Part 6 — CHAPTER XXIV (continued 4)

[1161] Ho. Rept., No. 121, 41st Cong., 2d Sess.; Sen. Ex. Doc., No. 6, 39th Cong., 1st Sess.

[1162] Freedmen’s Bureau Reports, Dec., 1865, and Nov., 1866; Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 142 41st Cong., 2d Sess.; Miller, “History of Alabama,” p. 240. Congress appropriated $20,000,000, and there was an immense amount of Confederate property confiscated and sold for the benefit of the Bureau. Of this no account was kept. One detailed estimate of Bureau expenses is as follows:—

Appropriations by Congress $20,000,000

General Bounty Fund 8,000,000

Freedmen and Refugee Fund 7,000,000

Retained Bounty Fund (Butler) 2,000,000

School Fund (Confiscated Property) 2,500,000

Total $39,500,000

Edwin De Leon, “Ruin and Reconstruction of the Southern States,” in Southern Magazine, 1874. See also Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 142, 41st Cong., 2d Sess.

[1163] G. O. No. 4, July 28, 1865.

[1164] N. Y. News, Sept. 7, 1865 (Montgomery correspondent); Ku Klux Rept., p. 441; oral accounts.

[1165] Montgomery Mail, May 12, 1865.

[1166] Howard’s Circular, May 30, 1865; War Department Circular No. 11, July 12, 1865.

[1167] Huntsville Advocate, July 26, 1865. This was when the army officials were conducting the Bureau. Later the civilian agents charged $2 for making every contract, and the negroes soon wanted the Bureau abolished so far as it related to contracts. N. Y. Times, March 12, 1866 (letter from Florence, Ala.). In Madison County some of the negroes tarred and feathered a Bureau agent who had been collecting $1.50 each for drawing contracts. N. Y. Herald, Dec. 22, 1867.

[1168] Swayne’s Report, Jan. 31, 1866.

[1169] These regulations bear the approval of the other two rulers of Alabama—General Woods and Governor Parsons. See G. O. No. 12, Aug. 30, 1865.

[1170] G. O. No. 13, Sept., 1865. This order was in force until 1868. See N. Y. World, Nov. 20, 1867.

[1171] These propositions were approved by A. Humphreys, assistant superintendent at Talladega, and by General Chetlain, commanding the District of Talladega. Selma Times, Dec. 4, 1865.

[1172] Selma Messenger, Nov. 15, 1865; N. Y. World, Nov. 20, 1867.

[1173] Ku Klux Rept., p. 441; N. Y. News, Sept. 7, 1865; oral accounts.

[1174] Swayne’s Report, Jan., 1866. Rev. C. W. Buckley, in a report to Swayne (dated Jan. 5, 1866), of a tour in Lowndes County, stated that while the Bureau and the army and the “government of the Christian nation,” each had done much good, all was as nothing to what God was doing. The hand of God was seen in the stubborn and persistent reluctance of the negro to make contracts and go to work; God had taught the 8,000,000 arrogant and haughty whites that they were dependent upon the freedmen; God had ordained that “the self-interest of the former master should be the protection of the late slaves.”

[1175] Swayne’s Report, Oct. 31, 1865.

[1176] Freedmen’s Bureau Report, Oct. 24, 1868.

[1177] De Bow’s Review, 1866.

[1178] Freedmen’s Bureau Report, Dec., 1865.

[1179] Howard’s Circular Letter, Oct. 4, 1865.

[1180] Report, Oct. 31, 1866.

[1181] Herbert, “Solid South,” p. 31; N. Y. News, Sept. 3, 1865 (Selma correspondent).

[1182] In one case the agent in Montgomery sent to Troy, fifty-two miles distant, and arrested a landlord who refused to rent a house to a negro. The negro told the Bureau agent that he was being evicted.

[1183] There were several plantations near Montgomery, Selma, Mobile, and Huntsville where negroes were thus collected.

[1184] In Montgomery, the Rev. C. W. Buckley, a “hard-shell” preacher, looked after negro contracts. A negro was not allowed to make his own contract, but it must be drawn up before Buckley. When a negro broke his contract, Buckley always decided in his favor, and avowed that he would sooner believe a negro than a white man. His delight was to keep a white man waiting for a long time while he talked to the negro, turning his back to and paying no attention to the white caller. He preached to the negroes several times a week, not sermons, but political harangues. The audience was composed chiefly of negro women, who, if they had work, would leave it to attend the meetings. They would not disclose what Buckley said to them, and when questioned would reply, “It’s a secret, and we can’t tell it to white folks.” Buckley advocated confiscation, but Swayne, who had more common sense, frowned upon such theological doctrines.

[1185] Barker, a carriage-maker at Livingston, was arrested and confined in prison for some time, and finally was released without trial. He was told that a negro servant had preferred charges against him, and later denied having done so. Such occurrences were common. Ku Klux Rept. Ala. Test., pp. 357, 371, 390, 475, 487, 1132; Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 27, 39th Cong., 1st Sess.; Swayne’s Reports, Dec., 1865, and Jan., 1866.

[1186] Selma Times, April 11, 1866. Busteed was a much-disliked carpet-bag Federal judge. Mr. Burns survived the Busting, and was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1901.

[1187] The Bureau courts continued to act even after the state was readmitted to the Union. In 1868, two constables arrested a negro charged with house-burning in Tuscumbia. Col. D. C. Rugg, the Bureau agent at Huntsville, raised a force of forty negroes and came to the rescue of the negro criminal. “If you attempt to put that negro on the train,” he said, “blood will be spilled. I am acting under the orders of the military department.” The officers were trying to take him to Tuscumbia for trial. Rugg thought the Bureau should try him, and said, “These men [the negroes] are not going to let you take the prisoner away, and blood will be shed if you attempt it.” N. Y. World, Oct. 23, 1868; Tuscaloosa Times.

[1188] Probably more. Freedmen’s Bureau Report, Nov. 1, 1866.

[1189] Bureau Reports, 1865-1869.

[1190] Freedmen’s Bureau Reports, 1865-1870; Hardy, “History of Selma”; N. Y. World, Nov. 13, 1865.

[1191] The Southern Famine Relief Commission of New York, which worked in Alabama until 1867, reported that there was much greater suffering from want among the whites than among the blacks. This society sent corn alone to the state,—65,958 bushels. See Final Proceedings and General Report, New York, 1867.

[1192] Freedmen’s Bureau Reports, 1865-1868.

[1193] Ho. Rept., No. 121, 41st Cong., 2d Sess.

[1194] Sen. Ex. Doc., No. 6, 39th Cong., 1st Sess.

[1195] Freedmen’s Bureau Report, Dec., 1865.

[1196] Swayne’s Report, Oct. 31, 1866; N. Y. Daily News, Sept. 7, 1865 (Montgomery correspondent).

[1197] Trowbridge, “The South,” p. 446.

[1198] In the convention of 1867 this teaching bore fruit in the ordinance authorizing suits by former slaves to recover wages from Jan. 1, 1863.

[1199] N. Y. World, Nov. 13, 1865 (Selma correspondent); oral accounts.

[1200] De Bow’s Review, March, 1866 (Dr. Nott); N. Y. Times, Oct. 3, 1865; Montgomery Advertiser, March 21, 1866.

[1201] Du Bois in Atlantic Monthly, March, 1901.

[1202] A Tallapoosa County farmer stated that for three years after the war the crops were very bad. Yet the whites who had negroes on their farms felt bound to support them. But if the whites tried to make the negroes work or spoke sharply to them, they would leave and go to the Bureau for rations. P. M. Dox, a Democratic member of Congress in 1870, said that in north Alabama, in 1866-1867, negro women would not milk a cow when it rained. Servants would not black boots. There was a general refusal to do menial service. Ala. Test., pp. 345, 1132. The Alabama cotton crop of 1860 was 842,729 bales; of 1865, 75,305 bales; of 1866, 429,102 bales; of 1867, 239,516 bales; of 1868, 366,193 bales. Of each crop since the war an increasingly large proportion has been raised by the whites.

[1203] Swayne’s Report, Oct. 31, 1866.

[1204] Within the last five years I have seen several old negroes who said they had been paying assessments regularly to men who claimed to be working to get the “forty acres and the mule” for the negro. They naturally have little to say to white people on the subject. From what I have been told by former slaves, I am inclined to think that the negroes have been swindled out of many hard-earned dollars, even in recent times, by the scoundrels who claim to be paying the fees of lawyers at work on the negroes’ cases.

[1205] Swayne’s Report, Oct. 31, 1866; Freedmen’s Bureau Report, Dec., 1865; Grant’s Report; Truman’s Report, April 9, 1866; DeBow’s Review, March, 1866; Montgomery Advertiser, March 1, 1866; N. Y. News, Nov. 25, 1865 (Selma correspondent); N. Y. World, Nov. 13, 1865; N. Y. Times, Oct. 31, 1865; N. Y. News, Sept., and Oct. 2, 7, 1865. B. W. Norris, a Bureau agent from Skowhegan, Maine, told the negroes the tale of “forty acres and a mule,” and they sent him to Congress in 1868 to get the land for them. He told them that they had a better right to the land than the masters had. “Your work made this country what it is, and it is yours.” Ala. Test., pp. 445, 1131.

[1206] Ala. Test., p. 314.

[1207] Ball, “Clarke County,” p. 627.

[1208] Ala. Test., p. 1133.

[1209] Ala. Test., p. 460; see Annual Cyclopædia (1867), article “Confiscation.”

[1210] Montgomery Advertiser, March, 1866. Buckley was known among the “malignants” as “the high priest of the nigger Bureau.” N. Y. World, Dec. 22, 1867.

[1211] N. Y. Herald, July 23, 1865; Herbert, “Solid South,” p. 30.

[1212] DeBow’s Review, 1866; oral accounts.

[1213] N. Y. Times, Feb. 12, 1866 (letter of northern traveller); Steedman and Fullerton’s Reports; N. Y. Herald, June 24, 1866; Columbus (Ga.) Sun, Nov. 22, 1865; N. Y. Times, Jan. 25, 1866.

[1214] Account by Col. J. W. DuBose in manuscript.

[1215] Herbert, “Solid South,” pp. 30, 31; N. Y. Times, Jan. 25, 1866.

[1216] Ho. Rept., No. 121, 41st Cong., 2d Sess.; Ku Klux Rept., p. 441. See chapter in regard to Union League.

[1217] See also DuBois, in Atlantic Monthly, March, 1901; Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 241, 41st Cong., 2d Sess.

[1218] Ho. Rept., No. 121, p. 47, 41st Cong., 2d Sess.

[1219] Some of the prominent incorporators were Peter Cooper, William C. Bryant, A. A. Low, Gerritt Smith, John Jay, A. S. Barnes, J. W. Alvord, S. G. Howe, George L. Stearns, Edward Atkinson, and A. A. Lawrence. The act of incorporation was approved by the President on March 3, 1865, at the same time the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill was approved. Numbers of the incorporators and bank officials were connected with the Bureau. See Ho. Mis. Doc., No. 16, 43d Cong., 2d Sess.

[1220] A Bureau paymaster.

[1221] Ho. Mis. Doc., No. 16, 43d Cong., 2d Sess.

[1222] Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 70, 39th Cong., 1st Sess.

[1223] See Williams, “History of the Negro Race in America,” Vol. II, p. 410. August was a month in which there was little money-making among the negroes. It was vacation time, between the “laying by” and the gathering of the crop.

[1224] Hoffman, “Race Traits and Tendencies,” p. 290, says $3,013,699.

[1225] Hoffman, p. 290; also Sen. Rept., No. 440, 46th Cong., 2d Sess. Williams, Vol. II, p. 411, states that the total deposits amounted to $57,000,000, an average of $284 for each depositor.

[1226] Dividends were declared as follows: Nov. 1, 1875, 20%; March 20, 1875-1878, 10%; Sept. 1, 1880, 10%; June 1, 1882, 15%; May 12, 1883, 7%; making 62% in all. To 1886, $1,722,549 had been paid to depositors, and there was a balance in the hands of the government receivers of $30,476.

