diff options
Diffstat (limited to '41730-8.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 41730-8.txt | 12632 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 12632 deletions
diff --git a/41730-8.txt b/41730-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 96f6e95..0000000 --- a/41730-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,12632 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, Dixie After the War, by Myrta Lockett Avary - - -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: Dixie After the War - An Exposition of Social Conditions Existing in the South, During the Twelve Years Succeeding the Fall of Richmond - - -Author: Myrta Lockett Avary - - - -Release Date: December 29, 2012 [eBook #41730] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIXIE AFTER THE WAR*** - - -E-text prepared by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team -(http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by -Internet Archive (http://archive.org) - - - -Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this - file which includes the original illustrations. - See 41730-h.htm or 41730-h.zip: - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41730/41730-h/41730-h.htm) - or - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41730/41730-h.zip) - - - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - http://archive.org/details/dixieafterwarexp00avar - - - - - -DIXIE AFTER THE WAR - - -[Illustration: JEFFERSON DAVIS - -After his prison life - -Copyright 1867, by Anderson] - - -DIXIE AFTER THE WAR - -An Exposition of Social Conditions Existing -in the South, During the Twelve Years -Succeeding the Fall of Richmond. - -by - -MYRTA LOCKETT AVARY - -Author of "A Virginia Girl in the Civil War" - -With an Introduction by General Clement A. Evans - -Illustrated from old paintings, daguerreotypes and rare photographs - - - - - - - -New York -Doubleday, Page & Company -1906 - -Copyright, 1906, by Doubleday, Page & Company -Published September, 1906 - -All rights reserved, -including that of translation into foreign languages, -including the Scandinavian - - - - - To - - THE MEMORY OF MY BROTHER, - PHILIP LOCKETT, - - (_First Lieutenant, Company G, 14th Virginia Infantry, - Armistead's Brigade, Pickett's Division, C. S. A._) - - _Entering the Confederate Army, when hardly more - than a lad, he followed General Robert E. - Lee for four years, surrendering at Appomattox. - He was in Pickett's immortal - charge at Gettysburg, and with - Armistead when Armistead - fell on Cemetery Hill._ - - - - -The faces I see before me are those of young men. Had you not been this I -would not have appeared alone as the defender of my southland, but for -love of her I break my silence and speak to you. Before you lies the -future--a future full of golden promise, full of recompense for noble -endeavor, full of national glory before which the world will stand amazed. -Let me beseech you to lay aside all rancor, and all bitter sectional -feeling, and take your place in the rank of those who will bring about a -conciliation out of which will issue a reunited country.--_From an address -by Jefferson Davis in his last years, to the young men of the South_ - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -This book may be called a revelation. It seems to me a body of discoveries -that should not be kept from the public--discoveries which have origin in -many sources but are here brought together in one book for the first time. - -No book hitherto published portrays so fully and graphically the social -conditions existing in the South for the twelve years following the fall -of Richmond, none so vividly presents race problems. It is the kind of -history a witness gives. The author received from observers and -participants the larger part of the incidents and anecdotes which she -employs. Those who lived during reconstruction are passing away so rapidly -that data, unless gathered now, can never be had thus at first hand; every -year increases the difficulty. Mrs. Avary's experience as author, editor -and journalist, her command of shorthand and her social connections have -opened up opportunities not usually accessible to one person; added to -this is the balance of sympathy which she is able to strike as a Southern -woman who has sojourned much at the North. In these pages she renders a -public service. She aids the American to better understanding of his -country's past and clearer concept of its present. - -In connection with the book's genesis, it may be said that the author grew -up after the war on a large Virginia plantation where her parents kept -open house in the true Southern fashion. Two public roads which united at -their gates, were thoroughfares linking county-towns in Virginia and North -Carolina, and were much traveled by jurists, lawyers and politicians on -their way to and from various court sittings; these gentlemen often found -it both convenient and pleasant to stop for supper and over night at -Lombardy Grove, particularly as a son of the house was of their guild. -Perhaps few of the company thus gathered realised what an earnest listener -they had in the little girl, Myrta, who sat intent at her father's or -brother's knee, drinking in eagerly the discussions and stories. To -impressions and information so acquired much was added through family -correspondence with relatives and friends in Petersburg, Richmond, -Atlanta, the Carolinas; also, in experiences related by these friends and -relatives when hospitalities were exchanged; interesting and eventful -diaries, too, were at the author's disposal. Such was her unconscious -preparation for the writing of this book. Her conscious preparation was a -tour of several Southern States recently undertaken for the purpose of -collecting fresh data and substantiating information already possessed. - -While engaged, for a season, in journalism in New York, she put out her -first Southern book, "A Virginia Girl in the Civil War" (1903). This met -with such warm welcome that she was promptly called upon for a second -dealing with post-bellum life from a woman's viewpoint. The result was the -Southern journey mentioned, the accidental discovery and presentment -(1905) of the war journal of Mrs. James Chestnut ("A Diary From Dixie"), -and the writing of the present volume which, I think, exceeds her -commission, inasmuch as it is not only what is known as a "woman's book" -but is a "man's book" also, exhibiting a masculine grasp, explained by its -origin, of political situations, and an intimate personal tone in dealing -with the lighter social side of things, possible only to a woman's pen. It -is a very unusual book. All readers may not accept the author's -conclusions, but I think that all must be interested in what she says and -impressed with her spirit of fairness and her painstaking effort to -present a truthful picture of an extraordinary social and political period -in our national life. Her work stimulates interest in Southern history. A -safe prophecy is that this book will be the precursor of as many -post-bellum memoirs of feminine authorship as was "A Virginia Girl" of -memoirs of war-time. - -No successor can be more comprehensive, as a glance at the table of -contents will show. The tragedy, pathos, corruption, humour, and -absurdities of the military dictatorship and of reconstruction, the -topsy-turvy conditions generally, domestic upheaval, negroes voting, Black -and Tan Conventions and Legislatures, disorder on plantations, Loyal -Leagues and Freedmen's Bureaus, Ku Klux and Red Shirts, are presented with -a vividness akin to the camera's. A wide interest is appealed to in the -earlier chapters narrating incidents connected with Mr. Lincoln's visit to -Richmond, Mr. Davis' journeyings, capture and imprisonment, the arrest of -Vice-President Stephens and the effort to capture General Toombs. Those -which deal with the Federal occupation of Columbia and Richmond at once -rivet attention. The most full and graphic description of the situation in -the latter city just after the war, that has yet been produced, is given, -and I think the interpretation of Mr. Davis' course in leaving Richmond -instead of remaining and trying to enter into peace negotiations, is a -point not hitherto so clearly taken. - -As a bird's-eye view of the South after the war, the book is expositive of -its title, every salient feature of the time and territory being brought -under observation. The States upon which attention is chiefly focussed, -however, are Virginia and South Carolina, two showing reconstruction at -its best and worst. The reader does not need assurance that this volume -cost the author years of well-directed labour; hasty effort could not have -produced a work of such depth, breadth and variety. It will meet with -prompt welcome, I am sure, and its value will not diminish with years. - -CLEMENT A. EVANS. - -_Atlanta, Ga._ - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - CHAPTER I. THE FALLING CROSS 3 - - CHAPTER II. "WHEN THIS CRUEL WAR IS OVER" 9 - - CHAPTER III. THE ARMY OF THE UNION: THE CHILDREN AND THE FLAG 15 - - CHAPTER IV. THE COMING OF LINCOLN 29 - - CHAPTER V. THE LAST CAPITAL OF THE CONFEDERACY 47 - - CHAPTER VI. THE COUNSEL OF LEE 67 - - CHAPTER VII. "THE SADDEST GOOD FRIDAY" 77 - - CHAPTER VIII. THE WRATH OF THE NORTH 89 - - CHAPTER IX. THE CHAINING OF JEFFERSON DAVIS 101 - - CHAPTER X. OUR FRIENDS, THE ENEMY 107 - - CHAPTER XI. BUTTONS, LOVERS, OATHS, WAR LORDS, AND PRAYERS FOR - PRESIDENTS 123 - - CHAPTER XII. CLUBBED TO HIS KNEES 139 - - CHAPTER XIII. NEW FASHIONS: A LITTLE BONNET AND AN ALPACA SKIRT 147 - - CHAPTER XIV. THE GENERAL IN THE CORNFIELD 155 - - CHAPTER XV. TOURNAMENTS AND STARVATION PARTIES 167 - - CHAPTER XVI. THE BONDAGE OF THE FREE 179 - - CHAPTER XVII. BACK TO VOODOOISM 201 - - CHAPTER XVIII. THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU 209 - - CHAPTER XIX. THE PRISONER OF FORTRESS MONROE 219 - - CHAPTER XX. RECONSTRUCTION ORATORY 229 - - CHAPTER XXI. THE PRISONER FREE 237 - - CHAPTER XXII. A LITTLE PLAIN HISTORY 247 - - CHAPTER XXIII. THE BLACK AND TAN CONVENTION: THE "MIDNIGHT - CONSTITUTION" 253 - - CHAPTER XXIV. SECRET SOCIETIES: LOYAL LEAGUE, WHITE CAMELIAS, - WHITE BROTHERHOOD, PALE FACES, KU KLUX 263 - - CHAPTER XXV. THE SOUTHERN BALLOT-BOX 281 - - CHAPTER XXVI. THE WHITE CHILD 297 - - CHAPTER XXVII. SCHOOLMARMS AND OTHER NEWCOMERS 311 - - CHAPTER XXVIII. THE CARPET-BAGGER 325 - - CHAPTER XXIX. THE DEVIL ON THE SANTEE (A RICE-PLANTER'S STORY) 341 - - CHAPTER XXX. BATTLE FOR THE STATE-HOUSE 353 - - CHAPTER XXXI. CRIME AGAINST WOMANHOOD 377 - - CHAPTER XXXII. RACE PREJUDICE 391 - - CHAPTER XXXIII. MEMORIAL DAY AND DECORATION DAY. CONFEDERATE - SOCIETIES 405 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - JEFFERSON DAVIS _Frontispiece_ - - FACING PAGE - - THE RUINS OF MILLWOOD 6 - - MRS. JEFFERSON DAVIS 10 - - THE WHITE HOUSE 32 - - THE GOVERNOR'S MANSION, Richmond 36 - - ST. PAUL'S CHURCH 48 - - THE LAST CAPITOL OF THE CONFEDERACY 52 - - THE OLD BANK, Washington, Ga. 56 - - GENERAL AND MRS. JOHN H. MORGAN 62 - - THE LEE RESIDENCE, Richmond 68 - - MRS. ROBERT E. LEE 72 - - MRS. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 80 - - LIBBY PRISON 92 - - MRS. DAVID L. YULEE 110 - - MISS MARY MEADE 120 - - MRS. HENRY L. POPE 128 - - MRS. WILLIAM HOWELL 134 - - MRS. ANDREW GRAY 134 - - MISS ADDIE PRESCOTT 168 - - MRS. DAVID URQUHART 174 - - MRS. LEONIDAS POLK 180 - - MRS. ANDREW PICKENS CALHOUN 196 - - FORTRESS MONROE 222 - - HISTORICAL PETIT JURY 238 - - MRS. AUGUSTA EVANS WILSON 248 - - MME. OCTAVIA WALTON LE VERT 248 - - MRS. DAVID R. WILLIAMS 268 - - MISS EMILY V. MASON 304 - - MRS. WADE HAMPTON 346 - - RADICAL MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATURE OF SOUTH CAROLINA 354 - - THE SOUTHERN CROSS 364 - - MRS. REBECCA CALHOUN PICKENS BACON 406 - - MRS. ROGER A. PRYOR 412 - - WINNIE DAVIS, the Daughter of the Confederacy 416 - - - - -THE FALLING CROSS - - - - -CHAPTER I - -THE FALLING CROSS - - -"The Southern Cross" and a cross that fell during the burning of Columbia -occur to my mind in unison. - -With the Confederate Army gone and Richmond open to the Federal Army, her -people remembered New Orleans, Atlanta, Columbia. New Orleans, where -"Beast Butler" issued orders giving his soldiers license to treat ladies -offending them as "women of the town." Atlanta, whose citizens were -ordered to leave; General Hood had protested and Mayor Calhoun had plead -the cause of the old and feeble, of women that were with child; and of -them that turned out of their houses had nowhere to go, and without money, -food, or shelter, must perish in woods and waysides. General Sherman had -replied: "I give full credit to your statements of the distress that will -be occasioned, yet shall not revoke my orders, because they were not -designed to meet the humanities of the case. You cannot qualify war in -harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it." "The -order to depopulate Atlanta was obeyed amid agonies and sorrows -indescribable," Colonel J. H. Keatley, U. S. A., has affirmed. - -There are some who hold with General Sherman that the most merciful way to -conduct war is to make it as merciless and horrible as possible, and so -end it the quicker. One objection to this is that it creates in a -subjugated people such hatred and distrust of the conquering army and -government that a generation or two must die out before this passes away; -and therefore, in a very real sense, the method does not make quick end of -conflict. - -Richmond remembered how Mayor Goodwin went to meet General Sherman and -surrendered Columbia, praying for it his pity and protection. General -Sherman had said: "Go home and sleep in peace, Mr. Mayor. Your city shall -be safe." Mayor Goodwin returned, praising General Sherman. By next -morning, the City of Gardens was almost swept from the face of the earth. -The rabble ("my bummers," General Sherman laughingly called his men set -apart for such work), pouring into the town, had invaded and sacked homes, -driving inmates--among these mothers with new-born babes--into the -streets; they had demolished furniture, fired dwellings. - -Houses of worship were not spared. The Methodist Church, at whose altar -the Sabbath before Rev. William Martin had administered the Sacrament to -over four hundred negroes, was burned. So was the Ursuline Convent. This -institution was a branch of the order in Ohio; it sheltered nuns and -students of both sections; Protestant and Catholic alike were there in -sanctuary. One Northern Sister had lost two brothers in the Federal Army. -Another was joyously hoping to find in Sherman's ranks one or more of her -five Yankee brothers. The shock of that night killed her. A Western girl -was "hoping yet fearing" to see her kinsmen. Guards, appointed for -protection, aided in destruction. Rooms were invaded, trunks rifled. -Drunken soldiers blew smoke in nuns' faces, saying: - -"Holy! holy! O yes, we are holy as you!" And: "What do you think of God -now? Is not Sherman greater?" Because of the sacred character of the -establishment, because General Sherman was a Catholic, and because he had -sent assurances of protection to the Mother Superior, they had felt safe. -But they had to go. - -"I marched in the procession through the blazing streets," wrote the -Western girl, "venerable Father O'Connell at the head holding high the -crucifix, the black-robed Mother Superior and the _religieuses_ following -with their charges, the white-faced, frightened girls and children, all in -line and in perfect order. They sought the Catholic church for safety, and -the Sisters put the little ones to sleep on the cushioned pews; then the -children, driven out by roystering soldiers, ran stumbling and -terror-stricken into the graveyard and crouched behind gravestones." - -One soldier said he was sorry for the women and children of South -Carolina, but the hotbed of secession must be destroyed. "But I am not a -South Carolinian," retorted the Western girl, "I am from Ohio. Our Mother -Superior was in the same Convent in Ohio with General Sherman's sister and -daughter." "The General ought to know that," he responded quickly. "If you -are from Ohio--that's my state--I'll help you." For answer, she pointed to -the Convent; the cross above it was falling. - -They recur to my mind in unison--that cross, sacred alike to North and -South, falling above a burning city, and the falling Southern Cross, -Dixie's beautiful battle-flag. - -Two nuns, conferring apart if it would not be well to take the children -into the woods, heard a deep, sad voice saying: "Your position distresses -me greatly!" Startled, they turned to perceive a Federal officer beside a -tombstone just behind them. "Are you a Catholic," they asked, "that you -pity us?" "No; simply a man and a soldier." Dawn came, and with it some -Irish soldiers to early Mass. Appalled, they cried: "O, this will never -do! Send for the General! The General would never permit it!" - -At reveille all arson, looting and violence had ceased as by magic, even -as conflagration had started as by magic in the early hours of the night -when four signal rockets went up from as many corners of the town. But the -look of the desolated city in the glare of daylight was indescribable. -Around the church were broken and empty trunks and boxes; in the entrance -stood a harp with broken strings. - -General Sherman came riding by; the Mother Superior summoned him; calmly -facing the Attila of his day, she said in her clear, sweet voice: -"General, this is how you keep your promise to me, a cloistered nun, and -these my sacred charges." General Sherman answered: "Madame, it is all the -fault of your negroes, who gave my soldiers liquor to drink." - -General Sherman, in official report, charged the burning of Columbia to -General Hampton, and in his "Memoirs" gives his reason: "I confess that I -did so to shake the faith of his people in him"; and asserts that his -"right wing," "having utterly ruined Columbia," passed on to Winnsboro. - -Living witnesses tell how that firing was done. A party of soldiers would -enter a dwelling, search and rifle; and in departing throw wads of burning -paper into closets, corners, under beds, into cellars. Another party would -repeat the process. Family and servants would follow after, removing wads -and extinguishing flames until ready to drop. Devastation for secession, -that was what was made plain in South Carolina; if the hotbed of "heresy" -had to be destroyed for her sins, what of the Confederate Capital, -Richmond, the long-desired, the "heart of the Rebellion"? - -[Illustration: THE RUINS OF MILLWOOD - -Millwood was the ancestral home of General Hampton, and was burned by -Sherman's orders. The property is now owned by General Hampton's sisters.] - - - - - - -"WHEN THIS CRUEL WAR IS OVER" - - - - -CHAPTER II - -"WHEN THIS CRUEL WAR IS OVER" - - -"When this cruel war is over" was the name of one of our war songs. So -many things we planned to do when the war should be over. With the fall of -the Southern Capital the war was over, though we did not know it at once. - -Again and again has the story been told of Sunday, April 2, in Richmond. -The message brought into St. Paul's Church from Lee to Davis, saying -Richmond could no longer be defended; the quiet departure of the -President; the noble bearing of the beloved rector, Rev. Dr. Minnegerode; -the self-control of the troubled people remaining; the solemn Communion -Service; these are all a part now of American history of that sad time -when brother strove with brother; a time whose memories should never be -revived for the purpose of keeping rancor alive, but that should be -unfalteringly remembered, and every phase of it diligently studied, that -our common country may in no wise lose the lesson for which we of the -North and South paid so tremendous a price. - -Into Dr. Hoge's church a hurried messenger came. The pastor read the note -handed up to him, bowed his head in silent prayer, and then said: -"Brethren, trying scenes are before us; General Lee has suffered reverses. -But remember that God is with us in the storm as well as in the calm. Go -quietly to your homes, and whatever may be in store for us, let us not -forget that we are Christian men and women. The blessing of the Father, -the Son, and the Holy Ghost be with us all. Amen." So other pastors -commended their people. - -None who lived through that Sabbath could forget it. Our Government, our -soldiers, hurrying off; women saying goodbye to husband, lover, brother, -or friend, and urging haste; everybody who could go, going, when means of -transportation were insufficient for Government uses, and "a kingdom for a -horse" could not buy one--horses brought that day $1,000 apiece in gold; -handsome houses full of beautiful furniture left open and deserted; people -of all sexes, colors and classes running hither and yon; boxes and barrels -dragged about the streets from open commissary stores; explosions as of -earthquakes; houses aflame; the sick and dying brought out; streets -running liquid fire where liquor had been emptied into gutters, that it -might not be available for invading troops; bibulous wretches in the midst -of the terror, brooding over such waste; drunken roughs and looters, white -and black, abroad; the penitentiary disgorging striped hordes; the ribald -songs, the anguish, the fears, the tumult; the noble calm of brave souls, -the patient endurance of sweet women and gentle children--these are all a -part of American history, making thereon a page blistered with tears for -some; and for others, illumined with symbols of triumph and glory. - -And yet, we are of one blood, and the triumph and glory of one is the -triumph and glory of the other; the anguish and tears of one the anguish -and tears of the other; and the shame of one is the shame of both. - -The fire was largely due to accident. In obedience to law, Confederate -forces, in evacuating the city, fired tobacco warehouses, ordnance and -other Government stores, gunboats in the James and bridges spanning the -river. A wind, it is said, carried sparks towards the town, igniting first -one building and then another; incendiarism lent aid that pilfering -might go on in greater security through public disorder and distress. - -[Illustration: MRS. JEFFERSON DAVIS] - -During the night detonations of exploding gunboats could be heard for -miles, the noise and shock and lurid lights adding to the wretchedness of -those within the city, and the anxieties of those who beheld its burnings -from afar; among these, the advancing enemy, who was not without uneasy -speculations lest he find Richmond, as Napoleon found Moscow, in ashes. -General Shepley, U. S. A., has described the scene witnessed from his -position near Petersburg, as a most beautiful and awful display of -fireworks, the heavens at three o'clock being suddenly filled with -bursting shells, red lights, Roman candles, fiery serpents, golden -fountains, falling stars. - -Nearly all the young men were gone; the fire department, without a full -force of operatives, without horses, without hose, was unable to cope with -the situation. Old men, women and children, and negro servants fought the -flames as well as they could. - -Friends and relatives who were living in Richmond then have told me about -their experiences until I seem to have shared them. One who appears in -these pages as Matoaca, gives me this little word-picture of the morning -after the evacuation: - -"I went early to the War Department, where I had been employed, to get -letters out of my desk. The desk was open. Everything was open. Our -President, our Government, our soldiers were gone. The papers were found -and I started homeward. We saw rolls of smoke ahead, and trod carefully -the fiery streets. Suddenly my companion caught my arm, crying: 'Is not -that the sound of cavalry?' We hurried, almost running. Soon after we -entered the house, some one exclaimed: - -"'God help us! The United States flag is flying over our Capitol!' - -"I laid my head on Uncle Randolph's knee and shivered. He placed his hand -lightly on my head and said: 'Trust in God, my child. They can not be -cruel to us. We are defenseless.' He had fought for that flag in Mexico. -He had stood by Virginia, but he had always been a Unionist. I thought of -New Orleans, Atlanta, Columbia." - -An impression obtained that to negro troops was assigned the honor of -first entering Richmond, hauling down the Southern Cross and hoisting in -its place the Stars and Stripes. "Harper's Weekly" said: "It was fitting -that the old flag should be restored by soldiers of the race to secure -whose eternal degradation that flag had been pulled down." Whether the -assignment was made or not, I am unable to say; if it was, it was not very -graceful or wise on the part of our conquerors, and had it been carried -out, would have been prophetic of what came after--the subversion. - -White troops first entered Richmond, and a white man ran up the flag of -the Union over our Capitol. General Shepley says that to his aide, -Lieutenant de Peyster, he accorded the privilege as a reward for caring -for his old flag that had floated over City Hall in New Orleans. On the -other hand, it is asserted that Major Stevens performed the historic -office, running up the two small guidons of the Fourth Massachusetts -Cavalry, which were presently displaced by the large flag Lieutenant de -Peyster had been carrying in the holster at his saddle-bow for many a day, -that it might be in readiness for the use to which he now put it. - - - - -THE ARMY OF THE UNION - - - - -CHAPTER III - -THE ARMY OF THE UNION: THE CHILDREN AND THE FLAG - - -The Army of the Union entered Richmond with almost the solemnity of a -processional entering church. It was occasion for solemn procession, that -entrance into our burning city where a stricken people, flesh of their -flesh and bone of their bone, watched in terror for their coming. - -Our broken-hearted people closed their windows and doors and shut out as -far as they could all sights and sounds. Yet through closed lattice there -came that night to those living near Military Headquarters echoes of -rejoicings. - -Early that fateful morning, Mayor Mayo, Judge Meredith and Judge Lyons -went out to meet the incoming foe and deliver up the keys of the city. -Their coach of state was a dilapidated equipage, the horses being but -raw-boned shadows of better days when there were corn and oats in the -land. They carried a piece of wallpaper, on the unflowered side of which -articles of surrender were inscribed in dignified terms setting forth that -"it is proper to formally surrender the City of Richmond, hitherto Capital -of the Confederate States of America." Had the words been engraved on -satin in letters of gold, Judge Lyons (who had once represented the United -States at the Court of St. James) could not have performed the honours of -introduction between the municipal party and the Federal officers with -statelier grace, nor could the latter have received the instrument of -submission with profounder courtesy. "We went out not knowing what we -would encounter," Mayor Mayo reported, "and we met a group of -Chesterfields." Major Atherton H. Stevens, of General Weitzel's staff, was -the immediate recipient of the wallpaper document. - -General Weitzel and his associates were merciful to the stricken city; -they aided her people in extinguishing the flames; restored order and gave -protection. Guards were posted wherever needed, with instructions to -repress lawlessness, and they did it. To this day, Richmond people rise up -in the gates and praise that Army of the Occupation as Columbia's people -can never praise General Sherman's. Good effect on popular sentiment was -immediate. - -Among many similar incidents of the times is this, as related by a -prominent physician: - -"When I returned from my rounds at Chimborazo I found a Yankee soldier -sitting on my stoop with my little boy, Walter, playing with the tassels -and buttons on his uniform. He arose and saluted courteously, and told me -he was there to guard my property. 'I am under orders,' he said, 'to -comply with any wish you may express.'" - -Dr. Gildersleeve, in an address (June, 1904) before the Association of -Medical Officers of the Army and Navy, C. S. A., referred to Chimborazo -Hospital as "the most noted and largest military hospital in the annals of -history, ancient or modern." With its many white buildings and tents on -Chimborazo Hill, it looked like a town and a military post, which latter -it was, with Dr. James B. McCaw for Commandant. General Weitzel and his -staff visited the hospital promptly. Dr. McCaw and his corps in full -uniform received them. Dr. Mott, General Weitzel's Chief Medical -Director, exclaimed: "Ain't that old Jim McCaw?" "Yes," said "Jim McCaw," -"and don't you want a drink?" "Invite the General, too," answered Dr. -Mott. General Weitzel issued passes to Dr. McCaw and his corps, and gave -verbal orders that Chimborazo Confederates should be taken care of under -all circumstances. He proposed to take Dr. McCaw and his corps into the -Federal service, thus arming him with power to make requisition for -supplies, medicines, etc., which offer the doctor, as a loyal Confederate, -was unable to accept. - -Others of our physicians and surgeons found friends in Federal ranks. To -how many poor Boys in Blue, longing for home and kindred, had not they and -our women ministered! The orders of the Confederate Government were that -the sick and wounded of both armies should be treated alike. True, nobody -had the best of fare, for we had it not to give. We were without -medicines; it was almost impossible to get morphia, quinine, and other -remedies. Quinine was $400 an ounce, when it could be bought at all, even -in the earlier years of the war. Our women became experts in manufacturing -substitutes out of native herbs and roots. We ran wofully short of -dressings and bandages, and bundles of old rags became treasures -priceless. But the most cruel shortage was in food. Bitter words in -Northern papers and by Northern speakers--after our defeat intensified, -multiplied, and illustrated--about our treatment of prisoners exasperated -us. "Will they never learn," we asked, "that on such rations as we gave -our prisoners, our men were fighting in the field? We had not food for -ourselves; the North blockaded us so we could not bring food from outside, -and refused to exchange prisoners with us. What could we do?" - -I wonder how many men now living remember certain loaves of wheaten bread -which the women of Richmond collected with difficulty in the last days of -the war and sent to Miss Emily V. Mason, our "Florence Nightingale," for -our own boys. "Boys," Miss Emily announced--sick soldiers, if graybeards, -were "boys" to "Cap'n," as they all called Miss Emily--"I have some -flour-bread which the ladies of Richmond have sent you." Cheers, and other -expressions of thankfulness. "The poor, sick Yankees," Miss Emily went on -falteringly--uneasy countenances in the ward--"_can't_ eat corn-bread--" -"Give the flour-bread to the poor, sick Yankees, Cap'n!" came in cheerful, -if quavering chorus from the cots. "_We_ can eat corn-bread. Gruel is good -for us. We _like_ mush. Oughtn't to have flour-bread nohow." "Poor -fellows!" "Cap'n" said proudly of their self-denial, "they were tired to -death of corn-bread in all forms, and it was not good for them, for nearly -all had intestinal disorders." - -Along with this corn-bread story, I recall how Dr. Minnegerode, -Protestant, and Bishop Magill, Catholic, used to meet each other on the -street, and the one would say: "Doctor, lend me a dollar for a sick -Yankee." And the other: "Bishop, I was about to ask _you_ for a dollar for -a sick Yankee." And how Annie E. Johns, of North Carolina, said she had -seen Confederate soldiers take provisions from their own haversacks and -give them to Federal prisoners _en route_ to Salisbury. As matron, she -served in hospitals for the sick and wounded of both armies. She said: -"When I was in a hospital for Federals, I felt as if these men would -defend me as promptly as our own." - -In spite of the pillage, vandalism and violence they suffered, Southern -women were not so biassed as to think that the gentle and brave could be -found only among the wearers of the gray. Even in Sherman's Army were the -gentle and brave upon whom fell obloquy due the "bummers" only. I have -heard many stories like that of the boyish guard who, tramping on his beat -around a house he was detailed to protect, asked of a young mother: "Why -does your baby cry so?" She lifted her pale face, saying: "My baby is -hungry. I have had no food--and so--I have no nourishment for him." Tears -sprang into his eyes, and he said: "I will be relieved soon; I will draw -my rations and bring them to you." He brought her his hands full of all -good things he could find--sugar, tea, and coffee. And like that of two -young Philadelphians who left grateful hearts behind them along the line -of Sherman's march because they made a business of seeing how many women -and children they could relieve and protect. In Columbia, during the -burning, men in blue sought to stay ravages wrought by other men in blue. -I hate to say hard things of men in blue, and I must say all the good -things I can; because many were unworthy to wear the blue, many who were -worthy have carried reproach. - -On that morning of the occupation, our women sat behind closed windows, -unable to consider the new path stretching before them. The way seemed to -end at a wall. Could they have looked over and seen what lay ahead, they -would have lost what little heart of hope they had; could vision have -extended far enough, they might have won it back; they would have beheld -some things unbelievable. For instance, they would have seen the little -boy who played with the buttons and tassels, grown to manhood and wearing -the uniform of an officer of the United States; they would have seen -Southern men walking the streets of Richmond and other Southern cities -with "U. S. A." on their haversacks; and Southern men and Northern men -fighting side by side in Cuba and the Philippines, and answering alike to -the name, "Yankees." - -On the day of the occupation, Miss Mason and Mrs. Rhett went out to meet -General Weitzel and stated that Mrs. Lee was an invalid, unable to walk, -and that her house, like that of General Chilton and others, was in danger -of fire. "What!" he exclaimed, "Mrs. Lee in danger? General Fitz Lee's -mother, who nursed me so tenderly when I was sick at West Point! What can -I do for her? Command me!" "We mean Mrs. Robert E. Lee," they said. "We -want ambulances to move Mrs. Lee and other invalids and children to places -of safety." Using his knee as a writing-table, he wrote an order for five -ambulances; and the ladies rode off. Miss Emily's driver became suddenly -and mysteriously tipsy and she had to put an arm around him and back up -the vehicle herself to General Chilton's door, where his children, her -nieces, were waiting, their dollies close clasped. - -"Come along, Virginia aristocracy!" hiccoughed the befuddled Jehu. "I -won't bite you! Come along, Virginia aristocracy!" - -A passing officer came to the rescue, and the party were soon safely -housed in the beautiful Rutherford home. - -The Federals filled Libby Prison with Confederates, many of whom were -paroled prisoners found in the city. Distressed women surrounded the -prison, begging to know if loved ones were there; others plead to take -food inside. Some called, while watching windows: "Let down your tin cup -and I will put something in it." Others cried: "Is my husband in there? O, -William, answer me if you are!" "Is my son, Johnny, here?" "O, please -somebody tell me if my boy is in the prison!" Miss Emily passed quietly -through the crowd, her hospital reputation securing admission to the -prison; she was able to render much relief to those within, and to subdue -the anxiety of those without. - -"Heigho, Johnny Reb! in there now where we used to be!" yelled one Yankee -complacently. "Been in there myself. D----d sorry for you, Johnnies!" called -up another. - -A serio-comic incident of the grim period reveals the small boy in an -attitude different from that of him who was dandled on the Federal knee. -Some tiny lads mounted guard on the steps of a house opposite Military -Headquarters, and, being intensely "rebel" and having no other means of -expressing defiance to invaders, made faces at the distinguished occupants -of the establishment across the way. General Patrick, Provost-Marshal -General, sent a courteously worded note to their father, calling his -attention to these juvenile demonstrations. He explained that while he was -not personally disturbed by the exhibition, members of his staff were, and -that the children might get into trouble. The proper guardians of the wee -insurgents, acting upon this information, their first of the battery -unlimbered on their door-step, saw that the artillery was retired in good -order, and peace and normal countenances reigned over the scene of the -late engagements. - -I open a desultory diary Matoaca kept, and read: - -"If the United States flag were my flag--if I loved it--I would not try to -make people pass under it who do not want to. I would not let them. It is -natural that we should go out of our way to avoid walking under it, a -banner that has brought us so much pain and woe and want--that has -desolated our whole land. - -"Some Yankees stretched a flag on a cord from tree to tree across the way -our children had to come into Richmond. The children saw it and cried -out; and the driver was instructed to go another way. A Federal soldier -standing near--a guard, sentinel or picket--ordered the driver to turn -back and drive under that flag. He obeyed, and the children were weeping -and wailing as the carriage rolled under it." - -In Raymond, Mississippi, negro troops strung a flag across the street and -drove the white children under it. In Atlanta, two society belles were -arrested because they made a detour rather than walk under the flag. Such -desecration of the symbol of liberty and union was committed in many -places by those in power. - -The Union flag is my flag and I love it, and, therefore, I trust that no -one may ever again pass under it weeping. Those little children were not -traitors. They were simply human. If in the sixties situations had been -reversed, and the people of New York, Boston and Chicago had seen the -Union flag flying over guns that shelled these cities, their children -would have passed under it weeping and wailing. Perhaps, too, some would -have sat on doorsteps and "unbeknownst" to their elders have made faces at -commanding generals across the way; while others climbing upon the enemy's -knees would have played with gold tassels and brass buttons. - -Our newspapers, with the exception of the "Whig" and the "Sentinel," -shared in the general wreckage. A Northern gentleman brought out a tiny -edition of the former in which appeared two military orders promulgating -the policy General Weitzel intended to pursue. One paragraph read: "The -people of Richmond are assured that we come to restore to them the -blessings of peace and prosperity under the flag of the Union." - -General Shepley, Military Governor by Weitzel's appointment, repeated this -in substance, adding: "The soldiers of the command will abstain from any -offensive or insulting words or gestures towards the citizens." With less -tact and generosity, he proceeded: "The Armies of the Rebellion having -abandoned their efforts to enslave the people of Virginia, have -endeavoured to destroy by fire their Capital.... The first duty of the -Army of the Union will be to save the city doomed to destruction by the -Armies of the Rebellion." That fling at our devoted army would have served -as a clarion call to us--had any been needed--to remember the absent. - -"It will be a blunder in us not to overlook that blunder of General -Shepley's," urged Uncle Randolph.[1] "The important point is that the -policy of conciliation is to be pursued." With the "Whig" in his hand, -Uncle Randolph told Matoaca that the Thursday before Virginia seceded a -procession of prominent Virginians marched up Franklin Street, carrying -the flag of the Union and singing "Columbia," and that he was with them. - -The family questioned if his mind were wandering, when he went on: "The -breach can be healed--in spite of the bloodshed--if only the Government -will pursue the right course now. Both sides are tired of hating and being -hated, killing and being killed--this war between brothers--if Weitzel's -orders reflect the mind of Lincoln and Grant--and they must--all may be -well--before so very long." - -These were the men of the Union Army who saved Richmond: The First -Brigade, Third Division (Deven's Division), Twenty-fourth Army Corps, Army -of the James, Brevet-Brigadier-General Edward H. Ripley commanding. This -brigade was composed of the Eleventh Connecticut, Thirteenth New -Hampshire, Nineteenth Wisconsin, Eighty-first New York, Ninety-eighth New -York, One Hundredth and Thirty-ninth New York, Convalescent detachment -from the second and third divisions of Sheridan's reinforcements. - -"This Brigade led the column in the formal entry, and at the City Hall -halted while I reported to Major-General Weitzel," says General Ripley. -"General Weitzel had taken up his position on the platform of the high -steps at the east front of the Confederate Capitol, and there, looking -down into a gigantic crater of fire, suffocated and blinded with the vast -volumes of smoke and cinders which rolled up over and enveloped us, he -assigned me and my brigade to the apparently hopeless task of stopping the -conflagration, and suppressing the mob of stragglers, released criminals, -and negroes, who had far advanced in pillaging the city. He had no -suggestions to make, no orders to give, except to strain every nerve to -save the city, crowded as it was with women and children, and the sick and -wounded of the Army of Northern Virginia. - -"After requesting Major-General Weitzel to have all the other troops -marched out of the city, I took the Hon. Joseph Mayo, then Mayor of -Richmond, with me to the City Hall, where I established my headquarters. -With the help of the city officials, I distributed my regiment quickly in -different sections. The danger to the troops engaged in this terrific -fire-fighting was infinitely enhanced by the vast quantities of powder and -shells stored in the section burning. Into this sea of fire, with no less -courage and self-devotion than as though fighting for their own firesides -and families, stripped and plunged the brave men of the First Brigade. - -"Meanwhile, detachments scoured the city, warning every one from the -streets to their houses.... Every one carrying plunder was arrested.... -The ladies of Richmond thronged my headquarters, imploring protection. -They were sent to their homes under the escort of guards, who were -afterwards posted in the center house of each block, and made responsible -for the safety of the neighborhood.... Many painful cases of destitution -were brought to light by the presence of these safeguards in private -houses, and the soldiers divided rations with their temporary wards, in -many cases, until a general system of relief was organised."[2] - - - - -THE COMING OF LINCOLN - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -THE COMING OF LINCOLN - - -The South did not know that she had a friend in Abraham Lincoln, and the -announcement of his presence in Richmond was not calculated to give -comfort or assurance. - -"Abraham Lincoln came unheralded. No bells rang, no guns boomed in salute. -He held no levee. There was no formal jubilee. He must have been heartless -as Nero to have chosen that moment for a festival of triumph. He was not -heartless." So a citizen of Richmond, who was a boy at the time, and out -doors and everywhere, seeing everything, remembers the coming of Lincoln. - -One of the women who sat behind closed windows says: "If there was any -kind of rejoicing, it must have been of a very somber kind; the sounds of -it did not reach me." Another who looked through her shutters, said: "I -saw him in a carriage, the horses galloping through the streets at a -break-neck speed, his escort clearing the way. The negroes had to be -cleared out of the way, they impeded his progress so." He was in Richmond -April 4 and 5, and visited the Davis Mansion, the Capitol, Libby Prison, -Castle Thunder and other places. - -His coming was as simple, business-like, and unpretentious as the man -himself. Anybody who happened to be in the neighbourhood on the afternoon -of April 4, might have seen a boat manned by ten or twelve sailors pull -ashore at a landing above Rockett's, and a tall, lank man step forth, -"leading a little boy." By resemblance to pictures that had been scattered -broadcast, this man could have been easily recognized as Abraham Lincoln. -The little boy was Tad, his son. Major Penrose, who commanded the escort, -says Tad was not with the President; Admiral Porter, General Shepley and -others say he was. - -Accompanied by Admiral Porter and several other officers and escorted by -ten sailors, President Lincoln, "holding Tad's hand," walked through the -city, which was in part a waste of ashes, and the smoke of whose burning -buildings was still ascending. From remains of smouldering bridges, from -wreckage of gunboats, from Manchester on the other side of the James, and -from the city's streets smoke rose as from a sacrifice to greet the -President. - -A Northern newspaper man (who related this story of himself) recognizing -that it was his business to make news as well as dispense it, saw some -negroes at work near the landing where an officer was having débris -removed, and other negroes idling. He said to this one and to that: "Do -you know that man?" pointing to the tall, lank man who had just stepped -ashore. - -"Who _is_ dat man, marster?" - -"Call no man marster. That man set you free. That is Abraham Lincoln. Now -is your time to shout. Can't you sing, 'God bless you, Father Abraham!'" - -That started the ball rolling. The news spread like wild-fire. Mercurial -blacks, already excited to fever-heat, collected about Mr. Lincoln, -impeding his progress, kneeling to him, hailing him as "Saviour!" and "My -Jesus!" They sang, shouted, danced. One woman jumped up and down, -shrieking: "I'm free! I'm free! I'm free till I'm fool!" Some went into -the regular Voodoo ecstasy, leaping, whirling, stamping, until their -clothes were half torn off. Mr. Lincoln made a speech, in which he said: - -"My poor friends, you are free--free as air. But you must try to deserve -this priceless boon. Let the world see that you merit it by your good -works. Don't let your joy carry you into excesses. Obey God's commandments -and thank Him for giving you liberty, for to Him you owe all things. -There, now, let me pass on. I have little time here and much to do. I want -to go to the Capitol. Let me pass on." - -Henry J. Raymond speaks of the President as taking his hat off and bowing -to an old negro man who knelt and kissed his hand, and adds: "That bow -upset the forms, laws and customs of centuries; it was a death-shock to -chivalry, a mortal wound to caste. Recognize a nigger? Faugh!" Which -proves that Mr. Raymond did not know or wilfully misrepresented a people -who could not make reply. Northern visitors to the South may yet see -refutation in old sections where new ways have not corrupted ancient -courtesy, and where whites and blacks interchange cordial and respectful -salutations, though they may be perfect strangers to each other, when -passing on the road. If they are not strangers, greeting is usually more -than respectful and cordial; it is full of neighbourly and affectionate -interest in each other and each other's folks. - -The memories of the living, even of Federal officers near President -Lincoln, bear varied versions of his visit. General Shepley relates that -he was greatly surprised when he saw the crowd in the middle of the -street, President Lincoln and little Tad leading, and that Mr. Lincoln -called out: - -"Hullo, General! Is that you? I'm walking around looking for Military -Headquarters." - -General Shepley conducted him to our White House, where President Lincoln -wearily sank into a chair, which happened to be that President Davis was -wont to occupy while writing his letters, a task suffering frequent -interruption from some one or other of his children, who had a way of -stealing in upon him at any and all times to claim a caress. - -Upon Mr. Lincoln's arrival, or possibly in advance, when it was understood -that he would come up from City Point, there was discussion among our -citizens as to how he should be received--that is, so far as our attitude -toward him was concerned. There were several ways of looking at the -problem. Our armies were still in the field, and all sorts of rumors were -afloat, some accrediting them with victories. - -A called meeting was held under the leadership of Judge Campbell and Judge -Thomas, who, later, with General Joseph Anderson and others, waited on Mr. -Lincoln, to whom they made peace propositions involving disbandment of our -armies; withdrawal of our soldiers from the field, and reëstablishment of -state governments under the Union, Virginia inaugurating this course by -example and influence. - -Mr. Lincoln had said in proclamation, the Southern States "can have peace -any time by simply laying down their arms and submitting to the authority -of the Union." It was inconceivable to many how we could ever want to be -in the Union again. But wise ones said: "Our position is to be that of -conquered provinces voiceless in the administration of our own affairs, or -of States with some power, at least, of self-government." Then, there was -the dread spectre of confiscation, proscription, the scaffold. - -Judge Campbell and Judge Thomas reported: "The movement for the -restoration of the Union is highly gratifying to Mr. Lincoln; he will -give it full sympathy and coöperation." - -[Illustration: THE WHITE HOUSE OF THE CONFEDERACY, RICHMOND, VA. - -Presented to Mr. Davis, who refused it as a gift, but occupied it as the -Executive residence. Now known as the Confederate Museum.] - -"You people will all come back now," Mr. Lincoln had said to Judge Thomas, -"and we shall have old Virginia home again." - -Many had small faith in these professions of amity, and said so. "Lincoln -is the man who called out the troops and precipitated war," was bitterly -objected, "and we do not forget Hampton Roads." - -A few built hopes on belief that Mr. Lincoln had long been eager to -harmonize the sections. Leader of these was Judge John A. Campbell, -ex-Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and -ex-Assistant Secretary of War of the expiring Confederacy. He had served -with Mr. Hunter and Mr. Stephens on the Hampton Roads Peace Commission, -knew Mr. Lincoln well, had high regard for him and faith in his earnest -desire for genuine reconciliation between North and South. When the -Confederate Government left the city, he remained, meaning to try to make -peace, Mr. Davis, it is said, knowing his purpose and consenting, but -having no hope of its success. - -Only the Christmas before, when peace sentiments that led to the Hampton -Roads Conference were in the air, striking illustrations in Northern -journals reflected Northern sentiment. One big cartoon of a Christmas -dinner in the Capitol at Washington, revealed Mr. Lincoln holding wide the -doors, and the seceded States returning to the family love feast. Olive -branches, the "Prodigal's Return," and nice little mottoes like "Come -Home, Our Erring Sisters, Come!" were neatly displayed around the margin. -Fatted calves were not to be despised by a starving people; but the less -said about the pious influences of the "Prodigal's Return" the better. -That Hampton Roads Conference (February, 1865) has always been a sore -spot. In spite of the commissioners' statements that Mr. Lincoln's only -terms were "unconditional surrender," many people blamed Mr. Davis for the -failure of the peace movement; others said he was pusillanimous and a -traitor for sanctioning overtures that had to be made, by Lincoln's -requirements, "informally," and, as it were, by stealth. - -"We must forget dead issues," our pacificators urged. "We have to face the -present. The stand Mr. Lincoln has taken all along, that the Union is -indissoluble and that a State can not get out of it however much she -tries, is as fortunate for us now as it was unlucky once." - -"In or out, what matters it if Yankees rule over us!" others declared. - -"Mr. Lincoln is not in favor of outsiders holding official reins in the -South," comforters responded. "He has committed himself on that point to -Governor Hahn in Louisiana. When Judge Thomas suggested that he establish -Governor Pierpont here, Mr. Lincoln asked straightway, 'Where is Extra -Billy?' He struck the table with his fist, exclaiming, 'By Jove! I want -that old game-cock back here!'" - -When in 1862-3 West Virginia seceded from Virginia and was received into -the bosom of the Union, a few "loyal" counties which did not go with her, -elected Francis H. Pierpont Governor of the old State. At the head of -sixteen legislators, he posed at Alexandria as Virginia's Executive, Mr. -Lincoln and the Federal Congress recognizing him. Our real governor was -the doughty warrior, William Smith, nick-named "Extra Billy" before the -war, when he was always asking Congress for extra appropriations for an -ever-lengthening stage-coach and mail-route line, which was a great -Government enterprise under his fostering hand. - -Governor Smith had left with the Confederate Government, going towards -Lynchburg. He had been greatly concerned for his family, but his wife had -said: "I may feel as a woman, but I can act like a man. Attend to your -public affairs and I will arrange our family matters." The Mansion had -barely escaped destruction by fire. The Smith family had vacated it to the -Federals, had been invited to return and then ordered to vacate again for -Federal occupation. - -Mr. Lincoln said that the legislature that took Virginia out of the Union -and Governor Letcher, who had been in office then, with Governor Smith, -his successor, and Governor Smith's legislature, must be convened. "The -Government that took Virginia out of the Union is the Government to bring -her back. No other can effect it. They must come to the Capitol yonder -where they voted her out and vote her back." - -Uncle Randolph was one of those who had formally called upon Mr. Lincoln -at the Davis Mansion. Feeble as he was, he was so eager to do some good -that he had gone out in spite of his niece to talk about the "policy" he -thought would be best. "I did not say much," he reported wistfully. "There -were a great many people waiting on him. Things look strange at the -Capitol. Federal soldiers all about, and campfires on the Square. Judge -Campbell introduced me. President Lincoln turned from him to me, and said: -'You fought for the Union in Mexico.' I said, 'Mr. Lincoln, if the Union -will be fair to Virginia, I will fight for the Union again.' I forgot, you -see, that I am too old and feeble to fight. Then I said quickly, 'Younger -men than I, Mr. President, will give you that pledge.' What did he say? He -looked at me hard--and shook my hand--and there wasn't any need for him to -say anything." - -Mr. Lincoln's attitude towards Judge Campbell was one of confidence and -cordiality. He knew the Judge's purity and singleness of purpose in -seeking leniency for the conquered South, and genuine reunion between the -sections. The Federal commanders understood his devotion and integrity. -The newspaper men, in their reports, paid respect to his venerable, -dignified figure, stamped with feebleness, poverty, and a noble sorrow, -waiting patiently in one of the rooms at the Davis Mansion for audience -with Mr. Lincoln. - -None who saw Mr. Lincoln during that visit to Richmond observed in him any -trace of exultation. Walking the streets with the negroes crowding about -him, in the Davis Mansion with the Federal officers paying him court and -our citizens calling on him, in the carriage with General Weitzel or -General Shepley, a motley horde following--he was the same, only, as those -who watched him declared, paler and wearier-looking each time they saw -him. Uncle Randolph reported: - -"There was something like misgiving in his eyes as he sat in the carriage -with Shepley, gazing upon smoking ruins on all sides, and a rabble of -crazy negroes hailing him as 'Saviour!' Truly, I never saw a sadder or -wearier face in all my life than Lincoln's!" - -He had terrible problems ahead, and he knew it. His emancipation -proclamation in 1863 was a war measure. His letter to Greeley in 1862, -said: "If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at -the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If I could preserve -the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it; if I could preserve -the Union by freeing all the slaves, I would do it.... What I do about the -coloured race, I do because I think it helps to save the Union." - -[Illustration: GOVERNOR'S MANSION, RICHMOND, VA. - -Erected 1811-13, to succeed a plain wooden structure called the -"Governor's Palace."] - -To a committee of negroes waiting on him in the White House, August 14, -1862, Mr. Lincoln named colonisation as the one remedy for the race -trouble, proposing Government aid out of an appropriation which Congress -had voted him. He said: "White men in this country are cutting each -other's throats about you. But for your race among us, there would be no -war, although many men on either side do not care for you one way or the -other.... Your race suffers from living among us, ours from your -presence." He applied $25,000 to the venture, but it failed; New Grenada -objected to negro colonisation. - -Two months before his visit to Richmond, some official (Colonel Kaye, as I -remember) was describing to him the extravagancies of South Carolina -negroes when Sherman's army announced freedom to them, and Mr. Lincoln -walked his floor, pale and distressed, saying: "It is a momentous -thing--this liberation of the negro race." - -He left a paper in his own handwriting with Judge Campbell, setting forth -the terms upon which any seceded State could be restored to the Union; -these were, unqualified submission, withdrawal of soldiers from the field, -and acceptance of his position on the slavery question, as defined in his -proclamations. The movement gained ground. A committee in Petersburg, -headed by Anthony Keiley, asked permits to come to Richmond that they -might coöperate with the committee there. - -"Unconditional surrender," some commented. "Mr. Lincoln is not disposed to -humiliate us unnecessarily," was the reassurance. "He promised Judge -Campbell that irritating exactions and oaths against their consciences are -not to be imposed upon our people; they are to be encouraged, not coerced, -into taking vows of allegiance to the United States Government; Lincoln's -idea is to make allegiance a coveted privilege; there are to be no -confiscations; amnesty to include our officers, civil and military, is to -be granted--that is, the power of pardon resting with the President, he -pledges himself to liberal use of it. Lincoln is long-headed and -kind-hearted. He knows the best thing all around is a real peace. He -wishes to restore confidence in and affection for the Union. That is -plain. He said: 'I would gladly pardon Jeff Davis himself if he would ask -it.'" - -I have heard one very pretty story about Mr. Lincoln's visit to Richmond. -General Pickett, of the famous charge at Gettysburg, had been well known -in early life to Mr. Lincoln when Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Johnson, General -Pickett's uncle, were law partners in Illinois. Mr. Lincoln had taken warm -interest in young George Pickett as a cadet at West Point, and had written -him kindly, jovial letters of advice. During that hurried sojourn in -Richmond, Abraham Lincoln took time for looking up Mr. Johnson. His -carriage and armed retinue drew up in front of the old Pickett mansion. -The General's beautiful young wife, trembling with alarm, heard a strange -voice asking first for Mr. Johnson and then about General Pickett, and -finally: "Is General Pickett's wife here?" She came forward, her baby in -her arms. "I am General Pickett's wife." "Madam, I am George's old friend, -Abraham Lincoln." "The President of the United States!" "No," with a -kindly, half-quizzical smile, "only Abraham Lincoln, George's old friend. -And this is George's baby?" Abraham Lincoln bent his kindly, half-sad, -half-smiling glance upon the child. Baby George stretched out his hands; -Lincoln took him, and the little one, in the pretty fashion babies have, -opened his mouth and kissed the President. - -"Tell your father," said Lincoln, "that I will grant him a special -amnesty--if he wants it--for the sake of your mother's bright eyes and -your good manners." A short while after that--when Lincoln was dead--that -mother was flying, terror-stricken, with her baby to Canada, where General -Pickett, in fear of his life, had taken refuge. - -Mr. Lincoln left instructions for General Weitzel to issue passes to the -legislators and State officials who were to come to Richmond for the -purpose of restoring Virginia to the Union. The "Whig" had sympathetic -articles on "Reconstruction," and announced in due order the meeting of -citizens called "to consider President Lincoln's proposition for -reassembling the Legislature to take Virginia back into the Union." It -printed the formal call for reassembling, signed by the committee and many -citizens, and countersigned by General Weitzel; handbills so signed were -printed for distribution. - -General Shepley, whose cordial acquiescence in the conciliation plan had -been pronounced, said in after years that he suffered serious misgivings. -When General Weitzel directed him to issue the passes for the returning -legislators, he inquired: "Have you the President's written order for -this?" "No. Why?" "For your own security you should have it, General. When -the President reaches Washington and the Cabinet are informed of what has -been done and what is contemplated, this order will be rescinded, and the -Cabinet will deny that it has ever been issued." - -"I have the President's commands. I am a soldier and obey orders." - -"Right, General. Command me and I obey." - -Mr. Lincoln's written order reiterating oral instructions came, however. - -Admiral Porter, according to his own account, took President Lincoln to -task for his concessions, and told him in so many words that he was acting -outside of his rights; Richmond, being under military rule, was subject to -General Grant's jurisdiction. The Admiral has claimed the distinction of -working a change in the President's mind and of recovering immediately the -obnoxious order from Weitzel, killing, or trying to kill, a horse or so in -the undertaking. He characterised the efforts of Judges Campbell and -Thomas to serve their country and avert more bloodshed as "a clever dodge -to soothe the wounded feelings of the people of the South." The Admiral -adds: "But what a howl it would have raised in the North!" - -Admiral Porter says the lectured President exclaimed: "Well, I came near -knocking all the fat in the fire, didn't I? Let us go. I seem to be -putting my foot into it here all the time. Bless my soul! how Seward would -have preached if he had heard me give Campbell permission to call the -Legislature! Seward is an encyclopedia of international law, and laughs at -my horse sense on which I pride myself. Admiral, if I were you, I would -not repeat that joke yet awhile. People might laugh at you for knowing so -much more than the President." - -He was acting, he said, in conjunction with military authorities. General -Weitzel was acting under General Grant's instructions. The conciliatory -plan was being followed in Petersburg, where General Grant himself had led -the formal entry. - -"General Weitzel warmly approves the plan." - -"He and Campbell are personal friends," the Admiral remarked -significantly. - -Whatever became of those horses driven out by Admiral Porter's -instructions to be killed, if need be, in the effort to recover that -order, is a conundrum. According to Admiral Porter the order had been -written and given to General Weitzel while Mr. Lincoln was in the city. -According to Judge Campbell and General Shepley, and the original now on -file in Washington, it was written from City Point. - -Dated, "Headquarters Department of Virginia, Richmond, April 13, 1865," -this appeared in the "Whig" on the last afternoon of Mr. Lincoln's life: - -"Permission for the reassembling of the gentlemen recently acting as the -Legislature is rescinded. Should any of the gentlemen come to the city -under the notice of reassembling already published, they will be furnished -passports to return to their homes. Any of the persons named in the call -signed by J. A. Campbell and others, who are found in the city twelve -hours after the publication of this notice will be subject to arrest, -unless they are residents. (Signed) E. O. C. Ord, General Commanding the -Department." - -General Weitzel was removed. Upon him was thrown the blame of the -President's "blunder." He was charged with the crime of pity and sympathy -for "rebels" and "traitors." When Lincoln was dead, a high official in -Washington said: "No man more than Mr. Lincoln condemned the course -General Weitzel and his officers pursued in Richmond." - -In more ways than one General Weitzel had done that which was not pleasing -in the sight of Mr. Stanton. Assistant Secretary of War Dana had let -Stanton know post-haste that General Weitzel was distributing "victuals" -to "rebels." Stanton wired to know of General Weitzel if he was "acting -under authority in giving food supplies to the people of Richmond, and if -so, whose?" General Weitzel answered, "Major-General Ord's orders approved -by General Grant." - -Mr. Dana wrote Mr. Stanton, "Weitzel is to pay for rations by selling -captured property." General Weitzel apologised for magnanimity by -explaining that the instructions of General Ord, his superior, were "to -sell all the tobacco I find here and feed those in distress. A great many -persons, black and white, are on the point of starvation, and I have -relieved the most pressing wants by the issue of a few abandoned rebel -stores and some damaged stores of my own." "All receivers of rations must -take the oath," Mr. Stanton wrote back. - -In Northern magazines left by Federal soldiers visiting negroes in -Matoaca's yard, black Cato saw caricatures of Southern ladies mixing in -with negroes and white roughs and toughs, begging food at Yankee bureaus. -"Miss Mato'ca," he plead earnestly, "don' go whar dem folks is no mo'. It -will disgrace de fam'ly." She had put pride and conscience in her pocket, -drawn rations and brought home her pork and codfish. - -Revocation of permission for the reassembling of the Virginia Legislature -was one of Mr. Lincoln's last, if not his last, act in the War Department. -Stanton gave him no peace till it was written; he handed the paper to Mr. -Stanton, saying: "There! I think that will suit you!" "No," said the Iron -Chancellor of the Union. "It is not strong enough. It merely revokes your -permission for the assembling of the rebel legislators. Some of these men -will come to Richmond--are doubtless there now--in response to the call. -You should prohibit the meeting." Which was done. Hence, the prohibitory -order in the "Whig." - -Mr. Lincoln wrote, April 14, to General Van Alen, of New York: "Thank you -for the assurance you give me that I shall be supported by conservative -men like yourself in the efforts I may use to restore the Union, so as to -make it, to use your own language, a Union of hearts as well as of hands." -General Van Alen had warned him against exposing himself in the South as -he had done by visiting Richmond; and for this Mr. Lincoln thanked him -briefly without admitting that there had been any peril. Laconically, he -had thanked Stanton for concern expressed in a dispatch warning him to be -careful about visiting Petersburg, adding, "I have already been there." - -When serenaded the Tuesday before his death, he said, in speaking of the -bringing of the Southern States into practical relations with the Union: -"I believe it is not only possible, but easier to do this, without -deciding, or even considering, whether these States have ever been out of -the Union. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly -immaterial whether they had ever been abroad." - -His last joke--the story-tellers say it was his last--was about "Dixie." -General Lee's surrender had been announced; Washington was ablaze with -excitement. Delirious multitudes surged to the White House, calling the -President out for a speech. It was a moment for easy betrayal into words -that might widen the breach between sections. He said in his quaint way -that he had no speech ready, and concluded humorously: "I have always -thought 'Dixie' one of the best tunes I ever heard. I insisted yesterday -that we had fairly captured it. I presented the question to the -Attorney-General and he gave his opinion that it is our lawful prize. I -ask the band to give us a good turn upon it." In that little speech, he -claimed of the South by right of conquest a song--and nothing more. - - - - -THE LAST CAPITAL - - - - -CHAPTER V - -THE LAST CAPITAL OF THE CONFEDERACY - - -From Richmond, Mr. Davis went to Danville. Major Sutherlin, the -Commandant, met him at the station and carried him and members of his -Cabinet to the Sutherlin Mansion, which then became practically the -Southern Capitol. - -The President was busy night and day, examining and improving defenses and -fortifications and planning the junction of Lee's and Johnston's forces. -Men were seeking his presence at all hours; couriers coming and going; -telegrams flying hither and thither. - -"In the midst of turmoil, and with such fearful cares and responsibilities -upon him, he did not forget to be thoughtful and considerate of others," I -have heard Mrs. Sutherlin say. "He was concerned for me. 'I cannot have -you troubled with so many interruptions,' he said. 'We must seek other -quarters.' But I would not have it so. 'All that you call a burden is my -privilege,' I replied. 'I will not let you go.' He had other quarters -secured for the Departments, but he and members of his Cabinet remained my -guests." - -In that hospitable home the table was set all the time for the coming and -the going. The board was spread with the best the bountiful host and -hostess could supply. Mrs. Sutherlin brought out all her treasured -reserves of pickles, sweetmeats and preserves. This might be her last -opportunity for serving the Confederacy and its Chieftain. - -The Sutherlins knew that the President's residence in their home was a -perilous honour. In case the Confederacy failed--and hope to the contrary -could not run high--their dwelling would be a marked spot. - -Major Sutherlin had been a strong Union man. Mrs. Sutherlin has told me -how her husband voted against secession in the first convention to which -he was a delegate, and for it in the second, with deep regret. "I saw in -that convention," he told his wife, "strong, reserved men, men of years -and dignity, sign the Secession Ordinance while tears coursed down their -cheeks." - -It is just to rehearse such things of men who were called "traitors" and -"rebels." It is just to remember how Jefferson Davis tried to prevent -secession. His letters to New England societies, his speeches in New -England and in Congress, testified to his deep and fervent desire for the -"preservation of the bond between the States," the "love of the Union in -our hearts," and "the landmarks of our fathers." - -But he believed in States' Rights as fervently as in Union of States; he -believed absorption of State sovereignty into central sovereignty a -violation of the Constitution. Long before secession (1847) he declined -appointment of Brigadier General of Mississippi Volunteers from President -Polk on the ground that the central government was not vested by the -Constitution with power to commission officers of State Militia, the State -having this authority.[3] - -Americans should not forget that this man entered the service of the Union -when a lad; that his father and uncles fought in the Revolution, his -brothers in the War of 1812. West Point holds trophies of his skill as -a commander and of his superb gallantry on the fields of Mexico. That -splendid charge without bayonets through the streets of Monterey almost to -the Plaza, and the charge at Buena Vista, are themes to make American -blood tingle! Their leader was not a man to believe in defeat as long as a -ray of hope was left. - -[Illustration: ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, RICHMOND, VA. - -It was to this church that the message was brought from Lee to Davis -announcing the necessity of evacuating Richmond.] - -As Secretary of War of the United States, Mr. Davis strengthened the power -that crushed the South; in every branch of the War Department, his genius -and faithful and untiring service wrought improvements. In the days of -giants like Webster, Clay and Calhoun, the brilliant Mississippian drew -upon himself many eyes and his course had been watched as that of a bright -particular star of great promise. The candidacy of Vice-President of the -United States had been tendered him--he had been mentioned for the -Presidency, and it is no wild speculation that had he abjured his -convictions on the States' Rights' issue, he would have found himself some -day in the seat Lincoln occupied. He has been accused of overweening -ambition. The charge is not well sustained. He did not desire the -Presidency of the Confederacy. - -In 1861, "Harper's Weekly" said: "Personally, Senator Davis is the Bayard -of Congress, _sans peur et sans reproche_; a high-minded gentleman; a -devoted father; a true friend ... emphatically one of those born to -command, and is doubtless destined to occupy a high position either in the -Southern Confederacy or in the United States." He was "gloriously linked -with the United States service in the field, the forum, and the Cabinet." -The Southern Confederacy failed, and he was "Davis, the Arch-Traitor." - -"He wrote his last proclamation on this table," said Mrs. Sutherlin to me, -her hand on the Egyptian marble where the President's fingers had -traversed that final paper of state which expressed a confidence he could -not have felt, but that he must have believed it duty to affirm. He had -tried to make peace and had failed. Our armies were still in the field. A -bold front on his part, if it could do no more, might enable our generals -to secure better terms than unconditional surrender. At least, no worse -could be tendered. That final message was the utterance of a brave soul, -itself disheartened, trying to put heart into others. All along the way to -Danville, people had flocked to the railroad to hear him, and he had -spoken as he wrote. - -He was an ill man, unutterably weary. He had borne the burden and heat of -the day for four terrible years; he had been a target for the criticism -even of his own people; all failures were laid at the door of this one man -who was trying to run a government and conduct a war on an empty treasury. -It must have cost him something to keep up an unwavering front. - -Lieutenant Wise, son of General Henry A. Wise, brought news that Lee's -surrender was imminent; on learning of it, he had taken to horse and run -through the enemy's cavalry, to warn the President. Starvation had brought -Lee's army to bay. Men were living off grains of parched corn carried in -their pockets. Sheridan's cavalry had captured the wagon-trains of food -supplies. Also, the President was called from the dinner-table to see an -old citizen, who repeated a story from some one who had seen General Lee -in General Grant's tent. Other information followed. - -Scouts came to say that Federal cavalry were advancing. There was danger -that the President's way to the South might be cut off, danger that he -might be captured. All were in haste to get him away; a special train was -made up. The Sutherlin carriage drove hurriedly to the Mansion, the -President and Major Sutherlin got out and entered the house. - -"I am to bid you goodbye," said he to Mrs. Sutherlin, "and to thank you -for your kindness. I shall ever remember it." - -"O, but it is a privilege--an honour--something for me to remember!" - -As explanations were being made and preparations hastened, the President -said: "Speak low, lest we excite Mr. Memminger or distress his wife more -than need be." - -Mr. Memminger, ex-Secretary of the Treasury, was upstairs, very ill; the -physician had just left after giving him a hypodermic of morphine and -ordering absolute quiet. Friends decided that the sick man and his wife -ran less risk in remaining than in following the President. But Mrs. -Memminger, leaning over the balustrade, heard; and she and her husband -came down and went after the President in a rude farm wagon, the only -vehicle Mrs. Sutherlin could impress. - -"Mr. Davis kept up a cheerful countenance the whole time he was here," his -hostess has borne witness, "but I was sure that deep down in his heart he -was not cheerful--I felt it. He was brave, self-possessed. Only once did -he betray evidence of break-down. When he was leaving, I knew that he had -no money in his pockets except Confederate notes--and these would buy next -to nothing. We had some gold, and I offered it to him, pressed it upon -him. He shook his head. Tears came into his eyes. 