Lakin to the Ku Klux subcommittee: "He called on me to explain why I said
unkind things about his being candidate for president of the Alabama
University, and I said, 'Mr. Lakin, you and I are near neighbors, and I
don't want to have much to do with you--not much; but I think this: didn't
you try to be president of the Alabama University?' He said he did. I
said, 'It would have been a disgrace to the state. You don't know an
adjective from a verb, nor nothing else.'... He says, '... but I rather
didn't like what you said.' I said, 'Doctor, you will have to like it or
let it alone.' He let it alone."--Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 784.
[1726] Clark, p. 98, is not correct on this point; Ku Klux Rept., Ala.
Test., pp. 111, 112, 113, 114; account of Dr. O. D. Smith of the second
Board of Education; _Independent Monitor_, Aug. 9 and Sept. 1, 1868.
[1727] For the picture see Ala. Test., p. 113, or the _Independent
Monitor_, Sept 1, 1868. Ryland Randolph, the editor of the _Monitor_ at
that time, says that the picture was made from a rough woodcut, fashioned
in the _Monitor_ office. The _Cincinnati Commercial_ published an edition
of 500,000 copies of the hanging picture for distribution as a campaign
document. A Columbus, Ohio, newspaper also printed for distribution a
larger edition containing the famous picture. This was during the
Seymour-Grant campaign, and the Democratic newspapers and leaders of the
state were furious at Randolph for furnishing such excellent campaign
literature to the Radicals.
[1728] Clark, p. 98; _Independent Monitor_, Jan. 5 and March 23, 1869.
[1729] _Selma Times and Messenger_, Aug. 9, 1868.
[1730] Clark, pp. 98, 99. _Monitor_, Jan. 5, March 1 and 23, 1869. "The
Reconstruction University," a farce, was acted at the court-house for the
benefit of the brass band. There was no hope whatever that the
reconstructed faculty would have a pleasant time.
[1731] See the _Monitor_, March 1, 1869.
[1732] Richards was at the same time state senator from Wilcox, sheriff of
the same county, contractor to feed prisoners, and professor in the
University. His income from all the offices was about $12,000, the
professorship paying about $2500.
[1733] Report of Cloud, Nov., 1869. Clark, p. 99.
[1734] See _Monitor_, April 6, 1869. The editor of the _Monitor_ finally
came to grief because of his attacks on the Radical faculty. His paper had
charged Professor V. H. Vaughn with drunkenness, whipping his wife,
incompetence, etc. After a year of such pleasantries, Vaughn, who was a
timid man, determined to secure assistance and be revenged. In the
University was a student named Smith, son of a regent and nephew of the
governor, who, on account of his Union record, was given the position of
steward of the mess hall, after the removal of the old steward. Smith had
been in trouble about abstracting stores from the University commissary,
and the _Monitor_ had not spared him. So he and Vaughn with their guns
went after Randolph, and Smith shot him "while Vaughn stood at a
respectful distance." Randolph lost his leg from the shot. Smith and
Vaughn were put in jail, but through the connivance of the officials made
their escape. Vaughn went to Washington and was given an office in Utah
territory. See Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 1979.
[1735] He was a competent man, well educated and possessing administrative
ability. In the secession convention he had led the coöperationist forces.
[1736] Clark, pp. 99-101; _Monitor_, Jan. 10 and 25 and March 28, 1871.
The Register of the University (p. 218) gives only thirteen names for the
session 1870-1871. No record was kept at the University.
[1737] See Register of the University of Alabama, p. 217.
[1738] These notices were printed in the Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p.
418. They were fastened to the door with a dagger. The students who were
notified left at once.
[1739] See Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 426 (Speed).
[1740] The following table gives the enrolment of students during
Reconstruction:--
SESSION STUDENTS
1868-9
1869-70 30
1870-1 21
1871-2 107
1872-3 135
1873-4 53
1874-5 74
1875-6 111
1876-7 164
[1741] I have this account from the men who furnished the bribes.
[1742] Clark, p. 99.
[1743] Finley had been doorkeeper for the first Board (1868-1870), and in
1870 was elected to serve four years. He was a member of the convention of
1867 and of the legislature. He had no education and no ability, but he
was a sensible negro and was an improvement on the white men of the
preceding Board.
[1744] Journal of the Board of Education and Regents, June 20, 1871.
[1745] Act of Dec. 6, 1873, School Laws.
[1746] Clark, p. 232; Report of Cloud, Nov., 1869; _Montgomery Mail_,
Sept. 16, 1870. In connection with the act merging the Mobile schools into
the state system, the Board of Education took occasion to enlarge or
complete its constitutional powers. There was no limit, according to the
Constitution, to the time for the governor to retain acts of the Board.
Governor Smith had pocketed several obnoxious educational bills, and the
Board now resolved "that the same rules and provisions which by law govern
and define the time and manner in which the governor of the state shall
approve of or object to any bill or resolution of the General Assembly
shall also apply to any bill or resolution having the force of law passed
by this Board of Education." The governor approved neither resolution nor
the Mobile act, but they were both declared in force. _Montgomery Mail_,
Nov. 3, 1870.
[1747] Senate Journal, 1869-1870, p. 419.
[1748] _Montgomery Mail_, Sept. 16, 1870.
[1749] A specimen pay-roll of Emerson Institute ("Blue College") for the
quarter ending March 31, 1869:--
======================================================================
|MONTHS| SALARY | TOTAL
-------------------------------------------|------|---------|---------
G. L. Putnam, Supt. of Colored Schools | 3 | $333.33 | $1000.00
H. S. Kelsey, Prin. Emerson Institute | 3 | 225.00 | 675.00
E. I. Ethridge, Prin. Grammar School | 3 | 200.00 | 600.00
Susie A. Carley, Prin. Lower School | 3 | 180.00 | 540.00
A. A. Rockfellow, Prin. Intermediate School| 3 | 105.00 | 315.00
Sarah A. Primey, Prin. Intermediate School | 3 | 105.00 | 315.00
M. L. Harris, Prin. Intermediate School | 3 | 105.00 | 315.00
M. A. Cooley, Prin. Intermediate School | 3 | 105.00 | 315.00
M. E. F. Smith, Prin. Intermediate School | 3 | 105.00 | 315.00
Ruth A. Allen, Primary School | 3 | 105.00 | 315.00
N. G. Lincoln, Primary School | 3 | 105.00 | 315.00
M. L. Theyer, Primary School | 3 | 105.00 | 315.00
Judge Rapier, legal opinion | -- | -- | 50.00
American Missionary Association, fuel | -- | -- | 40.00
| | |---------
Total | | | $5425.00
======================================================================
At this time the average salary of the teacher in the state schools was
$42 a month.
[1750] _Montgomery Mail_, Sept. 16, 1876. Cloud's Report, Nov., 1869,
shows that $10,447.23 had been drawn out of the treasury by Putnam, and he
had also drawn $2000 for his salary as county superintendent.
[1751] Report of the Auditor, 1871; Report of the Commissioner of
Education, 1871, 1876.
[1752] See Act of Dec. 2, 1869; Somers, "Southern States," pp. 169, 170.
[1753] The law stated that the trustees were to receive $2 a day, but
Cloud said that it was a mistake, as it should be the clerks who were
paid, and thus it was done. There were 1485 clerks in the state; they were
paid about $60,000 a year. The county superintendents received about
$65,000, an average of $1000 each, which was paid from the school fund.
Before the war the average salary of the county superintendent was $300
and was paid by the county. In few counties was the work of the county
superintendent sufficient to keep him busy more than two days in the week.
Many of the superintendents stayed in their offices only one day in the
week. The expenses of the Board of Education were from $3000 to $5000 a
year, not including the salary of the state superintendent. _Montgomery
Mail_, Sept. 15 and 16, 1870.
[1754] Hodgson's Report, 1871; Ala. Test., p. 233.
[1755] Cloud, the state superintendent, had power of attorney to act for
certain county superintendents. This he sub-delegated to his son, W. B.
Cloud, who drew warrants for $8551.31, which were allowed by the auditor.
This amount was the school fund for the following counties: Sumter,
$1,535.59; Pickens, $6,423.17; Winston, $215.89; Calhoun, $176.66;
Marshall, $200.00.
A clerk in the office of C. A. Miller, the secretary of state, forged
Miller's name as attorney and drew $3,238.39 from the Etowah County fund.
Miller swore that he had notified both auditor and treasurer that he would
not act as attorney to draw money for any one.
John B. Cloud bought whiskey with tax stamps. See Hodgson's Report, 1871;
Ala. Test., p. 233; _Montgomery Advertiser_, Sept. 27, 1872.
[1756] Hodgson's Report, 1871; _Montgomery Advertiser_, Sept. 27, 1872;
Report of the Commission to Examine State Offices, 1871.
[1757] Somers, pp. 169, 170.
[1758] _Montgomery Mail_, Sept. 15, 1870.
[1759] Somers, "Southern States," p. 170; voters only counted as polls.
[1760] _Montgomery Mail_, Sept. 15, 1870.
[1761] In recent years the people have demanded and obtained a different
class of school histories, such as those of Derry, Lee, Jones, Thompson,
Cooper, Estill, and Lemmon. Adams and Trent is an example of one of the
compromise works that resulted from the demand of the southerners for
books less tinctured with northern prejudices.
[1762] Cloud's Report, Nov., 1869; Hodgson's Report, 1871; Ku Klux Rept.,
Ala. Test., p. 426; Montgomery Conference, "Race Problems," p. 107.
[1763] See Ala. Test., p. 236 (General Clanton).
[1764] Ku Klux Rept., p. 53; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 234, 235.
[1765] Ala. Test., p. 1123.
[1766] _Montgomery Advertiser_, July 30, 1866; _Selma Times_, June 30,
1866.
[1767] Ala. Test., p. 236.
[1768] _Selma Times_, Dec. 30, 1865; _Gulf States Hist. Mag._, Sept.,
1902.
[1769] Trowbridge, "The South," p. 431.
[1770] _Marion Commonwealth_; meeting held May 17, 1866.
[1771] _Montgomery Advertiser_, July 24, 1867; Ala. Test., p. 236.
[1772] _Montgomery Advertiser_, July 24, 1867; Ala. Test., pp. 236, 246.
[1773] See Ch. XI, Sec. 3.
[1774] For specimen letters written to their homes, see the various
reports of the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Church, and the
reports of other aid societies.
[1775] The best-known instances of the killing of such negroes were in
Tuscaloosa and Chambers counties. The Ku Klux Report gives only about half
a dozen cases of outrages on teachers. See Ala. Test., pp. 52, 54, 67, 71,
140, 252, 755, 1047, 1140, 1853. Cloud in his report made no mention of
violence to teachers, nor did the governor. Lakin said a great deal about
it, but gave no instances that were not of the well-known few. There was
much less violence than is generally supposed, even in the South.
[1776] Ala. Test., p. 252.
[1777] See Ala. Test., pp. 236, 1889; Somers, "Southern States," p. 169;
Report of the Joint Committee on Outrages, 1868. In Crenshaw, Butler, and
Chambers counties some schools existed for a year or more until teachers
of bad character were elected. Then the neighborhood roughs burned the
school buildings. Neither Cloud nor any other official reported cases of
such burnings. The legislative committee could discover but two, and in
both instances the women teachers were of bad character. In the records
can be found only seventeen reports of burnings, and several of these were
evidently reports of the same instance; few were specific. Lakin, who
spent several years in travelling over north Alabama, and who was much
addicted to fabrication and exaggeration, made a vague report of "the
ruins of a dozen" schoolhouses. (Ala. Test., pp. 140, 141.) There may have
been more than half a dozen burnings in north Alabama, but there is no
evidence that such was the case. The majority of the reports originated
outside the state through pure malice. The houses burned were principally
in the white counties and were, as Lakin reports, slight affairs costing
from $25 to $75. It was so evident that some of the fires were caused by
the carelessness of travellers and hunters who camped in them at night,
that the legislature passed a law forbidding that practice. See Acts of
Ala., p. 187. About as many schoolhouses for whites were destroyed as for
blacks. Some were fired by negroes for revenge, others were burned by
accident.
[1778] _Weekly Mail_, Aug. 18, 1869.
[1779] _Demopolis New Era_, April 1, 1868.
[1780] Hodgson's Report, Nov. 11, 1871.
[1781] Hodgson's Report, Nov. 15, 1871.
[1782] Hodgson's Report, Nov. 15, 1871.
[1783] For opinions in regard to the value of the early education among
the negroes, see Washington's "Future of the American Negro" and "Up from
Slavery"; W. H. Thomas's "American Negro"; P. A. Bruce's "Plantation Negro
as a Freeman"; J. L. M. Curry, in Montgomery Conference.
[1784] _Montgomery Advertiser_, July 24, 1867.
[1785] Ala. Test., p. 236.
