EFFECTS PRODUCED. A PERIOD OF ALARM.
Excitement throughout the State--Scenes at the Capitol--Metropolitan
Arrests resisted--Secret Police--Government Officials Notified of the
Extent of the Disaster--A Quorum of the Legislative or Judicial
Bodies not Attainable--No Departures from the City--The K. K. K.
Cabal Receiving that Attention from Caucusing Legislators which its
Importance Demanded--What the State Judiciary Demanded--A Mob at the
State-House--At Sunset the Situation Unchanged--A Sortie from the
Capitol--Mobs along the Route--Seeking Refuge from the Excited
Populace--Out of Danger--The New Situation--Governor Brownlow
Escaping from the Temporary Fortress by an Alley-way--An Ugly
Specimen of the Genus Ku-Klux--The Governor Recovers from the
Attitude of a Suppliant--An Amusing Episode--"But how many suns, O
Man, would look upon the Deed Unavenged?"--A Canard which Grew out of
this Affair.
On the day following the grand _coup de main_ of the Klan to which we have
directed attention in the previous chapters, and which, in bringing
depression to League affairs, sent the former's mercury to a feverish
height, great excitement prevailed throughout the State; and at the
business centres, and more especially the capital, something like a
popular demonstration greeted the arrival of news from provincial
quarters. The wires had been buzzing with intelligence of the disaster
since early dawn, and yet the news and telegraph offices found it
impossible to throw off the steaming bulletins giving additional
particulars, or summing up the history of the exploit in localities
already heard from, with sufficient speed to meet the cravings of the
multitude. The streets of the capital were filled with passengers, who,
with white faces and lips compressed, seemed as firmly intent on reaching
some point of general rendezvous as it was indubitably certain that they
had nothing definite in view, but were tossed to and fro by a burning
thirst for news that must and would not be satisfied. Occasionally, as the
crowd kept this frantic pace, individuals would suffer themselves
buttonholed, and made the subjects of lengthy confidences, but rarely, as
one man's property in the commodity of the hour was something which all
might share at the bulletin-board; and so all day long the human tides
ebbed and flowed along the news-channels, never manifesting impatience,
but ever quickening their speed to keep pace with the now fairly excited
messengers. Merchants and shop-keepers stood in their doors wearing
prurient countenances, and anon, sending would-be purchasers away with
curt replies; for since the sun rose on that eventful morn, had not
traffic grown out of fashion? Women and children kept within doors without
commands to that effect, for there was something in the very air of the
crowds without that not only did not invite confidence, but positively
frowned upon all advances thereto. The Metropolitan guards, who had
special instructions, and whose force had been doubled since morning,
moved along their beats wearing grave countenances, and occasionally
scanning the faces of the crowd with furtive stare, as if in search of
some secret which they half suspected lay hidden there. Once they ventured
upon an arrest, being guided by their suspicions only, as was evident from
their embarrassed movements; but though they employed a strong guard, and
sought out the most thinly peopled avenues in making away with their
prisoner, they had not proceeded above two blocks before they were set
upon by the crowd, and compelled not only to relinquish their charge, but
to seek safety in flight. It was even whispered that there was a secret
police force abroad, deriving its authority from the opposition element in
politics; but this was industriously denied in quarters where the facts
should have been known, and after it became a rumor, every effort was made
to quell suspicion. But, however that may have been, after the
unsuccessful feint to which we have called attention, no further effort
was made to interfere with the calm-faced crowds which, looking neither to
the right nor left, persevered in that unvarying procession which led them
to and from the news centres. A K. K. K. placard, which had been posted at
a popular street corner during the previous night, and which, for
contrasted reasons, had been given a wide berth by the rival factions,
became, as the evening wore along, the one subject which seemed to
possess sufficient interest to attract the regards of passers-by, and it
is probable that its importance (like some sentient wonders that we wot
of) was derived from the circumstance of its connection with weightier
subjects.
It was probably past the hour of noon before the extent of the Ku-Klux
raid was certainly known to the State authorities, and to say that the
intelligence cast a palpable gloom over the various departments of
government, would hardly particularize the situation with that
definiteness which the curiosity of the reader may demand. After the noon
recess it was found impossible to assemble a quorum of either the
legislative or judicial functionaries, and when visitors sought
individuals belonging to these branches, with a view to conference on
private topics, they were, oftener than not, sent away with the
intelligence that they had left the city. But this was scarcely true in
any case, for not only was there no hegira of State officers from the
scene of their labors on this day, but out-bound trains flew along the
landscapes with hardly any reasonable ballast in the way of passengers.
The secret of the whole business, as revealed soon after, showed that some
very extensive caucusing was being done, and that the K. K. K. cabal, for
the first time in its history, was receiving that attention from the
government authorities which its importance demanded. It is not known with
certainty what was resolved upon at these meetings, but it may be guessed,
with tolerable assurance, that those bold measures soon afterwards
instituted in the House (though enterprised too late for any practical
use) received their inspiration from this excited period. And it was soon
after published as an item of news, that the judiciary demanded of their
law-making colleagues some immediate legislation that would enable them to
grapple with the new problem in jurisprudence which the movement
presented.
