As the slave owners were called the only _privileged class_ in the

United States, it is pertinent to inquire if this class of people did

not exist in all the States when the Union was formed, and if they of

the North did not sell their claim to a privileged class for a "mess

of pottage" and then howled at the purchasers for being a privileged

class! Who demanded the enlargement of slavery by making it legal to

steal or purchase negroes from Africa until the year 1808, to give

employment to the six hundred slave ships owned in the North--in New

York and New England. We know the town of Newport, R. I.--now the abode

of wealth--in the year 1750 had one hundred and seventy ships engaged

in the slave trade for "the love of money."

A question presents itself here--and it is a pertinent one, for it

commences at the beginning of this whole matter of modern slavery in

this country: Who _first owned_ these slaves, how did they obtain them,

how did they treat them, and to whom did they sell these human beings

for money, and then with the price of blood in their pockets soon began

to howl against the sin of slavery, and thank the God they served that

they were not slaveholders any longer?[41]

It has been said by a Northern writer that "indirectly, and for the

purpose of a more equal distribution of direct taxes, the framers of

the Constitution _tolerated_, while they condemned, slavery, but they

tolerated it because they believed it would soon disappear. They even

refused to allow the charter of their own liberties to be polluted

by the mention of the word 'slave.'" But take heed: did not this

convention give ear to the clamor of the owners of slave ships and

slaves thereon to continue for twenty years longer to increase slavery

and increase their wealth by enslaving free people in Africa?

No, "they could not, consistently with honor or self-respect, transmit

to future ages the evidence that some of them had trampled on the

inalienable rights of others."

"Though slavery was tolerated by being ignored, we should not dishonor

the memory of those who organized that government to suppose that

they did not intend to bestow upon it the power to maintain its own

authority--the right to overthrow or remove slavery or _whatever_ might

prove fatal to its permanence or destroy its usefulness."

To this the answer is yes. But the proper mode of removing it is

the real question. It should not be by making war, laying waste the

country, burning all public buildings and dwelling houses, sinking

ships, blockading ports, killing, wounding, and capturing soldiers,

creating debts, levying taxes, exposing our soldiers to deadly battle

and all the horrors of war--but by removing the evil by compensation

"for the term of service" of the slaves to their owners.

This government is under obligation to compensate, and does compensate,

parents, masters of apprentices, masters of slaves, for service and

labor of those subjects who are enlisted in the army and navy, for the

Constitution recognizes slaves as "persons held to labor or service."

Removal by compensation might have prevented the war.

England compelled the abolition of slavery in her colonies, and she

paid in compensation for services, to the slave owners, the sum of

one hundred million dollars. Out of this, for instance, Cape Colony

obtained fifteen million dollars, which was about four hundred dollars

per slave.

If slavery was believed to be fatal to the permanence of the Union, it

could have been removed by compensation, as in the case of England, and

not by hatred and fanaticism.

View it as we may, the fact exists that the confiscation act, although

unconstitutional, did, in effect, rob the Southern people of about

two thousand million dollars ($2,000,000,000), computing four million

slaves at five hundred dollars each, which is only about half their

value; and this was done as a punishment for secession. In law it was

void; but the property was of such a character that it became useless

to the owners, because it was enticed away. So this act and Lincoln's

proclamation caused the slaves to leave their owners. And so without

a crime, without an indictment, without a trial by jury or conviction,

this property was taken from the owners. It was the largest steal ever

committed by a nation; and, furthermore, they stole from the South

slaves that they had sold the South. Call it by what name you will,

it was robbery. It exceeds in magnitude, in money value, any of the

invasions of India, from Genghis Khan down to the English East India

Company; or the robbery of the proconsuls of Rome; or the wealth

Spain derived from Mexico and Peru by the infamous acts of Cortez and

Pizarro. And, after all, the loss from confiscating the "labor" of

the slaves, great as it is, becomes but one item of loss to which the

Southern people were subjected.

It would perhaps be unjust for me to assign the inducements that

moved Mr. Lincoln to issue this proclamation, considering Congress had

already confiscated them. I do not know if possession of property is,

or is not, necessary before it can be _sold_ by confiscation.[42] If

a slave not in possession of the United States marshal, being in the

interior of the Confederacy, can be confiscated, then also could all

property be confiscated by a paper bulletin posted on the wall. But in

that proclamation there was a sinister object in view, and that was to

array against the Confederate States the sympathies of the Christian

world, by trying to make it appear that we made the war in defense

of, and to perpetuate, slavery. Others there are who think that the

"loyal governors" who met at Altoona, Pa., obtained it by insidious

threats. But, be this as it may, the proclamation, as a legal paper,

was worthless. The slaves were afterwards legally emancipated by the

several States, by the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution, and by

taking the oath prescribed in the President's proclamation, dated May

29, 1865; and all the owners of slaves who were worth twenty thousand

dollars, being disfranchised, had to make oath "not hereafter, at any

time, to acquire any property whatever in slaves, or make use of slave

labor, or make claim for slaves liberated." The numerous oaths and

various proceedings required to set the negro legally free, and make it

binding, remind me of many loyal friends in the North going before some

judicial officer and renewing their oaths of allegiance every new moon,

to make it sure and clear by accumulated recorded evidence.

When Jephthah made his vow there was no power to restrain him

from fulfilling it. Lincoln could not perform his; he was not an

abolitionist from principle, and there is very much evidence that he

was not in favor of emancipation; his proclamation set free (on paper)

only the slaves in a part of the _Confederate States_, leaving slavery

untouched in the _United States_. That is, the Yankees retained slavery

in Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, and part of Louisiana

and the _North_, and tried to abolish it where they could not, and

maintained it where they _could have abolished it_. At this malignant

confiscation of the slaves _only in the Confederacy_, Fanueil Hall went

wild with delight, and Exeter Hall, England, was jubilant.

I have no desire to discuss annexation (reconstruction) here, and

hasten on, only to relate some of my experiences under it, so that you

may know the patience, forbearance, and charity of the Southern people

under persecution. No one possessing knowledge has a right to withhold

it from his fellow-men, if it will be valuable to them; and so I write.

And now came reconstruction (annexation), with all its evils. President

Abraham Lincoln had been foully murdered, and Vice President "Andy"

Johnson reigned in his stead.

It is stated that he disliked the refined and best class of people in

the South; and now, in authority, he thirsted for vengeance against

them. He declared that "treason should be made odious," and would

have arrested Gen. R. E. Lee and other Confederate army officers and

punished them if possible, had not Gen. Grant declared that they could

not be molested without violating the paroles he had given them, and so

prosecution was abandoned and persecution substituted, as will be shown

after a while.

Having surrendered and signed a written agreement, and made oath to the

same, I desired to go to my home in Mississippi, as stipulated in the

parole.

Gen. Grant's declaration that his paroles could not be violated seems

to have been, with him, an after thought, as the following telegram

will show:

WASHINGTON CITY, April 15, 1865, 4 P.M.

Maj. Gen. Ord, Richmond, Va.

Arrest J. A. Campbell, Mayor Mayo, and the members of the

old council of Richmond who have not yet taken the oath of

allegiance, and put them in Libby prison. Hold them guarded

beyond the possibility of escape until further orders.

Also arrest all _paroled officers_ and surgeons until they

can be sent beyond our lines, unless they take the oath of

allegiance. The oath need not be received from any one who

you have not good reasons to believe will observe it, and

from none who are excluded by the President's proclamation,

without authority to do so. Extreme vigor will have to be

observed while assassination remains the order of the day

with the Rebels.

U. S. GRANT, _Lieutenant General_.

Here is Ord's manly answer:

RICHMOND, VA., April 15, 1865.

Gen. U. S. Grant.

Cipher dispatch directing certain parties to be arrested is

received. The two citizens I have seen. They are old, nearly

helpless, and I think incapable of harm. Lee and staff are

in town among the paroled prisoners. Should I arrest them

under the circumstances, I think the rebellion here would be

opened.

_I will risk my life_ that the present paroles will be kept,

and, if you will allow me to do so, trust the people here,

who, I believe, are ignorant of the assassination done

by some insane Brutus with but few accomplices. Campbell

and Hunter pressed me earnestly yesterday to send them to

Washington to see the President. Would they have done so if

guilty? Please answer.

E. O. C. ORD, _Major General_.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES, }

WASHINGTON, April 15, 1865, 8 P.M. }

Maj. Gen. Ord, Richmond, Va.

On reflection I will withdraw my dispatch of this date

directing the arrest of Campbell, Mayo, and others, and leave

it in the light of a suggestion, to be executed only so far

as you may judge the good of the service demands.

U. S. GRANT, _Lieutenant General_.

RICHMOND, VA., April 15, 1865, 9:30 P.M.

[Received at 10:20 P.M.]

Lieut. Gen. U. S. Grant.

Second telegram, leaving the subject of arrests in my hands,

is received.

E. O. C. ORD, _Major General_.[43]

It was after this date that Grant, on reflection, turned around and

informed the President that the paroles he gave at Appomattox should

not be broken; that he would defend them. All honor to him for this!

And greater honor to Gen. Ord, who pledged _his life_ for the honor of

the Southern men who were paroled!

The first matter to claim consideration was money. I had in gold a

five-dollar piece and in Confederate notes a few thousand dollars. The

purchasing power of the latter may be ascertained from a bill made by

Miss Abercrombie, now my wife, of which the following is a true copy:

Miss Abercrombie,

To Goodrich & Co.

September 23. ½ yd. Crape $ 20 00

October 7. 1 Hoop Skirt 100 00

" 7. 14 yds. French Merino (Blk.) @ $87.50 1,225 00

" 7. 14 yds. Blk. Rep @ $25 350 00

" 14. 20 Blk. Calico @ $10 200 00

1 Blk. Crape 40 00

---------

Total $1,935 00

Columbus, Ga., October 14, 1864.

As I had no means to purchase tickets over the railroads, I applied

to the Quartermaster, U. S. A., for transportation for myself, two

servants, and two horses, which was furnished me. It was sometime in

May that we started for home via Montgomery, Mobile, and New Orleans.

As I had to call at the headquarters of the commanders in these cities

for passes and permits, I will here remark in regard to my reception by

these my late enemies: Gen. A. J. Smith was crabbed and petulant when

I showed him the order for transportation for the negroes. Gen. Sturgis

was kind and did all that was desirable for our comfort. In New Orleans

Gen. Canby was very polite to us, as he was to every one. He sent me

up the Mississippi river on a chartered steamer. The trip up the river

was pleasant. There were only two other passengers--Father Livingston,

a priest, and a sick boy. Livingston--may God bless him!--had but one

change of linen, and he gave that to the sick boy, who was a stranger

to him, and nursed the lad attentively.

I was forcibly struck with the amount of the most costly second-hand

_furniture_ sent by express to small towns in Illinois and Ohio, put

up in oat sacks.[44] But furniture in New Orleans, you know, like

"Butler's" spoons, belonged to the victors. The captain of the steamer

put me on shore at Argyle Landing, near my home. I mounted my horse,

and the first man I saw was "Tom Shelby" sitting on the fence looking

at some negro men plowing a large field of corn. He hailed me, but

I paid no attention to him. He was a "rampant" war man before the

war began, but he stayed at home. Indeed, every one of my immediate

neighbors--ten in number--were not in the army; and all, except one,

able-bodied men and younger than I was. The Scott boys and Calhoun Hale

and his brother were good and faithful soldiers, living outside the

belt around me.

When I dismounted at my door, God only knows my agony of heart. None to

welcome me, none to greet me!