[1786] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test. Dr. J. L. M. Curry, who, in 1865, began
his work for the education of the negro, has thus expressed his opinion of
the early attempts to educate the blacks: "The education was unsettling,
demoralizing, pandered to a wild frenzy for schooling as the quick method
of reversing social and political conditions. Nothing could have been
better devised for deluding the poor negro, and making him the tool, the
slave, of corrupt taskmasters.... With deliberate purpose to subject the
southern states to negro domination and secure the states permanently for
partisan ends, the education adopted was contrary to common sense, to
human experience, to all noble purposes. The aptitude and capabilities and
needs of the negro were wholly disregarded. Especial stress was laid on
classics and liberal culture to bring the race _per saltum_ to the same
plane with their former masters, and realize the theory of social and
political equality. Colleges and universities, established and conducted
by the Freedmen's Bureau and northern churches and societies, sprang up
like mushrooms, and the teachers, ignorant and fanatical, without
self-poise, proceeded to make all possible mischief." Montgomery
Conference, "Race Problems," p. 109. See also the papers of Rev. D. Clay
Lilly and Dr. P. B. Barringer in Montgomery Conference, "Race Problems,"
p. 130; William H. Baldwin and Dr. Curry in Second Capon Springs
Conference; Barringer, "The American Negro: His Past and Future";
Barringer, W. T. Harris, and J. D. Dreher in Proceedings Southern
Education Association, 1900; Haygood, "Pleas for Progress" and "Our
Brother in Black"; Abbott, "Rights of Man," pp. 225-226.
[1787] The United States Commissioner of Education, in his report for that
year, made before the elections, stated that in educational matters the
state of Alabama was about to take a "backward step," meaning that it was
about to become Democratic. Report, 1870, p. 15. Later he made similar
remarks, much to the disgust of Hodgson, who was an enthusiast in
educational matters.
[1788] Journal of the Board of Education and Regents, 1870. Dr. O. D.
Smith, who was one of the newly elected Democratic members of the Board,
says that Cloud refused to inform the Board of the contents of Hodgson's
communications. Thereupon Hodgson addressed one to the Board directly and
not to Cloud. When it came in through the mail, Cloud took possession of
it, but Dr. Smith, who was on the lookout, called his attention to the
fact that it was addressed to the Board and reminded him of the penalties
for tampering with the mail of another person. The secretary read
Hodgson's communication, and the Board was then free to act. The
Democratic members convinced the Radicals that if Cloud continued in
office they would not be able to draw their _per diem_, so Cloud was
compelled to vacate at once. When he left he had his buggy brought to the
door, and into it he loaded all the government coal that was in his office
and carried it away.
[1789] Hodgson's Report, 1872.
[1790] See Hodgson's Report, 1871.
[1791] Hodgson's Report, 1871; Report of the Commissioner of Education,
1876, p. 7; Journal of the Board of Education and Regents, 1871; Acts of
the Board of Education, pamphlet.
[1792] And this was the case notwithstanding the fact that the county
superintendents were now allowed mileage at the rate of eight cents a mile
in order to get them to come to Montgomery for their money and thus to
decrease the chances of corrupt practices of the attorneys. Hodgson
complained that many old claims which should have been settled by Cloud
were presented during his administration.
[1793] Speed was a southern Radical. During the war he was a state salt
agent at the salt works in Virginia. He was a member of the Board of
Education from 1870 to 1872, and was far above the average Radical
office-holder in both character and ability.
[1794] Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1873, 1874, 1876; Speed's
Report, 1873. Speed was ill much of the time, and his bookkeeping was
little better than Cloud's. Two clerks, who, a committee of investigation
stated, were distinguished by a "total want of capacity and want of
integrity," managed the department with "such a want of system ... as most
necessarily kept it involved in inextricable confusion." Money was
received and not entered on the books. A sum of money in coin was received
in June, 1873, and six months later was paid into the treasury in
depreciated paper. Vouchers were stolen and used again. Bradshaw, a county
superintendent, died, leaving a shortage of $10,019.06 in his accounts. A
large number of vouchers were abstracted from the office of Speed by some
one and used again by Bradshaw's administrator, who was no other than Dr.
N. B. Cloud, who made a settlement with Speed's clerks, and when the
shortage was thus made good, the administrator still had many vouchers to
spare. This seems to have been Cloud's last raid on the treasury.
_Montgomery Advertiser_, Dec. 18, 1873; Report of the Joint Committee on
Irregularities in the Department of Education, 1873.
[1795] Under the Reconstruction administrative expenses amounted to 16 per
cent, and even more.
[1796] The experiences with the American Missionary Association, etc.,
made this provision necessary.
[1797] The United States Commissioner of Education gave a disapproving
account of these changes. It was exchanging "a certainty for an
uncertainty," he said. Speed had not found it a "certainty" by any means.
[1798] Plus the poll tax, which was not appropriated as required by the
constitution, but diverted to other uses.
[1799] There was a shortage of $187,872.49, diverted to other uses.
[1800] Shortage unknown; teachers were paid in depreciated state
obligations.
[1801] Shortage was $330,036.93.
[1802] Only $68,313.93 was paid, the rest diverted; shortage now was
$1,260,511.92.
[1803] None was paid, all diverted; shortage nearly two millions.
[1804] All was paid (by Democrats, who were now in power).
[1805] McTyeire, "A History of Methodism," p. 670; Smith, "Life and Times
of George F. Pierce"; _Southern Review_, April, 1872.
[1806] Buckley, "History of Methodism in the United States," pp. 516, 517.
[1807] Matlack, "Anti-Slavery Struggle and Triumph in the Methodist
Episcopal Church," p. 339; Smith, "Life and Times of George F. Pierce," p.
530.
[1808] Annual Cyclopædia (1865), p. 552; Caldwell, "Reconstruction of
Church and State in Georgia" (pamphlet).
[1809] Annual Cyclopædia (1865), p. 552.
[1810] "The schismatical plans of the Northern Methodists and the subtle
proselytism of the Episcopalians" (Pierce). See Smith, "Life and Times of
George F. Pierce," pp. 491, 499, 505, 530; West, "History of Methodism in
Alabama," p. 717; McTyeire, "A History of Methodism," p. 673.
[1811] A Federal official in north Alabama who had known of Lakin in the
North testified that he had had a bad reputation in New York and in
Illinois and had been sent South as a means of discipline. See Ku Klux
Rept., Ala. Test., p. 619 (L. W. Day, United States Commissioner).
Governor Lindsay said that Lakin was a shrewd, cunning, strong-willed man,
given to exaggeration and lying,--one who had a "jaundiced eye," "a
magnifying eye," and who among the blacks was a power for evil. Ala.
Test., p. 180.
[1812] _N. Y. Herald_, May 10, 1868; Buckley, "History of Methodism," Vol.
II, p. 191.
[1813] In 1871, Lakin stated that of his 15,000 members, three-fourths
were whites of the poorer classes; that there were under his charge 6
presiding elders' districts with 70 circuits and stations, and 70
ministers and 150 local preachers; and that he had been assisted in
securing the "loyal" element by several ministers who had been expelled by
the Southern Methodists during the war as traitors. Ala. Test., pp. 124,
130. Governor Lindsay stated that some of the whites of Lakin's church
were to be found in the counties of Walker, Winston, and Blount; that
there were few such white congregations, and that some of these afterward
severed their connection with the northern church, and by 1872 there were
only two or three in the state. Lakin worked among the negro population
almost entirely, and his statement that three-fourths of his members were
whites was not correct. See Ala. Test., pp. 180, 208.
[1814] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 111, 112, 124, 180, 623, 957. Lakin
secured all church property formerly used by the southern church for negro
congregations.
[1815] Lakin never acknowledged the present existence of the southern
church.
[1816] Ala. Test., pp. 238, 758.
[1817] One of Lakin's relations was that while he was conducting a great
revival meeting among the hills of north Alabama, Governor Smith and other
prominent and sinful scalawag politicians were under conviction and were
about to become converted. But in came the Klan and the congregation
scattered. Smith and the others were so angry and frightened that their
good feelings were dissipated, and the devil reëntered them, so that he
(Lakin) was never able to get a hold on them again. Consequently, the Klan
was responsible for the souls lost that night. Lakin told a dozen or more
marvellous stories of his hairbreadth escapes from death by
assassination,--enough, if true, to ruin the reputation of north Alabama
men for marksmanship.
[1818] Shackleford, "History of the Muscle Shoals Baptist Association," p.
84.
[1819] Annual Cyclopædia (1865), p. 106. In 1905 there is a much better
spirit, and the churches of the two sections are on good terms, though not
united.
[1820] Annual Cyclopædia (1865), p. 705. See p. 23 and Ch. IV, Sec. 7,
above.
[1821] Thompson, "History of the Presbyterian Churches," p. 167.
[1822] Annual Cyclopædia (1865), p. 706.
[1823] Carroll, "Religious Forces," p. 281; Thompson, "History of the
Presbyterian Churches," pp. 163, 171; Johnson, "History of the Southern
Presbyterian Churches," pp. 333, 339.
[1824] Perry, p. 328 _et seq._
[1825] Later the northern congregations of the Methodist Protestant Church
rejoined the main body, which was southern.
[1826] Sen. Ex. Doc., No. 6, 39th Cong., 2d Sess.
[1827] Riley, "History of the Baptists in Alabama," p. 310; _Montgomery
Advertiser_, Oct. 15, 1865; _N. Y. Times_, Oct. 22, 1865; George Brewer,
"History of the Central Association," pp. 46, 49.
[1828] _Huntsville Advocate_, May 16, 1866.
[1829] Shackleford, "History of the Muscle Shoals Baptist Association," p.
84.
The Radical missionaries, in order to further their own plans, encouraged
the negroes to assert their equality by forcing themselves into the
congregations of the various denominations. Governor Lindsay related an
incident of a negro woman who went alone into a white church, selected a
good pew, and calmly appropriated it. No one molested her, of course. Ku
Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 208.
America Trammell, a negro preacher of east Alabama, before the war and
afterward as late as 1870 preached to mixed congregations of blacks and
whites. A part of the church building was set apart for the whites and a
part for the blacks. Later he became affected by the work of the
missionaries, and in 1871 began to preach that "Christ never died for the
southern people at all; that he died only for the northern people." A
white woman teacher lived in his house, and he was killed by the Ku Klux
Klan. Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 1119.
[1830] Ball, "History of Clarke County," pp. 591, 630; Statistics of
Churches, p. 171.
[1831] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 236, 1067.
[1832] "The Work of the Southern Baptists among the Negroes" (pamphlet).
[1833] See the _Southern Baptist Convention Advanced Quarterly_, p. 30,
"Missionary Lesson, The Negroes," March 29, 1903, which is a most
interesting, artless, southern lesson. The northern Baptists also have a
mission lesson on the negroes which is distinctly of the abolitionist
spirit. The average student will get about the same amount of prepared
information from each. See "Home Mission Lesson No. 3, The Negroes."
[1834] Foster, "Sketch of History of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church,"
p. 300; Carroll, "Religious Forces," p. 294; Thompson, "History of the
Presbyterian Churches," p. 193.
[1835] Thompson, "History of the Presbyterian Churches," p. 193; Scouller,
"History of the United Presbyterian Church of North America," p. 246.
[1836] Montgomery Conference, "Race Problems," p. 114.
[1837] Eighth Annual Report of the Freedmen's Aid Society.
[1838] House Rept., No. 121, 41st Cong., 2d Sess.
[1839] See "Race Problems," p. 139, for a statement of the work now being
done among the negroes in Alabama by the Catholic Church.
[1840] Whitaker, "The Church in Alabama," pp. 193, 205, 206-212. The work
of the Episcopal Church among the negroes is more promising in later
years. See "Race Problems," pp. 126-131. It is not a sectional church,
with a northern section hindering the work of a southern section among the
negroes, as is the Methodist Episcopal Church.
[1841] Carroll, "Religious Forces," p. 263.
[1842] _Montgomery Advertiser_, Nov. 24, 1865.
[1843] _Montgomery Advertiser_, Nov. 11, 1865.
[1844] Report for 1866, Sen. Ex. Doc., No. 6, 39th Cong., 2d Sess.
[1845] Lakin fomented disturbances between the races. His daughter wrote
slanderous letters to northern papers, which were reprinted by the Alabama
papers. Lakin told the negroes that the whites, if in power, would
reëstablish slavery, and advised them, as a measure of safety, physical as
well as religious, to unite with the northern church. The scalawags did
not like Lakin, and one of them (Nicholas Davis) gave his opinion of him
and his talks to the Ku Klux Committee as follows: "The character of his
[Lakin's] speech was this: to teach the negroes that every man that was
born and raised in the southern country was their enemy, that there was no
use trusting them, no matter what they said,--if they said they were for
the Union or anything else. 'No use talking, they are your enemies.' And
he made a pretty good speech, too; awful; a hell of a one; ...
inflammatory and game, too, ... it was enough to provoke the devil. Did
all the mischief he could.... I tell you, that old fellow is a hell of an
old rascal." Ala. Test., pp. 784, 791. One of Lakin's negro congregations
complained that they paid for their church and the lot on which it stood,
and that Lakin had the deed made out in his name.
