Part 6 — CHAPTER XXIV (continued 5)

The engineers in the employ of the state reported that to put the road in Alabama in fair condition at the time it was seized would require $507,983.74. Twenty-four miles of rails were old ones that Sherman had burned. Report of Farrand and Thom, Nov. 9, 1871; Senate Journal, 1871-1872, p. 43. To complete the road, Gindrat reported that $1,000,000 would be needed. Senate Journal, 1871-1872, p. 337.

At the time the road was seized $10,500,000 from all sources had disappeared. Part of it was spent on the road, which, with all equipment, in 1871 was valued at $6,120,995. (An estimate of its value in 1873 was $4,183,388.) The capital stock authorized was $7,500,000, of which only $2,700,000 was ever paid in. Ku Klux Rept., pp. 172, 173; Auditor’s Report, 1871 and 1873. The earnings of the road from November, 1872, to November, 1873, were $232,583.96. The expenses of the road from November, 1872, to November, 1873, were $1,083,851.90. Report of the Receiver of the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad, 1873.

[1672] Rice and Chilton, attorneys of the Alabama and Chattanooga road, gave the state much trouble. Rice was a scalawag, but several partners he had at that time and later were Democrats.

[1673] During the whole time there was a large element in favor of not recognizing the legality of the bond issues authorized by the carpet-bag legislatures. The carpet-bag government was not a government of the people, but was imposed and upheld by military force, some said, and had no right to vote away the money of the people without their consent. The Selma Times, March 5, 1874, voiced this sentiment: “Alabama must and will be ruled by whites.... We will not pay a single dollar of the infamous debt, piled upon us by fraud, bribery, and corruption, known as the ‘bond swindle’ debt. Let the bondholders take the railroads.” See Senate Journal, 1875-1876, pp. 213-221.

[1674] Annual Cyclopædia (1871), p. 8; (1872), pp. 8, 9; Lewis’s Message, Dec. 20, 1872; Senate Journal, 1872-1873, p. 43; Lewis’s Message, Nov. 1874; Senate Journal, 1874-1875; Final Report of the Committee of the Alabama and Chattanooga Bondholders, London, 1876; Acts of Ala., Dec. 21, 1872; Acts of Ala., March 20, 1875.

[1675] Lewis’s Message, Nov., 1874.

[1676] Ku Klux Rept., p. 173; Governor Houston’s Message, Dec., 1875; Senate Journal, 1875-1876.

[1677] Governor Lewis’s Message, Nov., 1874; Senate Journal, 1874-1875.

[1678] Report of House Railroad Committee; Auditor’s Report, 1873.

[1679] Auditor’s Report, 1871.

[1680] Martin, “Internal Improvements,” p. 70; Auditor’s Report, 1869; Acts of Dec. 30, 1869, Acts of Ala., 1868, pp. 487, 494. The South and North road was merely an expansion of “The Mountain Railroad Company,” an old corporation.

[1681] Acts of 1869-1880, p. 374.

[1682] Message, in Independent Monitor, Dec. 13, 1870.

[1683] Report of House Railroad Inv. Com., 1871. See also Report of Auditor, 1870, which says $1,980,000 indorsement.

[1684] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 197.

[1685] Auditor’s Report, 1871.

[1686] Ku Klux Rept., p. 318; Report of House Railroad Inv. Com., 1871.

[1687] Montgomery Mail, Feb. 24, 1870.

[1688] Message, Nov. 17, 1874.

[1689] Report of House Railroad Inv. Com., 1871; Lewis’s Message, Nov. 17, 1873; Auditor’s Report, 1869; Auditor’s Report, 1873; House Journal, 1871-1872, pp. 305, 353; Acts of 1869-1870, p. 290.

[1690] Southern Argus, Feb. 2, 1872; Governor Lewis’s Message, Nov. 17, 1873; Auditor’s Report, 1871 and 1873.

[1691] Lewis’s Message, Nov. 17, 1873; Auditor’s Report, 1873; Act of Jan. 17, 1870.

[1692] Southern Argus, Feb. 2, 1872; Auditor’s Report, 1873; Lewis’s Messages, 1873.

[1693] Southern Argus, Feb. 2, 1872; Auditor’s Reports, 1871 and 1873; Mathes, “General Forrest,” p. 362; Wyeth, “Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest,” pp. 617, 619. When Smith had indorsed this road for $720,000, he reported the amount as $640,000. Independent Monitor, Dec. 13, 1870.

[1694] Act of Dec. 30, 1868.

[1695] Senate Journal, 1872-1873, pp. 416-422; Acts of Ala., 1872-1873, p. 58; Auditor’s Reports, 1871, 1873; Governor Lewis’s Report, Nov. 17, 1873.

[1696] Act of Feb. 25, 1870.

[1697] Auditor’s Report, 1873.

[1698] $1,300,000 fraudulent indorsement; $2,000,000 in state bonds in addition.

[1699] No record of $80,000 indorsement.

[1700] Also “three per cent fund” amounting to $30,000+, and state bonds amounting to $300,000. No record of $720,000.

[1701] No record of $1,500,000.

[1702] No record of $160,000. Also a loan of $40,000.

[1703] No record of $45,000.

[1704] Including $2,200,000, of which no record was found.

[1705] Act of Dec. 31, 1868; Acts of 1868, p. 514.

[1706] Southern Argus, June 14, 1872; Miller, “Alabama,” p. 278; Acts of Ala., passim; “Northern Alabama,” p. 737; Brown, “Alabama,” p. 291; Herbert, “Solid South,” p. 53.

[1707] A commission from Mobile visited the schools in New York, Boston, and other cities of the North.

[1708] Exclusive of Mobile County, which, as the honored pioneer, has always been outside of, and a model for, the state system.

[1709] Clark, “History of Education in Alabama,” pp. 221-241; Report of the United States Commissioner of Education, 1876, p. 6.

[1710] The son of ex-Governor Watts. Clark, p. 94.

[1711] See Ch. XI, Sec. 3.

[1712] Clark, p. 95 et passim. In 1869 N. B. Cloud, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, asked the legislature to make the loan a gift, since the destruction of the buildings was “the natural fruits of secession,” the fault of the “purblind leaders” who “pretended to secede.” Therefore he thought the state was responsible for the damage done the University.

[1713] See Journal Convention of 1867, p. 242 et passim, and above, Chs. XIV and XV.

[1714] There were four congressional districts.

[1715] The supreme court decided in regard to the Board of Education: “The new system has not only administrative, but full legislative, powers concerning all matters having reference to the common school and public educational interests of the state. It cannot be destroyed nor essentially changed by legislative authority.” Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1873, p. 5. But in 1873-1874 the legislature, however, by refusing appropriations, did manage to nullify the work of the Board.

[1716] Constitution of 1867, Art. XI.

[1717] In 1871 the legislature repealed this act, and a case that arose was carried to the United States supreme court, which, reversing a former decision of the state supreme court, held that the action of one legislature could not restrain subsequent legislatures from legislating for the public welfare by suppressing practices that tended to corrupt public morals. Besides, the court professed itself unable to find in the act any authority for a lottery. See Boyd vs. Alabama, 94 United States Reports, p. 645 (opinion by Justice Field).

[1718] Act of Dec. 31, 1868. At the same time the office of Commissioner of Lotteries was created, with a salary of $2000 a year.