"Desolate the hearth,

And wild weeds gathering on the wall."

Where were the laurels that were to crown my brow? Willows! Fences

burned, bridges destroyed; the plantation a forest of tall weeds;

horses, mules, cattle, sheep, poultry, provisions, wagons, implements

of every kind--all gone; wealth, servants, comforts--all means of

support for my family gone; all lost save honor. I sat down and

surveyed the desolation around me. Fortunately my house was not

burned, and I had a shelter for my family, should they come here. I

knew the noble women of the South, who for years had labored hard and

cheerfully, trusting in God and the justice of their cause, would not

despond. Lord Byron makes the beautiful daughters of

The tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast

sit down by the rivers of Babylon and weep, but never would they string

a harp for their foe. The beautiful daughters of the South had wept

no bitter tears of repentance, nor sung pæans for their foe; they

had proved themselves equal to adversity in war, and would they not

help build up lost fortunes in peace? So resolve took the place of

despondency, and I returned to Columbus for my family.

Sherman--the fell destroyer--had burned the city of Jackson, Miss.,

and the ruins reminded me of Pompeii. In walking one of the streets I

passed a canvas shanty, from which I was hailed by an Israelite with

"Good morning, General; come in." He had been in the army and knew me;

he had some goods and groceries for sale. When I was leaving, he asked;

"General, can't I do something for you? Here are fifty dollars, just

take them; maybe you can pay me back sometime." I thought the angel

of mercy was looking down on us, and I thought of Portia's address to

Shylock on the quality of mercy. I thanked him kindly, and the day came

when I had the pleasure of repaying the debt. In a few days I arrived

in Columbus, and there I found a letter from my cousin, Clayton French,

of Philadelphia, Pa., containing a check for a thousand dollars. I

had written to him to send me some money, and this was his liberal

response.

The servants I had in Columbus had been nominally "confiscated" and set

free; so they came to me, almost daily, begging me to take them back to

the plantation in Mississippi. As I was not able to do this, I applied

to some "bureau," that had charge of "refugees," for transportation for

these negroes, and to my surprise it was granted. As soon as possible

they were put on the cars and started for the plantation.[45]

On the 17th of September, 1865, Mrs. French and I left Gen.

Abercrombie's for Greenville, Miss., via Montgomery, Mobile, and

New Orleans, on some box cars, furnished with wooden benches for

seats--such was the condition of the railroads at that time.

When we reached home we found most of my old servants there awaiting

our arrival. To feed and clothe about a hundred of these people, and

to plant a crop of cotton in the spring, clothing, provisions, mules,

wagons, farming implements, harness, etc., had to be procured.

To obtain funds to purchase the articles enumerated--to commence

again--I went to Philadelphia and New York (by special permission of

the government) in November.

My clothing was not very tidy; it had seen service; and I concluded

after I left St. Louis to travel through the enemy's country incognito

so as to avoid war talks. I got along very well until I reached

Philadelphia. I had been advised to go to the Lafayette Hotel; and,

too proud to present myself there in my present garb, I entered a

large clothing establishment and arrayed myself in a suit of black

broadcloth, and told the attendant to wrap the old suit up. When I paid

the bill, judge of my astonishment to have him say: "To what hotel,

General, shall I send the package?" "Why do you call me general?" I

asked. "Because I saw your rank and name in full written on the inside

of your vest; that is all right; call and see us again." Next I entered

the hotel, and went to register my name. As the clerk threw the book

around, he exclaimed: "How do you do, Gen. French!" I was surprised;

he replied: "I was in the Confederate army, and knew you in Virginia;

I am employed here because we want Southern patronage." Here was my

incognito discovered twice in one hour. But that is not all. The next

day I took the train from Camden, N. J., for Woodbury, where my mother,

sister, and daughter had been refugeeing since they left Mississippi

until they joined me at the plantation in November, 1865. I knew many

people in the city, and had the honor to have been _hung_ there once

in effigy by its fanatical people in the beginning of the war, for some

reason, or no reason, save they did a foolish thing and repented of it;

and as the "bitter war feeling" raged there yet, like the billows of

the ocean after the storm has passed, I took the last seat in the rear

car as a quiet place. Now it so happened that the seat opposite me was

occupied by a genteel-looking fellow, who evidently had been indulging

too freely in whisky and wanted to make himself companionable. I

answered his questions briefly, but he persisted in talking, desirous

to know who I was. Finally I told him my name was French, at which he

exclaimed, "Are you Gen. French?" in such a loud voice as to draw the

attention of many of the passengers to me; and, rising, he proffered

his hand and said: "Going to your mother's, I reckon; I am a Union

soldier, and when we reach Woodbury I will get my musket and be your

escort." He walked up the street with me to the corner, where we

parted; and his parting words were: "If any one troubles you, send

for me. My name is Paul."[46] Such was my experience in trying to

travel incognito. I gave it up, and, when necessary, fought square

out for Confederate rights. As I went North on business, I avoided all

controversy about the war as far as possible.

I must now make a digression. In the autumn of 1864 my mother,

sister, and child, owing to illness, engaged passage on a steamer at

Greenville, Miss., and started for our summer home in Woodbury, N. J.

On arriving at the Girard House, in Philadelphia, Mr. Edward Cooper, a

relation of mother's, called on her and asked her where she was going,

and she said: "Down home." He then informed her that the property had

been _confiscated_ and _sold_, and that he had bought it, and rented

it. He asked her also about funds, and, finding she had near a thousand

dollars in Confederate money (valueless), under the pretense of

exchange he replaced it with "greenbacks"--a kind act delicately done.

Besides, a few years later he voluntarily deeded the property back to

me. This was in striking contrast with others who bought my personal

property, valuable mainly as _mementos_. It is always pleasant to find

a gentleman. They are seldom found to the manor born,

"Where commerce long prevails."

Mother went down to Woodbury and engaged board there, and returned

to the hotel. Next day when they arrived by train in that town, the

baggage wagon, the express, the porters--no one would take their trunks

to the house; nothing could induce these _loyal_ people to _touch_ the

trunks of a Rebel--unless to confiscate them. And so my mother--an old

woman, alone, in the town in sight of which she was born and where she

lived, among her kindred--had to walk away and leave the baggage. Now,

happily, a man--a Quaker--heard of their _loyal_ proceedings, and went

to my mother and said, "Well, Aunt Rebecca, if no one will bring thy

trunks from the depot for thee, I will do it;" and in his own wagon

this Friend came with the baggage. Gomorrah would have been saved

had it contained ten men like this one. The new dispensation saved

Woodbury. The family lived in exile until autumn, when they went down

to the plantation.

I will refer to the main object of my visit to the North. I made a

visit to New York and failed to obtain funds, returned to Philadelphia,

and there made the best contract I could; and the spirit of liberality

shown by my friend will commend itself to you by the terms of the

contract, which I now have:

PHILADELPHIA, PA., December 9, 1865.

Borrowed of ---- eight thousand dollars ($8,000), payable

within one year from the date of this instrument. In

consideration of this money being furnished me without

interest, I agree to furnish or ship him, at such point as he

may direct, thirty commercial bales of cotton of four hundred

pounds each, of average quality, out of the crop raised by

me on my plantation during the year eighteen hundred and

sixty-six (1866). The cotton thus shipped to be the _sole

property_ of ----.

[Signed]

S. G. FRENCH.

As cotton was selling at, or over, forty cents per pound, the bonus

was (in lieu of legal interest--30 × 400 × 40 = $4,800) at least four

thousand eight hundred dollars, which is only sixty per cent interest.

When in Venice, I visited the Rialto a number of times, and curiosity

prompted me to seek the shop near by where Shylock studied finance

and made that loan to Antonio; and you will remember that when "Tom

Walker sold himself to the devil he agreed to use the money in the

_service_ of the devil by turning _usurer_."[47] My friend obtained

his knowledge of thrift, I know not where. But which of these three was

the most benevolent I will leave you to decide. I only care to observe

that they all knew that "the poor man's necessity was the rich man's

opportunity." With me it was Hobson's choice.

While North I met in New York City and Washington many Federal army

officers, with whom I had been associated in years gone by, and they

were kind, especially Gens. Ingalls, Quinby, Grant, Steele, Wright, and

others. I could not but observe about Philadelphia that people were

distrustful of each other, as though under surveillance. Gen. Robert

P. invited me to come to his house after dark, and evidently, from what

he said, did not wish it known that I had been there. Mr. Bayard, whose

son, Gen. G. D. Bayard, was killed at Fredericksburg, sent me a message

that he would like to meet me, but that it would not be prudent for him

to have me visit him at his home. These and other friends were timid

about their loyalty being challenged if seen with a so-called "Rebel."

To this general timidity so prevalent Clayton French was an exception.

He took me to church, theaters, clubs, and wherever inclination led, in

contempt of the crowd that were afraid their loyalty might not be above

suspicion. Samuel H. French, his brother, forgot his intense prejudice

against the South, for he was one of the best men that ever lived, and

forgave _all_ the "Rebels" except Jeff Davis. In evidence of the purity

of his character he told me just before his death that he had never

been guilty of an act or said anything that he desired to conceal from

his family. There will be no charges against him when the judgment book

is opened.

I arrived in St. Louis on my way home on the 16th of December, and

saw the floe of ice crush the steamers at the landing like eggshells.

The next morning I walked across the river on the ice, and got home on

Christmas day and found the weather balmy and warm. And now I longed

for rest, but the curse of the freedmen's bureau was here, to instruct

even the cooks when to prepare meals and regulate household affairs,

and approve all contracts for labor on the plantation.

In connection with my visit North in 1865 it will not perhaps be out

of place to give here an account of a conversation that related to an

important contemplated movement. Now, whilst I was in Philadelphia, a

friend of mine, and late member of the United States Senate, called to

see me. During a long conversation on matters pertaining to the war, he

asked me "if in 1862 there was any feeling among the Confederate troops

that there would be an armistice, and peace made during the truce by

the fraternization of the opposing forces." I told him that in the

summer of 1862, when I was in Petersburg, Va., there was a vague idea

floating around relating to a peace being near at hand, and, although

it could not be explained, it was felt to be more than a fairy tale,

and yet could be traced to no source. He then informed me that "a few

prominent men in the North desired the war should be stopped, and to

obtain this end, soon after the battle of Antietam, I think it was,

a particular friend and relation of Gen. McClellan's was sent to him

to obtain his views, and ascertain if he would _agree to the proposed

plan_." When the agent had unfolded the plan, McClellan denounced it.

Soon after he was removed, and Burnside put in command of the army,

which looks as if there was something that they could _feel_ in the air

there too.

It is useless to speculate on the results of such a bold undertaking.

The actors of the movement are all dead, and I pause in silence at

the brink of their graves. They wished to end the war, and restore the

Union in that way. Of course McClellan would have been made dictator

for the time. He would not betray his trust.

This incident induces me to remark that war is the most uncertain

of all undertakings of a nation, and, like the tempest, cannot be

controlled, and seldom or never ends as predicted. The North proclaimed

that this "little rebellion" would end in sixty days! It lasted

four years, and ended as no one had foreseen. It had to suppress

rebellions caused by people who entertained Southern opinions in

New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, and other cities; muzzle the press,

prohibit freedom of speech, banish prominent individuals, arrest

men without warrant, and imprison them without charges made known

to them; and violated nearly every resolution and pledge made in the

beginning relating to the South; they cast aside constitutional law,

and substituted martial law, under which the South became a scene of

desolation and starvation.

Much has been said about firing the first gun, "firing on the flag."

The crime rests on them who made it obligatory to fire the first gun.

