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WHEN THE KU KLUX RODE
WHEN THE KU KLUX RODE
BY EYRE DAMER
NEW YORK
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1912
Copyright, 1912, by
The Neale Publishing Company
INTRODUCTION
This work is undertaken with the wish to gratify a popular desire for
addition to the scant literature relating to the Reconstruction Era and
that most remarkable organization of modern times--begotten of conditions
unparalleled in history, conditions which can never recur, and vanishing
with the emergency which created it--the militant Ku Klux Klan. Only one
writer has ventured far into this field of research, which until then
seemed forbidden, and in his contribution to history, fact and fiction are
so interwoven as to be almost indistinguishable. But the widespread and
intense interest manifested in his revelations of the origin and purposes
of the Klan indicates that the present generation eagerly imbibes
knowledge of the sacrifices and achievements of the men who in the awful
crisis of reconstruction, and against almost insuperable obstacles,
rescued the commonwealth from the control of corrupt adventurers and
ignorant freedmen, and established orderly government, without which the
subsequent marvelous development of natural resources and advancement in
education which have placed the state in the forefront of progress would
have been impossible. This evident interest encourages the hope that a
simple narrative of facts connected with the struggle in that part of the
Black Belt of Alabama which formed the Fourth Congressional District, by
one who was in the midst of it and a close observer, will receive a
welcome.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER ONE--PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 9
CHAPTER TWO--NATIVE GOVERNMENT 14
CHAPTER THREE--MILITARY GOVERNMENT 19
CHAPTER FOUR--A GRAVE PROBLEM 26
CHAPTER FIVE--THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU 34
CHAPTER SIX--MILITARY REGULATIONS 38
CHAPTER SEVEN--THE UNION LEAGUE 47
CHAPTER EIGHT--A REPUBLICAN BLUNDER 51
CHAPTER NINE--CARPETBAG GOVERNMENT 54
CHAPTER TEN--RUINOUS MISGOVERNMENT 74
CHAPTER ELEVEN--THE WHITES AROUSED 84
CHAPTER TWELVE--THE KU KLUX KLAN 90
CHAPTER THIRTEEN--A MISCARRIAGE 99
CHAPTER FOURTEEN--A CONVENTION SUPPLEMENTS KU KLUX 104
CHAPTER FIFTEEN--FOILED THE KU KLUX 107
CHAPTER SIXTEEN--IN TUSCALOOSA 114
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN--A SERIES OF TRAGEDIES 116
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN--DISAPPEARANCE OF PRICE 124
CHAPTER NINETEEN--RIOTS IN MARENGO 127
CHAPTER TWENTY--KILLINGS AND RIOTING IN GREENE 132
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE--RESTORATION OF WHITE SUPREMACY 148
WHEN THE KU KLUX RODE
CHAPTER ONE
PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT
In a proclamation which issued on May 10, 1865, the president of the
United States declared the Civil War at an end. April 9, the date of
General Lee's surrender, was recognized as the date of the actual
termination of the war. On May 29, 1865, the president, by proclamation,
directed the restoration of seized private property, except "as to
slaves"; and on June 24, 1865, restored commercial intercourse between all
the states.
Relying on the promises made by federal generals while Southern armies
were in the field; on the terms arranged between Generals Grant and Lee
and Sherman and Johnston when the Southern armies capitulated, and on the
proclamation of the president, the people of Alabama believed that as
soon as they could in the proper way repeal the ordinance of secession and
comply with other immediate requirements, Alabama and the people thereof
would be restored to their former coequal condition in the Union.
The real issue of the war had been the right of the southern people to
renounce allegiance to and citizenship in the Union; in its triumph at
arms the United States sustained its contention that there could be no
such renunciation; and consequently the southern people laid down their
arms as citizens of the United States defeated in the attempt at
renunciation. The authorities at Washington could not fairly avoid this
conclusion, and certainly President Johnson reached it instantly.
That there would be permitted prompt resumption of equal rights, except in
a few cases, was more than hoped for,--it was confidently expected; and
for some time there was no indication that there would be disappointment.
President Johnson's attitude toward the southern states encouraged the
hope of speedy restoration of order and a large measure of prosperity. The
president was as generous as Lincoln would have been, had he survived the
conflict. In order that readers may clearly understand the situation as it
then existed, a brief explanation of President Johnson's attitude is
necessary here:
Immediately following the surrender of the Confederate armies and the
declaration of peace, President Johnson formally stated his view of the
situation to be that the war had neither destroyed nor impaired the Union;
that the southern states had no right to withdraw from the compact, and
having failed by resort to arms to accomplish separation, they emerged
from the strife as they entered it, states and members of the Union, still
possessing their constitutions, laws and territorial boundaries as they
had been prior to the adoption of the ordinance of secession; that the
constitutions and laws of those states, however, must be suspended pending
unavoidable acceptance by the people of the fact that slavery having been
a stake in the struggle, the accomplished abolition of that institution
was irreversible; also, that debts contracted by the states during the war
should be repudiated; that with acquiescence in these requirements the
states should be restored to their former relations with the Union. He
therefore announced as his policy that while the southern states were
adjusting themselves to the change, provisional state governments should
be established as necessary and constitutional agencies; that the citizens
who were included in the proclamation of amnesty, together with those
who, having been leaders in the secession movement, were pardoned, should
participate in the work of restoration; that citizens of the states were
best entitled to fill the public offices, and should be appointed to them;
that the emancipated slaves were not qualified to take part in such work,
nor had the president of the United States power to confer upon them the
right of suffrage, because the determination of their political status was
a function of the states.