[1719] This is the opinion of two subsequent members—one a Democrat and one a Radical. See also Ku Klux Report, Ala. Test., p. 426. The members were G. L. Putnam, A. B. Collins (Collins was made a professor in the University, but murdered Haughey, the Radical Congressman, and fled from the state), W. D. Miller, Jesse H. Booth, Thomas A. Cook, James Nichols, William H. Clayton, Gustavus A. Smith,—four scalawags and four carpet-baggers. The first two named resigned to accept offices created by the board. See Register of the University of Alabama, 1831-1901, p. 20.

[1720] Report, Nov. 10, 1869.

[1721] This was done at the instance of the aid societies from the North which had been doing work among the negroes.

[1722] Acts, Aug. 11, 1868. Public School Laws (pamphlet). See also Acts of Ala., 1868, pp. 147-160.

[1723] Clark, p. 98.

[1724] See Ch. XX.

[1725] Nicholas Davis, a north Alabama Republican, had this to say about Lakin to the Ku Klux subcommittee: “He called on me to explain why I said unkind things about his being candidate for president of the Alabama University, and I said, ‘Mr. Lakin, you and I are near neighbors, and I don’t want to have much to do with you—not much; but I think this: didn’t you try to be president of the Alabama University?’ He said he did. I said, ‘It would have been a disgrace to the state. You don’t know an adjective from a verb, nor nothing else.’... He says, ‘... but I rather didn’t like what you said.’ I said, ‘Doctor, you will have to like it or let it alone.’ He let it alone.”—Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 784.

[1726] Clark, p. 98, is not correct on this point; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 111, 112, 113, 114; account of Dr. O. D. Smith of the second Board of Education; Independent Monitor, Aug. 9 and Sept. 1, 1868.

[1727] For the picture see Ala. Test., p. 113, or the Independent Monitor, Sept 1, 1868. Ryland Randolph, the editor of the Monitor at that time, says that the picture was made from a rough woodcut, fashioned in the Monitor office. The Cincinnati Commercial published an edition of 500,000 copies of the hanging picture for distribution as a campaign document. A Columbus, Ohio, newspaper also printed for distribution a larger edition containing the famous picture. This was during the Seymour-Grant campaign, and the Democratic newspapers and leaders of the state were furious at Randolph for furnishing such excellent campaign literature to the Radicals.

[1728] Clark, p. 98; Independent Monitor, Jan. 5 and March 23, 1869.

[1729] Selma Times and Messenger, Aug. 9, 1868.

[1730] Clark, pp. 98, 99. Monitor, Jan. 5, March 1 and 23, 1869. “The Reconstruction University,” a farce, was acted at the court-house for the benefit of the brass band. There was no hope whatever that the reconstructed faculty would have a pleasant time.

[1731] See the Monitor, March 1, 1869.

[1732] Richards was at the same time state senator from Wilcox, sheriff of the same county, contractor to feed prisoners, and professor in the University. His income from all the offices was about $12,000, the professorship paying about $2500.

[1733] Report of Cloud, Nov., 1869. Clark, p. 99.

[1734] See Monitor, April 6, 1869. The editor of the Monitor finally came to grief because of his attacks on the Radical faculty. His paper had charged Professor V. H. Vaughn with drunkenness, whipping his wife, incompetence, etc. After a year of such pleasantries, Vaughn, who was a timid man, determined to secure assistance and be revenged. In the University was a student named Smith, son of a regent and nephew of the governor, who, on account of his Union record, was given the position of steward of the mess hall, after the removal of the old steward. Smith had been in trouble about abstracting stores from the University commissary, and the Monitor had not spared him. So he and Vaughn with their guns went after Randolph, and Smith shot him “while Vaughn stood at a respectful distance.” Randolph lost his leg from the shot. Smith and Vaughn were put in jail, but through the connivance of the officials made their escape. Vaughn went to Washington and was given an office in Utah territory. See Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 1979.

[1735] He was a competent man, well educated and possessing administrative ability. In the secession convention he had led the coöperationist forces.

[1736] Clark, pp. 99-101; Monitor, Jan. 10 and 25 and March 28, 1871. The Register of the University (p. 218) gives only thirteen names for the session 1870-1871. No record was kept at the University.

[1737] See Register of the University of Alabama, p. 217.

[1738] These notices were printed in the Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 418. They were fastened to the door with a dagger. The students who were notified left at once.

[1739] See Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 426 (Speed).

[1740] The following table gives the enrolment of students during Reconstruction:—

Session Students

1868-9

1869-70 30

1870-1 21

1871-2 107

1872-3 135

1873-4 53

1874-5 74

1875-6 111

1876-7 164

[1741] I have this account from the men who furnished the bribes.

[1742] Clark, p. 99.

[1743] Finley had been doorkeeper for the first Board (1868-1870), and in 1870 was elected to serve four years. He was a member of the convention of 1867 and of the legislature. He had no education and no ability, but he was a sensible negro and was an improvement on the white men of the preceding Board.

[1744] Journal of the Board of Education and Regents, June 20, 1871.

[1745] Act of Dec. 6, 1873, School Laws.

[1746] Clark, p. 232; Report of Cloud, Nov., 1869; Montgomery Mail, Sept. 16, 1870. In connection with the act merging the Mobile schools into the state system, the Board of Education took occasion to enlarge or complete its constitutional powers. There was no limit, according to the Constitution, to the time for the governor to retain acts of the Board. Governor Smith had pocketed several obnoxious educational bills, and the Board now resolved “that the same rules and provisions which by law govern and define the time and manner in which the governor of the state shall approve of or object to any bill or resolution of the General Assembly shall also apply to any bill or resolution having the force of law passed by this Board of Education.” The governor approved neither resolution nor the Mobile act, but they were both declared in force. Montgomery Mail, Nov. 3, 1870.

[1747] Senate Journal, 1869-1870, p. 419.

[1748] Montgomery Mail, Sept. 16, 1870.

[1749] A specimen pay-roll of Emerson Institute (“Blue College”) for the quarter ending March 31, 1869:—

Months Salary Total

G. L. Putnam, Supt. of Colored Schools 3 $333.33 $1000.00

H. S. Kelsey, Prin. Emerson Institute 3 225.00 675.00

E. I. Ethridge, Prin. Grammar School 3 200.00 600.00

Susie A. Carley, Prin. Lower School 3 180.00 540.00

A. A. Rockfellow, Prin. Intermediate School 3 105.00 315.00

Sarah A. Primey, Prin. Intermediate School 3 105.00 315.00

M. L. Harris, Prin. Intermediate School 3 105.00 315.00

M. A. Cooley, Prin. Intermediate School 3 105.00 315.00

M. E. F. Smith, Prin. Intermediate School 3 105.00 315.00

Ruth A. Allen, Primary School 3 105.00 315.00

N. G. Lincoln, Primary School 3 105.00 315.00

M. L. Theyer, Primary School 3 105.00 315.00

Judge Rapier, legal opinion — — 50.00

American Missionary Association, fuel — — 40.00

Total $5425.00

At this time the average salary of the teacher in the state schools was $42 a month.

[1750] Montgomery Mail, Sept. 16, 1876. Cloud’s Report, Nov., 1869, shows that $10,447.23 had been drawn out of the treasury by Putnam, and he had also drawn $2000 for his salary as county superintendent.

[1751] Report of the Auditor, 1871; Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1871, 1876.

[1752] See Act of Dec. 2, 1869; Somers, “Southern States,” pp. 169, 170.