'No, no, my child,' he -said, 'you and your husband are much younger than I am. You will need it. -I will not.' Mr. Davis did not expect to live long. He was sure he would -be killed." - -When General Sherman was accused by Stanton of treachery because -he was not hotter on the scent of "Jeff Davis and his $13,000,000 -treasure-trains," he retorted indignantly that those "treasure-trains -dwindled down to the contents of a hand-valise" found on Mr. Davis when -captured. - -Mrs. Sutherlin pointed out to me the President's sleeping-room, an upper -chamber overlooking the lawn with its noble trees, in whose branches -mocking-birds lodge. At his first breakfast with her, Mr. Davis told Mrs. -Sutherlin how the songs of the mocking-birds refreshed him. - -Another thing that cheered him in Danville was the enthusiasm of the -school-girls of the Southern Female College; when these young ladies, in -their best homespun gowns, went out on dress parade and beheld Mr. Davis -riding by in Major Sutherlin's carriage, they drew themselves up in line, -waved handkerchiefs and cheered to their hearts' content; he gave them his -best bow and smile--that dignified, grave bow and smile his people knew so -well. I have always been thankful for that bright bit in Mr. Davis' life -during those supremely trying hours--for the songs of the mocking-birds -and the cheers of the school-girls. - -Some weeks after his departure, General Wright, U. S. A., in formal -possession of Danville, pitched his tent opposite the Sutherlin Mansion. -The next Mrs. Sutherlin knew, an orderly was bearing in a large pitcher, -another a big bowl, and between them General Wright's compliments and his -hopes "that you may find this lemonade refreshing" and "be pleased to -accept this white cut sugar, as the drink may not be sweet enough for your -taste." Another day, an orderly appeared with a large, juicy steak; every -short while orderlies came making presentation. - -The Sutherlins accepted and returned courtesies. "We had as well be -polite," said Major Sutherlin. "There's no use quarrelling with them -because they have whipped us." When they came to him for official -information as to where Confederate Government ice-houses were, he -responded: "It is not my business to give you this information. Your -commanders can find out for themselves. Meanwhile, General Wright and his -staff are welcome to ice out of my own ice-houses." They found out for -themselves with little delay. - -[Illustration: LAST CAPITOL OF THE CONFEDERACY - -The Sutherlin Mansion, Danville, Va., which, for a short time after the -evacuation of Richmond, was the headquarters of the Confederate -Government. President Davis and the members of his Cabinet were guests of -Major Sutherlin at that time. - -Photograph by Eutsler Bros., Danville, Va.] - -On the verandah where the Confederate President and his advisers had -lately gathered, Federal officers sat at ease, smoking sociably and -conversing with the master of the house. If a meal-hour arrived, Major -Sutherlin would say: "Gentlemen, will you join us?" Usually, invitation -was accepted. Social recognition was the one thing the Northern soldier -could not conquer in the South by main strength and awkwardness; he -coveted and appreciated it. - -All were listening for tidings of Johnston's surrender. At last the news -came. Around the Sutherlin board one day sat six guests: three Federal -officers in fine cloth and gold lace, three Confederate officers in shabby -raiment. A noise as of a terrific explosion shook the house. "Throw up the -windows!" said the mistress to her servants, an ordinary command when -shattering of glass by concussion was an every-day occurrence in -artillery-ridden Dixie. Save for this sentence, there was complete silence -at the table. The officers laid down their knives and forks and said not -one word. They knew that those guns announced the surrender of Johnston's -army. I suppose it was the salute of 200--the same that had been ordered -at every post as glorification of Lee's surrender. - -Some time after this, Mayor Walker came to Major Sutherlin with a telegram -announcing that General Meade and his staff would stop in Danville over -night. They had been or were going to South Carolina on a mission of -relief to whites who were in peril from blacks. At the Mayor's request, -Major Sutherlin met the officers at the train. - -"General," was his cordial greeting to General Meade, a splendid-looking -officer at that day, "I am here to claim you and your staff as my guests." -General Meade, accepting, said: "I will have my ambulance bring us up." -"O, no, General! You come in my carriage, if you will do me that honour. -It is waiting." - -At breakfast, General Meade said to his hostess: "Madam, Southern -hospitality has not been praised too highly. I trust some day to see you -North that I may have opportunity to match your courtesy." Another time: -"Madam, I trust that no misfortune will come to you because of the -troubled state of our country. But if there should, I may be of service to -you. You have only to command me, and I ask it as a favour that you will." - -A Northern friend had warned her: "Mrs. Sutherlin, I fear your property -may be confiscated because of the uses to which it has been put in the -service of the Confederate Government. You should take advantage of -General Wright's good will and of the good will of other Federal officers -towards Major Sutherlin to make your title secure." Did she ask General -Meade now to save her home to her? - -"General, hospitality is our privilege and you owe us no debt. But I beg -you to extend the kindly feelings you express toward Major Sutherlin and -myself to one who lately sat where you now sit, at my right hand. I would -ask you to use your influence to secure more gracious hospitality to our -President who is in prison." - -Dead silence. One could have heard a pin fall. - -Wholesale confiscation of Greensboro was threatened because of Mr. Davis' -stop there. Major Sutherlin strove with tact and diligence to prevent it. -He lost no opportunity to cultivate kindly relations with Northerners of -influence, and to inaugurate a reign of good-will generally. Receiving a -telegram saying that Colonel Buford, a Northern officer, and his party, -would pass through Danville, the Major went to his wife and said: "I am -going to invite those Yankees here. I want you to get up the finest dinner -you can for them." Feeling was high and sore; she did not smile. The day -of their arrival he appeared in trepidation. "I have another telegram," he -said. "To my surprise, there are ladies in the party." - -This was too much for the honest "rebel" soul of her. Men she could avoid -seeing except at table; but with ladies for her guests, more olive -branches must be exchanged than genuine feeling between late enemies could -possibly warrant. But her guests found her a perfect hostess, grave, -sincere, hospitable. - -There was a young married pair. When her faithful coloured man went up to -their rooms to render service, they were afraid of him, were careful he -should not enter, seemed to fear that of himself or as the instrument of -his former owners he might do them injury. - -Such queer, contradictory ideas Yankees had of us and our black people. A -Northern girl visiting the niece of Alexander H. Stephens at a plantation -where there were many negroes, asked: "Where are the blood-hounds?" "The -blood-hounds! We haven't any." "How do you manage the negroes without -them? I thought all Southerners kept blood-hounds--that only blood-hounds -could keep negroes from running away." "I never saw a blood-hound in my -life," Miss Stephens replied. "I don't know what one is like. None of our -friends keep blood-hounds." - -But to the Sutherlin Mansion. The bride asked: "Mrs. Sutherlin, what room -did Mr. Davis occupy?" - -"That in which you sleep." - -The bride was silent. Then: "It is a pleasant room. The mocking-birds are -singing when we wake in the morning. Sometimes, I hear them in the night." - -A shadow fell on the hostess' face. The words recalled the thought of Mr. -Davis, now shut out from the sight of the sky and the voice of the birds. - -It has been said of this or that place at which Mr. Davis, moving -southward from Danville, stopped, that it was the "Last Capital of the -Confederacy." He held a Cabinet meeting in Colonel Wood's house in -Greensboro; was in Charlotte several days; held a Cabinet meeting or -council of war in the Armistead Burt House, Abbeville, S. C.; and in the -Old Bank, Washington, Ga. He said in council at Abbeville: "I will listen -to no proposition for my safety. I appeal to you for our country." - -He stopped one night at Salisbury, with the Episcopal minister, whose -little daughter ran in while all were at the breakfast-table, and standing -between her father and Mr. Davis, cried out in childish terror and -distress: "O, Papa, old Lincoln's coming and is going to kill us all!" -President Davis laid down his knife and fork, lifted her face, and said -reassuringly: "No, no, my little lady! Mr. Lincoln is not such a bad man, -and I am sure he would not harm a little girl like you." - -While the President was at Charlotte, there was another memorable peace -effort, Sherman and Johnston arranging terms. Johnston's overture was -dated April 13; Sherman's reply, "I am fully empowered to arrange with you -any terms for the suspension of hostilities," April 14, the last day of -Lincoln's life. Mr. Davis wrote General Johnston: "Your course is -approved." Mr. Stanton nearly branded Sherman as a traitor. Sherman gave -Johnston notice that he must renew hostilities. Mr. Davis left Charlotte, -thinking war still on. - -[Illustration: THE OLD BANK BUILDING, WASHINGTON, GA. - -The last meeting place of the Confederate Cabinet when that body was -reduced to two or three members. - -Photographed in 1899] - -In Washington, Ga., the first town in America named for the Father of his -Country, the Confederate Government breathed its last. A quiet, -picturesque, little place, out of track of the armies, it was suddenly -shaken with excitement, when Mr. Davis, attended by his personal staff, -several distinguished officers, besides a small cavalry escort, rode in. - -Mrs. Davis had left the day before. As long as her wagons and ambulances -had stood in front of Dr. Ficklen's house, the people of Washington were -calling upon her; first among them, General Toombs with cordial offers of -aid and hospitality, though there had been sharp differences between him -and Mr. Davis. Here, it may be said, she held her last reception as the -First Lady of the Confederacy. She had expected to meet her husband, and -went away no doubt heavy of heart--herself, her baby, Winnie, and her -other little children, and her sister, Maggie Howell, again to be -wanderers of woods and waysides. With them went a devoted little band of -Confederate soldiers, their volunteer escort, Burton Harrison, the -President's secretary, and one or two negro servants whose devotion never -faltered. - -On a lovely May morning, people sat on the Bank piazza asking anxiously: -"Where can Mr. Davis be?" "Is he already captured and killed?" Dr. -Robertson, an officer of the bank, and his family lived in the building. -With them was General Elzey, on parole, his wife and son. Kate Joyner -Robertson and her brother, Willie, sixteen years old and a Confederate -Veteran, were on the piazza; also David Faver, seventeen, and a -Confederate Veteran; these boys were members of the Georgia Military -Institute Battalion. A description of this battalion was recently given me -by Mr. Faver: - -"There were as many negroes--body-servants--in our ranks as boys when we -started out, spick and span. We saw actual service; guarded the powder -magazines at Augusta and Savannah, fought the Yankees at Chattanooga, -stood in front of Sherman in South Carolina. Young Scott Todd lost his -arm--Dr. Todd, of Atlanta, carries around that empty sleeve today. I bore -handsome Tom Hamilton off the field when he was shot. I was just fifteen -when I went in; some were younger. Henry Cabaniss and Julius Brown were -the smallest boys in the army. We were youngsters who ought to have been -in knee pants, but the G. M. I. never quailed before guns or duty! I -remember (laughing) when we met the Cits in Charleston. They were all -spick and span--'Citadel Cadets' blazoned all over them and their -belongings. We were all tattered and torn, nothing of the G. M. I. left -about us! Rags was the stamp of the regular, and we 'guyed' the Cits. We -had seen fighting and they had not." Sixteen-year-old Lint Stephens, -Vice-President Stephens' nephew, was of this juvenile warrior band. On the -occasion of his sudden appearance at home to prepare for war, Mr. Stephens -asked what he had quit school for. "To fight for the fair sex," he -replied. And to this day some people think we fought to keep negroes in -slavery! - -A "Georgia Cracker" rode in from the Abbeville road, drew rein before the -bank, and saluting, drawled: "Is you'uns seen any soldiers roun' here?" -There were Confederate uniforms on the piazza. "What kind of soldiers?" he -was asked, and General Elzey said: "My friend, you have betrayed yourself -by that military salute. You are no ignorant countryman, but a soldier -yourself." The horseman spurred close to the piazza. "Are there any -Yankees in town?" "None. Tell us, do you know anything about President -Davis?" After a little more questioning, the horseman said: "President -Davis is not an hour's ride from here." - -The piazza was all excitement. "Where should the President be -entertained?" Ordinarily, General Toombs was municipal host. Everybody is -familiar with the reply he made to a committee consulting him about -erecting a hotel in Washington: "We have no need of one. When respectable -people come here, they can stop at my house. If they are not respectable, -we do not want them at all." Everybody knew that all he had was at the -President's command. But--there had been the unpleasantness. "Bring the -President here," Mrs. Robertson said promptly. Dr. Robertson added: "As a -government building, this is the proper place." Willie Robertson, -commissioned to convey the invitation, rode off with the courier, the envy -of every other G. M. I. in town. The little "Bats" were ready to go to war -again. - -Soon, the President dismounted in front of the bank. Mrs. Faver (Kate -Joyner Robertson that was) says: "He wore a full suit of Confederate gray. -He looked worn, sad, and troubled; said he was tired and went at once to -his room. My mother sent a cup of tea to him. That afternoon, or next -morning, all the people came to see him. He stood in the parlor door, they -filed in, shook hands, and passed out." So, in Washington, he held his -last Presidential reception. - -"To hear Mr. Davis," Mr. Faver reports, "you would have no idea that he -considered the cause lost. He spoke hopefully of our yet unsurrendered -forces. Secretary Reagan, General St. John and Major Raphael J. Moses were -General Toombs' guests. That night after supper, they walked to the bank; -my father's house was opposite General Toombs'. I walked behind them. I -think they held what has been called the Last Cabinet Meeting that night." - -Mr. Trenholm, too ill to travel, had stopped at Charlotte; Secretary of -State Benjamin had left Mr. Davis that morning; at Washington, Secretary -of the Navy Mallory went; Secretary of War Breckinridge, whom he was -expecting, did not come on time. News reached him of Johnston's surrender. -General Upton had passed almost through Washington on his way to receive -the surrender of Augusta. The President perceived his escort's peril. To -their commander, Captain Campbell, he said: "Your company is too large to -pass without observation, and not strong enough to fight. See if there are -ten men in it who will volunteer to go with me without question wherever I -choose?" Captain Campbell reported: "All volunteer to go with Your -Excellency." - -He was deeply touched, but would not suffer them to take the risk. With -ten men selected by Captain Campbell, and his personal staff, he rode out -of Washington, the people weeping as they watched him go. When he was -mounting, Rev. Dr. Tupper, the Baptist minister, approached him, uttering -words of comfort and encouragement. "'Though He slay me, yet will I trust -in Him,'" the President responded gently. He had made disposition of most -of his personal belongings, giving the china in his mess-chest to Colonel -Weems, the chest to General McLaws; to Mrs. Robertson his ink-stand, -table, dressing-case, some tea, coffee, and brandy, portions of which she -still retained when last I heard; the dressing-case and ink-stand she had -sent to the Confederate Museum at Richmond. - -His last official order was written at the old bank; it appointed Captain -H. M. Clarke Acting Treasurer of the Confederacy. The last Treasury -Department was an old appletree at General Basil Duke's camp a short -distance from Washington, under whose shade Captain Clarke sat while he -paid out small amounts in coin to the soldiers. General Duke's -Kentuckians, Mr. Davis' faithful last guard, were the remnant of John H. -Morgan's famous command. - -Soon after his departure, the treasure-train, or a section of it, reached -Washington. Boxes of bullion were stored in the bank; Mrs. Faver remembers -that officers laughingly told her and her sisters if they would lift one -of the boxes, they might have all the gold in it; and they tried, but O, -how heavy it was! She recalls some movement on the part of her parents to -convey the treasure to Abbeville, but this was not practicable. - -"It was a fitting conclusion of the young Government ... that it marked -its last act of authority by a thoughtful loyalty to the comfort of its -penniless and starved defenders," says Avery's "History of Georgia," -commenting on the fact that under that act Major Raphael J. Moses conveyed -to Augusta bullion exceeding $35,000, delivering it to General Molineux on -the promise that it would be used to purchase food and other necessaries -for needy Confederate soldiers and our sick in hospitals. - -Soon after the treasure-train left Washington, some one galloped back and -flung into General Toombs' yard a bag containing $5,000 in gold. The -General was in straits for money with which to flee the country, but swore -with a great round oath he would use no penny of this mysterious gift, and -turned it over to Major Moses, who committed it to Captain Abrahams, -Federal Commissary, for use in relieving needy Confederates -home-returning. At Greensboro, General Joseph E. Johnston had taken -$39,000 for his soldiers. There have been many stories about this -treasure-train.[4] It carried no great fortune, and Mr. Davis was no -beneficiary. He meant to use it in carrying on the war. - -The point has been made that Mr. Davis should have remained in Richmond -and made terms. Since governments were governments, no ruler has followed -the course that would have been. He thought it traitorous to surrender the -whole Confederacy because the Capital was lost. Even after Lee's surrender -the Confederacy had armies in the field, and a vast domain farther south -where commanders believed positions could be held. He believed it would be -cowardly to fail them, and that it was his duty to move the seat of -government from place to place through the Confederacy as long as there -was an army to sustain the government. To find precedent, one has but to -turn to European history. In England, the rightful prince has been chased -all over the country and even across the channel. Mr. Davis believed in -the righteousness of his cause; and that it was his duty to stand for it -to the death. - -His determination, on leaving Washington, was to reach the armies of -Maury, Forrest, and Taylor in Alabama and Mississippi; if necessary, -withdraw these across the Mississippi, uniting with Kirby-Smith and -Magruder in Texas, a section "rich in supplies and lacking in railroads -and waterways." There the concentrated forces might hold their own until -the enemy "should, in accordance with his repeated declaration, have -agreed, on the basis of a return to the Union, to acknowledge the -Constitutional rights of the States, and by a convention, or quasi-treaty, -to guarantee security of person and property." What Judge Campbell -thought could be secured by submission, Mr. Davis was confident could only -be attained by keeping in the field a military force whose demands the -North, weary of war, might respect. What he sought to do for his people in -one way, Judge Campbell sought to do in another. Both failed. - -[Illustration: GENERAL AND MRS. JOHN H. MORGAN] - -While Mr. Davis was riding out of Washington, Generals Taylor and Maury, -near Meridian, Mississippi, were arranging with General Canby, U. S. A., -for the surrender of all the Confederate forces in Alabama and -Mississippi. These generals were dining together and the bands were -playing "Hail Columbia" and "Dixie." - - - - -THE COUNSEL OF LEE - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE COUNSEL OF LEE - - -"A few days after the occupation, some drunken soldiers were heard talking -in the back yard to our negroes, and it was gathered from what they said -that the Federals were afraid General Lee had formed an ambuscade -somewhere in the neighbourhood of the city, and that he might fall upon -them at any time and deliver Richmond out of their hands. How our people -wished it might be so!" Matoaca relates. "Do not buoy yourself up with -that hope, my dear," said her monitor. "There's no hope save in the mercy -of our conquerors. General Lee is a great soldier, an extraordinary -tactician, but he cannot do the impossible. Our army cannot go on fighting -forever without money and without food." - -When our beloved general came home, the doctrine he taught by precept and -example was that of peace. "The stainless sword of Lee" had been laid down -in good faith. We had fought a good fight, we had failed, we must accept -the inevitable, we must not lose heart, we must work for our country's -welfare in peace. The very first heard of him in his modest, unheralded -home-returning, he was teaching this. - -Young William McCaw, his courier for four years, rode in with him; and -General Lee, before going to his own home, delivered William, safe and -sound, to his father. Dr. McCaw came out when they stopped in front of his -door, and General Lee said: - -"Here, Doctor, is your boy. I've brought him home to you." - -William was standing beside Traveller, his arm clasped around General -Lee's leg, and crying as if his heart would break. The General put his -hand on William's head and said: - -"No more fighting--that's all over. You've been a good fighter, Will--now -I want to see you work for your country's welfare in peace. Be a good boy. -I expect a fine Christian manhood of you. Goodbye," and he rode away to -his own home, where his invalid wife awaited him. - -It was good to have them home again, our men in gray; good though they -came gaunt and footsore, ragged and empty-handed. And glad was the man in -gray to cross his own threshold, though the wolf was at the door. Our men -were ready enough for peace when peace--or what they mistook for -peace--came; that is, the mass of them were. They had fought and starved -their fill. The cries of destitute women and children called them home. -They had no time to pause and cavil over lost issues, or to forge new -occasions for quarrel. All they asked now was a chance to make meat and -bread and raiment for themselves and those dependent on them. - -Yet some young spirits were restive, would have preferred death to -surrender. The lesson of utter submission came hard. The freeborn -American, fearless of shot and shell, and regarding free speech as his -birthright, found the task of keeping close watch over his tongue -difficult. General Lee knew the mettle of the fiery young courier to whom -he uttered the parting words that have been recorded. To many another -youth just out of armor, he gave the same pacific counsel: - -"We have laid down the sword. Work for a united country." - -[Illustration: RESIDENCE OF ROBERT E. LEE. 1861-65, - -Richmond, Va. - -Now the home of the Virginia Historical Society.] - -One high-strung lad seeing a Federal soldier treat a lady rudely on the -street (a rare happening in Richmond), knocked him down, and was arrested. -The situation was serious. The young man's father went to General Ord and -said: "See here, General, that boy's hot from the battle-field. He doesn't -know anything but to fight." General Ord's response was: "I'll arrange -this matter for you. And you get this boy out of the city tonight." - -There happened to be staying in the same house with some of our friends, a -young Confederate, Captain Wharton, who had come on sick leave to Richmond -before the evacuation, and who, after that event, was very imprudent in -expressing his mind freely on the streets, a perilous thing to do in those -days. His friends were concerned for his safety. Suddenly he disappeared. -Nobody knew what had become of him. Natural conclusion was that free -speech had gotten him into trouble. At last a message came: "Please send -me something to eat. I am in prison." - -Ladies came to know if Matoaca would be one of a committee to wait on the -Provost-Marshal General in his behalf. She agreed, and the committee set -out for the old Custom House where the Federals held court. They were -admitted at once to General Patrick's presence. He was an elderly -gentleman, polite, courteous. "I was surprised," says Matoaca, "because I -had expected to see something with hoof and horns." - -"General," she said, "we have come to see you about a young gentleman, our -friend, Captain Wharton. He is in prison, and we suppose the cause of his -arrest was imprudent speech. He has been ill for some time, and is too -feeble to bear with safety the hardships and confinement of prison life. -If we can secure his release, we will make ourselves responsible for his -conduct." She finished her little speech breathless. She saw the glimmer -of a smile way down in his eyes. "I know nothing about the case," he said -kindly. "Of course, I can not know personally of all that transpires. But -I will inquire into this matter, and see what can be done for this young -gentleman." Soon after, Captain Wharton called on Matoaca. She could -hardly have left General Patrick's presence before an orderly was -dispatched for his release. - -Friction resulted from efforts to ram the oath down everybody's throat at -once. I recite this instance because of the part General Lee took and -duplicated in multitudes of cases. Captain George Wise was called before -the Provost to take the oath. "Why must I take it?" asked he. "My parole -covers the ground. I will not." "You fought under General Lee, did you -not?" "Yes. And surrendered with him, and gave my parole. To require this -oath of me is to put an indignity upon me and my general." "I will make a -bargain with you, Captain. Consult General Lee and abide by his decision." - -The captain went to the Lee residence, where he was received by Mrs. Lee, -who informed him that her husband was ill, but would see him. The general -was lying on a lounge, pale, weary-looking, but fully dressed, in his gray -uniform, the three stars on his collar; the three stars--to which any -Confederate colonel was entitled--was the only insignia of rank he ever -wore. "They want me to take this thing, General," said the captain, -extending a copy of the oath. "My parole covers it, and I do not think it -should be required of me. What would you advise?" - -"I would advise you to take it," he said quietly. "It is absurd that it -should be required of my soldiers, for, as you say, the parole -practically covers it. Nevertheless, take it, I should say." "General, I -feel that this is submission to an indignity. If I must continue to swear -the same thing over at every street corner, I will seek another country -where I can at least preserve my self-respect." - -General Lee was silent for a few minutes. Then he said, quietly as before, -a deep touch of sadness in his voice: "Do not leave Virginia. Our country -needs her young men now." - -When the captain told Henry A. Wise that he had taken the oath, the -ex-governor said: "You have disgraced the family!" "General Lee advised me -to do it." "Oh, that alters the case. Whatever General Lee says is all -right, I don't care what it is." - -The North regarded General Lee with greater respect and kindness than was -extended to our other leaders. A friendly reporter interviewed him, and -bold but temperate utterances in behalf of the South appeared in the "New -York Herald" as coming from General Lee. Some of the remarks were very -characteristic, proving this newspaper man a faithful scribe. When -questioned about the political situation, General Lee had said: "I am no -politician. I am a soldier--a paroled prisoner." Urged to give his opinion -and advised that it might have good effect, he responded: - -"The South has for a long time been anxious for peace. In my earnest -belief, peace was practicable two years ago, and has been since that time -whenever the general government should see fit to give any reasonable -chance for the country to escape the consequences which the exasperated -North seemed ready to visit upon it. They have been looking for some word -or expression of compromise and conciliation from the North upon which -they might base a return to the Union, their own views being considered. -The question of slavery did not lie in the way at all. The best men of the -South have long desired to do away with the institution and were quite -willing to see it abolished. But with them in relation to this subject, -the question has ever been: 'What will you do with the freed people?' That -is the serious question today. Unless some humane course based upon wisdom -and Christian principles is adopted, you do them a great injustice in -setting them free." He plead for moderation towards the South as the part -of wisdom as well as mercy. Oppression would keep the spirit of resistance -alive. He did not think men of the South would engage in guerilla warfare -as some professed to fear, but it was best not to drive men to -desperation. "If a people see that they are to be crushed, they sell their -lives as dearly as possible." He spoke of the tendency towards -expatriation, deploring it as a misfortune to our common country at a time -when one section needed building up so badly, and had, at the best, a -terribly depleted force of young, strong men. Throughout, he spoke of the -North and South as "we," and expressed his own great willingness to -contribute in every way in his power to the establishment of the communal -peace and prosperity. - -A brave thing for a "rebel" officer to do, he spoke out for Mr. Davis. -"What has Mr. Davis done more than any other Southerner that he should be -singled out for persecution? He did not originate secession, is not -responsible for its beginning; he opposed it strenuously in speech and -writing." - -[Illustration: MRS. ROBERT E. LEE - -(Mary Randolph Custis) - -Great-granddaughter of Martha Washington] - -Wherever he appeared in Richmond, Federal soldiers treated him with -respect. As for our own people, to the day of his death Richmond stood -uncovered when General Lee came there and walked the streets. If, as he -passed along, he laid his hand on a child's head, the child never forgot -it. His words with our young men were words of might, and the cause of -peace owes to him a debt that the Peace Angel of the Union will not -forget. - - - - -"THE SADDEST GOOD FRIDAY" - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -"THE SADDEST GOOD FRIDAY" - - -In Matoaca's little devotional note-book, I read: "Good Friday, 1865. This -is the saddest Good Friday I ever knew. I have spent the whole day praying -for our stricken people, our crushed Southland." "The saddest Good Friday -I ever knew"; nearly every man and woman in the South might have said that -with equal truth. - -Her "Journal" of secular events contains a long entry for April 14; it is -as if she had poured out all her woes on paper. For the most part it is a -tale of feminine trivialities, of patching and mending. "Unless I can get -work and make some money," she writes, "we must stay indoors for decency's -sake." Her shoes have holes in them: "They are but shoes I cobbled out of -bits of stout cloth." The soles are worn so thin her feet are almost on -the ground. The family is suffering for food and for all necessaries. "O -God, what can I do!" she cries, "I who have never been taught any work -that seems to be needed now! Who is there to pay me for the few things I -know how to do? I envy our negroes who have been trained to occupations -that bring money; they can hire out to the Yankees, and I can't. Our -negroes are leaving us. We had to advise them to go. Cato will not. 'Me -lef' Mars Ran?' he cried, 'I couldn' think uv it, Miss Mato'ca!'" - -Woes of friends and neighbours press upon her heart. Almost every home -has, like her own, its empty chair, its hungry mouths, its bare larder, -though some are accepting relief from the Christian Commission or from -Federal officers. Of loved ones in prison, they hear no tidings; from -kindred in other parts of the South, receive no sign. There are no -railroads, no mail service. In the presence of the conquerors, they walk -softly and speak with bated breath. The evening paper publishes threats of -arrest for legislators who may come to town obedient to the call Judge -Campbell issued with Mr. Lincoln's approval. - -Good Friday was a day of joy and gladness North. From newspapers opened -eagerly in radiant family circles men read out such headlines as these: -"War Costs Over. Government Orders Curtailing Further Purchase of Arms, -Ammunition and Commissary Stores." "Drafting and Recruiting Stopped." -"Military Restrictions on Trade and Commerce Modified." Selma, Alabama, -with its rich stores of Confederate cotton, was captured. Mr. Lincoln's -conciliatory policy was commented on as "a wise and sagacious move." -Thursday's stock market had been bullish. - -Rachel weeping for her children was comforted because they had not died in -vain. Larders were not bare, clothes were not lacking. The fastings and -prayers of the devout were full of praise and thanksgiving. For the -undevout, Good Friday was a feast day and a day of jollification. - -In Charleston, South Carolina, gaping with scars of shot and shell of her -long, long, siege, the roses and oleanders and palmettoes strove to cover -with beauty the wounds of war, and in their fragrance to breathe nature's -sympathy and faithfulness. Her own desolate people kept within doors. The -streets were thronged with a cheerful, well-clad crowd; the city was -overflowing with Northern men and women of distinction. In the bay lay -Dahlgren's fleet, gay flags all a-flying. On land and water bands played -merrily. - -Fort Sumter's anniversary was to be celebrated. The Union flag was to be -raised over the ruined pile by General Robert Anderson, who had lost the -fort in 1861. In the company duly assembled were Henry Ward Beecher, -Theodore Tilton, William Lloyd Garrison, Rev. Dr. Storrs. Mr. Beecher -uttered words of kindly sentiment towards the South. He gave God thanks -for preserving Lincoln's life, accepting this as a token of divine favor -to the Nation. Dr. Storrs read: "'When the Lord turned again the captivity -of Zion, we were like them that dream.'" The people: "'Then was our mouth -filled with laughter and our tongue with singing.'" And so on through the -126th Psalm. Then: "'Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we -will remember the name of the Lord our God.'" And: "'They are brought low -and fallen, but we are risen and stand upright.'" - -"The Star-Spangled Banner" was sung, and the guns of Dahlgren's fleet -thundered honours to the Stars and Stripes, which, rising slowly and -gracefully, fluttered out in triumph against the Southern sky. At sunset, -guns boomed again, proud signal to the ending of the perfect day. The -city, silent and sad as far as its own people were concerned, rang with -the strangers' joyaunce. Social festivities ruled the hour. General -Gillmore entertained at a great banquet. The bay was ablaze with -fireworks; all forts were alight; the beautiful Sea Islands, whose owners -roamed in destitute exile, gleamed in shining circle, the jewels of the -sea. - -The 14th was a red-letter day in the National Capital. Everything spoke of -victory and gladness. Washington held the two idols of the North--Lincoln -and Grant. It was Mr. Lincoln's perfect hour. He went about with a quiet -smile on his face. The family breakfast at the White House was very happy; -Captain Robert Lincoln was visiting his parents. General Grant was present -at the Cabinet meeting during the forenoon, Mr. Lincoln's last. These are -some of the President's words: - -"I think it providential that this great rebellion is crushed just as -Congress has adjourned and there are none of the disturbing elements of -that body to hinder and embarrass us. If we are wise and discreet we shall -reanimate the States and get their governments in successful operation -with order prevailing, and the Union reëstablished before Congress comes -together in December. I hope there will be no persecution, no bloody work, -after the war is over. No one need expect me to take any part in hanging -or killing these men. Enough lives have been sacrificed. We must -extinguish resentment if we expect harmony and Union. There is too great a -disposition on the part of some of our very good friends to be masters, to -interfere with and dictate to these States, to treat the people not as -fellow-citizens; there is too little respect for their rights." He made it -plain that he meant the words of his second inaugural address, hardly six -weeks before, when he promised that his mission should be "to bind up the -wounds of the Nation." - -"Very cheerful and very hopeful," Mr. Stanton reported, "spoke very kindly -of General Lee and others of the Confederacy, and of the establishment of -the Government of Virginia." Also, he spoke of the state government in -Louisiana, and that which he had mapped out for North Carolina. General -Grant was uneasy about Sherman and Johnston. The President said: "I have -no doubt that favourable news will come. I had a dream last night, my -usual dream which has preceded every important event of the war. I -seemed to be on a singular and indescribable vessel, always the same, -moving with great rapidity toward a dark and indefinite shore." - -[Illustration: MRS. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON - -(Lydia McLane, daughter of Senator McLane, of Delaware.)] - -He did not know that on that day Sherman was writing Johnston, "I am -empowered to make terms of peace." But he knew he had so empowered -Sherman. I can imagine that through his heart the refrain was beating: -"There will be no more bloodshed, no more devastation. There shall be no -more humiliations for this Southern people, and God will give it into my -hands to reunite my country." - -He went for a long, quiet drive with his wife. "Mary," he said, "we have -had a hard time of it since we came to Washington; but the war is over, -and with God's blessing we may hope for four years of peace and happiness. -Then we will go back to Illinois and pass the rest of our days in quiet." -He longed for quiet. The Sabbath before, while driving along the banks of -the James, he said: "Mary, when I die, I would like to lie in a quiet -place like this," and related a dream which he felt to be presage of -death. - -Sailing on the James, he read aloud twice, and in a manner that impressed -Charles Sumner, who was present, this passage from Macbeth: - - "'Duncan is in his grave; - After life's fitful fever he sleeps well; - Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison, - Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing, - Can touch him further.'" - -He was going, safe and whole, from the land of "rebels" to Washington. "We -have had a hard time in Washington, Mary." Read Sherman's "Memoirs," and -see what little liking great Federal generals had for journeys to -Washington; how for peace and safety, they preferred their battle-fields -to the place where politicians were wire-pulling and spreading nets. - -The conclusion to his perfect day was a box in Ford's Theatre, his wife -and a pair of betrothed lovers for company; on the stage Laura Keene in -"Our American Cousin." The tragic sequel is indelibly impressed on the -brain of every American--the people leaning forward, absorbed in the play, -the handsome, slender figure of young Wilkes Booth moving with easy, -assured grace towards the President's box, the report of the pistol, the -leap of Booth to the stage, falling as the flag caught his foot, rising, -brandishing his weapon and crying: "_Sic Semper Tyrannis!_", his escape -with a broken ankle through the confused crowds; the dying President borne -out to the boarding-house on Tenth Street. - -Seward's life was attempted the same evening by Booth's confederate, Lewis -Payne, who penetrated to the Secretary's sick-room and wounded him and his -son; Payne escaped. General Grant's death was a part of the plot; he and -Mrs. Grant had declined invitation to share the President's box, and -started west; Mr. Stanton's murder was also intended; but he escaped, -scathless of body but bitterer of soul than ever, bitterer than Mr. -Seward, who was wounded. - -In a letter which Matoaca wrote years afterward, she said: "I well -remember the horror that thrilled our little circle when the news came. -'Now, may God have mercy on us!' Uncle exclaimed. He sat silent for a -while and then asked: 'Can it be possible that any of our own people could -do this thing? Some misguided fanatic?' And then, after a silence: 'Can -some enemy of the South have done it? Some enemy of the South who had a -grudge against Lincoln, too?' 'What sort of secret service could they -have had in Washington that this thing could happen? How was it that the -crippled assassin was able to make his escape?' he said when full accounts -appeared. The explanations given never explained to him. - -"I heard some speak who thought it no more than just retribution upon Mr. -Lincoln for the havoc he had wrought in our country. But even the few who -spoke thus were horrified when details came. We could not be expected to -grieve, from any sense of personal affection, for Mr. Lincoln, whom we had -seen only in the position of an implacable foe at the head of a power -invading and devastating our land; but our reprobation of the crime of his -taking off was none the less. Besides, we did not know what would be done -to us. Already there had been talk of trying our officers for treason, of -executing them, of exiling them, and in this talk Andrew Johnson had been -loudest. - -"I remember how one poor woman took the news. She was half-crazed by her -losses and troubles; one son had been killed in battle, another had died -in prison, of another she could not hear if he were living or dead; her -house had been burned; her young daughter, turned out with her in the -night, had died of fright and exposure. She ran in, crying: 'Lincoln has -been killed! thank God!' Next day she came, still and pale: 'I have prayed -it all out of my heart,' she said, 'that is, I'm not glad. But, somehow, I -_can't_ be sorry. I believe it was the vengeance of the Lord.'" - -Jefferson Davis heard of Lincoln's death in Charlotte. A tablet in that -beautiful and historic city marks the spot where he stood. He had just -arrived from Greensboro, was dismounting, citizens were welcoming him when -the dispatch signed by Secretary of War Breckinridge was handed him by -Major John Courtney. Mrs. Courtney, the Major's widow, told me that her -husband heard the President say: "Oh, the pity of it!" He passed it to a -gentleman with the remark, "Here are sad tidings." The Northern press -reported that Jefferson Davis cheered when he heard of Lincoln's death. - -Mrs. Davis, at the Armistead Burt House, Abbeville, received a message -from her husband announcing his arrival in Charlotte and telling of the -assassination. Mrs. Davis "burst into tears, which flowed from sorrow and -a thorough realization of the inevitable results to the -Confederates,"--her own words. - -General Johnston and General Sherman were in Mr. Bennett's house near -Raleigh. Just before starting to this meeting, General Sherman received a -dispatch announcing Mr. Lincoln's assassination. He placed it in his -pocket, and, as soon as they were alone, handed it to General Johnston, -watching him narrowly. "He did not attempt to conceal his distress," -General Sherman relates. "The perspiration came out in large drops on his -forehead." His horror and detestation of the deed broke forth; he -earnestly hoped General Sherman would not charge this crime to the -Confederacy. "I explained," states General Sherman, "that I had not yet -revealed the news to my own personal staff or to the army, and that I -dreaded the effect when it was made known." He feared that "a worse fate -than that of Columbia would befall" Raleigh, particularly if some "foolish -man or woman should say or do something that would madden his men." He -took pains when making the calamity known to assure his army that he did -not consider the South responsible. - -Mr. Davis, under arrest, and on the way to Macon, heard that Andrew -Johnson had offered a reward of $100,000 for his arrest, charging him, -Clement C. Clay and other prominent Southerners with "inciting, -concerting, procuring" the "atrocious murder" of President Lincoln. -Between threatening soldiery, displaying the proclamation and shouting -over his capture, Mr. Davis and his family rode and walked. - -At Macon, General Wilson received him with courtesy; when the proclamation -was mentioned, Mr. Davis said one person at least in the United States -knew the charge to be false, and that was the man who signed it, for -Andrew Johnson knew that he preferred Lincoln to himself. - -In Augusta, Colonel Randall (author of "Maryland, My Maryland"), meeting -Clement C. Clay on the street, informed him of the proclamation. The old -ex-Senator at once surrendered, asking trial.[5] - -In Southern cities citizens held meetings condemning the murder and -expressing sorrow and regret at the President's death. Ex-Governor Aiken, -known as the largest slave-owner in South Carolina, led the movement in -Charleston, heading a petition to General Gillmore for use of the -Hibernian Hall that the people might have a gathering-place in which to -declare their sentiments. - -Even the Confederates in prison were heard from. The officers confined at -Fort Warren signed with General Ewell a letter to General Grant, -expressing to "a soldier who will understand" their detestation of Booth's -horrible crime. The commandant of the Fort, Major William Appleton, added -a note testifying to their deep sincerity. - - - - -THE WRATH OF THE NORTH - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -THE WRATH OF THE NORTH - - -The mad act of crazy Wilkes Booth set the whole country crazy. The South -was aghast, natural recoil intensified by apprehension. The North, -convulsed with anguish, was newly inflamed, and even when the cooler -moment came and we were acquitted of any responsibility for Booth's crazy -act, the angry humour of a still sore heart was against us. We, of both -sections, who suffered so lately as one people in the death of President -McKinley, can comprehend the woe and unreason of the moment. - -Indignation and memorial meetings simply flayed the South alive. At one in -the New York Custom House, when the grieving, exasperated people did not -know whether to weep or to curse the more, or to end it by simply hanging -us all, Mr. Chittenden rose and said: "Peace, be still!" And declared the -death of Lincoln providential, God removing the man of mercy that due -punishment might be meted out to rebels. Before the pacific orator -finished, people were yelling: "Hang Lee!" and "The rebels deserve -damnation!" Pulpits fulminated. Easter sermons demanded the halter, exile, -confiscation of property, for "rebels and traitors"; yet some voices rose -benignly, as Edward Everett Hale's, Dr. Huntington's, and Rufus Ellis', in -words fitting the day. Beecher urged moderation. - -The new President, Andrew Johnson, was breathing out threatenings and -slaughter before Lincoln's death. Thousands had heard him shout from the -southern portico of the Patent Office, "Jeff Davis ought to be hung -twenty times as high as Haman!" - -In Nicolay and Hay's Life of Lincoln, the following paragraph follows -comment upon unanimity in Southern and Northern sentiment: "There was one -exception to the general grief too remarkable to be passed over in -silence. Among the extreme Radicals in Congress, Mr. Lincoln's determined -clemency and liberality towards the Southern people had made an impression -so unfavourable that, though they were shocked at his murder, they did -not, among themselves, conceal their gratification that he was no longer -in the way. In a political caucus held a few hours after the President's -death, 'the thought was nearly universal,' to quote the language of one of -their most representative members, 'that the accession of Johnson to the -Presidency would prove a godsend to the country.'" - -The only people who could profit by Lincoln's death were in the Radical -wing of the Republican party. These extremists thought Johnson their man. -Senator Wade, heading a committee that waited on him, cried: "Johnson, we -have faith in you! By the gods, it will be no trouble now running the -Government!" - -"Treason," said the new President, "is the highest crime in the calendar, -and the full penalty for its commission should be visited upon the leaders -of the Rebellion. Treason should be made odious." It is told as true -"inside history" that the arrest and execution of General Lee had been -determined upon; General Grant heard of it and went in the night to see -President Johnson and Secretary Stanton and said to them: "If General Lee -or any of the officers paroled by me are arrested while keeping the terms -of their parole, I will resign my commission in the United States Army." - -But on April 15, even General Grant was of a divided mind, for he wired -General Ord: "Arrest J. A. Campbell, Mayor Mayo, and members of the old -Council who have not yet taken the oath of allegiance, and confine them in -Libby Prison ... arrest all paroled officers and surgeons until they can -be sent beyond our lines unless they have taken the oath of allegiance. -Extreme rigour will have to be observed whilst assassination is the order -of the day with rebels." - -General Ord replied: "The two citizens we have seen. They are old, nearly -helpless, and, I think, incapable of harm. Lee and staff are in town among -the paroled prisoners. Should I arrest them under the circumstances, I -think the rebellion here would be reopened. I will risk my life that -present paroles will be kept, if you will allow me to so trust the people -here, who are ignorant of the assassination, done, I think, by some insane -Brutus with but few accomplices. Judge Campbell and Mr. Hunter pressed me -earnestly yesterday to send them to Washington to see the President. Would -they have done so if guilty?" - -General Grant answered: "I leave my dispatch of this date in the light of -a suggestion to be executed only as far as you may judge the good of the -service demands." But the venerable peace-maker and his associates were -not to escape vengeance. - -General Halleck, from Richmond, to General Grant, May 5: "Hunter is -staying quietly at home, advises all who visit him to support the Union -cause. His hostility to Davis did much to make Davis unpopular in -Virginia. Considering this, and the fact that President Lincoln advised -against arresting Hunter, I would much prefer not to arrest him unless -specially ordered to do so. All classes are taking the Amnesty Oath; it -would be unfortunate to shake by unnecessary arrests this desire for -general amnesty. Lee's officers are taking the oath; even Lee himself is -considering the propriety of doing so and petitioning President Johnson -for pardon." - -May 11, Halleck to Stanton: "R. M. T. Hunter has, in accordance with -General Grant's orders, been arrested, and is now on a gunboat in the -James. Judge Campbell is still at his house. If necessary, he can be -confined with Mr. Hunter. He voluntarily submits himself to such -punishment as the Government may see fit to impose. He is very destitute -and much broken down, and his case excites much sympathy." - -Fortress Monroe, May 22, General Halleck wires General Ord, Richmond: "The -Secretary of War directs that John A. Campbell be placed in the Libby or -some other secure prison. Do this at once." Announcements of arrivals at -Fort Pulaski in June would have made a fine page for any hotel desiring a -brilliant register, thus: "Ex-Senator R. M. T. Hunter, Virginia; -ex-Assistant Secretary of War Judge J. A. Campbell, Alabama; ex-Senator D. -L. Yulee, Florida; ex-Governor Clark, Mississippi; ex-Secretary of the -Treasury G. A. Trenholm, South Carolina;" and so on. Pulaski had rivals in -other Federal prisons. - -A reward of $25,000 for "Extra Billy" did not bring him in, but he -delivered himself up to General Patrick, was paroled, and went to his home -in Warrenton, Fauquier, and set to work with a will, though he was, to -quote General Halleck, "seventy years old and quite feeble." The rightful -Governor of Virginia, he advised her people to cheerful acceptance of -Pierpont. - -As soon as the aged Governor of Mississippi learned that General Dick -Taylor would surrender, he convened the Legislature; his message, -recommending the repeal of the secession ordinance and deploring -Lincoln's murder, was not more than read, when General Osband, under -orders from Washington, dissolved the Legislature with threats of arrest. -Governor Clark was arrested: "The old soldier straightened his mangled -limbs as best he could, with great difficulty mounted his crutches, and -with a look of defiance, said: 'General Osband, I denounce before high -Heaven this unparalleled act of tyranny and usurpation. I am the duly and -constitutionally elected Governor of Mississippi, and would resist, if in -my power, to the last extremity the enforcement of your order.'" - -[Illustration: LIBBY PRISON, RICHMOND, VA. - -Before 1861 this building was used as a warehouse, and in 1888-9 was -transported by a syndicate to Chicago, and is now known as Libby Prison -War Museum.] - -Governors, generals and statesmen were arrested in all directions. No -exception was made for Alexander H. Stephens, the invalid, the -peace-maker, the gentlest Roman of them all. At Liberty Hall, Mr. Stephens -and a young friend, Robert W. Hull, were playing casino, when Tim, a -negro, ran in, exclaiming: "Marster, de town is full uh Yankees! Whole -heaps uv 'em, gallopin' all about, carryin' guns." Mr. Stephens rose and -said to his guest: "I have been expecting this. They have come for me. -Excuse me, please, while I pack." He went into his bedroom and began this -task, when an officer called. Mr. Stephens met him in the parlor. The -officer said, "Are you Alex Stephens?" "That is my name." "I have an order -for your arrest." "I would like to have your name and see your order." "I -am Captain Saint, of the 4th Iowa, acting under General Upton's orders. -Here is the order." Mr. Stephens saw that himself and General Toombs were -to be brought before General Upton in Atlanta. "I have been anticipating -arrest," he said quietly, "and have been careful not to be out of the way, -remaining here at home. General Upton need not have sent an armed force -for me. A simple intimation from him that my presence was desired would -have taken me to Atlanta." His negroes were weeping when he was carried -away; one, by special permission, accompanied him. - -He was left under guard in a shanty on the road; the troops went on to -Washington, "to be back in a little while with Bob Toombs." "Where is -General Toombs?" asked Mr. Stephens, when they returned. "We don't know," -was the rejoinder. "He flanked us." Thus: - -General Toombs, going to the basement doorway of his house in Washington, -exclaimed suddenly: "My God! the blue-coats!" turned and went rapidly -through his house and out at the back door, saying to his wife: "Detain -them at the front as long as you can." Their daughter, Mrs. Du Bose, -helped her. "Bob Toombs" was asked for. Mrs. Du Bose went to bring "Bob -Toombs"; she reappeared leading a lovely boy. "Here is Bob Toombs," she -said, "Bob Toombs Du Bose, named for my father, General Toombs." - -Mrs. Toombs took them through the house, showing them into every -room--keys of which were lost and had to be looked for. They would burn -the building, they insisted, if General Toombs was not produced. "Burn," -she said, "and burn me in it. If I knew my husband's hiding-place, I would -not betray him." They told her to move her furniture out. She obeyed. They -changed their minds about the burning and went off. General Toombs escaped -to the woods, where he remained hidden until nightfall. His friend, -Captain Charles E. Irvin, got some gold from Mrs. Toombs, and carried the -money to him, together with his mare, Gray Alice. From Nassau Island he -crossed to England, where the doughty "rebel" was mightily liked. - -Mr. Davis, Mr. Stephens, Mr. Clay, General Wheeler, and General Ralls met -aboard the steamer at Augusta, all prisoners. The President's arrest -occurred the day before Mr. Stephens', near Irwinsville. Picture it. Gray -dawn in the Georgia woods. A small encampment of tents, horses, and -wagons. Horses saddled and bridled, with pistols in holsters, picketed on -the edge of the encampment. A negro watching and listening. Suddenly, he -hurries to one of the tents: "Mars Jeff!" His call wakes a man lying fully -dressed on one of the cots. "What's the matter, Jim?" "Firin' 'cross de -branch, suh. Jes behin' our camp. Marauders, I reckon." - -After leaving Washington, Mr. Davis had heard that marauders were in -pursuit of his wife's cortege, and turning out of his course, he rode hard -across country, found his family, conveyed them beyond the present danger, -as he thought, and was about to renew his journey south. Horses for -himself and staff were ready, when he heard that marauders were again -near; he concluded to wait, and so lay down to rest. At Jim's call, he -went to the tent-door, then turned to where his wife bent over her -sleeping baby, Winnie. "They are not marauders," he said, "but regular -troopers of the United States Army." - -She begged him to leave her quickly. His horses and weapons were near the -road down which the cavalry was coming. In the darkness of the tent, he -caught up what he took to be his raglan, a sleeveless, waterproof garment. -It was hers. She, poor soul, threw a shawl over his head. He went out of -the tent, she keeping near. "Halt!" cried a trooper, levelling a carbine -at him. He dropped his wraps and hurried forward. The trooper, in the -dark, might miss aim; a hand under his foot would unhorse him; when Mr. -Davis would mount and away. Mrs. Davis saw the carbine, cast her arms -about her husband, and lost him his one chance of escape. - -In one of her trunks, broken open by pilferers of the attacking party, a -hoop-skirt was found. I shall refer to this historic hoop-skirt again. - -I left Generals Johnston and Sherman discussing Mr. Lincoln's death and -arranging terms of peace, based upon what Sherman recognized as the object -of the war--salvation of the Union; and upon instructions received from -Mr. Lincoln's own lips in their last interview when the President -authorized him to "assure Governor Vance and the people of North Carolina -that, as soon as the rebel armies will lay down their arms, they will at -once be guaranteed all their rights as citizens of a common country; and -that, to avoid anarchy, the State Governments now in existence will be -recognized." - -"When peace does come, you may call upon me for anything. Then, I will -share with you the last crust and watch with you to shield your homes and -families against danger from every quarter." Thus Sherman closed his reply -to Calhoun's protest against the depopulation of Atlanta. Now that war was -over, he was for living up to this. - -In soldierly simplicity, he thought he had done an excellent thing in -securing Johnston's guarantee of disbandment of all Confederate forces, -and settling all fear of guerilla warfare by putting out of arms not only -regular Confederates, but any who might claim to be such. - -Stanton disposed of the whole matter by ordering Grant to "proceed to the -headquarters of Major-General Sherman and direct operations against the -enemy." This was, of course, the end to any terms for us. As is known, -General Johnston surrendered on the same conditions with Lee. Grant so -ordered his course as not to do Sherman injustice. - -General Sherman wrote a spicy letter for Mr. Stanton's benefit: the -settlement he had arranged for would be discussed, he said, in a different -spirit "two or three years hence, after the Government has experimented a -little more in the machinery by which power reaches the scattered people -of this vast country known as the South." He had made war "hell"; now, the -people of "this unhappy country," as he pityingly designated the land he -had devastated, were for peace; and he, than whom none had done more to -bring them to that state of mind, was for giving them some of its fruits. -"We should not drive a people to anarchy"; for protection to life and -property, the South's civil courts and governments should be allowed to -remain in operation. - -"The assassination has stampeded the civil authorities," "unnerved them," -was the conclusion he drew when he went to Washington when, just after the -crime, the long roll had been beaten and the city put under martial law; -public men were still in dread of assassination. At the grand review in -Washington, Sherman, hero of the hour, shook hands with the President and -other dignitaries on the stand, but pointedly failed to accept Mr. -Stanton's. - -After Mr. Lincoln's death, leniency to "rebels" was accounted worse than a -weakness. The heavy hand was applauded. It was the fashion to say hard -things of us. It was accounted piety and patriotism to condemn "traitors -and rebels." Cartoonists, poets, and orators, were in clover; here was a -subject on which they could "let themselves out." - - - - -THE CHAINING OF JEFFERSON DAVIS - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -THE CHAINING OF JEFFERSON DAVIS - - -Strange and unreal seem those days. One President a fugitive, journeying -slowly southward; the other dead, journeying slowly north and west. Aye, -the hand of God was heavy on both our peoples. The cup of defeat could not -be made more bitter than it was; and into the cup of triumph were gall and -wormwood poured. - -Hunters pursuing one chieftain with hoarse cries of "rebel!" and -"traitor!" For the other, bells tolling, guns booming requiem, great -cities hung with black, streets lined with weeping thousands, the -catafalque a victor's chariot before which children and maidens scattered -flowers. Nearly a month that funeral march lasted--from Washington through -Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Cleveland, Columbus, -Indianapolis, Chicago--it wound its stately way to Springfield. Wherever -it passed, the public pulse beat hotter against the Southern chieftain and -his people. - -Yet the dead and the hunted were men of one country, born in the same -State. Sharp contrasts in many ways, they were yet enough alike in -personal appearance to have been brothers. Both were pure men, brave, -patriotic; both kindly and true. The dead had said of the living: "Let -Jeff escape." - -Johnson's proclamation threw the entire South into a white rage and an -anguish unutterable, when it charged the assassination to Mr. Davis and -other representative men of the South. Swift on it came news that our -President was captured, report being spread to cast ridicule upon him -that, when caught, he was disguised in his wife's garments. Caricatures, -claiming to be truthful portraiture, displayed him in hoops and petticoats -and a big poke bonnet, of such flaming contrasts as certainly could not -have been found in Mrs. Davis' wardrobe. - -In 1904, I saw at a _vaudeville_ entertainment in a New York department -store, a stereopticon representation of the War of Secession. The climax -was Mr. Davis in a pink skirt, red bonnet, yellow bodice, and -parti-coloured shawl, struggling with several Federals, while other -Federals were rushing to the attack, all armed to the teeth and pointing -warlike weapons at this one fantastic figure of a feeble old man. The -theatre was full of children. The attraction had been running some time -and thousands of young Americans had doubtless accepted its travesties as -history. The Northern friend with me was as indignant as myself. - -When Mr. Davis' capture was announced in theatres and other places of -amusement in the North, people went crazy with joy, clapping their hands -and cheering, while bands played "Yankee Doodle" and "Star-Spangled -Banner." Many were for having him hung at once. Wendell Phillips wanted -him "left to the sting of his own conscience." - -Presently, we heard that the "Clyde" was bringing Mr. Davis, his family, -General Wheeler, Governor Vance, and others, to Fortress Monroe. And -then--will I ever forget how the South felt about that?--that Mr. Davis -was a prisoner in a damp, casemated cell, that lights were kept burning in -his face all night until he was in danger of blindness; that human eyes -were fixed on him night and day, following his every movement; that his -jailer would come and look at him contemptuously and call him "Jeff"; -that sightseers would be brought to peer at him as if he were some strange -wild beast; that his feeble limbs had been loaded with chains; that he was -like to lose his life through hardships visited upon him! To us who knew -the man personally, his sensitiveness, dignity, and refinement, the tale -is harrowing as it could not be to those who knew him not thus. Yet to all -Americans it must be a regrettable chapter in our history when it is -remembered that this man was no common felon, but a prisoner of State, a -distinguished Indian-fighter, a Mexican veteran, a man who had held a seat -in Congress, who had been Secretary of War of the United States, and who -for four years had stood at the head of the Confederate States. - -When they came to put chains upon him, he protested, said it was an -indignity to which as a soldier he would not submit, that the intention -was to dishonour the South in him; stood with his back to the wall, bade -them kill him at once, fought them off as long as he could--fought them -until they held him down and the blacksmiths riveted the manacles upon his -wasted limbs. Captain Titlow, who had the work in charge, did not like his -cruel task, but he had no choice but to obey orders.[6] - -And this was in Fortress Monroe, where of old the gates fell wide to -welcome him when he came as Secretary of War, where guns thundered -greeting, soldiers presented arms, and the highest officer was proud to do -him honour! With bated breath we speak of Russian prisons. But how is -this: "Davis is in prison; he is not allowed to say a word to any one nor -is any one allowed to say a word to him. He is literally in a living tomb. -His position is not much better than that of the Turkish Sultan, Bajazet, -exposed by his captor, Tamerlane, in a portable iron cage." ("New York -Herald," May 26, 1865.) The dispatch seemed positively to gloat over that -poor man's misery. - -A new fad in feminine attire came into vogue; women wore long, large, and -heavy black chains as decorations. - -The military murder of Mrs. Surratt stirred us profoundly. Too lowly, -simple, and obscure in herself to rank with heroic figures, her execution -lifts her to the plane where stand all who fell victims to the troubled -times. Suspicion of complicity in Mr. Lincoln's murder, because of her -son's intimacy with Wilkes Booth, led to her death. They had her before a -military tribunal in Washington, her feet linked with chains. - -Several men were executed. Their prison-life and hers was another tale to -give one the creeps. They were not allowed to speak to any one, nor was -any one allowed to speak to them; they were compelled to wear masks of -padded cloth over face and head, an opening at the mouth permitting space -for breathing; pictures said to be drawn from life showed them in their -cells where the only resting-places were not beds, but bare, rough -benches; marched before judges with these same horrible hoods on, marched -to the gallows with them on, hanging with them on. - -One of the executed, Payne, had been guilty of the attack on Mr. Seward -and his son; the others had been dominated and bribed by Booth, but had -failed to play the parts assigned them in the awful drama his morbid brain -wrought out. - - - - -OUR FRIENDS, THE ENEMY - - - - -CHAPTER X - -OUR FRIENDS, THE ENEMY - - -There was small interchange of civilities between Northern and Southern -ladies. The new-comers were in much evidence; Southerners saw them riding -and driving in rich attire and handsome equipages, and at the theatre in -all the glory of fine toilettes. - -There was not so much trouble opening theatres as churches. A good many -stage celebrities came to the Richmond Theatre, which was well patronised. -Decorated with United States flags, it was opened during the first week of -the occupation with "Don Cæsar de Bazan." The "Whig" reported a brilliant -audience. Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Grant, who had been driving over the city, -were formally invited by General Weitzel to attend the play, but did not -appear. - -The band played every evening in the Square, and our people, ladies -especially, were invited to come out. The Square and the Capitol were at -one time overrun with negroes. This was stopped. Still, our ladies did not -go. Federal officers and their ladies had their music to themselves. -"There was no intentional slight or rudeness on our part. We did not draw -back our skirts in passing Federal soldiers, as was charged in Northern -papers; if a few thoughtless girls or women did this, they were not -representative. We tried not to give offense; we were heart-broken; we -stayed to ourselves; and we were not hypocrites; that was all." So our -women aver. In most Southern cities efforts were made to induce the ladies -to come out and hear the band play. - -The day Governor Pierpont arrived, windows of the Spotswood and Monumental -were crowded with Northern ladies waving handkerchiefs. "I only knew from -the papers," Matoaca tells, "that the Mansion was decorated with flowers -for his reception. Our own windows, which had been as windows of a house -of mourning, did not change their aspect for his coming. Our rightful -governor was a fugitive; Governor Pierpont was an alien. We were -submissive, but we could not rejoice." This was the feminine and social -side. On the political and masculine side, he was welcomed. Delegations of -prominent Virginians from all counties brought him assurances of -coöperation. The new Governor tried to give a clean, patriotic -administration. - -Northerners held socials in each others' houses and in halls; there were -receptions, unattended by Southerners, at the Governor's Mansion and -Military Headquarters. It might have been more politic had we gone out of -our way to be socially agreeable, but it would not have been sincere. -Federal officers and their wives attended our churches. A Northern -Methodist Society was formed with a group of adherents, Governor and Mrs. -Pierpont, and, later, General and Mrs. Canby among them. "We of the -Northern colony were very dependent upon ourselves for social pleasures," -an ex-member who now considers herself a Southerner said to me recently. -"There were some inter-marriages. I remember an elopement; a Petersburg -girl ran away with a Federal officer, and the pair sought asylum at my -father's, in Richmond's Northern colony. Miss Van Lew entertained us -liberally. She gave a notable reception to Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase -and his beautiful daughter, Kate." Miss Van Lew, a resident, was suspected -of being a spy during the war. - -Our ladies went veiled on the street, the motive that caused them to close -their windows impelling them to cover their faces with sorrow's shield. -There was not much opportunity for young blue-coats to so much as behold -our pretty girls, much less make eyes at them, had they been so minded. -That veil as an accompaniment of a lissome figure and graceful carriage -must have sometimes acted as a tantalising disguise. - -I heard of one very cute happening in which the wind and a veil played -part. Mary Triplett, our famous blonde beauty, then in the rosy freshness -of early youth, was walking along when the wind took off her veil and -carried it to the feet of a young Federal officer. He bent, uplifted the -vagrant mask, and, with his cap held before his eyes, restored it. That -was a very honest, self-denying Yankee. Perhaps he peeped around the -corner of his cap. There was at that time in Richmond a bevy of -marvellously lovely buds, Mattie Ould, Miss Triplett's antithesis, among -the number. - -The entire South seems to have been very rich then in buds of beauty and -women of distinction. Or, was it that the fires of adversity brought their -charms and virtues into high relief? Names flitting through my mind are -legion. Richmond's roll has been given often. Junior members of the -Petersburg set were Tabb Bolling, General Rooney Lee's sweetheart (now his -widow); Molly Bannister, General Lee's pet, who was allowed to ride -Traveller; Anne Bannister, Alice Gregory, Betty and Jeannie Osborne, Betty -Cabaniss, Betty and Lucy Page, Sally Hardy, Nannie Cocke, Patty Cowles, -Julia, Mary and Marion Meade, and others who queened it over General Lee's -army and wrought their pretty fingers to the bone for our lads in the -trenches. To go farther afield, Georgia had her youthful "Maid of Athens," -Jule King, afterwards Mrs. Henry Grady; in Atlanta were the Clayton -sisters, and Maggie Poole, Augusta Hill, Ella Ezzard, Eugenia Goode, -besides a brilliant married circle. In South Carolina were Mrs. James -Chesnut, her sister, Mrs. David R. Williams, and all the fair troop that -figure in her "Diary From Dixie." Louisiana's endless roster might begin -with the Slocomb family, to which General Butler paid official tribute, -recording that "Mrs. Slocomb equipped the crack military company of New -Orleans, the Washington Artillery, in which her son-in-law, Captain David -Urquhart, is an officer." Mrs. Urquhart's daughter, Cora (afterwards Mrs. -James Brown Potter), was, I think, a tiny maiden then. Beloved for her -social charm and her charities, Mrs. Ida B. Richardson, Mrs. Urquhart's -sister, still lives in the Crescent City. There were the Leacock sisters, -Mrs. Andrew Gray and Mrs. Will Howell, the "madonna of New Orleans." There -was the King family, which produced Grace King, author and historian. A -Louisiana beauty was Addie Prescott, whose face and presence gave warrant -of the royal blood of Spain flowing in her veins. In Mississippi was -"Pearl Rivers," afterwards Mrs. Nicholson, good genius of the "Picayune"; -and Mary E. Bryan, later the genius of the "Sunny South." Georgia and -Alabama claim Mme. Le Vert, to whose intellect Lamartine paid tribute, and -Augusta Evans, whose "Macaria" ran the blockade in manuscript and came out -up North during the war; that delightful "Belle of the Fifties," Mrs. -Clement C. Clay, is Alabama's own. Besides the "Rose of Texas" (Louise -Wigfall), the Lone Star State has many a winsome "Southern Girl" and woman -to her credit. Mrs. Roger A. Pryor is Virginia's own. Among Florida's fair -was the "Madonna of the Wickliffe sisters," Mrs. Yulee, Senator Yulee's -wife and, presently, Florida's Vice-Regent for the Ladies' Association -of Mt. Vernon. Mrs. Sallie Ward Hunt and Mrs. Sallie Ewing Pope lead a -long list in Kentucky, where Mary Anderson, the actress, was in her tender -teens, and Bertha Honoré (afterwards Mrs. Potter Palmer) was in pinafores. -To Mississippi and Missouri belongs Theodosia Worthington Valliant; and to -Tennessee Betty Vance, whose beauty's fame was world-wide, and Mary -Wright, later Mrs. Treadwell. At a ball given Prince Arthur when in this -country, a wealthy belle was selected to lead with him. The prince -thinking he was to choose his partner, fixed on Mary Wright, exquisite in -poverty's simple white gown, and asked: "May I lead with her?" In North -Carolina were Sophia Portridge, women of the houses of Devereaux, Vance, -Mordecai--but I am not writing the South's "Book of Fair and Noble Women." -I leave out of my list names brilliant as any in it. - -[Illustration: MRS. DAVID L. YULEE - -(Daughter of Governor Wickliffe, of Kentucky) - -She was the wife of Senator Yulee, of Florida, Vice Regent of the Mount -Vernon Association of Florida, and was known as the "Madonna of the -Wickliffe Sisters."] - -Of all the fair women I have ever seen, Mary Meade was fairest. No -portrait can do justice to the picture memory holds of her as "Bride" to -D'Arcy Paul's "Bridegroom" in the "Mistletoe Bough," which Mrs. Edwin -Morrison staged so handsomely that her amateurs were besought to "star" in -the interest of good causes. Our fair maids were no idle "lilies of -loveliness." The Meade sisters and others turned talents to account in -mending fallen family fortunes. Maids and matrons labored diligently to -gather our soldier dead into safe resting-places. The "Lyrical Memorial," -Mrs. Platt's enterprise, like the "Mistletoe Bough" (later produced), was -called for far and wide. The day after presentation in Louisville, the -Federal Commandant sent Mary Meade, who had impersonated the South -pleading sepulture for her sons, a basket of flowers with a live white -dove in the center. - -Slowly in Richmond interchange of little human kindnesses between -neighbors established links. General Bartlett, occupying the Haxall house, -who had lost a leg in the war, was "the Yankee who conquered my wife," a -Southerner bears witness. "I came home one day and found him sitting with -her on my steps. He suffered greatly from his old wound, bore it -patiently, and by his whole conduct appealed to her sweet womanliness. His -staff was quiet and orderly." - -The beautiful daughter of one family and her feeble grandmother were the -only occupants of the mansion into which General Ord and his wife moved. -The pair had no money and were unable to communicate with absent members -of the household who had been cut off from home by the accidents of war -while visiting in another city. The younger lady was ill with typhoid -fever. The general and his wife were very thoughtful and generous in -supplying ice, brandy, and other essentials and luxuries. - -"Under Heaven," the invalid bore grateful witness when recovering, "I owe -my life to General and Mrs. Ord." Her loveliness and helplessness were in -themselves an argument to move a heart of stone to mercy; nevertheless, it -was virtue and grace that mercy was shown. - -We made small appeal for sympathy or aid; were too much inclined to the -reverse course, carrying poverty and other troubles with a stiff-neck, -scantily-clad backs, long-suffering stomachs, and pride and conscience -resolved. But--though some form of what we considered oppression was -continually before our eyes--our conquerors, when in our midst, were more -and more won to pity and then to sympathy. Our commandants might be stern -enough when first they came, but when they had lived among us a little -while, they softened and saw things in a new light; and the negroes and -the carpet-baggers complained of them every one, and the authorities at -Washington could not change them fast enough. - -Southerners here and in other cities who had Federal boarders were -considered fortunate because of the money and protection secured. In such -cases, there was usually mutual kindness and consideration, politeness -keeping in the background topics on which differences were cruel and -sharp; but the sectional dividing lines prevented free social -intermingling. - -In places garrisoned by soldiers of coarser types and commanded by men -less gentlemanly, women sometimes displayed more pronounced -disapprobation. Not always with just occasion, but, again, often with -cause only too grave. At the best, it was not pleasant to have strange men -sauntering, uninvited, into one's yard and through one's house, invading -one's kitchen and entertaining housemaids and cooks. That these men wore -blue uniforms was unfortunate for us and for the uniform. At that time, -the very sight of "army blue" brought terror, anguish and resentment. - -Our famous physicians, Maguire and McCaw, were often called to the -Northern sick. Dr. McCaw came once direct to Uncle Randolph from the -Dents, where he had been summoned to Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant, and Matoaca -listened curiously to his and her uncle's cordial discussion of General -Grant, who had made friends at the South by his course at Appomattox and -his insistence on the cartel. - -A conversation occurring between another of our physicians and a feminine -patient is not without significance. The lady and the doctor's wife had -been friends before the war. "Why has your wife not called upon me, -Doctor?" she asked. "Has she forgotten me?" "No, ma'am," he answered -gently, and then in a low, kindly voice: "But she cannot--yet--forget all -that has happened since you were girls together." "But she should not -treasure it against me individually." "She does not, ma'am. But she cannot -forget--yet. You would understand if you had been in the beleagured land. -If the good women of the North could only imagine themselves in the place -of the women of the South during the last four years and in their place -now!" - -She sighed. "I can see only too plainly that they have suffered -unutterably many things that we have been spared. And that they suffer -now. It's natural, too, that they should hate to have us here lording it -over them." - -Very different was the spirit of the wife of a Federal officer stationed -at Augusta, Georgia, whose declaration that she hoped to see the day when -"black heels should stand on white necks" startled the State of Georgia. -Many good ladies came South firm in the belief that all Southerners were -negro-beaters, slave-traders, and cut-throats; a folk sadly