Northern writers are in error when they state that "firing on the flag"

fired the Northern hearts with unanimity of purpose. On the contrary,

as I have stated, it produced dissension, even to rebellion, until

suppressed by arms and intimidation from suspension of the writ of

_habeas corpus_.

This firing the first gun is made a veritable "humbug." It reminds

me of an occurrence in the grand jury room in Greenville, Miss., in

reconstruction days. A man, whom I will call "A," sent a message to

"B," giving him notice that he intended to kill him on sight should he

meet him. Warned in this way, "B" armed himself with a shotgun. They

met. "A" raised his gun to his shoulder, and aimed at "B." Seeing this,

"B" fired instantly, and killed "A." The grand jury investigated the

matter, and only one member voted to find a true bill against "B," and

he did it on the grounds that "B" should have waited to see if "A" was

really going to kill him.

Now the government of the United States was in the position of "A,"

only it was not honest enough to inform the Confederate States that it

was going to reënforce Fort Sumter; but really made false statements

about it, for it secretly sent eight warships for that very purpose,

which were then at the bar off the harbor of Charleston.

The Confederate government was in the position of "B," and was it to

wait to see what the eight ships of war would do, to see if "A" would

reënforce the garrison, which it pledged itself not to do, or fire to

prevent it? This is all well known now.

My own opinion is that the _first gun_ was fired, at the instigation of

a number of prominent men North, by John Brown at Harper's Ferry, and

for which he was apotheosized and numbered among the saints.

Mr. Lincoln said: "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the

stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we

must rise with the occasion. Our case is new. We must think anew, and

act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save the

country." (Joel Parker Lecture at Harvard College.)

These words indicate that the powers of the Constitution were

inadequate to the conduct of the war, and henceforth the war must be

conducted as occasion deemed expedient. In other words, the executive

power must be declared greater than the power that made it, or the

creature greater than the Creator, and with dictatorial methods the

war was conducted. Avaunt, Constitution, avaunt! We are fighting for

the Union, for dominion over the Southern territory again, and so the

Constitution was folded up, etc.

CHAPTER XX.

Freedmen's Bureau--Gen. O. O. Howard,

Commissioner--Platform for Reconstruction--Ironclad

Oath--Natural Rights of Man--Civil Rights--Negroes

Made Citizens--Persecution--Agents of Freedmen's

Bureau--Personal Experience--Negro Justices--Some

Trials--Judge Shackelford--Secret Societies--William A.

Sharkey--Gov. Adelbert Ames--Sheriff Webber--Taxes--Board

of Levee Commissioners Dismissed--Religious

Negroes--Bishop Wilmer--Prayers for the President--Shotgun

Election--Hegira--Carpetbaggers--Indissoluble

Union--Indestructible States--We Were a Conquered

Nation--Reconstruction Only a Definition for Deeds

Done--Strength of Respective Armies.

When I commenced writing the narrative of my observations in early life

and the incidents of service in the United States army and my diary of

the civil war, I did it to preserve for my children the record of these

events, but in volume it has increased more than at first intended; and

as it may perhaps some day be made public, I feel it incumbent on me to

give _my experience_ under the workings of reconstruction as being of

more value than a description by any historian of a later age who would

have no enlightenment by living under its arbitrary rule.

An act creating the Freedmen's Bureau was passed March 3, 1865. The

commissioner was authorized to set apart for the use of loyal refugees

and freedmen abandoned lands, also confiscated lands, and assign forty

acres for three years, etc., to families.

In 1866 a supplementary bill was passed over a veto to extend the act.

"Among other things the bill subjected any white person, who might

be charged with depriving a freedman of civil rights or immunities to

imprisonment or fine or both, without defining the meaning of _civil

rights or immunities_." The jurisdiction of the agents extended to all

contracts, and without a written contract and the agent's approval no

freedman could be employed. No indictment by a grand jury nor a trial

by a jury was necessary. The _ipse dixit_ of an ignorant negro was

cause for fine or imprisonment without appeal.

Gen. O. O. Howard, noted for exuberant piety, was made Commissioner,

and his career, his establishing of the Howard University in Washington

for the higher culture of the negro, the cottages he built for them,

the aid he gave the Church, the land he bought, and the Freedman's Bank

he established, which blew up or burst, can be found in a report of

a congressional committee. Under this bill the annual expenditure was

$11,750,000.

An article published in the _Atlantic Monthly_ for August, 1865,

sounded the keynote for the action of the United States government in

legislation for the "rebels," wherein it is stated: "We are placed

by events in that strange condition in which the _safety_ of the

republican form of government we desire to insure the Southern States

has more safeguards in the INSTINCTS OF THE IGNORANT than in the

INTELLIGENCE OF THE EDUCATED." And furthermore it is declared that

"the highest requirements of abstract justice coincide with the LOWEST

REQUIREMENTS of political prudence, and the LARGEST JUSTICE to the

loyal blacks is the real condition of the WIDEST CLEMENCY to the rebel

whites."

This declaration proclaims that the Southern States would be safer if

their governments were established on the ignorance of the blacks than

on the intelligence of the whites. Could malignity go any farther? On

this degrading plane were the State governments established.

They had called for blood, and got none, save in the case of Wirz,

who was given to the mob as a "sop." As they could not indict a whole

nation, they arrested President Davis, and, discovering no grounds

for conviction, he was released, because a failure to convict would

establish legally the right of secession, and thus prove the North to

be the aggressor. Failing on this line, the human passions and human

prejudices of the people arrayed under the higher law of conscience

swayed them like a mob, and, failing to find any lawful means to spill

blood, sought vengeance in the enacting of partisan laws for plunder of

wealth, and the humiliation of the whites. To this end the Freedmen's

Bureau was created, and President Johnson's proclamation was issued

disfranchising the whites on fourteen different counts: among them

was one that made the possession of twenty thousand dollars' worth of

_property a crime_ that disfranchised the owner. Then came the ironclad

oath, which debarred all persons from taking it "who had ever borne

arms against the United States since they have been citizens thereof,

or who have voluntarily given _aid_, _countenance_, _counsel_, or

_encouragement to persons engaged_ in armed hostility thereto; that

they have never sought, nor accepted, nor attempted to exercise the

functions of any office whatsoever under any authority, or pretended

authority, in hostility to the United States," etc.

All men above twenty-one years of age who could take _this oath_ could

vote, and _no others_. As there were very few white men who could

take this oath, the elections fell, as intended, into the hands of the

negroes, carpetbaggers, and the United States troops on duty South.

The enactment of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the

United States was regarded in the North as a magnanimous exhibition

of philanthropy toward the untutored slaves, and it was so accepted

by nations; but in reality it was an insidious mode of punishing the

Southern people.

The white people who owned the land and paid quite nine-tenths of all

the taxes were now disfranchised, and the amendment was intended as a

punishment by denying them a voice in legislation.

Senator Morton and Thaddeus Stevens, like the Roman augurs, could not

look in each other's face without laughing at the success of their

machinations.

Two years later (in 1870) the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution

was passed. These last three articles placed the Anglo-Saxon people

in the South under the rule of their former slaves! This was the _Sin_

that started the race problem. The freedmen, left to themselves, would

have settled the labor question, and their social position and the race

issue; but for aggrandizement of power and acquisition of wealth he was

dragged into the halls of legislation and flattered into the belief

that also socially he was on an equality with the whites. From this

sprung unmentionable crimes, and daily lynchings followed as a remedy.

What a change! As a slave he was the faithful protector of his mistress

and her family; his children the terror now of unprotected women!

And here I will tell you how the voting was done. The negroes had,

previously, been required to take the oath. At my home a table was

placed on the gallery, and there the registrars were seated. The

negroes were called up; as many as could touch the Bible were asked if

they "had ever held office under the United States or given aid," etc.

Some said "No," some said "Yes," and some were silent. At last they

were told to say "No," and registration papers were given them, with

the charge not to lose them. There I sat, no more a citizen than if I

had been born in China, while my negroes were made eligible to almost

any office in the country.

It is now generally acknowledged that all the negro received was by

the force of environments; and now he has discovered that he has been

grateful to the radical party, and payed them for a debt of love that

had no foundation except in hypocrisy. They were told that they were

now American citizens, endowed with all their moral and civil rights.

"The _natural rights_ of a solitary individual have no connection

whatever with the _moral and civil rights_ of the man who has entered

into association with others." (Huxley.)

The dominant party entertained the belief that the slaves would

politically always belong to the party that "confiscated"[48] them; and

confounding natural rights with civil rights, they forced the Southern

States to pass the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution, which made

them citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside.

As vultures sail in long lines from their roost (countless in numbers)

to where the carcass is, so came the harpies and political adventurers

to the carcass (the South) to embrace the colored citizens; and,

hand in hand, cheek by jowl, they entered the political arena, and

filled the capitols of the South. Every officer in the State from

governor to coroner was dismissed, and new appointments made. The

Legislatures became bacchanalian feasts to divide the spoils of office

and increase the debts of the States by selling State bonds to the

amount of countless millions. They subsidized everything they could;

in short, they ate up or took possession of all that was left after

the war ceased; and at last departed with stolen wealth, and the

execrations of all the honest people. Negroes were appointed or elected

to such offices as Senator, Governor, members of Congress,[49] and the

judiciary of the States and county officers.

June 13, 1865, William A. Sharkey was appointed provisional governor

of the State of Mississippi, and he ordered an election of delegates to

the convention, and here is the way the members were elected:

On the appointed day the new-made citizens went to the precincts to

vote. When they came home I asked my servant Levi, who had been with

me through the war, how many persons were at the polls, and he said

"about two hundred, that only two white men were there, and they were

inside the house." When asked who he voted for, he replied "he voted

for that thing, you know, called _invention_," and the way they voted

was this: "You remember the paper we had [registration]; I handed it

to two white men inside the room, through a window; they looked at

it, handed it back to me, and said open your hand; I did so, and one

of the men then put a little folded paper in my hand, then took it

out and put it in a box and said, 'Move on.'" This was a Republican

free election, peaceful, quiet, and decisive, based on ignorance.

The complexion of the convention was dark, of course. This ungenerous

revenge taken against a conquered people will ever remain a dark shadow

over the generosity and Christian spirit of the Northern people. It,

however, must be attributed to uncultured minds and want of knowledge

of history. The masses did not know that New England's ablest statesmen

always claimed their right of secession, as the debates in Congress

show. Besides, they were unmindful that opinion at the North was about

equally divided on this question.

When the revolutionary war was ended, and the cry for persecution, and

confiscation of property of the _Tories_ was raised, our Minister to

France, Ben Franklin, put that as a trump card in his pocket to win

against England; and Gens. Alexander Hamilton and Nathanael Greene and

other liberal gentlemen declared it would be "an outrage to punish them

for holding the _same opinion_ that we all held only a few years ago,

before the war commenced." What a contrast between the age of honor and

the age thirsting for gold!

Perhaps in all the wide world never again will be seen such malignant

legislation, and maladministration of law, such trials in the courts,

speeches in legislative halls, preaching by illiterate negroes, mode

of getting religion, idleness of the laborers, immorality taught

by men from the slums of Northern cities, thirst for money, howling

for office, insolence in office, with upheaval of society, creating

constant anxiety of mind as to what a day might bring forth.

Add to these the formation of loyal league societies of negroes, by

politicians swearing them to obedience to orders, bands of brothers and

sisters, composed of blacks under white villains, to burn our towns,

and murder the whites; the Kuklux Klan of the whites for protection,

and other kindred vexations and trials that made the South the home of

the spirits of pandemonium; so one could truly exclaim with Ariel,

"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."[50]

As I have said, they came like vultures to the carcass to devour the

substance of the helpless South, and they were unblushingly successful.