[1846] In the Black Belt and in the cities the slaveholders often erected
churches or chapels for the use of the negroes, and paid the salary of the
white preacher who was detailed by conference, convention, association, or
presbytery to look after the religious instruction of the blacks. Nearly
always the negro slaves contributed in work or money towards building
these houses of worship, and the Reconstruction convention in 1867 passed
an ordinance which transferred such property to the negroes whenever they
made any claim to it. See Ordinance No. 25, Dec. 2, 1867. See also Acts of
1868, pp. 176-177; Governor Lindsay in Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 180;
_Montgomery Advertiser_, Nov. 24, 1865.
[1847] _Huntsville Advocate_, May 5, 1865; Carroll, "Religious Forces," p.
263.
[1848] Reports of the Freedmen's Aid Society, 1866-1874.
[1849] The first recognition of such work, I find, is in the Report of the
Freedmen's Aid Society in 1878.
[1850] Tenth and Eleventh Reports of the Freedmen's Aid Society.
[1851] These religious bodies were the African Methodist Episcopal and the
African Methodist Episcopal Zion. The former was organized in Philadelphia
in 1816, and the latter in New York in 1820. Both were secessions from the
Methodist Episcopal Church. See Statistics of Churches, pp. 543, 559. At
first there were bitter feuds between the blacks who wished to join the
northern churches and those who wished to remain in the southern churches,
but the latter were in the minority and they had to go. See Ala. Test., p.
180; Smith, "History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida"; "Life and Times
of George F. Pierce," p. 491.
The main difference between the A. M. E. and the A. M. E. Zion Church,
according to a member of the latter, is that in one the dues are 25 cents
a week and in the other 20 cents.
[1852] McTyeire, "History of Methodism," pp. 670-673. A Southern Methodist
negro preacher in north Alabama was trying to reorganize his church and
was driven away by Lakin, who told his flock that there was a wolf in the
fold. See Ala. Test, p. 430. The statements of several of the negro
ministers would seem to indicate that Lakin took possession of a number of
negro congregations and united them with the Cincinnati Conference without
their knowledge. Few of the negroes knew of the divisions in the Methodist
Episcopal Church, and most of them thought that Lakin's course was merely
some authorized reorganization after the destruction of war. One witness
who knew Lakin in the North said that he was an original secessionist,
since, in Peru, Indiana, he broke up a church and organized a secession
congregation because he was opposed to men and women sitting together. The
same person testified that once in north Alabama Lakin asked for lodging
one night at a white man's house. The host was treated to a lecture by
Lakin on the equality of the races, and thereupon sent out and got a negro
and put him in a bed to which Lakin was directed at bedtime. He hesitated,
but slept with the negro. Ala. Test., pp. 791-794. Lakin was a strange
character, and for several years was a powerful influence among the
Radicals and negroes of north Alabama. See Ala. Test., p. 959. A Northern
Methodist leader among the negroes of Coosa County was the Rev. ----
Dorman, who had formerly belonged to the southern church, but had been
expelled for immorality. He lived with the negroes and led a lewd life. He
advised the negroes to arm themselves and assert their rights, and
required them to go armed to church. See Ala. Test., pp. 164, 230. Rev. J.
B. F. Hill of Eutaw was another ex-Southern Methodist who taught a negro
school and preached to the negroes. He had been expelled from the Alabama
Conference (Southern) for stealing money from the church, and it was
charged that he tried to sell a coffin which had been sent him and in
which he was to send to Ohio the body of a Federal soldier who had died in
Eutaw. See _Demopolis New Era_, April 1, 1868. During the worst days of
Reconstruction a number of negro churches which were used as Radical
headquarters were burned by the Ku Klux Klan. The Northern Methodist
Church is the weakest of the three negro churches; mountaineers and
negroes do not mix well. The church is not favored by the whites, and
there is opposition to the establishment of a negro university at Anniston
by the Freedmen's Aid Society of this church, on the ground that socially,
commercially, and educationally the interests of the white race suffer
where an institution is located by this society. See _Brundidge_ (Ala.)
_News_, Aug. 22, 1903.
[1853] McTyeire, "A History of Southern Methodism," p. 670; Carroll,
"Religious Forces," p. 263; Alexander, "Methodist Episcopal Church South,"
pp. 91-133.
[1854] Carroll, "Religious Forces," p. 263; Bishop Halsey in the _N. Y.
Independent_, March 5, 1891; Statistics of Churches, p. 604.
[1855] W. T. Harris, Richmond Meeting, Southern Educational Association
(1900), p. 100.
[1856] See Washington, "Up from Slavery." One church with two hundred
members had eighteen preachers. Exhorters or "zorters" and "pot liquor"
preachers were still more numerous.
[1857] "Race Problems," pp. 114, 120, 123, 126, 130, 131, 135; Haygood,
"Our Brother in Black," _passim_; Statistics of Churches, p. 171.
[1858] _The Nation_, July 12, 1866, condensed.
[1859] Caldwell, "Reconstruction of Church and State in Georgia"
(pamphlet). The circulars of advice to the blacks by the Freedmen's Bureau
officials repeatedly mention the advisability of the separation of the
races in religious matters. But this was less the case in Alabama than in
other southern states.
[1860] See Testimony of Minnis in Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test.; Brown, "Lower
South," Ch. IV.
[1861] See above, Ch. VIII, Sec. 2.
[1862] Saunders, "Early Settlers"; Miller, "Alabama"; Ku Klux Rept., Ala.
Test., p. 394 (General Pettus); Somers, "Southern States," p. 153.
[1863] Ku Klux Rept., pp. 80-81; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 170
(Governor Lindsay).
[1864] Ala. Test., pp. 433, 459 (P. M. Dox, M. C.); p. 1749 (W. S. Mudd);
p. 476 (William H. Forney); Beard, "Ku Klux Sketches."
[1865] Somers, p. 153; _Birmingham Age-Herald_, May 19, 1901 (J. W.
DuBose); Ala. Test., p. 487 (Gen. William H. Forney).
[1866] Ala. Test., p. 230 (General Clanton); pp. 1751, 1758, 1765 (W. S.
Mudd).
[1867] Planters who before the war were able to raise their own bacon at a
cost of 5 cents a pound now had to kill all the hogs to keep the negroes
from stealing them, and then pay 20 to 28 cents a pound for bacon. The
farmer dared not turn out his stock. Ala. Test., pp. 230, 247 (Clanton).
[1868] _N. Y. World_, April 11, 1868 (_Montgomery Advertiser_). There was
a plot to burn Selma and Tuscumbia; Talladega was almost destroyed; the
court-house of Greene County was burned and that of Hale set on fire. In
Perry County a young man had a difficulty with a carpet-bag official and
slapped his face. That night the carpet-bagger's agents burned the young
man's barn and stables with horses in them. It was generally believed that
the penalty for a dispute with a carpet-bagger was the burning of a barn,
gin, or stable. See also Brown, "Lower South," Ch. IV.
[1869] Ala. Test., p. 487 (Gen. William H. Forney).
[1870] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 377, 381, 382, 400, statement of
General Pettus, the present junior Senator from Alabama. Pope and Grant
continually reminded the old soldiers that their paroles were still in
force. Also Beard, "Ku Klux Sketches"; testimony of John D. Minnis, a
carpet-bag official, in Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 527-571.
[1871] Ala. Test., p. 224.
[1872] Ala. Test., p. 873 (William M. Lowe).
[1873] See Ch. XXIII.
[1874] For general accounts: Lester and Wilson, "Ku Klux Klan"; Beard, "Ku
Klux Sketches"; Brown, "The Lower South in American History," Ch. IV;
Nordhoff, "Cotton States in 1875"; Somers, "The Southern States." For
documents, see Fleming, "Docs. relating to Reconstruction." For
innumerable details, see the Ku Klux testimony and the testimony taken by
the Coburn investigating committee.
[1875] _Independent Monitor_ (Tuscaloosa), April 14, 1868.
[1876] The negroes called them "paterollers."
[1877] Ala. Test., p. 490 (William H. Forney).
[1878] Ala. Test., p. 873 (William. M. Lowe); p. 443 (P. M. Dox); oral
accounts. It must be remembered that, so far as numbers of whites are
considered, the Black Belt has always been as a thinly populated frontier
region, where every white must care for himself.
[1879] Rev. W. E. Lloyd and Mr. R. W. Burton, both of Auburn, Ala., and
numerous negroes have given me accounts of the policy of the black
districts soon after the war.
[1880] Ala. Test., p. 1487 (J. J. Garrett).
[1881] _Birmingham Age-Herald_, May 19, 1901 (J. W. DuBose).
[1882] Ala. Test., p. 592 (L. W. Day).
[1883] Saunders, "Early Settlers"; oral accounts.
[1884] Ala. Test., p. 445 (P. M. Dox); Miller, "Alabama." The negroes
still point out and avoid the trees on which these outlaws were hanged.
[1885] J. W. DuBose and accounts of other members.
[1886] Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, 1866, Pt. III, p.
140 (Swayne).
[1887] Ala. Test., pp. 1125, 1126 (Daniel Taylor); pp. 1136, 1142 (Col.
John J. Holley).
[1888] Ala. Test., p. 877 (Wm. M. Lowe); p. 664 (Daniel Coleman).
[1889] "The so-called Ku Klux organizations were formed in this state
(Alabama) very soon after the return of our soldiers to their homes,
following the surrender. To the best of my recollection, it was during the
winter of 1866 that I first heard of the Klan in Alabama."--Ryland
Randolph. The quotations from Randolph are taken from his letters, unless
his paper, the _Independent Monitor_, is referred to.
[1890] "This fellow Jones up at Pulaski got up a piece of Greek and
originated it, and then General Forrest took hold of it."--Nicholas Davis,
in Ala. Test., p. 783.
[1891] Lester and Wilson, "Ku Klux Klan," p. 17; Ala. Test., pp. 660, 661,
1282; accounts of members.
[1892] Ala. Test., p. 660.
[1893] "It [the Klan] originated with the returned soldiers for the
purpose of punishing those negroes who had become notoriously and
offensively insolent to white people, and, in some cases, to chastise
those white-skinned men who, at that particular time, showed a disposition
to affiliate socially with negroes. The impression sought to be made was
that these white-robed night prowlers were the ghosts of the Confederate
dead, who had arisen from their graves in order to wreak vengeance upon an
undesirable class of white and black men."--Randolph.
[1894] Lester and Wilson, Ch. I; Ala. Test., p. 1283 (Blackford); Somers,
p. 152; oral accounts.
[1895] General Forrest was the first and only Grand Wizard.
[1896] There could not be more than two Dominions in a single
congressional district.
[1897] There might be two Grand Giants in a province.
[1898] The office of Grand Ensign was abolished by the Revised and Amended
Prescript, adopted in 1868. The banner was in the shape of an isosceles
triangle, five feet by three, of yellow cloth with a three-inch red
border. Painted on it in black was a _Draco volans_, or Flying Dragon, and
this motto, "Quod semper, quod umbique, quod ab omnibus." This, in a note
to the Prescript, was translated, "What always, what everywhere, what by
all is held to be true."
[1899] Sources of revenue: (1) sale of the Prescript to Dens for $10 a
copy, of which the treasuries of Province, Dominion, and Realm each
received $2 and the treasury of the Empire $4; (2) a tax levied by each
division on the next lower one, amounting to 10% of the revenue of the
subordinate division; (3) a special tax, unlimited, might be levied in a
similar manner, when absolutely necessary; (4) the Dens raised money by
initiation fees ($1 each), fines, and a poll tax levied when the Grand
Cyclops saw fit.
[1900] The Revised Prescript made all officers appointive except the Grand
Wizard, who was elected by the Grand Dragons,--a long step toward
centralization.
[1901] It was by virtue of this authority that the order was disbanded in
1869.
[1902] The judiciary was abolished by the Revised Prescript.
[1903] "We had a regular system of by-laws, one or two of which only do I
distinctly remember. One was, that should any member reveal the names or
acts of the Klan, he should suffer the full penalty of the identical
treatment inflicted upon our white and black enemies. Another was that in
case any member of the Klan should become involved in a personal
difficulty with a Radical (white or black), in the presence of any other
member or members, he or they were bound to take the part of the member,
even to the death, if necessary."--Randolph.
[1904] "Terrible, horrible, furious, doleful, bloody, appalling,
frightful, gloomy," etc. The Register was changed in the Revised
Prescript. It was simply a cipher code.
[1905] The Revised Prescript says "the constitutional laws." Lester and
Wilson, p. 54.
[1906] Compare with the declaration of similar illegal societies,--the
"Confréries" of France in the Middle Ages,--which sprang into existence
under similar conditions seven hundred years before, "pour defendre les
innocents et réprimer les violences iniques." See Lavisse et Rambaud,
"Histoire Générale," Vol. II, p. 466.
[1907] See also Lester and Wilson, pp. 55, 56.
[1908] I have before me the original Prescript, a small brown pamphlet
about three inches by five, of sixteen pages. The title-page has a
quotation from "Hamlet" and one from Burns. At the top and bottom of each
page are single-line Latin quotations: "Damnant quod non intelligunt";
"Amici humani generis"; "Magna est Veritas, et prevalebit"; "Hic manent
vestigia morientis libertatis"; "Cessante causa, cessat effectus";
"Dormitur aliquando jus, moritur nunquam"; "Deo adjuvante, non timendum";
"Nemo nos impune lacessit," etc. This Prescript belonged to the Grand
Giant of the Province of Tuscaloosa County, the late Ryland Randolph,
formerly editor of the _Independent Monitor_, and was given to me by him.