In the light of subsequent events, there can be no doubt that President
Johnson's views and purposes were wise and statesmanlike, and had they
prevailed, the horrors caused by congressional enactments would not have
afflicted the people, nor would the relations between the races have
become unfriendly, as they did, and continue to be. But, unfortunately,
the embittered and aspiring leaders in Congress were planning at
cross-purposes with the president. His moderate and conservative course,
and scrupulous respect for his oath to support the Constitution, seemed
along in 1866 to have won popular favor; but his indiscreet expressions in
public addresses in western cities created hostility so strong that in the
congressional elections his enemies triumphed over him. By two-thirds
votes in Congress they nullified his vetoes of oppressive legislation; and
in 1868 the Senate reinstated Secretary of War Stanton, whom he had
during the previous year suspended from office. Out of this transaction
grew the unsuccessful attempt to impeach him. While this attempt failed,
the president's influence with his party was destroyed and he was
powerless to enforce his beneficent policies.
CHAPTER TWO
NATIVE GOVERNMENT
But meanwhile, having announced his policy in reorganizing the southern
states, President Johnson in the summer of 1865 appointed Lewis E.
Parsons, of Talladega, provisional governor of the state of Alabama, and
that gentleman entered upon the discharge of his duties. There was popular
approval of the appointment. Parsons was a native of New York, but long a
resident and practicing lawyer in Talladega, an uncompromising Whig and
Union man, possessing fine abilities and much dignity.
On July 20 Governor Parsons published a proclamation directing that an
election be held in each county on August 3 for delegates to a state
convention to assemble on September 12, 1865. Accordingly, intelligent and
patriotic delegates were chosen in all the counties, and the convention
met at the capitol in Montgomery, with Benjamin Fitzpatrick presiding.
That convention, dealing with the constitution, abolished the ordinance in
relation to the institution of slavery, declared null and void the
ordinance of secession and other ordinances and proceedings of the
convention of 1861; adopted ordinances repudiating the war debt, and
provided for an election for state, county and municipal officers and
members of Congress, and assembling of the legislature on the third Monday
in November, 1865. The convention then adjourned, subject to call of the
presiding officer.
Worthy of note here is the fact that Alabama, in its sovereignty, and
represented by some of its best citizens, abolished slavery within its
borders. Alexander White, who subsequently was among the first to adopt
"the new departure" (acquiescence in all the measures of reconstruction),
was the only delegate in the convention who voted against the proposition
to make abolition of slavery constitutional; but outside the convention,
Governor Parsons and Samuel Rice, also to become "new departurists,"
concurred with him; while General Clanton, who was the wise and fearless
leader of the Democratic party from its reorganization until the day of
his tragic death, advocated both that measure and the extension of civil
rights to the negroes.
And also worthy of note is the fact that Judge Brooks, of Selma, judge
Goldthwaite, of Montgomery, and others of unquestioned loyalty to their
people, shortly after in the legislature advocated qualified suffrage for
negroes. This was prior to the advent of carpetbaggers and organization in
Alabama of the Republican party.
Under this authority, an election was held, and the legislature then
elected assembled on November 20, 1865, and ratified the amendments to the
federal Constitution, excepting the fourteenth. That was regarded as
equivalent to a bill of attainder, depriving vast numbers of the rights of
citizenship without trial. The legislature comprised a majority of men who
had been anti-secessionists--the senate at least two-thirds; but they had
held offices before the war and served the Confederate government. The
legislature rejected the fourteenth amendment; its adoption would have
been political suicide for the members. It enacted a law to protect
freedmen in Alabama in their rights of person and property. The federal
authorities were duly notified of the proceedings, and on December 18,
1865, Governor Parsons received from Secretary of State Seward a telegram
saying that "in the judgment of the president the time had arrived when
the care and conduct of the affairs of Alabama could be remitted to the
constitutional authorities chosen by the people thereof without danger to
the peace and safety of the United States", and directing him to transfer
to his excellency the governor of Alabama, the papers and property in his
hands. Accordingly, on December 10, 1865, Robert M. Patton, of Lauderdale,
was inaugurated governor, and Parsons retired.