Under the Freedmen's Bureau and the military governors, those who could

not take the ironclad oath were helpless.

The agent of the Freedmen's Bureau in our county (Washington, Miss.)

who came first was desirous to aid the planters and freedmen to

make a crop; and as this required reliable labor, the planters in

the neighborhood agreed to give him cotton to the value of $5,000

if he would visit the plantations, when necessary or convenient, to

encourage the hands to work faithfully, under the contracts that he had

_approved_, and I will most cheerfully say that without this aid and

influence the negroes would have been unprofitable producers.

The agents were changed, and in 1867 an Irishman came, who could handle

the shillalah, drink whisky without the smell of peat, sing the "Irish

Dragoon" or the "Widow Malone," and run the Freedmen's Bureau. And here

is a little of my own experience under it with him.

In renting out the land on shares, among the squads was one squad of

thirteen hands, with two negroes named Miles and Derry as head men.

They had about eighty acres put in cotton. The recorded contract

required them to work under my direction, and I was to furnish means

to raise the crop, and their share was half the cotton. Owing to the

almost constant spring rains, their crop became hopelessly overgrown

with weeds and grass. I vainly tried to induce them to abandon the

lowest part of the land and save about sixty acres; they refused. I

then wrote a note to the agent. He came out late in the evening with

the deputy sheriff and sent for Miles and Derry, heard what they had to

say; then severely reprimanded them; took Miles by the ears and backed

him against the side of the house and pounded his head against the

wall vigorously; then taking Derry by the ears, he pounded his head as

he did Miles's. By this time near a hundred negroes were on the lawn

peeping up over the gallery, which was the arena of the acts.

Then he made a five minutes' talk to the people, giving them some good

advice. He then took Miles and Derry through the same enlivening bout,

ordering them to be at his office the next day at 10 A.M. Again he

spoke to the crowd, telling them how he had "fought, bled, and _died_

that they might be free," etc.

While this was going on, to stop such proceedings, I took the deputy

sheriff, Wilson, into the dining room, put a decanter of whisky on the

sideboard, and told him to get the agent in there, give him a glass to

sober him, and, when he came out, take his arm and go direct for the

horses. Much to my relief, he got him on his horse and they returned to

Greenville. Miles and Derry went to Greenville next day, as ordered.

The former came back much subdued and Derry went to an adjoining

plantation to work. Ridiculous as the performance was, which lasted

over an hour, it had a good effect on the deportment of all the hands

on the place.

The military governor had commissioned a man from the North named

Webber as sheriff of the county. Bolton, an Irishman, Harris, an

educated negro from Ohio, and Horton, a cotton field negro without

education, were appointed justices of the peace in Greenville. I will

very briefly give you an idea of the administration of justice in a few

cases out of many brought before them.

Ed Chamberlain, who had been a negro soldier in the United States

army, occupied a house at the southern gate of the plantation, and

he was instructed to keep the gate shut on account of cattle. Twice

_without cause_ he had told H. N. Hood, a neighboring planter, in an

insolent manner: "Shut the gate after you." On a third occasion he

repeated the remarks, whereupon Hood and a friend with him gave him

a trouncing. They then went to Justice Harris, told him what they had

done, and settled the case by each giving him five dollars. On trial

day Chamberlain went to court, and when the court adjourned he asked

the justice why he did not try his case, and the answer was: "Go home;

I tried your complaint long ago."

Another freedman on the place named Nelson one morning got into a

triangular fight with his wife and a colored girl. They all started

for Greenville to lay their respective grievances before Judge Harris.

However, they met Harris on horseback on the road running through the

plantation, and he accosted them: "Good morning, ladies and gentleman;

where are you going?" They told him that they were going to see him in

Greenville, and all made complaint to him there in the road; whereupon

he fined each the sum of five dollars, and I had to advance the money

or they would have left the plantation. That was summary justice,

and an examination of the books by the grand jury showed that he had

credited the county with the fifteen dollars.

A third case worthy of notice as illustrating the vigilance of the

colored brethren as magistrates is the trial of what may be termed

"State of Mississippi vs. S. G. French." John Dixon, a freedman, about

Christmas stole two bales of cotton from the ginhouse in open daylight,

and being pursued by my manager, threw the bales off his wagon, and

they were recovered. I went to Greenville, and before Bolton, the

justice of the peace, swore out a warrant for the arrest of Dixon. A

number of days passed and he was not arrested. So I sent for Dixon,

and settled _money accounts_ with him, and told him to leave the

plantation.

Some days after this a deputy negro constable was sent to arrest Dixon;

but, meeting one of my hands on the road and making known to him the

purport of his visit, he was told: "Go home, nigger; de ginneral done

gone _settled_ with John long ago, and John have left the place." So

the deputy returned and reported accordingly.

Perhaps it was a week after this that a negro constable came to my

house with a warrant to arrest me issued by the cotton-field justice,

Horton, charging me with having compounded a felony. Who prompted

Horton to issue the warrant I never knew; but, as he employed a

"jack-leg" lawyer to keep his docket and act as legal adviser, he

may have induced Horton to act in the matter. I asked Frank Valliant,

a distinguished lawyer, to take my case and defend me. He said that

he had resolved not to argue any case where a negro presided, for he

disliked to say, "May it please your honor," to an illiterate negro.

However, out of friendship, he said that he would appear for me if I

would pay any fine imposed upon him for contempt of court.

Some two weeks after this the trial day came. Valliant and I went to

the room where Horton dispensed justice, and found him behind a railing

seated at a small table with the Mississippi code in his hand. John

Dixon and "Jack-leg" were there, but no lookers-on. After turning the

code first one end up and then the other several times, he announced:

"Dis court am assembled to hear the case of Gen. French for _composing_

a felony with John Dixon."

Valliant seemed to be swallowing something that was swelling in his

throat, but he rose and went near the table and said: "Will your honor

let me have the papers in this case?"

"What papers you want? I am done hab none."

"Where is the affidavit made against Gen. French?"

"I just told you, Mr. Valliant, I done hab none."

"Well, how could you arrest a person without charge being made?"

"Sir, dis court has been informed dat Gen. French swore John Dixon

stole two bales ob his cotton, which am an offense, and then done

settled and composed it, which am a crime against the law, and an

insult to the majesty ob de State of Mississippi."

Here the "jack-leg" injected a remark to the judge, when Valliant asked

him: "Are you engaged as an attorney in this case?"

He replied: "I am."

"Then I wish to see your license."

At this Horton said: "De gentleman wants to see your license. Go and

get it, sir."

While he was absent in quest of the paper Valliant read the law to

the court, showing his honor that the license must be granted by the

Circuit Court.

When the license was handed to Valliant he read it to the court, and,

it being one granted by the Chancellor, was of no authority. At this

information Horton rose from his seat, and in a loud voice said: "Sir,

you will stand aside. You have imposed on dis court, and am no more a

lawyer in any case in court here."

When this incident was over, and the indignant court had composed

itself, Valliant tried again to satisfy the judge that there was no

case before the court; but he insisted that I had _composed_ a felony,

and that his court was bound to "'vestigate what am a crime in de eye

of de law." Under the argument and showing of my attorney, however,

the judge began to weaken, especially when told that he would be held

responsible for this unwarrantable arrest.

Valliant now whispered to me: "We will have to buy out of this."

"All right," was the reply.

Then my attorney went to the table, and quietly whispered to Horton:

"Will ten dollars settle expenses?"

A ten-dollar bill was handed the judge, and that sum _composed_ the

felony, the feelings of the court, and the offended majesty of the

State.

Valliant was the wit of the Greenville bar, and a true friend. Some

years ago he was called from his field of usefulness and sorrowing

friends to

Sleep the sleep that knows no breaking.

These are not a tithe of my personal experience with the Bureau and the

courts. They were almost daily annoyances to all.

One day I received a note from the agent of the Freedmen's Bureau to

come to his office if convenient. I went as requested; found there one

of my hands, who had no common sense, and was told he complained that I

had not settled with him agreeably to the contract; and when the agent

asked him what complaint he had to make he said that I had paid him

only a _half_, whereas I had promised him a _fourth_, and insisted that

four was more than two.

But I pass from the recital of these petty annoyances to larger

ones. The circuit judge _appointed_ was named S----, and in political

parlance he was a "scallywag." It would seem that, to make his loyalty

apparent, he imposed harsh sentences or punishments on nearly every

white person convicted, and he committed personally some criminal

offenses.

It was, I believe, in the winter of 1876 or 1877 that I was a

member of the grand jury of Washington County. All those who were

summoned--twelve whites and six negroes--answered to their names. The

judge excused one member, and accepted another person, who was sworn

in. The matter of a murder was among other things brought to the notice

of the grand jury. All voted against finding a true bill except two

other members and myself. This same day (Saturday) we were about to

find an indictment against the judge for falsely representing himself

as surety on the bond of the notorious Bolton, who was appointed county

treasurer, the facts in the case being that the judge did not sign his

name to the bond, but told his clerk of the court to sign it for him.

To this the clerk made oath, but excused himself by informing us that

"it is common practice now."

On Sunday Bolton gave a champagne dinner to the judge, and it was there

arranged that the judge should dismiss the grand jury on Monday morning

to prevent indictments being found against _himself and Bolton_. The

excuse offered was that putting a juror on in the place of one excused

was irregular, and their findings would be void, and also we had

failed to find a true bill against a certain man. And so we were all

discharged without retaining _the three_ who voted to find a true bill,

and a new jury was empaneled. That night the negroes called a mass

meeting to condemn these proceedings of the judge; but the meeting was

captured through the influence of two negroes--Gray, the state senator,

and Ross, a negro from Kentucky--and resolutions passed complimenting

the judge. The fine hand of Bolton was seen in this. Some months after,

the judge called on me, and said he wished to say that he discharged

that grand jury because they did not find an indictment against S----,

who had killed a man in an altercation. I replied: "Judge, no person in

Greenville believes that to be true."

The judge was afterwards petitioned by the members of the bar to

resign. The list was headed by the distinguished attorney, William A.

Percy. _Six_ months after this a person appeared in Greenville with

a challenge for Col. Percy. For amusement Percy said: "The judge has

had six months to practice at a target, and I also want a little time

to practice; then I will accommodate him." After worrying the bearer

of the cartel some time he accepted the challenge, the fight to take

place on an island in the Mississippi river. Nothing further was heard

from the challenger, and he died soon after, it is reported, from

mortification.

Before the judge had dismissed the grand jury it had found a number

of indictments against persons who belonged to a secret association

of freedmen, known as the "Band of Brothers and Sisters," bound by

oaths to rob, burn the town, and murder the whites. The day these

disclosures were made the witnesses were shot at in the night, and

claimed protection.

Bolton, who had been an officer in the United States volunteers during

the war, was president of the band; Gray, negro state senator, vice

president; and a scallywag named Brentlinger, from Kentucky, was

treasurer. He was also postmaster, through Bolton's influence. Bolton

spent most of his time in the post office, and induced Brentlinger

to lend him public funds to the amount of about $3,000. An effort was

made to destroy the post office books by setting fire to the office,

but a man fortunately saved the books. Bolton, however, got them from

the office as a package purporting to have come by mail, and destroyed

them.

Then came a United States post office inspector, who discovered the

loss of funds, books, etc., and removed or suspended the postmaster.

