southern states, to learn the feelings and intentions of the people and to
ascertain to what extent, in the interest of economy, the military forces
there could be reduced. He reported that white troops excited no
opposition: thinking men would offer no violence to them. But black troops
demoralized labor, "and the late slaves seem to be infused with the idea
that the property of their late masters should by right belong to them, or
at least should have no protection from the colored soldiers. There is
danger of collision being brought by such causes."
The so-called abandoned lands on the coast of South Carolina and
Georgia--lands from which whites had fled to escape dangers of the
war--were actually seized and colonized with wandering negroes, though the
lands were afterward restored to the owners. The germ of the "forty acres
and a mule" idea, no doubt, originated in those colonies. The idea was of
early conception, as the Grant report shows.
The first annoyances caused by the league were the neglect of field work
by negroes in order to attend political meetings in daylight, and taking
hard-worked mules from lots at night and riding them to league meetings.
But in the course of time the organization assumed a military aspect,
drilling regularly. Bodies appeared in procession, in regular company
order, with arms, banners, drums and fifes, the officers wearing
side-arms. At the election they were met outside the towns by emissaries
and furnished with tickets, and then proceeded to the polling places and
deposited them as directed. All of this appealed to the negroes' taste for
novelty and spectacle.
CHAPTER EIGHT
A REPUBLICAN BLUNDER
This narrative is now brought again to the point at which it digressed,
the election on the constitution, but before resuming that subject a few
words of comment here will not be out of place.
The perfidy of Congress in imposing upon the people of Alabama, in
violation of its own solemn covenant, a constitution which they had
rejected in a lawful manner, was a blunder fatal to the future influence
of the Republican party in Alabama. The fourteenth amendment had already
injured the party because of its application to great numbers of men who
might have allied themselves with it if they had not been involved in the
proscription. They had opposed secession as long as there was any reason
in opposition, and then reluctantly adapted themselves to the situation.
Jefferson Davis had been in prison, demanding trial and ready to abide the
result; he was discharged, and the proceedings looking to personal
punishment abandoned. Other leaders, including Admiral Semmes, "the
pirate," as he was termed in intensity of hatred, were at their homes,
pursuing the vocations of peace and ready to try the issue. The excuse for
abandoning the prosecution was that, the fourteenth amendment having
imposed the penalty of deprivation of citizen rights, the courts could not
inflict other punishment.
Thus, the men who had, at the cost of popular good will and private
friendship, opposed with all their abilities severance of the Union were
equally subject to a penalty deemed adequate for "the arch traitor" and
"the pirate," so called.
Then, there were thousands of men in northern Alabama not subject to the
proscription, who were nursing the grievance that Democrats had
precipitated secession without permitting the people to vote on the
ordinance. They believed that, had it been submitted, it would have been
defeated. Northern Alabama was so loyal to the Union that leaders there
proposed separation of that section at the line of the mountains, and that
its people organize and "fight it out" in the foothills. But the
promptness with which the Confederate authorities organized the military
forces discouraged such a project. The strong resentment of the summary
accomplishment of secession was rendered bitter by conscription laws.
Sections of the mountains in which drastic measures were necessary to
enforce those laws became easy recruiting grounds for the federal army.
It is recorded that 2,700 men from Walker, Winston and Fayette counties
enlisted in one federal command. North Alabama was more than once occupied
by contending armies, and partisan organizations embittered the contest.
In central and southern Alabama were many Whigs and Union men who had no
liking for the Democratic party.
In this state of affairs, convinced that not many of the proud
Confederates would sue for relief from fourteenth amendment disabilities,
and that the constitution which disqualified thousands of white voters
would perpetuate negro supremacy in Alabama, the Republican leaders in
Congress committed a wrong which to this day bears heavily upon their
party.
CHAPTER NINE
CARPETBAG GOVERNMENT
The negroes had exercised without hindrance their new privilege of the
suffrage. Their incapacity as voters was illustrated in the character of
the men who assumed office after the election in 1868.