(Patton was a Virginian, long settled as a merchant in northern Alabama.
As a Whig, he had served in both houses of the legislature and become
president of the senate. In the election of 1865, he defeated Colonel M.
J. Bulger. He was intelligent and painstaking in the discharge of duties.
Patton continued in the office of governor until 1868, several months
beyond the full term, pending action by Congress respecting the results of
the election of that year, when he was displaced by operation of the
reconstruction acts. During his incumbency a federal military commander,
supported by soldiers stationed in the capitol, supervised all of his
appointments and official acts.)
As evidence of confidence, the legislature elected former Governor Parsons
United States senator for the term ending March 3, 1871. At the same time,
it chose George S. Houstan for the term ending March 3, 1867, and John
Anthony Winston for the term of six years, commencing March 4, 1867.
At the election in November, 1865, C. C. Langdon was elected to Congress
from the first district: George C. Freemen, from the second; Cullen A.
Battle, from the third; Joseph W. Taylor, from the fourth; Burwell T.
Pope, from the fifth, and Thomas J. Foster, from the sixth.
Then came early rumblings of the storm that was soon to break. These
chosen men were not permitted to take their seats as representatives, and
the state was not represented in Congress until 1868.
CHAPTER THREE
MILITARY GOVERNMENT
March 2, 1867, after two years of peace, Congress passed over President
Johnson's veto a bill relegating the southern states to the condition of
conquered provinces. A military commander was appointed and authorized to
supersede civil and judicial tribunals by military courts of his own
creation, with power to inflict usual punishments, excepting only death.
This act was supplemented with another, of July 13, forbidding state
authorities to interfere with the military commander, who was given the
additional power to displace any official and appoint his successor. This
act provided that military rule should cease within a state when a
convention of the people thereof should frame, and the voters adopt, a
constitution ratifying the amendment to the federal Constitution which
conferred the suffrage on negroes, and being otherwise acceptable to
Congress, and when the legislature also should ratify that amendment.
The new constitution was to be framed by delegates to be chosen by votes
of all male citizens of legal age, excepting those disfranchised by the
fourteenth amendment; and it was to be ratified by an affirmative vote of
a majority of voters registered under the supervision of the military
commander and his subalterns.
Under the reconstruction acts of 1867, in April of that year, Alabama
became a part of the department comprising, with itself, the states of
Georgia and Florida. The military commander called a convention to frame a
constitution. At the election for delegates the polls were kept open for
five days. The whites held aloof from it. The gathering of delegates thus
elected was stigmatized as "the carpetbaggers' convention." The men who
composed it and framed the constitution were in many cases grossly corrupt
and ignorant.
As an illustration of the character of the men sent to the convention,
Samuel Hale, a brother of United States Senator Hale, one of the few Union
men and later Republicans resident in Sumter county, wrote Senator Wilson
in January, 1868, a letter protesting against recognition by Congress of
radicals in the south, in which he said that the men who sat in the
convention and framed the constitution were, "so far as I am acquainted
with them, worthless vagabonds, homeless, houseless, drunken knaves";
that the Sumter delegates were a negro and two whites--Yordy and Rolfe.
Rolfe, he said, left his family in New York and had not seen them for four
years, during which period he had led an immoral life with negroes; that
he was known as the "Hero of Two Shirts," having left at a hotel in Selma,
as security for an unpaid hotel bill, his carpetbag containing only two
shirts: that his name was not signed to the constitution which he helped
to frame because he was too drunk to write it. These men and Hays and
Price, all strangers, were the only white men in Sumter county who took
part in the election for delegates. As an early indication of future
leadership, at that election Price ordered the negroes to secure their
arms and prevent expulsion from the booth of one of their members who was
vauntingly flourishing a gun. Only intervention by cool-headed whites
prevented trouble. Mr. Hale, in the letter quoted from, stigmatized the
election thus: "As shameless a fraud as was ever perpetrated upon the face
of the earth."
Rolfe and Hays were wheelwrights, but their talents found employment in
more lucrative occupations. Rolfe's first "get-rich-quick" scheme was the
selling to negroes of badges, which he said he was engaged in by order of
General Grant.
While agent of the Freedmen's Bureau Hays defrauded negroes of a thousand
dollars derived from sales of cotton with which they had entrusted him.
That was his disappearing act.
That convention deprived of the right to vote all men who were proscribed
by the fourteenth amendment from holding office.
The constitution framed called for an election in February, 1868, to which
it was to be submitted for ratification, and at which time officers were
to be elected. It was submitted under a solemn congressional provision
that if it should not receive in its favor the ballots of a majority of
the registered voters, it was to be considered as rejected.
