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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of When the Ku Klux Rode, by Eyre Damer
+
+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: When the Ku Klux Rode
+
+Author: Eyre Damer
+
+Release Date: April 5, 2011 [EBook #35771]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN THE KU KLUX RODE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+WHEN THE KU KLUX RODE
+
+
+
+
+  WHEN THE KU KLUX RODE
+
+
+  BY EYRE DAMER
+
+
+  NEW YORK
+  THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
+  1912
+
+
+
+
+  Copyright, 1912, by
+  The Neale Publishing Company
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+This work is undertaken with the wish to gratify a popular desire for
+addition to the scant literature relating to the Reconstruction Era and
+that most remarkable organization of modern times--begotten of conditions
+unparalleled in history, conditions which can never recur, and vanishing
+with the emergency which created it--the militant Ku Klux Klan. Only one
+writer has ventured far into this field of research, which until then
+seemed forbidden, and in his contribution to history, fact and fiction are
+so interwoven as to be almost indistinguishable. But the widespread and
+intense interest manifested in his revelations of the origin and purposes
+of the Klan indicates that the present generation eagerly imbibes
+knowledge of the sacrifices and achievements of the men who in the awful
+crisis of reconstruction, and against almost insuperable obstacles,
+rescued the commonwealth from the control of corrupt adventurers and
+ignorant freedmen, and established orderly government, without which the
+subsequent marvelous development of natural resources and advancement in
+education which have placed the state in the forefront of progress would
+have been impossible. This evident interest encourages the hope that a
+simple narrative of facts connected with the struggle in that part of the
+Black Belt of Alabama which formed the Fourth Congressional District, by
+one who was in the midst of it and a close observer, will receive a
+welcome.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                         PAGE
+
+  CHAPTER ONE--PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT                       9
+
+  CHAPTER TWO--NATIVE GOVERNMENT                           14
+
+  CHAPTER THREE--MILITARY GOVERNMENT                       19
+
+  CHAPTER FOUR--A GRAVE PROBLEM                            26
+
+  CHAPTER FIVE--THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU                      34
+
+  CHAPTER SIX--MILITARY REGULATIONS                        38
+
+  CHAPTER SEVEN--THE UNION LEAGUE                          47
+
+  CHAPTER EIGHT--A REPUBLICAN BLUNDER                      51
+
+  CHAPTER NINE--CARPETBAG GOVERNMENT                       54
+
+  CHAPTER TEN--RUINOUS MISGOVERNMENT                       74
+
+  CHAPTER ELEVEN--THE WHITES AROUSED                       84
+
+  CHAPTER TWELVE--THE KU KLUX KLAN                         90
+
+  CHAPTER THIRTEEN--A MISCARRIAGE                          99
+
+  CHAPTER FOURTEEN--A CONVENTION SUPPLEMENTS KU KLUX      104
+
+  CHAPTER FIFTEEN--FOILED THE KU KLUX                     107
+
+  CHAPTER SIXTEEN--IN TUSCALOOSA                          114
+
+  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN--A SERIES OF TRAGEDIES                116
+
+  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN--DISAPPEARANCE OF PRICE                124
+
+  CHAPTER NINETEEN--RIOTS IN MARENGO                      127
+
+  CHAPTER TWENTY--KILLINGS AND RIOTING IN GREENE          132
+
+  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE--RESTORATION OF WHITE SUPREMACY      148
+
+
+
+
+WHEN THE KU KLUX RODE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE
+
+PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT
+
+
+In a proclamation which issued on May 10, 1865, the president of the
+United States declared the Civil War at an end. April 9, the date of
+General Lee's surrender, was recognized as the date of the actual
+termination of the war. On May 29, 1865, the president, by proclamation,
+directed the restoration of seized private property, except "as to
+slaves"; and on June 24, 1865, restored commercial intercourse between all
+the states.
+
+Relying on the promises made by federal generals while Southern armies
+were in the field; on the terms arranged between Generals Grant and Lee
+and Sherman and Johnston when the Southern armies capitulated, and on the
+proclamation of the president, the people of Alabama believed that as
+soon as they could in the proper way repeal the ordinance of secession and
+comply with other immediate requirements, Alabama and the people thereof
+would be restored to their former coequal condition in the Union.
+
+The real issue of the war had been the right of the southern people to
+renounce allegiance to and citizenship in the Union; in its triumph at
+arms the United States sustained its contention that there could be no
+such renunciation; and consequently the southern people laid down their
+arms as citizens of the United States defeated in the attempt at
+renunciation. The authorities at Washington could not fairly avoid this
+conclusion, and certainly President Johnson reached it instantly.
+
+That there would be permitted prompt resumption of equal rights, except in
+a few cases, was more than hoped for,--it was confidently expected; and
+for some time there was no indication that there would be disappointment.
+
+President Johnson's attitude toward the southern states encouraged the
+hope of speedy restoration of order and a large measure of prosperity. The
+president was as generous as Lincoln would have been, had he survived the
+conflict. In order that readers may clearly understand the situation as it
+then existed, a brief explanation of President Johnson's attitude is
+necessary here:
+
+Immediately following the surrender of the Confederate armies and the
+declaration of peace, President Johnson formally stated his view of the
+situation to be that the war had neither destroyed nor impaired the Union;
+that the southern states had no right to withdraw from the compact, and
+having failed by resort to arms to accomplish separation, they emerged
+from the strife as they entered it, states and members of the Union, still
+possessing their constitutions, laws and territorial boundaries as they
+had been prior to the adoption of the ordinance of secession; that the
+constitutions and laws of those states, however, must be suspended pending
+unavoidable acceptance by the people of the fact that slavery having been
+a stake in the struggle, the accomplished abolition of that institution
+was irreversible; also, that debts contracted by the states during the war
+should be repudiated; that with acquiescence in these requirements the
+states should be restored to their former relations with the Union. He
+therefore announced as his policy that while the southern states were
+adjusting themselves to the change, provisional state governments should
+be established as necessary and constitutional agencies; that the citizens
+who were included in the proclamation of amnesty, together with those
+who, having been leaders in the secession movement, were pardoned, should
+participate in the work of restoration; that citizens of the states were
+best entitled to fill the public offices, and should be appointed to them;
+that the emancipated slaves were not qualified to take part in such work,
+nor had the president of the United States power to confer upon them the
+right of suffrage, because the determination of their political status was
+a function of the states.
+
+In the light of subsequent events, there can be no doubt that President
+Johnson's views and purposes were wise and statesmanlike, and had they
+prevailed, the horrors caused by congressional enactments would not have
+afflicted the people, nor would the relations between the races have
+become unfriendly, as they did, and continue to be. But, unfortunately,
+the embittered and aspiring leaders in Congress were planning at
+cross-purposes with the president. His moderate and conservative course,
+and scrupulous respect for his oath to support the Constitution, seemed
+along in 1866 to have won popular favor; but his indiscreet expressions in
+public addresses in western cities created hostility so strong that in the
+congressional elections his enemies triumphed over him. By two-thirds
+votes in Congress they nullified his vetoes of oppressive legislation; and
+in 1868 the Senate reinstated Secretary of War Stanton, whom he had
+during the previous year suspended from office. Out of this transaction
+grew the unsuccessful attempt to impeach him. While this attempt failed,
+the president's influence with his party was destroyed and he was
+powerless to enforce his beneficent policies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO
+
+NATIVE GOVERNMENT
+
+
+But meanwhile, having announced his policy in reorganizing the southern
+states, President Johnson in the summer of 1865 appointed Lewis E.
+Parsons, of Talladega, provisional governor of the state of Alabama, and
+that gentleman entered upon the discharge of his duties. There was popular
+approval of the appointment. Parsons was a native of New York, but long a
+resident and practicing lawyer in Talladega, an uncompromising Whig and
+Union man, possessing fine abilities and much dignity.
+
+On July 20 Governor Parsons published a proclamation directing that an
+election be held in each county on August 3 for delegates to a state
+convention to assemble on September 12, 1865. Accordingly, intelligent and
+patriotic delegates were chosen in all the counties, and the convention
+met at the capitol in Montgomery, with Benjamin Fitzpatrick presiding.
+That convention, dealing with the constitution, abolished the ordinance in
+relation to the institution of slavery, declared null and void the
+ordinance of secession and other ordinances and proceedings of the
+convention of 1861; adopted ordinances repudiating the war debt, and
+provided for an election for state, county and municipal officers and
+members of Congress, and assembling of the legislature on the third Monday
+in November, 1865. The convention then adjourned, subject to call of the
+presiding officer.
+
+Worthy of note here is the fact that Alabama, in its sovereignty, and
+represented by some of its best citizens, abolished slavery within its
+borders. Alexander White, who subsequently was among the first to adopt
+"the new departure" (acquiescence in all the measures of reconstruction),
+was the only delegate in the convention who voted against the proposition
+to make abolition of slavery constitutional; but outside the convention,
+Governor Parsons and Samuel Rice, also to become "new departurists,"
+concurred with him; while General Clanton, who was the wise and fearless
+leader of the Democratic party from its reorganization until the day of
+his tragic death, advocated both that measure and the extension of civil
+rights to the negroes.
+
+And also worthy of note is the fact that Judge Brooks, of Selma, judge
+Goldthwaite, of Montgomery, and others of unquestioned loyalty to their
+people, shortly after in the legislature advocated qualified suffrage for
+negroes. This was prior to the advent of carpetbaggers and organization in
+Alabama of the Republican party.
+
+Under this authority, an election was held, and the legislature then
+elected assembled on November 20, 1865, and ratified the amendments to the
+federal Constitution, excepting the fourteenth. That was regarded as
+equivalent to a bill of attainder, depriving vast numbers of the rights of
+citizenship without trial. The legislature comprised a majority of men who
+had been anti-secessionists--the senate at least two-thirds; but they had
+held offices before the war and served the Confederate government. The
+legislature rejected the fourteenth amendment; its adoption would have
+been political suicide for the members. It enacted a law to protect
+freedmen in Alabama in their rights of person and property. The federal
+authorities were duly notified of the proceedings, and on December 18,
+1865, Governor Parsons received from Secretary of State Seward a telegram
+saying that "in the judgment of the president the time had arrived when
+the care and conduct of the affairs of Alabama could be remitted to the
+constitutional authorities chosen by the people thereof without danger to
+the peace and safety of the United States", and directing him to transfer
+to his excellency the governor of Alabama, the papers and property in his
+hands. Accordingly, on December 10, 1865, Robert M. Patton, of Lauderdale,
+was inaugurated governor, and Parsons retired.
+
+(Patton was a Virginian, long settled as a merchant in northern Alabama.
+As a Whig, he had served in both houses of the legislature and become
+president of the senate. In the election of 1865, he defeated Colonel M.
+J. Bulger. He was intelligent and painstaking in the discharge of duties.
+Patton continued in the office of governor until 1868, several months
+beyond the full term, pending action by Congress respecting the results of
+the election of that year, when he was displaced by operation of the
+reconstruction acts. During his incumbency a federal military commander,
+supported by soldiers stationed in the capitol, supervised all of his
+appointments and official acts.)
+
+As evidence of confidence, the legislature elected former Governor Parsons
+United States senator for the term ending March 3, 1871. At the same time,
+it chose George S. Houstan for the term ending March 3, 1867, and John
+Anthony Winston for the term of six years, commencing March 4, 1867.
+
+At the election in November, 1865, C. C. Langdon was elected to Congress
+from the first district: George C. Freemen, from the second; Cullen A.
+Battle, from the third; Joseph W. Taylor, from the fourth; Burwell T.
+Pope, from the fifth, and Thomas J. Foster, from the sixth.
+
+Then came early rumblings of the storm that was soon to break. These
+chosen men were not permitted to take their seats as representatives, and
+the state was not represented in Congress until 1868.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE
+
+MILITARY GOVERNMENT
+
+
+March 2, 1867, after two years of peace, Congress passed over President
+Johnson's veto a bill relegating the southern states to the condition of
+conquered provinces. A military commander was appointed and authorized to
+supersede civil and judicial tribunals by military courts of his own
+creation, with power to inflict usual punishments, excepting only death.
+
+This act was supplemented with another, of July 13, forbidding state
+authorities to interfere with the military commander, who was given the
+additional power to displace any official and appoint his successor. This
+act provided that military rule should cease within a state when a
+convention of the people thereof should frame, and the voters adopt, a
+constitution ratifying the amendment to the federal Constitution which
+conferred the suffrage on negroes, and being otherwise acceptable to
+Congress, and when the legislature also should ratify that amendment.
+
+The new constitution was to be framed by delegates to be chosen by votes
+of all male citizens of legal age, excepting those disfranchised by the
+fourteenth amendment; and it was to be ratified by an affirmative vote of
+a majority of voters registered under the supervision of the military
+commander and his subalterns.
+
+Under the reconstruction acts of 1867, in April of that year, Alabama
+became a part of the department comprising, with itself, the states of
+Georgia and Florida. The military commander called a convention to frame a
+constitution. At the election for delegates the polls were kept open for
+five days. The whites held aloof from it. The gathering of delegates thus
+elected was stigmatized as "the carpetbaggers' convention." The men who
+composed it and framed the constitution were in many cases grossly corrupt
+and ignorant.
+
+As an illustration of the character of the men sent to the convention,
+Samuel Hale, a brother of United States Senator Hale, one of the few Union
+men and later Republicans resident in Sumter county, wrote Senator Wilson
+in January, 1868, a letter protesting against recognition by Congress of
+radicals in the south, in which he said that the men who sat in the
+convention and framed the constitution were, "so far as I am acquainted
+with them, worthless vagabonds, homeless, houseless, drunken knaves";
+that the Sumter delegates were a negro and two whites--Yordy and Rolfe.
+Rolfe, he said, left his family in New York and had not seen them for four
+years, during which period he had led an immoral life with negroes; that
+he was known as the "Hero of Two Shirts," having left at a hotel in Selma,
+as security for an unpaid hotel bill, his carpetbag containing only two
+shirts: that his name was not signed to the constitution which he helped
+to frame because he was too drunk to write it. These men and Hays and
+Price, all strangers, were the only white men in Sumter county who took
+part in the election for delegates. As an early indication of future
+leadership, at that election Price ordered the negroes to secure their
+arms and prevent expulsion from the booth of one of their members who was
+vauntingly flourishing a gun. Only intervention by cool-headed whites
+prevented trouble. Mr. Hale, in the letter quoted from, stigmatized the
+election thus: "As shameless a fraud as was ever perpetrated upon the face
+of the earth."
+
+Rolfe and Hays were wheelwrights, but their talents found employment in
+more lucrative occupations. Rolfe's first "get-rich-quick" scheme was the
+selling to negroes of badges, which he said he was engaged in by order of
+General Grant.
+
+While agent of the Freedmen's Bureau Hays defrauded negroes of a thousand
+dollars derived from sales of cotton with which they had entrusted him.
+That was his disappearing act.
+
+That convention deprived of the right to vote all men who were proscribed
+by the fourteenth amendment from holding office.
+
+The constitution framed called for an election in February, 1868, to which
+it was to be submitted for ratification, and at which time officers were
+to be elected. It was submitted under a solemn congressional provision
+that if it should not receive in its favor the ballots of a majority of
+the registered voters, it was to be considered as rejected.
+
+The Democratic convention of 1865 entrusted to the party's state executive
+committee, of which General James H. Clanton was chairman, all matters of
+policy. When the military order for the convention issued, General Clanton
+called into council with the executive committee one hundred of the
+leading men of the state. After deliberation, they concluded that the
+wisest course for the party to pursue would be to go to the polls and
+endeavor to defeat the constitution, but, in view of the possibility of
+failure in this, to place candidates in the field, to be voted for under
+it. Having agreed on this policy, the council was about to adjourn, when
+the chairman received from ex-Governor Parsons, who was the accredited
+agent in Washington of the Democratic party, a dispatch, saying:
+
+"I am on my way to Montgomery; will be there to-night. Don't adjourn your
+convention; don't act till I get there."
+
+The council waited, and the former governor arrived and delivered a
+speech, in which he uttered the memorable sentence:
+
+"So far as the reconstruction measures are concerned, and this
+constitution, touch not, taste not, handle not the unclean thing."
+
+He said that this was in accordance with the advice of President Johnson.
+Messrs. Samuel Rice and Alexander White supported the ex-governor, and the
+council was persuaded to reverse its decision and advise the voters to
+refrain from taking any part in the election. Mr. White prepared the
+address to the voters.
+
+Accordingly, the Democratic voters abstained from voting, and only one
+Democratic state senator was elected, and he was not endorsed. Negroes in
+battalions, armed with muskets and stepping to the beat of drums, marched
+to the polls, stacked arms, placed guards about them, and cast their
+ballots for the constitution and their candidates.
+
+The registration of voters for the election of 1868 was under military
+supervision and regulation. Registration was kept open at polling places
+up to and including time of election. The registers of voters and election
+officers were appointed by military officers, and nearly every register
+was a candidate for office. He was given power to reject any applicant for
+registration. Soldiers were present at all polling places to enforce the
+regulations, which forbade the challenging of illegal voters: citizens
+were forbidden under severe penalties to warn election judges or expose
+the fact even if they should see a non-resident or minor or repeater offer
+to deposit a ballot. Voters were permitted to cast their ballots at any
+precinct in the county. Negroes were eligible to all offices.
+
+The returns of the election disclosed the fact that the majority of the
+registered voters had abstained from participation in the election, and
+hence the constitution was not adopted by the people--according to the
+declaration of the military authorities, lacking 8,000 of the requisite
+number of votes. In view of this authoritative declaration, the radical
+candidates did not claim the offices to which they had aspired, and the
+incumbents for the time being were not disturbed. But, to the amazement of
+the people and its own dishonor, Congress in June, 1868, accepted the
+constitution as ratified by the people, and recognized the candidates as
+elected officers, and in July they were installed by military power, the
+former officers retiring under protest.
+
+In order that the reader may understand the situation and how poorly
+prepared were the people for such a reign, we must go back to the
+beginning and note other occurrences which had a direct bearing on that
+situation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR
+
+A GRAVE PROBLEM
+
+
+At the termination of the war between the sections, the southern people
+had thrust upon them for solution the gravest and most difficult problem
+with which the white race on this continent was ever perplexed,--how to
+preserve their civilization with the government operating in opposition to
+their efforts.
+
+After four years of warfare, the south was prostrate before the victorious
+people of the north, whose armies were quartered in garrisons everywhere
+in the surrendered territory, to enforce with arms, if necessary, whatever
+oppressive and humiliating measures might be conceived in hatred and
+vengeance by fanatics whose intolerance had made the bloody conflict
+irrepressible, and who were determined to extend and perpetuate the
+political power gained by conquest. The means adopted were enfranchisement
+of the emancipated slaves and disfranchisement of all white men who had at
+all distinguished themselves as leaders, while extending favors to those
+who would ally themselves with the oppressors and betray their countrymen.
+
+The difficulties of the situation in which the defeated southerners were
+placed were appalling. Naught of the former wealth of the country was left
+save the land--which in the disorganized state of labor was almost a
+burden to the possessors--and some cotton which had accumulated because
+exportation was prevented by the blockade of the ports; and upon this the
+federal government imposed an unconstitutional tax of three cents a pound.
+Farm implements were crude and scarce; the necessities of the Confederate
+government in its expiring struggles had stripped the country of the best
+of the draft and food animals; in the Black Belt there were no factories;
+development of transportation had been checked in its incipiency;
+education was almost abandoned, and the civil laws suspended. Everything
+had to be organized or reorganized.
+
+Cotton was one of the principal resources left to the people at the close
+of the war. In great demand and readily convertible into money at prices
+ranging from fifty cents a pound upward, and in considerable quantities,
+it would have furnished means for a "fresh start" had the people been
+permitted to hold it in undisputed possession; but the government
+begrudged even this remnant of lost fortunes. Unfortunately, during the
+war agents of the Confederacy from time to time contracted for quantities
+of cotton, to be paid for in bonds, but in most cases there had been no
+actual transfer of either bonds or cotton, and the latter remained on the
+plantations. After the surrender of General Taylor to General Canby, the
+federal commander promulgated an order requiring all persons who held such
+cotton to surrender it to the United States agents, under penalty of
+confiscation of their property. The military authorities claimed this
+cotton as a prize of war, and treasury agents--some of them fictitious, as
+afterward proven--were soon ranging the country in search for it. The
+holders believed that the question of ownership was at least debatable.
+Prior to the surrender, the Confederate government, fearing that federal
+raiders would seize the cotton, ordered that it be destroyed by the
+holders; but the authority of that government was not then potent, and the
+planters, instead of obeying the order, conveyed the bales to places of
+concealment in swamps and elsewhere, and believed that this act confirmed
+their claim to ownership. Some of the cotton was thus concealed when the
+agents began their search. The order of seizure was subsequently so
+modified as to permit the original holders to claim one-fourth of the
+cotton as compensation for caretaking. Very few took advantage of this
+concession; and, indeed, the greedy agents actually suppressed the order
+for months while the seizures were in progress. Attorneys who contested
+before military tribunals the right of seizure argued that, by reason of
+non-delivery, sales to the Confederate government had not been completed,
+and that the federal government had no right to capture the cotton after
+final surrender of the Confederate armies; but in some instances these
+attorneys were arrested and threatened with imprisonment unless they
+abated their zeal in behalf of clients.
+
+There was in resulting evil practices a touch of picturesqueness. The
+unconquered and unconquerable veterans of the vanquished southern armies,
+in many instances impoverished, were ripe for any enterprise which
+promised congenial adventure and spoils which they regarded as legitimate.
+The agents went about supported by federal troops, and many were the
+clashes between the latter and so-called guerrilla bands composed of their
+late antagonists on other and more glorious fields. These bands were
+actuated by the conviction that the Confederate government having had no
+clear title to ownership of the cotton, the conquerors succeeded to none;
+and so they took up the contest where the intimidated attorneys dropped
+it, and contested with the agents and their armed supporters. These
+agents were well supplied with army teams and wagons, and often these,
+falling into the hands of the "guerrillas," served the captors as a
+convenient means of transportation of booty. Yet, it sometimes happened
+that the guerrillas were the captives, and when in the toils were in sore
+straits to raise the ransom which was exacted in lieu of arrest and
+arraignment for trial. Even steamboats were hauled to and relieved of
+cargoes. That was the golden era for steamboatmen, when freight charges
+and salaries, especially of pilots, were phenomenal.
+
+These transactions soon degenerated into plunder pure and simple,
+involving private cotton to which the government could lay no sort of
+claim.
+
+Perhaps there had been collusion between holders of "Confederate" cotton
+and the raiding bands which seized and bore it off; anyhow, the inevitable
+effect was that unscrupulous men, taking advantage of popular tolerance of
+practices which originally sprang from patriotic impulses, disregarded
+private rights and indiscriminately stole. Planters paid for guards as
+high as thirty dollars each per night at critical times. Men who were
+unaccustomed to the command of money grew rich in a brief space and
+correspondingly lavish in their expenditures. Extravagance and
+demoralization which left their enduring impress ensued. Admissions were
+made in high quarters in after years that not one-tenth of the proceeds of
+cotton seized by agents ever went into the treasury of the United States.
+One example will suffice: An agent in Demopolis claimed and was allowed
+for four months' services, on the basis of one-fourth of the cotton seized
+by him, $80,000; and the settlement was between him and military
+authorities who were quite as adept as he in the art of pilfering. Thus in
+a time of stress the producers were despoiled and adventurers enriched by
+the ungenerous policy of the victorious government.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following facts are gathered from evidence taken before the committee
+in Congress in the investigation as to General Howard:
+
+At the close of the war there were held in the south at least five million
+bales of cotton, worth in Liverpool $500,000,000. Only a fraction of this
+cotton was owned by the Confederate states government, and this was turned
+over to General E. R. S. Canby by General E. Kirby Smith on May 24, 1865.
+Besides the swarm of official agents, informers and spies sent down by the
+Treasury Department in search of Confederate cotton, contracts were made
+with private individuals to engage in the work. Much cotton was taken from
+plantations before the owners returned to their homes after the
+disbandment of the armies. Seizures were indiscriminate. Proof of private
+ownership had to be supported by tender of toll; there was no redress.
+
+A Treasury Department regulation required that all cotton seized in the
+Atlantic and Gulf states should be shipped to Simon Draper, United States
+cotton agent in New York City; and that seized on the upper Mississippi
+river and in northern Georgia and northern Alabama to William P. Mellen,
+agent in Cincinnati. These agents sold by samples which were spurious and
+inferior to the cotton which they represented. Accordingly, cotton worth
+sixty cents to one dollar per pound was sold for ten to fifteen cents. The
+purchasers were in collusion with the agent. By the system of "plucking,"
+the weight of bales was reduced anywhere from one hundred to two hundred
+pounds before they were sold: the plucked cotton was termed "waste
+cotton," packed and sold as "trash" to mills, but not at trash prices.
+These terms figured only in the reports to the department. Sometimes
+owners traced stolen cotton to the New York or Cincinnati agency; and if a
+thousand bales were involved, the agent reported that only two hundred had
+been received, and of very inferior quality, and was sold for ten or
+fifteen cents per pound, which his books would prove; that
+transportation, storage and commissions left only a small sum. Draper,
+when he became cotton agent, was a bankrupt. Subsequently he settled his
+debts and when he died was a multimillionaire. Fifty million dollars'
+worth of cotton was shipped to Draper; the government derived only
+$15,000,000 net from that source as the reward for the wrong which it had
+committed in entrusting the enforcement of its doubtful claim against the
+impoverished southern people to dishonest and unscrupulous agents.
+
+The Confederate States government imposed a tax in kind upon all
+provisions produced on plantations--one-tenth. The first year after the
+war this tax was enforced in some isolated sections by orders of minor
+military officers, and collected by agents. Of course this was fraudulent,
+and was stopped after a while.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE
+
+THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU
+
+
+Meanwhile, the Freedmen's Bureau had been established. General Swayne
+promulgated an order recognizing as agents of the bureau former civil
+magistrates who could and would obtain endorsement of negroes; but, as a
+rule, carpetbaggers filled the places. Offices were opened at the county
+seats, where complaints of freedmen were lodged and investigations
+conducted. The agents prescribed a uniform division of products of the
+soil between planters and hands. They supervised all contracts and
+regulated the conduct of affairs between employer and employe, and their
+dicta were absolute and final, being enforced, if necessary, by soldiers
+of the garrison.
+
+The agents gave notice that nobody would be allowed to employ freedmen
+unless the contracts were submitted to and approved by them and left in
+their custody. They gave ear to any tale of complaining freedmen, arrested
+the white man complained of, tried and punished him, unless he proved
+willing to purchase immunity. Sometimes after the planter had contracted
+in the prescribed manner with freedmen, and had his crops in process of
+cultivation, the hands would quit work, and only intervention by the agent
+would make them return. Such intervention cost as high as ten dollars per
+hand, and the occasion for it might recur before the crops could be
+gathered. Some of the agents secured plantations and used them as refuges
+for dissatisfied freedmen, who were fed and clothed.
+
+The agents were as a rule "fanatics without character or responsibility,
+and were selected as fit instruments to execute the partisan and
+unconstitutional behests of a most unscrupulous head." (Senator Beck, in
+an official report.) Some of them were preachers, and had been selected as
+being the most devout, zealous and loyal of a certain religious sect. In
+league meetings they told the negroes that although they had been married
+according to plantation custom for many years, they must procure licenses
+and be remarried. Thus they made large sums in fees, in many instances
+from old couples who had grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
+
+All of this was humiliating and irritating to the planters, but submitted
+to so long as the agents confined their activities to legitimate
+functions. But they soon became mischievously meddlesome, and discovered
+in their powers means for promoting their political fortunes.
+
+As a body, the negroes had been conducting themselves with propriety, and
+good feeling prevailed. Their greatest delight was in the dignity of
+unaccustomed surnames, duster coats, gauntlet gloves, albums, clocks and
+other wares, with which enterprising northern peddlers tempted them. Their
+childish delight in these novel possessions for a while filled the measure
+of their happiness. But some of them who had been following armies
+contracted nomadic habits; others were incapable of rational exercise of
+their novel privileges, and became disturbers of the peace. Their
+depredations soon rendered stock raising impracticable. Every plantation
+had a gin-house, and these houses, with their valuable contents, were
+exposed to incendiaries seeking revenge for real or fancied grievances,
+and many were destroyed. Men with the "easy money" acquired during the
+period of cotton stealing set up crossroad stores at every available point
+and dispensed vile whiskey in barter for bags of loose cotton and corn,
+ostensibly the "shares" of those offering them, but really often stolen
+from lint rooms and cribs, and even from the ungarnered crops in the
+fields. These traders did an immense business, many of them setting up
+gins and baling screws. The existing "sundown and sunrise" law was enacted
+to destroy this nefarious traffic. It prohibited the sale of farm products
+between sunset and sunrise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX
+
+MILITARY REGULATIONS
+
+
+Another cause of irritation was the offensive conduct of soldiers
+composing the garrisons, which provoked collisions with the more impetuous
+citizens. In 1865 the federal soldiers in Tuscaloosa, Greensboro, Eutaw
+and other towns subjected the people to very offensive regulations. Only a
+few examples need be mentioned as exhibiting the temper of both sides: The
+former soldiers of the Confederacy, having no means with which to
+replenish their wardrobes, wore their uniforms. The federals threatened,
+and sometimes attempted, to cut the buttons from the old gray coats, and
+the proud wearers were forced to resort to the expedient of covering them
+with thin cloth rather than let them serve as a pretext for insults. Flags
+were stretched across the sidewalks, so that pedestrians would have to
+pass under them. To defeat the obvious purpose, men and women, in going
+about, resorted to the roadway or diverged from the sidewalks at points
+where the flags were placed. In some instances these unwilling and
+protesting people were seized and forced under the flags. These and other
+practices, devised to provoke the people to exhibitions of hostility,
+caused severe smarting. Perhaps many young men who had received war
+schooling were not reluctant to encounter their former antagonists.
+
+A memorable tragedy, with annoying consequences, resulted from such an
+encounter. August 31, 1865, election day, the brothers Tom and Toode
+Cowan, formerly heroic members of Forrest's cavalry, became involved in a
+controversy with a squad of soldiers of the garrison in Greensboro; in the
+resulting affray pistols were used; the younger Cowan killed one of the
+soldiers, while his brother dangerously wounded another. The slayer
+mounted a horse and escaped, but the intrepid Tom scorned flight and
+yielded only to overpowering numbers. Intense excitement prevailed; the
+enraged soldiers sprang to arms, seized Cowan, and, defying their
+officers, prepared to hang the prisoner. At the critical moment came a
+message from the wounded man, generously acknowledging he was the
+aggressor and pleading for a fair trial for Cowan. This appeased the
+military mob and the prisoner was locked up. That night squads of cavalry
+roamed the country, ostensibly seeking the fugitive, but really to disarm
+and arrest the planters. Mr. Cowan was tried and acquitted. His brother
+was not apprehended.
+
+In some cases the soldiers were insubordinate and manifested hostility to
+the people. One notable example in illustration is recalled: During the
+hours of darkness soldiers burned the Episcopal church in Demopolis. Some
+of them were detected with articles stolen from the sacred edifice, and
+the colonel was requested to have the impious robbers arrested. That
+officer declined to make the order, because the guilty men were dangerous
+characters and would seek revenge if called to account. Indeed, they
+threatened that when transferred from Demopolis they would set fire to the
+town. To prevent the execution of this purpose, another colonel was
+substituted for the commander of the regiment, and he placed sentinels
+around the quarters and marched the men away in ignorance of the fact that
+it was their final departure.
+
+In Greensboro, in 1867, was enacted another regrettable tragedy, the
+attendant circumstances of which intensified the growing hostility between
+the races. John C. Orick shot and killed Aleck Webb, negro register of
+voters. The shooting occurred in daylight and on one of the principal
+sidewalks. Orick calmly retired from the scene, locked the doors of his
+store, and in disguise fled the town.
+
+Orick was a bold, dashing and handsome young man who had won enviable
+laurels in the war. When hardly more than a boy, his adventurous spirit
+impelled him to leave home without parental consent and attach himself to
+Colonel Mosby's command. One of his achievements is worthy of mention
+here: As an "observer" he visited Baltimore and Washington, and in the
+latter city ascertained the time of departure of the army pay train on the
+Baltimore and Ohio railroad. Reporting to his commander the valuable
+information he had acquired, successful plans were formed for the capture
+of the train by Mosby's command. With his share of the booty obtained in
+this enterprise, Orick, after the final surrender, purchased a stock of
+goods and established himself in business in Greensboro.
+
+The negroes of the town and vicinity bitterly resented the killing of
+Webb, and during the night large bands of them roamed the surrounding
+country, avowedly seeking the slayer, but really bent on any mischief for
+which opportunity might offer. One band went to the Gewin premises. A
+young man, a member of the family, in his night clothes and barefooted,
+was encountered in the yard. Seeing that the marauders intercepted retreat
+to the house, Gewin fled to the woods, hotly pursued. After a chase which
+extended for a mile, over rough fields and woods, the fleeing man was
+overhauled, tied to the bare back of a horse and conveyed to the office of
+Dr. Blackford, in Greensboro. After a lengthy parley, his friends secured
+his release.
+
+At dusk the town was thronged with infuriated armed negroes, who
+threatened to apply the torch. After some of the leading citizens had
+vainly expostulated with them, the whites armed themselves and prepared to
+expel them by force; but when Gewin was released, the negroes retired,
+sullenly, and a clash was averted.
+
+The Gewin family and its connections comprised a considerable number of
+brave and resolute men, of remarkably fine physique, and they and their
+friends were indignant with Blackford, the probate judge, because of the
+suspicion that he had directed the negroes who committed the outrage,--a
+suspicion justified by the fact that Gewin was conveyed to Blackford's
+office. Everybody sympathized with them. It was said that Blackford told
+the negroes they should avenge the killing of Webb, and that he instigated
+the incendiary threats, and he was thenceforward regarded as a factor of
+disturbance in the community.
+
+As a result of these occurrences, an organization was formed in Greensboro
+for public defense, and arms were obtained. The members were, in event of
+necessity, to assemble at the ringing of a certain bell, and a rendezvous
+was selected. No oath was required of the members.
+
+The first attempt to enforce the flag regulation in the case of a woman,
+in Tuscaloosa, was the last. Intrepid Ryland Randolph, editor of the
+_Monitor_, in uncontrollable indignation seized a sabre and in person
+challenged the responsible commander to mortal combat. Declining the
+proposed close encounter, that official thenceforward was more circumspect
+in his conduct.
+
+The story of Randolph's career is an interesting part of the history of
+Tuscaloosa. As an editor, he was belligerent, and relentless in his
+denunciation of radical maladministration of public affairs. So effective
+was his hostility that publication of his paper (official organ of the Ku
+Klux) was suppressed by military order. He accepted a challenge to a duel
+provoked by attacks upon the chief justice of the state supreme court,
+addressed to him by the judge's son-in-law; but on the field mutual
+friends effected an amicable and honorable settlement.
+
+A less dignified encounter involved him in more serious difficulties.
+Opposite the _Monitor_ office a number of negroes were assembled one day,
+and two of them assaulted a white man. Suddenly Randolph, with pistol and
+bowie-knife in hand, appeared in the midst of the struggling throng. One
+shot was fired by him, when he, in turn, became the object of attack. One
+of the assailants, a political leader, received in his side a thrust from
+Randolph's bowie, and another in the back, where the broken point of the
+knife remained. Within a few minutes the prostrate leader was the only one
+who remained on the scene. But the negroes, with augmented numbers,
+reassembled a short distance away. Randolph returned to his office and
+reappeared with a shotgun. His dauntless bearing discouraged further
+hostile demonstration by the blacks. In consequence of this affair,
+Randolph was arrested by the soldiers and taken to Montgomery for trial.
+En route, by stage-coach, he was made a spectacle for gloating negroes. He
+was acquitted, and his return was made an occasion of popular
+manifestation of esteem. A cavalcade met him some miles outside of
+Tuscaloosa, and on nearer approach to town was magnified into a vast
+procession of carriages and marchers, embracing men and women and school
+children. The procession moved to the sound of bells. A great meeting,
+with speechmaking, followed.
+
+At that time the University of Alabama, at Tuscaloosa, was controlled by
+the radicals and boycotted by the whites. A brother of Governor Smith was
+a regent of the institution, and this regent's son a student. One of the
+professors, Vaughan, had been persistently assailed by the _Monitor_,
+which charged him with incompetence and drunkenness. It was said that
+Vaughan enlisted Smith as a champion. Anyhow, the two sought Randolph on
+the streets and found him in conversation with a friend. While Vaughan
+stood some distance away, Smith approached Randolph and insultingly
+jostled him. Simultaneously and without hesitation, the two men drew
+pistols and began firing, each discharging five chambers of his revolver.
+One shot struck a thick book in Randolph's coat pocket and lodged therein;
+another struck above the knee and ranged up the thigh, his leg being
+crooked at the moment. This shot necessitated amputation of the injured
+limb. An innocent bystander on the opposite side of the street was killed
+by a stray bullet. Smith and Vaughan were arrested. The former was rescued
+by fellow students and fled to Utah.
+
+Randolph survived the reconstruction period and enjoyed the restoration of
+white supremacy. He died in 1903 from the effects of a fall in a
+streetcar.
+
+An incident of the military régime in Eutaw early embittered relations
+between the people and their rulers. An "undesirable citizen" was given a
+ride on a rail. In the court martial trial of the accused, James A.
+Steele, Thomas W. Roberts, F. H. Mundy, John Cullen, Hugh L. White,
+William Pettigrew and Mr. Strayhorn were sentenced to hard labor at Dry
+Tortugas for periods ranging from two to six years. The circumstances
+attending their treatment as prisoners exhibited harshness which aroused
+indignation. Handcuffed and chained, they were conveyed by a squad to New
+Orleans and thence by sea to the island prison. They were not permitted to
+communicate with their families or friends nor to receive funds to relieve
+their wants. Their sufferings and indignities were severe and humiliating.
+An appeal in their behalf, with a presentation of the facts connected with
+the trial, was made to General Meade, and that commander remitted the
+sentence. The return of the victims to their homes was made the occasion
+of a memorable demonstration of popular feeling.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN
+
+THE UNION LEAGUE
+
+
+In pursuance of their schemes which culminated at the election in 1868,
+the carpetbag adventurers early in 1867 organized everywhere in Alabama
+branches of the Union League, a secret, oathbound political society, with
+all the mysticism of grips, signs, signals and passwords, national in
+scope, with grand national and grand state councils. Secrecy and obedience
+to commands were enjoined under severest penalties, including even death.
+Their meeting places were guarded by armed sentinels. The negro members
+were taught to disregard the feelings and interests of the whites, and
+told that if their former masters should obtain control of the government,
+they would re-enslave them; and this was an irresistible appeal to
+ignorant people enjoying the first delights of release from bondage. On
+the other hand, they were promised that if the Republicans should gain
+control, they would enact such oppressive tax laws that the landowners
+would be unable to meet the exactions, and consequently their lands would
+be forfeited; after which the Republicans would allot them in parcels of
+forty acres, together with a mule, to each head of a negro family resident
+thereon; they were told, further, that, in order to facilitate and
+expedite this process of confiscation and apportionment, they should
+slight their work and thus increase the difficulties under which their
+former masters would have to struggle to save their properties from
+spoliation. The student of history should not be harsh in judgment of the
+negro because of his susceptibility to a lure so enticing. He was
+ignorant, and regarded every pretentious white stranger as one of that
+great army which had liberated him from bondage.
+
+Serious as was the situation, it was not without amusement in its
+demonstration of the negro's gullibility. A bogus "land agent" circulated
+slips conveying directions regarding "preëmption of homesteads," and the
+credulous negroes bought them, and, besides, painted sticks with pointed
+ends to be driven into the ground to mark their boundaries; they also
+purchased chances in a sort of lottery for the distribution of parcels of
+land. All of these were sold under alleged authority received from the
+government at Washington, all dependent on the success of the Republican
+party.
+
+By request of President Johnson, General Grant in 1865 made a tour of the
+southern states, to learn the feelings and intentions of the people and to
+ascertain to what extent, in the interest of economy, the military forces
+there could be reduced. He reported that white troops excited no
+opposition: thinking men would offer no violence to them. But black troops
+demoralized labor, "and the late slaves seem to be infused with the idea
+that the property of their late masters should by right belong to them, or
+at least should have no protection from the colored soldiers. There is
+danger of collision being brought by such causes."
+
+The so-called abandoned lands on the coast of South Carolina and
+Georgia--lands from which whites had fled to escape dangers of the
+war--were actually seized and colonized with wandering negroes, though the
+lands were afterward restored to the owners. The germ of the "forty acres
+and a mule" idea, no doubt, originated in those colonies. The idea was of
+early conception, as the Grant report shows.
+
+The first annoyances caused by the league were the neglect of field work
+by negroes in order to attend political meetings in daylight, and taking
+hard-worked mules from lots at night and riding them to league meetings.
+But in the course of time the organization assumed a military aspect,
+drilling regularly. Bodies appeared in procession, in regular company
+order, with arms, banners, drums and fifes, the officers wearing
+side-arms. At the election they were met outside the towns by emissaries
+and furnished with tickets, and then proceeded to the polling places and
+deposited them as directed. All of this appealed to the negroes' taste for
+novelty and spectacle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT
+
+A REPUBLICAN BLUNDER
+
+
+This narrative is now brought again to the point at which it digressed,
+the election on the constitution, but before resuming that subject a few
+words of comment here will not be out of place.
+
+The perfidy of Congress in imposing upon the people of Alabama, in
+violation of its own solemn covenant, a constitution which they had
+rejected in a lawful manner, was a blunder fatal to the future influence
+of the Republican party in Alabama. The fourteenth amendment had already
+injured the party because of its application to great numbers of men who
+might have allied themselves with it if they had not been involved in the
+proscription. They had opposed secession as long as there was any reason
+in opposition, and then reluctantly adapted themselves to the situation.
+Jefferson Davis had been in prison, demanding trial and ready to abide the
+result; he was discharged, and the proceedings looking to personal
+punishment abandoned. Other leaders, including Admiral Semmes, "the
+pirate," as he was termed in intensity of hatred, were at their homes,
+pursuing the vocations of peace and ready to try the issue. The excuse for
+abandoning the prosecution was that, the fourteenth amendment having
+imposed the penalty of deprivation of citizen rights, the courts could not
+inflict other punishment.
+
+Thus, the men who had, at the cost of popular good will and private
+friendship, opposed with all their abilities severance of the Union were
+equally subject to a penalty deemed adequate for "the arch traitor" and
+"the pirate," so called.
+
+Then, there were thousands of men in northern Alabama not subject to the
+proscription, who were nursing the grievance that Democrats had
+precipitated secession without permitting the people to vote on the
+ordinance. They believed that, had it been submitted, it would have been
+defeated. Northern Alabama was so loyal to the Union that leaders there
+proposed separation of that section at the line of the mountains, and that
+its people organize and "fight it out" in the foothills. But the
+promptness with which the Confederate authorities organized the military
+forces discouraged such a project. The strong resentment of the summary
+accomplishment of secession was rendered bitter by conscription laws.
+Sections of the mountains in which drastic measures were necessary to
+enforce those laws became easy recruiting grounds for the federal army.
+It is recorded that 2,700 men from Walker, Winston and Fayette counties
+enlisted in one federal command. North Alabama was more than once occupied
+by contending armies, and partisan organizations embittered the contest.
+
+In central and southern Alabama were many Whigs and Union men who had no
+liking for the Democratic party.
+
+In this state of affairs, convinced that not many of the proud
+Confederates would sue for relief from fourteenth amendment disabilities,
+and that the constitution which disqualified thousands of white voters
+would perpetuate negro supremacy in Alabama, the Republican leaders in
+Congress committed a wrong which to this day bears heavily upon their
+party.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE
+
+CARPETBAG GOVERNMENT
+
+
+The negroes had exercised without hindrance their new privilege of the
+suffrage. Their incapacity as voters was illustrated in the character of
+the men who assumed office after the election in 1868.
+
+In Sumter county, Tobias Lane was elected probate judge, but during the
+period of uncertainty when the constitution was in abeyance, concluding
+that congressional action respecting it would be unfavorable, he packed
+his carpetbag and returned to Ohio, having been one of the migrants from
+that state, so prolific of birds of his feather.
+
+Beville, the sheriff, was an appointee of General Swayne. He was unable to
+give bond, but Swayne waived that formality and ordered him to continue in
+office without bond. In 1868 Richard Harris, a negro, who could neither
+read nor write, became his worthy successor.
+
+As solicitor the discriminating voters chose Ben Bardwell, a negro, who
+was wholly deficient in the knowledge of reading and writing, a
+deficiency which made him "an easy mark" for one of the most learned bars
+in the state.
+
+George Houston, a freedman, was sent to the lower house of the
+legislature. As his colleague Ben Inge, another "person of color,"
+absolutely illiterate, was selected.
+
+An army captain, one Yordy, received the state senatorial honors, which he
+wore while serving Uncle Sam in the custom house at Mobile. He was a
+long-distance representative, having no domicile in Sumter, nor ever
+making his appearance there.
+
+John B. Cecil, reputed federal army sutler and coming with the influx from
+fecund Ohio, was elected treasurer. He gradually and logically degenerated
+into a partnership with a negro in a grog-shop enterprise.
+
+Badger, another bird of passage, became tax assessor. The revenue and road
+commission was a motley aggregation which comprised one carpetbagger and
+three negroes.
+
+Edward Herndon, a native Union man, by grace of appointment and election,
+simultaneously devoted his talents to the offices of circuit clerk,
+register in chancery, notary public, justice of the peace, keeper of the
+poorhouse and guardian _ad litem_,--and perhaps felt aggrieved that he
+didn't have "all that was coming to him."
+
+It would seem that, with this multiplicity of trusts, Mr. Herndon
+monopolized the privilege of plurality in office holding; but not so, for
+Mr. Daniel Price, a typical scalawag, with the reputation of a jailbird
+and desperado, made flight from Wetumpka to Sumter, and was endowed with a
+bunch of federal and county jobs,--register of voters, superintendent of
+education, postmaster and census taker. Insatiable, like Oliver Twist he
+wanted more, and as a side line to his multifarious activities, employed
+his scholarly attainments in the conduct of a negro school, meanwhile
+boarding and associating with negroes.
+
+The harmony of the "color scheme" of the official colony in Perry county,
+adjoining Hale county, was never broken by a trace of the ebony hue.
+
+Without exception, all of the county offices were held by carpetbaggers,
+officers of the 8th Wisconsin regiment, originally sent on garrison duty.
+Their characters are illustrated by the fact that, under the guise of
+selling properties which they had acquired in the county, all of them sold
+their offices in the time of political regeneration and betook themselves
+to the north. During Lindsay's administration the sheriff, charged with
+conniving at the escape from jail of a prisoner incarcerated for murder,
+sold his job for $1,500. Democrats succeeded the aliens.
+
+In Marengo county there were more places than "loyal and reconstructed"
+place-seekers, and consequently Charles L. Drake, who made his advent in
+1866 as an army captain, was burdened with the cares and responsibilities
+of register in chancery, circuit clerk, United States commissioner and
+agent of the Freedmen's Bureau; yet had time for political activity which
+made him especially obnoxious.
+
+Another conspicuous character in Marengo was one Burton, a carpetbagger,
+who established in Demopolis a weekly newspaper, _The Southern
+Republican_. He had incorporated in the oppressive tax laws a provision
+that where a deed was made to a purchaser at a tax sale, it should be made
+conclusive evidence, whether the sale was legal or illegal, that all
+requisites to a valid sale had been complied with. In order to increase
+the advertising, a section of land was divided into sixteen parts and each
+part advertised separately. Legal advertising was confined to "loyal"
+papers, the test of loyalty being allegiance to the Radical party. _The
+Southern Republican_, being the only loyal paper in all that
+unreconstructed region, was designated as the official organ of Marengo,
+Greene, Perry and Choctaw counties.
+
+The newspaper statute referred to was in these words:
+
+"That it shall be the duty of the probate judge in each county of this
+state to designate a newspaper in which all local advertisements, notices,
+or publications of any and every character required by law to be made in
+his county shall be published. Provided, that no newspaper shall be
+designated as such official organ which does not in its columns sustain
+and advocate the maintenance of the government of the United States and of
+the government of the state of Alabama, which is recognized by the
+Congress of the United States as the legal government of this state; and
+if there be no such paper published in the county, then the probate judge,
+whose decision upon the question shall be final, shall designate the paper
+published nearest the county seat of his county which does sustain said
+government."
+
+The "loyal" papers so designated had no circulation beyond a small free
+distribution among office-holders. Few of the negroes in their general
+illiteracy could read them, and none of them were concerned in the
+advertisements. The white people, to whom all of the advertisements were
+addressed, would not permit a copy of the publications to be sent to them.
+Consequently, the payment of fees was a waste of public money. The purpose
+of the law was to create and sustain a detestable press at the expense of
+the taxpayers, or seduce the existing papers.
+
+In 1870 Burton was nominee for lieutenant-governor. On account of some
+personally offensive publication, Mr. E. C. Meredith, of Eutaw, a
+Democratic leader ("Bravest of the Brave"), severely chastised him in
+Eutaw. Thereafter the "trooly loil" journalist made his periodical
+collections of fees in Greene county by proxy. About the time when frost
+touched with withering chill his budding political aspiration, Burton
+received an ominous communication, not intended for publication, but for
+his own guidance. It was embellished with pictures of cross-bones, skull
+and dagger, and inscribed with a legend which he interpreted as a sort of
+"move on" ordinance. And he stood not on the order of his going, but
+hiked.
+
+General Dustin, a northern soldier, of good family connections, who
+settled in Demopolis and allied himself by marriage with one of the old
+and prominent families of the town, was appointed major general of
+militia, and endeavored, but unsuccessfully, to organize a force. The law
+provided that whenever forty or more men should enroll themselves and
+choose officers, the governor upon application should recognize them as a
+volunteer company. Governor Smith could not be persuaded to encourage the
+formation of a militia force; he preferred federal regulars, and they were
+always available.
+
+While awaiting opportunity for employment of his warrior genius and
+acquirements, General Dustin, equally soldier and statesman, served the
+people of his adopted county in the legislature. His colleague in that
+august assembly of solons was Levi Wells, a "ward of the nation."
+
+Others who made reconstruction history in Marengo county will be mentioned
+incidentally as this narrative progresses. They were a rare lot, and
+equally with the others worthy of a place on the scroll of fame.
+
+Choctaw county officials distinguished themselves in some features of
+their administration of affairs, according to testimony before a
+government commission. Dr. Foster was appointed probate judge and elected
+state senator, and served in the dual capacity. Receiving the appointment
+of revenue collector at Mobile, he discarded the probate judgeship, to
+which Hill was appointed, but polygamously refused to be divorced from the
+other love, the senatorship. Hill had been appointed treasurer before
+receiving the appointment to the judgeship. Withdrawing from the former
+place, his brother, Alexander, succeeded. It may not too much confuse the
+already complex situation to mention incidentally that the industrious
+Alexander filled in spare time by discharging the humble duties of justice
+of the peace, having before him the example of his eminent brother, who
+scorned not the lesser duties of register in chancery, with which also he
+was charged. In the progress of time, an inquisitive grand jury, nosing
+into matters, ascertained that Treasurer Aleck had received from the
+county tax collector fees to the amount of $3,600. While the jury was
+investigating, a disturbance occurred on the streets; the sheriff
+resigned, rather than interfere with the disturbers, and sought pastoral
+scenes. Circuit Judge J. Q. Smith, serving as a substitute for Luther R.
+Smith, adjourned court without receiving the jury's report. Immediately
+after adjournment Probate Judge Hill, who had received a significant
+communication, with skull and dagger adornment, and maybe had been
+playfully shot at, retired to his farm, leaving his office in the care of
+the overburdened but willing Aleck. The circuit clerk accompanied the
+probate judge to his sylvan retreat, and imposed more work on Aleck by
+making him custodian of his office also. By the way, this clerk was first
+elected, but failed to qualify, whereupon Judge Smith cured the defect by
+appointing him to the place. Such was the situation of affairs when, at
+midnight, April 14, the structure burned, and, excepting documents in the
+hands of the jury, all of the records of the two offices, together with
+the treasurer's account of moneys received and disbursed, fed the hungry
+flames. The treasurer said that all the funds were in the safe, but only
+charred packages of Confederate "shinplasters" were found therein when the
+safe was opened. The succeeding treasurer, an expert accountant, under
+instructions from the commissioners' court, investigated accounts between
+the collector and former treasurer, and reported that the latter was in
+default to the extent of about $7,000, and the tax collector about $2,700.
+Meanwhile, the tax collector had sought a change of air in "the glorious
+climate of California." Before his departure he related a tale of woe, the
+burden of which was that highwaymen had despoiled him of official
+collections of between $5,000 and $6,000.
+
+The fire fiend had marked Choctaw officials for its victims. According to
+his own statement, the dwelling of the county superintendent of education
+was the repository of $4,000 of county funds when said "fiend" consumed
+it. The superintendent was the author of his own official bond, and in his
+inexperience omitted therefrom the customary penalty clause, which
+omission rendered the instrument non-enforceable. Feeling the inadequacy
+of local employment for his talents, he took up residence across the line
+in Sumter county, and thus qualified for election to the legislature, but
+there was no requisition for his services.
+
+The superintendent was law partner of Joshua Morse, attorney general of
+the state. They were jointly indicted for the murder of Editor Thomas of
+the county paper at Butler, the county seat; they obtained a change of
+venue and were tried and acquitted in Mobile, the principal witness
+against them having disappeared.
+
+William Miller, a former slaveowner and one of the largest landowners,
+became probate judge of Greene county in 1868. Judge Oliver, the
+incumbent, refused to recognize his claim, and Miller invoked the
+ever-responsive military powers; the soldiers forced entrance to the
+office and inducted the claimant. Oliver filed a protest and retired.
+Alexander Boyd, a nephew of Miller, became county solicitor and register
+in chancery.
+
+Judge Luther R. Smith had a brother, Arthur A., who was languishing in
+Massachusetts, with talents unemployed and maybe unrecognized. The judge
+imported his brother and made him county superintendent of education.