In Sumter county, Tobias Lane was elected probate judge, but during the
period of uncertainty when the constitution was in abeyance, concluding
that congressional action respecting it would be unfavorable, he packed
his carpetbag and returned to Ohio, having been one of the migrants from
that state, so prolific of birds of his feather.
Beville, the sheriff, was an appointee of General Swayne. He was unable to
give bond, but Swayne waived that formality and ordered him to continue in
office without bond. In 1868 Richard Harris, a negro, who could neither
read nor write, became his worthy successor.
As solicitor the discriminating voters chose Ben Bardwell, a negro, who
was wholly deficient in the knowledge of reading and writing, a
deficiency which made him "an easy mark" for one of the most learned bars
in the state.
George Houston, a freedman, was sent to the lower house of the
legislature. As his colleague Ben Inge, another "person of color,"
absolutely illiterate, was selected.
An army captain, one Yordy, received the state senatorial honors, which he
wore while serving Uncle Sam in the custom house at Mobile. He was a
long-distance representative, having no domicile in Sumter, nor ever
making his appearance there.
John B. Cecil, reputed federal army sutler and coming with the influx from
fecund Ohio, was elected treasurer. He gradually and logically degenerated
into a partnership with a negro in a grog-shop enterprise.
Badger, another bird of passage, became tax assessor. The revenue and road
commission was a motley aggregation which comprised one carpetbagger and
three negroes.
Edward Herndon, a native Union man, by grace of appointment and election,
simultaneously devoted his talents to the offices of circuit clerk,
register in chancery, notary public, justice of the peace, keeper of the
poorhouse and guardian _ad litem_,--and perhaps felt aggrieved that he
didn't have "all that was coming to him."
It would seem that, with this multiplicity of trusts, Mr. Herndon
monopolized the privilege of plurality in office holding; but not so, for
Mr. Daniel Price, a typical scalawag, with the reputation of a jailbird
and desperado, made flight from Wetumpka to Sumter, and was endowed with a
bunch of federal and county jobs,--register of voters, superintendent of
education, postmaster and census taker. Insatiable, like Oliver Twist he
wanted more, and as a side line to his multifarious activities, employed
his scholarly attainments in the conduct of a negro school, meanwhile
boarding and associating with negroes.
The harmony of the "color scheme" of the official colony in Perry county,
adjoining Hale county, was never broken by a trace of the ebony hue.
Without exception, all of the county offices were held by carpetbaggers,
officers of the 8th Wisconsin regiment, originally sent on garrison duty.
Their characters are illustrated by the fact that, under the guise of
selling properties which they had acquired in the county, all of them sold
their offices in the time of political regeneration and betook themselves
to the north. During Lindsay's administration the sheriff, charged with
conniving at the escape from jail of a prisoner incarcerated for murder,
sold his job for $1,500. Democrats succeeded the aliens.
In Marengo county there were more places than "loyal and reconstructed"
place-seekers, and consequently Charles L. Drake, who made his advent in
1866 as an army captain, was burdened with the cares and responsibilities
of register in chancery, circuit clerk, United States commissioner and
agent of the Freedmen's Bureau; yet had time for political activity which
made him especially obnoxious.
Another conspicuous character in Marengo was one Burton, a carpetbagger,
who established in Demopolis a weekly newspaper, _The Southern
Republican_. He had incorporated in the oppressive tax laws a provision
that where a deed was made to a purchaser at a tax sale, it should be made
conclusive evidence, whether the sale was legal or illegal, that all
requisites to a valid sale had been complied with. In order to increase
the advertising, a section of land was divided into sixteen parts and each
part advertised separately. Legal advertising was confined to "loyal"
papers, the test of loyalty being allegiance to the Radical party. _The
Southern Republican_, being the only loyal paper in all that
unreconstructed region, was designated as the official organ of Marengo,
Greene, Perry and Choctaw counties.
