THE MILLS ARE GRINDING.
It was the hour of high noon that a gentleman and lady alighted from a
carriage at the foot of the mansion of Colonel Seymour without previous
announcement. The gentleman was a person of attractive presence and
perhaps forty-five years of age. The lady was not attractive, a little
patronizing in her manners, and perhaps thirty-five years of age. Their
_patois_ was that of English people; to an artistic ear, however, this
may have appeared feigned. Their manner in the presence of the host was
unconstrained; indeed they expressed themselves with unusual freedom.
The gentleman gave his name as Mr. Jamieson, and the lady as his niece,
Miss Harcourt, both of them lately arrived from London. He had
interested himself, he said, in scientific researches for the past few
years, and was now pursuing an inquiry that he hoped would be of
practical use to the South. The "London Society," whose agent he was,
was seeking from all available sources the most exhaustive information
about the negro in his gradations from the savage to the citizen; and he
took occasion to say that his principals had been greatly astonished
because of the alarming strides the negro had made in a country that,
less than a century ago, made the British power tremble in its very
strong-holds. He would be pleased to ask if this sudden transition from
slavery to freedom had not reversed the orderly procedure of the
government in respect to its administration in the South. To this
inquiry Colonel Seymour replied, quite epigrammatically, "that the
world had no precedent for the revolutionary measures which were being
enforced in the South."
The stranger continuing, observed that he had desired this interview
before exploiting a field untried and perhaps dangerous; and he would be
greatly obliged if his host would be as frank and communicative as
possible.
In the course of this interview, the arguments employed by the stranger
disarmed the old man's suspicions, and in a confidential way the Colonel
told Mr. Jamieson that he would communicate his knowledge of the matters
as far as he could, but feared it would not be of much value, as he was
under suspicion by the Federal authorities; having fought under Lee in
the many battles of the South, he was still vehemently protesting
against the invasion of his own country by the carpet bag government.
"You were, then, a Confederate soldier?" inquired the stranger.
"Yes, and was paroled at Appomattox," sententiously rejoined the
veteran.
"Now, my dear sir, you greatly interest me; may I inquire your rank in
the Confederate army?"
"I was a Colonel of cavalry, sir."
"Were you at Gettysburg, sir?"
"Yes, and was wounded as we were falling back to the Potomac."
"Gettysburg! Ah, yes!" the stranger observed reflectively; "this battle
was quite disastrous to the South, I believe, and was claimed by the
North as a great victory."
"And what upon the face of the earth have they not claimed?" excitedly
replied the veteran.
"Ah yes, they are a boastful people," said Mr. Jamieson. "I doubt not
they claimed victories they never won. You of course are still of the
opinion that the South was right?"
"No opinion about it. I know she was right. We never resorted to
hostilities until our institutions were assailed."
"I am sure your statement is correct, sir," said the Englishman. "While
our government, then in the control of a radical ministry, was
officiously unfriendly to the South, your government had a great army of
sympathizers in England who deplored its downfall; indeed, the president
of our society was an active sympathizer with your country, and the bank
in which he was a director, upon his private account emitted bills of
credit that were used by the agents of the Confederate government in the
purchase of materials of war. I presume, sir," continued the Englishman,
"you would have no hesitation in going to war again if the same
casus-belli existed?"
"No indeed, sir."
"And you are of opinion that it would not be treasonable to oppose the
policy of the government in respect to its acts of reconstruction?"
"If armed with adequate power, I should not hesitate in respect to my
duty in the premises," replied the veteran with a show of temper.
"I am very glad, sir, that you have been entirely frank with me," said
the stranger, "and I fully appreciate your feelings. I suspect that you
do not think that a strongly centralized government in any contingency
is the least oppressive form of government?"
"Assuredly not, sir. Nature has established a diversity of climates,
interests and habits in the extensive territories embraced by the
Federal government. We cannot assimilate these differences by
legislation. We cannot conquer nature. Other differences have been
introduced by human laws and adventitious circumstances, very
difficult, if not impossible to be adjusted by Federal legislation,
hence the necessity of local legislatures with adequate powers, and a
general government with its appropriate powers."