+There were not many white Republicans in Greene, and it happened that the
+circuit court clerkship was "lying around loose," and the judge thought
+Arthur was the man for the place. The latter accepted the gift, but failed
+to relinquish the superintendency of education. One Yordy figured as agent
+of the Freedmen's Bureau.
+
+These officials were unable to obtain board and lodging at either of the
+taverns or elsewhere, and jointly established and maintained for some time
+a bachelor establishment, duly ostracised by the people of the town and
+county.
+
+Hale county had a complement of officials in keeping with the layout
+common to the counties of the district, including a negro legislator. The
+most troublesome was Dr. Blackford, probate judge. He had served as a
+delegate to the constitutional convention of 1867. He displaced Judge
+Hutchinson, a popular gentleman who had lost three brothers in one of the
+battles in Virginia, members of the famous Greensboro Guards.
+
+Blackford was a skillful physician and surgeon, and of fair education. He
+served as surgeon in the Confederate army, and was stationed at Vicksburg
+during the siege. Subsequently a story circulated that he was there
+court-martialed on a charge of appropriating to his own use hospital
+stores, including liquors. However that may be, his services were
+dispensed with and he took up abode in Greensboro, and began to practice
+his profession with much success. In an evil hour he was tempted to cast
+his lot with the adventurers who were greedily fastening their clutches
+upon the substance of the country, and fell. Going from bad to worse, he
+affiliated with negroes and soon obtained absolute control of them.
+Claiming, as probate judge, that he had the right to supervise contracts
+between them and their employers, he constantly meddled in private
+affairs. Calling league meetings and taking the hands away from their
+work, he caused much vexation and loss to the planters.
+
+About the time when he became probate judge an incident occurred in
+Greensboro in which was exhibited by the soldiers an unusual
+disapprobation of the administration of affairs. The agent of the
+Freedmen's Bureau, one Clause, incurred the displeasure of some of them
+who were inclined to insubordination, and they administered to him a
+beating. Varying the proceeding, they seized a negro school teacher and
+conveyed him to a pond, in which they ducked him repeatedly.
+
+Blackford became alarmed at this manifestation of displeasure, and fled to
+the hills north of the town. There he was pursued by the rioters in
+uniform, and, resuming his flight, sought refuge at the home of a citizen,
+who apprised leading citizens of Greensboro of his whereabouts and peril.
+They informed the military commander, who, in turn, dispatched a squad of
+cavalry to rescue him and conduct him to town. Blackford, on his return,
+renounced his political heresies and aspirations to the judgeship, which
+he declared he would not accept; but, recovering his confidence in the
+stability of the military powers and his negro backing, he quickly
+recanted and relapsed into arrogance.
+
+Tuscaloosa county was not neglected by place-hunters, but the
+preponderance of whites in that county was a restraining influence.
+
+Luther R. Smith, a carpetbagger from Michigan, provisional circuit judge
+in 1866, was elected to that position in 1868, and simultaneously a member
+of the legislature, but had decency to resign the latter trust.
+Notwithstanding he subsequently violated the judicial proprieties by
+presiding over a radical state convention in Selma. He was one of the most
+respectable of the intruders, and reputed to be just, impartial and
+courteous on the bench. Nevertheless he shared, in a lesser measure, the
+odium which attached to all. The feeling of the people was that no
+right-minded man would thrust himself into public position under the
+peculiar circumstances.
+
+All the members of the United States House of Representatives from
+Alabama were carpetbaggers--officers in the United States army. Charles W.
+Pierce represented the fourth district. He held a commission as major. His
+course in the interval when the constitution was in abeyance was the same
+as that of Colonel Callis, who caused more discussion. Colonel Callis was
+elected to Congress from the Huntsville district, in competition with
+General Joseph W. Burke, a man of character and education. General Burke
+was the Republican nominee, and Callis bolted. Callis was a federal
+soldier and agent of the Freedmen's Bureau, at Huntsville. While
+canvassing, he was attired in the uniform of a colonel. When the
+constitution was rejected and declared rejected by General Meade, and the
+fact communicated to General Grant and by him communicated to Congress,
+and the action of Congress looked to the rejection of the constitution,
+Colonel Callis left Huntsville and went upon duty to Mississippi as an
+army officer. When Congress accepted the constitution and admitted Alabama
+under the "omnibus" measure, Callis hurried to Washington and took his
+seat as a representative from Alabama, notwithstanding he had never been a
+citizen of the state and was then a resident of Mississippi. Pierce was
+succeeded by Charles Hays, of Greene county, in November, 1869.
+
+The state was represented in the federal Senate by Willard Warner and
+George E. Spencer, the first named a northern general, the other, an army
+contractor. Judge Busteed, under oath, said that when elected Warner was
+not a citizen of Alabama; that when summoned a short while before as a
+juror in his court, Warner claimed exemption on the plea that he was a
+senator of the state of Ohio. Governor William H. Smith, in a letter
+published in the _Huntsville Advocate_, said: "Spencer lives upon the
+passions and prejudices of the races. The breath of peace would leave him
+on the surface, neglected and despised." And Spencer characterized his
+colleague as a "a trifling and worthless man."
+
+Being unobjectionable as to "loyalty," all of these non-citizens were
+permitted to take their seats; and for the first time since 1861 Alabama
+was represented (?) in the federal Congress, notwithstanding the fact that
+during a part of that period the people were taxed by the government which
+denied them representation--taxed unconstitutionally (in the case of
+cotton), as the Supreme Court subsequently decided.
+
+William H. Smith, of Randolph county, displaced Governor Patton. His
+character will be revealed as these pages multiply.
+
+The state supreme court justices were evicted, and S. W. Peck, Thomas M.
+Peters and B. F. Saffold substituted for them. There is little to be said
+of them by a layman, except that the first named favored suspension of the
+writ of habeas corpus, during the Ku Klux era, and the last named declared
+unconstitutional the law under which a justice of the peace was convicted
+of solemnizing the rites of matrimony between a white man and a negro, and
+reversed the judgment of the lower court.
+
+President Lincoln in 1863 appointed Richard Busteed United States district
+judge, and in 1865 the appointee came to the state and assumed the bench.
+Whatever else may be said of him, he was bold in expression of opinion,
+judicial and personal; and during the carpetbag régime he testified that
+"the general character of Alabama office-holders for intelligence and
+honesty was not good." In 1870 Francis S. Lyon, of Demopolis, testified
+that a bill was filed in Judge Busteed's court to foreclose two mortgages
+on the Alabama Central Railroad (Selma to Meridian), and the cost of that
+suit, paid by New York creditors of the road, amounted to $122,000. The
+institution presided over by Judge Busteed was costly to litigants, to say
+the least.
+
+A. J. Applegate became lieutenant-governor. Mr. William M. Lowe, of
+Huntsville, testifying before the congressional commission in 1870, said
+of him:
+
+"I had occasion to look into his record, and published a statement in
+reference to his character, in which I proved conclusively that any petit
+jury in any New England state would have convicted him of grand larceny
+upon the evidence by his own declarations,--his own letters. These charges
+were made by me when he was living. Every opportunity was given him to
+make his defense; he had no defense to make but a lie. He had been a
+member of McPherson's body-guard that stopped near Mrs. Jacob Thompson's
+residence in Mississippi. He was there taken sick and taken into her house
+and nursed and kindly treated by her. At that time and under those
+circumstances, he, or some one with his knowledge and connivance, stole
+the deeds and patents and valuable papers belonging to the Thompson
+estate. After the war he settled here and wrote a letter to Mrs. Thompson.
+In his first letter he thanked her for her kind and Christian treatment of
+him while he was sick, although he was an enemy to her cause, saying that
+he would ever hold it in remembrance. The second letter called to her mind
+the fact that she had lost those valuable papers, and offered to return
+them or have them returned to her for a consideration. She wrote him back.
+The correspondence was published in full. Finally, he wrote to her if she
+wanted these papers better than she wanted $10,000, to send him on the
+money and get the papers. That was about his language, written in the most
+abominable and illiterate style." The matter was placed in the hands of
+lawyers, who induced Applegate with $300 to surrender the papers.
+
+General James H. Clanton, under oath, spoke thus of Harrington, speaker of
+the house of representatives:
+
+"Mr. Harrington came to Mobile very poor, from the northeast somewhere. He
+was never a soldier that we knew of. He is now very rich. Just after the
+war he was charged with running free negroes into Cuba. I do not know
+whether it is true or not. The present sheriff of Montgomery county showed
+me a reward offered for him, from what purported to be a northwestern
+paper, on a charge of bank robbery. He requested me to say nothing about
+it lest Harrington should get away. He said he was going for him that
+night; that he had his accomplice in jail, and the accomplice said
+Harrington was the man. The description he showed me was lifelike."
+
+Asked whether it could not be a mistake, the general replied:
+
+"No, sir; a man of marked physique. I did not give this information at the
+time to any of my law partners, but they smiled when I told them that
+Harrington would pay more reward to Barbour (the sheriff) and we would
+never hear of it again. And we never did hear of it till we published it
+in the last campaign, to which Harrington, who still lives there, made no
+response whatever. Colonel Thomas H. Herndon, a prominent lawyer of
+Mobile, said to me that a friend saw Harrington, during the last session
+of the legislature at which he presided, take a crowd off to drink
+champagne at a barroom known as the Rialto, in Montgomery, and when
+remonstrated with for his extravagance, he ran his hand in his pocket and
+pulled out seventeen one-hundred-dollar bills, with the remark that he
+could afford it, as he had made that much in one day in engineering a bill
+through the house." The general further testified that Eugene Beebe, of
+Montgomery, told him he paid Harrington a sum of money to advocate a
+lottery charter before the house. He said that of the representatives whom
+he "approached" on the subject of the lottery, only one, a negro,
+exhibited any qualms, and he accepted fifty dollars, protesting that it
+was only "as a loan."
+
+When Colonel Joseph Hodgson became superintendent of education, he said
+that county superintendents had embezzled between $50,000 and $60,000 of
+school funds. Two sons of the former state superintendent were fugitives
+on that account.
+
+Mr. P. T. Sayer, speaking of the Montgomery county representatives in the
+lower house of the legislature, said: "One of them is a man who came from
+Austria, by the name of Stroback. I understood that he was a sutler or
+something of that kind in the federal army. I further understood that he
+never has been naturalized; I do not know about that. He was said to be a
+gentleman in his own country; I do not know about that, but he certainly
+is not one in Montgomery. He is a man of a great deal of sense, and I
+think a dangerous man in any community situated as ours is. The others are
+three negroes."
+
+These character sketches of radical officials might be multiplied
+indefinitely, but the monotony would weary the reader. Necessarily others
+will be mentioned incidentally as this story of reconstruction
+progresses.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN
+
+RUINOUS MISGOVERNMENT
+
+
+Only misrule could be expected from such officials. Nothing was sacred
+from their greedy grasp. The most cherished institutions were debased to
+their purposes. In time the university was avoided by all who were
+unwilling to forfeit public esteem. One of the early arrivals from
+fruitful Ohio was Rev. A. S. Lakin. He was commissioned by Bishop Clark,
+of the Cincinnati conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to
+organize negro churches in Alabama. He was a fanatic of the extreme type,
+and his work of the politico-religious character. He regarded the
+Methodist Episcopal Church, south, as an aggregation of rebels, and aimed
+to array his negro proselytes against it by preaching political sermons,
+in which he reminded his audiences of their former bondage and alleged
+there was danger of its renewal. According to his own statements, he was
+the unterrified victim of a concatenation of Ku Klux attacks. In
+prosecuting his roving missions in the mountains of northern Alabama,
+Lakin's morbid fancy distorted every lone hunter encountered on the
+roadside into a lurking assassin, and every innocent group of gossiping
+rustics into a band of Ku Klux. He organized a camp-meeting, and one night
+at an early hour during its progress a party of horsemen rode through.
+Lakin wrote for publication in one of the church organs a hair-raising
+story of the incident, magnifying it into a Ku Klux foray. His explanation
+of the cause of the intrusion was that the klansmen were offended because
+of a rumor circulating in the camp that an infant born in the neighborhood
+was "a Ku Klux child," an exact image in miniature of a disguised Ku Klux,
+horns and hood included. Lakin solemnly affirmed the fact of the birth of
+the monstrosity, but ungenerously robbed it of distinction by adding that
+six other infants in that klan-infested region were similarly "Ku Klux
+marked." The woods must have been full of human curios!
+
+In 1868 the regents elected this superstitious and prejudiced emissary
+president of the University of Alabama! Accompanied by Dr. N. B. Cloud,
+state superintendent of education, Lakin journeyed to Tuscaloosa to assume
+the station which the people once hoped would be graced by the illustrious
+Henry Tutwiler. Professor Wyman was in charge of the institution and held
+the keys; the former president had withdrawn and appointed him custodian.
+On the ground that the board of regents was illegally constituted,
+Professor Wyman refused to yield to Lakin, and the latter, discerning
+signs of popular displeasure, lost the courage which had nerved him to
+assert his claim, mounted his horse and hurriedly rode away in the
+direction of Huntsville, while Dr. Cloud departed with equal celerity in
+the direction of Montgomery.
+
+Some time afterward Lakin related a blood-curdling story of pursuit from
+Tuscaloosa by a band of Ku Klux and his almost miraculous escape from the
+horrible death to which the band had condemned him. This story provoked
+the publication of a counter charge,--that while Lakin was preaching
+somewhere in New York State he ill requited the hospitality of an
+entertainer by dishonoring the household.
+
+And this man's ultimate aspiration was to represent Alabama in the United
+States Senate!
+
+One of the most scandalous chapters in the history of the Republican
+régime relates to railroad subsidies. The Lindsay administration favored
+encouragement to the building of railroads, as means for development of
+natural resources, and in 1867 the legislature passed, and the governor
+approved, an act which authorized the state to indorse bonds of new
+railroads to the extent of $12,000 per mile, with an additional
+endorsement for bridges; but indorsement was safeguarded carefully, and no
+wrongs were committed in connection with the execution of the law until
+the Radicals assumed control. Then there began a riot of bribery and
+corruption.
+
+November 10, 1871, I. F. Grant, state treasurer, submitted to the
+congressional commission investigating affairs in the southern states a
+statement from which the following extracts are made:
+
+"Bonded debt of the state January 11, 1861, $3,445,000.
+
+"The state is and was bound to pay in perpetuity for annual interest on
+the school fund the sum of $134,367.80.
+
+"Interest unpaid during the war, accrued up to and including January 1,
+1867, was then funded and new bonds issued for the sum of $621,000, which
+made the total bonded debt on
+
+  January 1, 1867                                            $4,066,000
+
+  "The war debt, amounting to $12,094,731.95 was repudiated.
+  "Eight per cent. bonds sold in 1867-68                        659,100
+  "Eight per cent. bonds sold in 1869-70                        657,700
+  "Total bonded debt January 1, 1871                         $5,382,800
+
+"Cause of increase, sale of bonds to carry on the government.
+
+"There is a prospective liability for an indefinite amount growing out of
+the passage of an act, approved February 19, 1867, and amended August,
+1868, whereby the state is required to indorse railroad bonds to the
+amount of $12,000 per mile, which act was further amended in March, 1870,
+so as to increase the indorsement to $16,000 per mile.
+
+"The same legislature in March, 1870, made a loan to the Alabama and
+Chattanooga Railroad Company of $2,000,000 in Alabama 8% bonds, over and
+above the indorsement of $16,000 per mile for the entire length of the
+road, thereby adding to the direct and collateral liability of the state
+for this one road the sum of $6,700,000. In addition to this, the
+Republican governor, W. H. Smith, issued to the road bonds to the amount
+of $500,000 above what the road could ever by any possibility claim under
+the law.
+
+"The said road made default in payment of January and July, 1871,
+interest, which the state paid as its owner and creditor, $508,000.
+
+"There are eight or ten other roads for which the state, under the law
+above referred to, is liable as indorser."
+
+The state auditor reported this summary of liabilities September 30, 1871:
+
+  Direct indebtedness                       $ 8,761,967 37
+  Present conditional indebtedness           15,420,000 00
+  Conditional indebtedness provided by law   14,200,000 00
+
+Under Democratic administration, a committee of the legislature
+investigated the railroad deals and reported that "Two millions of state
+bonds which the law authorized the governor to issue in aid of said
+company (Alabama and Chattanooga) in sums sufficient to pay off the cost
+of having constructed a certain amount of road in excess of the state
+indorsement of $16,000 per mile, were issued in bulk, with reckless haste,
+and were hurried away to the money marts of Europe"; that "there has been
+no record kept by any officer of the state of the number and amount of the
+bonds issued or indorsed by the state in favor of the various railroads
+entitled by law to the aid of the state, except as to loans of bonds to
+the Montgomery and Eufaula Railroad Company, $300,000 in amount, and the
+indorsement of bonds in favor of the Mobile and Montgomery Railroad
+Company."
+
+R. M. Patton testified that although he had accepted the presidency of the
+Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad Company, he was ignored because he
+opposed the loan bill. D. N. Stanton, of Boston, was elected president,
+and Patton "was not invited or expected at the consultation of friends of
+the road. He said: "I do not think the stockholders ever paid in any of
+the capital stock of the company."
+
+Arthur Bingham, state treasurer from 1868 to 1870, asked whether he knew
+of any fraud or illegality in connection With the issue or indorsement of
+the railroad bonds, declined to answer upon the ground that by so doing he
+would criminate himself.
+
+Mr. Holmes testified that on the last day of the session of the
+legislature of 1869-70 Mr. Gilmer, president of the North and South
+Railroad, borrowed from him and Mr. Farley $25,000. Next day Mr. Gilmer
+complained that John Hardy, of Dallas county, chairman of the committee of
+the legislature, had treated him shabbily; that "he had agreed to pass the
+bill for him for $25,000, but that at the eleventh hour he went back on
+him and made him pay $10,000 more, making in all $35,000."
+
+Jere Haralson, colored, Mr. Hardy's colleague from Dallas, was a shrewd
+negro, but at that time a cheap commodity. Later he appraised himself more
+highly. Ben Turner, a negro (successor to the carpetbag congressman),
+continued for some time after regeneration to represent the Dallas
+district in Congress, and Jere spent much time with him in Washington,
+engaged in profitable political work. But at the Montgomery distribution
+only fifty dollars was apportioned to him. He ingenuously explained that
+he accepted it as a loan.
+
+When the state, some years later, attempted to make Mr. Hardy disgorge the
+$35,000 (bonds) and imprisoned him, he escaped on the plea that it was
+imprisonment for debt.
+
+Ex-Governor Patton published a statement in which he said that, when in
+Boston, parties to the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad complained to him
+because legislation in Alabama had cost the company $200,000.
+
+J. P. Stowe, a Montgomery county representative, asserted, and the
+assertion was published, that John Hardy took away the night the
+legislature adjourned not less than $150,000, but not all of it was
+his--he had much of it for distribution.
+
+Construction of the Alabama and Chattanooga (now the Great Southern)
+Railroad, extending from Meridian to Chattanooga, referred to in the
+report quoted from, was under direction of D. N. Stanton. He was a skilled
+and unscrupulous lobbyist and get-rich-quick builder. There was testimony
+to the effect that the only money used in construction work was that
+which was derived from state indorsement. The indorsement for bridges was
+$60.00 per lineal foot of structure. In the hill country, beginning in
+Tuscaloosa county, the line of road described a serpentine trail among the
+hills. Mere increase of mileage presented no great disadvantage to
+Stanton, but tunneling, cutting and filling were difficulties studiously
+avoided. Consequently, when the road passed into other hands and
+reorganization was effected, changes necessary in straightening left the
+landscape with marks of peculiar interest to civil engineers. Travelers by
+that road may observe from car windows at many points abandoned roadbeds
+to right and left, winding among the low places and avoiding hills which
+were so formidable to Stanton, reminding the observer of meandering brooks
+seeking lower levels. Lines of least resistance were most attractive to
+Stanton, regardless of circuitousness.
+
+While government was thus growing in costliness, the resources of the
+people who had to foot the bills were diminishing.
+
+State Treasurer Grant's statement showed that the average cost of state
+government in Alabama for 1859 and 1860 was $813,000; for 1868, 1869,
+1870, $1,514,000; and the increase, he said, was partly due to increase
+of bonded debt, but mainly to ignorant and corrupt legislation.
+
+The report of the superintendent of census showed:
+
+  Assessed valuation of property in Alabama,
+      including slaves, in 1860              $432,198,762
+  Assessed valuation in 1870                  156,770,387
+  State taxation in 1860                          530,107
+  State taxation in 1870                        1,477,414
+  County taxation in 1860                         309,474
+  County taxation in 1870                       1,122,471
+
+Now consider, as representing average conditions in the counties of the
+Black Belt, these facts derived from the report of Judge Hill, an expert,
+employed to investigate affairs in Marengo county.
+
+Taxes in 1870 were threefold greater than in 1860. The value of subjects
+of taxation had diminished two-thirds; 22,000 slaves, of an average value
+of $500 each, had ceased to be enumerated as taxable property; lands had
+depreciated in value sixty per cent.; there was less than one-half as much
+live stock as formerly; two townships had been lopped off and given to the
+newly-created county of Hale.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN
+
+THE WHITES AROUSED
+
+
+The people of the Black Belt had borne with all possible patience the
+multiplied grievous wrongs recited in the foregoing pages. During the
+transition from master and slave to the new relations between them there
+was a strong disposition in both races to live in peace and harmony and
+make the best of their altered relations; the negroes were civil and
+confiding, scarcely realizing the change in their status, while the whites
+appreciated their good behavior during the war, when families of men in
+the army were unprotected, and were disposed to gratitude for it. But
+since the establishment of the league friendly intercourse between the
+races had been growing rarer, and now ceased altogether; the estrangement
+was complete.
+
+With the imposition of the constitution began the reign of the
+carpetbagger--"demon of discord and anarchy"--and the negro, and the
+infliction of "the horrors of reconstruction"; a civil convulsion in which
+the foundations of society were broken up; "a vast sluice of ignorance
+and vice was opened; a race which never had evolved anything of its own
+motion was given the ballot, the highest right of American citizenship,"
+and never regarded it as more than a personal perquisite, while white men
+of the highest type were disqualified from voting by the constitution of
+their state; negroes were made eligible to all offices, while the federal
+Constitution deprived the people of the wisdom, knowledge and experience
+in office of former leaders at a time when they were most needed. A
+comment of the time was, that a proscribed white man could not have been
+bailiff to his former slave if that former slave was a justice of the
+peace, as he might well have been, if he was not in fact. Democrats had
+not opposed negro suffrage in order to oppress the negroes, but to prevent
+negroes from crushing them; and the situation produced by the imposition
+of the constitution attested the reasonableness of their fear of the
+effect of the endowment of the negro with the ballot. They realized that
+"in popular government where two races exist in mass who are from any
+cause so different that they cannot mingle in marriage and become one, the
+exercise of political power must be confined to one or the other of those
+races if there be a wish for security and peace."
+
+In the fourth district, the whites were greatly outnumbered by the
+blacks, and, comparing voting strength, a contest with them at the polls
+seemed hopeless.
+
+The census of 1870 credited Choctaw county with 5,802 whites and 6,872
+blacks; Greene county, 3,858 whites and 14,541 blacks; Hale county, 4,802
+whites and 16,990 blacks; Marengo county, 6,090 whites and 20,058 blacks;
+Sumter county, 5,202 whites and 18,907 blacks; Tuscaloosa county, 10,229
+whites and 8,294 blacks.
+
+Thus, excepting the first- and last-named counties, the whites were
+outnumbered by more than three to one.
+
+All of the towns in the section under review were small, the populations
+ranging from 1,500 to 2,000. Greensboro in Hale, Eutaw in Greene,
+Demopolis in Marengo, Butler in Choctaw, Livingston in Sumter, and
+Tuscaloosa in the county of the same name, were the seats of government of
+their respective counties, centers of religion, education and sociability.
+At Tuscaloosa were located the State University and a fine girls' school;
+in Marion were the Seminary, the Institute, Judson, and Howard College; in
+Greensboro, the Methodist Southern University and an advanced girls'
+school. These towns had been founded as the home places of wealthy and
+cultured planter families whose plantations were in the fertile prairies
+and canebrakes. Office-holding had always been their honorable
+distinction, gained by highest merit.
+
+An epitome of conditions in the southern states at that period will serve
+to portray those in Alabama: "Legislatures in some instances composed in
+part of pardoned felons and penitentiary convicts enacting laws; the
+judiciary in the hands of charlatans and bribe-takers; every office, from
+the highest to the lowest, filled with ignorance, vice and unblushing
+corruption; with the land swarming with libelers and malignant slanderers;
+the country divided into military districts and garrisoned with troops,
+whose officers were ever ready, at the slightest bidding, to annoy and
+oppress an unarmed people."
+
+But the whites realized that in this section, at least, civilization
+itself was at stake, and notwithstanding the adverse odds and other
+disadvantages, resolved to risk all in combat with the forces arrayed
+against them. They were acquainted with the character of the Union League;
+aware of its horrible objects and aims; the almost daily crimes of lustful
+fiends, assassins and incendiaries were regarded as the fruits of its
+teachings; its responsibility for the existence of courts of law void of
+decency and recognized authority, and for officials incapable of
+enforcing law and order, for injury to public credit by prodigal pledges,
+and waste of public money, was fixed by its foolish and persistent
+allegiance to false leaders. This league was the institution marked for
+destruction. An organization pledged to undertake the task relentlessly
+and unflinchingly was regarded as a necessity. As the mighty Anglo-Saxon
+race on this continent had ever proved equal to emergencies, so now the
+men of this race, war-trained in arms and horsemanship, sensible that the
+great stake of Christianity and civilization lay in the balance, nerved
+themselves for the conflict.
+
+The rule of the carpetbagger and scalawag and freedman was a "reign of
+terror," and thrilling as well as deplorable were the incidents of the
+struggle to throw off the yoke. The mere recital of them, without comment,
+would fill volumes. Only those regarded as culminating events in the
+several counties of the district will be related. And in the relation
+sworn testimony of the time supports the writer's statements where
+personal observation was lacking. They illustrate the sacrifices of the
+devoted men who were impelled to deeds distasteful but regarded as a
+necessary choice of evils, and who rescued that garden spot of the state
+from savage domination and again made it fit abiding place for the race
+which before had dispossessed the aborigines. These men knew that the
+negroes were misguided dupes of designing and ruthless leaders, and pitied
+them, but for the ultimate good of both races sternly resolved that they
+should be compelled to discard those leaders and submit to the legitimate
+rulers of the land.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE
+
+THE KU KLUX KLAN
+
+
+Before proceeding with the narrative, an explanation of the origin and
+purposes of the Ku Klux Klan may interest the reader. The facts mentioned
+were derived from authentic and official sources.
+
+The first den was organized in Pulaski, Giles county, Tennessee, in 1866,
+and Pulaski continued to be the centre of the order throughout its
+existence as an interstate organization. Six men organized the den for
+diversion and amusement in a community where life was dull and monotonous.
+The original name was Ku Kloi (from the Greek word Ku Klos), meaning band
+or circle. It was changed to Ku Klux and Klan was added.
+
+The constitution of Tennessee was imposed by a fraction of the people. The
+legislature passed an act restricting suffrage which disfranchised
+three-fourths of the native population of the middle and western parts of
+the state. This obsequious legislature also passed acts ratifying the
+illegal edicts of the autocratic and tyrannical Governor Brownlow ("The
+Parson"); the sedition law was revived and amplified; freedom of speech
+and press was overthrown, and a large militia force composed of negroes
+was created and made responsible to the governor alone. At an election
+enough men had been permitted to register to thwart Brownlow's plans. He
+threw out the entire vote of twenty-eight counties. Registrars were
+removed, registration set aside, the counties placed under martial law,
+and negro militia quartered therein. The legislature had become
+unanimously Republican in both branches.
+
+The people began to consider means of counteracting this high-handed
+tyranny. The Pulaski Ku Klux organization had attracted much attention and
+branches of it had been organized in many parts of the state. Leaders of
+the people quickly saw that it could be utilized for the purpose in view.
+And this was done. The order, thus perverted, soon spread from Virginia to
+Texas. The ritual was simple and easily memorized and was never printed;
+but a copy of the prescript was obtained and used in a trial in Tennessee
+and reproduced in United States government publications. At a meeting in
+Nashville of delegates from all dens this was modified. That convention
+designated the southern territory as "The Invisible Empire." It was
+subdivided into "realms" (corresponding to states); realms were divided
+into "dominions" (congressional districts); dominions into "provinces"
+(counties); provinces into "dens." Officers were designated as follows:
+Grand Wizard of Invisible Empire and his ten Genii (and the grand wizard's
+powers were almost autocratic), Grand Dragon of Realm and his Eight
+Hydras, Grand Titan of Dominion and his Six Furies, Grand Cyclops of Den
+and his Two Night Hawks, Grand Monk, Grand Scribe, Grand Exchequer, Grand
+Turk, Grand Sentinel, The Genii, Hydras, Furies, Gobbins and Night Hawks
+were staff officers. It is said that the gradation and distribution of
+authority were perfect, and that no more perfectly organized order ever
+existed in the world. The costume consisted of a mask with openings for
+the nose and eyes; a tall, pointed hat of stiff material; a gown or robe
+to cover the entire person. Each member was provided with a whistle, and
+with this, and by means of a code of signals, communicated with his
+comrades. They used a cypher to fix dates, etc., and published their
+notices in the newspapers, until repressive laws forbade this. Their
+horses were robed and their hoofs muffled.
+
+Meanwhile, other orders formed: White brotherhood, White League, Pale
+Faces, Constitutional Union Guards and Knights of White Camelia; but all
+evidence shows that they were for the most part short-lived, the very
+name of Ku Klux having caught the fancy of the members. General Forrest is
+credited with having consolidated all of them into the one grand order. An
+interview with General Forrest was published in the _Cincinnati
+Commercial_ in September, 1868, in which he was quoted as saying that in
+Tennessee the klan embraced a membership of 40,000, and in all the states
+550,000. He said to the congressional commission that the order was
+disbanded by him when it had fulfilled its purpose. No doubt he meant that
+the general organization was disbanded, for certainly detached bodies
+existed after the date fixed by him as that of the disbandment. Fleming
+says that the general was initiated by Captain John W. Morton, formerly
+his chief of artillery, and became Grand Wizard. In his testimony General
+Forrest said that the klan in Tennessee was intended as a defensive
+organization to offset the Union League; to protect ex-Confederates from
+extermination by Brownlow's militia; to prevent the burning of gins, mills
+and residences.
+
+Congress and the radical legislatures resorted to all possible means to
+break up the klans, but they existed until after white supremacy was
+restored. Even then, counterfeit bodies perverted the name until they were
+suppressed by the natural rulers of the land. Congress passed a bill which
+provided for suspension of civil government in any district in which Ku
+Klux lawlessness existed, thus depriving all the people of trial by jury
+and other rights, and placing whole communities under the ban of military
+power. The Alabama legislative enactment pronounced anyone found in
+disguise a felon and outlaw. It also provided that if a person was whipped
+or killed by men in disguise, the county could be sued for a penalty
+ranging from $1,000 to $5,000; and it made it the duty of the prosecuting
+attorney of the county to institute suit for and in behalf of the victim
+or his relatives, in any case where no indictment was found.
+
+After the Nashville convention the order courted publicity, in order to
+inspire respect for its powers, and the Ku Klux sometimes paraded in
+daylight. Their appearance in public was sudden and unheralded; and they
+disappeared as silently and mysteriously. The perfection of their
+movements in drill revealed the training which the members had received as
+cavalrymen during the war. Sometimes the parades were at night, and then
+the mystery of their sudden appearance and the weirdness of the spectacle
+were heightened. One of the night parades was in Huntsville, and the story
+of it was circulated throughout the north as evidence that another
+revolution was imminent. It was in the nature of an acceptance of
+challenge, and the circumstances connected with it were as follows:
+
+On October 30, 1868, C. C. Sheets, a Grant candidate for elector, made a
+speech in Florence. About ten o'clock that night a band of disguised men
+visited his sleeping apartment. He attempted to escape by way of a
+gallery, but was caught and taken back to his room. After a short stay the
+band retired without having in any way harmed him. Sheets said that they
+exacted from him a promise that he would desist from making inflammatory
+speeches. Later in the same month Sheets delivered a speech in Huntsville.
+It was reported that in the course of that speech he told his colored
+audience that he had been interfered with a few nights before in Florence
+by Ku Klux, and that he had promised them then that he would not make the
+abusive and inflammatory speeches that he had been making; but up there,
+where there were so many colored people, he wasn't afraid to say what he
+pleased, and that if the colored people would do what was becoming in
+them, they would carry with them weapons and shoot down those disguised
+men wherever they found them; that the reason the Ku Klux paraded the
+country was because the negroes were weak-kneed.
+
+The speech excited the negroes. They remained in town all day, and at
+night a meeting was held in the court-house and many negroes, with guns,
+attended. During the day leading negroes loudly proclaimed that Ku Klux
+would never again be permitted to enter the town; that if they attempted
+to do so, they would be shot on sight. A federal military officer had said
+it would be lawful to do this. A rumor circulated that Ku Klux were
+assembling at a point some miles distant, and about dark two large posses
+of negroes, under command of deputy sheriffs, repaired to points along
+principal roads to intercept them. While the speaking at the court-house
+was in progress, fugitive negroes from the posses, which had suddenly
+dissolved at the approach of danger, rushed to the court-house and
+announced that Ku Klux were marching on the town. The meeting broke up in
+confusion and the people hurried into the yard. All the near-by streets
+and the sidewalks surrounding the square were thronged with people, white
+and black. Suddenly the cavalcade, numbering about two hundred, fully
+uniformed in tall conical hats, long gowns, and hoods with eyeholes, some
+armed with guns and sabres, wheeled into the square, and without sound
+save the whistle signals--then almost as awe-inspiring as had been the
+"rebel yell"--rode in military order completely around the court-house,
+and then turned into one of the streets. Proceeding along this some
+distance, the column halted and formed into battle line. After maintaining
+this formation for a few minutes, the march was resumed and the band
+disappeared.
+
+There was stationed in Hunstville at that time a regiment of regular
+troops, and their commander, General Cruger, with some of his staff
+officers, from a hotel veranda viewed the spectacle of the Ku Klux parade.
+His comment was that "it was fine but absurd."
+
+There was an unfortunate episode of the event:
+
+Just as the Ku Klux withdrew there was a discharge of firearms in the
+courtyard. Some witnesses said that the first discharge, an accidental
+one, due to nervousness, caused the others. Judge Thurlow, a visitor, was
+mortally wounded, and said a short while before his death that he was shot
+accidentally by his Republican friends. A negro seated on the court-house
+steps was killed instantly. Two white men and a negro were wounded. This
+tragedy was without design, and the excitement was quickly quieted.
+
+A rumor that a few undisguised Ku Klux were posted about the square was
+supported by the fact that after the departure of the troop three men,
+having disguises in hand, were arrested by soldiers while in the act of
+mounting horses in one of the side streets. Later in the night they were
+rescued from jail by their comrades, and were never officially identified.
+But their paraphernalia was retained by the officials and often exhibited
+and photographed. Perhaps none other was ever captured directly from a
+wearer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN
+
+A MISCARRIAGE
+
+
+There were some miscarriages in the operations of the klan. A memorable
+one of this character is recalled. A cavalcade, supposed to have started
+from the western side of the Warrior river, rode through Greensboro and
+proceeded to Marion, a distance of about thirty-five miles, presumably to
+take from jail and execute a negro who had, with but slight provocation,
+killed a white man with a paling which he wrenched from a fence. The
+riders visited the jail and demanded the keys. The jailer's wife appeared
+and implored them to desist. The jailer himself, a member of a fraternal
+order, made an appeal which was recognized and respected by members of the
+party and was successful, and after much parleying, the invaders withdrew
+without molesting the custodian of the county Bastile or his charge. But
+an episode of the foray was embarrassing and dangerous. The riders had
+proceeded only a short distance when one of the horses fell and expired,
+in full mock panoply. Here was an awkward situation for the raiders. A
+comrade, far away from home, unhorsed and subjected to inevitable
+detection should he be abandoned! It is not known by what means he escaped
+and regained the realms of the "Grand Cyclops."
+
+The warning to evil-disposed persons conveyed by this raid perhaps
+obviated the necessity for another in that particular part of the county.
+
+Across the border line of Mississippi occurred a lamentable disaster, due
+to incompetent leadership and ignorance of locality.
+
+In 1870 the carpetbag government in Mississippi reached the zenith of its
+power, and its baleful influence pervaded every nook and corner of the
+state. The effects of misgovernment were deplorable. Lands which in
+ante-bellum days were appraised at twenty-five to seventy-five dollars per
+acre had so depreciated in value that at forced sales only about one
+dollar per acre could be obtained. There were few real estate transfers;
+some of the lands were depopulated; the only immigrants were carpetbaggers
+seeking offices; taxation was oppressive, especially for the support of
+schools, and almost the entire burden was laid upon the whites; the scanty
+possessions of negroes were within the limits of exemption; even the poll
+tax, devoted to school purposes, was evaded by them. In some counties
+tax-payers bore the expense of schooling three negro pupils to one white
+pupil. At length they resisted collection of the tax.
+
+Robert W. Flournoy, of Pontotoc, distinguished himself in the resultant
+controversy. When not engaged as deputy postmaster and county
+superintendent of education, he conducted a weekly newspaper, and made it
+and himself odious. In his paper he bitterly denounced the Ku Klux as
+"midnight prowlers and assassins," and responsible for the suppression of
+public schools. He insisted that in the schools there should be no
+separation of races, and engaged in a prolonged and heated controversy
+with the governor over the question of admitting negroes to the State
+University.
+
+Colonel Flournoy received from the Grand Cyclops a communication,
+intimating that at an early date he would receive a visit from the men
+whom he had denounced. About midnight, May 13, 1871, Flournoy's office
+foreman and a companion aroused him from sleep with the startling
+announcement that a band of Ku Klux had appeared in the village, and the
+leader was inquiring where the colonel's residence was located. He had
+some shotguns, and, arming himself and his callers, departed from home and
+repaired to a blacksmith shop near by. At this place a number of
+townsmen, well armed, had already assembled. The colonel subsequently
+accounted for their presence with arms with the statement that during the
+afternoon they had been hunting, and when the foreman had alarmed them
+they were engaged in a game of cards. Altogether, these men constituted a
+strong force, and proceeded to arrange an ambuscade at the shop.
+
+Meanwhile the Ku Klux, who, according to later revelations, were
+strangers, wholly unacquainted with the locality, having learned the
+situation of the Flournoy residence, were approaching it, unconscious of
+the state of affairs. Fronting the place and extending a long distance
+were deep and tortuous gulleys, and in their progress the horsemen became
+entangled and bewildered as in a maze and their formation broken.
+Extricating themselves in groups and singly, they approached the shop.
+Chancellor Pollard and Deputy Sheriff Todd were with the concealed
+villagers, and the former emerged from the rear of the shop and commanded
+the riders to surrender. Simultaneously, someone in concealment fired a
+shot, and instantly the ambushers sprang from cover and discharged a
+volley in the direction of the disordered klansmen. The surprise was
+complete and overwhelming. Horses, becoming unruly, frantically turned and
+fled. The riders in advance were thus thrown back upon those emerging
+from the gulleys. In the resultant confusion there was desultory firing
+back and forth, but the unfortunate strangers were unable to rally at any
+point, and singly and in small groups they withdrew to the main street,
+where they found themselves in little less embarrassing a situation. No
+one knew in what direction they should retreat. They had lost their
+bearings and knew not how to reach the road over which they had entered
+the village. Disbanded, they fled in different directions.
+
+Colonel Flournoy's supporters, for the most part, were ignorant of the
+character of the men whom they had assaulted and the object of the foray,
+and were easily led into the mistake of pressing the advantage they had
+gained. Consequently, led by Flournoy, they intercepted a small body of
+the raiders and fired on them.
+
+Stampeded as they were, the resolute riders halted and returned the fire.
+
+After daybreak a man, fully costumed and still in mask, badly shot, was
+found at the place where he and his comrades had been waylaid. The
+unfortunate was tenderly cared for, but expired a few hours later. Three
+others were wounded, but escaped. Sixteen horses, abandoned by their
+riders, together with the disguises of those riders, were picked up next
+day. The original party comprised thirty men.
+
+There was profound sorrow in the little town when the inhabitants learned
+what an awful mistake had been made.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN
+
+A CONVENTION SUPPLEMENTS KU KLUX
+
+
+Throughout the reconstruction period there was perhaps more turbulence in
+Choctaw than in any other county of the district, but, after all, the
+climax in the struggle for restoration of white supremacy was in an
+orderly and regularly-organized meeting of citizens, without any attempt
+at secrecy of proceedings.
+
+Judge J. Q. Smith, as substitute for Judge Luther R. Smith, as previously
+chronicled, undertook to hold the regular term of the circuit court at
+Butler. The sheriff attempted to arrest a boisterous man outside the
+court-house and met defiance and resistance; consequently, in alarm he
+resigned, and the judge, after some deliberation, concluded he could not
+proceed without a sheriff and returned to his own proper jurisdiction. The
+people in attendance and the residents of Butler held a meeting and
+adopted a resolution requesting resignations from all public officials.
+More cautious men dissuaded the leaders from promulgating the resolution,
+and a movement started to have meetings in all the precincts and
+delegates to a county meeting chosen. This project was successfully
+accomplished, and the county meeting adopted a resolution which had been
+adopted at a meeting in Sumter county. But in the interval between the
+impromptu gathering and the regularly-organized county meeting most of the
+officials had taken time by the forelock and anticipated the request that
+they vacate the offices. The resolution adopted declared devotion to law
+and order and opposition to any violation thereof, but recited the fact
+that the objectionable officials held office, not by choice of the people,
+but contrary to their will; that the officers had demonstrated their
+incapacity to enforce the laws, and, therefore, in the interest of the
+public they should resign.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN
+
+FOILED THE KU KLUX
+
+
+Throughout the reconstruction period there was less lawlessness in Hale
+than in the counties adjoining, and overthrow of the radical
+administration was effected without bloodshed.
+
+January 19, 1871, in the wee sma' hours, a cyclops and his retinue of
+seventy unceremoniously called at Judge Blackford's apartments to pay
+their respects. The call was intended as a sort of "surprise party"; but
+coming events had cast their shadows before, and those shadows were as
+premonitions of an early nocturnal visit, and the judge was "not at home."
+He was cautiously domiciled in a room adjoining his office, in another
+part of town. Here, in the embrace of Morpheus, perhaps reveling in dreams
+of a blessed land beyond the jurisdiction of the Grand Wizard, he was
+aroused with the cry of "Ku Klux!" by an alert negro, who had hastened
+from the judge's home to apprise him of the presence there of the
+unwelcome visitors. The alarm was not premature, for the horsemen were
+hotfooting in the wake of the negro and reached the office almost as soon
+as he. The judge needed no repetition of the dreadful tidings. His
+transition from Dreamland to earth was instantaneous, and his plunge in
+dishabille through an open window was a disappearing act worthy of
+reproduction on a dramatic stage. The weird sound of a whistle close at
+hand broke discordantly into the sweet concert of frogs, katydids and
+other melodists of the nights and accelerated the speed of him who sought
+asylum and ghostly solitude in the boneyard in the depths of the forest.
+
+Recounting the thrilling incidents of that awful night, and his sojourn of
+three nights in the gruesome refuge, Dr. Blackford, expressed bitter
+resentment of the rude treatment to which his glossy tile, which he
+abandoned in vanishing through the window, was subjected by the klansmen;
+they placed it on the end of a staff and bore it as a sort of mock pennant
+at the head of the cavalcade. Often trivial incidents, if ridiculous or
+amusing, eclipse those that are grave. It was so in the Eutaw riot, when a
+"plug hat" diverted dangerous men from an unlawful purpose,--but that is
+another story, and will be told in due time.
+
+For the next few days, Dr. Blackford camped at night and returned to his
+office in the morning. According to his own statement, a prominent
+Confederate general took him to his quarters in a hotel and promised him
+protection temporarily. One evening, in general conversation, the subject
+of the Ku Klux was broached, and the host imparted to his very receptive
+guest much information thereon. The klans pervaded the country, and were
+better organized than the Confederate army had ever been. There was no
+escape for a proscribed man if he should tarry when ordered to be on the
+move; when they dealt with a man, a klan from some other county or state
+did the work, and all residents could be seen pursuing their accustomed
+walks. "You are watched," he said, "day and night, and your whereabouts
+cannot long be concealed. On that night when the Ku Klux were after you,
+not more than one or two persons in the vicinity had knowledge of their
+coming."
+
+[There were at that time in Greensboro two distinguished Confederate
+generals, Forrest and Rucker, engaged in building the Selma and Memphis
+Railroad.]
+
+Judge Blackford conferred with some prominent citizens, and at his request
+they consented to purchase his property on condition that he resign and
+betake himself to other parts. After prolonged negotiations, the
+arrangement was effected. Governor Lindsay appointed as Blackford's
+successor to the probate judgeship Mr. James M. Hobson, father of
+Congressman Richmond P. Hobson. Dr. Blackford, with his grievances,
+repaired to Washington, where an emollient in the form of a special agency
+of the Postoffice Department diverted his thoughts from the enemies he had
+left behind.
+
+The details of Dr. Blackford's statement of information derived from the
+Confederate general should be taken with a grain of salt, because his
+memory was not accurate. In Washington he testified in regard to another
+occurrence in Greensboro, and General Blair's inquisitiveness exposed the
+infirmity referred to.
+
+He said the citizens regarded the soldiers "as a set of niggers and
+offscourings of creation" whom they could "buy with two dollars and a
+drink of whisky," and make them do their will. Then he related that "while
+probate judge" there was an election in Greensboro, and soldiers in charge
+at the polls got drunk and changed negroes' votes. He interfered, and one
+of them asked: "What the devil have you got to do with it?" The doctor
+replied: "I have simply this much, I am the presiding officer here of this
+county; I propose to keep the peace and enforce my rights as the presiding
+officer of the county, and I will deal with you myself if you do not
+leave." The valiant doctor then drew a pistol and said, "If you do not
+leave here now, I will shoot you." Comrades of the obstreperous soldier
+interposed and bore him away, leaving the doctor in serene enjoyment of
+his rights as "presiding officer of the county." After he had testified
+further at considerable length, Senator Blair suddenly projected himself
+into the inquiry with the question:
+
+"On what occasion was it you drew your pistol upon a United States soldier
+and told him you would shoot him if he would not desist?"
+
+"It was on the day of the election."
+
+"What election?"
+
+"For the constitution; the day we voted on the constitution, I think that
+was the day."
+
+"What office did you hold then?"
+
+"No, sir; it was not the day of the constitutional election; it was the
+day on which the election, I think, of officers took place, and I know
+that I was--or at least my impression is that I was probate judge at the
+time; that is my impression, that I was probate judge at the time."
+
+"The officers were elected on the same day the constitution was voted on.
+So you could not have been a probate judge until you were elected and
+commissioned."
+
+"No, sir; my impression is, that it was after I was probate judge that
+that occurred. I think I told him that by virtue of the office that I
+held, if he did not desist from this--I know that was my assertion to the
+soldier."
+
+"Was that a proper act for an officer, a conservator of the peace?"
+
+"I do not know that it was, but the acts of violence going on, I thought,
+demanded it, and the sheriff of the county had left,--and left these
+soldiers there to do just what they pleased, and they were drunk; and when
+I asked them several times to desist from this thing, and this fellow
+clapped his hand on his pistol,--and I had a large derringer in my pocket,
+and I told him he should do it."
+
+"You drew your pistol on him?"
+
+"Yes, sir; I drew my pistol."
+
+"Was it your duty to arrest him?"
+
+"Perhaps it might have been, sir. I did not think so; in the midst of that
+excitement, I did not think so, sir."
+
+"If a peace officer set such examples, they cannot complain that they are
+followed by others."
+
+"Yes, sir; that may be all true, but the peace officers had all forsaken
+me and I was there, either to let the election go by default or else to
+pursue that course,--and I resolved on that to get him away from there."
+
+"Would not the course have been just as effectual if you had arrested him
+in the name of the law?"
+
+"I think the parties around him would have resisted arrest."
+
+"Would not they have equally resisted your firing upon him?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN
+
+IN TUSCALOOSA
+
+
+Two young men belonging in the hills of Tuscaloosa county, were journeying
+in a wagon, bound homeward from a trading trip to Northport (across the
+river from Tuscaloosa). Passing a negro lad, they jestingly pretended that
+they would kidnap him. In alarm, the boy fled to his home and informed his
+father that he had been mistreated; and the man armed himself with a gun
+and pursued the unconscious young men. Overtaking them, he leveled his gun
+menacingly and cursed the unarmed and defenseless white men. That night
+they, with some friends, repaired to the negro's house to chastise him. He
+had assembled a number of armed friends in anticipation of an attack. He
+had loosened some of the flooring, and through the opening thus provided
+crawled to the edge of the house, and, emerging from this position, crept
+unperceived to the near-by bushes. While the whites were parleying with
+the inmates of the house, he discharged both barrels of his gun, and young
+Finley fell dead. Shots from the house succeeded. Attacked front and
+rear, the whites withdrew in disorder. News of the occurrence quickly
+spread far and wide.
+
+Next day one of the negroes implicated was caught and killed. Later,
+another, who had been captured and incarcerated in jail at Tuscaloosa, was
+taken therefrom by a band of men and executed. The ringleader escaped
+temporarily. Twice in pursuit of him steamboats were stopped and searched.
+The fugitive had been on one of them, but debarked at one of the landings.
+About twelve months after the unsuccessful chase, the fugitive was traced
+to a plantation in Hale county, where the habit of wearing a heavy
+revolver even while at field work rendered him an object of suspicion, and
+caused an investigation which revealed his identity. His dead body, weapon
+in hand, was found one day on the roadside, and his taking off was
+associated in the minds of the people with the brief visit to that
+neighborhood of two white men, who departed in the direction of Tuscaloosa
+county. Consequences of this affair were a change in the office of
+sheriff, recall of troops, and other tragedies, but the ultimate effect
+was a better understanding between the races.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
+
+A SERIES OF TRAGEDIES
+
+
+In Sumter county affairs were approaching a climax when Enoch Townsend, a
+negro, about dark one evening waylaid and repeatedly stabbed Mr. Bryant
+Richardson, a planter, and fled after Mr. Richardson, despite his wounds,
+bravely struggled to overcome his assailant. A warrant for the arrest of
+the assailant issued, and officers sought him on the plantation of Dr.
+Choutteau.
+
+Choutteau was of French descent and migrated to Sumter from Louisiana,
+where, it was rumored, he had been involved in serious trouble. He is
+described as a swaggerer. During his early residence in Sumter he
+expressed intense dislike of freedmen and lost caste with the whites by
+seriously advocating wholesale poisoning as a means of relieving the
+county of the surplus of its negro population. Later he yielded to the
+temptation of office, and identified himself with the league and gained
+odious notoriety by his radicalism. He had constantly about him at his
+plantation armed negro guards; the league met there and picketed the roads
+thereabout. At length he became intolerable.
+
+To this plantation officers with the warrant of arrest repaired and
+searched the cabins in the negro quarters. After the search was nearly
+completed, a negro scrambled from the chimney of a cabin to the roof,
+sprang thence to the ground and fled. Disobeying the summons to halt, he
+was fired upon by the posse and killed. Poor fellow! he was the wrong man,
+and no one ever learned why he acted so like a criminal. The dead man
+proved to be Yankee Ben, president of the Loyal League at Sumterville.
+(The fugitive Townsend was arrested by two law-abiding freedmen and lodged
+in jail at Livingston.)
+
+The killing of Yankee Ben excited the negroes, and a meeting was called at
+Choutteau's place for the purpose of formulating plans to avenge it. Sixty
+armed negroes assembled accordingly on Saturday, but were dispersed. On
+Monday one hundred and fifty met at Choutteau's. Simultaneously, twelve
+white men went there to hold an inquest on the remains of Yankee Ben,
+which had previously been interrupted by the proceedings narrated. On the
+latter occasion Choutteau refused to permit an inquest unless by a jury
+composed of negroes. In this his dusky adherents supported him, and were
+insulting in demeanor. One hundred whites reinforced the jury and
+scattered the negroes. Thereupon Choutteau withdrew his objection.
+Moreover, he promised that if permitted to remain on his place undisturbed
+for a few days, he would leave the neighborhood, adding that he had for
+some time contemplated the move. He was told that what he purposed to do
+was unnecessary, and that he was required only to cease his turbulent
+practices.
+
+Choutteau moved to Livingston, and shortly afterward his plantation house
+was destroyed by fire. He then posed as a victim of Ku Klux incendiarism,
+magnified his losses, memorialized the legislature for reimbursement,
+published exaggerated stories of the occurrence, and vociferously
+threatened revenge. He was regarded as a menace to the safety of the
+community in which he had taken up his residence.
+
+Shortly after midnight August 13, 1869, his house was attacked by a small
+band of men, who forced an entrance into the hall. Doors on each side gave
+entrance to sleeping quarters, and an invader broke out a panel of one of
+them, struck a match and thrust his face into the opening. A gun was fired
+from within the room and the man fell to the floor. The weapon was
+discharged by a German named Coblentz, whom Choutteau had hired as a
+guard. The intruder's head was blown to pieces, and the entire brain, with
+one hemisphere intact, together with the mask the unfortunate had worn,
+was found on the floor next morning. When the victim fell back from the
+door, a comrade sprang to the vacated place and fired several shots at
+Coblentz, inflicting wounds from which he died an hour or so later.
+Believing they had killed Choutteau, the band departed, taking the fallen
+comrade. Blood drippings marked for some miles, to the river, the trail of
+the retiring invaders. The negro ferryman testified that they ferried
+themselves over the stream.
+
+The dead man's identity was never disclosed to the public, but there was a
+rumor that he was a young doctor, and that his remains were interred by
+companions, who sent to his home his watch and other valuables which he
+had about his person, with information regarding the place of burial. In
+some unhappy home, a mother, wife or other loved ones long mourned the
+fate of him who had died so tragically. Choutteau did not tarry. He was
+given employment in Washington, and disappeared from view.