[1753] The law stated that the trustees were to receive $2 a day, but Cloud said that it was a mistake, as it should be the clerks who were paid, and thus it was done. There were 1485 clerks in the state; they were paid about $60,000 a year. The county superintendents received about $65,000, an average of $1000 each, which was paid from the school fund. Before the war the average salary of the county superintendent was $300 and was paid by the county. In few counties was the work of the county superintendent sufficient to keep him busy more than two days in the week. Many of the superintendents stayed in their offices only one day in the week. The expenses of the Board of Education were from $3000 to $5000 a year, not including the salary of the state superintendent. Montgomery Mail, Sept. 15 and 16, 1870.

[1754] Hodgson’s Report, 1871; Ala. Test., p. 233.

[1755] Cloud, the state superintendent, had power of attorney to act for certain county superintendents. This he sub-delegated to his son, W. B. Cloud, who drew warrants for $8551.31, which were allowed by the auditor. This amount was the school fund for the following counties: Sumter, $1,535.59; Pickens, $6,423.17; Winston, $215.89; Calhoun, $176.66; Marshall, $200.00.

A clerk in the office of C. A. Miller, the secretary of state, forged Miller’s name as attorney and drew $3,238.39 from the Etowah County fund. Miller swore that he had notified both auditor and treasurer that he would not act as attorney to draw money for any one.

John B. Cloud bought whiskey with tax stamps. See Hodgson’s Report, 1871; Ala. Test., p. 233; Montgomery Advertiser, Sept. 27, 1872.

[1756] Hodgson’s Report, 1871; Montgomery Advertiser, Sept. 27, 1872; Report of the Commission to Examine State Offices, 1871.

[1757] Somers, pp. 169, 170.

[1758] Montgomery Mail, Sept. 15, 1870.

[1759] Somers, “Southern States,” p. 170; voters only counted as polls.

[1760] Montgomery Mail, Sept. 15, 1870.

[1761] In recent years the people have demanded and obtained a different class of school histories, such as those of Derry, Lee, Jones, Thompson, Cooper, Estill, and Lemmon. Adams and Trent is an example of one of the compromise works that resulted from the demand of the southerners for books less tinctured with northern prejudices.

[1762] Cloud’s Report, Nov., 1869; Hodgson’s Report, 1871; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 426; Montgomery Conference, “Race Problems,” p. 107.

[1763] See Ala. Test., p. 236 (General Clanton).

[1764] Ku Klux Rept., p. 53; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 234, 235.

[1765] Ala. Test., p. 1123.

[1766] Montgomery Advertiser, July 30, 1866; Selma Times, June 30, 1866.

[1767] Ala. Test., p. 236.

[1768] Selma Times, Dec. 30, 1865; Gulf States Hist. Mag., Sept., 1902.

[1769] Trowbridge, “The South,” p. 431.

[1770] Marion Commonwealth; meeting held May 17, 1866.

[1771] Montgomery Advertiser, July 24, 1867; Ala. Test., p. 236.

[1772] Montgomery Advertiser, July 24, 1867; Ala. Test., pp. 236, 246.

[1773] See Ch. XI, Sec. 3.

[1774] For specimen letters written to their homes, see the various reports of the Freedmen’s Aid Society of the Methodist Church, and the reports of other aid societies.

[1775] The best-known instances of the killing of such negroes were in Tuscaloosa and Chambers counties. The Ku Klux Report gives only about half a dozen cases of outrages on teachers. See Ala. Test., pp. 52, 54, 67, 71, 140, 252, 755, 1047, 1140, 1853. Cloud in his report made no mention of violence to teachers, nor did the governor. Lakin said a great deal about it, but gave no instances that were not of the well-known few. There was much less violence than is generally supposed, even in the South.

[1776] Ala. Test., p. 252.

[1777] See Ala. Test., pp. 236, 1889; Somers, “Southern States,” p. 169; Report of the Joint Committee on Outrages, 1868. In Crenshaw, Butler, and Chambers counties some schools existed for a year or more until teachers of bad character were elected. Then the neighborhood roughs burned the school buildings. Neither Cloud nor any other official reported cases of such burnings. The legislative committee could discover but two, and in both instances the women teachers were of bad character. In the records can be found only seventeen reports of burnings, and several of these were evidently reports of the same instance; few were specific. Lakin, who spent several years in travelling over north Alabama, and who was much addicted to fabrication and exaggeration, made a vague report of “the ruins of a dozen” schoolhouses. (Ala. Test., pp. 140, 141.) There may have been more than half a dozen burnings in north Alabama, but there is no evidence that such was the case. The majority of the reports originated outside the state through pure malice. The houses burned were principally in the white counties and were, as Lakin reports, slight affairs costing from $25 to $75. It was so evident that some of the fires were caused by the carelessness of travellers and hunters who camped in them at night, that the legislature passed a law forbidding that practice. See Acts of Ala., p. 187. About as many schoolhouses for whites were destroyed as for blacks. Some were fired by negroes for revenge, others were burned by accident.

[1778] Weekly Mail, Aug. 18, 1869.

[1779] Demopolis New Era, April 1, 1868.

[1780] Hodgson’s Report, Nov. 11, 1871.

[1781] Hodgson’s Report, Nov. 15, 1871.

[1782] Hodgson’s Report, Nov. 15, 1871.

[1783] For opinions in regard to the value of the early education among the negroes, see Washington’s “Future of the American Negro” and “Up from Slavery”; W. H. Thomas’s “American Negro”; P. A. Bruce’s “Plantation Negro as a Freeman”; J. L. M. Curry, in Montgomery Conference.

[1784] Montgomery Advertiser, July 24, 1867.

[1785] Ala. Test., p. 236.

[1786] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test. Dr. J. L. M. Curry, who, in 1865, began his work for the education of the negro, has thus expressed his opinion of the early attempts to educate the blacks: “The education was unsettling, demoralizing, pandered to a wild frenzy for schooling as the quick method of reversing social and political conditions. Nothing could have been better devised for deluding the poor negro, and making him the tool, the slave, of corrupt taskmasters.... With deliberate purpose to subject the southern states to negro domination and secure the states permanently for partisan ends, the education adopted was contrary to common sense, to human experience, to all noble purposes. The aptitude and capabilities and needs of the negro were wholly disregarded. Especial stress was laid on classics and liberal culture to bring the race per saltum to the same plane with their former masters, and realize the theory of social and political equality. Colleges and universities, established and conducted by the Freedmen’s Bureau and northern churches and societies, sprang up like mushrooms, and the teachers, ignorant and fanatical, without self-poise, proceeded to make all possible mischief.” Montgomery Conference, “Race Problems,” p. 109. See also the papers of Rev. D. Clay Lilly and Dr. P. B. Barringer in Montgomery Conference, “Race Problems,” p. 130; William H. Baldwin and Dr. Curry in Second Capon Springs Conference; Barringer, “The American Negro: His Past and Future”; Barringer, W. T. Harris, and J. D. Dreher in Proceedings Southern Education Association, 1900; Haygood, “Pleas for Progress” and “Our Brother in Black”; Abbott, “Rights of Man,” pp. 225-226.

[1787] The United States Commissioner of Education, in his report for that year, made before the elections, stated that in educational matters the state of Alabama was about to take a “backward step,” meaning that it was about to become Democratic. Report, 1870, p. 15. Later he made similar remarks, much to the disgust of Hodgson, who was an enthusiast in educational matters.