benighted and -needing tutelage in the humanities; and they were not always politic in -expressing these opinions. - -After war, the war spirit always lingers longest in non-combatants--in -women and in men who stayed at home and cheered others on. "The soldiers," -said General Grant, "were in favor of a speedy reconstruction on terms -least humiliating to the Southern people." He wrote Mrs. Grant from -Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1865: "The suffering that must exist in the -South ... will be beyond conception; people who speak of further -retaliation and punishment do not conceive of the suffering endured -already, or they are heartless and unfeeling." - -General Halleck to General Meade, April 30, 1865: "The Army of the -Potomac have shown the people of Virginia how they would be treated as -enemies. Let them now prove that they know equally well how to treat the -same people as friends." - -"The terrible sufferings of the South," our press commented, "have -softened the hearts of the stern warriors of the Armies of the Potomac and -the Cumberland, and while they are calling for pity and justice for us, -politicians and fanatics call for vengeance." General Sherman said: "I do -think some political power might be given to the young men who served in -the rebel army, for they are a better class than the adventurers who have -gone South purely for office." - -During an exciting epoch in reconstruction, I was sitting beside a wounded -ex-Confederate in an opera-box, listening to a Southern statesman -haranguing us on our wrongs, real and heavy enough, heaven knows, heavier -than ever those of war had been. "Rather than submit to continued and -intensified humiliations," cried the orator, a magnetic man of the sort -who was carrying Northern audiences to opposite extremes, "we will buckle -on our swords and go to war again!" "It might be observed," remarked my -veteran drily, while I clapped my hands, "that if he should buckle on his -sword and go to war, it would be what he did not do before." I held my -hands quite still during the rest of that speech. - -"Our women never were whipped!" I have heard grizzled Confederates say -that proudly. "There is a difference," remarked one hoary-headed hero, -who, after wearing stars on his collar in Confederate service represented -his State in the Federal Congress, "between the political and the feminine -war-spirit. The former is too often for personal gain. Woman's is the -aftermath of anguish. It has taken a long time to reconstruct Southern -women. Some are not reconstructed yet. Suffering was stamped too deep for -effacement. The Northern woman suffered with her Southern sister the agony -of anxiety and bereavement. But the Southern had other woes, of which the -Northern could have no conception. The armies were upon us. There was -devastation. The Southern woman and her loved ones lacked food and -raiment, the enemy appropriating what we had and blocking ways by which -fresh supplies might come; her home was burned over her head. Sometimes -she suffered worse things than starvation, worse things than the -destruction of her home. - -"And women could only sit still and endure, while we could fight back. -Women do not understand that war is a matter of business. I had many -friends among the men I fought--splendid, brave fellows. Personally, we -were friends, and professionally, enemies. Women never get that point of -view." - -Woman's war spirit is faithfulness and it is absolutely reckless of -personal advantages, as the following incident may illustrate. General -Hunton and General Turner knew each other pretty well, although in their -own persons they had never met. They had commanded opposing forces and -entertained a considerable respect for each other. General Turner was the -first Federal officer that came to Lynchburg, when General Hunton's wife -and youthful son were refugees; he sent Dr. Murray, a Confederate surgeon, -to call upon Mrs. Hunton with the message that she was to suffer for -nothing he could supply. General Hunton was in prison, she knew not where; -was not sure if he were alive or dead. - -She had not the feelings her lord entertained for his distinguished -antagonist, and her response was: "Tell General Turner I would not accept -anything from him to save my life!" - -Yet she must have been very hungry. She and her youthful son had been -reduced to goober-peas. First, her supplies got down to one piece of -beef-bone. She thought she would have a soup. For a moment, she left her -son to watch the pot, but not to stir the soup. But he thought he would do -well to stir it. So he stirred it, and turned the pot over. That day, she -had nothing for dinner but goober-peas. - -"When I came home," said General Hunton, when asked for this story's -sequel, "and she told me about her message to General Turner, I wrote him -the nicest letter I knew how to write, thanking him for his kindness to -the wife of a man whose only claim on him was that he had fought him the -best he knew how. - -"I don't think we would ever have had the trouble we had down here," he -continued, "if Northern people had known how things really were. In fact, -I know we would not. Why, I never had any trouble with Northern men in all -my life except that I just fought them all I knew how. And I never had -better friends than among my Republican colleagues in Congress after the -war. They thought all the more of me because I stood up so stoutly for the -old Confederate Cause." - -Bonds coming about in the natural, inevitable order through interchange of -the humanities were respected. But where they seemed the outcome of -vanity, frivolity, or coquetry, that was another matter, a very serious -one for the Southern participant. The spirit of the times was morbid, yet -a noble loyalty was behind it. - -Anywhere in the land, a Southern girl showing partiality for Federal beaux -came under the ban. If there were nothing else against it, such a course -appeared neither true nor dignified; if it were not treason to our lost -Confederacy, it were treason to our own poor boys in gray to flutter over -to prosperous conquerors. - -Nothing could be more sharply defined in lights and shadows than the life -of one beautiful and talented Southern woman who matronised the -entertainments of a famous Federal general at a post in one of the Cotton -States, and thereby brought upon herself such condemnation as made her -wines and roses cost her dear. Yet perhaps such affiliations lessened the -rigors of military government for her State. - -One of the loveliest of Atlanta's gray-haired dames tells me: "I am -unreconstructed yet--Southern to the backbone." Yet she speaks of -Sherman's godless cohorts as gently as if she were mother of them all. Her -close neighbour was a Yankee encampment. The open ground around her was -dotted with tents. - -There were "all sorts" among the soldiers. None gave insolence or -violence. Pilfering was the great trouble; the rank and file were "awfully -thievish." Her kitchen, as usual with Southern kitchens of those days, was -a separate building. If for a moment she left her pots and ovens to answer -some not-to-be-ignored demand from the house, she found them empty on her -return, her dinner gone--a most serious thing when it was as by the skin -of her teeth that she got anything at all to cook and any fuel to cook -with; and when, moreover, cooking was new and tremendously hard work. "We -could not always identify the thief; when we could, we were afraid to -incur the enmity of the men. Better have our things stolen than worse -happen us, as might if officers punished those men on our report. I kept a -still tongue in my head." - -Though a wife and mother, she was yet in girlhood's years, very soft and -fair; had been "lapped in luxury," with a maid for herself, a nurse for -her boy, a servant to do this, that, or the other thing, for her. She -thus describes her first essay at the family wash. There was a fine well -in her yard, and men came to get water. A big-hearted Irishman caught the -little lady struggling over soap-suds. It looked as if she would never get -those clothes clean. For one thing, when she tried to wring them, they -were streaked with blood from her arms and hands; she had peculiarly fine -and tender skin. - -"Faith an' be jabbers!" said Pat, "an' what is it that you're thryin' to -do?" "Go away, and let me alone!" "Faith, an' if ye don't lave off clanin' -thim garmints, they'll be that doirty--" "Go 'way!" "Sure, me choild, an' -if ye'll jis' step to the other soide of the tub without puttin' me to the -inconvaniance--" He was about to pick her up in his mighty hands. She -moved and dropped down, swallowing a sob. - -"Sure, an' it's as good a washerwoman as ivver wore breeches I am," said -Pat. "An' that's what I've larned in the army." In short order, he had all -the clothes hanging snow-white on the line; before he left, he cut enough -wood for her ironing. "I'm your Bridget ivery wash-day that comes 'roun'," -he said as he swung himself off. He was good as his word. This brother-man -did her wash every week. "Sure, an' it's a shame it is," he would say, -"the Government fadin' the lazy nagurs an' God an' the divvil can't make -'em wur-r-k." - -Through Tony, her son, another link was formed 'twixt late enemies. It was -hard for mothers busy at housework to keep track of young children; -without fences for definement of yard-limits, and with all old landmarks -wiped out, it was easy for children to wander beyond bearings. A lost -child was no rarity. One day General and Mrs. Saxton drove up in their -carriage, bringing Tony. Tony had lost himself; fright, confusion, lack of -food, had made him ill; he had been brought to the attention of the -general and his wife, who, instead of sending the child home by a -subordinate, came with him themselves, the lady holding the pale little -fellow in her arms, comforting and soothing him. Thus began friendship -between Mrs. S. and Mrs. Saxton; not only small Tony was now pressed to -take airings with Yankees, but his mother. The general did all he could to -make life easier for her; had wood hauled and cut for her. The Southern -woman's reduction to poverty and menial tasks mortified him, as they -mortified many another manly blue-coat, witness of the reduction. "It is -pitiable and it is all wrong," said one officer to Mrs. S. "Our people up -North simply don't know how things are down here." A lady friend of Mrs. -S.'s tells me that she knew a Northern officer--(giving his name)--who -resigned his commission because he found himself unable to witness the -sufferings of Southern women and children, and have a hand in imposing -them. - -Rulers who came under just condemnation as "military satraps" governing in -a democracy in time of peace by the bayonet, when divorced from the -exercise of their office, won praise as men. Thus, General Meade's rule in -Georgia is open to severest criticism, yet Ellen Meade Clarke, who saw him -as the man and not as the oppressor, says: "I had just married and gone to -Atlanta when Sherman ordered the citizens out, which order I hastily -obeyed, leaving everything in my Peachtree cottage home. Was among the -first to return. Knew all the generals in command; they were all -neighbors; General Meade, who was sent to see me by some one bearing our -name, proved a good and faithful friend and, on his death-bed, left me his -prayer-book." - -[Illustration: MISS MARY MEADE, OF PETERSBURG, VA. - -She was known far and wide for her loveliness of person and character, her -intellectual gifts and social graces.] - - - - -LOVERS AND PRAYERS - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -BUTTONS, LOVERS, OATHS, WAR LORDS, AND PRAYERS FOR PRESIDENTS - - -Some military orders were very irritating. - -The "Button Order" prohibited our men from wearing Confederate buttons. -Many possessed no others and had not money wherewith to buy. "Buttons were -scarce as hens' teeth." The Confederacy had been reduced to all sorts of -makeshifts for buttons. Thorns from thornbushes had furnished country -folks with such fastenings as pins usually supply, and served convenience -on milady's toilette-table when she went to do up her hair. - -One clause in that monstrous order delighted feminine hearts! It provided -as thoughtful concession to all too glaring poverty that: "When plain -buttons cannot be procured, those formerly used can be covered with -cloth." Richmond ladies looked up all the bits of crape and bombazine they -had, and next morning their men appeared on the streets with buttons in -mourning! "I would never have gotten Uncle out of the front door if he had -realized what I was up to," Matoaca relates. "Not that he was not mournful -enough, but he did not want to mourn that way." - -Somehow, nobody thought about Sam's button; he was a boy, only fifteen. He -happened to go out near Camp Grant in his old gray jacket, the only coat -he had; one of his brothers had given it to him months before. It was held -together over his breast by a single button, his only button. A Yankee -sergeant cut it off with his sword. The jacket fell apart, exposing -bepatched and thread-bare underwear. His mother and sisters could not help -crying when the boy came in, holding his jacket together with his hand, -his face suffused, his eyes full of tears of rage and mortification. - -The "Button Trouble" pervaded the entire South. The Tennessee Legislature, -Brownlow's machine, discussed a bill imposing a fine of $5 to $25 upon -privates, and $25 to $50 upon officers for wearing the "rebel uniform." -The gaunt, destitute creatures who were trudging, stumping, limping, -through that State on their way from distant battlefields and Northern -prisons to their homes, had rarely so much as fifty cents in their -pockets. Had that bill become a law enforced, Tennessee prisons must have -overflowed with recaptured Confederates, or roads and woods with men in -undress. - -Many a distinguished soldier, home-returning, ignorant that such an order -existed, has been held up at the entrance to his native town by a saucy -negro sergeant who would shear him of buttons with a sabre, or march him -through the streets to the Provost's office to answer for the crime of -having buttons on his clothes. - -The provision about covering buttons has always struck me as the unkindest -cut of all. How was a man who had no feminine relatives to obey the law? -Granted that as a soldier, he had acquired the art of being his own -seamstress, how, when he was in the woods or the roads, could he get -scraps of cloth and cover buttons? - -But of all commands ever issued, the "Marriage Order" was the most -extraordinary! That order said people should not get married unless they -took the Oath of Allegiance. If they did, they would be arrested. I have -forgotten the exact wording, but if you will look up General Order No. -4,[7] April 29, and signed by General Halleck, you can satisfy any -curiosity you may feel. It was a long ukase, saying what-all people should -not do unless they took the oath (some felt like taking a good many -daily!). Naturally, young people were greatly upset. Many had been engaged -a weary while, to be married soon as the war should be over. - -Among those affected was Captain Sloan, whose marriage to Miss Wortham was -due the Tuesday following. The paper containing the order, heavily ringed -with black, darkened the roseate world upon which the bride-elect opened -her lovely eyes Saturday morning. The same hand that had put the order in -mourning had scribbled on the margin: "If Captain Sloan is not ready to -take that oath, I am." - -Her maid informed her that Mr. Carrington, an elderly friend, fond of a -joke, was awaiting her. Descending to the drawing-room, she found it full -of sympathising neighbours, her betrothed in the midst, all debating a way -out of the difficulty. Not even sharp-witted lawyers could see one. In -times so out of joint law did not count. - -The situation was saved by the fact that General Halleck had a namesake in -Captain Sloan's family. The Captain's "Uncle Jerry" (otherwise General -Jerry Gilmer, of South Carolina) had called a son "Henry Halleck" in -honour of his one-time class-mate at West Point. When the idea of the -namesake as basis of appeal dawned on Captain Sloan, day was passing. Miss -Wortham's father, who, before the Federal Government had interfered with -his dominion as a parent, had been anxious that his very youthful daughter -and her betrothed should defer their union, was now quite determined that -the rights of the lovers should not be abrogated by Uncle Sam. As member -of the Confederate Ambulance Committee, he had been in close touch with -Colonel Mulford, Federal Commissioner of Exchange; Judge Ould, Confederate -Commissioner, was his personal friend; in combination with these -gentlemen, he arranged a meeting twixt lover and war lord. - -General Halleck received Hymen's ambassador with courtesy. The story of -the namesake won his sympathetic ear. When told what consternation his -order was causing--Captain Sloan plead other cases besides his own--the -war lord laughed, scribbled something on a slip of official paper and -handed it to Captain Sloan, saying: "Let this be known and I suppose there -will be a good many weddings before Monday." The slip read like this: -"Order No. 4 will not go into effect until Monday morning. H. W. Halleck, -General Commanding." - -Alas! there were no Sunday papers. The news was disseminated as widely as -possible; and three weddings, at least, in high society, happened Sunday -in consequence. Mrs. Sloan, a prominent member of Baltimore society, gave -her own account of the whole matter in Mrs. Daniel's "Confederate -Scrap-Book," which any one may see at the Confederate Museum. - -"The gown I wore the day after my marriage," she relates, "was a buff -calico with tiny dots in it, and as it was prettily and becomingly made, -I looked as well, and I know I was as happy, as if it had been one of -Worth's or Redfern's most bewildering conceits--and I am sure it was as -expensive, as it cost $30 a yard." - -General Halleck's order was not unique. Restrictions on marriage had been -incorporated in the State Constitution of Missouri, 1864, a section -prescribing that "No person shall practice law, be competent as bishop, -priest, deacon, minister, elder, or other clergyman of any religious -persuasion, sect, or denomination, teach, preach, or solemnise marriage -until such person shall have first taken the oath required as to voters." -"Under these provisions," commented Senator Vest, from whom I borrow, "the -parent who had given a piece of bread or a cup of water to a son in the -Confederate service, or who had in any way expressed sympathy for such -son, was prohibited from registering as voter, serving as juror, or -holding any office or acting as trustee, or practicing law, or teaching in -any school, or preaching the Gospel, or solemnising the marriage rite."[8] - -Strictly construed, the test-oath imposed by Congress in 1867, like that -of Missouri, excluded from franchise and office, the parent who had given -a piece of bread or a cup of water or his sympathy to a son in the -Confederate service; and the negro who had made wheat and corn for his -master's family, as the applicant must swear that he had not "given aid or -comfort to" Confederates. - -The Missouri test-oath was one that prominent Union men, among them -General Francis P. Blair, leader of the Union Party in his State, a man -who had taken part in the siege of Vicksburg and marched with Sherman to -the sea, were unable to take. Americans beholding his statue in Statuary -Hall, Washington, as that of one of the two sons Missouri most delights to -honour, will find food for curious reflection in the fact that General -Blair, going in full Federal uniform to register as a voter, was not -allowed to do so. Visitors to Blair Hall at the St. Louis Exposition may -have been reminded of this little incident of reconstruction. In 1867, -Father John A. Cummings was arrested and tried for performing parochial -duties without taking the oath. A bill forbidding women to marry until -they took the oath was passed by Tennessee's Senate, but the House -rejected it. This bill, like Missouri's law, discriminated against -ministers of the Gospel; those who had sympathised with "rebels" or in any -way aided them, were condemned to work on the public roads and other -degrading forms of expiation. - -There was no appreciable reluctance on the part of the people to take the -oath of allegiance. They could honestly swear for the future to sustain -the Government of the United States, but few, or no decent people, even -Unionists, living among Confederates, could vow they had given no "aid or -comfort" to one. The test-oath cultivated hypocrisy in natives and invited -carpet-baggers. A native who would take it was eligible to office, while -the honest man who would not lie, was denied a right to vote. - -In readiness to take the oath of allegiance, people rushed so promptly to -tribunals of administration that the sincerity of the South was questioned -at the North, where it could not be understood how sharp was our need to -have formalities of submission over and done with, that we might get to -work. One striking cartoon pictured Columbia upon a throne gloomily -regarding a procession that came bending, bowing, kneeling, creeping, -crawling, to her feet, General Lee leader and most abject, with Howell -Cobb, Wade Hampton, and other distinguished Southerners around him. -Beneath was this: "Can I trust these men?" On the opposite page, a -one-legged negro soldier held out his hand; beneath was: "Franchise? And -not this man?" - -[Illustration: MRS. HENRY L. POPE - -(Sarah Moore Ewing) - -First Kentucky State Regent D. A. R. - -From a portrait by de Franca, photographed by Doerr. Louisville, Ky.] - -A few people had serious scruples of conscience against taking the oath. I -know of two or three whose attitude, considering their personalities, was -amusing and pathetic. There was one good lady, Mrs. Wellington, who walked -all the way from Petersburg to Richmond, a distance of twenty miles, for -fear the oath might be required if she boarded a car! - -I turn to Matoaca's journal: - -"I have been visiting Cousin Mary in Powhatan. Of course they have -military government there, too. Soldiers ride up, enter without -invitation, walk through the house, seat themselves at the piano and play; -promenade to the rear, go into the kitchen, sit down and talk with the -darkeys. - -"At church, I saw officers wearing side-arms. They come regularly to watch -if we pray for the President of the United States. I hope they were -edified; a number stood straight up during that prayer. Among the most -erect were the M. girls, who have very _retroussé_ noses. The Yankees -reported: 'Not only do they stand up when the President is prayed for, but -they turn up their noses.' They sent word back: 'A mightier power than the -Yankee Army turned up our noses.' - -"I hear they have dealt severely with Rev. Mr. Wingfield because he would -not read that prayer for the President. When brought up for it, he told -the examining officer he could not--it was a matter of conscience. They -put a ball and chain on him and made him sweep the streets. And these -people are the exponents of 'freedom,' and 'liberty of conscience.' They -come from a land whose slogan is these words! They have no right to force -us to pray according to their views. For myself, I kneel during the -prayer, I try to pray it; I seek to feel it, since to pray without feeling -is mockery. But I don't feel it. - -"Uncle advised: 'My daughter, no man needs your prayers more than the -President of the United States. He has great and grave responsibilities. -We must desire that a higher power shall direct him. The President is -surrounded by advisers bent on revenge, so bent on it that they seem to -care nothing whatever for the Union--the real union of the North and -South.' So I bow my head, and I try--God knows I try! But thoughts of all -the blood that has been shed, of the homes that have been burned, the -suffering and starvation endured, will rush into my mind as I kneel. Dear -Christ! did you know how hard a command you laid upon us when you said, -'Pray for your enemies?'" - -An entry after Mr. Lincoln's death says: "How can I pray that prayer in -the face of this?" Below is pasted Johnson's proclamation charging the -assassination to Mr. Davis and other Southern leaders. This follows: "How -_can_ I pray for the President of the United States? That proclamation is -an insult flung in the face of the whole South! And we have to take it." - -They had as much trouble at Washington over our prayers as over our few -buttons and clothes. - -The Sunday after the evacuation--one week from the day on which the -messenger came from General Lee to Mr. Davis--the Federals were -represented in St. Paul's by distinguished and respectful worshippers. -Nearly all women present were in black. When the moment came for the -petition for "the President of the Confederate States and all others in -authority," you could have heard a pin fall. The congregation had kinsmen -in armies still under the authority of the President of the Confederacy; -they were full of anxiety; their hearts were torn and troubled. Were they -here before God to abjure their own? Were they to utter prayer that was -mockery? To require them to pray for the President of the United States -was like calling upon the martyrs of old to burn incense to strange gods. -Dr. Minnegerode read the prayer, omitting the words "for the President of -the Confederate States," simply saying "for all in authority." Generals -Weitzel, Shepley and Ripley had consented that it was to be thus. - -Assistant Secretary of War Dana writes to Secretary of War Stanton: "On -Friday, I asked Weitzel about what he was going to do in regard to opening -the churches on Sunday. He said ministers would be warned against -treasonable utterances and be told they must put up loyal prayers." - -It seems that after this conversation the determination of the Commandant -and his Staff to wrest piety and patriotism out of the rebels at one fell -swoop, underwent modification, partly, perhaps, as a concession to the -Almighty, of whom it was fair to presume that He might not be altogether -pleased with prayers offered on the point of a sword. - -Scandalised at official laxity in getting just dues from Heaven for the -United States, Dana continues: "It shakes my faith a good deal in -Weitzel." In subsequent letters he says it was Shepley's or Ripley's -fault; Weitzel really thought the people ought to be made to pray right; -the crime was somehow fastened finally on Judge Campbell's back, and -Weitzel was informed that he must have no further oral communications with -this dangerous and seditious person. Thus Mr. Stanton rounded up Weitzel: -"If you have consented that services should be performed in the Episcopal -Churches of Richmond without the usual prayer said in loyal churches for -the President, your action is strongly condemned by this Department. I am -not willing to believe that an officer of the United States commanding in -Richmond would consent to such an omission of respect for the President of -the United States." Weitzel: "Do you desire that I should order this form -of prayer in Episcopal, Hebrew, Roman Catholic, and other churches where -they have a liturgy?" Stanton: "No mark of respect must be omitted to -President Lincoln which was rendered to the rebel, Jeff Davis." Weitzel: -"Dispatch received. Order will be issued in accordance therewith." - -Is it any wonder that Grant and Sherman between them finally said to -President Johnson: "Mr. President, you should make some order that we of -the army are not bound to obey the orders of Mr. Stanton as Secretary of -War." - -The Episcopal clergy presented the case clearly to General Weitzel and his -Staff, who, as reasonable men, appreciated the situation. "The Church and -State are not one in this country; we, as men, in all good faith take the -oath of allegiance required of us. As priests, we are under ecclesiastical -jurisdiction; we cannot add to the liturgy. A convention of the Church -must be called. Meanwhile, we, of course, omit words held treasonable, -reciting, 'for all in authority,' which surely includes the President. -Forcing public feeling will be unwise; members will absent themselves, or -go to a church which, not using any ritual, is not under compulsion; the -order is, in effect, discrimination against the Episcopal Church." - -Our people, they said, "desire by quiet and inoffensive conduct to respond -to the liberal policy of those in command; they deeply appreciate the -conciliatory measures adopted, and all the more regret to appear as -dissenters." They wrote to President Johnson, asking opportunity for -action by heads of the diocese; they said that when the South seceded, -standing forms had obtained for months till change was so wrought. That -letter went the rounds of the War, State, and Executive Departments, and -was returned "disapproved," and the Episcopal Churches of Richmond were -actually closed by military order until they would say that prayer. - -Even President Lincoln was moved to write General Weitzel, asking what it -meant that he hadn't made people pray as they ought! "You told me not to -insist upon little things," said Weitzel. - -Had we been let alone in the matter of praying for the President, we would -all very soon have come to see the subject in the light in which Uncle -Randolph presented it. As it was, conscientious prelates were in -straitened positions, not wishing to lead their people in petitions which -the latter would resent or regard at the best as empty formula. Omission -of the prayer altogether was recommended by Bishop Wilmer, of Alabama, as -the wisest course for the moment; General Woods suspended the Bishop and -all clergy of his diocese; they were not to preach or to lead in church -service; and, I believe, were not to marry the living, baptise the -new-born, or bury the dead. President Johnson set such orders aside as -soon as he came to his senses after the shock of Mr. Lincoln's death. - -General McPherson commanded pastors of Vicksburg (1864) to read the -prescribed prayer for the President at each and every service; pastors of -churches without such prescribed form were instructed to invent one. The -Bishop of Natchez, William Henry Elder, was banished because he would not -read the prayer. Some young ladies, of Vicksburg, were banished because -they rose and left the church, on Christmas morning, when a minister read -it. An order signed by General McPherson, served on each, said she was -"hereby banished and must leave the Federal lines within forty-eight hours -under penalty of imprisonment." No extension of time for getting "their -things ready" was allowed. Permission was given for the mother of one -delinquent to chaperon the bevy, which, with due ceremony, was deported -under flag of truce, hundreds of Federal soldiers watching. - -One Sunday in New Orleans under Butler's rule, Major Strong was at Dr. -Goodrich's church; time came for prayer for the Confederacy; there was -silence. Major Strong rose and thundered: "Stop, sir! I close this church -in ten minutes!" Rev. Dr. Leacock[9] wrote Butler a tender letter begging -him not to force people to perjury in taking the oath through fear, -prefacing: "No man more desires restoration of the Union than I." Helen -Gray, Dr. Leacock's granddaughter, tells me: "My grandfather was arrested -in church and marched through the city in ecclesiastical robes to answer -for not praying as Butler bade; Rev. Dr. Goodrich and Rev. Mr. Fulton (now -Editor of the 'Church Standard') were also arrested. Butler sent them -North to be imprisoned in Fort Lafayette. The levee was thronged with -people, many weeping to see them go. They were met at New York by -influential citizens, among these Samuel Morse, the inventor, who -offered them his purse, carriage and horses. They were paroled and -entertained at the Astor House. Some people were bitter and small towards -them; many were kind, among these, I think, was Bishop Potter. Hon. -Reverdy Johnson took up their case. Grandfather served St. Mark's, -Niagara, Canada, in the rector's absence; the people presented him, -through Mrs. Dr. Marston, with a purse; he served at Chamblee, where the -people also presented him with a purse. Mrs. Greenleaf, Henry W. -Longfellow's sister, sent him a purse of $500; she had attended his church -during ante-bellum visits to New Orleans, and she loved him dearly. Rev. -F. E. Chubbuck, the Yankee Chaplain appointed to succeed my grandfather, -called on my grandmother, expressed regrets and sympathies, and offered to -do anything he could for her. I tell the tale as it has come to me." -Government reports confirm this in essentials. - -[Illustration: MRS. WILLIAM HOWELL (Mary Leacock) - -MRS. ANDREW GRAY (Lina Leacock) - -Daughters of the Rev. Dr. Leacock, of Christ Church, New Orleans.] - -Of course, denominations not using a liturgy, had an advantage, but they -were not exempt. Major B. K. Davis, Lexington, Mo., April 25, 1865, to -Major-General Dodge: "On the 7th of April, from the well-known disloyalty -of the churches of this place, I issued an order that pastors of all -churches return thanks for our late victories. The pastor of the M. E. -Church declined to do so, and I took the keys of his church." - -In Huntsville, Alabama, 1862, Rev. F. A. Ross, Presbyterian minister, was -arrested and sent north by General Rousseau because, when commanded to -pray for the Yankees, he prayed: "We beseech thee, O Lord, to bless our -enemies and remove them from our midst as soon as seemeth good in Thy -sight!"[10] - -"The Confederate Veteran" tells this of General Lee. At Communion in St. -Paul's soon after the occupation, the first person to walk up to the altar -and kneel was a negro man. Manner and moment made the act sinister, a -challenge, not an expression of piety. The congregation sat, stunned and -still, not knowing what to do. General Lee rose, walked quietly up the -aisle and knelt near the negro. The people followed and service proceeded -as if no innovation had been attempted. The custom by which whites -preceded negroes to the altar originated, not in contempt for negroes, but -in ideas of what was right, orderly and proper. So far were whites from -despising negroes in religious fellowship that it was not strange for both -races to assemble in plantation chapels and join in worship conducted by -the black preacher in the white preacher's absence. I sometimes think -those old Southerners knew the negro better than we ever can. But just -after the war, they were not supposed to know anything of value on any -subject. - -Wherever there was a press, it was muzzled by policy if not by such direct -commands as General Sherman's in Savannah, when he ordained that there -should be no more than two newspapers, and forbade "any libelous -publication, mischievous matter, premature acts, exaggerated statements, -_or any comments whatever upon the acts of the constituted authorities_," -on pain of heavy penalties to editors and proprietors. Some people say we -ought, even now, for the family honour, to hush up everything unpleasant -and discreditable. Not so! It is not well for men in power to think that -their acts are not to be inquired into some day. - - - - -CLUBBED TO HIS KNEES - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -CLUBBED TO HIS KNEES - - -As illustrations of embarrassments we had to face, I have chiefly chosen -incidents showing a kindly and forbearing spirit on the part of Federal -commanders, because I desire to pay tribute wherever I may to men in blue, -remembering that Southern boys are now wearing the blue and that all men -wearing the blue are ours. I have chiefly chosen incidents in which the -Federal officers, being gentlemen and brave men--being decent and -human--revolted against exercise of cruelty to a fallen foe. - -Truth compels the shield's reverse. - -In Richmond, one officer in position went to a prominent citizen and -demanded $600 of him, threatening to confiscate and sell his home if he -did not give it. This citizen, a lawyer and man of business, knew the -threat could not be executed, and refused to meet the demand. Others not -so wise paid such claims. In all parts of the South, many people, among -them widows and orphans, were thus impoverished beyond the pinched -condition in which war left them. Some sold their remnants of furniture, -the very beds they slept on, a part of their scanty raiment, and in one -case on official record, "the coverlid off the baby's bed," to satisfy the -spurious claims of men misusing authority. - -An instance illustrating our helplessness is that of Captain Bayard, who -came out of the war with some make-shift crutches, a brave heart, and a -love affair as the sum total of his capital in life. He made his first -money by clerical work for sympathetic Federal officials. This he invested -in a new suit of clothes; "They are right nice-looking," he said with -modest pride when conveying the pleasing intelligence to one interested; -and he bought a pair of artificial feet. - -Then he set out to see his sweetheart, feeling very proud. It was the -first time he had tried his feet on the street, and he was not walking -with any sense of security, but had safely traversed a square or two and -was crossing a street, when a Federal officer came galloping along and -very nearly ran over him; he threw up his cane. The horse shied, the -cavalryman jumped off and knocked him down. As fast as he struggled up, -the cavalryman knocked him down again. A burly man ran to his assistance; -the cavalryman struck this man such a blow that it made tears spring in -his eyes; then mounted and galloped off. "He was obliged to see," said the -captain, "that I was a cripple, and that I could not get out of his way or -withstand his blows." - -The worst Virginia had to bear was as nothing to what the Carolinas -suffered. There was that poor boy, who was hung in Raleigh on Lovejoy's -tree--where the Governor's Mansion now stands. He had fired off a pistol; -had hurt nobody--had not attempted to hurt anybody; it was just a boy's -thoughtless, crazy deed. - -Entering Rosemont Cemetery, Newberry, S. C., one perceives on a tall -marble shaft "The Lone Star of Texas" and this: "Calvin S. Crozier, Born -at Brandon, Mississippi, August 1840, Murdered at Newberry, S. C., -September 8, 1865." - -At the close of the war, there were some 99,000 Confederates in Federal -prisons, whose release, beginning in May, continued throughout the -summer. Among these was Crozier, slender, boyish in appearance, brave, -thin to emaciation, pitifully weak and homesick. It was a far cry to his -home in sunny Galveston, but he had traversed three States when he fell -ill in North Carolina. A Good Samaritan nursed him, and set him on his way -again. At Orangeburg, S. C., a gentleman placed two young ladies, -journeying in the same direction, under his care. To Crozier, the trust -was sacred. At Newberry, the train was derailed by obstructions placed on -the track by negro soldiers of the 33d U. S. Regiment, which, under -command of Colonel Trowbridge, white, was on its way from Anderson to -Columbia. Crozier got out with others to see what was the matter. -Returning, he found the coach invaded by two half-drunk negro soldiers, -cursing and using indecent language. He called upon them to desist, -directing their attention to the presence of ladies. They replied that -they "didn't care a d----!" One attempted gross familiarities with one of -the ladies. Crozier ejected him; the second negro interfered; there was a -struggle in the dark; one negro fled unhurt; the other, with a slight cut, -ran towards camp, yelling: "I'm cut by a d----d rebel!" Black soldiers -came in a mob. - -The narrative, as told on the monument, concludes: "The infuriated -soldiers seized a citizen of Newberry, upon whom they were about to -execute savage revenge, when Crozier came promptly forward and avowed his -own responsibility. He was hurried in the night-time to the bivouac of the -regiment to which the soldiers belonged, was kept under guard all night, -was not allowed communication with any citizen, was condemned to die -without even the form of a trial, and was shot to death about daylight the -following morning, and his body mutilated." - -He had been ordered to dig his own grave, but refused. A hole had been -dug, he was made to kneel on its brink, the column fired upon him, he -tumbled into it, and then the black troops jumped on it, laughing, -dancing, stamping. The only mercy shown him was by one humane negro, who, -eager to save his life, besought him to deny his identity as the striker -of the blow. White citizens watched their moment, removed his remains, and -gave them Christian burial. - -There was the burning of Brenham, Texas, September 7, 1866. Federal -soldiers from the post attended a negro ball, and so outraged the -decencies that negro men closed the festivities. The soldiers pursued the -negro managers, one of whom fled for safety to a mansion, where a party of -young white people were assembled. The pursuers abused him in profane and -obscene terms. The gentlemen reminded them that ladies were in hearing; -they said they "didn't care a d----!" and drew pistols on the whites. A -difficulty ensued, two soldiers were wounded, their comrades carried them -to camp, returned and fired the town. The incendiaries were never -punished, their commander spiriting them away when investigation was -begun.[11] - -"Numbers of our citizens were murdered by the soldiers of the United -States, and in some instances deliberately shot down by them, in the -presence of their wives and children," writes Hon. Charles Stewart, of -reconstruction times, early and late, in Texas, and cites the diabolical -midnight murder of W. A. Burns and Dallas, his son, giving the testimony -of Sarah, daughter of one, sister of the other, and witness of the -horrible deed, from the performance of which the assassins walked away -"laughing." "Let no one suppose that the instances given were isolated -cases of oppression that might occur under any Government, however good," -says Mr. Stewart. "They were of such frequent occurrence as to excite the -alarm of good people." - -Federal posts were a protection to the people, affording a sense of peace -and security, or the reverse, according to the character of the -commanders. To show how differently different men would determine the same -issue, it may be cited that General Wilde confiscated the home of Mrs. -Robert Toombs to the uses of the Freedmen's Bureau, ordering her to give -possession and limiting the supplies she might remove to two weeks' -provisions. General Steedman humanely revoked this order, restoring her -home to Mrs. Toombs. There was no rule by which to forecast the course a -military potentate, ignorant of civil law, might pursue. The mood he was -in, the dinner he had eaten, the course of a flirtation on hand, motives -of personal spite, gain or favoritism, might determine a decision -affecting seriously a whole community, who would be powerless to appeal -against it, his caprice being law. - -In a previous chapter I have told a story showing General Saxton in a most -attractive light. In his "Provisional Governorship of South Carolina," -Governor Perry says: "The poor refugees (of the Sea Islands) were without -fortune, money or the means of living! Many had nothing to eat except -bread and water, and were thankful if they could get bread. I appointed W. -H. Trescott to go to Washington and represent them in trying to recover -their lands. He procured an order for the restoration, but General Saxton -or some of his sub-agents thwarted in some way the design and purport of -this order, and I believe the negroes are still in possession." - -So, in some places you will hear Southerners say that, save for domestic -and industrial upheavals resulting from emancipation and for the -privations of acute poverty, they suffered no extreme trials while under -the strictly martial regime--were victims of no act of tyranny from local -Federal authorities; in other places, you will hear words reflecting -praise on such authorities; in others, evidence is plain that inhabitants -endured worse things of military satraps than Israel suffered of Pharaoh. - -As the days went by, there were fresh occasions for the conclusion: "The -officers who gave Captain Bayard work and the officer who knocked him down -are types of two classes of our conquerors and rulers. One is ready to -help the cripple to his feet, the other to knock him down again and again. -Congress will club the cripple with the negro ballot." "If that be true," -said some, "the cripple will rise no more. Let me go hence ere my eyes -behold it. Spilled blood and ruin wrought I can forgive, but not this -thing!" - - - - -NEW FASHIONS - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -NEW FASHIONS: A LITTLE BONNET AND AN ALPACA SKIRT - - -The confessions of Matoaca: - -"I will never forget how queer we thought the dress of the Northern -ladies. A great many came to Richmond, and Military Headquarters was very -gay. Band answered band in the neighbourhood of Clay and Twelfth Streets, -and the sound of music and dancing feet reached us through our closed -shutters. - -"Some ladies wore on the streets white petticoats, braided with black, -under their dresses, which were looped up over these. Their gowns were -short walking length, and their feet could be seen quite plainly. That -style would be becoming to us, we said to ourselves, thinking of our small -feet--at least I said so to myself. Up to that time we had considered it -immodest to show our feet, our long dresses and hoop-skirts concealing -them. We had been wearing coal-scuttle bonnets of plaited straw, trimmed -with corn-shuck rosettes. I made fifteen one spring, acquired a fine name -as a milliner, and was paid for my work. - -"I recall one that was quite stunning. I got hold of a bit of much-worn -white ribbon and dyed it an exquisite shade of green, with a tea made of -coffee-berries. Coffee-berries dye a lovely green; you might remember that -if you are ever in a war and blockaded. Our straw-and-shuck bonnets were -pretty. How I wish I had kept mine as a souvenir--and other specimens of -my home-made things! But we threw all our home-made things away--we were -so tired of make-shifts!--and got new ones as soon as we could. How eager -we were to see the fashions! We had had no fashions for a long time. - -"When the Northern ladies appeared on the streets, they did not seem to -have on any bonnets at all. They wore tiny, three-cornered affairs tied on -with narrow strings, and all their hair showing in the back. We thought -them the most absurd and trifling things! But we made haste to get some. -How did we see the fashions when we kept our blinds closed? Why, we could -peep through the shutters, of course. Remember, we had seen no fashions -for a long time. Then, too, after the earlier days, we did not keep our -windows shut. - -"I began braiding me a skirt at once. The Yankees couldn't teach me -anything about braid! To the longest day I live, I will remember the reign -of skirt-braid during the Confederacy! There was quite a while when we had -no other trimming, yet had that in abundance, a large lot having been run -through the blockade; it came to the Department. The Department got to be -a sort of Woman's Exchange. Prices were absurd. I paid $75 for a paper of -pins and thought it high, but before the war was over, I was thankful to -get a paper for $100. I bought, once, a cashmere dress for the price of a -calico, $25 a yard, because it was a little damaged in running the -blockade. At the same time, Mrs. Jefferson Davis bought a calico dress -pattern for $500 and a lawn for $1,000; one of my friends paid $1,400 for -a silk, another, $1,100 for a black merino. Mine was the best bargain. It -lasted excellently. I made it over in the new fashion after the -evacuation. One of the styles brought by the Northern ladies was black -alpaca skirts fringed. I got one as soon as I could. - -"The Yankees introduced some new fashions in other things besides clothes -that I remember vividly, one being canned fruit. I had never seen any -canned fruit before the Yankees came. Perhaps we had had canned fruit, but -I do not remember it. Pleasant innovations in food were like to leave -lasting impressions on one who had been living on next to nothing for an -indefinite period." - -The mystery of her purchase of the alpaca skirt and the little bonnet is -solved by her journal: - -"I am prospering with my needlework. I sew early and late. My friends who -are better off give me work, paying me as generously as they can. Mammy -Jane has sold some of my embroideries to Northern ladies. Many ladies, -widows and orphans, are seeking employment as teachers. The great trouble -is that so few people are able to engage them or to pay for help of any -kind. Still, we all manage to help each other somehow. - -"Nannie, our young bride, is raising lettuce, radish, nasturtiums, in her -back yard for sale. She is painting her house herself (with her husband's -help). She is going to give the lettuce towards paying the church debt. -She has nothing else to give. I think I will raise something to buy -window-panes for this house. Window-panes patched with paper are all the -fashion in this town. - -"The weather is very hot now. After supper, we go up on Gamble's Hill, our -fashionable cooling-off resort, to get a breath of fresh air; then come -back and work till late in the night. O, for a glimpse of the mountains! a -breath of mountain air! But I can only dream of the Greenbrier White and -the Old Sweet Springs! - -"Last night, on Gamble's Hill, we observed near us a party whom we -recognized by accent and good clothes as Northerners. One of the ladies, -looking down on our city, said: 'Behold the fruits of secession!' Below us -in the moonlight lay Richmond on her noble river, beautiful in spite of -her wounds. A gentleman spoke: 'Massachusetts thought of seceding once. I -am sorry for these people.' How I wanted to shout: 'Behold the fruits of -invasion!' But, of course, I did not. I thanked our advocate with my -eyes." - -A few had a little store laid up previous to the evacuation. A short time -before that, the Confederate Government was selling some silver coin at $1 -for $60 in notes; at Danville, it was sold for $70; and thrifty ones who -could, bought. - -Women who had been social queens, who had had everything heart could wish, -and a retinue of servants happy to obey their behests and needing nothing, -now found themselves reduced to harder case than their negroes had ever -known, and gratefully and gracefully availed themselves of the lowliest -tasks by which they might earn enough to buy a dress for the baby, a pair -of shoes for little bare feet, coffee or tea or other luxury for an -invalid dear one, or a bit of any sort of food to replenish a nearly empty -larder. - -The first greenbacks were brought to one family by a former dining-room -servant. His mistress, unable to pay him wages, had advised him to seek -employment elsewhere. At the end of a week, he returned, saying: "Mistiss, -here is five dollahs. I'm makin' twenty dollahs a month, an' rations, -waitin' on one uh de Yankee officers. I'll bring you my wages evvy week." -"John," she said, "I don't know how to take it, for I don't see how I can -ever pay it back." He knew she was in dire straits. "You took care uh me -all my life, Mistiss, an' learnt me how to work. I orter do whut I kin -fuh you." Seeing her still hesitate: "You got property, you kin raise -money on presen'y. Den you kin pay me back, but I'd be proud ef you -wouldn' bother yo'se'f." Could her son have done more? The Old South had -many negroes as good and true. Was the system altogether wrong that -developed such characters? - -Some of our people had Northern friends and relatives who contrived money -to them. Mrs. Gracebridge was one of the fortunate; and everybody was -glad. No one deserved better of fate or friends. She had entertained many -refugees, was the most hospitable soul in the world. Had her table been -large enough to seat the world, the world would have been welcome. From -her nephew, living in New York, an officer of the United States Navy came -with a message and money. - -She had a way of addressing everybody as "my dear friend." Her household -teasingly warned her that she was going to call this messenger "my dear -friend." "Never!" she exclaimed. "Never in the world will I call a Yankee, -'my dear friend!' Never! How can you say such a thing to me! I am -surprised, astonished, at the suggestion!" They listened, and before she -and her guest had exchanged three sentences, heard her calling him "my -dear friend," in spite of the insistent evidence of his gorgeous blue -uniform, gold lace and brass buttons, that he was decidedly a Yankee. - -It was a custom, rooted and grounded in her being, to offer refreshments -to guests; when nothing else was left with which to show good feeling, she -would bring in some lumps of white sugar, a rarity and a luxury, and pass -this around. Never will spying intimates forget the expression of that -naval officer's countenance when, at her call, a little black hand-maid -presented on an old-fashioned silver salver, in an exquisite saucer, a -few lumps of white sugar! He looked hard at it; then grasped the -situation and a lump, glancing first at her, then at the sugar, as if he -did not know whether to laugh or to cry. - -She was a delightful woman. She and her two little darkeys afforded her -friends no end of diversion. She had never managed her negroes in -slavery-time. After the war, everybody's darkeys did as they pleased; hers -did a little more so. At this pair, she constantly exclaimed, in great -surprise: "They don't mind a word I say!" "My dear lady!" she was -reminded, "you must expect that. They are free. They don't belong to you -now." - -And she would ask: "If they don't belong to me, whose are they?" That was -to her a hopeless enigma. They had to belong to somebody. It was out of -decency and humanity that they should have nobody to belong to! They would -stand behind her chair, giggling and bubbling over with merriment. - - - - -THE GENERAL IN THE CORNFIELD - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -THE GENERAL IN THE CORNFIELD - - -We did anything and everything we could to make a living. Prominent -citizens became pie-sellers. Colonel Cary, of General Magruder's Staff, -came home to find his family desperately poor, as were all respectable -folks. He was a brave soldier, an able officer; before the war, principal -of a male academy at Hampton. Now, he did not know to what he could turn -his hand for the support of himself and family. He walked around his -place, came in and said to his wife: "My dear, I have taken stock of our -assets. You pride yourself on your apple-pies. We have an apple-tree, and -a cow. I will gather the apples and milk the cow, and you will make the -pies, and I will go around and sell them." - -Armed with pies, he met his aforetime antagonists at Camp Grant and -conquered them quite. The pies were delicious; the seller was a soldier, -an officer of distinction, in hard luck; and the men at Camp Grant were -soldiers, too. There was sharp demand and good price; only the -elite--officers of rank--could afford to indulge in these confections. -Well it was that Yankee mothers had cultivated in their sons an appetite -for pies. One Savannah lady made thirty dollars selling pies to Sherman's -soldiers; in Georgia's aristocratic "City by the Sea," high-bred dames -stood at basement windows selling cakes and pies to whoever would buy. - -Colonel Cary had thrifty rivals throughout Dixie. A once rich planter near -Columbia made a living by selling flowers; a Charleston aristocrat peddled -tea by the pound and molasses by the quart to his former slaves. General -Stephen Elliott, Sumter's gallant defender, sold fish and oysters which he -caught with his own hands. His friend, Captain Stoney, did likewise. -Gentlemen of position and formerly of wealth did not pause to consider -whether they would be discredited by pursuing occupations quite as humble. -Men of high attainments, without capital, without any basis upon which to -make a new start in life except "grit," did whatever they could find to do -and made merry over it. - -Yet reporters going over our battle-swept, war-scarred land from whose -fields our laboring class had been by one fell stroke diverted, judged us -by evidences of inertia seen from windows of creepy little cars--(where we -had any cars at all)--that stopped every few hours to take on wood or -water or to repair something or other. For a long time, there was good -reason why our creepy railroads should be a doubly sore subject. Under the -reconstruction governments every State paid thousands of dollars for -railroads that were never built. - -All that Southern white men did, according to some ready scribes, was to -sit around cross-roads stores, expectorate tobacco-juice, swap jokes, and -abuse Yankees and niggers. In honesty, it must be confessed there was too -much of this done, any being too much. Every section has its corps of -idlers, its crew of yarn-spinners and drinkers, even in ordinary times -when war has not left upon men the inevitable demoralisation that follows -in its train. Had railway travellers gone into cotton and cornfields and -tobacco lots, they would have found there much of the flower and chivalry -of the Old South "leading the row." Sons of fathers who had been the -wealthiest and most influential men in Dixie came home from the war to -swing the hoe and drive the plow as resolutely as ever they had manned a -battery or charged the breastworks. - -But the young men of the South were not born tillers of the soil; not -fitted by inheritance or education for manual toil. They were descendants -of generations who had not labored with their hands but had occupied -themselves as lawyers, doctors, politicians, gentlemen of leisure, and -agriculturists commanding large working forces. Our nation might have been -gainer had the Government devised measures by which talented men could -have been at once bound to its interests and their gifts utilised for the -common advantage. Instead of which, they were threatened with trial for -treason, with execution or exile, were disfranchised, disqualified, put -under the ban. Many who would have made brilliant and useful servants of -the Republic were driven abroad and found honourable service in Mexico, -Brazil, Egypt and Europe. - -It is difficult for us at this day to realise what little promise life -held for the young American of the South; difficult even for the South of -the present to appreciate the irritations and humiliations that vexed and -chafed him. Many felt that they had no longer a country. - -Mischief was inevitable as the result of repressed or distorted energies, -thwarted or stifled ambition. Some whose record for courage and steadiness -on the field of battle reflects glory on our common country, failed -utterly at adaptation. But as the patient effort of the great body politic -changed the times and opened opportunity, middle-age and youth were ready -to rush in with a will, occupying and improving fields of industry. - -But the old people of the South never reacted. Many simply sat down and -died, succumbing to bereavement, hardships and heartbreak. They felt that -their country was dead. Men of their own blood, their brothers, had set -an alien race, an ignorant race, half-human, half-savage, above them; were -insisting that they should send their children to school with children of -this race, while their consciences cried out against the mere discussion -of this thing as an evil to themselves and the negro, and against the -thing itself as crime. Intermarriage was discussed in legislative halls; -bills sanctioning it were introduced; and the horrible black, social evil -due to passions of the white man and the half-human, half-savage -woman--the incubus, the nightmare, under which the whole section had -groaned with groanings that cannot be uttered--was flung in their faces as -more than fair reason. - -With reconstruction there was strengthening of the tendency towards -expatriation. Despair and disgust drove many away; and more would have -gone had means been at hand. Whole families left the South and made homes -in Europe; among these, a goodly proportion were proud old Huguenots from -South Carolina. In some of the Cotton States it looked as if more white -men were to be lost thus than had been lost in battle. In December, 1867, -Mr. Charles Nathan, of New Orleans, announced through the press that he -had contracted with the Emperor of Brazil to transport 1,000 yearly to -that empire. - -Many went into the enemy's country--went North. Their reports to old -neighbours were that they liked the enemy immensely at home; the enemy was -serenely unconscious of the mischief his fad was working in other people's -homes. He set down everything ill that happened South to the Southern -whites' "race prejudice"; and sipped his own soup and ate his own pie in -peace. The immigrant learned that it was wise to hold his tongue when -discussion of the negro came up. He was considered not to know anything -worth hearing upon the subject. His most careful and rational utterances -would be met with a pitying look which said as plainly as words lips -polite withheld: "Race prejudice hallucination!" - -General Lee raised no uncertain voice against expatriation; from his -prison cell, Jefferson Davis deplored it in the first letters he was -allowed to write. Lee set prompt example in doing what his hand found to -do, and in choosing a task rather for public service than for private -gain. I quote a letter written by Mrs. Lee to Miss Mason, dated Derwent, -Virginia, December, 1865: - -"The papers will have told you that General Lee has decided to accept the -position at Lexington. I do not think he is very fond of teaching, but he -is willing to do anything that will give him an honourable support. He -starts tomorrow _en cheval_ for Lexington. He prefers that way, and, -besides, does not like to part even for a time from his beloved steed, the -companion of many a hard-fought battle.... The kindness of the people of -Virginia to us has been truly great, and they seem never to tire. The -settlement of Palmore's surrounding us does not suffer us to want for -anything their gardens or farms can furnish.... My heart sinks when I hear -of the destitution and misery which abound further South--gentle and -refined women reduced to abject poverty, and no hope of relief." - -Far more lucrative positions had been offered him; salaries without work, -for the mere use of his name. Solicitations came from abroad, and -brilliant opportunities invited across the ocean. He took the helm at -Washington College with this avowal: "I have a self-imposed task which I -must accomplish. I have led the young men of the South in battle. I have -seen many of them fall under my standard. I shall devote my life now to -training young men to do their duty in life." Urged in 1867 to run for -office, he declined, believing that his candidacy might not contribute to -sectional unification. As nearly perfect was this man as men are made. Our -National Capitol is the poorer because his statue is not there. If it ever -is, I should like to see on its pedestal Grant's tribute: "There was no -use to urge him to do anything against his ideas of what was right." - -When the crippled and impoverished General Hood refused to receive money -raised by subscription, the "Albany Evening Journal" commented: "It is the -first instance we have ever seen recorded of a 'Southern gentleman' too -proud or self-reliant to accept filthy lucre, come from what source it -may." The "Petersburg Index-Appeal" responded: - - "Hood has only done what Lee did a dozen times, what Beauregard did, - what Magruder did, and what President Davis did. The noble response of - Magruder to the people of Texas, who contributed a handsome purse to - procure him a fine plantation, was the impulse and utterance of the - universal spirit of the Southern soldier: 'No, gentlemen, when I - espoused the cause of the South, I embraced poverty and willingly - accepted it.'" - -Near Columbia, on the ruins of his handsome home which Sherman burned, -General Wade Hampton, clever at wood-work, built with his own hands and -with the help of his faithful negroes, a lowly cottage to shelter himself -and family. A section was added at a time, and, without any preconceived -design on his part, the structure stood, when completed, a perfect cross. -Miss Isabella Martin, looking upon it one day, exclaimed: "General, you -have here the Southern Cross!" So "Southern Cross" the place was called. -Here, Mrs. Wade Hampton, who, as Miss McDuffie, had been the richest -heiress in South Carolina, and as such and as Hampton's wife, the -guardian angel of many black folk, wrought and ruled with wisdom and with -sweetness unsoured by reverses. South Carolina offered Hampton a home, as -Virginia and then Washington College offered Lee, but Hampton, almost in -want, refused. - -This is the plight in which General M. C. Butler, Hampton's aide, came out -of the war: "Twenty-nine years old, with one leg gone, a wife and three -children to support, seventy slaves emancipated, a debt of $15,000, and, -in his pocket, $1.75 in cash." That was the situation of thousands. It -took manhood to make something of it. - -For months after the surrender, Confederates were passing through the -country to their homes, and hospitality was free to every ragged and -footsore soldier; the poor best the larder of every mansion afforded was -at the command of the gray-jacket. How diffidently proud men would ask for -bread, their empty pockets shaming them! When any man turned them off with -cold words, it was not well for his neighbours to know, for so, he was -like to have no more respectable guests. The soldiers were good company, -bringing news from far and wide. Most were cheerful, glad they were going -home, undaunted by long tramps ahead. The soldier was used to hard -marches. Now that his course was set towards where loved ones watched for -his coming, life had its rosy outlook that turned to gray for some who -reached the spot where home had stood to find only a bank of ashes. -Reports of country through which they came were often summed up: "White -folks in the fields, negroes flocking to towns. Freedmen's Bureau offices -everywhere thronged with blacks." - -A man who belonged to the "Crippled Squad," not one of whom had a full -complement of arms and legs, told this story: As four of them were -limping along near Lexington, they noticed a gray-headed white man in -rough, mud-stained clothes turning furrows with a plow, and behind him a -white girl dropping corn. Taking him for a hired man, they hallooed: -"Hello, there!" The man raised his head. "Say," they called, "can you tell -us where we can get something to eat?" He waved them towards a house, -where a lady who was on the porch, asked them to have a seat and wait -while she had food cooked. - -They had an idea that she prepared with her own hands the dinner to which -they presently sat down, of hot hoe-cakes, buttermilk, and a little meat -so smothered in lettuce leaves that it looked a great deal. When they had -cleared up the table, she said: "I am having more bread cooked if you can -wait a few minutes. I am sorry we have not more meat and milk. I know this -has been a very light repast for hungry men, but we have entertained -others this morning, and we have not much left. We hate to send our -soldiers hungry from the door; they ought to have the best of everything -when they have fought so long and bravely and suffered so much." The way -she spoke made them proud of the arms and legs they didn't have. - -Now that hunger was somewhat appeased, they began to note surroundings. -The dwelling was that of a military man and a man of piety and culture. A -lad running in addressed the lady as "Mrs. Pendleton," and said something -about "where General Pendleton is plowing." - -They stumbled to their crutches! and in blushing confusion, made humble -apologies, all the instincts of the soldier shocked at the liberties they -had taken with an officer of such high grade, and at the ease of manner -with which they had sat at his table to be served by his wife. They knew -their host for William Nelson Pendleton, late Brigadier-General, C. S. A., -Chief of Artillery of the Army of Northern Virginia, a fighting preacher. -She smiled when they blundered out the excuse that they had mistaken him -for a day-labourer. - -"The mistake has been made before," she said. "Indeed, the General is a -day-labourer in his own field, and it does not mortify him in the least -now that all our people have to work. He is thankful his strength is -sufficient, and for the help that the schoolboys and his daughters give -him." She put bread into their haversacks and sent them on their way -rejoicing. The day-labourer and his plow were close to the roadside, and -as they passed, they drew themselves up in line and brought all the hands -they had to their ragged caps in salute. - -Dr. Robert G. Stephens, of Atlanta, tells me of a Confederate soldier who, -returning armless to his Georgia home, made his wife hitch him to a plow -which she drove; and they made a crop. A Northern missionary said in 1867, -to a Philadelphia audience, that he had seen in North Carolina, a white -mother hitch herself to a plow which her eleven-year-old son drove, while -another child dropped into the furrows seeds Northern charity had given. I -saw in Virginia's Black Belt a white woman driving a plow to which her -young daughters, one a nursing mother, were hitched; and near the same -time and place an old negro driving a milch-cow to his cart. "Uncle Eph, -aren't you ashamed," I asked, "to work your milch-cow?" "Law, Miss, -milch-white-'oman wuk. Huccom cow can't wuk?" - - - - -TOURNAMENTS AND PARTIES - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -TOURNAMENTS AND STARVATION PARTIES - - -It would seem that times were too hard and life too bitter for -merry-making. Not so. With less than half a chance to be glad, the -Southerner will laugh and dance and sing--and make love. At least, he used -to. The Southerner is no longer minstrel, lover, and cavalier. He is -becoming a money-maker. With cannons at our gates and shells driving us -into cellars, guitars were tinkling, pianos were not dumb, tripping feet -were not stayed by fear and sorrow. When boys in gray came from camp, -women felt it the part of love and patriotism to give them good cheer, -wearing smiles while they were by, keeping tears for them when absent. - -With the war over and our boys coming home for good, ah, it was not hard -to laugh, sing and dance, poor as we were! "Soldiers coming up the road," -"Some soldiers here for tonight," the master of the house would say, and -doors would fling wide. "Nice fellows, I know," or "I knew this one's -father, and that one's uncle is Governor--and this one went to school with -our Frank; and these fought side by side with friends of ours," or "Their -names are so-and-so," or just, "They are gentlemen." Maidens would make -themselves fair; wardrobes held few or no changes, but one could dress -one's hair another way, put a rose in one's tresses, draw forth the -many-times-washed-over or thrice-dyed ribbon for adornment. After supper, -there would be music in the parlor, and perhaps dancing. But not always! -too often, the guest's feet were not shod for dancing. It might be that -he was clothed from shirt to shoe in garments from the host's own store. -Many a soldier would decline entering the great house and beg off from -presentations, feeling the barn a more fitting shelter for his rags, and -the company of ladies a gift the gods must withhold. - -Joy reigned in every household when its owner came home from the war, joy -that defeat at arms could not kill. The war was over! it had not ended as -we had prayed, but there was to be no crying over spilt milk if young -people had their way. - -Departure of old servants and installation of new and untried ones was -attended with untold vexation, but none of this was allowed to interfere -with the pleasure and happiness of young people when it was possible to -prevent it. Southern mistresses kept domestic difficulties in the -background or made merry over them. On the surface, domestic machinery -might seem to move without a hitch, when in reality it was in so severe a -state of dislocation that the semblance of smooth operation was little -short of a miracle. - -Reserves of cotton and tobacco that had escaped the attention of the -Yankee Army sold high. Fortunate possessors were soon flush with -greenbacks which were put in quick circulation. It was a case of a little -new bonnet and an alpaca skirt with girls everywhere; women had done -without clothes so long, they felt they just must have some now; our boys -had gone in rags so long, they must have new clothes, too; everybody had -lived so hard and been so sad, there must be joy now, love-making and -dancing. The "Starvation Party" did not go out of fashion with war. Festal -boards were often thinly spread, but one danced not the less lightly for -that. Enough it was to wing the feet to know that the bronzed young -soldier with his arm about your waist must leave you no more for the -battle. - -[Illustration: MISS ADDIE PRESCOTT - -(A Louisiana Belle) - -Afterwards Mrs. R. G. H. Kean, of Lynchburg, Va.] - -To show how little one could be festive on, we will take a peep at a -starvation party given on a plantation near Lexington, North Carolina, by -Mrs. Page, soon after General Kilpatrick's troops vacated the mansion. "We -had all been so miserable," Mrs. Page tells, "that I was just bound to -have some fun. So I gave a dining." - -She invited ten ladies, who all came wondering what on earth she could set -before them. They walked; there was not a carriage in the neighbourhood. -They were all cultured, refined women, wives and daughters of men of -prominence, and accustomed to elegant entertainment. A few days before, -one of them had sent to Mrs. Page for something to eat, saying she had not -a mouthful in the house, and Mrs. Page had shared with her a small supply -of Western pork and hardtack which her faithful coloured man, Frank, had -gotten from the Yankees. Mrs. Page had now no pork left. Her garden had -been destroyed. She had not a chair in the house, and but one cooking -utensil, a large iron pot. And not a fork, spoon, cup, plate or other -table appointment. - -With pomp and merriment, Mrs. Drane, a clergyman's widow, the company's -dean and a great favourite with everybody, was installed at the head of -the bare, mutilated table, where rude benches served as seats. Mrs. -Marmaduke Johnston, of Petersburg, was accorded second place of honour. -The _menu_ consisted of a pudding of corn-meal and dried whortle-berries -sweetened with sorghum; and beer made of persimmons and honeyshucks, also -sweetened with sorghum. The many-sided Frank was butler. The pudding, -filling the half of a large gourd, was placed in front of Mrs. Drane, and -she, using hardtack as spoon, dipped it up, depositing it daintily on -other hardtack which answered for plates and saucers. - -The beer was served from another gourd into cups made of newspapers folded -into shape; the ladies drank quickly that the liquid might not soak -through and be lost. They enjoyed the beverage and the pudding greatly and -assured their hostess that they had rarely attended a more delightful -feast. The pudding had been boiled in the large iron pot, and Frank had -transferred it to the gourd. In his kitchen and pantry, gourds of various -sorts and sizes seemed to ask: "Why were vessels of iron, pewter, and -copper ever invented, and what need has the world of china-ware so long as -we grow on the backyard fence?" - -How Frank's mistress, a frail-looking, hospitable, resourceful little -woman, provided for herself and family and helped her friends out of next -to nothing; how her cheerfulness, industry, and enterprise never failed -her or others; and how Frank aided her, would in itself fill a book. - -But then it is a story of Southern verve and inventiveness that could be -duplicated over and over again. - -Did not Sir George Campbell write in an English magazine of how much he -enjoyed a dinner in a Southern mansion, when all the feast was a dish of -roasted apples and a plate of corn-bread? Not a word of apology was -uttered by his host or hostess; converse was so cultured and pleasing, -welcome so sincere, that the poverty of the board was not to be weighed in -the balance. This host who had so much and so little to give his guest was -Colonel Washington Ball, nearest living kinsman to General George -Washington. - -The fall of 1865 was, in Virginia at least, a bountiful one. Planters' -sons had come home, gone into the fields, worked till the crop was all -laid by; and then, there was no lack of gaiety. A favourite form of -diversion was the tournament, which furnished fine sport for cavalry -riders trained under Stuart and Fitz Lee. - -One of the most brilliant took place in 1866, at a famous plantation on -the North Anna River. The race-track had been beaten down smooth and hard -beforehand by the daily training of knights. It was in a fair stretch of -meadow-land beyond the lawns and orchards. The time was October, the -weather ideal, the golden haze of Indian Summer mellowing every line of -landscape. On the day appointed the grounds were crowded with carriages, -wagonettes, buggies and vehicles of every sort, some very shabby, but -borrowing brightness from the fair young faces within. - -The knights were about twenty-five. Their steeds were not so richly -caparisoned as Scott's in "Ivanhoe," but the riders bestrode them with -perhaps greater ease and grace than heavy armor permitted mediæval -predecessors. Some wore plumed hats that had covered their heads in real -cavalry charges, and more than one warrior's waist was girt with the red -silk sash that had belted him when he rode at the head of his men as Fitz -Lee's captain. A number were in full Confederate uniform, carrying their -gray jackets as jauntily as if no battle had ever been lost to them. One -of these attracted peculiar attention. He was of very distinguished -appearance; and from his arm floated a long streamer of crape. Every one -was guessing his name till the herald cried: "Knight of Liberty Lost!" The -mourning knight swept before the crowd, bearing off on the point of his -spear the three rings which marked his victory for at least that run. - -For this sport, three gibbet-like structures stand equal distances apart -on a straight race-track. From the arm of each, a hook depends and on -each hook a ring is hung. Each knight, with lance poised and aimed, rides -full tilt down this track and takes off all the rings he can in a given -number of rides. He who captures most rings is victor. It is his right to -choose the Queen of Love and Beauty, riding up to her on the field and -offering a ring upon his spear. The knight winning the second highest -number chooses the First Maid of Honour; and so on, until there is a royal -quartette of queen and maids. - -The tournament was to the South what baseball is to the nation; it was -intensely exciting and picturesque, and, by reason of the guerdon won, -poetic, investing an ordinary mortal with such power as Paris exercised -when he gave the golden apple to Venus. It had spice of peril to make it -attractive, if "danger's self is lure alone." Fine horsemanship, a steady -hand, and sure eye were essentials. - -"Liberty Lost" won, and the mourning knight laid his laurels at the feet -of a beautiful girl who has since reigned as a social queen in a Northern -home. The coronation took place in the mansion that evening. After a -flowery address, each knight knelt and offered a crown to his fair one. -The symbols of royalty were wreaths of artificial flowers, the queen's -shaped like a coronet, with sprays forming points. Her majesty wore a gown -that had belonged to her great-grandmother; very rich silk in a bayadere -pattern, that served as becoming sheath for her slim blonde loveliness. -After the coronation, the knights led their fair ones out in the "Royal -Set" which opened the ball. - -Perhaps it is better to say that George Walker, the negro fiddler, opened -the ball. He was the most famous man of his craft in the Piedmont region. -There he was that night in all his glory at the head of his band of -banjoists, violinists and violincellist; he was grandeur and gloss -personified when he made preliminary bow and flourish, held his bow aloft, -and set the ball in motion! - -"Honour yo' pardners!" - -"And didn't we do as George told us to do!" Matoaca says. "Such -dance-provoking melodies followed as almost bewitched one's feet. 