Bolton went on Brentlinger's bond, and accompanied him to Jackson,

Miss., where he was tried before Judge Hill. Bolton told Brentlinger

that he had arranged it with the judge. If he would remain silent, and

make no disclosures, he would be acquitted. He was found guilty, and

sent to the penitentiary at Albany, N. Y.

In hope of convicting some of these scoundrels, I wrote to President

Grant for permission to visit the penitentiary and obtain Brentlinger's

testimony, and the attorney-general, Alphonso Taft, to whom the request

was referred, gave permission.

In due time I made the visit to Albany, and with the keeper, Pillsbury,

saw Brentlinger. He wrote out what he knew about the society,

acknowledged that he was treasurer; but from timidity would give but

little testimony of his own knowledge, and made it mostly hearsay

evidence. It corroborated exactly what we learned in the jury room. No

use was made of this testimony, because all who were implicated agreed

to quit the State and never come back. I have this testimony and the

attorney-general's letter.

The military governor appointed one T. L. Webber sheriff of the county.

Without the knowledge of any one, he falsely reported thousands of

acres of plantation lands, and other sections of land, sold for taxes.

This he did for two years. Not a name of any delinquent taxpayer was

ever published, and _no one_ attended any sale. Planters continued

paying their taxes regularly. At last it was discovered that the

reported list of taxable lands did not embrace half the lands on which

taxes were paid. A list was obtained for the grand jury. I found that

six hundred and forty acres out of the heart of my plantation had been

reported sold; Bourge's plantation of two thousand acres, all sold, and

so on; yet we were paying taxes all the same.

_Next year_ I know of but two planters who paid any taxes in the

county. Had Gov. A---- remained, there would not have been any taxes

paid in the State. He wrote to Bolton to know how he was to get any

salary, or any courts could be held, or Legislatures meet, etc., and

was told that the services of all such were not required, etc.

The _auditor_ had been receiving from the sheriff only the money

received from lands _on the tax list_, while he (the sheriff) pocketed

all money paid on lands that he pretended were sold and not taxable--by

"sold" meaning forfeited to the government. To escape perjury, Webber's

_reports_ of taxable lands were not signed by him, but by his brother,

a worthless fellow.

When the people elected a negro sheriff over Webber, he bought the

office of sheriff from him for $1,000 and the negro sheriff (O.

Winslow) appointed him his deputy. Webber, when detected, turned into

the bank $40,000 out of perhaps $150,000 stolen, and went to Florida.

The ablest lawyers said he could not be convicted under the existing

condition of affairs.

Those who would not pay taxes were permitted to redeem their lands by

act of the Legislature, by paying back taxes, the title coming from the

State. The $40,000 was distributed among the owners of the forfeited

lands, and used in part payment of the taxes. O reconstruction, what a

curse thou wast!

Had Ames remained, there would have been presented a singular

revolution--the people of the State peacefully pursuing their

avocations without a government; every function of state government

would have been suspended. When the governor applied to Grant for

troops he was refused. Grant telegraphed that "the public was tired of

the annual autumnal outbreaks in the South."

Another source of annoyance to the planters--nay, it was ruinous--was

the want of reliable labor. Capital could not command labor in the rich

Yazoo bottoms, and it had to be obtained from a distance.

I went to Wytheville, Franklin, and Danville, Va., for labor. In

Danville I made a contract with a man named Wilson to bring me some

thirty hands. About the middle of February he arrived with the negroes.

I paid him $1,040 for transportation and services. One pleasant noon

in May a servant came in and told me a certain negro was leaving the

place; he was the last of the men that Wilson brought, except a Spanish

negro, who was painting my house.

My neighbor Jackson went to Richmond, Va., and obtained some forty

hands; paid their way to Greenville. Their contract made was that they

were to raise a crop of cotton and corn, and out of their share of the

crop they were to repay expenses of transportation, provisions, etc.

Gradually they began to leave him, and went into the employment of

negroes who had rented land. They were hired for two bales of cotton.

By this proceeding they escaped paying transportation.

One day in May the last of Jackson's hands (on Monday) went to the

smokehouse and obtained their rations for the week, and then quit the

plantation. They were arrested for breach of contract and obtaining

supplies under false pretenses, and were tried before the notorious

Judge Bolton. Whilst the trial was going on, Bolton asked my views of

the matter. I told him if they were acquitted every contract recorded

in court would be worthless, and it would damage the planting interest

in the county perhaps two hundred thousand dollars. Nevertheless, he

decided that there was no evidence to prove that the hands had any

intention of leaving _when_ they drew their rations, although they had

a place engaged and left as soon as they got the provisions. For months

I never retired to rest without apprehension that some of my hands

would leave during the night, at the persuasions of visiting spies.

Another trouble was to check the thoughtless extravagance of the

freedmen. If they were largely in debt, when fall came, they would not

gather their cotton, believing it mortgaged to the merchants for all

it would bring, but quit, and pick cotton on some other place, by the

hundred, for cash. Of these things there was no end.

The counties of Bolivar, Washington, and Issaquena composed a levee

district in Mississippi, and had for years protected the lands from

overflow by constructing levees. Funds were obtained by tax on lands

and by sales of bonds. When the war ended, I was elected president of

the board. Gen. Alvan C. Gillem was military governor, and gave me all

the aid he could to rebuild the levees. I negotiated the bonds in New

York City at par, and repaired the levees and saved the plantations

from overflow. When Ames[51] became military governor, he one day

sent a man to Greenville with an order dismissing us, and required

the office to be turned over to the bearer, etc.; and this, too, when

the river was at its highest stage. I went to Jackson to see him. I

demanded the grounds for his action in the matter, and was refused.

At this time the river was out of its banks everywhere, except in our

district. I wrote to President Grant, and he answered: "You should

have telegraphed at once." Gen. Sherman wrote, "Yours is not a public

office, and Ames is wrong, etc., meddling with private corporations,"

or words to that effect.

Whilst in Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, I was offered the

opportunity of seeing the legislators who made our laws, composed

mainly of carpetbaggers and negroes. For this purpose I obtained a seat

by the sidewalk on the main street leading to the capitol.

As the hour to meet had arrived, down this street could be seen the

members approaching. Generally they came two together, arm in arm, a

carpetbagger and a negro in close confab. The whites were clothed in

garments of various makes and colors; the negroes rejoiced in black

clothing, with Prince Albert coats and silk hats and gold-headed canes.

Down the avenue and far away could be seen the white of their eyes,

teeth, shirts, and enormous collars.

The carpetbagger was generally holding on to the arm of his colored

brother, and engaged in conversation; and, judging from the gestures,

they were advocating some benevolent measure for the benefit of the

"wards of the nation," and their own prosperity. One other observation

I made: there were no small feet, and not an arched instep; flap, flap,

came down their flat feet. I had seen enough; I thought the negro had

the more honest face.

Thence I went into the House. Ye gods, what a sight! The floor was

dirty, the many spittoons were all filthy--filled with quids of

tobacco, stumps of cigars, pieces of paper around them were cemented to

the floor by dried tobacco juice; fumes of tobacco filled the house, so

that the air was foul and unpleasant.

The members were seated, black and white side by side, all over the

house, perhaps to guide them in voting; and they lolled on the desks

and chairs. A negro would lay his head on the desk of his white

neighbor, look him in the face, and laugh with great glee at what was

told him; the conversation was so loud and the laughter so boisterous

that the Speaker could not command silence: he pounded with the gavel,

and shouted "Order! order!" till his voice was drowned by the cries of

"Master Speakyar!" from the negroes, while the whites shouted and waved

their arms frantically to catch the Speaker's eye for recognition.

The whole scene was one of confusion not unlike the Gold Exchange, New

York, in days of yore, or the Stock Exchange.

I then went to the Senate chamber. It was cleaner than the House, and

better order was preserved; but what a travesty on intelligence and

decorum, and shame on the government of the United States, North, that

made this not only possible but common, and laughed at it with joyous

hearts; and wherefore? It was an assembly of mostly dishonest white

men influencing the uneducated negro members to enact laws whereby the

State was, by bonded indebtedness, plundered of millions of dollars.

Their reign is ended.

"I myself have seen the ungodly in great power and flourishing like

a green bay tree: I went by again, and lo, he was gone." Adieu! The

royal Bengal tiger, when he once tastes human blood, will depopulate

a village; so the loyal carpetbagger, having tasted Southern plunder,

went home and devised a scheme of trust companies now in operation.

Then came taxation. On this matter I will merely remark that on realty

it was about ten per cent. Government tax on cotton, in the aggregate,

was sixty-seven million dollars. On cotton it was (all told), including

charges by the government, about twenty dollars per bale. There should

now be on file in the Department of Agriculture a letter written by me

to Mr. Isaac Newton, commissioner, telling him that, were it practical,

I would deed to the United States the land planted in cotton, if it

were exempted from taxation one year, which meant--the market value of

the land was twenty dollars per acre; and as one acre would produce a

bale of cotton, and the tax on the bale was twenty dollars, the tax

was equal to the value of the land--that was confiscation. An acre

in cotton, if it produced a bale, was taxed, as I have related; but

if planted in corn or sown in wheat, the produce was free. All these

legal pilferings, vexations, insults, arrogance, and trials to our

families were in silence and poverty submitted to, that our children

might have food and clothing. Our patience in adversity, amidst trials

and sufferings, gives greater evidence of elevation and dignity of

character than did matchless achievements in arms. In the tented

field we found redress for wrongs; in reconstruction years we lived in

expectancy, as the Christians lived in the years of Nero, not knowing

what would befall us next.

The negroes, when set free, became very pious, and gave more time to

their devotions than to the crops. After the Freedmen's Bureau agents

took their departure, nearly all of them "got religion" and wanted

to preach. Their protracted ("distracted" they called them) meetings

continued all night long, for five and six weeks continuously. Men

and women would leave the church (I had one on the plantation) after

sunrise, go to the field direct, and sleep leaning on their hoes. I

found one sleeping on the creek bank, and on asking him what was the

matter, he said: "O, I have got religion in me as big as a yearling

calf." And thus piety impaired industry to an alarming extent, without

improving morality.

Bishop Wilmer (Episcopal), during the war, had omitted the usual prayer

"for the President of the United States and all others in authority,"

and this continued after the surrender. For this offense Maj. Gen.

George H. Thomas was so distressed that he, by orders, caused the

bishop and the clergy in the diocese to cease from preaching; and

this gave rise to a discussion, which was terminated by the President

denouncing the silly order and revoking it. I have no doubt of Gen.

Thomas's sincerity, for he was prudent and cautious, and _he_ must

have been really convinced that President Johnson, and all others in

authority with him, needed the prayers of the Episcopal clergy to bless

them and replenish their grace.

The Bishop was not as desirous of praying for the President of the

United States as was a young priest after the surrender. He had omitted

praying for President Davis since his capture, and had not decided what

to do when the Sabbath came; but found relief, when asked by a United

States army officer if he had any objection to using the old prayer for

the President of the United States, by answering: "No, none whatever;

for I know of no one who needs our prayers more than he."

The few incidents of my own experience that I have narrated are to

illustrate the condition of the people of the South during the years

of reconstruction (annexation), and for preservation for future ages;

to show the ills, vexations, humiliations, and indignities so unjustly

and designedly imposed upon them as a spiteful punishment for daring

to assert their rights and defend their homes. The fifteenth amendment

to the Constitution has brought forth bitter fruit to the progress of

the freedmen and the peaceful progress of the whole country by offering

the negro a dependent support on politics rather than labor. Their

votes were generally in the market, and their sale at the presidential

nominations for office in the Federal service in the South consolidated

the white people against them when harmony would otherwise have

existed.

The State of Mississippi was saved from utter ruin by what the

North called "the shotgun policy." Seeing nothing but poverty and

wretchedness before us, it was determined to rescue the State from

the hands of the carpetbaggers and negroes by a compromise with the

freedmen. In our county we offered them the offices of congressmen,

the sheriff of the county, clerk of the chancery court, clerk of

the circuit court, and justice of the peace, but not a member of

the Legislature. The educated whites were to redeem the State from

perdition in the halls of legislation.

In the hustings absolute protection by arms was pledged to all freedmen

who voted the Democratic ticket, and to those who voted the radical

ticket, not a hair of their heads should be touched, if order was

maintained by them; but under all circumstances _a free election should

be held, and peace preserved_. Every one knew that a disturbance

imperiled life. The consequence was that a more cheerful, peaceful

election never was held. One party had yellow tickets and the other

white, open in their hands, and the vote could be counted as well

outside as inside at the polls; and furthermore the radical white

carpetbaggers were in an unmistakable manner informed that they would

be held responsible if peace at the polls was not maintained. Thus

was the State redeemed from the hands of the corrupt carpetbaggers

and corrupt _followers_ of the United States army, and all cried:

"Amen!" The joy that followed cannot be realized, and cheerful industry

commenced. The suffering, vexations, and agony of mind of the people

of the South during reconstruction years, unless written by those who

endured them, will no more be known in history than are the cries for

mercy uttered in the chambers of torture in the prisons and baronial

castles of Europe during the Middle Ages. And now for all these

malicious tortures, for the state debts, for the enfranchising of the

negro, and the race problem the harshest condemnation I have known

to be expressed by the party which imposed them on us is: "It was a

blunder!"

In a statesman "_a blunder is a crime_," said Napoleon. So by parity of

reasoning, you can discover in what class you have placed yourselves.

This election is the hegira of misrule and vampirism.

It is difficult to subscribe to the dogma of "an indissoluble union

of indestructible States." It is at variance with the foundation of

all government; "for governments are founded on superior force that

subjects everything to the will of the governor, or it is founded on

a compact, express or tacit.... When founded on force, resistance

is implied.... In a government founded on an express agreement, or

compact, resistance is unlawful while the ruler maintains his part

of the contract. When he violates those rules resistance is legal

and justifiable. Hence in all governments resistance is naturally

inherent." (Lord Woodhouselee.)

In the twelfth century, for instance, there "was in Aragon the Justiza,

an officer elected by the people, who was the supreme interpreter of

the law and protector of the people.... This great officer had likewise

the privilege of receiving in the _name of the people_ the king's oath

of coronation, and during the ceremony he held a naked sword pointed

at the heart of the sovereign, whom he thus addressed: 'We, your

equals, constitute you our sovereign, and we voluntarily engage to

obey your mandates on condition that you protect us in the enjoyment

of our rights; if otherwise, not.'" Here we find reserved rights of the

people, as in our Constitution.

States appear to be destructible. From the Pillars of Hercules, all

around the shores of the Mediterranean Sea--where dwelt the people to

whom God gave laws amidst the thunders of Horeb and others, whence came

language and most of our civilization and religion--are found the ashes

of dead empires.

The Confederate States must have been out of the _Union_, unless we

admit that the English language is not expressive enough to clearly

describe events. To me the act of Congress passed February 17, 1870, to

"admit the State of Mississippi," the proclamations to "come back,"[52]

to "restore the State," etc., are but a few of the proofs that we were

out of the Union; and the declaration of war, the blockade, belligerent

rights show that the Confederate States were independent. We were

"rebels" (so called) designedly to enable the United States to escape

paying Confederate bonds held by foreign powers, and to settle other

international questions with them. We were in the Union or out of the

Union, as the exigency of the occasion required.

And this reminds me of an incident that occurred in the section room

at the United States Military Academy in 1841. Capt. J. A. Thomas was

assistant professor of ethics. The subject: "The Constitution of the

United States." He there said: "Gentlemen, there are latent powers in

this Constitution that will be found to meet every emergency that may

arise." And now, behold, since then! "The higher law," "the _extra_

constitutional measures," "the confiscation of property," "greenbacks

a legal tender," etc., the wealth of the nation made exempt from

taxation by the supreme court, and the trusts, etc. Truly we were a

conquered nation, because the United States had to resort to all the

constitutional requirements of foreign warfare.

In the platform accepted by Mr. Lincoln is this resolution:

"_Resolved_, That we maintain inviolate the rights of the States,

and especially the right of each State to order and control its own

domestic institutions, according to its own judgment exclusively." And

in his inaugural he said: "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly,

to interfere with slavery in any of the slaveholding States of the

Union."

Then Congress passed, February 11, 1861, the following: "_Resolved_,

That neither Congress, nor the people, nor the government of the

nonslaveholding States have the right to legislate upon or interfere

with slavery in any of the slaveholding States of the Union."

These resolutions and promises were brushed aside like reeds in the

path of conquest. Their armies marched on without any check by the act

of _habeas corpus_, as it was suspended by article 2 in the President's

proclamation of September 22, 1862, which reads: "That the writ of

_habeas corpus_ is suspended in regard to all persons arrested, or who

are now or hereafter during the rebellion shall be imprisoned in any

fort, camp, arsenal, military prison, or other place of confinement by

any military authority or by sentence of any court-martial or military

commission."

I remember a story on the Committee of the French Academy appointed to

prepare the "Academy Dictionary." Their definition of a _crab_ was "a

small, red fish which walks backward." "Gentlemen," said Cuvier, "your

definition would be perfect, only for three exceptions: The crab is not

a fish, it is not red, and it does not walk backward."

So, if the _Union was indissoluble_, and the States were

indestructible, how could they be _reconstructed_ and readmitted? It is

as erroneous as the definition of the crab.

It may be said, almost literally, that the administration for the

expansion of war power deposited the Constitution in the State

Department for the use of the supreme court after the war. They

now ordained a despotic policy as being more expedient to run the

government, because it could be changed, like a vane on a house top,

according to the breath of public opinion or the exigency of the

times. To confine their troops to the duty of destroying the regular

Confederate forces, according to the usages of civilized war, had been

tried in vain; but once freed from the restraints of the Constitution

and modern rules of war, the work of desolation commenced to the extent

that a ruthless general reported that a crow would have to carry its

provisions if it crossed the valley he had laid waste. His example was

excelled by others. The truth is that if the North had not disregarded

the Constitution, IT, would have ruined them. It was a government of

opportunism.

As regards reconstruction (so called), I will only observe that a

conquered people are obliged to accept such terms as the conqueror

offers.

In our case the separate or sovereign States that withdrew from the

Union were the parties conquered. The negotiators for peace on the one

part were the Congressional Committee on Reconstruction, and on the

other each one of the sovereign States for itself. The terms offered

the States respectively were embodied in the last three amendments

to the Constitution. As these were accepted they were admitted into

the Union, each a sovereign State. So the thirteenth, fourteenth, and

fifteenth articles of the Constitution, when accepted, became virtually

a treaty of peace between the North and the South, made State by State.

Virginia, Texas, and Mississippi were the last, and they did not accept

the terms offered until 1870, when they were admitted into the Union.

As Minerva sprung from the brain of Jupiter, full grown, robed in the

panoply of war, and took her seat among the gods, so the Confederate

States--born in a day, clothed in all the attributes of government,

complete in every department--took her station among the nations

of the earth. She exacted from the United States the observance of

international law on war and official intercourse. After four years

of the most sanguinary war of modern times she fell, white and pure,

before the mercenary hosts of the nations arrayed against her. She died

for the priceless heritage wrung from tyrants "_that all just powers of

government are derived from the consent of the governed_."

For this inalienable right--a right that has been exercised by almost

every nation on earth, and for which millions and millions of lives

have been sacrificed--the States seceded, and it will never die. It

was implanted by Providence like religion in the hearts of mankind.

It is an invisible power behind a veil that will break through as

certainly as the soul at death lifts the dim veil that hides the life

beyond the grave. It is an occult power pervading the air, and gentle

until developed by oppression, whether by bad government or remorseless

tyranny incident to aggregated wealth or other causes. It was not the

victories of the Confederate armies; it was not because they gave the

world a Lee, a Johnston, a Forrest, and a Stonewall Jackson that won

the admiration of the nations; but because over all these the South was

true to her convictions of right. Their achievements were great, but

their cause was greater; their deeds are immortal, their cause eternal,

and paid for in blood. It will exist till the leaves of the judgment

book unfold.

I must now take my farewell of the good Confederate soldiers with whom

I have had the honor to serve. I know their valor and their worth. Like

the sibylline books, as they diminish in numbers they will increase

in value, and with the last veteran the order will end--then silence!

Their valor will be the common heritage of mankind. Their memory will

be revered by their posterity, and linger in the mind as sweetly as

the fragrance of flowers. Their cause let none gainsay; it is the

birthright of all the ages.

To you, my children, I have related some of my observations, and given

a little of my experience in this wonderful nineteenth century.

In my youth dwellings were lit up with candles; then came gas and

kerosene; now electricity illumes cities and streets, cars and ships.

Steam power was known, but it had not been applied to railroads or

steamships on the ocean, or to many mechanical purposes. How well do I

remember the many journeys I made over the Alleghany Mountains by stage

to Pittsburg, Brownsville, and Wheeling, and how steam power superseded

horse power in ferryboats, treadmills, and sailing vessels on the

ocean!

I have told you how I went with Prof. Morse to receive what may be

deemed the first message of the telegraph; now we send messages around

the world.

In 1862 I saw a telephone established from one house to another,

distant about fifty yards, by two young ladies in Wilmington, N. C.,

to communicate with each other. To-day we talk face to face a thousand

miles.

The discovery of anæsthetics has alleviated the pain of the surgeon's

knife, and with the X ray he looks through the human body, and makes

visible the location and cause of pain, etc.

During this century the map of the world has had many changes by the

Napoleonic wars, the upheaval of 1840 by Garibaldi, Bismarck, Germany,

and France; and all Africa is subjugated. In the Orient--that empire

of occult science and mystery, of magic, fakirs, castes, and barbaric

wealth; six times invaded from the West through the gates of India by

Alexander, Mahmoud, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Monguls, and Persians--at

last, in this century, with a population of over 300,000,000, has

passed into the possession of England, and Queen Victoria is Empress of

India! What destiny awaits China, with her 400,000,000 people?

We have witnessed Spain lose possession of all her colonies in South

America, Mexico, and her West Indies possessions and the Philippine

Islands; the slave trade, conceded to New England, ended only in 1808;

imprisonment for debt was in existence when I was young in some of the

States--in short, such has been the progress of liberty during this

closing century that it has turned the world upside down, and to all

oppressors from any cause the spirit of liberty cries:

"By all ye will or whisper,

By all ye leave or do,

The silent sullen people

Shall weigh your God and you."

APPENDIX.

Some Statistics of the War.

Total enlistment in the United States army 2,778,304

Total enlistment in the Confederate States army 600,000

_FIRST._

NUMBER OF FOREIGNERS IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY.

German 176,800

Irish 144,200

British Americans 53,500

English 45,500

Other foreigners 74,900

--------

Total foreigners 494,900

Whites from the South 276,439

Negroes from the South 178,975

--------

Total 455,414

-------

Grand total 950,314

Here you will discover a force 350,414 stronger than the whole

Confederate army, without enlisting _a native-born citizen_ of the

North; also that the South furnished the North _455,414_ men.

_SECOND._

New York troops enlisted 448,850

Pennsylvania troops enlisted 337,936

--------

Total 786,786

Here is an army larger than the Confederate States army.

_THIRD._

Illinois furnished (men) 259,092

Ohio furnished (men) 313,180

Indiana furnished (men) 196,336

--------

Total 768,608

Here we have a second army larger than the Confederate army.

_FOURTH._

The New England States furnished 363,162

The slave States furnished (whites and negroes) 455,414

--------

Total 818,576

Here is a third army larger than the Confederate army, and the fourth

army came from the excess of numbers in the three preceding ones.

But the most remarkable fact is, that there were in the United States

army 950,314 men that should be _called foreigners_, as none belonged

to the North by birth.

In connection with the number of foreigners in the United States army,

I will remark that Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, in his

argument before the Tewksbury Almshouse investigating committee,

July 15, 1883, said: "Before you go to throwing ridicule on the

foreign-born, let me tell you that you had better look into the

question of who fought your battles. In the first place, look at

the per cent of what birth the inmates in our soldiers' homes were;

fifty-eight and one-half per cent of the soldiers in these homes are of

_foreign birth_."

Again he said: "Some of us stayed at home and pressed soft cushions

of _skinned paupers_ while these foreigners so much sneered at were

fighting our battles."

In regard to the tanning of the skins of the dead inmates of the

almshouse, Butler quotes from Carlyle (page 354), and goes on to say

that at Meudon the skins of the guillotined were turned into good wash

leather and made into breeches for paupers. So the paupers in France

were dressed in the skins of my lord and lady, "while in Massachusetts

it was our aristocrats that wore slippers made from the breasts of

women paupers." Matters here are reversed--it is my lord and lady who

wear such slippers.

It may be of some interest to quote further from Butler. In contrasting

the expenses of the soldiers' home (one of them) he said it took 278

turkeys for their Thanksgiving dinner, and their last "potpie" required

34 sheep, 15½ barrels of potatoes, and 2 barrels of flour. During the

year they ate 758 head of cattle, 1,659 head of sheep, 3,714 barrels

of flour, 15,744 dozen eggs, 154,932 pounds of butter, 69,289 pounds

of coffee, 57,941 pounds of fish, 7,950 pounds of tea, 10,570 cans of

tomatoes, 16,431 pounds of rice, 110,440 pounds of sugar, 21,325 pounds

of prunes, and other articles too numerous to mention, amounting to the

sum of $204,728, hereby establishing that the inmates of the soldiers'

home were fed cheaper and better than the paupers of the Tewkesbury

almshouse.

I refrain from naming the horrors of this institution in Massachusetts;

but the men who are fond of the horrible depravity of mankind, for

money, can find their taste gratified in Butler's pamphlet, illustrated

by photographs of tanned skins, etc.

Civilization, even among the cultured, is sometimes a diaphanous

garment to hide the infernal. "Nature still makes him; and has an

infernal in her as well as a celestial."

Well might it be said by an English writer that "the men in the North

could, for a moderate sum, engage substitutes to vicariously die for

them, while they sipped their wines at the clubs in safety."

Percentage Killed and Wounded in Late Wars.

Allies in the Crimea 3.2 per cent

Austrians in 1866 2.6 per cent

Germans in the Franco-German war 3.1 per cent

Federals in the Confederate war 4.7 per cent

Confederates in the Confederate war 9.0 per cent

Slave Owners in the Confederate Army.

This question, as far as I am informed, has not been analyzed to

separate it from the concrete mass of men that composed the Confederate

army. This is desirable to establish what influence they had in

deciding the Southern States to secede from the Union, and the solution

of it should give the number of slave owners in the army.

The white population of these States was, in 1860, about 8,300,000.

There were 346,000 whites who owned slaves. These figures represent and

include men of all ages, widows, and minors: also young married women

who owned the servant usually given them.

Now divide 8,300,000 by 346,000, and we have 8,300,000/346,000==24,

which shows that only one person in twenty-four was a slaveholder,

and we know not what number in this twenty-four were women, orphans,

and old men. If allowance be made for the old men, women, and minors,

there would not be over four able-bodied men to the one hundred; hence

in a company of one hundred soldiers four would be slave owners. In a

regiment of one thousand there would be forty, in ten thousand there

would be four hundred, and in the whole Confederate army of six hundred

thousand there would be only twenty-four thousand who represented

slavery. The remainder (600,000-24,000) would be 576,000 who were not

slave owners! This number, however, might be reduced by young men heirs

apparent of slaves.

Henceforth, then, let it be known that the Confederate army was not

an army of slave owners. To the people of the South it was well known

that the slaves were fast becoming the property of the owners of large

estates, and on many sugar and cotton plantations there were from one

to two hundred negroes employed. The tendency was to consolidate labor,

as it was more profitable. Therefore it was that the Confederate army

was mainly composed of men as free from interests in slavery as were

the men living in sight of Bunker Hill. These men were contending for

an object far more dear to them than any arising from slavery. They

had seen the accumulated funds of the United States treasury expended

in making harbors for towns on the great Northern lakes yearly, and in

digging deep-water channels for Eastern cities, and appropriations for

little creeks called rivers; while the harbors of the Southern cities

were neglected. Then, again, the tariff almost invariably discriminated

against the South, even to the extent of nullification, almost thirty

years anterior to the war; then the fugitive slave act was nullified

by Northern State laws; "underground railroad" was a term used to

express how negro slaves were conveyed under cover of the night to

the North when enticed from their owners. They openly published that

the Constitution was a "compact made with the devil;" and the hatred

of the North and the West was so widespread that by a sectional party

vote they elected a President antagonistic to the South. These are

but a few of the acts that caused secession; and yet he who believes

that secession was entertained by more than a mere majority of the

people South is mistaken. Genuine love and an abiding fidelity to the

Constitution were ever found in the South. Her cause for complaint

also was that the people of the North and West, actuated by hatred of

the people South, proclaimed that the higher law of _conscience_ was

superior to the Constitution!

Events came on apace. The Southern people were homogeneous, "to

the manner born." Save only in the commercial cities were there any

foreigners and but few Northerners. North Carolina did not have quite

_one_ per cent foreign; the West had about thirty-five per cent.

(Census Report.)

When coercion of the South was proclaimed, it was the homogeneousness

of her people that solidified both parties at once to a common defense

of their homes, and these five hundred and seventy-six thousand

soldiers, without interest in slavery, for four years fought for the

right of their people to govern themselves in their own way. Their

deeds are now a matter of history that will, by them, be recorded,

contrary to the past rule, that the conquerors always write history.

Appomattox terminated the war only--it was not a court to adjudicate

the _right_ of secession--but its sequence established the fact that

secession was not treason nor rebellion, and that it yet exists,

restrained only by the question of expediency. Wherefore the Union will

be maintained mainly by avoiding sectional and class legislation, and

remembering always that in the halls of legislation the minority have

some rights, and in the minority the _truth_ will generally be found.

The charge, then, that the slaveholders, so few in number, forced

secession, or that the five hundred and seventy-six thousand

nonslaveholders who really constituted the Confederate army were

battling to maintain slavery, is a popular error.

The cry at the North that the South was fighting to maintain slavery

was proclaimed (as I have elsewhere said) to prejudice the Emperor

Napoleon III. and the English Cabinet against forming an alliance

with the Confederate States; but the power of public opinion and the

press were such that they were obliged to remain neutral; for this

constrained neutrality England was _rewarded_ by being forced, when

the war ended, to pay the United States the sum of fifteen million

dollars--the Geneva _award_--for the ships destroyed by Admiral Raphael

Semmes, Confederate States Navy; and France was rewarded by obliging

Napoleon to withdraw his troops from Mexico, and leave poor Maximilian

to his fate--a warning for weak men thirsting for empire.

Prison Deaths and Prisoners.

The number of Confederate prisoners in Northern prisons was 220,000,

and the number of Federal prisoners in prisons South was 270,000.

Death rate in Northern prisons 12 per cent

Death rate in Southern prisons 9 per cent

See the report of Secretary Stanton, made July 9, 1866; also the report

of Surgeon General Barnes, United States Army.

SOME OF THE BRIGADE LOSSES IN PARTICULAR ENGAGEMENTS.

-----------+-------------------------+------------------+--------------

Gettysburg | Garnett's Brigade (Va.) |Pickett's Division| 65.9 per cent

Gettysburg | Perry's " (Fla.)|Anderson's " | 65 " "

Antietam | Wofford's " (Tex.)|Hood's " | 64.1 " "

Franklin | Cockrell's " (Mo.) |French's " | 60.2 " "

Chickamauga| Benning's " (Ga.) |Hood's " | 56.6 " "

-----------+-------------------------+-------------------+-------------

There are thirteen more brigades with losses, varying in numbers,

before the percentage is reduced to forty per cent.

PERCENTAGE OF LOSS IN SOME REGIMENTS IN SINGLE BATTLES.

-----------+--------------------------------+-------------

Gettysburg | Twenty-First North Carolina | 90 per cent

Gettysburg | First Missouri | 82 " "

Gettysburg | Twenty-Sixth North Carolina | 88.5 " "

Antietam | Twentieth Texas | 82.3 " "

Antietam | Twelfth Massachusetts | 67 " "

Antietam | Twenty-First Georgia | 76 " "

Antietam | One Hundred and First New York | 71 " "

-----------+--------------------------------+-------------

And so on. There are over _fifty_ regiments in the _Confederate_ army

before forty per cent is reached. How many there are in the Federal

army I do not know. (From "The Confederate Soldier in the Civil War,"

and other sources.)

The Authority to Tax

is the greatest power a people can give a government, yet it is a

necessary measure, but often dangerous; it can be used to impoverish

a people, or enrich a comparatively few individuals, or to rob one

section of a vast country to build up another. It has caused more

distress than droughts or floods; it has caused more insurrections,

revolutions, and wars than all other acts of man intrusted with

authority. There are many modes of taxation, but the most insidious one

is the quiet robbery by a tariff.

This might be demonstrated by the United States pension laws. The

pensioners (and I am a Mexican war pensioner) receive as a free gift

from the treasury the sum of about one hundred and fifty million

dollars annually. It goes to enrich the people of the States where they

reside.

If there be no pensioners living in any one State, that State

contributes to support the pensioners, but receives nothing in return:

so, if all the pensioners were to become citizens of any _one_ State,

that State would receive in pension money one hundred and fifty million

dollars yearly, or in fifteen years the enormous sum of two billion two

hundred and fifty million dollars derived by taxation of the people in

the other States, less the sum that one State paid and returned to it.

Now, if all the pensioners, from any cause, should migrate to Ohio, or

North Carolina, would the other forty-four States be taxed for (say)

the benefit of the people of the State of North Carolina in the sum

of two billion two hundred and fifty million dollars during the next

fifteen years? No, never.

The presumption is that the Southern States pay, under the revenue

laws, one-third of the revenue collected. If so, then the South pays

the pensioners about fifty million dollars annually, and receives in

return only the small sum paid the few pensioners residing within the

Southern States; and thus one section of the country is taxed, under

the revenue tariff laws, to enrich the other, Q. E. D.

Cost of the War.

The total cost of the war between the States was,

to June 30, 1879 $10,861,929,909

Value of the slaves confiscated and emancipated 3,000,000,000

Destruction of property in the South (estimated) 600,000,000

Naval Power of the United States.

The following enumeration of the vessels in the United States service

will convey some idea of the power of the North:

Seven hundred vessels were employed in blockading our coast and

guarding our rivers.