The newspaper statute referred to was in these words:
"That it shall be the duty of the probate judge in each county of this
state to designate a newspaper in which all local advertisements, notices,
or publications of any and every character required by law to be made in
his county shall be published. Provided, that no newspaper shall be
designated as such official organ which does not in its columns sustain
and advocate the maintenance of the government of the United States and of
the government of the state of Alabama, which is recognized by the
Congress of the United States as the legal government of this state; and
if there be no such paper published in the county, then the probate judge,
whose decision upon the question shall be final, shall designate the paper
published nearest the county seat of his county which does sustain said
government."
The "loyal" papers so designated had no circulation beyond a small free
distribution among office-holders. Few of the negroes in their general
illiteracy could read them, and none of them were concerned in the
advertisements. The white people, to whom all of the advertisements were
addressed, would not permit a copy of the publications to be sent to them.
Consequently, the payment of fees was a waste of public money. The purpose
of the law was to create and sustain a detestable press at the expense of
the taxpayers, or seduce the existing papers.
In 1870 Burton was nominee for lieutenant-governor. On account of some
personally offensive publication, Mr. E. C. Meredith, of Eutaw, a
Democratic leader ("Bravest of the Brave"), severely chastised him in
Eutaw. Thereafter the "trooly loil" journalist made his periodical
collections of fees in Greene county by proxy. About the time when frost
touched with withering chill his budding political aspiration, Burton
received an ominous communication, not intended for publication, but for
his own guidance. It was embellished with pictures of cross-bones, skull
and dagger, and inscribed with a legend which he interpreted as a sort of
"move on" ordinance. And he stood not on the order of his going, but
hiked.
General Dustin, a northern soldier, of good family connections, who
settled in Demopolis and allied himself by marriage with one of the old
and prominent families of the town, was appointed major general of
militia, and endeavored, but unsuccessfully, to organize a force. The law
provided that whenever forty or more men should enroll themselves and
choose officers, the governor upon application should recognize them as a
volunteer company. Governor Smith could not be persuaded to encourage the
formation of a militia force; he preferred federal regulars, and they were
always available.
While awaiting opportunity for employment of his warrior genius and
acquirements, General Dustin, equally soldier and statesman, served the
people of his adopted county in the legislature. His colleague in that
august assembly of solons was Levi Wells, a "ward of the nation."
Others who made reconstruction history in Marengo county will be mentioned
incidentally as this narrative progresses. They were a rare lot, and
equally with the others worthy of a place on the scroll of fame.
Choctaw county officials distinguished themselves in some features of
their administration of affairs, according to testimony before a
government commission. Dr. Foster was appointed probate judge and elected
state senator, and served in the dual capacity. Receiving the appointment
of revenue collector at Mobile, he discarded the probate judgeship, to
which Hill was appointed, but polygamously refused to be divorced from the
other love, the senatorship. Hill had been appointed treasurer before
receiving the appointment to the judgeship. Withdrawing from the former
place, his brother, Alexander, succeeded. It may not too much confuse the
already complex situation to mention incidentally that the industrious
Alexander filled in spare time by discharging the humble duties of justice
of the peace, having before him the example of his eminent brother, who
scorned not the lesser duties of register in chancery, with which also he
was charged. In the progress of time, an inquisitive grand jury, nosing
into matters, ascertained that Treasurer Aleck had received from the
county tax collector fees to the amount of $3,600. While the jury was
investigating, a disturbance occurred on the streets; the sheriff
resigned, rather than interfere with the disturbers, and sought pastoral
scenes. Circuit Judge J. Q. Smith, serving as a substitute for Luther R.
Smith, adjourned court without receiving the jury's report. Immediately
after adjournment Probate Judge Hill, who had received a significant
communication, with skull and dagger adornment, and maybe had been
playfully shot at, retired to his farm, leaving his office in the care of
the overburdened but willing Aleck. The circuit clerk accompanied the
probate judge to his sylvan retreat, and imposed more work on Aleck by
making him custodian of his office also. By the way, this clerk was first
elected, but failed to qualify, whereupon Judge Smith cured the defect by
appointing him to the place. Such was the situation of affairs when, at
midnight, April 14, the structure burned, and, excepting documents in the
hands of the jury, all of the records of the two offices, together with
the treasurer's account of moneys received and disbursed, fed the hungry
flames. The treasurer said that all the funds were in the safe, but only
charred packages of Confederate "shinplasters" were found therein when the
safe was opened. The succeeding treasurer, an expert accountant, under
instructions from the commissioners' court, investigated accounts between
the collector and former treasurer, and reported that the latter was in
default to the extent of about $7,000, and the tax collector about $2,700.
Meanwhile, the tax collector had sought a change of air in "the glorious
climate of California." Before his departure he related a tale of woe, the
burden of which was that highwaymen had despoiled him of official
collections of between $5,000 and $6,000.
The fire fiend had marked Choctaw officials for its victims. According to
his own statement, the dwelling of the county superintendent of education
was the repository of $4,000 of county funds when said "fiend" consumed
it. The superintendent was the author of his own official bond, and in his
inexperience omitted therefrom the customary penalty clause, which
omission rendered the instrument non-enforceable. Feeling the inadequacy
of local employment for his talents, he took up residence across the line
in Sumter county, and thus qualified for election to the legislature, but
there was no requisition for his services.
The superintendent was law partner of Joshua Morse, attorney general of
the state. They were jointly indicted for the murder of Editor Thomas of
the county paper at Butler, the county seat; they obtained a change of
venue and were tried and acquitted in Mobile, the principal witness
against them having disappeared.
William Miller, a former slaveowner and one of the largest landowners,
became probate judge of Greene county in 1868. Judge Oliver, the
incumbent, refused to recognize his claim, and Miller invoked the
ever-responsive military powers; the soldiers forced entrance to the
office and inducted the claimant. Oliver filed a protest and retired.
Alexander Boyd, a nephew of Miller, became county solicitor and register
in chancery.
Judge Luther R. Smith had a brother, Arthur A., who was languishing in
Massachusetts, with talents unemployed and maybe unrecognized. The judge
imported his brother and made him county superintendent of education.
There were not many white Republicans in Greene, and it happened that the
circuit court clerkship was "lying around loose," and the judge thought
Arthur was the man for the place. The latter accepted the gift, but failed
to relinquish the superintendency of education. One Yordy figured as agent
of the Freedmen's Bureau.
These officials were unable to obtain board and lodging at either of the
taverns or elsewhere, and jointly established and maintained for some time
a bachelor establishment, duly ostracised by the people of the town and
county.
Hale county had a complement of officials in keeping with the layout
common to the counties of the district, including a negro legislator. The
most troublesome was Dr. Blackford, probate judge. He had served as a
delegate to the constitutional convention of 1867. He displaced Judge
Hutchinson, a popular gentleman who had lost three brothers in one of the
battles in Virginia, members of the famous Greensboro Guards.
Blackford was a skillful physician and surgeon, and of fair education. He
served as surgeon in the Confederate army, and was stationed at Vicksburg
during the siege. Subsequently a story circulated that he was there
court-martialed on a charge of appropriating to his own use hospital
stores, including liquors. However that may be, his services were
dispensed with and he took up abode in Greensboro, and began to practice
his profession with much success. In an evil hour he was tempted to cast
his lot with the adventurers who were greedily fastening their clutches
upon the substance of the country, and fell. Going from bad to worse, he
affiliated with negroes and soon obtained absolute control of them.
Claiming, as probate judge, that he had the right to supervise contracts
between them and their employers, he constantly meddled in private
affairs. Calling league meetings and taking the hands away from their
work, he caused much vexation and loss to the planters.
About the time when he became probate judge an incident occurred in
Greensboro in which was exhibited by the soldiers an unusual
disapprobation of the administration of affairs. The agent of the
Freedmen's Bureau, one Clause, incurred the displeasure of some of them
who were inclined to insubordination, and they administered to him a
beating. Varying the proceeding, they seized a negro school teacher and
conveyed him to a pond, in which they ducked him repeatedly.
Blackford became alarmed at this manifestation of displeasure, and fled to
the hills north of the town. There he was pursued by the rioters in
uniform, and, resuming his flight, sought refuge at the home of a citizen,
who apprised leading citizens of Greensboro of his whereabouts and peril.
They informed the military commander, who, in turn, dispatched a squad of
cavalry to rescue him and conduct him to town. Blackford, on his return,
renounced his political heresies and aspirations to the judgeship, which
he declared he would not accept; but, recovering his confidence in the
stability of the military powers and his negro backing, he quickly
recanted and relapsed into arrogance.
Tuscaloosa county was not neglected by place-hunters, but the
preponderance of whites in that county was a restraining influence.
Luther R. Smith, a carpetbagger from Michigan, provisional circuit judge
in 1866, was elected to that position in 1868, and simultaneously a member
of the legislature, but had decency to resign the latter trust.
Notwithstanding he subsequently violated the judicial proprieties by
presiding over a radical state convention in Selma. He was one of the most
respectable of the intruders, and reputed to be just, impartial and
courteous on the bench. Nevertheless he shared, in a lesser measure, the
odium which attached to all. The feeling of the people was that no
right-minded man would thrust himself into public position under the
peculiar circumstances.
All the members of the United States House of Representatives from
Alabama were carpetbaggers--officers in the United States army. Charles W.
Pierce represented the fourth district. He held a commission as major. His
course in the interval when the constitution was in abeyance was the same
as that of Colonel Callis, who caused more discussion. Colonel Callis was
elected to Congress from the Huntsville district, in competition with
General Joseph W. Burke, a man of character and education. General Burke
was the Republican nominee, and Callis bolted. Callis was a federal
soldier and agent of the Freedmen's Bureau, at Huntsville. While
canvassing, he was attired in the uniform of a colonel. When the
constitution was rejected and declared rejected by General Meade, and the
fact communicated to General Grant and by him communicated to Congress,
and the action of Congress looked to the rejection of the constitution,
Colonel Callis left Huntsville and went upon duty to Mississippi as an
army officer. When Congress accepted the constitution and admitted Alabama
under the "omnibus" measure, Callis hurried to Washington and took his
seat as a representative from Alabama, notwithstanding he had never been a
citizen of the state and was then a resident of Mississippi. Pierce was
succeeded by Charles Hays, of Greene county, in November, 1869.
The state was represented in the federal Senate by Willard Warner and
George E. Spencer, the first named a northern general, the other, an army
contractor. Judge Busteed, under oath, said that when elected Warner was
not a citizen of Alabama; that when summoned a short while before as a
juror in his court, Warner claimed exemption on the plea that he was a
senator of the state of Ohio. Governor William H. Smith, in a letter
published in the _Huntsville Advocate_, said: "Spencer lives upon the
passions and prejudices of the races. The breath of peace would leave him
on the surface, neglected and despised." And Spencer characterized his
colleague as a "a trifling and worthless man."
Being unobjectionable as to "loyalty," all of these non-citizens were
permitted to take their seats; and for the first time since 1861 Alabama
was represented (?) in the federal Congress, notwithstanding the fact that
during a part of that period the people were taxed by the government which
denied them representation--taxed unconstitutionally (in the case of
cotton), as the Supreme Court subsequently decided.
William H. Smith, of Randolph county, displaced Governor Patton. His
character will be revealed as these pages multiply.