It is the only copy known to be in existence. He called it the "Ku Klux
Guide Book," and states that it was sent to him from headquarters at
Memphis. An imperfect copy of the original Prescript was captured in 1868,
and printed in Ho. Mis. Doc., No. 53, pp. 315-321, 41st Cong., 2d Sess.,
and again in the Ku Klux Rept., Vol. XIII, pp. 35-41.
There is a copy of the Revised and Amended Prescript in Columbia
University Library, the only copy known to be in existence. No committee
of Congress ever discovered this Prescript, and when the Klan disbanded,
in March, 1869, it was strictly ordered that all papers be destroyed. A
few Prescripts escaped destruction, and years afterward one of these was
given to the Southern Society of New York by a Nashville lady. The
Southern Society gave it to Columbia University Library. It was printed in
the office of the _Pulaski Citizen_ in 1868. The Revised and Amended
Prescript is reproduced in facsimile as No. 2 of the W. Va. Univ. "Docs,
relating to Reconstruction." Lester and Wilson use it incorrectly (p. 54)
as the one adopted in Nashville in 1867. At this time General Forrest is
said to have assumed the leadership. See Wyeth, "Life of Forrest," p. 619;
Mathes, "General Forrest," pp. 371-373; Ku Klux Rept., Vol. XIII,
Forrest's testimony.
[1909] Somers, p. 153.
[1910] "Breckenridge Democrats, Douglas Democrats, Watts State Rights
Whigs, Langdon Consolidation Know-Nothings," united in Ku Klux.
_Birmingham Age-Herald_, May 19, 1901; Ala. Test., p. 323 (Busteed) _et
passim_.
[1911] But some survivors are now inclined to remember all opposition to
the Radical programme as Ku Klux, that is, to have been a Democrat then
was to have been a member of Ku Klux.
[1912] General Terry, in Report of Sec. of War, 1869-1870, Vol. II, p. 88.
[1913] "The Ku Klux organizations flourished chiefly in middle and
southern Alabama; notably in Montgomery, Greene, Tuscaloosa, and Pickens
counties."--Randolph.
[1914] Ku Klux Rept., p. 21; Ala. Test., pp. 67, 68 (B. W. Norris); pp.
364, 395 (Swayne); p. 443 (P. M. Dox); p. 385 (General Pettus); p. 462
(William H. Forney); p. 77 (Parsons); pp. 1282, 1283 (Blackford); p. 547
(Minnis); p. 660 (Daniel Coleman); p. 323 (Busteed).
[1915] Ala. Test., p. 785 (Nicholas Davis); pp. 79, 80 (Governor Parsons).
[1916] Ala. Test., p. 1282.
[1917] "Had these organizations confined their operations to their
legitimate objects, then their performances would have effected only good.
Unfortunately the Klan began to degenerate into a vile means of wreaking
revenge for personal dislikes or personal animosities, and in this way
many outrages were perpetrated, ultimately resulting in casting so much
odium on the whole concern that about the year 1870 there was an almost
universal collapse, all the good and brave men abandoning it in disgust.
Many outrages were committed in the name of Ku Klux that really were done
by irresponsible parties who never belonged to the Klan."--Randolph.
[1918] It was evidently organized May 23, 1867, since the constitution
directed that all orders and correspondence should be dated with "the year
of the B.--computing from the 23d of May, 1867.... Thursday the 20th of
July, 1868, shall be the 20th day of the 7th month of the 2d year of the
B. of the ----." Constitution, Title VIII, Article 77.
[1919] Ala. Test., pp. 1282-1283 (Blackford); p. 9 (William Miller);
accounts of former members. P. J. Glover testified in the Coburn-Buckner
Report, pp. 882-883 (1875), that in 1867-1868 he was a member of the order
of the White Camelia in Marengo County, and that it coöperated with a
similar order in Sumter County. The Ku Klux testimony relating to Alabama
(p. 1338) shows that in 1871 Glover had denied any knowledge of such
secret orders.
[1920] W. Va. Univ. Docs., No. 1; Brown, "Lower South," Ch. IV.
[1921] The officers of the Supreme Council were: (1) Supreme Commander,
(2) Supreme Lieutenant Commander, (3) Supreme Sentinel, (4) Supreme
Corresponding Secretary, (5) Supreme Treasurer.
[1922] The officers were Grand Commander, Grand Lieutenant Commander, etc.
[1923] The officers of a Central Council were Eminent Commander, etc.; of
a Subordinate Council, Commander, etc.
[1924] Dr. G. P. L. Reid, Marion, Alabama, formerly an official in the
order. Mr. William Garrott Brown gives the statement of one of the leaders
of the order: "The authority of the commander [this office I held] was
_absolute_. All were sworn to obey his orders. There was an inner circle
in each circle, to which was committed any particular work; its movements
were not known to other members of the order. This was necessary because,
in our neighborhood, almost every southern man was a member." "Lower
South," p. 212.
[1925] It is said that the Ku Klux Klan had a number of negro members.
[1926] In making the presentation the following dialogue took place: _Q._
Who comes there? _Ans._ A son of your race. _Q._ What does he wish? _Ans._
Peace and order; the observance of the laws of God; the maintenance of the
laws and Constitution as established by the Patriots of 1776. _Q._ To
obtain this, what must be done? _Ans._ The cause of our race must triumph.
_Q._ And to secure its triumph, what must we do? _Ans._ We must be united
as are the flowers that grow on the same stem, and, under all
circumstances, band ourselves together as brethren. _Q._ Will he join us?
_Ans._ He is prepared to answer for himself, and under oath.
[1927] The oath: "I do solemnly swear, in the presence of these witnesses,
never to reveal, without authority, the existence of this Order, its
objects, its acts, and signs of recognition; never to reveal or publish,
in any manner whatsoever, what I shall see or hear in this Council; never
to divulge the names of the members of the Order, or their acts done in
connection therewith; I swear to maintain and defend the social and
political superiority of the White Race on this continent; always and in
all places to observe a marked distinction between the White and African
races; to vote for none but white men for any office of honor, profit, or
trust; to devote my intelligence, energy, and influence to instil these
principles in the minds and hearts of others; and to protect and defend
persons of the White Race, in their lives, rights, and property, against
the encroachments and aggressions of persons of any inferior race. I
swear, moreover, to unite myself in heart, soul, and body with those who
compose this Order; to aid, protect, and defend them in all places; to
obey the orders of those who, by our statutes, will have the right of
giving those orders; to respond at the peril of my life, to a call, sign,
or cry coming from a fellow-member whose rights are violated; and to do
everything in my power to assist him through life. And to the faithful
performance of this Oath I pledge my life and sacred honor."
[1928] The motto is printed in large capitals in the original text.
[1929] Large capitals in the original text.
[1930] The Constitution and the Ritual of the Knights of the White Camelia
are reprinted in W. Va. Univ. Docs., No. 1. They were preserved by Dr. G.
P. L. Reid of Perry County, Alabama, who buried his papers when the order
was disbanded, and years afterward dug them up. The secrets of the Knights
of the White Camelia were more closely kept than those of the Ku Klux
Klan, and the Federal officials were unable to find out anything about the
order.
[1931] Constitutional Union Guards, Sons of '76, The '76 Association, Pale
Faces, White Boys, White Brotherhood, Regulators, White League, White
Rose, etc. Sumarez de Haviland, in an article on "Ku Klux Klan" in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_, Vol. XL, 1888 (evidently based on Lester and
Wilson), gives the names of a number of secret societies, which he says
were connected in some way; the first group was absorbed into Ku Klux
Klan; the second consisted of opposing societies; they existed before,
during, and after the Civil War. 1. The Lost Clan of Cocletz, Knights of
the Golden Circle, Knights of the White Camelia, Centaurs of Caucasian
Civilization, Angels of Avenging Justice, etc. 2. The Underground
Railroad, The Red String Band, The Union League, The Black Avengers of
Justice, etc.
"The generic name of Ku Klux was applied to all secret organizations in
the South composed of white natives and having for their object the
execution of the 'first law of nature.' There were many organizations
(principally of local origin) which had no connection one with another;
others, again, were more extended in their influence and operations. The
one numerically the largest and which embraced the most territory was the
White Camelia."--Dr. G. P. L. Reid.
[1932] "Their robes used in these nocturnal campaigns consisted simply of
sheets wrapped around their bodies and belted around the waist. The lower
portion reached to the heels, whilst the upper had eyeholes through which
to see, and mouth holes through which to breathe. Of course, every man so
caparisoned had one or more pistols in holsters buckled to his
waist."--Randolph.
[1933] Ala. Test., pp. 149-152, 275, 452, 453, 535, 574, 579, 597, 668,
707, 919, 1048, 1553; Somers, "Southern States," p. 152; Report of Joint
Committee, Alabama Legislature, 1868; oral accounts. The Ku Klux costumes
represented in Wilson's "History of the American People," Vol. V, Ch. I,
were captured after a Ku Klux parade in Huntsville, Ala. When costumes
were to be made, the materials were sometimes sent secretly to the women,
who made them according to directions and returned them secretly.
[1934] Ala. Test., pp. 352, 452, 453, 490, 533, 534; Beard, "Ku Klux
Sketches"; Brown, "Lower South," Ch. IV; Lester and Wilson, Ch. III; Weir,
"Old Times in Georgia," p. 32; accounts of former members.
[1935] "Concerning any elaborate organization, I am unable to state from
any personal experience. There were certain heads of departments or
organizations, under heads or chiefs bearing titles intended to strike awe
into the minds of the ignorant. In some instances organizers were sent to
towns to establish the Klans. These latter were formed into companies
officered somewhat in military style. In (1868) I was honored by being
chosen leader of the Tuscaloosa Klan, and even at this late day I am
gratified to be able to say that my company did good service to
Tuscaloosa."--Randolph.
[1936] "We had regular meetings about once a week, at which the conduct of
certain offensive characters would be discussed, and if the majority voted
to punish such, it would be done accordingly on certain prescribed nights.
Sometimes it was deemed necessary only to post notices of warning, which,
in some cases, were sufficient to alarm the victims and to induce them to
reform in their behavior. To the best of my recollection, our company
consisted of about sixty members. As soon as our object was effected,
viz., got the negroes to behave themselves, we disbanded. I well remember
those notices in _The Monitor_, for they were concocted and posted by my
own hand--disguised of course."--Randolph.
[1937] Printed in Report of Joint Committee, Alabama Legislature, 1868.
The warning is not in the ordinary Ku Klux form. The purpose is clear,
however. The illiteracy is probably assumed, though not necessarily.
[1938]
HEADQUARTERS S. V. W.,
ANCIENT COMMANDERY,
Mother Earth.
1st Quarter New Moon.
1st year of Revenge.
_Special Order_:
The worldly medium for the expression of +SOUTHERN OPINION+ is notified to
publish for the eyes of humanity the orders of the offended Ghosts.
Failing to do so, let him prepare his soul for travelling beyond the
limits of his corporosity.
Cyclops warns it--print it well,
Or glide instanter down to h--l!
By order of the Great
BLUFUSTIN
The Mighty Chief. +HOBGOBLIN.+
True Copy, +PETERLOO.+
S. K. K. K.
--_Independent Monitor_, April 1, 1868.
[1939] "They [Ku Klux orders] had this meaning: the very night of the day
on which said notices made their appearance, three notably offensive negro
men were dragged out of their beds, escorted to the old boneyard (3/4 mile
from Tuscaloosa) and thrashed in the regular ante-bellum style, until
their unnatural nigger pride had a tumble, and humbleness to the white man
reigned supreme."--Randolph.
[1940] Report of Meade, 1868.
[1941] Report of Joint Committee, 1868; Ala. Test., p. 876 (William M.
Lowe).
[1942] In 1869-1870 there was an epidemic of resignations in the Black
Belt. It was in the rich Black Belt that the carpet-bagger flourished. The
departing Radical could always sell his property at a high price, the
whites often uniting to purchase it. In Perry, Pickens, Choctaw, Marengo,
Hale, and other Black Belt counties the carpet-baggers resigned and left.
Ala. Test., pp. 103, 104.
[1943] The case of W. B. Jones of Marengo County was well known. See Ala.
Test., p. 1455 _et passim_.
[1944] Ala. Test., p. 935 (a Bureau agent). It is more likely that this
was when the Klan was dying out and the class of men composing it had no
time to go on night rides while the crops were needing their attention.
During the leisure seasons time would hang heavy on their hands, and they
would begin their deviltry again.
[1945] I have learned of only two such cases; one was in Tuscaloosa
County. The woman was a Bureau school-teacher from the North. _Independent
Monitor_, May 24, 1871. The other was the case of America Trammell in east
Alabama. Ala. Test., p. 1119.
[1946] Ala. Test., pp. 166, 433, 459, 462, 476, 1125, 1126, 1749.
[1947] Ala. Test., pp. 476, 1125, 1126.