The Democratic convention of 1865 entrusted to the party's state executive
committee, of which General James H. Clanton was chairman, all matters of
policy. When the military order for the convention issued, General Clanton
called into council with the executive committee one hundred of the
leading men of the state. After deliberation, they concluded that the
wisest course for the party to pursue would be to go to the polls and
endeavor to defeat the constitution, but, in view of the possibility of
failure in this, to place candidates in the field, to be voted for under
it. Having agreed on this policy, the council was about to adjourn, when
the chairman received from ex-Governor Parsons, who was the accredited
agent in Washington of the Democratic party, a dispatch, saying:
"I am on my way to Montgomery; will be there to-night. Don't adjourn your
convention; don't act till I get there."
The council waited, and the former governor arrived and delivered a
speech, in which he uttered the memorable sentence:
"So far as the reconstruction measures are concerned, and this
constitution, touch not, taste not, handle not the unclean thing."
He said that this was in accordance with the advice of President Johnson.
Messrs. Samuel Rice and Alexander White supported the ex-governor, and the
council was persuaded to reverse its decision and advise the voters to
refrain from taking any part in the election. Mr. White prepared the
address to the voters.
Accordingly, the Democratic voters abstained from voting, and only one
Democratic state senator was elected, and he was not endorsed. Negroes in
battalions, armed with muskets and stepping to the beat of drums, marched
to the polls, stacked arms, placed guards about them, and cast their
ballots for the constitution and their candidates.
The registration of voters for the election of 1868 was under military
supervision and regulation. Registration was kept open at polling places
up to and including time of election. The registers of voters and election
officers were appointed by military officers, and nearly every register
was a candidate for office. He was given power to reject any applicant for
registration. Soldiers were present at all polling places to enforce the
regulations, which forbade the challenging of illegal voters: citizens
were forbidden under severe penalties to warn election judges or expose
the fact even if they should see a non-resident or minor or repeater offer
to deposit a ballot. Voters were permitted to cast their ballots at any
precinct in the county. Negroes were eligible to all offices.
The returns of the election disclosed the fact that the majority of the
registered voters had abstained from participation in the election, and
hence the constitution was not adopted by the people--according to the
declaration of the military authorities, lacking 8,000 of the requisite
number of votes. In view of this authoritative declaration, the radical
candidates did not claim the offices to which they had aspired, and the
incumbents for the time being were not disturbed. But, to the amazement of
the people and its own dishonor, Congress in June, 1868, accepted the
constitution as ratified by the people, and recognized the candidates as
elected officers, and in July they were installed by military power, the
former officers retiring under protest.
In order that the reader may understand the situation and how poorly
prepared were the people for such a reign, we must go back to the
beginning and note other occurrences which had a direct bearing on that
situation.
CHAPTER FOUR
A GRAVE PROBLEM
At the termination of the war between the sections, the southern people
had thrust upon them for solution the gravest and most difficult problem
with which the white race on this continent was ever perplexed,--how to
preserve their civilization with the government operating in opposition to
their efforts.
After four years of warfare, the south was prostrate before the victorious
people of the north, whose armies were quartered in garrisons everywhere
in the surrendered territory, to enforce with arms, if necessary, whatever
oppressive and humiliating measures might be conceived in hatred and
vengeance by fanatics whose intolerance had made the bloody conflict
irrepressible, and who were determined to extend and perpetuate the
political power gained by conquest. The means adopted were enfranchisement
of the emancipated slaves and disfranchisement of all white men who had at
all distinguished themselves as leaders, while extending favors to those
who would ally themselves with the oppressors and betray their countrymen.
The difficulties of the situation in which the defeated southerners were
placed were appalling. Naught of the former wealth of the country was left
save the land--which in the disorganized state of labor was almost a
burden to the possessors--and some cotton which had accumulated because
exportation was prevented by the blockade of the ports; and upon this the
federal government imposed an unconstitutional tax of three cents a pound.
Farm implements were crude and scarce; the necessities of the Confederate
government in its expiring struggles had stripped the country of the best
of the draft and food animals; in the Black Belt there were no factories;
development of transportation had been checked in its incipiency;
education was almost abandoned, and the civil laws suspended. Everything
had to be organized or reorganized.
Cotton was one of the principal resources left to the people at the close
of the war. In great demand and readily convertible into money at prices
ranging from fifty cents a pound upward, and in considerable quantities,
it would have furnished means for a "fresh start" had the people been
permitted to hold it in undisputed possession; but the government
begrudged even this remnant of lost fortunes. Unfortunately, during the
war agents of the Confederacy from time to time contracted for quantities
of cotton, to be paid for in bonds, but in most cases there had been no
actual transfer of either bonds or cotton, and the latter remained on the
plantations. After the surrender of General Taylor to General Canby, the
federal commander promulgated an order requiring all persons who held such
cotton to surrender it to the United States agents, under penalty of
confiscation of their property. The military authorities claimed this
cotton as a prize of war, and treasury agents--some of them fictitious, as
afterward proven--were soon ranging the country in search for it. The
holders believed that the question of ownership was at least debatable.