During the year 1862-63 there were 533 steamers, barges, and coal

boats belonging to the United States on the Mississippi river and its

tributaries; and at the same time the United States Quartermaster's

Department chartered 1,750 steamers and vessels to aid Gen. Grant in

his operations against Vicksburg. In short, there were 2,283 vessels,

exclusive of iron-clad mortar boats, operating to capture Vicksburg.

The actual siege commenced May 18, and ended July 4, 1863, embracing a

period of forty-seven days.

Names, Rank, and Positions of Officers on My Staff.

Abercrombie, Wiley, Lieutenant, Aid-de-Camp.

Anderson, Archer, Major, Aid-de-Camp.

Archer, C., Lieutenant, Ord. Officer.

Baker, J. A., Captain, Aid-de-Camp.

Baldwin, John M., Captain, Acting Ord. Officer.

Cain, W. H., Captain, Commissary.

Danner, Albert, Captain, Quartermaster.

Daves, Graham, Major, A. A. General.

Drane, N. M., Captain, Quartermaster.

Freeman, E. T., Lieutenant, A. A. I. General.

Haile, Calhoun, Lieutenant, Aid-de-Camp.

Harrison, William B., Major, Chief Surgeon.

Morey, John B., Major, Chief Quartermaster.

Myers, C. D., Lieutenant, Aid-de-Camp.

Overton, M., Captain, Ord. Officer.

Reynolds, F. A., Captain, A. A. General.

Robertson, N. H., Lieutenant, Artillery.

Rogers, H. J., Captain, Engineer.

Sanders, D. W., Major, Adj. General.

Shingleur, James A., Lieutenant, Maj. and A. A. G.

Shumaker, S. M., Major, Chief Artillery.

Storrs, George S., Lieutenant, Maj. and Chief Art.

Venet, John B., Captain, Engineer.

Yerger, James R., Lieutenant, Aid-de-Camp.

Thomas, Grigsby E., Sergeant, Ordnance.

Government in Louisiana, 1875-76.

The forces that were developed during the last two years of the war

found a wide field for operation as the Union troops marched through

the South, and induced the troops to plunder, because there was money

in it, and when the war ended this force entered the wide area of

reconstruction, and produced those cursed scenes witnessed all over

the South, because there was money in it, and yet when the States

were admitted into the Union it was natural to suppose that its power

for evil was spent. Not at all; it rallied, and entered the field

of politics; debased by all the license of war, which exempted them

from punishment for all crimes, they sold themselves for a price,

and the _dual_ governments commenced: the one established by the

property owners and respectable people, the other by the carpetbaggers,

scalawags, and negroes. Here were offices by election and by

appointment affording almost unlimited opportunity to plunder. They had

no conscience when they could put money in their pockets.

To illustrate, I will, as briefly as I can, take the State of

Louisiana. In 1875 this State had _two_ rival courts, _two_ opposing

Legislatures. One was the radical carpetbaggers, and the other

conservative. There were _three_ governors; also United States

Senators, black and white, and Gen. P. H. Sheridan was military

director; and over and above all the United States intermeddling in her

affairs. The rival courts were occupied in reversing the decisions of

each other, the Legislatures in passing bills that were not valid for

the want of a quorum, or obtaining the signature of the right governor,

whether of Kellogg, Warmouth, or McEnery (the three governors).

As this threefold government presaged the probability of the radical

party not receiving the electoral vote of the State in the coming

election for President, something had to be done to accomplish it.

Accordingly the President directed the Secretary of War to issue

an order directly and secretly to Gen. P. H. Sheridan, who was in

Chicago, to proceed to New Orleans, and it was suggested that he should

make the journey appear as one undertaken for recreation. So he and

some of his staff, and a party of ladies on pleasure bent, sailed

down the turbulent Mississippi river to New Orleans, and established

headquarters in the St. Charles Hotel.

Sheridan's secret orders, dated December 24, 1874, were sent to

him direct from the Secretary of War, and without the knowledge of

Gen. Sherman, commanding the army, or of Gen. McDowell, commanding

the Department of the South, which embraced Louisiana, with his

headquarters in Louisville, Ky.; but he was advised that he might

stop and make known to Gen. McDowell the object of his mission if he

deemed it proper to do so, but he passed by without seeing McDowell.

On arriving in New Orleans he made the State of Louisiana a part of

his department, and then issued his decree declaring the people of the

state "banditti." This alarmed the President. It was too imperialistic.

Sheridan then suggested that Congress be called on to pass an act in a

few words making the people banditti. The President declined. Then the

chief of the banditti advised the President to issue an order through

the War Department declaring the people banditti, and to leave ALL TO

HIM, and he would quell them without giving him (the President) any

further trouble. In all this there is a thirst for blood and punishment

by military authority. But Grant, sitting on the ragged edge of

imperialism, declined to support his man-of-all-work on the banditti

question. But still undaunted, Sheridan perchance recalled to mind

how Cromwell entered the "Praise God Barebone" house of Parliament,

and, charging the members to be guilty of dishonorable acts, drove

them out of the house by an armed force, locked the door, and put the

key in his pocket; or how Napoleon entered the hall of the council of

live hundred in Paris, and at the point of the bayonet dissolved the

convention--resolved to imitate those great men by taking a company

of the United States army, and thrust the members of the conservative

Legislature into the street. This he did by sending Gen. De Trobirand

to close the legislative hall of a sovereign State in the Union, first

ejecting the members.

However much the North was willing to punish the South, they saw in

this a usurpation of United States authority which, if unrebuked, might

be applied to a "truly loyal" State in the North; and now the Northern

press howled, not because it had been done in Louisiana, but for fear

their Legislatures might be invaded likewise, and they cried: "Have we

also a Cæsar?" And all this was done to secure the vote of Louisiana to

the radical party in the coming presidential election.

Pending these events Sherman and McDowell were inflamed with anger

that such orders should be issued secretly, and not sent through the

proper channel of communication. Such were some of the incidents of

the attempt of Sheridan to punish the people of Louisiana who were "to

the manner born," who owned the land, and paid nine-tenths of all the

taxes, and who intellectually were his equal, and socially and in the

amenities of life his superior in many respects.

[Illustration: JULIUS L. BROWN.]

Time passed on. Election day came, and, had these States been recorded

as the people had voted, the election would have been: For Tilden, 203;

for Hayes, 166. But the election machinery in most of the Southern

States was in Republican hands, and thus by Chandler's orders the

States of Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina could be counted out;

and if this was done, R. B. Hayes would have 185 and S. J. Tilden 184.

Now "who should count the votes" became the battle ground. For two

months scheme after scheme was proposed and rejected. More than once it

was proposed to throw dice, and raffle off the presidency like "a good,

fat turkey for Christmas," but this leaked out. One proposition after

another again fell through, and at last Hayes won by trickery. Only the

great desire for peace, and the marshaling of troops and concentrating

naval vessels under the orders of President Grant prevented a clash of

arms.

Among the first acts of President Hayes was an order removing the

United States troops from New Orleans and Columbia, S. C., as the

purpose for which they had been kept there had been accomplished.

Those who are fond of reading low villainy can find it written in the

chronicles of Louisiana.

Violation of Paroles.

In connection with the violation of paroles I will incidentally mention

that Gov. Joseph E. Brown, of Georgia--after the surrender of Gen. R.

E. Lee, and when Gen. J. H. Wilson was in Macon on his raid--went to

Macon, and surrendered to Gen. Wilson himself and the militia in his

command, and obtained his parole; thence he returned to Milledgeville.

That same evening Gen. Wilson sent an officer and some troops to the

residence of his excellency, took from him by force the parole that

he had just given him, arrested him, took him to Macon; then sent him

to Washington City, where he was imprisoned with most of the Southern

Governors of the Confederate States. This gave rise to a peculiar

decision on the validity of his and other paroles. See the following

letter from the War Records, Serial No. 104, Page 836:

WASHINGTON, May 19, 1865.

Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War.

The inclosed makes it appear that Brown, of Georgia,

surrendered the militia of that State and himself as

commander in chief thereof to Gen. Wilson, and was paroled.

If the call for the meeting of the Georgia Legislature was

subsequent to the parole, I suppose there can be no doubt

but that he stands liable to arrest for the violation

of his parole; otherwise, is it not obligatory upon the

government to observe _their_ part of the contract? I would

not advise authorizing him to go back to Georgia now under

any circumstances; but I do not think a paroled officer is

subject to arrest, so long as he observes his parole, without

giving him notice first that he is absolved from further

observance of it.

U. S. GRANT. _Lieutenant General._

The inclosure referred to is probably Wilson to Stanton, May 19, 4:20

P.M. Page 680.

The wording of the parole given the army of Gen. R. E. Lee reads:

The within named, ----, will not be disturbed by the United

States authorities so long as he observes his parole and the

laws in force where he may reside. (From the War Records,

Vol. 46, Part 3, page 853.)

This opinion of Gen. Grant that an officer, who may be in command of

an army or of a body of armed men, after the surrender of his men and

their arms, can, after "_notice_ that he is _absolved_ from further

observance of it," be arrested is a flagrant breach of faith.

Promise of protection is given to a man with arms in his hand, that

if he _will surrender_ them he shall have protection as long as he

observes his parole. Is it just, right, or honorable after he has given

up his arms to notify him that he is released from the _observance_

of the parole, unless you first place him in the same condition he

was before he surrendered his arms or his command? It is a deception

and an outrage. In fact, I am unable to comprehend how a soldier who

surrenders himself, his men, and arms on parole can be released from

and absolved from observance from it from any act or acts committed

prior to its date in order to arrest him. Gov. Brown was denied the

rights given him by his parole, and holding him a prisoner and not

permitting him to go to his home in Georgia seems to be predicated upon

the fear that he might do something in violation of a parole.

The papers showed that the Governor was paroled by Gen. Wilson; then

arrested the same day at his home in Milledgeville, and his parole

taken from him by force. I presume that his parole was taken from him

because some days previous to his surrender he had made a call for the

Legislature to assemble.

Joseph M. Brown, to whom I am indebted for much information that he

obtained from Union soldiers through years of correspondence relative

to the Georgia campaign, is a son of Gov. Joseph E. Brown, and a

gentleman of high literary attainments. His elder brother, Julius L.

Brown, now a distinguished lawyer in Atlanta, refused to leave the

country to be educated in Europe. By a compromise he was sent to a

military school in Athens, Ga. The boys there took up arms, and formed

a company to defend Athens. There Brown's first duty was to guard

some Yankee prisoners. In 1864 he joined Company A in a battalion of

cadets, and rendered good service in defense of Atlanta. Thence his

command went to Milledgeville, where, joining with other State forces

and Wheeler's cavalry, they fought Sherman's advance at every river he

crossed, and otherwise retarded his march to Savannah. His battalion

formed a part of the rear guard of Hardee's army on the retreat from

Savannah. The last order issued by Confederate authority east of the

Mississippi was to this battalion. (War Records, Serial 111, page 420.)

Cassville.

[From "Reminiscences of the War," in the New Orleans _Picayune_.]

The recent appearance of Hughes's "Life of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston,"

and the announcement of the placing in the hands of the printers of a

"Life of Gen. Leonidas Polk," by his son, Dr. William Polk, were the

subject of a conversation recently among a few veterans of the Army of

Tennessee, and some facts were mentioned that are deemed of sufficient

interest to be placed on record through the columns of your valued

paper.

To those who participated in the memorable campaign from Dalton to

Atlanta under Joe Johnston, the failure to give battle at Cassville is

a most fertile source of discussion and regret, and this was the point

of conversation on which the group of talkers lingered the longest.