[1948] Ala. Test., pp. 922, 923, _et passim_. I have been told that in one
place 2000 muskets were collected, taken from negroes.
[1949] Ala. Test., p. 1179. The legal militia consisted of Major-General
Dustan only.
[1950] Not nearly so many as is usually supposed. Lakin, who never
underestimated anything, could think of only six in all north Alabama.
[1951] Ala. Test., 1138; Coburn-Buckner Report.
[1952] Several southern churches seized by Lakin for the northern church
were burned.
[1953] Report of Joint Committee, 1868; Ala. Test., p. 1138.
[1954] Ala. Test., pp. 126, 127, 230, 418. See above, p. 612.
[1955] Ala. Test., p. 1983.
[1956] "Of the acts of this Order much has been written which is untrue;
every disturbance between the races was laid at its door; every act of
violence, in which the negro or the northern man was the victim, it was
charged with. I do not deny that extreme measures were sometimes resorted
to, but of such I have no personal knowledge.... Four hours would have
been in [Perry County] ample time to secure the assembly, at any central
point, of a thousand resolute men who would have done the bidding of their
commander whatever it might have been, yet in this time [three years] no
single act of violence was committed on the person or property of a negro
or alien by its order or which received its sanction or indorsement."--Dr.
G. P. L. Reid.
[1957] However, in 1871 Governor Lindsay stated that there were in the
state fewer feuds, crimes, difficulties, etc., than since 1819, when the
state was admitted. This was especially the case, he said, in northern
Alabama, for this reason: the people of the mountain and hill county were
now prosperous; cotton was selling for $100 to $150 a bale; these white
mountaineers by their own labor were doing well. Such was not the case
with the planter who had to hire negro labor and pay high prices for
provisions, farming implements, and mules. Meat that cost the planter 22
cents a pound was raised by the mountain people. Outrages against negroes
were now very rare. Ala. Test., pp. 206-207. It is certain that the
prosperity of the white counties which in 1870 got rid of the alien local
officials had much to do with allaying disorder.
[1958] The estimate is Lakin's.
[1959] Report Joint Committee of 1868; Ala. Test., p. 115 _et passim_. The
_N. Y. Tribune_, Nov. 14, 1868, states that Gustavus Horton, the first
Radical mayor of Mobile, was killed in this riot. After the riot was over
the United States troops appeared too late, as they usually were in such
cases.
[1960] Ala. Test., pp. 77, 429 _et passim_; _Montgomery Mail_, July 16,
1870. The mountain people had another grudge against Luke. He associated
constantly with negroes and was said to be a miscegenationist. The
mountain farmers had the greatest horror of such.
[1961] Ala. Test., pp. 257, 266, 275, _et passim_. Boyd had many private
enemies, among them relatives of a man he had killed, and it was charged
that they killed him. He was a man of low character, and his own party was
not sorry to lose him.
[1962] It was a marked fact that no resistance to the United States
soldiers was ever attempted. When the soldiers appeared, all violence
ceased. The soldiers were as a rule in favor of the whites and sometimes
took a hand in the Ku Kluxing. They usually appeared after the row was
over.
[1963] Ala. Test., pp. 81, 221, _et passim_; _Eutaw Whig_, Oct. 27, 1870.
[1964] Ala. Test., p. 229 _et passim_. When he testified before the Ku
Klux Committee, Alston swore that it was the men whom he had asked to
protect him that had shot him,--such men as General Cullen A. Battle.
[1965] Ala. Test., p. 723.
[1966] "The company of K. K. K.'s which was organized in Tuscaloosa, was
an independent organization, _i.e._ it was altogether a local affair,
having no connection with any general Klan."--Randolph.
[1967] Miss. Test., pp. 60, 223, 249; Ala. Test., pp. 213, 1822-1824;
Garner, "Reconstruction in Mississippi," pp. 345, 346.
[1968] Ala. Test., p. 942; Lester and Wilson, p. 78.
[1969] The anti-negro bands of the hills and mountains were rather of the
spurious Ku Klux and were largely composed of tories and Radicals.
[1970] Ala. Test., p. 1763.
[1971] Constitution, Article 76; Brown, "Ku Klux Movement," _Atlantic
Monthly_, May, 1901.
[1972] Ala. Test., pp. 226-257.
[1973] Ala. Test., pp. 159-225.
[1974] With the White Camelia in south Alabama the case was somewhat
different.
[1975] See Testimony of Lindsay and Clanton, cited above; also Ala. Test.,
p. 376 (Pettus); p. 896 (Lowe).
[1976] Somers, "Southern States," pp. 4, 15, 21; Lester and Wilson, Chs.
III, IV, V; Sanders, "Early Settlers," p. 31. "The peaceful citizen knew
that a faithful patrol had guarded his premises while he slept."--Mrs.
Stubbs. Brown, "Lower South," Ch. IV; Ala. Test., pp. 432, 1520, 1532,
1803.
[1977] Throughout the pages of the Ku Klux Testimony are found assertions
that Ku Klux was not an organization, but merely the understanding of the
southern people, the spirit of the community, the concert of feeling of
the whites, a state of mind in the population.
[1978] Ala. Test., pp. 165, 380, 649, 724; Somers, "Southern States," p.
154. Governor Lindsay said that the so-called Ku Klux who went over to
Mississippi were roughs and that the people were glad when they heard that
one of them had been shot. In 1870-1871, while living in Alabama, General
Forrest, the reputed Grand Wizard, repeatedly condemned in the strongest
terms the conduct of the so-called Ku Klux. Ala. Test., pp. 212, 213.
[1979] Ala. Test., pp. 162, 376.
[1980] Ala. Test., p. 719.
[1981] Ala. Test., pp. 610, 778.
[1982] Ala. Test., pp. 559, 560, 1229.
[1983] Ala. Test., p. 679. Governor Smith, a Radical, said in regard to
the motives of Senator George E. Spencer, I. D. Sibley, and J. J. Hinds,
carpet-baggers: "My candid opinion is that Sibley does not want the law
executed, because that would put down crime and crime is his life's bread.
He would like very much to have a Ku Klux outrage every week to assist him
in keeping up strife between the whites and blacks, that he might be more
certain of the votes of the latter. He would like to have a few colored
men killed every week to furnish semblance of truth to Spencer's libels
upon the people of the state generally. It is but proper in this
connection that I should speak in strong terms of condemnation of the
conduct of two white men in Tuskegee a few days ago, in advising the
colored men to resist the authority of the sheriff; these men were not Ku
Klux, but Republicans." Letter in _Huntsville Advocate_, June 25, 1870.
See also Herbert, "Solid South," p. 55.
[1984] See Ala. Test., p. 433.
[1985] Ala. Test., p. 230. In some communities a negro is still told that
he must not let the sun go down on him before leaving.
[1986] Ala. Test., pp. 944, 947, 948.
[1987] Ala. Test., pp. 1757, 1758, 1764, 1765, 1768. Judge Mudd was by no
means a representative of the old slaveholding element, but rather of the
white county people.
[1988] Ala. Test., p. 492.
[1989] Ala. Test., pp. 1127, 1128, 1139.
[1990] Ala. Test., pp. 1175, 1179.
[1991] G. O. No. 11, Sub-Dist. Ala., April 4, 1868; _Selma Times and
Messenger_, April 9, 1868; _N. Y. Herald_, April 7, 1868.
[1992] Report of the Secretary of War, 1869, p. 83 _et seq._; Report of
Meade, 1868.
[1993] Joint Resolution, Sept. 22, 1868, in Acts of Ala., p. 292. The
delegation to Washington did not provide themselves with an authenticated
copy of the resolution and had to wait for it. Governor Smith, who was
with the delegation, spoiled everything by declaring that there was no
disorder except along the Tennessee River and in southwestern Alabama and
that troops were not needed. No officials had been resisted, he said, and
it would be imprudent to send troops. _N. Y. Herald_, Sept. 27, 1868. The
citizens of Montgomery held a mass-meeting and denied _in toto_ the
allegations of the memorial, denouncing it as a move of partisan politics.
The strangers were sure to fall from power unless upheld by outside force.
_N. Y. Herald_, Sept. 25, 1868.
[1994] Act of Dec. 24, 1868; Acts of Ala., p. 439.
[1995] Joint Resolutions, Nov. 14 and Dec. 8, 1868; Acts of Ala., pp. 593,
594.
[1996] J. DeF. Richards and G. R. McAfee of the Senate, and E. F.
Jennings, W. R. Chisholm, and G. W. Malone of the House.
[1997] Report of Joint Committee on Outrages, 1868.
[1998] Act Dec. 26, 1868; Acts of Ala., 444-446. A supplementary act had
to be passed allowing the probate judges to license _for one dollar_ the
wearing of masks or disguises at balls, theatres, and circuses and other
places of amusement, public and private. Application had to be made at
least three days beforehand by "three responsible persons of established
character and reputation." Act Dec. 31, 1868; Acts of Ala., p. 521.
[1999] Act of Dec. 28, 1868; Acts of Ala., pp. 452-454.
[2000] See Dunning, "Essays," pp. 243-246.
[2001] Messages and Papers, Vol. VII, pp. 55, 56, March 30, 1871.
[2002] _The Nation_, Feb. 4, 1875, in regard to the "Force" legislation:
"It would not have been possible for the most ingenious enemy of the
blacks to draw up a code better calculated to keep up and fan the spirit
of strife and contention between the races." James L. Pugh, later United
States Senator from Alabama: The people were tired of being reconstructed
by President and by Congress. Now the Enforcement Laws punish all for the
crime of a few. They are an insult to a whole people, assuming them
incorrigible. Alabama Testimony, pp. 407, 408, 411.
[2003] See Burgess, "Reconstruction," pp. 69-73.
[2004] Text of act in McPherson, pp. 549-550. This act was ostensibly to
provide for the enforcement of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments.
Its constitutionality has been criticised on these grounds: (1) the
amendments were directed against _states_, not _persons_; (2) the law
enacted penalties not only against state officers, but also against any
_person_ who might offend against the election laws of the state or
against this act; (3) it is entirely out of the question to claim that the
amendments protect the right of a person within a state against
infringement by other persons, or even against the state itself unless on
account of race, color, or previous condition. See Burgess, pp. 253-255.
[2005] Text of act in McPherson, "Handbook of Politics," 1872, pp. 3-8.
While only the congressional elections and all the registrations were to
be guarded, the chief purpose of the act was to control state elections,
which were held at the same time and place. See Burgess, "Reconstruction,"
pp. 256-257. This was so clearly the purpose that after the rescue of the
state government from carpet-bag rule the time of the state and local
elections was changed from November to August in order to escape Federal
espionage.
[2006] "Upon the basis of information which turned out to be very
insufficient and unreliable."--Burgess, p. 257.
[2007] Messages and Papers, Vol. VII, pp. 127-128.
[2008] Burgess, pp. 257, 258.
[2009] Text in McPherson, "Handbook," 1872, pp. 85-87. For criticism,
Burgess, pp. 257, 259.
[2010] Messages and Papers, Vol. VII, pp. 134, 135.
[2011] Report of the Committee, pp. 1, 2.
[2012] Some of the Conservatives who testified were Gen. Cullen A. Battle,
R. H. Abercrombie, Gen. James H. Clanton, P. M. Dox, Gov. Robert B.
Lindsay, Reuben Chapman, Thomas Cobbs, Daniel Coleman, Jefferson M.
Falkner, William H. Forney, William M. Lowe, William Richardson, Francis
S. Lyon, William S. Mudd, Gen. Edmund W. Pettus, Turner Reavis, James L.
Pugh, P. T. Sayre, R. W. Walker,--all prominent men of high character.
[2013] Some of those who gave, willingly or unwillingly, Democratic
testimony: W. T. Blackford (c.), Judge Busteed (c.), General Crawford,
Nicholas Davis (s.), L. W. Day (c.), Samuel A. Hale (c.), J. H. Speed
(s.), Senator Willard Warner (c.), N. L. Whitfield (s.). (c.) =
carpet-bagger; (s.) = scalawag.
[2014] Charles Hays (s.), W. B. Jones (s.), S. F. Rice (s.), John A.
Minnis (c.), A. S. Lakin (c.), B. W. Norris (c.), L. E. Parsons (s.), E.
W. Peck (s.), and L. R. Smith (c.).
[2015] Day, Busteed, Van Valkenburg, General Crawford, etc.
[2016] Senate Report, No. 48, 42d Cong., 2d Sess., Pts. 8, 9, and 10, and
House Report, No. 22, 42d Cong., 2d Sess., Pts. 8, 9, and 10, contain the
Alabama Testimony.
[2017] Feb. 17, 1872; Report of Committee, p. 626.
[2018] McPherson, "Handbook," 1872, pp. 89, 90.
[2019] McPherson, "Handbook," 1872, pp. 90, 91. These provisions had to be
inserted in the Sundry Civil Bill, which was approved June 10, 1872.
Kellogg of Louisiana introduced the "rider."
[2020] For instances of petty annoyances to the people from marshals,
deputy marshals, and supervisors, see Sen. Ex. Doc., No. 119, 47th Cong.
1st Sess., and Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 246, 48th Cong., 2d Sess. These
annoyances lasted for several years.