Prior to the surrender, the Confederate government, fearing that federal
raiders would seize the cotton, ordered that it be destroyed by the
holders; but the authority of that government was not then potent, and the
planters, instead of obeying the order, conveyed the bales to places of
concealment in swamps and elsewhere, and believed that this act confirmed
their claim to ownership. Some of the cotton was thus concealed when the
agents began their search. The order of seizure was subsequently so
modified as to permit the original holders to claim one-fourth of the
cotton as compensation for caretaking. Very few took advantage of this
concession; and, indeed, the greedy agents actually suppressed the order
for months while the seizures were in progress. Attorneys who contested
before military tribunals the right of seizure argued that, by reason of
non-delivery, sales to the Confederate government had not been completed,
and that the federal government had no right to capture the cotton after
final surrender of the Confederate armies; but in some instances these
attorneys were arrested and threatened with imprisonment unless they
abated their zeal in behalf of clients.
There was in resulting evil practices a touch of picturesqueness. The
unconquered and unconquerable veterans of the vanquished southern armies,
in many instances impoverished, were ripe for any enterprise which
promised congenial adventure and spoils which they regarded as legitimate.
The agents went about supported by federal troops, and many were the
clashes between the latter and so-called guerrilla bands composed of their
late antagonists on other and more glorious fields. These bands were
actuated by the conviction that the Confederate government having had no
clear title to ownership of the cotton, the conquerors succeeded to none;
and so they took up the contest where the intimidated attorneys dropped
it, and contested with the agents and their armed supporters. These
agents were well supplied with army teams and wagons, and often these,
falling into the hands of the "guerrillas," served the captors as a
convenient means of transportation of booty. Yet, it sometimes happened
that the guerrillas were the captives, and when in the toils were in sore
straits to raise the ransom which was exacted in lieu of arrest and
arraignment for trial. Even steamboats were hauled to and relieved of
cargoes. That was the golden era for steamboatmen, when freight charges
and salaries, especially of pilots, were phenomenal.
These transactions soon degenerated into plunder pure and simple,
involving private cotton to which the government could lay no sort of
claim.
Perhaps there had been collusion between holders of "Confederate" cotton
and the raiding bands which seized and bore it off; anyhow, the inevitable
effect was that unscrupulous men, taking advantage of popular tolerance of
practices which originally sprang from patriotic impulses, disregarded
private rights and indiscriminately stole. Planters paid for guards as
high as thirty dollars each per night at critical times. Men who were
unaccustomed to the command of money grew rich in a brief space and
correspondingly lavish in their expenditures. Extravagance and
demoralization which left their enduring impress ensued. Admissions were
made in high quarters in after years that not one-tenth of the proceeds of
cotton seized by agents ever went into the treasury of the United States.
One example will suffice: An agent in Demopolis claimed and was allowed
for four months' services, on the basis of one-fourth of the cotton seized
by him, $80,000; and the settlement was between him and military
authorities who were quite as adept as he in the art of pilfering. Thus in
a time of stress the producers were despoiled and adventurers enriched by
the ungenerous policy of the victorious government.
* * * * *
The following facts are gathered from evidence taken before the committee
in Congress in the investigation as to General Howard:
At the close of the war there were held in the south at least five million
bales of cotton, worth in Liverpool $500,000,000. Only a fraction of this
cotton was owned by the Confederate states government, and this was turned
over to General E. R. S. Canby by General E. Kirby Smith on May 24, 1865.
Besides the swarm of official agents, informers and spies sent down by the
Treasury Department in search of Confederate cotton, contracts were made
with private individuals to engage in the work. Much cotton was taken from
plantations before the owners returned to their homes after the
disbandment of the armies. Seizures were indiscriminate. Proof of private
ownership had to be supported by tender of toll; there was no redress.
A Treasury Department regulation required that all cotton seized in the
Atlantic and Gulf states should be shipped to Simon Draper, United States
cotton agent in New York City; and that seized on the upper Mississippi
river and in northern Georgia and northern Alabama to William P. Mellen,
agent in Cincinnati. These agents sold by samples which were spurious and
inferior to the cotton which they represented. Accordingly, cotton worth
sixty cents to one dollar per pound was sold for ten to fifteen cents. The
purchasers were in collusion with the agent. By the system of "plucking,"
the weight of bales was reduced anywhere from one hundred to two hundred
pounds before they were sold: the plucked cotton was termed "waste
cotton," packed and sold as "trash" to mills, but not at trash prices.
These terms figured only in the reports to the department. Sometimes
owners traced stolen cotton to the New York or Cincinnati agency; and if a
thousand bales were involved, the agent reported that only two hundred had
been received, and of very inferior quality, and was sold for ten or
fifteen cents per pound, which his books would prove; that
transportation, storage and commissions left only a small sum. Draper,
when he became cotton agent, was a bankrupt. Subsequently he settled his
debts and when he died was a multimillionaire. Fifty million dollars'
worth of cotton was shipped to Draper; the government derived only
$15,000,000 net from that source as the reward for the wrong which it had
committed in entrusting the enforcement of its doubtful claim against the
impoverished southern people to dishonest and unscrupulous agents.