'Life on -the Ocean Wave,' 'Down-town Girls Won't You Come Out Tonight and Dance by -the Light of the Moon!' 'Fisher's Horn-Pipe' and 'Ole Zip Coon' were some -of them. Not high-sounding to folks of today, but didn't they make feet -twinkle! People did what was called 'taking steps' in those days. I can -almost hear George's fiddle now, and hear him calling: 'Ladies to the -right! Gents to the right! Ladies to the center! Gents to the center! -Hands all 'roun' an' promenade all!' Who could yell 'Do se do!' and -'Sashay all!' with such a swing?" - -About one o'clock all marched in to supper, the queen and her knights and -maidens leading. It was hard times in Virginia, but the table groaned -under such things as folks then thought ought to adorn a festal board. -There was not lacking the mighty saddle-o'-mutton, roast pig with apple in -his mouth, Smithfield ham, roast turkey, and due accompaniments. The -company marched back to the ball-room, and presently marched again to a -second supper embracing sweets of all descriptions. - -Commencements at schools and colleges, which the South began to restore -and refill as quickly as she was able, brought the young people together -and were strong features in our social life. So were Sunday schools; and, -in the country, protracted meetings or religious revivals. And barbecues. -Who that has gone out to a frolic in the Southern woods and feasted on -shote or mutton roasted over a pit and basted with vinegar and red pepper -gravy, can forget what a barbecue is! - -Summer resorts became again meeting-grounds for old friends, and new. -Social gatherings at the Greenbrier White Sulphur were notable. General -Lee was there with his daughter, and the first to lead in extending -courtesies to Northern guests attracted to the White by the reputation of -that famous watering-place. Again, our women were at their ancient haunts, -wearing silks and laces as they were prospering under the new order or as -their great-grandmothers' trunks, like that of Love and Beauty's Queen, -held reserves not yet exhausted. And under the silks and laces, hearts -cried out for loved ones who would gather on the green lawns and dance in -the great halls no more. But heroism presented a smiling face and took up -life's measure again. - -In cities changes were not so acute as in the country, where people, -without horses and vehicles, were unable to visit each other. The larger -the planter, the more extreme his family's isolation was like to be, his -land and his neighbours' lands stretching for miles between houses. I -heard a planter's wife say, "Yours is the first white woman's face I have -seen for six months." Her little daughter murmured mournfully: "And I -haven't seen a little white girl to play with for longer than that." -Multitudes who had kept open house could no longer. To a people in whom -the social instinct was so strong and hospitality second nature, abrupt -ending of neighbourly intercourse was a hard blow. - -Stay and bankrupt laws for the benefit of the debtor class and bearing -much hardship on creditors, often orphan minors, were passed, and under -these planters were sold out and moved to new places, their overseers -often succeeding them and reigning in their stead. It was not an -unknown thing for men to manage to get themselves sold out under these -laws, thus evading payment of obligations and at the same time securing a -certain quota for themselves, which the law allowed. It seemed to me that -many who took it were better off than before. There were unfortunates who -had to pay security debts for bankrupts. Much hard feeling was engendered. - -[Illustration: MRS. DAVID URQUHART, OF NEW ORLEANS - -A famous hostess, distinguished for her social graces and her good deeds.] - -Some measure for relief of the debtor class was necessary. A man who had -contracted debts on the basis of thousands of acres at fifteen to fifty -dollars an acre, and owning a hundred or more negroes, worth a thousand -dollars each, could not meet in full such engagements when his land would -not bring two dollars an acre, when his negroes were set free, and hired -labour, if he had wherewithal to hire, could not be relied on. Some men -took the Bankrupt Law for protection, then set themselves to work and paid -obligations which could not be exacted by law. - - - - -THE BONDAGE OF THE FREE - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - -THE BONDAGE OF THE FREE - - -"Had slavery lasted a few years longer," I have heard my mother say, "it -would have killed Julia, my head-woman, and me. Our burden of work and -responsibility was simply staggering." - -In the ante-bellum life of the mistress of a Southern plantation there was -no menial occupation, but administrative work was large and exacting. The -giving out of rations, clothes, medicines, nursing of the sick, cutting -out of garments, sewing, spinning, knitting, had to be directed. The -everlasting teaching and training, the watch-care of sometimes several -hundred semi-civilized, semi-savage people of all ages, dispositions and -tempers, were on the white woman's hands. - -The kitchen was but one department of that big school of domestic science, -the home on a Southern plantation, where cooks, nurses, maids, butlers, -seamstresses and laundresses had understudies or pupils; and the white -mistress, to whom every student's progress was a matter of keen personal -interest and usually of affectionate concern, was principal and director. -The typical Southern plantation was, in effect, a great social settlement -for the uplift of Africans. - -For a complete picture of plantation life, I beg my readers to turn to -that chapter in the "Life of Leonidas Polk" written by his son, Dr. W. M. -Polk, which describes "Leighton" in the sugar-lands on Bayou La Fourche. -Read of the industrial work and then of the Sabbath, when the negroes -assembled in the bishop's house where the chaplain conducted the service -while the bishop sat at the head of his servants. Worship over, women -withdrew into another room, where Mrs. Polk or the family governess gave -them instruction; the children into still another, where Bishop Polk's -daughter taught them; the men remained with the chaplain for examination -and admonition. The bishop made great efforts to preserve the sanctity of -family life among his servants. He christened their babies; their weddings -were celebrated in his own home, decorated and illuminated for them. The -honour coveted by his children was to hold aloft the silver candlesticks -while their father read the marriage service. If a couple misbehaved, they -were compelled to marry, but without a wedding-feast. - -Andrew P. Calhoun, eldest son of John C. Calhoun, was President of the -South Carolina Agricultural College and owner of large lands in Alabama -and South Carolina. He took pride in raising everything consumed on his -plantations. In the New York home of his son, Mr. Patrick Calhoun, three -of his old servants live; his wife's maid says proudly: "I have counted -thirty things on my Miss' dinner-table that were grown on the place." -Cotton and wool were grown on the place and carded, spun, dyed, woven into -cloth by negro women; in great rooms, well lighted, well aired, well -equipped, negro cutters, fitters and seamstresses fashioned neat and -comfortable garments for a contented, well-cared-for laboring force. Mrs. -Calhoun devoted as much time to this department of plantation work, which -included the industrial and moral education of negro women, as Mr. Calhoun -devoted to the general management of his lands and the industrial and -moral uplift of negro men. The Polk and Calhoun plantations were types of -thousands; and their owners types of thousands of planters who applied -the same principles, if sometimes on lesser scale, to farming operations. -No institutional work can take the place of work of this kind. It is like -play to the real thing. Without decrying Hampton, Petersburg and Tuskegee, -it can be said with truth that these institutions and many more in -combination would be unable to do for a savage race what the old planters -and the old plantation system of the South did for Africa's barbarians. -Employers of white labor might sit at the feet of those old planters and -learn wisdom. Professor Morrison, of the Chair of History and Sociology at -Clemson College, tells me that the instruction of students in their duty -to their servants constituted a recognised department in some Southern -colleges. - -[Illustration: FRANCES DEVEREUX POLK - -(Wife of General Leonidas Polk, the Warrior Bishop.) - -She was the spiritual and industrial educator of many negroes, and the -mistress of a large sugar plantation.] - -Mammy Julia was my mother's assistant superintendent, so to speak. "I -could trust almost anything to her," her mistress bore testimony, "for she -appreciated responsibility and was faithfulness itself. I don't know a -negro of the new order who can hold a candle to her." Mammy Julia and my -mother had no rest night or day. Black folks were coming with troubles, -wants, quarrels, ailments, births, marriages and deaths, from morning till -night and night till morning again. "I was glad and thankful--on my own -account--when slavery ended and I ceased to belong, body and soul, to my -negroes." As my mother, so said other Southern mistresses. - -Perhaps the Southern matron's point of view may be somewhat surprising to -those who have thought that under ante-bellum conditions, slavery was all -on the negro's side and that all Southern people were fiercely bent on -keeping him in bonds. Many did not believe in slavery and were trying to -end it. - -Mrs. Robert E. Lee's father and uncle freed some five hundred slaves, with -General Lee's approval, thus alienating from her over $500,000 worth of -property. The Hampton family, of South Carolina, sent to Liberia a great -colony of freed slaves, who presently plead to be brought home. General -Preston, Confederate, of Kentucky, freed his negroes; he would not sell, -and could not afford to keep, them; they were "over-running and ruining -his plantation, and clearing up forests for firewood; slavery is the curse -of the South." - -Many families had arranged for a gradual emancipation, a fixed percentage -of slaves being freed by each generation. By will and otherwise, they -provided against division of families, an evil not peculiar to slavery, as -immigrant ships of today, big foundling asylums, and train-loads of -home-seeking children bear evidence. - -But freedom as it came, was inversion, revolution. Whenever I pass "The -House Upside Down" at a World's Fair, I am reminded of the South after -freedom. In "South Carolina Women in the Confederacy,"[12] Mrs. Harby -tells how Mrs. Postell Geddings was in the kitchen getting Dr. Geddings' -supper, while her maid, in her best silk gown, sat in the parlour and -entertained Yankee officers. Charleston ladies cooked, swept, scrubbed, -split wood, fed horses, milked and watered the cattle; while filling their -own places as feminine heads of the house, they were servants-of-all-work -and man of the house. Mrs. Crittendon gives an anecdote matching Mrs. -Geddings'. A Columbia lady saw in Sherman's motley train an old negress -arrayed in her mistress' antiquated, ante-bellum finery, lolling on the -cushions of her mistress' carriage, and fanning (in winter) with a huge -ostrich-feather fan. "Why, Aunt Sallie, where are you going?" she called -out impulsively. "Law, honey! I'se gwine right back intuh de Union!" and -on rode Aunt Sallie, feathers and flowers on her enormous poke-bonnet all -a-flutter. - -Mrs. Jewett, of Stony Creek, saw her negro man walking behind the Yankee -Army with her husband's suit of clothes done up in a red silk handkerchief -and slung on a stick over his shoulder. Her two mulatto nurse-girls laid -down their charges, attired themselves in her best apparel and went; her -seamstress stopped sewing, jumped on a horse behind a soldier who invited -her, and away she rode. - -As victorious armies went through the country, they told the negroes, "You -are free!" Negroes accepted the tidings in different ways. Old Aunt Hannah -was not sure but that the assurance was an insult. "Law, marster!" she -said, "I ain' no free nigger! I is got a marster an' mistiss! Dee right -dar in de great house. Ef you don' b'lieve me, you go dar an' see." -"You're a d----d fool!" he cried and rode on. "Sambo, you're free!" Some -negroes picked up the master's saddle, flung it on the master's horse, -jumped on his back and rode away with the Yankees. After every Yankee army -swarmed a great black crowd on foot, men, women, and children. They had to -be fed and cared for; they wearied their deliverers. - -Yankees told my father's negroes they were free, but they did not accept -the statement until "Ole Marster" made it. I remember the night. They were -called together in the back yard--a great green space with blossomy -altheas and fruit-trees and tall oaks around, and the scent of -honeysuckles and Sweet Betseys making the air fragrant. He stood on the -porch beside a table with a candle on it. I, at his knee, looked up at -him and out on the sea of uplifted black faces. Some carried pine -torches. He read from a paper, I do not know what, perhaps the -emancipation proclamation. They listened silently. Then he spoke, his -voice trembling: - -"You do not belong to me any more. You are free. You have been like my own -children. I have never felt that you were slaves. I have felt that you -were charges put into my hands by God and that I had to render account to -Him of how I raised you, how I treated you. I want you all to do well. You -will have to work, if not for me, for somebody else. Heretofore, you have -worked for me and I have supported you, fed you, clothed you, given you -comfortable homes, paid your doctors' bills, bought your medicines, taken -care of your babies before they could take care of themselves; when you -were sick, your mistress and I have nursed you; we have laid your dead -away. I don't think anybody else can have the same feeling for you that -she and I have. I have been trying to think out a plan for paying wages or -a part of the crop that would suit us all; but I haven't finished thinking -it out. I want to know what you think. Now, you can stay just as you have -been staying and work just as you have been working, and we will plan -together what is best. Or, you can go. My crops must be worked, and I want -to know what arrangements to make. Ben! Dick! Moses! Abram! line up, -everybody out there. As you pass this porch, tell me if you mean to stay; -you needn't promise for longer than this year, you know. If you want to go -somewhere else, say so--and no hard thoughts!" - -The long line passed. One and all they said: "I gwi stay wid you, -Marster." A few put it in different words. Uncle Andrew, the dean of the -body, with wool as white as snow, a widower who went sparking every -Sunday in my grandfather's coat and my grandfather's silk hat, said: "Law, -Marster! I ain' got nowhar tuh go ef I was gwine!" Some wiped their eyes, -and my father had tears in his. - -Next morning, old Uncle Eph, Andrew's mate, was missing; his aged wife was -in great distress. She came to my father reproachfully: "Marster," she -said, "I wish you wouldn' put all dat foolishness 'bout freedom in Eph's -hade. He so ole I dunno what gwi become uh him 'long de road. When I wake -up dis mo'nin', he done tied all his close up in his hankercher and done -lit out." In a few days he returned, the butt of the quarters for many a -day. "I jes wanter see whut it feel lak tuh be free," he said, "an' I -wanter to go back to Ole Marster's plantation whar I was born. It don' -look de same dar, an' I done see nuff uh freedom." - -Presently my father was making out contracts and explaining them over and -over; he would sign his name, the negro would make his mark, the witnesses -sign; and the bond for a year's work and wages or part of the crop, was -complete. At first, contracts had to be ratified by a Freedmen's Bureau -agent, who charged master and servant each fifty cents or more. After one -of our neighbours told his negroes they were free, they all promised to -stay, as had ours. Next morning all but two were gone. In a few days all -returned. The Bureau Agent had made them come back. - -Many negroes leaving home fared worse than Uncle Eph. After the fall of -Richmond, Mr. Hill, who had been a high official of the Confederacy, went -back to his plantation, where he found but three negroes remaining, the -rest having departed for Washington, the negro heaven. One of these, a man -of seventy, said he must go, too. His ex-master could not dissuade him. -He was comfortably quartered and Mr. Hill told him he would be cared for -the rest of his life. Nothing would do but he must sell his chickens and -his little crop of tobacco to one of the other negroes and go. Mr. Hill -gave him provisions for ten days, had the wagon hitched up and sent him to -Culpeper, where he was to take the train. On Culpeper's outskirts was the -usual collection of negroes, snack-house, bad whiskey, gambling, and -kindred evils. Here Uncle John stopped. He had started with $15 cash. In -less than a week his money was gone and he was thrown out on the common. - -Mr. Hill, summoned before the Provost-Marshal on the charge of having -driven Uncle John off, said: "The man sitting out there in my buggy can -tell you whether I did that." The testimony of the black witness was -conclusive, the Provost dismissed the case. Mr. Hill went to the commons. - -Lying in the sun, stone-blind, was Uncle John. He raised his head and -listened. "Mistuh, fuh Gawd's sake, please do suppin fuh me!" "Old man, -why are you here?" "Lemme hear dat voice again!" "Uncle John!" "Bless de -Lawd, Marster! you done come. Marster, a 'oman robbed me uf all I had an' -den th'owed me out. Fuh Gawd's sake, take me home!" "I will have you cared -for tonight, and tomorrow I will come in the wagon for you." "Lawd, -Marster, I sho is glad I gwine home! I kin res' easy in my min', now I -_know_ I gwine home!" - -Mr. Hill returned to the Provost: "I shall come or send for the old man -tomorrow," he said. "Meanwhile, he must be cared for." The Provost was -indifferent. This was one of many cases. "If you do not provide food and -shelter for that negro," he was sharply assured, "I shall report you to -the authorities at Washington." The Provost promised and sent two -orderlies to attend to the matter. Next morning the master was back. The -old man was dead. He had been put in the scale-house, an open shed. There, -instead of in his old home surrounded by friends who loved him, Uncle John -had breathed his last. - -From many other stories, companions in pathos, I choose Mammy Lisbeth's. -Her son went with the Yankee army. She grieved for him till her mistress' -heart ached. The mistress returned one day from a visit to find Lisbeth -much excited. "Law, Miss, I done hyerd f'om my chile!" "How, Mammy?" "A -Yankee soldier come by an' I ax 'im is he seed my son whar he been goin' -'long? An' I tell 'im all 'bout how my chile look. An' he say he done been -seen 'im. An' I say, 'Law, mister, ain't my chile gwi come home?' An' he -gimme de answer: 'He can't come ef he ain' got no money.' An' I answer, -'Law, marster, I got a fi'-dollar gol' piece my ole miss dat's done dade -gimme long time ago. Does you know any safe passin'?' An' he answer, jes -ez kin', how he gwine datter way hisse'f, an' he'll kyar it. I run in de -house an' got dat fi'-dollar gol' piece an' gi' to 'im. An' now my chile's -comin' home, Miss! my chile's comin' home! He say, 'In 'bout two weeks, -you go to de kyars evvy day an' look fuh im.'" Her mistress had not the -heart to tell her the man had robbed her. Never before had a white man -robbed her; it was second nature to trust the white face. - -"It is heart-breaking," her mistress wrote, "to see how she watches for -him. She is at the depot every day, scanning the face of every coloured -passenger getting off. I've been to the Bureau making inquiries. The Agent -says if he could catch the rascal, the robber, he would string him up by -the thumbs, but her description fits any strolling private. He says: 'Any -woman who would trust a stranger so with her money deserves to be fooled. -I wouldn't trouble about it, Madam!' Yankees do not understand our -coloured people and us. How can I help being troubled by anything that -troubles Mammy Lisbeth?" - -Here is another old letter: "Cousin mine: I came home from school a few -days ago. Railroads all broken up and it took several days to make the -journey in the carriage, stopping over-night along the route. At most -houses, there was hardly anything to offer but shelter, but hospitality -was perfect. Only cornbread and sassafras tea at one place; no servants to -render attention; silver gone; family portraits punctured with bayonets; -furniture and mirrors broken. Reaching home, found everything strange -because of great change in domestic regime. Our cook, who has reigned in -our kitchen for thirty years, is in Richmond, coining money out of a -restaurant. Most of our servants have gone to the city. Our old butler and -Mammy abide. I think it would have killed me had Mammy gone! - -"I cannot tell you how it oppressed me to miss the familiar black faces I -have loved all my life, and to feel that our negroes cared so little for -us, and left at the first invitation. I have something strange to tell -you. Mammy has been free since before I was born. I never knew till now. I -was utterly wretched, and exclaimed: 'Well, Mammy, I reckon you'll go -too!' She took it as a deadly insult; I had to humble myself. While she -was mad, the secret burst out: 'Ef I'd wanted to go, I could ha' gone long -time ago. No Yankees sot me free! My marster sot me free.' She showed me -her manumission papers in grandfather's hand, which she has worn for I -don't know how long, in a little oil-silk bag around her neck, never -caring to use them. Domestic cares are making me gray! But I get some fun -trying to do things I never did before, while Mammy scolds me for -'demeaning' myself." There was honour in the "gritty" way the Southern -housewife adapted herself to the situation, humour in the way spoiled -maidens played the part of milkmaid or of Bridget. - -"Do you know how to make lightbread?" one of our friends inquired, and -proceeded to brag of her new accomplishments, adding: "I had never gotten -a meal in my life until the morning after the Yankees passed, when I woke -to find not a single servant on the place. There was a lone cow left. I -essayed to milk her, but retired in dire confusion. I couldn't make the -milk go in the pail to save my life! It squirted in my face and eyes and -all over my hair. The cow switched her tail around and cut my countenance, -made demonstrations with her hind feet, and I retired. One of my daughters -sat on the milking-stool and milked away as if she had been born to it." - -"The first meal I got," another friend wrote, "my sons cooked. They -learned how in the army. I thought the house was coming down while they -were beating the biscuit! They drove me from the kitchen. 'We don't hate -the Yankees for thrashing us,' they said, 'but God knows we hate them for -turning our women into hewers of wood and drawers of water.' Now, I'm as -good a cook as my boys. Can do everything domestic except kill a chicken. -I turn the chicken loose every time." - -"I write in a merry vein," was another recital, "because it is no good to -write in any other. But I have the heart-break over things. I see this big -plantation, once so beautifully kept up, going to rack and ruin. I see the -negroes I trained so carefully deteriorating every day. We suffer from -theft, are humiliated by impertinence; and cannot help ourselves. Negroes -call upon me daily for services that I, in Christian duty, must render -whether I am able or not. And I cannot call upon them for one thing but I -must pay twice over--and I have nothing to pay with. This is the first -rule in their lesson of freedom--to get all they can out of white folks -and give as little as possible in return." - -Letters teemed with experiences like this: "We went to sleep one night -with a plantation full of negroes, and woke to find not one on the -place--every servant gone to Sherman in Atlanta. Negroes are camped out -all around that city. We had thought there was a strong bond of affection -on their side as well as ours! We have ministered to them in sickness, -infancy, and age. But poor creatures! they don't know what freedom is, and -they are crazy. They think it the opening of the door of Heaven. Some put -me in mind of birds born and raised in a cage and suddenly turned loose -and helpless; others, of hawks, minks and weasels, released to do -mischief. - -"We heard that there was much suffering in the camps; presently our -negroes were all back, some ill from exposure. Maum Lucindy sent word for -us to send for her, she was sick. Without a vehicle or team on the place, -it looked like an impossible proposition, but my little boys patched up -the relics of an old cart, borrowed the only steer in the neighbourhood, -and got Maum Lucindy back. The raiders swept us clean of everything. We -are unable to feed ourselves. How we shall feed and clothe the negroes -when we cannot make them work, I do not know." - -My cousin, Mrs. Meredith, of Brunswick, Virginia, congratulated herself, -when only one of her servants deserted his post to join Sheridan's trail -of camp-followers. A week after Simeon's departure, she woke one morning -to discover that six women had decamped, one leaving her two little -children in her cabin from which came pitiful wails of "Mammy!" "Mammy!" -Simeon had come in the night, and related of Black's and White's (now -Blackstone) where a garrison had been established, that calico dresses -were as plentiful as leaves on trees and that coloured women were parading -the streets with white soldiers for beaux. My cousin, Mrs. White, said a -whole wagon-load of negro women passed her house going to Blackstone, and -that one of them insisted upon presenting her with a four-year-old child, -declaring it too much trouble. It was not an unknown thing for negro -mothers to leave their children along the roadsides. - -Blackstone drew recruits until there was just one woman-servant remaining -with the Merediths. Why she stayed was a mystery, but as she was "the only -pebble on the beach," everything was done to make home attractive. One day -she asked permission (why, could not be imagined) to go visiting. She did -not return. Shortly, Captain Meredith was haled before the Freedmen's -Bureau at Black's and White's to answer the charge of thrashing Viny. -Marched into court, he took a chair. "Get up," said the Bureau Agent, "and -give the lady a seat." He rose, and Viny dropped into it. She was -shamefaced and brazen by turns; finally, burst into tears and begged "Mars -Tawm's" pardon, saying she had brought the charge because she had "no -'scuse for leavin'" and had to invent one; "nevver knowed Mars Tawm was -gwi be brung in cote 'bout it." - -The early stirrings of the social equality problem were curious. -Adventurous Aunt Susan tried the experiment of "eatin' wid white folks." -She was bursting to tell us about it, yet loath to reveal her -degradation--"White folks dat'll eat wid me ain't fitten fuh me to eat -wid," being the negro position. "But dese folks was rale quality, Miss," -Susan said when murder was out. "I kinder skittish when dee fus' ax me to -set down wid 'em. I couldn' eat na'er mouthful wid white folks a-lookin' -at me an' a rale nice white gal handin' vittles. An' presen'ly, mum, ef I -didn' see dat white gal settin' in de kitchen eatin' her vittles by -herse'f. Rale nice white gal! I say, 'Huccum you didn' eat wid tur white -folks?' She say, 'I de servant.'" - -Mrs. Betts, of Halifax (Va.), was in her kitchen, her cook, who was in her -debt, having failed to put in an appearance. The cook's husband approached -the verandah and requested a dollar. "Where is Jane?" he was asked. "Why -hasn't she been here to do her work?" "She are keepin' parlour." "What is -that?" "Settin' up in de house hol'in' her han's. De Civilise Bill done -been fulfill an' niggers an' white folks jes alike now." - -Coloured applicant for menial position would say to the door-opener: "Tell -dat white 'oman in dar a cullud lady out here want to hire." "De cullud -lady" was capricious. My sister in Atlanta engaged one for every day in -one month, in fact, engaged more than that average, engaged every one -applying, hoping if ten promised to come in time to get breakfast, one -might appear. - -With two hundred black trial justices, South Carolina had more than her -share of funny happenings, as of tragic. A gentleman who had to appear -before some tribunal, wrote us: "Whom do you suppose I found in the seat -of law? Pete, my erstwhile stable-boy. He does not know A from Z, had not -the faintest idea of what was to be done. 'Mars Charles,' he said, 'you -jes fix 'tup, please, suh. You jes write down whut you think orter be -wroted, an' I'll put my mark anywhar you tell me.'" - -Into a store in Wilmington sauntered a sable alderman whom the merchant -had known from boyhood as "Sam." "What's the matter with Sam?" the -merchant asked as Sam stalked out. Soon, Sam stalked back. "Suh, you didn' -treat me wid proper respecks." "How, Sam?" "You called me 'Sam,' which my -name is Mr. Gary." "You're a d----d fool! There's the door!" Gary had the -merchant up in the mayor's court. "What's the trouble?" asked the mayor. -"Dis man consulted me." "You ought to feel flattered! What did he do to -you?" "He called me 'Sam,' suh." "Ain't that your name?" "My name's Mr. -Gary." "Ain't it Sam, too?" "Yessuh, but--" "Well, there ain't any law to -compel a man to call another 'Mister.' Case dismissed." "Dar gwi be a law -'bout dat," muttered Sam. - -Washington was the place of miracles. When Uncle Peter went there, some -tricksters told him his wool could be made straight and his colour -changed--"Said dee could make it jes lak white folks' ha'r," he informed -his mistress mournfully, when he had paid the price--nearly his entire -capital--and returned home with flaming red wool. His wife did not know -him, or pretended not to, and drove him out of the house. He appealed to -his mistress and she made Manda behave herself. - -"Ole Miss," asked my mother's little handmaiden, "now, I'se free, is I gwi -tu'n white lak white folks?" "You must not be ashamed of the skin God gave -you, Patsy," said her mistress kindly. "Your skin is all right." "But I -druther be white, Ole Miss." And there was something pathetic in the -aspiration. - -Some of the older and more intelligent blacks held their children back -from doffing with undignified haste old ways for new. But in most cases, -the Simian quality showed itself promptly ascendant. Negroes did things -they saw white people do, not because these things were right or seemly, -but because white people did them, selecting for imitation trifles in -conduct which they thought marked the social dividing line between white -and black. As, for instance, they dropped the old sweet "Daddy" and -"Mammy" for the dreadful "Pa" and "Ma," or the infantile "Popper" and -"Mommer" which white people inflict upon parents. It would be laughable to -hear a big buck negro addressing his sire as "Popper." - -I have seen in a Southern street-car all blacks sitting and all whites -standing; have seen a big black woman enter a car and flounce herself down -almost into the lap of a white man; have seen white ladies pushed off -sidewalks by black men. The new manners of the blacks were painful, -revolting, absurd. The freedman's misbehaviour was to be condoned only by -pity that accepted his inferiority as excuse. Southerners had taken great -pains and pride in teaching their negroes good manners; they wanted them -to be courtly and polished, and it must be said for the negroes, they took -polish well. It was with keen regret that their old preceptors saw them -throw all their fine schooling in etiquette to the winds. - -Interest in and affection for negroes made these new manners the more -obnoxious. Here, in one woman's statement, is the point illustrated: "I -considered Mammy part of our family; my family pride would have been -aggrieved, I would have tingled with mortification, to see her so far -forget what was due herself as to push herself into places where she was -not wanted. These are things she could not possibly do of herself, her -own good taste, perfect breeding, and sturdy self-respect forbidding. But -her husband and son quickly succumbed to the demoralisation of freedom and -were vulgar and troublesome; we were in fear and trembling lest they -should lead her into some situation in church, theatre, or car, where she -would find herself conspicuous and from which she would not know how to -withdraw until officially escorted out in the midst of trouble created by -her men." - -Many worthy negroes, the old, infirm and children, lost needed protection. -Negroes had not been permitted to get drunk--except around corn-shucking -and Christmas. There was no such restraint now. Formerly, a negro, if so -disposed, could not beat his child unmercifully. Now, women and children -might feel a heavy hand unknown before. White people might not interfere -in family disputes as formerly, though they continued, at personal risk, -to do what they could. A case in point was that of Mr. R., a respected -merchant of Petersburg, who ejected his cook's drunken husband from the -kitchen where the brute was cruelly maltreating her. The old gentleman was -arrested and marched through the streets, as I have been told, by negro -sergeants to trial before a negro magistrate. - -A characteristic common to uncultured motherhood is over-indulgence and -over-severity by turns. When provoked, the negro mother would descend like -a fury upon her offspring, beating it as a former master would never have -suffered her to abuse his property. A word or suggestion from a white -would bring fresh blows upon the luckless wight, the mother thinking thus -to demonstrate independence and ownership. - -Under freedom, negroes developed bodily ills from which they had seemed -immune. A consumptive of the race was rarely heard of before freedom. -After freedom, they began to die of pulmonary complaints. There were -frequent epidemics of typhoid fever, quarters not being well kept. "The -race is dying out," said prophets. Negroes began to grow mad. An insane -negro was rarely heard of during slavery. Regular hours, regular work, -chiefly out of doors, sobriety, freedom from care and responsibility, had -kept the negro singularly exempt from insanity and various other -afflictions that curse the white. Big lunatic asylums established for -negroes soon after the war and their continual enlargement tell their own -story.[13] - -Freedom broke up families. Under stress of temptation, the young and -strong deserted the aged, the feeble, the children, leaving these to shift -for themselves or to remain a burden upon a master or mistress themselves -impoverished and, perhaps, old and infirm. - -In the face of so much distraction, demoralisation and disorder, the -example of those negroes who were not affected by it shines out with -greater clearness as witness for the best that is in the race. Thousands -stood steadfastly to their posts, superior to temptations which might have -shaken white people, performing their duties faithfully, caring for their -children, sick and aged, shirking no debt of love and gratitude to past -owners. Some negroes still live in families for which their ancestors -worked, the bond of centuries never having been broken. - -When this is true, the tie between white and black is yet strong, sweet -and tender, like the tie of blood. The venerable "uncles" and "aunties" -with their courtly manners, their good warm hearts, their love for the -whites, are swiftly passing away, and their like will not be seen again. -They were America's black pearl; and America had as good reason to be -proud of her faithful and efficient serving-class as of her Anglo-Saxons. -They were needed; they filled an honourable and worthy place and filled it -well. - -[Illustration: MRS. ANDREW PICKENS CALHOUN - -Daughter of General Duff Green, of Georgia, and daughter-in-law of John C. -Calhoun, the statesman, of South Carolina. - -This picture was taken when Mrs. Calhoun was 71 years of age.] - -This is not to justify slavery. Slavery was forced upon this country over -Colonial protests, particularly from Southern sections fearing -negroisation of territory; the slave-trade was profitable to the English -Crown; our forefathers, coming into independence, faced a problem of awful -magnitude in the light of Santo Domingo horrors; New England's slave-ships -and Eli Whitney's cotton-gin complicated it; it is curious to read in the -proceedings of the Sixth Congress how Mr. John Brown, of Rhode Island, -urged that this Nation should not be deprived of a right, enjoyed by every -civilised country, of bringing slaves from Africa[14]--particularly as -transference to a Christian land was a benefit to Africans, a belief held -by many who believed that the Bible sanctioned slavery. Through kindliness -of temperament on both sides and the clan feeling fostered by the old -plantation life of the South, the white man and the negro made the best -they could of an evil thing. But the world has now well learned that a -superior race cannot afford to take an inferior into such close company as -slavery implies. For the service of the bond-slave the master ever pays to -the uttermost in things precious as service, imparting refinements, -ideals, standards, morals, manners, graces; in the end he pays that which -he considers more precious than service; he pays his blood, and in more -ways than one. - - - - -BACK TO VOODOOISM - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - -BACK TO VOODOOISM - - -The average master and mistress of the old South were missionaries without -the name. Religious instruction was a feature of the negro quarters on the -Southern plantation--the social settlements for Africans in America. - -Masters and mistresses, if themselves religious, usually held Sabbath -services and Sunday schools for blacks. Some delegated this task, -employing preachers and teachers. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was the -first rice planter to introduce systematic religious instruction among -negroes on the Santee, influenced thereto by Bishop Capers. He subscribed -to the Methodist Episcopal Mission for them, and a minister came every -week to catechise the children and every Sabbath to preach at the negro -church which Mr. Pinckney, with the assistance of his neighbours, -established for the blacks on his own and neighbouring plantations. Soon -fifty chapels on his model sprang up along the seaboard. In the Methodist -churchyard in Columbia, a modest monument marks the grave of Bishop -Capers, "Founder of the Mission to the Slaves." Nearby sleeps Rev. William -Martin, who was a distinguished preacher to whites and a faithful -missionary to blacks. In Zion Presbyterian Church, Charleston, built -largely through the efforts of Mr. Robert Adger, no less a preacher than -Rev. Dr. Girardeau ministered to negroes. The South entrusted the -spiritual care of her negroes to her best and ablest, and what she did for -them is interwoven with all her history. You will hear to-day how the -great clock on top of the church on Mr. Plowden Weston's plantation kept -time for plantations up and down the Waccamaw. In that chapel, Rev. Mr. -Glenrie and an English catechist diligently taught the blacks. After -Sherman's visit to Columbia, Trinity (Episcopal) Church had no Communion -service; the sacred vessels of precious metals belonging to the negro -chapel on the Hampton place were borrowed for Trinity's white -congregation. - -The rule where negroes were not so numerous as to require separate -churches was for both races to worship in one building. Slavery usages -were modelled on manorial customs in England, where a section of church or -chapel is set apart for the peasantry, another for gentry and nobility. -The gallery, or some other section of our churches, was reserved for -servants, who thus had the same religious teaching we had; there being -more of them, they were often in larger evidence than whites at worship. -After whites communed, they received the Sacrament from the same hands at -the same altar. Their names were on our church rolls. Our pastors often -officiated at their funerals; sometimes an old "exhorter" of their own -colour did this; sometimes our pastors married them, but this ceremony was -not infrequently performed by their masters. - -The Old African Church, of Richmond, was once that city's largest -auditorium. In it great meetings were held by whites, and famous speakers -and artists (Adelina Patti for one) were heard. One of Mr. Davis' last -addresses as President was made there. The regular congregation was black -and their pastor was Rev. Robert Ryland, D. D., President of Richmond -College; "Brother Ryland," they called him. He taught them with utmost -conscientiousness; they loved him and he them. When called upon for the -marriage ceremony, he would go to the home of their owners, and marry them -in the "white folks' house" or on the lawn before a company of whites and -blacks. Then, as fee, a large iced cake would be presented to him by a -groomsman with great pomp. - -After the war, the old church was pulled down, and a new one erected by -the negroes with assistance of whites North and South. Then they wrote Dr. -Ryland, who had gone to Kentucky, asking him to return and dedicate it. He -answered affectionately, saying he appreciated greatly this evidence of -their regard and that nothing would give him greater pleasure, but he was -too poor to come; he would be with them in spirit. They replied that the -question of expense was none of his business; it was theirs. He wrote that -they must apply the sum thus set aside to current expenses, to meet which -it would be needed. They answered that they would be hurt if he did not -come; they wanted no one else to dedicate their church. So he came, -stopping at Mr. Maury's. - -He was greatly touched when he met his old friends, the congregation -receiving him standing. So much feeling was displayed on their part, such -deep emotion experienced on his, that he had to retire to the study before -he could command himself sufficiently to preach. - -In religious life, after the war, the negro's and the white man's path -parted quickly. Negro galleries in white churches soon stood empty. -Negroes were being taught that they ought to sit cheek by jowl in the same -pews with whites or stay away from white churches. - -With freedom, the negro, _en masse_, relapsed promptly into the voodooism -of Africa. Emotional extravaganzas, which for the sake of his health and -sanity, if for nothing else, had been held in check by his owners, were -indulged without restraint. It was as if a force long repressed burst -forth. "Moans," "shouts" and "trance meetings" could be heard for miles. -It was weird. I have sat many a night in the window of our house on the -big plantation and listened to shouting, jumping, stamping, dancing, in a -cabin over a mile distant; in the gray dawn, negroes would come creeping -back, exhausted, and unfit for duty. - -In some localities, devil-dancing, as imported from Africa centuries ago, -still continues. I have heard of one place in South Carolina where -worshippers throw the trance-smitten into a creek, as the only measure -sufficiently heroic to bring them out of coma. Devil-worship was rife in -Louisiana just after the war. - -One of my negro friends tells me: "Soon atter de war, dar wuz a -trance-meetin' in dis neighbourhood dat lasted a week. De cook at -marster's would git a answer jes befo' dinner dat ef he didn' bring a part -uv evvything he cooked to de meetin', 'de Lawd would snatch de breath -outen his body.' He brung it. Young gals dee'd be layin' 'roun' in -trances. A gal would come to meetin' w'arin' a jacket a white lady gin -'er. One uh de gals in a trance would say: 'De Lawd say if sich an' sich a -one don' pull dat jacket off, he gwi snatch de breath out dar body.' One -ole man broke dat meetin' up. Two uv his gran'sons was lyin' out in a -trance. He come down dar, wid a han'-full uh hickory switches an' laid de -licks on dem gran'chillun. Evvybody took out an' run. Dat broke de meetin' -up. - -"Endurin' slavery, dar marsters wouldn' 'low niggers tuh do all dat -foolishness. When freedom come, dee lis'n to bad advice an' lef' de white -folks' chu'ches an' go to doin' all sorts uh nawnsense. Now dee done -learnt better again. Dee goin' back sorter to de white folks' chu'ches. -Heap uh Pristopals lak dar use tuh be. In Furginny, Bishop Randolph come -'roun' an' confirm all our classes. An' de Baptis'es dee talk 'bout takin' -de cullud Baptis'es under dar watch-keer. An' all our folks dee done -learnt heap better an' all what I been tellin' you. I don' want you tuh -put dat in no book lessen you say we-all done improved." - -Southern men who stand at the head of educational movements for negroes, -state that they have advanced greatly in a religious sense, their own -educated ministry contributing to this end. Among those old half-voodoo -shouters and dreamers of dreams were negroes of exalted Christian -character and true piety, and, industrially, of far more worth to society -than the average educated product. I have known sensible negroes who -believed that they "travelled" to heaven and to hell.[15] - -It has been urged that darkness would have been quickly turned to light -had Southern masters and mistresses performed their full duty in the -spiritual instruction of their slaves. To change the fibre of a race is -not a thing quickly done even where undivided and intense effort is bent -in this direction. The negro, as he came here from Africa, changed much -more quickly for the better in every respect than under freedom he could -have done. It has been charged that we had laws against teaching negroes -to read. I never heard of them until after the war. All of us tried to -teach darkeys to read, and nothing was ever done to anybody about it. If -there were such laws, we paid no attention to them, and they were framed -for the negroes' and our protection against fanatics.[16] - -I have treated this subject to show the swing back to savagery the instant -the master-hand was removed; one cause of demoralisation in field and -kitchen; the superstitious, volatile, inflammable material upon which -political sharpers played without scruple. - - - - -THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII - -THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU - - -Federal authorities had a terrific problem to deal with in four millions -of slaves suddenly let loose. Military commanders found themselves between -the devil and the deep sea. - -Varied instructions were given to bring order out of chaos. "Freedmen that -will use any disrespectful language to their former masters will be -severely punished," is part of a ukase issued by Captain Nunan, at -Milledgeville, in fervent if distracted effort for the general weal. By -action if not by order, some others settled the matter this way: "Former -masters that will use any disrespectful language to their former slaves -will be severely punished"; as witness the case where a venerable lady, -bearing in her own and that of her husband two of the proudest names in -her State, was marched through the streets to answer before a military -tribunal the charge of having used offensive language to her cook. - -With hordes of negroes pilfering and pillaging, new rulers had an elephant -on their hands. No vagrant laws enacted by Southern Legislatures in 1865-6 -surpassed in severity many of the early military mandates with penalties -for infraction. The strongest argument in palliation of the reconstruction -acts is found in these laws which were construed into an attempt to -re-enslave the negro. The South had no vagrant class before the war and -was provided with no laws to meet conditions of vagrancy which followed -emancipation with overwhelming force. - -Comparing these laws with New England's, we find that in many respects the -former were modelled on the latter, from which the words "ball and chain," -"master and mistress" and the apprentice system, which Mr. Blaine declared -so heinous, might well have been borrowed, though New England never faced -so grave a vagrancy problem as that which confronted the South. - -Negroes flocked to cities, thick as blackbirds. Federal commanders issued -orders: "Keep negroes from the cities." "The Government is feeding too -many idlers." "Make them stay on the plantations." "Impress upon them the -necessity of making a crop, or famine is imminent throughout the South." -"Do not let the young and able-bodied desert their children, sick, and -aged." As well call to order the wild things of the woods! In various -places something like the old "patter-roller" system of slavery was -adopted by the Federals, wandering negroes being required to show passes -from employers, saying why they were abroad. - -General Schofield's Code for the Government of Freedmen in North Carolina -(May, 1865) says: "Former masters are constituted guardians of minors in -the absence of parents or other near relatives capable of supporting -them." The Radicals made great capital out of a similar provision in -Southern vagrancy laws. - -Accounts of confusion worse confounded wrung this from the "New York -Times" (May 17, 1865): "The horse-stealing, lemonade and cake-vending -phase of freedom is destined to brief existence. The negro misunderstands -the motives which made the most laborious, hard-working people on the face -of the globe clamour for his emancipation. You are free, Sambo, but you -must work. Be virtuous, too, O Dinah! 'Whew! Gor Almighty! bress my -soul!'" - -The "Chicago Times" (July 7, 1865) gives a Western view: "There is chance -in this country for philanthropy, a good opening for abolitionists. It is -to relieve twenty-eight millions of whites held in cruel bondage by four -million blacks, a bondage which retards our growth, distracts our -thoughts, absorbs our efforts, drives us to war, ruptures our government, -disturbs our tranquillity, and threatens direfully our future. There never -was such a race of slaves as we; there never was another people ground so -completely in the dust as this nation. Our negro masters crack their whips -over our legislators and our religion." - -The Freedmen's Bureau was created March 3, 1865, for the care and -supervision of negroes in Federal lines. Branches were rapidly established -throughout the South and invested with almost unlimited powers in matters -concerning freedmen. An agency's efficiency depended upon the agent's -personality. If he were discreet and self-respecting, its influence was -wholesome; if he were the reverse, it was a curse. If he were inclined to -peculate, the agency gave opportunity; if he were cruel--well, negroes who -were hung up by the thumbs, or well annointed with molasses and tied out -where flies could find them had opinions. - -I recall two stories which show how wide a divergence there might be -between the operations of two stations. A planter went to the agent in his -vicinity and said: "Captain, I don't know what to do with the darkeys on -my place. They will not work, and are committing depredations on myself -and neighbours." The agent went out and addressed the negroes: "Men, what -makes you think you can live without work? The Government is not going to -support any people in idleness on account of their complexions. I shall -not issue food to another of you. I have charged this planter to bring -before me any case of stealing. If you stay on this plantation, you are to -work for the owner." - -In a week, the planter reported that they still refused to labour or to -leave; property was disappearing, wanton damage was being done; but it was -impossible to spot thieves and vandals. The agent, a man of war, went up -in a hurry, and his language made the air blue! "If I come again," was his -parting salutation, "I'll bring my cannon, and if you don't hoe, plow, or -do whatever is required, I'll blow you all to pieces!" They went to work. - -A gentleman of Fauquier tells me: "When I got home from prison, July, -1865, I found good feelings existing between whites and their former -slaves; everything was going on as before the war except that negroes were -free and received wages. After a while there came down a Bureau Agent who -declared all contracts null and void and that no negro should work for a -white except under contract written and approved by him. This demoralised -the negroes and engendered distrust of whites." - -"If a large planter was making contracts," I heard Mr. Martin, of the -Tennessee Legislature, relate, "the agent would intermeddle. I had to make -all mine in the presence of one. These agents had to be bribed to do a -white man justice. A negro would not readily get into trouble with a -gentleman of means and position when he would make short work of shooting -a poor white. Yet the former had owned slaves and the latter had not." - -Planters, making contracts, might have to journey from remote points -(sometimes a distance of fifty miles over bad roads), wherever a Bureau -was located, whites and blacks suffering expense, and loss of time. Both -had to fee the agent. A contract binding on the white was not binding on -the negro, who was irresponsible. If the Bureau wrought much mischief, it -also wrought good, for there were some whites ready to take advantage of -the negro's ignorance in driving hard bargains with him; sorrowfully be it -said, if able to tip the agent, they would usually be able to drive the -hard bargain. - -After examination for the Government into Bureau operations, Generals -Fullerton and Steedman reported, May, 1866: "Negroes regard the Bureau as -an indication that people of the North look upon the whites here as their -natural enemies, which is calculated to excite suspicion and bad feeling. -Only the worthless and idle ask interference, the industrious do not -apply. The effect produced by a certain class of agents, is bitterness and -antagonism between whites and freedmen, a growing prejudice on the part of -planters to the Government and expectations on the part of freedmen that -can never be realised. Where there has been no such interference or bad -advice given, there is a growing feeling of kindness between races and -good order and harmony prevail." They condemned the "arbitrary, -unnecessary and offensive interference by the agents with the relations of -the Southern planters and their freedmen." - -General Grant had reported (Dec. 18, 1865) to President Johnson, after a -Southern tour: "The belief widely spread among freedmen that the lands of -former owners will, at least in part, be divided among them, has come -through agents of this Bureau. This belief is seriously interfering with -the willingness of the freedmen to make contracts." - -Whether agents originated or simply winked at the red, white and blue -stick enterprise, I am unable to say. Into a neighborhood would come -strangers from the North, seeking private interviews with negroes -possessing a little cash or having access to somebody else's cash; to -these would be shown, with pledges of secrecy, packages of red, white and -blue sticks, four to each package. "Get up before light on such a date, -plant a stick at the four corners of any piece of land not over a mile -square, and the land is yours. Be wary, or the rebels will get ahead of -you." - -Packages were five dollars each. One gentleman found a set for which he -had lent part of the purchase money planted on his land. If a negro had -not the whole sum, the seller would "trust" him for the balance till he -"should come into possession of the land." - -Generals Fullerton and Steedman advised discontinuance of the Bureau in -Virginia; and some similar recommendation must have accompanied the report -for Florida and the Carolinas which contained such revelations as this -about the Trent River Settlement, where 4,000 blacks lived in "deplorable -condition" under the superintendency of Rev. Mr. Fitz, formerly U. S. A. -Chaplain. "Four intelligent Northern ladies," teaching school in the -Settlement, witnessed the harsh treatment of negroes by Mr. Fitz, such as -suspension by the thumbs for hours; imprisonment of children for playing -on the Sabbath; making negroes pay for huts; taxing them; turning them out -on the streets. Interesting statements were given in regard to the -"planting officials" who impressed negroes to work lands under such -overseers as few Southern masters (outside of "Uncle Tom's Cabin") would -have permitted to drive negroes they owned, the officials reaping profits. - -The Bureau had ways of making whites know their place. One could gather a -book of stories like this, told me recently by an aged lady, whose name I -can give to any one entitled to ask: "Captain B., of the Freedmen's -Bureau, was a very hard man. He took up farms around and put negroes on -them. We had a large place; he held that over a year and everything was -destroyed. Saturdays, Captain B. would send many negroes out there--and it -was pandemonium! My husband was in prison. My father was eighty; he would -not complain, but I would. We went to the Bureau repeatedly about the -outrages. Captain B. was obsequious, offered father wine; but he did not -stop the outrages. Once he asked: 'Have you not had any remuneration for -your place?' 'No,' I said, 'and we are not asking it. We only beg you to -make the negroes you send out there behave decently.' He said he would do -anything for us, but did nothing; at last, I went direct to General -Stoneman, and he helped us." - -Not long after Generals Grant's, Fullerton's, and Steedman's reports, -Congress enlarged the powers of the Bureau. Coincident with this, the -negro became a voter, the Bureau a political machine, the agent a -candidate. The Bureau had been active in securing negro enfranchisement. -It was natural that ambitious agents should send hair-raising stories -North of the Southerner's guile, cruelty and injustice, and touching ones -of the negro's heavenly-mindedness in general and of his fitness to be an -elector and law-maker in particular; all proving the propriety and -necessity of his possession of the ballot for self-protection and defense. - -In signal instances, the Bureau became the negro's protector in crime, as -when its officials demanded at one time of Governor Throckmorton, of -Texas, pardon and release of two hundred and twenty-seven negroes from the -penitentiary, some of whom had been confined for burglary, arson, rape, -murder. - -The Bureau did not in the end escape condemnation from those for whom it -was created, and who, on acquisition of the ballot, became its "spoiled -darlings." "De ossifers eat up all de niggers' rations, steal all dey -money, w'ar all dey Sunday clo'se," said Hodges, of Princess Anne, in -Virginia's Black and Tan Convention. The failure of the Freedmen's Savings -Bank was a scandal costing pain and humiliation to all honest Northerners -connected with the institution, and many a negro his little hoard and his -disposition to accumulate. - -It is not fair to overlook benefits conferred by the Bureau because it -failed to perform the one great and fine task it might have accomplished, -as the freedman's first monitor, in teaching him that freedom enlarges -responsibility and brings no exemption from toil. If much harm, great good -was also done in distribution of Government rations, in which whites -sometimes received share with blacks. In numbers of places, both races -found the agent a sturdy friend and wise counsellor.[17] - -No one who knows General O. O. Howard, who was Commissioner, can, I think, -doubt the sincerity and purity of purpose which animated him and scores of -his subordinates. From the start, the Bureau must have been a difficult -organization to handle; once the negro entered into count as a possible or -actual political factor, the combined wisdom of Solomon and Moses could -not have made its administration a success nor fulfilled the Government's -benign intention in creating it. - - - - -PRISONER OF FORTRESS MONROE - - - - -CHAPTER XIX - -THE PRISONER OF FORTRESS MONROE - - -An extract from a letter by Mrs. Robert E. Lee to Miss Mason, from -Derwent, September 10, 1865, may interest my readers: "I have just -received, dear Miss Em, a long letter from Mrs. Davis in reply to one of -mine. She was in Augusta, Ga.; says she is confined to that State. She has -sent her children to kindred in Canada. Says she knows nothing whatever of -her husband, except what she has seen in the papers. Says any letter sent -her under care of Mr. Schley will reach her safely. She writes very sadly, -as she well may, for I know of no one so much to be pitied.... She -represents a most uncomfortable state of affairs in Augusta. No one, white -or black, can be out after ten o'clock at night without a pass.... We must -wait God's time to raise us up again. That will be the best time." In a -later letter, Mrs. Lee said: "I cannot help feeling uneasy about Mr. -Davis. May God protect him, and grant him deliverance!" - -The whole South was anxious about Mr. Davis. Those who had come in close -touch with him felt a peculiar sympathy for him inspired by a side of his -character not generally recognized, as his manner often conveyed an -impression of coldness and sternness. Under his reserve, was an almost -feminine tenderness revealed in many stories his close friends tell. Thus: -One night, Judge Minor, to see the President on business of state, sat -with him in the room of the "White House" where the telegraph wire came in -at the window (now, Alabama Room in the Confederate Museum), when in -stumbles little Joe, in night-gown, saying: "Papa, I want to say my -prayers." The President, caressing his child, despatched a message, -answered Judge Minor's immediate question, and saying, "Excuse me a -moment," led his little one's devotions. He was of wide reading and -wonderful memory, yet was ignorant of "Mother Goose" until he heard his -children babbling the jingles. Mrs. Davis brought "Babes in the Wood" to -his notice. He suffered from insomnia after visits to the hospitals; his -wife would try to read him to sleep. One night she picked up the "Babes" -as the one thing at hand, and was astonished to find the poem unknown to -him; at the children's desertion he rose, exclaiming: "Was there no one to -help those poor tender babies? The thought is agonizing!" A part of his -childhood was spent in a Kentucky monastery, where the good monks did not -bethink themselves to teach him nursery rhymes. - -There was the story of the soldier's widow, to answer whose call the -President left his breakfast unfinished. Mrs. Davis found him trying to -comfort and to induce her to partake of a tray of delicacies sent in by -his order. She was trying to find her husband's body, and feared that as -he was a poor private due aid might not be given her; she had been certain -that she would receive scant attention from the Chief Magistrate. But he -was telling her that the country's strength and protection lay in her -private soldier. "My father, Madam, was a private in the Revolution, and I -am more proud of what he did for his country than if he had been an -officer expecting the world's praise. Tell your sorrows to my wife. She -will take you in her carriage wherever you wish to go, and aid you all she -can." - -Dr. Craven, Mr. Davis' Federal physician at Fortress Monroe, testifies in -his book to his patient's unusual depth and quickness of sympathy: -"Despite a certain exterior cynicism of manner, no patient ever crossed my -path who, suffering so much himself, appeared to feel so warmly and -tenderly for others." In Confederate hospitals, he had not limited pity to -wearers of the gray. A "White House" guest told me of his robbing his -scant table more than once for a sick Federal who had served with him in -Mexico. Another laughingly remarked: "I don't see how he managed to rob -his table of a delicacy. When I sat down to it, it had none to spare. Yet -certainly he might have kept a bountiful board, for Government stores were -accessible to Government officials, and the President might have had first -choice in purchasing blockade goods. But the simplicity of our White House -regime was an object-lesson. I recall seeing Mr. Davis in home-spun, -home-made clothes at State receptions. That required very positive -patriotism if one could do better! 'Do look at Mr. Davis!' Mrs. Davis -whispered, 'He _will_ wear those clothes, and they look lop-sided!' Their -deficiencies were more noticeable because he was so polished and elegant." - -One of the faithful shows me in her scrap-book a dispatch, of May 25, -1865, in the "Philadelphia Inquirer": "Jeff does not pine in solitude. An -officer and two soldiers remain continually in the cell with him." And -then points to these words from the pen of Hugh McCulloch, Mr. Davis' -visitor from Washington: "He had the bearing of a brave and high-born -gentleman, who, knowing he would have been highly honoured if the Southern -States had achieved their independence, would not and could not demean -himself as a criminal because they had not." She tells how men who had -served under Mr. Davis in Mexico were among his guards at Fortress Monroe -and showed him respect and kindness; and how almost everybody there grew -to like him, he was so kind and courteous, and to the common soldier as to -the strapped and starred officer. - -Our ladies sent articles for his comfort to Mr. Davis, but knew not if he -received them. Dr. Minnegerode's efforts to see him were for a weary while -without success. It seemed that his pastor, at least, might have had this -privilege without question, especially such as Dr. Minnegerode, a man of -signal peace and piety who had carried the consolations of religion and -such comforts as he could collect in an almost famine-stricken city to -Federals in prison. His first endeavour, a letter of request to President -Johnson, met no response. Finally, appeal was made through Rev. Dr. Hall, -Mr. Stanton's pastor; to the committee of ladies waiting on him, Dr. Hall -said he did not wish to read the petition, wished to have nothing to do -with the matter; they besought, he read, and secured privilege of -intercourse between pastor and prisoner. - -For months, Mr. Davis was not allowed to correspond with his wife; was -allowed no book but the Bible; June 8, 1865, Stanton reproved General -Miles for permitting the prison chaplain to visit him. He was unprepared -for his pastor's coming, when Dr. Minnegerode, conducted by General Miles, -entered his cell. In a sermon in St. Paul's after Mr. Davis' death, Dr. -Minnegerode described this meeting. Mr. Davis had been removed (on medical -insistence) from the casemate, and was "in an end room on the second floor -of Carroll Hall, with a passage and windows on each side of the room, and -an anteroom in front, separated by an open grated door--a sentinel on each -passage and before the grated door of the anteroom; six eyes always -upon him, day and night." With these eyes looking on, the long-parted -friends, the pastor and the prisoner, met. - -[Illustration: A VIEW OF FORTRESS MONROE - -Showing section of casemates overlooking the moat. In a casemate of this -fort Mr. Davis was confined. - -Photographed in 1890] - -When the question of Holy Communion was broached, Mr. Davis hesitated. "He -was a pure and pious man, and felt the need and value of the means of -grace. But could he take the Sacrament in the proper spirit--in a -forgiving mind? He was too upright and conscientious to eat and drink -unworthily--that is, not at peace with God and man, as far as in him lay." -In the afternoon, General Miles took the pastor to the prisoner again. Mr. -Davis was ready to pray, "Father, forgive them!" "Then came the Communion. -It was night. The fortress was so still that you could hear a pin fall. -General Miles, with his back to us, leaned against the fire-place in the -anteroom, his head on his hands--not moving; sentinels stood like -statues." - -Of Mr. Davis' treatment, Dr. Minnegerode said: "The officers were polite -and sympathetic; the common soldiers--not one adopted the practice of high -dignitaries who spoke sneeringly of him as 'Jeff.' Not one but spoke of -him in a subdued and kindly tone as 'Mr. Davis.' I went whenever I could," -he adds, "to see my friend, and precious were the hours spent with that -lowly, patient, God-fearing soul. It was in these private interviews that -I learned to appreciate his noble, Christian character--'pure in heart,' -unselfish, without guile, and loyal unto death to his conscience and -convictions." The prisoner's health failed fast. Officers thought it would -be wise and humane to allow him more liberty; they knew that he not only -had no desire to escape, but could not be induced to do so. He was begging -for trial. The pastor, encouraged by Dr. Hall, called on Mr. Stanton. He -had hoped to find the man of iron softened by sorrow; Mr. Stanton had lost -a son; his remaining child was on his knees. His greeting was like ice--a -bow and nothing more. The pastor expressed thanks for permit to visit the -prisoner, and respectfully broaching the subject of Mr. Davis' health, -suggested that, as he neither would nor could escape, he be allowed the -liberty of the fort. Mr. Stanton broke his silence: "It makes no -difference what the state of Jeff Davis' health is. His trial will come -on, no doubt. Time enough till that settles it." "It settled it in my -leaving the presence of that man," said the pastor. "I realise," Dr. -Craven protested, "the painful responsibilities of my position. If Mr. -Davis were to die in prison, without trial, subject to such indignities as -have been visited upon his attenuated frame, the world would form unjust -conclusions, but conclusions with enough colour to pass them into -history." Arguments breathing similar appreciation of the situation began -to appear in the Northern press, while men of prominence, advocating the -application of the great principles of justice and humanity to his case, -called for his release or trial; such lawyers as William B. Reed, of -Philadelphia, and Charles O'Conor, of New York, tendered him free -services. Strong friends were gathering around his wife. The Northern -heart was waking. General Grant was one of those who used his influence to -mitigate the severity of Mr. Davis' imprisonment. - -Again and again Mrs. Davis had implored permission to go to him. "I will -take any parole--do anything, if you will only let me see him! For the -love of God and His merciful Son, do not refuse me!" was her cry to the -War Department, January, 1866. No reply. Then, this telegram to Andrew -Johnson from Montreal, April 25, 1866: "I hear my husband's health is -failing rapidly. Can I come to see him? Can you refuse me? Varina Davis." -Stanton acquiesced in Johnson's consent. And the husband and wife were -reunited. - -Official reports to Washington, changing their tone, referred to him as -"State Prisoner Davis" instead of merely "Jeff Davis." The "National -Republican," a Government organ, declared: "Something ought in justice to -be done about his case. By every principle of justice as guaranteed by the -Constitution, he ought to be released or brought to trial." It would have -simplified matters had he asked pardon of the National Government. But -this he never did, though friends, grieving over his sufferings, urged -him. He did not hold that the South had committed treason or that he, in -being her Chief Magistrate, was Arch-Traitor. Questions of difference -between the States had been tried in the court of arms; the South had -lost, had accepted conditions of defeat, would abide by them; that was all -there was to it. Northern men were coming to see the question in the same -light. - -Through indignities visited upon him who had been our Chief Magistrate was -the South most deeply aggrieved and humiliated; through the action of -Horace Greeley and other Northern men coming to his rescue was the first -real balm of healing laid upon the wound that gaped between the sections. -That wound would have healed quickly, had not the most profound -humiliation of all, the negro ballot and white disfranchisement, been -forced upon us. - -Among relics in the Confederate Museum is a mask which Mr. Davis wore at -Fortress Monroe. His wife sent it to him when she heard that the -everlasting light in his eyes and the everlasting eyes of guards upon him -were robbing him of sleep and threatening his eyesight and his reason. -Over a mantel is Jefferson Davis' bond in a frame; under his name are -those of his sureties, Horace Greeley's leading the signatures of -Cornelius Vanderbilt, Gerrit Smith, Benjamin Wood, and Augustus Schell, -all of New York; A. Welsh and D. K. Jackson, of Philadelphia; and Southern -sureties, W. H. McFarland, Richard Barton Haxall, Isaac Davenport, Abraham -Warwick, Gustavus A. Myers, W. Crump, James Lyons, John A. Meredith, W. H. -Lyons, John Minor Botts, Thomas W. Boswell, James Thomas. Thousands of -Southerners would have rejoiced to sign that bond; but it must be pleasing -now to visitors of both sections to see Northern and Southern names upon -it. The mask and the bond tell the story. - - - - -RECONSTRUCTION ORATORY - - - - -CHAPTER XX - -RECONSTRUCTION ORATORY - - -Northern visitors, drawn to Richmond in the Spring of 1867, to the Davis -trial, came upon the heels of a riot if not squarely into the midst of -one. Friday, May 10, began with a mass-meeting at one of the old -Chimborazo buildings, where negroes of both sexes, various ages, and in -all kinds of rags and raiment, congregated. Nothing could exceed the -cheerfulness with which their initiation fees and monthly dues were -received by the white Treasurer of the National Political Aid Society, -while their names were called by the white Secretary--the one officer a -carpet-bagger, the other a scalawag. Initiation fee was a quarter, monthly -dues a dime; the Treasurer's table was piled with a hillock of small -change. The Secretary added 400 names to a roll of 2,000. - -A negro leader, asked by a Northern reporter, "What's this money to be -used for?" replied: "We gwi sen' speakers all 'roun' de country, boss; gwi -open de eyes er de cullud folks, an' show 'em how dee gotter vote. Some -niggers out in de country don' know whe'er dee free er not--hoein' an' -plowin' fuh white folks jes lak dee always been doin'. An' dee gwi vote -lak white folks tell 'em ef dar ain' suppin' did. De country's gwi go tuh -obstruction ef us whar knows don' molighten dem whar don' know. Dat huccum -you sees what you does see." When collection had been taken up, a young -carpet-bagger led in speech-making: - -"Dear friends: I rejoice to find myself in this noble company of -patriots. I see before me men and women who are bulwarks of the nation; -ready to give their money, to work, to die, if need be, for freedom. -Freedom, my friends, is another name for the great Republican Party. -("Hise yo' mouf tellin' dat truf!" "Dat's so!" "Halleluia!" "Glory be tuh -Gawd!") The Republican Party gave you freedom and will preserve it -inviolate! (Applause; whispers: "What dat he spoken 'bout?" "Sho use big -words!" "Dat man got sense. He know what he talkin' 'bout ef we don't!") -That party was unknown in this grand old State until a few months ago. It -has been rotten-egged!