[2021] Ku Klux Rept., pp. 320, 330.
[2022] In his Message, Nov. 15, 1869, Smith stated: "Nowhere have the
courts been interrupted. No resistance has been encountered by the
officers of courts in their effort to discharge the duties imposed upon
them by law." Smith was criticised by the carpet-baggers for not calling
out the negro militia to "enforce the laws." He stood out against them,
and on July 25, 1870, he replied to their criticisms, denouncing George E.
Spencer (United States Senator), J. D. Sibley, J. J. Hinds, and others as
systematically uttering every conceivable falsehood. "During my entire
administration of the state government," he said, "but one officer had
certified to me that he was unable, on account of lawlessness, to execute
his official duties. That officer was the sheriff of Morgan County. I
immediately made application to General Crawford for troops. They were
sent and the said sheriff refused their assistance." "Solid South," p. 55.
[2023] _Montgomery Mail_, July 3, 1872. The Black Cavalry and its spurious
Ku Klux successors infested those parts of eastern Alabama where, in 1903,
the existence of a system of peonage was discovered.
[2024] _Tuskegee News_, Sept. 3, 1874; Report of Joint Committee on
Election of George Spencer. During the remainder of Reconstruction under
the Enforcement Acts, the Federal government exercised supervision over
all elections. Election outrages by the Democrats probably decreased,
while outrages by the Radicals tended to increase. The Democrats put in
their work of influence and intimidation in the summer and early fall, and
when the elections came were quiet, trusting to the influence brought to
bear some months previously. After the carpet-bag government collapsed,
the Federal Enforcement Acts still gave supervision of elections to the
Washington government. The Democrats in Congress were unable to secure the
repeal of the force legislation. "We do not expect to repeal any of the
recent enactments [Force Laws]. They may stand forever, but we intend by
superior intelligence, stronger muscle, and greater energy, to make them
dead letter upon the statute books." _Birmingham News_, quoted in the
_State Journal_, June 24, 1874. But in 1880 no appropriation was made for
the pay of the deputy marshals and supervisors.
In 1875 the supreme court in the case of United States _vs._ Reese
declared the two most important sections of the Enforcement Act of 1870
unconstitutional. In 1883, in the case of the United States _vs._ Harris,
the Ku Klux Act of April 20, 1871, was declared unconstitutional. In 1888,
when House, Senate, and President were Republican, an attempt was made by
Mr. McKinley (afterward President) to pass a Force Bill to enforce the old
election laws, which were still on the statute book. The measure failed to
pass. It was in opposition to this Force Bill that Colonel Hilary A.
Herbert of Alabama and other southern congressmen wrote the work called
"Why the Solid South? or Reconstruction and its Results." It is said that
this book had some influence in causing a halt in force legislation. It
was the first attempt to write the history of the Reconstruction period,
and is still the best general account. In 1894, when House, Senate, and
President were Democratic, the remnants of the Enforcement Acts were
repealed, and thus was swept away the last of the Radical system. See
Dunning, "The Undoing of Reconstruction," in the _Atlantic Monthly_, Oct.,
1901.
[2025] Coburn-Buckner Report, p. 238. The constitution is not in the
_Journal_, however.
[2026] Coburn-Buckner Report, pp. 7, 12, 19, 702, 882, 883.
[2027] Cameron Report, 1876, pp. 53, 108; oral accounts.
[2028] The accounts of the wild and idle negro children of the rice and
tobacco districts are not true of those in the Cotton Belt. The smallest
tot could do a little in a cotton field.
[2029] See _Birmingham Age-Herald_, March 31 and April 7, 1901 (J. W.
DuBose); _Review of Reviews_, Sept., 1903, on "The Cotton Crop of To-day,"
by R. H. Edmonds; Ingle, "Southern Sidelights," p. 271; Address of
President Thach, Alabama Polytechnic Institute, before the American
Economic Association, 1903; Tillinghast, "Negro in Africa and America,"
pp. 126, 143; Mallard, "Plantation Life before Emancipation"; Washington,
"Up from Slavery," and "The Future of the American Negro," _passim_. The
immense cost of slave labor is seen when the value of the slaves is
compared with the value of the lands cultivated by their labor. In 1859
the cash value of the lands in Alabama was $175,824,622, and that of the
slaves was $215,540,000. The larger portion of this land had not a negro
on it, and if cultivated, was cultivated exclusively by whites. See Census
of 1860. The effect of the loss of slaves on the welfare of a planter is
shown in the case of William L. Yancey. His slaves were accidentally
poisoned and died. The loss ruined him, and he was forced to sell his
plantation and engage in a profession. A farmer in a white county
employing white labor would have been injured only temporarily by such a
loss of labor.
[2030] The tenant furnished labor, supplies, and teams, and paid the
landlord a fourth of the cotton and a third of the corn produced.
[2031] There was usually good feeling between the whites and blacks at
work together; but the negroes, at heart, scorned the poor whites, and had
to be closely watched to keep them from insulting or abusing them. The
negro had little respect for the man who owned no slaves or who owned but
few and worked with them in the fields. To protect the slaves against
outsiders was one reason why discipline was strict, supervision close,
passes required, etc. When both white and black were allowed to go at will
over the plantation and community, trouble was sure to result from the
impudent behavior of the negro to "white trash" and the consequent
retaliation of the latter. The whites often came to the master and wanted
him to whip his best slaves for impudence to them. The master, to prevent
this, regulated the liberty of the slave by passes, etc., and the whites,
especially strangers, were expected not to trespass on a plantation where
slaves were.
[2032] The idea of the so-called "prejudice" against manual labor is
perhaps due largely to abolitionist theories and arguments, which have
been partially accepted since the war by some southerners who think it due
to the old system to show its lofty attitude toward the common things of
life. But the negro had, and still has, a contempt for a white who works
as he does. And it has always been a custom of mankind,--white, yellow, or
black,--to get out of doing manual labor if there was anything else to do.
[2033] Accounts from old citizens, former planters.
[2034] The agent of President Johnson.
[2035] Report to President, April 9, 1866.
[2036] Colonel Saunders, a noted slaveholder in one of the white counties
in north Alabama, established a patriarchal protectorate over his former
slaves. He built a church for them, and organized a monthly court,
presided over by himself, in which the old negro men tried delinquents. It
is said that the findings of this court were often ludicrous in the
extreme, but order was preserved, and for a long while there was no resort
to the Bureau. Saunders, "Early Settlers," p. 31. Many similar
protectorates were established in the remote districts, but the policy of
the Bureau was to break them up.
[2037] A term of contempt.
[2038] See _Sewanee Review_, Jan., 1905, article on "Servant Problem in a
Black Belt Village."
[2039] _N. Y. Herald_, July 17, 1865; Reid, "After the War," pp. 211, 218,
219; Tillet, in _Century Magazine_, Vol. XI; Reports of General Swayne,
1865, 1866; Van de Graaf, in _Forum_, Vol. XXI, pp. 330, 339; _DeBow's
Review_, Feb., 1866, p. 220; oral accounts.
[2040] For a description of the Bureau labor regulations, see Chapter XI,
Sec. 1. Also _Montgomery Mail_, May 12, 1865; Howard's Circular, May 30,
1865; Circular No. 11, War Department, July 12, 1865; _Huntsville
Advocate_, July 26, 1865; Swayne's Reports, 1865, 1866; G. O. No. 12,
Dept. Ala., Aug. 30, 1865; G. O. No. 13, Dept. Ala., Sept., 1865; _Selma
Times_, Dec. 4, 1865. The so-called "Black Laws" passed by the legislature
in 1865-1866 to regulate labor were scarcely heard of by the people who
hired negroes.
[2041] Somers, "Southern States," 130.
[2042] _Southern Magazine_, Jan., 1874; _Selma Messenger_, Nov. 15, 1865;
_Harper's Monthly Magazine_, Jan., 1874; _Selma Times_, Dec. 4, 1865; oral
accounts; _DeBow's Review_, Feb., 1866.
[2043] Swayne to A. F. Perry, _N. Y. Herald_, Aug. 28, 1865; _N. Y.
Herald_, July 17, 1865; Reid, "After the War," pp. 211-219; _DeBow's
Review_, 1866, pp. 213, 220; Somers, "Southern States," p. 131.
[2044] _DeBow's Review_, Feb., 1866.
[2045] Many of the carpet-bag politicians were northern men who had failed
at cotton planting.
[2046] Report to the President, April 9, 1866; "Ten Years in a Georgia
Plantation," by the Hon. Mrs. Leigh; oral accounts. On account of the
general failure of the northern men who invested capital in the South in
1865 and 1866, there grew up in the business world an unfavorable feeling
against the South, and for the remainder of Reconstruction days that
section had to struggle against adverse business opinion. _Harper's
Magazine_, Jan., 1874.
[2047] _Selma Times_, Dec. 4, 1865. Nearly all the newspapers printed
advertisements of the immigration societies.
[2048] "Northern Alabama Illustrated," p. 378.
[2049] _Selma Times_, Dec. 4, 1865; _N. Y. Times_, July 2, 1866.
[2050] The great evil of slavery was its tendency to drive the whites who
were in moderate circumstances away from the more fertile lands of the
prairie and cane-brake and river bottoms, leaving them to the few
slaveholders and the immense number of slaves. Emancipation thus left on
the finest lands of the state a shiftless laboring population, which still
retains possession. Now, as in slavery times, the white prefers not to
work as a field hand in the Black Belt when he can get more independent
work elsewhere. And besides, he does not wish to live among the negroes.
Slavery kept white farmers from settling on the fertile lands; the negro
keeps whites from taking possession now.
[2051] _Mobile Daily Times_, Oct. 21, 1860; _Montgomery Advertiser_, March
21, 1866; _DeBow's Review_, March 18, 1866.
Several young women of Montgomery, who were once wealthy, worked in the
printing-office of the _Advertiser_. One of them was a daughter of a
former President of the United States. Many women became teachers,
displacing men, who then went to the fields. Disabled soldiers generally
tried teaching.
There seems to be a belief that emancipation had a good effect in driving
to work a certain "gentleman of leisure" class, who had been supported by
the work of slaves and who had scorned labor. (See W. B. Tillett, in the
_Century Magazine_, Vol. XI, p. 769.) It is a mistake to regard the
slaveholding, planting class as, in any degree, idle, unless from the
point of view of the negro or the ignorant white, who believed that any
man who did not work with his hands was a gentleman of leisure. The
Alabama planter was and had to be a man of great energy, good judgment,
and diligence. It was a belief that a man who could not manage a
plantation or other business should not be intrusted with an official
position. One of the most serious objections made by the cotton planters
to Jefferson Davis as President was that he had failed to manage his
plantation with success. See also Somers, "Southern States," p. 127.
[2052] _DeBow's Review_, Feb. and March, 1866; _Montgomery Advertiser_,
March 21, 1866; _N. Y. Herald_, July 17, 1866. It was estimated that in
the fall of 1865 the negro male population of the state was reduced by
50,000 able-bodied men, who were hanging around the cities and towns,
doing nothing. At Mobile there were 10,000; at Meridian, Miss., 5000; at
Montgomery, 10,000; at Selma, 5000; and at various smaller points, 20,000.
_Mobile Times_, Oct. 21, 1865.
[2053] See also Reid, "After the War," p. 221.
[2054] Trowbridge, "The South," p. 431 _et seq._
[2055] Trowbridge, "The South," p. 431; Reports of General Swayne, Dec.
26, 1865, and Jan., 1866, in Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 70, 39th Cong., 1st Sess.
General Swayne strongly approved the objects of these societies. He said
there was not and never had been any question of the right of the negro to
hold property. Free negroes had held property before the war.
[2056] _DeBow's Review_, Feb., 1868.
[2057] Jan. 31, 1866.
[2058] I have this account from a planter of the district.
[2059] Somers, an English traveller, thought that the economic relations
of planter and negro were startling, and that anywhere else they would be
considered absurd. The tenant, he said, was sure of a support, and did not
much care if the crop failed. Even his taxes, when he condescended to pay
any, were paid by his master. For all work outside of his crop he had to
be paid, and often he went away and worked for some one else for cash. And
his privileges were innumerable. "The soul is often crushed out of labor
by penury and oppression. Here a soul cannot begin to be infused into it
through the sheer excess of privilege and license with which it is
surrounded." "Southern States since the War," pp. 128, 129.
[2060] My father's tenants, white and black, rented on all systems. The
negroes usually began as wage laborers or as tenants "on halves," for they
had no supplies when they came. Then the more industrious and thrifty
would save and rent farms for "third and fourth" or for "standing rent."
The whites usually obtained the highest grade, and the average white man
would save enough of his earnings to purchase a team, wagon, buggy, farm
implements, and a year's supply and spend all else, though some saved
enough to buy land of their own in cheaper districts or to support
themselves for a year or two while opening up a homestead in the pine
woods. The negro, as a rule, rented "on halves," for he spent all his
earnings and required supervision. The average negro stays only a year or
two at one place before he longs for change and removes to another farm.
About Christmas, or just before, the negroes and many of the whites begin
to move to new homes. For a description of conditions in Mississippi,
where the negro has somewhat better opportunities than in Alabama, see Mr.