About the middle of the afternoon there was a popular demonstration in the
neighborhood of the capitol, the crowds lounging in that direction in an
objectless kind of way, but when, finding themselves under the shadow of
the great building, developing a sudden enthusiasm for something, or some
individual, they scarce knew what. For more than an hour they besieged the
State functionaries with loud huzzahs, and only when they saw that the
demonstration had been misunderstood, or that they would be given the cold
shoulder, in any event, did they relinquish the purpose of hearing some
report from their law-givers, and being heard in return. But when the
countermarch movement began, very little time was consumed by the crowd in
transporting itself out of sight and hearing--individuals, and especially
those who had been conspicuous in the movement, walking hurriedly, and
with their heads down, as if to conceal an expression of chagrin that
lurked in their countenances.
At sunset the situation was unchanged, the main streets emptying
themselves of their human currents, in obedience to some suburban
attraction at intervals, only to be filled next hour with the chaffering
multitudes, who resumed their fatuous pursuit of the unknown quantity in
the news-problem with the same heat that it had been undertaken in the
early portion of the day. It was at this precise hour that the Governor
was observed to leave the State-house, accompanied by two gentlemen of his
staff, and walk hurriedly along Cedar Street, in the direction of the
public square. The crowds seemed determined to place their own
interpretation on this movement, and having assembled in large force at
the point where College street intersects that along which the party were
passing, loud hootings were indulged in, and in forcing a passage through
the crowd, the obnoxious individuals subjected to rougher jostling than
was thought to be required by the emergency. Turning to reply to some
taunt volunteered from the crowd, one of the gentlemen lost his hat by a
blow from behind, and was deprived of the gratification which he might
otherwise have received upon relieving himself of a few sentences of
eloquent invective, by a storm of derisive cheers, which drowned every
other sound. At the next crossing the demonstration was equally as large,
if not so aggressive, and when the official trio reached a neighboring
building, and immured themselves within its walls, they doubtless looked
back upon the reminiscence with feelings of relief. But from after
developments, it may be inferred that they had no sooner felt themselves
exempt from the perils which had lately beset them, than they entered upon
a conference to devise ways and means of escape from their temporary
fortress (for such the building in which they had taken refuge proved to
be). This would not have been difficult of accomplishment, in any event,
and the tactics resolved upon by the besieged rendered it comparatively
easy of attainment.
In less than ten minutes the throngs, who had assembled with no more
serious object in view than to gratify an idle curiosity, and express
their unfriendliness to their taskmasters by the methods usually adopted,
had been taken up by the absorbent elements of the crowd flowing newsward,
and were no more. If the Governor's party had expected resistance of this
character, they were to be deceived, for by the time the lamps were
lighted, almost a calm pervaded that quarter; and when, a few moments
later, the first of the party (who proved to be Governor Brownlow) left
the building by a postern-gate in the rear, he was seen by none but the
spies who had been set to watch. Hurrying along an alleyway, the honorable
refugee had crossed two squares ere he emerged upon the broad street which
led across an unfrequented portion of the city, to the vicinity of the
mansion which he occupied. Halting here to reconnoitre and indulge a
moment of quiet reflection, after the exciting events through which he had
passed, he was suddenly encountered by a form of the peril from which he
was seeking to escape that had more than once been suggested to his fancy,
but which now presented itself in such palpable outline, and with an
attitude so positively menacing, that his courage forsook him for the
moment, and he recovered from the manner of a suppliant just in time to
save himself from a very humiliating scene. The _thing_ in question was an
ugly and even frightful embodiment of the genus Ku-Klux, which, having
been successful in its contemplated surprise, was very naturally disposed
to dictate terms to its victim. As no violence was intended, it had time,
however, for but a few tragic sentences, adopted from a repertory prepared
for the occasion, before the frightened official had recovered his wits
and his Greek.
Raising himself to his full stature, the Governor denied the assumed
ghostliness of his interlocutor in these precise words: "Do you not know,
fiend, that I possess the authority to have you shot or hung, and that I
am strongly persuaded to exercise it?"
To which the "fiend" retorted in the following laconism "But how many
suns, O man! would look upon the deed unavenged?" and realizing that they
were quits, the parties to this amusing by-comedy went their respective
ways.
The report of this transaction reaching the public ear via the
sensation-mongers, a few hours later, it was taken up in its amended form
and bandied about the coffee houses and street-corner gatherings until it
finally lost all proportions, and at nine o'clock, precisely, was guilty
of sending an old gentleman to bed, on the outskirts of the city, under
the conviction that Governor Brownlow had been murdered by the Ku-Klux.
But though for twenty hours her streets had flowed with lava tides of that
wild element of which mobs are made, and whatsoever was leonine in her
temperament had been appealed to by rumors of war, that rode past on every
breeze, somewhere in the "wee sma' hours ayont the twal," the last star
had paled in the news' firmament without witnessing anything more tragical
than may be found among the occurrences related in this chapter, and the
tired city slept.