“The clash of arms has subsided, the serried hosts of Rebels
have been disbanded, and the huge paraphernalia of war have
been scattered; but, notwithstanding these facts, the low
mutterings of sullen discontent are yet heard, and the desire
to persecute and break down all truly loyal men is exhibited on
every hand with even more sly ferocity than while the war of
sections raged.
“We are residents of this city, each engaged in public
business, and consequently thrown into contact with all classes
of citizens. Hourly we hear denunciations of the Government,
and prayers for the removal of the military. And why these
denunciations and these prayers, if the oath of allegiance had
been honestly taken, to be sacredly observed? No, Gentlemen,
the spirit of rebellion is not dead, and will never die while
Democratic leaders in the South are relieved of their treachery
and turned loose to stir up sedition and to incite rebellion.
The men make loud professions of loyalty, and their press
reverberates the echo from hill and valley; but you have only
to read their fanfaronades on loyalty to satisfy yourselves of
the bitter hatred that fills their breasts against the Union,
and the burning hate with which they will proceed to pour out
the vials of their wrath upon all Union men, when once they
can secure seats in Congress and get possession of the reins
of State government. In their hearts they cling as ardently to
State sovereignty as ever, and once give them the power and
they will tax the loyal people to the full value of the slave
property destroyed by the war. Mark this prediction.”
Another private letter, from a person so situated as to be singularly
well informed, thus foreshadows a system of Peonage:--
“The necessity of the courts is beyond all question. Even with
these courts it requires watchfulness to protect the blacks.
If they were left without these courts, the whites would keep
them forever in bondage, by keeping them in debt; and I am
afraid that the legislation of the States will be to the effect
to establish here the Mexican system of Peonage, by using
some very extraordinary terms to coerce ‘hatched-up’ accounts
against the blacks.”
To this I might add indefinitely, exhibiting the bad temper and
disloyal spirit which prevail throughout Virginia. Bayonets are no
longer flashing there; bullets are no longer whizzing there; but the
traitorous soul that inspired the Rebellion still fills the State with
its malignant breath. Give it not, I entreat you, the power to rule.
* * * * *
From Virginia pass to North Carolina. Here the testimony is the same.
During this week I have seen Government officers who have been in
service, one since 1863, who report that it is not safe to speak one’s
sentiments there; that liberty of speech does not exist; that the
freedmen, so far from being lazy or remiss, are willing to work, but
that they are exposed to unutterable hardship and cruelty. On these
points the testimony is explicit. A loyal resident of North Carolina
writes me:--
“I tell you, Sir, the only difference now and one year ago is,
that the flag is acknowledged as supreme, and there is some
fear manifested, and they have no arms. The sentiment is the
same. If anything otherwise, more hatred exists toward the
Government. _I know there is more toward Union men, both black
and white._”
More hatred toward the Union men, both white and black, than one year
ago! Such is the condition of North Carolina.
In accordance with this is other testimony.
“Two women, school-teachers, who were recently sent from
Wilmington to Fayetteville to establish a school for colored
children, were informed by the sheriff of the county that they
would not be allowed to start their schools, nor would they be
allowed to land; but they might remain on the steamer until her
return to Wilmington, inasmuch as they were women; if they were
men, they would receive such treatment as was awarded to such
meddlesome characters before the war.
“Mr. Dickinson says, that, while he was in Fayetteville, a
negro was strung up by the thumbs in the public square, and
received forty-nine lashes from a civil officer recently
appointed by Governor Holden.”
A Wilmington paper makes the following report.
“General Ames, General Duncan, and Colonel Donnelson have
returned from an official visit to Fayetteville, where they
went to ascertain the truth of the reports coming from there in
regard to the treatment of the colored people.
“The result of their visit substantiates the fact that the
negroes have been cruelly treated, not only by the civilians,
but also by the civil authorities there.
“Two negroes were tied up and publicly whipped by the sheriff,
on the sentence of a magistrate.
“Other negroes were tied up to trees and whipped, and left tied
to the trees until a storm came up and prostrated the trees,
and the poor negroes fell with them.
“Citizens exercised the authority of masters over the negroes,
and punished them at their will with such severity as to them
seemed fit.
“It is even reported that negroes have been killed in the most
cruel manner.”
Why heap instances? They might be piled high; but why pain the heart by
such an exhibition?
* * * * *
From North Carolina pass to South Carolina, where the testimony is,
if possible, still more explicit. The spirit of this Rebel State, yet
rebel in heart, appears in the well-known letter from Wade Hampton,
which I do not stop to quote. It is especially manifest in the frank
speech of James R. Campbell in the Convention, from which I read an
extract.