The Confederate States government imposed a tax in kind upon all
provisions produced on plantations--one-tenth. The first year after the
war this tax was enforced in some isolated sections by orders of minor
military officers, and collected by agents. Of course this was fraudulent,
and was stopped after a while.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU
Meanwhile, the Freedmen's Bureau had been established. General Swayne
promulgated an order recognizing as agents of the bureau former civil
magistrates who could and would obtain endorsement of negroes; but, as a
rule, carpetbaggers filled the places. Offices were opened at the county
seats, where complaints of freedmen were lodged and investigations
conducted. The agents prescribed a uniform division of products of the
soil between planters and hands. They supervised all contracts and
regulated the conduct of affairs between employer and employe, and their
dicta were absolute and final, being enforced, if necessary, by soldiers
of the garrison.
The agents gave notice that nobody would be allowed to employ freedmen
unless the contracts were submitted to and approved by them and left in
their custody. They gave ear to any tale of complaining freedmen, arrested
the white man complained of, tried and punished him, unless he proved
willing to purchase immunity. Sometimes after the planter had contracted
in the prescribed manner with freedmen, and had his crops in process of
cultivation, the hands would quit work, and only intervention by the agent
would make them return. Such intervention cost as high as ten dollars per
hand, and the occasion for it might recur before the crops could be
gathered. Some of the agents secured plantations and used them as refuges
for dissatisfied freedmen, who were fed and clothed.
The agents were as a rule "fanatics without character or responsibility,
and were selected as fit instruments to execute the partisan and
unconstitutional behests of a most unscrupulous head." (Senator Beck, in
an official report.) Some of them were preachers, and had been selected as
being the most devout, zealous and loyal of a certain religious sect. In
league meetings they told the negroes that although they had been married
according to plantation custom for many years, they must procure licenses
and be remarried. Thus they made large sums in fees, in many instances
from old couples who had grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
All of this was humiliating and irritating to the planters, but submitted
to so long as the agents confined their activities to legitimate
functions. But they soon became mischievously meddlesome, and discovered
in their powers means for promoting their political fortunes.
As a body, the negroes had been conducting themselves with propriety, and
good feeling prevailed. Their greatest delight was in the dignity of
unaccustomed surnames, duster coats, gauntlet gloves, albums, clocks and
other wares, with which enterprising northern peddlers tempted them. Their
childish delight in these novel possessions for a while filled the measure
of their happiness. But some of them who had been following armies
contracted nomadic habits; others were incapable of rational exercise of
their novel privileges, and became disturbers of the peace. Their
depredations soon rendered stock raising impracticable. Every plantation
had a gin-house, and these houses, with their valuable contents, were
exposed to incendiaries seeking revenge for real or fancied grievances,
and many were destroyed. Men with the "easy money" acquired during the
period of cotton stealing set up crossroad stores at every available point
and dispensed vile whiskey in barter for bags of loose cotton and corn,
ostensibly the "shares" of those offering them, but really often stolen
from lint rooms and cribs, and even from the ungarnered crops in the
fields. These traders did an immense business, many of them setting up
gins and baling screws. The existing "sundown and sunrise" law was enacted
to destroy this nefarious traffic. It prohibited the sale of farm products
between sunset and sunrise.
CHAPTER SIX
MILITARY REGULATIONS
Another cause of irritation was the offensive conduct of soldiers
composing the garrisons, which provoked collisions with the more impetuous
citizens. In 1865 the federal soldiers in Tuscaloosa, Greensboro, Eutaw
and other towns subjected the people to very offensive regulations. Only a
few examples need be mentioned as exhibiting the temper of both sides: The
former soldiers of the Confederacy, having no means with which to
replenish their wardrobes, wore their uniforms. The federals threatened,
and sometimes attempted, to cut the buttons from the old gray coats, and
the proud wearers were forced to resort to the expedient of covering them
with thin cloth rather than let them serve as a pretext for insults. Flags
were stretched across the sidewalks, so that pedestrians would have to
pass under them. To defeat the obvious purpose, men and women, in going
about, resorted to the roadway or diverged from the sidewalks at points
where the flags were placed. In some instances these unwilling and
protesting people were seized and forced under the flags. These and other
practices, devised to provoke the people to exhibitions of hostility,
caused severe smarting. Perhaps many young men who had received war
schooling were not reluctant to encounter their former antagonists.