[1227] Williams, “History of the Negro Race,” Vol. II, pp. 403-410; Fred Douglass, “Life and Times,” Ch. XIV; Ho. Mis. Doc., No. 16, 43d Cong., 2d Sess.; Du Bois, “The Souls of Black Folk”; the various reports of the Freedmen’s Bureau and of the commissioners appointed to settle the affairs of the Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company, to 1902; Hoffman, “Race Traits and Tendencies,” pp. 289, 290; Fleming, “Documents relating to Reconstruction,” Nos. 6 and 7.

[1228] Regulations of the Treasury Dept., July 29, 1864.

[1229] McPherson, “Rebellion,” pp. 594, 595; McPherson, “Reconstruction,” pp. 147-151.

[1230] See Ch. IV, sec. 7.

[1231] DuBois (Atlantic Monthly, March, 1901) declares that the opposition to the education of the negro was bitter, for the South believed that the educated negro was a dangerous negro. This statement is perhaps partially correct for fifteen or twenty years after 1870, but it is not correct for 1865-1869.

[1232] The Gulf States Hist. Mag., Sept., 1902; Report of General Swayne to Howard, Dec. 26, 1865. The evidence on this point that is worthy of consideration is conclusive. It is all one way. See also Chs. XIX and XX, below.

[1233] Report of Swayne, Oct. 31, 1866.

[1234] “Up from Slavery,” pp. 29, 30.

[1235] Daily News, Sept. 7, 1865 (Montgomery correspondence). Oral accounts.

[1236] G. O. No. 11, July 12, 1865 (Montgomery); Freedmen’s Bureau Reports, 1865-1869.

[1237] Swayne’s Report, Oct. 31, 1866; Freedmen’s Bureau Report, 1866.

[1238] Swayne’s Report., Oct. 31, 1866.

[1239] Freedmen’s Bureau Report, Dec., 1865; Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 70, 39th Cong., 1st Sess.

[1240] Daily News, Oct. 21, 1865 (Mobile correspondent); De Bow’s Review, 1866 (Dr. Nott).

[1241] Swayne’s Report, Oct. 31, 1866.

[1242] The account of this particular school was given me by Dr. O. D. Smith of Auburn, Ala., who was one of the men who chose the white teacher.

[1243] Swayne’s Report, Oct. 31, 1866.

[1244] Report, Oct. 31, 1866.

[1245] Rent was usually paid at the rate of $20 a month for thirty pupils. Ho. Rept., No. 121, pp. 47, 369, 374, 377, 41st Cong., 2d Sess. The books of the American Missionary Association showed that it had received, in 1868 and 1869, from the Freedmen’s Bureau for Alabama, the following amounts in cash, though how much it received before these dates is not known.

December, 1867 $4000.00

October, 1868 583.86

February, 1868 25.41(?)

January, 1869 218.25

April, 1869 683.53

May, 1869 1397.49

June, 1869 95.87

July, 1869 527.00

September, 1869 3049.59

November, 1869 3469.50

December, 1869 2083.78

For building (?) 20,000.00

An item in the account of the Association was “Chicago to Mobile, $20,000.” No one was able to explain what it meant unless it was the $20,000 building in Mobile used as a training school for negro teachers and on which the Bureau paid rent. In the southern states the Bureau paid to the American Missionary Association, as shown by the books of the latter, $213,753.22. Judging from the variable items not noted above, rent was evidently not included nor even all the cash. Ho. Rept., No. 121, p. 369 et seq., 41st Cong., 2d Sess. (Howard Investigation).

[1246] Buckley’s Report for March 15, 1867; Semiannual Report on Schools for Freedmen, July 4, 1867; General Clanton in Ku Klux Rept. Ala. Test.

[1247] Francis Wayland.

[1248] S. G. Greene, president of the association.

[1249] President Hill of Harvard College.

[1250] Reports, Proceedings, and Lectures of the National Teachers’ Association, 1865 to 1880; Reports of the Freedmen’s Aid Societies of the Methodist Episcopal Church. For results of the mistaken teachings of the radical instructors, see Page’s article on “Lynching” in the North American Review, Jan., 1904.

[1251] Miss Alice M. Bacon, in the Slater Fund Trustees, Occasional Papers, No. 7, p. 6. Armstrong, at Hampton, Va., was a shining exception to the kind of teachers described above.

[1252] The Reconstruction government was now in power. There were, at this time, thirty-one Bureau schools at thirty-one points in the state.

[1253] Freedmen’s Bureau Reports, 1867-1870.

[1254] Atlantic Monthly, March, 1901.

[1255] Sir George Campbell, “White and Black,” pp. 131, 383; Thomas, “The American Negro,” p. 240; Washington, “The Future of the American Negro,” pp. 25-27, 55; DeBow’s Review, 1866; Slater Fund Trustees, Occasional Papers, No. 7. Washington tells of the craze for the education in Greek, Latin, and theology. This education would make them the equal of the whites, they thought, and would free them from manual labor, and above all fit them for office-holding. Nearly all became teachers, preachers, and politicians. “Up from Slavery,” pp. 30, 80, 81; “Future of the American Negro,” p. 49.

[1256] From the surrender of the Confederate armies, to his death in 1903, Dr. Curry was a stanch believer in the work for negro education. No other man knew the whole question so thoroughly as he. And he had the advantage of a close acquaintance with the negro from his early childhood. His observations as to the effects of alien efforts to educate the black will be found in the Slater Fund Occasional Papers, and in an address delivered before the Montgomery Conference in 1900. See also Ch. XIV.

[1257] I have talked with many who uniformly assert that they were unable to conform to the Bureau regulations. It was better to let land remain uncultivated. Wherever possible no attention was paid to the rules. The negro laborers themselves have no recollections of any real assistance in labor matters received from the Bureau. They remember it rather as an obstruction to laboring freely.

[1258] The President and the Supreme Court now being powerless.

[1259] That is, blacks and such whites as were not “disfranchised for participation in the rebellion or for felony.”

[1260] July 11, 1868, the oath was modified for those whose disabilities had been removed by Congress; Feb. 15, 1871, those not disfranchised by the Fourteenth Amendment were allowed to take the modified oath of July 11, 1868, instead of the iron-clad oath. See MacDonald, “Select Statutes.” The Alabama representatives all took the “iron-clad” oath.

[1261] Text of the Act, McPherson, “Reconstruction,” pp. 191, 192; G. O. No. 2, 3d M. D., April 3, 1867. For criticism, Burgess, “Reconstruction,” pp. 112-122; Dunning, “Civil War and Reconstruction,” pp. 123, 126-135, 143.

[1262] G. O. Nos. 10 and 18, H. Q. A., March 11 and 15, 1867; McPherson, p. 200.

[1263] Report of Secretary of War, 1867, Vol. I, p. 321.

[1264] The oath was: “I, —— ——, do solemnly swear (or affirm), in the presence of Almighty God, that I am a citizen of the State of Alabama; that I have resided in said State for —— months, next preceding this day, and now reside in the county of —— in said State; that I am twenty-one years old; that I have not been disfranchised for participation in any rebellion or civil war against the United States, nor for felony committed against the laws of any State or of the United States; that I have never been a member of any State legislature, nor held any executive or judicial office in any State and afterward engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States or given aid and comfort to the enemies thereof; that I have never taken an oath as a member of Congress of the United States, as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States and afterwards engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States or given aid and comfort to the enemies thereof; that I will faithfully support the Constitution and obey the laws of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, encourage others to do so, so help me God!” McPherson, “Reconstruction,” pp. 192, 205; G. O. No. 5, 3d M. D., April 8, 1867.

[1265] McPherson, “Reconstruction,” pp. 192-194; Burgess, “Reconstruction,” pp. 129-135; Dunning, “Civil War and Reconstruction,” pp. 124, 125.

[1266] G. O. Nos. 1 and 2, 3d M. D., April 1 and 3, 1866; N. Y. Herald, April 6, 1867; Annual Cyclopædia (1867), p. 19; McPherson, pp. 201, 205; Report of Secretary of War, 1867, Vol. I, p. 322; Herbert, “Solid South,” p. 38.

[1267] G. O. No. 1, Dist. Ala., April 2, 1867; McPherson, p. 206.

[1268] Report of Secretary of War, 1867, Vol. I, p. 466; N. Y. Herald, April 6, 1867.

[1269] Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 20, 40th Cong., 1st Sess.

[1270] G. O. No. 52, H. Q. A., April 11, 1867.

[1271] Report of Secretary of War, 1867, Vol. I, p. 353.

[1272] G. O. No. 4, 3d M. D., April 4, 1867.

[1273] G. O. No. 10, 3d M. D., April 23, 1867.

[1274] G. O. No. 48, 3d M. D., Aug. 6, 1867.

[1275] Annual Cyclopædia (1867), p. 17.

[1276] G. O. No. 25, 3d M. D., May 29, 1867. (This was to favor Radical meetings. There were many stump speakers sent down from the North to tell the negro how to vote, and it was feared they might excite the whites to acts of violence.) N. Y. Herald, June 4, 1867 (explanatory order).

[1277] McPherson, “Reconstruction,” pp. 335, 336; Dunning, pp. 153, 154.

[1278] As long as Pope was in command at Montgomery and Atlanta, he and Grant kept up a rapid and voluminous (on the part of Pope) correspondence. They were usually agreed on all that pertained to Reconstruction, both now being extreme in their views.

[1279] Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 30, 40th Cong., 2d Sess.; No. 20, 40th Cong., 1st Sess.; McPherson, p. 312.

[1280] G. O. No. 45, 3d M. D., Aug. 2, 1867; McPherson, p. 319.

[1281] G. O. Nos. 53 and 55, 3d M. D., Aug. 19 and 23, 1867; Report of the Secretary of War, 1867, Vol. I, p. 331; McPherson, p. 319.

[1282] See Selma Messenger, Jan. 17, 1868.

[1283] See McPherson, p. 312.

[1284] Eutaw Whig and Observer, Dec. 12 and 24, 1867.

[1285] S. O. No. 2, 3d M. D., April 15, 1867; Annual Cyclopædia (1867), p. 20; Montgomery Mail, April 30, 1867.

[1286] See p. 509.

[1287] G. O. Nos. 35, 38, 40, Post of Mobile, 1867; Annual Cyclopædia (1867), pp. 20-23; N. Y. Times, May 21, 1867.

[1288] N. Y. World, May 28, 1867; S. O. No. 34, 3d M. D., May 31, 1867; Herbert, “Solid South,” p. 40; N. Y. Times, May 21, 1867.

[1289] S. O. No. 38, 3d M. D., June 6, 1867; S. O. No. 27, 3d M. D., May 22, 1867; N. Y. Tribune, June 12, 1867; Selma Messenger, June 18, 1867; Evening Post, May, 1867; Annual Cyclopædia (1867), pp. 20-25; Mobile Register, Oct. —, 1867.

[1290] Mobile Register, Oct. —, 1867.

[1291] Herbert, “Solid South,” pp. 40, 41; N. Y. Times, Dec. 27, 1867. See above, p. 393.

[1292] S. O. Nos. 9, 10, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 31, 32, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 3d M. D., 1867; Report of the Secretary of War, 1867, Vol. I, p. 327. (Some of the persons appointed were B. T. Pope and David P. Lewis, judges; George P. Goldthwaite, solicitor; and B. F. Saffold, mayor of Selma.)

[1293] Report of the Secretary of War, 1867, Vol. I, p. 364.

[1294] G. O. No. 77, 3d M. D., Oct. 19, 1897; McPherson, p. 319.

[1295] G. O. No. 103, 3d M. D., Dec. 21, 1867.

[1296] Report of the Secretary of War, 1877, Vol. I, p. 333; McPherson, p. 316.

[1297] S. O. 254, 3d M. D., Nov. 26, 1867; Pope to Swayne, Nov. 20, 1867; N. Y. World, Dec. 14, 1867.

[1298] G. O. No. 3, Sub-dist. Alabama, April 12, 1867; McPherson, p. 319.

[1299] McPherson, p. 319.

[1300] N. Y. Herald, April 6, 1867.

[1301] N. Y. Tribune, June 1, 1867; N. Y. Herald, June 4, 1867; G. O. No. 28, 3d M. D., June 3, 1867; Report of the Secretary of War, 1867, Vol. I, p. 326.

[1302] Aug. 12, 1867.

[1303] G. O. Nos. 1 and 10.

[1304] G. O. No. 49, 3d M. D., Aug. 12, 1867.

[1305] Report of the Secretary of War, 1867, Vol. I, p. 235.

[1306] Selma Messenger, Dec. 25, 1867.