“I believe, that, when our votes are admitted into that
Congress, if we are tolerably wise, governed by a moderate
share of common sense, we will have our own way. I am speaking
now not to be reported. We will have our own way yet, if we
are true to ourselves. We know the past; we know not what is
to be our future. Are we not in a condition to accept what we
cannot help? Are we not in a condition where it is the part of
wisdom to wait and give what we cannot avoid giving? I believe
as surely as we are a people, so surely, if we are guided by
wisdom, we will by the beginning of the next Presidential
election, which is all that is known of the Constitution, (for,
when you talk of the Constitution of the United States, it
means the Presidential election, and the share of the spoils,)
I believe then we may hold the balance of power.”
That Mr. Campbell spoke according to the sentiments of the prevailing
politicians is attested by a private letter which I have received from
a Government officer so situated there as to know the real condition of
things. I read extracts only.
“The speeches in Convention and Legislature are doubtless known
to you, and the _animus_ pervading all action of these bodies.
Mr. Campbell expressed it exactly. Let us do what we _have to_,
as little as we are obliged to, get into Congress somehow, and
_then_ pay off the score. One or two minor matters in this
connection I mention as showing how the current sets.
“1. _The election for members of Convention, 4th September._
The favorites in every contested case were those most prominent
in Secession proceedings of past years. The majority of them
did not take the amnesty oath.…
“2. Not even the prospect of securing a favorable recognition
in Congress could secure the election of any man tainted with
Unionism, in opposition to any candidate thoroughly established
as an opponent to the Government in past time.
“3. And yet, strange as it may seem, _the people_--by
which I mean the planters generally, exclusive of the
_politicians_--are not savagely disloyal; and this is one main
point to which I desire earnestly to testify. It is a fact
that the political working of the State is in the hands of one
hundred and fifty to one hundred and eighty men. It has taken
me six months to appreciate the _entireness_ of the fact,
though of course I had heard it stated.
“It seems to me a most Providential opportunity is now
offered to break up this maladministration of politics.
The people among whom I move are becoming restive under
present disadvantages, and criticize sharply the acts of the
Legislature, which seem to delay Reconstruction. If the State
is refused representation in the present Congress, and the
acts of the State Legislature, its speeches, its Black Code,
its general fractious and combative attitude, its spirit
in accepting the Constitutional Amendment and refusing the
annulment of Secession Ordinances are brought to light,--if, in
a word, it can be shown that the long recognized politicians
of the State have thoroughly damaged the State by taking her
out of the Union, and have also kept her from coming in, _there
will be a political revolution in the State in less than two
months_. The Rebels so promptly pardoned by the President will
meet no such complacency from the people. I _know_ this to be
true,--am taught it anew every day.
“If the State authority is to be recognized, and the present
Legislature triumphs by forcing the State into the Union, I
anticipate very disastrous consequences. The freed people are
well enough; they do not know as much as could be desired,
but they know quite as much as could be expected, and are
open to instruction. But that instruction must come from
_the Government, through the military_, untrammelled by any
fractious jobbing of State Legislatures. There is no confidence
on the part of the freed people in the _State_; they only know
the United States Government, and no other will answer.”
Here is a letter from a South-Carolinian who served in the Rebel army,
but who now sees the error of his ways.
“I am sorry to say Governor Orr’s inaugural yesterday received
no applause at all from the audience: its sentiments were
too Union-loving for them. I am sorry also to say that the
South-Carolinians generally entertain to a great extent their
old ideas and prejudices, so disastrous of late to the State.
One is almost compelled to think they insanely wish to bring
upon themselves more and greater mortifications. Witness the
vote given Hampton, who refused to be a candidate. What an
unwise display of a factious and discontented spirit! Few seem
willing to admit the simple proposition that all causes of
ill-feeling between North and South have been settled by the
arbitrament of the sword, and we must submit sincerely. They
seek rather to keep alive the ill-feeling that has made us
unhappy for so many years, _and that ill-advised disposition to
supervise the actions of the United States Government_.
“If this war does not settle all issues, and settle them
forever, _it will be because the General Government fails
to use the power it has obtained_. I am as dear a lover of
South Carolina as any man in it, and for that reason I wish
to see peace and harmony restored throughout its borders.