A. H. Stone's article in the _Quarterly Journal of Economics_, Feb., 1905.
[2061] In the census each person cultivating a crop is counted as a farmer
and the land he cultivates as a farm. Thus a plantation might be
represented in the census statistics by from five to twenty-five farms.
[2062] See also Otken, "Ills of the South"; Somers, "South since the War,"
p. 281; _Harper's Monthly_, Jan., 1874; _DeBow's Review_, Feb., 1868.
[2063] Any stick is good enough to beat slavery with, so it is usually
stated that slavery was responsible for the wasteful methods of
cultivation that prevailed in the South before the war. That can be true
only indirectly, for the soil always received the worst treatment in the
white counties. Like frontiersmen everywhere, the Alabama white farmers
found it easier to clear new land or to move West than to fertilize
worn-out soils. The lack of transportation facilities in the white
districts made it almost impossible to bring in commercial fertilizers or
to move the crops when made. The railroads had opened up only the rich
slave districts. If there had not been a negro in the state, the frontier
methods would have prevailed, as they still do among the farmers in some
parts of the West. On the other hand, the rich lands worked by slave labor
under intelligent direction were kept in good condition. Under free negro
labor they are in the worst possible condition. Experience, necessity, the
disappearance of free land, and the increase of transportation facilities
have caused the white county farmer to employ better methods, and to keep
up and increase the fertility of the land by using fertilizers.
[2064] But it was nearly forty years before the entire cotton crop of the
state was as large as in 1859.
[2065] _Southern Magazine_, Jan., 1874; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp.
206, 207; Somers, "Southern States," p. 117. In 1860 it was estimated that
of the whole cotton crop 10 to 12 per cent was produced by white labor; in
1876 the proportion of whites to blacks in the cotton fields was 30 to 51;
in 1883 white labor produced 44 per cent of the cotton crop; in 1884, 48
per cent; in 1885, 50 per cent; in 1893, 70 per cent. And this was done by
the whites on inferior lands. See W. B. Tillett, in _Century Magazine_,
Vol. XI, p. 771; Hammond, "The Cotton Industry," pp. 129, 130, 132.
[2066] DeBow estimated that the entire acreage of the cotton crop was as
follows:--
1836. 2,000,000 acres
1840. 4,500,000 acres
1850. 5,000,000 acres
1860. 6,968,000 acres
The Commissioner of Agriculture in 1876 estimated that the acreage in 1860
was 13,000,000. Taking this estimate, which, while probably too large, is
more nearly correct, only 4 per cent of the arable land was planted in
cotton--the staple crop. Hammond, "The Cotton Industry," p. 74.
[2067] Smith, "Cotton Production in Alabama" (1884); Census, 1880; Smith
in Ala. Geolog. Survey, 1881-1882; Kelsey, "The Negro Farmer"; oral
accounts and personal observation.
[2068] So poor were the people after the war that, even though the value
of the mineral and timber lands was well known, there was no native
capital to develop them, and the lion's share went to outsiders, who
bought the lands at tax and mortgage sales during and after the carpet-bag
régime.
[2069] Slavery or negroes prevented the establishment of manufactures by
crowding out a white population capable of carrying on manufactures. The
census shows that in 1860 the white districts had a fair proportion of
manufactures for a state less than forty years old.
[2070] Address of President C. C. Thach, Dec. 29, 1903.
[2071] "Northern Alabama Illustrated," p. 378; see article on "Immigration
to the Southern States" in the _Political Science Quarterly_, June, 1905.
[2072] Address of President C. C. Thach, Dec. 29, 1903.
[2073] The decreasing value of the wage laborer is shown by the following
table of wages:
===========================================
YEAR | MEN | WOMEN | YOUTHS, 14-20
---------|---------|--------|--------------
1860 |$138 | $89 | $66
1865-1866| 150-200 | 100-150| 75-100
1867 | 117 | 71 | 52
1868 | 87 | 50 | 40
1890 | 150 | 100 | 60-75
===========================================
The figures of 1860 are based on the wages of an able-bodied negro. The
statistics of 1865-1866 are taken from tables of wages prescribed by the
Freedmen's Bureau; those for 1867 and 1868 show the decline caused by the
inefficiency of the free negro laborer. Yet the demand for labor was
always greater than the supply. In 1860 clothing and rations were also
given; in 1866-1868 rations and no clothing. In 1890 nothing was
furnished. In 1866-1868 the currency was inflated, and the wages for 1868
were really much lower. Hammond, "The Cotton Industry," p. 124;
_Montgomery Mail_, May 16, 1865; Freedmen's Bureau Reports, 1865-1870.
[2074] A convention held in Montgomery, in 1873, recommended that the
share system be abolished and a contract wage system be inaugurated; wages
should be secured by a lien on the employer's crop; separate contracts
should be made with each laborer, and the "squad" system abolished. In
this way the laborer would not be responsible for bad crops. To aid the
laborers, Congress was asked to pass the Sumner Civil Rights Bill,
providing for the recognition of certain social rights for negroes, to
exempt homesteads from tax action, and to increase the tax on property
held by speculators. And the President was asked to supply bread and meat
to the negro farmers. Annual Cyclopædia (1873), p. 19; _Tuscaloosa Blade_,
Nov. 30, 1873.
[2075] See Willet, "Workers of the Nation," Vol. II, pp. 701, 702.
[2076] Willet, Vol. II, p. 714.
[2077] Washington, in _Atlantic Monthly_, Vol. LXXVIII, pp. 324-326.
[2078] Somers, p. 166.
[2079] _Southern Magazine_, Jan., 1874.
[2080] Somers, p. 117.
[2081] Somers, p. 159.
[2082] _Southern Magazine_, March, 1874.
[2083] "Southern States," p. 131.
[2084] The prosperity of several large commercial houses in Alabama is
said to date from the corner groceries of the '70's.
[2085] Somers, "Southern States," pp. 159, 272; _Harper's Monthly
Magazine_, Jan., 1874; King, "The Great South"; C. C. Smith, "Colonization
of Negroes in Central Alabama"; _Southern Magazine_, Jan., 1874; _The
Forum_, Vol. XXI, p. 341; Hoffman, p. 261; Hammond, p. 191. See also
Appendix II.
[2086] A northern traveller in the Alabama Black Belt in recent years says
of it: "The white population is rapidly on the decrease and the negro
population on the increase.... There are hundreds of the 'old mansion
houses' going to decay, the glass broken in the windows, the doors off the
hinges, the siding long unused to paint, the columns of the verandas
rotting away, and the bramble thickets encroaching to the very doors. The
people have sold their land for what little they could get and moved to
the cities and towns, that they may educate their children and escape the
intolerable conditions surrounding them at their old beloved homes....
These friends have largely gone from the negro's life, and he is left
alone in the wilderness, held down by crop liens and mortgages given to
the alien. Land rent is half its value; the tenant must purchase from the
creditor's store and raise cotton to pay for what he has already eaten and
worn." C. C. Smith, "Colonization of Negroes in Central Alabama,"
published by the Christian Women's Board of Missions, Indianapolis, Ind.
[2087] See also Edmunds, in _Review of Reviews_, Sept., 1900; Dillingham,
in _Yale Review_, Vol. V, p. 190; Stone, "The Negro in the
Yazoo-Mississippi Delta"; Stone, in _Quarterly Journal of Economics_,
Feb., 1905; _Gunton's Magazine_, Sept., 1902 (Dowd); Brown, in _North
American Review_, Dec., 1904; Census 1900, Vol. VI, Pt. II, pp. 406-416;
_Harper's Monthly Magazine_, Jan., 1874, and Jan., 1881; Stone, in _South
Atlantic Quarterly_, Jan., 1905; Kelsey, "The Negro Farmer"; Hammond, "The
Cotton Industry."
Another solution of the problem is often suggested, viz. the crowding out
of the blacks from the Black Belt by the whites--especially northerners
and Germans--who want to cultivate the Black Belt lands, who settle in
colonies, and who have no place for the negro in their plans of industrial
society. The Black Belt landlords are becoming weary of negro labor, and
some are disposed to make special inducements to get whites to settle in
the Black Belt. In Louisiana and Mississippi, Italians have replaced
negroes on many sugar and cotton plantations. Georgia and Alabama, in
order to make the negro work, have recently passed stringent vagrancy
laws, and the planters are talking of Chinese labor. For the opinions of
those who favor white immigration to the South, see the _Manufacturers
Record_, the _Atlanta Constitution_, and the _Montgomery Advertiser_,
during recent years. There is a general demand for foreigners who will
perform agricultural labor.
[2088] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 879 (Lowe); _N. Y. World_, Dec. 14,
1867, Aug. 15, 1868.
[2089] For information in regard to the Radical congressmen: Barnes,
"History of the 40th Congress," Index; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test. (Clanton,
Lowe, Lindsay); _Harper's Weekly_, May 1, 1869 (picture of Spencer);
_Elyton Herald_, ----, 1868; _Montgomery Mail_, July 25, 1868; _N. Y.
World_, Feb. 15 and Sept. 22, 1868; Alabama Manual (1869), p. 32; _N. Y.
Herald_, ----, 1868.
[2090] Pike was the only county that never fell completely into the hands
of the Radicals.
[2091] "North Alabama Illustrated," p. 50; _Montgomery Advertiser_, July
13, 1866; _N. Y. World_, April 11 and July 23, 1868; Ku Klux Rept., Ala.
Test., pp. 187, 188, 881, 1815, 1956; Acts of Ala. (1868), p. 414;
(1869-1870), pp. 157, 336; Beverly, "Alabama," p. 203. A vivid description
of the first session of the reconstructed legislature was published by
Capt. B. H. Screws, "The Loil Legislature."
[2092] Tradition says that what is now known as the Davis Memorial Room
was the one thus used.
[2093] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 231, 881, 1411, 1424, 1468; _Weekly
Mail_, March 24, 1869; _Independent Monitor_, Jan. 11, 1870; Report of
Investigating Committee; Miller, "Alabama," p. 254; "Northern Alabama," p.
50; oral accounts of former members.
[2094] Acts of Ala. (1868), pp. 67, 71, 79, 212, 305, 352.
[2095] Senate Journal (1868), pp. 168, 176, 297.
[2096] Acts of Ala. (1868), pp. 113, 129, 133, 350, 407, 414, 421;
(1869-1870), p. 451; _Montgomery Mail_, Feb. 24, 1870; Annual Cyclopædia
(1870), p. 12.
[2097] Annual Cyclopædia (1870), p. 13; Journal (1869-1870), _passim_;
Brown, "Alabama," p. 268.
[2098] Annual Cyclopædia (1870), p. 19; _N. Y. Herald_, Aug. 17, 1868.
[2099] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 90, 91, 187; Senate Journals
(1868-1874).
[2100] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 189, 239, 240, 324, 435, 523, 962,
1421, 1590, 1816, 1819, 1820, 1957; Herbert, "Solid South," p. 53; Coburn
Report, p. 256; _N. Y. World_, April 11, 1868; _Montgomery Mail_, April
21, 1870.
[2101] Annual Cyclopædia (1870), p. 13.
[2102] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 510; _Augusta Chronicle and
Sentinel_, June 13, 1866; _Selma Times and Messenger_, June 9, 1868.
[2103] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 93, 103, 104, 358, 435, 1878; _N. Y.
World_, Nov. 3, 1868; Coburn Report, p. 512; Herbert, "Solid South," p.
60.
[2104] Annual Cyclopædia (1870), p. 14; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 91,
1177, 1178, 1179, 1242; _N. Y. Herald_, Sept. 27 and Oct. 26, 1868; Report
of Sec. of War, 1869, vol. I, p. 88.
[2105] McPherson's scrap-book, "Campaign of 1868," Vol. I, p. 156; Vol. V,
pp. 43, 45, 46, 48, 49; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 95, 360, 502, 1956;
_N. Y. World_, Sept. 12, 1868; G. O. No. 27, Dept. of the South, Oct. 8,
1868; G. O. No. 38, Dept. of the South, Nov. 10, 1868; _Tuskegee News_,
July 29, 1876.
[2106] _N. Y. Times_, Sept. 7, 1868 (speech of Judge T. M. Peters).
[2107] Nordhoff, "Cotton States in 1870," pp. 85, 86; Ku Klux Rept., Ala.
Test., pp. 185, 209, 210, 434, 435, 1879.
[2108] Miller, "Alabama," p. 256; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 84, 182,
183, 216, 232, 311, 356, 357, 378, 379, 512, 531, 1038, 1625; McPherson's
scrap-book, "Campaign of 1870," Vol. I, pp. 55, 61; Annual Cyclopædia
(1870), pp. 16, 17; "Northern Alabama," p. 50; _Montgomery Mail_, Aug. 20,
1870 (Union League Appeal).
[2109] Somers, "Southern States," p. 132; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p.
225; Miller, "Alabama," p. 256.
[2110] Somers, "Southern States," pp. 167, 186; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test.,
214, 232, 381, 423, 1299, 1371, 1558-1561 (see also the whole of Lindsay's
testimony); "Northern Alabama," p. 50; Annual Cyclopædia (1871), p. 11;
Miller, "Alabama," pp. 259-261; Beverly, "Alabama," p. 204.