--("Now ain't dat a shame!") although its speakers -have only advocated the teachings of the Holy Bible. ("Glory Halleluia!" -"Glory to de Lamb!" "Jesus, my Marster!") The Republican Party is your -friend that has led you out of the Wilderness into the Promised Land!" -Glories and halleluias reached climax in which two sisters were carried -out shouting. "Disshere gitten' too much lak er 'ligious meetin' tuh suit -me," a sinner observed. - -"You do not need for me to tell you never to vote for one of these white -traitors and rebels who held you as slaves. ("Dat we ain't!" "We'll see -'em in h---- fust!") We have fought for you on the field of battle. Now you -must organize and fight for yourselves. ("We gwi do it, too! Dat we is! We -gwi fight!") We have given you freedom. We intend to give you property. -We, the Republican Party, propose to confiscate the land of these white -rebels and traitors and give it to you, to whom it justly belongs--forty -acres and a mule and $100 to every one of you! (The Chairman exhausted -himself seeking to subdue enthusiasm.) The Republican Party cannot do this -unless you give it your support. All that it asks is your vote and your -influence. If the white men of the South carry the elections, they will -put you back into slavery." - -A scalawag delivered the gem of the occasion: "Ladies and gentlemen: I am -happy to embrace this privilege of speaking to you. I desire to address -first and very especially a few words to these ladies, for they wield an -influence of which they are little aware. Whether poor or rich, however -humble they may be, women exert a powerful influence over the hearts of -men. I have been gratified to see you bringing your mites to the cause of -truth. Emulate, my fair friends, the example of your ancestors who came -over in the Mayflower, emulate your ancestors, the patriotic women of '76. -Give your whole hearts, and all your influence to this noble work. And in -benefits that will come to you, you shall be repaid an hundred-fold for -every quarter and dime you here deposit!" The meeting closed with -race-hatred stirred up to white heat in black breasts. - -Later in the day, Richmond firemen were entertaining visiting Delaware -firemen with water-throwing. A policeman requested a negro, standing -within reserved space, to move; Sambo would not budge; the officer pushed -him back; Sambo struck the officer; there was a hubbub. A white bystander -was struck, and struck back; a barber on the corner jerked up his pole and -ran, waving it and yelling: "Come on, freedmen! Now's de time to save yo' -nation!" Negroes of all sizes, sexes and ages, some half-clad, many drunk, -poured into the street; brickbats flew; the officer was knocked down, his -prisoner liberated. Screams of "Dem p'licemens shan't 'res' nobody, dat -dee shan't!" "Time done come fuh us tuh stan' up fuh our rights!" were -heard on all sides. The police, under orders not to fire, tried to -disperse or hold them at bay, exercising marvellous patience when blacks -shook fists in their faces, saying: "I dar you tuh shoot! I jes dar you -tuh shoot!" - -Mayor Mayo addressed the crowd: "I command you in the name of the -Commonwealth to go to your homes, every one, white and black; I give you -my word every case shall be looked into and justice done." They moved a -square, muttering: "Give us our rights, now--de cullud man's rights!" An -ambulance rumbled up. Negroes broke into cheers. In it sat General -Schofield, Federal Commandant, and General Brown, of the Freedmen's -Bureau. "Speech! speech!" they called. "I want you to go to your homes and -remain there," said General Schofield. They made no motion to obey, but -called for a speech. "I did not come here to make a speech. I command you -to disperse." They did not budge. The war lord was not there to trifle. In -double-quick time, Company H of the Twenty-Ninth was on the ground and -sent the crowd about its business. That night six companies were marched -in from Camp Grant and disposed about the city at Mayor Mayo's discretion. - -High carnival in the Old African Church wound up the day. An educated -coloured man from Boston presided, and Carpet-Bagger-Philanthropist -Hayward (who, having had the cold shoulder turned on him in Massachusetts, -had come to Virginia) held forth: "The papers have made conspicuous my -remarks that the negro is better than the white man. Why, I had no idea -anybody was so stupid as to doubt it. When I contemplate such a noble -race, and look upon you as you appear to me tonight, I could wish my own -face were black!" "Ne'm min', boss!" sang out a sympathetic auditor, "Yo' -heart's black! Dat's good enough!" The speaker was nonplussed for a -second. - -"When I go to Massachusetts, shall I tell the people there that you are -determined to ride in the same cars on which white men and women ride?" -"Yes! Yes!" "Shall I tell them you intend to go in and take your seats in -any church where the Gospel is preached?" "Yes! Yes! Dat we is!" "Shall I -tell them you intend to occupy any boxes in the theatre you pay your money -for?" "You sho kin, boss!" "Yes, yes!" "Shall I tell them you intend to -enjoy, _in whatever manner you see fit_, any rights and privileges which -the citizens of Massachusetts enjoy?" "Dat you kin!" "Tell 'em we gwi have -our rights!" - -"If you cannot get them for yourselves, the young men of the Bay State -will come down and help you. We have made you free. We will give you what -you want." The coloured gentleman from Boston had to employ all his -parliamentary skill before applause could be subdued for the speaker to -continue. "You are brave. I am astonished at evidences of your bravery. To -any who might be reckless, I give warning. You would not endanger the life -of the illustrious Underwood, would you?" (Judge Underwood, boss of the -black ring, was in town to try Mr. Davis.) "Dat we wouldn'!" "_Well, then, -as soon as he leaves, you may have a high carnival in whatever way you -please. It is not for me to advise you what to do, for great masses do -generally what they have a mind to._" - -Wrought up to frenzy, the negroes fairly shook the house; the chairman -made sincere efforts to bring the meeting to order. The young white -Secretary of the National Political Aid Society arose and said: "Mr. -Speaker, you may tell the people of Massachusetts that the coloured people -of Richmond are determined to go into any bar-room, theatre, hotel, or car -they wish to enter." "Yes, you tell 'em dat! We will! We will!" - -Next morning, our war lord brought Hayward up in short order. The meeting -had come to his notice through Cowardin's report in the "Dispatch." The -hearing was rich, a cluster of bright newspaper men being present, among -them the "New York Herald" reporter, who endorsed Mr. Cowardin's account, -and declared Hayward's speech inflammatory. It developed that negroes had -been petitioning to Washington for General Schofield's removal, a -compliment paid all his predecessors. - -The idle and excitable negroes must not be accepted as fully -representative of their race. Those not heard from were the worthy ones, -remaining at the houses of their white employers or in their own homes, -and performing faithfully their regular duties. They were in the minority, -but I believe the race would prefer now that these humble toilers should -be considered representative rather than the other class. Lending neither -aid nor encouragement to insurrectionary methods, they yet dared not -openly oppose the incendiary spirit which, had it been carried far enough, -might have swept them, too, off their feet as their kindred became -involved. Negroes stick together and conceal each other's defections; this -does not proceed altogether from race loyalty; they fear each other; dread -covert acts of vengeance and being "conjured." Mysterious afflictions -overtake the "conjured" or bewitched. - - - - -THE PRISONER FREE - - - - -CHAPTER XXI - -THE PRISONER FREE - - -On a beautiful May afternoon, two years after Mr. Davis' capture, the -"John Sylvester" swung to the wharf at Rocketts and the prisoner walked -forth, smiling quietly upon the people who, on the other side of the blue -cordon of sentinels, watched the gangway, crying, "It is he! it is he!" -Always slender, he was shadowy now, worn and thin to emaciation. He did -not carry himself like a martyr. Only his attenuation, the sharpness of -his features, the care-worn, haggard appearance of the face, the hair -nearly all gray, the general indications of having aged ten years in two, -made any appeal for sympathy. With him were his wife, Judge Ould, and Mr. -James Lyons, Dr. Cooper, Mr. Burton Harrison, and General Burton, General -Miles' successor, whose prisoner he yet was, but whose attitude was more -that of friend than custodian. - -A reserved and dignified city is the Capital on the James, taking joys -sedately; but that day she wore her heart on her sleeve; she cheered and -wept. The green hills, streets, sidewalks, were alive with people; -porches, windows, balconies, roofs, were thronged; Main Street was a lane -of uncovered heads as two carriages rolled swiftly towards the Spotswood, -one holding Mr. Davis, General Burton, Dr. Cooper and Mr. Harrison; the -other, Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Lyons, Mr. Lyons and Judge Ould; an escort of -Federal cavalry bringing up the rear with clattering hoofs and clanging -sabres. It was more like a victor's home-returning than the bringing of a -prisoner to trial. Yet through popular joy there throbbed the tragic note -that marks the difference between the huzzas of a conquering people for -their leader, and the welcoming "God bless you!" of a people subdued. - -This difference was noticeable at the Spotswood, which famous hostelry -entertained many Northern guests. A double line of policemen, dividing the -crowd, formed an avenue from sidewalk to ladies' entrance. This crowd, it -seems, had its hat on. Among our own people may have been some who thought -it not wise in their own or the prisoner's interests to show him too much -honour. But as the emaciated, careworn man with the lofty bearing, stepped -from the carriage, a voice, quiet but distinct, broke the impressive -stillness: "Hats off, Virginians!" Instantly every man stood uncovered. - -Monday he went to trial. The Court Room in the old Custom House was -packed. In the persons of representative men, North and South were there -for his vindication of the charge of high treason. Were he guilty, then -were we all of the South, and should be sentenced with him. - -Reporters for Northern papers were present with their Southern brethren of -scratch-pad and pencil. The jury-box was a novelty to Northerners. In it -sat a motley crew of negroes and whites. For portrait in part of the -presiding judge, I refer to the case of McVeigh vs. Underwood, as reported -in Twenty-third Grattan, decided in favour of McVeigh. When the Federal -Army occupied Alexandria, John C. Underwood used his position as United -States District Judge to acquire the homestead, fully furnished, of Dr. -McVeigh, then in Richmond. He confiscated it to the United States, denied -McVeigh a hearing, sold it, bought it in his wife's name for $2,850 -when it was worth not less than $20,000, and had her deed it to himself. -The first time thereafter that Dr. McVeigh met the able jurist face to -face on a street in Richmond, the good doctor, one of the most amiable of -men, before he knew what he was doing, slapped the able jurist over and -went about his business; whereupon, the Honourable the United States -Circuit Court picked himself up and went about his, which was sitting in -judgment on cases in equity. In 1873, Dr. McVeigh's home was restored to -him by law, the United States Supreme Court pronouncing Underwood's course -"a blot upon our jurisprudence and civilisation." Underwood was in -possession when he presided at the trial of Jefferson Davis. - -[Illustration: AN HISTORICAL PETIT JURY - -This is the Petit Jury impaneled to try President Jefferson Davis, being -the first mixed Petit Jury ever impaneled in the United States. Judge -Underwood, not Chief Justice Chase, presided.] - -His personal appearance has been described as "repellant; his head -drooping; his hair long; his eyes shifty and unpleasing, and like a -basilisk's; his clothes ill-fitting;" he "came into court, fawning, -creeping, shuffling; ascended the bench in a manner awkward and ungainly; -lifted his head like a turtle." "Hear ye! hear ye! Silence is commanded -while the Honourable the United States Circuit Court is in session!" calls -the crier on this May morning. - -General Burton, with soldierly simplicity, transfers the prisoner from the -military to the civil power; Underwood embarrasses the officer and shames -every lawyer present by a fatuous response abasing the bench before the -bayonet. Erect, serene, undefiant, surrounded by mighty men of the -Northern and Southern bar--O'Conor, Reed, Shea, Randolph Tucker, -Ould--Jefferson Davis faces his judge, his own clear, fearless glance -meeting squarely the "basilisk eye." - -The like of Underwood's charge to the jury was never heard before in this -land. It caused one long blush from Maine to Texas, Massachusetts to -California; and resembled the Spanish War that came years after in that it -gave Americans a common grievance. This poor, political bigot thought to -please his Northern hearers by describing Richmond as "comely and spacious -as a goodly apple on a gilded sepulchre where bloody treason flourished -its whips of scorpions" and a "place where licentiousness has ruled until -a majority of the births are illegitimate," and "the pulpit prostituted by -full-fed gay Lotharios." But the thing is too loathsome to quote! Northern -reporters said it was not a charge, took no cognisance of the matter -before the Court, was a "vulgar, inflammatory stump speech." The "New York -Herald" pronounced it "The strangest mixture of drivel and nonsense that -ever disgraced a bench," and "without a parallel, with its foul-mouthed -abuse of Richmond." "A disgrace to the American bench," declared the "New -York World." "He has brought shame upon the entire bench of the country, -for to the people of other countries he is a representative of American -judges." - -There was no trial. Motion was made and granted for a continuance of the -case to November, and bail given in bond for $100,000, which Horace -Greeley signed first, the crowd cheering him as he went up to write his -name, which was followed by signatures of other well-known men of both -sections. "The Marshal will discharge the prisoner!" a noble sentence in -the judge's mouth at last! Applause shakes the Court Room. Men surge -forward; Mr. Davis is surrounded; his friends, his lawyers, his sureties, -crowd about him; the North and the South are shaking hands; a love-feast -is on. Human nature is at its best. The prisoner is free. When he appears -on the portico the crowd grows wild with joy. Somebody wrote North that -they heard the old "Rebel yell" once more, and that something or other -unpleasant ought to be done to us because we would "holler" like that -whenever we got excited. - -It looks as if his carriage will never get back to the Spotswood, people -press about him so, laughing, crying, congratulating, cheering. Negroes -climb upon the carriage steps, shaking his hand, kissing it, shouting: -"God bless Mars Davis!" No man was ever more beloved by negroes he owned -or knew. - -The South was unchained. The South was set free. No! That fall the first -election at which negroes voted and whites--the majority disqualified by -test-oath provision--did not vote, was held to send delegates to a -convention presided over by John C. Underwood. This convention--the Black -and Tan--made a new Constitution for the Old Dominion. - -"If black men will riot, I will fear that emancipation is a failure." So -spoke the great abolitionist, Gerrit Smith, from the pulpit of the Old -African Church Tuesday night after the Davis trial. "Riots in Richmond, -Charleston, and New Orleans have made me sick at heart." On the platform -with him were Horace Greeley, Governor Pierpont, Colonel Lewis and Judge -Underwood. His audience consisted of negroes, prominent white citizens of -Richmond, Federal officers and their wives. The negroes, as ready to be -swayed by good advice as bad, listened attentively to the wisest, most -conservative addresses they had heard from civilians of the North, or than -they were again to hear for a long time. Gerrit Smith, who was pouring out -his money like water for their education, told them: - -"I do not consider the white people of the South traitors. The South is -not alone responsible for slavery. Northern as well as Southern ships -brought negroes to this shore. When Northern States passed laws abolishing -slavery in their borders, Northern people brought their negroes down here -and sold them before those laws could take effect. I have been chased in -the North by a pro-slavery mob--never in the South." Referring to the -South's impoverished condition, he said he wished the Federal Government -would give the section six years' exemption from the Federal tax to make -rapid rehabilitation possible. He plead for harmony between races; urged -whites to encourage blacks by selling lands to them cheap; urged blacks to -frugality, industry, sobriety; plead with them not to drink. "Why cannot -you love the whites among whom you have been born and raised?" he asked. -"We do! we do!" cried the poor darkeys who had yelled, "We will! we will!" -when Hayward was inciting them to mischief. - -Horace Greeley said: "I have heard in Richmond that coloured people would -not buy homes or lands because they are expecting these through -confiscation. Believe me, friends, you can much sooner earn a home. -Confiscation is a slow, legal process. (Underwood had not found it so.) -Thaddeus Stevens, the great man who leads the movement--and perhaps one of -the greatest men who ever sat in Congress--is the only advocate of such a -course, among all our representatives and senators. If it has not taken -place in the two years since the war, we may not hope for it now. Famine, -disaster, and deadly feuds would follow confiscation." His voice, too, was -raised against calling Southern whites "traitors." "This seems to me," he -said, "to brand with the crime of treason--of felony--millions of our -fellow-countrymen." - -It is to be said in reference to one part of Gerrit Smith's advice, that -Southerners were only too ready to sell their lands at any price or on -any terms to whoever would buy. Had the negroes applied the industrial -education which they then possessed they might have become owners of half -the territory of the South. Politicians and theorists who diverted negroid -energies into other channels were unconsciously serving Nature's purpose, -the preservation of the Anglo-Saxon race. Upon every measure that might -thwart that purpose, Nature seems to smile serenely, turning it to reverse -account. - - * * * * * - -A lively account of the seating of the first negro in the Congress of the -United States was contained in a letter of February, 1870, from my friend, -Miss Winfield, stopping in Washington. "Revels," she wrote, "occupies the -seat of Jefferson Davis. The Republicans made as much of the ceremony as -possible. To me it was infinitely sad, and infinitely absurd. We run -everything in the ground in America. Here, away from the South, where the -tragedy of it all is not so oppressively before me and where I see only -the political clap-trap of the whole African business, I am prone to lose -sight of the graver side and find things simply funny." - -A lively discussion preceded the seating. Senator Wilson said something -very handsome about the "Swan Song of Slavery" and God's hand in the -present state of affairs; as he was soaring above the impious Democrats, -Mr. Casserly, one of the last-named sinners, bounced up and asked: "I -would like to know when and where the Senator from Massachusetts obtained -a commission to represent the Almighty in the Senate? I have not heard of -such authorisation, and if such person has been selected for that office, -it is only another illustration of the truism that the ways of Providence -are mysterious and past finding out." Laughter put the "Swan Song" off -key; Casserly said something about senators being made now, not by the -voice of God and the people, but by the power of the bayonet, when -somebody flung back at him, "You use the shelalah in New York!" - -"But the ceremony!" Miss Winfield wrote. "Nothing has so impressed me -since the ball to Prince Arthur, nor has anything so amused me unless it -be the pipe-stem pantaloons our gentlemen wear in imitation of His Royal -Highness. Senator Wilson conducted Revels to the Speaker's desk with a -fine air that said: 'Massachusetts has done it all!' Vice-President Colfax -administered the oath with such unction as you never saw, then shook hands -with great warmth with Revels--nobody ever before saw him greet a -novitiate so cordially! But then, those others were only white men! With -pomp and circumstance the sergeant-at-arms led the hero of the hour to his -exalted position. 'Some day,' said my companion, 'history will record this -as showing how far the race-madness of a people can go under political -spurs.' Republican Senators fell over each other to shake Revels' hand and -congratulate him. Poor Mississippi! And Revels is not even a native. -General Ames, of Maine, is her other senator. Poor Mississippi!" - - - - -A LITTLE PLAIN HISTORY - - - - -CHAPTER XXII - -A LITTLE PLAIN HISTORY - - -For clearness in what has gone before and what follows, I must write a -little plain history. - -Many who ought to have known Mr. Lincoln's mind, among these General -Sherman, with whom Mr. Lincoln had conversed freely, believed it his -purpose to recognise existing State Governments in the South upon their -compliance with certain conditions. These governments were given no -option; governors calling legislatures for the purpose of expressing -submission, were clapped into prison. Thus, these States were without -civil State Governments, and under martial law. Some local governments and -courts continued in operation subject to military power; military -tribunals and Freedmen's Bureaus were established. - -Beginning May 29, 1865, with North Carolina, President Johnson -reconstructed the South on the plan Mr. Lincoln had approved, appointing -for each State a Provisional Governor empowered to call a convention to -make a new State Constitution or remodel the old to meet new conditions. -His policy was to appoint a citizen known for anti-Secession or Union -sentiments, yet holding the faith and respect of his State, as Perry, of -South Carolina; Sharkey, of Mississippi; Hamilton, of Texas. The -conventions abolished slavery, annulled the secession ordinance, -repudiated the Confederate debt, acknowledged the authority of the United -States. An election was held for State officers and members of the -legislature, voters qualifying as previous to 1861, and by taking the -amnesty oath of May 29. Legislatures reënacted the convention's work of -annulling secession, abolishing slavery, repudiating debt; and passed -civil rights bills giving the negro status as a citizen, but without the -franchise, though some leaders advised conferring it in a qualified form; -they passed vagrancy laws which the North interpreted as an effort at -reënslavement. - -Congress met December, 1865; President Johnson announced that all but two -of the Southern States had reorganised their governments under the -conditions required. Their representatives were in Washington to take -their seats. With bitter, angry, contemptuous words, Congress refused to -seat them. April 2, 1866, President Johnson proclaimed that in the South -"the laws can be sustained by proper civil authority, State and Federal; -the people are well and loyally disposed;" military occupation, martial -law, military tribunals and the suspension of the writ of _habeas corpus_ -"are in time of peace, dangerous to public liberty," "incompatible with -the rights of the citizen," etc., "and ought not to be sanctioned or -allowed; ... people who have revolted and been overcome and subdued, must -either be dealt with so as to induce them voluntarily to become friends or -else they must be held by the absolute military power and devastated ... -which last-named policy is abhorrent to humanity and freedom." - -March 2, 1867, Congress passed an act that "Whereas, no legal State -Governments exist ... in the rebel States ... said rebel States shall be -divided into five military districts." Over each a Federal General was -appointed; existing local governments were subject to him; he could -reverse their decisions, remove their officials and install -substitutes; some commanders made radical use of power; others, wiser and -kindlier, interfered with existing governments only as their position -compelled. Upon the commanders Congress imposed the task of reconstructing -these already once reconstructed States. Delegates to another convention -to frame another Constitution were to be elected, the negroes voting. Of -voters the test-oath was required, a provision practically disfranchising -Southern whites and disqualifying them for office. Thaddeus Stevens, -leader of the party forcing these measures, said of negro suffrage: "If it -be a punishment to rebels, they deserve it." - -[Illustration: AUGUSTA J. EVANS WILSON - -OCTAVIA WALTON LE VERT - -The South's two most prominent literary women at the close of the war; one -a novelist and the other a writer of translations and books of travel.] - -Black and Tan Conventions met in long and costly sessions. That of -Mississippi sat over a month before beginning the task for which convened, -having passed the time in fixing per diems, mileages, proposing a bonus -for negroes dismissed by employers, imposing taxes on anything and -everything to meet the expenses of the convention; and badgering General -Gillem, Commander of the District. The Black and Tan Conventions framed -constitutions which, with tickets for State and National officers, were -submitted to popular vote, negroes, dominated by a few corrupt whites, -determining elections. With these constitutions and officials, "carpet-bag -rule" came into full power and States were plundered. The sins of these -governments have been specified by Northern and Southern authorities in -figures of dollars and cents. At first, Southern Unionists and Northern -settlers joined issues with the Republican Party. Oppressive taxation, -spoliation, and other evils drove all respectable citizens into coalitions -opposing this party; these coalitions broke up Radical rule in the -Southern States, the last conquest being in Louisiana and South Carolina -in 1876. No words can present any adequate picture of the "mongrel" -conventions and legislatures, but in the following chapter I try to give -some idea of the absurdities of one, which may be taken as type of -all.[18] - - - - -THE BLACK AND TAN CONVENTION - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII - -THE BLACK AND TAN CONVENTION: THE "MIDNIGHT CONSTITUTION" - - -The Black and Tan Convention met December 3, 1867, in our venerable and -historic Capitol to frame a new constitution for the Old Dominion. In this -body were members from New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maine, Vermont, -Connecticut, Maryland, District of Columbia, Ireland, Scotland, Nova -Scotia, Canada, England; scalawags, or turn-coats, by Southerners most -hated of all; twenty-four negroes; and in the total of 105, thirty-five -white Virginians, from counties of excess white population, who might be -considered representative of the State's culture and intelligence. It was -officered by foreigners and negroes; John C. Underwood, of New York, being -President. - -Capitol Square was garlanded with tables and stands; and the season was -one of joy to black and yellow vendors of ginger-cakes, goobers, lemonade, -and cheap whiskey. Early ornaments of the Capitol steps were ebony -law-makers sporting tall silk hats, gold-headed canes, broadcloth suits, -the coat always Prince Albert. Throughout the South this was the uniform -of sable dignitaries as soon as emoluments permitted. The funny sayings -and doings of negroes, sitting for the first time in legislative halls, -were rehearsed in conversation and reported in papers; visitors went to -the Capitol as to a monkey or minstrel show. Most of these darkeys, fresh -from tobacco lots and corn and cotton fields, were as innocent as babes of -any knowledge of reading and writing. - -They were equally guileless in other directions. Before the body was -organised, an enthusiastic delegate bounced up to say something, but the -Chair nipped him untimely in the bud: "No motion is in order until roll is -called. Gentlemen will please remember parliamentary usage." The member -sank limp into his seat, asking in awed whisper of his neighbour: "Whut in -de worl' is dat?" Perplexity was great when a member rose to "make an -inquiry." "Whut's dat?" "Whut dat he gwi make?" was whispered round, the -question being settled summarily: "Well, it don' make no diffunce. We ain' -gwi let him do it nohow case he ain' no Radicule." White constituents soon -tried to muzzle black orators. Word was passed that white "Radicules" -would talk and black members keep silent and vote as they were bid. "Shew! -She-ew!" "Set down!" "Shut the door!" were household words, the last -ejaculation coming into request when scraps seemed imminent and members -wanted the sergeant-at-arms to take each other, yet preferred that the -public should not be witness to these little family jars. - -Black, white, and yellow pages flew around, waiting on members; the -blacker the dignitary, the whiter the page he summoned to bring pens, ink, -paper, apples, ginger-cakes, goober-peas. And newspapers. No sooner did -darkeys observe that whites sent out and got newspapers than they did -likewise; and sat there reading them upside down. - -The gallery of coloured men and women come to see the show were almost as -diverting as the law-makers. Great were the flutterings over the seating -of John Morrissey, the "Wild Irishman," mistaken for his namesake, the New -York pugilist. "Dat ain't de man dat fit Tom Higher?" "I tell you it am!" -"Sho got muscle!" "He come tuh fit dem Preservatives over dar." According -to the happy darkey knack of saying the wrong thing in the right place, a -significant version of "Conservative" was thus applied to the little -handful of representative white Virginians. Great, too, were the -flutterings when Governor "Plowpint" (so darkeys pronounced Pierpont) paid -his visit of ceremony; and when General Schofield and aide marched in in -war-paint and feathers: the Chair waved the gavel and the convention rose -to its feet to receive the distinguished guests. The war lord was to pay -another and less welcome visit. The piety of neither gallery nor -convention could be questioned if the fervor and frequency of "Amens!" -interrupting the petitions of the Chaplain (from Illinois) were an -indication; Dr. Bayne, of Norfolk, so raised his voice above the rest that -his colleagues became concerned lest that seaport were claiming for -herself more than just proportion of religious zeal. - -Curiosity was on tip-toe when motion was made that a stenographer be -appointed. "'Snographer?' What's dat?" "Maybe it's de pusson whut takes -down de speeches befo' dee's spoken," explains a wise one. The riddle was -partly solved when a spruce, foreign individual of white complexion rose -and walked to the desk, vacated in his favour by a gentleman of colour. -"Dar he! dat's him!" "War's good close, anyhow!" was pronounced of the new -official; then the retired claimed sympathy: "Whut he done?" "Whut dee -tu'n him out fuh?" "Ain't dee gwi give niggers nothin'?" "Muzzling" was -not yet begun; this occasion for eloquence was not to be ignored by the -Honourable Lewis Lindsay, representing Richmond: "Mistah Presidet, I hopes -in dis late hour dat Ole Fuhginny am imperilated, dat no free-thinkin' man -kin suppose fuh one minute dat we 'sires tuh misrippersint de idee dat we -ain' qualify de sability uh de sternogphy uh dis convention. I hopes, suh, -dat we kin den be able tuh superhen' de principles uh de supposition." - -Lindsay would always rise to an occasion if his coat-tails were not pulled -too hard. Fortunately, his matchless oration on the mixed school question -was not among gems lost to the world: "Mistah Presidet, de real flatform, -suh. I'll sw'ar tuh high Heaven. Yes, I'll sw'ar higher dan dat. I'll go -down an' de uth shall crumble intuh dus' befo' dee shall amalgamise my -rights. 'Bout dis question uh cyarpet-bags. Ef you cyarpet-baggers does go -back on us, woes be unto you! You better take yo' cyarpet-bags an' quit, -an' de quicker you git up an' git de better. I do not abdicate de -supperstition tuh dese strange frien's, lately so-called citizens uh -Fuhginny. Ef dee don' gimme my rights, I'll suffer dis country tuh be lak -Sarah. I'll suffer desterlation fus! When I blows my horn dee'll hear it! -When de big cannons was thund'in, an' de missions uh death was flyin' thu -de a'r, dee hollered: 'Come, Mr. Nigguh, come!' an' he done come! I'se -here tuh qualify my constituents. I'll sing tuh Rome an' tuh Englan' an' -tuh de uttermos' parts uh de uth--" "You must address yourself to the -Chair," said that functionary, ready to faint. "All right, suh. I'll not -'sire tuh maintain de House any longer." - -That clause against mixed schools was a rock upon which the Radical party -split, white members with children voting for separate education of races; -most darkeys "didn' want no sech claw in de law"; yet one declared he -didn't want his "chillun tuh soshate wid rebels an' traitors nohow"; they -were "as high above rebels an' traitors ez Heaven 'bove hell!" Lindsay -took occasion to wither white "Radicules" with criticism on colour -distribution in the gallery. "Whar is de white Radicule members' wives -an' chillun?" he asked, waving his hand towards the white section. "When -dee comes here dee mos'ly set dar se'ves on dat side de House, whilst I -brings mine on dis side," waving towards the black, "irregardless uh how -white she is!" - -Hodges, of Princess Anne, was an interesting member; wore large, -iron-rimmed spectacles and had a solemn, owl-like way of staring through -them. One day, he gave the convention the creeps: "Dar's a boy in dis -House," he said with awful gravity, "whar better be outen do's. He's done -seconded a motion." The House, following his accusing spectacles and -finger, fixed its eye upon a shrivelling mulatto youth who had slipped -into a member's chair. A coloured brother took the intruder's part. -Lindsay threw himself into the breach: "Mistah Presidet, I hears de -correspondence dat have passed an' de gemmun obsarves it have been -spoken." "I seen him open his mouf an' I seen de words come outen it!" -cried Hodges. The usurper, seizing the first instant Hodges turned his -head another way, fled for his life, while somebody was making motion "to -bring him before the bar." - -The convention's thorn in the side was Eustace Gibson, white member from -Giles and Pulaski, who had a knack for making the convention see how -ridiculous it was. Negroes were famous for rising to "pints of order"; -they laughed at themselves one day when two eloquent members became -entangled and fell down in a heap in the aisle and Mr. Gibson, gravely -rising to a point of order, moved that it was "not parliamentary for two -persons to occupy the floor at one time." When questions of per diem -arose, sable eloquence flowed like a cataract and Gibson's wit played like -lightning over the torrents. Muzzling was difficult. "Mistah Churman, ef -I may be allowed tuh state de perquisition--" a member would begin and get -no further before a persuasive hand on his coat-tails would reduce him to -silence. Dr. Bayne's coat-tails resisted force and appeal. - -"I wants $9, I does," he said. "But den I ain' gwi be dissatisfied wid -$8.50. Cose, I kin live widout dat half a dollar ef I choose tuh. But ef I -don' choose tuh? Anybody got anything tuh say 'gins dat? Hey? Here we is -sleepin' 'way f'om home, leavin' our wives an' our expenses uh bode an' -washin'. Why, whut you gwi do wid de po' delegate dat ain' got no expenses -uh bode an' washin'? Tell me dat? Why, you fo'ce 'em tuh steal, an' make -dar constituen's look upon 'em as po' narrer-minded fellers." One member -murmured plaintively: "I ain' had no money paid me sence 'lection--" -"Shew! She-ew! Shew!" his coat-tails were almost jerked off. "You gwi tell -suppin you ain' got no business!" "Mr. Churman, I adject. De line whar's -his line, an' dat's de line I contain fuh--" "Shew! She-ew! Set down!" -"What de Bible say 'bout it?" demanded a pious brother. "De Bible it say: -'Pay de labour' de higher.' Who gwi 'spute de Book?" "This debate has -already cost the State $400," Mr. Gibson interposed wearily. - -They finally agreed to worry along upon $8 a day--a lower per diem than -was claimed, I believe, in any other State. When the per diem question -bobbed up again, State funds were running low, but motion for adjournment -died when it was learned that of the $100,000 in the treasury when the -convention began to sit, $30,000 remained. Retrenchment was in order, -however, and the "Snographer's" head fell. He was impeached for charging -$3.33 a page for spider-legs, which he was not translating into English. -Mr. Gibson showed that he had been drawing $200 a day in advance for ten -days; had drawn $2,000 for the month of February, yet had not submitted -work for January. The convention began to negotiate a $90,000 loan on its -own note to pay itself to sit longer, when our war lord came to the front -and gave opinion that it had sat long enough to do what it had been called -to do, and that after ten days per diems must cease. Another hurrying -process was said to be at work. Reports were abroad that the Ku Klux, -having reached conclusion that Richmond had been neglected, was on the -way. Solid reason for adjournment was death of the per diem; but for which -the convention might have been sitting yet. - -The morning of the last day, the sergeant-at-arms flung wide the door, -announcing General Schofield, who, entering with Colonels Campbell, Wherry -and Mallory, of his Staff, was escorted to the Speaker's stand. He came to -protest against constitutional clauses disqualifying white Virginians. He -said: "You cannot find in Virginia a full number of men capable of filling -office who can take the oath you have prescribed. County offices pay -limited salary; even a common labourer could not afford to come from -abroad for the purpose of filling them. I have no hesitation in saying -that I do not believe it possible to inaugurate a government upon that -basis." It was a business man's argument, an appeal to patriotism and -common sense. It failed. When he went out, they called him "King -Schofield," and retained those clauses in the instrument which they -ratified that night when the hands on the clocks of the Capitol pointed to -twelve and the Midnight Constitution came to birth. - -When General Schofield left in 1868 to become Secretary of War, the -leading paper said: "General Schofield has been the best of all the -military commandants placed over the Southern States. He has saved -Virginia from much humiliation and distress that other States have -suffered." What he did for Virginia, General Gillem, General Hancock and -some other commanders tried to do for districts under their command. -General Stoneman, who succeeded General Schofield, also fought the -test-oath clauses. - -When our Committee of Nine went to Washington to protest against those -clauses, General Schofield appeared with them before President-elect Grant -and one of General Grant's first acts as President was to arrange with -Congress that Virginia should have the privilege of voting upon those -clauses and the constitution separately, and that other States should have -like privileges in regard to similar clauses in their constitutions. - -Every American should study the history in detail of each Southern State -during the period of which I write. He should acquaint himself at first -hand with the attitude of the South when the war closed, and in this -connection I particularly refer my reader to the address Governor Allen -delivered to the people of Louisiana before going to Mexico, where he died -in exile; and to the addresses of Perry, of South Carolina, and -Throckmorton, of Texas.[19] He should compare the character and costs of -the first legislatures and conventions assembling and the character and -costs of the mongrel bodies succeeding them. He will then take himself in -hand and resolve never to follow blindly the leadership of any party, nor -attempt to put in practice in another man's home the abstract theories of -speculative humanitarians. - - - - -SECRET SOCIETIES - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV - -SECRET SOCIETIES - -LOYAL LEAGUE, WHITE CAMELIAS, WHITE BROTHERHOOD, PALE FACES, KU KLUX - - -Parent of all was the Union or Loyal League, whose history may be briefly -summarised: Organisation for dignified ends in Philadelphia and New York -in 1862-3; extension into the South among white Unionists; formation, -1866, of negro leagues; admission of blacks into "mixed" leagues; rapid -withdrawal of native whites and Northern settlers until leagues were -composed almost wholly of negroes dominated by a few white political -leaders. Churches, halls, schoolhouses, were headquarters where mystic -initiation rites, inflammatory speeches, military drills, were in order. -The League's professed object was the training of the negro to his duties -as a citizen. It made him a terror and forced whites into the formation of -counter secret societies for the protection of their firesides. - -"To defend and perpetuate freedom and the Constitution, the supremacy of -law and the inherent rights of civil and religious freedom, and to -accomplish the objects of the organisation, I pledge my life, my fortune -and my sacred honour." This was the oath in part. Members were sworn to -vote only for candidates endorsed by the league. The ritual appealed to -the negro's superstition. The catechism inculcated opposition to the -Democratic Party, fealty to the Radical Republican, condemnation of -Southern whites as traitors. Candidates for membership were conducted to -the Council Chamber; here, the Marshal rapped the league alarm, the -Sentinel called, "Who comes under our signal?" Answer given, the door -opens cautiously, countersign is demanded, and given in the "Four Ls"--the -right hand pointing upward with the word, "Liberty," sinking to shoulder -level with "Lincoln," dropping to the side with "Loyal," folding to the -breast with "League." The Council receives the novitiates standing, as -they march in arm in arm, singing, "John Brown's Body" and take positions -around the altar before which the President stands in regalia. - -The altar is draped with the flag, on which lies an open Bible, the -Declaration of Independence, a sword, ballot-box, sickle, and anvil or -other toy emblems of industry. At first the room may be in darkness with -sounds of groans and clanking chains issuing from corners. The chaplain -calls the league to prayer, invoking Divine vengeance on traitors. From a -censer (sometimes an old stove vase) upon the altar blue flames, "fires of -liberty," leap upward. The Council opens ranks to receive novitiates; -joining hands, all circle round the altar, singing, "The Star-Spangled -Banner" or other patriotic air. Novitiates lay hands upon the flag, kiss -the Bible and swear: "I will do all in my power to elect true and loyal -men to all offices of trust and profit." Instructions in pass-words, -signals, etc., are given. Secret business is transacted. - -Negroes were drilled, armed and marched about. Into League rooms social -features were introduced, League literature was read aloud, feminine -branches were formed. Leagues furnished a secret service bureau. Coloured -servants told what happened in white houses. "My cook and I were children -together," a friend tells me. "As we grew up, she made me read and write -her letters. One day, after freedom, she said, 'Miss, put 'tin dar fuh -Jeems tuh write me suppin funny nex' time he do write. We has to have all -our letters read out in church an' when dere's anything funny, de folks -laugh.' Soon she ceased asking my services. Through this plan of having -letters read out in church leagues and bureaus collected information of -happenings in private homes from far and wide. Such gleanings might be -useful in revealing political or self-protective movements among whites, -in hunting a man down; or serving his political or social enemy, or -would-be robber." - -In a South Carolina mansion, Mrs. Vincent and her daughter Lucy lived -alone except for a few faithful ex-slaves. A cabin on the edge of the -plantation was rented to Wash, a negro member of the Loyal League, whose -organiser was Captain Johnson, commander of a small garrison in a nearby -town. The captain was fond of imposing fines upon whites against whom -negroes entered complaint. There seemed nice adjustment between fines and -defendants' available cash. One day Wash, pushing past Lucy's maid into -the Vincent parlor, said to Lucy's mother, "I'se come to cote Miss Lucy." -"Leave the house!" "I ain' gwi leave no such a thing! I'se gwi marry Lucy -an' live here wid you." Lucy appeared. "I'se come to ax you to have me. -I'se de ve'y man fuh you to hitch up wid. Dis here place b'long to me. You -b'long to me." She whipped out a pistol and covered him. "Run! Run for -your life!" He ran. When he was out of pistol-shot, he turned and yelled: -"You d----d white she-cat! I'll make you know!" She caught up a musket and -fired. Balls whistled past his head; he renewed his flight. - -Next morning, as the ladies, pale and miserable, sat at breakfast, a squad -of soldiers filed in, took seats, helped themselves and ordered the -butler around. The ladies rose and were arrested. A wagon was at the door. -"Please, marsters," said black Jerry humbly, "lemme hitch up de kerridge -an' kyar Mistiss an' Miss Lucy in it. 'Taint fitten fuh 'em to ride in a -waggin--an' wid strange mens." His request was refused. The ladies were -arraigned before Captain Johnson on charge that they had used insulting -language to Mr. Washington Singleton Pettigru; and that Lucy, "in defiance -of law and morals and actuated by the devil," had "without provocation" -fired on him with intent to kill. A fine of $1,000 or six months in jail -was imposed. "I have not so much money!" cried Mrs. Vincent. "Jail may -change your mind," said the captain. They were committed to a loathsome -cell, their determination alone preventing separation. - -Lawyers flocked to their defense; the captain would hear none. Towards -nightfall the town filled with white men wearing set faces. The captain -sent for one of the lawyers. The lawyer said: "Unless you release those -ladies from the jail at once, no one can tell what may happen. But this I -believe: you, nor a member of your garrison, will be alive tomorrow." They -were released; fine remitted; the captain left in haste. An officer came -from Columbia to investigate "disorder in the district." He condemned -Johnson's course and tried to reassure the community. It came out that -Johnson had received information that Mrs. Vincent held a large, -redeemable note; he had incited Wash to "set up" to Miss Lucy, urging that -by marrying her he would become the plantation's owner: "Call in your best -duds and ask her to marry you. If she refuses, we will find a way to -punish her." Wash, it was thought, had fled the country. The negro -body-servant of Lucy's dead brother had felt that the duty of avenger -devolved upon him, and in his own way he had slain Wash and covered up -the deed. - -A white congregation was at worship in a little South Carolina church when -negro soldiers filed in and began to take seats beside the ladies. The -pastor had just given out his text; he stretched forth his hands and said -simply: "Receive the benediction," and dismissed his people. A -congregation in another country church was thrown into panic by balls -crashing through boards and windows; a girl of fourteen was killed -instantly. Black troops swung by, singing. Into a dwelling a squad of -blacks marched, bound the owner, a prominent aged citizen, pillaged his -house, and then before his eyes, bound his maiden daughter and proceeded -to fight among themselves for her possession. "Though," related my -informant with sharp realism, "her neck and face had been slobbered over, -she stood quietly watching the conflict. At last, the victor came to her, -caught her in his arms and started into an adjoining room, when he wavered -and fell, she with him; she had driven a knife, of which she had in some -way possessed herself, into his heart. The others rushed in and beat her -until she, too, was lifeless. There was no redress." - -In black belts, where such things happened and where negroes talked openly -of killing out white men and taking white women for wives, the whites, few -in number, poorly armed and without organisation, scattered over the -country and leading themselves in no insignificant proportion the lives of -the hunted, faced a desperate situation. Many who chanced to give offense -to the ruling faction or who by force of character were considered -obstacles to its advancement, found themselves victims of false charges, -and, chased by troops, had to leave their families and dwell in swamps or -other hiding-places. Compelled by necessity to labour in the field, white -gentlemen going to their toil, let down gaps in surrounding fences so that -they might fly at a moment's notice, and plowed with saddles on their -horses' backs. Northerners, and Southerners who did not live in that day -and in black belts, can form no conception of the conditions which gave -rise to the white secret societies of which the most widely celebrated is -the Ku Klux. - -Larger in numbers and wider in distribution was the order of the Knights -of the White Camelia, originating in Louisiana; small protective bodies -consolidating May 23, 1867, in New Orleans, took this title. Extension -over the United States was purposed. Its first article of faith was -preservation of the integrity of the white race, and, in government, white -supremacy. At the door of the Council Chamber the blindfolded candidate -for initiation vowed: "The cause of our race must triumph;" and "We must -all be united as are the flowers that grow on one stem." He swore "Never -to marry any woman but of the white race." Mongrel legislatures were -enacting laws about co-education and intermarriage of races; the whites -were a "bewildered people." In Mississippi, the order of the Knights of -the White Rose was modelled on the White Camelias; in Alabama, the White -Brotherhood and the White League; there were Pale Faces, Union Guards, and -others, all of which, with the White Camelias, may be included in the Ku -Klux movement. - -The Ku Klux originated near Pulaski, Tennessee, 1866, in something akin to -a college boys' frolic. Some young ex-Confederates, of good families, -finding time heavy on their hands after war's excitement, banded together -in a fraternity, with initiation rites, signals, oaths of secrecy, and a -name after the Greek, kyklos, a circle, corrupted into kuklos, kuklux, and -adding klan. Their "den" was a deserted house near the town. They rode -at night in queer disguises; at first, without other object than -diversion. Their fear and fame spread; branches were formed in other -counties and States. In their pranks and negro superstition, whites found -weapon for protection and defense. Through troubled neighbourhoods, white -horsemen riding in noiseless procession, restored peace by parade and -sometimes by sterner measures. - -[Illustration: MRS. DAVID R. WILLIAMS, OF SOUTH CAROLINA - -(Daughter of Governor Miller) - -From a portrait by Osgood, photographed by Reckling & Sons] - -Notices left as warnings on doors or pinned to town-pumps or trees bore -cross-bones and skull in red ink, and such inscriptions as: - - K K K - - The Raven Croaked - and we are come to Look on the Moon. - The Lion Tracks the Jackal - the Bear the Wolf - Our Shrouds are Bloody - But the Midnight is Black. - - The Serpent and Scorpion are Ready. - Some Shall Weep and Some Shall Pray. - Meet at Skull - For Feast of the Wolf and - Dance of the Muffled Skeletons. - - The Death Watch is Set - The Last Hour Cometh. - The Moon is Full. - - Burst your cerements asunder - Meet at the Den of the Glow-Worm - The Guilty Shall be Punished. - -I have felt defrauded of my rights because I never saw a Ku Klux; my -native Virginia seems not to have had any. I have seen them abundantly, -however, through the eyes of others. One of my cousins went, during K. K. -days, to be bridesmaid to a Georgia cousin. One night, as she and the -bride-elect sat on the piazza, there appeared in the circular driveway a -white apparition of unearthly height, on a charger in white trappings. -Behind came another and another, the horses moving without sound; they -passed in silent review before the girls, each spectre saluting. With cold -chills running down her spine, Sue asked, "_What_ are they?" Her companion -laughed. "Haven't you been saying you wanted to see the Ku Klux?" News -enough next morning! A white man had been found tied to a tree, and over -his head, pinned to the bark, a notice written in his blood, warning him -to leave the county at once unless he desired to be carried out by a -pathway to--a grave with headstone neatly drawn and showing epitaph with -date of death, completed the sentence. He had been flogged and a scratch -on his breast showed whence red ink had been drawn. As soon as untied, he -left for parts unknown. - -Neighbourhood darkeys had eyes big as saucers. Many quarters had been -visited. Sable uncles and aunties shook their heads, muttering: "Jedgment -Day 'bout tuh come. Gab'el gwi blow his ho'n an' sinners better be -a-moanin' an' a-prayin'. Yes, my Lawd!" And: "'Tain't jes one Death -a-ridin' on a pale horse! it's tens uv thousan's uv 'em is ridin' now. -Sinner, you better go pray!" A few who had been making themselves -seriously obnoxious observed terrified silence and improved demeanour. An -expert chicken-thief had received a special notice in which skulls and -cross-bones and chicken-heads and toes were tastefully intermixed. Others -were remembered in art designs of the "All-Seeing Eye," reminder that they -were being watched. - -The white man was a receiver of stolen goods and instigator of -barn-burnings; had been tried for some one of his offenses and committed -to the penitentiary, only to be pardoned out by the State Executive. In a -North Carolina case of which I heard, a negro firebug who could not be -brought to justice through law, though the burning of two barns and a full -stable were traced to him, disappeared as if the earth had swallowed him -up after a night in which all the darkeys around smelled brimstone and saw -fiery-eyed and long-tailed devils at large. People were hard put to it for -protection against fire-fiends. - -In a South Carolina newspaper a notice appeared from a man who gave -warning that he would take vengeance into his own hands if incendiaries -fired his property again. - -The Ku Klux ruled its members with iron rod. Mr. M., of the order in -Tazewell, N. C., was building a cabin on his place for a negro who had -come under ban because of evil influence over other negroes; word had been -passed that he was to be crowded out. A message reached Mr. M.: "Do not -let this negro come on your place. K. K. K.", with due skull and -cross-bones accompaniment. To close friends of the order Mr. M. said: "My -rights shall not be abridged by the Klan." The cabin was finished on -Saturday. Sunday he asked a visitor: "Let's take a stroll in the woods and -a look at Henry's cabin." When they came to where the cabin had stood, Mr. -M. exclaimed: "Why, what does this mean? Lo and behold, the cabin and -everything is torn down and the logs scattered every which-a-way!" "And -what's this?" his friend asked, pointing to three new-made graves with -pine head-boards, inscribed respectively in epitaph to Mr. M., Henry, and -Henry's wife, Mr. M.'s death dated the ensuing Sabbath. On a tiny hillock -was a small gallows with grapevine attachment. As one of the order, Mr. M. -knew enough to make him ill at ease. Friends begged him to leave the -country for a time, and he went. "This may look like tyranny," said my -informant, "but Mr. M. ought to have heeded the first message. The order -could only do effective work through unfailing execution of sentence." - -Between a young lady and the son of a house in which she was a guest, a -tender passion arose. He had mysterious absences lasting half or all -night, after which his horse would be found in the stables, lathered with -foam. The family rallied him on his devotion to a fair demoiselle in an -adjoining county. Though under cold treatment from the guest, he gave no -other explanation until one day he conducted her and his sister into his -room, locked the door, swore them to secrecy, drew from its hiding-place -up the chimney a Ku Klux outfit and asked them to make duplicates for a -new Klan he was forming. The lovers came to understanding; the girl -reproached him: "Why did you not tell me before?" "I did not know if you -could keep a secret. I have a public duty to perform; the liberty of my -men can be imperiled by a careless word." - -The widow of a Ku Klux captain tells me that one night, when her husband -was absent on duty in a town where whites were in terror because the -negroes were threatening to burn it, her own house was fired. She was in -bed, her new-born baby at her side; stealthy steps were heard under her -window. Her old black mauma was afraid to go to the window and look out. -There was a smell of fire; the mauma ran to the door and shrieked alarm. A -shout answered from the cellar, where a faithful negro man-servant was -putting out flames. He had let the incendiaries go away thinking their -purpose fulfilled. The returning husband, sorely perplexed, said: "I do -not see how I can do my duty by my family and the public. I must give up -my Klan." "No," she answered. "All have to take turns in leaving their own -unprotected. I let you go into the army. Some one must lead, and your men -will not follow and obey any one else as they will you." He had been their -captain in the Confederate Army. - -To a Loyal League jury or magistrate a prisoner on trial had but to give -the League signal to secure acquittal. A convicted and sentenced criminal -would be pardoned by a Loyal League Governor. Klans took administration of -justice into their own hands because courts were ineffective. In a den, -regularly established and conducted, a man would be tried by due process -before judge and jury, with counsel appointed for defense; evidence would -be taken, the case would be argued; the jury would render verdict; the -judge would dismiss the case or pronounce sentence. The man on trial might -or might not be present. A Ku Klux captain tells me that great effort was -made to give fair trials; acquittals were more frequent than convictions. -But when the court imposed sentence, sentence was carried out. - -In the hill country of South Carolina, a one-armed ex-Confederate, a "poor -white," made a scanty living for his large family by hauling. Once, on a -lonely road when his load was whiskey, he was surrounded by negro -soldiers, who killed him, took possession of the whiskey and drank it. -Ring-leaders were arrested and lodged in jail; some were spirited away to -Columbia and released; a plan was afoot to free the rest, among them the -negro captain who had boasted of his crime, and flouted the whites with -their powerlessness to punish him. The prison was surrounded one night by -silent, black-robed horsemen on black-draped horses moving without sound; -jailer and guards were overpowered; cells entered; prisoners tried--if -proceedings interrupted by confessions and cries for mercy can be called -trial. Sentences were pronounced. The black-robed, black-masked circle -chanted "Dies Iræ, Dies Illa." The town awoke from a night of seeming -peace and silence to behold dead bodies swinging from the trees.[20] - -The Stevens Mystery, of Yanceyville, N. C., has never been unravelled; the -$5,000 reward which President Grant offered for answer to the question, -"Who killed Stevens?" was never won, though skilled detectives tried for -it. Stevens was a scalawag. He achieved his sobriquet, "Chicken Stevens," -through being chased out of his native county for stealing chickens. One -of his adherents, when quite drunk, said before an audience of two -thousand negroes: "Stevens stole chickens; that elected him to the -Legislature; if he steals turkeys, it will elect him to Congress." The -pleasantry was cheered to the echo. Stevens was charged with instigating -riots and barn-burnings. He received a mystic warning to leave the -country. He did not go. - -One day, while court was in full session, he was seen in the Court Room, -in conversation with several people; was seen to leave in amicable company -with a citizen who parted with him and went out by the street door, while -Stevens entered a county office where clerks were busy; several persons -recalled seeing and speaking to him here, but nobody could remember seeing -him alive afterwards. Yet hall and offices were thronged with his -adherents. He was soon missed by the negroes who set a guard around the -building. Next day he was found in the Grand Jury Room, sitting bolt -upright, dead, strangled or with his throat cut, I forget which. This room -opened on the hall through which a stream of people, white and black, had -been passing all day; a negro cabin commanded a view of the window; a -negro janitor held the key. - -Kirke's cut-throats, sent down by Governor Holden, arrested prominent -citizens and carried them to Raleigh. No evidence for conviction could -ever be found, and they were liberated. Stevens' death has been charged to -Ku Klux; also, to his confederates, who, it is said, received instructions -from headquarters to "kill off Stevens," meaning politically, which they -construed literally. I have been told that one of the slayers is living -and that at his death, a true statement will be published showing who -killed Stevens and how. - -These stories are sufficient to show the good and the evil of Ku Klux; -there is public peril in any secret order which attempts to administer -justice. Uniform and methods employed to justifiable or excusable ends by -one set of people were employed to ends utterly indefensible by another. -The Radicals were quick to profit by Ku Klux methods; and much was done -under the name and guise that the Klan did not do. Yet, in its own ranks -were men reckless, heedless, and wicked, avengers of personal grudges. - -The Invisible Empire, as the Klan was called in its organisation in 1867 -under the leadership of Grand Wizard, General Nathan Bedford Forrest, and -with men like General Dudley Du Bose, of Georgia, for division commanders, -had a code that might have served for Arthur's Round Table. Its first -object was "To protect the weak, innocent and defenseless from the -indignities, wrongs and outrages of the lawless, the violent and the -brutal; to relieve the injured and oppressed, to succour the suffering and -unfortunate, especially the widows and orphans of Confederate soldiers." -Its second: "To protect and defend the Constitution of the United States -and all laws passed in conformity thereto." Its third: "To aid and assist -in the execution of all constitutional laws, and to protect the people -from unlawful seizure and from trial except by their peers in conformity -to the laws of the land." - -"Unlawful seizure" was practiced in South Carolina, Arkansas, Louisiana, -Mississippi and other States, where white men would be arrested on blank -warrants or no warrant at all; carried long distances from home, held for -weeks or months; and then, as happened in some famous cases, be released -without ever having been brought to trial; in other instances, they were -beaten; in others, committed to penitentiaries; in others, it was as if -the earth had swallowed them up--they have never been heard from. Some -agency was surely needed to effect ends which the Klan named as object of -its existence; that the Klan was effective of these ends in great degree -no one conversant with facts will deny, nor will they deny that -"Tom-foolery" and not violence was its most frequent weapon. - -Where Ku Klux rode around, negroes ceased to venture out after dark. Some -told tales of ghastly nocturnal visitors who plead for a drink of water, -saying, "Dee ain' had nay drap sence de Yankees killed 'em at Gettysburg. -An' den, suh, when you han' 'em er gode-full, dee say: 'Kin you let me -have de bucket? I'se jes come f'om hell an' I'se scotchin' in my insides.' -An' den, mun, dat ar hant des drink down dat whole bucket at a gulp, an' I -hyern it sizzlin' down his gullet des same ez you done flung it on de -coals! I ain' gwi fool longer nothin' lak dat! Some folks say it's white -folks tryin' tuh skeer we-all, but, suh, I b'lieve it's hants-er Ole Satan -one!" Terrible experience it was when "A hant--or suppin nur--wid er hade -mighty nigh high ez er chimley ud meet a nigger in de road an' say: 'I -come f'om torment (hell) tuh shake han's wid you!' An' de nigger--he didn' -wanter do it, but he feared tuh 'fuse--he tooken shuck han's wid dat ar -hant, an' dat ar han' what he shuck was a skelumton's--de bones fa'r -rattle!" - -The regular Ku Klux costume was a white gown or sheet, and a tall, conical -pasteboard hat; for the horse a white sheet and foot-mufflers. Black gown, -mask and trappings, and red ones, were also worn; bones, skulls of men and -beasts, with foxfire for eyes, nose and mouth, were expedients. A rubber -tube underneath robe or sheet, or a rubber or leather bag, provided for -miraculous consumption of water. In negro tales of supernatural -appearances, latitude must be allowed for imagination. A Ku Klux captain -tells me that one night as he rose up out of a graveyard, one of his -negroes passed with a purloined gobbler in possession; he touched the -negro on the shoulder. The negro dropped the turkey and flew like mad, and -the turkey flew, too. Next morning, the darkey related the experience to -his master (omitting the fowl). "How tall was that hant, George?" "Des -high ez a tree, Marster! an' de han' it toch my shoulder wid burnt me lak -fire. I got mutton-suet on de place." "I was about three feet taller than -my natural self that night," says Captain Lea. George wore a plaster on -his arm and for some time complained that it was "pa'lised." - -Klans and Union Leagues came to an end conjointly when carpet-bag rule was -expiring. The Invisible Empire was dissolved formally by order of the -Grand Wizard, March, 1869. It had never been a close organisation, and -"dens" and counterfeit "dens" continued in existence here and there for -awhile, working good and evil. Ku Klux investigations instituted by State -authorities and the Federal Government were travesties of justice. Rewards -offered for evidence to convict caused innocent men to be hunted down, -arrested, imprisoned, and on false accusation and suborned testimony, -convicted and committed to State prisons or sent to Sing Sing. The jails -of Columbia, at one time, overflowed with the first gentlemen of the -state, thrown into filthy cells, charged with all manner of crimes. - -The Union League incited to murder and arson, whipped negroes and whites. -But I never heard of Union Leaguers being tried for being Union Leaguers -as Ku Klux were tried for being Ku Klux. There are no Southerners to -contend that the Klan and its measures were justifiable or excusable -except on the grounds that the conditions of the times called for them; -informed Northerners will concede that the evils of the day justified or -excused the Klan's existence. For my part, I believe that this country -owes a heavy debt to its noiseless white horsemen, shades of its troubled -past.[21] - - - - -THE SOUTHERN BALLOT-BOX - - - - -CHAPTER XXV - -THE SOUTHERN BALLOT-BOX - - -Free negroes could vote in North Carolina until 1835, when a -Constitutional Convention, not without division of sentiment, abolished -negroid franchise on the ground that it was an evil. Thereafter, negroes -first voted in the South in 1866, when the "Prince of Carpet-Baggers," -Henry C. Warmouth, who had been dismissed from the Federal Army, conferred -the privilege in a bogus election; he had a charity-box attachment to -every ballot-box and a negro dropping a ballot into one had to drop fifty -cents into the other, contributions paying Warmouth's expenses as special -delegate to Washington, where Congress refused to recognize him. He -returned to Louisiana and in two years was governor and in three was worth -a quarter of a million dollars and a profitable autograph. "It cost me -more," said W. S. Scott, "to get his signature to a bill than to get the -bill through the Legislature"--a striking comparison, for to get a bill -through this Legislature of which Warmouth said, "there is but one honest -man in it," was costly process. Warmouth said of himself, "I don't pretend -to be honest, but only as honest as anybody in politics." - -Between the attitude of the army and the politicians on the negro -question, General Sherman drew this comparison: "We all felt sympathy for -the negroes, but of a different kind from that of Mr. Stanton, which was -not of pure humanity but of politics.... I did not dream that the former -slaves would be suddenly, without preparation, manufactured into -voters.... I doubted the wisdom of at once clothing them with the elective -franchise ... and realised the national loss in the death of Mr. Lincoln, -who had long pondered over the difficult questions involved." - -April Fool's Day, 1870, a crowd clustered around General Grant in the -White House; a stroke of his pen was to proclaim four millions of people, -literate or illiterate, civilised or uncivilised, ready or unready, -voters. When the soldier had signed the instrument politicians had -prepared for him, the proclamation announcing that the Fifteenth Amendment -had been added to the Constitution of the United States by the -ratification of twenty-nine, some one begged for the historic pen, and he -silently handed it over. One who was present relates: "Somebody exclaimed, -'Now negroes can vote anywhere!', and a venerable old gentleman in the -crowd cried out, 'Well, gentlemen, you will all be d----d sorry for this!' -The President's father-in-law, Dent, Sr., was said to be the speaker." In -Richmond, the Dent family had seen a good deal of freedmen. Negroes voted -in 1867, over two years prior to this, Congress by arbitrary act vesting -them with a right not conferred by Federal or State Constitutions. They -voted for delegates to frame the new State Constitutions; then on their -own right to vote!--this right forming a plank in said Constitutions. - -The Southern ballot-box was the new toy of the Ward of the Nation; the -vexation of housekeepers and farmers, the despair of statesmen, patriots, -and honest men generally. Elections were preceded by political meetings, -often incendiary in character, which all one's servants must attend. With -election day, every voting precinct became a picnic-ground, to say no -worse. Negroes went to precincts overnight and camped out. Morning -revealed reinforcements arriving. All sexes and ages came afoot, in carts, -in wagons, as to a fair or circus. Old women set up tables and spread out -ginger-cakes and set forth buckets of lemonade. One famous campaign -manager had all-night picnics in the woods, with bonfires, barrels of -liquor, darkeys sitting around drinking, fiddling, playing the banjo, -dancing. The instant polls opened they were marched up and voted. Negroes -almost always voted in companies. A leader, standing on a box, handed out -tickets as they filed past. All were warned at Loyal Leagues to vote no -ticket other than that given by the leader, usually a local coloured -preacher who could no more read the ballots he distributed than could the -recipients. Fights were plentiful as ginger-cakes. The all-day picnic -ended only with closing of polls, and not always then, darkeys hanging -around and carrying scrapping and jollification into the night. - -How their white friends would talk and talk the day before election to -butlers, coachmen, hoers and plowers, on the back porch or at the woodpile -or the stables; and how darkeys would promise, "Yessuh, I gwi vote lak you -say." And how their old masters would return from the polls next day with -heads hung down, and the young ex-masters would return mad, and saying, -"This country is obliged to go to the devil!" - -There were a great many trying phases of the situation. As for example: -Conservatives were running General Eppa Hunton for Congress. Among the -General's coloured friends was an old negro, Julian, his ward of pity, who -had no want that he did not bring to the General. Election day, he sought -the General at the polls, saying: "Mars Eppie, I want some shingles fuh my -roof." "You voted for me, Julian?" "Naw, naw, Mars Eppie, I voted de -straight Publikin ticket, suh." He got the shingles. When "Mars Eppie" -was elected, Julian came smiling: "Now, Mars Eppie, bein' how as you's -goin' to Congress, I 'lowed you mought have a leetle suppin tuh gimme." A -party of young lawyers tried to persuade their negro servant to vote with -them. "Naw, naw," he said. "De debbul mought git me. Dar ain't but two -parties named in de Bible--de Publikins an' Sinners. I gwi vote wid de -Publikins." - -In everything but politics, the negro still reposed trust in "Ole -Marster;" his aches, pains, "mis'ries," family and business troubles, were -all for "Ole Marster," not for the carpet-baggers. The latter feared he -would take "Ole Marster's" advice when he went to the polls, so they -wrought in him hatred and distrust. The negro is not to blame for his -political blunders. It would never have occurred to him to ask for the -ballot; as greatness upon some, so was the franchise untimely thrust upon -him, and he has much to live down that would never have been charged -against him else. - -"Brownlow's armed cohorts, negroes principally," one of my father's -friends wrote from Tennessee in 1867, "surround our polls. All the -unlettered blacks go up, voting on questions of State interest which they -do not in the least understand, while intelligent, tax-paying whites, who -must carry the consequences of their acts, are not allowed to vote. I -stayed on my plantation on election day and my negroes went to the polls. -So it was all around me--white men at home, darkeys off running the -government. Negro women went, too; my wife was her own cook and -chambermaid--and butler, for the butler went." - -Educated, able, patriotic men, eager to heal the breaches of war, anxious -to restore the war-wrecked fortunes of impoverished States, would have to -stand idly by, themselves disfranchised, and see their old and faithful -negroes marched up to the polls like sheep to the shambles and voted by, -and for the personal advancement of, political sharpers who had no solid -interest in the State or its people, white or black. It would be no less -trying when, instead of this meek, good-natured line, they would find -masses of insolent, armed blacks keeping whites from the polls, or receive -tragic evidence that ambushed guards were commanding with Winchesters all -avenues to the ballot-box. Not only "Secesh" were turned back, but Union -men, respectable Republicans, also; as in Big Creek, Missouri, when a -citizen who had lost four sons in the Union Army was denied right to vote. -"Kill him! kill him!" cried negroes when at Hudson Station, Virginia, a -negro cast a Conservative ticket. - -"This county," says a Southerner now occupying a prominent place in -educational work for the negro, "had about 1,600 negro majority at the -time the tissue ballot came into vogue. It was a war measure. The -character and actions of the men who rode to power on the negro ballot -compelled us to devise means of protection and defense. Even the negroes -wanting to vote with us dared not. One of my old servants, who sincerely -desired to follow my advice and example in the casting of his ballot, came -to me on the eve of election and sadly told me he could not. 'Marster,' he -said, 'I been tol' dat I'll be drummed outer de chu'ch ef I votes de -Conserv'tive ticket.' A negro preacher said: 'Marse Clay, dee'll take away -my license tuh preach ef I votes de white folks' ticket.' I did not cease -to reproach myself for inducing one negro to vote with me when I learned -that on the death of his child soon afterwards, his people showed no -sympathy, gave no help, and that he had to make the coffin and dig the -grave himself. I would have gone to his relief had I known, but he was too -terrorised to come to me. I did not seek to influence negro votes at the -next election; I adopted other means to effect the issue desired." - -"If the whites succeed at the polls, they will put you back into slavery. -If we succeed, we will have the lands of the whites confiscated and give -every one of you forty acres and a mule." This scare and bribe was used in -every Southern State; used over and over; negroes only ceased to give -credence when after Cleveland's inauguration they found themselves still -free. On announcement of Cleveland's election, many negroes, prompt to -choose masters, hurried to former owners. The butler of Dr. J. L. M. Curry -(administrator of the Peabody Education Fund), appeared in distress before -Dr. Curry, pleading that, as he now must belong to some one, Dr. Curry -would claim him. An old "mammy" in Mayor Ellyson's family, distracted lest -she might be torn from her own white folks and assigned to strangers, put -up piteous appeal to her ex-owners. - -From the political debauchery of the day, men of the old order shrank -appalled. Even when the test-oath qualification was no longer exacted and -disabilities were removed, many Southerners would not for a time touch the -unclean thing; then they voted as with averted faces, not because they had -faith in or respect for the process, but because younger men told them the -country's salvation demanded thus much of them. If a respectable man was -sent to the Legislature or Congress, he felt called upon to explain or -apologise to a stranger who might not understand the circumstances. His -relatives hastened to make excuse. "Uncle Ambrose is in the Legislature, -but he is honest," Uncle Ambrose's nieces and nephews hurried to tell -before the suspicious "Honourable" prefixed to his name brought judgment -on a good old man who had intended no harm, but had got into the -Legislature by accident rather than by design--who was there, in fact, by -reason of circumstances over which he had no control. The few -representative men who got into these mixed assemblies had difficulty in -making themselves felt. Judge Simonton, of the United States Circuit Court -(once President of the Charleston Library Association, Chairman of the -Board of School Commissioners, bearer of many civic dignities besides), -was member of a reconstruction legislature. He has said: "To get a bill -passed, I would have to persuade a negro to present it. It would receive -no attention presented by me." - -Negroes were carried by droves from one county to another, one State to -another, and voted over and over wherever white plurality was feared. -Other tricks were to change polling-places suddenly, informing the negroes -and not the whites; to scratch names from registration lists and -substitute others. Whites would walk miles to a registration place to find -it closed; negroes, privately advised, would have registered and gone. -When men had little time to give to politics, patriotism was robust if it -could devote days to the siege of a Registration Board, trying to catch it -in place in spite of itself. - -The Southerner's loathing for politics, his despair, his inertia, -increased evils. "Let the Yankees have all the niggers they want," he was -prone to say. "Let them fill Congress with niggers. The only cure is a -good dose!" But with absolute ruin staring him in the face, he woke with a -mighty awakening. Taxpayers' Conventions issued "Prayers" to the public, -to State Governments, to the Central Government; they raised out of the -poverty of the people small sums to send committees to Washington; and -these committees were forestalled by Radical State Governments who, with -open State Treasuries to draw upon, sent committees ahead, prejudicing the -executive ear and closing it to appeal. - -The most lasting wrong reconstruction inflicted upon the South was in the -inevitable political demoralisation of the white man. No one could regard -the ballot-box as the voice of the people, as a sacred thing. It was a -plaything, a jack-in-the-box for the darkeys, a conjurer's trick that -brought drinks, tips and picnics. It was the carpet-bagger's -stepping-stone to power. The votes of a multitude were for sale. The votes -of a multitude were to be had by trickery. It was a poor patriot who would -not save his State by pay or play. Taxation without representation, again; -the tissue ballot--a tiny silken thing--was one of the instruments used -for heaving tea--negro plurality--into the deep sea. - -"As for me," says a patriot of the period, "I bless the distinguished -Virginian who invented the tissue ballot. It was of more practical utility -than his glorious sword. I am free to say I used many tissue ballots. My -old pastor (he was eighty and as true and simple a soul as ever lived) -voted I don't know how many at one time, didn't know he was doing it, just -took the folded ballot I handed him and dropped it in, didn't want to vote -at all." Others besides this speaker assume that General Mahone invented -the tissue ballot, but General Mahone's intimates say he did not, and that -to ask who invented the tissue ballot is to ask who struck Billy -Patterson. Democrats waive the honour in favor of Republicans, Republicans -in favor of Democrats; nobody wants to wear it as a decoration. For my -part, I think it did hard work and much good work, and quietly what else -might have cost shedding of blood. - -"We had a trying time," one citizen relates, "when negroes gained -possession of the polls and officered us. Things got simply unendurable; -we determined to take our town from under negro rule. One means to that -end was the tissue ballot. Dishonest? Will you tell me what honesty there -was, what reverence for the ballot-box, in standing idly by and seeing a -horde of negroes who could not read the tickets they voted, cram our -ballot-boxes with pieces of paper ruinous to us and them? We had to save -ourselves by our wits. Some funny things happened. I was down at the -precinct on Bolingbrook Street when the count was announced, and heard an -old darkey exclaim: 'I knows dat one hunderd an' ninety-seben niggers -voted in dis distric', an' dar ain' but th'ee Radicule ballots in de box! -I dunno huccum dat. I reckon de Radicule man gin out de wrong ones. I -knows he gin me two an' I put bofe uv 'em in de box.'" - -Tissue ballots were introduced into South Carolina by a Republican named -Butts, who used them against Mackey, another Republican, his rival for -Congressional honours; there was no Democratic candidate. Next election -Democrats said: "Republicans are using tissue ballots; we must fight the -devil with fire." A package arrived one night at a precinct whereof I -know. The local Democratic leader said: "I don't like this business." He -was told: "The Committee sent them up from the city; they say the other -side will use them and that we've got to use them." - -According to election law, when ballots polled exceeded registration -lists, a blindfolded elector would put his hand in the box and withdraw -until ballots and lists tallied. Many tissue ballots could be folded into -one and voted as a single ballot; a little judicious agitation after they -were in the box would shake them apart. A tissue ballot could be told by -its feel; an elector would withdraw as sympathy or purchase ran. Voting -over at the precinct mentioned, the box was taken according to regulations -into a closed room and opened. Democrats and Republicans had each a -manager. The Republican ran his hand into the box and gave it a stir; -straightway it became so full it couldn't be shut, ballots falling apart -and multiplying themselves. The Republican laughed: "I have heard of -self-raising flour. These are self-raising ballots! Butts' own game!" That -precinct went Democratic. - -So went other precincts. Republicans had failed on tissues. A -Congressional Committee, composed of Senators McDonald of Indiana, -Randolph of New Jersey, and Teller of Colorado, came down to inquire into -elections. Republicans charged tissue ballots on Democrats. But, alas! one -of the printers put on the stand testified that the Republicans had -ordered many thousand tissue ballots of him, but he had failed to have -them on time! - -There were other devices. Witness, the story of the Circus and the Voter. -"A circus saved us. Each negro registering received a certificate to be -presented at the polls. Our people got a circus to come through and made a -contract with the managers. The circus let it be known that registration -certificates would be accepted instead of admission tickets, or entrance -fees, we agreeing to redeem at admission price all certificates turned -over to us. The arrangement made everybody happy--none more than the -negroes, who got a better picnic than usual and saw a show besides. The -circus had tremendous crowds and profited greatly. And one of the most -villainous tickets ever foisted upon a people was killed quietly and -effectually." - -An original scheme was resorted to in the Black Belt of Mississippi in -order to carry the day. An important local election was to be held, and -the whites felt that they could not afford to lose. But how to keep out -the black vote was a serious question. Finally, a bright young fellow -suggested a plan. For a week preceding election, he collected, by paying -for it, negro hair from barbers serving negroes, and he got butchers to -save waste blood from slaughter-pens. The night before the election, -committees went out about a mile on every road and path leading to the -town, and scattering wool and blood generously, "pawed up the ground" with -foot-tracks and human body imprints. Every evidence of furious scuffle was -faithfully carried out. The day dawned beautiful and bright, but not a -black vote was cast--not a negro was to be seen. Hundreds had quit -farm-work to come to vote, but stopped aghast at the appalling signs of -such an awful battle, and fled to their homes in prompt and precipitate -confusion. - -I heard a good man say, with humour and sadness, "I have bought many a -negro vote, bought them three for a quarter. To buy was their terms. There -was no other way. And we couldn't help ourselves." "There were Federal -guards here and they knew just what we were doing," another relates, "knew -we were voting our way any and everybody who came up to vote, had seen the -Radicals at the same thing and knew just what strait we were in. I voted a -dead man knowingly when some one came up and gave his name. I did the same -thing unknowingly. I heard one man ask of a small funeral procession, -'Who's dead?' 