+
+The party which visited Livingston that fateful night divided and a
+detachment went to the house of George Houston, one of the negro
+legislators. When the firing began at Houston's home, someone sprang from
+a window and fled to the brush. Thinking it was Houston and that he had
+escaped, this band reunited itself with the others and all departed. It
+was Houston's son who escaped. Houston himself was wounded, but recovered,
+and left for Montgomery, returning no more. Houston was accused of having
+repeatedly uttered the threat that if the whites did not cease their
+regulating activities he would have Livingston laid in ashes.
+
+On August 8, of the same year leading citizens of Livingston received
+telegrams advising them that one hundred armed negroes, en route to
+Livingston, had stopped at Gainesville, in the same county, and purchased
+quantities of ammunition. Very soon thereafter Captain Johnson, commander
+of a steamer on the Tombigbee river, telegraphed to Livingston that in
+steaming up the stream he had seen groups of negroes on the banks,--all
+with guns,--who said they were going to Livingston to attend a nominating
+meeting, to be held next day; that they had been ordered to attend with
+arms. Another dispatch was received from Eutaw saying that Congressman
+Hays had engaged transportation next day for one hundred negroes.
+
+The white people of Livingston, on receipt of these dispatches, bestirred
+themselves and summoned reinforcements from other points.
+
+The night preceding the day set for the meeting the negroes camped outside
+of town. Next day, when they entered Livingston, they were confronted by a
+body of white men, who told them they would not be permitted to retain
+their guns while in town and must take them back to the camp. The negroes,
+after some disputation, on learning that the congressman would not be
+present, retired. Burke, the negro legislator and president of the league,
+went to the camp and harangued them. He urged them to return to town with
+their guns and resist any interference that might be offered. He wrought
+them into a state of excitement.
+
+One negro, Hayne Richardson, refused to lay down his gun, and was shot on
+the road some distance out of town. The report of the gun attracted
+attention both in town and camp, and suddenly a party of horsemen dashed
+toward the latter, firing their weapons. The sudden attack abruptly
+terminated Burke's fervid oratory and his audience fled. Some were shot.
+Richardson was badly hurt, but escaped and left the county. The following
+night twenty horsemen surrounded Burke's dwelling. He escaped from it and
+fled, under fire. Early in the morning his body was found stretched in a
+path leading to the dwelling of his former master.
+
+Price, the man of multifarious official employment, called the meeting,
+and the negroes who testified in the investigation said that his runners
+told them he directed that they attend with guns. Price took final leave
+of Sumter before the shooting commenced.
+
+Congressman Hays said he was prevented from attending by sickness of a
+member of his family. He disavowed any responsibility for the negroes
+going armed. "I only want to state this," he said, while testifying in
+Livingston, "in connection with that matter--I do not know that it is
+worth stating: that I understood from friends of mine here that there was
+a regular mob down there to assassinate me the very moment I got off the
+train. I heard that afterward,--that if I had come here, I would have been
+killed instantly. If I had been, I would have been killed innocently."
+
+Congressman Hays was unfortunate in being placed in alleged false
+situations. There was another memorable occasion when appearances were
+against him, however innocent of evil designs he may have been:
+
+There was to be a meeting at Boligee, in Greene county, and Colonel J. J.
+Jolly, of Eutaw, was invited to address the gathering. The Boligee
+Democratic Club sent a committee to Major Charles Hays with an invitation
+to discuss jointly with Colonel Jolly the issues of the campaign. The
+invitation was accepted. When Major Hays arrived there was gathered a
+party of armed negroes. According to his own statement under oath, Hays,
+in relating the incidents of the abortive meeting, said that a half-hour
+after his arrival "there came some fifteen young men riding up, with
+double-barreled guns and a few hounds following them. I saw this
+demonstration at once and I came to the conclusion that it was gotten up
+for a row." He had been present for a half-hour and was all the time aware
+that a crowd of armed negroes was gathered, but said nothing in
+remonstrance, but as soon as the party of young white men rode up he
+immediately stepped to the door of the building in which he was waiting,
+and said to the negroes: "You have come here with guns in your hands, and
+you know that I have expressly said to you that I would never speak to you
+on any occasion whatever when you brought arms to a political meeting at
+any place, and I shall decline to have anything to do with this matter in
+any way whatever." Then, turning to the white men, "I hope, gentlemen, you
+will excuse me; I'm going home."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
+
+DISAPPEARANCE OF PRICE
+
+
+Price was the most turbulent and desperate character among the radicals.
+One of his own ilk declared that Price had not brought with him even so
+much as a carpetbag, but was soon grasping everything in sight. After the
+trouble in Livingston, just described, he fled to Meridian, and continued
+there to be a disturbing element.
+
+Lauderdale county, Mississippi, of which Meridian is the capital, and
+Sumter county, Alabama, adjoin. A negro of Livingston went to Meridian to
+obtain some farm laborers. On his return he reported that he had been
+assaulted by disguised negroes, in whose leader he recognized Price. An
+officer went from Livingston to investigate, and was assaulted by Price
+and others. Price was arrested by the Meridian authorities, and when the
+trial was due a number of Alabamians were gathered in that town. The trial
+was to be before the mayor. Some of the county and city officials
+requested the mayor not to permit the trial to proceed, because if he did
+there would certainly be an outbreak. In compliance with the request, the
+trial was postponed and Price permitted to escape. He never reappeared
+and nothing is known of his subsequent career. But he entailed trouble on
+the people, and there was a bloody sequel to his arrest and release.
+Negroes held a meeting and resolved that they would repel with force any
+future "raids" by Alabamians. After the meeting adjourned an incendiary
+fire started, and leading negroes at the scene discharged revolvers
+recklessly. This caused much excitement, and some colored men were
+arrested and held under guard. Monday morning at eleven o'clock white
+citizens met and adopted a resolution asking the mayor to resign and leave
+the city. At three o'clock the trial of the negro prisoners began. Many
+Alabamians were in town, among them, according to statements, the noted
+Steve Renfroe, of Sumter, and Joe Reynolds, of Eutaw ("Captain Jenks").
+The trial or investigation was before a justice named Bramlette. A white
+witness concluded his testimony and was about to retire, when one of the
+accused negroes, Tyler, insultingly asked him to continue on the stand a
+few minutes, as he wished to impeach his testimony with that of some negro
+witnesses whom he would introduce. The witness picked up a cane which was
+lying on the table and moved toward Tyler. A pistol was fired from the
+direction of that part of the room in which Tyler and a number of others
+were grouped. Bramlette sank back in his chair, dead. Firing of pistols
+became general and there was great disorder and confusion. Clopton, one of
+the negroes under arrest and charged with incendiary utterances, was
+wounded and thrown from a window of the room, which was in the second
+story. He was taken into the sheriff's office, and in the uproar there
+killed. Tyler escaped from the building and hid in a shop some distance
+away. Pursuers found and killed him. Few doubted that he fired the shot
+which killed the justice.
+
+Excitement continued through the afternoon. Three other negro leaders were
+arrested and placed under a guard for protection. Two nights afterward
+they were taken from the guards and executed.
+
+The mayor abandoned his office and left the state. An obnoxious member of
+the legislature was sought, but fled and did not return.
+
+One of the utterances of Tyler at the negro meeting recalled a remarkable
+incident in the history of Meridian. In a drunken brawl an Indian
+belonging to the Mississippi Choctaw tribe was killed there. A band of his
+tribesmen, in a spirit of retaliation, visited Meridian and killed the
+slayer. Tyler referred to this action of the Choctaws as an example worthy
+of emulation by his people.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN
+
+RIOTS IN MARENGO
+
+
+In the campaign of 1870, a former slave owner was one of the Republican
+candidates for office in Marengo county, and made what was regarded as an
+inflammatory speech to negroes gathered at Shiloh, a hamlet, situated in a
+section of Marengo county largely populated by negroes. A few white men
+were present, and between them and the candidate an angry controversy
+arose. The immediate result was cessation of the speechmaking and
+dissolution of the meeting. The orator was escorted by white men to a
+buggy and departed in safety. He was a pugnacious man and had a record of
+at least one victim to attest his prowess in rencontre. Some days later he
+repaired to Linden, the county seat, accompanied by two negro men,
+ostentatiously bearing a United States flag. There had assembled a great
+crowd of negroes, who were, as usual, armed. With him on the platform was
+Captain C. L. Drake, the man of many offices, and above them floated Old
+Glory. An offensive reference to the disturbance at Shiloh provoked a
+quick retort from one of a small group of white men who were listening to
+the speech. The orator paused, dramatically removed from his pockets his
+watch and purse, and from its fastening a diamond pin, handed them to the
+sheriff, with the request that he convey them to the candidate's wife, in
+the event of a fatality, drew a pistol, and, remarking that he had been
+mistreated and would "fight it out," descended from the platform. Negroes
+with guns sprang into double ranks, enclosing him on two sides. The group
+of whites promptly seized and disarmed him, and meanwhile white men with
+arms were rushing to the scene from all quarters. Somewhere on the
+outskirts of the throng a pistol was fired which caused a stampede in that
+quarter. The negroes about the platform, confronted by a line of
+determined whites, yielded and retired from the scene. Drake fled to his
+office and thence to tall timber. The candidate, forsaken by his
+followers, asked for protection, and was hurried into a room of the
+court-house and locked in with two or three citizens. The angry crowd
+outside was clamorous and the beleaguered man, rejecting all suggestions
+of plans for flight, himself finally proposed as a means of quieting the
+uproar to sign a paper relinquishing his candidacy for sheriff and
+withdrawing from politics. Duplicate copies of the paper were drawn up and
+signed; he retained one of them, and the other was taken outside and read
+to the people. It produced the desired effect. The candidate was placed in
+a buggy and, accompanied by an escort, proceeded to his home. And thus
+ended "the Linden riot." But the candidate was irrepressible and speedily
+repudiated his act of self-abnegation as having been done under
+intimidation.
+
+He spoke at Belmont, a small settlement, and became involved in an affray
+with a resident. This created a general disturbance, in which the meeting
+was broken up and the negroes sullenly retired from the scene. They
+threatened to burn the place, and a white man was shot at from ambush. So
+unusually hostile and aggressive were the negroes that warrants issued for
+the arrest of certain of their leaders, among them Zeke High. There were
+posted notices of a meeting of negroes at Belmont on July 5, 1870. White
+men in considerable numbers assembled there on that date, and the meeting
+was prudently postponed. A negro was whipped that night, and next night he
+assembled at his house, in a dense swamp near the river, a number of armed
+friends. A scouting party of whites, seeking information respecting the
+purposes of the negroes, approached their stronghold in the darkness of
+night; one of them (Melton) entered the yard and was fired at. Melton
+dropped to the ground and feigned death to escape another volley. Both
+sides, thinking he was dead, ceased firing, and the whites withdrew to
+give the alarm. A warrant of arrest was placed in the hands of an officer,
+but he was unwilling to attempt to serve it at night. A young man named
+Collins, bold and fond of excitement and adventure, volunteered to serve
+the warrant and was duly commissioned. Collins, with three companions,
+approached the house, but before he had time to summon the inmates to
+capitulate, a volley was fired by the latter and Collins sank from his
+horse in death. Two of his companions were slightly injured, and the
+party, after returning the fire, retired. This occurrence created intense
+excitement and indignation. Whites gathered from the surrounding country.
+The negroes were greatly reinforced and fortified a position in an almost
+impenetrable part of the swamp. Some of the whites favored an immediate
+assault, but other counsels prevailed, and the sheriff, with a small
+posse, proceeded to the scene and demanded Collins' body. The demand was
+refused. Next day the sheriff rode into the midst of the mob and again
+demanded the body, and got it. A few hours later the white forces made a
+quick and determined forward movement to dislodge the negroes from their
+almost impregnable position, and found it abandoned,--the negroes had
+disbanded and fled in terror. This terminated "the Belmont riot"; but it
+had a sequel in the retributive death of the negro leader, Zeke High, who
+boasted that his shot killed Collins. On his own boastful confession High
+was arrested and lodged in the Sumter county jail at Livingston. September
+29 a party of mounted and disguised men from the direction of Marengo
+forced the sheriff to surrender the jail keys, entered the prison and took
+High from his cell, conveyed him a short distance away and hung and shot
+him to death. This High was a desperate and dangerous character, and even
+when seized by his executioners fought ferociously. When the leader
+entered the dark cell in which High and three other prisoners were
+incarcerated, he was assaulted and struck in the face with a heavy piece
+of furniture, the blow dislodging several front teeth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY
+
+KILLINGS AND RIOTING IN GREENE
+
+
+In 1870 Eutaw, the seat of government of the rich county of Greene,
+contained a population of 1,800 or 2,000, and prospered greatly in trade
+with farmers in the surrounding country. It was a typical Southern
+court-house town,--busy in fall and winter, almost dormant in late spring
+and summer. Its men were among the earliest to volunteer for service in
+the Confederate armies and latest to retire from that service; they were
+also amongst the earliest to organize resistance to carpetbag rule and to
+throw off the yoke.
+
+On the morning of April 1, 1870, the people of Eutaw were shocked when
+informed of a tragedy which had been enacted during the night--Alexander
+Boyd, county solicitor and register in chancery, had been shot to death by
+Ku Klux! At first most persons discredited the gruesome story as an "April
+fool" hoax, but incredulity gave place to amazement when the scene of the
+awful tragedy was visited.
+
+Of all the acts attributed to the klan, perhaps none was bolder than the
+slaying of Boyd. A bachelor, he had for a long time occupied sleeping
+quarters in a detached office building situated in a corner of the
+court-house yard; but having received a warning note, he became alarmed
+and abandoned these quarters and obtained an apartment on the second floor
+of the Cleveland Hotel only a few nights previous to his death. This hotel
+was situated on a corner diagonally opposite the court-house, and was the
+principal rendezvous of townsmen with a taste for gossip.
+
+Witnesses at the investigation into the circumstances testified that at
+half-past eleven o'clock forty or fifty horsemen, in the regulation garb
+and armed with revolvers, their horses robed and hooded, approached to
+within a short distance of the hotel, where all except the customary
+horse-holders dismounted and quickly and unhesitatingly entered the hotel
+office, posted guards at all entrances, and then commanded the clerk to
+take up a candle and show them to Mr. Boyd's apartment. Obediently the
+clerk led the way until he reached the corridor upon which opened the room
+they sought. Pausing here, in his speechlessness he indicated the door by
+pointing, and then fled the scene. Within a brief space an agonized
+scream, heard blocks away, issued from the room of the doomed man, and
+was almost instantly succeeded by a heavy volley of pistol shots. The
+panic-stricken clerk had hardly resumed his seat upon the office stool,
+with hands to ears and head bowed upon his ledger, when the dread invaders
+reappeared in the office. Signaling with whistles the recall of sentinels,
+they quietly withdrew, remounted and rode around the square, in military
+order, and then departed in the direction from which they first appeared.
+[They were traced to the Mississippi border line.]
+
+After their departure, officials and others repaired to the corridor and
+discovered the dead body, robed in night dress, perforated with many
+bullets and almost completely drained of blood. Not a shot had missed the
+mark. Inside the room a table, bearing a lighted lamp, his revolver and
+watch, stood close to the head of the bed. He had not attempted to use the
+weapon. Evidently the purpose of his slayers was to remove him from the
+building, for one of them carried a suggestive coil of rope, but his
+outcry and struggles settled his fate.
+
+Boyd was a nephew of William Miller, probate judge. Some years before the
+war he was convicted of killing a young man named Charner Brown, and
+sentenced to a term in the penitentiary. A petition in his behalf was
+presented to Governor Winston, and in response thereto the sentence was
+commuted to one year's imprisonment in the county jail. Having served the
+sentence, Boyd departed for another state. At the close of the war he
+reappeared, and, following the example of his uncle, sought office in 1868
+at the hands of the negroes, and was made county solicitor and register in
+chancery. He was not distinguished as a prosecutor, but regarded as
+indifferent.
+
+December 9, 1869, Dr. Samuel Snoddy left the village of Union, in the
+northern part of Greene county, to return to his farm. Night overtook him
+en route, and he became confused. Reaching the cabin of some negroes with
+whom he was acquainted, he engaged one of them to pilot him. Early next
+morning Dr. Snoddy's badly mutilated remains were discovered on the
+roadside. The unfortunate man had been murdered and robbed of a
+considerable sum which he had on his person. Sam Caldwell, Henry Miller
+and Sam Colvin, negroes, were arrested, accused of the crime, and lodged
+in jail at Eutaw. The scene of the murder had become notorious on account
+of being a centre of league activities and disorders, and the murder of
+Snoddy aggravated the sense of wrong under which the whites had long been
+restive; and when, a few days later, the prisoners were released, one of
+them on bond, they were seized and executed summarily. Solicitor Boyd, it
+was alleged, manifested no zeal in the investigation of the Snoddy murder,
+but became exceedingly active in the inquisition in connection with the
+subsequent and consequent affair, and exultantly declared that he had
+ascertained the names of all the men engaged in it, would send for
+soldiers to effect their arrest, and vigorously prosecute them, and if
+necessary hold the jury for six months.
+
+All of these facts were related in explanation of popular displeasure with
+Boyd, which revealed itself first in the note of warning and finally in
+the taking of his life. Mr. Boyd's tombstone in the Messopotamia cemetery,
+Eutaw, erected by Judge Miller, is inscribed: "Murdered by Ku Klux."
+
+Greene county continued in a state of disorder, which grew worse as the
+election approached.
+
+The Republican state executive committee advertised that on October 25,
+1870, Senator Warner, Congressman Hays, Governor Smith and Ex-Governor
+Parsons would deliver addresses at the court-house in Eutaw. On that day
+the party of visitors, accompanied by General Crawford, military commander
+of the department, and others, arrived in town. They were informed that
+the Democratic county committee had invited the voters to hear an address
+by the Democratic candidate for the legislature, and had chosen the same
+time and place. Thereupon the Republican leaders held a conference and
+decided to invite the Democratic committee to hold with them a joint
+meeting. Accordingly, Judge Miller, Congressman Hays and Mr. Cockrell were
+commissioned to convey to the Democratic committee the following note:
+
+"We propose to appoint a committee of two to meet a committee of two from
+your party, to arrange the terms of a discussion for the day, to meet
+immediately at the circuit clerk's office."
+
+To this note the following reply was sent:
+
+"Gentlemen,--In answer to your note of this date, we, the committee
+appointed by the president of the Democratic and Conservative Council of
+Greene county, are instructed to say, that we do not consider the
+questions in the present political canvass debatable, either as to men or
+measures; and we therefore, in behalf of the Democratic and Conservative
+party of Greene county, decline any discussion whatever.
+
+  "J. J. JOLLY,
+  "J. G. PIERCE,
+  "_Committee_."
+
+This reply was ominous. So apprehensive were the leaders that Congressman
+Hays, who was exceedingly unpopular, decided, with the concurrence of the
+others, that it would be safer if he should refrain from speaking. The
+garrison troops were quartered a half-mile away from the court-house, and
+Governor Smith requested General Crawford to have the entire body brought
+to the court-house; but after conference with the sheriff, the general
+concluded that a detachment posted two blocks distant would be a
+sufficient safeguard.
+
+Immediately after the note of reply was sent, the Democrats called their
+meeting to order on the north side of the court-house, and soon thereafter
+the Republicans assembled on the south side. The Democratic meeting lasted
+only a short time, and at its conclusion the auditors repaired to points
+where they could listen to the Republican orators.
+
+Corridors run through the court-house, crossing each other in the centre
+of the building. These spaces were thronged by white men.
+
+For the accommodation of the Republican speakers, an improvised platform,
+formed of a table, was placed against a window opening from the clerk's
+office. All of the Republican visitors and local officials occupied chairs
+in this office. By request of Senator Warner, the office door was locked
+from the inside, in order, as said, that "whatever danger there might be
+would be in front."
+
+Senator Warner spoke without unusual interference. Ex-Governor Parsons
+followed and was listened to attentively. When he retired through the
+window, the negroes called for Congressman Hays. A Democrat, Major Pierce,
+approached Governor Parsons, who was seated inside near the window, and
+advised him to restrain Hays. Parsons, in response, endeavored to attract
+the attention of Hays, who had mounted the platform with the intention, as
+he subsequently testified, not to deliver an address, but merely to
+dismiss the audience. If this was true, his purpose was misunderstood, for
+the table was suddenly tilted and Hays precipitated. As he fell a pistol
+was fired, and the ball passed through Major Pierce's clothing. Some
+witnesses testified that Hays fired it, and Parsons afterward admitted
+that Hayes was armed with a derringer; others, that the shot came from the
+direction in which the negroes were massed. However this may be, there was
+an impulsive forward rush by the negroes, and, as Warner admitted, they
+had weapons in their hands.
+
+The first shot was instantly succeeded by a volley from the corridors, and
+the onrush was halted. Suddenly, in a resonant voice, someone in a
+corridor shouted: "Go in, boys, now is your time!" Continuous firing
+followed, and the negroes fled in great disorder, leveling the stout fence
+which enclosed the yard, a few discharging pistols as they fled.
+
+Even in this grave situation there was an amusing incident. In his
+testimony before an investigating commission Senator Warner, describing
+the riot, related it accurately. Beaver hats were not worn in Eutaw at
+that period. Mr. Parsons' attire was similar to that of Quakers and
+included a light-colored beaver hat. Senator Warner's tile was
+conventional, black and glossy. "I caught up the papers in my hands," he
+said, "and walked very deliberately to the right, in order to get out of
+the way of the firing. There came from the right-hand side of the
+court-house a pretty good line of men, thirty or forty, I should think.
+They came around all together, and formed a tolerable line across from the
+corner of the court-house to the fence, and commenced firing on the
+negroes, who had broken down the court-house fence and were fleeing as
+fast as they could. These men cocked their revolvers and fired upon them
+as rapidly as they could. I looked at them for a moment, and then walked
+up to them as they were firing. I saw some colored men falling on the
+grass and then scrambling up and moving off. I walked up to these men and
+held up my hand in a deprecating manner, and said, 'For God's sake, stop
+this!' One of them who was nearest to me turned around and cast a kind of
+defiant but yet somewhat surprised look at me. One of them leveled his
+pistol upon us, Governor Parsons, Mr. Brown and myself; he was standing
+about the length of this table distant from us. He leveled his pistol at
+Governor Parsons. The governor said: 'For God's sake, don't shoot at me; I
+have done you no harm.' The crowd stopped firing and turned their
+attention to us. Just at that instant the sheriff came around with his
+arms spread out, and said: 'Stop this! stop this!' The man stopped for a
+moment and seemed to be deliberating whether he should shoot Parsons. He
+then saw Mr. Hays on my right; turning a little to one side to avoid me,
+he threw his pistol down upon Hays and Mr. Brown, who were both together,
+and tried to shoot them. They both sprang behind me; I saw them getting
+behind me and squatting on the ground to avoid his fire. By that time the
+negroes had been driven out of the court-house yard and across the street,
+where they had stopped and turned, and began to fire back. A few were
+firing back. Just at that moment I heard somebody call out, 'Boys, hold
+your fire!' The firing then ceased. I started and walked through the
+crowd, right among them. I suppose there were forty or fifty of them, all
+standing there with their revolvers in their hands, smoking, as they had
+been firing. Just as I was getting out of the crowd somebody from behind
+struck at me and knocked my hat off; I just felt the blow on my head, but
+I could not tell who it was, for when I turned around his hands were
+dropped, whoever it was. I guess it was pretty lucky I did not know, for
+the blow aroused me a great deal, and I am afraid I should have lost my
+self-possession. I turned around to pick up my hat, when another man
+kicked it; then another kicked it; and then the whole crowd, one after
+another, played football with it and kicked it across the yard. I started
+back to get it, when a man by the name of Dunlap, a Democrat, who seemed
+to be in accord with the party there, walked up to me and took me by the
+arm in a friendly sort of way, and said, 'General, you had better get away
+from here or you will get hurt!'"
+
+The senator's hat furnished diversion at a critical moment, and in all
+probability was the means of saving his life and the lives of his friends.
+There had been firing from the clerk's office, and Mr. Cowan (one of the
+actors in the Greensboro tragedy mentioned in an earlier chapter), was
+slightly grazed on the left thigh. He was brandishing a pistol and calling
+to the white men to rally about him, and standing near a window of the
+clerk's office. He believed that he was made a target by a prominent
+Republican who was in the office. Two other white men, near Mr. Cowan,
+were struck by missiles from the negro ranks just before they fled from
+the yard. Some of the party with or about Senator Warner had, a moment
+before the scene described by him, emerged from the office and were
+retreating to the Cleveland hotel, and a determined group of men,
+including Reynolds, with a shotgun, were pursuing them when the fun with
+the hat commenced. While it was yet in progress, the soldiers wheeled
+around the nearest corner and rescued the imperilled Republican leaders.
+
+Meanwhile the negroes, having fled in two directions to points where they
+had guns concealed in wagons, secured these arms and resolutely moved back
+toward the scene of their rout. They were aware of their preponderating
+numbers, and counted on the sympathy of the soldiers. Those on Prairie
+street had not proceeded far when they encountered a squad of mounted men
+commanded by the marshal and a few sharpshooters posted behind trees in
+private yards, who speedily checked their advance. At the intersection of
+the two streets which were scenes of reviving combat a line of white men,
+armed with guns, all men of tested courage, was formed to prevent a
+junction of the two bodies of negroes. Just then the soldiers, at
+double-quick, made their appearance and were halted opposite the line of
+armed citizens. After a brief hesitation, the officer gave the command to
+move and the soldiers proceeded down Prairie street. The negroes quickly
+lost courage and retreated, and before long none could be seen within
+miles of the town. And so ended the Eutaw riot, in which, according to the
+local newspaper, the _Whig and Observer_, and the testimony of witnesses,
+54 men were shot, and from 250 to 300 white men and from 1,800 to 2,000
+negroes were engaged. The number of wounded was probably exaggerated.
+
+The pistol shot which followed so quickly the rude interruption of Hays'
+remarks was not the real cause of the riot; it was but the signal for the
+opening of a conflict which had been impending for some time, and it gave
+vent to indignation which had been suppressed with difficulty. The
+explanation is found in earlier occurrences.
+
+In October the white people of Greene county were much disturbed by rumors
+that a number of bands of negroes had been drilling with arms in parts of
+the county where plantations were largest and the negro population
+densest. A country store was burned by incendiaries, and threats were
+made that the several bands would be consolidated and Eutaw attacked by
+the combined force.
+
+Lieutenant Charles Harkins, commanding the detachment of troops
+garrisoning the town, reported to his superior officer at Huntsville as
+follows:
+
+"I have the honor to report that on the evening of the 19th instant,
+reports were brought to this town, by both colored and white men, to the
+effect that a band of armed colored men intended burning the town that
+night. The rumor seemed to be generally credited by the citizens, which
+caused great alarm and excitement. Armed parties of citizens were
+immediately formed, under the direction of the sheriff, and patrols and
+pickets sent to the suburbs of the town, where they remained all night. No
+demonstration was made by the colored men, if they had any such intention,
+which I am inclined to doubt. The excitement has abated, but there is
+still a feeling of distrust and anxiety among all classes.
+
+"The real facts of the case, and cause of the present alarm, I believe to
+be as follows: The colored men and Republicans generally of this county,
+feeling aggrieved at the many murders and outrages perpetrated on men of
+their party by the Ku Klux organization, have determined to protect
+themselves in future and have banded together for that purpose only, not
+to assume the offensive, or interfere with the peaceful, law-abiding
+portion of the community."
+
+The relation of cause and effect in this thwarted conspiracy to destroy
+Eutaw and the riot which followed so soon is indisputable. The trend of
+Lieutenant Harkins' sympathies is equally plain. He was inclined to doubt
+that the banded negroes intended to burn the town, but readily intimated
+that they had provocation in "the many murders and outrages perpetrated on
+men of their party by the Ku Klux organization." Not a word is there in
+the report concerning the burning of the store, nor of the fact that
+refugee white families from the widely-separated plantations were moving
+into Eutaw for protection against the menacing bands of negroes, nor that
+the "patrols and pickets" were necessary precautions not of one night
+only, but of three nights, and served to deter the negroes from
+prosecuting their design.
+
+The prompt action of the whites in driving the negroes out of town on
+October 25 would seem precipitate and unjustifiable if not considered in
+connection with the facts just recited. Nearly two thousand negroes
+attended that meeting, and they took with them guns, which were secreted
+in wagons at the foot of Prairie street. They were aware that the
+commanding officer of the garrison was in sympathy with them, and that
+they would encounter only a small body of white men should there be a
+collision. No doubt they counted much on the presence of the radical
+governor of the state, the military commander of the department, a senator
+and a congressional representative, all in sympathy with them, and all
+smarting under indignities received only a few days before at a meeting in
+an adjoining county.
+
+The white men remembered the nights of anxiety for the safety of the women
+and children and property of the town, and realized the danger of the
+situation in which they were placed by the group of official Republicans
+who heedlessly and recklessly assembled thousands of negroes who had so
+recently been frustrated in a design to obtain revenge for punishment
+administered to evildoers of their race. Those white men had courage and
+resolution to meet the emergency, and they met it promptly and terribly.
+And they taught a lesson for which there has never since been occasion for
+repetition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
+
+RESTORATION OF WHITE SUPREMACY
+
+
+The state election in 1870 resulted in a victory for the Democratic and
+Conservative party, but there was a persistent effort to deprive that
+party of the fruits of victory. There was instituted on behalf of the
+incumbent governor and treasurer a proceeding in the chancery court to
+enjoin the presiding officer of the senate from counting the votes for
+candidates for those two offices. The legislature met November 20, and the
+law required that the vote be counted, with the two houses assembled
+jointly, within the first week. In the proceedings instituted, Governor
+Smith alleged irregularity in the election. The judge of the circuit court
+refused to grant an injunction, on the ground that the legislature could
+not be enjoined by a court. It was then filed with a supreme court judge.
+It prayed that the presiding officer of the senate be restrained from
+counting the vote until the legislature could provide rules by which the
+proposed contest should be tried. Judge Saffold, as chancellor, granted
+the injunction. Lieutenant-Governor Applegate was dead, and Barr, an Ohio
+man, was presiding. The injunction was served on Barr, and he very
+cheerfully obeyed it.
+
+There are some interesting facts in relation to this senate. The radical
+constitution gerrymandered the senatorial districts, in some instances
+apportioning a senator to a single county; in others, a senator to a group
+of three or four counties, with nearly threefold greater population.
+
+The constitution provided that representatives in the legislature should
+be elected for two years, and senators for four years; that one-half of
+the seats of senators first elected (in 1868) should be declared vacant at
+the end of two years, thus providing for continuation of a certain number.
+In accordance with this provision, at the session in November the question
+whether the senators should draw for the long and short terms was
+discussed; nobody wished to vacate his seat, and by hocus-pocus they
+reached the conclusion that all should hold over. Consequently, one-half
+of them sat four years and the others for six. This procedure contributed
+much to the complication of affairs. This senate connived at the attempt
+to prevent the count of returns.
+
+At noon on the last day of the week the two houses assembled and Barr
+proceeded to count the returns for other officers, declaring that for
+Lieutenant-governor E. H. Moren had received a majority of the votes cast
+at the election; that for secretary of state J. J. Parker had defeated J.
+T. Rapier; that W. A. Sanford had defeated Joshua Morse in the race for
+attorney-general; that Joseph Hodgson succeeded N. B. Cloud as
+superintendent of public instruction. These winners were all Democrats. As
+soon as he had declared these results. Barr and the radical senators
+withdrew. Lieutenant-Governor Moren then appeared, took the oath of
+office, assumed the chair of the presiding officer, and directed that the
+returns for governor and treasurer be brought in. This being done, he
+proceeded forthwith to count them and declared that Robert B. Lindsay, for
+governor, and James F. Grant, for treasurer, had received majorities, and
+to proclaim them duly elected. These officers were sent for and sworn in.
+Consternation seized the Republican leaders. They were caught in their own
+trap, for the injunction had been served on Barr and he had qualified his
+own successor in the person of Dr. Moren, who as lieutenant-governor was
+unaffected by the injunction. Lindsay lost no time in demanding possession
+of the office, but Smith refused to yield and had federal soldiers
+guarding all entrances to the offices of governor and treasurer.
+
+Judge J. Q. Smith went from Selma to Montgomery, and before him Lindsay
+and Grant instituted proceedings, demanding that the seal and all books
+and papers and other property pertaining to the offices of governor and
+treasurer be delivered to them, respectively. The proceedings lasted
+several days. Meanwhile, Montgomery was fast filling up with young men,
+strangers in the community, and there were rumors that bodies of men in
+near-by towns were awaiting summons to the capital, and that locomotives
+with steam up and cars attached, ready for service, were side-tracked at a
+number of stations. Judge Smith's court-room was daily crowded with
+strange men. Excitement was intense.
+
+Lindsay in his complaint alleged that he was the qualified successor of
+Governor Smith; that he had made a demand upon him for the books, papers
+and paraphernalia of the office of governor, and that Smith refused to
+deliver them. The trial was set for three o'clock in the afternoon, and
+Governor Smith was ordered to appear in person in court and show cause why
+he should not be compelled to deliver the property demanded. Governor
+Smith did not like the appearance which Montgomery had assumed, nor did he
+relish the necessity of appearing in that court-room and before that
+audience contesting the right of the people's representatives to assume
+the offices to which they had elected them, nor the certainty that as soon
+as judgment should be given against him an order for commitment to custody
+would issue. Accordingly, he had a conference with General Pettus, and
+soon thereafter announced that he "would yield, upon the ground that,
+although he was satisfied he was fairly and lawfully re-elected, his
+continuance of the litigation and the contest in the palpable excitement
+that surrounded the whole matter would tend to disturb the public peace;
+and the detriment to the material interests of the people of the state
+would be infinitely greater than the possession of the office itself by
+any particular man could possibly compensate."
+
+Thus negro domination in Alabama was overcome.
+
+And the Ku Klux rode no more.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of When the Ku Klux Rode, by Eyre Damer
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of When the Ku Klux Rode, by Eyre Damer
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+Title: When the Ku Klux Rode
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+Author: Eyre Damer
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+Release Date: April 5, 2011 [EBook #35771]
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+
+<h1>WHEN THE KU KLUX RODE</h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img01.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><span class="huge">WHEN THE<br />KU KLUX RODE</span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">BY<br />
+<span class="big">EYRE DAMER</span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img02.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">NEW YORK<br />THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY<br />1912</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">Copyright, 1912, by<br />The Neale Publishing Company</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p>
+<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2>
+
+<p>This work is undertaken with the wish to gratify a popular desire for
+addition to the scant literature relating to the Reconstruction Era and
+that most remarkable organization of modern times&mdash;begotten of conditions
+unparalleled in history, conditions which can never recur, and vanishing
+with the emergency which created it&mdash;the militant Ku Klux Klan. Only one
+writer has ventured far into this field of research, which until then
+seemed forbidden, and in his contribution to history, fact and fiction are
+so interwoven as to be almost indistinguishable. But the widespread and
+intense interest manifested in his revelations of the origin and purposes
+of the Klan indicates that the present generation eagerly imbibes
+knowledge of the sacrifices and achievements of the men who in the awful
+crisis of reconstruction, and against almost insuperable obstacles,
+rescued the commonwealth from the control of corrupt adventurers and
+ignorant freedmen, and established orderly government, without which the
+subsequent marvelous development of natural resources<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> and advancement in
+education which have placed the state in the forefront of progress would
+have been impossible. This evident interest encourages the hope that a
+simple narrative of facts connected with the struggle in that part of the
+Black Belt of Alabama which formed the Fourth Congressional District, by
+one who was in the midst of it and a close observer, will receive a
+welcome.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter One&mdash;Provisional Government</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter Two&mdash;Native Government</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_14">14</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter Three&mdash;Military Government</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter Four&mdash;A Grave Problem</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter Five&mdash;The Freedmen&#8217;s Bureau</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter Six&mdash;Military Regulations</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter Seven&mdash;The Union League</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter Eight&mdash;A Republican Blunder</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter Nine&mdash;Carpetbag Government</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter Ten&mdash;Ruinous Misgovernment</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter Eleven&mdash;The Whites Aroused</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter Twelve&mdash;The Ku Klux Klan</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_90">90</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter Thirteen&mdash;A Miscarriage</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter Fourteen&mdash;A Convention Supplements Ku Klux</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_105"><ins class="correction" title="original: 104">105</ins></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter Fifteen&mdash;Foiled the Ku Klux</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter Sixteen&mdash;In Tuscaloosa</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_114">114</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter Seventeen&mdash;A Series of Tragedies</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter Eighteen&mdash;Disappearance of Price</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_124">124</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter Nineteen&mdash;Riots in Marengo</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter Twenty&mdash;Killings and Rioting in Greene</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_132">132</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chapter Twenty-One&mdash;Restoration of White Supremacy</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_148">148</a></td></tr></table>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+<h2>WHEN THE KU KLUX RODE</h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2>CHAPTER ONE</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">Provisional Government</span></span></p>
+
+<p>In a proclamation which issued on May 10, 1865, the president of the
+United States declared the Civil War at an end. April 9, the date of
+General Lee&#8217;s surrender, was recognized as the date of the actual
+termination of the war. On May 29, 1865, the president, by proclamation,
+directed the restoration of seized private property, except &#8220;as to
+slaves&#8221;; and on June 24, 1865, restored commercial intercourse between all
+the states.</p>
+
+<p>Relying on the promises made by federal generals while Southern armies
+were in the field; on the terms arranged between Generals Grant and Lee
+and Sherman and Johnston when the Southern armies capitulated, and on the
+proclamation of the president,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> the people of Alabama believed that as
+soon as they could in the proper way repeal the ordinance of secession and
+comply with other immediate requirements, Alabama and the people thereof
+would be restored to their former coequal condition in the Union.</p>
+
+<p>The real issue of the war had been the right of the southern people to
+renounce allegiance to and citizenship in the Union; in its triumph at
+arms the United States sustained its contention that there could be no
+such renunciation; and consequently the southern people laid down their
+arms as citizens of the United States defeated in the attempt at
+renunciation. The authorities at Washington could not fairly avoid this
+conclusion, and certainly President Johnson reached it instantly.</p>
+
+<p>That there would be permitted prompt resumption of equal rights, except in
+a few cases, was more than hoped for,&mdash;it was confidently expected; and
+for some time there was no indication that there would be disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>President Johnson&#8217;s attitude toward the southern states encouraged the
+hope of speedy restoration of order and a large measure of prosperity. The
+president was as generous as Lincoln would have been, had he survived the
+conflict. In order that readers may clearly understand the situation as it
+then <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>existed, a brief explanation of President Johnson&#8217;s attitude is
+necessary here:</p>
+
+<p>Immediately following the surrender of the Confederate armies and the
+declaration of peace, President Johnson formally stated his view of the
+situation to be that the war had neither destroyed nor impaired the Union;
+that the southern states had no right to withdraw from the compact, and
+having failed by resort to arms to accomplish separation, they emerged
+from the strife as they entered it, states and members of the Union, still
+possessing their constitutions, laws and territorial boundaries as they
+had been prior to the adoption of the ordinance of secession; that the
+constitutions and laws of those states, however, must be suspended pending
+unavoidable acceptance by the people of the fact that slavery having been
+a stake in the struggle, the accomplished abolition of that institution
+was irreversible; also, that debts contracted by the states during the war
+should be repudiated; that with acquiescence in these requirements the
+states should be restored to their former relations with the Union. He
+therefore announced as his policy that while the southern states were
+adjusting themselves to the change, provisional state governments should
+be established as necessary and constitutional agencies; that the citizens
+who were included in the proclamation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> of amnesty, together with those
+who, having been leaders in the secession movement, were pardoned, should
+participate in the work of restoration; that citizens of the states were
+best entitled to fill the public offices, and should be appointed to them;
+that the emancipated slaves were not qualified to take part in such work,
+nor had the president of the United States power to confer upon them the
+right of suffrage, because the determination of their political status was
+a function of the states.</p>
+
+<p>In the light of subsequent events, there can be no doubt that President
+Johnson&#8217;s views and purposes were wise and statesmanlike, and had they
+prevailed, the horrors caused by congressional enactments would not have
+afflicted the people, nor would the relations between the races have
+become unfriendly, as they did, and continue to be. But, unfortunately,
+the embittered and aspiring leaders in Congress were planning at
+cross-purposes with the president. His moderate and conservative course,
+and scrupulous respect for his oath to support the Constitution, seemed
+along in 1866 to have won popular favor; but his indiscreet expressions in
+public addresses in western cities created hostility so strong that in the
+congressional elections his enemies triumphed over him. By two-thirds
+votes in Congress they nullified his vetoes of oppressive legislation; and
+in 1868<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> the Senate reinstated Secretary of War Stanton, whom he had
+during the previous year suspended from office. Out of this transaction
+grew the unsuccessful attempt to impeach him. While this attempt failed,
+the president&#8217;s influence with his party was destroyed and he was
+powerless to enforce his beneficent policies.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER TWO</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">Native Government</span></span></p>
+
+<p>But meanwhile, having announced his policy in reorganizing the southern
+states, President Johnson in the summer of 1865 appointed Lewis E.
+Parsons, of Talladega, provisional governor of the state of Alabama, and
+that gentleman entered upon the discharge of his duties. There was popular
+approval of the appointment. Parsons was a native of New York, but long a
+resident and practicing lawyer in Talladega, an uncompromising Whig and
+Union man, possessing fine abilities and much dignity.</p>
+
+<p>On July 20 Governor Parsons published a proclamation directing that an
+election be held in each county on August 3 for delegates to a state
+convention to assemble on September 12, 1865. Accordingly, intelligent and
+patriotic delegates were chosen in all the counties, and the convention
+met at the capitol in Montgomery, with Benjamin Fitzpatrick presiding.
+That convention, dealing with the constitution, abolished the ordinance in
+relation to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> institution of slavery, declared null and void the
+ordinance of secession and other ordinances and proceedings of the
+convention of 1861; adopted ordinances repudiating the war debt, and
+provided for an election for state, county and municipal officers and
+members of Congress, and assembling of the legislature on the third Monday
+in November, 1865. The convention then adjourned, subject to call of the
+presiding officer.</p>
+
+<p>Worthy of note here is the fact that Alabama, in its sovereignty, and
+represented by some of its best citizens, abolished slavery within its
+borders. Alexander White, who subsequently was among the first to adopt
+&#8220;the new departure&#8221; (acquiescence in all the measures of reconstruction),
+was the only delegate in the convention who voted against the proposition
+to make abolition of slavery constitutional; but outside the convention,
+Governor Parsons and Samuel Rice, also to become &#8220;new departurists,&#8221;
+concurred with him; while General Clanton, who was the wise and fearless
+leader of the Democratic party from its reorganization until the day of
+his tragic death, advocated both that measure and the extension of civil
+rights to the negroes.</p>
+
+<p>And also worthy of note is the fact that Judge Brooks, of Selma, judge
+Goldthwaite, of Montgomery, and others of unquestioned loyalty to their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>
+people, shortly after in the legislature advocated qualified suffrage for
+negroes. This was prior to the advent of carpetbaggers and organization in
+Alabama of the Republican party.</p>
+
+<p>Under this authority, an election was held, and the legislature then
+elected assembled on November 20, 1865, and ratified the amendments to the
+federal Constitution, excepting the fourteenth. That was regarded as
+equivalent to a bill of attainder, depriving vast numbers of the rights of
+citizenship without trial. The legislature comprised a majority of men who
+had been anti-secessionists&mdash;the senate at least two-thirds; but they had
+held offices before the war and served the Confederate government. The
+legislature rejected the fourteenth amendment; its adoption would have
+been political suicide for the members. It enacted a law to protect
+freedmen in Alabama in their rights of person and property. The federal
+authorities were duly notified of the proceedings, and on December 18,
+1865, Governor Parsons received from Secretary of State Seward a telegram
+saying that &#8220;in the judgment of the president the time had arrived when
+the care and conduct of the affairs of Alabama could be remitted to the
+constitutional authorities chosen by the people thereof without danger to
+the peace and safety of the United States&#8221;, and directing him to transfer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>
+to his excellency the governor of Alabama, the papers and property in his
+hands. Accordingly, on December 10, 1865, Robert M. Patton, of Lauderdale,
+was inaugurated governor, and Parsons retired.</p>
+
+<p>(Patton was a Virginian, long settled as a merchant in northern Alabama.
+As a Whig, he had served in both houses of the legislature and become
+president of the senate. In the election of 1865, he defeated Colonel M.
+J. Bulger. He was intelligent and painstaking in the discharge of duties.
+Patton continued in the office of governor until 1868, several months
+beyond the full term, pending action by Congress respecting the results of
+the election of that year, when he was displaced by operation of the
+reconstruction acts. During his incumbency a federal military commander,
+supported by soldiers stationed in the capitol, supervised all of his
+appointments and official acts.)</p>
+
+<p>As evidence of confidence, the legislature elected former Governor Parsons
+United States senator for the term ending March 3, 1871. At the same time,
+it chose George S. Houstan for the term ending March 3, 1867, and John
+Anthony Winston for the term of six years, commencing March 4, 1867.</p>
+
+<p>At the election in November, 1865, C. C. Langdon was elected to Congress
+from the first district: George C. Freemen, from the second; Cullen A.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>
+Battle, from the third; Joseph W. Taylor, from the fourth; Burwell T.
+Pope, from the fifth, and Thomas J. Foster, from the sixth.</p>
+
+<p>Then came early rumblings of the storm that was soon to break. These
+chosen men were not permitted to take their seats as representatives, and
+the state was not represented in Congress until 1868.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER THREE</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">Military Government</span></span></p>
+
+<p>March 2, 1867, after two years of peace, Congress passed over President
+Johnson&#8217;s veto a bill relegating the southern states to the condition of
+conquered provinces. A military commander was appointed and authorized to
+supersede civil and judicial tribunals by military courts of his own
+creation, with power to inflict usual punishments, excepting only death.</p>
+
+<p>This act was supplemented with another, of July 13, forbidding state
+authorities to interfere with the military commander, who was given the
+additional power to displace any official and appoint his successor. This
+act provided that military rule should cease within a state when a
+convention of the people thereof should frame, and the voters adopt, a
+constitution ratifying the amendment to the federal Constitution which
+conferred the suffrage on negroes, and being otherwise acceptable to
+Congress, and when the legislature also should ratify that amendment.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>The new constitution was to be framed by delegates to be chosen by votes
+of all male citizens of legal age, excepting those disfranchised by the
+fourteenth amendment; and it was to be ratified by an affirmative vote of
+a majority of voters registered under the supervision of the military
+commander and his subalterns.</p>
+
+<p>Under the reconstruction acts of 1867, in April of that year, Alabama
+became a part of the department comprising, with itself, the states of
+Georgia and Florida. The military commander called a convention to frame a
+constitution. At the election for delegates the polls were kept open for
+five days. The whites held aloof from it. The gathering of delegates thus
+elected was stigmatized as &#8220;the carpetbaggers&#8217; convention.&#8221; The men who
+composed it and framed the constitution were in many cases grossly corrupt
+and ignorant.</p>
+
+<p>As an illustration of the character of the men sent to the convention,
+Samuel Hale, a brother of United States Senator Hale, one of the few Union
+men and later Republicans resident in Sumter county, wrote Senator Wilson
+in January, 1868, a letter protesting against recognition by Congress of
+radicals in the south, in which he said that the men who sat in the
+convention and framed the constitution were, &#8220;so far as I am acquainted
+with them,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> worthless vagabonds, homeless, houseless, drunken knaves&#8221;;
+that the Sumter delegates were a negro and two whites&mdash;Yordy and Rolfe.
+Rolfe, he said, left his family in New York and had not seen them for four
+years, during which period he had led an immoral life with negroes; that
+he was known as the &#8220;Hero of Two Shirts,&#8221; having left at a hotel in Selma,
+as security for an unpaid hotel bill, his carpetbag containing only two
+shirts: that his name was not signed to the constitution which he helped
+to frame because he was too drunk to write it. These men and Hays and
+Price, all strangers, were the only white men in Sumter county who took
+part in the election for delegates. As an early indication of future
+leadership, at that election Price ordered the negroes to secure their
+arms and prevent expulsion from the booth of one of their members who was
+vauntingly flourishing a gun. Only intervention by cool-headed whites
+prevented trouble. Mr. Hale, in the letter quoted from, stigmatized the
+election thus: &#8220;As shameless a fraud as was ever perpetrated upon the face
+of the earth.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Rolfe and Hays were wheelwrights, but their talents found employment in
+more lucrative occupations. Rolfe&#8217;s first &#8220;get-rich-quick&#8221; scheme was the
+selling to negroes of badges, which he said he was engaged in by order of
+General Grant.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>While agent of the Freedmen&#8217;s Bureau Hays defrauded negroes of a thousand
+dollars derived from sales of cotton with which they had entrusted him.
+That was his disappearing act.</p>
+
+<p>That convention deprived of the right to vote all men who were proscribed
+by the fourteenth amendment from holding office.</p>
+
+<p>The constitution framed called for an election in February, 1868, to which
+it was to be submitted for ratification, and at which time officers were
+to be elected. It was submitted under a solemn congressional provision
+that if it should not receive in its favor the ballots of a majority of
+the registered voters, it was to be considered as rejected.</p>
+
+<p>The Democratic convention of 1865 entrusted to the party&#8217;s state executive
+committee, of which General James H. Clanton was chairman, all matters of
+policy. When the military order for the convention issued, General Clanton
+called into council with the executive committee one hundred of the
+leading men of the state. After deliberation, they concluded that the
+wisest course for the party to pursue would be to go to the polls and
+endeavor to defeat the constitution, but, in view of the possibility of
+failure in this, to place candidates in the field, to be voted for under
+it. Having agreed on this policy, the council was about to adjourn, when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>
+the chairman received from ex-Governor Parsons, who was the accredited
+agent in Washington of the Democratic party, a dispatch, saying:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I am on my way to Montgomery; will be there to-night. Don&#8217;t adjourn your
+convention; don&#8217;t act till I get there.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The council waited, and the former governor arrived and delivered a
+speech, in which he uttered the memorable sentence:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So far as the reconstruction measures are concerned, and this
+constitution, touch not, taste not, handle not the unclean thing.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He said that this was in accordance with the advice of President Johnson.
+Messrs. Samuel Rice and Alexander White supported the ex-governor, and the
+council was persuaded to reverse its decision and advise the voters to
+refrain from taking any part in the election. Mr. White prepared the
+address to the voters.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, the Democratic voters abstained from voting, and only one
+Democratic state senator was elected, and he was not endorsed. Negroes in
+battalions, armed with muskets and stepping to the beat of drums, marched
+to the polls, stacked arms, placed guards about them, and cast their
+ballots for the constitution and their candidates.</p>
+
+<p>The registration of voters for the election of 1868<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> was under military
+supervision and regulation. Registration was kept open at polling places
+up to and including time of election. The registers of voters and election
+officers were appointed by military officers, and nearly every register
+was a candidate for office. He was given power to reject any applicant for
+registration. Soldiers were present at all polling places to enforce the
+regulations, which forbade the challenging of illegal voters: citizens
+were forbidden under severe penalties to warn election judges or expose
+the fact even if they should see a non-resident or minor or repeater offer
+to deposit a ballot. Voters were permitted to cast their ballots at any
+precinct in the county. Negroes were eligible to all offices.</p>
+
+<p>The returns of the election disclosed the fact that the majority of the
+registered voters had abstained from participation in the election, and
+hence the constitution was not adopted by the people&mdash;according to the
+declaration of the military authorities, lacking 8,000 of the requisite
+number of votes. In view of this authoritative declaration, the radical
+candidates did not claim the offices to which they had aspired, and the
+incumbents for the time being were not disturbed. But, to the amazement of
+the people and its own dishonor, Congress in June, 1868, accepted the
+constitution as ratified by the people, and recognized<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> the candidates as
+elected officers, and in July they were installed by military power, the
+former officers retiring under protest.</p>
+
+<p>In order that the reader may understand the situation and how poorly
+prepared were the people for such a reign, we must go back to the
+beginning and note other occurrences which had a direct bearing on that
+situation.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER FOUR</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">A Grave Problem</span></span></p>
+
+<p>At the termination of the war between the sections, the southern people
+had thrust upon them for solution the gravest and most difficult problem
+with which the white race on this continent was ever perplexed,&mdash;how to
+preserve their civilization with the government operating in opposition to
+their efforts.</p>
+
+<p>After four years of warfare, the south was prostrate before the victorious
+people of the north, whose armies were quartered in garrisons everywhere
+in the surrendered territory, to enforce with arms, if necessary, whatever
+oppressive and humiliating measures might be conceived in hatred and
+vengeance by fanatics whose intolerance had made the bloody conflict
+irrepressible, and who were determined to extend and perpetuate the
+political power gained by conquest. The means adopted were enfranchisement
+of the emancipated slaves and disfranchisement of all white men who had at
+all distinguished themselves as leaders, while extending<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> favors to those
+who would ally themselves with the oppressors and betray their countrymen.</p>
+
+<p>The difficulties of the situation in which the defeated southerners were
+placed were appalling. Naught of the former wealth of the country was left
+save the land&mdash;which in the disorganized state of labor was almost a
+burden to the possessors&mdash;and some cotton which had accumulated because
+exportation was prevented by the blockade of the ports; and upon this the
+federal government imposed an unconstitutional tax of three cents a pound.