[2111] _Montgomery Advertiser_, Sept. 23, 1872.
[2112] Report of Joint Committee in regard to election of George E.
Spencer; Taft, "Senate Election Cases," pp. 558, 562, 574-578; Annual
Cyclopædia (1872), pp. 11, 12; (1873), 16-18; Memorial of General Assembly
(Radical) to President, November, 1872; Coburn Report, p. 716; Senate
Journal (1872-1873), pp. 15-86 ("Court-House Senate"); Senate Journal,
1871 ("Capitol Senate"), Appendix; McPherson, "Handbook of Politics"
(1874), pp. 85, 86; Acts of Ala. (1872-1873), p. 532; Acts of Ala., 1873,
p. 156; _Montgomery Advertiser_, Nov. 12 and 24, 1872; Jan. 4, Feb. 22 and
23, 1873; _Southern Argus_, Nov. 22, 1872; Jan. 10, 1873; Herbert, "Solid
South," pp. 57-59; Miller, "Alabama," p. 261.
[2113] Coburn Report, pp. 230, 262, 267, 271, 274, 280, 525, 528, 529;
"Northern Alabama," p. 51; _Tuscaloosa Blade_, Nov. 27, 1873; _Montgomery
Advertiser_, Sept. 27, 1872.
[2114] See Coburn Report, pp. 154, 161.
[2115] _Montgomery Advertiser_, March, 1870; Report of Inspector of
Penitentiary, 1873-1874; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 230, 244, 1220,
1380, 1384; Acts of Ala. (1869-1870), p. 28; Washington, "Up from
Slavery," pp. 83-90; _N. Y. World_, Feb. 22 and April 11, 1868;
_Tuscaloosa Monitor_, Dec. 18, 1867; Coburn Report, pp. 108, 110, 161,
203, 204, 295; Clowes, "Black America," pp. 131, 140; Herbert, "Solid
South," p. 59.
[2116] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 71, 233, 390, 391, 881, 1815, 1816;
Coburn Report, p. 861; _Huntsville Democrat_, 1872; Straker, "The New
South Investigated," pp. 24, 41, 57; _Ala. State Journal_, May 20, 1874;
McPherson's Scrap-book, "Campaign of 1869," Vol. I, p. 57.
[2117] _International Monthly_, Vol. V, p. 220; Coburn Report, p. 527;
"The Land We Love," Vol. I, p. 446; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 390,
391, 405, 411, 926; Riley, "Baptists of Alabama," pp. 321, 322, 329;
Clowes, "Black America," pp. 53, 131, 140, 144; Murphy, "The Present
South."
[2118] See also Ch. XXII.
[2119] Charge of Judge H. D. Clayton to Barbour County grand jury in
Coburn Report, p. 839; Report of Montgomery grand jury in _Advertiser_,
Oct. 20, 1871; _Tuskegee News_, March 16, 1876; Little, "History of Butler
County," p. 111; _Tuscaloosa Blade_, Nov. 19, 1874; Coburn Report, pp.
524, 1219; _Montgomery Advertiser_, Nov. 27, 1873; Ku Klux Rept., Ala.
Test., pp. 230, 1175, 1179; _Scribner's Monthly_, Sept., 1874; Herbert,
"Solid South," pp. 63, 67.
[2120] _Ala. State Journal_, Jan. 14, 1874.
[2121] _State Journal_, March 10, 1874. The justice who performed the
ceremony in one case gave as his excuse that the woman was so bad that
nothing she could do would make her worse.
[2122] _Montgomery Advertiser_ and other Montgomery papers of March 5,
1873.
[2123] Coburn Report on Affairs in Alabama, 1874, pp. xiv, 341, 519, 520,
521, 743; _Montgomery Advertiser_, Oct. 23, 1902.
[2124] See _State Journal_, Jan. 10 and Feb. 1, 1874.
[2125] A few years ago Strobach offered to tell me all about his political
career in exchange for $50, but died before he could begin the account.
[2126] Coburn Report, pp. 225, 230, 272, 280-282; _State Journal_, May 20
and 27, 1874; _Montgomery Advertiser_, Oct. 23, 1902.
[2127] See Coburn Report, pp. 225, 282-288.
[2128] Coburn Report, pp. 118, 135, 145, 151, 279. When the Coburn
Committee was in Opelika, Washington Jones, colored, appeared before it
and demanded that the promises made to him be fulfilled. He wanted the
mule, the land, "overflow" bacon, etc. The committee got rid of him in a
hurry. See Coburn Report, p. 135.
[2129] Coburn Report, pp. 59, 63, 106, 118, 122, 142, 181, 641; _State
Journal_, June 10, 1874.
[2130] Coburn Report, pp. 58, 59, 92, 106, 136, 275, 295, 296, 416, 641.
[2131] Coburn Report, pp. 58, 59, 106, 203, 204.
[2132] Coburn Report, pp. 59, 63, 109, 118, 119. See also Ku Klux Rept.,
Ala. Test., pp. 1072-1075.
[2133] Coburn Report, pp. 58, 59, 61, 118, 278, 280, 308, 317, 320, 446.
[2134] The _State Journal_ of Aug. 1, 1874, has a list of extracts from
Democratic papers from 1868 to 1874, showing the change of attitude in
regard to the negro.
[2135] _Tuskegee News_, June 4, and Aug. 20, and Sept. 10, 1874; Coburn
Report, pp. 120, 860, 861, 1231, 1232, _et passim_; _Eufaula Times_, July
30, 1874, quoting from the _Birmingham News_, _Shelby Guide_, and _Eutaw
Whig_; _State Journal_, June 24, 1874.
[2136] _Opelika Times_, Aug. 22, 1874, condensed; Coburn Report, pp. 97,
100, 104.
[2137] See testimony of Dunbar and Gardner in Coburn Report, pp. 101, 209,
210, 300, 302; _Opelika Daily Times_, Sept. 30, 1874.
[2138] _State Journal_, June 16, 1874. For a typical readoption of this
platform see the resolutions of the Tuscaloosa County Democrats in _State
Journal_, June 24, 1874. "Old Whig" in the _Opelika Daily Times_, Sept.
30, 1874, proposed that the whites "fall back upon the old Wesleyan
doctrine 'to prefer one another in business';" "Give the Radicals no
support;" "The adder that stings should find no warmth in the bosom of the
dying victim."
[2139] _Opelika Times_, Oct. 14, 1874; Coburn Report, pp. 97, 103-104.
[2140] Coburn Report, p. 856; Annual Cyclopædia (1874), p. 15.
[2141] Coburn Report, pp. 99, 101, 856, 859; _Opelika Daily Times_, June
29 and Oct. 3, 1874; _Montgomery Advertiser_, Oct. 23, 1902.
[2142] _State Journal_, June 4 and 27, 1874; Coburn Report, p. 881; Annual
Cyclopædia (1874), pp. 15, 16; _Tuskegee News_, July 2, 1874.
[2143] The division was as follows:--
=====================================================
DISTRICT | DISTRIBUTING POINTS | POUNDS
-----------------|---------------------------|-------
| |
First | Mobile, Selma, Camden | 55,851
Second | Montgomery | 44,402
Third | Opelika, Talladega, Seale | 41,802
Fourth | Demopolis | 53,663
Fifth and sixth | Decatur | 31,278
=====================================================
[2144] Senate Journal, 1874-1875, p. 7.
[2145] For full account of the bacon question see Ho. Doc., No. 110, 43d
Cong., 2d Sess.; also _Tuskegee News_, June 4, Aug. 27, and Sept. 24,
1874; Coburn Report, pp. 36, 50, 69, 207, 241.
The following list shows how one distribution was made in October, just
before the elections:--
=====================================
COUNTY | POUNDS
-----------------------------|-------
Montgomery | 14,151
Lowndes | 8,283
Butler | 4,235
Dale (to P. King, Haw Ridge) | 2,482
Barbour | 4,527
Bullock | 5,169
Pike (to Gardner and Wiley) | 2,066
Henry | 1,036
Clay | 3,000
Randolph | 2,000
Coosa | 3,000
Elmore | 3,500
Talladega | 7,500
Lee (to W. H. Betts) | 9,792
Russell (to W. H. Betts) | 2,390
Walker | 2,178
"To G. P. Plowman, by order |
of Charles Pelham, M. C." | 1,000
=====================================
[2146] Coburn Report, pp. 59, 60.
[2147] Annual Cyclopædia (1874), p. 13; Coburn Report, pp. 247-254.
[2148] _The Tribune_, Oct. 7, 8, and 12, 1874; _The Nation_, Aug. 27, and
Oct. 15 and 27, 1874; Annual Cyclopædia (1874), p. 12; Foulke, "Life of O.
P. Morton," Vol. II, p. 350. The Hays-Hawley letter was first published in
the _Hartford Courant_ and in the _Boston Daily Advertiser_. It is also in
the Coburn Report, pp. 1254-1260.
[2149] _N. Y. Tribune_, Oct. 7, 1874; Coburn Report, pp. 244, 245, 1221,
1226, 1241, 1247, 1264, 1266.
[2150] Coburn Report, p. 512.
[2151] Coburn Report, p. 931.
[2152] _Eufaula News_, Sept. 3, 1874; Coburn Report, p. 855.
[2153] Coburn Report, pp. 679, 681, 746.
[2154] Coburn Report, pp. 514, 515, 681, 1239.
[2155] Coburn Report, pp. 680, 682; "An appeal to Governor Lewis from the
People of Sumter."
[2156] Coburn Report, pp. 236, 244, 245, 289, 291, 702, 1201, 1231-1235.
[2157] _Union Springs Herald and Times_, quoted in _State Journal_, June
13, 1874.
[2158] Coburn Report, pp. 130, 948.
[2159] For information in regard to the campaign of 1874 I am indebted to
several of those who took part in it, and especially to Mr. T. J.
Rutledge, now state bank examiner, who was then secretary of the
Democratic campaign committee.
[2160] Coburn Report, pp. 125, 530.
[2161] Coburn Report, pp. xix, 43, 80-84, 427, 434, 476, 794, 850, 851,
949, 1200-1204; _Tuskegee News_, Nov. 5, 1874; _State Journal_, Oct. and
Nov., 1874.
[2162] Annual Cyclopædia (1874), p. 17; _Tribune_ Almanac, 1875.
[2163] Coburn Report, pp. 239, 253, 701, 703; _The Nation_, Nov. 30, 1874;
_Tuskegee News_, Dec. 10, 1874.
[2164] In the code of Alabama (1876), pp. 100-120, is printed the
"Constitution (so-called) of the State of Alabama, 1868," as the code
terms it. The last three amendments are thus noted, "Adoption proclaimed
by the Secretary of State, Dec. 18, 1865" (or July 20, 1868, or March 30,
1870). The other amendments have notes stating date of submission and date
of ratification by the state. See code of 1876, pp. 27, 28; also code of
1896.
[2165] The negroes voted against it. Some of them were told that, if
adopted, a war with Spain would result and that the blacks, being the
"only truly loyal," would have to do most of the fighting against the
Spanish, who would land at Apalachicola, Milton, and Eufaula. See
_Tuskegee News_, Dec. 9, 1875. See also in regard to the new constitution,
_Tuskegee News_, June 3, 1875; "Northern Alabama Illustrated," pp. 51, 52;
Annual Cyclopædia (1875), p. 14; Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 46, 43d Cong., 2d
Sess.; "Report of the Joint Committee in regard to the Amendment of the
Constitution."
[2166] Most whites believe that eliminating the negro has solved the
problem of the negro in politics. It seems to me that this is a
superficial view. The black counties are still represented in party
conventions and legislature in proportion to population. The white
counties are jealous of this undue influence and would like to reduce this
representation. The party leaders have been able to repress this jealousy,
but it is not forgotten. Before it will submit to loss of representation
the Black Belt, it is believed, will gradually admit to the franchise
those negroes who have been excluded, and they will vote with the whites.
Such a course will undoubtedly cause political realignments. Notice on the
maps that the Republican strongholds are now in the white counties. The
"Lily Whites" are increasing in numbers.
[2167] These views are set forth most clearly by Alexander Johnston in
Lalor's "Cyclopædia of Political Science," Vol. III, p. 556. See also
McCall, "Thaddeus Stevens," and his article in the _Atlantic Monthly_,
June, 1901; Blaine, "Twenty Years"; Schurz, in _McClure's Magazine_, Jan.,
1905; Grosvenor, in _Forum_, Aug., 1900.
[2168] For a belated recognition of the reasons for this, see H. L.
Nelson, "Three Months of Roosevelt," in the _Atlantic Monthly_, Feb.,
1902.
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_net_.
CRIME IN ITS RELATION TO SOCIAL PROGRESS. By ARTHUR CLEVELAND HALL, Ph.D.
8vo, pp. 427. Price, paper, $3.00 _net_; in cloth, $3.50 _net_.
Transcriber's Notes:
The original text includes several words printed inverted and reversed
that are represented as +word+ in this text version.
The original text includes several blank spaces. These are represented by
_______________ in this text version.