[1307] G. O. No. 25, 3d M. D., 1867.

[1308] S. O. No. 53, 3d M. D., June 27, 1867; G. O. No. 44, 3d M. D., Aug. 1, 1867; Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 30, 40th Cong., 2d Sess.

[1309] G. O. No. 94, 3d M. D., 1867.

[1310] S. O. No. 96, 3d M. D., Aug 5. 1867; Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 30, 40th Cong., 2d Sess. There were other cases not referred to in general and special orders, but this was the only case in which Pope himself directly interfered.

[1311] G. O. No. 5, 3d M. D., April 8, 1867.

[1312] In this way, white majorities in ten counties were overcome by black majorities in the adjoining counties of the district.

[1313] Of the registrars who later became somewhat prominent in politics, the whites were Horton, Dimon, Dereen, Sillsby, William M. Buckley, Stanwood, Ely, Pennington, Haughey—all being northern men. Of the negro members of the boards, Royal, Finley, Williams, Alston, Turner, Rapier, and King (or Godwin) rose to some prominence, and their records were much better that those of their white colleagues.

[1314] G. O. No. 20, 3d M. D., May 21, 1867.

[1315] G. O. No. 12, 3d M. D., 1867.

[1316] Smith was later the first Reconstruction governor of Alabama.

[1317] G. O. No. 41, 3d M. D., 1867.

[1318] G. O. No. 50, 3d M. D., Aug. 15, 1867.

[1319] Governor, secretary of state, treasurer, comptroller, sheriff, judicial officers of every kind, and all court clerks and other officials, commissioners, tax assessors and collectors, county surveyors, treasurers, mayor, councilmen, justices of the peace, solicitors.

[1320] Special Instructions to Registrars in Alabama, Report of the Secretary of War, 1867, Vol. I, p. 339.

[1321] Registration Orders, June 17, 1867.

[1322] Record of Cabinet Meeting, June 18, 1867, in Ho. Ex. Doc., No, 34, 40th Cong., 1st Sess.; Burgess, p. 136; Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 20, 40th Cong., 1st Sess.

[1323] Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 20, 40th Cong., 1st Sess.; McPherson, p. 311. See above, p. 479.

[1324] McPherson, pp. 335, 336; Burgess, pp. 138-142.

[1325] McPherson, pp. 335, 336.

[1326] G. O. No. 59, 3d M. D., Aug. 31, 1867; Journal of Convention of 1867, pp. 3-5; Report of the Secretary of War, 1867, Vol. I, pp. 356, 357; Tribune Almanac, 1868.

[1327] Sen. Ex. Doc., No. 53, 40th Cong., 2d Sess. Tribune Almanac, 1867, 1868; Report of Col. J. F. Meline, Inspector of Registration, Jan. 27, 1868. These figures are based on the latest reports of 1867. According to the census of 1866, there would be in 1867, 108,622 whites over twenty-one years of age, and 89,663 blacks.

[1328] Meline’s Report, Jan. 27, 1868. See also Ch. XIII below.

[1329] G. O. No. 76, Oct. 18, 1867; Journal of Convention of 1867, pp. 1-3.

[1330] McPherson, p. 319; Journal of Convention, 1867, pp. 110, 111, 276; N. Y. World, Dec. 14, 1867. When the convention passed a resolution indorsing the “firm and impartial, yet just and gentle,” administration of Pope, three delegates voted against it because they said Pope had not done his full duty in removing disloyal persons from office but, after being informed of their politics, had left them in office. Journal of Convention, 1867, pp. 110, 111. For account of the convention, see below, Ch. XIV.

[1331] G. O. No. 101, Dec. 20, 1867; McPherson, p. 319; Journal of Convention, p. 267.

[1332] The 45th United States Infantry, a negro regiment.

[1333] McPherson, p. 346; G. O. No. 104, H. Q. A. (A. G. O.), Dec. 28, 1867; G. O. No. 1, 3d M. D., Jan. 1, 1868.

[1334] Herbert, “Solid South”; N. Y. Times, Jan. 24, 1868.

[1335] G. O. No. 3, 3d M. D., Jan. 6, 1868.

[1336] G. O. No. 16, 3d M. D., Jan. 27, 1868; Annual Cyclopædia (1868), p. 15; Report of Major-General Meade’s Military Operations and Administration of the 3d M. D., etc. (pamphlet); N. Y. Times, Jan. 24, 1868.

[1337] See Ch. XV for “convention” candidates.

[1338] Report of Meade, etc., 1868; Telegrams of Meade to Grant, Jan. 11, 12, and 18, and of Grant to Meade, Jan. 13 and 18.

[1339] Report of Meade, etc., 1868; Herbert, “Solid South,” pp. 48, 49. In his first report Meade estimated that the constitution failed of ratification by 8114 votes (Herbert, “Solid South,” p. 49). In his report at the end of the year, based on the official report of General Hayden, which was made a month after the election, he changed the number to 13,550. See also Ch. XVI, on the rejection of the constitution.

[1340] G. O. No. 42, 3d M. D., March 12, 1868; McPherson, p. 320; Meade’s Report, 1868.

[1341] In one case he reinstated Charles R. Hubbard, Clerk of the District Court, who had been removed by Swayne. This was contrary to instructions from the War Department, which forbade the reappointment of an officer who had been removed. Annual Cyclopædia (1868), p. 15.

[1342] Report of Meade, etc., 1868; G. O. No. 10, 3d M. D., Jan. 15, 1868.

[1343] G. O. No. 7, Jan. 11, 1868, republishing G. O. No. 3, War Department, 1866.

[1344] G. O. No. 47, 3d M. D., March 21, 1868.

[1345] Pope was in feeble health, and this treatment hastened his death, which occurred shortly after being released from jail. Brewer, “Alabama,” p. 524.

[1346] G. O. No. 53, 3d M. D., April 7, 1868; N. Y. Herald, April 1, 1868. Judge Pope was arrested for violating Pope’s G. O. Nos. 53, 55, which certainly provided for mixed juries. Meade was simply putting his own interpretation on these orders.

[1347] G. O. No. 22, 3d M. D., Feb. 2, 1868; Report of Meade, etc., 1868.

[1348] Report of Meade, etc,. 1868; Independent Monitor, April and May, 1868. The Independent Monitor was a long-established and well-known weekly paper. F. A. P. Barnard, who was afterwards president of Columbia College, New York, was, when a professor at the University of Alabama, the editor of the Monitor, and under him it won a reputation for spiciness which it did not lose under Randolph. See also Ch. XXI, for Randolph and the Ku Klux Klan.

[1349] G. O. No. 31, Feb. 28, 1868; G. O. No. 44, March 18, 1868; G. O. No. 69, April 24, 1868; McPherson, p. 320; Report of Meade, etc., 1868.

[1350] G. O. No. 6, Jan. 10, 1868; G. O. No. 79, May 20, 1868; McPherson, p. 320; Report of Meade, 1868.

[1351] Report of Meade, 1868.

[1352] G. O. No. 64, 3d M. D., April 19, 1868; Selma Times and Messenger, April 29, 1868.

[1353] This was the offence according to conservative testimony. The Radical testimony did not differ greatly, but the “hog thief” happened to be a carpet-bag politician also.

[1354] These were the “Eutaw cases,” and were tried at Selma. Meade commuted some of the sentences at once. The prisoners were sent to Dry Tortugas, and were later pardoned by Meade. The officials spoiled the effect of his leniency by putting the pardoned prisoners ashore at Galveston, Texas, without money and almost without clothes, while some of the party were ill. Annual Cyclopædia (1868), p. 17; Selma Times and Messenger, May 5, 1868; N. Y. World, May 28, 1868; G. O. No. 80, 3d M. D., May 20, 1868.

[1355] Independent Monitor, April and May, 1868; Report of Meade, 1868; G. O. No. 78, 3d M. D., May 13, 1868.

[1356] G. O. Nos. 64 and 65, 3d M. D., April 19 and 20, 1868.

During the eight months of Meade’s administration in the Third District, there were thirty-two trials by military commission in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. Only fifteen persons were convicted. The sentences in four cases were disapproved, in eight cases remitted, and two cases were referred to the President, leaving only one person confined in prison. Report of Meade, 1868.

[1357] Selma Messenger, Oct. 25, 1867.

[1358] Montgomery Mail, June 17, 1868; Independent Monitor, June 16, 1868.

[1359] Annual Cyclopædia (1868), p. 17; Montgomery Advertiser, June 5, 1868.

[1360] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 1285-1286.

[1361] McPherson, p. 337; see below, Ch. XV.

[1362] Only the Radical candidates had been voted for.

[1363] Report of Meade, 1868.

[1364] G. O. No. 91, 3d M. D., June 28, 1868.

[1365] G. O. No. 100, July 9, 1868.

[1366] G. O. No. 101, July 14, 1868.

[1367] The volume of orders numbered 598 in the Adjutant-General’s office at Washington contains the General Orders of the Third Military District. Volume 599 relates to civil affairs in the same district.

[1368] N. Y. Herald, June 27, 1867.

[1369] Washington (in “The Future of the American Negro,” pp. 11, 112, 136) thinks it unfortunate that the native whites did not make stronger efforts to control the politics of the negro, and prevent him from falling under the control of unscrupulous aliens. But any attempt to influence the negro voters was looked upon as “obstructing reconstruction,” and, in fact, was contrary to the spirit of the reconstruction laws and rendered a person liable to arrest. This was recognized by Patton and others, who, however, never dreamed that the negroes would be so successfully exploited by political adventurers, or perhaps they would have pursued a different policy. General Clanton, the leader of the Conservatives, said that early in 1867 the whites had endeavored to keep the blacks away from Radical leaders by giving them barbecues, etc. On one occasion a Radical, who had once been kept from mistreating negroes by the military authorities at Clanton’s request, told the negroes that the whites intended to poison them at the barbecue. Two long tables had been set, one for each race, and the preachers, speakers, and the whites were present, but the blacks did not come. Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 237, 246.

[1370] N. Y. Herald, March 26, 1867.

[1371] Herbert, “Solid South,” p. 39; Herbert, “Political History” in “Memorial Record of Alabama,” Vol. I, p. 88; Annual Cyclopædia (1867), p. 16.

[1372] Northern observers who were friendly to the South saw the danger much more clearly than the southerners themselves, who seemed unable to take negro suffrage seriously or to consider it as great a danger as it is generally believed they did. Two years of the Freedmen’s Bureau had not wholly succeeded in alienating the best of the whites and the negroes. The whites thought that the removal of outside interference would quiet the blacks. To give the negro the ballot was absurd, they thought, but they did not consider it necessarily as dangerous as it turned out to be. A remarkable prophecy of Reconstruction is found in Calhoun’s Works, Vol. VI, pp. 309-310. The behavior of the negro during and after the war, in spite of malign influences, had been such as to reassure many whites, who began to believe that to accept negro suffrage and get rid of the Freedmen’s Bureau and the army would be a good exchange. The northern friendly observers saw more clearly because, perhaps, they better understood the motives of the Radicals. The N. Y. Herald said: “Briefly, we may regard the entire ten unreconstructed southern states, with possibly one or two exceptions, as forced by a secret and overwhelming revolutionary influence to a common and inevitable fate. They are all bound to be governed by blacks, spurred on by worse than blacks—white wretches who dare not show their faces in respectable society anywhere. This is the most abominable phase barbarism has assumed since the dawn of civilization. It was all right and proper to put down the rebellion. It was all right, perhaps, to emancipate the slaves, although the right to hold them had been acknowledged before. But it is not right to make slaves of white men, even though they may have been former masters of blacks. This is but a change in a system of bondage that is rendered the more odious and intolerable because it has been inaugurated in an enlightened instead of a dark and uncivilized age.” See Annual Register, 1867.

[1373] See McPherson’s scrapbook, “The Campaign of 1876,” Vol. I, p. 105, for an account of a typical meeting.

[1374] Selma Times, March 19, 1867.

[1375] N. Y. Herald, March 27, 1869.

[1376] N. Y. Herald, April 25, 1869; Annual Cyclopædia (1869), p. 19.

[1377] Annual Cyclopædia (1869), p. 19; N. Y. Herald, April 25, 1869.

[1378] N. Y. Herald, May 17, 1869; Annual Cyclopædia (1867), pp. 18, 21. It is noticeable all through Reconstruction that most of the demands for social rights or privileges came from Mobile mulattoes.

[1379] For an estimate of the importance of the Union League, see Ch. XVI.

[1380] McPherson, “Reconstruction,” pp. 249, 250. The last assertion refers to such statements as those of Secretary McCulloch and the Postmaster-General in regard to the character of the “loyalists.” See McCulloch, “Men and Measures,” p. 228.

[1381] See Herbert, “Solid South,” p. 41.

[1382] On March 15, 1867, Senator Wilson, in a speech in favor of negro suffrage, said that when the purpose of the act of March 2 was carried out, the “majority of these states will, within a twelvemonth, send here senators and representatives that think as we think, and speak as we speak, and vote as we vote, and will give their electoral vote for whoever we nominate as candidate for President in 1868. The power is all in our hands.” Cong. Globe, March 15, 1867.

[1383] Clanton had been a Whig, had opposed secession, made a brilliant war record, became the leader of the Democratic and Conservative party in 1866, and led the fight against the carpet-bag government until his death in 1871. He was killed in Knoxville by a hireling of one of the railroad companies which had looted the state treasury and against which he was fighting. Brewer, p. 466; Garrett, pp. 632-645.

[1384] See Herbert, “Solid South,” p. 40; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 249.

[1385] N. Y. Tribune, May 16, 1867, editorial. When the shots were fired Kelly showed the white feather, and reclined upon the platform behind and under the speaker’s chair; afterwards he ran hatless to the hotel, and told the clerk to “swear he was out.” A special boat at once took him from the city to Montgomery.

[1386] N. Y. Tribune, May 16, 1767; N. Y. Times, May 21, 1867; N. Y. World, May 28, 1867; Mobile Times, ——, 1867; Mobile Register, ——, 1867; Evening Post, ——, 1867; Annual Cyclopædia (1867), pp. 22, 23.

[1387] N. Y. Herald, May 26, 1867.

[1388] See Herbert, “Solid South,” p. 43; oral accounts, etc.

[1389] Sykes soon deserted the Radicals, and was a Seymour elector the next year. Later he was a candidate for the U. S. Senate against Spencer. Brewer, p. 309.

[1390] He was the north Alabama candidate for appointment as provisional governor in 1865, but was defeated by Parsons, the middle Alabama candidate. Parsons made him a judge, but he resigned because the lawyers who argued before him spoke in insulting phrases concerning his war record. In 1867 Pope appointed him superintendent of registration for the state. He was a prominent member of the Union League. Brewer, p. 508; N. Y. Herald, June 20, 1867; Report of Joint Committee on Reconstruction, Pt. III.

[1391] N. Y. Herald, June 20, 1867, a northern Republican account.

[1392] Nicholas Davis of Madison County and Judge Busteed were both candidates for the chairmanship. But the negroes and Union Leaguers were hostile to Davis, because he did not like negro politicians and carpet-baggers and was opposed to the Union League. Busteed was not a favorite for practically the same reasons, and because the negroes thought he was trying to “ride two horses at once.” He had spoken at a meeting of moderate reconstructionists in Mobile, had presided over the Kelly meeting where the riot occurred, and was believed to be in favor of moderate measures. He wrote a letter to the president of the convention, advising moderation and criticising certain methods of the Radicals. This letter was styled the “God save the Republic” letter, and was characterized, his enemies said, by its bad taste and malignant spirit, and was a stab at his best friends. He was chosen a member of the Lowndes County delegation, but his name was erased from the list of delegates. He then asked to have the privileges of the floor as a courtesy, but his request was denied. One cause of dislike of him was that he was believed to have senatorial aspirations, and expected the support of the moderates, or “rebel” reconstructionists. But he was very unfortunate, for the “rebels” also thought he was trying to play a double game and were dropping him. Suits were pending against him charging him with malfeasance in office, fraudulent conversion of money, and corrupt abuse of the judicial office. Ex-Governor Watts, Judges S. F. Rice and Wade Keys, John A. Elmore, H. C. Semple, D. S. Troy, and R. H. Goldthwaite were the parties prosecuting him. N. Y. Herald, June 20, 1867; Brewer, p. 365; Montgomery Mail, June 5, 1867.

[1393] Swayne, as well as Busteed, was an aspirant for senatorial honors. Busteed had succeeded in causing the rejection of Albert Griffin, the editor of the Mobile Nationalist, as register in chancery. Griffin was Swayne’s friend, and now each gave the other the benefit of his influence. N. Y. Herald, June 20, 1867; Montgomery Mail, June 5, 1867.

[1394] N. Y. Herald, June 17, 1867.

[1395] The only taxes that affected these people.

[1396] Annual Cyclopædia (1869), pp. 25, 26; Montgomery Mail, June 5, 1867; N. Y. Herald, June 19, 20, 1867.

[1397] Montgomery Advertiser, July 19, 1867.

[1398] Herbert, pp. 43, 44; N. Y. Herald, June 20 and 27, 1867. Most of the violent and radical schemes originated and were advocated by the white Radical leaders. Generally the negro leaders made moderate demands. Holland Thompson, a negro leader, in a speech at Tuskegee, advised his race not to organize a negro military company, as it would be sure to cause trouble. He said that the negro did not ask for social equality. He told the negroes to stop buying guns and whiskey and go to work. McPherson’s scrapbook, “The Campaign of 1867,” Vol. I, p. 107. In striking contrast were the speeches of such white men as B. W. Norris and A. C. Felder, who undertook to persuade the negroes that Reconstruction was the remedy for all the ills that affected humanity. McPherson’s scrapbook, “The Fourth of July” (1867), pp. 124, 125.

[1399] Herbert, p. 44.

[1400] Lawyer, colonel of 7th Alabama Cavalry, superintendent of education, 1870-1872, author of “The Cradle of the Confederacy,” “Alabama Manual and Statistical Register,” editor Montgomery Mail, Mobile Register, etc.

[1401] A reign of terror had followed the reconstruction of Tennessee under “Parson” Brownlow.

[1402] N. Y. Times, Aug. 19, 1867.

[1403] N. Y. Herald, Sept. 6, 1867; Annual Cyclopædia (1867), p. 28; Herbert, p. 44.

[1404] Herbert, pp. 44, 45; N. Y. Herald, Sept. 6, 1867.

[1405] Montgomery Sentinel, July 3, 1867; N. Y. Herald, Aug. 5, 1867.

[1406] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 357. A frequent threat.

[1407] N. Y. World, Nov. 11, 1867; Harris, “Political Conflict in America,” p. 479.

[1408] N. Y. Herald, Oct. 13, 1867.

[1409] Accounts of negroes and whites who were at the polls.

[1410] Selma Messenger, Oct. 10 and 12, Dec. 20 and 22, 1867, and Jan. 2, 1868; Montgomery Mail, Jan. 30, 1868; Ball, “Clarke County”; oral accounts.

[1411] Freedmen’s Bureau Report, Nov. 1, 1867.

[1412] Sen. Ex. Doc., No. 53, 40th Cong., 2d Sess.; Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 238, 40th Cong., 2d Sess. The N. Y. Tribune, Oct. 21, 1867, gives slightly different figures. Statements of the vote do not agree. There was much confusion in the records. For statistics, see above, pp. 491, 494.

[1413] Samuel A. Hale, a dissatisfied Radical from New Hampshire, a brother of John P. Hale, wrote to Senator Henry Wilson, on Jan. 1, 1868, concerning the character of the members of the convention. He said that many were negroes, grossly ignorant; a large proportion were northern adventurers who had manipulated the negro vote; and all were “worthless vagabonds, homeless, houseless, drunken knaves.” Hale had lived for several years in Alabama. Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 1815-1830.

[1414] There is doubt about four or five men, whether they were black or white. The lists made at the time do not agree.

[1415] N. Y. World, Nov. 11, 1867, and Feb. 22, 1868; Selma Messenger, Dec. 20 and 22, 1867; Annual Cyclopædia (1867), p. 30; Herbert, “Solid South,” p. 45. A partial list of aliens as described by a northern correspondent: A. J. Applegate of Wisconsin; Arthur Bingham of Ohio and New York; D. H. Bingham of New York, who had lived in the state before the war, an old man, and intensely bitter in his hatred of southerners; W. H. Block of Ohio; W. T. Blackford of New York, a Bureau official, “the wearer of one of the two clean shirts visible in the whole convention”; M. D. Brainard of New York, a Bureau clerk who did not know, when elected to represent Monroe, where his county was located; Alfred E. Buck of Maine, a court clerk of Mobile appointed by Pope; Charles W. Buckley of Massachusetts, New York, and Illinois, chaplain of a negro regiment, later a Bureau official; William M. Buckley of New York, his brother; J. H. Burdick of Iowa, extremely radical; Pierce Burton of Massachusetts, who had been removed from the Bureau for writing letters to northern papers, advocating the repeal of the cotton tax, but now that the negroes desired the repeal of the tax, the breach was healed; C. M. Cabot of (unknown), member of Convention of 1865; Datus E. Coon of Iowa; Joseph H. Davis of (unknown), surgeon U.S.A., member of convention of 1865; Charles H. Dustan of Illinois; George Ely of Massachusetts and New York; S. S. Gardner of Massachusetts, of the Freedmen’s Bureau; Albert Griffin of Ohio and Illinois, Radical editor; Thomas Haughey of Scotland, surgeon U.S.A.; R. M. Johnson of Illinois, lived in Montgomery and represented Henry County; John C. Keffer of Pennsylvania, chairman of Radical Executive Committee, “known to malignants as the ‘head devil’ of the Loyal League”; David Lore of (unknown); Charles A. Miller of Maine, Bureau official, “wore the second clean shirt in the convention”; A. C. Morgan of (unknown); B. W. Norris of Maine, Commissioner of National Cemetery, 1863-1865, Commissary and Paymaster, 1864-1866, Bureau official; E. Woolsey Peck of New York; R. M. Reynolds of Iowa, six months in Alabama and “knew all about it”; J. Silsby of Massachusetts, another Bureau reverend; N. D. Stanwood of Massachusetts, a Bureau official who had caused several serious negro disturbances in Lowndes County; J. P. Stow of (unknown); Whelan of Ireland; J. W. Wilhite of (unknown), U.S. sutler; Benjamin Yordy of (unknown), a Bureau official and revenue official who never saw the county he represented; Benjamin Rolfe, a carriage painter from New York, was too drunk to sign the constitution, and was known as “the hero of two shirts,” because when he failed to pay a hotel bill in Selma his carpet-bag was seized, and was found to contain nothing but two of those useful garments. Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., passim; N. Y. World, Nov. 11, 1867; Herbert, p. 45.

[1416] Some of the better known were: R. Deal of Dale County, a Baptist preacher, one of those who, in 1865, negligently reconstructed the state, and the hope was now expressed that “he has better success in reconstructing souls than sovereignties”; W. C. Ewing of Baine County, “one of the original Moulton Leaguers who, in 1865, first organized the Radical party in Alabama,” a bitter Radical; W. R. Jones of Covington, had been barbarously murdered in “a rebel outrage,” but came to the convention notwithstanding; B. F. Saffold, an officer of the Confederate army and military mayor of Selma; Henry C. Semple, ex-Confederate, nephew of President Tyler; Joseph H. Speed, cousin of Attorney-General Speed.

[1417] The negro members were: Ben Alexander of Greene, field hand; John Caraway of Mobile, assistant editor of the Mobile Nationalist; Thomas Diggs of Barbour, field hand; Peyton Finley, formerly doorkeeper of the House; James K. Green of Hale, a carriage driver; Ovid Gregory of Mobile, a barber; Jordan Hatcher of Dallas and Washington Johnson of Russell, field hands, were the blackest negroes in the convention; L. S. Latham of Bullock; Tom Lee of Perry, field hand, who had a reputation for moderation; Alfred Strother of Dallas; J. T. Rapier of Lauderdale, educated in Canada; J. W. McLeod of Marengo; B. F. Royal of Bullock; J. H. Burdick of Wilcox; H. Stokes and Jack Hatcher of Dallas; Simon Brunson and Benjamin Inge of Sumter; Samuel Blandon of Lee; Lafeyette Robinson and Columbus Jones of Madison. Beverly, “History of Alabama,” p. 203; N. Y. World, Nov. 11, 1867; Owen, “Official and Statistical Register,” p. 125.

[1418] Journal Convention of 1867, pp. 3-5.

[1419] Journal Convention of 1867, p. 5; N. Y. Herald, Nov. 13, 1867; Annual Cyclopædia (1867), p. 30.

[1420] Selma Messenger, Dec. 22, 1867; Journal Convention of 1867, p. 6; N. Y. World, Nov. 11, 1867.

[1421] Journal, pp. 69-71, 249, 251, 264; Annual Cyclopædia (1867), p. 32; N. Y. Herald, March 16, 1867.

[1422] Journal, pp. 10, 12, 13; N. Y. World, Nov. 20, 1869; Annual Cyclopædia (1867), p. 30.

[1423] Journal, pp. 13, 110, 111, 276; N. Y. Herald, Nov. 13, 1867.

[1424] Twice the pay in the convention of 1865.

[1425] Journal, pp. 79, 178, 249-251; Pope to Swayne, Nov. 20, 1867; N. Y. World, Dec. 14, 1867; G. O. No. 254, 3d M. D., Nov. 26, 1867.

[1426] Journal, p. 57.

[1427] Journal, p. 61; N. Y. Herald, Nov. 15, 1867.

[1428] Journal, p. 189; Herbert, “Solid South,” p. 46; N. Y. Herald, Nov. 13, 1867; Annual Cyclopædia (1867), p. 33.

[1429] Journal, pp. 262, 263.

[1430] Journal, pp. 15, 212, 263; N. Y. Herald, Nov. 13, 1867.

[1431] Annual Cyclopædia (1867), p. 33; Selma Messenger, Dec. 22, 1867.

[1432] Journal, p. 149; N. Y. World, Dec. 14, 1867.

[1433] Dubbed “the incarnate fiend” by the whites because of his violent prejudice.

[1434] N. Y. World, Dec. 14, 1867; Montgomery Mail, Nov., 1867; N. Y. Herald, Nov. 13 and 23 and Dec. 8, 1867.

[1435] Journal, pp. 8, 12, 17; N. Y. Herald, Nov. 13, 1867.

[1436] By Griffin of Ohio, Keffer of Pennsylvania, Norris of Maine, and Davis of (?). It was said that Norris and Davis had to be influenced by Swayne to sign the majority report. N. Y. World, Nov. 20, 1867.

[1437] Journal, pp. 30-34; N. Y. World, Nov. 20, 1867.

[1438] By Speed of Virginia, Whelan of Ireland, and Lee (negro).

[1439] Journal, pp. 36, 37; Annual Cyclopædia (1867), p. 31.

[1440] Annual Cyclopædia (1867), p. 32; N. Y. World, Nov. 20, 1867.

[1441] N. Y. Herald, Nov. 13, 1867; Annual Cyclopædia (1867), p. 31.

[1442] Journal, pp. 42, 55, 82, 100.

[1443] Journal, pp. 47, 48, 54, 83.

[1444] Journal, p. 47.

[1445] Journal, p. 47.

[1446] Journal, p. 45.

[1447] Journal, p. 53.

[1448] Selma Messenger, Dec. 22, 1867.

[1449] Journal, pp. 84, 85.

[1450] N. Y. World, Nov. 20 and Dec. 6 and 14, 1867.

[1451] Annual Cyclopædia (1867), p. 33.

[1452] Code of Alabama, 1876, p. 113. Griffin said that the oath required the voter never to favor a change in the new constitution so far as the suffrage was concerned; that “it was the determination of the committee to forever fasten this constitution on the people of Alabama. He wanted to tie the hands of rebels, so that complete political equality should be secured to the negro.” Annual Cyclopædia (1867), p. 32.

[1453] This was aimed at the Confederate soldiers of north Alabama, who had imprisoned and in some cases hanged the tories and outlaws of that section.

[1454] Code of Alabama, 1876; Constitution of 1868, Article VII.

[1455] Annual Cyclopædia (1867), pp. 34, 35; Journal, pp. 186, 187.

[1456] Journal, pp. 257-262; N. Y. World, Nov. 20, 1867.

[1457] Journal, pp. 265-269.

[1458] Journal, pp. 255, 571.

[1459] Journal, pp. 271, 272, 273; N. Y. World, Nov. 11, 1867.

[1460] Journal, pp. 272, 273.

[1461] Journal, p. 63. The whites had for more than two years been asking for the repeal of this unjust tax, but they were not heeded. As soon as the negroes demanded its repeal, it was repealed. That was certainly one advantage they received from the possession of political rights. One petition from the negroes asked that the tax be repealed because, in many instances, it was greater than the value of the land. If this was not done, they wanted the land taken from the owners and worked in common. N. Y. Herald, Nov. 13, 1867.

[1462] Journal, p. 244.

[1463] Journal, pp. 266, 267.

[1464] Journal, p. 240; Meade, Speed, Semple, Cabot, Graves, J. L. Alexander, Ewing, Latham, and Hurst.

[1465] Journal, p. 242; J. P. Stow of (?).

[1466] Address of Protesting Delegates to the People of Alabama, Dec. 10, 1867.

[1467] Journal, p. 243.

[1468] The Codes of Alabama for 1876 and 1896 do not recognize the validity of the constitution of 1868. It is listed as the “Constitution (so-called) of the State of Alabama, 1868.” The president of the convention of 1875 said, “What is called the present constitution of the state of Alabama is a piece of unseemly mosaic, composed of shreds and patches gathered here and there, incongruous in design, inharmonious in action, discriminating and oppressive in the burdens it imposes, reckless in the license it confers on unjust and wicked legislation, and utterly lacking in every element to inspire popular confidence and the reverence and affection of the people.” Journal, 1875, p. 5.

[1469] Ely, a delegate from Russell, was a candidate in Montgomery; Brainard, a delegate from Monroe, was a candidate in Montgomery; R. M. Johnson, a delegate from Henry, was also a candidate in Montgomery. These men, however, lived in Montgomery and had never seen the counties they represented.

[1470] N. Y. World, Feb. 13 and 22, 1868; Selma Times and Messenger, Feb. 28, 1868; Cong. Globe, March 11, 1868; Herbert, “Solid South”; Beverly, “Alabama”; Owen, p. 125.

The above list is not complete, as there were undoubtedly other candidates among those who did not sign the constitution, since a number of them fell into line later. The starred names are those of candidates who were also registrars, and who not only conducted their own elections for the convention, but also for office under the new constitution. Three members of the majority who signed the report were not eligible for office when the election came off, two being in jail,—one for stealing and the other for fraud,—while a third “had been betrayed into an act of virtue by dying.” N. Y. World, Feb. 13, 1868.

[1471] Selma Messenger, Jan. 10, 1868.

[1472] Herbert, “Solid South,” p. 47; N. Y. World, Feb. 5, 1868.

[1473] After the election, Governor Patton, who at first had supported Reconstruction, issued an address complaining that nearly all the candidates voted for were strangers to the people; that many were ignorant negroes, and that in one county all the commissioners-elect were negroes who were unable to read; that unlicensed lawyers, wholly uneducated, were chosen for state solicitors; that the strangers were too often of bad character; and that the Radical party consisted almost entirely of negroes, the native whites having forsaken the party as soon as the negroes fell under the control of the imported Radicals who ran the machine. N. Y. Times, April 23, 1868.

[1474] Herbert, p. 47.

[1475] Montgomery Mail, July 25, 1868; N. Y. World, Sept. 22, 1868.

[1476] The Radical papers in Alabama were supported almost entirely by campaign funds and by appropriations from the government for printing the session laws of the United States. They styled themselves the “Official Journals of the United States Government.” When one offended and the Washington patronage was withdrawn, it always collapsed. In 1867 the reconstructionist papers in the state were Alabama State Sentinel, The Nationalist, Elmore Standard, East Alabama Monitor, Alabama Republican, The Tallapoosian, The Reconstructionist, Huntsville Advocate, Moulton Union, Livingston Messenger. See Journal Convention of 1867, p. 242. The circulation of each paper was small and almost entirely among the negroes. Special campaign editions were printed and scattered broadcast. The constitution was printed in all of the above-named papers, and also in a Washington paper which was franked by the thousands from Congressmen through the Union League as a campaign document. N. Y. World, Feb. 22, 1868.

[1477] See, for example, The Nationalist, Feb. 4, 1868 (editorial). On Jan. 16, 1868, an “Address to the Laboring Men of Alabama” stated in part, “If you fail to vote and the constitution fails to be ratified, your right to vote hereafter closes and all participation on your part in the administration of the laws of the state is at an end.” Montgomery Mail, Jan., 1868.

[1478] Selma Messenger, Jan. 24, 1868.

[1479] Cong. Globe, March 28, 1868, p. 2195.

[1480] Not yet called Democrats, but sometimes “Democratic and Conservative.”

[1481] Popular accounts say thousands, but not as many went this time as later, in the early 70’s.

[1482] Herbert, p. 46, and Journal Convention of 1867.

[1483] Cong. Globe, March 12, 1868, p. 1824.

[1484] Selma Messenger, Dec. 20, 1867.

[1485] Selma Messenger, Dec. 22, 1867.

[1486] Both later became Radicals.

[1487] Tuskegee News, Oct. 1, 1874.

[1488] N. Y. Times, Jan. 14, 1898; Montgomery Mail, Jan. 17, 1868; Herbert, p. 48; Annual Cyclopædia (1868), p. 15.

[1489] Thirty-five white counties with a population of 393,441—282,282 whites and 111,159 blacks—had 135 representatives, or one representative to 11,241 of the population. Twenty-four black counties with a population of 580,717—252,407 whites and 328,300 blacks—had 65 representatives, or one to 8933. Three small white counties were not represented, but had to vote with others.; Selma Times and Messenger, March 10, 1868; Cong. Globe, 1867-1868, pp. 2197, 2198.

[1490] Variously estimated at from 10,000 to 40,000.

[1491] Selma Times and Messenger, March 10, 1868. The minority report, March 17, 1868, of Beck of Kentucky and Brooks of New York, on the admission of Alabama, sums up the Conservative objections to the constitution. See Cong. Globe, March 17, 1868, p. 1937.

[1492] Annual Cyclopædia (1868), p. 15; N. Y. Times, Jan. 24, 1865; Selma Times and Messenger, March 10, 1868.

[1493] Tribune Almanac, 1868. Pope reported 164,800; Meline, 165,000.

[1494] Tribune Almanac, 1868. The methods of the registrars may be imagined, since Meade had more than 15,000 names of negroes struck from the lists.

[1495] It is impossible to obtain exact figures of the registration; no one ever knew exactly what they were, and accounts never agree. Meade’s estimate was 170,734, Report, 1868. Another estimate was 170,000, Cong. Globe, March 17, 1868, p. 1904; and still another 171,378, Alabama Manual and Statistical Register, p. xxiii. It is evident that the registration was about 170,000.

[1496] In 1867 the vote on holding a convention had been more than a majority of registered voters.

[1497] Report of Meade, 1868, published in Atlanta.

[1498] For instance, William H. Smith, candidate for governor.

[1499] The Nationalist, Aug. 24, 1868; Mobile Register, Feb. 6, 1868; Report of Meade, 1868.

[1500] Report of Meade, 1868.

[1501] Montgomery Mail, Feb. 4, 5, 12, and 19, 1868; N. Y. World, March 14, 1868; Cong. Globe, March 17, 1868, p. 1937; Mobile Register, Feb. 6, 1868; Selma Times and Messenger, Feb. 29, 1868.

[1502] Selma Times and Messenger, Feb. 29, 1868.

[1503] A political adviser at the polls.

[1504] The Conservatives had challenged such voters several times and Johnson sent the following order:—

“At Office, Mobile, Feb. 5, 1868.

“The Judges of the Election at the Mississippi Hotel will receive all ballots endorsed by the voter and my signature. The certificate of voters is in my possession.

“Respectfully, “D. G. Johnson, “Registrar District No. 1.”

—Mobile Register, Feb. 6, 1868.

[1505] Cong. Globe, March 17, 1868, p. 1937; Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 303, 40th Cong., 2d Sess.; N. Y. World, March 14, 1868.

[1506] In Henry County the registrars had all forsaken the party and resigned. On the last day the United States troops opened the polls and 29 people voted. Abbeville Register, Feb. 16, 1868. In Dale County it was much the same way. After a careful search one John Metcalf of Skipperville was found to make complaint on behalf of the reconstructionists. It was a sad story: “We had,” he said, “depended on Mr. Deal, the delegate to the convention, to bring the registration books, ‘but he fused with the destructive party’ and we couldn’t register. On the fourth day an election was held anyway, but the Conservatives would not let us hold it on the fifth. It was the almost united wish of the voters of the county to adopt the constitution. There are about 150 in the county that are opposed to it, and they united on the fifth and broke us up. We would have polled 1400 to 1500 votes for the constitution.” Ho. Mic. Doc., No. 111, 40th Cong., 2d Sess.

[1507] In Montgomery 41 whites of 4200 voted. Of these 15 were carpet-baggers and nearly all were candidates for office. The Montgomery Mail of Feb. 11 printed the entire list, with sarcastic comments on their past history and present aspirations. The list was headed, Our White Black List, The Roll of Dishonor. See Cong. Globe, March 11, 1868, p. 1827.

[1508] The storm played a very effective part in the debates in Congress later. Moving tales were told of negroes swimming the swollen streams in order to get to the polls. One instance was given where, in swimming the Alabama River, which was beyond its banks and floating with ice, a negro was drowned. Cong. Globe, 1867-1868, p. 2865. The river at this point when out of its banks is not less than a mile wide, and there was never any ice in it since the glacial epoch.

[1509] The Conservatives claimed that the Lowndes county box was stolen by the Radicals themselves as soon as they saw the constitution had failed of ratification, in order to give point to charges of fraud. In the same way the returns from Baine, Colbert, and Jones counties were so tampered with by the Radical election officials that the military canvassers were obliged to reject them. Montgomery Mail, Feb. 12, 1868; Cong. Globe, 1867-1868, p. 2139.

[1510] The Nationalist, Feb. 13 and 20, and Aug. 24, 1868; N. Y. World, March 14, 1868; Selma Times and Messenger, Feb. 28, 1868; Cong. Globe, March 11, 1868, pp. 1818, 1823. This is a statement signed by Griffin of Ohio, Keffer of Pennsylvania, Burton of Massachusetts, Hardy and Spencer of Ohio, and indorsed by Joshua Morse, who signed himself as “disfranchised rebel.”

[1511] Report of Meade, 1868. Meade made this report to Grant at the time, and at the end of the year he made practically the same, though perhaps a little stronger. The Nationalist (Albert Griffin of Ohio, editor) said, April 9, 1868, that the statements of Meade, the “military saphead,” were “false in letter and false in spirit.”

[1512] Ho. Mis. Doc., No. 111, 40th Cong., 2d Sess. The whites were complaining loudly because of the scarcity of labor, and few would discharge a negro laborer, no matter how often he might vote the Radical ticket. General Hayden sent a list of eighteen questions in regard to the election to every election official. They covered every possible point, and full answers were required. One of the questions was in regard to the proportion of white voters. A summary of the answers is here given: 1. Elmore County. Intimidation and threats of discharge; of the 1000 to 1200 whites who registered, from 12 to 15 voted. 2. Autauga. No intimidation, but threats of discharge; of the 900 whites registered, 200 voted. 3. Chambers. Fair election, with 23 white voters of the 1400 registered. 4. Russell. Threats of discharge; one-thirty-sixth of the whites voted. 5. Tallapoosa. “Persuasion and arguments” deterred the blacks from voting; 20 whites voted of the 1500 who registered. 6. Coosa. Two discharges; one-third of the whites voted. 7. Montgomery. “Ostracism,” and two discharges; 41 whites voted of the 4200 who registered. 8. Macon. Fair election and 4 whites voted of the 800 registered. 9. Lee. One discharge and threats; 30 or 40 whites voted of 1500 registered. 10. Randolph. Fair election. 11. Clay. Threats of ostracism and one discharge. 12. Crenshaw. Two discharges. 13. Lowndes. Three threats of discharge; “too much challenging;” 10 whites voted of 850 registered. 14. Barbour. Four threats of discharge; “whites afraid of social proscription.” 15. Bullock. “Needless questions” to voters, and three threats of discharge; no whites voted. 16. Pike. One threat of discharge; one-fourth of the whites voted. 17. Butler. Eight threats; 3 whites of 1400 voted. 18. Covington. “Threats;” 225 whites voted of the 900. 19. Coffee. “Threats” and “proscription.” 20-21. Dale and Henry. No election; no registrars; none would serve. In Dale County were a number of “outrageous acts committed by a Mr. Oats.” 22-27. Mobile, Washington, Baldwin, Clarke, Monroe, and Conecuh. “Threats and social ostracism;” 125 of 3750 whites voted. 28. Walker. Fair election; one negro driven away; “more whites voted than were expected.” 29-30. Winston and Jackson. More whites voted than were expected; one threat in Jackson. 31-32. Madison and Lauderdale. Fair elections; in Lauderdale 150 of 1500 whites voted. 33. Lawrence. “Persuasion;” 311 of 1400 whites voted. 34-35. Colbert and Franklin. Twenty-five per cent of the whites voted; 75 per cent “were opposed to article 7, paragraph 4, of constitution.” 36-38. Limestone, Morgan, and Cherokee. Fair elections; few whites voted. 39. Marshall. “Threats”; one-third of the whites voted. 40. De Kalb. Fair; 650 of the 900 whites. 41. Baine. “Handbills advised people not to vote;” only one-fifth voted. 42. Blount. One threat; “persuasion;” one-fourth of the whites voted. 43. St. Clair. Threats; one-third of the whites voted. 44-45. Marion and Jones. Fair; two-sevenths of the whites voted. 46. Fayette. Speeches published against the constitution, three drunken men threatened the managers at one box; liquor given to negroes to “vote against their intentions,” all of which “prevented full and free expression of opinion by ballot”; two-sevenths of the whites voted. 47. Shelby. Fair; one-fourth of the whites voted. 48. Talladega. Fair, though threats were heard; three-tenths of the whites voted. 49. Perry. Fair; 24 of the 1066 whites voted. 50. Bibb. Fair; 167 of the 1021 whites. 51. Dallas. Fair; 78 whites voted; others suffered from “want of independence.” 52. Wilcox. Ten threats; 12 whites of 800. 53. Tuscaloosa. One threat; one-fifth of the whites voted. 54. Pickens. “Threats too numerous to mention;” 60 to 70 of the 1100 whites voted. 55. Jefferson. Fair; one-fifth of the whites voted. 56. Sumter. Threats against blacks; whites to be ostracized. 57. Greene. Threats, though the “Union Men” were afraid to tell who threatened them; 446 ballots had “Constitution” torn off. 58. Marengo. Voters were refused at one box because the names were not on the list, though the parties were willing to swear they had been registered. Threats and speeches were made at the polls and one man made 16 discharges; 16 whites of the 997 voted. 59-62. No reports from Choctaw, Calhoun, Cleburne, and Hale.

Nearly all officials reported quiet elections; the assertions about threats were almost invariably hearsay. Even the few specific instances were based on hearsay. The worst complaint was that Conservatives sometimes attended and challenged the votes of certain negroes, and made speeches or used persuasion to induce the negroes not to vote. Much importance was attached to the ridicule and jeers of the white leaders. These reports were made by the election officials, who were thoroughgoing reconstructionists. General Meade denied the charges of fraud and intimidation.

It will be noticed that the heaviest white vote was cast in the counties where there were few negroes, and where the Peace Society had been strongest during the war. If the estimates given above by the registrars were correct, it is doubtful if 5000 whites voted in the election, as was asserted. The judges were supposed to mark “C” on the ballot of a negro and “W” on that of a white. Ho. Mis. Doc., No. 111, 40th Cong., 2d Sess.; Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 303, 40th Cong., 2d Sess.; Report of Meade, 1868; Montgomery Mail, Feb. 19, 1868; N. Y. World, March 14, 1868.

[1513] Strobach, the Austrian, went so far off in the Northwest that after the state was admitted he could not return to the special session of the legislature. He drew his pay, however, the Speaker certifying that he was present. N. Y. World, Oct. 8, 1868; Montgomery Mail, April 14, 1869; Nationalist, Feb. 18, 1868.

[1514] In North Alabamian, 1868.

[1515] He had evidently not seen Meade’s report.

[1516] Dustan had been a candidate for major-general of militia.

[1517] Annual Cyclopædia (1868), p. 16.

[1518] Globe, Feb. 17, 1868, p. 1217.

[1519] Cong. Globe, March 10, 11, and 17, 1868, pp. 1790, 1818, 1821, 1823, 1824, 1825, 1827, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1938.

[1520] Both statements were incorrect.

[1521] Globe, March 18 and 26, 1868, pp. 1972, 2138, 2139, 2140.

[1522] McPherson, “Reconstruction,” p. 337; Globe, March 28, 1868, pp. 2193, 2216.

[1523] Globe, March 28, 1868, pp. 2203, 2209, 2214.

[1524] April 23, 1868.

[1525] Nationalist, April 9, 1868.

[1526] Independent Monitor, April 21, 1868.

[1527] Yordy, a carpet-bag Bureau agent, registrar, and senator-elect from Sumter County, was turned out of a hotel at Eutaw and told to go to the negro inn. Tuscaloosa Independent Monitor, Sept. 1, 1868.

[1528] Globe, March 28, 1868, p. 2140. Claus and Wilson were two carpet-baggers of Tuscaloosa.

[1529] Annual Cyclopædia (1868), p. 16; Cong. Globe, March 11, 1868, p. 1825.

[1530] Globe, May 11, 1868, p. 2412.

[1531] Cong. Globe, June 5 and 6, 1868, pp. 2858, 2865, 2867, 2900, 2964; McPherson, “Reconstruction,” p. 340; Foulke, “Life of Morton,” Vol. II, p. 47.

[1532] Globe, June 9 and 10, 1868, pp. 2965, 3017.

[1533] Globe, June 12, 1868, pp. 3089, 3090, 3097.

[1534] Globe, June 25, 1868, p. 3484.

[1535] Globe, June 25, 1868, pp. 3466, 3484; McPherson, p. 338.

[1536] McPherson, p. 337. The present constitution of the state, adopted in 1901, nullifies this fundamental condition. Other southern states have also disregarded this limitation.

[1537] McPherson, p. 338.

[1538] G. O. No. 101, July 14, 1868.

[1539] Warner, who was said to have gone to his own state—Ohio—and run for office, now returned.

[1540] The credentials were signed by E. W. Peck, president of the convention of 1867, who certified to their election. Globe, July 24, 1868, p. 4294.

[1541] Globe, July 17, 18, 21, and 25, 1868, pp. 4173, 4213, 4293, 4295, 4459, 4466.

[1542] President Jay’s Address, March 26, 1868; Bellows, “History Union League Club of New York,” pp. 6-9; “Chronicle of Philadelphia Union League,” pp. 5-8.

[1543] “Chronicle of Philadelphia Union League,” pp. 5-8; Bellows, “Union League Club,” p. 9.

[1544] First Annual Report of Board of Directors of Union League of Philadelphia; Bellows, pp. 9, 32; “Chronicle of Philadelphia Union League,” pp. 70, 112.

[1545] See Bellows, “History Union League Club.”

[1546] Bellows, p. 90.

[1547] There were 144 different pamphlets published by the Philadelphia League and 44 posters; 56,380 pamphlets were issued in 1865; 867,000 pamphlets were issued in 1866; 31,906 pamphlets were issued in 1867; 1,416,906 pamphlets were issued in 1868; 4,500,000 pamphlets were issued in eight years. “Chronicle of Philadelphia Union League,” pp. 106, 107, 145.

[1548] “Chronicle of Philadelphia Union League,” p. 169; Bellows, pp. 90, 99, 100, 102; Reports of the Executive Committee, Union League Club of N. Y., 1865-1866; Century Magazine, Vol. VI, pp. 404, 949; oral accounts.

[1549] I am especially indebted to Professor L. D. Miller, Jacksonville, Ala., for many details concerning the Loyal Leagues. He made inquiries for me of people who knew the facts. I have also had other oral accounts. See also Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test. (Pierce), p. 305; (Lowe), p. 894; (Forney), p. 487.

[1550] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test. (Sayre), p. 357; (Governor Lindsay), p. 170; (Nicholas Davis), p. 783; (Richardson), pp. 815, 855; (Ford), p. 684; (Lowe), p. 892; (Forney), p. 487; Miller, “Alabama,” p. 246; Herbert, “Solid South,” pp. 36, 41; also oral accounts.

[1551] There is a copy of the charter of a local council in the Alabama Testimony of the Ku Klux Report, p. 1017. The Montgomery Council was organized June 2, 1866, and three days later General Swayne, of the Freedmen’s Bureau, joined it. It was charged that even thus early he was desirous of representing Alabama in the Senate. Herbert, pp. 41-43.

[1552] N. Y. Herald, Aug. 5, 1867.

[1553] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test. (Lowe), p. 872; (English), pp. 1437, 1438; (Lindsay), p. 170; N. Y. Herald, Aug. 5, 1869, and June 20, 1867; Professor Miller’s account; oral accounts.

[1554] In Sumter County a northern teacher of a negro school informed a planter that the Leaguers were sworn to defend one another, and that he, the planter, would be punished for striking a Leaguer whom he had caught stealing and had thrashed. Selma Times and Messenger, July 21, 1868.

[1555] The Montgomery Council, May 22, 1867, resolved “That the Union League is the right arm of the Union Republican party of the United States, and that no man should be initiated into the League who does not heartily indorse the principles and policy of the Union Republican party.” Herbert, “Solid South,” p. 41. A Confederate could not be admitted to the League unless he would acknowledge that during the war he had been guilty of treason.

[1556] Alcohol on salt burns with a peculiar flame, making the faces of those around, especially the negroes, appear ghostly.

[1557] A copy of the constitution and ritual was secured by the whites and published in the Montgomery Advertiser, July 24, 1867; printed also in Fleming, “Documents relating to Reconstruction,” No. 3.

[1558] The Montgomery Council was composed of white Radicals, and the Lincoln Council in the same city was for blacks. Most of the officers of the latter were whites. Herbert, p. 41.

[1559] This fact will partly explain why there were burnings of negro churches and schoolhouses by the Ku Klux Klan. These were political headquarters of the Radical party in each community.

[1560] See Miller, “Alabama,” pp. 246, 247; Lester and Wilson, “Ku Klux Klan,” pp. 45, 46.

[1561] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test. (Lindsay), pp. 170, 179; (Nicholas Davis), p. 783; (Richardson), pp. 839, 355; (Lowe), pp. 872, 886, 907; (Pettus), p. 384; (Walker), pp. 962, 975.

[1562] Thaddeus Stevens’s speech on confiscation, through the Loyal League, had a wide circulation in Alabama. Agents were sent to the state to organize new councils and to secure the benefits of the proposed confiscation; free farms were promised the negroes. N. Y. Herald, June 20, 1867. Many whites now believed that wholesale confiscation would take place.

[1563] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test. (Sanders), pp. 1803, 1811; (Dox), p. 432; (Herr), pp. 1662, 1663.

[1564] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test. (Lowe), pp. 886, 887, 894, 997; (Davis), p. 783; (Cobbs), p. 1637; (Pettus), p. 6393.

[1565] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test. (Ford), p. 684; (Herr), p. 1665; (Pettus), p. 381; (Jolly), pp. 283, 291; (Sayre), p. 357; (Pierce), p. 313; N. Y. Herald, Dec. 4, 1867, Oct. 2, 1868; Herbert, “Solid South,” p. 45. One Wash Austin, a Democratic negro, was attacked by a mob, pursued, and when he reached home his wife called him “a damned Conservative,” struck him on the head with a brick, and then left him. Norris V. Hanley, in Ho. Mis. Doc., No. 15, 41st Cong., 2d Sess.

[1566] N. Y. Herald, Oct. 13 and Nov. 11, 1867, Eufaula correspondence; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test. (Sanders), p. 1812; (Pettus), p. 381; (Herr), p. 1663; (Pierce), p. 313; (Sayre), p. 357; Harris, “Political Conflict in America,” p. 479.

[1567] A notice posted on the door of a citizen of Dallas County was to this effect, “Irvin Hauser is the damnedest rascal in the neighborhood, and if he and three or four others don’t mind they will get a ball in them.” Selma Times and Messenger, April 21, 1868; oral accounts; see also Brown, “Lower South,” Ch. IV; Herbert, pp. 3, 8.

[1568] The Macon Telegraph, March 12, 1905.

[1569] N. Y. Herald, Dec. 5 and 22, 1867; Montgomery Advertiser, Dec. 4, 1867 (J. M. Chappell).

[1570] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test. (Lyon), pp. 1422, 1423; (Abrahams), pp. 1382, 1384.

[1571] See Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test. (Alston), p. 1017; (Herr), p. 1665; (Sayre), p. 357; (Pierce), p. 313.

[1572] Selma Messenger, July 19, 1867; see Fleming, “Documents relating to Reconstruction,” No. 3.

[1573] It is certain that the estimate of 18,000 white and 70,000 black members at the same time is not correct. As the latter increased in numbers the former decreased. Early in 1867 Keffer said there were 38,000 whites and 12,000 blacks in the League. N. Y. Herald, May 7, 1867. Perhaps he meant the total enrolment early in the year. In 1868 he claimed 20,000 whites, about 17,000 too many.

[1574] Lester and Wilson, “Ku Klux Klan,” p. 47; also Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., passim.

[1575] Montgomery Mail, Aug. 20, 1870.

[1576] In the Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., the Conservative and sometimes the Radical witnesses assert that the Ku Klux movement was caused partly by the workings of the Union League.

[1577] Senate Journal, 1875-1876, p. 214.

[1578] Ku Klux Rept., p. 171.

[1579] Ku Klux Rept., p. 318.

[1580] Auditor’s Report, 1902, p. 19.

[1581] Ku Klux Rept., p. 170; Census of 1860. The assessed valuation of property increased 117% from 1850 to 1860. The comptroller’s report of Nov. 12, 1858, states that the slave property of the state at that time paid nearly half the taxes. This was true of all ordinary taxes to 1865. See Senate Journal, 1866-1867, p. 291.

[1582] Journal Convention of 1867, p. 125; Patton’s Report to the Convention, Nov. 11, 1867.

[1583]

Cotton crop, 1860 842,729 bales

Cotton crop, 1865 75,305 bales

Cotton crop, 1866 429,102 bales

Cotton crop, 1867 239,516 bales

Cotton crop, 1868 366,193 bales

Most of the war crop was confiscated by the United States. The crops of 1866-1868 show the effects of politics among the negro laborers rather than unfavorable seasons. Hodgson, “Alabama Manual and Statistical Register,” 1869.

[1584] The exemption laws were so framed as to release the average negroes from paying tax, and also the class of whites that supported the Radical policy. The following list will show the incidence of taxation for 1870:—

Value Tax

Lands $81,109,102.03 $607,979.52

Town property 36,005,780.50 268,865.89

Cattle 1,180,106.00 8,851.36

Mules 4,845,736.00 36,042.68

Horses 2,214,376.00 16,599.83

Sheep and goats 111,001.00 832.50

Hogs 277,735.50 2,083.02

Wagons, carriages, etc. 131,235.00 8,480.81

Tools 237,534.50 1,769.96

Farming implements 235,600.00 1,744.71

Household furniture 1,691,807.00 12,731.98

Cotton presses 41,360.00 310.30

Besides these items, heavy taxes were laid on the following: wharves, toll bridges, ferries, steamboats, and all water craft, stocks of goods, libraries, jewellery, plate and silverware, musical instruments, pistols, guns, jacks and jennies, race-horses, watches, money in and out of the state, money loaned, credits, commercial paper, capital in incorporated companies in or out of the state, bonds except of United States and Alabama, incomes and gains over $1000, banks, poll tax, insurance companies, auction sales, lotteries, warehouses, distilleries, brokers, factors, express and telegraph companies, etc. See Ku Klux Report and Auditor’s Report, 1871.

[1585] Revenue Laws of Ala., 1865-1870; Report of the Debt Commission, Jan. 24, 1876; Governor Lindsay’s Message, Nov. 21, 1871; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 227, 340, 976, 1056, 1504.

[1586] See Acts of Ala., 1868-1874, passim.

[1587] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 240, 360.

[1588] Ala. Test., pp. 1303, 1304.

[1589] Ala. Test., pp. 461, 963, 964.

[1590] Taxes are paid on $307,312,000, slaves included; see Census of 1860; Census of 1870; Ku Klux Rept., pp. 170, 171, 175, 317, 318.

[1591] Includes receipts and disbursements in Confederate money.

[1592] License taxes only.

[1593] License taxes, bond issues, and temporary loans.

[1594] Interest paid on the public debt with bond issues included, and expenses of the convention of 1867. The actual expenses of the state administration were $262,627.47.

[1595] The first figures for 1868 include the receipts from taxes and the expenditures for state purposes only; the other figures include the proceeds from sale of bonds used for state purposes. The Radicals always gave the first set of figures, and the Democrats the second.

[1596] $620,000 should be added for the sale of bonds and state obligations.

[1597] Issue of bonds to railroads included.

[1598] Includes interest paid on railroad bonds.

[1599] Currency had depreciated. Many claims went unpaid. The “home debt” amounted to $823,454.64. The actual state expenses were $1,384,044.46.

[1600] State expenses only. Democrats in power. See Auditor’s Reports, 1869-1873, 1900; Ku Klux Rept., pp. 170, 174, 176, 1055, 1057; Report of the Debt Commission, 1876; Journal Convention of 1867, p. 125.

[1601] Ku Klux Rept., pp. 170, 174, 176; Auditor’s Reports, 1869-1870; Reports of the Alabama Debt Commission.

[1602] Report of Governor Patton to the Convention, Nov. 11, 1867; Journal Convention of 1867, p. 125.

[1603] See Tuskegee News, June 3, 1875; Auditor’s Reports, 1868-1874.

[1604] The average legislator in 1872-1873 was paid $904.00 and mileage. The Senate had 33 members and 44 attending officers, clerks, and secretaries; the lower house, with a membership of 100, had from 77 to 84 attending officials. Besides these there were dozens of pages, doorkeepers, firemen, assistants, etc. In 1869 there were 105 regular capitol servants who received $31,900 in wages. Auditor’s Report, 1869-1873; Montgomery Mail, Dec. 31, 1870. There were about 10 in 1900.

[1605] Journal of the “Capitol” Senate, 1872, p. 19-34; in Senate Journal, 1873.

[1606] The older and abler men were disfranchised.

[1607] Montgomery Mail, Sept. 22, 1872.

[1608] Auditor’s Reports, 1869-1873.

[1609] The purpose of the act was to liberate negro prisoners and save money for the officials to spend in other ways.

[1610] These items are taken from the accounts of Lewis’s administration.

[1611] The Investigating Committee remarked that had he chartered a parlor car and paid hotel bills at the rate of $10 a day, he would have been unable to spend $800 on that trip.

[1612] See Ch. XXIV.

[1613] Report of the Committee to Investigate the Contingent Fund, 1875; Senate Journal, 1874-1875, pp. 581-607.

[1614] Caffey, “The Annexation of West Florida to Alabama,” p. 10; Senate Journal, 1869-1870, pp. 234-244.

[1615] Report of the Committee to examine the Offices of Auditor and Treasurer, 1875; Report of the Debt Commission, 1875, 1876.

[1616] See Edwin DeLeon, “Ruin and Reconstruction of the Southern States,” in the Southern Magazine, Jan., 1874.

[1617] Ala. Test., p. 1409.

[1618] State Journal, April 19, 1874.

[1619] Ala. Test., p. 1409. The Radical newspapers that had the public printing made money from the tax sale notices by dividing each lot into sixteenths of a section, advertising each, and charging for each division. The author of the tax sale law was Pierce Burton, a Radical editor.

[1620] Scribner’s Monthly, Aug., 1874; King, “The Great South.”

[1621] Southern Argus, Jan. 17 and Feb. 8, 1872; Scribner’s Monthly, Aug., 1874; Herbert, “Solid South,” pp. 64, 67. Colonel Herbert believes that during the six years of Reconstruction the state gained practically nothing by immigration, while it lost more by emigration than it had by the Civil War.

[1622] Auditor’s Reports, 1869-1873; Comptroller’s Reports, 1861-1865, 1866; Patton’s Report, 1867, to the Convention; Journal Convention of 1867, pp. 46, 123; Ku Klux Rept., pp. 169, 317, 1055.

[1623] The following is a partial list compiled from the session laws:—

Issues of County Bonds

1868. Walker County $14,000.00

1868. Dallas County 50,000.00

1868. Bullock County 40,000.00

1868. Limestone County 100,000.00

1869. Hale County 60,000.00

1869. Greene County 80,000.00

1869. Pickens County 100,000.00

1870. Baldwin County 5,000.00

1870. Bibb County 5,000.00

1870. Choctaw County (?) unlimited

1870. Crenshaw County 10,000.00

1872. Pickens County 30,000.00

1873. Butler County 12,000.00

1873. Jefferson County 50,000.00

1873. Montgomery County 130,000.00

1873. Madison County 130,000.00

(?) Dallas County 140,000.00

(?) Chambers County 150,000.00

(?) Lee County 275,000.00

(?) Randolph County 100,000.00

(?) Barbour County (?)

(?) Tallapoosa County 125,000.00

Issues of Town and City Bonds

1868. Troy $75,000.00

1869. Eutaw 20,000.00

1869. Greensboro 15,000.00

1871. Mobile 1,400,000.00

1871. Selma 5 00,000.00

1872. Prattville 50,000.00

1873. Mobile 200,000.00

Opelika 25,000.00

And in addition each county and town had a large floating debt in “scrip” or local obligations. Speculators gathered up such obligations and sold them at reduced prices to those who had local taxes, fines, and licenses to pay.

[1624] Auditor’s Reports, 1871-1872; Report of Committee on Public Debt, 1876; McClure, “The South: Industrial, Financial, and Political Condition,” p. 83.

[1625] Report of the Committee on Public Debt, 1876; Senate Journal, 1872-1873, p. 544; Auditor’s Report, 1873.

[1626] Senate Journal, 1875-1876, pp. 212, 213; Report of the Committee on the Public Debt, 1876. In his book Clews tells how he invested in the securities of the struggling southern states, being desirous of assisting them. But when the ungrateful states refused to pay the claims that he and others like him presented, he says it was because they, the creditors, were northern men. See Clews, “Twenty-eight Years in Wall Street,” pp. 550, 551.

[1627] DeLeon, “Ruin and Reconstruction,” in the Southern Magazine, Jan., 1874. The state debts of the ten southern states were then estimated at $291,626,015, while the debts of the other twenty-seven states amounted to only $293,872,552.

[1628] Houston’s Message, 1876; Senate Journal, 1874-1875, p. 7.

[1629] Act of Dec. 17, 1874.

[1630] Later increased to $1,192,000.

[1631] Report of the Debt Commission, 1876. This was nearly half the value of the farm lands of the state, which were worth $67,700,000, and was much more than the gross value of a year’s cotton crop.

[1632] Report of the Debt Commission, Jan. 24, 1876; Senate Journal, 1875-1876, pp. 203-232; Report of the Joint Committee on the Public Debt, Feb. 23, 1876; Annual Cyclopædia (1875), p. 14; “Northern Alabama,” p. 52; Final Report of the Committee of the Alabama and Chattanooga Bondholders, London, 1876; McClure, “The South,” p. 83; Second Report of the Debt Commission, Dec. 13, 1876.

[1633] Senate Journal, 1876-1876, p. 316.

[1634] Second Report, Dec. 13, 1876.

[1635] Second Report of the Debt Commission, Dec. 13, 1876.

[1636] Annual Cyclopædia (1875), p. 14; “Northern Alabama,” pp. 51, 51; Acts of 1874-1875.

[1637] Auditor’s Report, 1902, p. 14.

[1638] E.g. the State Bank.

[1639] T. H. Clark, “Railroads and Navigation,” in “Memorial Record of Alabama,” Vol. II, pp. 322-323; Martin, “Internal Improvements in Alabama,” pp. 72-77; Garrett, “Public Men,” pp. 577, 580.

[1640] Martin, “Internal Improvements,” pp. 65-68.

[1641] Martin, “Internal Improvements,” p. 42 et seq.

[1642] Martin, “Internal Improvements,” pp. 68-71; Auditor’s Report, Oct. 12, 1869.

[1643] Census, 1850, 1860.

[1644] Acts of Ala., 1866-1867, pp. 686-694.

[1645] The constitution of 1867, Art. 13, Sec. 13, provided that the credit of the state should not be given nor loaned except in aid of railways or internal improvements, and then only by a two-thirds vote of each house.

[1646] Acts of Ala., Aug. 7 and Sept. 22, 1868. The promoters of the roads claimed that the old law was useless, but that $16,000 a mile would attract northern and European capital. Herbert, “Solid South,” p. 52.

[1647] Governor’s Message, Nov. 15, 1869. The carpet-bag auditor also advocated the repeal of the law. He thought that no road should be indorsed for more than $10,000 a mile, since the average value was less than $13,000 a mile.

[1648] Act of Feb. 21, 1870, Acts of Ala., 1869-1870

[1649] Act of March 1, 1870, Acts of Ala., 1869-1870, p. 286.

[1650] Act of April 21, 1873, Acts of Ala., 1872-1873, p. 45.

[1651] Acts of Oct. 6 and Nov. 17, 1868, Acts of Ala., 1868, pp. 207, 347; Herbert, “Solid South,” p. 52; Annual Cyclopædia (1871), pp. 7, 8. The railroad must have intended to profit by the indorsement, and must have paid for it, for when, a year later, ex-Governor Patton, who for the sake of respectability was made the nominal president, was in Boston, he was reproached by the Alabama and Chattanooga officials for allowing their charter to cost them $200,000. See Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 232.

[1652] Alabama vs. Burr, 115 United States Reports, p. 418. Burr, J. C. Stanton, and D. N. Stanton had been prosecuted by the state of Alabama for the fraudulent use of indorsed bonds.

[1653] Governor Smith’s Message, Nov. 15, 1869.

[1654] Auditor’s Report, 1870.

[1655] Message in Independent Monitor, Dec. 13, 1870.

[1656] Independent Monitor, June 14, 1871; Ku Klux Rept., pp. 172, 317; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 193; Auditor’s Report, 1871.

[1657] Act of Feb. 11, 1870, Acts of Ala., 1869-1870.

[1658] Montgomery Mail, Jan. 25, 1871; Southern Argus, Feb. 2, 1872, and Feb. 28, 1873; Somers, “Southern States,” p. 157; Report of the House Railroad Investigation Committee, 1871; Herbert, “Solid South,” pp. 52, 53. Colonel Herbert says that the Alabama and Chattanooga officials demanded the $2,000,000 and received it. “Solid South,” p. 53. The legislature that voted the gift of $2,000,000 was composed as follows: Senate, 32 Radicals and 1 Democrat; House, 85 Radicals (of whom 20 were negroes) and 15 doubtful Democrats. The carpet-bag editor of the Demopolis Republican said: “Men who never paid ten dollars’ tax in their lives talk as flippantly of millions as the schoolboy of his marbles. Meanwhile, outsiders talk of buying and selling men at prices which would have been a disgrace to a slave before the war.” Montgomery Mail, Jan. 25, 1871.

[1659] Annual Cyclopædia (1870), p. 10.

[1660] Report of the House Railroad Committee, 1871; Ku Klux Rept., p. 319.

[1661] Ku Klux Rept., p. 319; House Journal, 1870-1871, p. 236; Report of the House Railroad Investigating Committee, 1871; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 232; J. P. Stow, Radical senator from Montgomery, said that when Hardy left at the end of the session, he carried away $150,000. Not all of it was his own; some of it he had collected for others. One senator is said to have held his vote at $1000 regularly.

[1662] Senate Journal, 1873; Appendix containing Journal of the Capitol Senate, 1872, pp. 19-34; Lindsay’s Message, 1872, to the Capitol Legislature. Lindsay said that all the Democrats worked hard to prevent the passage of the $2,000,000 bill; that he himself worked in the lobby until three o’clock in the morning trying to defeat the thieves. Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 199.

[1663] Ku Klux Rept., p. 318; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 196; Report of the House Investigation Committee, p. 1871. Ex-Governor Patton testified that though president of the Alabama and Chattanooga road, he had opposed the bill and in consequence had been displaced, D. N. Stanton of Boston being elected. Patton stated that none of the capital stock had at this time been paid in by the stockholders.

In 1870-1871 “another set of financiers had made up their minds to come down South and help Alabama. Their demand was for $5,000,000 with which to set furnaces and factories going. They were too late. If they had only come the session before, there was no chance for a bill containing $5,000,000, properly pressed, to have failed.” But the lower house now had a Democratic majority. Herbert, “Solid South,” p. 57.

[1664] Senate Journal, 1870-1871, p. 78; Lindsay’s Message, Nov. 21, 1871; Senate Journal, 1870-1871.

[1665] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 195, 196; Lindsay’s Messages, 1871-1872; Lindsay’s Statement of Facts, April 22, 1871; Report of Commissioners of the Public Debt, Jan. 24, 1876.

[1666] Act of Feb. 25, 1871.

[1667] Statement of Facts which influenced Governor Robert B. Lindsay in his Action in regard to the Bonds of the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad Company, April 22, 1871; Lindsay’s Message, Nov. 21, 1871. While Lindsay was in New York, Ex-Governor Smith called on him and half acknowledged the whole affair. Ala. Test., p. 199. Afterwards in a letter Smith strongly protested that some of the bonds signed and sealed by himself were fraudulent, and blamed Governor Lindsay and the legislature for recognizing them. He acknowledged that his carelessness had resulted in the present state of affairs. Somers, “Southern States,” p. 158. April 3, 1871, Smith wrote, “I admit that if I had attended strictly to the indorsement and issue of these bonds, that all this never would have occurred.” Herbert, “Solid South,” p. 53.

[1668] Statement of Facts, April 22, 1871; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 198, 199. Lindsay said that since the Alabama and Chattanooga road was indorsed under the laws of 1867 and 1868, it did not come under the laws of 1870. Consequently, when the Alabama and Chattanooga defaulted, the state was not bound to pay interest on the $2,000,000 state bonds until the legislature acted in March, 1871.

In his Statement of Facts, Lindsay relates a suggestive and illuminating incident: On Dec. 13, 1870, John Demerett, an Alabama and Chattanooga bondholder, brought suit in the Superior Court of King’s County, New York, against the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad Company, the state of Alabama, and one F. B. Loomis (of the Alabama and Chattanooga Company), alleging that the said railway company was about to place on the market 500 first mortgage bonds numbered from 4800 to 5300, indorsed by the governor of Alabama in violation of the law. Demerett prayed for an injunction to restrain the company from selling the bonds. The records showed that the state of Alabama appeared by her attorney, one William D. Vieder, who declared on affidavit that he was employed by Henry Clews & Company, financial agents of Alabama. Vieder filed an answer in behalf of Alabama, stating that the bonds numbered 4801 to 5300 were properly indorsed, and were of the same class as others issued by the company, that the indorsement was in conformity to law, and that in no case would the bonds be repudiated. The injunction was dissolved and the company permitted to sell. To the Ku Klux Committee Lindsay suggested that Smith might have signed the illegal bonds after he went out of office, as they were not placed on the market until January, 1871. (See Ala. Test., p. 197.) But the Demerett case seems to disprove this and to show that the bonds were issued while Smith was governor. The House Railroad Investigation Committee, in 1871, reported that Smith asserted that the fraudulent indorsements were secured by the active coöperation of Henry Clews & Company, Souter & Company, and Braunfels of Émile Erlanger et Cie., with the Stantons. Southern Argus, Feb. 2, 1875. Lindsay further stated that there were evidences of collusion between Stanton and Smith to secure the election of the latter in 1870 at all hazards. They wanted to gain time in order to conceal the irregularity in the issue of bonds. Stanton furnished much money to the campaign fund, and on election day marched to the registration office at the head of 900 railroad employees, who came from the entire length of the road, had them registered, gave each of them a Radical ticket, and then voted them in a body. Ala. Test., pp. 193, 197.

[1669] Acts of Alabama, 1870-1871, pp. 12, 13.

[1670] Ku Klux Rept., p. 172.

[1671] Annual Cyclopædia (1871), pp. 7, 8; Lindsay’s Message, Nov. 21, 1871; Senate Journal, 1871-1872, pp. 44, 320; Report of John H. Gindrat, Receiver of the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad, 1871.