+Farm implements were crude and scarce; the necessities of the Confederate
+government in its expiring struggles had stripped the country of the best
+of the draft and food animals; in the Black Belt there were no factories;
+development of transportation had been checked in its incipiency;
+education was almost abandoned, and the civil laws suspended. Everything
+had to be organized or reorganized.</p>
+
+<p>Cotton was one of the principal resources left to the people at the close
+of the war. In great demand and readily convertible into money at prices
+ranging from fifty cents a pound upward, and in considerable quantities,
+it would have furnished means for a &#8220;fresh start&#8221; had the people been
+permitted to hold it in undisputed possession; but the government
+begrudged even this remnant of lost fortunes. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>Unfortunately, during the
+war agents of the Confederacy from time to time contracted for quantities
+of cotton, to be paid for in bonds, but in most cases there had been no
+actual transfer of either bonds or cotton, and the latter remained on the
+plantations. After the surrender of General Taylor to General Canby, the
+federal commander promulgated an order requiring all persons who held such
+cotton to surrender it to the United States agents, under penalty of
+confiscation of their property. The military authorities claimed this
+cotton as a prize of war, and treasury agents&mdash;some of them fictitious, as
+afterward proven&mdash;were soon ranging the country in search for it. The
+holders believed that the question of ownership was at least debatable.
+Prior to the surrender, the Confederate government, fearing that federal
+raiders would seize the cotton, ordered that it be destroyed by the
+holders; but the authority of that government was not then potent, and the
+planters, instead of obeying the order, conveyed the bales to places of
+concealment in swamps and elsewhere, and believed that this act confirmed
+their claim to ownership. Some of the cotton was thus concealed when the
+agents began their search. The order of seizure was subsequently so
+modified as to permit the original holders to claim one-fourth of the
+cotton as compensation for caretaking. Very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> few took advantage of this
+concession; and, indeed, the greedy agents actually suppressed the order
+for months while the seizures were in progress. Attorneys who contested
+before military tribunals the right of seizure argued that, by reason of
+non-delivery, sales to the Confederate government had not been completed,
+and that the federal government had no right to capture the cotton after
+final surrender of the Confederate armies; but in some instances these
+attorneys were arrested and threatened with imprisonment unless they
+abated their zeal in behalf of clients.</p>
+
+<p>There was in resulting evil practices a touch of picturesqueness. The
+unconquered and unconquerable veterans of the vanquished southern armies,
+in many instances impoverished, were ripe for any enterprise which
+promised congenial adventure and spoils which they regarded as legitimate.
+The agents went about supported by federal troops, and many were the
+clashes between the latter and so-called guerrilla bands composed of their
+late antagonists on other and more glorious fields. These bands were
+actuated by the conviction that the Confederate government having had no
+clear title to ownership of the cotton, the conquerors succeeded to none;
+and so they took up the contest where the intimidated attorneys dropped
+it, and contested with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> agents and their armed supporters. These
+agents were well supplied with army teams and wagons, and often these,
+falling into the hands of the &#8220;guerrillas,&#8221; served the captors as a
+convenient means of transportation of booty. Yet, it sometimes happened
+that the guerrillas were the captives, and when in the toils were in sore
+straits to raise the ransom which was exacted in lieu of arrest and
+arraignment for trial. Even steamboats were hauled to and relieved of
+cargoes. That was the golden era for steamboatmen, when freight charges
+and salaries, especially of pilots, were phenomenal.</p>
+
+<p>These transactions soon degenerated into plunder pure and simple,
+involving private cotton to which the government could lay no sort of
+claim.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps there had been collusion between holders of &#8220;Confederate&#8221; cotton
+and the raiding bands which seized and bore it off; anyhow, the inevitable
+effect was that unscrupulous men, taking advantage of popular tolerance of
+practices which originally sprang from patriotic impulses, disregarded
+private rights and indiscriminately stole. Planters paid for guards as
+high as thirty dollars each per night at critical times. Men who were
+unaccustomed to the command of money grew rich in a brief space and
+correspondingly lavish in their expenditures. Extravagance and
+demoralization which left their <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>enduring impress ensued. Admissions were
+made in high quarters in after years that not one-tenth of the proceeds of
+cotton seized by agents ever went into the treasury of the United States.
+One example will suffice: An agent in Demopolis claimed and was allowed
+for four months&#8217; services, on the basis of one-fourth of the cotton seized
+by him, $80,000; and the settlement was between him and military
+authorities who were quite as adept as he in the art of pilfering. Thus in
+a time of stress the producers were despoiled and adventurers enriched by
+the ungenerous policy of the victorious government.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p>The following facts are gathered from evidence taken before the committee
+in Congress in the investigation as to General Howard:</p>
+
+<p>At the close of the war there were held in the south at least five million
+bales of cotton, worth in Liverpool $500,000,000. Only a fraction of this
+cotton was owned by the Confederate states government, and this was turned
+over to General E. R. S. Canby by General E. Kirby Smith on May 24, 1865.
+Besides the swarm of official agents, informers and spies sent down by the
+Treasury Department in search of Confederate cotton, contracts were made
+with private individuals to engage in the work. Much cotton was taken from
+plantations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> before the owners returned to their homes after the
+disbandment of the armies. Seizures were indiscriminate. Proof of private
+ownership had to be supported by tender of toll; there was no redress.</p>
+
+<p>A Treasury Department regulation required that all cotton seized in the
+Atlantic and Gulf states should be shipped to Simon Draper, United States
+cotton agent in New York City; and that seized on the upper Mississippi
+river and in northern Georgia and northern Alabama to William P. Mellen,
+agent in Cincinnati. These agents sold by samples which were spurious and
+inferior to the cotton which they represented. Accordingly, cotton worth
+sixty cents to one dollar per pound was sold for ten to fifteen cents. The
+purchasers were in collusion with the agent. By the system of &#8220;plucking,&#8221;
+the weight of bales was reduced anywhere from one hundred to two hundred
+pounds before they were sold: the plucked cotton was termed &#8220;waste
+cotton,&#8221; packed and sold as &#8220;trash&#8221; to mills, but not at trash prices.
+These terms figured only in the reports to the department. Sometimes
+owners traced stolen cotton to the New York or Cincinnati agency; and if a
+thousand bales were involved, the agent reported that only two hundred had
+been received, and of very inferior quality, and was sold for ten or
+fifteen cents per pound, which his books would prove; that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>
+transportation, storage and commissions left only a small sum. Draper,
+when he became cotton agent, was a bankrupt. Subsequently he settled his
+debts and when he died was a multimillionaire. Fifty million dollars&#8217;
+worth of cotton was shipped to Draper; the government derived only
+$15,000,000 net from that source as the reward for the wrong which it had
+committed in entrusting the enforcement of its doubtful claim against the
+impoverished southern people to dishonest and unscrupulous agents.</p>
+
+<p>The Confederate States government imposed a tax in kind upon all
+provisions produced on plantations&mdash;one-tenth. The first year after the
+war this tax was enforced in some isolated sections by orders of minor
+military officers, and collected by agents. Of course this was fraudulent,
+and was stopped after a while.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER FIVE</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">The Freedmen&#8217;s Bureau</span></span></p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the Freedmen&#8217;s Bureau had been established. General Swayne
+promulgated an order recognizing as agents of the bureau former civil
+magistrates who could and would obtain endorsement of negroes; but, as a
+rule, carpetbaggers filled the places. Offices were opened at the county
+seats, where complaints of freedmen were lodged and investigations
+conducted. The agents prescribed a uniform division of products of the
+soil between planters and hands. They supervised all contracts and
+regulated the conduct of affairs between employer and employe, and their
+dicta were absolute and final, being enforced, if necessary, by soldiers
+of the garrison.</p>
+
+<p>The agents gave notice that nobody would be allowed to employ freedmen
+unless the contracts were submitted to and approved by them and left in
+their custody. They gave ear to any tale of complaining freedmen, arrested
+the white man <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>complained of, tried and punished him, unless he proved
+willing to purchase immunity. Sometimes after the planter had contracted
+in the prescribed manner with freedmen, and had his crops in process of
+cultivation, the hands would quit work, and only intervention by the agent
+would make them return. Such intervention cost as high as ten dollars per
+hand, and the occasion for it might recur before the crops could be
+gathered. Some of the agents secured plantations and used them as refuges
+for dissatisfied freedmen, who were fed and clothed.</p>
+
+<p>The agents were as a rule &#8220;fanatics without character or responsibility,
+and were selected as fit instruments to execute the partisan and
+unconstitutional behests of a most unscrupulous head.&#8221; (Senator Beck, in
+an official report.) Some of them were preachers, and had been selected as
+being the most devout, zealous and loyal of a certain religious sect. In
+league meetings they told the negroes that although they had been married
+according to plantation custom for many years, they must procure licenses
+and be remarried. Thus they made large sums in fees, in many instances
+from old couples who had grandchildren and great-grandchildren.</p>
+
+<p>All of this was humiliating and irritating to the planters, but submitted
+to so long as the agents confined their activities to legitimate
+functions. But<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> they soon became mischievously meddlesome, and discovered
+in their powers means for promoting their political fortunes.</p>
+
+<p>As a body, the negroes had been conducting themselves with propriety, and
+good feeling prevailed. Their greatest delight was in the dignity of
+unaccustomed surnames, duster coats, gauntlet gloves, albums, clocks and
+other wares, with which enterprising northern peddlers tempted them. Their
+childish delight in these novel possessions for a while filled the measure
+of their happiness. But some of them who had been following armies
+contracted nomadic habits; others were incapable of rational exercise of
+their novel privileges, and became disturbers of the peace. Their
+depredations soon rendered stock raising impracticable. Every plantation
+had a gin-house, and these houses, with their valuable contents, were
+exposed to incendiaries seeking revenge for real or fancied grievances,
+and many were destroyed. Men with the &#8220;easy money&#8221; acquired during the
+period of cotton stealing set up crossroad stores at every available point
+and dispensed vile whiskey in barter for bags of loose cotton and corn,
+ostensibly the &#8220;shares&#8221; of those offering them, but really often stolen
+from lint rooms and cribs, and even from the ungarnered crops in the
+fields. These traders did an immense<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> business, many of them setting up
+gins and baling screws. The existing &#8220;sundown and sunrise&#8221; law was enacted
+to destroy this nefarious traffic. It prohibited the sale of farm products
+between sunset and sunrise.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER SIX</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">Military Regulations</span></span></p>
+
+<p>Another cause of irritation was the offensive conduct of soldiers
+composing the garrisons, which provoked collisions with the more impetuous
+citizens. In 1865 the federal soldiers in Tuscaloosa, Greensboro, Eutaw
+and other towns subjected the people to very offensive regulations. Only a
+few examples need be mentioned as exhibiting the temper of both sides: The
+former soldiers of the Confederacy, having no means with which to
+replenish their wardrobes, wore their uniforms. The federals threatened,
+and sometimes attempted, to cut the buttons from the old gray coats, and
+the proud wearers were forced to resort to the expedient of covering them
+with thin cloth rather than let them serve as a pretext for insults. Flags
+were stretched across the sidewalks, so that pedestrians would have to
+pass under them. To defeat the obvious purpose, men and women, in going
+about, resorted to the roadway or diverged from the sidewalks at points
+where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> the flags were placed. In some instances these unwilling and
+protesting people were seized and forced under the flags. These and other
+practices, devised to provoke the people to exhibitions of hostility,
+caused severe smarting. Perhaps many young men who had received war
+schooling were not reluctant to encounter their former antagonists.</p>
+
+<p>A memorable tragedy, with annoying consequences, resulted from such an
+encounter. August 31, 1865, election day, the brothers Tom and Toode
+Cowan, formerly heroic members of Forrest&#8217;s cavalry, became involved in a
+controversy with a squad of soldiers of the garrison in Greensboro; in the
+resulting affray pistols were used; the younger Cowan killed one of the
+soldiers, while his brother dangerously wounded another. The slayer
+mounted a horse and escaped, but the intrepid Tom scorned flight and
+yielded only to overpowering numbers. Intense excitement prevailed; the
+enraged soldiers sprang to arms, seized Cowan, and, defying their
+officers, prepared to hang the prisoner. At the critical moment came a
+message from the wounded man, generously acknowledging he was the
+aggressor and pleading for a fair trial for Cowan. This appeased the
+military mob and the prisoner was locked up. That night squads of cavalry
+roamed the country, ostensibly seeking the fugitive, but really to disarm<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>
+and arrest the planters. Mr. Cowan was tried and acquitted. His brother
+was not apprehended.</p>
+
+<p>In some cases the soldiers were insubordinate and manifested hostility to
+the people. One notable example in illustration is recalled: During the
+hours of darkness soldiers burned the Episcopal church in Demopolis. Some
+of them were detected with articles stolen from the sacred edifice, and
+the colonel was requested to have the impious robbers arrested. That
+officer declined to make the order, because the guilty men were dangerous
+characters and would seek revenge if called to account. Indeed, they
+threatened that when transferred from Demopolis they would set fire to the
+town. To prevent the execution of this purpose, another colonel was
+substituted for the commander of the regiment, and he placed sentinels
+around the quarters and marched the men away in ignorance of the fact that
+it was their final departure.</p>
+
+<p>In Greensboro, in 1867, was enacted another regrettable tragedy, the
+attendant circumstances of which intensified the growing hostility between
+the races. John C. Orick shot and killed Aleck Webb, negro register of
+voters. The shooting occurred in daylight and on one of the principal
+sidewalks. Orick calmly retired from the scene, locked the doors of his
+store, and in disguise fled the town.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>Orick was a bold, dashing and handsome young man who had won enviable
+laurels in the war. When hardly more than a boy, his adventurous spirit
+impelled him to leave home without parental consent and attach himself to
+Colonel Mosby&#8217;s command. One of his achievements is worthy of mention
+here: As an &#8220;observer&#8221; he visited Baltimore and Washington, and in the
+latter city ascertained the time of departure of the army pay train on the
+Baltimore and Ohio railroad. Reporting to his commander the valuable
+information he had acquired, successful plans were formed for the capture
+of the train by Mosby&#8217;s command. With his share of the booty obtained in
+this enterprise, Orick, after the final surrender, purchased a stock of
+goods and established himself in business in Greensboro.</p>
+
+<p>The negroes of the town and vicinity bitterly resented the killing of
+Webb, and during the night large bands of them roamed the surrounding
+country, avowedly seeking the slayer, but really bent on any mischief for
+which opportunity might offer. One band went to the Gewin premises. A
+young man, a member of the family, in his night clothes and barefooted,
+was encountered in the yard. Seeing that the marauders intercepted retreat
+to the house, Gewin fled to the woods, hotly pursued. After a chase which
+extended for a mile, over rough<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> fields and woods, the fleeing man was
+overhauled, tied to the bare back of a horse and conveyed to the office of
+Dr. Blackford, in Greensboro. After a lengthy parley, his friends secured
+his release.</p>
+
+<p>At dusk the town was thronged with infuriated armed negroes, who
+threatened to apply the torch. After some of the leading citizens had
+vainly expostulated with them, the whites armed themselves and prepared to
+expel them by force; but when Gewin was released, the negroes retired,
+sullenly, and a clash was averted.</p>
+
+<p>The Gewin family and its connections comprised a considerable number of
+brave and resolute men, of remarkably fine physique, and they and their
+friends were indignant with Blackford, the probate judge, because of the
+suspicion that he had directed the negroes who committed the outrage,&mdash;a
+suspicion justified by the fact that Gewin was conveyed to Blackford&#8217;s
+office. Everybody sympathized with them. It was said that Blackford told
+the negroes they should avenge the killing of Webb, and that he instigated
+the incendiary threats, and he was thenceforward regarded as a factor of
+disturbance in the community.</p>
+
+<p>As a result of these occurrences, an organization was formed in Greensboro
+for public defense, and arms were obtained. The members were, in event<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> of
+necessity, to assemble at the ringing of a certain bell, and a rendezvous
+was selected. No oath was required of the members.</p>
+
+<p>The first attempt to enforce the flag regulation in the case of a woman,
+in Tuscaloosa, was the last. Intrepid Ryland Randolph, editor of the
+<i>Monitor</i>, in uncontrollable indignation seized a sabre and in person
+challenged the responsible commander to mortal combat. Declining the
+proposed close encounter, that official thenceforward was more circumspect
+in his conduct.</p>
+
+<p>The story of Randolph&#8217;s career is an interesting part of the history of
+Tuscaloosa. As an editor, he was belligerent, and relentless in his
+denunciation of radical maladministration of public affairs. So effective
+was his hostility that publication of his paper (official organ of the Ku
+Klux) was suppressed by military order. He accepted a challenge to a duel
+provoked by attacks upon the chief justice of the state supreme court,
+addressed to him by the judge&#8217;s son-in-law; but on the field mutual
+friends effected an amicable and honorable settlement.</p>
+
+<p>A less dignified encounter involved him in more serious difficulties.
+Opposite the <i>Monitor</i> office a number of negroes were assembled one day,
+and two of them assaulted a white man. Suddenly Randolph, with pistol and
+bowie-knife in hand, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>appeared in the midst of the struggling throng. One
+shot was fired by him, when he, in turn, became the object of attack. One
+of the assailants, a political leader, received in his side a thrust from
+Randolph&#8217;s bowie, and another in the back, where the broken point of the
+knife remained. Within a few minutes the prostrate leader was the only one
+who remained on the scene. But the negroes, with augmented numbers,
+reassembled a short distance away. Randolph returned to his office and
+reappeared with a shotgun. His dauntless bearing discouraged further
+hostile demonstration by the blacks. In consequence of this affair,
+Randolph was arrested by the soldiers and taken to Montgomery for trial.
+En route, by stage-coach, he was made a spectacle for gloating negroes. He
+was acquitted, and his return was made an occasion of popular
+manifestation of esteem. A cavalcade met him some miles outside of
+Tuscaloosa, and on nearer approach to town was magnified into a vast
+procession of carriages and marchers, embracing men and women and school
+children. The procession moved to the sound of bells. A great meeting,
+with speechmaking, followed.</p>
+
+<p>At that time the University of Alabama, at Tuscaloosa, was controlled by
+the radicals and boycotted by the whites. A brother of Governor Smith was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>
+a regent of the institution, and this regent&#8217;s son a student. One of the
+professors, Vaughan, had been persistently assailed by the <i>Monitor</i>,
+which charged him with incompetence and drunkenness. It was said that
+Vaughan enlisted Smith as a champion. Anyhow, the two sought Randolph on
+the streets and found him in conversation with a friend. While Vaughan
+stood some distance away, Smith approached Randolph and insultingly
+jostled him. Simultaneously and without hesitation, the two men drew
+pistols and began firing, each discharging five chambers of his revolver.
+One shot struck a thick book in Randolph&#8217;s coat pocket and lodged therein;
+another struck above the knee and ranged up the thigh, his leg being
+crooked at the moment. This shot necessitated amputation of the injured
+limb. An innocent bystander on the opposite side of the street was killed
+by a stray bullet. Smith and Vaughan were arrested. The former was rescued
+by fellow students and fled to Utah.</p>
+
+<p>Randolph survived the reconstruction period and enjoyed the restoration of
+white supremacy. He died in 1903 from the effects of a fall in a
+streetcar.</p>
+
+<p>An incident of the military r&eacute;gime in Eutaw early embittered relations
+between the people and their rulers. An &#8220;undesirable citizen&#8221; was given a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
+ride on a rail. In the court martial trial of the accused, James A.
+Steele, Thomas W. Roberts, F. H. Mundy, John Cullen, Hugh L. White,
+William Pettigrew and Mr. Strayhorn were sentenced to hard labor at Dry
+Tortugas for periods ranging from two to six years. The circumstances
+attending their treatment as prisoners exhibited harshness which aroused
+indignation. Handcuffed and chained, they were conveyed by a squad to New
+Orleans and thence by sea to the island prison. They were not permitted to
+communicate with their families or friends nor to receive funds to relieve
+their wants. Their sufferings and indignities were severe and humiliating.
+An appeal in their behalf, with a presentation of the facts connected with
+the trial, was made to General Meade, and that commander remitted the
+sentence. The return of the victims to their homes was made the occasion
+of a memorable demonstration of popular feeling.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER SEVEN</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">The Union League</span></span></p>
+
+<p>In pursuance of their schemes which culminated at the election in 1868,
+the carpetbag adventurers early in 1867 organized everywhere in Alabama
+branches of the Union League, a secret, oathbound political society, with
+all the mysticism of grips, signs, signals and passwords, national in
+scope, with grand national and grand state councils. Secrecy and obedience
+to commands were enjoined under severest penalties, including even death.
+Their meeting places were guarded by armed sentinels. The negro members
+were taught to disregard the feelings and interests of the whites, and
+told that if their former masters should obtain control of the government,
+they would re-enslave them; and this was an irresistible appeal to
+ignorant people enjoying the first delights of release from bondage. On
+the other hand, they were promised that if the Republicans should gain
+control, they would enact such oppressive tax laws that the landowners
+would be unable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> to meet the exactions, and consequently their lands would
+be forfeited; after which the Republicans would allot them in parcels of
+forty acres, together with a mule, to each head of a negro family resident
+thereon; they were told, further, that, in order to facilitate and
+expedite this process of confiscation and apportionment, they should
+slight their work and thus increase the difficulties under which their
+former masters would have to struggle to save their properties from
+spoliation. The student of history should not be harsh in judgment of the
+negro because of his susceptibility to a lure so enticing. He was
+ignorant, and regarded every pretentious white stranger as one of that
+great army which had liberated him from bondage.</p>
+
+<p>Serious as was the situation, it was not without amusement in its
+demonstration of the negro&#8217;s gullibility. A bogus &#8220;land agent&#8221; circulated
+slips conveying directions regarding &#8220;pre&euml;mption of homesteads,&#8221; and the
+credulous negroes bought them, and, besides, painted sticks with pointed
+ends to be driven into the ground to mark their boundaries; they also
+purchased chances in a sort of lottery for the distribution of parcels of
+land. All of these were sold under alleged authority received from the
+government at Washington, all dependent on the success of the Republican
+party.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>By request of President Johnson, General Grant in 1865 made a tour of the
+southern states, to learn the feelings and intentions of the people and to
+ascertain to what extent, in the interest of economy, the military forces
+there could be reduced. He reported that white troops excited no
+opposition: thinking men would offer no violence to them. But black troops
+demoralized labor, &#8220;and the late slaves seem to be infused with the idea
+that the property of their late masters should by right belong to them, or
+at least should have no protection from the colored soldiers. There is
+danger of collision being brought by such causes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The so-called abandoned lands on the coast of South Carolina and
+Georgia&mdash;lands from which whites had fled to escape dangers of the
+war&mdash;were actually seized and colonized with wandering negroes, though the
+lands were afterward restored to the owners. The germ of the &#8220;forty acres
+and a mule&#8221; idea, no doubt, originated in those colonies. The idea was of
+early conception, as the Grant report shows.</p>
+
+<p>The first annoyances caused by the league were the neglect of field work
+by negroes in order to attend political meetings in daylight, and taking
+hard-worked mules from lots at night and riding them to league meetings.
+But in the course of time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> the organization assumed a military aspect,
+drilling regularly. Bodies appeared in procession, in regular company
+order, with arms, banners, drums and fifes, the officers wearing
+side-arms. At the election they were met outside the towns by emissaries
+and furnished with tickets, and then proceeded to the polling places and
+deposited them as directed. All of this appealed to the negroes&#8217; taste for
+novelty and spectacle.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER EIGHT</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">A Republican Blunder</span></span></p>
+
+<p>This narrative is now brought again to the point at which it digressed,
+the election on the constitution, but before resuming that subject a few
+words of comment here will not be out of place.</p>
+
+<p>The perfidy of Congress in imposing upon the people of Alabama, in
+violation of its own solemn covenant, a constitution which they had
+rejected in a lawful manner, was a blunder fatal to the future influence
+of the Republican party in Alabama. The fourteenth amendment had already
+injured the party because of its application to great numbers of men who
+might have allied themselves with it if they had not been involved in the
+proscription. They had opposed secession as long as there was any reason
+in opposition, and then reluctantly adapted themselves to the situation.
+Jefferson Davis had been in prison, demanding trial and ready to abide the
+result; he was discharged, and the proceedings looking to personal
+punishment abandoned. Other leaders, including Admiral Semmes, &#8220;the
+pirate,&#8221; as he was termed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> in intensity of hatred, were at their homes,
+pursuing the vocations of peace and ready to try the issue. The excuse for
+abandoning the prosecution was that, the fourteenth amendment having
+imposed the penalty of deprivation of citizen rights, the courts could not
+inflict other punishment.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, the men who had, at the cost of popular good will and private
+friendship, opposed with all their abilities severance of the Union were
+equally subject to a penalty deemed adequate for &#8220;the arch traitor&#8221; and
+&#8220;the pirate,&#8221; so called.</p>
+
+<p>Then, there were thousands of men in northern Alabama not subject to the
+proscription, who were nursing the grievance that Democrats had
+precipitated secession without permitting the people to vote on the
+ordinance. They believed that, had it been submitted, it would have been
+defeated. Northern Alabama was so loyal to the Union that leaders there
+proposed separation of that section at the line of the mountains, and that
+its people organize and &#8220;fight it out&#8221; in the foothills. But the
+promptness with which the Confederate authorities organized the military
+forces discouraged such a project. The strong resentment of the summary
+accomplishment of secession was rendered bitter by conscription laws.
+Sections of the mountains in which drastic measures were necessary to
+enforce those laws <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>became easy recruiting grounds for the federal army.
+It is recorded that 2,700 men from Walker, Winston and Fayette counties
+enlisted in one federal command. North Alabama was more than once occupied
+by contending armies, and partisan organizations embittered the contest.</p>
+
+<p>In central and southern Alabama were many Whigs and Union men who had no
+liking for the Democratic party.</p>
+
+<p>In this state of affairs, convinced that not many of the proud
+Confederates would sue for relief from fourteenth amendment disabilities,
+and that the constitution which disqualified thousands of white voters
+would perpetuate negro supremacy in Alabama, the Republican leaders in
+Congress committed a wrong which to this day bears heavily upon their
+party.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER NINE</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">Carpetbag Government</span></span></p>
+
+<p>The negroes had exercised without hindrance their new privilege of the
+suffrage. Their incapacity as voters was illustrated in the character of
+the men who assumed office after the election in 1868.</p>
+
+<p>In Sumter county, Tobias Lane was elected probate judge, but during the
+period of uncertainty when the constitution was in abeyance, concluding
+that congressional action respecting it would be unfavorable, he packed
+his carpetbag and returned to Ohio, having been one of the migrants from
+that state, so prolific of birds of his feather.</p>
+
+<p>Beville, the sheriff, was an appointee of General Swayne. He was unable to
+give bond, but Swayne waived that formality and ordered him to continue in
+office without bond. In 1868 Richard Harris, a negro, who could neither
+read nor write, became his worthy successor.</p>
+
+<p>As solicitor the discriminating voters chose Ben Bardwell, a negro, who
+was wholly deficient in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> knowledge of reading and writing, a
+deficiency which made him &#8220;an easy mark&#8221; for one of the most learned bars
+in the state.</p>
+
+<p>George Houston, a freedman, was sent to the lower house of the
+legislature. As his colleague Ben Inge, another &#8220;person of color,&#8221;
+absolutely illiterate, was selected.</p>
+
+<p>An army captain, one Yordy, received the state senatorial honors, which he
+wore while serving Uncle Sam in the custom house at Mobile. He was a
+long-distance representative, having no domicile in Sumter, nor ever
+making his appearance there.</p>
+
+<p>John B. Cecil, reputed federal army sutler and coming with the influx from
+fecund Ohio, was elected treasurer. He gradually and logically degenerated
+into a partnership with a negro in a grog-shop enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>Badger, another bird of passage, became tax assessor. The revenue and road
+commission was a motley aggregation which comprised one carpetbagger and
+three negroes.</p>
+
+<p>Edward Herndon, a native Union man, by grace of appointment and election,
+simultaneously devoted his talents to the offices of circuit clerk,
+register in chancery, notary public, justice of the peace, keeper of the
+poorhouse and guardian <i>ad litem</i>,&mdash;and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>perhaps felt aggrieved that he
+didn&#8217;t have &#8220;all that was coming to him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It would seem that, with this multiplicity of trusts, Mr. Herndon
+monopolized the privilege of plurality in office holding; but not so, for
+Mr. Daniel Price, a typical scalawag, with the reputation of a jailbird
+and desperado, made flight from Wetumpka to Sumter, and was endowed with a
+bunch of federal and county jobs,&mdash;register of voters, superintendent of
+education, postmaster and census taker. Insatiable, like Oliver Twist he
+wanted more, and as a side line to his multifarious activities, employed
+his scholarly attainments in the conduct of a negro school, meanwhile
+boarding and associating with negroes.</p>
+
+<p>The harmony of the &#8220;color scheme&#8221; of the official colony in Perry county,
+adjoining Hale county, was never broken by a trace of the ebony hue.</p>
+
+<p>Without exception, all of the county offices were held by carpetbaggers,
+officers of the 8th Wisconsin regiment, originally sent on garrison duty.
+Their characters are illustrated by the fact that, under the guise of
+selling properties which they had acquired in the county, all of them sold
+their offices in the time of political regeneration and betook themselves
+to the north. During Lindsay&#8217;s administration the sheriff, charged with
+conniving at the escape from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> jail of a prisoner incarcerated for murder,
+sold his job for $1,500. Democrats succeeded the aliens.</p>
+
+<p>In Marengo county there were more places than &#8220;loyal and reconstructed&#8221;
+place-seekers, and consequently Charles L. Drake, who made his advent in
+1866 as an army captain, was burdened with the cares and responsibilities
+of register in chancery, circuit clerk, United States commissioner and
+agent of the Freedmen&#8217;s Bureau; yet had time for political activity which
+made him especially obnoxious.</p>
+
+<p>Another conspicuous character in Marengo was one Burton, a carpetbagger,
+who established in Demopolis a weekly newspaper, <i>The Southern
+Republican</i>. He had incorporated in the oppressive tax laws a provision
+that where a deed was made to a purchaser at a tax sale, it should be made
+conclusive evidence, whether the sale was legal or illegal, that all
+requisites to a valid sale had been complied with. In order to increase
+the advertising, a section of land was divided into sixteen parts and each
+part advertised separately. Legal advertising was confined to &#8220;loyal&#8221;
+papers, the test of loyalty being allegiance to the Radical party. <i>The
+Southern Republican</i>, being the only loyal paper in all that
+unreconstructed region, was designated as the official organ of Marengo,
+Greene, Perry and Choctaw counties.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>The newspaper statute referred to was in these words:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That it shall be the duty of the probate judge in each county of this
+state to designate a newspaper in which all local advertisements, notices,
+or publications of any and every character required by law to be made in
+his county shall be published. Provided, that no newspaper shall be
+designated as such official organ which does not in its columns sustain
+and advocate the maintenance of the government of the United States and of
+the government of the state of Alabama, which is recognized by the
+Congress of the United States as the legal government of this state; and
+if there be no such paper published in the county, then the probate judge,
+whose decision upon the question shall be final, shall designate the paper
+published nearest the county seat of his county which does sustain said
+government.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The &#8220;loyal&#8221; papers so designated had no circulation beyond a small free
+distribution among office-holders. Few of the negroes in their general
+illiteracy could read them, and none of them were concerned in the
+advertisements. The white people, to whom all of the advertisements were
+addressed, would not permit a copy of the publications to be sent to them.
+Consequently, the payment of fees was a waste of public money. The purpose
+of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> law was to create and sustain a detestable press at the expense of
+the taxpayers, or seduce the existing papers.</p>
+
+<p>In 1870 Burton was nominee for lieutenant-governor. On account of some
+personally offensive publication, Mr. E. C. Meredith, of Eutaw, a
+Democratic leader (&#8220;Bravest of the Brave&#8221;), severely chastised him in
+Eutaw. Thereafter the &#8220;trooly loil&#8221; journalist made his periodical
+collections of fees in Greene county by proxy. About the time when frost
+touched with withering chill his budding political aspiration, Burton
+received an ominous communication, not intended for publication, but for
+his own guidance. It was embellished with pictures of cross-bones, skull
+and dagger, and inscribed with a legend which he interpreted as a sort of
+&#8220;move on&#8221; ordinance. And he stood not on the order of his going, but
+hiked.</p>
+
+<p>General Dustin, a northern soldier, of good family connections, who
+settled in Demopolis and allied himself by marriage with one of the old
+and prominent families of the town, was appointed major general of
+militia, and endeavored, but unsuccessfully, to organize a force. The law
+provided that whenever forty or more men should enroll themselves and
+choose officers, the governor upon application should recognize them as a
+volunteer <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>company. Governor Smith could not be persuaded to encourage the
+formation of a militia force; he preferred federal regulars, and they were
+always available.</p>
+
+<p>While awaiting opportunity for employment of his warrior genius and
+acquirements, General Dustin, equally soldier and statesman, served the
+people of his adopted county in the legislature. His colleague in that
+august assembly of solons was Levi Wells, a &#8220;ward of the nation.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Others who made reconstruction history in Marengo county will be mentioned
+incidentally as this narrative progresses. They were a rare lot, and
+equally with the others worthy of a place on the scroll of fame.</p>
+
+<p>Choctaw county officials distinguished themselves in some features of
+their administration of affairs, according to testimony before a
+government commission. Dr. Foster was appointed probate judge and elected
+state senator, and served in the dual capacity. Receiving the appointment
+of revenue collector at Mobile, he discarded the probate judgeship, to
+which Hill was appointed, but polygamously refused to be divorced from the
+other love, the senatorship. Hill had been appointed treasurer before
+receiving the appointment to the judgeship. Withdrawing from the former
+place, his brother, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>Alexander, succeeded. It may not too much confuse the
+already complex situation to mention incidentally that the industrious
+Alexander filled in spare time by discharging the humble duties of justice
+of the peace, having before him the example of his eminent brother, who
+scorned not the lesser duties of register in chancery, with which also he
+was charged. In the progress of time, an inquisitive grand jury, nosing
+into matters, ascertained that Treasurer Aleck had received from the
+county tax collector fees to the amount of $3,600. While the jury was
+investigating, a disturbance occurred on the streets; the sheriff
+resigned, rather than interfere with the disturbers, and sought pastoral
+scenes. Circuit Judge J. Q. Smith, serving as a substitute for Luther R.
+Smith, adjourned court without receiving the jury&#8217;s report. Immediately
+after adjournment Probate Judge Hill, who had received a significant
+communication, with skull and dagger adornment, and maybe had been
+playfully shot at, retired to his farm, leaving his office in the care of
+the overburdened but willing Aleck. The circuit clerk accompanied the
+probate judge to his sylvan retreat, and imposed more work on Aleck by
+making him custodian of his office also. By the way, this clerk was first
+elected, but failed to qualify, whereupon Judge Smith cured the defect by
+appointing him to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> place. Such was the situation of affairs when, at
+midnight, April 14, the structure burned, and, excepting documents in the
+hands of the jury, all of the records of the two offices, together with
+the treasurer&#8217;s account of moneys received and disbursed, fed the hungry
+flames. The treasurer said that all the funds were in the safe, but only
+charred packages of Confederate &#8220;shinplasters&#8221; were found therein when the
+safe was opened. The succeeding treasurer, an expert accountant, under
+instructions from the commissioners&#8217; court, investigated accounts between
+the collector and former treasurer, and reported that the latter was in
+default to the extent of about $7,000, and the tax collector about $2,700.
+Meanwhile, the tax collector had sought a change of air in &#8220;the glorious
+climate of California.&#8221; Before his departure he related a tale of woe, the
+burden of which was that highwaymen had despoiled him of official
+collections of between $5,000 and $6,000.</p>
+
+<p>The fire fiend had marked Choctaw officials for its victims. According to
+his own statement, the dwelling of the county superintendent of education
+was the repository of $4,000 of county funds when said &#8220;fiend&#8221; consumed
+it. The superintendent was the author of his own official bond, and in his
+inexperience omitted therefrom the customary penalty clause, which
+omission rendered the instrument <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>non-enforceable. Feeling the inadequacy
+of local employment for his talents, he took up residence across the line
+in Sumter county, and thus qualified for election to the legislature, but
+there was no requisition for his services.</p>
+
+<p>The superintendent was law partner of Joshua Morse, attorney general of
+the state. They were jointly indicted for the murder of Editor Thomas of
+the county paper at Butler, the county seat; they obtained a change of
+venue and were tried and acquitted in Mobile, the principal witness
+against them having disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>William Miller, a former slaveowner and one of the largest landowners,
+became probate judge of Greene county in 1868. Judge Oliver, the
+incumbent, refused to recognize his claim, and Miller invoked the
+ever-responsive military powers; the soldiers forced entrance to the
+office and inducted the claimant. Oliver filed a protest and retired.
+Alexander Boyd, a nephew of Miller, became county solicitor and register
+in chancery.</p>
+
+<p>Judge Luther R. Smith had a brother, Arthur A., who was languishing in
+Massachusetts, with talents unemployed and maybe unrecognized. The judge
+imported his brother and made him county superintendent of education.
+There were not many white Republicans in Greene, and it happened that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>
+circuit court clerkship was &#8220;lying around loose,&#8221; and the judge thought
+Arthur was the man for the place. The latter accepted the gift, but failed
+to relinquish the superintendency of education. One Yordy figured as agent
+of the Freedmen&#8217;s Bureau.</p>
+
+<p>These officials were unable to obtain board and lodging at either of the
+taverns or elsewhere, and jointly established and maintained for some time
+a bachelor establishment, duly ostracised by the people of the town and
+county.</p>
+
+<p>Hale county had a complement of officials in keeping with the layout
+common to the counties of the district, including a negro legislator. The
+most troublesome was Dr. Blackford, probate judge. He had served as a
+delegate to the constitutional convention of 1867. He displaced Judge
+Hutchinson, a popular gentleman who had lost three brothers in one of the
+battles in Virginia, members of the famous Greensboro Guards.</p>
+
+<p>Blackford was a skillful physician and surgeon, and of fair education. He
+served as surgeon in the Confederate army, and was stationed at Vicksburg
+during the siege. Subsequently a story circulated that he was there
+court-martialed on a charge of appropriating to his own use hospital
+stores, including liquors. However that may be, his services were
+dispensed with and he took up abode in Greensboro,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> and began to practice
+his profession with much success. In an evil hour he was tempted to cast
+his lot with the adventurers who were greedily fastening their clutches
+upon the substance of the country, and fell. Going from bad to worse, he
+affiliated with negroes and soon obtained absolute control of them.
+Claiming, as probate judge, that he had the right to supervise contracts
+between them and their employers, he constantly meddled in private
+affairs. Calling league meetings and taking the hands away from their
+work, he caused much vexation and loss to the planters.</p>
+
+<p>About the time when he became probate judge an incident occurred in
+Greensboro in which was exhibited by the soldiers an unusual
+disapprobation of the administration of affairs. The agent of the
+Freedmen&#8217;s Bureau, one Clause, incurred the displeasure of some of them
+who were inclined to insubordination, and they administered to him a
+beating. Varying the proceeding, they seized a negro school teacher and
+conveyed him to a pond, in which they ducked him repeatedly.</p>
+
+<p>Blackford became alarmed at this manifestation of displeasure, and fled to
+the hills north of the town. There he was pursued by the rioters in
+uniform, and, resuming his flight, sought refuge at the home of a citizen,
+who apprised leading citizens of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> Greensboro of his whereabouts and peril.
+They informed the military commander, who, in turn, dispatched a squad of
+cavalry to rescue him and conduct him to town. Blackford, on his return,
+renounced his political heresies and aspirations to the judgeship, which
+he declared he would not accept; but, recovering his confidence in the
+stability of the military powers and his negro backing, he quickly
+recanted and relapsed into arrogance.</p>
+
+<p>Tuscaloosa county was not neglected by place-hunters, but the
+preponderance of whites in that county was a restraining influence.</p>
+
+<p>Luther R. Smith, a carpetbagger from Michigan, provisional circuit judge
+in 1866, was elected to that position in 1868, and simultaneously a member
+of the legislature, but had decency to resign the latter trust.
+Notwithstanding he subsequently violated the judicial proprieties by
+presiding over a radical state convention in Selma. He was one of the most
+respectable of the intruders, and reputed to be just, impartial and
+courteous on the bench. Nevertheless he shared, in a lesser measure, the
+odium which attached to all. The feeling of the people was that no
+right-minded man would thrust himself into public position under the
+peculiar circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>All the members of the United States House of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> Representatives from
+Alabama were carpetbaggers&mdash;officers in the United States army. Charles W.
+Pierce represented the fourth district. He held a commission as major. His
+course in the interval when the constitution was in abeyance was the same
+as that of Colonel Callis, who caused more discussion. Colonel Callis was
+elected to Congress from the Huntsville district, in competition with
+General Joseph W. Burke, a man of character and education. General Burke
+was the Republican nominee, and Callis bolted. Callis was a federal
+soldier and agent of the Freedmen&#8217;s Bureau, at Huntsville. While
+canvassing, he was attired in the uniform of a colonel. When the
+constitution was rejected and declared rejected by General Meade, and the
+fact communicated to General Grant and by him communicated to Congress,
+and the action of Congress looked to the rejection of the constitution,
+Colonel Callis left Huntsville and went upon duty to Mississippi as an
+army officer. When Congress accepted the constitution and admitted Alabama
+under the &#8220;omnibus&#8221; measure, Callis hurried to Washington and took his
+seat as a representative from Alabama, notwithstanding he had never been a
+citizen of the state and was then a resident of Mississippi. Pierce was
+succeeded by Charles Hays, of Greene county, in November, 1869.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>The state was represented in the federal Senate by Willard Warner and
+George E. Spencer, the first named a northern general, the other, an army
+contractor. Judge Busteed, under oath, said that when elected Warner was
+not a citizen of Alabama; that when summoned a short while before as a
+juror in his court, Warner claimed exemption on the plea that he was a
+senator of the state of Ohio. Governor William H. Smith, in a letter
+published in the <i>Huntsville Advocate</i>, said: &#8220;Spencer lives upon the
+passions and prejudices of the races. The breath of peace would leave him
+on the surface, neglected and despised.&#8221; And Spencer characterized his
+colleague as a &#8220;a trifling and worthless man.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Being unobjectionable as to &#8220;loyalty,&#8221; all of these non-citizens were
+permitted to take their seats; and for the first time since 1861 Alabama
+was represented (?) in the federal Congress, notwithstanding the fact that
+during a part of that period the people were taxed by the government which
+denied them representation&mdash;taxed unconstitutionally (in the case of
+cotton), as the Supreme Court subsequently decided.</p>
+
+<p>William H. Smith, of Randolph county, displaced Governor Patton. His
+character will be revealed as these pages multiply.</p>
+
+<p>The state supreme court justices were evicted,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> and S. W. Peck, Thomas M.
+Peters and B. F. Saffold substituted for them. There is little to be said
+of them by a layman, except that the first named favored suspension of the
+writ of habeas corpus, during the Ku Klux era, and the last named declared
+unconstitutional the law under which a justice of the peace was convicted
+of solemnizing the rites of matrimony between a white man and a negro, and
+reversed the judgment of the lower court.</p>
+
+<p>President Lincoln in 1863 appointed Richard Busteed United States district
+judge, and in 1865 the appointee came to the state and assumed the bench.
+Whatever else may be said of him, he was bold in expression of opinion,
+judicial and personal; and during the carpetbag r&eacute;gime he testified that
+&#8220;the general character of Alabama office-holders for intelligence and
+honesty was not good.&#8221; In 1870 Francis S. Lyon, of Demopolis, testified
+that a bill was filed in Judge Busteed&#8217;s court to foreclose two mortgages
+on the Alabama Central Railroad (Selma to Meridian), and the cost of that
+suit, paid by New York creditors of the road, amounted to $122,000. The
+institution presided over by Judge Busteed was costly to litigants, to say
+the least.</p>
+
+<p>A. J. Applegate became lieutenant-governor. Mr. William M. Lowe, of
+Huntsville, testifying before the congressional commission in 1870, said
+of him:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>&#8220;I had occasion to look into his record, and published a statement in
+reference to his character, in which I proved conclusively that any petit
+jury in any New England state would have convicted him of grand larceny
+upon the evidence by his own declarations,&mdash;his own letters. These charges
+were made by me when he was living. Every opportunity was given him to
+make his defense; he had no defense to make but a lie. He had been a
+member of McPherson&#8217;s body-guard that stopped near Mrs. Jacob Thompson&#8217;s
+residence in Mississippi. He was there taken sick and taken into her house
+and nursed and kindly treated by her. At that time and under those
+circumstances, he, or some one with his knowledge and connivance, stole
+the deeds and patents and valuable papers belonging to the Thompson
+estate. After the war he settled here and wrote a letter to Mrs. Thompson.
+In his first letter he thanked her for her kind and Christian treatment of
+him while he was sick, although he was an enemy to her cause, saying that
+he would ever hold it in remembrance. The second letter called to her mind
+the fact that she had lost those valuable papers, and offered to return
+them or have them returned to her for a consideration. She wrote him back.
+The correspondence was published in full. Finally, he wrote to her if she
+wanted these papers better than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> she wanted $10,000, to send him on the
+money and get the papers. That was about his language, written in the most
+abominable and illiterate style.&#8221; The matter was placed in the hands of
+lawyers, who induced Applegate with $300 to surrender the papers.</p>
+
+<p>General James H. Clanton, under oath, spoke thus of Harrington, speaker of
+the house of representatives:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Harrington came to Mobile very poor, from the northeast somewhere. He
+was never a soldier that we knew of. He is now very rich. Just after the
+war he was charged with running free negroes into Cuba. I do not know
+whether it is true or not. The present sheriff of Montgomery county showed
+me a reward offered for him, from what purported to be a northwestern
+paper, on a charge of bank robbery. He requested me to say nothing about
+it lest Harrington should get away. He said he was going for him that
+night; that he had his accomplice in jail, and the accomplice said
+Harrington was the man. The description he showed me was lifelike.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Asked whether it could not be a mistake, the general replied:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, sir; a man of marked physique. I did not give this information at the
+time to any of my law<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> partners, but they smiled when I told them that
+Harrington would pay more reward to Barbour (the sheriff) and we would
+never hear of it again. And we never did hear of it till we published it
+in the last campaign, to which Harrington, who still lives there, made no
+response whatever. Colonel Thomas H. Herndon, a prominent lawyer of
+Mobile, said to me that a friend saw Harrington, during the last session
+of the legislature at which he presided, take a crowd off to drink
+champagne at a barroom known as the Rialto, in Montgomery, and when
+remonstrated with for his extravagance, he ran his hand in his pocket and
+pulled out seventeen one-hundred-dollar bills, with the remark that he
+could afford it, as he had made that much in one day in engineering a bill
+through the house.&#8221; The general further testified that Eugene Beebe, of
+Montgomery, told him he paid Harrington a sum of money to advocate a
+lottery charter before the house. He said that of the representatives whom
+he &#8220;approached&#8221; on the subject of the lottery, only one, a negro,
+exhibited any qualms, and he accepted fifty dollars, protesting that it
+was only &#8220;as a loan.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>When Colonel Joseph Hodgson became superintendent of education, he said
+that county superintendents had embezzled between $50,000 and $60,000<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> of
+school funds. Two sons of the former state superintendent were fugitives
+on that account.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. P. T. Sayer, speaking of the Montgomery county representatives in the
+lower house of the legislature, said: &#8220;One of them is a man who came from
+Austria, by the name of Stroback. I understood that he was a sutler or
+something of that kind in the federal army. I further understood that he
+never has been naturalized; I do not know about that. He was said to be a
+gentleman in his own country; I do not know about that, but he certainly
+is not one in Montgomery. He is a man of a great deal of sense, and I
+think a dangerous man in any community situated as ours is. The others are
+three negroes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>These character sketches of radical officials might be multiplied
+indefinitely, but the monotony would weary the reader. Necessarily others
+will be mentioned incidentally as this story of reconstruction
+progresses.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER TEN</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">Ruinous Misgovernment</span></span></p>
+
+<p>Only misrule could be expected from such officials. Nothing was sacred
+from their greedy grasp. The most cherished institutions were debased to
+their purposes. In time the university was avoided by all who were
+unwilling to forfeit public esteem. One of the early arrivals from
+fruitful Ohio was Rev. A. S. Lakin. He was commissioned by Bishop Clark,
+of the Cincinnati conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to
+organize negro churches in Alabama. He was a fanatic of the extreme type,
+and his work of the politico-religious character. He regarded the
+Methodist Episcopal Church, south, as an aggregation of rebels, and aimed
+to array his negro proselytes against it by preaching political sermons,
+in which he reminded his audiences of their former bondage and alleged
+there was danger of its renewal. According to his own statements, he was
+the unterrified victim of a concatenation of Ku Klux attacks. In
+prosecuting his roving missions in the mountains of northern Alabama,
+Lakin&#8217;s morbid fancy <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>distorted every lone hunter encountered on the
+roadside into a lurking assassin, and every innocent group of gossiping
+rustics into a band of Ku Klux. He organized a camp-meeting, and one night
+at an early hour during its progress a party of horsemen rode through.
+Lakin wrote for publication in one of the church organs a hair-raising
+story of the incident, magnifying it into a Ku Klux foray. His explanation
+of the cause of the intrusion was that the klansmen were offended because
+of a rumor circulating in the camp that an infant born in the neighborhood
+was &#8220;a Ku Klux child,&#8221; an exact image in miniature of a disguised Ku Klux,
+horns and hood included. Lakin solemnly affirmed the fact of the birth of
+the monstrosity, but ungenerously robbed it of distinction by adding that
+six other infants in that klan-infested region were similarly &#8220;Ku Klux
+marked.&#8221; The woods must have been full of human curios!</p>
+
+<p>In 1868 the regents elected this superstitious and prejudiced emissary
+president of the University of Alabama! Accompanied by Dr. N. B. Cloud,
+state superintendent of education, Lakin journeyed to Tuscaloosa to assume
+the station which the people once hoped would be graced by the illustrious
+Henry Tutwiler. Professor Wyman was in charge of the institution and held
+the keys; the former president had withdrawn and appointed him custodian.
+On<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> the ground that the board of regents was illegally constituted,
+Professor Wyman refused to yield to Lakin, and the latter, discerning
+signs of popular displeasure, lost the courage which had nerved him to
+assert his claim, mounted his horse and hurriedly rode away in the
+direction of Huntsville, while Dr. Cloud departed with equal celerity in
+the direction of Montgomery.</p>
+
+<p>Some time afterward Lakin related a blood-curdling story of pursuit from
+Tuscaloosa by a band of Ku Klux and his almost miraculous escape from the
+horrible death to which the band had condemned him. This story provoked
+the publication of a counter charge,&mdash;that while Lakin was preaching
+somewhere in New York State he ill requited the hospitality of an
+entertainer by dishonoring the household.</p>
+
+<p>And this man&#8217;s ultimate aspiration was to represent Alabama in the United
+States Senate!</p>
+
+<p>One of the most scandalous chapters in the history of the Republican
+r&eacute;gime relates to railroad subsidies. The Lindsay administration favored
+encouragement to the building of railroads, as means for development of
+natural resources, and in 1867 the legislature passed, and the governor
+approved, an act which authorized the state to indorse bonds of new
+railroads to the extent of $12,000 per mile,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> with an additional
+endorsement for bridges; but indorsement was safeguarded carefully, and no
+wrongs were committed in connection with the execution of the law until
+the Radicals assumed control. Then there began a riot of bribery and
+corruption.</p>
+
+<p>November 10, 1871, I. F. Grant, state treasurer, submitted to the
+congressional commission investigating affairs in the southern states a
+statement from which the following extracts are made:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Bonded debt of the state January 11, 1861, $3,445,000.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The state is and was bound to pay in perpetuity for annual interest on
+the school fund the sum of $134,367.80.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Interest unpaid during the war, accrued up to and including January 1,
+1867, was then funded and new bonds issued for the sum of $621,000, which
+made the total bonded debt on</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td>January 1, 1867</td><td align="right">$4,066,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&#8220;The war debt, amounting to $12,094,731.95 was repudiated.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&#8220;Eight per cent. bonds sold in 1867-68</td><td align="right">659,100</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&#8220;Eight per cent. bonds sold in 1869-70</td><td align="right">657,700</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&#8220;Total bonded debt January 1, 1871</td><td align="right">$5,382,800</td></tr></table>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>&#8220;Cause of increase, sale of bonds to carry on the government.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There is a prospective liability for an indefinite amount growing out of
+the passage of an act, approved February 19, 1867, and amended August,
+1868, whereby the state is required to indorse railroad bonds to the
+amount of $12,000 per mile, which act was further amended in March, 1870,
+so as to increase the indorsement to $16,000 per mile.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The same legislature in March, 1870, made a loan to the Alabama and
+Chattanooga Railroad Company of $2,000,000 in Alabama 8% bonds, over and
+above the indorsement of $16,000 per mile for the entire length of the
+road, thereby adding to the direct and collateral liability of the state
+for this one road the sum of $6,700,000. In addition to this, the
+Republican governor, W. H. Smith, issued to the road bonds to the amount
+of $500,000 above what the road could ever by any possibility claim under
+the law.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The said road made default in payment of January and July, 1871,
+interest, which the state paid as its owner and creditor, $508,000.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There are eight or ten other roads for which the state, under the law
+above referred to, is liable as indorser.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>The state auditor reported this summary of liabilities September 30, 1871:</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td>Direct indebtedness</td><td align="right">$ 8,761,967 37</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Present conditional indebtedness</td><td align="right">15,420,000 00</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Conditional indebtedness provided by law</td><td align="right">14,200,000 00</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>Under Democratic administration, a committee of the legislature
+investigated the railroad deals and reported that &#8220;Two millions of state
+bonds which the law authorized the governor to issue in aid of said
+company (Alabama and Chattanooga) in sums sufficient to pay off the cost
+of having constructed a certain amount of road in excess of the state
+indorsement of $16,000 per mile, were issued in bulk, with reckless haste,
+and were hurried away to the money marts of Europe&#8221;; that &#8220;there has been
+no record kept by any officer of the state of the number and amount of the
+bonds issued or indorsed by the state in favor of the various railroads
+entitled by law to the aid of the state, except as to loans of bonds to
+the Montgomery and Eufaula Railroad Company, $300,000 in amount, and the
+indorsement of bonds in favor of the Mobile and Montgomery Railroad
+Company.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>R. M. Patton testified that although he had accepted the presidency of the
+Alabama and Chattanooga<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> Railroad Company, he was ignored because he
+opposed the loan bill. D. N. Stanton, of Boston, was elected president,
+and Patton &#8220;was not invited or expected at the consultation of friends of
+the road. He said: &#8220;I do not think the stockholders ever paid in any of
+the capital stock of the company.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Arthur Bingham, state treasurer from 1868 to 1870, asked whether he knew
+of any fraud or illegality in connection With the issue or indorsement of
+the railroad bonds, declined to answer upon the ground that by so doing he
+would criminate himself.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Holmes testified that on the last day of the session of the
+legislature of 1869-70 Mr. Gilmer, president of the North and South
+Railroad, borrowed from him and Mr. Farley $25,000. Next day Mr. Gilmer
+complained that John Hardy, of Dallas county, chairman of the committee of
+the legislature, had treated him shabbily; that &#8220;he had agreed to pass the
+bill for him for $25,000, but that at the eleventh hour he went back on
+him and made him pay $10,000 more, making in all $35,000.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Jere Haralson, colored, Mr. Hardy&#8217;s colleague from Dallas, was a shrewd
+negro, but at that time a cheap commodity. Later he appraised himself more
+highly. Ben Turner, a negro (successor to the carpetbag congressman),
+continued for some time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> after regeneration to represent the Dallas
+district in Congress, and Jere spent much time with him in Washington,
+engaged in profitable political work. But at the Montgomery distribution
+only fifty dollars was apportioned to him. He ingenuously explained that
+he accepted it as a loan.</p>
+
+<p>When the state, some years later, attempted to make Mr. Hardy disgorge the
+$35,000 (bonds) and imprisoned him, he escaped on the plea that it was
+imprisonment for debt.</p>
+
+<p>Ex-Governor Patton published a statement in which he said that, when in
+Boston, parties to the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad complained to him
+because legislation in Alabama had cost the company $200,000.</p>
+
+<p>J. P. Stowe, a Montgomery county representative, asserted, and the
+assertion was published, that John Hardy took away the night the
+legislature adjourned not less than $150,000, but not all of it was
+his&mdash;he had much of it for distribution.</p>
+
+<p>Construction of the Alabama and Chattanooga (now the Great Southern)
+Railroad, extending from Meridian to Chattanooga, referred to in the
+report quoted from, was under direction of D. N. Stanton. He was a skilled
+and unscrupulous lobbyist and get-rich-quick builder. There was testimony
+to the effect that the only money used in construction work<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> was that
+which was derived from state indorsement. The indorsement for bridges was
+$60.00 per lineal foot of structure. In the hill country, beginning in
+Tuscaloosa county, the line of road described a serpentine trail among the
+hills. Mere increase of mileage presented no great disadvantage to
+Stanton, but tunneling, cutting and filling were difficulties studiously
+avoided. Consequently, when the road passed into other hands and
+reorganization was effected, changes necessary in straightening left the
+landscape with marks of peculiar interest to civil engineers. Travelers by
+that road may observe from car windows at many points abandoned roadbeds
+to right and left, winding among the low places and avoiding hills which
+were so formidable to Stanton, reminding the observer of meandering brooks
+seeking lower levels. Lines of least resistance were most attractive to
+Stanton, regardless of circuitousness.</p>
+
+<p>While government was thus growing in costliness, the resources of the
+people who had to foot the bills were diminishing.</p>
+
+<p>State Treasurer Grant&#8217;s statement showed that the average cost of state
+government in Alabama for 1859 and 1860 was $813,000; for 1868, 1869,
+1870, $1,514,000; and the increase, he said, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> partly due to increase
+of bonded debt, but mainly to ignorant and corrupt legislation.</p>
+
+<p>The report of the superintendent of census showed:</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td>Assessed valuation of property in Alabama, including slaves, in 1860</td><td align="right">$432,198,762</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Assessed valuation in 1870</td><td align="right">156,770,387</td></tr>
+<tr><td>State taxation in 1860</td><td align="right">530,107</td></tr>
+<tr><td>State taxation in 1870</td><td align="right">1,477,414</td></tr>
+<tr><td>County taxation in 1860</td><td align="right">309,474</td></tr>
+<tr><td>County taxation in 1870</td><td align="right">1,122,471</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>Now consider, as representing average conditions in the counties of the
+Black Belt, these facts derived from the report of Judge Hill, an expert,
+employed to investigate affairs in Marengo county.</p>
+
+<p>Taxes in 1870 were threefold greater than in 1860. The value of subjects
+of taxation had diminished two-thirds; 22,000 slaves, of an average value
+of $500 each, had ceased to be enumerated as taxable property; lands had
+depreciated in value sixty per cent.; there was less than one-half as much
+live stock as formerly; two townships had been lopped off and given to the
+newly-created county of Hale.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER ELEVEN</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">The Whites Aroused</span></span></p>
+
+<p>The people of the Black Belt had borne with all possible patience the
+multiplied grievous wrongs recited in the foregoing pages. During the
+transition from master and slave to the new relations between them there
+was a strong disposition in both races to live in peace and harmony and
+make the best of their altered relations; the negroes were civil and
+confiding, scarcely realizing the change in their status, while the whites
+appreciated their good behavior during the war, when families of men in
+the army were unprotected, and were disposed to gratitude for it. But
+since the establishment of the league friendly intercourse between the
+races had been growing rarer, and now ceased altogether; the estrangement
+was complete.</p>
+
+<p>With the imposition of the constitution began the reign of the
+carpetbagger&mdash;&#8220;demon of discord and anarchy&#8221;&mdash;and the negro, and the
+infliction of &#8220;the horrors of reconstruction&#8221;; a civil convulsion in which
+the foundations of society were broken up;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> &#8220;a vast sluice of ignorance
+and vice was opened; a race which never had evolved anything of its own
+motion was given the ballot, the highest right of American citizenship,&#8221;
+and never regarded it as more than a personal perquisite, while white men
+of the highest type were disqualified from voting by the constitution of
+their state; negroes were made eligible to all offices, while the federal
+Constitution deprived the people of the wisdom, knowledge and experience
+in office of former leaders at a time when they were most needed. A
+comment of the time was, that a proscribed white man could not have been
+bailiff to his former slave if that former slave was a justice of the
+peace, as he might well have been, if he was not in fact. Democrats had
+not opposed negro suffrage in order to oppress the negroes, but to prevent
+negroes from crushing them; and the situation produced by the imposition
+of the constitution attested the reasonableness of their fear of the
+effect of the endowment of the negro with the ballot. They realized that
+&#8220;in popular government where two races exist in mass who are from any
+cause so different that they cannot mingle in marriage and become one, the
+exercise of political power must be confined to one or the other of those
+races if there be a wish for security and peace.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In the fourth district, the whites were greatly <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>outnumbered by the
+blacks, and, comparing voting strength, a contest with them at the polls
+seemed hopeless.</p>
+
+<p>The census of 1870 credited Choctaw county with 5,802 whites and 6,872
+blacks; Greene county, 3,858 whites and 14,541 blacks; Hale county, 4,802
+whites and 16,990 blacks; Marengo county, 6,090 whites and 20,058 blacks;
+Sumter county, 5,202 whites and 18,907 blacks; Tuscaloosa county, 10,229
+whites and 8,294 blacks.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, excepting the first- and last-named counties, the whites were
+outnumbered by more than three to one.</p>
+
+<p>All of the towns in the section under review were small, the populations
+ranging from 1,500 to 2,000. Greensboro in Hale, Eutaw in Greene,
+Demopolis in Marengo, Butler in Choctaw, Livingston in Sumter, and
+Tuscaloosa in the county of the same name, were the seats of government of
+their respective counties, centers of religion, education and sociability.
+At Tuscaloosa were located the State University and a fine girls&#8217; school;
+in Marion were the Seminary, the Institute, Judson, and Howard College; in
+Greensboro, the Methodist Southern University and an advanced girls&#8217;
+school. These towns had been founded as the home places of wealthy and
+cultured planter families whose plantations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> were in the fertile prairies
+and canebrakes. Office-holding had always been their honorable
+distinction, gained by highest merit.</p>
+
+<p>An epitome of conditions in the southern states at that period will serve
+to portray those in Alabama: &#8220;Legislatures in some instances composed in
+part of pardoned felons and penitentiary convicts enacting laws; the
+judiciary in the hands of charlatans and bribe-takers; every office, from
+the highest to the lowest, filled with ignorance, vice and unblushing
+corruption; with the land swarming with libelers and malignant slanderers;
+the country divided into military districts and garrisoned with troops,
+whose officers were ever ready, at the slightest bidding, to annoy and
+oppress an unarmed people.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But the whites realized that in this section, at least, civilization
+itself was at stake, and notwithstanding the adverse odds and other
+disadvantages, resolved to risk all in combat with the forces arrayed
+against them. They were acquainted with the character of the Union League;
+aware of its horrible objects and aims; the almost daily crimes of lustful
+fiends, assassins and incendiaries were regarded as the fruits of its
+teachings; its responsibility for the existence of courts of law void of
+decency and recognized authority, and for officials incapable of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>
+enforcing law and order, for injury to public credit by prodigal pledges,
+and waste of public money, was fixed by its foolish and persistent
+allegiance to false leaders. This league was the institution marked for
+destruction. An organization pledged to undertake the task relentlessly
+and unflinchingly was regarded as a necessity. As the mighty Anglo-Saxon
+race on this continent had ever proved equal to emergencies, so now the
+men of this race, war-trained in arms and horsemanship, sensible that the
+great stake of Christianity and civilization lay in the balance, nerved
+themselves for the conflict.</p>
+
+<p>The rule of the carpetbagger and scalawag and freedman was a &#8220;reign of
+terror,&#8221; and thrilling as well as deplorable were the incidents of the
+struggle to throw off the yoke. The mere recital of them, without comment,
+would fill volumes. Only those regarded as culminating events in the
+several counties of the district will be related. And in the relation
+sworn testimony of the time supports the writer&#8217;s statements where
+personal observation was lacking. They illustrate the sacrifices of the
+devoted men who were impelled to deeds distasteful but regarded as a
+necessary choice of evils, and who rescued that garden spot of the state
+from savage domination and again made it fit abiding place for the race
+which before had dispossessed the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>aborigines. These men knew that the
+negroes were misguided dupes of designing and ruthless leaders, and pitied
+them, but for the ultimate good of both races sternly resolved that they
+should be compelled to discard those leaders and submit to the legitimate
+rulers of the land.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER TWELVE</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">The Ku Klux Klan</span></span></p>
+
+<p>Before proceeding with the narrative, an explanation of the origin and
+purposes of the Ku Klux Klan may interest the reader. The facts mentioned
+were derived from authentic and official sources.</p>
+
+<p>The first den was organized in Pulaski, Giles county, Tennessee, in 1866,
+and Pulaski continued to be the centre of the order throughout its
+existence as an interstate organization. Six men organized the den for
+diversion and amusement in a community where life was dull and monotonous.
+The original name was Ku Kloi (from the Greek word Ku Klos), meaning band
+or circle. It was changed to Ku Klux and Klan was added.</p>
+
+<p>The constitution of Tennessee was imposed by a fraction of the people. The
+legislature passed an act restricting suffrage which disfranchised
+three-fourths of the native population of the middle and western parts of
+the state. This obsequious legislature also passed acts ratifying the
+illegal edicts of the autocratic and tyrannical Governor Brownlow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> (&#8220;The
+Parson&#8221;); the sedition law was revived and amplified; freedom of speech
+and press was overthrown, and a large militia force composed of negroes
+was created and made responsible to the governor alone. At an election
+enough men had been permitted to register to thwart Brownlow&#8217;s plans. He
+threw out the entire vote of twenty-eight counties. Registrars were
+removed, registration set aside, the counties placed under martial law,
+and negro militia quartered therein. The legislature had become
+unanimously Republican in both branches.</p>
+
+<p>The people began to consider means of counteracting this high-handed
+tyranny. The Pulaski Ku Klux organization had attracted much attention and
+branches of it had been organized in many parts of the state. Leaders of
+the people quickly saw that it could be utilized for the purpose in view.
+And this was done. The order, thus perverted, soon spread from Virginia to
+Texas. The ritual was simple and easily memorized and was never printed;
+but a copy of the prescript was obtained and used in a trial in Tennessee
+and reproduced in United States government publications. At a meeting in
+Nashville of delegates from all dens this was modified. That convention
+designated the southern territory as &#8220;The Invisible Empire.&#8221; It was
+subdivided into &#8220;realms&#8221; (corresponding to states); realms were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> divided
+into &#8220;dominions&#8221; (congressional districts); dominions into &#8220;provinces&#8221;
+(counties); provinces into &#8220;dens.&#8221; Officers were designated as follows:
+Grand Wizard of Invisible Empire and his ten Genii (and the grand wizard&#8217;s
+powers were almost autocratic), Grand Dragon of Realm and his Eight
+Hydras, Grand Titan of Dominion and his Six Furies, Grand Cyclops of Den
+and his Two Night Hawks, Grand Monk, Grand Scribe, Grand Exchequer, Grand
+Turk, Grand Sentinel, The Genii, Hydras, Furies, Gobbins and Night Hawks
+were staff officers. It is said that the gradation and distribution of
+authority were perfect, and that no more perfectly organized order ever
+existed in the world. The costume consisted of a mask with openings for
+the nose and eyes; a tall, pointed hat of stiff material; a gown or robe
+to cover the entire person. Each member was provided with a whistle, and
+with this, and by means of a code of signals, communicated with his
+comrades. They used a cypher to fix dates, etc., and published their
+notices in the newspapers, until repressive laws forbade this. Their
+horses were robed and their hoofs muffled.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, other orders formed: White brotherhood, White League, Pale
+Faces, Constitutional Union Guards and Knights of White Camelia; but all
+evidence shows that they were for the most part<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> short-lived, the very
+name of Ku Klux having caught the fancy of the members. General Forrest is
+credited with having consolidated all of them into the one grand order. An
+interview with General Forrest was published in the <i>Cincinnati
+Commercial</i> in September, 1868, in which he was quoted as saying that in
+Tennessee the klan embraced a membership of 40,000, and in all the states
+550,000. He said to the congressional commission that the order was
+disbanded by him when it had fulfilled its purpose. No doubt he meant that
+the general organization was disbanded, for certainly detached bodies
+existed after the date fixed by him as that of the disbandment. Fleming
+says that the general was initiated by Captain John W. Morton, formerly
+his chief of artillery, and became Grand Wizard. In his testimony General
+Forrest said that the klan in Tennessee was intended as a defensive
+organization to offset the Union League; to protect ex-Confederates from
+extermination by Brownlow&#8217;s militia; to prevent the burning of gins, mills
+and residences.</p>
+
+<p>Congress and the radical legislatures resorted to all possible means to
+break up the klans, but they existed until after white supremacy was
+restored. Even then, counterfeit bodies perverted the name until they were
+suppressed by the natural rulers of the land. Congress passed a bill which
+provided for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> suspension of civil government in any district in which Ku
+Klux lawlessness existed, thus depriving all the people of trial by jury
+and other rights, and placing whole communities under the ban of military
+power. The Alabama legislative enactment pronounced anyone found in
+disguise a felon and outlaw. It also provided that if a person was whipped
+or killed by men in disguise, the county could be sued for a penalty
+ranging from $1,000 to $5,000; and it made it the duty of the prosecuting
+attorney of the county to institute suit for and in behalf of the victim
+or his relatives, in any case where no indictment was found.</p>
+
+<p>After the Nashville convention the order courted publicity, in order to
+inspire respect for its powers, and the Ku Klux sometimes paraded in
+daylight. Their appearance in public was sudden and unheralded; and they
+disappeared as silently and mysteriously. The perfection of their
+movements in drill revealed the training which the members had received as
+cavalrymen during the war. Sometimes the parades were at night, and then
+the mystery of their sudden appearance and the weirdness of the spectacle
+were heightened. One of the night parades was in Huntsville, and the story
+of it was circulated throughout the north as evidence that another
+revolution was imminent. It was in the nature of an <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>acceptance of
+challenge, and the circumstances connected with it were as follows:</p>
+
+<p>On October 30, 1868, C. C. Sheets, a Grant candidate for elector, made a
+speech in Florence. About ten o&#8217;clock that night a band of disguised men
+visited his sleeping apartment. He attempted to escape by way of a
+gallery, but was caught and taken back to his room. After a short stay the
+band retired without having in any way harmed him. Sheets said that they
+exacted from him a promise that he would desist from making inflammatory
+speeches. Later in the same month Sheets delivered a speech in Huntsville.
+It was reported that in the course of that speech he told his colored
+audience that he had been interfered with a few nights before in Florence
+by Ku Klux, and that he had promised them then that he would not make the
+abusive and inflammatory speeches that he had been making; but up there,
+where there were so many colored people, he wasn&#8217;t afraid to say what he
+pleased, and that if the colored people would do what was becoming in
+them, they would carry with them weapons and shoot down those disguised
+men wherever they found them; that the reason the Ku Klux paraded the
+country was because the negroes were weak-kneed.</p>
+
+<p>The speech excited the negroes. They remained<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> in town all day, and at
+night a meeting was held in the court-house and many negroes, with guns,
+attended. During the day leading negroes loudly proclaimed that Ku Klux
+would never again be permitted to enter the town; that if they attempted
+to do so, they would be shot on sight. A federal military officer had said
+it would be lawful to do this. A rumor circulated that Ku Klux were
+assembling at a point some miles distant, and about dark two large posses
+of negroes, under command of deputy sheriffs, repaired to points along
+principal roads to intercept them. While the speaking at the court-house
+was in progress, fugitive negroes from the posses, which had suddenly
+dissolved at the approach of danger, rushed to the court-house and
+announced that Ku Klux were marching on the town. The meeting broke up in
+confusion and the people hurried into the yard. All the near-by streets
+and the sidewalks surrounding the square were thronged with people, white
+and black. Suddenly the cavalcade, numbering about two hundred, fully
+uniformed in tall conical hats, long gowns, and hoods with eyeholes, some
+armed with guns and sabres, wheeled into the square, and without sound
+save the whistle signals&mdash;then almost as awe-inspiring as had been the
+&#8220;rebel yell&#8221;&mdash;rode in military order completely around the court-house,
+and then turned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> into one of the streets. Proceeding along this some
+distance, the column halted and formed into battle line. After maintaining
+this formation for a few minutes, the march was resumed and the band
+disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>There was stationed in Hunstville at that time a regiment of regular
+troops, and their commander, General Cruger, with some of his staff
+officers, from a hotel veranda viewed the spectacle of the Ku Klux parade.
+His comment was that &#8220;it was fine but absurd.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There was an unfortunate episode of the event:</p>
+
+<p>Just as the Ku Klux withdrew there was a discharge of firearms in the
+courtyard. Some witnesses said that the first discharge, an accidental
+one, due to nervousness, caused the others. Judge Thurlow, a visitor, was
+mortally wounded, and said a short while before his death that he was shot
+accidentally by his Republican friends. A negro seated on the court-house
+steps was killed instantly. Two white men and a negro were wounded. This
+tragedy was without design, and the excitement was quickly quieted.</p>
+
+<p>A rumor that a few undisguised Ku Klux were posted about the square was
+supported by the fact that after the departure of the troop three men,
+having disguises in hand, were arrested by soldiers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> while in the act of
+mounting horses in one of the side streets. Later in the night they were
+rescued from jail by their comrades, and were never officially identified.
+But their paraphernalia was retained by the officials and often exhibited
+and photographed. Perhaps none other was ever captured directly from a
+wearer.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER THIRTEEN</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">A Miscarriage</span></span></p>
+
+<p>There were some miscarriages in the operations of the klan. A memorable
+one of this character is recalled. A cavalcade, supposed to have started
+from the western side of the Warrior river, rode through Greensboro and
+proceeded to Marion, a distance of about thirty-five miles, presumably to
+take from jail and execute a negro who had, with but slight provocation,
+killed a white man with a paling which he wrenched from a fence. The
+riders visited the jail and demanded the keys. The jailer&#8217;s wife appeared
+and implored them to desist. The jailer himself, a member of a fraternal
+order, made an appeal which was recognized and respected by members of the
+party and was successful, and after much parleying, the invaders withdrew
+without molesting the custodian of the county Bastile or his charge. But
+an episode of the foray was embarrassing and dangerous. The riders had
+proceeded only a short distance when one of the horses<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> fell and expired,
+in full mock panoply. Here was an awkward situation for the raiders. A
+comrade, far away from home, unhorsed and subjected to inevitable
+detection should he be abandoned! It is not known by what means he escaped
+and regained the realms of the &#8220;Grand Cyclops.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The warning to evil-disposed persons conveyed by this raid perhaps
+obviated the necessity for another in that particular part of the county.</p>
+
+<p>Across the border line of Mississippi occurred a lamentable disaster, due
+to incompetent leadership and ignorance of locality.</p>
+
+<p>In 1870 the carpetbag government in Mississippi reached the zenith of its
+power, and its baleful influence pervaded every nook and corner of the
+state. The effects of misgovernment were deplorable. Lands which in
+ante-bellum days were appraised at twenty-five to seventy-five dollars per
+acre had so depreciated in value that at forced sales only about one
+dollar per acre could be obtained. There were few real estate transfers;
+some of the lands were depopulated; the only immigrants were carpetbaggers
+seeking offices; taxation was oppressive, especially for the support of
+schools, and almost the entire burden was laid upon the whites; the scanty
+possessions of negroes were within the limits of exemption; even the poll
+tax, devoted to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> school purposes, was evaded by them. In some counties
+tax-payers bore the expense of schooling three negro pupils to one white
+pupil. At length they resisted collection of the tax.</p>
+
+<p>Robert W. Flournoy, of Pontotoc, distinguished himself in the resultant
+controversy. When not engaged as deputy postmaster and county
+superintendent of education, he conducted a weekly newspaper, and made it
+and himself odious. In his paper he bitterly denounced the Ku Klux as
+&#8220;midnight prowlers and assassins,&#8221; and responsible for the suppression of
+public schools. He insisted that in the schools there should be no
+separation of races, and engaged in a prolonged and heated controversy
+with the governor over the question of admitting negroes to the State
+University.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Flournoy received from the Grand Cyclops a communication,
+intimating that at an early date he would receive a visit from the men
+whom he had denounced. About midnight, May 13, 1871, Flournoy&#8217;s office
+foreman and a companion aroused him from sleep with the startling
+announcement that a band of Ku Klux had appeared in the village, and the
+leader was inquiring where the colonel&#8217;s residence was located. He had
+some shotguns, and, arming himself and his callers, departed from home and
+repaired to a blacksmith shop near by. At this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> place a number of
+townsmen, well armed, had already assembled. The colonel subsequently
+accounted for their presence with arms with the statement that during the
+afternoon they had been hunting, and when the foreman had alarmed them
+they were engaged in a game of cards. Altogether, these men constituted a
+strong force, and proceeded to arrange an ambuscade at the shop.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the Ku Klux, who, according to later revelations, were
+strangers, wholly unacquainted with the locality, having learned the
+situation of the Flournoy residence, were approaching it, unconscious of
+the state of affairs. Fronting the place and extending a long distance
+were deep and tortuous gulleys, and in their progress the horsemen became
+entangled and bewildered as in a maze and their formation broken.
+Extricating themselves in groups and singly, they approached the shop.
+Chancellor Pollard and Deputy Sheriff Todd were with the concealed
+villagers, and the former emerged from the rear of the shop and commanded
+the riders to surrender. Simultaneously, someone in concealment fired a
+shot, and instantly the ambushers sprang from cover and discharged a
+volley in the direction of the disordered klansmen. The surprise was
+complete and overwhelming. Horses, becoming unruly, frantically turned and
+fled. The riders in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> advance were thus thrown back upon those emerging
+from the gulleys. In the resultant confusion there was desultory firing
+back and forth, but the unfortunate strangers were unable to rally at any
+point, and singly and in small groups they withdrew to the main street,
+where they found themselves in little less embarrassing a situation. No
+one knew in what direction they should retreat. They had lost their
+bearings and knew not how to reach the road over which they had entered
+the village. Disbanded, they fled in different directions.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Flournoy&#8217;s supporters, for the most part, were ignorant of the
+character of the men whom they had assaulted and the object of the foray,
+and were easily led into the mistake of pressing the advantage they had
+gained. Consequently, led by Flournoy, they intercepted a small body of
+the raiders and fired on them.</p>
+
+<p>Stampeded as they were, the resolute riders halted and returned the fire.</p>
+
+<p>After daybreak a man, fully costumed and still in mask, badly shot, was
+found at the place where he and his comrades had been waylaid. The
+unfortunate was tenderly cared for, but expired a few hours later. Three
+others were wounded, but escaped. Sixteen horses, abandoned by their
+riders, together with the disguises of those riders, were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> picked up next
+day. The original party comprised thirty men.</p>
+
+<p>There was profound sorrow in the little town when the inhabitants learned
+what an awful mistake had been made.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER FOURTEEN</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">A Convention Supplements Ku Klux</span></span></p>
+
+<p>Throughout the reconstruction period there was perhaps more turbulence in
+Choctaw than in any other county of the district, but, after all, the
+climax in the struggle for restoration of white supremacy was in an
+orderly and regularly-organized meeting of citizens, without any attempt
+at secrecy of proceedings.</p>
+
+<p>Judge J. Q. Smith, as substitute for Judge Luther R. Smith, as previously
+chronicled, undertook to hold the regular term of the circuit court at
+Butler. The sheriff attempted to arrest a boisterous man outside the
+court-house and met defiance and resistance; consequently, in alarm he
+resigned, and the judge, after some deliberation, concluded he could not
+proceed without a sheriff and returned to his own proper jurisdiction. The
+people in attendance and the residents of Butler held a meeting and
+adopted a resolution requesting resignations from all public officials.
+More cautious men dissuaded the leaders from promulgating the resolution,
+and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> a movement started to have meetings in all the precincts and
+delegates to a county meeting chosen. This project was successfully
+accomplished, and the county meeting adopted a resolution which had been
+adopted at a meeting in Sumter county. But in the interval between the
+impromptu gathering and the regularly-organized county meeting most of the
+officials had taken time by the forelock and anticipated the request that
+they vacate the offices. The resolution adopted declared devotion to law
+and order and opposition to any violation thereof, but recited the fact
+that the objectionable officials held office, not by choice of the people,
+but contrary to their will; that the officers had demonstrated their
+incapacity to enforce the laws, and, therefore, in the interest of the
+public they should resign.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER FIFTEEN</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">Foiled the Ku Klux</span></span></p>
+
+<p>Throughout the reconstruction period there was less lawlessness in Hale
+than in the counties adjoining, and overthrow of the radical
+administration was effected without bloodshed.</p>
+
+<p>January 19, 1871, in the wee sma&#8217; hours, a cyclops and his retinue of
+seventy unceremoniously called at Judge Blackford&#8217;s apartments to pay
+their respects. The call was intended as a sort of &#8220;surprise party&#8221;; but
+coming events had cast their shadows before, and those shadows were as
+premonitions of an early nocturnal visit, and the judge was &#8220;not at home.&#8221;
+He was cautiously domiciled in a room adjoining his office, in another
+part of town. Here, in the embrace of Morpheus, perhaps reveling in dreams
+of a blessed land beyond the jurisdiction of the Grand Wizard, he was
+aroused with the cry of &#8220;Ku Klux!&#8221; by an alert negro, who had hastened
+from the judge&#8217;s home to apprise him of the presence there of the
+unwelcome visitors. The alarm was not premature, for the horsemen were
+hotfooting in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> wake of the negro and reached the office almost as soon
+as he. The judge needed no repetition of the dreadful tidings. His
+transition from Dreamland to earth was instantaneous, and his plunge in
+dishabille through an open window was a disappearing act worthy of
+reproduction on a dramatic stage. The weird sound of a whistle close at
+hand broke discordantly into the sweet concert of frogs, katydids and
+other melodists of the nights and accelerated the speed of him who sought
+asylum and ghostly solitude in the boneyard in the depths of the forest.</p>
+
+<p>Recounting the thrilling incidents of that awful night, and his sojourn of
+three nights in the gruesome refuge, Dr. Blackford, expressed bitter
+resentment of the rude treatment to which his glossy tile, which he
+abandoned in vanishing through the window, was subjected by the klansmen;
+they placed it on the end of a staff and bore it as a sort of mock pennant
+at the head of the cavalcade. Often trivial incidents, if ridiculous or
+amusing, eclipse those that are grave. It was so in the Eutaw riot, when a
+&#8220;plug hat&#8221; diverted dangerous men from an unlawful purpose,&mdash;but that is
+another story, and will be told in due time.</p>
+
+<p>For the next few days, Dr. Blackford camped at night and returned to his
+office in the morning. According to his own statement, a prominent
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>Confederate general took him to his quarters in a hotel and promised him
+protection temporarily. One evening, in general conversation, the subject
+of the Ku Klux was broached, and the host imparted to his very receptive
+guest much information thereon. The klans pervaded the country, and were
+better organized than the Confederate army had ever been. There was no
+escape for a proscribed man if he should tarry when ordered to be on the
+move; when they dealt with a man, a klan from some other county or state
+did the work, and all residents could be seen pursuing their accustomed
+walks. &#8220;You are watched,&#8221; he said, &#8220;day and night, and your whereabouts
+cannot long be concealed. On that night when the Ku Klux were after you,
+not more than one or two persons in the vicinity had knowledge of their
+coming.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>[There were at that time in Greensboro two distinguished Confederate
+generals, Forrest and Rucker, engaged in building the Selma and Memphis
+Railroad.]</p>
+
+<p>Judge Blackford conferred with some prominent citizens, and at his request
+they consented to purchase his property on condition that he resign and
+betake himself to other parts. After prolonged negotiations, the
+arrangement was effected. Governor Lindsay appointed as Blackford&#8217;s
+successor to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> the probate judgeship Mr. James M. Hobson, father of
+Congressman Richmond P. Hobson. Dr. Blackford, with his grievances,
+repaired to Washington, where an emollient in the form of a special agency
+of the Postoffice Department diverted his thoughts from the enemies he had
+left behind.</p>
+
+<p>The details of Dr. Blackford&#8217;s statement of information derived from the
+Confederate general should be taken with a grain of salt, because his
+memory was not accurate. In Washington he testified in regard to another
+occurrence in Greensboro, and General Blair&#8217;s inquisitiveness exposed the
+infirmity referred to.</p>
+
+<p>He said the citizens regarded the soldiers &#8220;as a set of niggers and
+offscourings of creation&#8221; whom they could &#8220;buy with two dollars and a
+drink of whisky,&#8221; and make them do their will. Then he related that &#8220;while
+probate judge&#8221; there was an election in Greensboro, and soldiers in charge
+at the polls got drunk and changed negroes&#8217; votes. He interfered, and one
+of them asked: &#8220;What the devil have you got to do with it?&#8221; The doctor
+replied: &#8220;I have simply this much, I am the presiding officer here of this
+county; I propose to keep the peace and enforce my rights as the presiding
+officer of the county, and I will deal with you myself if you do not
+leave.&#8221; The valiant doctor then drew a pistol<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> and said, &#8220;If you do not
+leave here now, I will shoot you.&#8221; Comrades of the obstreperous soldier
+interposed and bore him away, leaving the doctor in serene enjoyment of
+his rights as &#8220;presiding officer of the county.&#8221; After he had testified
+further at considerable length, Senator Blair suddenly projected himself
+into the inquiry with the question:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;On what occasion was it you drew your pistol upon a United States soldier
+and told him you would shoot him if he would not desist?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It was on the day of the election.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What election?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;For the constitution; the day we voted on the constitution, I think that
+was the day.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What office did you hold then?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, sir; it was not the day of the constitutional election; it was the
+day on which the election, I think, of officers took place, and I know
+that I was&mdash;or at least my impression is that I was probate judge at the
+time; that is my impression, that I was probate judge at the time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The officers were elected on the same day the constitution was voted on.
+So you could not have been a probate judge until you were elected and
+commissioned.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, sir; my impression is, that it was after I was probate judge that
+that occurred. I think I told<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> him that by virtue of the office that I
+held, if he did not desist from this&mdash;I know that was my assertion to the
+soldier.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Was that a proper act for an officer, a conservator of the peace?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I do not know that it was, but the acts of violence going on, I thought,
+demanded it, and the sheriff of the county had left,&mdash;and left these
+soldiers there to do just what they pleased, and they were drunk; and when
+I asked them several times to desist from this thing, and this fellow
+clapped his hand on his pistol,&mdash;and I had a large derringer in my pocket,
+and I told him he should do it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You drew your pistol on him?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, sir; I drew my pistol.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Was it your duty to arrest him?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Perhaps it might have been, sir. I did not think so; in the midst of that
+excitement, I did not think so, sir.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If a peace officer set such examples, they cannot complain that they are
+followed by others.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, sir; that may be all true, but the peace officers had all forsaken
+me and I was there, either to let the election go by default or else to
+pursue that course,&mdash;and I resolved on that to get him away from there.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>&#8220;Would not the course have been just as effectual if you had arrested him
+in the name of the law?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think the parties around him would have resisted arrest.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Would not they have equally resisted your firing upon him?&#8221;</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER SIXTEEN</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">In Tuscaloosa</span></span></p>
+
+<p>Two young men belonging in the hills of Tuscaloosa county, were journeying
+in a wagon, bound homeward from a trading trip to Northport (across the
+river from Tuscaloosa). Passing a negro lad, they jestingly pretended that
+they would kidnap him. In alarm, the boy fled to his home and informed his
+father that he had been mistreated; and the man armed himself with a gun
+and pursued the unconscious young men. Overtaking them, he leveled his gun
+menacingly and cursed the unarmed and defenseless white men. That night
+they, with some friends, repaired to the negro&#8217;s house to chastise him. He
+had assembled a number of armed friends in anticipation of an attack. He
+had loosened some of the flooring, and through the opening thus provided
+crawled to the edge of the house, and, emerging from this position, crept
+unperceived to the near-by bushes. While the whites were parleying with
+the inmates of the house, he discharged both barrels of his gun, and young
+Finley fell dead.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> Shots from the house succeeded. Attacked front and
+rear, the whites withdrew in disorder. News of the occurrence quickly
+spread far and wide.</p>
+
+<p>Next day one of the negroes implicated was caught and killed. Later,
+another, who had been captured and incarcerated in jail at Tuscaloosa, was
+taken therefrom by a band of men and executed. The ringleader escaped
+temporarily. Twice in pursuit of him steamboats were stopped and searched.
+The fugitive had been on one of them, but debarked at one of the landings.
+About twelve months after the unsuccessful chase, the fugitive was traced
+to a plantation in Hale county, where the habit of wearing a heavy
+revolver even while at field work rendered him an object of suspicion, and
+caused an investigation which revealed his identity. His dead body, weapon
+in hand, was found one day on the roadside, and his taking off was
+associated in the minds of the people with the brief visit to that
+neighborhood of two white men, who departed in the direction of Tuscaloosa
+county. Consequences of this affair were a change in the office of
+sheriff, recall of troops, and other tragedies, but the ultimate effect
+was a better understanding between the races.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER SEVENTEEN</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">A Series of Tragedies</span></span></p>
+
+<p>In Sumter county affairs were approaching a climax when Enoch Townsend, a
+negro, about dark one evening waylaid and repeatedly stabbed Mr. Bryant
+Richardson, a planter, and fled after Mr. Richardson, despite his wounds,
+bravely struggled to overcome his assailant. A warrant for the arrest of
+the assailant issued, and officers sought him on the plantation of Dr.
+Choutteau.</p>
+
+<p>Choutteau was of French descent and migrated to Sumter from Louisiana,
+where, it was rumored, he had been involved in serious trouble. He is
+described as a swaggerer. During his early residence in Sumter he
+expressed intense dislike of freedmen and lost caste with the whites by
+seriously advocating wholesale poisoning as a means of relieving the
+county of the surplus of its negro population. Later he yielded to the
+temptation of office, and identified himself with the league and gained
+odious notoriety by his radicalism. He had constantly about him at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> his
+plantation armed negro guards; the league met there and picketed the roads
+thereabout. At length he became intolerable.</p>
+
+<p>To this plantation officers with the warrant of arrest repaired and
+searched the cabins in the negro quarters. After the search was nearly
+completed, a negro scrambled from the chimney of a cabin to the roof,
+sprang thence to the ground and fled. Disobeying the summons to halt, he
+was fired upon by the posse and killed. Poor fellow! he was the wrong man,
+and no one ever learned why he acted so like a criminal. The dead man
+proved to be Yankee Ben, president of the Loyal League at Sumterville.
+(The fugitive Townsend was arrested by two law-abiding freedmen and lodged
+in jail at Livingston.)</p>
+
+<p>The killing of Yankee Ben excited the negroes, and a meeting was called at
+Choutteau&#8217;s place for the purpose of formulating plans to avenge it. Sixty
+armed negroes assembled accordingly on Saturday, but were dispersed. On
+Monday one hundred and fifty met at Choutteau&#8217;s. Simultaneously, twelve
+white men went there to hold an inquest on the remains of Yankee Ben,
+which had previously been interrupted by the proceedings narrated. On the
+latter occasion Choutteau refused to permit an inquest unless by a jury
+composed of negroes. In this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> his dusky adherents supported him, and were
+insulting in demeanor. One hundred whites reinforced the jury and
+scattered the negroes. Thereupon Choutteau withdrew his objection.
+Moreover, he promised that if permitted to remain on his place undisturbed
+for a few days, he would leave the neighborhood, adding that he had for
+some time contemplated the move. He was told that what he purposed to do
+was unnecessary, and that he was required only to cease his turbulent
+practices.</p>
+
+<p>Choutteau moved to Livingston, and shortly afterward his plantation house
+was destroyed by fire. He then posed as a victim of Ku Klux incendiarism,
+magnified his losses, memorialized the legislature for reimbursement,
+published exaggerated stories of the occurrence, and vociferously
+threatened revenge. He was regarded as a menace to the safety of the
+community in which he had taken up his residence.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after midnight August 13, 1869, his house was attacked by a small
+band of men, who forced an entrance into the hall. Doors on each side gave
+entrance to sleeping quarters, and an invader broke out a panel of one of
+them, struck a match and thrust his face into the opening. A gun was fired
+from within the room and the man fell to the floor. The weapon was
+discharged by a German named<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> Coblentz, whom Choutteau had hired as a
+guard. The intruder&#8217;s head was blown to pieces, and the entire brain, with
+one hemisphere intact, together with the mask the unfortunate had worn,
+was found on the floor next morning. When the victim fell back from the
+door, a comrade sprang to the vacated place and fired several shots at
+Coblentz, inflicting wounds from which he died an hour or so later.
+Believing they had killed Choutteau, the band departed, taking the fallen
+comrade. Blood drippings marked for some miles, to the river, the trail of
+the retiring invaders. The negro ferryman testified that they ferried
+themselves over the stream.</p>
+
+<p>The dead man&#8217;s identity was never disclosed to the public, but there was a
+rumor that he was a young doctor, and that his remains were interred by
+companions, who sent to his home his watch and other valuables which he
+had about his person, with information regarding the place of burial. In
+some unhappy home, a mother, wife or other loved ones long mourned the
+fate of him who had died so tragically. Choutteau did not tarry. He was
+given employment in Washington, and disappeared from view.</p>
+
+<p>The party which visited Livingston that fateful night divided and a
+detachment went to the house of George Houston, one of the negro
+legislators.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> When the firing began at Houston&#8217;s home, someone sprang from
+a window and fled to the brush. Thinking it was Houston and that he had
+escaped, this band reunited itself with the others and all departed. It
+was Houston&#8217;s son who escaped. Houston himself was wounded, but recovered,
+and left for Montgomery, returning no more. Houston was accused of having
+repeatedly uttered the threat that if the whites did not cease their
+regulating activities he would have Livingston laid in ashes.</p>
+
+<p>On August 8, of the same year leading citizens of Livingston received
+telegrams advising them that one hundred armed negroes, en route to
+Livingston, had stopped at Gainesville, in the same county, and purchased
+quantities of ammunition. Very soon thereafter Captain Johnson, commander
+of a steamer on the Tombigbee river, telegraphed to Livingston that in
+steaming up the stream he had seen groups of negroes on the banks,&mdash;all
+with guns,&mdash;who said they were going to Livingston to attend a nominating
+meeting, to be held next day; that they had been ordered to attend with
+arms. Another dispatch was received from Eutaw saying that Congressman
+Hays had engaged transportation next day for one hundred negroes.</p>
+
+<p>The white people of Livingston, on receipt of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> these dispatches, bestirred
+themselves and summoned reinforcements from other points.</p>
+
+<p>The night preceding the day set for the meeting the negroes camped outside
+of town. Next day, when they entered Livingston, they were confronted by a
+body of white men, who told them they would not be permitted to retain
+their guns while in town and must take them back to the camp. The negroes,
+after some disputation, on learning that the congressman would not be
+present, retired. Burke, the negro legislator and president of the league,
+went to the camp and harangued them. He urged them to return to town with
+their guns and resist any interference that might be offered. He wrought
+them into a state of excitement.</p>
+
+<p>One negro, Hayne Richardson, refused to lay down his gun, and was shot on
+the road some distance out of town. The report of the gun attracted
+attention both in town and camp, and suddenly a party of horsemen dashed
+toward the latter, firing their weapons. The sudden attack abruptly
+terminated Burke&#8217;s fervid oratory and his audience fled. Some were shot.
+Richardson was badly hurt, but escaped and left the county. The following
+night twenty horsemen surrounded Burke&#8217;s dwelling. He escaped from it and
+fled, under fire. Early in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> morning his body was found stretched in a
+path leading to the dwelling of his former master.</p>
+
+<p>Price, the man of multifarious official employment, called the meeting,
+and the negroes who testified in the investigation said that his runners
+told them he directed that they attend with guns. Price took final leave
+of Sumter before the shooting commenced.</p>
+
+<p>Congressman Hays said he was prevented from attending by sickness of a
+member of his family. He disavowed any responsibility for the negroes
+going armed. &#8220;I only want to state this,&#8221; he said, while testifying in
+Livingston, &#8220;in connection with that matter&mdash;I do not know that it is
+worth stating: that I understood from friends of mine here that there was
+a regular mob down there to assassinate me the very moment I got off the
+train. I heard that afterward,&mdash;that if I had come here, I would have been
+killed instantly. If I had been, I would have been killed innocently.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Congressman Hays was unfortunate in being placed in alleged false
+situations. There was another memorable occasion when appearances were
+against him, however innocent of evil designs he may have been:</p>
+
+<p>There was to be a meeting at Boligee, in Greene county, and Colonel J. J.
+Jolly, of Eutaw, was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>invited to address the gathering. The Boligee
+Democratic Club sent a committee to Major Charles Hays with an invitation
+to discuss jointly with Colonel Jolly the issues of the campaign. The
+invitation was accepted. When Major Hays arrived there was gathered a
+party of armed negroes. According to his own statement under oath, Hays,
+in relating the incidents of the abortive meeting, said that a half-hour
+after his arrival &#8220;there came some fifteen young men riding up, with
+double-barreled guns and a few hounds following them. I saw this
+demonstration at once and I came to the conclusion that it was gotten up
+for a row.&#8221; He had been present for a half-hour and was all the time aware
+that a crowd of armed negroes was gathered, but said nothing in
+remonstrance, but as soon as the party of young white men rode up he
+immediately stepped to the door of the building in which he was waiting,
+and said to the negroes: &#8220;You have come here with guns in your hands, and
+you know that I have expressly said to you that I would never speak to you
+on any occasion whatever when you brought arms to a political meeting at
+any place, and I shall decline to have anything to do with this matter in
+any way whatever.&#8221; Then, turning to the white men, &#8220;I hope, gentlemen, you
+will excuse me; I&#8217;m going home.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER EIGHTEEN</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">Disappearance of Price</span></span></p>
+
+<p>Price was the most turbulent and desperate character among the radicals.
+One of his own ilk declared that Price had not brought with him even so
+much as a carpetbag, but was soon grasping everything in sight. After the
+trouble in Livingston, just described, he fled to Meridian, and continued
+there to be a disturbing element.</p>
+
+<p>Lauderdale county, Mississippi, of which Meridian is the capital, and
+Sumter county, Alabama, adjoin. A negro of Livingston went to Meridian to
+obtain some farm laborers. On his return he reported that he had been
+assaulted by disguised negroes, in whose leader he recognized Price. An
+officer went from Livingston to investigate, and was assaulted by Price
+and others. Price was arrested by the Meridian authorities, and when the
+trial was due a number of Alabamians were gathered in that town. The trial
+was to be before the mayor. Some of the county and city officials
+requested the mayor not to permit the trial to proceed, because if he did
+there would certainly be an outbreak. In compliance with the request, the
+trial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> was postponed and Price permitted to escape. He never reappeared
+and nothing is known of his subsequent career. But he entailed trouble on
+the people, and there was a bloody sequel to his arrest and release.
+Negroes held a meeting and resolved that they would repel with force any
+future &#8220;raids&#8221; by Alabamians. After the meeting adjourned an incendiary
+fire started, and leading negroes at the scene discharged revolvers
+recklessly. This caused much excitement, and some colored men were
+arrested and held under guard. Monday morning at eleven o&#8217;clock white
+citizens met and adopted a resolution asking the mayor to resign and leave
+the city. At three o&#8217;clock the trial of the negro prisoners began. Many
+Alabamians were in town, among them, according to statements, the noted
+Steve Renfroe, of Sumter, and Joe Reynolds, of Eutaw (&#8220;Captain Jenks&#8221;).
+The trial or investigation was before a justice named Bramlette. A white
+witness concluded his testimony and was about to retire, when one of the
+accused negroes, Tyler, insultingly asked him to continue on the stand a
+few minutes, as he wished to impeach his testimony with that of some negro
+witnesses whom he would introduce. The witness picked up a cane which was
+lying on the table and moved toward Tyler. A pistol was fired from the
+direction of that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> part of the room in which Tyler and a number of others
+were grouped. Bramlette sank back in his chair, dead. Firing of pistols
+became general and there was great disorder and confusion. Clopton, one of
+the negroes under arrest and charged with incendiary utterances, was
+wounded and thrown from a window of the room, which was in the second
+story. He was taken into the sheriff&#8217;s office, and in the uproar there
+killed. Tyler escaped from the building and hid in a shop some distance
+away. Pursuers found and killed him. Few doubted that he fired the shot
+which killed the justice.</p>
+
+<p>Excitement continued through the afternoon. Three other negro leaders were
+arrested and placed under a guard for protection. Two nights afterward
+they were taken from the guards and executed.</p>
+
+<p>The mayor abandoned his office and left the state. An obnoxious member of
+the legislature was sought, but fled and did not return.</p>
+
+<p>One of the utterances of Tyler at the negro meeting recalled a remarkable
+incident in the history of Meridian. In a drunken brawl an Indian
+belonging to the Mississippi Choctaw tribe was killed there. A band of his
+tribesmen, in a spirit of retaliation, visited Meridian and killed the
+slayer. Tyler referred to this action of the Choctaws as an example worthy
+of emulation by his people.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER NINETEEN</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">Riots in Marengo</span></span></p>
+
+<p>In the campaign of 1870, a former slave owner was one of the Republican
+candidates for office in Marengo county, and made what was regarded as an
+inflammatory speech to negroes gathered at Shiloh, a hamlet, situated in a
+section of Marengo county largely populated by negroes. A few white men
+were present, and between them and the candidate an angry controversy
+arose. The immediate result was cessation of the speechmaking and
+dissolution of the meeting. The orator was escorted by white men to a
+buggy and departed in safety. He was a pugnacious man and had a record of
+at least one victim to attest his prowess in rencontre. Some days later he
+repaired to Linden, the county seat, accompanied by two negro men,
+ostentatiously bearing a United States flag. There had assembled a great
+crowd of negroes, who were, as usual, armed. With him on the platform was
+Captain C. L. Drake, the man of many offices, and above them floated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> Old
+Glory. An offensive reference to the disturbance at Shiloh provoked a
+quick retort from one of a small group of white men who were listening to
+the speech. The orator paused, dramatically removed from his pockets his
+watch and purse, and from its fastening a diamond pin, handed them to the
+sheriff, with the request that he convey them to the candidate&#8217;s wife, in
+the event of a fatality, drew a pistol, and, remarking that he had been
+mistreated and would &#8220;fight it out,&#8221; descended from the platform. Negroes
+with guns sprang into double ranks, enclosing him on two sides. The group
+of whites promptly seized and disarmed him, and meanwhile white men with
+arms were rushing to the scene from all quarters. Somewhere on the
+outskirts of the throng a pistol was fired which caused a stampede in that
+quarter. The negroes about the platform, confronted by a line of
+determined whites, yielded and retired from the scene. Drake fled to his
+office and thence to tall timber. The candidate, forsaken by his
+followers, asked for protection, and was hurried into a room of the
+court-house and locked in with two or three citizens. The angry crowd
+outside was clamorous and the beleaguered man, rejecting all suggestions
+of plans for flight, himself finally proposed as a means of quieting the
+uproar to sign a paper relinquishing his candidacy for sheriff and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>
+withdrawing from politics. Duplicate copies of the paper were drawn up and
+signed; he retained one of them, and the other was taken outside and read
+to the people. It produced the desired effect. The candidate was placed in
+a buggy and, accompanied by an escort, proceeded to his home. And thus
+ended &#8220;the Linden riot.&#8221; But the candidate was irrepressible and speedily
+repudiated his act of self-abnegation as having been done under
+intimidation.</p>
+
+<p>He spoke at Belmont, a small settlement, and became involved in an affray
+with a resident. This created a general disturbance, in which the meeting
+was broken up and the negroes sullenly retired from the scene. They
+threatened to burn the place, and a white man was shot at from ambush. So
+unusually hostile and aggressive were the negroes that warrants issued for
+the arrest of certain of their leaders, among them Zeke High. There were
+posted notices of a meeting of negroes at Belmont on July 5, 1870. White
+men in considerable numbers assembled there on that date, and the meeting
+was prudently postponed. A negro was whipped that night, and next night he
+assembled at his house, in a dense swamp near the river, a number of armed
+friends. A scouting party of whites, seeking information respecting the
+purposes of the negroes, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>approached their stronghold in the darkness of
+night; one of them (Melton) entered the yard and was fired at. Melton
+dropped to the ground and feigned death to escape another volley. Both
+sides, thinking he was dead, ceased firing, and the whites withdrew to
+give the alarm. A warrant of arrest was placed in the hands of an officer,
+but he was unwilling to attempt to serve it at night. A young man named
+Collins, bold and fond of excitement and adventure, volunteered to serve
+the warrant and was duly commissioned. Collins, with three companions,
+approached the house, but before he had time to summon the inmates to
+capitulate, a volley was fired by the latter and Collins sank from his
+horse in death. Two of his companions were slightly injured, and the
+party, after returning the fire, retired. This occurrence created intense
+excitement and indignation. Whites gathered from the surrounding country.
+The negroes were greatly reinforced and fortified a position in an almost
+impenetrable part of the swamp. Some of the whites favored an immediate
+assault, but other counsels prevailed, and the sheriff, with a small
+posse, proceeded to the scene and demanded Collins&#8217; body. The demand was
+refused. Next day the sheriff rode into the midst of the mob and again
+demanded the body, and got it. A few hours later<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> the white forces made a
+quick and determined forward movement to dislodge the negroes from their
+almost impregnable position, and found it abandoned,&mdash;the negroes had
+disbanded and fled in terror. This terminated &#8220;the Belmont riot&#8221;; but it
+had a sequel in the retributive death of the negro leader, Zeke High, who
+boasted that his shot killed Collins. On his own boastful confession High
+was arrested and lodged in the Sumter county jail at Livingston. September
+29 a party of mounted and disguised men from the direction of Marengo
+forced the sheriff to surrender the jail keys, entered the prison and took
+High from his cell, conveyed him a short distance away and hung and shot
+him to death. This High was a desperate and dangerous character, and even
+when seized by his executioners fought ferociously. When the leader
+entered the dark cell in which High and three other prisoners were
+incarcerated, he was assaulted and struck in the face with a heavy piece
+of furniture, the blow dislodging several front teeth.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER TWENTY</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">Killings and Rioting in Greene</span></span></p>
+
+<p>In 1870 Eutaw, the seat of government of the rich county of Greene,
+contained a population of 1,800 or 2,000, and prospered greatly in trade
+with farmers in the surrounding country. It was a typical Southern
+court-house town,&mdash;busy in fall and winter, almost dormant in late spring
+and summer. Its men were among the earliest to volunteer for service in
+the Confederate armies and latest to retire from that service; they were
+also amongst the earliest to organize resistance to carpetbag rule and to
+throw off the yoke.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of April 1, 1870, the people of Eutaw were shocked when
+informed of a tragedy which had been enacted during the night&mdash;Alexander
+Boyd, county solicitor and register in chancery, had been shot to death by
+Ku Klux! At first most persons discredited the gruesome story as an &#8220;April
+fool&#8221; hoax, but incredulity gave place to amazement when the scene of the
+awful tragedy was visited.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>Of all the acts attributed to the klan, perhaps none was bolder than the
+slaying of Boyd. A bachelor, he had for a long time occupied sleeping
+quarters in a detached office building situated in a corner of the
+court-house yard; but having received a warning note, he became alarmed
+and abandoned these quarters and obtained an apartment on the second floor
+of the Cleveland Hotel only a few nights previous to his death. This hotel
+was situated on a corner diagonally opposite the court-house, and was the
+principal rendezvous of townsmen with a taste for gossip.</p>
+
+<p>Witnesses at the investigation into the circumstances testified that at
+half-past eleven o&#8217;clock forty or fifty horsemen, in the regulation garb
+and armed with revolvers, their horses robed and hooded, approached to
+within a short distance of the hotel, where all except the customary
+horse-holders dismounted and quickly and unhesitatingly entered the hotel
+office, posted guards at all entrances, and then commanded the clerk to
+take up a candle and show them to Mr. Boyd&#8217;s apartment. Obediently the
+clerk led the way until he reached the corridor upon which opened the room
+they sought. Pausing here, in his speechlessness he indicated the door by
+pointing, and then fled the scene. Within a brief space an agonized
+scream, heard blocks away, issued from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> the room of the doomed man, and
+was almost instantly succeeded by a heavy volley of pistol shots. The
+panic-stricken clerk had hardly resumed his seat upon the office stool,
+with hands to ears and head bowed upon his ledger, when the dread invaders
+reappeared in the office. Signaling with whistles the recall of sentinels,
+they quietly withdrew, remounted and rode around the square, in military
+order, and then departed in the direction from which they first appeared.