[1788] Journal of the Board of Education and Regents, 1870. Dr. O. D. Smith, who was one of the newly elected Democratic members of the Board, says that Cloud refused to inform the Board of the contents of Hodgson’s communications. Thereupon Hodgson addressed one to the Board directly and not to Cloud. When it came in through the mail, Cloud took possession of it, but Dr. Smith, who was on the lookout, called his attention to the fact that it was addressed to the Board and reminded him of the penalties for tampering with the mail of another person. The secretary read Hodgson’s communication, and the Board was then free to act. The Democratic members convinced the Radicals that if Cloud continued in office they would not be able to draw their per diem, so Cloud was compelled to vacate at once. When he left he had his buggy brought to the door, and into it he loaded all the government coal that was in his office and carried it away.

[1789] Hodgson’s Report, 1872.

[1790] See Hodgson’s Report, 1871.

[1791] Hodgson’s Report, 1871; Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1876, p. 7; Journal of the Board of Education and Regents, 1871; Acts of the Board of Education, pamphlet.

[1792] And this was the case notwithstanding the fact that the county superintendents were now allowed mileage at the rate of eight cents a mile in order to get them to come to Montgomery for their money and thus to decrease the chances of corrupt practices of the attorneys. Hodgson complained that many old claims which should have been settled by Cloud were presented during his administration.

[1793] Speed was a southern Radical. During the war he was a state salt agent at the salt works in Virginia. He was a member of the Board of Education from 1870 to 1872, and was far above the average Radical office-holder in both character and ability.

[1794] Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1873, 1874, 1876; Speed’s Report, 1873. Speed was ill much of the time, and his bookkeeping was little better than Cloud’s. Two clerks, who, a committee of investigation stated, were distinguished by a “total want of capacity and want of integrity,” managed the department with “such a want of system ... as most necessarily kept it involved in inextricable confusion.” Money was received and not entered on the books. A sum of money in coin was received in June, 1873, and six months later was paid into the treasury in depreciated paper. Vouchers were stolen and used again. Bradshaw, a county superintendent, died, leaving a shortage of $10,019.06 in his accounts. A large number of vouchers were abstracted from the office of Speed by some one and used again by Bradshaw’s administrator, who was no other than Dr. N. B. Cloud, who made a settlement with Speed’s clerks, and when the shortage was thus made good, the administrator still had many vouchers to spare. This seems to have been Cloud’s last raid on the treasury. Montgomery Advertiser, Dec. 18, 1873; Report of the Joint Committee on Irregularities in the Department of Education, 1873.

[1795] Under the Reconstruction administrative expenses amounted to 16 per cent, and even more.

[1796] The experiences with the American Missionary Association, etc., made this provision necessary.

[1797] The United States Commissioner of Education gave a disapproving account of these changes. It was exchanging “a certainty for an uncertainty,” he said. Speed had not found it a “certainty” by any means.

[1798] Plus the poll tax, which was not appropriated as required by the constitution, but diverted to other uses.

[1799] There was a shortage of $187,872.49, diverted to other uses.

[1800] Shortage unknown; teachers were paid in depreciated state obligations.

[1801] Shortage was $330,036.93.

[1802] Only $68,313.93 was paid, the rest diverted; shortage now was $1,260,511.92.

[1803] None was paid, all diverted; shortage nearly two millions.

[1804] All was paid (by Democrats, who were now in power).

[1805] McTyeire, “A History of Methodism,” p. 670; Smith, “Life and Times of George F. Pierce”; Southern Review, April, 1872.

[1806] Buckley, “History of Methodism in the United States,” pp. 516, 517.

[1807] Matlack, “Anti-Slavery Struggle and Triumph in the Methodist Episcopal Church,” p. 339; Smith, “Life and Times of George F. Pierce,” p. 530.

[1808] Annual Cyclopædia (1865), p. 552; Caldwell, “Reconstruction of Church and State in Georgia” (pamphlet).

[1809] Annual Cyclopædia (1865), p. 552.

[1810] “The schismatical plans of the Northern Methodists and the subtle proselytism of the Episcopalians” (Pierce). See Smith, “Life and Times of George F. Pierce,” pp. 491, 499, 505, 530; West, “History of Methodism in Alabama,” p. 717; McTyeire, “A History of Methodism,” p. 673.

[1811] A Federal official in north Alabama who had known of Lakin in the North testified that he had had a bad reputation in New York and in Illinois and had been sent South as a means of discipline. See Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 619 (L. W. Day, United States Commissioner). Governor Lindsay said that Lakin was a shrewd, cunning, strong-willed man, given to exaggeration and lying,—one who had a “jaundiced eye,” “a magnifying eye,” and who among the blacks was a power for evil. Ala. Test., p. 180.

[1812] N. Y. Herald, May 10, 1868; Buckley, “History of Methodism,” Vol. II, p. 191.

[1813] In 1871, Lakin stated that of his 15,000 members, three-fourths were whites of the poorer classes; that there were under his charge 6 presiding elders’ districts with 70 circuits and stations, and 70 ministers and 150 local preachers; and that he had been assisted in securing the “loyal” element by several ministers who had been expelled by the Southern Methodists during the war as traitors. Ala. Test., pp. 124, 130. Governor Lindsay stated that some of the whites of Lakin’s church were to be found in the counties of Walker, Winston, and Blount; that there were few such white congregations, and that some of these afterward severed their connection with the northern church, and by 1872 there were only two or three in the state. Lakin worked among the negro population almost entirely, and his statement that three-fourths of his members were whites was not correct. See Ala. Test., pp. 180, 208.

[1814] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 111, 112, 124, 180, 623, 957. Lakin secured all church property formerly used by the southern church for negro congregations.

[1815] Lakin never acknowledged the present existence of the southern church.

[1816] Ala. Test., pp. 238, 758.

[1817] One of Lakin’s relations was that while he was conducting a great revival meeting among the hills of north Alabama, Governor Smith and other prominent and sinful scalawag politicians were under conviction and were about to become converted. But in came the Klan and the congregation scattered. Smith and the others were so angry and frightened that their good feelings were dissipated, and the devil reëntered them, so that he (Lakin) was never able to get a hold on them again. Consequently, the Klan was responsible for the souls lost that night. Lakin told a dozen or more marvellous stories of his hairbreadth escapes from death by assassination,—enough, if true, to ruin the reputation of north Alabama men for marksmanship.

[1818] Shackleford, “History of the Muscle Shoals Baptist Association,” p. 84.

[1819] Annual Cyclopædia (1865), p. 106. In 1905 there is a much better spirit, and the churches of the two sections are on good terms, though not united.

[1820] Annual Cyclopædia (1865), p. 705. See p. 23 and Ch. IV, Sec. 7, above.

[1821] Thompson, “History of the Presbyterian Churches,” p. 167.

[1822] Annual Cyclopædia (1865), p. 706.

[1823] Carroll, “Religious Forces,” p. 281; Thompson, “History of the Presbyterian Churches,” pp. 163, 171; Johnson, “History of the Southern Presbyterian Churches,” pp. 333, 339.

[1824] Perry, p. 328 et seq.

[1825] Later the northern congregations of the Methodist Protestant Church rejoined the main body, which was southern.

[1826] Sen. Ex. Doc., No. 6, 39th Cong., 2d Sess.

[1827] Riley, “History of the Baptists in Alabama,” p. 310; Montgomery Advertiser, Oct. 15, 1865; N. Y. Times, Oct. 22, 1865; George Brewer, “History of the Central Association,” pp. 46, 49.

[1828] Huntsville Advocate, May 16, 1866.

[1829] Shackleford, “History of the Muscle Shoals Baptist Association,” p. 84.