"I presume, sir," said the stranger, "that you cannot conscientiously
support the reconstruction measures of Congress and the president?"
"I cannot and will not, sir," responded Colonel Seymour with emphasis;
"and if you were advertant to that point of time in the history of our
late war when, from sheer exhaustion, the South laid down its arms, you
would not ask the question. There were hundreds of thousands of
patriotic men in the North, who, upon the question of the emancipation
of the negro, concurred in its propriety, yea, its necessity, but who
denounced those reactionary measures that were crystalized and enforced
with cruelty against the South. In our judgment these measures were not
only extra-hazardous, but inherently oppressive. It would have been a
pernicious power in the hands of an intelligent, conservative,
law-abiding people, but most deadly in the hands of ignorant,
unscrupulous and truculent officials. You must remember that the South,
in a metaphorical sense, was an immense area sown in grain ready to be
harvested, with its hedges trampled under foot and destroyed, and
inviting cattle and swine to enter and devour. The herds came greedily
through every gap, and like the wild beasts upon our western prairies,
depastured and consumed almost the whole."
"How wonderfully recuperative have been the energies of your people
sir," interrupted the stranger.
"Yes, but will you allow me to proceed?" replied the Colonel; "We
believed that when the war ended, the people of the South relying upon
the pledges made by the union generals in the field before the armies
were disbanded; on the negotiations preceding the surrender; on the
proclamation of President Lincoln; and the publications of the press; as
well as upon the terms actually agreed on between Grant and Lee, and
Johnson and Sherman, at the time of the capitulation of the Confederate
armies; that when resistence to federal authority ceased, and the
supremacy of the constitution of the United States was acknowledged; and
especially after the ordinances of secession were repealed, and an
amendment to the constitution, abolishing slavery wherever it existed,
was ratified by the legislatures of the insurrectionary states; that a
full and complete restoration of the southern states to their former
position of equal states would at once take place; and after the
exhaustion of such a war they hailed the return of peace with
satisfaction; they acknowledged defeat; accepted the situation, and went
to work to rebuild their waste places and to cultivate their crops. The
men who composed the union armies, found on their return home, a
healthy, prosperous, peaceable and well organized society; while the
government with a prodigal hand freely distributed pay, pensions, and
bounties. It was not so in the south; society here was disorganized; the
strain upon the people to supply the armies in the fields had exhausted
their resources; labor was absolutely demoralized; the negroes being
freed, in their ignorance and delusion were not slow to understand their
changed condition, and became aggressive, riotous and lawless. Under
such circumstances it was impossible to restore harmony in the civil
government without the utmost confusion; yet so earnestly did our people
struggle to return to their allegiance and thus entitle them to the
protection which had been promised, that from the day of the surrender
of the Confederate army, not a gun has been fired; no hostile hand has
been uplifted against the authority of the United States, but before
breathing time even was allowed, a set of harpies, many of whom had
shirked the dangers of the battle field, pounced down upon our people to
ravage, plunder, and destroy. All remonstrances, entreaties, resistances
were stifled by the cry of treason and disloyalty and by the hollow
pretence that the plunderers were persecuted because of their loyalty to
the Union. A system has grown up in the South with obstinacy, whereby
great protected monopolies are fostered at the expense of its
agricultural labor; then follow the series of offensive measures known
as the reconstruction acts; but one further observation sir, and I have
done. The English people had no just conception of the oppressions want
only inflicted upon the South; of the insolence and rapacity of the
carpet-baggers and freedmen who were made our masters."
There was quite an interval before the stranger replied.
"Your address sir has been a revelation indeed; it is a lesson of great
educational value and I sincerely hope I may hear you again. Would you
care to present your views in writing?"
The Colonel without any suggestion of evil said to the stranger. That
possibly at some future day he might find the leisure to do so.