+[They were traced to the Mississippi border line.]</p>
+
+<p>After their departure, officials and others repaired to the corridor and
+discovered the dead body, robed in night dress, perforated with many
+bullets and almost completely drained of blood. Not a shot had missed the
+mark. Inside the room a table, bearing a lighted lamp, his revolver and
+watch, stood close to the head of the bed. He had not attempted to use the
+weapon. Evidently the purpose of his slayers was to remove him from the
+building, for one of them carried a suggestive coil of rope, but his
+outcry and struggles settled his fate.</p>
+
+<p>Boyd was a nephew of William Miller, probate judge. Some years before the
+war he was convicted of killing a young man named Charner Brown, and
+sentenced to a term in the penitentiary.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> A petition in his behalf was
+presented to Governor Winston, and in response thereto the sentence was
+commuted to one year&#8217;s imprisonment in the county jail. Having served the
+sentence, Boyd departed for another state. At the close of the war he
+reappeared, and, following the example of his uncle, sought office in 1868
+at the hands of the negroes, and was made county solicitor and register in
+chancery. He was not distinguished as a prosecutor, but regarded as
+indifferent.</p>
+
+<p>December 9, 1869, Dr. Samuel Snoddy left the village of Union, in the
+northern part of Greene county, to return to his farm. Night overtook him
+en route, and he became confused. Reaching the cabin of some negroes with
+whom he was acquainted, he engaged one of them to pilot him. Early next
+morning Dr. Snoddy&#8217;s badly mutilated remains were discovered on the
+roadside. The unfortunate man had been murdered and robbed of a
+considerable sum which he had on his person. Sam Caldwell, Henry Miller
+and Sam Colvin, negroes, were arrested, accused of the crime, and lodged
+in jail at Eutaw. The scene of the murder had become notorious on account
+of being a centre of league activities and disorders, and the murder of
+Snoddy aggravated the sense of wrong under which the whites had long been
+restive; and when, a few days<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> later, the prisoners were released, one of
+them on bond, they were seized and executed summarily. Solicitor Boyd, it
+was alleged, manifested no zeal in the investigation of the Snoddy murder,
+but became exceedingly active in the inquisition in connection with the
+subsequent and consequent affair, and exultantly declared that he had
+ascertained the names of all the men engaged in it, would send for
+soldiers to effect their arrest, and vigorously prosecute them, and if
+necessary hold the jury for six months.</p>
+
+<p>All of these facts were related in explanation of popular displeasure with
+Boyd, which revealed itself first in the note of warning and finally in
+the taking of his life. Mr. Boyd&#8217;s tombstone in the Messopotamia cemetery,
+Eutaw, erected by Judge Miller, is inscribed: &#8220;Murdered by Ku Klux.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Greene county continued in a state of disorder, which grew worse as the
+election approached.</p>
+
+<p>The Republican state executive committee advertised that on October 25,
+1870, Senator Warner, Congressman Hays, Governor Smith and Ex-Governor
+Parsons would deliver addresses at the court-house in Eutaw. On that day
+the party of visitors, accompanied by General Crawford, military commander
+of the department, and others, arrived in town. They were informed that
+the Democratic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> county committee had invited the voters to hear an address
+by the Democratic candidate for the legislature, and had chosen the same
+time and place. Thereupon the Republican leaders held a conference and
+decided to invite the Democratic committee to hold with them a joint
+meeting. Accordingly, Judge Miller, Congressman Hays and Mr. Cockrell were
+commissioned to convey to the Democratic committee the following note:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We propose to appoint a committee of two to meet a committee of two from
+your party, to arrange the terms of a discussion for the day, to meet
+immediately at the circuit clerk&#8217;s office.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>To this note the following reply was sent:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gentlemen,&mdash;In answer to your note of this date, we, the committee
+appointed by the president of the Democratic and Conservative Council of
+Greene county, are instructed to say, that we do not consider the
+questions in the present political canvass debatable, either as to men or
+measures; and we therefore, in behalf of the Democratic and Conservative
+party of Greene county, decline any discussion whatever.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;<span class="smcap">J. J. Jolly</span>,<br />
+&#8220;<span class="smcap">J. G. Pierce</span>,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">&#8220;<i>Committee</i>.&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>This reply was ominous. So apprehensive were the leaders that Congressman
+Hays, who was exceedingly unpopular, decided, with the concurrence of the
+others, that it would be safer if he should refrain from speaking. The
+garrison troops were quartered a half-mile away from the court-house, and
+Governor Smith requested General Crawford to have the entire body brought
+to the court-house; but after conference with the sheriff, the general
+concluded that a detachment posted two blocks distant would be a
+sufficient safeguard.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately after the note of reply was sent, the Democrats called their
+meeting to order on the north side of the court-house, and soon thereafter
+the Republicans assembled on the south side. The Democratic meeting lasted
+only a short time, and at its conclusion the auditors repaired to points
+where they could listen to the Republican orators.</p>
+
+<p>Corridors run through the court-house, crossing each other in the centre
+of the building. These spaces were thronged by white men.</p>
+
+<p>For the accommodation of the Republican speakers, an improvised platform,
+formed of a table, was placed against a window opening from the clerk&#8217;s
+office. All of the Republican visitors and local officials occupied chairs
+in this office. By request of Senator Warner, the office door was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> locked
+from the inside, in order, as said, that &#8220;whatever danger there might be
+would be in front.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Senator Warner spoke without unusual interference. Ex-Governor Parsons
+followed and was listened to attentively. When he retired through the
+window, the negroes called for Congressman Hays. A Democrat, Major Pierce,
+approached Governor Parsons, who was seated inside near the window, and
+advised him to restrain Hays. Parsons, in response, endeavored to attract
+the attention of Hays, who had mounted the platform with the intention, as
+he subsequently testified, not to deliver an address, but merely to
+dismiss the audience. If this was true, his purpose was misunderstood, for
+the table was suddenly tilted and Hays precipitated. As he fell a pistol
+was fired, and the ball passed through Major Pierce&#8217;s clothing. Some
+witnesses testified that Hays fired it, and Parsons afterward admitted
+that Hayes was armed with a derringer; others, that the shot came from the
+direction in which the negroes were massed. However this may be, there was
+an impulsive forward rush by the negroes, and, as Warner admitted, they
+had weapons in their hands.</p>
+
+<p>The first shot was instantly succeeded by a volley from the corridors, and
+the onrush was halted. Suddenly, in a resonant voice, someone in a
+corridor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> shouted: &#8220;Go in, boys, now is your time!&#8221; Continuous firing
+followed, and the negroes fled in great disorder, leveling the stout fence
+which enclosed the yard, a few discharging pistols as they fled.</p>
+
+<p>Even in this grave situation there was an amusing incident. In his
+testimony before an investigating commission Senator Warner, describing
+the riot, related it accurately. Beaver hats were not worn in Eutaw at
+that period. Mr. Parsons&#8217; attire was similar to that of Quakers and
+included a light-colored beaver hat. Senator Warner&#8217;s tile was
+conventional, black and glossy. &#8220;I caught up the papers in my hands,&#8221; he
+said, &#8220;and walked very deliberately to the right, in order to get out of
+the way of the firing. There came from the right-hand side of the
+court-house a pretty good line of men, thirty or forty, I should think.
+They came around all together, and formed a tolerable line across from the
+corner of the court-house to the fence, and commenced firing on the
+negroes, who had broken down the court-house fence and were fleeing as
+fast as they could. These men cocked their revolvers and fired upon them
+as rapidly as they could. I looked at them for a moment, and then walked
+up to them as they were firing. I saw some colored men falling on the
+grass and then scrambling up and moving off. I walked up to these men and
+held up my hand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> in a deprecating manner, and said, &#8216;For God&#8217;s sake, stop
+this!&#8217; One of them who was nearest to me turned around and cast a kind of
+defiant but yet somewhat surprised look at me. One of them leveled his
+pistol upon us, Governor Parsons, Mr. Brown and myself; he was standing
+about the length of this table distant from us. He leveled his pistol at
+Governor Parsons. The governor said: &#8216;For God&#8217;s sake, don&#8217;t shoot at me; I
+have done you no harm.&#8217; The crowd stopped firing and turned their
+attention to us. Just at that instant the sheriff came around with his
+arms spread out, and said: &#8216;Stop this! stop this!&#8217; The man stopped for a
+moment and seemed to be deliberating whether he should shoot Parsons. He
+then saw Mr. Hays on my right; turning a little to one side to avoid me,
+he threw his pistol down upon Hays and Mr. Brown, who were both together,
+and tried to shoot them. They both sprang behind me; I saw them getting
+behind me and squatting on the ground to avoid his fire. By that time the
+negroes had been driven out of the court-house yard and across the street,
+where they had stopped and turned, and began to fire back. A few were
+firing back. Just at that moment I heard somebody call out, &#8216;Boys, hold
+your fire!&#8217; The firing then ceased. I started and walked through the
+crowd, right among them. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> suppose there were forty or fifty of them, all
+standing there with their revolvers in their hands, smoking, as they had
+been firing. Just as I was getting out of the crowd somebody from behind
+struck at me and knocked my hat off; I just felt the blow on my head, but
+I could not tell who it was, for when I turned around his hands were
+dropped, whoever it was. I guess it was pretty lucky I did not know, for
+the blow aroused me a great deal, and I am afraid I should have lost my
+self-possession. I turned around to pick up my hat, when another man
+kicked it; then another kicked it; and then the whole crowd, one after
+another, played football with it and kicked it across the yard. I started
+back to get it, when a man by the name of Dunlap, a Democrat, who seemed
+to be in accord with the party there, walked up to me and took me by the
+arm in a friendly sort of way, and said, &#8216;General, you had better get away
+from here or you will get hurt!&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The senator&#8217;s hat furnished diversion at a critical moment, and in all
+probability was the means of saving his life and the lives of his friends.
+There had been firing from the clerk&#8217;s office, and Mr. Cowan (one of the
+actors in the Greensboro tragedy mentioned in an earlier chapter), was
+slightly grazed on the left thigh. He was brandishing a pistol and calling
+to the white men to rally about him, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> standing near a window of the
+clerk&#8217;s office. He believed that he was made a target by a prominent
+Republican who was in the office. Two other white men, near Mr. Cowan,
+were struck by missiles from the negro ranks just before they fled from
+the yard. Some of the party with or about Senator Warner had, a moment
+before the scene described by him, emerged from the office and were
+retreating to the Cleveland hotel, and a determined group of men,
+including Reynolds, with a shotgun, were pursuing them when the fun with
+the hat commenced. While it was yet in progress, the soldiers wheeled
+around the nearest corner and rescued the imperilled Republican leaders.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the negroes, having fled in two directions to points where they
+had guns concealed in wagons, secured these arms and resolutely moved back
+toward the scene of their rout. They were aware of their preponderating
+numbers, and counted on the sympathy of the soldiers. Those on Prairie
+street had not proceeded far when they encountered a squad of mounted men
+commanded by the marshal and a few sharpshooters posted behind trees in
+private yards, who speedily checked their advance. At the intersection of
+the two streets which were scenes of reviving combat a line of white men,
+armed with guns, all men of tested courage, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> formed to prevent a
+junction of the two bodies of negroes. Just then the soldiers, at
+double-quick, made their appearance and were halted opposite the line of
+armed citizens. After a brief hesitation, the officer gave the command to
+move and the soldiers proceeded down Prairie street. The negroes quickly
+lost courage and retreated, and before long none could be seen within
+miles of the town. And so ended the Eutaw riot, in which, according to the
+local newspaper, the <i>Whig and Observer</i>, and the testimony of witnesses,
+54 men were shot, and from 250 to 300 white men and from 1,800 to 2,000
+negroes were engaged. The number of wounded was probably exaggerated.</p>
+
+<p>The pistol shot which followed so quickly the rude interruption of Hays&#8217;
+remarks was not the real cause of the riot; it was but the signal for the
+opening of a conflict which had been impending for some time, and it gave
+vent to indignation which had been suppressed with difficulty. The
+explanation is found in earlier occurrences.</p>
+
+<p>In October the white people of Greene county were much disturbed by rumors
+that a number of bands of negroes had been drilling with arms in parts of
+the county where plantations were largest and the negro population
+densest. A country store was burned by incendiaries, and threats were
+made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> that the several bands would be consolidated and Eutaw attacked by
+the combined force.</p>
+
+<p>Lieutenant Charles Harkins, commanding the detachment of troops
+garrisoning the town, reported to his superior officer at Huntsville as
+follows:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I have the honor to report that on the evening of the 19th instant,
+reports were brought to this town, by both colored and white men, to the
+effect that a band of armed colored men intended burning the town that
+night. The rumor seemed to be generally credited by the citizens, which
+caused great alarm and excitement. Armed parties of citizens were
+immediately formed, under the direction of the sheriff, and patrols and
+pickets sent to the suburbs of the town, where they remained all night. No
+demonstration was made by the colored men, if they had any such intention,
+which I am inclined to doubt. The excitement has abated, but there is
+still a feeling of distrust and anxiety among all classes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The real facts of the case, and cause of the present alarm, I believe to
+be as follows: The colored men and Republicans generally of this county,
+feeling aggrieved at the many murders and outrages perpetrated on men of
+their party by the Ku Klux organization, have determined to protect
+themselves in future and have banded together for that purpose only, not
+to assume the offensive, or interfere<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> with the peaceful, law-abiding
+portion of the community.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The relation of cause and effect in this thwarted conspiracy to destroy
+Eutaw and the riot which followed so soon is indisputable. The trend of
+Lieutenant Harkins&#8217; sympathies is equally plain. He was inclined to doubt
+that the banded negroes intended to burn the town, but readily intimated
+that they had provocation in &#8220;the many murders and outrages perpetrated on
+men of their party by the Ku Klux organization.&#8221; Not a word is there in
+the report concerning the burning of the store, nor of the fact that
+refugee white families from the widely-separated plantations were moving
+into Eutaw for protection against the menacing bands of negroes, nor that
+the &#8220;patrols and pickets&#8221; were necessary precautions not of one night
+only, but of three nights, and served to deter the negroes from
+prosecuting their design.</p>
+
+<p>The prompt action of the whites in driving the negroes out of town on
+October 25 would seem precipitate and unjustifiable if not considered in
+connection with the facts just recited. Nearly two thousand negroes
+attended that meeting, and they took with them guns, which were secreted
+in wagons at the foot of Prairie street. They were aware that the
+commanding officer of the garrison was in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>sympathy with them, and that
+they would encounter only a small body of white men should there be a
+collision. No doubt they counted much on the presence of the radical
+governor of the state, the military commander of the department, a senator
+and a congressional representative, all in sympathy with them, and all
+smarting under indignities received only a few days before at a meeting in
+an adjoining county.</p>
+
+<p>The white men remembered the nights of anxiety for the safety of the women
+and children and property of the town, and realized the danger of the
+situation in which they were placed by the group of official Republicans
+who heedlessly and recklessly assembled thousands of negroes who had so
+recently been frustrated in a design to obtain revenge for punishment
+administered to evildoers of their race. Those white men had courage and
+resolution to meet the emergency, and they met it promptly and terribly.
+And they taught a lesson for which there has never since been occasion for
+repetition.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="big"><span class="smcap">Restoration of White Supremacy</span></span></p>
+
+<p>The state election in 1870 resulted in a victory for the Democratic and
+Conservative party, but there was a persistent effort to deprive that
+party of the fruits of victory. There was instituted on behalf of the
+incumbent governor and treasurer a proceeding in the chancery court to
+enjoin the presiding officer of the senate from counting the votes for
+candidates for those two offices. The legislature met November 20, and the
+law required that the vote be counted, with the two houses assembled
+jointly, within the first week. In the proceedings instituted, Governor
+Smith alleged irregularity in the election. The judge of the circuit court
+refused to grant an injunction, on the ground that the legislature could
+not be enjoined by a court. It was then filed with a supreme court judge.
+It prayed that the presiding officer of the senate be restrained from
+counting the vote until the legislature could provide rules by which the
+proposed contest should be tried. Judge Saffold, as chancellor, granted
+the injunction.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> Lieutenant-Governor Applegate was dead, and Barr, an Ohio
+man, was presiding. The injunction was served on Barr, and he very
+cheerfully obeyed it.</p>
+
+<p>There are some interesting facts in relation to this senate. The radical
+constitution gerrymandered the senatorial districts, in some instances
+apportioning a senator to a single county; in others, a senator to a group
+of three or four counties, with nearly threefold greater population.</p>
+
+<p>The constitution provided that representatives in the legislature should
+be elected for two years, and senators for four years; that one-half of
+the seats of senators first elected (in 1868) should be declared vacant at
+the end of two years, thus providing for continuation of a certain number.
+In accordance with this provision, at the session in November the question
+whether the senators should draw for the long and short terms was
+discussed; nobody wished to vacate his seat, and by hocus-pocus they
+reached the conclusion that all should hold over. Consequently, one-half
+of them sat four years and the others for six. This procedure contributed
+much to the complication of affairs. This senate connived at the attempt
+to prevent the count of returns.</p>
+
+<p>At noon on the last day of the week the two houses assembled and Barr
+proceeded to count the returns for other officers, declaring that for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>Lieutenant-governor E. H. Moren had received a majority of the votes cast
+at the election; that for secretary of state J. J. Parker had defeated J.
+T. Rapier; that W. A. Sanford had defeated Joshua Morse in the race for
+attorney-general; that Joseph Hodgson succeeded N. B. Cloud as
+superintendent of public instruction. These winners were all Democrats. As
+soon as he had declared these results. Barr and the radical senators
+withdrew. Lieutenant-Governor Moren then appeared, took the oath of
+office, assumed the chair of the presiding officer, and directed that the
+returns for governor and treasurer be brought in. This being done, he
+proceeded forthwith to count them and declared that Robert B. Lindsay, for
+governor, and James F. Grant, for treasurer, had received majorities, and
+to proclaim them duly elected. These officers were sent for and sworn in.
+Consternation seized the Republican leaders. They were caught in their own
+trap, for the injunction had been served on Barr and he had qualified his
+own successor in the person of Dr. Moren, who as lieutenant-governor was
+unaffected by the injunction. Lindsay lost no time in demanding possession
+of the office, but Smith refused to yield and had federal soldiers
+guarding all entrances to the offices of governor and treasurer.</p>
+
+<p>Judge J. Q. Smith went from Selma to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>Montgomery, and before him Lindsay
+and Grant instituted proceedings, demanding that the seal and all books
+and papers and other property pertaining to the offices of governor and
+treasurer be delivered to them, respectively. The proceedings lasted
+several days. Meanwhile, Montgomery was fast filling up with young men,
+strangers in the community, and there were rumors that bodies of men in
+near-by towns were awaiting summons to the capital, and that locomotives
+with steam up and cars attached, ready for service, were side-tracked at a
+number of stations. Judge Smith&#8217;s court-room was daily crowded with
+strange men. Excitement was intense.</p>
+
+<p>Lindsay in his complaint alleged that he was the qualified successor of
+Governor Smith; that he had made a demand upon him for the books, papers
+and paraphernalia of the office of governor, and that Smith refused to
+deliver them. The trial was set for three o&#8217;clock in the afternoon, and
+Governor Smith was ordered to appear in person in court and show cause why
+he should not be compelled to deliver the property demanded. Governor
+Smith did not like the appearance which Montgomery had assumed, nor did he
+relish the necessity of appearing in that court-room and before that
+audience contesting the right of the people&#8217;s representatives<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> to assume
+the offices to which they had elected them, nor the certainty that as soon
+as judgment should be given against him an order for commitment to custody
+would issue. Accordingly, he had a conference with General Pettus, and
+soon thereafter announced that he &#8220;would yield, upon the ground that,
+although he was satisfied he was fairly and lawfully re-elected, his
+continuance of the litigation and the contest in the palpable excitement
+that surrounded the whole matter would tend to disturb the public peace;
+and the detriment to the material interests of the people of the state
+would be infinitely greater than the possession of the office itself by
+any particular man could possibly compensate.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Thus negro domination in Alabama was overcome.</p>
+
+<p>And the Ku Klux rode no more.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of When the Ku Klux Rode, by Eyre Damer
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+</body>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of When the Ku Klux Rode, by Eyre Damer
+
+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: When the Ku Klux Rode
+
+Author: Eyre Damer
+
+Release Date: April 5, 2011 [EBook #35771]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN THE KU KLUX RODE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+WHEN THE KU KLUX RODE
+
+
+
+
+  WHEN THE KU KLUX RODE
+
+
+  BY EYRE DAMER
+
+
+  NEW YORK
+  THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
+  1912
+
+
+
+
+  Copyright, 1912, by
+  The Neale Publishing Company
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+This work is undertaken with the wish to gratify a popular desire for
+addition to the scant literature relating to the Reconstruction Era and
+that most remarkable organization of modern times--begotten of conditions
+unparalleled in history, conditions which can never recur, and vanishing
+with the emergency which created it--the militant Ku Klux Klan. Only one
+writer has ventured far into this field of research, which until then
+seemed forbidden, and in his contribution to history, fact and fiction are
+so interwoven as to be almost indistinguishable. But the widespread and
+intense interest manifested in his revelations of the origin and purposes
+of the Klan indicates that the present generation eagerly imbibes
+knowledge of the sacrifices and achievements of the men who in the awful
+crisis of reconstruction, and against almost insuperable obstacles,
+rescued the commonwealth from the control of corrupt adventurers and
+ignorant freedmen, and established orderly government, without which the
+subsequent marvelous development of natural resources and advancement in
+education which have placed the state in the forefront of progress would
+have been impossible. This evident interest encourages the hope that a
+simple narrative of facts connected with the struggle in that part of the
+Black Belt of Alabama which formed the Fourth Congressional District, by
+one who was in the midst of it and a close observer, will receive a
+welcome.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                         PAGE
+
+  CHAPTER ONE--PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT                       9
+
+  CHAPTER TWO--NATIVE GOVERNMENT                           14
+
+  CHAPTER THREE--MILITARY GOVERNMENT                       19
+
+  CHAPTER FOUR--A GRAVE PROBLEM                            26
+
+  CHAPTER FIVE--THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU                      34
+
+  CHAPTER SIX--MILITARY REGULATIONS                        38
+
+  CHAPTER SEVEN--THE UNION LEAGUE                          47
+
+  CHAPTER EIGHT--A REPUBLICAN BLUNDER                      51
+
+  CHAPTER NINE--CARPETBAG GOVERNMENT                       54
+
+  CHAPTER TEN--RUINOUS MISGOVERNMENT                       74
+
+  CHAPTER ELEVEN--THE WHITES AROUSED                       84
+
+  CHAPTER TWELVE--THE KU KLUX KLAN                         90
+
+  CHAPTER THIRTEEN--A MISCARRIAGE                          99
+
+  CHAPTER FOURTEEN--A CONVENTION SUPPLEMENTS KU KLUX      104
+
+  CHAPTER FIFTEEN--FOILED THE KU KLUX                     107
+
+  CHAPTER SIXTEEN--IN TUSCALOOSA                          114
+
+  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN--A SERIES OF TRAGEDIES                116
+
+  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN--DISAPPEARANCE OF PRICE                124
+
+  CHAPTER NINETEEN--RIOTS IN MARENGO                      127
+
+  CHAPTER TWENTY--KILLINGS AND RIOTING IN GREENE          132
+
+  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE--RESTORATION OF WHITE SUPREMACY      148
+
+
+
+
+WHEN THE KU KLUX RODE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE
+
+PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT
+
+
+In a proclamation which issued on May 10, 1865, the president of the
+United States declared the Civil War at an end. April 9, the date of
+General Lee's surrender, was recognized as the date of the actual
+termination of the war. On May 29, 1865, the president, by proclamation,
+directed the restoration of seized private property, except "as to
+slaves"; and on June 24, 1865, restored commercial intercourse between all
+the states.
+
+Relying on the promises made by federal generals while Southern armies
+were in the field; on the terms arranged between Generals Grant and Lee
+and Sherman and Johnston when the Southern armies capitulated, and on the
+proclamation of the president, the people of Alabama believed that as
+soon as they could in the proper way repeal the ordinance of secession and
+comply with other immediate requirements, Alabama and the people thereof
+would be restored to their former coequal condition in the Union.
+
+The real issue of the war had been the right of the southern people to
+renounce allegiance to and citizenship in the Union; in its triumph at
+arms the United States sustained its contention that there could be no
+such renunciation; and consequently the southern people laid down their
+arms as citizens of the United States defeated in the attempt at
+renunciation. The authorities at Washington could not fairly avoid this
+conclusion, and certainly President Johnson reached it instantly.
+
+That there would be permitted prompt resumption of equal rights, except in
+a few cases, was more than hoped for,--it was confidently expected; and
+for some time there was no indication that there would be disappointment.
+
+President Johnson's attitude toward the southern states encouraged the
+hope of speedy restoration of order and a large measure of prosperity. The
+president was as generous as Lincoln would have been, had he survived the
+conflict. In order that readers may clearly understand the situation as it
+then existed, a brief explanation of President Johnson's attitude is
+necessary here:
+
+Immediately following the surrender of the Confederate armies and the
+declaration of peace, President Johnson formally stated his view of the
+situation to be that the war had neither destroyed nor impaired the Union;
+that the southern states had no right to withdraw from the compact, and
+having failed by resort to arms to accomplish separation, they emerged
+from the strife as they entered it, states and members of the Union, still
+possessing their constitutions, laws and territorial boundaries as they
+had been prior to the adoption of the ordinance of secession; that the
+constitutions and laws of those states, however, must be suspended pending
+unavoidable acceptance by the people of the fact that slavery having been
+a stake in the struggle, the accomplished abolition of that institution
+was irreversible; also, that debts contracted by the states during the war
+should be repudiated; that with acquiescence in these requirements the
+states should be restored to their former relations with the Union. He
+therefore announced as his policy that while the southern states were
+adjusting themselves to the change, provisional state governments should
+be established as necessary and constitutional agencies; that the citizens
+who were included in the proclamation of amnesty, together with those
+who, having been leaders in the secession movement, were pardoned, should
+participate in the work of restoration; that citizens of the states were
+best entitled to fill the public offices, and should be appointed to them;
+that the emancipated slaves were not qualified to take part in such work,
+nor had the president of the United States power to confer upon them the
+right of suffrage, because the determination of their political status was
+a function of the states.
+
+In the light of subsequent events, there can be no doubt that President
+Johnson's views and purposes were wise and statesmanlike, and had they
+prevailed, the horrors caused by congressional enactments would not have
+afflicted the people, nor would the relations between the races have
+become unfriendly, as they did, and continue to be. But, unfortunately,
+the embittered and aspiring leaders in Congress were planning at
+cross-purposes with the president. His moderate and conservative course,
+and scrupulous respect for his oath to support the Constitution, seemed
+along in 1866 to have won popular favor; but his indiscreet expressions in
+public addresses in western cities created hostility so strong that in the
+congressional elections his enemies triumphed over him. By two-thirds
+votes in Congress they nullified his vetoes of oppressive legislation; and
+in 1868 the Senate reinstated Secretary of War Stanton, whom he had
+during the previous year suspended from office. Out of this transaction
+grew the unsuccessful attempt to impeach him. While this attempt failed,
+the president's influence with his party was destroyed and he was
+powerless to enforce his beneficent policies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO
+
+NATIVE GOVERNMENT
+
+
+But meanwhile, having announced his policy in reorganizing the southern
+states, President Johnson in the summer of 1865 appointed Lewis E.
+Parsons, of Talladega, provisional governor of the state of Alabama, and
+that gentleman entered upon the discharge of his duties. There was popular
+approval of the appointment. Parsons was a native of New York, but long a
+resident and practicing lawyer in Talladega, an uncompromising Whig and
+Union man, possessing fine abilities and much dignity.
+
+On July 20 Governor Parsons published a proclamation directing that an
+election be held in each county on August 3 for delegates to a state
+convention to assemble on September 12, 1865. Accordingly, intelligent and
+patriotic delegates were chosen in all the counties, and the convention
+met at the capitol in Montgomery, with Benjamin Fitzpatrick presiding.
+That convention, dealing with the constitution, abolished the ordinance in
+relation to the institution of slavery, declared null and void the
+ordinance of secession and other ordinances and proceedings of the
+convention of 1861; adopted ordinances repudiating the war debt, and
+provided for an election for state, county and municipal officers and
+members of Congress, and assembling of the legislature on the third Monday
+in November, 1865. The convention then adjourned, subject to call of the
+presiding officer.
+
+Worthy of note here is the fact that Alabama, in its sovereignty, and
+represented by some of its best citizens, abolished slavery within its
+borders. Alexander White, who subsequently was among the first to adopt
+"the new departure" (acquiescence in all the measures of reconstruction),
+was the only delegate in the convention who voted against the proposition
+to make abolition of slavery constitutional; but outside the convention,
+Governor Parsons and Samuel Rice, also to become "new departurists,"
+concurred with him; while General Clanton, who was the wise and fearless
+leader of the Democratic party from its reorganization until the day of
+his tragic death, advocated both that measure and the extension of civil
+rights to the negroes.
+
+And also worthy of note is the fact that Judge Brooks, of Selma, judge
+Goldthwaite, of Montgomery, and others of unquestioned loyalty to their
+people, shortly after in the legislature advocated qualified suffrage for
+negroes. This was prior to the advent of carpetbaggers and organization in
+Alabama of the Republican party.
+
+Under this authority, an election was held, and the legislature then
+elected assembled on November 20, 1865, and ratified the amendments to the
+federal Constitution, excepting the fourteenth. That was regarded as
+equivalent to a bill of attainder, depriving vast numbers of the rights of
+citizenship without trial. The legislature comprised a majority of men who
+had been anti-secessionists--the senate at least two-thirds; but they had
+held offices before the war and served the Confederate government. The
+legislature rejected the fourteenth amendment; its adoption would have
+been political suicide for the members. It enacted a law to protect
+freedmen in Alabama in their rights of person and property. The federal
+authorities were duly notified of the proceedings, and on December 18,
+1865, Governor Parsons received from Secretary of State Seward a telegram
+saying that "in the judgment of the president the time had arrived when
+the care and conduct of the affairs of Alabama could be remitted to the
+constitutional authorities chosen by the people thereof without danger to
+the peace and safety of the United States", and directing him to transfer
+to his excellency the governor of Alabama, the papers and property in his
+hands. Accordingly, on December 10, 1865, Robert M. Patton, of Lauderdale,
+was inaugurated governor, and Parsons retired.
+
+(Patton was a Virginian, long settled as a merchant in northern Alabama.
+As a Whig, he had served in both houses of the legislature and become
+president of the senate. In the election of 1865, he defeated Colonel M.
+J. Bulger. He was intelligent and painstaking in the discharge of duties.
+Patton continued in the office of governor until 1868, several months
+beyond the full term, pending action by Congress respecting the results of
+the election of that year, when he was displaced by operation of the
+reconstruction acts. During his incumbency a federal military commander,
+supported by soldiers stationed in the capitol, supervised all of his
+appointments and official acts.)
+
+As evidence of confidence, the legislature elected former Governor Parsons
+United States senator for the term ending March 3, 1871. At the same time,
+it chose George S. Houstan for the term ending March 3, 1867, and John
+Anthony Winston for the term of six years, commencing March 4, 1867.
+
+At the election in November, 1865, C. C. Langdon was elected to Congress
+from the first district: George C. Freemen, from the second; Cullen A.
+Battle, from the third; Joseph W. Taylor, from the fourth; Burwell T.
+Pope, from the fifth, and Thomas J. Foster, from the sixth.
+
+Then came early rumblings of the storm that was soon to break. These
+chosen men were not permitted to take their seats as representatives, and
+the state was not represented in Congress until 1868.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE
+
+MILITARY GOVERNMENT
+
+
+March 2, 1867, after two years of peace, Congress passed over President
+Johnson's veto a bill relegating the southern states to the condition of
+conquered provinces. A military commander was appointed and authorized to
+supersede civil and judicial tribunals by military courts of his own
+creation, with power to inflict usual punishments, excepting only death.
+
+This act was supplemented with another, of July 13, forbidding state
+authorities to interfere with the military commander, who was given the
+additional power to displace any official and appoint his successor. This
+act provided that military rule should cease within a state when a
+convention of the people thereof should frame, and the voters adopt, a
+constitution ratifying the amendment to the federal Constitution which
+conferred the suffrage on negroes, and being otherwise acceptable to
+Congress, and when the legislature also should ratify that amendment.
+
+The new constitution was to be framed by delegates to be chosen by votes
+of all male citizens of legal age, excepting those disfranchised by the
+fourteenth amendment; and it was to be ratified by an affirmative vote of
+a majority of voters registered under the supervision of the military
+commander and his subalterns.
+
+Under the reconstruction acts of 1867, in April of that year, Alabama
+became a part of the department comprising, with itself, the states of
+Georgia and Florida. The military commander called a convention to frame a
+constitution. At the election for delegates the polls were kept open for
+five days. The whites held aloof from it. The gathering of delegates thus
+elected was stigmatized as "the carpetbaggers' convention." The men who
+composed it and framed the constitution were in many cases grossly corrupt
+and ignorant.
+
+As an illustration of the character of the men sent to the convention,
+Samuel Hale, a brother of United States Senator Hale, one of the few Union
+men and later Republicans resident in Sumter county, wrote Senator Wilson
+in January, 1868, a letter protesting against recognition by Congress of
+radicals in the south, in which he said that the men who sat in the
+convention and framed the constitution were, "so far as I am acquainted
+with them, worthless vagabonds, homeless, houseless, drunken knaves";
+that the Sumter delegates were a negro and two whites--Yordy and Rolfe.
+Rolfe, he said, left his family in New York and had not seen them for four
+years, during which period he had led an immoral life with negroes; that
+he was known as the "Hero of Two Shirts," having left at a hotel in Selma,
+as security for an unpaid hotel bill, his carpetbag containing only two
+shirts: that his name was not signed to the constitution which he helped
+to frame because he was too drunk to write it. These men and Hays and
+Price, all strangers, were the only white men in Sumter county who took
+part in the election for delegates. As an early indication of future
+leadership, at that election Price ordered the negroes to secure their
+arms and prevent expulsion from the booth of one of their members who was
+vauntingly flourishing a gun. Only intervention by cool-headed whites
+prevented trouble. Mr. Hale, in the letter quoted from, stigmatized the
+election thus: "As shameless a fraud as was ever perpetrated upon the face
+of the earth."
+
+Rolfe and Hays were wheelwrights, but their talents found employment in
+more lucrative occupations. Rolfe's first "get-rich-quick" scheme was the
+selling to negroes of badges, which he said he was engaged in by order of
+General Grant.
+
+While agent of the Freedmen's Bureau Hays defrauded negroes of a thousand
+dollars derived from sales of cotton with which they had entrusted him.
+That was his disappearing act.
+
+That convention deprived of the right to vote all men who were proscribed
+by the fourteenth amendment from holding office.
+
+The constitution framed called for an election in February, 1868, to which
+it was to be submitted for ratification, and at which time officers were
+to be elected. It was submitted under a solemn congressional provision
+that if it should not receive in its favor the ballots of a majority of
+the registered voters, it was to be considered as rejected.
+
+The Democratic convention of 1865 entrusted to the party's state executive
+committee, of which General James H. Clanton was chairman, all matters of
+policy. When the military order for the convention issued, General Clanton
+called into council with the executive committee one hundred of the
+leading men of the state. After deliberation, they concluded that the
+wisest course for the party to pursue would be to go to the polls and
+endeavor to defeat the constitution, but, in view of the possibility of
+failure in this, to place candidates in the field, to be voted for under
+it. Having agreed on this policy, the council was about to adjourn, when
+the chairman received from ex-Governor Parsons, who was the accredited
+agent in Washington of the Democratic party, a dispatch, saying:
+
+"I am on my way to Montgomery; will be there to-night. Don't adjourn your
+convention; don't act till I get there."
+
+The council waited, and the former governor arrived and delivered a
+speech, in which he uttered the memorable sentence:
+
+"So far as the reconstruction measures are concerned, and this
+constitution, touch not, taste not, handle not the unclean thing."
+
+He said that this was in accordance with the advice of President Johnson.
+Messrs. Samuel Rice and Alexander White supported the ex-governor, and the
+council was persuaded to reverse its decision and advise the voters to
+refrain from taking any part in the election. Mr. White prepared the
+address to the voters.
+
+Accordingly, the Democratic voters abstained from voting, and only one
+Democratic state senator was elected, and he was not endorsed. Negroes in
+battalions, armed with muskets and stepping to the beat of drums, marched
+to the polls, stacked arms, placed guards about them, and cast their
+ballots for the constitution and their candidates.
+
+The registration of voters for the election of 1868 was under military
+supervision and regulation. Registration was kept open at polling places
+up to and including time of election. The registers of voters and election
+officers were appointed by military officers, and nearly every register
+was a candidate for office. He was given power to reject any applicant for
+registration. Soldiers were present at all polling places to enforce the
+regulations, which forbade the challenging of illegal voters: citizens
+were forbidden under severe penalties to warn election judges or expose
+the fact even if they should see a non-resident or minor or repeater offer
+to deposit a ballot. Voters were permitted to cast their ballots at any
+precinct in the county. Negroes were eligible to all offices.
+
+The returns of the election disclosed the fact that the majority of the
+registered voters had abstained from participation in the election, and
+hence the constitution was not adopted by the people--according to the
+declaration of the military authorities, lacking 8,000 of the requisite
+number of votes. In view of this authoritative declaration, the radical
+candidates did not claim the offices to which they had aspired, and the
+incumbents for the time being were not disturbed. But, to the amazement of
+the people and its own dishonor, Congress in June, 1868, accepted the
+constitution as ratified by the people, and recognized the candidates as
+elected officers, and in July they were installed by military power, the
+former officers retiring under protest.
+
+In order that the reader may understand the situation and how poorly
+prepared were the people for such a reign, we must go back to the
+beginning and note other occurrences which had a direct bearing on that
+situation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR
+
+A GRAVE PROBLEM
+
+
+At the termination of the war between the sections, the southern people
+had thrust upon them for solution the gravest and most difficult problem
+with which the white race on this continent was ever perplexed,--how to
+preserve their civilization with the government operating in opposition to
+their efforts.
+
+After four years of warfare, the south was prostrate before the victorious
+people of the north, whose armies were quartered in garrisons everywhere
+in the surrendered territory, to enforce with arms, if necessary, whatever
+oppressive and humiliating measures might be conceived in hatred and
+vengeance by fanatics whose intolerance had made the bloody conflict
+irrepressible, and who were determined to extend and perpetuate the
+political power gained by conquest. The means adopted were enfranchisement
+of the emancipated slaves and disfranchisement of all white men who had at
+all distinguished themselves as leaders, while extending favors to those
+who would ally themselves with the oppressors and betray their countrymen.
+
+The difficulties of the situation in which the defeated southerners were
+placed were appalling. Naught of the former wealth of the country was left
+save the land--which in the disorganized state of labor was almost a
+burden to the possessors--and some cotton which had accumulated because
+exportation was prevented by the blockade of the ports; and upon this the
+federal government imposed an unconstitutional tax of three cents a pound.
+Farm implements were crude and scarce; the necessities of the Confederate
+government in its expiring struggles had stripped the country of the best
+of the draft and food animals; in the Black Belt there were no factories;
+development of transportation had been checked in its incipiency;
+education was almost abandoned, and the civil laws suspended. Everything
+had to be organized or reorganized.
+
+Cotton was one of the principal resources left to the people at the close
+of the war. In great demand and readily convertible into money at prices
+ranging from fifty cents a pound upward, and in considerable quantities,
+it would have furnished means for a "fresh start" had the people been
+permitted to hold it in undisputed possession; but the government
+begrudged even this remnant of lost fortunes. Unfortunately, during the
+war agents of the Confederacy from time to time contracted for quantities
+of cotton, to be paid for in bonds, but in most cases there had been no
+actual transfer of either bonds or cotton, and the latter remained on the
+plantations. After the surrender of General Taylor to General Canby, the
+federal commander promulgated an order requiring all persons who held such
+cotton to surrender it to the United States agents, under penalty of
+confiscation of their property. The military authorities claimed this
+cotton as a prize of war, and treasury agents--some of them fictitious, as
+afterward proven--were soon ranging the country in search for it. The
+holders believed that the question of ownership was at least debatable.
+Prior to the surrender, the Confederate government, fearing that federal
+raiders would seize the cotton, ordered that it be destroyed by the
+holders; but the authority of that government was not then potent, and the
+planters, instead of obeying the order, conveyed the bales to places of
+concealment in swamps and elsewhere, and believed that this act confirmed
+their claim to ownership. Some of the cotton was thus concealed when the
+agents began their search. The order of seizure was subsequently so
+modified as to permit the original holders to claim one-fourth of the
+cotton as compensation for caretaking. Very few took advantage of this
+concession; and, indeed, the greedy agents actually suppressed the order
+for months while the seizures were in progress. Attorneys who contested
+before military tribunals the right of seizure argued that, by reason of
+non-delivery, sales to the Confederate government had not been completed,
+and that the federal government had no right to capture the cotton after
+final surrender of the Confederate armies; but in some instances these
+attorneys were arrested and threatened with imprisonment unless they
+abated their zeal in behalf of clients.
+
+There was in resulting evil practices a touch of picturesqueness. The
+unconquered and unconquerable veterans of the vanquished southern armies,
+in many instances impoverished, were ripe for any enterprise which
+promised congenial adventure and spoils which they regarded as legitimate.
+The agents went about supported by federal troops, and many were the
+clashes between the latter and so-called guerrilla bands composed of their
+late antagonists on other and more glorious fields. These bands were
+actuated by the conviction that the Confederate government having had no
+clear title to ownership of the cotton, the conquerors succeeded to none;
+and so they took up the contest where the intimidated attorneys dropped
+it, and contested with the agents and their armed supporters. These
+agents were well supplied with army teams and wagons, and often these,
+falling into the hands of the "guerrillas," served the captors as a
+convenient means of transportation of booty. Yet, it sometimes happened
+that the guerrillas were the captives, and when in the toils were in sore
+straits to raise the ransom which was exacted in lieu of arrest and
+arraignment for trial. Even steamboats were hauled to and relieved of
+cargoes. That was the golden era for steamboatmen, when freight charges
+and salaries, especially of pilots, were phenomenal.
+
+These transactions soon degenerated into plunder pure and simple,
+involving private cotton to which the government could lay no sort of
+claim.
+
+Perhaps there had been collusion between holders of "Confederate" cotton
+and the raiding bands which seized and bore it off; anyhow, the inevitable
+effect was that unscrupulous men, taking advantage of popular tolerance of
+practices which originally sprang from patriotic impulses, disregarded
+private rights and indiscriminately stole. Planters paid for guards as
+high as thirty dollars each per night at critical times. Men who were
+unaccustomed to the command of money grew rich in a brief space and
+correspondingly lavish in their expenditures. Extravagance and
+demoralization which left their enduring impress ensued. Admissions were
+made in high quarters in after years that not one-tenth of the proceeds of
+cotton seized by agents ever went into the treasury of the United States.
+One example will suffice: An agent in Demopolis claimed and was allowed
+for four months' services, on the basis of one-fourth of the cotton seized
+by him, $80,000; and the settlement was between him and military
+authorities who were quite as adept as he in the art of pilfering. Thus in
+a time of stress the producers were despoiled and adventurers enriched by
+the ungenerous policy of the victorious government.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following facts are gathered from evidence taken before the committee
+in Congress in the investigation as to General Howard:
+
+At the close of the war there were held in the south at least five million
+bales of cotton, worth in Liverpool $500,000,000. Only a fraction of this
+cotton was owned by the Confederate states government, and this was turned
+over to General E. R. S. Canby by General E. Kirby Smith on May 24, 1865.
+Besides the swarm of official agents, informers and spies sent down by the
+Treasury Department in search of Confederate cotton, contracts were made
+with private individuals to engage in the work. Much cotton was taken from
+plantations before the owners returned to their homes after the
+disbandment of the armies. Seizures were indiscriminate. Proof of private
+ownership had to be supported by tender of toll; there was no redress.
+
+A Treasury Department regulation required that all cotton seized in the
+Atlantic and Gulf states should be shipped to Simon Draper, United States
+cotton agent in New York City; and that seized on the upper Mississippi
+river and in northern Georgia and northern Alabama to William P. Mellen,
+agent in Cincinnati. These agents sold by samples which were spurious and
+inferior to the cotton which they represented. Accordingly, cotton worth
+sixty cents to one dollar per pound was sold for ten to fifteen cents. The
+purchasers were in collusion with the agent. By the system of "plucking,"
+the weight of bales was reduced anywhere from one hundred to two hundred
+pounds before they were sold: the plucked cotton was termed "waste
+cotton," packed and sold as "trash" to mills, but not at trash prices.
+These terms figured only in the reports to the department. Sometimes
+owners traced stolen cotton to the New York or Cincinnati agency; and if a
+thousand bales were involved, the agent reported that only two hundred had
+been received, and of very inferior quality, and was sold for ten or
+fifteen cents per pound, which his books would prove; that
+transportation, storage and commissions left only a small sum. Draper,
+when he became cotton agent, was a bankrupt. Subsequently he settled his
+debts and when he died was a multimillionaire. Fifty million dollars'
+worth of cotton was shipped to Draper; the government derived only
+$15,000,000 net from that source as the reward for the wrong which it had
+committed in entrusting the enforcement of its doubtful claim against the
+impoverished southern people to dishonest and unscrupulous agents.
+
+The Confederate States government imposed a tax in kind upon all
+provisions produced on plantations--one-tenth. The first year after the
+war this tax was enforced in some isolated sections by orders of minor
+military officers, and collected by agents. Of course this was fraudulent,
+and was stopped after a while.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE
+
+THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU
+
+
+Meanwhile, the Freedmen's Bureau had been established. General Swayne
+promulgated an order recognizing as agents of the bureau former civil
+magistrates who could and would obtain endorsement of negroes; but, as a
+rule, carpetbaggers filled the places. Offices were opened at the county
+seats, where complaints of freedmen were lodged and investigations
+conducted. The agents prescribed a uniform division of products of the
+soil between planters and hands. They supervised all contracts and
+regulated the conduct of affairs between employer and employe, and their
+dicta were absolute and final, being enforced, if necessary, by soldiers
+of the garrison.
+
+The agents gave notice that nobody would be allowed to employ freedmen
+unless the contracts were submitted to and approved by them and left in
+their custody. They gave ear to any tale of complaining freedmen, arrested
+the white man complained of, tried and punished him, unless he proved
+willing to purchase immunity. Sometimes after the planter had contracted
+in the prescribed manner with freedmen, and had his crops in process of
+cultivation, the hands would quit work, and only intervention by the agent
+would make them return. Such intervention cost as high as ten dollars per
+hand, and the occasion for it might recur before the crops could be
+gathered. Some of the agents secured plantations and used them as refuges
+for dissatisfied freedmen, who were fed and clothed.
+
+The agents were as a rule "fanatics without character or responsibility,
+and were selected as fit instruments to execute the partisan and
+unconstitutional behests of a most unscrupulous head." (Senator Beck, in
+an official report.) Some of them were preachers, and had been selected as
+being the most devout, zealous and loyal of a certain religious sect. In
+league meetings they told the negroes that although they had been married
+according to plantation custom for many years, they must procure licenses
+and be remarried. Thus they made large sums in fees, in many instances
+from old couples who had grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
+
+All of this was humiliating and irritating to the planters, but submitted
+to so long as the agents confined their activities to legitimate
+functions. But they soon became mischievously meddlesome, and discovered
+in their powers means for promoting their political fortunes.
+
+As a body, the negroes had been conducting themselves with propriety, and
+good feeling prevailed. Their greatest delight was in the dignity of
+unaccustomed surnames, duster coats, gauntlet gloves, albums, clocks and
+other wares, with which enterprising northern peddlers tempted them. Their
+childish delight in these novel possessions for a while filled the measure
+of their happiness. But some of them who had been following armies
+contracted nomadic habits; others were incapable of rational exercise of
+their novel privileges, and became disturbers of the peace. Their
+depredations soon rendered stock raising impracticable. Every plantation
+had a gin-house, and these houses, with their valuable contents, were
+exposed to incendiaries seeking revenge for real or fancied grievances,
+and many were destroyed. Men with the "easy money" acquired during the
+period of cotton stealing set up crossroad stores at every available point
+and dispensed vile whiskey in barter for bags of loose cotton and corn,
+ostensibly the "shares" of those offering them, but really often stolen
+from lint rooms and cribs, and even from the ungarnered crops in the
+fields. These traders did an immense business, many of them setting up
+gins and baling screws. The existing "sundown and sunrise" law was enacted
+to destroy this nefarious traffic. It prohibited the sale of farm products
+between sunset and sunrise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX
+
+MILITARY REGULATIONS
+
+
+Another cause of irritation was the offensive conduct of soldiers
+composing the garrisons, which provoked collisions with the more impetuous
+citizens. In 1865 the federal soldiers in Tuscaloosa, Greensboro, Eutaw
+and other towns subjected the people to very offensive regulations. Only a
+few examples need be mentioned as exhibiting the temper of both sides: The
+former soldiers of the Confederacy, having no means with which to
+replenish their wardrobes, wore their uniforms. The federals threatened,
+and sometimes attempted, to cut the buttons from the old gray coats, and
+the proud wearers were forced to resort to the expedient of covering them
+with thin cloth rather than let them serve as a pretext for insults. Flags
+were stretched across the sidewalks, so that pedestrians would have to
+pass under them. To defeat the obvious purpose, men and women, in going
+about, resorted to the roadway or diverged from the sidewalks at points
+where the flags were placed. In some instances these unwilling and
+protesting people were seized and forced under the flags. These and other
+practices, devised to provoke the people to exhibitions of hostility,
+caused severe smarting. Perhaps many young men who had received war
+schooling were not reluctant to encounter their former antagonists.
+
+A memorable tragedy, with annoying consequences, resulted from such an
+encounter. August 31, 1865, election day, the brothers Tom and Toode
+Cowan, formerly heroic members of Forrest's cavalry, became involved in a
+controversy with a squad of soldiers of the garrison in Greensboro; in the
+resulting affray pistols were used; the younger Cowan killed one of the
+soldiers, while his brother dangerously wounded another. The slayer
+mounted a horse and escaped, but the intrepid Tom scorned flight and
+yielded only to overpowering numbers. Intense excitement prevailed; the
+enraged soldiers sprang to arms, seized Cowan, and, defying their
+officers, prepared to hang the prisoner. At the critical moment came a
+message from the wounded man, generously acknowledging he was the
+aggressor and pleading for a fair trial for Cowan. This appeased the
+military mob and the prisoner was locked up. That night squads of cavalry
+roamed the country, ostensibly seeking the fugitive, but really to disarm
+and arrest the planters. Mr. Cowan was tried and acquitted. His brother
+was not apprehended.
+
+In some cases the soldiers were insubordinate and manifested hostility to
+the people. One notable example in illustration is recalled: During the
+hours of darkness soldiers burned the Episcopal church in Demopolis. Some
+of them were detected with articles stolen from the sacred edifice, and
+the colonel was requested to have the impious robbers arrested. That
+officer declined to make the order, because the guilty men were dangerous
+characters and would seek revenge if called to account. Indeed, they
+threatened that when transferred from Demopolis they would set fire to the
+town. To prevent the execution of this purpose, another colonel was
+substituted for the commander of the regiment, and he placed sentinels
+around the quarters and marched the men away in ignorance of the fact that
+it was their final departure.
+
+In Greensboro, in 1867, was enacted another regrettable tragedy, the
+attendant circumstances of which intensified the growing hostility between
+the races. John C. Orick shot and killed Aleck Webb, negro register of
+voters. The shooting occurred in daylight and on one of the principal
+sidewalks. Orick calmly retired from the scene, locked the doors of his
+store, and in disguise fled the town.
+
+Orick was a bold, dashing and handsome young man who had won enviable
+laurels in the war. When hardly more than a boy, his adventurous spirit
+impelled him to leave home without parental consent and attach himself to
+Colonel Mosby's command. One of his achievements is worthy of mention
+here: As an "observer" he visited Baltimore and Washington, and in the
+latter city ascertained the time of departure of the army pay train on the
+Baltimore and Ohio railroad. Reporting to his commander the valuable
+information he had acquired, successful plans were formed for the capture
+of the train by Mosby's command. With his share of the booty obtained in
+this enterprise, Orick, after the final surrender, purchased a stock of
+goods and established himself in business in Greensboro.
+
+The negroes of the town and vicinity bitterly resented the killing of
+Webb, and during the night large bands of them roamed the surrounding
+country, avowedly seeking the slayer, but really bent on any mischief for
+which opportunity might offer. One band went to the Gewin premises. A
+young man, a member of the family, in his night clothes and barefooted,
+was encountered in the yard. Seeing that the marauders intercepted retreat
+to the house, Gewin fled to the woods, hotly pursued. After a chase which
+extended for a mile, over rough fields and woods, the fleeing man was
+overhauled, tied to the bare back of a horse and conveyed to the office of
+Dr. Blackford, in Greensboro. After a lengthy parley, his friends secured
+his release.
+
+At dusk the town was thronged with infuriated armed negroes, who
+threatened to apply the torch. After some of the leading citizens had
+vainly expostulated with them, the whites armed themselves and prepared to
+expel them by force; but when Gewin was released, the negroes retired,
+sullenly, and a clash was averted.
+
+The Gewin family and its connections comprised a considerable number of
+brave and resolute men, of remarkably fine physique, and they and their
+friends were indignant with Blackford, the probate judge, because of the
+suspicion that he had directed the negroes who committed the outrage,--a
+suspicion justified by the fact that Gewin was conveyed to Blackford's
+office. Everybody sympathized with them. It was said that Blackford told
+the negroes they should avenge the killing of Webb, and that he instigated
+the incendiary threats, and he was thenceforward regarded as a factor of
+disturbance in the community.
+
+As a result of these occurrences, an organization was formed in Greensboro
+for public defense, and arms were obtained. The members were, in event of
+necessity, to assemble at the ringing of a certain bell, and a rendezvous
+was selected. No oath was required of the members.
+
+The first attempt to enforce the flag regulation in the case of a woman,
+in Tuscaloosa, was the last. Intrepid Ryland Randolph, editor of the
+_Monitor_, in uncontrollable indignation seized a sabre and in person
+challenged the responsible commander to mortal combat. Declining the
+proposed close encounter, that official thenceforward was more circumspect
+in his conduct.
+
+The story of Randolph's career is an interesting part of the history of
+Tuscaloosa. As an editor, he was belligerent, and relentless in his
+denunciation of radical maladministration of public affairs. So effective
+was his hostility that publication of his paper (official organ of the Ku
+Klux) was suppressed by military order. He accepted a challenge to a duel
+provoked by attacks upon the chief justice of the state supreme court,
+addressed to him by the judge's son-in-law; but on the field mutual
+friends effected an amicable and honorable settlement.
+
+A less dignified encounter involved him in more serious difficulties.
+Opposite the _Monitor_ office a number of negroes were assembled one day,
+and two of them assaulted a white man. Suddenly Randolph, with pistol and
+bowie-knife in hand, appeared in the midst of the struggling throng. One
+shot was fired by him, when he, in turn, became the object of attack. One
+of the assailants, a political leader, received in his side a thrust from
+Randolph's bowie, and another in the back, where the broken point of the
+knife remained. Within a few minutes the prostrate leader was the only one
+who remained on the scene. But the negroes, with augmented numbers,
+reassembled a short distance away. Randolph returned to his office and
+reappeared with a shotgun. His dauntless bearing discouraged further
+hostile demonstration by the blacks. In consequence of this affair,
+Randolph was arrested by the soldiers and taken to Montgomery for trial.
+En route, by stage-coach, he was made a spectacle for gloating negroes. He
+was acquitted, and his return was made an occasion of popular
+manifestation of esteem. A cavalcade met him some miles outside of
+Tuscaloosa, and on nearer approach to town was magnified into a vast
+procession of carriages and marchers, embracing men and women and school
+children. The procession moved to the sound of bells. A great meeting,
+with speechmaking, followed.
+
+At that time the University of Alabama, at Tuscaloosa, was controlled by
+the radicals and boycotted by the whites. A brother of Governor Smith was
+a regent of the institution, and this regent's son a student. One of the
+professors, Vaughan, had been persistently assailed by the _Monitor_,
+which charged him with incompetence and drunkenness. It was said that
+Vaughan enlisted Smith as a champion. Anyhow, the two sought Randolph on
+the streets and found him in conversation with a friend. While Vaughan
+stood some distance away, Smith approached Randolph and insultingly
+jostled him. Simultaneously and without hesitation, the two men drew
+pistols and began firing, each discharging five chambers of his revolver.
+One shot struck a thick book in Randolph's coat pocket and lodged therein;
+another struck above the knee and ranged up the thigh, his leg being
+crooked at the moment. This shot necessitated amputation of the injured
+limb. An innocent bystander on the opposite side of the street was killed
+by a stray bullet. Smith and Vaughan were arrested. The former was rescued
+by fellow students and fled to Utah.
+
+Randolph survived the reconstruction period and enjoyed the restoration of
+white supremacy. He died in 1903 from the effects of a fall in a
+streetcar.
+
+An incident of the military regime in Eutaw early embittered relations
+between the people and their rulers. An "undesirable citizen" was given a
+ride on a rail. In the court martial trial of the accused, James A.
+Steele, Thomas W. Roberts, F. H. Mundy, John Cullen, Hugh L. White,
+William Pettigrew and Mr. Strayhorn were sentenced to hard labor at Dry
+Tortugas for periods ranging from two to six years. The circumstances
+attending their treatment as prisoners exhibited harshness which aroused
+indignation. Handcuffed and chained, they were conveyed by a squad to New
+Orleans and thence by sea to the island prison. They were not permitted to
+communicate with their families or friends nor to receive funds to relieve
+their wants. Their sufferings and indignities were severe and humiliating.
+An appeal in their behalf, with a presentation of the facts connected with
+the trial, was made to General Meade, and that commander remitted the
+sentence. The return of the victims to their homes was made the occasion
+of a memorable demonstration of popular feeling.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN
+
+THE UNION LEAGUE
+
+
+In pursuance of their schemes which culminated at the election in 1868,
+the carpetbag adventurers early in 1867 organized everywhere in Alabama
+branches of the Union League, a secret, oathbound political society, with
+all the mysticism of grips, signs, signals and passwords, national in
+scope, with grand national and grand state councils. Secrecy and obedience
+to commands were enjoined under severest penalties, including even death.
+Their meeting places were guarded by armed sentinels. The negro members
+were taught to disregard the feelings and interests of the whites, and
+told that if their former masters should obtain control of the government,
+they would re-enslave them; and this was an irresistible appeal to
+ignorant people enjoying the first delights of release from bondage. On
+the other hand, they were promised that if the Republicans should gain
+control, they would enact such oppressive tax laws that the landowners
+would be unable to meet the exactions, and consequently their lands would
+be forfeited; after which the Republicans would allot them in parcels of
+forty acres, together with a mule, to each head of a negro family resident
+thereon; they were told, further, that, in order to facilitate and
+expedite this process of confiscation and apportionment, they should
+slight their work and thus increase the difficulties under which their
+former masters would have to struggle to save their properties from
+spoliation. The student of history should not be harsh in judgment of the
+negro because of his susceptibility to a lure so enticing. He was
+ignorant, and regarded every pretentious white stranger as one of that
+great army which had liberated him from bondage.
+
+Serious as was the situation, it was not without amusement in its
+demonstration of the negro's gullibility. A bogus "land agent" circulated
+slips conveying directions regarding "preemption of homesteads," and the
+credulous negroes bought them, and, besides, painted sticks with pointed
+ends to be driven into the ground to mark their boundaries; they also
+purchased chances in a sort of lottery for the distribution of parcels of
+land. All of these were sold under alleged authority received from the
+government at Washington, all dependent on the success of the Republican
+party.
+
+By request of President Johnson, General Grant in 1865 made a tour of the
+southern states, to learn the feelings and intentions of the people and to
+ascertain to what extent, in the interest of economy, the military forces
+there could be reduced. He reported that white troops excited no
+opposition: thinking men would offer no violence to them. But black troops
+demoralized labor, "and the late slaves seem to be infused with the idea
+that the property of their late masters should by right belong to them, or
+at least should have no protection from the colored soldiers. There is
+danger of collision being brought by such causes."
+
+The so-called abandoned lands on the coast of South Carolina and
+Georgia--lands from which whites had fled to escape dangers of the
+war--were actually seized and colonized with wandering negroes, though the
+lands were afterward restored to the owners. The germ of the "forty acres
+and a mule" idea, no doubt, originated in those colonies. The idea was of
+early conception, as the Grant report shows.
+
+The first annoyances caused by the league were the neglect of field work
+by negroes in order to attend political meetings in daylight, and taking
+hard-worked mules from lots at night and riding them to league meetings.
+But in the course of time the organization assumed a military aspect,
+drilling regularly. Bodies appeared in procession, in regular company
+order, with arms, banners, drums and fifes, the officers wearing
+side-arms. At the election they were met outside the towns by emissaries
+and furnished with tickets, and then proceeded to the polling places and
+deposited them as directed. All of this appealed to the negroes' taste for
+novelty and spectacle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT
+
+A REPUBLICAN BLUNDER
+
+
+This narrative is now brought again to the point at which it digressed,
+the election on the constitution, but before resuming that subject a few
+words of comment here will not be out of place.
+
+The perfidy of Congress in imposing upon the people of Alabama, in
+violation of its own solemn covenant, a constitution which they had
+rejected in a lawful manner, was a blunder fatal to the future influence
+of the Republican party in Alabama. The fourteenth amendment had already
+injured the party because of its application to great numbers of men who
+might have allied themselves with it if they had not been involved in the
+proscription. They had opposed secession as long as there was any reason
+in opposition, and then reluctantly adapted themselves to the situation.
+Jefferson Davis had been in prison, demanding trial and ready to abide the
+result; he was discharged, and the proceedings looking to personal
+punishment abandoned. Other leaders, including Admiral Semmes, "the
+pirate," as he was termed in intensity of hatred, were at their homes,
+pursuing the vocations of peace and ready to try the issue. The excuse for
+abandoning the prosecution was that, the fourteenth amendment having
+imposed the penalty of deprivation of citizen rights, the courts could not
+inflict other punishment.
+
+Thus, the men who had, at the cost of popular good will and private
+friendship, opposed with all their abilities severance of the Union were
+equally subject to a penalty deemed adequate for "the arch traitor" and
+"the pirate," so called.
+
+Then, there were thousands of men in northern Alabama not subject to the
+proscription, who were nursing the grievance that Democrats had
+precipitated secession without permitting the people to vote on the
+ordinance. They believed that, had it been submitted, it would have been
+defeated. Northern Alabama was so loyal to the Union that leaders there
+proposed separation of that section at the line of the mountains, and that
+its people organize and "fight it out" in the foothills. But the
+promptness with which the Confederate authorities organized the military
+forces discouraged such a project. The strong resentment of the summary
+accomplishment of secession was rendered bitter by conscription laws.
+Sections of the mountains in which drastic measures were necessary to
+enforce those laws became easy recruiting grounds for the federal army.
+It is recorded that 2,700 men from Walker, Winston and Fayette counties
+enlisted in one federal command. North Alabama was more than once occupied
+by contending armies, and partisan organizations embittered the contest.
+
+In central and southern Alabama were many Whigs and Union men who had no
+liking for the Democratic party.
+
+In this state of affairs, convinced that not many of the proud
+Confederates would sue for relief from fourteenth amendment disabilities,
+and that the constitution which disqualified thousands of white voters
+would perpetuate negro supremacy in Alabama, the Republican leaders in
+Congress committed a wrong which to this day bears heavily upon their
+party.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE
+
+CARPETBAG GOVERNMENT
+
+
+The negroes had exercised without hindrance their new privilege of the
+suffrage. Their incapacity as voters was illustrated in the character of
+the men who assumed office after the election in 1868.
+
+In Sumter county, Tobias Lane was elected probate judge, but during the
+period of uncertainty when the constitution was in abeyance, concluding
+that congressional action respecting it would be unfavorable, he packed
+his carpetbag and returned to Ohio, having been one of the migrants from
+that state, so prolific of birds of his feather.
+
+Beville, the sheriff, was an appointee of General Swayne. He was unable to
+give bond, but Swayne waived that formality and ordered him to continue in
+office without bond. In 1868 Richard Harris, a negro, who could neither
+read nor write, became his worthy successor.
+
+As solicitor the discriminating voters chose Ben Bardwell, a negro, who
+was wholly deficient in the knowledge of reading and writing, a
+deficiency which made him "an easy mark" for one of the most learned bars
+in the state.
+
+George Houston, a freedman, was sent to the lower house of the
+legislature. As his colleague Ben Inge, another "person of color,"
+absolutely illiterate, was selected.
+
+An army captain, one Yordy, received the state senatorial honors, which he
+wore while serving Uncle Sam in the custom house at Mobile. He was a
+long-distance representative, having no domicile in Sumter, nor ever
+making his appearance there.
+
+John B. Cecil, reputed federal army sutler and coming with the influx from
+fecund Ohio, was elected treasurer. He gradually and logically degenerated
+into a partnership with a negro in a grog-shop enterprise.
+
+Badger, another bird of passage, became tax assessor. The revenue and road
+commission was a motley aggregation which comprised one carpetbagger and
+three negroes.
+
+Edward Herndon, a native Union man, by grace of appointment and election,
+simultaneously devoted his talents to the offices of circuit clerk,
+register in chancery, notary public, justice of the peace, keeper of the
+poorhouse and guardian _ad litem_,--and perhaps felt aggrieved that he
+didn't have "all that was coming to him."
+
+It would seem that, with this multiplicity of trusts, Mr. Herndon
+monopolized the privilege of plurality in office holding; but not so, for
+Mr. Daniel Price, a typical scalawag, with the reputation of a jailbird
+and desperado, made flight from Wetumpka to Sumter, and was endowed with a
+bunch of federal and county jobs,--register of voters, superintendent of
+education, postmaster and census taker. Insatiable, like Oliver Twist he
+wanted more, and as a side line to his multifarious activities, employed
+his scholarly attainments in the conduct of a negro school, meanwhile
+boarding and associating with negroes.
+
+The harmony of the "color scheme" of the official colony in Perry county,
+adjoining Hale county, was never broken by a trace of the ebony hue.
+
+Without exception, all of the county offices were held by carpetbaggers,
+officers of the 8th Wisconsin regiment, originally sent on garrison duty.
+Their characters are illustrated by the fact that, under the guise of
+selling properties which they had acquired in the county, all of them sold
+their offices in the time of political regeneration and betook themselves
+to the north. During Lindsay's administration the sheriff, charged with
+conniving at the escape from jail of a prisoner incarcerated for murder,
+sold his job for $1,500. Democrats succeeded the aliens.
+
+In Marengo county there were more places than "loyal and reconstructed"
+place-seekers, and consequently Charles L. Drake, who made his advent in
+1866 as an army captain, was burdened with the cares and responsibilities
+of register in chancery, circuit clerk, United States commissioner and
+agent of the Freedmen's Bureau; yet had time for political activity which
+made him especially obnoxious.
+
+Another conspicuous character in Marengo was one Burton, a carpetbagger,
+who established in Demopolis a weekly newspaper, _The Southern
+Republican_. He had incorporated in the oppressive tax laws a provision
+that where a deed was made to a purchaser at a tax sale, it should be made
+conclusive evidence, whether the sale was legal or illegal, that all
+requisites to a valid sale had been complied with. In order to increase
+the advertising, a section of land was divided into sixteen parts and each
+part advertised separately. Legal advertising was confined to "loyal"
+papers, the test of loyalty being allegiance to the Radical party. _The
+Southern Republican_, being the only loyal paper in all that
+unreconstructed region, was designated as the official organ of Marengo,
+Greene, Perry and Choctaw counties.
+
+The newspaper statute referred to was in these words:
+
+"That it shall be the duty of the probate judge in each county of this
+state to designate a newspaper in which all local advertisements, notices,
+or publications of any and every character required by law to be made in
+his county shall be published. Provided, that no newspaper shall be
+designated as such official organ which does not in its columns sustain
+and advocate the maintenance of the government of the United States and of
+the government of the state of Alabama, which is recognized by the
+Congress of the United States as the legal government of this state; and
+if there be no such paper published in the county, then the probate judge,
+whose decision upon the question shall be final, shall designate the paper
+published nearest the county seat of his county which does sustain said
+government."
+
+The "loyal" papers so designated had no circulation beyond a small free
+distribution among office-holders. Few of the negroes in their general
+illiteracy could read them, and none of them were concerned in the
+advertisements. The white people, to whom all of the advertisements were
+addressed, would not permit a copy of the publications to be sent to them.
+Consequently, the payment of fees was a waste of public money. The purpose
+of the law was to create and sustain a detestable press at the expense of
+the taxpayers, or seduce the existing papers.
+
+In 1870 Burton was nominee for lieutenant-governor. On account of some
+personally offensive publication, Mr. E. C. Meredith, of Eutaw, a
+Democratic leader ("Bravest of the Brave"), severely chastised him in
+Eutaw. Thereafter the "trooly loil" journalist made his periodical
+collections of fees in Greene county by proxy. About the time when frost
+touched with withering chill his budding political aspiration, Burton
+received an ominous communication, not intended for publication, but for
+his own guidance. It was embellished with pictures of cross-bones, skull
+and dagger, and inscribed with a legend which he interpreted as a sort of
+"move on" ordinance. And he stood not on the order of his going, but
+hiked.
+
+General Dustin, a northern soldier, of good family connections, who
+settled in Demopolis and allied himself by marriage with one of the old
+and prominent families of the town, was appointed major general of
+militia, and endeavored, but unsuccessfully, to organize a force. The law
+provided that whenever forty or more men should enroll themselves and
+choose officers, the governor upon application should recognize them as a
+volunteer company. Governor Smith could not be persuaded to encourage the
+formation of a militia force; he preferred federal regulars, and they were
+always available.
+
+While awaiting opportunity for employment of his warrior genius and
+acquirements, General Dustin, equally soldier and statesman, served the
+people of his adopted county in the legislature. His colleague in that
+august assembly of solons was Levi Wells, a "ward of the nation."
+
+Others who made reconstruction history in Marengo county will be mentioned
+incidentally as this narrative progresses. They were a rare lot, and
+equally with the others worthy of a place on the scroll of fame.
+
+Choctaw county officials distinguished themselves in some features of
+their administration of affairs, according to testimony before a
+government commission. Dr. Foster was appointed probate judge and elected
+state senator, and served in the dual capacity. Receiving the appointment
+of revenue collector at Mobile, he discarded the probate judgeship, to
+which Hill was appointed, but polygamously refused to be divorced from the
+other love, the senatorship. Hill had been appointed treasurer before
+receiving the appointment to the judgeship. Withdrawing from the former
+place, his brother, Alexander, succeeded. It may not too much confuse the
+already complex situation to mention incidentally that the industrious
+Alexander filled in spare time by discharging the humble duties of justice
+of the peace, having before him the example of his eminent brother, who
+scorned not the lesser duties of register in chancery, with which also he
+was charged. In the progress of time, an inquisitive grand jury, nosing
+into matters, ascertained that Treasurer Aleck had received from the
+county tax collector fees to the amount of $3,600. While the jury was
+investigating, a disturbance occurred on the streets; the sheriff
+resigned, rather than interfere with the disturbers, and sought pastoral
+scenes. Circuit Judge J. Q. Smith, serving as a substitute for Luther R.
+Smith, adjourned court without receiving the jury's report. Immediately
+after adjournment Probate Judge Hill, who had received a significant
+communication, with skull and dagger adornment, and maybe had been
+playfully shot at, retired to his farm, leaving his office in the care of
+the overburdened but willing Aleck. The circuit clerk accompanied the
+probate judge to his sylvan retreat, and imposed more work on Aleck by
+making him custodian of his office also. By the way, this clerk was first
+elected, but failed to qualify, whereupon Judge Smith cured the defect by
+appointing him to the place. Such was the situation of affairs when, at
+midnight, April 14, the structure burned, and, excepting documents in the
+hands of the jury, all of the records of the two offices, together with
+the treasurer's account of moneys received and disbursed, fed the hungry
+flames. The treasurer said that all the funds were in the safe, but only
+charred packages of Confederate "shinplasters" were found therein when the
+safe was opened. The succeeding treasurer, an expert accountant, under
+instructions from the commissioners' court, investigated accounts between
+the collector and former treasurer, and reported that the latter was in
+default to the extent of about $7,000, and the tax collector about $2,700.
+Meanwhile, the tax collector had sought a change of air in "the glorious
+climate of California." Before his departure he related a tale of woe, the
+burden of which was that highwaymen had despoiled him of official
+collections of between $5,000 and $6,000.
+
+The fire fiend had marked Choctaw officials for its victims. According to
+his own statement, the dwelling of the county superintendent of education
+was the repository of $4,000 of county funds when said "fiend" consumed
+it. The superintendent was the author of his own official bond, and in his
+inexperience omitted therefrom the customary penalty clause, which
+omission rendered the instrument non-enforceable. Feeling the inadequacy
+of local employment for his talents, he took up residence across the line
+in Sumter county, and thus qualified for election to the legislature, but
+there was no requisition for his services.
+
+The superintendent was law partner of Joshua Morse, attorney general of
+the state. They were jointly indicted for the murder of Editor Thomas of
+the county paper at Butler, the county seat; they obtained a change of
+venue and were tried and acquitted in Mobile, the principal witness
+against them having disappeared.
+
+William Miller, a former slaveowner and one of the largest landowners,
+became probate judge of Greene county in 1868. Judge Oliver, the
+incumbent, refused to recognize his claim, and Miller invoked the
+ever-responsive military powers; the soldiers forced entrance to the
+office and inducted the claimant. Oliver filed a protest and retired.
+Alexander Boyd, a nephew of Miller, became county solicitor and register
+in chancery.
+
+Judge Luther R. Smith had a brother, Arthur A., who was languishing in
+Massachusetts, with talents unemployed and maybe unrecognized. The judge
+imported his brother and made him county superintendent of education.
+There were not many white Republicans in Greene, and it happened that the
+circuit court clerkship was "lying around loose," and the judge thought
+Arthur was the man for the place. The latter accepted the gift, but failed
+to relinquish the superintendency of education. One Yordy figured as agent
+of the Freedmen's Bureau.
+
+These officials were unable to obtain board and lodging at either of the
+taverns or elsewhere, and jointly established and maintained for some time
+a bachelor establishment, duly ostracised by the people of the town and
+county.
+
+Hale county had a complement of officials in keeping with the layout
+common to the counties of the district, including a negro legislator. The
+most troublesome was Dr. Blackford, probate judge. He had served as a
+delegate to the constitutional convention of 1867. He displaced Judge
+Hutchinson, a popular gentleman who had lost three brothers in one of the
+battles in Virginia, members of the famous Greensboro Guards.
+
+Blackford was a skillful physician and surgeon, and of fair education. He
+served as surgeon in the Confederate army, and was stationed at Vicksburg
+during the siege. Subsequently a story circulated that he was there
+court-martialed on a charge of appropriating to his own use hospital
+stores, including liquors. However that may be, his services were
+dispensed with and he took up abode in Greensboro, and began to practice
+his profession with much success. In an evil hour he was tempted to cast
+his lot with the adventurers who were greedily fastening their clutches
+upon the substance of the country, and fell. Going from bad to worse, he
+affiliated with negroes and soon obtained absolute control of them.
+Claiming, as probate judge, that he had the right to supervise contracts
+between them and their employers, he constantly meddled in private
+affairs. Calling league meetings and taking the hands away from their
+work, he caused much vexation and loss to the planters.
+
+About the time when he became probate judge an incident occurred in
+Greensboro in which was exhibited by the soldiers an unusual
+disapprobation of the administration of affairs. The agent of the
+Freedmen's Bureau, one Clause, incurred the displeasure of some of them
+who were inclined to insubordination, and they administered to him a
+beating. Varying the proceeding, they seized a negro school teacher and
+conveyed him to a pond, in which they ducked him repeatedly.
+
+Blackford became alarmed at this manifestation of displeasure, and fled to
+the hills north of the town. There he was pursued by the rioters in
+uniform, and, resuming his flight, sought refuge at the home of a citizen,
+who apprised leading citizens of Greensboro of his whereabouts and peril.
+They informed the military commander, who, in turn, dispatched a squad of
+cavalry to rescue him and conduct him to town. Blackford, on his return,
+renounced his political heresies and aspirations to the judgeship, which
+he declared he would not accept; but, recovering his confidence in the
+stability of the military powers and his negro backing, he quickly
+recanted and relapsed into arrogance.
+
+Tuscaloosa county was not neglected by place-hunters, but the
+preponderance of whites in that county was a restraining influence.
+
+Luther R. Smith, a carpetbagger from Michigan, provisional circuit judge
+in 1866, was elected to that position in 1868, and simultaneously a member
+of the legislature, but had decency to resign the latter trust.
+Notwithstanding he subsequently violated the judicial proprieties by
+presiding over a radical state convention in Selma. He was one of the most
+respectable of the intruders, and reputed to be just, impartial and
+courteous on the bench. Nevertheless he shared, in a lesser measure, the
+odium which attached to all. The feeling of the people was that no
+right-minded man would thrust himself into public position under the
+peculiar circumstances.
+
+All the members of the United States House of Representatives from
+Alabama were carpetbaggers--officers in the United States army. Charles W.
+Pierce represented the fourth district. He held a commission as major. His
+course in the interval when the constitution was in abeyance was the same
+as that of Colonel Callis, who caused more discussion. Colonel Callis was
+elected to Congress from the Huntsville district, in competition with
+General Joseph W. Burke, a man of character and education. General Burke
+was the Republican nominee, and Callis bolted. Callis was a federal
+soldier and agent of the Freedmen's Bureau, at Huntsville. While
+canvassing, he was attired in the uniform of a colonel. When the
+constitution was rejected and declared rejected by General Meade, and the
+fact communicated to General Grant and by him communicated to Congress,
+and the action of Congress looked to the rejection of the constitution,
+Colonel Callis left Huntsville and went upon duty to Mississippi as an
+army officer. When Congress accepted the constitution and admitted Alabama
+under the "omnibus" measure, Callis hurried to Washington and took his
+seat as a representative from Alabama, notwithstanding he had never been a
+citizen of the state and was then a resident of Mississippi. Pierce was
+succeeded by Charles Hays, of Greene county, in November, 1869.
+
+The state was represented in the federal Senate by Willard Warner and
+George E. Spencer, the first named a northern general, the other, an army
+contractor. Judge Busteed, under oath, said that when elected Warner was
+not a citizen of Alabama; that when summoned a short while before as a
+juror in his court, Warner claimed exemption on the plea that he was a
+senator of the state of Ohio. Governor William H. Smith, in a letter
+published in the _Huntsville Advocate_, said: "Spencer lives upon the
+passions and prejudices of the races. The breath of peace would leave him
+on the surface, neglected and despised." And Spencer characterized his
+colleague as a "a trifling and worthless man."
+
+Being unobjectionable as to "loyalty," all of these non-citizens were
+permitted to take their seats; and for the first time since 1861 Alabama
+was represented (?) in the federal Congress, notwithstanding the fact that
+during a part of that period the people were taxed by the government which
+denied them representation--taxed unconstitutionally (in the case of
+cotton), as the Supreme Court subsequently decided.
+
+William H. Smith, of Randolph county, displaced Governor Patton. His
+character will be revealed as these pages multiply.
+
+The state supreme court justices were evicted, and S. W. Peck, Thomas M.
+Peters and B. F. Saffold substituted for them. There is little to be said
+of them by a layman, except that the first named favored suspension of the
+writ of habeas corpus, during the Ku Klux era, and the last named declared
+unconstitutional the law under which a justice of the peace was convicted
+of solemnizing the rites of matrimony between a white man and a negro, and
+reversed the judgment of the lower court.
+
+President Lincoln in 1863 appointed Richard Busteed United States district
+judge, and in 1865 the appointee came to the state and assumed the bench.
+Whatever else may be said of him, he was bold in expression of opinion,
+judicial and personal; and during the carpetbag regime he testified that
+"the general character of Alabama office-holders for intelligence and
+honesty was not good." In 1870 Francis S. Lyon, of Demopolis, testified
+that a bill was filed in Judge Busteed's court to foreclose two mortgages
+on the Alabama Central Railroad (Selma to Meridian), and the cost of that
+suit, paid by New York creditors of the road, amounted to $122,000. The
+institution presided over by Judge Busteed was costly to litigants, to say
+the least.
+
+A. J. Applegate became lieutenant-governor. Mr. William M. Lowe, of
+Huntsville, testifying before the congressional commission in 1870, said
+of him:
+
+"I had occasion to look into his record, and published a statement in
+reference to his character, in which I proved conclusively that any petit
+jury in any New England state would have convicted him of grand larceny
+upon the evidence by his own declarations,--his own letters. These charges
+were made by me when he was living. Every opportunity was given him to
+make his defense; he had no defense to make but a lie. He had been a
+member of McPherson's body-guard that stopped near Mrs. Jacob Thompson's
+residence in Mississippi. He was there taken sick and taken into her house
+and nursed and kindly treated by her. At that time and under those
+circumstances, he, or some one with his knowledge and connivance, stole
+the deeds and patents and valuable papers belonging to the Thompson
+estate. After the war he settled here and wrote a letter to Mrs. Thompson.
+In his first letter he thanked her for her kind and Christian treatment of
+him while he was sick, although he was an enemy to her cause, saying that
+he would ever hold it in remembrance. The second letter called to her mind
+the fact that she had lost those valuable papers, and offered to return
+them or have them returned to her for a consideration. She wrote him back.
+The correspondence was published in full. Finally, he wrote to her if she
+wanted these papers better than she wanted $10,000, to send him on the
+money and get the papers. That was about his language, written in the most
+abominable and illiterate style." The matter was placed in the hands of
+lawyers, who induced Applegate with $300 to surrender the papers.
+
+General James H. Clanton, under oath, spoke thus of Harrington, speaker of
+the house of representatives:
+
+"Mr. Harrington came to Mobile very poor, from the northeast somewhere. He
+was never a soldier that we knew of. He is now very rich. Just after the
+war he was charged with running free negroes into Cuba. I do not know
+whether it is true or not. The present sheriff of Montgomery county showed
+me a reward offered for him, from what purported to be a northwestern
+paper, on a charge of bank robbery. He requested me to say nothing about
+it lest Harrington should get away. He said he was going for him that
+night; that he had his accomplice in jail, and the accomplice said
+Harrington was the man. The description he showed me was lifelike."
+
+Asked whether it could not be a mistake, the general replied:
+
+"No, sir; a man of marked physique. I did not give this information at the
+time to any of my law partners, but they smiled when I told them that
+Harrington would pay more reward to Barbour (the sheriff) and we would
+never hear of it again. And we never did hear of it till we published it
+in the last campaign, to which Harrington, who still lives there, made no
+response whatever. Colonel Thomas H. Herndon, a prominent lawyer of
+Mobile, said to me that a friend saw Harrington, during the last session
+of the legislature at which he presided, take a crowd off to drink
+champagne at a barroom known as the Rialto, in Montgomery, and when
+remonstrated with for his extravagance, he ran his hand in his pocket and
+pulled out seventeen one-hundred-dollar bills, with the remark that he
+could afford it, as he had made that much in one day in engineering a bill
+through the house." The general further testified that Eugene Beebe, of
+Montgomery, told him he paid Harrington a sum of money to advocate a
+lottery charter before the house. He said that of the representatives whom
+he "approached" on the subject of the lottery, only one, a negro,
+exhibited any qualms, and he accepted fifty dollars, protesting that it
+was only "as a loan."
+
+When Colonel Joseph Hodgson became superintendent of education, he said
+that county superintendents had embezzled between $50,000 and $60,000 of
+school funds. Two sons of the former state superintendent were fugitives
+on that account.
+
+Mr. P. T. Sayer, speaking of the Montgomery county representatives in the
+lower house of the legislature, said: "One of them is a man who came from
+Austria, by the name of Stroback. I understood that he was a sutler or
+something of that kind in the federal army. I further understood that he
+never has been naturalized; I do not know about that. He was said to be a
+gentleman in his own country; I do not know about that, but he certainly
+is not one in Montgomery. He is a man of a great deal of sense, and I
+think a dangerous man in any community situated as ours is. The others are
+three negroes."
+
+These character sketches of radical officials might be multiplied
+indefinitely, but the monotony would weary the reader. Necessarily others
+will be mentioned incidentally as this story of reconstruction
+progresses.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN
+
+RUINOUS MISGOVERNMENT
+
+
+Only misrule could be expected from such officials. Nothing was sacred
+from their greedy grasp. The most cherished institutions were debased to
+their purposes. In time the university was avoided by all who were
+unwilling to forfeit public esteem. One of the early arrivals from
+fruitful Ohio was Rev. A. S. Lakin. He was commissioned by Bishop Clark,
+of the Cincinnati conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to
+organize negro churches in Alabama. He was a fanatic of the extreme type,
+and his work of the politico-religious character. He regarded the
+Methodist Episcopal Church, south, as an aggregation of rebels, and aimed
+to array his negro proselytes against it by preaching political sermons,
+in which he reminded his audiences of their former bondage and alleged
+there was danger of its renewal. According to his own statements, he was
+the unterrified victim of a concatenation of Ku Klux attacks. In
+prosecuting his roving missions in the mountains of northern Alabama,
+Lakin's morbid fancy distorted every lone hunter encountered on the
+roadside into a lurking assassin, and every innocent group of gossiping
+rustics into a band of Ku Klux. He organized a camp-meeting, and one night
+at an early hour during its progress a party of horsemen rode through.
+Lakin wrote for publication in one of the church organs a hair-raising
+story of the incident, magnifying it into a Ku Klux foray. His explanation
+of the cause of the intrusion was that the klansmen were offended because
+of a rumor circulating in the camp that an infant born in the neighborhood
+was "a Ku Klux child," an exact image in miniature of a disguised Ku Klux,
+horns and hood included. Lakin solemnly affirmed the fact of the birth of
+the monstrosity, but ungenerously robbed it of distinction by adding that
+six other infants in that klan-infested region were similarly "Ku Klux
+marked." The woods must have been full of human curios!
+
+In 1868 the regents elected this superstitious and prejudiced emissary
+president of the University of Alabama! Accompanied by Dr. N. B. Cloud,
+state superintendent of education, Lakin journeyed to Tuscaloosa to assume
+the station which the people once hoped would be graced by the illustrious
+Henry Tutwiler. Professor Wyman was in charge of the institution and held
+the keys; the former president had withdrawn and appointed him custodian.
+On the ground that the board of regents was illegally constituted,
+Professor Wyman refused to yield to Lakin, and the latter, discerning
+signs of popular displeasure, lost the courage which had nerved him to
+assert his claim, mounted his horse and hurriedly rode away in the
+direction of Huntsville, while Dr. Cloud departed with equal celerity in
+the direction of Montgomery.
+
+Some time afterward Lakin related a blood-curdling story of pursuit from
+Tuscaloosa by a band of Ku Klux and his almost miraculous escape from the
+horrible death to which the band had condemned him. This story provoked
+the publication of a counter charge,--that while Lakin was preaching
+somewhere in New York State he ill requited the hospitality of an
+entertainer by dishonoring the household.
+
+And this man's ultimate aspiration was to represent Alabama in the United
+States Senate!
+
+One of the most scandalous chapters in the history of the Republican
+regime relates to railroad subsidies. The Lindsay administration favored
+encouragement to the building of railroads, as means for development of
+natural resources, and in 1867 the legislature passed, and the governor
+approved, an act which authorized the state to indorse bonds of new
+railroads to the extent of $12,000 per mile, with an additional
+endorsement for bridges; but indorsement was safeguarded carefully, and no
+wrongs were committed in connection with the execution of the law until
+the Radicals assumed control. Then there began a riot of bribery and
+corruption.
+
+November 10, 1871, I. F. Grant, state treasurer, submitted to the
+congressional commission investigating affairs in the southern states a
+statement from which the following extracts are made:
+
+"Bonded debt of the state January 11, 1861, $3,445,000.
+
+"The state is and was bound to pay in perpetuity for annual interest on
+the school fund the sum of $134,367.80.
+
+"Interest unpaid during the war, accrued up to and including January 1,
+1867, was then funded and new bonds issued for the sum of $621,000, which
+made the total bonded debt on
+
+  January 1, 1867                                            $4,066,000
+
+  "The war debt, amounting to $12,094,731.95 was repudiated.
+  "Eight per cent. bonds sold in 1867-68                        659,100
+  "Eight per cent. bonds sold in 1869-70                        657,700
+  "Total bonded debt January 1, 1871                         $5,382,800
+
+"Cause of increase, sale of bonds to carry on the government.
+
+"There is a prospective liability for an indefinite amount growing out of
+the passage of an act, approved February 19, 1867, and amended August,
+1868, whereby the state is required to indorse railroad bonds to the
+amount of $12,000 per mile, which act was further amended in March, 1870,
+so as to increase the indorsement to $16,000 per mile.
+
+"The same legislature in March, 1870, made a loan to the Alabama and
+Chattanooga Railroad Company of $2,000,000 in Alabama 8% bonds, over and
+above the indorsement of $16,000 per mile for the entire length of the
+road, thereby adding to the direct and collateral liability of the state
+for this one road the sum of $6,700,000. In addition to this, the
+Republican governor, W. H. Smith, issued to the road bonds to the amount
+of $500,000 above what the road could ever by any possibility claim under
+the law.
+
+"The said road made default in payment of January and July, 1871,
+interest, which the state paid as its owner and creditor, $508,000.
+
+"There are eight or ten other roads for which the state, under the law
+above referred to, is liable as indorser."
+
+The state auditor reported this summary of liabilities September 30, 1871:
+
+  Direct indebtedness                       $ 8,761,967 37
+  Present conditional indebtedness           15,420,000 00
+  Conditional indebtedness provided by law   14,200,000 00
+
+Under Democratic administration, a committee of the legislature
+investigated the railroad deals and reported that "Two millions of state
+bonds which the law authorized the governor to issue in aid of said
+company (Alabama and Chattanooga) in sums sufficient to pay off the cost
+of having constructed a certain amount of road in excess of the state
+indorsement of $16,000 per mile, were issued in bulk, with reckless haste,
+and were hurried away to the money marts of Europe"; that "there has been
+no record kept by any officer of the state of the number and amount of the
+bonds issued or indorsed by the state in favor of the various railroads
+entitled by law to the aid of the state, except as to loans of bonds to
+the Montgomery and Eufaula Railroad Company, $300,000 in amount, and the
+indorsement of bonds in favor of the Mobile and Montgomery Railroad
+Company."
+
+R. M. Patton testified that although he had accepted the presidency of the
+Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad Company, he was ignored because he
+opposed the loan bill. D. N. Stanton, of Boston, was elected president,
+and Patton "was not invited or expected at the consultation of friends of
+the road. He said: "I do not think the stockholders ever paid in any of
+the capital stock of the company."
+
+Arthur Bingham, state treasurer from 1868 to 1870, asked whether he knew
+of any fraud or illegality in connection With the issue or indorsement of
+the railroad bonds, declined to answer upon the ground that by so doing he
+would criminate himself.
+
+Mr. Holmes testified that on the last day of the session of the
+legislature of 1869-70 Mr. Gilmer, president of the North and South
+Railroad, borrowed from him and Mr. Farley $25,000. Next day Mr. Gilmer
+complained that John Hardy, of Dallas county, chairman of the committee of
+the legislature, had treated him shabbily; that "he had agreed to pass the
+bill for him for $25,000, but that at the eleventh hour he went back on
+him and made him pay $10,000 more, making in all $35,000."
+
+Jere Haralson, colored, Mr. Hardy's colleague from Dallas, was a shrewd
+negro, but at that time a cheap commodity. Later he appraised himself more
+highly. Ben Turner, a negro (successor to the carpetbag congressman),
+continued for some time after regeneration to represent the Dallas
+district in Congress, and Jere spent much time with him in Washington,
+engaged in profitable political work. But at the Montgomery distribution
+only fifty dollars was apportioned to him. He ingenuously explained that
+he accepted it as a loan.
+
+When the state, some years later, attempted to make Mr. Hardy disgorge the
+$35,000 (bonds) and imprisoned him, he escaped on the plea that it was
+imprisonment for debt.
+
+Ex-Governor Patton published a statement in which he said that, when in
+Boston, parties to the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad complained to him
+because legislation in Alabama had cost the company $200,000.
+
+J. P. Stowe, a Montgomery county representative, asserted, and the
+assertion was published, that John Hardy took away the night the
+legislature adjourned not less than $150,000, but not all of it was
+his--he had much of it for distribution.
+
+Construction of the Alabama and Chattanooga (now the Great Southern)
+Railroad, extending from Meridian to Chattanooga, referred to in the
+report quoted from, was under direction of D. N. Stanton. He was a skilled
+and unscrupulous lobbyist and get-rich-quick builder. There was testimony
+to the effect that the only money used in construction work was that
+which was derived from state indorsement. The indorsement for bridges was
+$60.00 per lineal foot of structure. In the hill country, beginning in
+Tuscaloosa county, the line of road described a serpentine trail among the
+hills. Mere increase of mileage presented no great disadvantage to
+Stanton, but tunneling, cutting and filling were difficulties studiously
+avoided. Consequently, when the road passed into other hands and
+reorganization was effected, changes necessary in straightening left the
+landscape with marks of peculiar interest to civil engineers. Travelers by
+that road may observe from car windows at many points abandoned roadbeds
+to right and left, winding among the low places and avoiding hills which
+were so formidable to Stanton, reminding the observer of meandering brooks
+seeking lower levels. Lines of least resistance were most attractive to
+Stanton, regardless of circuitousness.
+
+While government was thus growing in costliness, the resources of the
+people who had to foot the bills were diminishing.
+
+State Treasurer Grant's statement showed that the average cost of state
+government in Alabama for 1859 and 1860 was $813,000; for 1868, 1869,
+1870, $1,514,000; and the increase, he said, was partly due to increase
+of bonded debt, but mainly to ignorant and corrupt legislation.
+
+The report of the superintendent of census showed:
+
+  Assessed valuation of property in Alabama,
+      including slaves, in 1860              $432,198,762
+  Assessed valuation in 1870                  156,770,387
+  State taxation in 1860                          530,107
+  State taxation in 1870                        1,477,414
+  County taxation in 1860                         309,474
+  County taxation in 1870                       1,122,471
+
+Now consider, as representing average conditions in the counties of the
+Black Belt, these facts derived from the report of Judge Hill, an expert,
+employed to investigate affairs in Marengo county.
+
+Taxes in 1870 were threefold greater than in 1860. The value of subjects
+of taxation had diminished two-thirds; 22,000 slaves, of an average value
+of $500 each, had ceased to be enumerated as taxable property; lands had
+depreciated in value sixty per cent.; there was less than one-half as much
+live stock as formerly; two townships had been lopped off and given to the
+newly-created county of Hale.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN
+
+THE WHITES AROUSED
+
+
+The people of the Black Belt had borne with all possible patience the
+multiplied grievous wrongs recited in the foregoing pages. During the
+transition from master and slave to the new relations between them there
+was a strong disposition in both races to live in peace and harmony and
+make the best of their altered relations; the negroes were civil and
+confiding, scarcely realizing the change in their status, while the whites
+appreciated their good behavior during the war, when families of men in
+the army were unprotected, and were disposed to gratitude for it. But
+since the establishment of the league friendly intercourse between the
+races had been growing rarer, and now ceased altogether; the estrangement
+was complete.
+
+With the imposition of the constitution began the reign of the
+carpetbagger--"demon of discord and anarchy"--and the negro, and the
+infliction of "the horrors of reconstruction"; a civil convulsion in which
+the foundations of society were broken up; "a vast sluice of ignorance
+and vice was opened; a race which never had evolved anything of its own
+motion was given the ballot, the highest right of American citizenship,"
+and never regarded it as more than a personal perquisite, while white men
+of the highest type were disqualified from voting by the constitution of
+their state; negroes were made eligible to all offices, while the federal
+Constitution deprived the people of the wisdom, knowledge and experience
+in office of former leaders at a time when they were most needed. A
+comment of the time was, that a proscribed white man could not have been
+bailiff to his former slave if that former slave was a justice of the
+peace, as he might well have been, if he was not in fact. Democrats had
+not opposed negro suffrage in order to oppress the negroes, but to prevent
+negroes from crushing them; and the situation produced by the imposition
+of the constitution attested the reasonableness of their fear of the
+effect of the endowment of the negro with the ballot. They realized that
+"in popular government where two races exist in mass who are from any
+cause so different that they cannot mingle in marriage and become one, the
+exercise of political power must be confined to one or the other of those
+races if there be a wish for security and peace."
+
+In the fourth district, the whites were greatly outnumbered by the
+blacks, and, comparing voting strength, a contest with them at the polls
+seemed hopeless.
+
+The census of 1870 credited Choctaw county with 5,802 whites and 6,872
+blacks; Greene county, 3,858 whites and 14,541 blacks; Hale county, 4,802
+whites and 16,990 blacks; Marengo county, 6,090 whites and 20,058 blacks;
+Sumter county, 5,202 whites and 18,907 blacks; Tuscaloosa county, 10,229
+whites and 8,294 blacks.
+
+Thus, excepting the first- and last-named counties, the whites were
+outnumbered by more than three to one.
+
+All of the towns in the section under review were small, the populations
+ranging from 1,500 to 2,000. Greensboro in Hale, Eutaw in Greene,
+Demopolis in Marengo, Butler in Choctaw, Livingston in Sumter, and
+Tuscaloosa in the county of the same name, were the seats of government of
+their respective counties, centers of religion, education and sociability.
+At Tuscaloosa were located the State University and a fine girls' school;
+in Marion were the Seminary, the Institute, Judson, and Howard College; in
+Greensboro, the Methodist Southern University and an advanced girls'
+school. These towns had been founded as the home places of wealthy and
+cultured planter families whose plantations were in the fertile prairies
+and canebrakes. Office-holding had always been their honorable
+distinction, gained by highest merit.
+
+An epitome of conditions in the southern states at that period will serve
+to portray those in Alabama: "Legislatures in some instances composed in
+part of pardoned felons and penitentiary convicts enacting laws; the
+judiciary in the hands of charlatans and bribe-takers; every office, from
+the highest to the lowest, filled with ignorance, vice and unblushing
+corruption; with the land swarming with libelers and malignant slanderers;
+the country divided into military districts and garrisoned with troops,
+whose officers were ever ready, at the slightest bidding, to annoy and
+oppress an unarmed people."
+
+But the whites realized that in this section, at least, civilization
+itself was at stake, and notwithstanding the adverse odds and other
+disadvantages, resolved to risk all in combat with the forces arrayed
+against them. They were acquainted with the character of the Union League;
+aware of its horrible objects and aims; the almost daily crimes of lustful
+fiends, assassins and incendiaries were regarded as the fruits of its
+teachings; its responsibility for the existence of courts of law void of
+decency and recognized authority, and for officials incapable of
+enforcing law and order, for injury to public credit by prodigal pledges,
+and waste of public money, was fixed by its foolish and persistent
+allegiance to false leaders. This league was the institution marked for
+destruction. An organization pledged to undertake the task relentlessly
+and unflinchingly was regarded as a necessity. As the mighty Anglo-Saxon
+race on this continent had ever proved equal to emergencies, so now the
+men of this race, war-trained in arms and horsemanship, sensible that the
+great stake of Christianity and civilization lay in the balance, nerved
+themselves for the conflict.
+
+The rule of the carpetbagger and scalawag and freedman was a "reign of
+terror," and thrilling as well as deplorable were the incidents of the
+struggle to throw off the yoke. The mere recital of them, without comment,
+would fill volumes. Only those regarded as culminating events in the
+several counties of the district will be related. And in the relation
+sworn testimony of the time supports the writer's statements where
+personal observation was lacking. They illustrate the sacrifices of the
+devoted men who were impelled to deeds distasteful but regarded as a
+necessary choice of evils, and who rescued that garden spot of the state
+from savage domination and again made it fit abiding place for the race
+which before had dispossessed the aborigines. These men knew that the
+negroes were misguided dupes of designing and ruthless leaders, and pitied
+them, but for the ultimate good of both races sternly resolved that they
+should be compelled to discard those leaders and submit to the legitimate
+rulers of the land.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE
+
+THE KU KLUX KLAN
+
+
+Before proceeding with the narrative, an explanation of the origin and
+purposes of the Ku Klux Klan may interest the reader. The facts mentioned
+were derived from authentic and official sources.
+
+The first den was organized in Pulaski, Giles county, Tennessee, in 1866,
+and Pulaski continued to be the centre of the order throughout its
+existence as an interstate organization. Six men organized the den for
+diversion and amusement in a community where life was dull and monotonous.
+The original name was Ku Kloi (from the Greek word Ku Klos), meaning band
+or circle. It was changed to Ku Klux and Klan was added.
+
+The constitution of Tennessee was imposed by a fraction of the people. The
+legislature passed an act restricting suffrage which disfranchised
+three-fourths of the native population of the middle and western parts of
+the state. This obsequious legislature also passed acts ratifying the
+illegal edicts of the autocratic and tyrannical Governor Brownlow ("The
+Parson"); the sedition law was revived and amplified; freedom of speech
+and press was overthrown, and a large militia force composed of negroes
+was created and made responsible to the governor alone. At an election
+enough men had been permitted to register to thwart Brownlow's plans. He
+threw out the entire vote of twenty-eight counties. Registrars were
+removed, registration set aside, the counties placed under martial law,
+and negro militia quartered therein. The legislature had become
+unanimously Republican in both branches.
+
+The people began to consider means of counteracting this high-handed
+tyranny. The Pulaski Ku Klux organization had attracted much attention and
+branches of it had been organized in many parts of the state. Leaders of
+the people quickly saw that it could be utilized for the purpose in view.
+And this was done. The order, thus perverted, soon spread from Virginia to
+Texas. The ritual was simple and easily memorized and was never printed;
+but a copy of the prescript was obtained and used in a trial in Tennessee
+and reproduced in United States government publications. At a meeting in
+Nashville of delegates from all dens this was modified. That convention
+designated the southern territory as "The Invisible Empire." It was
+subdivided into "realms" (corresponding to states); realms were divided
+into "dominions" (congressional districts); dominions into "provinces"
+(counties); provinces into "dens." Officers were designated as follows:
+Grand Wizard of Invisible Empire and his ten Genii (and the grand wizard's
+powers were almost autocratic), Grand Dragon of Realm and his Eight
+Hydras, Grand Titan of Dominion and his Six Furies, Grand Cyclops of Den
+and his Two Night Hawks, Grand Monk, Grand Scribe, Grand Exchequer, Grand
+Turk, Grand Sentinel, The Genii, Hydras, Furies, Gobbins and Night Hawks
+were staff officers. It is said that the gradation and distribution of
+authority were perfect, and that no more perfectly organized order ever
+existed in the world. The costume consisted of a mask with openings for
+the nose and eyes; a tall, pointed hat of stiff material; a gown or robe
+to cover the entire person. Each member was provided with a whistle, and
+with this, and by means of a code of signals, communicated with his
+comrades. They used a cypher to fix dates, etc., and published their
+notices in the newspapers, until repressive laws forbade this. Their
+horses were robed and their hoofs muffled.
+
+Meanwhile, other orders formed: White brotherhood, White League, Pale
+Faces, Constitutional Union Guards and Knights of White Camelia; but all
+evidence shows that they were for the most part short-lived, the very
+name of Ku Klux having caught the fancy of the members. General Forrest is
+credited with having consolidated all of them into the one grand order. An
+interview with General Forrest was published in the _Cincinnati
+Commercial_ in September, 1868, in which he was quoted as saying that in
+Tennessee the klan embraced a membership of 40,000, and in all the states
+550,000. He said to the congressional commission that the order was
+disbanded by him when it had fulfilled its purpose. No doubt he meant that
+the general organization was disbanded, for certainly detached bodies
+existed after the date fixed by him as that of the disbandment. Fleming
+says that the general was initiated by Captain John W. Morton, formerly
+his chief of artillery, and became Grand Wizard. In his testimony General
+Forrest said that the klan in Tennessee was intended as a defensive
+organization to offset the Union League; to protect ex-Confederates from
+extermination by Brownlow's militia; to prevent the burning of gins, mills
+and residences.
+
+Congress and the radical legislatures resorted to all possible means to
+break up the klans, but they existed until after white supremacy was
+restored. Even then, counterfeit bodies perverted the name until they were
+suppressed by the natural rulers of the land. Congress passed a bill which
+provided for suspension of civil government in any district in which Ku
+Klux lawlessness existed, thus depriving all the people of trial by jury
+and other rights, and placing whole communities under the ban of military
+power. The Alabama legislative enactment pronounced anyone found in
+disguise a felon and outlaw. It also provided that if a person was whipped
+or killed by men in disguise, the county could be sued for a penalty
+ranging from $1,000 to $5,000; and it made it the duty of the prosecuting
+attorney of the county to institute suit for and in behalf of the victim
+or his relatives, in any case where no indictment was found.
+
+After the Nashville convention the order courted publicity, in order to
+inspire respect for its powers, and the Ku Klux sometimes paraded in
+daylight. Their appearance in public was sudden and unheralded; and they
+disappeared as silently and mysteriously. The perfection of their
+movements in drill revealed the training which the members had received as
+cavalrymen during the war. Sometimes the parades were at night, and then
+the mystery of their sudden appearance and the weirdness of the spectacle
+were heightened. One of the night parades was in Huntsville, and the story
+of it was circulated throughout the north as evidence that another
+revolution was imminent. It was in the nature of an acceptance of
+challenge, and the circumstances connected with it were as follows:
+
+On October 30, 1868, C. C. Sheets, a Grant candidate for elector, made a
+speech in Florence. About ten o'clock that night a band of disguised men
+visited his sleeping apartment. He attempted to escape by way of a
+gallery, but was caught and taken back to his room. After a short stay the
+band retired without having in any way harmed him. Sheets said that they
+exacted from him a promise that he would desist from making inflammatory
+speeches. Later in the same month Sheets delivered a speech in Huntsville.
+It was reported that in the course of that speech he told his colored
+audience that he had been interfered with a few nights before in Florence
+by Ku Klux, and that he had promised them then that he would not make the
+abusive and inflammatory speeches that he had been making; but up there,
+where there were so many colored people, he wasn't afraid to say what he
+pleased, and that if the colored people would do what was becoming in
+them, they would carry with them weapons and shoot down those disguised
+men wherever they found them; that the reason the Ku Klux paraded the
+country was because the negroes were weak-kneed.
+
+The speech excited the negroes. They remained in town all day, and at
+night a meeting was held in the court-house and many negroes, with guns,
+attended. During the day leading negroes loudly proclaimed that Ku Klux
+would never again be permitted to enter the town; that if they attempted
+to do so, they would be shot on sight. A federal military officer had said
+it would be lawful to do this. A rumor circulated that Ku Klux were
+assembling at a point some miles distant, and about dark two large posses
+of negroes, under command of deputy sheriffs, repaired to points along
+principal roads to intercept them. While the speaking at the court-house
+was in progress, fugitive negroes from the posses, which had suddenly
+dissolved at the approach of danger, rushed to the court-house and
+announced that Ku Klux were marching on the town. The meeting broke up in
+confusion and the people hurried into the yard. All the near-by streets
+and the sidewalks surrounding the square were thronged with people, white
+and black. Suddenly the cavalcade, numbering about two hundred, fully
+uniformed in tall conical hats, long gowns, and hoods with eyeholes, some
+armed with guns and sabres, wheeled into the square, and without sound
+save the whistle signals--then almost as awe-inspiring as had been the
+"rebel yell"--rode in military order completely around the court-house,
+and then turned into one of the streets. Proceeding along this some
+distance, the column halted and formed into battle line. After maintaining
+this formation for a few minutes, the march was resumed and the band
+disappeared.
+
+There was stationed in Hunstville at that time a regiment of regular
+troops, and their commander, General Cruger, with some of his staff
+officers, from a hotel veranda viewed the spectacle of the Ku Klux parade.
+His comment was that "it was fine but absurd."
+
+There was an unfortunate episode of the event:
+
+Just as the Ku Klux withdrew there was a discharge of firearms in the
+courtyard. Some witnesses said that the first discharge, an accidental
+one, due to nervousness, caused the others. Judge Thurlow, a visitor, was
+mortally wounded, and said a short while before his death that he was shot
+accidentally by his Republican friends. A negro seated on the court-house
+steps was killed instantly. Two white men and a negro were wounded. This
+tragedy was without design, and the excitement was quickly quieted.
+
+A rumor that a few undisguised Ku Klux were posted about the square was
+supported by the fact that after the departure of the troop three men,
+having disguises in hand, were arrested by soldiers while in the act of
+mounting horses in one of the side streets. Later in the night they were
+rescued from jail by their comrades, and were never officially identified.
+But their paraphernalia was retained by the officials and often exhibited
+and photographed. Perhaps none other was ever captured directly from a
+wearer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN
+
+A MISCARRIAGE
+
+
+There were some miscarriages in the operations of the klan. A memorable
+one of this character is recalled. A cavalcade, supposed to have started
+from the western side of the Warrior river, rode through Greensboro and
+proceeded to Marion, a distance of about thirty-five miles, presumably to
+take from jail and execute a negro who had, with but slight provocation,
+killed a white man with a paling which he wrenched from a fence. The
+riders visited the jail and demanded the keys. The jailer's wife appeared
+and implored them to desist. The jailer himself, a member of a fraternal
+order, made an appeal which was recognized and respected by members of the
+party and was successful, and after much parleying, the invaders withdrew
+without molesting the custodian of the county Bastile or his charge. But
+an episode of the foray was embarrassing and dangerous. The riders had
+proceeded only a short distance when one of the horses fell and expired,
+in full mock panoply. Here was an awkward situation for the raiders. A
+comrade, far away from home, unhorsed and subjected to inevitable
+detection should he be abandoned! It is not known by what means he escaped
+and regained the realms of the "Grand Cyclops."
+
+The warning to evil-disposed persons conveyed by this raid perhaps
+obviated the necessity for another in that particular part of the county.
+
+Across the border line of Mississippi occurred a lamentable disaster, due
+to incompetent leadership and ignorance of locality.
+
+In 1870 the carpetbag government in Mississippi reached the zenith of its
+power, and its baleful influence pervaded every nook and corner of the
+state. The effects of misgovernment were deplorable. Lands which in
+ante-bellum days were appraised at twenty-five to seventy-five dollars per
+acre had so depreciated in value that at forced sales only about one
+dollar per acre could be obtained. There were few real estate transfers;
+some of the lands were depopulated; the only immigrants were carpetbaggers
+seeking offices; taxation was oppressive, especially for the support of
+schools, and almost the entire burden was laid upon the whites; the scanty
+possessions of negroes were within the limits of exemption; even the poll
+tax, devoted to school purposes, was evaded by them. In some counties
+tax-payers bore the expense of schooling three negro pupils to one white
+pupil. At length they resisted collection of the tax.
+
+Robert W. Flournoy, of Pontotoc, distinguished himself in the resultant
+controversy. When not engaged as deputy postmaster and county
+superintendent of education, he conducted a weekly newspaper, and made it
+and himself odious. In his paper he bitterly denounced the Ku Klux as
+"midnight prowlers and assassins," and responsible for the suppression of
+public schools. He insisted that in the schools there should be no
+separation of races, and engaged in a prolonged and heated controversy
+with the governor over the question of admitting negroes to the State
+University.
+
+Colonel Flournoy received from the Grand Cyclops a communication,
+intimating that at an early date he would receive a visit from the men
+whom he had denounced. About midnight, May 13, 1871, Flournoy's office
+foreman and a companion aroused him from sleep with the startling
+announcement that a band of Ku Klux had appeared in the village, and the
+leader was inquiring where the colonel's residence was located. He had
+some shotguns, and, arming himself and his callers, departed from home and
+repaired to a blacksmith shop near by. At this place a number of
+townsmen, well armed, had already assembled. The colonel subsequently
+accounted for their presence with arms with the statement that during the
+afternoon they had been hunting, and when the foreman had alarmed them
+they were engaged in a game of cards. Altogether, these men constituted a
+strong force, and proceeded to arrange an ambuscade at the shop.
+
+Meanwhile the Ku Klux, who, according to later revelations, were
+strangers, wholly unacquainted with the locality, having learned the
+situation of the Flournoy residence, were approaching it, unconscious of
+the state of affairs. Fronting the place and extending a long distance
+were deep and tortuous gulleys, and in their progress the horsemen became
+entangled and bewildered as in a maze and their formation broken.
+Extricating themselves in groups and singly, they approached the shop.
+Chancellor Pollard and Deputy Sheriff Todd were with the concealed
+villagers, and the former emerged from the rear of the shop and commanded
+the riders to surrender. Simultaneously, someone in concealment fired a
+shot, and instantly the ambushers sprang from cover and discharged a
+volley in the direction of the disordered klansmen. The surprise was
+complete and overwhelming. Horses, becoming unruly, frantically turned and
+fled. The riders in advance were thus thrown back upon those emerging
+from the gulleys. In the resultant confusion there was desultory firing
+back and forth, but the unfortunate strangers were unable to rally at any
+point, and singly and in small groups they withdrew to the main street,
+where they found themselves in little less embarrassing a situation. No
+one knew in what direction they should retreat. They had lost their
+bearings and knew not how to reach the road over which they had entered
+the village. Disbanded, they fled in different directions.
+
+Colonel Flournoy's supporters, for the most part, were ignorant of the
+character of the men whom they had assaulted and the object of the foray,
+and were easily led into the mistake of pressing the advantage they had
+gained. Consequently, led by Flournoy, they intercepted a small body of
+the raiders and fired on them.
+
+Stampeded as they were, the resolute riders halted and returned the fire.
+
+After daybreak a man, fully costumed and still in mask, badly shot, was
+found at the place where he and his comrades had been waylaid. The
+unfortunate was tenderly cared for, but expired a few hours later. Three
+others were wounded, but escaped. Sixteen horses, abandoned by their
+riders, together with the disguises of those riders, were picked up next
+day. The original party comprised thirty men.
+
+There was profound sorrow in the little town when the inhabitants learned
+what an awful mistake had been made.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN
+
+A CONVENTION SUPPLEMENTS KU KLUX
+
+
+Throughout the reconstruction period there was perhaps more turbulence in
+Choctaw than in any other county of the district, but, after all, the
+climax in the struggle for restoration of white supremacy was in an
+orderly and regularly-organized meeting of citizens, without any attempt
+at secrecy of proceedings.
+
+Judge J. Q. Smith, as substitute for Judge Luther R. Smith, as previously
+chronicled, undertook to hold the regular term of the circuit court at
+Butler. The sheriff attempted to arrest a boisterous man outside the
+court-house and met defiance and resistance; consequently, in alarm he
+resigned, and the judge, after some deliberation, concluded he could not
+proceed without a sheriff and returned to his own proper jurisdiction. The
+people in attendance and the residents of Butler held a meeting and
+adopted a resolution requesting resignations from all public officials.
+More cautious men dissuaded the leaders from promulgating the resolution,
+and a movement started to have meetings in all the precincts and
+delegates to a county meeting chosen. This project was successfully
+accomplished, and the county meeting adopted a resolution which had been
+adopted at a meeting in Sumter county. But in the interval between the
+impromptu gathering and the regularly-organized county meeting most of the
+officials had taken time by the forelock and anticipated the request that
+they vacate the offices. The resolution adopted declared devotion to law
+and order and opposition to any violation thereof, but recited the fact
+that the objectionable officials held office, not by choice of the people,
+but contrary to their will; that the officers had demonstrated their
+incapacity to enforce the laws, and, therefore, in the interest of the
+public they should resign.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN
+
+FOILED THE KU KLUX
+
+
+Throughout the reconstruction period there was less lawlessness in Hale
+than in the counties adjoining, and overthrow of the radical
+administration was effected without bloodshed.
+
+January 19, 1871, in the wee sma' hours, a cyclops and his retinue of
+seventy unceremoniously called at Judge Blackford's apartments to pay
+their respects. The call was intended as a sort of "surprise party"; but
+coming events had cast their shadows before, and those shadows were as
+premonitions of an early nocturnal visit, and the judge was "not at home."
+He was cautiously domiciled in a room adjoining his office, in another
+part of town. Here, in the embrace of Morpheus, perhaps reveling in dreams
+of a blessed land beyond the jurisdiction of the Grand Wizard, he was
+aroused with the cry of "Ku Klux!" by an alert negro, who had hastened
+from the judge's home to apprise him of the presence there of the
+unwelcome visitors. The alarm was not premature, for the horsemen were
+hotfooting in the wake of the negro and reached the office almost as soon
+as he. The judge needed no repetition of the dreadful tidings. His
+transition from Dreamland to earth was instantaneous, and his plunge in
+dishabille through an open window was a disappearing act worthy of
+reproduction on a dramatic stage. The weird sound of a whistle close at
+hand broke discordantly into the sweet concert of frogs, katydids and
+other melodists of the nights and accelerated the speed of him who sought
+asylum and ghostly solitude in the boneyard in the depths of the forest.
+
+Recounting the thrilling incidents of that awful night, and his sojourn of
+three nights in the gruesome refuge, Dr. Blackford, expressed bitter
+resentment of the rude treatment to which his glossy tile, which he
+abandoned in vanishing through the window, was subjected by the klansmen;
+they placed it on the end of a staff and bore it as a sort of mock pennant
+at the head of the cavalcade. Often trivial incidents, if ridiculous or
+amusing, eclipse those that are grave. It was so in the Eutaw riot, when a
+"plug hat" diverted dangerous men from an unlawful purpose,--but that is
+another story, and will be told in due time.
+
+For the next few days, Dr. Blackford camped at night and returned to his
+office in the morning. According to his own statement, a prominent
+Confederate general took him to his quarters in a hotel and promised him
+protection temporarily. One evening, in general conversation, the subject
+of the Ku Klux was broached, and the host imparted to his very receptive
+guest much information thereon. The klans pervaded the country, and were
+better organized than the Confederate army had ever been. There was no
+escape for a proscribed man if he should tarry when ordered to be on the
+move; when they dealt with a man, a klan from some other county or state
+did the work, and all residents could be seen pursuing their accustomed
+walks. "You are watched," he said, "day and night, and your whereabouts
+cannot long be concealed. On that night when the Ku Klux were after you,
+not more than one or two persons in the vicinity had knowledge of their
+coming."
+
+[There were at that time in Greensboro two distinguished Confederate
+generals, Forrest and Rucker, engaged in building the Selma and Memphis
+Railroad.]
+
+Judge Blackford conferred with some prominent citizens, and at his request
+they consented to purchase his property on condition that he resign and
+betake himself to other parts. After prolonged negotiations, the
+arrangement was effected. Governor Lindsay appointed as Blackford's
+successor to the probate judgeship Mr. James M. Hobson, father of
+Congressman Richmond P. Hobson. Dr. Blackford, with his grievances,
+repaired to Washington, where an emollient in the form of a special agency
+of the Postoffice Department diverted his thoughts from the enemies he had
+left behind.
+
+The details of Dr. Blackford's statement of information derived from the
+Confederate general should be taken with a grain of salt, because his
+memory was not accurate. In Washington he testified in regard to another
+occurrence in Greensboro, and General Blair's inquisitiveness exposed the
+infirmity referred to.
+
+He said the citizens regarded the soldiers "as a set of niggers and
+offscourings of creation" whom they could "buy with two dollars and a
+drink of whisky," and make them do their will. Then he related that "while
+probate judge" there was an election in Greensboro, and soldiers in charge
+at the polls got drunk and changed negroes' votes. He interfered, and one
+of them asked: "What the devil have you got to do with it?" The doctor
+replied: "I have simply this much, I am the presiding officer here of this
+county; I propose to keep the peace and enforce my rights as the presiding
+officer of the county, and I will deal with you myself if you do not
+leave." The valiant doctor then drew a pistol and said, "If you do not
+leave here now, I will shoot you." Comrades of the obstreperous soldier
+interposed and bore him away, leaving the doctor in serene enjoyment of
+his rights as "presiding officer of the county." After he had testified
+further at considerable length, Senator Blair suddenly projected himself
+into the inquiry with the question:
+
+"On what occasion was it you drew your pistol upon a United States soldier
+and told him you would shoot him if he would not desist?"
+
+"It was on the day of the election."
+
+"What election?"
+
+"For the constitution; the day we voted on the constitution, I think that
+was the day."
+
+"What office did you hold then?"
+
+"No, sir; it was not the day of the constitutional election; it was the
+day on which the election, I think, of officers took place, and I know
+that I was--or at least my impression is that I was probate judge at the
+time; that is my impression, that I was probate judge at the time."
+
+"The officers were elected on the same day the constitution was voted on.
+So you could not have been a probate judge until you were elected and
+commissioned."
+
+"No, sir; my impression is, that it was after I was probate judge that
+that occurred. I think I told him that by virtue of the office that I
+held, if he did not desist from this--I know that was my assertion to the
+soldier."
+
+"Was that a proper act for an officer, a conservator of the peace?"
+
+"I do not know that it was, but the acts of violence going on, I thought,
+demanded it, and the sheriff of the county had left,--and left these
+soldiers there to do just what they pleased, and they were drunk; and when
+I asked them several times to desist from this thing, and this fellow
+clapped his hand on his pistol,--and I had a large derringer in my pocket,
+and I told him he should do it."
+
+"You drew your pistol on him?"
+
+"Yes, sir; I drew my pistol."
+
+"Was it your duty to arrest him?"
+
+"Perhaps it might have been, sir. I did not think so; in the midst of that
+excitement, I did not think so, sir."
+
+"If a peace officer set such examples, they cannot complain that they are
+followed by others."
+
+"Yes, sir; that may be all true, but the peace officers had all forsaken
+me and I was there, either to let the election go by default or else to
+pursue that course,--and I resolved on that to get him away from there."
+
+"Would not the course have been just as effectual if you had arrested him
+in the name of the law?"
+
+"I think the parties around him would have resisted arrest."
+
+"Would not they have equally resisted your firing upon him?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN
+
+IN TUSCALOOSA
+
+
+Two young men belonging in the hills of Tuscaloosa county, were journeying
+in a wagon, bound homeward from a trading trip to Northport (across the
+river from Tuscaloosa). Passing a negro lad, they jestingly pretended that
+they would kidnap him. In alarm, the boy fled to his home and informed his
+father that he had been mistreated; and the man armed himself with a gun
+and pursued the unconscious young men. Overtaking them, he leveled his gun
+menacingly and cursed the unarmed and defenseless white men. That night
+they, with some friends, repaired to the negro's house to chastise him. He
+had assembled a number of armed friends in anticipation of an attack. He
+had loosened some of the flooring, and through the opening thus provided
+crawled to the edge of the house, and, emerging from this position, crept
+unperceived to the near-by bushes. While the whites were parleying with
+the inmates of the house, he discharged both barrels of his gun, and young
+Finley fell dead. Shots from the house succeeded. Attacked front and
+rear, the whites withdrew in disorder. News of the occurrence quickly
+spread far and wide.
+
+Next day one of the negroes implicated was caught and killed. Later,
+another, who had been captured and incarcerated in jail at Tuscaloosa, was
+taken therefrom by a band of men and executed. The ringleader escaped
+temporarily. Twice in pursuit of him steamboats were stopped and searched.
+The fugitive had been on one of them, but debarked at one of the landings.
+About twelve months after the unsuccessful chase, the fugitive was traced
+to a plantation in Hale county, where the habit of wearing a heavy
+revolver even while at field work rendered him an object of suspicion, and
+caused an investigation which revealed his identity. His dead body, weapon
+in hand, was found one day on the roadside, and his taking off was
+associated in the minds of the people with the brief visit to that
+neighborhood of two white men, who departed in the direction of Tuscaloosa
+county. Consequences of this affair were a change in the office of
+sheriff, recall of troops, and other tragedies, but the ultimate effect
+was a better understanding between the races.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
+
+A SERIES OF TRAGEDIES
+
+
+In Sumter county affairs were approaching a climax when Enoch Townsend, a
+negro, about dark one evening waylaid and repeatedly stabbed Mr. Bryant
+Richardson, a planter, and fled after Mr. Richardson, despite his wounds,
+bravely struggled to overcome his assailant. A warrant for the arrest of
+the assailant issued, and officers sought him on the plantation of Dr.
+Choutteau.
+
+Choutteau was of French descent and migrated to Sumter from Louisiana,
+where, it was rumored, he had been involved in serious trouble. He is
+described as a swaggerer. During his early residence in Sumter he
+expressed intense dislike of freedmen and lost caste with the whites by
+seriously advocating wholesale poisoning as a means of relieving the
+county of the surplus of its negro population. Later he yielded to the
+temptation of office, and identified himself with the league and gained
+odious notoriety by his radicalism. He had constantly about him at his
+plantation armed negro guards; the league met there and picketed the roads
+thereabout. At length he became intolerable.
+
+To this plantation officers with the warrant of arrest repaired and
+searched the cabins in the negro quarters. After the search was nearly
+completed, a negro scrambled from the chimney of a cabin to the roof,
+sprang thence to the ground and fled. Disobeying the summons to halt, he
+was fired upon by the posse and killed. Poor fellow! he was the wrong man,
+and no one ever learned why he acted so like a criminal. The dead man
+proved to be Yankee Ben, president of the Loyal League at Sumterville.
+(The fugitive Townsend was arrested by two law-abiding freedmen and lodged
+in jail at Livingston.)
+
+The killing of Yankee Ben excited the negroes, and a meeting was called at
+Choutteau's place for the purpose of formulating plans to avenge it. Sixty
+armed negroes assembled accordingly on Saturday, but were dispersed. On
+Monday one hundred and fifty met at Choutteau's. Simultaneously, twelve
+white men went there to hold an inquest on the remains of Yankee Ben,
+which had previously been interrupted by the proceedings narrated. On the
+latter occasion Choutteau refused to permit an inquest unless by a jury
+composed of negroes. In this his dusky adherents supported him, and were
+insulting in demeanor. One hundred whites reinforced the jury and
+scattered the negroes. Thereupon Choutteau withdrew his objection.
+Moreover, he promised that if permitted to remain on his place undisturbed
+for a few days, he would leave the neighborhood, adding that he had for
+some time contemplated the move. He was told that what he purposed to do
+was unnecessary, and that he was required only to cease his turbulent
+practices.
+
+Choutteau moved to Livingston, and shortly afterward his plantation house
+was destroyed by fire. He then posed as a victim of Ku Klux incendiarism,
+magnified his losses, memorialized the legislature for reimbursement,
+published exaggerated stories of the occurrence, and vociferously
+threatened revenge. He was regarded as a menace to the safety of the
+community in which he had taken up his residence.
+
+Shortly after midnight August 13, 1869, his house was attacked by a small
+band of men, who forced an entrance into the hall. Doors on each side gave
+entrance to sleeping quarters, and an invader broke out a panel of one of
+them, struck a match and thrust his face into the opening. A gun was fired
+from within the room and the man fell to the floor. The weapon was
+discharged by a German named Coblentz, whom Choutteau had hired as a
+guard. The intruder's head was blown to pieces, and the entire brain, with
+one hemisphere intact, together with the mask the unfortunate had worn,
+was found on the floor next morning. When the victim fell back from the
+door, a comrade sprang to the vacated place and fired several shots at
+Coblentz, inflicting wounds from which he died an hour or so later.
+Believing they had killed Choutteau, the band departed, taking the fallen
+comrade. Blood drippings marked for some miles, to the river, the trail of
+the retiring invaders. The negro ferryman testified that they ferried
+themselves over the stream.
+
+The dead man's identity was never disclosed to the public, but there was a
+rumor that he was a young doctor, and that his remains were interred by
+companions, who sent to his home his watch and other valuables which he
+had about his person, with information regarding the place of burial. In
+some unhappy home, a mother, wife or other loved ones long mourned the
+fate of him who had died so tragically. Choutteau did not tarry. He was
+given employment in Washington, and disappeared from view.
+
+The party which visited Livingston that fateful night divided and a
+detachment went to the house of George Houston, one of the negro
+legislators. When the firing began at Houston's home, someone sprang from
+a window and fled to the brush. Thinking it was Houston and that he had
+escaped, this band reunited itself with the others and all departed. It
+was Houston's son who escaped. Houston himself was wounded, but recovered,
+and left for Montgomery, returning no more. Houston was accused of having
+repeatedly uttered the threat that if the whites did not cease their
+regulating activities he would have Livingston laid in ashes.
+
+On August 8, of the same year leading citizens of Livingston received
+telegrams advising them that one hundred armed negroes, en route to
+Livingston, had stopped at Gainesville, in the same county, and purchased
+quantities of ammunition. Very soon thereafter Captain Johnson, commander
+of a steamer on the Tombigbee river, telegraphed to Livingston that in
+steaming up the stream he had seen groups of negroes on the banks,--all
+with guns,--who said they were going to Livingston to attend a nominating
+meeting, to be held next day; that they had been ordered to attend with
+arms. Another dispatch was received from Eutaw saying that Congressman
+Hays had engaged transportation next day for one hundred negroes.
+
+The white people of Livingston, on receipt of these dispatches, bestirred
+themselves and summoned reinforcements from other points.
+
+The night preceding the day set for the meeting the negroes camped outside
+of town. Next day, when they entered Livingston, they were confronted by a
+body of white men, who told them they would not be permitted to retain
+their guns while in town and must take them back to the camp. The negroes,
+after some disputation, on learning that the congressman would not be
+present, retired. Burke, the negro legislator and president of the league,
+went to the camp and harangued them. He urged them to return to town with
+their guns and resist any interference that might be offered. He wrought
+them into a state of excitement.
+
+One negro, Hayne Richardson, refused to lay down his gun, and was shot on
+the road some distance out of town. The report of the gun attracted
+attention both in town and camp, and suddenly a party of horsemen dashed
+toward the latter, firing their weapons. The sudden attack abruptly
+terminated Burke's fervid oratory and his audience fled. Some were shot.
+Richardson was badly hurt, but escaped and left the county. The following
+night twenty horsemen surrounded Burke's dwelling. He escaped from it and
+fled, under fire. Early in the morning his body was found stretched in a
+path leading to the dwelling of his former master.
+
+Price, the man of multifarious official employment, called the meeting,
+and the negroes who testified in the investigation said that his runners
+told them he directed that they attend with guns. Price took final leave
+of Sumter before the shooting commenced.
+
+Congressman Hays said he was prevented from attending by sickness of a
+member of his family. He disavowed any responsibility for the negroes
+going armed. "I only want to state this," he said, while testifying in
+Livingston, "in connection with that matter--I do not know that it is
+worth stating: that I understood from friends of mine here that there was
+a regular mob down there to assassinate me the very moment I got off the
+train. I heard that afterward,--that if I had come here, I would have been
+killed instantly. If I had been, I would have been killed innocently."
+
+Congressman Hays was unfortunate in being placed in alleged false
+situations. There was another memorable occasion when appearances were
+against him, however innocent of evil designs he may have been:
+
+There was to be a meeting at Boligee, in Greene county, and Colonel J. J.
+Jolly, of Eutaw, was invited to address the gathering. The Boligee
+Democratic Club sent a committee to Major Charles Hays with an invitation
+to discuss jointly with Colonel Jolly the issues of the campaign. The
+invitation was accepted. When Major Hays arrived there was gathered a
+party of armed negroes. According to his own statement under oath, Hays,
+in relating the incidents of the abortive meeting, said that a half-hour
+after his arrival "there came some fifteen young men riding up, with
+double-barreled guns and a few hounds following them. I saw this
+demonstration at once and I came to the conclusion that it was gotten up
+for a row." He had been present for a half-hour and was all the time aware
+that a crowd of armed negroes was gathered, but said nothing in
+remonstrance, but as soon as the party of young white men rode up he
+immediately stepped to the door of the building in which he was waiting,
+and said to the negroes: "You have come here with guns in your hands, and
+you know that I have expressly said to you that I would never speak to you
+on any occasion whatever when you brought arms to a political meeting at
+any place, and I shall decline to have anything to do with this matter in
+any way whatever." Then, turning to the white men, "I hope, gentlemen, you
+will excuse me; I'm going home."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
+
+DISAPPEARANCE OF PRICE
+
+
+Price was the most turbulent and desperate character among the radicals.
+One of his own ilk declared that Price had not brought with him even so
+much as a carpetbag, but was soon grasping everything in sight. After the
+trouble in Livingston, just described, he fled to Meridian, and continued
+there to be a disturbing element.
+
+Lauderdale county, Mississippi, of which Meridian is the capital, and
+Sumter county, Alabama, adjoin. A negro of Livingston went to Meridian to
+obtain some farm laborers. On his return he reported that he had been
+assaulted by disguised negroes, in whose leader he recognized Price. An
+officer went from Livingston to investigate, and was assaulted by Price
+and others. Price was arrested by the Meridian authorities, and when the
+trial was due a number of Alabamians were gathered in that town. The trial
+was to be before the mayor. Some of the county and city officials
+requested the mayor not to permit the trial to proceed, because if he did
+there would certainly be an outbreak. In compliance with the request, the
+trial was postponed and Price permitted to escape. He never reappeared
+and nothing is known of his subsequent career. But he entailed trouble on
+the people, and there was a bloody sequel to his arrest and release.
+Negroes held a meeting and resolved that they would repel with force any
+future "raids" by Alabamians. After the meeting adjourned an incendiary
+fire started, and leading negroes at the scene discharged revolvers
+recklessly. This caused much excitement, and some colored men were
+arrested and held under guard. Monday morning at eleven o'clock white
+citizens met and adopted a resolution asking the mayor to resign and leave
+the city. At three o'clock the trial of the negro prisoners began. Many
+Alabamians were in town, among them, according to statements, the noted
+Steve Renfroe, of Sumter, and Joe Reynolds, of Eutaw ("Captain Jenks").
+The trial or investigation was before a justice named Bramlette. A white
+witness concluded his testimony and was about to retire, when one of the
+accused negroes, Tyler, insultingly asked him to continue on the stand a
+few minutes, as he wished to impeach his testimony with that of some negro
+witnesses whom he would introduce. The witness picked up a cane which was
+lying on the table and moved toward Tyler. A pistol was fired from the
+direction of that part of the room in which Tyler and a number of others
+were grouped. Bramlette sank back in his chair, dead. Firing of pistols
+became general and there was great disorder and confusion. Clopton, one of
+the negroes under arrest and charged with incendiary utterances, was
+wounded and thrown from a window of the room, which was in the second
+story. He was taken into the sheriff's office, and in the uproar there
+killed. Tyler escaped from the building and hid in a shop some distance
+away. Pursuers found and killed him. Few doubted that he fired the shot
+which killed the justice.
+
+Excitement continued through the afternoon. Three other negro leaders were
+arrested and placed under a guard for protection. Two nights afterward
+they were taken from the guards and executed.
+
+The mayor abandoned his office and left the state. An obnoxious member of
+the legislature was sought, but fled and did not return.
+
+One of the utterances of Tyler at the negro meeting recalled a remarkable
+incident in the history of Meridian. In a drunken brawl an Indian
+belonging to the Mississippi Choctaw tribe was killed there. A band of his
+tribesmen, in a spirit of retaliation, visited Meridian and killed the
+slayer. Tyler referred to this action of the Choctaws as an example worthy
+of emulation by his people.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN
+
+RIOTS IN MARENGO
+
+
+In the campaign of 1870, a former slave owner was one of the Republican
+candidates for office in Marengo county, and made what was regarded as an
+inflammatory speech to negroes gathered at Shiloh, a hamlet, situated in a
+section of Marengo county largely populated by negroes. A few white men
+were present, and between them and the candidate an angry controversy
+arose. The immediate result was cessation of the speechmaking and
+dissolution of the meeting. The orator was escorted by white men to a
+buggy and departed in safety. He was a pugnacious man and had a record of
+at least one victim to attest his prowess in rencontre. Some days later he
+repaired to Linden, the county seat, accompanied by two negro men,
+ostentatiously bearing a United States flag. There had assembled a great
+crowd of negroes, who were, as usual, armed. With him on the platform was
+Captain C. L. Drake, the man of many offices, and above them floated Old
+Glory. An offensive reference to the disturbance at Shiloh provoked a
+quick retort from one of a small group of white men who were listening to
+the speech. The orator paused, dramatically removed from his pockets his
+watch and purse, and from its fastening a diamond pin, handed them to the
+sheriff, with the request that he convey them to the candidate's wife, in
+the event of a fatality, drew a pistol, and, remarking that he had been
+mistreated and would "fight it out," descended from the platform. Negroes
+with guns sprang into double ranks, enclosing him on two sides. The group
+of whites promptly seized and disarmed him, and meanwhile white men with
+arms were rushing to the scene from all quarters. Somewhere on the
+outskirts of the throng a pistol was fired which caused a stampede in that
+quarter. The negroes about the platform, confronted by a line of
+determined whites, yielded and retired from the scene. Drake fled to his
+office and thence to tall timber. The candidate, forsaken by his
+followers, asked for protection, and was hurried into a room of the
+court-house and locked in with two or three citizens. The angry crowd
+outside was clamorous and the beleaguered man, rejecting all suggestions
+of plans for flight, himself finally proposed as a means of quieting the
+uproar to sign a paper relinquishing his candidacy for sheriff and
+withdrawing from politics. Duplicate copies of the paper were drawn up and
+signed; he retained one of them, and the other was taken outside and read
+to the people. It produced the desired effect. The candidate was placed in
+a buggy and, accompanied by an escort, proceeded to his home. And thus
+ended "the Linden riot." But the candidate was irrepressible and speedily
+repudiated his act of self-abnegation as having been done under
+intimidation.
+
+He spoke at Belmont, a small settlement, and became involved in an affray
+with a resident. This created a general disturbance, in which the meeting
+was broken up and the negroes sullenly retired from the scene. They
+threatened to burn the place, and a white man was shot at from ambush. So
+unusually hostile and aggressive were the negroes that warrants issued for
+the arrest of certain of their leaders, among them Zeke High. There were
+posted notices of a meeting of negroes at Belmont on July 5, 1870. White
+men in considerable numbers assembled there on that date, and the meeting
+was prudently postponed. A negro was whipped that night, and next night he
+assembled at his house, in a dense swamp near the river, a number of armed
+friends. A scouting party of whites, seeking information respecting the
+purposes of the negroes, approached their stronghold in the darkness of
+night; one of them (Melton) entered the yard and was fired at. Melton
+dropped to the ground and feigned death to escape another volley. Both
+sides, thinking he was dead, ceased firing, and the whites withdrew to
+give the alarm. A warrant of arrest was placed in the hands of an officer,
+but he was unwilling to attempt to serve it at night. A young man named
+Collins, bold and fond of excitement and adventure, volunteered to serve
+the warrant and was duly commissioned. Collins, with three companions,
+approached the house, but before he had time to summon the inmates to
+capitulate, a volley was fired by the latter and Collins sank from his
+horse in death. Two of his companions were slightly injured, and the
+party, after returning the fire, retired. This occurrence created intense
+excitement and indignation. Whites gathered from the surrounding country.
+The negroes were greatly reinforced and fortified a position in an almost
+impenetrable part of the swamp. Some of the whites favored an immediate
+assault, but other counsels prevailed, and the sheriff, with a small
+posse, proceeded to the scene and demanded Collins' body. The demand was
+refused. Next day the sheriff rode into the midst of the mob and again
+demanded the body, and got it. A few hours later the white forces made a
+quick and determined forward movement to dislodge the negroes from their
+almost impregnable position, and found it abandoned,--the negroes had
+disbanded and fled in terror. This terminated "the Belmont riot"; but it
+had a sequel in the retributive death of the negro leader, Zeke High, who
+boasted that his shot killed Collins. On his own boastful confession High
+was arrested and lodged in the Sumter county jail at Livingston. September
+29 a party of mounted and disguised men from the direction of Marengo
+forced the sheriff to surrender the jail keys, entered the prison and took
+High from his cell, conveyed him a short distance away and hung and shot
+him to death. This High was a desperate and dangerous character, and even
+when seized by his executioners fought ferociously. When the leader
+entered the dark cell in which High and three other prisoners were
+incarcerated, he was assaulted and struck in the face with a heavy piece
+of furniture, the blow dislodging several front teeth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY
+
+KILLINGS AND RIOTING IN GREENE
+
+
+In 1870 Eutaw, the seat of government of the rich county of Greene,
+contained a population of 1,800 or 2,000, and prospered greatly in trade
+with farmers in the surrounding country. It was a typical Southern
+court-house town,--busy in fall and winter, almost dormant in late spring
+and summer. Its men were among the earliest to volunteer for service in
+the Confederate armies and latest to retire from that service; they were
+also amongst the earliest to organize resistance to carpetbag rule and to
+throw off the yoke.
+
+On the morning of April 1, 1870, the people of Eutaw were shocked when
+informed of a tragedy which had been enacted during the night--Alexander
+Boyd, county solicitor and register in chancery, had been shot to death by
+Ku Klux! At first most persons discredited the gruesome story as an "April
+fool" hoax, but incredulity gave place to amazement when the scene of the
+awful tragedy was visited.
+
+Of all the acts attributed to the klan, perhaps none was bolder than the
+slaying of Boyd. A bachelor, he had for a long time occupied sleeping
+quarters in a detached office building situated in a corner of the
+court-house yard; but having received a warning note, he became alarmed
+and abandoned these quarters and obtained an apartment on the second floor
+of the Cleveland Hotel only a few nights previous to his death. This hotel
+was situated on a corner diagonally opposite the court-house, and was the
+principal rendezvous of townsmen with a taste for gossip.
+
+Witnesses at the investigation into the circumstances testified that at
+half-past eleven o'clock forty or fifty horsemen, in the regulation garb
+and armed with revolvers, their horses robed and hooded, approached to
+within a short distance of the hotel, where all except the customary
+horse-holders dismounted and quickly and unhesitatingly entered the hotel
+office, posted guards at all entrances, and then commanded the clerk to
+take up a candle and show them to Mr. Boyd's apartment. Obediently the
+clerk led the way until he reached the corridor upon which opened the room
+they sought. Pausing here, in his speechlessness he indicated the door by
+pointing, and then fled the scene. Within a brief space an agonized
+scream, heard blocks away, issued from the room of the doomed man, and
+was almost instantly succeeded by a heavy volley of pistol shots. The
+panic-stricken clerk had hardly resumed his seat upon the office stool,
+with hands to ears and head bowed upon his ledger, when the dread invaders
+reappeared in the office. Signaling with whistles the recall of sentinels,
+they quietly withdrew, remounted and rode around the square, in military
+order, and then departed in the direction from which they first appeared.
+[They were traced to the Mississippi border line.]
+
+After their departure, officials and others repaired to the corridor and
+discovered the dead body, robed in night dress, perforated with many
+bullets and almost completely drained of blood. Not a shot had missed the
+mark. Inside the room a table, bearing a lighted lamp, his revolver and
+watch, stood close to the head of the bed. He had not attempted to use the
+weapon. Evidently the purpose of his slayers was to remove him from the
+building, for one of them carried a suggestive coil of rope, but his
+outcry and struggles settled his fate.
+
+Boyd was a nephew of William Miller, probate judge. Some years before the
+war he was convicted of killing a young man named Charner Brown, and
+sentenced to a term in the penitentiary. A petition in his behalf was
+presented to Governor Winston, and in response thereto the sentence was
+commuted to one year's imprisonment in the county jail. Having served the
+sentence, Boyd departed for another state. At the close of the war he
+reappeared, and, following the example of his uncle, sought office in 1868
+at the hands of the negroes, and was made county solicitor and register in
+chancery. He was not distinguished as a prosecutor, but regarded as
+indifferent.
+
+December 9, 1869, Dr. Samuel Snoddy left the village of Union, in the
+northern part of Greene county, to return to his farm. Night overtook him
+en route, and he became confused. Reaching the cabin of some negroes with
+whom he was acquainted, he engaged one of them to pilot him. Early next
+morning Dr. Snoddy's badly mutilated remains were discovered on the
+roadside. The unfortunate man had been murdered and robbed of a
+considerable sum which he had on his person. Sam Caldwell, Henry Miller
+and Sam Colvin, negroes, were arrested, accused of the crime, and lodged
+in jail at Eutaw. The scene of the murder had become notorious on account
+of being a centre of league activities and disorders, and the murder of
+Snoddy aggravated the sense of wrong under which the whites had long been
+restive; and when, a few days later, the prisoners were released, one of
+them on bond, they were seized and executed summarily. Solicitor Boyd, it
+was alleged, manifested no zeal in the investigation of the Snoddy murder,
+but became exceedingly active in the inquisition in connection with the
+subsequent and consequent affair, and exultantly declared that he had
+ascertained the names of all the men engaged in it, would send for
+soldiers to effect their arrest, and vigorously prosecute them, and if
+necessary hold the jury for six months.
+
+All of these facts were related in explanation of popular displeasure with
+Boyd, which revealed itself first in the note of warning and finally in
+the taking of his life. Mr. Boyd's tombstone in the Messopotamia cemetery,
+Eutaw, erected by Judge Miller, is inscribed: "Murdered by Ku Klux."
+
+Greene county continued in a state of disorder, which grew worse as the
+election approached.
+
+The Republican state executive committee advertised that on October 25,
+1870, Senator Warner, Congressman Hays, Governor Smith and Ex-Governor
+Parsons would deliver addresses at the court-house in Eutaw. On that day
+the party of visitors, accompanied by General Crawford, military commander
+of the department, and others, arrived in town. They were informed that
+the Democratic county committee had invited the voters to hear an address
+by the Democratic candidate for the legislature, and had chosen the same
+time and place. Thereupon the Republican leaders held a conference and
+decided to invite the Democratic committee to hold with them a joint
+meeting. Accordingly, Judge Miller, Congressman Hays and Mr. Cockrell were
+commissioned to convey to the Democratic committee the following note:
+
+"We propose to appoint a committee of two to meet a committee of two from
+your party, to arrange the terms of a discussion for the day, to meet
+immediately at the circuit clerk's office."
+
+To this note the following reply was sent:
+
+"Gentlemen,--In answer to your note of this date, we, the committee
+appointed by the president of the Democratic and Conservative Council of
+Greene county, are instructed to say, that we do not consider the
+questions in the present political canvass debatable, either as to men or
+measures; and we therefore, in behalf of the Democratic and Conservative
+party of Greene county, decline any discussion whatever.
+
+  "J. J. JOLLY,
+  "J. G. PIERCE,
+  "_Committee_."
+
+This reply was ominous. So apprehensive were the leaders that Congressman
+Hays, who was exceedingly unpopular, decided, with the concurrence of the
+others, that it would be safer if he should refrain from speaking. The
+garrison troops were quartered a half-mile away from the court-house, and
+Governor Smith requested General Crawford to have the entire body brought
+to the court-house; but after conference with the sheriff, the general
+concluded that a detachment posted two blocks distant would be a
+sufficient safeguard.
+
+Immediately after the note of reply was sent, the Democrats called their
+meeting to order on the north side of the court-house, and soon thereafter
+the Republicans assembled on the south side. The Democratic meeting lasted
+only a short time, and at its conclusion the auditors repaired to points
+where they could listen to the Republican orators.
+
+Corridors run through the court-house, crossing each other in the centre
+of the building. These spaces were thronged by white men.
+
+For the accommodation of the Republican speakers, an improvised platform,
+formed of a table, was placed against a window opening from the clerk's
+office. All of the Republican visitors and local officials occupied chairs
+in this office. By request of Senator Warner, the office door was locked
+from the inside, in order, as said, that "whatever danger there might be
+would be in front."
+
+Senator Warner spoke without unusual interference. Ex-Governor Parsons
+followed and was listened to attentively. When he retired through the
+window, the negroes called for Congressman Hays. A Democrat, Major Pierce,
+approached Governor Parsons, who was seated inside near the window, and
+advised him to restrain Hays. Parsons, in response, endeavored to attract
+the attention of Hays, who had mounted the platform with the intention, as
+he subsequently testified, not to deliver an address, but merely to
+dismiss the audience. If this was true, his purpose was misunderstood, for
+the table was suddenly tilted and Hays precipitated. As he fell a pistol
+was fired, and the ball passed through Major Pierce's clothing. Some
+witnesses testified that Hays fired it, and Parsons afterward admitted
+that Hayes was armed with a derringer; others, that the shot came from the
+direction in which the negroes were massed. However this may be, there was
+an impulsive forward rush by the negroes, and, as Warner admitted, they
+had weapons in their hands.
+
+The first shot was instantly succeeded by a volley from the corridors, and
+the onrush was halted. Suddenly, in a resonant voice, someone in a
+corridor shouted: "Go in, boys, now is your time!" Continuous firing
+followed, and the negroes fled in great disorder, leveling the stout fence
+which enclosed the yard, a few discharging pistols as they fled.
+
+Even in this grave situation there was an amusing incident. In his
+testimony before an investigating commission Senator Warner, describing
+the riot, related it accurately. Beaver hats were not worn in Eutaw at
+that period. Mr. Parsons' attire was similar to that of Quakers and
+included a light-colored beaver hat. Senator Warner's tile was
+conventional, black and glossy. "I caught up the papers in my hands," he
+said, "and walked very deliberately to the right, in order to get out of
+the way of the firing. There came from the right-hand side of the
+court-house a pretty good line of men, thirty or forty, I should think.
+They came around all together, and formed a tolerable line across from the
+corner of the court-house to the fence, and commenced firing on the
+negroes, who had broken down the court-house fence and were fleeing as
+fast as they could. These men cocked their revolvers and fired upon them
+as rapidly as they could. I looked at them for a moment, and then walked
+up to them as they were firing. I saw some colored men falling on the
+grass and then scrambling up and moving off. I walked up to these men and
+held up my hand in a deprecating manner, and said, 'For God's sake, stop
+this!' One of them who was nearest to me turned around and cast a kind of
+defiant but yet somewhat surprised look at me. One of them leveled his
+pistol upon us, Governor Parsons, Mr. Brown and myself; he was standing
+about the length of this table distant from us. He leveled his pistol at
+Governor Parsons. The governor said: 'For God's sake, don't shoot at me; I
+have done you no harm.' The crowd stopped firing and turned their
+attention to us. Just at that instant the sheriff came around with his
+arms spread out, and said: 'Stop this! stop this!' The man stopped for a
+moment and seemed to be deliberating whether he should shoot Parsons. He
+then saw Mr. Hays on my right; turning a little to one side to avoid me,
+he threw his pistol down upon Hays and Mr. Brown, who were both together,
+and tried to shoot them. They both sprang behind me; I saw them getting
+behind me and squatting on the ground to avoid his fire. By that time the
+negroes had been driven out of the court-house yard and across the street,
+where they had stopped and turned, and began to fire back. A few were
+firing back. Just at that moment I heard somebody call out, 'Boys, hold
+your fire!' The firing then ceased. I started and walked through the
+crowd, right among them. I suppose there were forty or fifty of them, all
+standing there with their revolvers in their hands, smoking, as they had
+been firing. Just as I was getting out of the crowd somebody from behind
+struck at me and knocked my hat off; I just felt the blow on my head, but
+I could not tell who it was, for when I turned around his hands were
+dropped, whoever it was. I guess it was pretty lucky I did not know, for
+the blow aroused me a great deal, and I am afraid I should have lost my
+self-possession. I turned around to pick up my hat, when another man
+kicked it; then another kicked it; and then the whole crowd, one after
+another, played football with it and kicked it across the yard. I started
+back to get it, when a man by the name of Dunlap, a Democrat, who seemed
+to be in accord with the party there, walked up to me and took me by the
+arm in a friendly sort of way, and said, 'General, you had better get away
+from here or you will get hurt!'"
+
+The senator's hat furnished diversion at a critical moment, and in all
+probability was the means of saving his life and the lives of his friends.
+There had been firing from the clerk's office, and Mr. Cowan (one of the
+actors in the Greensboro tragedy mentioned in an earlier chapter), was
+slightly grazed on the left thigh. He was brandishing a pistol and calling
+to the white men to rally about him, and standing near a window of the
+clerk's office. He believed that he was made a target by a prominent
+Republican who was in the office. Two other white men, near Mr. Cowan,
+were struck by missiles from the negro ranks just before they fled from
+the yard. Some of the party with or about Senator Warner had, a moment
+before the scene described by him, emerged from the office and were
+retreating to the Cleveland hotel, and a determined group of men,
+including Reynolds, with a shotgun, were pursuing them when the fun with
+the hat commenced. While it was yet in progress, the soldiers wheeled
+around the nearest corner and rescued the imperilled Republican leaders.
+
+Meanwhile the negroes, having fled in two directions to points where they
+had guns concealed in wagons, secured these arms and resolutely moved back
+toward the scene of their rout. They were aware of their preponderating
+numbers, and counted on the sympathy of the soldiers. Those on Prairie
+street had not proceeded far when they encountered a squad of mounted men
+commanded by the marshal and a few sharpshooters posted behind trees in
+private yards, who speedily checked their advance. At the intersection of
+the two streets which were scenes of reviving combat a line of white men,
+armed with guns, all men of tested courage, was formed to prevent a
+junction of the two bodies of negroes. Just then the soldiers, at
+double-quick, made their appearance and were halted opposite the line of
+armed citizens. After a brief hesitation, the officer gave the command to
+move and the soldiers proceeded down Prairie street. The negroes quickly
+lost courage and retreated, and before long none could be seen within
+miles of the town. And so ended the Eutaw riot, in which, according to the
+local newspaper, the _Whig and Observer_, and the testimony of witnesses,
+54 men were shot, and from 250 to 300 white men and from 1,800 to 2,000
+negroes were engaged. The number of wounded was probably exaggerated.
+
+The pistol shot which followed so quickly the rude interruption of Hays'
+remarks was not the real cause of the riot; it was but the signal for the
+opening of a conflict which had been impending for some time, and it gave
+vent to indignation which had been suppressed with difficulty. The
+explanation is found in earlier occurrences.
+
+In October the white people of Greene county were much disturbed by rumors
+that a number of bands of negroes had been drilling with arms in parts of
+the county where plantations were largest and the negro population
+densest. A country store was burned by incendiaries, and threats were
+made that the several bands would be consolidated and Eutaw attacked by
+the combined force.
+
+Lieutenant Charles Harkins, commanding the detachment of troops
+garrisoning the town, reported to his superior officer at Huntsville as
+follows:
+
+"I have the honor to report that on the evening of the 19th instant,
+reports were brought to this town, by both colored and white men, to the
+effect that a band of armed colored men intended burning the town that
+night. The rumor seemed to be generally credited by the citizens, which
+caused great alarm and excitement. Armed parties of citizens were
+immediately formed, under the direction of the sheriff, and patrols and
+pickets sent to the suburbs of the town, where they remained all night. No
+demonstration was made by the colored men, if they had any such intention,
+which I am inclined to doubt. The excitement has abated, but there is
+still a feeling of distrust and anxiety among all classes.
+
+"The real facts of the case, and cause of the present alarm, I believe to
+be as follows: The colored men and Republicans generally of this county,
+feeling aggrieved at the many murders and outrages perpetrated on men of
+their party by the Ku Klux organization, have determined to protect
+themselves in future and have banded together for that purpose only, not
+to assume the offensive, or interfere with the peaceful, law-abiding
+portion of the community."
+
+The relation of cause and effect in this thwarted conspiracy to destroy
+Eutaw and the riot which followed so soon is indisputable. The trend of
+Lieutenant Harkins' sympathies is equally plain. He was inclined to doubt
+that the banded negroes intended to burn the town, but readily intimated
+that they had provocation in "the many murders and outrages perpetrated on
+men of their party by the Ku Klux organization." Not a word is there in
+the report concerning the burning of the store, nor of the fact that
+refugee white families from the widely-separated plantations were moving
+into Eutaw for protection against the menacing bands of negroes, nor that
+the "patrols and pickets" were necessary precautions not of one night
+only, but of three nights, and served to deter the negroes from
+prosecuting their design.
+
+The prompt action of the whites in driving the negroes out of town on
+October 25 would seem precipitate and unjustifiable if not considered in
+connection with the facts just recited. Nearly two thousand negroes
+attended that meeting, and they took with them guns, which were secreted
+in wagons at the foot of Prairie street. They were aware that the
+commanding officer of the garrison was in sympathy with them, and that
+they would encounter only a small body of white men should there be a
+collision. No doubt they counted much on the presence of the radical
+governor of the state, the military commander of the department, a senator
+and a congressional representative, all in sympathy with them, and all
+smarting under indignities received only a few days before at a meeting in
+an adjoining county.
+
+The white men remembered the nights of anxiety for the safety of the women
+and children and property of the town, and realized the danger of the
+situation in which they were placed by the group of official Republicans
+who heedlessly and recklessly assembled thousands of negroes who had so
+recently been frustrated in a design to obtain revenge for punishment
+administered to evildoers of their race. Those white men had courage and
+resolution to meet the emergency, and they met it promptly and terribly.
+And they taught a lesson for which there has never since been occasion for
+repetition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
+
+RESTORATION OF WHITE SUPREMACY
+
+
+The state election in 1870 resulted in a victory for the Democratic and
+Conservative party, but there was a persistent effort to deprive that
+party of the fruits of victory. There was instituted on behalf of the
+incumbent governor and treasurer a proceeding in the chancery court to
+enjoin the presiding officer of the senate from counting the votes for
+candidates for those two offices. The legislature met November 20, and the
+law required that the vote be counted, with the two houses assembled
+jointly, within the first week. In the proceedings instituted, Governor
+Smith alleged irregularity in the election. The judge of the circuit court
+refused to grant an injunction, on the ground that the legislature could
+not be enjoined by a court. It was then filed with a supreme court judge.
+It prayed that the presiding officer of the senate be restrained from
+counting the vote until the legislature could provide rules by which the
+proposed contest should be tried. Judge Saffold, as chancellor, granted
+the injunction. Lieutenant-Governor Applegate was dead, and Barr, an Ohio
+man, was presiding. The injunction was served on Barr, and he very
+cheerfully obeyed it.
+
+There are some interesting facts in relation to this senate. The radical
+constitution gerrymandered the senatorial districts, in some instances
+apportioning a senator to a single county; in others, a senator to a group
+of three or four counties, with nearly threefold greater population.
+
+The constitution provided that representatives in the legislature should
+be elected for two years, and senators for four years; that one-half of
+the seats of senators first elected (in 1868) should be declared vacant at
+the end of two years, thus providing for continuation of a certain number.
+In accordance with this provision, at the session in November the question
+whether the senators should draw for the long and short terms was
+discussed; nobody wished to vacate his seat, and by hocus-pocus they
+reached the conclusion that all should hold over. Consequently, one-half
+of them sat four years and the others for six. This procedure contributed
+much to the complication of affairs. This senate connived at the attempt
+to prevent the count of returns.
+
+At noon on the last day of the week the two houses assembled and Barr
+proceeded to count the returns for other officers, declaring that for
+Lieutenant-governor E. H. Moren had received a majority of the votes cast
+at the election; that for secretary of state J. J. Parker had defeated J.
+T. Rapier; that W. A. Sanford had defeated Joshua Morse in the race for
+attorney-general; that Joseph Hodgson succeeded N. B. Cloud as
+superintendent of public instruction. These winners were all Democrats. As
+soon as he had declared these results. Barr and the radical senators
+withdrew. Lieutenant-Governor Moren then appeared, took the oath of
+office, assumed the chair of the presiding officer, and directed that the
+returns for governor and treasurer be brought in. This being done, he
+proceeded forthwith to count them and declared that Robert B. Lindsay, for
+governor, and James F. Grant, for treasurer, had received majorities, and
+to proclaim them duly elected. These officers were sent for and sworn in.
+Consternation seized the Republican leaders. They were caught in their own
+trap, for the injunction had been served on Barr and he had qualified his
+own successor in the person of Dr. Moren, who as lieutenant-governor was
+unaffected by the injunction. Lindsay lost no time in demanding possession
+of the office, but Smith refused to yield and had federal soldiers
+guarding all entrances to the offices of governor and treasurer.
+
+Judge J. Q. Smith went from Selma to Montgomery, and before him Lindsay
+and Grant instituted proceedings, demanding that the seal and all books
+and papers and other property pertaining to the offices of governor and
+treasurer be delivered to them, respectively. The proceedings lasted
+several days. Meanwhile, Montgomery was fast filling up with young men,
+strangers in the community, and there were rumors that bodies of men in
+near-by towns were awaiting summons to the capital, and that locomotives
+with steam up and cars attached, ready for service, were side-tracked at a
+number of stations. Judge Smith's court-room was daily crowded with
+strange men. Excitement was intense.
+
+Lindsay in his complaint alleged that he was the qualified successor of
+Governor Smith; that he had made a demand upon him for the books, papers
+and paraphernalia of the office of governor, and that Smith refused to
+deliver them. The trial was set for three o'clock in the afternoon, and
+Governor Smith was ordered to appear in person in court and show cause why
+he should not be compelled to deliver the property demanded. Governor
+Smith did not like the appearance which Montgomery had assumed, nor did he
+relish the necessity of appearing in that court-room and before that
+audience contesting the right of the people's representatives to assume
+the offices to which they had elected them, nor the certainty that as soon
+as judgment should be given against him an order for commitment to custody
+would issue. Accordingly, he had a conference with General Pettus, and
+soon thereafter announced that he "would yield, upon the ground that,
+although he was satisfied he was fairly and lawfully re-elected, his
+continuance of the litigation and the contest in the palpable excitement
+that surrounded the whole matter would tend to disturb the public peace;
+and the detriment to the material interests of the people of the state
+would be infinitely greater than the possession of the office itself by
+any particular man could possibly compensate."
+
+Thus negro domination in Alabama was overcome.
+
+And the Ku Klux rode no more.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of When the Ku Klux Rode, by Eyre Damer
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