'Hush!' said his companion, 'It's the man that's just -voted!'" "I never voted a dead man," a second manager chimes in, "but I -voted a man that was in Europe. His father was right in front of the -ballot-box, telling about a letter just received from his son, when up -comes somebody in that son's name and votes. The old man was equal to the -occasion. 'Why, my dear boy!'--had never seen the other before--'so glad -you got back in time to cast your vote!' and off they walked, arms around -each other." - -"The way we saved our city," one says, "was by buying the Radical manager -of the election. We were standing right under the statue of George -Washington when we paid the $500 he demanded. These things are all wrong, -but there was no other way. Some stood off and kept clean hands. But a -thing had to be done, and we did it, not minding the theoretical dirt. The -negroes were armed with ballots and bayonets, and the bayonets were at our -breasts. Our lands were taxed until we were letting our homes go because -we could not pay the taxes, while corrupt officials were waxing fat. We -had to take our country from under negro rule any way we could." It was -not wounds of war that the Southerner found it hard to forget and forgive, -but the humiliation put upon him afterward, and his own enforced -self-degradation. - -I do not wish to be understood as saying that the Southerner re-won -control of local government by only such methods as described; I emphasize -the truth that, at times, he did use them and had to use them, because -herein was his deep moral wound. He employed better methods as he could; -for instance, when every white man would bind himself to persuade one -negro to vote with him, to bring this negro to the polls, and protect him -from Radical punishment. Also, he availed himself of weak spots in the -enemy's armour. Thus in Hancock County, Georgia, in 1870, Judge Linton -Stephens challenged voters who had not paid poll-tax, and, when election -managers would not heed, had them arrested and confined, while their -places were supplied and the election proceeded. The State Constitution, -framed by the Radicals themselves, called for this poll-tax--a dollar a -head--and its application to "educational purposes." The extravagant -Radical regime, falling short of bribing money, remitted the poll-tax in -lieu thereof. Judge Stephens caught them. Governor Bullock disapproved his -action; United States Marshal Seaford haled him before United States -Commissioner Swayze. The Federal Grand Jury ignored the charge against -him, and that was the end of it. The Judge had, however, been put to -expense, trouble, and loss of time. - - - - -THE WHITE CHILD - - - - -CHAPTER XXVI - -THE WHITE CHILD - - -Upon the Southern white child of due age for schooling the effects of war -fell with cruel force. - -The ante-bellum planter kept a tutor or governess or both for his -children; his neighbours' children sometimes attended the school which he -maintained for his own. Thus, were sons and daughters prepared for academy -and college, university, finishing school. Private schools were broken up -quite generally by the war. It became quite the custom for the mother or -an elder sister to fill the position of instructor in families on big -plantations. Such schooling as this was none too plentiful in rural Dixie -just after the war. Sisters of age and capacity to teach did not stay in -one family forever. Sometimes they got married; though many a beautiful -and brilliant girl sacrificed her future for little brothers and sisters -dependent upon her for mental food. The great mass of Southern women had, -however, to drop books for broomsticks; to turn from pianos and guitars -and make music with kettles and pans. Children had to help. With labour -entirely disorganised, in the direst poverty and the grasp of such -political convulsions as no people before them had ever endured, the hour -was strenuous beyond description, and it is no wonder if the claims of -children to education were often overlooked, or, in cruel necessity, set -aside. - -Sometimes neighbours clubbed together and opened an "old field school," -paying the teacher out of a common fund subscribed for the purpose; again, -a man who could teach went around, drummed up pupils at so much a head, -opened a school and took chances on collection of dues. Many -neighbourhoods were too poor for even such expedients; to get bread itself -was a struggle to which children must lend labour. The seventies found few -or no rural districts without a quota of half-grown lads and lassies -unable to read and write. It was no strange thing to see little white boys -driving a plow when they were so small they had to lift their hands high -to grasp the handles; or little white girls minding cows, trotting to -springs or wells with big buckets to fill, bending over wash-tubs, and -working in the crops. - -The public school system was not put in operation at once, and if it had -been, could not have met conditions of the hour. Planters lived far apart; -roads in some sections long unworked, in others lately plowed by cannons -or wagon-trains, were often impassable for teams--if people were so -fortunate as to have teams; and much more so for little feet; then, too, -the reign of fear was on; highways and by-ways were infested by roving -negroes; many were harmless; would, indeed, do a child a kindness; but -some were dangerous; the negro, his own master now, was free to get drunk -at other times than Christmas and corn-shucking. An argument against the -success of the public as of the "old field" school, lay in the strong -spirit of caste animating the high-born Southerner. It was against his -grain to send his children--particularly his daughters--to school with -Tom, Dick and Harry; it did not please him for them to make close -associates of children in a different walk of life--the children of the -"poor white trash." This spirit of exclusiveness marks people of position -today, wherever found. Caste prejudice was almost inoperative, however, -having small chance to pick and choose. Gaunt poverty closed the doors of -learning against the white child of the South, while Northern munificence -was flinging them wide to the black. - -Soon as war ended, schools for negroes were organised in all directions -with Government funds or funds supplied by Northern charity; and under -Northern tutelage--a tutelage contributing to prejudice between the races. -These institutions had further the effect of aggravating the labour -problem--a problem so desperate for the Southern farmer that he could not -turn from it to give his own child a chance for intellectual life. - -He was not pleasantly moved by touching stories that went North of -class-rooms where middle-age, hoary-head and pickaninny sat on the same -bench studying the same page, all consumed with ambition to master the -alphabet. It did not enter into these accounts that the plows and hoes of -a sacked country had been deserted for the A B C book. He resented the -whole tendency of the time, which was to make the negro despise manual -labour and elevate book-learning above its just position. Along with these -appealing stories did not go pictures of fields where white women and -children in harness dragged plows through furrows; the artists did not -portray white children in the field wistfully watching black children -trooping by to school; had such pictures gone North in the sixties and -seventies, some would have said, so bitter was the moment, "Just -retribution for the whites," but not the majority. The great-hearted men -and women of the North would have come to the rescue. - -"There were two reasons for Northern indifference to the education of the -Southern white child," an embittered educator says; "natural prejudice -against the people with whom they had been at war, and the feeling that -the negro had been persecuted--had been 'snatched from his happy home in -Africa' (they forgot they had done more than a full share of the -snatching); brought over here and sold into slavery (they forgot they had -done more than a full share of the selling), and thereby stripped of all -his brilliant opportunities of life in Africa and the advancement he might -else have had; the Southern white man, instead of sending him to college, -had made him work in the fields; to even up matters now, the negro must go -to college and the white man work in the fields. This was the will of -Providence and they its executors." - -The two reasons given--undue prejudice against the Southern white and -overweening pity for the negro--were the grand disposing cause of Northern -indifference to the white child and abnormal sensibility about everything -concerning the black. But at the bottom was ignorance of actual conditions -here. The one story was put before them, the other was not. It was not to -the interests of Freedmen's Bureau agents to let the other be known; and, -of course, the business of teachers and missionaries was to make out the -strongest case possible in order to draw funds for negro education. The -negro's ignorance, in a literary sense, could hardly be exaggerated, nor -his poverty; but he was a laborer and an artisan and held recuperative -power in his hands. - -It was not in the thought of the proud old planter to cry for help; it was -his habit to give, not take; he and his wife and children made as little -parade as possible of their extremities to their nearest neighbour; such -evidences as would not down were laughed over with a humour inherent as -their spirit of independence. - -In 1867, Mrs. Sarah Hughes said: "Since leaving Kentucky last December, I -have travelled many thousand miles in the South; I have seen spreading -out before me in sad panorama solitary chimneys, burned buildings, walls -of once happy homes, grounds and gardens grown with weeds and briers; -groups of sad human faces; gaunt women and children; old, helpless men; -young men on crutches, and without arms, sick, sad, heart-broken. Words -cannot describe the destitute condition of the orphaned children. It -excites my deepest commiseration. The children of the dead soldiers are -wandering beggars, hand in hand with want. Except in large cities, there -are no schools or homes for the fatherless. An attractive academy has been -built near Atlanta by citizens of Northern cities for the children of the -freedmen; and it is in a flourishing condition," etc. An editorial in a -newspaper of the day reads: "The white children of the South are growing -up in pitiful neglect, and we are wrong to permit it." - -General Pope, commanding Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, wrote -General Grant, April 14, 1867: "It may be safely said that the remarkable -progress made in the education of these people (the negroes), aided by -noble charitable institutions of Northern societies and individuals, finds -no parallel in the history of mankind. If the white people exhibit the -same indisposition to be educated that they do now, five years will have -transferred intelligence and education so far as the masses are concerned, -to the coloured people of the district." Does it not seem incredible that -an Anglo-Saxon should regard with complacency a situation involving the -supreme peril of his race, should consider it cause of congratulation? The -state of affairs was urged as argument that the negro was or quickly would -be qualified for exercise of the franchise with which he had been invested -and his late master deprived. - -The Sunday School acquired new interest and significance. I remember one -that used to be held in summer under the trees near a blacksmith's shop, -in which Webster's Spelling Book divided attention with the New Testament. -The school was gotten up by a planter in kindly effort to do what he could -for the poor children in the neighbourhood. There were grown girls in it -who spelled out rather than read Bible verses. On weekdays, the planter's -daughter received and taught free of charge a class of poor whites. A -Georgia friend, who was a little boy at the close of the war, tells me: -"The Sunday Schools made more impression upon me than any other -institution of the period. There were, I suppose, Sunday Schools in plenty -before and during the war, but somehow they seemed a new thing -thereafter." - -This movement was at once an expression of a revival of religious -sentiment (there was a strong revival movement at the time), the desire -for social intercourse, and an effort to advance the educational interests -of the young, who in countless instances were deprived of ordinary means -of instruction. Hon. Henry G. Turner wrote of the conditions of that day: -"Cities and great tracts of country were in ashes. Colleges and schools -were silent, teachers without pupils, pupils without teachers. Even the -great charities and asylums were unable to take care of lunatics, the deaf -and the blind.... Repudiation by States of bonds, treasury notes, and -other obligations issued during the war reduced to penury thousands of -widows and orphans, and many people too old to start life over again." -Congress demanded this repudiation at the point of the bayonet. - -The South was not unmindful of her orphans; there were early organised -efforts such as the land was capable of making; the churches led in many -of these. And there were efforts of a lighter order, such as the bazaar -which the Washington and Lee Association held in Norfolk. The Baltimore -Society for the Liberal Education of Southern Children was a notable -agency. Individual effort was not lacking. Few did more according to their -might than Miss Emily V. Mason, who provided for many orphans gravitating -towards her at a time when she was paying for her nieces' board with -family silver, a spoon or a fork at a time. One of her most sympathetic -aides was a Miss Chew, of the North, with whom during the entire war she -had maintained an affectionate correspondence begun in times of peace. -Illustrative of a rather odd form of relief is this extract from a letter -by Mrs. Lee to Miss Mason: - -"My dear Miss Em, did I ever write you about a benevolent lady at the -North who is anxious to adopt two little 'rebel' children, five or six -years old--of a Confederate officer--and she writes General Lee to -recommend such a party to her. She wants them of gentle blood. I have no -doubt there are a great many to whom such an offer would be acceptable. Do -you know of any?" In regard to Baltimore's work, she says: "How can we -ever repay our kind friends in Baltimore for all they have done for us?" -When the Confederate General, John B. Hood, died, he left a number of very -young children in poor circumstances; one of their benefactors was the -Federal General McClellan, I have heard. - -Doubtless many hands were outstretched from the North in some such manner -as is indicated in Mrs. Lee's letter. Thousands would have extended help -in every way had the truth been known. What the Southern white child -really needed, however, was the removal of an oppressive legislation which -was throttling his every chance in life, and a more temperate view on the -part of the dominant section of the negro question--a question that was -pressing painfully at every point upon his present and future. He had a -right to an equal chance in life with the negro. - -That quality in Northern people which made them pour out money for the -freedmen, would have stirred their sense of justice to the white child had -the situation been clear to them. One of the earliest homes for orphans of -Confederate soldiers was established at Macon by William H. Appleton, of -New York, at the suggestion of his friend, Bishop Beckwith, of Georgia. -Vanderbilt and Tulane Universities, the Seney benefactions to Emory and -Wesleyan Colleges, and other evidences of awakening interest in the -South's white youth, will occur at once to my readers. Chief of all was -the Peabody Fund, in which white and black had share. Dr. Sears, of -Boston, first administrator, was sharply blamed by William Lloyd Garrison -and others because he did not make mixed schools a condition of bestowal -upon whites; his critics grew quiet when shown that, under the terms of -the gift, such a course would divert the whole fund to white children. - -To illustrate white need: Late as 1899, I heard, through Miss Sergeant, -Principal of the Girls' High School, Atlanta, of a white school in the -Georgia mountains where one short shelf held all the books--one grammar, -one arithmetic, one reader, one history, one geography, one spelling-book. -Starting at the end of the first bench, a book would pass from hand to -hand, each child studying a paragraph. There are schools of scrimped -resources now, where young mountaineers make all sorts of sacrifices and -trudge barefoot seemingly impossible distances to secure a little -learning. Nobody in these communities dreams of calling for outside help -and sympathy, and when help is tendered, it must be with the utmost -circumspection and delicacy, or native pride is wounded and rejects. -Appalachia is a region holding big game for people hunting chances to do -good. - -[Illustration: MISS EMILY V. MASON - -Photograph by Vianelli, Italy] - -The various Constitutional Conventions adopted public school systems for -their commonwealths. In Virginia, it was not to go into operation until -1871, after which there was to be as rapid extension as possible and full -introduction into all counties by 1876. The convention made strenuous -efforts, as did that of every other State, to force mixed schools, in -which, had they succeeded, the white child's chance of an education would -have suffered a new death. - -Early text-books used in public schools grated on the Southerner; they -were put out by Northern publishing houses and gave views of American -history which he thought unjust and untrue. The "Southern Opinion" printed -this, August 3, 1867: "In a book circulating in the South as history, this -occurs: 'While the people of the North were rejoicing because the war was -at an end, President Lincoln, one of the best men in the world, was -cruelly murdered in Washington by a young man hired by the Confederates to -do the wicked deed.' It calls Lee 'a perjured traitor;' says 'Sherman made -a glorious march to the sea;' prints 'Sheridan's Ride' as a school -recitation." To comprehension of the Southern mind as it was then and is -now in some who remember, it is essential that we get its view of the -"Ride" and the "March." - -"Have you seen a piece of poetry," a representative Southern woman wrote -another in the fall of 1865, "called 'Sheridan's Ride'? If you can get it, -do send it to me. I want to see if there isn't some one smart enough to -reply to it and give a true version of that descent of armed ruffians upon -store-rooms, stables, hen-roosts and ladies' trunks--even tearing the -jewelry from their persons--even robbing the poor darkies of their -watches and clothing. Not a single Confederate soldier did they encounter. -They ought to live in history! My Vermont friend, Lucy Adams, says these -things 'are not true, no one at the North believes them, they are -impossible.' But we know they are true. I was very anxious to send you -Sherman's speech at Cincinnati--perhaps you have seen it--in which he -unblushingly sanctions all the outrages committed by his men. I really -think some notice ought to be taken of it, but our papers, you see, are -all ruined now; and in New York, only 'The News' dares publish anything -true.... I have found a copy, but this says at 'Lancaster, Ohio'; perhaps -he said the same thing twice; it was at the close of a grand speech: -'Soldiers, when we marched through and conquered the country of the -rebels, we became owners of all they had; and I don't want you to be -troubled in your consciences for taking, while on our great march, the -property of the conquered rebels--they had forfeited their right to it.'" - -"For several years since the nineties it has been my privilege to serve a -large charitable institution here," a Southern friend writes me from a -Northern city. "On the Fourth of July I join with as much fervor as -anybody in the flag salute, in singing 'America' and all the other -patriotic songs, until they come to 'Marching Through Georgia.' That takes -the very heart out of me! Sometimes it is all I can do to keep from -bursting into tears! Then again I feel as if I must stand up and shout: -'We should not teach any American child to sing that song!' You know the -home of one of my dearest friends was in the way of that march; it was -burned to the ground and she, a little girl, and her aged grandfather -wandered homeless in the night. I wonder, O, I wonder, if our soldiers in -the Philippines, Northern and Southern boys, are giving grounds for any -such songs as that! I'd rather we'd lose the fight!" - -A cause operating against education of both races remains to be cited. The -carpet-bag, scalawag and negroid State Governments made raids on -educational funds. In North Carolina, $420,000 in railroad stock belonging -to the Educational Fund for the Benefit of Poor Children were sold for -$158,000, to be applied in part payment of extended per diems of -legislators. These legislators gave at State expense lavish -entertainments, and kept a bar and house of prostitution in the Capitol; -took trips to New York and gambled away State funds by thousands; war had -left a school fund, taxation increased it; but for two years no child, -white or black, received benefits. There was money enough for the Governor -to raise and equip two regiments, one of negroes, for intimidation of -whites, but none for education. Of Georgia's public school fund of -$327,000, there seems not to have been a penny left to the State when her -million-dollar legislature adjourned in 1870. - -Louisiana's permanent school fund for parishes vanished with none to tell -where it went. Attention was called to its disappearance by W. E. Brown, -the negro State Superintendent of Education. When Warmouth, was -inaugurated (1868), the treasury held $1,300,500 for free schools. "Bonds -representing this," states Hon. B. F. Sage, "the most sacred property of -the State, were publicly auctioned June, 1872, to pay warrants issued by -Warmouth." Warmouth, like Holden of North Carolina, and Scott and Moses of -South Carolina, raised and maintained at State expense a black army. In -1870, the Radical Governor of Florida made desperate efforts to lay hands -on the Agricultural Land Scrip, property of the Agricultural College of -that State; to save it from his clutches C. T. Chase, President of Public -Instruction, asked President Grant's intervention. A forger, embezzler and -thief presided over Mississippi's Department of Education. In every State -it was the same story of public moneys wasted by nefarious tricksters who -had ridden to power on the negro ballot; the widow and the orphan robbed, -the gray-beard and the child; the black man and the white. - - - - -SCHOOLMARMS AND OTHERS - - - - -CHAPTER XXVII - -SCHOOLMARMS AND OTHER NEWCOMERS - - -Many good people came down to do good to us and the negroes; we were not -always so nice to these as we ought to have been. But very good people can -try other very good people sorely sometimes. Besides, some who came in -sheep's clothing were not sheep, and gave false ideas of the entire flock. - -Terms of professional philanthropy were strange in the Southerner's mouth. -It never occurred to the men, women and maidens who visited all the poor, -sick, old and feeble negroes in their reach, breaking their night's rest -or their hours of recreation or toil without a sense of sacrifice--who -gave medicines, food, clothing, any and everything asked for to the blacks -and who ministered to them in neighbourly ways innumerable--that they were -doing the work of a district or parish visitor. Southerners have been -doing these things as a matter of course ever since the negroes were -brought to them direct from Africa or by way of New England, making no -account of it, never organizing into charitable associations and taking on -corresponding tags, raising collections and getting pay for official -services; the help a Southerner gave a darkey he took out of his own -pocket or larder or off his own back; and that ended the matter till next -time. - -Yet, here come salaried Northerners with "Educator," "Missionary," or -"Philanthropist" marked on their brows, broidered on their sleeves; and as -far as credit for work for darkeys goes, "taking the cake" from the -Southerner, who had no warm welcome for the avalanche of instructors -pouring down upon him with the "I am holier than thou" expression, and -bent as much upon teaching him what he ought to have been doing as upon -teaching the negro to struggle indecorously for the semblance of a -non-existent equality. - -Newcomers were upon us like the plagues of Egypt. Deserters from the -Federal Army, men dismissed for cause, followers in its wake, political -gypsies, bums and toughs. Everybody in New York remarked upon the thinning -out of the Bowery and its growing orderliness during enlistments for the -Spanish-American War; and everybody knew what became of vanishing -trampdom; it joined the army. The Federal Army in the sixties was not -without heavy percentage of similar element; and, when, after conquest, it -returned North, it left behind much riff-raff. Riff-raffs became -politicians and intellectual and spiritual guides to the negroes. From -these, and from early, unwise, sometimes vicious Freedmen's Bureau -instructors, Southerners got first ideas of Yankee schoolmasters and -schoolmarms. - -"Yankee schoolmarms" overran the country. Their spirit was often noble and -high as far as the black man's elevation--or their idea of it--was -concerned; but towards the white South, it was bitter, judicial, -unrelenting. Some were saints seeking martyrdom, and finding it; some were -fools; some, incendiaries; some, all three rolled into one; some were -straight-out business women seeking good-paying jobs; some were -educational sharps. - -Into the Watkins neighbourhood came three teachers, a male preacher and -two women teachers. They went in among the negroes, ate and slept with -them, paraded the streets arm-in-arm with them. They were disturbed to -perceive that, even among negroes, the familiarity that breeds contempt -is not conducive to usefulness; and that they were at a disadvantage in -the eyes of the negroes because white people failed to recognise them. - -Mr. Watkins, master of the manor, was a shining light to all who knew him. -In summer his verandah, in winter his dining-room, was crowded Sunday -afternoons with negroes on his invitation: "I will be glad to have you -come to sing and pray with me." He would read a chapter from the Bible, -lead the opening prayer, then call upon some sable saint to lead, himself -responding with humble "Amens." White and black would sing together. When -the newcomers found how things were, they felt aggrieved that they had not -his countenance. - -He had seen one of them walk up to his ex-hostler and lay her hand on his -coat-collar, while she talked away archly to him. I hardly believe a -gentleman of New York, Boston or Chicago would conclude that persons -making intimates of his domestic force could desire association with his -wife and daughters or expect social attentions from them; I hardly believe -he would urge the ladies of his family to call upon these persons. Mr. -Watkins did not send his women-kind to see the newcomers; at last, the -newcomers took the initiative and came to see his family. His daughters -did not appear, but Mrs. Watkins received them politely. They went -straight to the point, lodging complaint against the community. - -"We had no reason to suppose," said she, quietly, "that you cared for the -coöperation of our white people. You acted independently of us; you did -not advise with us or show desire for affiliation. We would have been -forcing ourselves upon you. I will be as frank as you have been. Had you -started this work in a proper spirit and manner, my husband for one would -have responded to the limit of his power to any call you made upon him." - -They dragged in the social equality business and found her adamant. When -they charged "race prejudice," she said promptly: "Were I to visit -relatives in Boston, the nice people there would, I doubt not, show me -pleasant attentions. Were I to put myself on equal terms with their -domestics, I could hardly expect it. The question is not altogether one of -race prejudice, but of fitness of things." "But we are missionaries, not -social visitors." "We do not feel that you benefit negroes by teaching -them presumption and to despise and neglect work and to distrust and hate -us." - -A garrulous negress was entertaining one of these women with hair-raising -accounts of cruelties practiced upon her by whites when, as a slave, she -cooked for them. The schoolmarm asked: "Why didn't you black people poison -all the whites and get your freedom that way? You're the most patient -people on earth or you would have done so." A "mammy" who overheard -administered a stinging rebuke: "Dat would ha' been a sin even ef our -white folks wuz ez mean ez Sukey Ann been tellin'. Mine wuz good tuh me. -Sukey Ann jes been tellin' you dem tales tuh see how she kin wuk you up." -Perhaps the school-teacher had not meant to be taken more literally than -Sukey Ann deserved to be. - -Until freedom, white and black children could hardly be kept apart. Boys -ran off fishing and rabbit-hunting together; girls played dolls in the -garret of the great house or in a sunny corner of the woodpile. They -rarely quarrelled. The black's adoration of the white, the white's desire -to be allowed to play with the black, stood in the way of conflict. An -early result of the social equality doctrine was war between children of -the races. Such strife was confined almost wholly to white and black -schools in towns, where black and white children were soon ready to "rock" -each other. A spirit of dislike and opposition to blacks, which their -elders could hardly understand, having never experienced it, began to take -possession of white children. The following story will give some idea of -these dawning manifestations of race prejudice: - -Negro and white schools were on opposite sides of the street in -Petersburg, the former a Freedmen's Bureau institution, the latter a -private school taught by a very youthful ex-Confederate, Captain M., who, -though he looked like a boy himself, had made, after a brilliant -university course, a shining war record. The negro boys, stimulated by the -example of their elders who were pushing whites off the sidewalks, and -excited by ill-timed discourses by their imported white pedagogue, -"sassed" the white boys, contended with them for territory, or aggravated -them in some way. A battle ensued, in which the white children ran the -black off the street and into their own schoolhouse, the windows of which -were damaged by rocks, the only serious mischief resulting from exchange -of projectiles. - -In short order six Federal soldiers with bayonets fixed marched into the -white schoolhouse, where the Captain was presiding over his classes, -brought by this time to a proper sense of penitence and due state of -order, their preceptor being a military disciplinarian. The invading squad -came to capture the children. The Captain indignantly protested, saying he -was responsible for his boys; it was sufficient to serve warrant on him, -he would answer for them; it was best not to make a mountain out of a -mole-hill and convulse the town with a children's quarrel. The sergeant -paid him scant courtesy and arrested the children. The Captain donned his -old Confederate overcoat, than which he had no other, and marched down the -street with his boys to the Provost's office. - -The Provost, a soldier and a gentleman, after examining into the case and -considering the small culprits, all ranged in a terrified row and not -knowing but that they would be blown next moment into Paradise or the -other place, asked the Captain if he would guarantee that his children -would keep the peace. The Captain assured him that he could and would if -the teacher of the coloured boys would keep his charges in bounds, adding -that he would have the windows repaired at his expense. The Provost -accepted this pledge, and with a withering look at the pedagogic -complainant, said to the arresting officer: "Sergeant, I am sorry it was -necessary to send six armed men to arrest these little boys." This -happened at ten o'clock in the morning. Before ten that night the Provost -was removed by orders from Washington. So promptly had complaint been -entered against him that he was too lenient to whites, so quickly had it -taken effect! Yet his course was far more conservative of the public peace -than would have been the court-martialing of the children of prominent -citizens of the town, and the stirring-up of white and black parents -against each other. - -"It's no harm for a hungry coloured man to make a raid on a chicken-coop -or corn-pile," thus spoke Carpet-Bagger Crockett in King William County, -Virginia, June, 1869, in the Walker-Wells campaign, at a meeting opened -with prayer by Rev. Mr. Collins, Northern missionary. Like sentiment was -pronounced in almost the same words by a carpet-bag officer of state, a -loud advocate of negro education, from the steps of the State House in -Florida. Like sentiment was taught in direct and indirect ways by no -small number of preceptors in negro schoolhouses. - -A South Carolina schoolmarm, after teaching her term out at a fat salary, -made of her farewell a "celebration" with songs, recitations, etc.; the -scholars passed in procession before the platform, she kissed each, and to -each handed a photograph of herself for $1. She carried off a harvest. -Various other small ways of levying tribute were practiced by the -thoughtless or the unscrupulous; and negroes pilfered to meet demands. -Schoolmarms and masters did not always teach for sweet charity's sake. -With moving stories some drew heavily upon the purse of the generous North -for contributions which were not exactly applied to the negro's relief or -profit. In order to attract Northern teachers to Freedmen's schools in -Mississippi salaries were paid out of all proportion to their services or -to the people's ability to pay. "Examinations for teachers' licenses were -not such as to ascertain the real fitness of applicants or conduce to a -high standard of scholarship," says James Wilford Garner in -"Reconstruction in Mississippi." "They were asked a few oral questions by -the superintendent in his private office and the certificate granted as a -matter of course." - -"While the average pay of the teachers in Northern schools is less than -$300 a year, salaries here range from $720 to $1,920," said Governor -Alcorn to the Mississippi Legislature in 1871. The old log schoolhouses -were torn down by the reconstructionists, new and costly frame and brick -ones built; and elegant desks and handsome chairs, "better suited to the -academy than the common school," displaced equipments that had been good -enough for many a great American's intellectual start in life. In Monroe -County, schoolhouses which citizens offered free of charge were rejected -and new ones built; teachers' salaries ranged from $50 to $150 a month; -schools were multiplied; heavy special taxes were levied. In Lowndes, a -special tax of $95,000 over and above the regular tax for education was -levied. Taxpayers protested in formal meetings. The Ku Klux whipped -several male teachers, one an ex-Confederate, and warned a schoolmarm or -two to leave. Expenses came down. - -What was true of one Southern State was true of others where costly -educational machinery and a peculative system covering "deals" and "jobs" -in books, furniture, schoolhouse construction, etc., were imposed. -Whippings with which Ku Klux visited a few male teachers and school -directors here and there, and warnings to leave served upon others of both -sexes, were, in most cases, protests--and the only effective protests -impoverished and tax-ridden communities could make--against waste of -public funds, peculation, subordination of the teacher's office to that of -political emissary, Loyal League organizer, inculcator of social equality -doctrines and race hatred. Some whippings were richly deserved by those -who got them, some were not; some which were richly deserved were never -given. It was not always Ku Klux that gave the whippings, but their foes, -footing up sins to their account. It became customary for white -communities to assemble and condemn violence, begging their own people to -have no part in it. - -I have known many instances where Southern clergy maintained friendly -relations with schoolmarms, aiding them, operating with them, lending them -sympathy, thinking their methods often wrong, but accepting their -earnestness and devotion and sacrifice at its full value. I have heard -Southerners speak of faculties of certain institutions thus: "Those -teachers came down here in the spirit that missionaries go to a foreign -land, expecting persecution and ostracism, and prepared to bear it." I -have deeply respected the lovely and exalted character of some schoolmarms -I have personally known, who suffered keenly the isolation and loneliness -of their position; to missionaries and teachers of this type, I have seen -the Southern attitude change as their quality was learned. I have seen -municipal boards helping with appropriations Northern workers among -negroes, while these workers were ungraciously charging them with race -prejudice. And I have seen the attitude of such workers gradually change -towards their white neighbours as they understood our white and black -people better. - -Early experiments must have sometimes perplexed the workers. Negroes had -confused ideas of education. Thus, a negress who did not know the English -alphabet, went to a teacher in Savannah and demanded to be taught French -right off. Others simply demanded "to know how to play de pianner." The -mass were eager for "book-learnin'." Southerners who had been trying to -instruct indifferent little negroes beheld with curiosity this sudden and -intense yearning when "education" was held up as a forbidden fruit of the -past. - -It has been said that Southern whites would not at first teach in the -negro schools. "Rebels" were not invited and would not have been allowed -to teach in Bureau schools. Reconstructionists preferred naturally their -own ilk. Certainly all Southerners were not opposed _per se_ to negro -schools, for we find some so influential as the Bishop of Mississippi -advising planters in 1866 to open schools for their negroes. Leading -journals and some teachers' conventions in 1867 advocated public schools -for negroes, with Southern whites as teachers. It has been said, too, that -Northern teachers who came to teach the negroes could not secure board in -respectable white families, and, therefore, had no choice but to board in -black. I think this may be wholly true. The Southerner firmly believed -that the education given the negro was not best for him or the country; -and he was deeply prejudiced against the Northern teacher and all his or -her ways. The efforts of Black and Tan assemblies to force mixed schools -upon the country was a ground of prejudice against teachers and the -schools; so, too, the course of some teachers in trying to compel this. - -How could rational people, with the common welfare at heart, advocate -mixed schools when such feelings were in evidence at outset as the captain -and the pedagogue incident and many similar ones in many States proved -existent? Such feelings were not and are not limited to the South. Only a -year or two ago the mixed school question caused negroes to burn a -schoolhouse near Boston. Many white and black educators at the North seem -to agree that it is not best to mix the races there. Prominent negroes are -now asserting that it is not best for the negro child to put him in -schools with whites; he is cowed as before a superior or he exhibits or -excites antipathy. Besides, he casts a reflection upon his own race in -insisting upon this association. - -If white Southerners at first objected to teaching negroes, this objection -speedily vanished before the argument: "We should teach the negroes -ourselves if we do not wish them influenced against us by Yankees," and, -"We should keep the money at home," and the all-compelling "I must make a -living." As the carpet-bag governments went out of power, Northern -schoolteachers lost their jobs and Southern ones got them. As negroes were -prepared, Southern whites appointed negroes to teach negroes, which was -what the blacks themselves desired and believed just. - -School fights between the races ceased as Southern whites or Southern -negroes came in charge of schools for blacks, and as Northern people who -came South to work in charitable enterprises understood conditions better. -Those who had unwittingly wrought ill in the first place had usually meant -well. The missionary of the sixties and seventies was not as wise as the -missionary of today, who knows that he must study a people before he -undertakes to teach and reform them, and that it is all in the day's work -for him not to run counter heedlessly to established social usages or to -try to uproot instantly and with violence customs centuries old. A -reckless reformer may tear up more good things in a few weeks than he can -replant, or substitute with better, in a lifetime. - - - - -THE CARPET-BAGGER - - - - -CHAPTER XXVIII - -THE CARPET-BAGGER - - -The test-oath was invitation to the carpet-bagger. The statements of -Generals Schofield and Stoneman show how difficult it was to find in the -South men capable of filling office who could swear they had "never given -aid or comfort" to a Confederate. Few or no decent people could do it. In -the summer of 1865, President Johnson instructed provisional governors to -fill Federal offices of mail, revenue and customs service with men from -other States, if proper resident citizens--that is, men who could take the -test-oath--could not be found. Office-seekers from afar swarmed as bees to -a hive. - -The carpet-bagger was the all-important figure in Dixie after the war; he -was lord of our domain; he bred discord between races, kept up war between -sections, created riots and published the tale of them, laying all blame -on whites. Neither he nor his running mate the scalawag or turn-coat -Southerner, was received socially. Sentence fell harder upon the latter -when old friends insulted him and the speaker on the hustings could say of -him no word too bitter. His family suffered with him. The wife of the -native Radical Governor of one Southern State said when her punishment was -over: "The saddest years of my life were spent in the Executive Mansion. -In a city where I had been beloved, none of my old friends, none of the -best people, called on me." In times of great poverty, temptations were -great; men, after once starting in politics, were drawn further than they -had dreamed possible. Again, men with State welfare at heart, urged -compromises as the only way to secure benefits to the State; on being -irritated, urged unwisely; on being ostracized, out-Heroded Herod. Our -foreign office-holders were not all bad men or corrupt. We will not call -these carpet-baggers. The carpet-bagger has been defined: "A Yankee, in a -linen duster and with a carpet-bag, appearing suddenly on a political -platform in the South, and calling upon the negroes to vote him into -office." I give portraits of two types. - -In the wake of Sherman's Army which passed through Brunswick, Virginia, -toward Washington, came and stopped two white men, Lewis and McGiffen. -They were desperadoes and outlaws, carried Winchester rifles and were fine -shots; said they hailed from Maine; to intimates, the leader, Lewis, -boasted that he had killed his step-father and escaped the hangman by -playing crazy. They leased the farm of a "poor white," Mrs. Parrish. Lewis -opened a negro school and a bank, issuing script for sums from twenty-five -cents to five dollars; he organized a Loyal League, collecting the fees -and dues therefrom. He armed and drilled negroes and marched them around -to the alarm of the people. Court House records show lawful efforts of -whites at self-protection. August 8, 1868, Lewis was tried before William -Lett, J. P., for inciting negroes to insurrection, when, under pretense of -preaching the Gospel to them, he convened them at Parrish's. He was -sentenced to the penitentiary for seven years. The State was under -military rule, and the decision of the civil court was set aside and Lewis -left at large. John Drummond was a witness against Lewis. - -Lewis soon had the negroes well organised; he established a system of -signal stations from the North Carolina line to Nottoway and Dinwiddie. By -the firing of signal guns, they would receive notice to congregate. -Suddenly, all hands on a man's plantation would stop work and say: "Got -orders, suh, tuh go tuh de Cote House." And all at once roads would be -lined with negroes from every direction bound for the Court House. In a -few hours the little town would fill with darkeys, a thousand or more on -the streets. They would collect thus from time to time, and hold secret or -public political meetings, Lewis, McGiffen and other speakers working them -up to a state of great excitement. - -At one meeting, a riot occurred in which several men were killed or -wounded. Mr. Freeman Jones, later Sheriff of the County, gave me a version -of it. He said: "Meade Bernard (afterwards Judge Bernard) and Sidney Jones -were set upon. Negroes knocked the last-named gentleman senseless, -continuing chastisement until he was rescued by the Freedmen's Bureau -officer. When Bernard was attacked, his old coloured nurse, Aunt Sally -Bland, rushed into the melée, crying: 'Save my chile! save my chile!' -Sticks were raining blows on his head when she interfered, pleading with -them to desist until they stopped. These white men had shown all their -lives, only kindness to negroes. When set upon they were doing nothing to -give offense, they were simply listening to the speeches. One negro, -observing their presence, cried out: 'Kill the d----d white scoundrels!' -Others took up the cry. - -"The whites, a little handful, retreated towards the village, followed by -at least a thousand negroes, yelling intention to sack and fire the town. -The road passed through a very narrow lane into Main Street. Here they -were blocked and confronted by Mr. L. G. Wall, carrier of the United -States Mail, who, as a Government official, halted them, telling them he -had right of way and that they were obstructing Government service; he -ordered them to move back and make room; they would not; he drew his -pistol and fired five or six times. I believe every shot took effect. -Several negroes were desperately wounded. The mob retired and Wall went -on. In the suburbs the negroes held an angry meeting, but they had got -enough of mob violence." Which was fortunate. The normal white male -population of the village did not exceed forty or fifty. White men went to -the polls soon after not knowing what to expect, and found everything -quiet. Negroes had come, voted early and gone. They had learned a salutary -lesson. - -Lewis claimed to be an officer duly commissioned, and went about making -arrests, selecting some prominent men. One of his victims was William -Lett, an old and wealthy citizen, and the justice before whom Lewis had -been brought to trial. A complaint by Mr. Lett's cook was the ostensible -ground of Lewis' call upon Mr. Lett; the real purpose was robbery. The -outlaws had seduced into their service John Parrish, an unlettered boy who -liked to hunt with them, and who, boy-like, was pleased with their -daredevil ways. He composed the third in the "team" that went around -arresting people. He recently gave me the next chapter in the Lewis story. - -"I was jes a little boy an' I done what I was ordered to. I was goin' out -sqir'l huntin', an' I see Dr. Lewis, an' he had a paper in his han', an' -he say: 'Johnny, I want you to go with me this evenin'.' I says: 'I wants -to go squir'l huntin'.' He says: 'I summons you to go wid me to serve a -warrant on Mr. Lett.' An' I lef' my dawgs at my sister's an' I taken my -little dollar-an'-a-half gun along. He says: 'Johnny, people tell me this -ole man is mighty hot-headed. If he comes out of his house an' I tell you -to shoot, shoot.' Dr. Lewis called Mr. Lett out to de gate, an' read de -warrant to him. An' Mr. Lett said he wouldn' be arrested by him, an' Dr. -Lewis grabbed at his coat collar, an' Mr. Lett broke loose, an' hollered -for somebody to han' him his gun outer de house. An' he went into de house -an' got a gun an' shot Lewis, an' Lewis stepped behin' de gate-pos', an' -he called to me: 'D---- him! where is he?' An' I said: 'Jes behin' de -winder.' An' I stepped behin' de corner, an' Dr. Lewis called me, an' I -stepped out, an' I thought I see a gun or pistol pointin' my way f'om de -winder, an' I thought I heard Lewis say 'Shoot!' an' I shot. It warn't -nothin' but a little bitter dollar-an'-a-half bird gun. But dem shot went -through de weather-bo'din'. I heard Mr. Lett's gun when it fell an' I -heard him when he fell. Lewis was standin' behin' de gate-pos'. The -cook-woman hollered: 'Here he is! here he is, going out at de back door!' -And thar was a little chicken-house. An' Lett shot Lewis with bird-shot." - -Mr. Freeman Jones summed it up simply thus: "When the gang came to capture -Mr. Lett, the old man attempted a defense, ordering them off his place, -and barricading himself behind the nearest thing at hand, which happened -to be a chicken-coop. Lewis shot and nearly killed him; the old man -lingered some time between life and death." Mr. Lett, it seems, was shot -by both. "They toted Lewis away," concludes Parrish, "to de house of a -feller named Carroll, an' he stayed thar. They sent for de military -soldiers an' they came, an' I stated de case well as I could, an' they -discharged me." Lewis was tried in the civil court, sentenced to a term in -the penitentiary, was carried by the sheriff to that institution and -pardoned next day by Governor Wells, military appointee of General -Schofield; he got back to the county almost as soon as the sheriff. - -The people became more and more incensed at repeated outrages. Dr. Powell, -whose assassination was attempted, tells me that the immediate cause of -the final tragedies was that Lewis ordered Carroll to leave home. John B. -Drummond, volunteering, was appointed special constable to arrest Lewis. -He met Lewis and his gang in a turn of the road and halted them, telling -Lewis he had a warrant for him. Lewis fired, killing him instantly. The -temper of the public was now such that Lewis and McGiffen fled the State, -enticing Parrish along. They sought asylum in North Carolina and sent -Parrish back for some property. A reward was offered for them. In a little -one-horse wagon which Parrish brought with Lewis' pony, they travelled by -night to Charleston, South Carolina. Here Lewis opened a school and -Parrish hired himself out. They staid there two years. McGiffen married -again. He had taken his little child from his Brunswick wife; now he -concluded to carry it back to her. - -"I went with him," says Parrish. "We come near a village an' we stopped at -a man's house. He mistrusted something wrong." (Naturally! Dr. Powell says -he saw his guests moulding bullets, ordered them out, and they defied him, -declaring they would spend the night.) "He sent out an' got two men an' -they come in thar wid thar guns an' staid all night. When we got up in de -little town nex' mornin', thar come out twenty men wid guns in thar han's, -an' de Mayor he was thar, an' McGiffen tole 'em to stop; an' they stopped. -He tole 'em thar couldn' but one or two come near. They suspicioned about -our having the little chile along. You see, thar was trouble 'bout dat -time 'bout children bein' kidnapped an' carried off to de Dismal Swamp. I -see ten or thirteen men on de railroad, an' they comin' pretty close. -McGiffen hollered out for 'em to stop, or he would certainly shoot. An' -they stopped. Then somebody hollered 'Close up!' - -"I had de little boy in my lap. To keep him f'om gittin' hurt, I set him -down by de roadside. McGiffen an' me had been ridin' one horse, takin' -turns, de one ridin' carryin' de baby. A feller kep' comin' closer, an' I -hollered, 'Stop, sir, or I'm goin' to shoot you!' an' I shot him in de -han'. He kep' hollerin' I had killed him, an' de other fellers sorter -scattered, an' that give McGiffen chance to git away. An' I got away. Had -to leave de baby settin' thar side de road. An' they follered me up an' -got me, an' they got McGiffen. After they captured us, they heard about -thar bein' three strangers down whar we had come f'om, an' they -suspicioned we was de men dat had been advertised for because of de -trouble in Brunswick. An' they sent after Lewis. It was one night. He had -unbuckled his pistols an' laid 'em on his bureau, an' some visitors come -to see him; an' he was talkin' to them, an' eight or ten men stepped up -behin' him an' that's how they got him. An' they had de three of us. An' -Governor Walker sent Bill Knox, de detective, an' Dr. Powell he was sent -to identify us. An' we were carried to Richmond, an' then we were carried -to Greensville, an' we were tried. De little boy was sent back to his -mother. I was sent to de penitentiary for eight years, but I got out -sooner for good behaviour; an' I learned a good trade thar. But I don't -think they ought to ha' sent me, because I was jes a boy an' I done what I -was ordered to do when I shot Mr. Lett--that what's they sent me for. An' -de military soldiers had said I warn't to blame. Lewis he played off crazy -like he done befo', an' they sent him to de asylum, an' he escaped like he -done befo'. De superintendent was a member of de Loyal League. An' -McGiffen was hung, an' I never thought he ought to ha' been hung." -Military rule was at an end and Virginia was back in the Union when the -fugitives were captured. - -There was another flutter of the public pulse in this county when, -perhaps, the one thing that saved the day was the confidence of the -negroes in Sheriff Jones. Court was in session when several people ran -into the court room, shouting: "Sheriff! Sheriff! they are killing the -negroes out here!" Sheriff Jones ran out and saw a crowd of five or six -hundred negroes, some drunk, in the street, and in their midst two drunken -white men. A few other whites were lined up against a fence, their hands -on their pistols, not knowing what a moment would bring forth. People -cried out: "Don't go into that crowd, Sheriff! You're sure to get shot!" -"Here, boys!" called the Sheriff to some negroes he knew, "take me into -that crowd." Two negroes made a platform of their hands, and on this the -officer was carried into the mob, his bearers shouting as they went: -"Lis'n to de sheriff! Hear what de sheriff say!" He called on everybody to -keep the peace, had no trouble in restoring quiet, and arrested everybody -he thought ought to be arrested. "But our coloured people soon became -orderly and well-behaved after the carpet-baggers left us," says Sheriff -Jones. - -In several Southern States at this period, such a termination to the last -incident would have been almost impossible. Here, the officer was a -representative native white; he understood the people and all elements -trusted him; the interest of the community was his own. With an outsider -in position, the case must have been quite different; the situation more -difficult and the sequel probably tragic, even conceding to the officer -sincere desire to prevent trouble, a disposition carpet-baggers did not -usually betray. Riots in the South were breath of life to carpet-bag -governments. July 25, 1870, Governor Smith, Republican, of Alabama, said -over his signature, of a politician who had criticised him for not calling -out negro militia to intimidate whites: "My candid opinion is that Sibley -does not want the law executed, because that would put down crime, and -crime is his life's blood. He would like very much to have a Ku Klux -outrage every week, to assist him in keeping up strife between whites and -blacks, that he might be more certain of the latter's votes. He would like -to have a few coloured men killed weekly to furnish semblance of truth to -Senator Spencer's libels against the State." - -In quiet country places where people did not live close enough for mutual -sympathy and protection, the heavy hand was often most acutely felt. Such -neighbourhoods were shortened, too, of ways to make oppression known at -headquarters; it cost time and money to send committees to Washington, and -influence to secure a hearing. When troubles accumulated, some hitherto -peaceful neighbourhood, hamlet or town would suddenly find unenviable fame -thrust upon it. There was, for instance, the Colfax Riot, Grant Parish, -Louisiana, where sixty-three lives were lost. Two tickets had been -announced elected. Governor Kellogg, after his manner of encouraging race -wars, said, "Heaven bless you, my children!" to both, commissioned the two -sets of officers, and told them to "fight it out," which they did with the -result given and the destruction of the Court House by fire. Negroes had -been called in, drilled, armed and taught how to make cannon out of -gas-pipe. - -And now for the portrait of a carpet-bagger of whom all who knew him said: -"He is the most brilliant man I ever met." I can only give fictitious -names. Otherwise, innocent people might be wounded. - -A young lieutenant, discharged from the Federal Army, located in Roxmere, -a college town. His first move was to pose as a friend to whites, and to -insinuate himself into nice families. When there was trouble--which he -stirred up--between the races, he would assume the authority--none was -given him by the Government--to interfere and settle it. For instance, he -would undertake to punish negroes for impertinence. He began to practise -law. He married a young lady of the section, of means but not a daughter -of the aristocracy; she had owned many negroes; he made out a list, which -he kept, expecting the Government to pay for them. He said his father was -an English clergyman, and he spoke beautifully and feelingly of his early -life. When it became apparent that the negro was to be made a voter, -Yankee Landon (as Roxmere called him), changed tactics; he organized Union -Leagues, drilled negroes and made incendiary speeches. - -One day, Judge Mortimer, hurrying into the Court House, said: "Yankee -Landon is on the hustings making a damnable speech to the negroes!" -Landon's voice could be heard and the growls of his audience. The whites -caught these words ringing clear and distinct: "We will depopulate this -whole country of whites. We have got to do it with fire and sword!" Some -one else, much excited, came in, saying, "A movement's on foot to lynch -Landon." The old Judge hastened up the street. He met some stern-faced men -and stopped them. "We know what Landon is saying," they told him, "and we -intend to swing him." He tried to turn them from their purpose, but they -declared: "There is no sense in waiting until that scoundrel has incited -the negroes to massacre us." Another cool-headed jurist sought to stay -them. "Do you realise what you are going to do?" he asked. "We are going -to hang Yankee Landon." "That will not do!" "We've got to do it. The -safety of our homes demands it." The combined efforts of conservative men -stayed summary action. Landon got wind of what was brewing, and for a time -was more prudent of tongue; then, concluding that the people were afraid -to molest him, broke forth anew. - -In the Union League season, there was a tremendous negro crowd on the -streets; whites had hardly room to walk; they got very sick of it all. -Roxmere's college men decided to take a hand and disposed themselves for -action. "Don't give way one inch to these old slavocrats!" Landon was -shouting from a goods-box, when they sent Cobb Preston out. Cobb, in a -dressing-gown trailing four feet, walked into the crowd. He placed a chip -on his hat. "Will some one step on my dressing-gown or knock this chip -off?" he asked loudly and suavely. Everybody gave him room to trail around -in. Nobody stepped near the tail of that dressing-gown! No hand approached -within yards of that chip! Any sudden turn he made was a signal for fresh -scatterings which left wide swath for his processional. Did he flirt -around quickly, calling on somebody to step on his gown or knock off his -chip, darkeys fell over each other getting out of his way. Landon -understood. He knew if the college boys succeeded in starting a row he -would be killed. After that, whites could use sidewalks without being -shoved off. Landon was adept in pocketing insults. Men cast fearful -epithets in his teeth. "I have heard Vance McGregor call him a dog, a -thief--and he would take it," says a lawyer who practised in the same -courts with him. - -He and a negro "represented" the county in the Black and Tan Convention. -He came back a much richer man. Nobody visited his family. One day, Rev. -Dr. Godfrey encountered on the street a little girl, who asked: "Have you -seen my papa?" "Who is your papa, little one?" "Yan-kee Landon!" she -piped. He led her to the corner and tenderly directed her way. Rev. Dr. -Godfrey did not hesitate to arraign Landon from his pulpit. One Sunday, -when Landon and his wife sat in the front pew, and the conversion of -Zaccheus happened to be his subject, the congregation was electrified to -hear him draw comparisons between Zaccheus and carpet-baggers, to the -great disparagement of the latter. He spoke of the fine horses, wines and -cigars of modern Mr. Zaccheus, and of Mrs. Zaccheus' silks and jewels. -"Zaccheus of old could say," he cried, "'If I have taken anything from any -man, I restore him fourfold!' Not so Zaccheus of today," and he looked -straight in Landon's face. Landon's contribution was equal to that of all -the other people in the church put together. The Landons gave up their -pew, and attended worship elsewhere, but presently came back to Dr. -Godfrey's, the "swell" church. He spared them not. But he went to see -Landon's wife and sent his wife to see her. "Mrs. Landon is a young -mother, my dear," he said, "you should go." - -Twice Landon represented the district in the Legislature, first in the -House, then in the Senate. While Commonwealth's Attorney, he made a -startling record; he ran a gambling saloon, a thing it was his sworn duty -to ferret out and prosecute. Hazard, chuck-a-luck and other games of -chance were played there. It was a new departure in a quiet, religious -town; the college boys were drawn in. Judge Mortimer's little son trotted -into it at the heels of a grown-up relative, and going home innocently -told his father about "the funny little things they play with; when they -win, they take the money; when Mr. Landon wins, he takes it." In modern -parlance, the old judge "pulled" that saloon next evening, bagging thirty -of the nicest young fellows in the community. They were indicted for -gambling and Landon for keeping a gambling saloon. Landon prosecuted -everybody but himself, convicting the last one; then resigned, and -McGregor conducted the case against him. His sentence was $100 fine and -four months in jail. While in jail he studied law and acquired more -knowledge of it than in all the years of his freedom; he had known little -about it, shrewdness and sharpness standing him in place of knowledge. A -hog-drover was put in the cell with him one night and he won $150 out of -him at poker. The Governor pardoned him out at three months. He ran for -Commonwealth's Attorney and was elected; he made an able and efficient -officer. He would prosecute unswervingly his closest friend. His political -ally built the new jail, Landon getting him the job. "I wonder who will be -the first fool to get in here," he said to Landon. He was; Landon -convicted him. Men who despised his principles admired his intellect. In -court-room repartee he could take the wind out of McGregor's sails, and -McGregor was past master in the art. He was able, brilliant, unscrupulous, -without a moral conscience, but with a keen intellectual one. He was no -spendthrift in rascality, economised in employment of evil means, using -them no farther than self-interest required. He could show kindness -gracefully; ceased to stir up negroes when it ceased to pay. A neighbour -who was civil when others snubbed him, went to Washington when Landon, at -his zenith, was there in a high Government position, and opened a law -office. Landon threw work his way. - -One day McGregor, Governor of his State, got a letter from Landon; a great -foreign dignitary, visiting this country, was to be entertained at -Landon's palace; would McGregor lend the old State flag to be draped with -the Stars and Stripes and the foreigner's flag over the end of the room -where Landon and the dignitary would stand while receiving? McGregor sent -it. In the little town in which he tricked and won his way, court was -never paid to Landon on account of his wealth and power, but people -gradually came to treat him less coldly as he changed with the times. -Reconstruction tried men's souls and morals; a man who went to pieces -under temptation sometimes came out a gentleman, or something like it, -when temptation was over. Landon won favors of all parties. Cleveland gave -him a position. A committee waited upon Mr. McKinley, asking appointment -for Landon. Mr. McKinley demurred: "I understand that in the South, Mr. -Landon is not considered a gentleman." "We promised him this if he would -render the party the service which he has rendered." The President had to -yield. Roosevelt, who came to the Presidency without election, turned this -man down with a firm hand. - - - - -THE DEVIL ON THE SANTEE - - - - -CHAPTER XXIX - -THE DEVIL ON THE SANTEE - -(A Rice-Planter's Story) - - -Between the plantation where harmony and industry still prevailed and that -in which was complete upheaval of the old order, were thousands showing -its disintegration in intermediate grades. On the James River, in -Virginia, and on waterways in rice and cotton lands up which Federal -gunboats steamed, and on the Sea Islands, plantations innumerable -furnished parallel cases to that set forth in the following narrative, -which I had from Captain Thomas Pinckney, of Charleston, South Carolina. -When Captain Pinckney went down to El Dorado, his plantation on the -Santee, in 1866, he found things "in a shocking condition and the very -devil to pay." The night before reaching his place he spent at the house -of an English neighbour, who had had oversight of his property. He -received this report: - -"Your negroes sacked your house, stripped it of furniture, bric-a-brac, -heirlooms, and divided these among themselves. They got it into their -heads that the property of whites belongs to them; and went about taking -possession with utmost determination and insolence. Nearly all houses here -have been served the same way. I sent for a United States officer and he -made them restore furniture--the larger pieces, which are much damaged. -Small things--mementoes which you value as much or more--are gone for -good. There was but one thing they did not remove--the mirror in the -wall."[22] "The negroes have been dancing shin-digs in your house," the -Englishman went on. "They have apportioned your land out among -themselves." - -Yet the Captain was not fully prepared for the desolation that met his -eyes when he went home next day. Ever before, he had been met with glad -greetings. Now, instead of a merry crowd of darkeys rushing out with -shouts of "Howdy do, Marster!" "Howdy do, Boss!", silence reigned and no -soul bade him welcome as he made his way to his own door. Within the house -one faithful servant raised her voice in lonely and pathetic notes of joy. -"Where are the others?" he asked. "Where are the men?" "Don' know, -Marster." "Tell any you can find to come here." She returned from search -to say none could be found. Dinner-hour passed. The men kept themselves -invisible. He said to her: "I will be back tomorrow. Tell the men I must -see every one of them then." He returned armed. It was his known custom as -a huntsman to carry a gun; hence he could carry one now without betraying -distrust. "Indeed, I felt no fear or distrust," he says; "these were my -own servants, between whom and myself the kindest feelings had always -existed. They had been carefully and conscientiously trained by my -parents; I had grown up with some of them. They had been glad to see me -from the time that, as a little boy, I accompanied my mother when she made -Saturday afternoon rounds of the quarters, carrying a bowl of sugar, and -followed by her little handmaidens bearing other things coloured people -liked. At every cabin that she found swept and cleaned, she left a present -as an encouragement to tidiness. I could not realise a need of going -protected among my own people, whom I could only remember as respectful, -happy and affectionate." - -He bade the woman summon the men, and he waited under the trees. They -came, sullen, reluctant, evincing no trace of old-time cordiality; -addressed him as "you" or "Cap'n"; were defiant; brought their guns. -"Men," he said, "I know you are free. I do not wish to interfere with your -freedom. But I want my old hands to work my lands for me. I will pay you -wages." They were silent. "I want you to put my place in order, and make -it as fruitful as it used to be, when it supported us all in peace and -plenty. I recognise your right to go elsewhere and work for some one else, -but I want you to work for me and I will on my part do all I can for you." - -They made answer short and quick: "O yes, we gwi wuk! we gwi wuk all -right. De Union Ginruls dee done tell us tuh come back f'om follin arter -de army an' dig greenbacks outer de sod. We gwi wuk. We gwi wuk fuh -ourse'ves. We ain' gwi wuk fuh no white man." "Where will you go?" "We -ain' gwine nowhar. We gwi wuk right here on de lan' whar we wuz bo'n an' -whar belongs tuh us." Some had not been born on the land, but had been -purchased during the war by Captain Pinckney, in the kindness of his -heart, to prevent family division in the settlement of an estate. One of -this lot, returning from a Yankee gunboat, swaggered to conference under -the trees, in a fine uniform, carrying a handsome rifle, and declared he -would work or not as he pleased, come and go as he pleased and consider -the land his own. He went to his cabin, stood in the door, looked the -Captain in the eye, brought his gun down with a crash, and said: "Yes, I -gwi wuk right here. I'd like tuh see any man put me outer dis house!" - -Captain Pinckney, after waiting for the men to think over the situation, -assembled them again. Their attitude was more insolent and aggressive. He -gave them ten days longer for decision; then all who would not work must -go. His neighbours were having similar experiences. In a section where a -few years before perfect confidence had existed between white and black, -all white men went armed, weapons exposed to view. They were few, the -blacks many. After consultation, they reported conditions to General -Devens at Charleston, and suggested that he send down a representative. He -sent a company under an officer whom the planters carried from plantation -to plantation. Negroes were called and addressed: "I have come to tell you -people that these lands belong to these planters. The Government has not -given these lands to you; they do not belong to the Government to give. -You are free to hire out to whom you will, or to rent lands. But you must -work. You can't live without work. I advise you to make contracts quickly. -If crops are not made, you and your families will suffer." - -This Federal visitation was not without wholesome effect. Yet the negroes -would not work till starvation drove them to it. The Captain's head-plower -came confessing: "Cap'n, I 'clar' 'fo' Gawd, suh, I ain' got no vittles -fuh my wife an' chillun. I ain' got a day's rations in my cabin." "It's -your own fault. You can go to work any minute you want to." "Cap'n, I'se -willin'. I been willin' fuh right smart while. I ain' nuvver seed dis way -we been doin' wuz zackly right. I been 'fused in my min'. But de other -niggers dee won' let me wuk. Dee don' want me tuh wuk fuh you, suh. I'se -feared." The Captain was sorely tempted to give rations without -conditions, but realised that he must stand his ground. In a day or two -the head-plower reappeared. "Cap'n, I come tuh ax you tuh lemme wuk fuh -you, suh." "All right. There's your plow and mule ready. You can draw -rations ahead." One by one all came back. They had suffered, and their -ex-master had suffered with them. - -Many planters had severer trials than the Captain and his immediate -neighbours. Down on the coast, negroes demanded possession of plantations, -barricaded them and shot at owners. They pulled up bridges so owners could -not reach their homes, and in this and other ways kept the whites out of -property. Many planters never recovered their lands. When the time came -that they might otherwise have done so, they were unable to pay -accumulated taxes, and their homesteads passed forever out of their -keeping. - -In making contracts, Captain Pinckney's negroes did not want money. "We -don' trus' dat money. Maybe it git lak Confeddick money." In rice they saw -a stable value. Besides a share in the general crop, the Captain gave each -hand a little plot on which to grow rice for family consumption. When the -general crop was divided into shares, they would say, after retaining a -"sample": "Keep my part, suh, an' sell it wid yo's." They knew he could do -better for them than they could for themselves. In business and in the -humanities, they looked to him as their truest friend. If any got sick, -got out of food and clothes, got into a difficulty or trouble of any sort, -they came or sent for him; sought his advice about family matters wherein -they would trust no other man's counsel; trusted him in everything except -politics, in regard to which they would rely upon the word of the most -unprincipled stranger did he but appear under the title "Republican," -"Radical," "Union Leaguer." - -Carpet-baggers told them: "If the whites get into power, they will put you -back in slavery, and will not let your wives wear hoop-skirts. If we win -the election we will give you forty acres and a mule." "I know for a -fact," Captain Pinckney assured me, "that at Adam's Run negroes came to -the polls bringing halters for mules which they expected to carry home." - -The excitement of the election of 1876, when native whites strained every -nerve to win the negro vote, was fully felt on the Santee. The morning -news reached El Dorado of Hampton's election, the Captain, according to -custom, walked down to his wharf to give orders for the day. He found his -wharf foreman sitting on an upturned canoe, his head hung down, the -picture of dejection. "William," the Captain said, "I have good news." -"Whut is it, suh?" "General Hampton is elected." Silence. Presently the -negro half lifted his face, and looking into the eyes of the white man -with the saddest, most hopeless expression in his own, asked slowly: -"Well--Cap'n--_whut you goin' tuh do wid we, now?