"And now you must allow me to thank you, before leaving, for the
courtesy you have shown. I shall take pleasure in reporting this
interview."
Colonel Seymour upon entering his wife's chamber remarked to her "I have
found a friend in need; an Englishman who was delightfully entertaining
and who represents certain humanitarian interests. I expect to hear
something very flattering to the South when he submits a report to his
principal."
Mrs. Seymour who had passed that period in life, when she could look
hopefully upon anything, observed quite sadly. "I hope it is so, my dear
husband; I hope the future has very much happiness in store for you; but
I am suspicious of strangers who seem to have no other business with
you, than to obtain your views upon the unhappy events that are girdling
our home as it were with a zone of fire." "Ah," exclaimed the husband,
"you do not understand, perhaps your opinion will change in a few days."
"I hope so" the sick lady replied feebly.
We pretermit events more or less irritating to follow the urbane
Englishman. The reader has perhaps surmised that he was an agent of the
secret service bureau. This was true, as Colonel Seymour learned to his
sorrow, within forty eight hours after the man and the lady dropped out
of the wide open arms of the old mansion. But how could a southern
gentleman withhold knowledge when sought under such a disguise. He spoke
as he felt; and if the weapons that he used to punctuate his expressions
were boomerangs that impaled him on its points, he could not help it.
Anywhere, everywhere, he would have spoken his convictions without
concealment, without equivocation. Laflin came to Ingleside; came to
foreclose a poor man's liberty, without a day of redemption. The old man
saw the offensive carpet-bagger approaching the mansion and met him
sternly with the interrogatory. "What is your business?"
"Ah!" sneeringly answered the carpet-bagger, "that is a fine question to
ask a gentleman. Do you recognize that seal sir" he continued, handing
the old man an official requisition bearing the broad seal of the
department of justice upon it "you will perhaps conclude, sir, that it
will be compatible with your safety to return with me; I promise you a
safe conduct to Washington."
"I will go with you" replied the old man with all the suavity possible,
"but you will allow me to prepare for the journey."
"Certainly sir," said Laflin, "but I must see that you do not provide
yourself with arms."
"I do not want my house polluted by your presence," cried the old man in
the vehemence of his feelings.
"Then you shall go as you are," gruffly replied the carpet-bagger.
Alice had but little to say to the man, knowing that entreaty or
expostulation would be unavailing, and Clarissa slunk away from him as
if he were the forerunner of the plague. When the Colonel arrived in the
village he saw the white-haired governor with his overcoat upon his
arms, and his valise and umbrella upon a chair beside him. He knew
intuitively that their missions were the same, that their destination
was Washington.
"What are you doing here governor?" asked Colonel Seymour.
The dejected man replied deliberately, "I am going to Washington sir.
May I ask your destination as I observe you are traveling too?"
"You see my guide, do you not," answered the Colonel with a frigid
smile.
"Yes and I am informed he is mine also; so we shall not get lost on the
route shall we?" answered the governor lugubriously. "I presume we shall
have a suite of rooms at the old capital," asked the Colonel
provokingly.
"Perhaps so, if the President doesn't invite us to the executive
mansion. I hope he will do this as I have no bank account North, and but
little currency in my pocket," replied the Governor in irony. "By the
way Colonel," continued the Governor, "did you have an elegant gentleman
and his niece to call upon you a few days ago? Quite an interesting man
was he not? I hope we shall have a good report from him when he returns
home."
"And were you confidential toward this man?" asked Colonel Seymour.
"Why yes, quite so," replied the Governor innocently. "I found him so
agreeable and so intelligent withal, that I told him all that I knew and
I am expecting great things when I hear from him."
"Do you think, Governor," asked the Colonel quizzically, "that the
Englishman has given us free transportation to Washington to be examined
and punished as suspects?"
"Why my dear sir" replied the old Governor, "you alarm me. Is it
possible we are the dupes of a government spy so clever and
intelligent?"