But that can never be, if the men who tried hardest to break
up the Government are, immediately they find themselves
unsuccessful with the sword, _allowed to take seats in Congress
and recommence the agitation with their tongues and by their
arguments and votes. More inflammatory speeches were not made
in 1860 than have been delivered during the late canvass. If
examples are not made, if leading men are not made to feel some
ill effects from an unsuccessful attempt to revolutionize, then
agitation will never cease, but will be kept up by ambitious
men of mean talents, who can hope to rise only in times of
disorder, or by operating upon and influencing the passions of
the multitude._”
To cap the climax of this iniquity, a body of men calling themselves
the Legislature, but having small title to be considered a legal body,
have undertaken to enact a Black Code, separating the two races, in
defiance of every principle of Equality. I quote a provision fastening
apprenticeship or serfdom in new form upon the unhappy freedman.
“Colored children, between the ages mentioned [males two and
twenty-one, females two and eighteen], who have neither father
nor mother _living in the district in which they are found_,
or whose parents are paupers, or unable to afford to them
maintenance, _or whose parents are not teaching them habits
of industry and honesty_, or are persons of notoriously bad
character, or are vagrants, or have been, either of them,
convicted of an infamous offence, may be bound as apprentices
by the District Judge, or one of the magistrates, for the
aforesaid term.”[30]
Under these words no colored minor in the State is safe for one moment
from compulsory serfdom.
The lash is also prescribed as a means of enforcing contracts.[31] The
lash once more is to resound.
The planters at their public meetings give utterance to the same brutal
spirit. Here is a series of resolutions, where, after calling for the
withdrawal of the troops of the United States, and declaring themselves
pledged to the existing state of things, and that it is their “honest
purpose to abide thereby,” they proceed as follows.
“_Resolved_, That, if inconsistent with the views of the
authorities to remove the military, we express the opinion that
the plan of the military _to compel the freedman_ to contract
with his former owner, when desired by the latter, is wise,
prudent, and absolutely necessary.
“_Resolved_, That we, the planters of the district, pledge
ourselves not to contract with any freedman, unless he can
produce a certificate of regular discharge from his former
owner.
“_Resolved_, That under no circumstances whatsoever will we
rent land to any freedmen, nor will we permit them to live on
our premises as employees.”
Thus is the freedman, whose liberty the United States are bound
to maintain, handed over to _compulsory service_, and under no
circumstances is land to be rented to him. And yet these people
announce that they accept the existing state of things, and that it is
their honest purpose to abide thereby! Of course they accept a state of
things which leaves them once more “masters” of their former slaves. Of
course they will abide by this. Be it our function to teach them the
duty and necessity of Equal Rights.
* * * * *
From South Carolina pass to Georgia, and there is the same wretched
story. The spirit of the State appears in the language of Mr. Simmons
in the Convention:--
“Let us repudiate only under the lash and the application of
military power; and then, as soon as we are an independent
sovereignty, restored to our equal rights and privileges in the
Union, let us immediately call another Convention and resume
the debt.”
Testimony from various quarters shows the same spirit. A recent writer,
of unimpeachable authority, now sitting as reporter in your galleries,
thus testifies:--
“In the stage between Augusta and Milledgeville I rode with
two gentlemen of considerable local weight and prominence,
who were both anti-secessionists in 1860-61. They talked of
the approaching Convention, and of its probable action in
redistricting the State for Representatives. ‘Well, Colonel,’
said the younger, himself a man of over forty years,--‘well,
Colonel, what will be our proper course, when we are once more
fully restored to the Union?’ The answer came, after a moment’s
consideration: ‘_We must strike hands with the Democratic party
of the North, and manage them as we always have._’ There was a
pause while we rattled down the hill, and then the questioner
responded: ‘That is just it; _they were ready enough to give us
control, if we gave them the offices, and I reckon they have
not changed very much yet_.’ There was then conversation on
other matters; but half an hour later, after a mile or so of
silence, the Colonel suddenly resumed: ‘Yes, Sir, our duty is
plain; we shall be without weight, now that Slavery is gone,
unless we do join hands with them. Andy Johnson will want a
reëlection, and the united _Democratic party must take him up.
It shall be a fair division: we want the power, and they want
the spoils._’”
The same writer, in another letter, shows how Rebels were honored in
the Convention.
“‘I’ll be d--d, if I vote for any man who did not go with
the State,’ said one of the delegates, while the canvass for
officers was going on; in accordance with which spirit the
secretary is a gentleman who was a colonel in the Rebel army,
and the doorkeeper a gentleman who lost an arm in the service.”
Where such a spirit prevails, the freedmen fare badly. In Georgia they
are treated cruelly. A traveller writes:--
“The hatred toward the negro as a freeman is intense among the
low and brutal, who are the vast majority. Murders, shootings,
whippings, robbing, and brutal treatment of every kind are
daily inflicted upon them, and I am sorry to say in most cases
they can get no redress. They don’t know where to complain or
how to seek justice, after they have been abused and cheated.