_" The master's heart -ached for him! Remanded back to slavery--that was what negroes were taught -to look for--to slavery not such as they had known, but in which all the -follies and crimes to which they had been incited since freedom should be -charged up to them. They did not, could not, realise how their old owners -pitied, condoned, forgave. - -Next election the struggle was renewed. After a hopeful barbecue, the -Captain's hands were threshing his rice crop. He called the foreman behind -the stacks, and asked: "Well, Monday, what are you people going to do at -the polls tomorrow?" "Dee gwi vote de 'Publican ticket, suh. Ef dee -tells you anything else, dee's lyin'. I gwi vote de 'Publican ticket, suh. -I got it tuh do. I b'lieve all what you white gent'muns been tellin' us at -de barbecues. I knows myse'f dat dis way we niggers is a-doin' an' -a-votin' ain' de bes' way fuh de country--anybody kin see dat. But den I -got tuh vote de 'Publican ticket, suh. We all has. Las' 'lection I voted -de Democrack ticket an' dee killed my cow. Abum, he vote de Democrack -ticket; dee killed his colt." Monday counted off the negroes who had voted -the "Democrack" ticket, and every one had been punished. One had been -bombarded in his cabin; another's rice crop had been taken--even the -ground swept up and every grain carried off, leaving him utterly -destitute. "I tell you, suh," said Monday, "I got tuh do it on my 'count, -an' on yo' 'count. You make me fo'man an' ef I didn' vote de 'Publican -ticket, I couldn' make dese niggers wuk. I couldn' do nothin' 'tall wid -'em." - -[Illustration: MRS. WADE HAMPTON - -(Daughter of Governor McDuffie, of South Carolina.) - -From a painting photographed by Reckling & Sons, Columbia, S. C.] - -The night before an election the Democratic Club was in session at -McClellanville when Mr. McClellan came in and said there would be trouble -next day. He had heard on the river that negroes were buying up ammunition -and were coming armed to the polls. He had gone to stores and given orders -that sale should be stopped. Whites now tried to buy but found stock sold -out. They collected available arms and ammunition in village and -neighbourhood, and concealed these under a hay-wagon, which appeared next -day near the polls, one of many of similar appearance. Squads were -detailed for duty near polls and wagon. - -Blacks came armed, and, demurring, stacked muskets at the cross-roads -which marked the hundred-yard limit prescribed by election ruling; all day -they were in terrible humour. "I heard my own servants," Captain Pinckney -tells, "between whom and myself the kindliest feelings had existed, say -in threatening tones: 'We's here tuh stan' up fuh our rights. We ain' gwi -leave dese polls. None our colour got tuh leave dese polls 'fo' dee -close.'" - -Whites preserved a front of unconcern they were far from feeling. -Seventy-five whites and 500 blacks voted at this precinct. Guns once in -the hands of the blacks, and turned against this little handful of whites, -God help all concerned! Whites had begun to hope the day would end -smoothly, when a trifling incident seemed to precipitate conflict. Two -drunken white men rode hallooing along the road. The negroes, taking this -as a pretext for a fight, rushed for their muskets. An old trial justice, -Mr. Leland, sprang on a box and called loudly: "Come here! Come here!" -They looked back. "I am the Peace Officer!" he yelled. "Come, listen to -me!" Threatening, curious, sullen, they came back some paces with an air -of defiance, of determination suspended for the moment. "I don't like the -looks of things," said the old trial justice, "and I am going to call on -the most influential men in the community to act as my constabulary force -and help me maintain order. Pinckney!" The gunboat desperado stepped -forward. "Calhoun! De Saussure! Huger! Horry! Porcher! Gaillard!" So the -wily old justice went on, calling names famous in the annals of South -Carolina, and black men answered. "Line up there! Take the Oath of Office! -Hold up your hands and swear that, so help you God, you will help me -maintain the laws and preserve the peace and dignity of the State of South -Carolina!" He happened to have in his pocket a dozen old badges of office, -and swift as he swore the men in, he pinned badges on them. He made them a -flighty, heroic little speech and the face of events was changed. - -He had picked off ring-leaders in mischief for justices of the peace. -Whites found it difficult to pocket smiles while beholding them strutting -around, proud as peacocks, and reducing to meekness inoffensive negroes -who would never have made any disturbance in the first place but for the -prodding of these same new "limbs of the law." It was trying in a -different way to see a peaceable, worthy negro knocked about incontinently -by bullies "showing off." Yet the matter in hand was to get the day over -without bloodshed. And this end was achieved. - -Avoidance of bloodshed was not attained at all public meetings, as -students of reconstruction history know too well. "And all sorts of lies -went North about us," says the Captain, "the Radicals and their paid -allies sending them; and sometimes, good people writing about things they -did not understand or knew by hearsay only. I stopped reading Northern -papers for a long time--they made me mad. The 'Tribune's' false accounts -of the Ellenton Riot exasperated me beyond endurance. It got its story -from a Yankee schoolmarm who got it from a negro woman. I was so -aggravated that I sat down and wrote Whitelaw Reid my mind. I told him I -had subscribed to the 'Tribune' for years, but now it was so partisan it -could not tell the truth; its reports were not to be trusted and I could -not stand it any longer; and he would oblige me by never sending me -another copy; he could give the balance of my subscription to some -charity. I directed his attention to the account of the Ellenton Riot in -the 'New York Herald' and reminded him that the truth was as accessible to -one paper as the other. Reid did not answer my letter except through an -editorial dealing with mine and similar epistles." He said in part, to the -best of the Captain's memory: - -"We have received indignant letters from the South in regard to recent -articles in this paper. A prominent South Carolinian writes: 'I can't -stand the "Tribune" any longer!' One party from Texas says: 'Stop that -d----d paper!' Now, all this for reasons which can be explained in a few -words. When the 'Tribune' is exposing Republican rascalities, the -Southerners read it with pleasure. But when it exposes Democratic -rascalities, they write: 'Stop that d----d paper!'" - - - - -BATTLE FOR THE STATE HOUSE - - - - -CHAPTER XXX - -BATTLE FOR THE STATE-HOUSE - - -South Carolina's first Governor under her second reconstruction was -General R. K. Scott, of Ohio, ex-Freedmen's Bureau Chief. His successor -was Franklin J. Moses, Jr., scalawag, licentiate and débauché, four years -Speaker of the House, the "Robber Governor." Moses' successor was D. H. -Chamberlain, a cultivated New Englander, who began his public career as -Governor Scott's Attorney General. A feature of the Scott-Moses -administration was a black army 96,000 strong, enrollment and equipment -alone costing over a half-million dollars, $10,000 of which, on Moses' -admission, went into his own pocket as commission on purchases. The -State's few white companies were ordered to surrender arms and disband. - -The State House was refurnished on this scale: $5 clocks were replaced by -$600 ones; $4 looking-glasses by $600 mirrors; $2 window curtains by $600 -to $1,500 ones; $4 benches by $200 sofas; $1 chairs by $60 chairs; $4 -tables by $80 tables; $10 desks, $175 desks; forty-cent spittoons, $14 -cuspidors, etc. Chandeliers cost $1,500 to $2,500 each. Each legislator -was provided with Webster's Unabridged, a $25 calendar ink-stand, $10 gold -pen; railroad passes and free use of the Western Union Telegraph were -perquisites. As "Committee Rooms," forty bed-rooms were furnished each -session; legislators going home, carried the furniture. At restaurant and -bar, open day and night in the State House, legislators refreshed -themselves and friends at State expense with delicacies, wines, liquors, -cigars, stuffing pockets with the last. Orders for outside entertainments, -given through bar and restaurant, were paid by the State. An incident of -Radical rule: "Hell Hole Swamp," purchased by the Benevolent Land -Commission as site for homes for homeless negroes. Another: Moses lost -$1,000 on a horse race; next day the House of Representatives voted him -$1,000 as "gratuity." The order on the Treasurer, signed by Moses as -Speaker, to pay this "gratuity" to Moses is on file in Columbia. - -Bills made by officials and legislators and paid by the State, reveal a -queer medley! Costly liquors, wines, cigars, baskets of champagne, hams, -oysters, rice, flour, lard, coffee, tea, sugar, suspenders, linen-bosom -shirts, cravats, collars, gloves (masculine and feminine, by the box), -perfumes, bustles, corsets, palpitators, embroidered flannel, ginghams, -silks, velvets, stockings, chignons, chemises, gowns, garters, fans, gold -watches and chains, diamond finger-rings and ear-rings, Russia-leather -work-boxes, hats, bonnets; in short, every article that can be worn by -man, woman or infant; every article of furniture and house furnishing from -a full parlour-set to a baby's swinging cradle; not omitting a $100 -metallic coffin. - -Penitentiary bills display in abundant quantities fine liquors, wines, -delicacies and plain provisions; yet convicts nearly starved; bills for -the coloured Orphan Asylum, under coloured General Senator Beverly Nash's -direction, show silks, satins, corsets, kid gloves, all manners of -delicacies and substantials for the table, yet it came out that orphans -got at "breakfast, hominy, mackerel and bean coffee--no milk. At dinner, a -little bacon or beef, cornbread and hominy, sometimes a little baker's -bread; at supper, a slice of baker's bread and black molasses, each -child dipping a slice into a saucer passed around." The State-paid -gardener worked Senator Nash's garden; coal and wood bought "for the -Asylum" was delivered at Senator Nash's; ditto lumber and other supplies. -The matron sold dry goods and groceries. I have mentioned trifles. For big -"steals" and "hauls," Railroads, Bond and Printing Ring swindles, consult -the Fraud Reports. - -[Illustration: RADICAL MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATURE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. - -These are the photographs of sixty-three members of the "reconstructed" -Legislature of South Carolina. Fifty of them were Negroes or Mulattos; -thirteen were white men. Of the twenty-two among them who could read and -write only eight used the vernacular grammatically. Forty-one made their -mark with the help of an amanuensis. Nineteen were taxpayers to an -aggregate of $146.10. The other forty-four paid no taxes, and yet this -body was empowered to levy on the white people of the state taxes -amounting to $4,000,000.] - -The State University was negroised, adult white and black men -matriculating for the express purpose; its scholastic standard was reduced -below that of an academy. Attempt to negroise the Deaf and Dumb Asylum -closed it. At the Insane Asylum the tact and humanity of Dr. J. F. Ensor, -Superintendent, made the situation possible to whites.[23] - -South Carolinians beheld Franklin J. Moses, Jr., owner of the beautiful -and historic Hampton-Preston home; at receptions and fêtes the carriages -of a ring-streaked, striped and speckled host rolled up gaily to ancient -gateways hitherto bars exclusive to all that was not aristocratic and -refined. One-time serving-maids sat around little tables under the -venerable trees and luxuriant vines and sipped wine in state. A Columbian -tells me she used to receive a condescending bow from her whilom maid -driving by in a fine landau. Another maid, driving in state past her -ex-mistress's door, turned her head in shame and confusion. One maid -visited her ex-mistress regularly, leaving her carriage a square or two -off; was her old, respectful, affectionate self, and said these hours were -her happiest. "I'se jes myse'f den." A citizen, wishing to aid his butler, -secured letters of influence for him and sent him among rulers of the -land. George returned: "Marster, I have associated with gentlemen all my -life. I can't keep comp'ny with these folks. I'd rather stay with you, I -don' care how poor we are." - -One night when Rev. William Martin's family were asleep, there came a -knocking at the door. Miss Isabella Martin answered. Maum Letty stood -outside weeping: "Miss Isabella, Robert's (her son) been killed. He went -to a party at General Nash's an' dee all got to fightin'. I come to ax you -to let me bring 'im here." Permission was given. A stream of negroes -flowed in and out of the basement rooms where the dead was laid. And it -was, "The General says this," "The General says that." Presently the -General came. "Good morning, Beverly," said Miss Martin. "Good morning, -Miss Isabella;" he had been a butler and had nice manners. "This is a sad -business, Beverly." "Yes, Miss Isabella. It happened at my house, but I am -not responsible. There was a party there; all got to fighting--you know -how coloured people will do--and this happened." It is law for the coroner -to see a corpse, where death has occurred from violence, before any -removal or change is made. The coroner did not see Robert until noon. -General Nash had gotten the body out of his house quickly as possible. - -Belles of Columbia were Misses Rollins, mulattoes or quadroons. Their -drawing-room was called "Republican Headquarters." Thick carpets covered -floors; handsome cabinets held costly bric-a-brac; a $1,000 piano stood in -a corner; legislative documents bound in morocco reposed with big albums -on expensive tables. Jewelers' and other shops poured treasures at Misses -Rollins' feet. In their salon, mingling white and dusky statesmen wove the -destinies of the old Commonwealth. Coloured courtezans swept into -furniture emporiums, silk trains rustling in their wake, and gave orders -for "committee rooms"; rode in fine carriages through the streets, -stopped in front of this or that store; bareheaded white salesmen ran out -to show goods or jewels. Judge M. (who went over to the Radicals for the -loaves and fishes and ever afterward despised himself) was in Washington -with a Black and Tan Committee, got drunk, and for a joke took a yellow -demi-mondaine, a State official's wife, on his arm and carried her up to -President and Mrs. Grant and introduced her at a Presidential reception. - -Black Speaker Elliott said ("Cincinnati Commercial," Sept. 6, 1876): "If -Chamberlain is nominated, I shall vote for Hampton." A member of the -Chamberlain Legislature tells me this is how the Chamberlain-Elliot split -began. Mrs. Chamberlain was a beautiful woman, a perfect type of -high-born, high-bred, Anglo-Saxon loveliness, noble in bearing, lily-like -in fairness. She brought a Northern Governor, his wife, and other guests -to the State House. They were standing near my informant in the "white -part" of the House, when Elliott, black, thick-lipped, sprang down from -the Speaker's chair, came forward and asked a gentleman in attendance for -introduction. This gentleman spoke to Alice Chamberlain. The lily-white -lady lifted her eyes toward Elliott, shivered slightly, and said: "No!" -Elliott did not forgive that. - -If the incident were not on good authority, I should doubt it. At -Chamberlain's receptions, the black and tan tide poured in and out of his -doors; he entertained black legislators, and presumably Elliott, at -dinners and suppers. But all men knew Chamberlain's rôle was repugnant to -him and his exquisite wife. What she suffered during the hours of his -political successes, who can tell? Tradition says she was cut to the quick -when a black minister was called in by her husband to perform the last -rites of the church over her child. Any white clergyman of the city would -have responded on call. There were many to say Chamberlain turned to -political account even so sacred a thing. Others to say that if white -ministers had shown him scant attention he was right not to call upon -them. And yet I cannot blame the white clergy for having stood aloof, -courting no favours, of the foreigner who fraternised with and was one of -the leaders of the State's spoilers, whether he was a spoiler himself or -no. - -Governor Chamberlain was fitted for a better part than he had to play; he -won sympathy and admiration of many good citizens. He was a gentleman; he -desired to ally himself with gentlemen; and the connections into which -ambition and the times forced him was one of the social tragedies of the -period. He began his administration denouncing corruption within his own -party and promising reforms. At first, he investigated and quieted race -troubles, disbanding negro militia, and putting a stop to the drilling of -negroes. He bestowed caustic criticisms on "negrophilists," which Elliott -brought against him later. He was at war with his legislature; when that -body elected W. J. Whipper, an ignorant negro gambler, and ex-Governor -Moses to high judicial positions, he refused to commission them. - -Of that election he wrote General Grant: "It sends a thrill of horror -through the State. It compels men of all parties who respect decency, -virtue, or civilisation, to utter their loudest protests." He prophesied -immediate "reorganization of the Democratic Party as the only means left, -in the judgment of its members, for opposing solid and reliable front to -this terrible _crevasse_ of misgovernment and public debauchery." There -was then no Democratic party within the State; Democrats had been -combining with better-class Republicans in compromise tickets. To an -invitation from the New England Society of Charleston, to address them on -"Forefathers' Day," he said: "If there was ever an hour when the spirit of -the Puritans, the spirit of undying, unconquerable enmity and defiance to -wrong ought to animate their sons, it is this hour, here, in South -Carolina. The civilisation of the Puritan and the Cavalier, the Roundhead -and the Huguenot, is in peril." - -A new campaign was at hand. Chamberlain's name was heard as leader of a -new compromise ticket. He had performed services that seemed inspired by -genuine regard for the old State and pride in her history. He was -instrumental in having the Washington Light Infantry, of Charleston, at -Bunker Hill Centennial, and bringing the Old Guard, of New York, and the -Boston Light Infantry to Fort Moultrie's Centennial, when he presented a -flag to the Washington Light Infantry and made a speech that pleased -Carolinians mightily. He and Hampton spoke from the same platform and sat -at the same banquet. He was alive to South Carolina's interest at the -Centennial in Philadelphia. The State began to honour him in invitations -to make addresses at college commencements and on other public occasions. - -A Democratic Convention in May came near nominating him. Another met in -August. Between these he shook confidence in his sincerity. Yet men from -the low country said: "Let's nominate him. He has tried to give honest -government." Men from the up country: "He can not rule his party, his -party may rule him." Men from the low country: "We cannot elect a straight -ticket." Men from the up country: "We have voted compromise tickets the -last time. We are not going to the polls unless we have a straight, clean -white ticket." They sent for Hampton and nominated him. His campaign reads -like a tale of the old Crusades. To his side came his men of war, General -Butler, General Gary and Colonel Haskell. At his name the people lifted up -their hearts in hope. - -Governor Chamberlain had denounced the rascalities of Elliott, Whipper's -election in the list. He was nominated by the Blacks and Tans, on a ticket -with R. H. Cleaves, mulatto; F. L. Cardoza, mulatto; Attorney General R. -B. Elliott, black, etc. He walked into the convention arm in arm with -Elliott. Soon he was calling for Federal troops to control elections, -charging all racial disorders to whites; ruling harsh judgments against -Red Shirts and Rifle Clubs; classing the Washington Light Infantry among -disorderly bodies, though he had been worthily proud of this company when -it held the place of honour in the Bunker Hill parade and, cheered to the -echo, marched through Boston, carrying the battle-flag of Colonel William -Washington of the Revolution. - -That was a picturesque campaign, when every county had its "Hampton Day," -and the Red Shirts rode, and ladies and children raised arches of bloom -and scattered flowers in front of the old cavalry captain's curvetting -steed. Barbecues were spread for coloured brethren, and engaging speakers -tried to amuse, instruct and interest them. - -The Red Shirts, like the Ku Klux, sprang into existence almost as by -accident. General Hampton was to speak at Anderson. The Saturday before -Colonel R. W. Simpson proposed to the Pendleton Club the adoption of a -badge, suggesting a red shirt as cheap and conspicuous. Pickens men caught -up the idea. Red store supplies ran out and another club donned white -ones. The three clubs numbered a body of three hundred or more stalwart, -fine-looking men of the hill-country, who had nearly all seen service on -battlefields, and who rode like centaurs. Preceded by the Pendleton Brass -Band, they made an imposing procession at the Fair Grounds on the day of -the speaking, and were greeted with ringing cheers. The band-wagon was -red; red flags floated from it and from the heads of four horses in red -trappings; the musicians wore red garments; instruments were wrapped in -red. The effect was electrical. In marching and countermarching military -tactics were employed with the effect of magnifying numbers to the eyes of -the negroes, who had had no idea that so many white men were alive. - -The red shirt uniform idea spread; a great red-shirted army sprang into -existence and was on hand at public meetings to see that speakers of the -White Man's Party had equal hearing with the Black Republicans. The Red -Shirts rode openly by day and by night, and where they wound their scarlet -ways women and children felt new sense of security. Many under its -protection were negroes. Hampton strove hard to win the negro vote. He had -been one of the first after the war to urge qualified suffrage for them. -In public speeches he declared that, if elected, he would be "the governor -of all the people of South Carolina, white and black." He got a large -black vote. Years after, when he lay dying, friends bending to catch his -last words, heard him murmur: "God bless my people, white and black!" - -Mrs. Henry Martin tells me of some fearful days following the pleasant -ones when her father, Professor Holmes, entertained the Old Guard in his -garden among the roses and oleanders. "One night, my brother, after seeing -a young lady home from a party, was returning along King Street with Mr. -Evaugh, when they encountered a crowd of negro rowdies and ran into a -store and under a counter. The negroes threw cobble-stones--the street was -in process of paving--on them. My brother was brought home in a wagon. -When our mother removed his shirt, the skin came wholly from his back with -it; he lived several years, but never fully recovered from his injuries. -My father cautioned us to stoop and crawl in passing the window on the -stairway to his room. In other houses, people were stooping and crawling -as they passed windows; a shadow on a curtain was a target for a rock or a -bullet. Black women were in arms, carrying axes or hatchets in their hands -hanging down at their sides, their aprons or dresses half-concealing the -weapons." "There are 80,000 black men in the State who can use Winchesters -and 200,000 black women who can light a torch and use a knife," said -"Daddy Cain," ex-Congressman and candidate for reëlection, in his paper, -"The Missionary Record," July, 1876, and in addressing a large negro -gathering, when Rev. Mr. Adams said, "Amen!" - -Northern papers were full of the Hamburg and Ellenton riots, some blaming -whites, some blacks, some distributing blame impartially. Facts at Cainhoy -blazed out the truth about that place, at least. The whites, unarmed -except for pistols which everybody carried then, were holding peaceable -meeting when fired into from ambush by negroes with muskets, who chased -them, continuing to fire. A youth of eighteen fell, with thirty-three -buckshot in him; another, dying, wrote his mother that he had been giving -no trouble. A carpenter and a shoemaker from Massachusetts, and an aged -crippled gentleman were victims. - -"Kill them! Kill them all! Dis town is ours!" Old Charlestonians recall -hearing a hoarse cry like this from negro throats (Sept. 6, 1876), recall -seeing Mr. Milton Buckner killed while trying to protect negroes from -negroes. They recall another night of unforgettable horror, when stillness -was almost as awful as tumult; frightened blacks were in-doors, but how -long would they remain so? Rifle Clubs were protecting a meeting of black -Democrats. Not a footfall was heard on the streets; not a sound broke the -stillness save the chiming of St. Michael's bells. Women and children and -old men listened for the alarm that might ring out any moment that the -negroes had risen _en masse_ for slaughter. They thanked God when -presently a sound of careless footsteps, of talk and laughter, broke upon -the night; the Rifle Club men were returning in peace to their firesides. - -General Hunt, U. S. A., reported on the Charleston riot, November, 1876, -when white men, going quietly to places of business, were molested by -blacks, and young Ellicott Walker was killed. The morning after the -election General Hunt "walked through the city and saw numbers of negroes -assembled at corners of Meeting and Broad Streets," and was convinced -there would be trouble, "though there was nothing in the manner of the -whites gathered about the bulletin board to provoke it." Surgeon De Witt, -U. S. A., told him "things looked bad on King and other streets where -negroes insisted on pushing ladies off the sidewalks." - -When Walker was killed, and the real trouble began, General Hunt hurried -to the Station House; the Marshal asked him for assistance; reports came -in that negroes were tearing up trees and fences, assailing whites, and -demanding arms of the police. General Hunt found at the Station House "a -number of gentlemen, young and old," who offered aid. Marshal Wallace -said, "But these are seditious Rifle Clubs." Said General Hunt, "They are -gentlemen whom I can trust and I am glad to have them." Pending arrival of -his troops, he placed them at the Marshal's disposal. The general relates: -"They fell in with his forces; as I was giving instructions, he -interposed, saying the matter was in his hands. He then started off. I -heard that police were firing upon and bayonetting quiet white people. My -troops arrived and additional white armed citizens. One of the civil -authorities said it was essential the latter be sent home. I declined -sending these armed men on the streets, and directed them to take position -behind my troops and remain there, which direction they obeyed -implicitly." - -With the Mayor and other Radical leaders General Hunt held conference; the -negro police was aggravating the trouble, he proposed that his troops -patrol streets; the mayor objected. "Why cannot the negroes be prevailed -upon to go quietly home?" the General asked. "A negro has as much right to -be on the streets armed as a white man." "But I am not here to discuss -abstract rights. A bloody encounter is imminent. These negroes can be sent -home without difficulty by you, their leaders." "You should be able to -guarantee whites against the negroes, if you can guarantee negroes against -the whites." "The cases are different. I have no control over the blacks -through their reason or intelligence. They have been taught that a -Democratic victory will remand them to slavery. Their excited fears, -however unfounded, are beyond my control. You, their leaders, can quiet -and send them home. The city's safety is at stake." The Mayor said he must -direct General Hunt's troops; Hunt said he was in command. The Mayor wired -Chamberlain to disband the Rifle Clubs "which were causing all the -mischief." Hunt soon received orders to report at Washington. - -"Hampton is elected!" the people rejoiced. "Chamberlain is elected!" the -Radicals cried, and disputed returns. The Radical Returning Board threw -out the Democratic vote in Laurens and Edgefield and made the House -Radical. The State Supreme Court (Republican) ordered the Board to issue -certificates to the Democratic members from these counties. The Board -refused; the Court threw the Board in jail; the United States Court -released the Board. The Supreme Court issued certificates to these -members. November 28, 1876, Democrats organised in Carolina Hall, W. H. -Wallace, Speaker; Radicals in the State House, with E. W. Mackey, Speaker, -and counting in eight Radical members from Laurens and Edgefield. The -Democratic House sent a message to the Radical Senate in the State House -that it was ready for business. Senate took no notice. On Chamberlain's -call upon President Grant, General Ruger was in Columbia with a Federal -regiment. - -[Illustration: THE SOUTHERN CROSS - -General Hampton, while Governor, built this, his residence, with his own -hands and with the assistance of his faithful negroes. The men in the -picture, from left to right, are: Hon. LeRoy F. Youmans, General Hampton, -Judge McIver, Hon. Joseph D. Pope, General James McGowan. - -Photograph by Reckling & Sons, Columbia, S. C.] - -November 29, the Wallace House marched to the State House, members from -Edgefield and Laurens in front. A closed door, guarded by United States -troops, confronted them. J. C. Sheppard, Edgefield, began to read from the -State House steps a protest, addressed to the crowd around the building -and to the Nation. The Radicals, fearful of its effect, gave hurried -consent to admission. Each representative was asked for his pistol and -handed it over. At the Hall of Representatives, another closed and guarded -door confronted them. They saw that they had been tricked and quietly -returned to Carolina Hall. - -The people were deeply incensed. General Hampton was in town, doing his -mightiest to keep popular indignation in bounds. He held public -correspondence with General Ruger, who did not relish the charge that he -was excluding the State's representatives from the State House and -promised that the Wallace House should not be barred from the outer door, -over which he had control. But its members knew they took their lives in -their hands when they started for the Hall. A committee or advance guard -of seven passed Ruger's guard at the outer door. Col. W. S. Simpson (now -President of the Board of Directors of Clemson College), who was one of -the seven, tells me: - -"On the first floor was drawn up a regiment of United States troops with -fixed bayonets; all outside doors were guarded by troops. Upstairs in the -large lobby was a crowd of negro roughs. Committee-rooms were filled with -Chamberlain's State constables. General Dennis, from New Orleans, a -character of unsavoury note, with a small army of assistants, was -Doorkeeper of the Hall. Within the Hall, the Mackey House, with one -hundred or more sergeants-at-arms, was assembled, waiting Mackey's arrival -to go into session." The seven dashed upstairs and for the door of the -Hall. The doorkeepers, lolling in the lobby, rushed between them and the -door and formed in line; committee presented certificates; doorkeepers -refused to open the door. - -"Come, men, let's get at it!" cried Col. Alex. Haskell, seizing the -doorkeeper in front of him. Each man followed his example; a struggle -began; the door parted in the middle; Col. Simpson, third to slip through, -describes the Mackey House, "negroes chiefly, every man on his feet, -staring at us with eyes big as saucers, mouths open, and nearly scared to -death." Meanwhile, the door, lifted off its hinges, fell with a crash. The -full Democratic House marched in, headed by Speaker Wallace, who took -possession of the Speaker's chair. Members of his House took seats on the -right of the aisle, negroes giving way and taking seats on the left. - -Speaker Wallace raised the gavel and called the House to order. Speaker -Mackey entered, marched up and ordered Speaker Wallace to vacate the -chair. Speaker Wallace directed his sergeant-at-arms to escort Mr. Mackey -to the floor where he belonged. Speaker Mackey directed his -sergeant-at-arms to perform that office for General Wallace. Each -sergeant-at-arms made feints. Speaker Mackey took another chair on the -stand and called the House to order. There was bedlam, with two Speakers, -two clerks, two legislative bodies, trying to conduct business -simultaneously! The "lockout" lasted four days and nights. Democrats were -practically prisoners, daring not go out, lest they might not get in. -Radicals stayed in with them, individual members coming and going as they -listed, a few at a time. - -The first day, Democrats had no dinner or supper; no fire on their side of -the House, and the weather bitterly cold. Through nights, negroes sang, -danced and kept up wild junketings. The third night Democrats received -blankets through windows; meals came thus from friends outside; and fruit, -of which they made pyramids on their desks. Two negroes came over from the -Mackey side; converts were welcomed joyously, and apples, oranges and -bananas divided. The opposition was enraged at defection; shouting, -yelling and rowdyism broke out anew. Both sides were armed. The House on -the left and the House on the right were constantly springing to their -feet, glaring at each other, hands on pistols. Wallace sat in his place, -calm and undismayed; Mackey in his, brave enough to compel admiration; -more than once he ran over to the Speaker's stand, next to the Democratic -side, and held down his head to receive bullets he was sure were coming. -Yet between these armed camps, small human kindnesses and courtesies went -on; and they joined in laughter at the comedy of their positions. Between -Speakers, though, there was war to the knife, there was also common bond -of misery. - -The third afternoon Democrats learned that their massacre was planned for -that night. Negro roughs were congregating in the building; the Hunkidory -Club, a noted gang of black desperadoes, were coming up from Charleston. A -body of assassins were to be introduced into the gallery overlooking the -floor of the Hall; here, even a small band could make short work its own -way of any differences below. Chamberlain informed Mackey; Mackey informed -Wallace. Hampton learned of the conspiracy through Ruger; he said: "If -such a thing is carried out, I cannot insure the safety of your command, -nor the life of a negro in the State." The city seethed with repressed -anxiety and excitement. Telegrams and runners were sent out; streets -filled with newcomers, some in red shirts, some in old Confederate -uniforms with trousers stuffed in boots, canteens slung over shoulders. -Hampton's soldiers had come. - -Twenty young men of Columbia contrived, through General Ruger, it is said, -to get into the gallery, thirty into the Hall, the former armed with -sledge-hammers to break open doors at first intimation of collision. The -Hook and Ladder Company prepared to scale the walls. The train bringing -the Hunkidory Club broke down in a swamp, aided possibly by some -peace-loving agency. The crowding of Red Shirt and Rifle Clubs into the -city took effect. The night passed in intense anxiety, but in safety. Next -day, Speaker Wallace read notification that at noon the Democrats, by -order of President Grant, would be ejected by Federal troops if, before -that time, they had not vacated the State House; in obedience to the -Federal Government, he and the other Democratic members would go, -protesting, however, against this Federal usurpation of authority. He -adjourned the House to meet immediately in Carolina Hall. Blankets on -their shoulders, they marched out. A tremendous crowd was waiting. Far as -the eye could reach, Main Street was a mass of men, quiet and apparently -unarmed. - -I have heard one of Hampton's old captains tell how things were outside -the State House. "The young men of Columbia were fully armed. Clerks in -our office had arms stowed away in desks and all around the rooms; we were -ready to grab them and rush on the streets at a moment's notice. It was -worse than war times. We had two cannon, loaded with chips of iron, -concealed in buildings, and trained on the State House windows and to rake -the street. We marched to the State House in a body. General Hampton had -gone inside. He had told us not to follow him. He and General Butler, his -aide, had been doing everything to keep us quiet. He knew we had come to -Columbia to fight if need be. 'I will tell you,' he said, 'when it is time -to fight. You have made me your governor, and, by Heaven, I will be your -governor!' Again and again he promised that. Usually, we obeyed him like -lambs. But we followed him to the State House. - -"Federal troops were stationed at the door. What right had they there? It -was our State House! Why could roughs and toughs and the motley crowd of -earth go in, on a pass from Doorkeeper Dennis, a Northern rascal imported -by way of New Orleans, while we, the State's own sons and taxpayers, could -not enter? We pressed forward. We were told not to. We did not heed. We -were ready not to heed even the crossed bayonets of the guard. Things are -very serious when they reach that pass. The guard in blue used the utmost -patience. Federal soldiers were in sympathy with us. Colonel Bomford,[24] -their officer, ran up the State House steps, shouting: 'General Hampton! -General Hampton! For God's sake come down and send your men back!' In an -instant General Hampton was on the steps, calmly waving back the -multitude: 'All of you go back up the street. I told you not to come here. -Do not come into collision with the Federal troops. I advise all, white -and black, who care for the public welfare to go home quietly. You have -elected me your Governor, and by the eternal God, I will be your Governor! -Trust me for that! Now, go back!' We obeyed like children. On the other -side of the State House a man ran frantically waving his hat and shouting: -'Go back! go back! General Hampton says go back!' This man was ex-Governor -Scott, who a few years before had raised a black army for the intimidation -and subjugation of South Carolina!" - -The Wallace House sat, until final adjournment, in South Carolina Hall, -the Mackey House in the State House. Governor Chamberlain, with the town -full of Rifle Clubs supposed to be thirsting for his gore, rode back and -forth in his open carriage to the State House and occupied the executive -offices there, refusing to resign them to General Hampton. He was -inaugurated inside the "Bayonet House"; General Hampton in the open -streets. General Hampton conducted the business of the State in two -office-rooms furnished with Spartan simplicity. The Wallace House said to -the people: "Pay to tax collectors appointed by Governor Hampton, ten per -cent of the tax rate you have been paying Governor Chamberlain's tax -collectors, and we will run your Government on it." So the people paid -their tax to Hampton's collectors and to no others. Without money, the -Chamberlain Government fell to pieces. - -Northern sentiment had undergone change. Tourists had spread far and wide -the fame of Black and Tan Legislatures. Mr. Pike, of Maine, had written -"The Prostrate State." In tableaux before a great mass-meeting and -torchlight procession in New York, South Carolina had appeared kneeling in -chains before the Goddess of Liberty. The North was protesting against -misuse of Federal power in the South. General Sherman said: "I have always -tried to save our soldiers from the dirty work. I have always thought it -wrong to bolster up weak State Governments by our troops." "Let the South -alone!" was the cry. One of Grant's last messages reflected this temper. -President Hayes was exhibiting a spirit the South had not counted on. He -sent for Hampton and Chamberlain to confer with him in Washington. The old -hero's journey to the National Capital and back was an ovation. Soon after -his return, Chamberlain resigned the keys and offices of the State House. -Chamberlain was bitter and felt that the Federal Government had played him -false. - -With Governor Nicholls established in Louisiana and Governor Hampton in -South Carolina, the battle between the carpet-baggers and the native -Southerners for their State Houses was over. The Federal soldiers packed -up joyfully, and the Southerners cheered their departure. - -Louisiana had been engaged in a struggle very similar to South Carolina's. -For three months she had two governors, two legislatures, two Supreme -Courts. Again and again was her Capitol in a state of siege. Once two -Republican parties faced each other in battle array for its possession--as -two Republican parties had faced each other in Little Rock contending for -Arkansas's Capitol. One morning, Louisianians woke to find the entrance -commanded by United States Artillery posted on the "Midnight Order" of a -drunken United States District Judge. Once a thousand negroes, impressed -as soldiers, lived within the walls, eating, drinking, sleeping, until the -place became unspeakably filthy and small-pox broke out. More than once -for its possession there was warfare on the levees, bloodshed in -barricaded streets. Once the citizens were marching joyfully to its -occupation past the United States Custom House, and the United States -soldiers crowded the windows, waved their caps and cheered. Once members -were ejected by Federal force; Colonel de Trobriand regretting that he had -the work to do and the Louisianans bearing him no grudge; it was, "Pardon -me, gentlemen, I must put you out." "Pardon us, that we give you the -trouble." - -These corrupt governments had glamours. Officials had money to burn. New -Orleans was like another Monte Carlo for one while. Gambling parlours -stood open to women and minors. Then was its twenty-five-year charter -granted the Louisiana State Lottery. At a garden party in Washington not -long ago, a Justice of the Supreme Court said in response to some question -I put: "It would take the pen of a Zola to describe reconstruction in -Louisiana! It is so dark a chapter in our national history, I do not like -to think of it." A Zola might base a great novel on that life and death -struggle between politicians and races in the land of cotton and sugar -plantations, the swamps and bayous and the mighty Mississippi, where the -Carpet-Bag Governments had a standing army, of blacks chiefly, with -cavalry, infantry, artillery, and navy of warships going up and down -waterways; where prominent citizens were arrested on blank warrants, -carried long distances, held for months; where women and children listened -for the tramp, tramp, of black soldiers on piazzas, the crash of a musket -on the door, the demand for the master or son of the house! - -Dixie after the war is a mine for the romancer, historian, ethnologist. -Never before in any age or place did such conditions exist. The sudden -investiture of the uncivilised slave with full-fledged citizenship wrought -tragedy and comedy not ready to Homer's, Shakespeare's or Cervantes's pen. -The strange and curious race-madness of the American Republic will be a -study for centuries to come. That madness took a child-race out of a warm -cradle, threw it into the ocean of politics--the stormiest and most -treacherous we have known--and bade it swim for its own life and the life -of the nation! - - - - -CRIME AGAINST WOMANHOOD - - - - -CHAPTER XXXI - -CRIME AGAINST WOMANHOOD - - -The rapist is a product of the reconstruction period. In the beginning he -commanded observation North less by reason of what he did than by reason -of what was done unto him. His chrysalis was a uniform; as a soldier he -could force his way into private homes, bullying and insulting white -women; he was often commissioned to tasks involving these things. He came -into life in the abnormal atmosphere of a time rife with discussions of -social equality theories, contentions for coeducation and intermarriage. - -General Weitzel, resigning his command, wrote from La Fourche and La Teche -to Butler in New Orleans: "I can not command these negro regiments. Women -and children are in terror. It is heartrending."[25] General Halleck -wrote, April, 1865, to General Grant of a negro corps: "A number of cases -of atrocious rape by these men have already occurred. Their influence on -the coloured people is reported bad. I hope you will remove it." Similar -reports were made by other Federal officers. Governor Perry, of South -Carolina, says: "I continued remonstrances to Secretary Seward on the -employment of negro troops, gave detail of their atrocious conduct. At -Newberry ... (Crozier's story). At Anderson, they protected and carried -off a negro who had wantonly murdered his master. At Greenville, they -knocked down citizens in the streets without slightest provocation. At -Pocotaligo, they entered a gentleman's house, and after tying him, -violated the ladies." Mr. Seward wrote that Northern sentiment was -sensitive about negro troops. When Governor Perry handed Generals Meade -and Gillmore the Pocotaligo report, General Meade said he was opposed to -negro troops and was trying to rid the army of them, but had to exercise -great caution not to offend Northern sentiment. General Gillmore had some -offenders executed. Federal commanders largely relieved the South of black -troops, but carpet-bag officials restored them in the form of militia. - -I have told elsewhere Crozier's story. Let me contrast his slayers with a -son of industry it was my honour to know, Uncle Dick, my father's -coachman. During the war, when my father had occasion to send a large sum -in gold coin through the country, Uncle Dick carried it belted around his -body under his shirt. My father's ward was attending the Southern Female -College in Danville when the President and his Cabinet, fleeing from -Richmond, reached that place. Knowing that Danville might become a -fighting center, Mr. Williams T. Davis, Principal, wrote my father to send -for Sue. The way to reach Danville was by private conveyance, seventy -miles or more. Uncle Dick, mounted high on his carriage-box, a -white-headed, black-faced knight-errant of chivalry, set forth. Nobody -knew where the armies were. He might have to cut his horses loose from his -carriage, mount Sue on one, himself take the other, and bring her through -the forest. In due time the carriage rolled into our yard, Uncle Dick -proud and happy on his box, Sue inside wrapped in rugs, sound asleep, for -it was midnight. That is the way we could trust our black men. - -The following account by an ex-Confederate captain shows how General -Schofield handled a case of the crime which is now under discussion: "A -young white girl on her way to Sunday School was attacked by a negro; -'attempted' assault, the family said; it is usually put that way; -'consummated' nails the victim to a stake. Our people were in a state of -terror; they seemed paralysed; they were inured to dispossession and -outrage. No one seemed to know what to do. I picked up several young men -and trailed down the ruffian. Then I sent a letter to General Schofield -(with whom I had some acquaintance, as we had met each other hunting), -asking instructions. He sent two detectives and a file of soldiers, -requesting that I call for further assistance if occasion demanded. I -wrote full statement of facts, had the girl's testimony taken in private; -evidence was laid before General Schofield; the negro was sent to the -penitentiary for eighteen years. The promptness of his action inspired -people here with hope. We had no Ku Klux in Virginia--one reason, I have -always thought, was the swiftness with which punishment was meted out in -that case." - -I have, as I believe, from Judge Lynch himself particulars of another case -in which, the law being inactive, citizens took justice into their own -hands: - -"Two young girls, daughters of a worthy German settler, were out to bring -up cows, when attacked by a negro tramp; they ran screaming, but were -overtaken; he seized the older; the younger, about ten years old, -continued to run. Some passers on the nearest road, a private and lonely -one, rushed to the relief of the older girl, who was making such outcry as -she could. We found her prostrate, the negro having her pinioned with one -knee on either arm. His jack-knife open, was held between his teeth, and -he was stuffing his handkerchief in her mouth to stifle her cries. We -rescued her, took him prisoner, carried him to the nearest magistrate, a -carpet-bag politician, who committed him to jail to await the action of -the grand jury. He made his escape a few days afterward, was recaptured -and relodged in jail. Ten days later a band was organised among -respectable citizens in and around our town; a Northern settler was a -member. One detachment set out about dark for the rendezvous where they -met a score more of resolute, armed men, some with masks, some without. -They effected entrance into the jail, but their way was arrested when they -found the prisoner in a casemated cell, which other negroes readily -pointed out, one offering a lamp; a railroad section hand procured -crow-bars with which the casemate was crushed in; the prisoner was taken -in charge. He stood mute; seemed calm and unmoved; was put in a close -carriage, the purpose being to drive him to the exact spot of his crime, -but it coming on day, the company thought best to execute him at once. He -was placed upon a mule; a rope attached to his neck was tied to the limb -of a tree about ten feet above. The leader now learned of an intention to -riddle his body with bullets when the drop occurred. Each member had -pledged obedience to orders; each had been pledged to take no liquor for -hours before, or during this expedition--pledges so far rigidly observed. -The leader addressed them: 'We are here to avenge outrage on a helpless -child, and to let it be well known that such crime shall not go unpunished -in this community. But mutilation of this fiend's remains will be a -reflection upon ourselves and not a dispensation of justice.' - -"The negro, seeing his end surely at hand, broke down, pleading for mercy; -confessed that he had appreciated in advance the great peril in which his -crime might place him, but had argued that, as a stranger, he would not be -liable to identification, and that as the country was thickly wooded, he -was sure of escape. 'But, fo' Gawd, gent'mun, ef a white man f'om de Norf -hadn't put't in my hade dat a white 'oman warn' none too good fuh--' - -"Word was given, and he dropped into eternity. It was broad daylight when -the party got back to town. They overtook several negro men going to work -who knew full well what they had been about. But there was no sign of -protest or demur. The Commonwealth's Attorney made efforts to ascertain -the perpetrators of the deed, but as the company entered the town and jail -so quietly and left it with so little disturbance that only one person in -the village had knowledge of their coming and going, no one was discovered -who could name a single member of the party or who had any idea of whence -they came or whither they went. So of course no indictment could be -found." This was in 1870; since then till now no similar crime has -occurred in that community. Within the circumscribed radius of its -influence, lynching seems to eradicate the evil for which administered. - -The moderation marking this execution has not always accompanied lynching. -Reading accounts of unnecessary tortures inflicted, of very orgies of -vengeance, people remote from the scenes, Southerners no less than others, -have shuddered with disgust, and trembled with concern for the dignity of -their own race. Only people on the spot, writhing under the agony of -provocation, comprehended the fury of response to the crime of crimes. -Vigilants meant to make their awful vengeance effective deterrent to the -crime's repetition. No other crime offers such problems to relatives and -officers of justice and to the people among whom it occurs; it is so -outside of civilisation that there seem no terms for dispassionate -discussion, no fine adjustment of civil trial and legal penalty. - -Listen to this out of the depths of one Southern woman's experience: "I -stood once with other friends, who were trying to nurse her back to life -and reason, by the bedside of a girl--a beautiful, gentle, high-born -creature--who had been outraged. We were using all the skill and tact and -tenderness at our command. It seemed impossible for her to have one hour's -peaceful sleep. She would start from slumber with a shriek, look at us -with dilated eyes, then clutch us and beg for help. But the most -unspeakable pity of it all was her loathing for her own body; her prayers -that she might die and her body be burned to ashes. I heard her physician -say to an officer who came to take her deposition: 'I would be signing -that girl's death warrant if I let you in there to make her tell that -horrible story over again.' When a grim group came with some negroes they -wanted to bring before her for identification, her brothers and her lover -said: 'Only over our dead bodies.'" - -Lynching is inexcusable, even for this crime, which is comparable to no -other, and to which murder is a trifle. So we may coolly argue when the -blow has not fallen upon ourselves or at our own door. When it has, we -think there's a wolf abroad and we have lambs. Those to whom the wrecked -woman is dear are quiveringly alive to her irreparable wrong. The victim -has rights, they argue; if, unhappily for herself, she survive the -outrage, she is entitled to what poor remnants of reason may be left her; -it is naturally their whole care to preserve her from memories that sear -and craze, and from rehearsal before even the most private tribunal, of -events that the merciful, even if not of her blood, must wish her to -forget. Under such strain, men see as the one thing imperative the prompt -and informal removal from existence of the offender, whom they look upon, -not as man, but beast or fiend. - -The "poor white" is the most frequent sufferer from assault; the wife of -the small farmer attending household duties in her isolated home while her -husband is in the fields or otherwise absent about his work; or the small -farmer's daughter when she goes to the spring for water, or to the meadow -for the cows, or trudges a lonely road or pathway to school; these are -more convenient material than the lady of larger means and higher station, -who is more rarely unattended. In cases on record the ravished and slain -were children, five, six, eight years old; in others, mothers with babies -at their breasts, and the babies were slain with the mothers. Here is a -case cited by Judge M. L. Dawson: A negro raped and slew a farmer's -five-year-old child. Arrested, tried, convicted, appealed, sentence -reversed, reappealed (on insanity plea); people took him out and hung him. - -In full-volumed indignation over lynching, the usual course of the -Northern press was to almost lose sight of the crime provoking it. It was -a minor fact that a woman was violated, that her skull was crushed or that -she sustained other injuries from which she died or which made her a wreck -for life--particulars too trivial to be noted by moulders of public -opinion writing eloquent essays on "Crime in the South." Picking up a -paper with this glaring headline, one would have a right to expect some -outburst of indignation over the ravishment and butchering of womanhood. -But there would be editorial after editorial rife with invectives against -lynching and lynchers, righteous with indignation over "lawlessness in the -South," and not one word of sympathy or pity for the white victim of negro -lust! The fact that there was such a victim seemed lost sight of; the -crime for which the negro was executed would often escape everything but -bare mention, sometimes that. What deductions were negroes to draw from -such distinctions, except that lynching was monstrous crime, rape an -affair of little moment, and strenuous objection to it only one feature of -damnable "Race Prejudice in the South"? - -"They do not care, the men and women of the North," I have heard a -Southern girl exclaim, "if we are raped. They do not care that we are -prisoners of fear, that we fear to take a ramble in the woods alone, fear -to go about the farms on necessary duties, fear to sit in our houses -alone; fear, if we live in cities, to go alone on the streets at hours -when a woman is safe anywhere in Boston or New York." - -From the Northern attitude as reflected in the press and in the pulpit, -negroes drew their own conclusions. Violation of a white woman was no -harm; indeed, as a leveler of social distinctions, it might almost be -construed into an act of grace. The way to become a hero in the eyes of -the white North and to win the crown of martyrdom for oneself and new -outbursts of sympathy for one's race was to assault a white woman of the -South. This crime was a development of a period when the negro was -dominated by political, religious and social advisers from the North and -by the attitude of the Northern press and pulpit. It was practically -unknown in wartime, when negroes were left on plantations as protectors -and guardians of white women and children. - -"There was only one case,[26] as far as the writer can ascertain, of the -negro's crime against womanhood during all the days of slavery," said -Professor Stratton in the "North American Review" a few years ago, "while -his fidelity and simple discharge of duty during the Civil War when the -white men were away fighting against his liberty have challenged the -admiration of the world; but since he has been made free, his increase in -crime and immorality has gone side by side with his educational -advancement--and even in greater ratio." The Professor gave figures, as -others have done, which proved his case, if figures can prove anything. -Considered with reference to the crime under discussion, it is difficult -to see how purely intellectual training tends to its increase, if there is -any truth in the doctrine that brain development effects a reduction of -animal propensities. Only in moral education, however, rests any real -security for conduct. Negroes educated and negroes uneducated, in a -technical sense, have committed this crime.[27] - -The rapist is not to be taken as literal index to race character; he is an -excrescence of the times; his crime is a horror that must be wiped out for -the honour of the land, the security of womanhood, the credit of our -negro citizenhood. The weapon for its destruction is in the hands of -Afro-Americans; overwhelming sentiment on their part would put an end to -it; they should be the last to stand for the rapist's protection; rather -should they say to him: "You are none of us!" They should be quick to aid -in his arrest, identification and deliverance to the law. Such attitude -would be more effective than any other one force that can be brought to -bear upon this crime and that of lynching. I chronicle here as worthy of -record, that in June, 1870, William Stimson, rapist, was tried before a -negro jury, convicted on negro evidence, and hung November 4. This -happened in North Carolina during negro rule. - -The negro guilty of this hideous offense has committed against his race a -worse crime than lynching can ever be. By the brutish few the many are -judged--particularly when the many in vociferous condemnation of the -penalty visited upon the criminal seem to condone his awful iniquity -against themselves. Black men who have been and will be womanhood's -protectors outnumber the beasts who wear like skins as many thousands to -one; and it is not fair to themselves that they pursue any course, utter -any sentiment, which causes them to be classed in any way whatever with -these. Black men are seeing this and are setting their faces towards -stamping out the crime which causes lynching. Utterances from some of -their pulpits and resolutions passed by some of their religious bodies -indicate this. - -The occurrence of rapes, lynchings and burnings in the North and West has -had beneficial influence upon the question at large. It has led white -people of other sections to understand in some degree the Southern -situation and to express condemnation of the crime that leads to lynching. -The attitude of the Northern press has undergone great change in recent -years, change effective for reform, in that while lynching is as severely -under the ban as ever--which it should be--the companion crime goes with -it. Southern sentiment is against lynching; I recall seven -governors--Aycock of North Carolina, Montague of Virginia, Heyward of -South Carolina, Candler and Terrell of Georgia, Jelks of Alabama, Vardaman -of Mississippi--who have so placed themselves conspicuously on record. All -our newspapers have done so, I believe, from the "Times-Dispatch" of -Richmond, the Charlotte "Observer," the "Constitution" and the "Journal" -of Atlanta, the "State" of Columbia, the Charleston "News-Courier," the -Savannah "News," to the "Times-Democrat" of New Orleans, and "Times-Union" -of Jacksonville. - -One hope and promise of the new constitutions with which Southern States -lately replaced the Black and Tan instruments is the eradication of this -method of procedure. Soon after Virginia adopted hers, three negro rapists -in that State received legal trial and conviction and not over hasty -execution. On motion of District Attorney E. C. Goode, reprieve was -granted after conviction that a case in Mecklenburg might be looked into -more fully. Such deliberation has not been exceeded--if, indeed, it has -been equaled--north of Mason & Dixon's line. But as long as rapes are -committed, so long will there be danger of lynchings, not only in the -South, but anywhere else. In the presence of this worse than savage crime -the white race suffers reversion to savagery. - - - - -RACE PREJUDICE - - - - -CHAPTER XXXII - -RACE PREJUDICE - - -As late as 1890, Senator Ingalls said: "The use of the torch and dagger is -advised. I deplore it, but as God is my judge, I say that no people on -this earth have ever submitted to the wrongs and injustice which have been -put upon the coloured men of the South without revolt and bloodshed." -Others spoke of the negro's use of torch and sword as his only way to -right himself in the South. When prominent men in Congressional and -legislative halls and small stump speakers everywhere fulminated such -sentiments, the marvel would have been if race prejudice had not come to -birth and growth. Good men, whose homes were safe, and who in heat of -oratory or passion for place, forgot that other men's homes were not, had -no realisation of the effect of their words upon Southern households, -where inmates lay down at night trembling lest they wake in flames or with -black men shooting or knifing them. - -But for a rooted and grounded sympathy and affection between the races -that fierce and newly awakened prejudice could not kill, the Sepoy -massacres of India would have been duplicated in the South in the sixties -and seventies. Under slavery, the black race held the heart of the white -South in its hands. Second only in authority to the white mother on a -Southern plantation, was the black mammy; hoary-headed white men and -women, young men and maidens and little children, rendered her reverence -and love. Little negroes and little white children grew up together, -playing together and forming ties of affection equal to almost any -strain. The servant was dependent upon his master, the master upon his -servant. Neither could afford to disregard the well-being of the other. No -class of labour on earth today is as well cared for as were the negroes of -the Old South. Age was pensioned, infancy sheltered. There was a state of -mutual trust and confidence between employer and employee that has been -seen nowhere else and at no time since between capital and labour. - -Had the negro remained a few centuries longer the white man's dependant, -often an inmate of his home, and his close associate on terms not raising -questions and conflicts, his development would have proceeded. Through the -processes of slavery, the negro was peaceably evolving, as agriculturist, -shepherd, blacksmith, mechanic, master and mistress of domestic science, -towards citizenship--inevitable when he should be ready for it; -citizenship all the saner, because those who were training him were -unconscious of what they were doing and contemplated making no political -use of him. They were intent only on his industrial and moral education. -His evolution was set back by emancipation. - -Yet, if destruction of race identity is advancement, the negro will -advance. The education which he began to receive with other Greek gifts of -freedom has taught him to despise his skin, to loath his race identity, to -sacrifice all native dignity and nobility in crazy antics to become a -white man. "Social equality!" those words are to be his doom. It is a pity -that the phrase was ever coined. It is not to say that one is better than -the other when we say of larks and robins, doves and crows, eagles and -sparrows, that they do not flock together. They are different rather than -unequal. Difference does not, of itself, imply inequality. To ignore a -difference inherent in nature is a crime against nature and is punished -accordingly by nature. - -The negro race in America is to be wiped out by the dual process of -elimination and absorption. The negro will not be eliminated as was the -Indian--though the way a whole settlement of blacks was made to move on a -few years ago in Illinois, looks as if history might repeat itself in -special instances. Between lynchings and race riots in the North and West -and those in the South there has usually been this difference: in the -former, popular fury included entire settlements, punishing the innocent -with the guilty; in the latter, it limited itself to the actual criminal. -Another difference between sectional race problems. I was in New York -during Subway construction when a strike was threatened, and overheard two -gentlemen on the elevated road discussing the situation: "The company -talks of bringing the blacks up here." "If they do, the tunnel will run -blood! These whites will never suffer the blacks to take their work." I -thought, "And negroes have had a monopoly of the South's industries and -have scorned it!" I thought of jealous white toilers in the slime of the -tunnel; and of Dixie's greening and golden fields, of swinging hoes and -shining scythes and the songs of her black peasantry. And I thought of her -stalwart black peasants again when I walked through sweat-shops and saw -bent, wizened, white slaves. - -The elimination of the negro will be in ratio to the reduction of his -potentiality as an industrial factor. Evolutionary processes reject -whatever has served its use. History shows the white man as the exponent -of evolution. There were once more Indians here than there are now -negroes. Yet the Indian has almost disappeared from the land that belonged -to him when a little handful of palefaces came and found him in their -way. Had he been of use, convertible into a labourer, he would have been -retained; he was not so convertible, and other disposition was made of him -while we sent to Africa for what was required. The climate of the North -did not agree with the negro; he was not a profitable labourer; he -disappeared. He was a satisfactory labourer South; he throve and -multiplied. He is not now a satisfactory labourer in any locality. What is -the conclusion if we judge the white man's future by his past? - -The white man does not need the negro as _littérateur_, statesman, -ornament to society. Of these he has enough and to spare, and seeks to -reduce surplus. What he needs is agricultural labour. The red man would -not till the soil, and the red man went; if the black man will not, -perhaps the yellow man will. Sporadic instances of exceptional negroid -attainments may interest the white man--in circumscribed circle--for a -time. But the deep claim, the strong claim, the commanding claim would be -that the negro filled a want not otherwise supplied, that the negro could -and would do for him that which he cannot well do for himself--for -instance, work the rice and cotton lands where the negro thrives and the -white man dies. - -The American negro is passing. The mulatto, quadroon, octoroon, strike the -first notes in the octave of his evolution--or his decadence, or -extinction, or whatever you may call it. The black negro is rare North and -South. Negroes go North, white Northerners come South. In States -sanctioning intermarriage, irregular connections obtain as elsewhere -between white men and black women; and, in addition, between black men and -white women of most degraded type or foreigners who are without the saving -American race prejudice. Recent exposure of the "White Slave Syndicate" in -New York which kidnapped white girls for negro bagnios, is fresh in the -public mind. - -Under slavery many negroes learned to value and to practice virtue; many -value and practice it now; but the freedwoman has been on the whole less -chaste than the bond. With emancipation the race suffered relapse in this -as in other respects. The South did not do her whole duty in teaching -chastity to the savage, though making more patient, persistent and heroic -struggle than accredited with. The charge that under slavery miscegenation -was the result of compulsion on the part of the superior race finds answer -in its continuance since. Because he was white, the crying sin was the -white man's, but it is just to remember that the heaviest part of the -white racial burden was the African woman, of strong sex instincts and -devoid of a sexual conscience, at the white man's door, in the white man's -dwelling.[28] - -In 1900, negroes constituted 20.4 per cent. of the population of Texas, -the lowest rate for the Southern States; in Mississippi, 58.6, the -highest. In Massachusetts, they were less than two per cent. Questions of -social intermingling can not be of such practical and poignant concern to -Massachusetts as to Mississippi, where amalgamation would result in a -population of mulatto degenerates. Prohibitions are protective to both -races. Fortunately, miscegenation proceeds most slowly in the sections of -negro concentration, the sugar and cotton lands of the lower South. In -these, it is also said, there is lower percentage of negro crime of all -kinds than where negroes are of lighter hue. - -Thinkers of both races have declared amalgamation an improbable, -undesirable conclusion of the race question; that it would be a -propagation of the vices of both races and the virtues of neither. In a -letter (March 30, 1865) to the Louisville "Courier-Journal," recently -reproduced in "The Outlook," Mr. Beecher said: "I do not think it wise -that whites and blacks should mix blood ... it is to be discouraged on -grounds of humanity." Senator Ingalls said: "Fred Douglas once said to me: -'The races will blend, coalesce, and become homogeneous.' I do not agree -with him. There is no affinity between the races; this solution is -impossible.... There is no blood-poison so fatal as the adulteration of -race." - -At the Southern Educational Conference in Columbia, 1905, Mr. Abbott, in -one of the clearest, frankest speeches yet heard from our Northern -brotherhood, declared the thinking North and South now one upon these -points: the sections were equally responsible for slavery; the South -fought, not to perpetuate slavery, but on an issue "that had its beginning -before the adoption of the Federal Constitution;" racial integrity should -be preserved. In one of the broadest, sanest discussions of the negro -problem to which the American public has been treated, Professor Eliot, of -Harvard, has said recently: "Northern and Southern opinion are identical -with regard to keeping the races pure--that is, without admixture of the -one with the other ... inasmuch as the negroes hold the same view, this -supposed danger of mutual racial impairment ought not to have much -influence on practical measures. Admixture of the two races, so far as it -proceeds, will be, as it has been, chiefly the result of sexual vice on -the part of white men; it will not be a wide-spread evil, and it will not -be advocated as a policy or method by anybody worthy of consideration." - -"It will not be a wide-spread evil!" The truth stares us in the face. -Except in the lower South the black negro is now almost a curiosity. In -any negro gathering the gamut of colour runs from ginger-cake to white -rivaling the Anglo-Saxon's; and according as he is more white, the negro -esteems himself more honourable than his blacker fellow; though these -gradations in colour which link him with the white man, were he to judge -himself by the white man's standard, would be, generally speaking, badges -of bastardy and shame. - -In Florida, a tourist remarked to an orange-woman: "They say Southerners -do not believe in intermingling of the races. But look at all these -half-white coons!" "Well, Marster," she answered, "don't you give Southern -folks too much credit fuh dat. Rich Yankees in de winter-time; crap uh -white nigger babies in de fall. Fus' war we all had down here, mighty big -crap uh yaller babies come up. Arter de war 'bout Cuba, 'nother big crap -come 'long. Nigger gal ain' nuvver gwi have a black chile ef she kin git a -white one!" Blanch, my negro hand-maiden, is comely, well-formed, black; -the descendant of a series of honest marriages, yet feels herself at a -disadvantage with quadroons and octoroons not nearly her equals in point -of good looks or principle. "I'd give five hundred dollars ef I had it, ef -my ha'r was straight," she tells me with pathetic earnestness; and "I wish -I had been born white!" is her almost heart-broken moan.[29] She would -rather be a mulatto bastard than the black product of honest wedlock. - -The integrity of the races depends largely upon the virtue of white men -and black women; also, it rests _on the negroid side upon the aspiration -to become white_, acknowledgment in itself of inferiority and -self-loathing. The average negress will accept, invite, with every wile -she may, the purely animal attention of a "no-count white man" in -preference to marriage with a black. The average mulatto of either sex -considers union with a black degradation. The rainbow of promise spanning -this gloomy vista is the claim that the noble minority of black women who -value virtue is on the increase as the race, in self-elevation, recognises -more and more the demands of civilisation upon character, and that dignity -of racehood which will not be ashamed of its own skin or covet the skin of -another. The virtuous black woman is the Deborah and the Miriam of her -people. She is found least often in crowded cities, North and South; most -often in Southern rural districts. Wherever found, she commands the white -man's respect. - -Hope should rest secure in the white man. If the faith of his fathers, the -flag of his fathers, the Union of his fathers, are worthy of preservation, -is not the blood of his fathers a sacred trust also? Besides, before -womanhood, whatever its colour or condition, however ready to yield or -appeal to his grosser senses, the white man should throw the ægis of his -manhood and his brotherhood. - -The recent framing of State Constitutions in the South to supersede the -Black and Tan creations revived the charge of race prejudice because their -suffrage restrictions would in great degree disfranchise the negro. As -compared with discussion of any phase of the race issue some years ago, -the spirit of comment was cool and fair. "The Outlook" led in justifying -the South for protecting the franchise with moderate property and -educational qualifications applying to both races, criticising, however, -the provision for deciding upon educational fitness--a provision which -Southerners admit needs amendment. One effect of these restrictions will -be to stimulate the negro's efforts to acquire the necessary education or -the necessary three hundred dollars' worth of property. Another effect -will be decrease of the white farmer's scant supply of negro labour; this -scarcity, in attracting white immigrants, provides antidote for -Africanisation of the South. - -As to whether negro ownership of lands improves country or not, I will -give a Northern view. I met in 1903 at the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, a -wealthy Chicagoan and his wife (originally from Massachusetts), who were -looking for a holiday residence in Tidewater Virginia. They made various -excursions with land agents, and one day reported discovery of their ideal -in all respects but one. "The people around are ruining property by -selling lands to negroes. A gentleman at whose house we stopped, a -Northerner, had just bought, as he told us, at much inconvenience, a -plantation adjoining his own to make sure it would not be cut up and sold -by degrees to negroes." I hear Southern farmers in black belts say: "I had -much rather have a quiet, orderly negro for neighbour than a troublesome -white." But the fact remains that negro ownership of property reduces -value of adjoining lands. Besides the social reason, the average negro -exhausts and does not improve lands. - -"Why don't the negroes live up North?" one is asked; "they go up there and -make a little money and come back and buy lands." - -"Land is cheap here. It is almost beyond their reach there. The climate -here appeals. Then, this is home." Thus I answered in 1902, in Southside, -Virginia. After further travel, I amend: Negroes do not wish to work for -white land-owners; they wish to remain in the South or to return to the -South, as land-owners. They are acquiring considerable property. But, -generally speaking, they are thinning out. One may journey miles along -Southern railroads and see but few in fields where once were thousands. In -Northern cities and pleasure resorts negroes increase. The race problem is -broadening, changing territory. - -The daughter of an Ohioan gave me a glimpse of this changing base. -"Columbus negroes--those born there or who came there long ago, are very -different from Southern negroes. They will have nothing to do with the -negroes coming direct. The Southern negroes have nice, deferential -manners; the Northern negroes hate them for it. Columbus negroes--why, -they will push white ladies off the streets!" In a New York store in 1904, -I observed two negresses in a crowd near a window where articles of -baggage were on check. They pushed their way to the front and demanded -belongings without the courteous "please" which any Southerner, or which -Northern gentlefolks, would have used; the young white girl in charge--it -was a hot day and she looked faint--was doing her cheerful best to meet -the noon rush, but was not quick enough for the coloured persons; they -hurried and reproved her; as she turned about within, confused by their -descriptions and commands, they exclaimed: "That's it! Right befo' you! -Don't you see that case right there? What a fool!" She never thought of -resenting; came up humbly, loaded with their property, glad to have found -it. Their manners would have scandalised a black aristocrat of the Old -South. - -We cannot afford to wrong this race as we wronged the Indian. We must aid -the negro's advancement in the right direction. But we should not -discriminate against the white race. Educational doors are open to the -negro throughout the land; the South is rich in noble institutions of -learning for him; in black belts Southerners are paying more to educate -black children than white. In black belts, in white belts, in the -mountains, white children are put into fields and factories when they -ought to be going to school. Educational odds are against the white -children. In regard to schools of manual training, to limit the negro to -these and these to the negro is to put a stigma on manual labor in the -eyes of white youth and to continue the negro's monopoly of a field which -he does not appreciate. We should do more educationally for the white -child and not less for the negro. The negro pays small percentage of the -Southern educational tax and enjoys full benefits. The negro needs to -realize that if the white man owes him a debt, he owes the white man one; -and that he cannot safely despise the school of service in house and field -which white people from Europe and yellow people from the Orient are eager -to enter. - -I would close no door of opportunity to the negro. But I must say my -affection is for the negro of the old order. I owe reverence to the memory -of a black mammy and a debt to negroes generally for much kindness. The -real negro I like, the poet of the veldt and jungle, the singer in field -and forest, the tiller of the soil, the shepherd of the flocks, the -herdsman of the cattle, the happy, soft-voiced, light-footed servitor. The -negro who is a half-cut white man is not a negro, and it can be no offense -to the race to say that he is unattractive when compared with the dear old -darkey of Dixie who was worth a million of him! At Fort Mill, S. C., hard -by a monument to a forgotten people, the Catawba Indians, stands a -monument to the "Faithful Slaves of the Confederacy," type of a memorial -many hearts yet hold. The new negro, in reaching out for higher and -better things than the old attained, will be wise not to sacrifice those -qualities which told in his ancestor in spite of all shortcomings. - -The one true plane of equalisation is that of mutual service, each race -doing for the other all it can. The old negro and the white man stood more -surely on this plane than do their descendants, yet not more surely than -all must wish their descendants to stand. My regard for the negro, my -pride in what he has really accomplished under the hammering of -civilisation, call, in his behalf, for a race pride and reserve in him -which shall match the Anglo-Saxon's. There are negroes who have it and who -deplore efforts placing them in the position of postulants for a social -intermingling which they do not consider essential to their dignity or -happiness.