The Radical missionaries, in order to further their own plans, encouraged the negroes to assert their equality by forcing themselves into the congregations of the various denominations. Governor Lindsay related an incident of a negro woman who went alone into a white church, selected a good pew, and calmly appropriated it. No one molested her, of course. Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 208.

America Trammell, a negro preacher of east Alabama, before the war and afterward as late as 1870 preached to mixed congregations of blacks and whites. A part of the church building was set apart for the whites and a part for the blacks. Later he became affected by the work of the missionaries, and in 1871 began to preach that “Christ never died for the southern people at all; that he died only for the northern people.” A white woman teacher lived in his house, and he was killed by the Ku Klux Klan. Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 1119.

[1830] Ball, “History of Clarke County,” pp. 591, 630; Statistics of Churches, p. 171.

[1831] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 236, 1067.

[1832] “The Work of the Southern Baptists among the Negroes” (pamphlet).

[1833] See the Southern Baptist Convention Advanced Quarterly, p. 30, “Missionary Lesson, The Negroes,” March 29, 1903, which is a most interesting, artless, southern lesson. The northern Baptists also have a mission lesson on the negroes which is distinctly of the abolitionist spirit. The average student will get about the same amount of prepared information from each. See “Home Mission Lesson No. 3, The Negroes.”

[1834] Foster, “Sketch of History of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church,” p. 300; Carroll, “Religious Forces,” p. 294; Thompson, “History of the Presbyterian Churches,” p. 193.

[1835] Thompson, “History of the Presbyterian Churches,” p. 193; Scouller, “History of the United Presbyterian Church of North America,” p. 246.

[1836] Montgomery Conference, “Race Problems,” p. 114.

[1837] Eighth Annual Report of the Freedmen’s Aid Society.

[1838] House Rept., No. 121, 41st Cong., 2d Sess.

[1839] See “Race Problems,” p. 139, for a statement of the work now being done among the negroes in Alabama by the Catholic Church.

[1840] Whitaker, “The Church in Alabama,” pp. 193, 205, 206-212. The work of the Episcopal Church among the negroes is more promising in later years. See “Race Problems,” pp. 126-131. It is not a sectional church, with a northern section hindering the work of a southern section among the negroes, as is the Methodist Episcopal Church.

[1841] Carroll, “Religious Forces,” p. 263.

[1842] Montgomery Advertiser, Nov. 24, 1865.

[1843] Montgomery Advertiser, Nov. 11, 1865.

[1844] Report for 1866, Sen. Ex. Doc., No. 6, 39th Cong., 2d Sess.

[1845] Lakin fomented disturbances between the races. His daughter wrote slanderous letters to northern papers, which were reprinted by the Alabama papers. Lakin told the negroes that the whites, if in power, would reëstablish slavery, and advised them, as a measure of safety, physical as well as religious, to unite with the northern church. The scalawags did not like Lakin, and one of them (Nicholas Davis) gave his opinion of him and his talks to the Ku Klux Committee as follows: “The character of his [Lakin’s] speech was this: to teach the negroes that every man that was born and raised in the southern country was their enemy, that there was no use trusting them, no matter what they said,—if they said they were for the Union or anything else. ‘No use talking, they are your enemies.’ And he made a pretty good speech, too; awful; a hell of a one; ... inflammatory and game, too, ... it was enough to provoke the devil. Did all the mischief he could.... I tell you, that old fellow is a hell of an old rascal.” Ala. Test., pp. 784, 791. One of Lakin’s negro congregations complained that they paid for their church and the lot on which it stood, and that Lakin had the deed made out in his name.

[1846] In the Black Belt and in the cities the slaveholders often erected churches or chapels for the use of the negroes, and paid the salary of the white preacher who was detailed by conference, convention, association, or presbytery to look after the religious instruction of the blacks. Nearly always the negro slaves contributed in work or money towards building these houses of worship, and the Reconstruction convention in 1867 passed an ordinance which transferred such property to the negroes whenever they made any claim to it. See Ordinance No. 25, Dec. 2, 1867. See also Acts of 1868, pp. 176-177; Governor Lindsay in Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 180; Montgomery Advertiser, Nov. 24, 1865.

[1847] Huntsville Advocate, May 5, 1865; Carroll, “Religious Forces,” p. 263.

[1848] Reports of the Freedmen’s Aid Society, 1866-1874.

[1849] The first recognition of such work, I find, is in the Report of the Freedmen’s Aid Society in 1878.

[1850] Tenth and Eleventh Reports of the Freedmen’s Aid Society.

[1851] These religious bodies were the African Methodist Episcopal and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion. The former was organized in Philadelphia in 1816, and the latter in New York in 1820. Both were secessions from the Methodist Episcopal Church. See Statistics of Churches, pp. 543, 559. At first there were bitter feuds between the blacks who wished to join the northern churches and those who wished to remain in the southern churches, but the latter were in the minority and they had to go. See Ala. Test., p. 180; Smith, “History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida”; “Life and Times of George F. Pierce,” p. 491.

The main difference between the A. M. E. and the A. M. E. Zion Church, according to a member of the latter, is that in one the dues are 25 cents a week and in the other 20 cents.

[1852] McTyeire, “History of Methodism,” pp. 670-673. A Southern Methodist negro preacher in north Alabama was trying to reorganize his church and was driven away by Lakin, who told his flock that there was a wolf in the fold. See Ala. Test, p. 430. The statements of several of the negro ministers would seem to indicate that Lakin took possession of a number of negro congregations and united them with the Cincinnati Conference without their knowledge. Few of the negroes knew of the divisions in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and most of them thought that Lakin’s course was merely some authorized reorganization after the destruction of war. One witness who knew Lakin in the North said that he was an original secessionist, since, in Peru, Indiana, he broke up a church and organized a secession congregation because he was opposed to men and women sitting together. The same person testified that once in north Alabama Lakin asked for lodging one night at a white man’s house. The host was treated to a lecture by Lakin on the equality of the races, and thereupon sent out and got a negro and put him in a bed to which Lakin was directed at bedtime. He hesitated, but slept with the negro. Ala. Test., pp. 791-794. Lakin was a strange character, and for several years was a powerful influence among the Radicals and negroes of north Alabama. See Ala. Test., p. 959. A Northern Methodist leader among the negroes of Coosa County was the Rev. —— Dorman, who had formerly belonged to the southern church, but had been expelled for immorality. He lived with the negroes and led a lewd life. He advised the negroes to arm themselves and assert their rights, and required them to go armed to church. See Ala. Test., pp. 164, 230. Rev. J. B. F. Hill of Eutaw was another ex-Southern Methodist who taught a negro school and preached to the negroes. He had been expelled from the Alabama Conference (Southern) for stealing money from the church, and it was charged that he tried to sell a coffin which had been sent him and in which he was to send to Ohio the body of a Federal soldier who had died in Eutaw. See Demopolis New Era, April 1, 1868. During the worst days of Reconstruction a number of negro churches which were used as Radical headquarters were burned by the Ku Klux Klan. The Northern Methodist Church is the weakest of the three negro churches; mountaineers and negroes do not mix well. The church is not favored by the whites, and there is opposition to the establishment of a negro university at Anniston by the Freedmen’s Aid Society of this church, on the ground that socially, commercially, and educationally the interests of the white race suffer where an institution is located by this society. See Brundidge (Ala.) News, Aug. 22, 1903.