"That is my opinion, sir," replied the Colonel.
"Is it possible? My, my, my!" he ejaculated, and sank back in the
upholstered seat, and after awhile fell asleep.
These were men who had made the wager of battle for eleven proud
commonwealths and lost; men coming now with their patriotism repudiated,
to be told that their traditions were treasonable, their principles
insurrectionary; to be badgered into compliance; to be scourged into
submission; men who believed with a living faith that they had given
American reasons for convictions that ought not to be challenged, coming
now heroically to receive their doom.
The Governor, on entering the great judgment hall with Colonel Seymour,
was surprised to see in the person of the chairman a highly honored
colleague upon the committee of ways and means in the congress of 1858.
The recognition was mutual, and the distinguished chairman descending
from the dais, demonstratively grasped the old Governor's hand,
exclaiming, "My dear sir, what has brought you here?" The excess of joy
experienced by the Governor quite overcame him, and for a moment he did
not answer, but he replied after awhile as coherently as he could, that
he had never been informed of the charge against him.
"Ah!" replied the chairman sympathetically, "That is indeed regretable,
but the discipline of this court does not contain within itself the germ
of an arbitrary prerogative. No man, however bitter may be his opinions
shall be condemned unheard." The Englishman, under the alias of Mr.
Jamieson appeared as a witness in the person of Jonathan Hawkins.
It is unnecessary to go through the trial that followed. "You are at
liberty," said the chairman, at its conclusion, "to go wheresoever you
will. You shall be safeguarded while you remain in the city, and we
shall exert our utmost to protect you and your interests at home. Mr.
Laflin," he continued, "you will procure passports for these gentlemen
whom you have brought here without a pretext of reason."
Our old friends, taking up their hats and canes, returned their grateful
thanks to the honorable commission, whose judicial fairness was so
praise-worthy; and turned their faces homeward; the Governor exclaiming
through his clenched teeth, "The infamous, villainous Englishman!"
"Why, bless my soul, Governor," exclaimed the Colonel in a startled
tone, "What an opportune moment to have carried out the wishes of our
meeting!"
"What meeting do you refer to sir?" asked the Governor in surprise.
"Why, my dear sir, had you forgotten that we were deputized to visit the
authorities in Washington at the meeting presided over by Judge Bonham?"
"Well, well, well!" ejaculated the Governor, "I verily believe, sir, if
peace is not speedily restored to the country that I will become a
driveling idiot."
The Colonel adroitly changed the subject by observing, "It has occurred
to me that if the practical operation of the reconstruction acts was
directly in the control of the authorities in Washington, we should see
that they are our friends; I am sure that the sentiment of the Northern
people is in favor of the restoration of the South, and would counteract
the vicious primary mischief resulting from a criminal abuse of power--I
mean that power that is centralized in the Southern States."
"I am looking for conservative measures myself from the wise men who are
in charge of the government," replied the Governor. "The infernal spoils
system in the South, if not checkmated, will destroy the country. This
same spoils principle has been the cause of more wretchedness and guilt,
individual and national, than any other in the history of human
suffering. It is the incentive alike to the burglar who breaks and
enters your house at night and the highwayman who waylays your path and
takes your life; that, rising from individuals to multitudes, it is the
impelling motive to all the plunderings and desolations of military
conquests; it forces the gates of cities; plunders temples of religion;
the great despoiler of private rights and national independence. It was
the spoils system that united the barbarians of the North and finally
overthrew the vast fabric of Roman policy law and civilization; and it
is this principle, worse than war, that has shaken to their foundation
our free and happy institutions.
Perhaps we shall meet at the cemetery to-morrow, if there are no English
spies around," suggested the Governor.
"Yes, yes; and adieu until then," replied the Colonel, as they alighted
from the cars.
[Illustration: "Dare goes joshaway, now, wid Ole Glory strowed er roun'
him, steppin lak a rare-hoss over de tater ridges."]