The habitual deference toward the white man makes them fearful
of his anger and revenge.”
An official of the Government, after traversing Mississippi and
Alabama, writes from Georgia in a very recent letter:--
“Every day the press of the South testifies to the outrages
that are being perpetrated upon unoffending colored people by
the State militia. These outrages are particularly flagrant
in the States of Alabama and Mississippi, and are of such a
character as to demand most imperatively the interposition of
the National Executive. These men are rapidly inaugurating a
condition of things, a feeling among the freedmen, that will,
if not checked, ultimate in insurrection. The freedmen are
peaceable and inoffensive; yet, if the whites continue to make
it all their lives are worth to go through the country, as free
people have a right to do, they will goad them to that point at
which submission and patience cease to be a virtue.
…
“I call your attention to this matter, after reading and
hearing from the most authentic sources, officers and others,
for weeks, of the continuance of the militia robbing the
colored people of their property,--arms,--shooting them in the
public highways, if they refuse to halt, when so commanded,
and lodging them in jail, if found from home without _passes_,
and ask, as a matter of simple justice to an unoffending and
downtrodden people, that you use your influence to induce
the President to issue an order or proclamation forbidding
such wicked and unlawful proceedings, and, if he deem it
prudent, forbidding the organization of State militia. _The
only military force_ NEEDED _in the South is more regular and
volunteer troops to keep in proper subjection those lately in
rebellion, and to teach them to treat the freed people in a
manner becoming a civilized community_.”
Another witness, himself a Georgian, with ample opportunities of
information, testifies:--
“I have personal and friendly relations with many leading men
of this section: I had before the war. I have met many of them
in New York and in Washington within the past few months, and
have, as a citizen of the South, had frequent conversations
with them upon our future, and the means that should be
employed to begin it auspiciously. These interviews have been
free and open in interchange of opinion, and I must believe
that I had laid before me the intentions of those who must
and will again assume the leadership here. If they are not so
honored, their opinions will show how they _would_ lead, had
they the power.
“Among these were four ex-governors of three different
States, who had received pardons from President Johnson. Our
conversation naturally and necessarily turned to the future of
the emancipated negroes. Their past and present condition was
discussed, and their chances as well as our own were of course
considered, and everything that could bear upon their future
was canvassed. The course to be pursued by the Legislatures
of the reconstructed States, and the laws to be enacted, in
order to obtain the fulfilment of contracts with the freedmen
employed, occupied no small portion of consideration. In this
way I had full opportunity to learn the opinions of those who
have been and will be again looked up to as the leaders and
directors of Southern opinion and sentiment.
“The unanimity of all was not the least singular thing,
especially regarding the _status_ of the freedmen and their
rights hereafter. If legal chicanery can avail, those rights
will be but nominal, and they will remain, as they have ever
been, isolated and apart,--free in name, but slaves in fact.”
It seems that in Georgia there is a body of men known as “Regulators,”
who are thus described by a correspondent of that journal which has for
years whitewashed the enormities of Slavery, the “New York Herald”:--
“Springing naturally out of this disordered state of affairs
is an organization of ‘Regulators,’ so called. Their numbers
include many ex-Confederate cavaliers of the country, and their
mission is to visit summary justice upon any offenders against
the public peace. It is needless to say that their attention
is largely directed to maintaining quiet and submission among
the blacks. _The shooting or stringing up of some obstreperous
‘nigger’ by the ‘Regulators’ is so common an occurrence as to
excite little remark. Nor is the work of proscription confined
to the freedmen only._ The ‘Regulators’ go to the bottom of the
matter, and strive to make it uncomfortably warm for any new
settler with demoralizing innovations of wages for ‘niggers.’”
Such is the unimaginable atrocity which, according to friendly
authority, prevails in Georgia. The poor freedman is sacrificed. The
Northern settler, believing in Human Rights, is sacrificed also. Alas
that such scenes should disgrace our country and age! Alas that there
should be hesitation in applying the necessary remedy!
Surely this is enough. I do not stop to dwell on instances of frightful
barbarism. One is authenticated in the court of the provost-marshal,
where a colored girl was roasted alive! And another writer, in a
letter just received, describes a system of “burning” in Wilkes
County, Georgia, as “a mild means of extorting from the freed people a
confession as to where they have their arms and money concealed.” He
says, “They were held in the blaze.” Think of it, Sir, here, in this
Republic, they are held in a blaze! And the National Government looks
on!
* * * * *
From Georgia pass to Alabama, only to find the same evil spirit and the
same succession of enormities, intensified, if possible. Here again I
am embarrassed by the variety and extent of evidence.