[1853] McTyeire, “A History of Southern Methodism,” p. 670; Carroll, “Religious Forces,” p. 263; Alexander, “Methodist Episcopal Church South,” pp. 91-133.

[1854] Carroll, “Religious Forces,” p. 263; Bishop Halsey in the N. Y. Independent, March 5, 1891; Statistics of Churches, p. 604.

[1855] W. T. Harris, Richmond Meeting, Southern Educational Association (1900), p. 100.

[1856] See Washington, “Up from Slavery.” One church with two hundred members had eighteen preachers. Exhorters or “zorters” and “pot liquor” preachers were still more numerous.

[1857] “Race Problems,” pp. 114, 120, 123, 126, 130, 131, 135; Haygood, “Our Brother in Black,” passim; Statistics of Churches, p. 171.

[1858] The Nation, July 12, 1866, condensed.

[1859] Caldwell, “Reconstruction of Church and State in Georgia” (pamphlet). The circulars of advice to the blacks by the Freedmen’s Bureau officials repeatedly mention the advisability of the separation of the races in religious matters. But this was less the case in Alabama than in other southern states.

[1860] See Testimony of Minnis in Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test.; Brown, “Lower South,” Ch. IV.

[1861] See above, Ch. VIII, Sec. 2.

[1862] Saunders, “Early Settlers”; Miller, “Alabama”; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 394 (General Pettus); Somers, “Southern States,” p. 153.

[1863] Ku Klux Rept., pp. 80-81; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., p. 170 (Governor Lindsay).

[1864] Ala. Test., pp. 433, 459 (P. M. Dox, M. C.); p. 1749 (W. S. Mudd); p. 476 (William H. Forney); Beard, “Ku Klux Sketches.”

[1865] Somers, p. 153; Birmingham Age-Herald, May 19, 1901 (J. W. DuBose); Ala. Test., p. 487 (Gen. William H. Forney).

[1866] Ala. Test., p. 230 (General Clanton); pp. 1751, 1758, 1765 (W. S. Mudd).

[1867] Planters who before the war were able to raise their own bacon at a cost of 5 cents a pound now had to kill all the hogs to keep the negroes from stealing them, and then pay 20 to 28 cents a pound for bacon. The farmer dared not turn out his stock. Ala. Test., pp. 230, 247 (Clanton).

[1868] N. Y. World, April 11, 1868 (Montgomery Advertiser). There was a plot to burn Selma and Tuscumbia; Talladega was almost destroyed; the court-house of Greene County was burned and that of Hale set on fire. In Perry County a young man had a difficulty with a carpet-bag official and slapped his face. That night the carpet-bagger’s agents burned the young man’s barn and stables with horses in them. It was generally believed that the penalty for a dispute with a carpet-bagger was the burning of a barn, gin, or stable. See also Brown, “Lower South,” Ch. IV.

[1869] Ala. Test., p. 487 (Gen. William H. Forney).

[1870] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 377, 381, 382, 400, statement of General Pettus, the present junior Senator from Alabama. Pope and Grant continually reminded the old soldiers that their paroles were still in force. Also Beard, “Ku Klux Sketches”; testimony of John D. Minnis, a carpet-bag official, in Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 527-571.

[1871] Ala. Test., p. 224.

[1872] Ala. Test., p. 873 (William M. Lowe).

[1873] See Ch. XXIII.

[1874] For general accounts: Lester and Wilson, “Ku Klux Klan”; Beard, “Ku Klux Sketches”; Brown, “The Lower South in American History,” Ch. IV; Nordhoff, “Cotton States in 1875”; Somers, “The Southern States.” For documents, see Fleming, “Docs. relating to Reconstruction.” For innumerable details, see the Ku Klux testimony and the testimony taken by the Coburn investigating committee.

[1875] Independent Monitor (Tuscaloosa), April 14, 1868.

[1876] The negroes called them “paterollers.”

[1877] Ala. Test., p. 490 (William H. Forney).

[1878] Ala. Test., p. 873 (William. M. Lowe); p. 443 (P. M. Dox); oral accounts. It must be remembered that, so far as numbers of whites are considered, the Black Belt has always been as a thinly populated frontier region, where every white must care for himself.

[1879] Rev. W. E. Lloyd and Mr. R. W. Burton, both of Auburn, Ala., and numerous negroes have given me accounts of the policy of the black districts soon after the war.

[1880] Ala. Test., p. 1487 (J. J. Garrett).

[1881] Birmingham Age-Herald, May 19, 1901 (J. W. DuBose).

[1882] Ala. Test., p. 592 (L. W. Day).

[1883] Saunders, “Early Settlers”; oral accounts.

[1884] Ala. Test., p. 445 (P. M. Dox); Miller, “Alabama.” The negroes still point out and avoid the trees on which these outlaws were hanged.

[1885] J. W. DuBose and accounts of other members.

[1886] Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, 1866, Pt. III, p. 140 (Swayne).

[1887] Ala. Test., pp. 1125, 1126 (Daniel Taylor); pp. 1136, 1142 (Col. John J. Holley).

[1888] Ala. Test., p. 877 (Wm. M. Lowe); p. 664 (Daniel Coleman).

[1889] “The so-called Ku Klux organizations were formed in this state (Alabama) very soon after the return of our soldiers to their homes, following the surrender. To the best of my recollection, it was during the winter of 1866 that I first heard of the Klan in Alabama.”—Ryland Randolph. The quotations from Randolph are taken from his letters, unless his paper, the Independent Monitor, is referred to.

[1890] “This fellow Jones up at Pulaski got up a piece of Greek and originated it, and then General Forrest took hold of it.”—Nicholas Davis, in Ala. Test., p. 783.

[1891] Lester and Wilson, “Ku Klux Klan,” p. 17; Ala. Test., pp. 660, 661, 1282; accounts of members.

[1892] Ala. Test., p. 660.

[1893] “It [the Klan] originated with the returned soldiers for the purpose of punishing those negroes who had become notoriously and offensively insolent to white people, and, in some cases, to chastise those white-skinned men who, at that particular time, showed a disposition to affiliate socially with negroes. The impression sought to be made was that these white-robed night prowlers were the ghosts of the Confederate dead, who had arisen from their graves in order to wreak vengeance upon an undesirable class of white and black men.”—Randolph.

[1894] Lester and Wilson, Ch. I; Ala. Test., p. 1283 (Blackford); Somers, p. 152; oral accounts.

[1895] General Forrest was the first and only Grand Wizard.

[1896] There could not be more than two Dominions in a single congressional district.

[1897] There might be two Grand Giants in a province.

[1898] The office of Grand Ensign was abolished by the Revised and Amended Prescript, adopted in 1868. The banner was in the shape of an isosceles triangle, five feet by three, of yellow cloth with a three-inch red border. Painted on it in black was a Draco volans, or Flying Dragon, and this motto, “Quod semper, quod umbique, quod ab omnibus.” This, in a note to the Prescript, was translated, “What always, what everywhere, what by all is held to be true.”

[1899] Sources of revenue: (1) sale of the Prescript to Dens for $10 a copy, of which the treasuries of Province, Dominion, and Realm each received $2 and the treasury of the Empire $4; (2) a tax levied by each division on the next lower one, amounting to 10% of the revenue of the subordinate division; (3) a special tax, unlimited, might be levied in a similar manner, when absolutely necessary; (4) the Dens raised money by initiation fees ($1 each), fines, and a poll tax levied when the Grand Cyclops saw fit.