[30] Between blacks and whites South we constantly see race -pride maintained on one side as on the other while humanities are observed -in manifold exchanges of kindness and courtesy that make a bond of -brotherhood.[30] Whatever position the white Southerner takes -theoretically on manufactured race issues, he will usually fight rather -than see his inoffensive black neighbour or employe maltreated; his black -neighbour or employe will often do as much for him. This attitude is -sometimes an expression of the clan habit surviving the destruction of -clan-life (old plantation-life in which the white man was Chief and his -negroes his clansmen); also, it exists in the recognition of a common bond -of humanity more than skin deep. Upon this rock the future may be -builded.[30] As a useful, industrious, citizen, the negro is his own -argument and advocate.[30] - - - - -MEMORIAL DAY - - -Daughters of all the South! Sons of all the South! We, your own old -soldiers, pause a moment this day in our march and facing to the front, -touching eternity on our right, we stand erect before you as if on dress -parade. We know that the day of our personal presence has passed its noon, -but we would cast no shadow upon the land we leave to you and yours, nor -raise one barrier to your full possession of local and national rights. We -are but the living Color Guard of the great army of your Southern fathers, -and their history and honor are safely in your keeping. The war flag of -precious memory waves peacefully above us, and we ask you for our sakes, -and its own sake, to love it forever. The Star-spangled Banner of our -country waves over all of us and over all our States and people, -commanding the respect of every nation. Let it never be dishonored. With -the feeling of pride that we are Confederate soldiers, we salute you, not -by presenting arms, but with the salutations of our beating hearts. And -now we will march on, march forward in column: and, as we go you will hear -from us the echo of the angels' song--Peace on earth, good will to -men.--_From an address by General Clement A. Evans, Commander of the -Georgia Division, U. C. V., Memorial Day, 1905, Atlanta, Ga._ - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIII - -MEMORIAL DAY AND DECORATION DAY. CONFEDERATE SOCIETIES - - -Peculiar interest attaches to the inauguration of Memorial Day in -Richmond, in 1866, when Northerners, watching Southerners cover the graves -of their dead with flowers, went afterwards and did likewise, thus -borrowing of us their "Decoration Day" and with it a custom we gladly -share with them.[31] In Hollywood and Oakwood slept some 36,000 Southern -soldiers, representing every Confederate State. On April 19, Oakwood -Memorial Association "was founded by a little band in the old Third -Presbyterian Church, after prayer by Rev. Dr. Proctor." The morning of May -10 a crowd gathered in St. John's Church,[32] and after simple exercises -led by Dr. Price and Dr. Norwood, "the procession, numbering five hundred -people, walking two and two, their arms loaded with spring's sweetest -flowers, walked out to Oakwood" and strewed with these the Confederate -graves. May 3, the Hollywood Memorial Association was formed, and May 31 -was its first Memorial Day. The day before, an extraordinary procession -wended its way to the cemetery. - -The young men of Richmond, the flower of the city, marched to Hollywood, -armed with picks and spades, and numbering in their long line, moving with -the swing of regulars, remnants of famous companies, whose gallantry had -made them shining marks on many a desperate battlefield. "It was a -striking scene," wrote a witness, "as the long line filed by, not as in -days of yore when attired in gray and bearing the glittering muskets, they -were wont to step to the strains of martial music while the Stars and Bars -of the young Republic floated above them; but in citizens' garbs, bearing -the peaceful implements of agriculture, performing a pilgrimage to the -shrine of departed valour." It was symbolic. The South sought to honour -her past in peaceful ways, and to repair by patient industry the ravages -of war, wielding cheerfully weapons of progress to which her hands were as -yet unaccustomed. As the soldier-citizens marched along, people old and -young, by ones and twos and threes, or in organised bodies, fell into the -ever-lengthening line. At the cemetery, the pick-and-spade bearers were -divided into squads and companies, and under the direction of commanders, -worked all day, raking off rubbish, rounding up graves, planting -head-boards and otherwise bringing about order. Old men and little boys -helped. Negroes faithful to the memory of dead friends and owners were -there, busy as the whites in love's labour. Several men in Federal uniform -lent brotherly hands. When the sun went down the place was transformed. -That first fair Memorial Day looked as though it were both Sabbath and -Saints' Day. Over or on doors of business houses was the legend, garlanded -with flowers or framed in mourning drapery: "Closed in Honour of the -Confederate Dead." Federal soldiers walking the quiet streets would pause -and study these symbols of grief and reverence. Carloads of flowers -poured into the city. Every part of the South in touch with Richmond by -rail or wagon sent contribution. Grace Church was a floral depot; maids, -matrons and children met there early to weave blossoms and greenery into -stars, crosses, crowns and flags--their beloved Southern cross. Vehicles -lent by express and hotel companies formed floral caravanseries moving -towards the cemetery. - -[Illustration: MRS. REBECCA CALHOUN PICKENS BACON - -Daughter of Francis W. Pickens, the "Secession Governor" of South -Carolina: organizer of the D. A. R. in her state.] - -Then, another procession wound its way to Hollywood, the military -companies and the populace, flower-laden, and a long, long line of -children, many orphans. There were few or no carriages. The people had -none. Old and young walked. The soldiers' section was soon like one great -garden of roses white and red; of gleaming lilies and magnolias; of all -things sweet-scented, gay and beautiful. Scattered here and there like -forget-me-nots over many a gallant sleeper was the blue badge in ribbon or -blossom of the Richmond Blues. Thousands visited the green hillside where -General Jeb Stuart lay, a simple wooden board marking the spot; his grave -was a mound of flowers. From an improvised niche of evergreens, -Valentine's life-like bust of the gay chevalier smiled upon old friends. -No hero, great or lowly, was forgotten. What a tale of broken hearts and -desolate homes far away the many graves told! Here had the Texas Ranger -ended his march; here had brave lads from the Land of Flowers and all the -States intervening bivouacked for a long, long night, from whose slumbers -no bugle might wake them. What women and children standing in lonely -doorways, hands shading their eyes, watched for the coming of these marked -"Unknown"! - -Little Joe Davis' lonely grave was a shrine on which children heaped -offerings as they marched past in procession, each dropping a flower, -until one must thrust flowers aside to read the inscriptions that make of -that tiny tomb a mile-stone in American history--"Joseph, Son of our -Beloved President, Jefferson Davis," "Erected by the little boys and girls -of the Southern Capital." As blossoms fell, the hearts of the -flower-strewers beat tenderly for little Joe's father, then the Prisoner -of Fortress Monroe, and for his troubled mother and her living children. - -In freedom to honour the Confederate dead by public parade, Virginia was -more fortunate than North Carolina. In Raleigh, the people were not -allowed to march in procession to the cemetery for five long years. Yet, -even so, the old North State faithfully observed the custom of decorating -her graves at fixed seasons, the people going out to the cemetery by twos -and threes. Indeed, the claim has been made that Dixie's first Memorial -Day was observed in Raleigh rather than in Richmond, and the story of it -is too sad for telling. March 12, 1866, Mrs. Mary Williams wrote the -"Columbus Times," of Georgia, a letter, from which I quote: "The ladies -are engaged in ornamenting and improving that portion of the city cemetery -sacred to the memory of our gallant Confederate dead.... We beg the -assistance of the press and the ladies throughout the South to aid us in -the effort to set apart a certain day to be observed, from the Potomac to -the Rio Grande, and to be handed down through time as a religious custom -of the South, in wreathing the graves of our martyred dead with flowers." -All our cities, towns and hamlets shared in the honour of originating -Memorial Day, for, throughout the fair land of Dixie, soon as flowers -began to bloom, her people began to cover graves with them; and the North -did likewise. - -In reading the recently published "History of the Confederated Memorial -Associations of the South," I am newly impressed with the devotion of -Southern women, their promptness, energy and resourcefulness in gathering -from hillside and valley their scattered dead and providing marked and -sheltered sepulture and monuments when there was so little money in their -land. I am impressed, too, with the utter lack of sectional bitterness in -this volume, which consists chiefly of unpretentious reports of work done. -Here and there is a word of grateful acknowledgment to former foes for aid -rendered. The simple records throb with a deep human interest to which the -heart of the world might make response. - -At a meeting of the Atlanta Memorial Association, May 7, 1897, Mrs. -Clement A. Evans offered a resolution providing for concert of action -among State Associations on questions relating to objects and purposes in -common. Before long, this movement was absorbed in a larger. One of the -latest formed local associations was at Fayetteville, Arkansas, where -war's end found "homes in ashes, farms waste places" and "every foot of -soil, marked by contest, red with blood"; six long years of care and toil -passed before the women found time for organised work. Yet from this body, -not large in numbers nor rich in treasury, sprang the measures--Miss -Garside (afterwards Mrs. Welch) suggesting--which resulted in the -organisation, May 30, 1900, in the Galt House, Louisville, Kentucky, of -the Confederated Southern Memorial Associations with Mrs. W. J. Behan, of -New Orleans, President. In 1903, Mrs. Behan, in the name of the order, -thanked Senator Foraker of Ohio for bringing before Congress a bill for an -appropriation for marking Confederate graves in the North, a bill Congress -passed without delay. - -As Ladies' Memorial Associations developed out of the war relief -societies, so the United Daughters of the Confederacy grew out of -Memorial Associations and Ladies' Auxiliaries to the United Confederate -Veterans. Immediate initiative came from "Mother Goodlett," of Nashville, -Tennessee, seconded by Mrs. L. H. Raines, of Savannah, the "Nashville -American" aiding the movement by giving it great publicity; the U. D. C. -was organized at Nashville in the fall of 1894. Of the United Confederate -Veterans, a member of the Association tells me: "The Ku Klux--not the -counterfeit, but the real Ku Klux working under the code of Forrest--was -the Confederate soldier protecting his home and fireside in the only way -possible to him. General Forrest disbanded the order; then, for purely -memorial, historical, benevolent and social purposes, Confederate Veteran -Camps came into existence, springing up here and there without concert of -action; presently they united," the federation being effected in New -Orleans, June 16, 1889, by representatives of about fifty camps, General -John B. Gordon in command. There are now some 1,600 camps with 30,000 -members. Of about 300,000 Confederates at the end of the war, this 30,000 -is left--"the thin, gray line." - -When our veterans have gone North a-visiting, the North has been unsparing -in honour and hospitality. Our old gray-jackets give some illustrations -like this. Two, walking into a Boston fruit store, handed the dealer a -five-dollar bill to be changed in payment of purchases, and received it -back with the words: "It cannot pass here." A veteran laid down silver. -"That is no good." Concerned lest all his money be counterfeit, the -gray-jacket said to his comrade: "May be you have some good money." The -comrade's wealth was refused; but in opening his purse, he revealed a -Confederate note. "Now," said the smiling storekeeper, "if I could only -change that into the same kind of money, it would pass. That's the only -good money in Boston today." - -The object and influence of these Confederate orders are primarily -"memorial and historical"; they occasionally transcend these--as when, for -instance, a few years ago, U. C. V. camps passed resolutions condemning -lynching. Their tendency is the reverse of keeping bitter sectional -feeling alive. It is their duty and office to see to it that new -generations shall not look upon Southern forefathers as "traitors," but as -good men and true who fought valiantly for conscience's sake, even as did -the good men and true of the North. While the Daughters of the American -Revolution, a larger and richer body, are worthily engaged in rescuing -Revolutionary history from oblivion, it is the no less patriotic care of -the Confederate orders, whose members are active in Revolutionary work -also, to preserve to the future landmarks and truths about the War of -Secession. Upon Memorial Hall, New Orleans, the Confederate relic rooms at -Columbia and Charleston; the "White House," Montgomery; the Mortuary -Chapel, "Old Blandford," Petersburg; the Confederate Museum, Richmond; -other relic rooms; and monuments and tablets scattered throughout the -South; the work of the Confederate Memorial Literary Society; the Battle -Abbey to be erected in Richmond for reception of historic treasures;--upon -these must American historians rely for records of facts and for object -lessons in relics that would have been lost but for the patient and -faithful endeavours of these orders. - -Mrs. Joseph Thompson, in welcoming the Daughters of the American -Revolution to Atlanta during the Exposition of 1895, commended in the name -of the South, the "broadening and nationalising influence" of the order. -To no other one agency harmonising the sections does our country owe more -than to patriotic societies. In 1866, Northern and Southern women found -their first bond of reunion in the Mount Vernon Association, which began -in 1853, as a Southern movement, when the home and tomb of Washington were -for sale and Ann Pamela Cunningham, of South Carolina, called upon -America's women to save Mount Vernon, won Edward Everett to lecture for -the cause, coaxed legislators, congressmen and John Washington to terms, -and rested not until Mount Vernon belonged to the Nation; during the war -it was the one spot where men of both armies met as brothers, stacking -arms without the gates; Miss Cunningham held her regency, and Mrs. Eve, of -Georgia, Mme. Le Vert and the other Southern Vice Regents continued on the -Board with women of the North. In 1889, when the tomb of Washington's -mother was advertised for sale, Margaret Hetzel, of Virginia, appealed -successfully through the "Washington Post" to her countrywomen to save it -to the Nation. The founders, in 1890, of the Daughters of the American -Revolution were Eugenia Washington of Virginia, Mary Desha of Kentucky, -Ellen Hardin Walworth of Virginia and Kentucky ancestry; a most active -officer was Mary Virginia Ellett Cabell, of Virginia. The First Regent of -the New York City Chapter was a Virginian, Mrs. Roger A. Pryor. Flora -Adams Darling, widow of a Confederate officer, had a large hand in -originating the order and founded that of the Daughters of the Revolution -and the Daughters of the United States, 1812. The daughter of the -Secession Governor of South Carolina, Mrs. Rebecca Calhoun Pickens Bacon, -started the D. A. R. in her State, delivering seven flourishing chapters -to the National society. The daughter of General Cook, C. S. A., Mrs. -Lawson Peel, of Atlanta, is a power in D. A. R. work. The present -National Regent, Mrs. Donald McLean, is a Marylander and, therefore, a -Southerner, as Mrs. Adlai E. Stevenson, one of her predecessors, avowed -herself to be in part if her Kentucky and Virginia ancestry counted. In no -movement of patriotism, in no measures promoting good feeling, has the -South been unrepresented. - -[Illustration: MRS. ROGER A PRYOR] - -"Mary, when I die, bury me in my Confederate uniform. I want to rise a -Confederate." So said to his wife Dr. Hunter Maguire, the great -Stonewall's Surgeon-in-Chief, a short time before his death. He was no -less true to the living Union because he was faithful to the dead -Confederacy. Visitors used to love to see General Lee at the Finals of -Washington College in his full suit of Confederate gray; it became him to -wear it in the midst of the draped flags and stacked arms, for while he -was teaching our young men to love our united country and to reverence the -Stars and Stripes, he did not want them to fail in reverence to the past. -None can want us so to fail. Mrs. Lizzie George Henderson, President of -the U. D. C., says in the "Confederate Veteran": "Wherever there is a -chapter North or West, our Northern friends are so kind and help so much -that it brings us closer together as one people." - -The thought of her who was "Daughter of the Confederacy" is inseparable -from my text. One afternoon Matoaca and I called on Miss Mason at her -quaint old house in Georgetown, D. C., a place of pilgrimage for patriotic -Southerners. We sat on the little back porch which is on a level with Miss -Emily's flower-garden, and she gave us tea in little old-fashioned cups, -pouring it out of a little old-fashioned silver tea-pot that sat on a -little old-fashioned table. She and Matoaca fell to talking about Mr. -Davis. - -"I shall never forget him as I saw him first," said Miss Emily, "a young -lieutenant in the United States Army, straight as an arrow, handsome and -elegant. It was at the Governor's Mansion in Detroit; my young brother was -Governor of Michigan, the State's first Executive; Lieutenant Davis was -our guest; the Black Hawk War, in which he had greatly distinguished -himself, was just ended, and he was bringing Black Hawk through the -country. I was much impressed with the young Lieutenant. I watched his -career with interest. I met him again when he was a member of President -Pierce's Cabinet. He made a very able Secretary of War. - -"Strange how events turn, that it should have been Mr. Davis who sent -General McClellan (then Colonel) and General Lee (then Colonel) to the -Crimea to study the art of war as practised by the Russians. General -McClellan's son, now Mayor of New York, has said that his father had ample -opportunity to form unbiassed opinion of the Secretary, as he spent much -time in Washington before and after his mission to Russia and was in close -touch with Mr. Davis. He quoted his father as saying: 'Colonel Davis was a -man of extraordinary ability. As an executive officer, he was remarkable. -He was the best Secretary of War--and I use _best_ in its widest sense--I -ever had anything to do with.'" - -"I like 'Little Mac' for saying that and his son for repeating it. 'Little -Mac' fought us like a gentleman. When his son runs for the Presidency -perhaps I shall urge everybody to vote for him," said Matoaca. - -"Unless a Southerner runs," I suggested. - -"Alas! When will a Southerner be President of the United States? I heard -Mr. Davis make his famous speech bidding farewell to the Senate when -Mississippi seceded. It was the most eloquent thing I ever listened to! -All the women--and even men--were in tears. Senators went up to him and -embraced him. I saw Mr. Davis in Richmond as President of the Confederacy. -I saw him in prison; His Eminence, the Cardinal, secured me permission. He -was very thin and feeble, but he rose in his old graceful manner and -offered me his seat, a little wooden box beside his bed, a small iron one. -The eyes of the guard were on us all the time. General Miles came and -looked in. I asked Mr. Davis if I could do anything for him. He said he -would like some reading matter. I had had some newspapers, but had not -been permitted to bring them in. I was allowed to remain only a few -moments. - -"I next saw him in Paris. I am so glad to have that memory of him. So many -Southerners came abroad in those days. During reconstruction the -procession seemed endless! While in Rome I introduced so many Southerners -to Pope Pius IX. that His Holiness used to call me '_L'Ambassadrice du -Sud_.' Mr. Davis was much fêted in France, as he had been in England. -While he was at Mr. Mann's in Chantilly, Judah P. Benjamin came from -London to see him. Mr. Benjamin was delightful company. I was at Mr. -Charles Carroll's when Mr. Davis was entertained there. I recall one -dinner when the Southern colony flocked around him in full force and -played a game on him. You know of his wonderful memory and wide reading. -We laid our heads together before he came in and studied up puzzling -quotations to trip him. But the instant one of us would spring couplet, -quatrain or epigram on him, he would answer with the author. He perceived -our friendly conspiracy and entered merrily into the spirit of it. I alone -tripped him--with something I had read in early childhood. I am glad to -have this happy memory of Mr. Davis. Otherwise I should always be seeing -him as he looked in prison." - -Mr. and Mrs. Davis came to Paris for their young daughter, Winnie, who was -under Miss Emily's care. They had left her some years before at school in -Carlsruhe. Knowing in the early part of 1881 that Miss Mason was -travelling in Germany, they wrote her to bring Winnie to Paris, where the -girl was to abide until their arrival, studying music and acquiring -Parisian graces. When Miss Mason called at Carlsruhe, Winnie rushed into -her arms joyously: "I am so glad," she cried, "to see someone from home!" - -She had many questions to ask; no sooner were they alone in their railway -compartment than Winnie turned to Miss Mason: "At last I see a Southern -woman! Now I can learn all that happened to my parents just after the war, -when I was a baby. Miss Em, what did Papa do just after the war--just -after Richmond fell? What happened to my papa then?" Miss Emily caught her -breath! "Winnie, what your papa did not think best you should know, I must -decline to tell you. You will soon see him in France." Winnie took small -interest in acquiring Parisian graces. "Miss Em, what are papa's favourite -songs?" Miss Mason sought faithfully to turn her attention to _chansons_ -of the day and to operatic airs in vogue. "But I am only going to sing to -papa. I am going to the plantation--to Beauvoir. How shall I need to sing -opera airs there? Tell me, dear Miss Em, the songs my father loves!" - -"When I met her father," Miss Mason says, "I ventured to question him -concerning Winnie's ignorance of his prison life, expressing surprise that -he had not claimed the sympathy of his child. 'I was unwilling to -prejudice her,' he said, 'against the country to which she is now -returning and which must be hers. I thought that but justice to the child. -I want her to love her country.'" - -[Illustration: THE DAUGHTER OF THE CONFEDERACY - -Winnie (Varina Anne), youngest child of Jefferson Davis; born in Richmond, -Va., June 27, 1864, and died at Narragansett Pier, R. I., September 18, -1895. General John B. Gordon gave her the above title by which she was -known.] - -Years later, in Georgia, Veterans gathered to hear her father speak, -greeted Winnie's appearance with ringing cheers. General John B. Gordon, -placing his hands on her shoulders as he drew her forward, said: -"Comrades! here is our daughter, the Daughter of the Confederacy!" She -lived much in the North and died there. An escort from the Grand Army of -the Republic bore her remains from the hotel at Narragansett Pier to the -railway station; in New York, a Guard of Honour from the Confederate -Veterans and the Southern Society received her and brought her to -Richmond, and Richmond took her own. North, South, East and West sent -flowers to deck the bier of the Daughter of the Confederacy, and the North -said: "Let us be brothers today in grief as we were only yesterday -brothers-in-arms at Santiago." - -Men in blue followed Gordon, Fitzhugh Lee and Joe Wheeler to their graves; -Joe Johnston and Buckner were Grant's pall-bearers. Our dead bind us -together. The voices of Lee, our Beloved, Davis, our Martyr, Stephens, our -Peacemaker, Grady, our Orator, of Hampton, Gordon and all their noble -fellowship, have spoken for true Unionism; blending with theirs is the -voice of Grant, in his last hours at McGregor, the voice of McKinley in -Atlanta, the voice of Abraham Lincoln, as, just before his martyrdom, he -stood pityingly amid the ruins of Richmond. - -When President McKinley declared that the Confederate as well as the -Federal dead should be the Nation's care, he said the right word to "fire -the Southern heart," albeit our women were not ready to yield to the -government their holy office. The name of Charles Francis Adams, of -Massachusetts, is a household word in the South because of his tributes to -Lee when Virginia thought to place Lee's statue in Washington. The names -of Col. W. H. Knauss, of Columbus, and W. H. Harrison, of Cincinnati, and -of others of the North should be, for the pious pains they have taken to -honour our dead who rest in Northern soil. In Oakwoods Cemetery, Chicago, -stands the first Confederate Monument erected in the North; the Grand Army -of the Republic, the Illinois National Guards, the City Troop, the Black -Hussars, took part with the Confederate Veterans in its dedication. After -Katie Cabell Currie, of Texas, and her aides had consecrated the historic -battery given by the Government, the Guards paid tribute by musket and -bugle to Americans who died prisoners at Camp Douglas. A sectional bond -exists in the National Park Military Commission, on which Confederate -Veterans serve with Grand Army men; General S. D. Lee, Commander-in-Chief -of the U. C. V., is Chairman of the Vicksburg board of which General Fred -Grant is a member. When Judge Wilson on behalf of Bates' Tennesseeans -presented the Confederate Monument at Shiloh to the Commission, General -Basil Duke accepted it in the name of the Nation. - -When President Roosevelt and Congress sent Dixie's captured battle-flags -home, the Southern heart was fired anew. In all our history no more -impressive reception was given to a President than when on his recent -visit to Richmond, Mr. Roosevelt was conducted by a guard of Confederate -Veterans in gray uniforms to our historic Capitol Square. In other -Southern cities he found similar escort. Earlier, when he visited -Louisville, a Confederate guard attended him, General Basil W. Duke, who -followed Mr. Davis's fortunes so faithfully, being on conspicuous duty. - -True to her past, the South is not living in it. A wonderful future is -before her. She is richer than was the whole United States at the -beginning of the War of Secession; in a quarter of a century her cotton -production has doubled, her manufactures quadrupled. In one decade, her -farm property increased in value twenty-six per cent, her manufacturing -output forty-seven; her farm products nearly one hundred. Her railroad and -banking interests give as strong indications of her vigorous new life. -Immigrants from East and West and North and over seas are seeking homes -within her borders. The South is no decadent land, but a land where "the -trees are hung with gold," a land of new orchards and vineyards and -market-gardens; of luscious berries and melons; of wheat and corn and -tobacco and much cattle and poultry; of tea-gardens; and rice and sugar -plantations and of fields white with cotton for the clothing of the -nations. She is the land of balm and bloom, of bird-songs, of the warm -hand and the open door. - -I prefaced this book with words uttered by Jefferson Davis; I close with -words uttered by Theodore Roosevelt, in Richmond, which read like their -fulfilment: - -"Great though the meed of praise which is due the South for the soldierly -valor her sons displayed during the four years of war, I think that even -greater praise is due for what her people have accomplished in the forty -years of peace which have followed.... For forty years the South has made -not merely a courageous but at times a desperate struggle. Now, the -teeming riches of mines and fields and factory attest the prosperity of -those who are all the stronger because of the trials and struggles through -which this prosperity has come. You stand loyally to your traditions and -memories; you stand also loyally for our great common country of today and -for our common flag." - - -THE END. - - - - -INDEX - - - - -INDEX. - - - Abbeville, S. C., 56, 58, 61, 84. - - Abbott, Ernest H., 396. - - Abrahams, Captain, 61. - - Adam's Run, 346. - - Adams, Charles Francis, 417. - - Adams, Lucy, 306. - - Adams, Rev. Mr., 362. - - Adger, Mr. Robert, 201. - - Africa, 197, 311, 394, 395. - - African Church, Old, Richmond, 202, 232, 241. - - Agricultural College of Florida, 308. - - Agricultural College, South Carolina, 180. - - Agricultural Land Scrip, 307-308. - - Aiken, ex-Governor William, 85. - - Alabama, 62, 63, 180, 301, 333, 387. - - Alabama Room, Confederate Museum, 220. - - Albany, N. Y., 101. - - "Albany Evening Journal," 160. - - Alcorn, Gov. James Lusk, 317. - - Alexandria, Va., 34. - - Allen, Gov. Henry Watkins, of La., 260. - - Ames, Senator Adelbert, 244. - - Anderson, S. C., 365, 377. - - Anderson, General Joseph, 32. - - Anderson, Mary (Mrs. Navarro), 111. - - Anderson, General Robert, 79. - - Andrews, E. B., 250. - - Appleton, Maj. William, 85. - - Appleton, William H., 304. - - Appomattox, 113. - - Arkansas, 276, 372, 409. - - "Armies of the Potomac and the Cumberland," 115. - - Armistead Burt House, Abbeville, S. C., 56, 84. - - Arthur, Prince, 111, 244. - - Astor House, 135. - - Athens (Ga.), "Maid of," 109. - - Atlanta, Ga., 3, 12, 93, 96, 190, 192, 411, 417. - - "Atlanta Constitution," The, 387. - - "Atlanta Journal," The, 387. - - Atlanta Memorial Association, 409. - - Atlantic Monthly, 250, 278. - - Augusta, Ga., 58, 60, 85, 114, 219. - - Aycock, Governor Charles B., N. C., 387. - - - Bacon, Mrs. Rebecca Calhoun Pickens, 412. - - Ball, Washington, 170. - - Baltimore, Md., 101. - - Baltimore Soc. for Liberal Education, etc., 303. - - Bankrupt Law, 174-5. - - Bannister, Anne, 109. - - Bannister, Molly, 109. - - Bartlett, General William Francis, 112. - - Bates' Tennesseeans, 418. - - Battle Abbey, The, 411. - - Battle for State-House, 353. - - Bayard, Captain, 139-140, 144. - - Bayne, Dr., of Norfolk, 255, 258. - - "Bayonet House," The, 370. - - Bayou la Fourche, 179. - - Beauregarde, General Pierre G. T., 160. - - Beckwith, Bishop John Watrus, Ga., 304. - - Beecher, Henry Ward, 79, 89. - - Behan, Mrs. W. J., 409. - - Bellows, Henry W., 89. - - Benevolent Land Commission, 354. - - Benjamin, Judah P., 60, 415. - - Bernard, Meade, 327. - - Betts, Mrs., of Halifax, 192. - - Black, Colonel, 370. - - Black Hawk, 414. - - Black and Tan Assemblies, 249, 253, 320, 335, 360, 387, 398. - - Black's and White's (Blackstone), 191. - - Blaine, Jas. G., 210. - - Blair, General Francis P., 127, 128. - - Bland, Aunt Sally, 327. - - Bolling, Tabb, 109. - - Bomford, Colonel, 370. - - Booth, J. Wilkes, 82, 89, 104. - - Boston, 22, 313, 314, 320, 359, 360, 384, 410. - - Boston Light Infantry, 359. - - Boswell, Thomas W., 226. - - Botts, John Minor, 226. - - Bowery, The, 312. - - Brazil, 157; - Emperor of, 158. - - Breckinridge, General John Cabell, 60, 83. - - Brown, General Orlando, 232. - - Brown, John, R. I., 197. - - Brown, Julius, 58. - - Brown, W. E., 307. - - Brown, William Garrott, 250. - - Brownlow's Machine, Tennessee Legislature, 124, 128. - - Brunswick, Va., 326, 331. - - Bryan, Mary E., 110. - - Buckner, Milton, 362. - - Buena Vista, 49. - - Bullock, Gov. Rufus B., Ga., 293. - - Bunker Hill Centennial, 359, 360. - - Burgess, J. W., 250. - - Burns, W. A., Dallas, Sarah, 142. - - Burton, General, 237, 239. - - Butler, General B. F., 110, 134, 377. - - Butler, General M. C., 161, 360, 369. - - Butts and tissue ballots, 289, 290. - - - Cabaniss, Betty, 109. - - Cabaniss, Henry, 58. - - Cabell, Mary Virginia Ellett, 412. - - Calhoun, Andrew P., 180. - - Calhoun, Mrs. Andrew P., 180. - - Calhoun, John C., 49, 180. - - Calhoun, Patrick, 180. - - Calhoun, Mayor, of Atlanta, 3, 96. - - Campbell, Captain Given, 60. - - Campbell, Col. John Allen, 259. - - Campbell, Judge John A., 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40, 41, 63, 78, 91, 92, - 132. - - Campbell, Sir George, 170. - - Camp Douglas, Chicago, 418. - - Camp Grant, 123, 155. - - Canada, 39, 135, 219, 253. - - Canby, General Edward R., 63; - and Mrs. Canby, 108. - - Candler, Gov. Allen D., Ga., 387. - - Capers, Bishop William, 201. - - Capital, Last of Confederacy, 47. - - Cardoza, F. L., 360. - - Carolina Hall, 365, 369, 370. - - Carolinas, The, 214. - - Carrington, Mr., 125. - - Carroll, Mr. Charles, 415. - - Carroll, Mr., 329, 330. - - Cary, Colonel, 155. - - Casserly, Senator Eugene, 243, 244. - - Castle Thunder, 29. - - Catawba Indians, 401. - - Centennial, The, Philadelphia, 359. - - Chamberlain, Daniel H., 358, 360, 364, 365, 368, 370, 371. - - Chamberlain, Mrs. Daniel H., 357. - - Chamblee, Canada, 135. - - Charleston, S. C., 78, 85, 155, 182, 241, 330, 341, 344, 359, 361, 368. - - Charleston "News-Courier," 387. - - Charlotte, N. C., 56, 57, 83, 84. - - Charlotte "Observer," 387. - - Chase, C. T., 308. - - Chase, Salmon P., and his daughter, Kate, 108. - - Chattanooga, Tenn., 58. - - Chesnut, Mrs. James, 110. - - Chew, Miss, 303. - - Chicago, Ills., 22, 101, 313, 399; - Dedication Confederate Monument, 418; - Black Hussars, City Troop, Confederate Veterans, Illinois National - Guards, Grand Army of the Republic, 418. - - "Chicago Times," 211. - - Chilton, General, 20. - - Chimborazo Hospital, 16, 17, 229. - - Chittenden, Mr. L. E., 89. - - Christian Commission, The, 78. - - Christmas, Washington, 33. - - Chubbuck, Rev. F. E., 135. - - Churches: - in _Alabama_, 133-135; - _Canada_, Chamblee, 135; - Niagara, St. Mark's, 135; - _Louisiana_, New Orleans, Christ Church and other churches, 134-135; - _Mississippi_, Vicksburg, 134; - _Missouri_, Lexington, 135; - _S. Carolina_, Charleston, St. Michael's, 363; - Zion Presbyterian, 201; - Columbia Trinity, 202; - Washington St. M. E., 4, 201; - Hampton plantation Chapel, 202; - Plowden Weston Chapel, 202; - _Virginia_, Richmond, Churches of, 9, 132; - Grace, 407; - Dr. Hoge's, 9; - Northern Methodist Society, 108; - Old African Church, 202; - St. John's, 405; - St. Paul's, 9, 130, 222. - - Cincinnati, 306, 418. - - "Cincinnati Commercial," The, 357. - - Citadel Cadets, Charleston, 58. - - City Point, Va., 32, 41. - - Clarke, Gov. Charles, of Mississippi, 92, 93. - - Clarke, Ellen Meade, 120. - - Clarke, Captain H. M., 61, 62. - - Clay, Clement C., 84, 85. - - Clay, Mrs. Clement C., 85, 94, 110. - - Clay, Henry, 49. - - Clayton sisters, the, 110. - - Cleaves, R. H., 360. - - Clemson College, 181, 366. - - Cleveland's inauguration, President, 286. - - Cleveland, O., 101. - - "Clyde," The, 102. - - Cobb, Howell, 129. - - Cocke, Nannie, 109. - - Colfax (Schuyler), Vice-President, 244. - - Colfax Riot, La., 333. - - Colquhoun, A. R., 395. - - Columbia, "The State," 387. - - Columbia, S. C., 3-6, 12, 16, 19, 84, 141, 155, 160, 201, 266, 273, 278, - 354, 365, 369, 396, 411. - - Columbia University (N. Y.) Studies, 250. - - Columbus, Ohio, 101, 400, 418. - - "Columbus Times," Ga., 408. - - Confederacy, United Daughters of the, 409-410. - - Confederate Army, 1. - - Confederate Memorial Literary Society, 411. - - Confederate Museum, Richmond, Va., 60, 126, 225, 411. - - Confederate relic rooms, 411. - - Confederate Scrap-book, Mrs. Lizzie Cary Daniel's, 126. - - "Confederate Veteran," The, 413. - - Confederate Veterans, The United, 410, 418. - - Confederated Memorial Associations of the South, 409. - - Cooper, Dr. George E., 237. - - Council, W. H., 402. - - Courtney, Major John, 83. - - Cowardin, of "The Dispatch," 234. - - Cowles, Patty, 109. - - Craven, Dr. John J., 221, 224. - - Crittendon, Mrs., 182. - - Crockett, Carpet-Bagger, 316. - - Crozier, Calvin S., 140-141, 377, 378. - - Crump, W., 226. - - Cuba, 20. - - Culpeper, Va., 186. - - Cummings, Father John A., 128. - - Cunningham, Ann Pamela, 412. - - Currie, Katie Cabell, 418. - - Curry, Dr. J. L. M., 286. - - - "Daddy Cain," 362. - - Dahlgren's fleet, 78, 79. - - Dana, Charles A., 41, 103, 131. - - Daniel's Confederate Scrap-Book, Miss Lizzie Cary, 126. - - Danville, Va., 47, 50, 52, 54, 55, 150, 378. - - Darling, Flora Adams, 412. - - Daughters of the American Revolution, 411, 412. - - Daughters of the Confederacy, 411. - - Daughters of the Revolution, 412. - - "Daughter of the Confederacy, The," Winnie Davis, 413, 416-417. - - Daughters of the United States, 1812, 412. - - Davenport, Isaac, 226. - - Davis, Maj. B. K., 135. - - Davis, Jefferson, 9, 32-34, 38, 47-57, 59-63, 72, 83-85, 90-91, 94-95, - 101-104, 130, 132, 202, 219, 223-225, 233, 237, 239, 240, 241, - 243, 413-418, 419. - - Davis, Mrs. Jefferson, 57, 84, 102, 148, 159, 219, 220-222, 224-225, - 229, 237, 408. - - Davis, little Joe, 220, 407-8. - - Davis, Winnie, 57, 95. - - Davis, Williams T., 378. - - Dawson, Judge M. L., 383. - - Deaf and Dumb Asylum, S. C., 355. - - Decoration Day, 405. - - Delaware Firemen, 231. - - Dennis, General, 366, 369. - - Dents, The, 113, 282. - - Derwent, Va., 159, 219. - - Desha, Mary, 412. - - Devens, General Charles, 344. - - Devens' Division, First Brigade, 24, 25. - - Devereaux, 111. - - De Witt, Surgeon, 363. - - Dismal Swamp, 330. - - "Dixie" (the song), 43, 63. - - Dodge, Maj.-Gen., 135. - - Douglas, Frederick, 396. - - Drane, Mrs., 169, 170. - - Drummond, John, 326, 330. - - Du Bose, Dudley, 275. - - Du Bose, Mrs., 94. - - Duke, General Basil W., 418. - - Duke's Camp, General Basil, 61. - - Dunning, W. A., 250. - - - Educational Fund, N. C., 307. - - Education, Mississippi's Department of, 308. - - Egypt, 157. - - Elder, W. H., Bishop, of Natchez, Miss., 134. - - El Dorado, S. C., 341, 346. - - Eliot, Professor C. W., of Harvard, 396. - - Elliott, Speaker, 357, 358, 360. - - Elliott, General Stephen, 156. - - Ellis, Rev. Rufus, 89. - - Ellyson, ex-Mayor J. Taylor, 205, 286. - - Elzey, General, 57, 58. - - Emory and Wesleyan Colleges, Ga., 304. - - Ensor, Dr. J. F., 355. - - Europe, 157. - - Evans, Mrs. Clement A., 409. - - Evans Wilson, Augusta, 110. - - Evaugh, Mr., 361. - - Eve, Mrs. Philoclea, 412. - - Everett, Edward, 412. - - Ewell, General, 85. - - Expatriation, 157, 159. - - Ezzard, Ella, 110. - - - Farmville, Va., 205. - - Fauquier, Va., 212. - - Faver, David, 57, 58. - - Fayetteville, Ark., 409. - - Federal Prisons, Confederates released from, 140. - - Fifteenth Amendment, Grant signing, 282. - - Fitz, Rev. Mr., 214. - - Fleming, Walter A., 135, 250, 278. - - Florida, Agricultural Land Scrip, 307-308. - - Florida, 214, 301, 307, 391. - - Florida, State House of, 316. - - Florida, "Times-Union," Jacksonville, 387. - - Foraker, Senator, 409. - - Ford's Theatre, 82. - - "Forefathers' Day," 359. - - Forrest, Nathan Bedford, 62, 275, 410. - - Fort Lafayette, 134. - - Fort Pulaski, 92. - - Fortress Monroe, 92, 102, 103, 219, 222. - - Fort Warren, 85. - - Foss, Rev. A., 135. - - Freedmen's Bureau, 143, 211, 353. - - Freedmen's Saving Bank, 216. - - Fullerton, General J. S., 213, 214, 215. - - Fulton, Rev. Mr., 134. - - - Galt House, Louisville, Ky., 409. - - Gamble's Hill, Richmond, 149. - - Gambling parlours, 372. - - Garner, James Wilford, 317. - - Garrison, William Lloyd, 79, 304. - - Garside, Miss (Mrs. Welch), 409. - - Gary, General, 360. - - Geddings, Dr., 182. - - Geddings, Mrs. Postell, 182. - - Georgia, 109, 120, 206, 269, 275, 292, 301, 307, 408, 412. - - Georgia Military Institute Battalion, 58. - - Georgetown, D. C., 413. - - Gettysburg, 38. - - Gibson, Eustace, 257, 258-9. - - Gildersleeve, Dr. J. R., 16. - - Gillem, General Alvan Cullem, 249, 260. - - Gilmer, General Jerry (Jeremy Francis), 125. - - Gillmore, General Quincy Adams, 79, 85, 378. - - Girardeau, Rev. Dr., 201. - - Glenrie, Rev. Mr., 202. - - Godfrey, Rev. Dr., 336. - - Goode, E. C., 387. - - Goode, Eugenia, 110. - - "Goodlett, Mother" (Mrs. M. C.), 410. - - Goodrich, Rev. Dr., 134. - - Goodwin, Mayor of Columbia, S. C., 4. - - Gordon, General John B., 410, 417. - - Grace Church, Richmond, 407. - - Gracebridge, Mrs., 151. - - Grady, Henry Woodfin, 417. - - Graham, John M., 85. - - Grand Army of the Republic, 405, 417, 418. - - Grant, General Frederick Dent, 418. - - Grant, General Ulysses S., 23, 40, 41, 50, 79-80, 82, 85, 90-92, 97, - 113-114, 132, 160, 213, 215, 224, 260, 274, 282, 301, 308, - 357-358, 365, 368, 371, 377, 417. - - Grant, Mrs. Ulysses S., 82, 107, 113, 114, 357. - - Gray, Helen, 134. - - Greeley, Horace, 36, 225, 226, 240, 241, 242. - - Greenbrier White Sulphur (Springs), The, 149, 174. - - Greenleaf, Mrs., 135. - - Greensboro, N. C., 55, 56, 61, 83. - - Greenville, S. C., 378. - - Gregory, Alice, 109. - - - Hahn, Governor Michael, 34. - - Hale, Edward Everett, 89. - - Hall, Rev. Dr. Charles H., 222-223. - - Halleck, General Henry W., 91, 92, 114, 125, 127, 377. - - Hamilton, Gov. A. J., Texas, 247. - - Hamilton, "Handsome Tom," 58. - - "Hampton Day," 360. - - Hampton family freeing slaves, 182. - - Hampton, Wade, 6, 129, 160-161, 346, 359, 360-361, 364-365, 368-369, - 370-371, 417. - - Hampton, Mrs. Wade, 160-161. - - Hampton, Va., 181. - - Hampton Roads Peace Commission, 33. - - Hancock, General Winfield Scott, 260. - - Harby, Mrs. Lee, 182. - - Hardy, Sally, 109. - - "Harper's Weekly," 12, 49. - - Harrison, Burton, 57, 237. - - Harrison, W. H., 418. - - Haskell, Col. Alex. C., 366. - - Haxall house, 112. - - Haxall, Richard Barton, 226. - - Hayes, President Rutherford B., 371. - - Hayward, 232, 234. - - "Hell Hole Swamp," 354. - - Henderson, Mrs. Lizzie George, 413. - - Henry, Patrick, 405. - - Herbert, Hilary, 127, 142. - - Hetzel, Margaret, 412. - - Heyward, Gov. Duncan C., of S. C., 387. - - Hill, Augusta, 110. - - Hill, Mr., 185-187. - - Hodges, of Princess Anne, 216, 257. - - Hoge, Rev. Dr. Moses D., 9. - - Holden, Gov. William Woods, N. C., 275, 307. - - Hollywood, Richmond, 405, 406, 407. - - Hollywood Memorial Association, 405. - - Holmes, Professor, 361. - - Honoré, Bertha (Mrs. Potter Palmer), 111. - - Hood, General John B., 3, 60, 303. - - Howard, General O. O., 216. - - Howell, Miss Maggie, 57. - - Hughes, Mrs. Sarah, 300. - - Hull, Robert W., 93. - - Hunkidory Club, The, 368. - - Hunt, General, 363, 364. - - Hunt, Mrs. Sallie Ward, 111. - - Hunter, General, 377. - - Hunter, R. M. T., 33, 91, 92. - - Huntington, Dr. (Bishop) F. E., 89. - - Hunton, General Eppa, 116, 283-284. - - Huntsville, Ala., 135. - - - Illinois, 81, 393. - - Illinois National Guards, 418. - - Indian, The, 393-4, 400, 401. - - Indianapolis, Ind., 101. - - Ingalls, Senator John G., 391. - - Iowa University Studies, 216. - - Irvin, Charles E., 94. - - Irwinsville, Ga., 95. - - - Jackson, D. K., 226. - - James River, Va., 341. - - Jefferson Hotel, Richmond, 399. - - Jelks, Gov. W. D., 387. - - Jewett, Mrs., Stony Creek, 183. - - "John Sylvester," The, 237. - - Johns, Annie E., 18. - - Johns Hopkins U. Studies, 250. - - Johnson, Andrew, 83, 84-85, 90, 101, 130, 132, 133, 213, 222, 224, 247, - 248, 325. - - Johnson, Captain, 265, 266. - - Johnson, Reverdy, 135. - - Johnston, Joseph E., 47, 53, 56, 57, 60-62, 80-81, 84, 96, 417. - - Johnston, Mrs. Marmaduke, 169. - - Jones, Freeman, 327, 329, 332. - - - Kaye, Colonel, 37. - - Keatley, Colonel J. H., 3. - - Keene, Laura, 82. - - Keiley, Anthony M., 37. - - Kellogg, Gov. W. P., La., 333. - - Kentucky, 220, 300, 412. - - Kilpatrick's troops, General H. J., 169. - - King, Grace, 110. - - King, Jule (Mrs. Henry Grady), 109. - - King St., Charleston, 361. - - Kirke's cut-throats, 275. - - Knauss, Colonel W. H., 418. - - Knights of the White Camelia, 268. - - Knox, Bill, 331. - - Kohn, Mr. August, 182. - - Kohn, Mrs. August, 182. - - Ku Klux, 259, 268, 269-272, 275-278, 318, 360, 379, 410. - - - La Fourche, 377. - - Lancaster, Ohio, 306. - - La Têche, 377. - - Laurens and Edgefield, 365. - - Lea, Captain, 277. - - Leacock, Rev. Dr., 134-135. - - Leacock sisters, The, 110. - - Lee, General Fitzhugh, 171, 417. - - Lee's mother (Anna Maria Mason), General Fitzhugh, 20. - - Lee, General Robert E., 9, 43, 50, 67-68, 70-72, 89, 90-92, 97, 129, - 130, 136, 159, 161, 174, 181, 303, 305, 413-414, 417. - - Lee, Mrs. Robert E., 20, 47, 50, 70, 159, 181, 219, 303. - - Lee's surrender, 50, 53, 62. - - Lee, General Sidney Dill, 418. - - Lee, General Rooney (W. H. F.), his sweetheart, 109. - - Lee, Susan Pendleton, 197. - - Leland, J. P., Mr., 348. - - "Leslie's Weekly," 385. - - Letcher, Gov. John, 35. - - Lett, J. P., William, 326, 329, 331. - - Le Vert, Mme. (Octavia Walton), 110, 412. - - Lewis, Colonel, 241. - - Lewis, Dr., 326, 327, 328, 330, 331. - - Lexington, N. C., 169. - - Lexington, Va., 159, 162. - - Libby Prison, 20, 29, 91, 92. - - Liberty Hall, A. H. Stephens' mansion, 93. - - Lincoln, Abraham, 23, 29-43, 56, 57, 78, 79-89, 90, 91, 96-97, 101, 130, - 132, 133, 247, 264, 282, 305, 377, 417. - - Lincoln, Mrs. Abraham, 81, 107. - - Lincoln, Robert, 80. - - Lincoln, "Tad," 30, 31. - - Lindsay, Lewis, 255, 256. - - Little Rock, Ark., 372. - - Logan, General John A., 405. - - London, Bishop of, 134. - - Longfellow's sister, Mrs. Greenleaf, 135. - - Louisiana, 80, 204, 250, 260, 268, 276, 281, 307, 333, 371, 372. - - Louisiana State Lottery, 372. - - Louisville "Courier-Journal," 396. - - Louisville, Ky., 111, 409, 418. - - Lowndes Co., Miss., 318. - - Loyal or Union League, 263-265, 273, 277-278, 326, 334. - - Ls, The Four, 264. - - Lynchburg, Va., 35. - - Lyons, James, 226, 237. - - Lyons, Judge, 15. - - Lyons, W. H., 226. - - - McCaw, Dr. James B., 16, 17, 67, 113. - - McCaw, William, 67-68. - - McClellan, General George B., 303, 414. - - McClellan, George B., Mayor of New York, 414. - - McClellan, Mr., 347. - - McClellanville, S. C., 347. - - McCulloch, Hugh, 221. - - McDonald, Senator Joseph Ewing, 290. - - McFarland, W. H., 226. - - McGiffen, 326, 327, 330, 331. - - McGregor, Vance, 335, 337, 338. - - McKinley, President William, 89, 338, 417. - - McLaws, General Lafayette, 60. - - McLean, Mrs. Donald, 413. - - McPherson, General James B., 133, 134. - - McVeigh, Dr., 238, 239. - - McVeigh vs. Underwood, 238. - - Mackey, E. W., Speaker, 365, 367, 368, 370. - - Mackey, Rep. candidate, 289. - - Mackey House, 366. - - Macon, Ga., 85, 304. - - Magill, Bishop, 18. - - Magruder, General J. B., 62, 155, 160. - - Maguire, Dr. Hunter, 113, 114. - - Mahone, General William, 288. - - Mallory, Colonel, 259. - - Mallory, Stephen Russell, Sec. Navy, 60. - - Manchester, Va., 30. - - Mann's, Mr., in Chantilly, France, 415. - - "Marching Through Georgia," 305-307. - - "Marriage Order," The, 124-127, 128. - - Marston, Mrs. Dr., 135. - - Martin, Mr., of Tenn. Leg., 212. - - Martin, Mrs. Henry, 361. - - Martin, Rev. William, 4, 201, 356. - - Martin, Isabella D., 160, 356. - - Mason, Miss Emily V., 18, 159, 219, 303, 413-417. - - Mason, Gov. Stevens Thomson, of Michigan, 414. - - Massachusetts, 48, 150, 232, 233, 243, 244, 395-399, 417. - - Matoaca, 11, 21-23, 42, 67-69, 77, 82, 108, 113, 123, 129, 147, 173, 413. - - Maury, General Dabney Herndon, 62, 63. - - Maury, Mr., 203. - - Mayflower, The, 231. - - Mayo, Mayor Joseph, 15, 16, 24, 91, 232. - - Meade, General George G., 54, 114, 120, 378. - - Meade, Julia, Mary and Marion, 109. - - Meade, Mary, 111. - - Means, Celina E., 274. - - Mecklenburg, Va., 387. - - Memminger, Mr. and Mrs. Charles G., 51. - - "Memorial Associations of the South, History of the Confederated," 408. - - Memorial Day, 405. - - Memorial Hall, New Orleans, 411. - - Meredith, Captain, 191. - - Meredith, John A., 226. - - Meredith, Judge, 15. - - Meredith, Mrs., of Brunswick, 190. - - Meridian, Miss., 63. - - Mexico, 35, 49, 157, 221, 260. - - Michigan, 414. - - Miles, General Nelson A., 222, 223, 415. - - Milledgeville, Ga., 209. - - Minnegerode, Rev. Dr. Charles, 9, 18, 131, 222, 223. - - Minor, Judge, 219, 220. - - "Missionary Record," The, 362. - - Mississippi, 62, 244, 247, 249, 268, 276, 290, 301, 308, 317, 395. - - Mississippi, Bishop of, 319. - - Mississippi, 134. - - Missouri, 135. - - Missouri, 127, 128, 135, 285. - - Molineux, General Edward Leslie, 61. - - Money, facts and incidents about, 51-52, 61-62, 77, 140, 143, 148, 149, - 150, 155, 168, 175, 185, 186, 187, 188, 203, 212, 214, 229, 258, - 265-266, 291-292, 293, 302, 304, 307, 317, 320, 326, 336-337, - 344-345, 353, 355-356, 372, 409, 410, 411, 419. - - Monroe Co., Miss., 317. - - Montague, Gov. A. J., Va., 387. - - Monterey, Mexico, 49. - - Montgomery, Ala., The "White House," 411. - - Montreal, Canada, 224. - - Monumental, The, 108. - - Mordecai, 111. - - Morgan, John H. (his command), 61. - - Morrisey, John, 254. - - Morrison, Mrs. Edwin, 111. - - Morrison, Prof. W. S., 181. - - Morse, Samuel F. B., 135. - - Mortimer, Judge, 334, 336. - - Moses, Jr., Franklin J., 307, 351, 353, 355, 358. - - Moses, Raphael, J., 61. - - Mount Vernon, 412. - - Mount Vernon Association, 111, 412. - - Murray, Dr., 116. - - Myers, Gustavus A., 226. - - - Nash, Beverly, 354, 355, 356. - - "Nashville American," The, 410. - - Nashville, Tenn., 410. - - Nassau Island, 94. - - Nathan, Charles, 158. - - "Nation," The, 385. - - National Park Military Commission, 418. - - National Political Aid Society, 229, 233. - - Newberry, S. C., 140-1, 377. - - New England, 48, 210, 311. - - New England Society, 359. - - New Grenada, Central America, 37. - - New Orleans, 3, 12, 110, 134-135, 158, 241, 268, 366, 369, 372, 377, - 409, 410, 411. - - Newspapers, 135. - - New York, 22, 101, 135, 151, 263, 307, 312, 313, 371, 384, 393, 395. - - New York Custom House, 89. - - "New York Herald," The, 71, 104, 240, 349. - - New York "News," 306. - - New York, Old Guard of, 359, 361. - - New York "Times," 210. - - New York "Tribune," The, 48, 349, 350. - - "New York World," The, 240. - - Niagara, Canada, 135. - - Nichols, Gov. Francis T., La., 371. - - North American Review, 377, 385, 395. - - North Anna River, 171. - - North Carolina, 80, 96, 210, 247, 270, 271, 274, 307, 326, 330, 386, 408. - - Norwood, Rev. Dr., 405. - - Nunan, Captain, 209. - - - Oakwood, Richmond, 405. - - Oakwood Memorial Association, 405. - - Oakwoods, Chicago, 418. - - Oath of Allegiance, The, 37-38, 70-71, 91-92, 124-125, 128. - - Oath, The Test, 127, 128, 249, 259, 260, 325. - - O'Connell, Father, 5. - - O'Conor, Charles, New York, 224, 239. - - Ohio, 409. - - Old Bank, Washington, Ga., 56. - - "Old Blanford," Petersburg, Va., 411. - - Old Guard, of New York, 359. - - Old Sweet Springs, Va., 149. - - Orangeburg, S. C., 141. - - Ord, General E. O. C., 41, 42, 69, 91, 92; - and Mrs. Ord, 112. - - Orphan Asylum, Colored, 354. - - Osband, General, 93. - - Osborne, Betty and Jeannie, 109. - - Ould, Judge, 126, 237, 239. - - Ould, Mattie, 109. - - "Outlook," The, 396, 398. - - - Page, Betty and Lucy, 109. - - Page, Mrs., 169. - - Pale Faces, 268. - - Palmore's, Va., 159. - - Paris, France, 415. - - Parker, W. T., 377. - - Parks, H. B., 402. - - Parrish, John, 328, 330. - - Patrick, General Marsena R., 21, 69, 92. - - Patti, Adelina, 202. - - Paul, D'Arcy, 111. - - Payne, Lewis, 82, 104. - - Peabody Fund, 286, 304. - - Peel, Mrs. Lawson, 412. - - Pendleton, General and Mrs., 162-163. - - Pendleton Club, S. C., The, 360. - - Penn, J. Garland, 402. - - Penrose, Major, 30. - - Perry, Gov. Benj. F., S. C., 143, 144, 260, 377, 378. - - Petersburg, 37, 40, 43, 108, 109, 129, 160, 205. - - Petersburg "Index-Appeal," 160. - - Peyster, Lieutenant de, 12. - - Philadelphia, Pa., 101, 163, 263, 359. - - "Philadelphia Inquirer," 221. - - Philippines, 20, 306. - - Phillips, Wendell, 102. - - "Picayune," The, 110. - - Pickens County men, 360. - - Pickett, Gen. Geo. E., 38. - - Pierce's Cabinet, President, 414. - - Pierce, Paul Skeels, 216. - - Pierpont, Gov. F. H., 34, 92, 241, 255; - and Mrs. Pierpont, 108. - - Pike, Mr. J. S., of Maine, 371. - - Pinckney, Captain Thomas, 341, 343-347, 349. - - Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth (of the Revolution), 201, 342. - - Pius IX., Pope, 415. - - "Planting officials," The, 214. - - Platt, Mrs. William H., 111. - - Pocotaligo, S. C., 378. - - Polk, Bishop Leonidas and Mrs., 179. - - Polk, Dr. W. M., 179. - - Polk, President James K., 48. - - Poole, Maggie, 110. - - Pope, General John, 301. - - Pope, Mrs. Sallie Ewing, 111. - - Poppenheim, Miss M. B., 182. - - Porter, Admiral David D., 30, 40, 41. - - Portridge, Sophia, 111. - - Potter, Bishop Horatio, 135. - - Potter, Mrs. James Brown, 110. - - Powell, Dr., 330, 331. - - Powhatan, Va., 129. - - Prescott, Addie, 110. - - Preston, Cobb, 335. - - Preston, General William, 182. - - Price, Rev. Dr., 405. - - Prince Arthur, 111, 244. - - Proctor, Rev. Dr., 405. - - Pryor, Mrs. Roger A., 110, 412. - - - Raines, Mrs. L. H., 410. - - Raleigh, N. C., 84, 114, 140, 275, 408. - - Raleigh, Mr. Bennett's house near, 84. - - Ralls, General, 95. - - Randall, James R., 85. - - Randolph, Bishop Alfred Magill, 205. - - Randolph, Senator Theodore F., 290. - - Randolph, Uncle, 12, 23, 35, 113, 133. - - Raymond, Henry J., 31. - - Raymond, Miss, 22. - - Reagan, John H., 59. - - Red Shirts, The, 360, 368. - - Reed, William B., 224, 239. - - Reid, Whitelaw, 349. - - Revels, Hiram R., 243, 244. - - Rhett, Mrs., 20. - - Richardson, Mrs. Ida B., 110. - - Richmond, Va., 3, 9-25, 37, 62-63, 69, 72, 91, 92, 109, 111, 123, 139, - 150, 185, 187, 205, 229, 231, 240, 241, 255, 399, 405-408, 417-418. - - Richmond Blues, The, 407. - - Richmond College, 202. - - Richmond Theatre, 107. - - Richmond "Times-Dispatch," 25, 387. - - Rifle Clubs, The, 360, 363, 364, 368, 370. - - Riots: - Brunswick, 332-333; - Cowboy, 362; - Charleston, 241, 363; - Colfax, 333; - Ellenton, 349; - Hamburg, 362; - Little Rock, 371-372; - New Orleans, 241, 372; - Richmond, 229, 234, 241. - - Ripley, General Edward H., 24-25, 131. - - Robertson, Dr. and Mrs., 57, 59, 60; - Kate Joyner Robertson (Mrs. Faver), 59, 61; - Willie Robertson, 59. - - Rockett's, 29. - - Rollins, Misses, 356. - - Rome, Italy, 415. - - Roosevelt, President Theodore, 338, 418, 419. - - Rosemont Cemetery, Newberry, S. C., 140. - - Rousseau, General, 135. - - Roxmere, 334. - - Ruger, General Thomas Howard, 365, 368, 370. - - Ryland, Rev. Dr. Robert, 202-203. - - - Sage, B. F., 307. - - Saint, Captain, 4th Iowa, 93. - - St. John, General I. M., 59. - - St. Michael's bells, 363. - - Santo Domingo, 197. - - Salisbury, N. C., 56. - - Santee River, The, 341. - - Savannah, Ga., 58, 135, 155, 410. - - Savannah "News," The, 387. - - Saxton, General and Mrs. Rufus, 119, 120; - General, 143. - - Schell, Augustus, 226. - - Schley, Mr., Augusta, Ga., 219. - - Schofield's Code for Freedmen, 210. - - Schofield, General J. M., 232, 234, 255, 259, 260, 325, 329, 379. - - Scott, Gov. R. K., S. C., 281, 307, 351, 370. - - Seaford, U. S. Marshal, 293. - - Sea Islands, The, 79, 341. - - Sears, Dr. Barnas, 304. - - Selma, Ala., 78. - - Seney (George Ingraham), benefactions, 304. - - "Sentinel," The, 22. - - Sepoy Massacres, 391. - - Sergeant, Miss, of Atlanta, 304. - - Sewanee Review, 250. - - Seward, William H., 82, 378. - - Sharkey, Gov. William L., Miss., 247. - - Shea, George, 239. - - Shepley, General George F., 11, 12, 22, 30, 31, 32, 36, 39, 41, 131. - - Sheppard, J. C., 365. - - "Sheridan's Ride," 305. - - Sherman, General, 3-6, 16, 18, 37, 50-51, 57, 80, 81, 84, 96, 97, 115, - 128, 132, 135, 182, 190, 202, 247, 281, 305, 326, 330, 371, 377. - - Shiloh, National Park, 418. - - Sibley, 333. - - Simonton, Judge C. H., 287. - - Simpson, Colonel R. W., 360. - - Simpson, W. S., 366. - - Sing Sing, N. Y., 278. - - Sligo, Lord, 134. - - Sloan, Captain, 125. - - Slocomb, Mrs., 110. - - Slocomb family, 110. - - Smith, Gerrit, 226, 241, 242. - - Smith, W. B. (author), 395. - - Smith, Gov. William H., Ala., 333. - - Smith, Gov. William, 34, 35, 92. - - Smythe, Mrs. A. T., 182. - - South Carolina, 4-6, 37, 54, 140, 143, 158, 160-161, 180, 192, 204, 206, - 247, 250, 260, 265, 267, 271, 273, 276, 289, 317, 348, 359, 370, - 371, 377, 412. - - South Carolina Agricultural College, 180. - - South Carolina, State University, 355. - - "South Carolina Women in the Confederacy," 182. - - Southern Ballot-Box, 281. - - "Southern Cross," Hampton's cottage, 160. - - Southern Educational Conference, 1905, 396. - - "Southern Opinion," The, 305. - - Southside Virginia, 399. - - Spanish-American War, 312. - - Spencer, C. B., 402. - - Spencer's libels, Senator G. E., 333. - - Spotswood, The, 108, 237. - - Springfield, Ills., 101. - - Stanton, Edwin M., 41-43, 51, 57, 80, 82, 90, 92, 96, 97, 132, 223, 224, - 281. - - "State," The Columbia, 387. - - Steedman, General James Barrett, 213-215. - - Stephens, Alexander H., 33, 55, 58, 93, 94, 95, 417. - - Stephens, Judge Linton, 292-293. - - Stephens, Lint, 58. - - Stephens, Dr. Robert G., 163. - - Stevens, Atherton H., 12, 16. - - Stevens Mystery, Yanceyville, N. C., 274. - - Stevens, Thaddeus, 242. - - Stevenson, Mrs. Adlai E., 413. - - Stewart, Hon. Charles, 142-143. - - Stimson, William, 386. - - Stoneman, General George, 260, 325. - - Stoney, Captain, 156. - - Storrs, Rev. Dr. Richard S., 79. - - Stratton, Professor, 385. - - Strong, Major George C., 134. - - Stuart, J. E. B., 171, 407. - - Sumner, Charles, 81. - - Sumter's anniversary, 79. - - Surratt, Mrs., 104. - - Sutherlin, Major, 47, 48, 52, 53-55. - - Sutherlin Mansion, 47, 48, 51, 52, 56. - - Sutherlin, Mrs., 47, 48, 49, 51, 52, 53-56. - - "Sun," The New York, 103. - - Swayze, U. S. Commissioner, 293. - - - Taylor, Mrs. Thomas, 182. - - Taylor, General Richard, 62, 63, 92. - - Teller, Senator Henry Moore, 290. - - Tennessee, 268, 418. - - Tennesseeans, Bates', 418. - - Terrell, Gov. Joseph M., of Ga., 387. - - Texas, 62, 142, 160, 215, 247, 260, 350, 395, 418. - - Texas Ranger, 407. - - Thomas, James, 226. - - Thomas, Judge, 32, 33, 34, 40, 41. - - Thomas, William Hannibal, 385. - - Thompson, Mrs. Joseph, 411. - - Throckmorton, Gov. J. W., 215, 260. - - Tidewater Virginia, 399. - - Tillinghast, J. A., 395. - - Tilton, Theodore, 79. - - "Times-Democrat," The, New Orleans, 387. - - Tissue Ballots, 288. - - Titlow, Captain, 103. - - Todd, Dr. Scott, 58. - - Toombs, General Robert, 57, 59, 60, 61, 93. - - Toombs, Mrs. Robert, 94, 143. - - Tournaments, 167. - - Traveller, 68, 109. - - Trenholm, G. A., 60, 92. - - Trent River Settlement, 214. - - Trescot, W. H., 143. - - Triplett, Mary, 109. - - Trobriand, General Philippe Regis de, 372. - - Trowbridge, Colonel, 141. - - Tucker, John Randolph, 239. - - Tulane University, 304. - - Tupper, Rev. Dr., 60. - - Turner, Henry G., 302. - - Tuskegee, Ala., 181. - - - "Uncle Tom's Cabin," 214. - - Underwood, Judge John C., 233, 239, 241, 242, 253. - - Upton, General, 60, 93. - - Urquhart, Captain David, 110. - - Urquhart, Mrs. David, 110. - - Urquhart, Cora (Mrs. James Brown Potter), 110. - - Ursuline Convent, 4. - - - Valentine's, Stuart, 407. - - Valliant, Theodosia Worthington, 111. - - Van Alen, General, 42. - - Vance, Betty, 111. - - Vance, Gov. Zebulon B., N. Carolina, 96, 102. - - Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 226. - - Vanderbilt University, 304. - - Van Lew, Miss, 108. - - Vardaman, Gov., of Miss., 387. - - Vest, Senator, 127. - - Vicksburg, Miss., 128; - pastors of, 133, 134, 418. - - Vincent, Mrs., and Lucy, 265-266. - - Virginia, 34-35, 39, 41, 42, 71, 80, 115, 139, 161, 170, 214, 232, - 260-269, 285, 305, 326, 341, 379, 387, 399, 408, 412. - - - Wade, Senator Benj. F., 90. - - Walker, George, 172-173. - - Walker, Gov. Gilbert C., Va., 331. - - Walker-Wells Campaign, 316. - - Walker, J. M., Mayor, of Danville, 53. - - Wall, L. G., 327, 328. - - Wallace House, The, 365, 370. - - Wallace, Marshal, 363. - - Wallace. W. H., Speaker, 365, 366, 367, 368. - - Walworth, Ellen Hardin, 412. - - Warmouth, Henry C., 281, 307. - - Warwick, Abraham, 226. - - Washington Artillery, N. O., 110. - - Washington, Booker T., 402. - - Washington, D. C., 33, 39, 41, 79, 81, 83, 91, 97, 101, 104, 113, 130, - 185, 187, 221, 225, 234, 243, 248, 260, 281, 287, 316, 333, 337, - 364, 371, 372, 417. - - Washington, Ga., 57, 59, 60, 94. - - Washington (and Lee) College, Lexington, Va., 159, 161, 413. - - Washington and Lee Association, 303. - - Washington, Eugenia, 412. - - Washington, George, 170; - Statue of, 292; - tomb of, 412; - his mother's tomb, 412. - - Washington, John, 412. - - Washington, Colonel William, 360. - - Washington Light Infantry, Charleston, 359. - - Washington, Miss, of S. Carolina, 182. - - "Washington Post," The, 412. - - Watkins, Judge, 205. - - Watkins Neighbourhood, 312. - - Watkins, Mr. and Mrs., 313. - - Webster, Daniel, 49. - - Weems, Colonel, 60. - - Weitzel, Godfrey, 16, 17, 20, 22-24, 36, 39-42, 107, 131-133, 377. - - Welch, Mrs. (Miss Garside), 409. - - Wellington, Mrs. 129. - - Wells, Gov. Henry H., 329. - - Welsh, A., 226. - - West Point, N. Y., 20, 38, 48, 126. - - West Virginia, 34. - - W. Virginia University Studies, 250, 278. - - Wharton, Captain, 69, 70. - - Wheeler, General Joe, 94-95, 102, 417. - - Wheeless, John F., 62. - - Wherry, Col. W. M., 259. - - "Whig," The, 24, 39, 41, 42, 107. - - Whipper, W. J., 358, 360. - - White, Mrs., of Brunswick, 191. - - White Brotherhood, The, 268. - - White House, The, Montgomery, Ala., 411. - - White House, The Davis Mansion, Richmond, 29, 36, 60, 126, 219, 221, 411. - - White House, The, Washington, D. C., 37, 43, 80, 282. - - White League, 268. - - White Rose, Order of the, 268. - - Whitney, Eli, 197. - - Wigfall, Louise (Mrs. Wright), 110. - - Wilde, General, 143. - - Williams, Mrs. David R., 110. - - Williams, Mrs. Mary, 408. - - Wilmer, Bishop, of Alabama, 133. - - Wilmington, N. C., 193. - - Wilson, General James H., 85. - - Wilson, Judge S. F., 418. - - Wilson, Senator Henry, 243, 244. - - Wilson, Woodrow, 250. - - Winfield, Miss, 243, 244. - - Wingfield, Rev. J. H. L. (Bishop), 129. - - Winnsboro, S. C., 6. - - Wise, Captain George, 70, 71. - - Wise, Henry A., 50, 71. - - Wise, Lieutenant, 50. - - Wood, Benjamin, 226. - - Wood's house in Greensboro, Col., 56. - - Woods, General William B., 133. - - Wortham, Miss, 125. - - Wright, General Horatio D., 52, 53, 54. - - Wright, Mary (Mrs. Treadwell), 111. - - - Yulee, Senator D. L., 92. - - Yulee, Mrs. D. L., 110. - - Yankee Landon, 334, 335, 336, 337, 338. - - - Zola, 372. - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Gentlemen of the old regime would say: "A woman's name should appear -in print but twice--when she marries and when she dies"; the "Society" -page of to-day was unknown to them. They objected to newspaper notoriety -for themselves, and were prone to sign pseudonyms to their newspaper -articles. Matoaca, loyal to her uncle's prejudices, requires that I print -him only by the name she gives him and the title, one which was -affectionately applied to him by many who were not his kin. To give his -real name in full would be to give hers. - -[2] General Ripley, in "Confederate Column" of the "Times-Dispatch," -Richmond, Virginia, May 29, 1904. - -[3] In 1793, 1803, 1812-14, 1844-50, Northern States threatened to secede. -Of Massachusetts' last movement Mr. Davis said in Congress: "It is her -right." Nov. 1, Dec. 17, Feb. 23, 1860-61, the "New York Tribune" said: -"We insist on letting the Cotton States go in peace ... the right to -secede exists." - -[4] For full statement, see Captain H. M. Clarke's paper in Southern Hist. -Society Paper, Vol. 9, pp. 542-556, and Paymaster John F. Whieless' -report, Vol. 10, 137. - -[5] The account which I had from Colonel Randall at the home of Mr. John -M. Graham, Atlanta, Ga., in the spring of 1905, does not quite coincide -with that given by Mrs. Clay in "A Belle of the Fifties." In years -elapsing since the war, some confusion of facts in memory is to be -expected. - -[6] Fac-simile of the order under which Mr. Davis was chained appears in -Charles H. Dana's "Recollections of the Civil War," p. 286. The hand that -wrote it, when Mr. Davis died, paid generous tribute to him in the "Sun," -saying: "A majestic soul has passed." - -[7] General Halleck to General Stanton (Richmond, April 28, 1865): "I -forward General Orders No. 4.... You will perceive from paragraph V, that -measures have been taken to prevent, as far as possible, the propagation -of legitimate rebels." Paragraph V: "No marriage license will be issued -until the parties desiring to be married take the oath of allegiance to -the United States; and no clergyman, magistrate, or other party authorized -by State laws to perform the marriage ceremony will officiate in such -capacity until himself and the parties contracting matrimony shall have -taken the prescribed oath of allegiance," all under pains of imprisonment, -etc. - -[8] "Why Solid South," Hilary Herbert. To this book I owe a large debt for -information, as does every other present-day writer on reconstruction. - -[9] An Englishman of Queen's College; the Bishop of London had sent him as -Chaplain to Lord Sligo, Governor of Jamaica, but at this time he was -Rector of Christ Church, New Orleans. - -[10] "Civil War & Reconstruction in Alabama," W. L. Fleming. - -[11] See Stewart on "Texas" in "Why Solid South," by Hilary Herbert and -others. - -[12] A collection of records, sketches, etc., edited and published by Mrs. -Taylor, Mrs. Smythe, Mrs. Kohn, Miss Poppenheim and Miss Washington, of -that State. Owner, August Kohn, Columbia, S. C. For confirmation of first -chapter of this book, see same. - -[13] Syphilitic diseases, from which under slavery negroes were nearly -exempt, combine with tuberculosis to undermine racial health. - -[14] See Susan Pendleton Lee's "History of Virginia." - -[15] Among Southerners assuring me that education is advancing negroes, I -may mention ex-Mayor Ellyson, of Richmond, and Judge Watkins, of -Farmville, who credit educated negro clergy with such moral improvement in -the race. Both gentlemen were deeply interested in the educational work at -Petersburg. Said Mayor Ellyson: "We take equal care in selecting teachers -for both races." - -[16] Such laws were adopted after 1830 in Alabama, Georgia and South -Carolina, when secret agents of the abolitionists were spreading -incendiary literature. It is a fact, though not generally understood, that -abolition extremists arrested several emancipation movements in the South; -whites dared not release to the guidance of fanatics a mass of -semi-savages in whose minds doctrines of insurrection had been sown. See -recent articles on Slavery in the "Confederate Veteran"; "The Gospel to -the Slaves"; "An Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United -States; with an Historical Sketch of Slavery," by Thomas R. R. Cobb; and -Southern histories of the Southern States. - -[17] See University of Iowa Studies, "Freedmen's Bureau," by Paul Skeels -Pierce. - -[18] See "History of the Last Quarter Century in the United States," by E. -B. Andrews; "Reconstruction and the Constitution," by J. W. Burgess; -"Destruction and Reconstruction," by Richard Taylor; "History of the -American People; Reunion and Nationalism," by Woodrow Wilson; "A Political -Crime," by A. M. Gibson; "The Lower South" and "History of the United -States since the Civil War," by W. G. Brown; "Essays on the Civil War and -Reconstruction" and "Reconstruction, Political and Economic," by W. A. -Dunning; articles in "Atlantic Monthly" during 1901; Johns Hopkins -University Studies and Columbia University Studies; Walter L. Fleming's -"Documents Illustrative of the Reconstruction Period"; besides treating -every phase of the subject, these "Documents" give a full bibliography; "A -New South View of Reconstruction," Trent, "Sewanee Review," Jan., 1901; -and other magazine articles. - -[19] Phelps' "Louisiana," Perry's "Provisional Governorship," "Why Solid -South," Hilary Herbert. - -[20] This case was used by Celina E. Means in "Thirty-four Years." The -Stevens case is misused by Tourgee in "A Fool's Errand." - -[21] See "Documents Illustrative of the Reconstruction Period," by Walter -L. Fleming, Professor of History, West Virginia University; also articles -in the "Atlantic Monthly." - -[22] This mirror had been built into the wall when the house was erected -by the Captain's grandfather, General Thomas Pinckney, of the Revolution, -soon after his return from the Court of St. James, where he served as -United States Minister by Washington's appointment. It was Charles -Cotesworth, brother of this Thomas, who threw down the gage to France in -the famous words: "The United States has millions for defense but not one -cent for tribute!" - -[23] See "Reconstruction in South Carolina," by John S. Reynolds, in the -Columbia "State." - -[24] I think this was General Ruger or Colonel Black, but I let the name -stand as my informant gave it. - -[25] See Sherman-Halleck correspondence in Sherman's "Memoirs" on "the -inevitable Sambo." Also, W. T. Parker, U. S. A., on "The Evolution of the -Negro Soldier," N. Amer. Rev., 1899. Lincoln disbanded the troops -organised by General Hunter. - -[26] In Boston, 1676. I suppose this is the case meant as it rests on -court records. "The Nation," 1903, published letters showing four specific -cases from slavery's beginning to 1864; that just cited, one mentioned in -Miss Martineau's "Society in America"; one reported in "Leslie's Weekly," -1864; one reported in a periodical not named. In the earliest days of -slavery, laws enacted against negro rape (the penalty was burning) seem to -show that the crime existed or that the Colonists feared it would exist. -The fact that during the War of Secession, Southern men left their -families in negro protection is proof conclusive that this tendency, if -inherent, had been civilised out of the race. - -[27] For other reasons for rape than I have given see "The Negro; The -Southerner's Problem," by Thomas Nelson Page, p. 112, and "The American -Negro," by William Hannibal Thomas (negro), pp. 65, 176-7, 223. - -[28] "The Negro in Africa and America," J. A. Tillinghast. On -miscegenation see "The Color Line," W. B. Smith; also A. R. Colquhoun, N. -Amer. Rev., May, 1903. - -[29] Fakirs, taking advantage of the general racial weakness, are selling -"black skin removers," "hair straighteners," etc. - -[30] See Council, Penn, and Spencer, "Voice of Missions" (H. B. Parks, -Ed.), Sept., Nov., Dec., 1905. See Booker T. Washington's "Up from -Slavery," "Character Building," "Future of the American Negro." - -[31] "'Decoration Day,' a legal holiday. The custom of 'Memorial Day,' as -it is otherwise called, originated with the Southern States and was copied -scatteringly in Northern States. On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, -then Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued an order -appointing May 30."--Encyclopedia Americana. - -[32] In this church, Patrick Henry said: "Give me liberty or give me -death!" - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIXIE AFTER THE WAR*** - - -******* This file should be named 41730-8.txt or 41730-8.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/1/7/3/41730 - - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project -Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you -charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you -do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the -rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose -such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and -research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do -practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is -subject to the trademark license, especially commercial -redistribution. - - - -*** START: FULL LICENSE *** - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project -Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at - www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy -all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. -If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the -terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or -entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement -and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" -or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the -collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an -individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are -located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from -copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative -works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg -are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project -Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by -freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of -this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with -the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by -keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project -Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in -a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check -the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement -before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or -creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project -Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning -the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United -States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate -access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently -whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, -copied or distributed: - -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 - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived -from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is -posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied -and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees -or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work -with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the -work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 -through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the -Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or -1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional -terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked -to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the -permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any -word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or -distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than -"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version -posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), -you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a -copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon -request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other -form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided -that - -- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is - owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he - has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the - Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments - must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you - prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax - returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and - sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the - address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to - the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." - -- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or - destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium - and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of - Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any - money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days - of receipt of the work. - -- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set -forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from -both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael -Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the -Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm -collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain -"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or -corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual -property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a -computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by -your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with -your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with -the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a -refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity -providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to -receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy -is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further -opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER -WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO -WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. -If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the -law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be -interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by -the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any -provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance -with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, -promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, -harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, -that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do -or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm -work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any -Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. - - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers -including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists -because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from -people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. -To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 -and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive -Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent -permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. -Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered -throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 -North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email -contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the -Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To -SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any -particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. -To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project -Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. -unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |