline. The first States regained +from radicalism were those in which the Negro population was small and +the black vote large enough to irritate but not to dominate. Although +Northern sentiment, excited by the stories of "Southern outrage," was +then unfavorable, the conservatives of the South, by organizing a "white +man's party" and by the use of Ku Klux methods, made a fight for social +safety which they won nearly everywhere, and, in addition, they gained +political control of several States--Tennessee in 1869, Virginia in +1869-1870, and North Carolina and Georgia in 1870. They almost won +Louisiana in 1868 and Alabama in 1870, but the alarmed radicals came +to the rescue of the situation with the Fifteenth Amendment and the +Enforcement Laws of 1870-1871. With more troops and a larger number of +deputy marshals, it seemed that the radicals might securely hold the +remaining states. Arrests of conservatives were numerous, plundering was +at its height, the Federal Government was interested and was friendly +to the new Southern rulers, and the carpetbaggers and scalawags feasted, +troubled only by the disposition of their Negro supporters to demand a +share of the spoils. Although the whites made little gain from 1870 to +1874, the states already rescued became more firmly conservative; white +counties here and there in the black states voted out the radicals; a +few more representatives of the whites got into Congress; and the Border +States ranged themselves more solidly with the conservatives. + +But while the Southern whites were becoming desperate under oppression, +public opinion in the North was at last beginning to affect politics. +The elections of 1874 resulted in a Democratic landslide of which +the Administration was obliged to take notice. Grant now grew more +responsive to criticism. In 1875 he replied to a request for troops to +hold down Mississippi: "The whole public are tired out with these annual +autumnal outbreaks in the South and the great majority are ready now +to condemn any interference on the part of the Government." As soon +as conditions in the South were better understood in the North, ready +sympathy and political aid were offered by many who had hitherto acted +with the radicals. The Ku Klux report as well as the newspaper writings +and the books of J. S. Pike and Charles Nordhoff, both former opponents +of slavery, opened the eyes of many to the evil results of Negro +suffrage. Some who had been considered friends of the Negro, now +believing that he had proven to be a political failure, coldly abandoned +him and turned their altruistic interests to other objects more likely +to succeed. Many real friends of the Negro were alarmed at the evils of +the reconstruction and were anxious to see the corrupt political leaders +deprived of further influence over the race. To others the constantly +recurring Southern problem was growing stale, and they desired to hear +less of it. Within the Republican party in each Southern State, there +were serious divisions over the spoils. First it was carpetbagger and +Negro against the scalawag; later, when the black leaders insisted that +those who furnished the votes must have the larger share of the rewards, +the fight became triangular. As a result, by 1874 the Republican +party in the South was split into factions and was deserted by a large +proportion of its white membership. + +The conservative whites, fiercely resentful after their experiences +under the enforcement laws and hopeful of Northern sympathy, now planned +a supreme effort to regain their former power. Race lines were more +strictly drawn; ostracism of all that was radical became the rule; the +Republican party in the South, it was apparent, was doomed to be only +a Negro party weighed down by the scandal of bad government; the state +treasuries were bankrupt, and there was little further opportunity +for plunder. These considerations had much to do with the return of +scalawags to the "white man's party" and the retirement of carpetbaggers +from Southern politics. There was no longer anything in it, they said; +let the Negro have it! + +It was under these conditions that the "white man's party" carried the +elections in Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas in 1874, and Mississippi +in 1875. Asserting that it was a contest between civilization and +barbarism, and that the whites under the radical regime had no +opportunity to carry an election legally, the conservatives openly made +use of every method of influencing the result that could possibly come +within the radical law and they even employed many effective methods +that lay outside the law. Negroes were threatened with discharge from +employment and whites with tar and feathers if they voted the radical +ticket; there were nightriding parties, armed and drilled "white +leagues," and mysterious firing of guns and cannon at night; much +plain talk assailed the ears of the radical leaders; and several bloody +outbreaks occurred, principally in Louisiana and Mississippi. Louisiana +had been carried by the Democrats in the fall of 1872, but the radical +returning board had reversed the election. In 1874 the whites rose in +rebellion and turned out Kellogg, the usurping Governor, but President +Grant intervened to restore him to office. The "Mississippi" or +"shot-gun plan"* was very generally employed, except where the contest +was likely to go in favor of the whites without the use of undue +pressure. The white leaders exercised a moderating influence, but the +average white man had determined to do away with Negro government even +though the alternative might be a return of military rule. Congress +investigated the elections in each State which overthrew the +reconstructionists, but nothing came of the inquiry and the population +rapidly settled down into good order. After 1875 only three States +were left under radical government--Louisiana and Florida, where the +returning boards could throw out any Democratic majority, and South +Carolina, where the Negroes greatly outnumbered the whites. + + * See "The New South", by Holland Thompson (in "The + Chronicles of America"). + + +Reconstruction could hardly be a genuine issue in the presidential +campaign of 1876, because all except these three reconstructed States +had escaped from radical control, and there was no hope and little real +desire of regaining them. It was even expected that in this year the +radicals would lose Louisiana and Florida to the "white man's party." +The leaders of the best element of the Republicans, both North and +South, looked upon the reconstruction as one of the prime causes of +the moral breakdown of their party; they wanted no more of the Southern +issue but planned a forward-looking, constructive reform. + +To some of the Republican leaders, however, among whom was James G. +Blame, it was clear that the Republican party, with its unsavory record +under Grant's Administration, could hardly go before the people with a +reform program. The only possible thing to do was to revive some Civil +War issue--"wave the bloody shirt" and fan the smoldering embers of +sectional feeling. Blame met with complete success in raising the +desired issue. In January 1876, when an amnesty measure was brought +before the House, he moved that Jefferson Davis be excepted on the +ground that he was responsible for the mistreatment of Union prisoners +during the war. Southern hot-bloods replied, and Blaine skillfully led +them on until they had foolishly furnished him with ample material for +campaign purposes. The feeling thus aroused was so strong that it even +galvanized into seeming life the dying interest in the wrongs of +the Negro. The rallying cry "Vote as you shot!" gave the Republicans +something to fight for; the party referred to its war record, +claimed credit for preserving the Union, emancipating the Negro, +and reconstructing the South, and demanded that the country be not +"surrendered to rebel rule." + +Hayes and Tilden, the rival candidates for the presidency, were both +men of high character and of moderate views. Their nominations had +been forced by the better element of each party. Hayes, the Republican +candidate, had been a good soldier, was moderate in his views on +Southern questions, and had a clean political reputation. Tilden, his +opponent, had a good record as a party man and as a reformer, and his +party needed only to attack the past record of the Republicans. The +principal Democratic weakness lay in the fact that the party drew so +much of its strength from the white South and was therefore subjected to +criticism on Civil War issues. + +The campaign was hotly contested and was conducted on a low plane. Even +Hayes soon saw that the "bloody shirt" issue was the main vote winner. +The whites of the three "unredeemed" Southern States nerved themselves +for the final struggle. In South Carolina and in some parishes of +Louisiana, there was a considerable amount of violence, in which the +whites had the advantage, and much fraud, which the Republicans, who +controlled the election machinery, turned to best account. It has been +said that out of the confusion which the Republicans created they won +the presidency. + +The first election returns seemed to give Tilden the victory with 184 +undisputed electoral votes and popular majorities of ninety and over +six thousand respectively in Florida and Louisiana; only 185 votes were +needed for a choice. Hayes had 166 votes, not counting Oregon, in +which one vote was in dispute, and South Carolina, which for a time was +claimed by both parties. Had Louisiana and Florida been Northern +States, there would have been no controversy, but the Republican general +headquarters knew that the Democratic majorities in these States had to +go through Republican returning boards, which had never yet failed to +throw them out. + +The interest of the nation now centered around the action of the two +returning boards. At the suggestion of President Grant, prominent +Republicans went South to witness the count. Later prominent Democrats +went also. These "visiting statesmen" were to support the frail +returning boards in their duty. It was generally understood that these +boards, certainly the one in Louisiana, were for sale, and there is +little doubt that the Democrats inquired the price. But they were afraid +to bid on such uncertain quantities as Governor Wells and T. C. Anderson +of Louisiana, both notorious spoilsmen. The members of the boards in +both States soon showed the stiffening effect of the moral support of +the Federal Administration and of the "visiting statesmen." Reassured as +to their political future, they proceeded to do their duty: in Florida +they threw out votes until the ninety majority for Tilden was changed to +925 for Hayes, and in Louisiana, by throwing out about fifteen thousand +carefully selected ballots, they changed Tilden's lowest majority of +six thousand to a Hayes majority of nearly four thousand. Naturally the +Democrats sent in contesting returns, but the presidency was really won +when the Republicans secured in Louisiana and Florida returns which were +regular in form. But hoping to force Congress to go behind the returns, +the Democrats carried up contests also from Oregon and South Carolina, +whose votes properly belonged to Hayes. + +The final contest came in Congress over the counting of the electoral +votes. The Constitution provides that "the President of the Senate +shall, in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives, +open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted." But +there was no agreement as to where authority lay for deciding disputed +votes. Never before had the presidency turned on a disputed count. From +1864 to 1874 the "twenty-second joint rule" had been in force under +which either House might reject a certificate. The votes of Georgia in +1868 and of Louisiana in 1879 had thus been thrown out. But the rule +had not been readopted by the present Congress, and the Republicans very +naturally would not listen to a proposal to readopt it now. + +With the country apparently on the verge of civil war, Congress finally +created by law an Electoral Commission to which were to be referred all +disputes about the counting of votes and the decision of which was to +be final unless both Houses concurred in rejecting it. The act +provided that the commission should consist of five senators, five +representatives, four designated associate justices of the Supreme +Court, and a fifth associate justice to be chosen by these four. While +nothing was said in the act about the political affiliations of the +members of the commission, every one understood that the House would +select three Democrats and two Republicans, and that the Senate would +name two Democrats and three Republicans. It was also well known that of +the four justices designated two were Republicans and two Democrats, and +it was tacitly agreed that the fifth would be Justice David Davis, an +"independent." But at the last moment Davis was elected Senator by the +Illinois Legislature and declined to serve on the Commission. Justice +Bradley, a Republican, was then named as the fifth justice, and in this +way the Republicans obtained a majority on the Commission. + +The Democrats deserve the credit for the Electoral Commission. The +Republicans did not favor it, even after they were sure of a party +majority on it. They were conscious that they had a weak case, and they +were afraid to trust it to judges of the Supreme Court. Their fears were +groundless, however, since all important questions were decided by an 8 +to 7 vote, Bradley voting with his fellow Republicans. Every contested +vote was given to Hayes, and with 185 electoral votes he was declared +elected on March 2, 1877. + +Ten years before, Senator Morton of Indiana had said: "I would have +been in favor of having the colored people of the South wait a few +years until they were prepared for the suffrage, until they were to +some extent educated, but the necessities of the times forbade that; the +conditions of things required that they should be brought to the polls +at once." Now the condition of things required that some arrangement be +made with the Southern whites which would involve a complete reversal +of the situation of 1867. In order to secure the unopposed succession of +Hayes, to defeat filibustering which might endanger the decision of the +Electoral Commission, politicians who could speak with authority for +Hayes assured influential Southern politicians, who wanted no more civil +war but who did want home rule, that an arrangement might be made which +would be satisfactory to both sides. + +So the contest was ended. Hayes was to be President; the South, with the +Negro, was to be left to the whites; there would be no further military +aid to carpetbag governments. In so far as the South was concerned, +it was a fortunate settlement better, indeed, than if Tilden had been +inducted into office. The remnants of the reconstruction policy were +surrendered by a Republican President, the troops were soon withdrawn, +and the three radical states fell at once under the control of the +whites. Hayes could not see in his election any encouragement to adopt +a vigorous radical position, and Congress was deadlocked on party issues +for fifteen years. As a result the radical Republicans had to develop +other interests, and the North gradually accepted the Southern +situation. + +Although the radical policy of reconstruction came to an end in 1877, +some of its results were more lasting. The Southern States were burdened +heavily with debt, much of which had been fraudulently incurred. +There now followed a period of adjustment, of refunding, scaling, and +repudiation, which not only injured the credit of the states but left +them with enormous debts. The Democratic party under the leadership of +former Confederates began its regime of strict economy, race fairness, +and inelastic Jeffersonianism. There was a political rest which almost +amounted to stagnation and which the leaders were unwilling to disturb +by progressive measures lest a developing democracy make trouble with +the settlement of 1877. + +The undoing of reconstruction was not entirely completed with the +understanding of 1877. There remained a large but somewhat shattered +Republican party in the South, with control over county and local +government in many Negro districts. Little by little the Democrats +rooted out these last vestiges of Negro control, using all the old +radical methods and some improvements,* such as tissue ballots, the +shuffling of ballot boxes, bribery, force, and redistricting, while some +regions were placed entirely under executive control and were ruled by +appointed commissions. With the good government which followed these +changes a deadlocked Congress showed no great desire to interfere. The +Supreme Court came to the aid of the Democrats with decisions in 1875, +1882, and 1883 which drew the teeth from the Enforcement Laws, and +Congress in 1894 repealed what was left of these regulations. + + *See "The New South", by Holland Thompson (in "The + Chronicles of America"). + +Under such discouraging conditions the voting strength of the +Republicans rapidly melted away. The party organization existed for the +Federal offices only and was interested in keeping down the number of +those who desired to be rewarded. As a consequence, the leaders could +work in harmony with those Democratic chiefs who were content with a +"solid South" and local home rule. The Negroes of the Black Belt, with +less enthusiasm and hope, but with quite the same docility as in 1868, +began to vote as the Democratic leaders directed. This practice brought +up in another form the question of "Negro government" and resulted in +a demand from the people of the white counties that the Negro be put +entirely out of politics. The answer came between 1890 and 1902 in the +form of new and complicated election laws or new constitutions which in +various ways shut out the Negro from the polls and left the government +to the whites. Three times have the Black Belt regions dominated the +Southern States: under slavery, when the master class controlled; under +reconstruction, when the leaders of the Negroes had their own way; and +after reconstruction until Negro disfranchisement, when the Democratic +dictators of the Negro vote ruled fairly but not always acceptably to +the white counties which are now the source of their political power. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + +The best general accounts of the reconstruction period are found in +James Ford Rhodes's "History of the United States from the Compromise of +1850 to the Restoration of Home Rule at the South in 1877", volumes V, +VI, VII (1906); in William A. Dunning's "Reconstruction, Political +and Economic", 1865-1877, in the "American Nation" Series, volume XXII +(1907); and in Peter Joseph Hamilton's "The Reconstruction Period" +(1905), which is volume XVI of "The History of North America", edited by +F. N. Thorpe. The work of Rhodes is spacious and fair-minded but there +are serious gaps in his narrative; Dunning's briefer account covers the +entire field with masterly handling; Hamilton's history throws new light +on all subjects and is particularly useful for an understanding of the +Southern point of view. A valuable discussion of constitutional problems +is contained in William A. Dunning's "Essay on the Civil War and +Reconstruction and Related Topics" (1904); and a criticism of the +reconstruction policies from the point of view of political science and +constitutional law is to be found in J. W. Burgess's "Reconstruction and +the Constitution, 1866-1876" (1902). E. B. Andrews's "The United States +in our own Time" (1903) gives a popular treatment of the later period. A +collection of brief monographs entitled "Why the Solid South?" by Hilary +A. Herbert and others (1890) was written as a campaign document to +offset the drive made by the Republicans in 1889 for new enforcement +laws. + +There are many scholarly monographs on reconstruction in the several +states. The best of these are: J. W. Garner's "Reconstruction in +Mississippi" (1901), W. L. Fleming's "Civil War and Reconstruction +in Alabama" (1905), J. G. de R. Hamilton's "Reconstruction in North +Carolina" (1914), W. W. Davis's "The Civil War and Reconstruction in +Florida" (1913), J. S. Reynolds's "Reconstruction in South Carolina", +1865-1877 (1905); C. W. Ramsdell's "Reconstruction in Texas" (1910), and +C. M. Thompson's "Reconstruction in Georgia" (1915). + +Books of interest on special phases of reconstruction are not numerous, +but among those deserving mention are Paul S. Pierce's "The Freedmen's +Bureau" (1904), D. M. DeWitt's "The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew +Johnson" (1903), and Paul L. Haworth's "The Hayes-Tilden Disputed +Presidential Election of 1876" (1906), each of which is a thorough study +of its field. J. C. Lester and D. L. Wilson's "Ku Klux Klan" (1905) and +M. L. Avary's "Dixie After the War" (1906) contribute much to a fair +understanding of the feeling of the whites after the Civil War; and +Gideon Welles, "Diary", 3 vols. (1911), is a mine of information from a +conservative cabinet officer's point of view. + +For the politician's point of view one may go to James G. Blaine's +"Twenty Years of Congress", 2 vols. (1884, 1886) and Samuel S. Cox's +"Three Decades of Federal Legislation" (1885). Good biographies are +James A. Woodburn's "The Life of Thaddeus Stevens" (1913), Moorfield +Storey's "Charles Sumner" (1900), C. F. Adams's "Charles Francis Adams" +(1900). Less satisfactory because more partisan is Edward Stanwood's +"James Gillespie Blaine" (1906). There are no adequate biographies of +the Democratic and Southern leaders. + +The official documents are found conveniently arranged in William +McDonald's "Select Statutes", 1861-1898 (1903), and also with other +material in Walter L. Fleming's "Documentary History of Reconstruction", +2 vols. (1906, 1907). The general reader is usually repelled by the +collections known as "Public Documents". The valuable "Ku Klux Trials" +(1872) is, however, separately printed and to be found in most good +libraries. By a judicious use of the indispensable "Tables and Index +to Public Documents," one can find much vividly interesting material in +connection with contested election cases and reports of congressional +investigations into conditions in the South. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Sequel of Appomattox, by Walter Lynwood Fleming + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEQUEL OF APPOMATTOX *** + +***** This file should be named 2897.txt or 2897.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/9/2897/ + +Produced by The James J. 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