[1900] The Revised Prescript made all officers appointive except the Grand Wizard, who was elected by the Grand Dragons,—a long step toward centralization.

[1901] It was by virtue of this authority that the order was disbanded in 1869.

[1902] The judiciary was abolished by the Revised Prescript.

[1903] “We had a regular system of by-laws, one or two of which only do I distinctly remember. One was, that should any member reveal the names or acts of the Klan, he should suffer the full penalty of the identical treatment inflicted upon our white and black enemies. Another was that in case any member of the Klan should become involved in a personal difficulty with a Radical (white or black), in the presence of any other member or members, he or they were bound to take the part of the member, even to the death, if necessary.”—Randolph.

[1904] “Terrible, horrible, furious, doleful, bloody, appalling, frightful, gloomy,” etc. The Register was changed in the Revised Prescript. It was simply a cipher code.

[1905] The Revised Prescript says “the constitutional laws.” Lester and Wilson, p. 54.

[1906] Compare with the declaration of similar illegal societies,—the “Confréries” of France in the Middle Ages,—which sprang into existence under similar conditions seven hundred years before, “pour defendre les innocents et réprimer les violences iniques.” See Lavisse et Rambaud, “Histoire Générale,” Vol. II, p. 466.

[1907] See also Lester and Wilson, pp. 55, 56.

[1908] I have before me the original Prescript, a small brown pamphlet about three inches by five, of sixteen pages. The title-page has a quotation from “Hamlet” and one from Burns. At the top and bottom of each page are single-line Latin quotations: “Damnant quod non intelligunt”; “Amici humani generis”; “Magna est Veritas, et prevalebit”; “Hic manent vestigia morientis libertatis”; “Cessante causa, cessat effectus”; “Dormitur aliquando jus, moritur nunquam”; “Deo adjuvante, non timendum”; “Nemo nos impune lacessit,” etc. This Prescript belonged to the Grand Giant of the Province of Tuscaloosa County, the late Ryland Randolph, formerly editor of the Independent Monitor, and was given to me by him. It is the only copy known to be in existence. He called it the “Ku Klux Guide Book,” and states that it was sent to him from headquarters at Memphis. An imperfect copy of the original Prescript was captured in 1868, and printed in Ho. Mis. Doc., No. 53, pp. 315-321, 41st Cong., 2d Sess., and again in the Ku Klux Rept., Vol. XIII, pp. 35-41.

There is a copy of the Revised and Amended Prescript in Columbia University Library, the only copy known to be in existence. No committee of Congress ever discovered this Prescript, and when the Klan disbanded, in March, 1869, it was strictly ordered that all papers be destroyed. A few Prescripts escaped destruction, and years afterward one of these was given to the Southern Society of New York by a Nashville lady. The Southern Society gave it to Columbia University Library. It was printed in the office of the Pulaski Citizen in 1868. The Revised and Amended Prescript is reproduced in facsimile as No. 2 of the W. Va. Univ. “Docs, relating to Reconstruction.” Lester and Wilson use it incorrectly (p. 54) as the one adopted in Nashville in 1867. At this time General Forrest is said to have assumed the leadership. See Wyeth, “Life of Forrest,” p. 619; Mathes, “General Forrest,” pp. 371-373; Ku Klux Rept., Vol. XIII, Forrest’s testimony.

[1909] Somers, p. 153.

[1910] “Breckenridge Democrats, Douglas Democrats, Watts State Rights Whigs, Langdon Consolidation Know-Nothings,” united in Ku Klux. Birmingham Age-Herald, May 19, 1901; Ala. Test., p. 323 (Busteed) et passim.

[1911] But some survivors are now inclined to remember all opposition to the Radical programme as Ku Klux, that is, to have been a Democrat then was to have been a member of Ku Klux.

[1912] General Terry, in Report of Sec. of War, 1869-1870, Vol. II, p. 88.

[1913] “The Ku Klux organizations flourished chiefly in middle and southern Alabama; notably in Montgomery, Greene, Tuscaloosa, and Pickens counties.”—Randolph.

[1914] Ku Klux Rept., p. 21; Ala. Test., pp. 67, 68 (B. W. Norris); pp. 364, 395 (Swayne); p. 443 (P. M. Dox); p. 385 (General Pettus); p. 462 (William H. Forney); p. 77 (Parsons); pp. 1282, 1283 (Blackford); p. 547 (Minnis); p. 660 (Daniel Coleman); p. 323 (Busteed).

[1915] Ala. Test., p. 785 (Nicholas Davis); pp. 79, 80 (Governor Parsons).

[1916] Ala. Test., p. 1282.

[1917] “Had these organizations confined their operations to their legitimate objects, then their performances would have effected only good. Unfortunately the Klan began to degenerate into a vile means of wreaking revenge for personal dislikes or personal animosities, and in this way many outrages were perpetrated, ultimately resulting in casting so much odium on the whole concern that about the year 1870 there was an almost universal collapse, all the good and brave men abandoning it in disgust. Many outrages were committed in the name of Ku Klux that really were done by irresponsible parties who never belonged to the Klan.”—Randolph.

[1918] It was evidently organized May 23, 1867, since the constitution directed that all orders and correspondence should be dated with “the year of the B.—computing from the 23d of May, 1867.... Thursday the 20th of July, 1868, shall be the 20th day of the 7th month of the 2d year of the B. of the ——.” Constitution, Title VIII, Article 77.

[1919] Ala. Test., pp. 1282-1283 (Blackford); p. 9 (William Miller); accounts of former members. P. J. Glover testified in the Coburn-Buckner Report, pp. 882-883 (1875), that in 1867-1868 he was a member of the order of the White Camelia in Marengo County, and that it coöperated with a similar order in Sumter County. The Ku Klux testimony relating to Alabama (p. 1338) shows that in 1871 Glover had denied any knowledge of such secret orders.

[1920] W. Va. Univ. Docs., No. 1; Brown, “Lower South,” Ch. IV.

[1921] The officers of the Supreme Council were: (1) Supreme Commander, (2) Supreme Lieutenant Commander, (3) Supreme Sentinel, (4) Supreme Corresponding Secretary, (5) Supreme Treasurer.

[1922] The officers were Grand Commander, Grand Lieutenant Commander, etc.

[1923] The officers of a Central Council were Eminent Commander, etc.; of a Subordinate Council, Commander, etc.

[1924] Dr. G. P. L. Reid, Marion, Alabama, formerly an official in the order. Mr. William Garrott Brown gives the statement of one of the leaders of the order: “The authority of the commander [this office I held] was absolute. All were sworn to obey his orders. There was an inner circle in each circle, to which was committed any particular work; its movements were not known to other members of the order. This was necessary because, in our neighborhood, almost every southern man was a member.” “Lower South,” p. 212.

[1925] It is said that the Ku Klux Klan had a number of negro members.

[1926] In making the presentation the following dialogue took place: Q. Who comes there? Ans. A son of your race. Q. What does he wish? Ans. Peace and order; the observance of the laws of God; the maintenance of the laws and Constitution as established by the Patriots of 1776. Q. To obtain this, what must be done? Ans. The cause of our race must triumph. Q. And to secure its triumph, what must we do? Ans. We must be united as are the flowers that grow on the same stem, and, under all circumstances, band ourselves together as brethren. Q. Will he join us? Ans. He is prepared to answer for himself, and under oath.