A memorable tragedy, with annoying consequences, resulted from such an
encounter. August 31, 1865, election day, the brothers Tom and Toode
Cowan, formerly heroic members of Forrest's cavalry, became involved in a
controversy with a squad of soldiers of the garrison in Greensboro; in the
resulting affray pistols were used; the younger Cowan killed one of the
soldiers, while his brother dangerously wounded another. The slayer
mounted a horse and escaped, but the intrepid Tom scorned flight and
yielded only to overpowering numbers. Intense excitement prevailed; the
enraged soldiers sprang to arms, seized Cowan, and, defying their
officers, prepared to hang the prisoner. At the critical moment came a
message from the wounded man, generously acknowledging he was the
aggressor and pleading for a fair trial for Cowan. This appeased the
military mob and the prisoner was locked up. That night squads of cavalry
roamed the country, ostensibly seeking the fugitive, but really to disarm
and arrest the planters. Mr. Cowan was tried and acquitted. His brother
was not apprehended.
In some cases the soldiers were insubordinate and manifested hostility to
the people. One notable example in illustration is recalled: During the
hours of darkness soldiers burned the Episcopal church in Demopolis. Some
of them were detected with articles stolen from the sacred edifice, and
the colonel was requested to have the impious robbers arrested. That
officer declined to make the order, because the guilty men were dangerous
characters and would seek revenge if called to account. Indeed, they
threatened that when transferred from Demopolis they would set fire to the
town. To prevent the execution of this purpose, another colonel was
substituted for the commander of the regiment, and he placed sentinels
around the quarters and marched the men away in ignorance of the fact that
it was their final departure.
In Greensboro, in 1867, was enacted another regrettable tragedy, the
attendant circumstances of which intensified the growing hostility between
the races. John C. Orick shot and killed Aleck Webb, negro register of
voters. The shooting occurred in daylight and on one of the principal
sidewalks. Orick calmly retired from the scene, locked the doors of his
store, and in disguise fled the town.
Orick was a bold, dashing and handsome young man who had won enviable
laurels in the war. When hardly more than a boy, his adventurous spirit
impelled him to leave home without parental consent and attach himself to
Colonel Mosby's command. One of his achievements is worthy of mention
here: As an "observer" he visited Baltimore and Washington, and in the
latter city ascertained the time of departure of the army pay train on the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad. Reporting to his commander the valuable
information he had acquired, successful plans were formed for the capture
of the train by Mosby's command. With his share of the booty obtained in
this enterprise, Orick, after the final surrender, purchased a stock of
goods and established himself in business in Greensboro.
The negroes of the town and vicinity bitterly resented the killing of
Webb, and during the night large bands of them roamed the surrounding
country, avowedly seeking the slayer, but really bent on any mischief for
which opportunity might offer. One band went to the Gewin premises. A
young man, a member of the family, in his night clothes and barefooted,
was encountered in the yard. Seeing that the marauders intercepted retreat
to the house, Gewin fled to the woods, hotly pursued. After a chase which
extended for a mile, over rough fields and woods, the fleeing man was
overhauled, tied to the bare back of a horse and conveyed to the office of
Dr. Blackford, in Greensboro. After a lengthy parley, his friends secured
his release.
At dusk the town was thronged with infuriated armed negroes, who
threatened to apply the torch. After some of the leading citizens had
vainly expostulated with them, the whites armed themselves and prepared to
expel them by force; but when Gewin was released, the negroes retired,
sullenly, and a clash was averted.
The Gewin family and its connections comprised a considerable number of
brave and resolute men, of remarkably fine physique, and they and their
friends were indignant with Blackford, the probate judge, because of the
suspicion that he had directed the negroes who committed the outrage,--a
suspicion justified by the fact that Gewin was conveyed to Blackford's
office. Everybody sympathized with them. It was said that Blackford told
the negroes they should avenge the killing of Webb, and that he instigated
the incendiary threats, and he was thenceforward regarded as a factor of
disturbance in the community.
As a result of these occurrences, an organization was formed in Greensboro
for public defense, and arms were obtained. The members were, in event of
necessity, to assemble at the ringing of a certain bell, and a rendezvous
was selected. No oath was required of the members.
The first attempt to enforce the flag regulation in the case of a woman,
in Tuscaloosa, was the last. Intrepid Ryland Randolph, editor of the
_Monitor_, in uncontrollable indignation seized a sabre and in person
challenged the responsible commander to mortal combat. Declining the
proposed close encounter, that official thenceforward was more circumspect
in his conduct.
The story of Randolph's career is an interesting part of the history of
Tuscaloosa. As an editor, he was belligerent, and relentless in his
denunciation of radical maladministration of public affairs. So effective
was his hostility that publication of his paper (official organ of the Ku
Klux) was suppressed by military order. He accepted a challenge to a duel
provoked by attacks upon the chief justice of the state supreme court,
addressed to him by the judge's son-in-law; but on the field mutual
friends effected an amicable and honorable settlement.
A less dignified encounter involved him in more serious difficulties.
Opposite the _Monitor_ office a number of negroes were assembled one day,
and two of them assaulted a white man. Suddenly Randolph, with pistol and
bowie-knife in hand, appeared in the midst of the struggling throng. One
shot was fired by him, when he, in turn, became the object of attack. One
of the assailants, a political leader, received in his side a thrust from
Randolph's bowie, and another in the back, where the broken point of the
knife remained. Within a few minutes the prostrate leader was the only one
who remained on the scene. But the negroes, with augmented numbers,
reassembled a short distance away. Randolph returned to his office and
reappeared with a shotgun. His dauntless bearing discouraged further
hostile demonstration by the blacks. In consequence of this affair,
Randolph was arrested by the soldiers and taken to Montgomery for trial.
En route, by stage-coach, he was made a spectacle for gloating negroes. He
was acquitted, and his return was made an occasion of popular
manifestation of esteem. A cavalcade met him some miles outside of
Tuscaloosa, and on nearer approach to town was magnified into a vast
procession of carriages and marchers, embracing men and women and school
children. The procession moved to the sound of bells. A great meeting,
with speechmaking, followed.
At that time the University of Alabama, at Tuscaloosa, was controlled by
the radicals and boycotted by the whites. A brother of Governor Smith was
a regent of the institution, and this regent's son a student. One of the
professors, Vaughan, had been persistently assailed by the _Monitor_,
which charged him with incompetence and drunkenness. It was said that
Vaughan enlisted Smith as a champion. Anyhow, the two sought Randolph on
the streets and found him in conversation with a friend. While Vaughan
stood some distance away, Smith approached Randolph and insultingly
jostled him. Simultaneously and without hesitation, the two men drew
pistols and began firing, each discharging five chambers of his revolver.
One shot struck a thick book in Randolph's coat pocket and lodged therein;
another struck above the knee and ranged up the thigh, his leg being
crooked at the moment. This shot necessitated amputation of the injured
limb. An innocent bystander on the opposite side of the street was killed
by a stray bullet. Smith and Vaughan were arrested. The former was rescued
by fellow students and fled to Utah.
Randolph survived the reconstruction period and enjoyed the restoration of
white supremacy. He died in 1903 from the effects of a fall in a
streetcar.
An incident of the military regime in Eutaw early embittered relations
between the people and their rulers. An "undesirable citizen" was given a
ride on a rail. In the court martial trial of the accused, James A.
Steele, Thomas W. Roberts, F. H. Mundy, John Cullen, Hugh L. White,
William Pettigrew and Mr. Strayhorn were sentenced to hard labor at Dry
Tortugas for periods ranging from two to six years. The circumstances
attending their treatment as prisoners exhibited harshness which aroused
indignation. Handcuffed and chained, they were conveyed by a squad to New
Orleans and thence by sea to the island prison. They were not permitted to
communicate with their families or friends nor to receive funds to relieve
their wants. Their sufferings and indignities were severe and humiliating.
An appeal in their behalf, with a presentation of the facts connected with
the trial, was made to General Meade, and that commander remitted the
sentence. The return of the victims to their homes was made the occasion
of a memorable demonstration of popular feeling.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE UNION LEAGUE
In pursuance of their schemes which culminated at the election in 1868,
the carpetbag adventurers early in 1867 organized everywhere in Alabama
branches of the Union League, a secret, oathbound political society, with
all the mysticism of grips, signs, signals and passwords, national in
scope, with grand national and grand state councils. Secrecy and obedience
to commands were enjoined under severest penalties, including even death.
Their meeting places were guarded by armed sentinels. The negro members
were taught to disregard the feelings and interests of the whites, and
told that if their former masters should obtain control of the government,
they would re-enslave them; and this was an irresistible appeal to
ignorant people enjoying the first delights of release from bondage. On
the other hand, they were promised that if the Republicans should gain
control, they would enact such oppressive tax laws that the landowners
would be unable to meet the exactions, and consequently their lands would
be forfeited; after which the Republicans would allot them in parcels of
forty acres, together with a mule, to each head of a negro family resident
thereon; they were told, further, that, in order to facilitate and
expedite this process of confiscation and apportionment, they should
slight their work and thus increase the difficulties under which their
former masters would have to struggle to save their properties from
spoliation. The student of history should not be harsh in judgment of the
negro because of his susceptibility to a lure so enticing. He was
ignorant, and regarded every pretentious white stranger as one of that
great army which had liberated him from bondage.
Serious as was the situation, it was not without amusement in its
demonstration of the negro's gullibility. A bogus "land agent" circulated
slips conveying directions regarding "preemption of homesteads," and the
credulous negroes bought them, and, besides, painted sticks with pointed
ends to be driven into the ground to mark their boundaries; they also
purchased chances in a sort of lottery for the distribution of parcels of
land. All of these were sold under alleged authority received from the
government at Washington, all dependent on the success of the Republican
party.