[1927] The oath: “I do solemnly swear, in the presence of these witnesses, never to reveal, without authority, the existence of this Order, its objects, its acts, and signs of recognition; never to reveal or publish, in any manner whatsoever, what I shall see or hear in this Council; never to divulge the names of the members of the Order, or their acts done in connection therewith; I swear to maintain and defend the social and political superiority of the White Race on this continent; always and in all places to observe a marked distinction between the White and African races; to vote for none but white men for any office of honor, profit, or trust; to devote my intelligence, energy, and influence to instil these principles in the minds and hearts of others; and to protect and defend persons of the White Race, in their lives, rights, and property, against the encroachments and aggressions of persons of any inferior race. I swear, moreover, to unite myself in heart, soul, and body with those who compose this Order; to aid, protect, and defend them in all places; to obey the orders of those who, by our statutes, will have the right of giving those orders; to respond at the peril of my life, to a call, sign, or cry coming from a fellow-member whose rights are violated; and to do everything in my power to assist him through life. And to the faithful performance of this Oath I pledge my life and sacred honor.”

[1928] The motto is printed in large capitals in the original text.

[1929] Large capitals in the original text.

[1930] The Constitution and the Ritual of the Knights of the White Camelia are reprinted in W. Va. Univ. Docs., No. 1. They were preserved by Dr. G. P. L. Reid of Perry County, Alabama, who buried his papers when the order was disbanded, and years afterward dug them up. The secrets of the Knights of the White Camelia were more closely kept than those of the Ku Klux Klan, and the Federal officials were unable to find out anything about the order.

[1931] Constitutional Union Guards, Sons of ’76, The ’76 Association, Pale Faces, White Boys, White Brotherhood, Regulators, White League, White Rose, etc. Sumarez de Haviland, in an article on “Ku Klux Klan” in the Gentleman’s Magazine, Vol. XL, 1888 (evidently based on Lester and Wilson), gives the names of a number of secret societies, which he says were connected in some way; the first group was absorbed into Ku Klux Klan; the second consisted of opposing societies; they existed before, during, and after the Civil War. 1. The Lost Clan of Cocletz, Knights of the Golden Circle, Knights of the White Camelia, Centaurs of Caucasian Civilization, Angels of Avenging Justice, etc. 2. The Underground Railroad, The Red String Band, The Union League, The Black Avengers of Justice, etc.

“The generic name of Ku Klux was applied to all secret organizations in the South composed of white natives and having for their object the execution of the ‘first law of nature.’ There were many organizations (principally of local origin) which had no connection one with another; others, again, were more extended in their influence and operations. The one numerically the largest and which embraced the most territory was the White Camelia.”—Dr. G. P. L. Reid.

[1932] “Their robes used in these nocturnal campaigns consisted simply of sheets wrapped around their bodies and belted around the waist. The lower portion reached to the heels, whilst the upper had eyeholes through which to see, and mouth holes through which to breathe. Of course, every man so caparisoned had one or more pistols in holsters buckled to his waist.”—Randolph.

[1933] Ala. Test., pp. 149-152, 275, 452, 453, 535, 574, 579, 597, 668, 707, 919, 1048, 1553; Somers, “Southern States,” p. 152; Report of Joint Committee, Alabama Legislature, 1868; oral accounts. The Ku Klux costumes represented in Wilson’s “History of the American People,” Vol. V, Ch. I, were captured after a Ku Klux parade in Huntsville, Ala. When costumes were to be made, the materials were sometimes sent secretly to the women, who made them according to directions and returned them secretly.

[1934] Ala. Test., pp. 352, 452, 453, 490, 533, 534; Beard, “Ku Klux Sketches”; Brown, “Lower South,” Ch. IV; Lester and Wilson, Ch. III; Weir, “Old Times in Georgia,” p. 32; accounts of former members.

[1935] “Concerning any elaborate organization, I am unable to state from any personal experience. There were certain heads of departments or organizations, under heads or chiefs bearing titles intended to strike awe into the minds of the ignorant. In some instances organizers were sent to towns to establish the Klans. These latter were formed into companies officered somewhat in military style. In (1868) I was honored by being chosen leader of the Tuscaloosa Klan, and even at this late day I am gratified to be able to say that my company did good service to Tuscaloosa.”—Randolph.

[1936] “We had regular meetings about once a week, at which the conduct of certain offensive characters would be discussed, and if the majority voted to punish such, it would be done accordingly on certain prescribed nights. Sometimes it was deemed necessary only to post notices of warning, which, in some cases, were sufficient to alarm the victims and to induce them to reform in their behavior. To the best of my recollection, our company consisted of about sixty members. As soon as our object was effected, viz., got the negroes to behave themselves, we disbanded. I well remember those notices in The Monitor, for they were concocted and posted by my own hand—disguised of course.”—Randolph.

[1937] Printed in Report of Joint Committee, Alabama Legislature, 1868. The warning is not in the ordinary Ku Klux form. The purpose is clear, however. The illiteracy is probably assumed, though not necessarily.

[1938]

Headquarters S. V. W., Ancient Commandery, Mother Earth. 1st Quarter New Moon. 1st year of Revenge.

Special Order:

The worldly medium for the expression of is notified to publish for the eyes of humanity the orders of the offended Ghosts. Failing to do so, let him prepare his soul for travelling beyond the limits of his corporosity.

By order of the Great BLUFUSTIN The Mighty Chief.

True Copy, S. K. K. K.

—Independent Monitor, April 1, 1868.

[1939] “They [Ku Klux orders] had this meaning: the very night of the day on which said notices made their appearance, three notably offensive negro men were dragged out of their beds, escorted to the old boneyard (¾ mile from Tuscaloosa) and thrashed in the regular ante-bellum style, until their unnatural nigger pride had a tumble, and humbleness to the white man reigned supreme.”—Randolph.

[1940] Report of Meade, 1868.

[1941] Report of Joint Committee, 1868; Ala. Test., p. 876 (William M. Lowe).

[1942] In 1869-1870 there was an epidemic of resignations in the Black Belt. It was in the rich Black Belt that the carpet-bagger flourished. The departing Radical could always sell his property at a high price, the whites often uniting to purchase it. In Perry, Pickens, Choctaw, Marengo, Hale, and other Black Belt counties the carpet-baggers resigned and left. Ala. Test., pp. 103, 104.

[1943] The case of W. B. Jones of Marengo County was well known. See Ala. Test., p. 1455 et passim.

[1944] Ala. Test., p. 935 (a Bureau agent). It is more likely that this was when the Klan was dying out and the class of men composing it had no time to go on night rides while the crops were needing their attention. During the leisure seasons time would hang heavy on their hands, and they would begin their deviltry again.

[1945] I have learned of only two such cases; one was in Tuscaloosa County. The woman was a Bureau school-teacher from the North. Independent Monitor, May 24, 1871. The other was the case of America Trammell in east Alabama. Ala. Test., p. 1119.

[1946] Ala. Test., pp. 166, 433, 459, 462, 476, 1125, 1126, 1749.

[1947] Ala. Test., pp. 476, 1125, 1126.

[1948] Ala. Test., pp. 922, 923, et passim. I have been told that in one place 2000 muskets were collected, taken from negroes.

[1949] Ala. Test., p. 1179. The legal militia consisted of Major-General Dustan only.

[1950] Not nearly so many as is usually supposed. Lakin, who never underestimated anything, could think of only six in all north Alabama.

[1951] Ala. Test., 1138; Coburn-Buckner Report.

[1952] Several southern churches seized by Lakin for the northern church were burned.

[1953] Report of Joint Committee, 1868; Ala. Test., p. 1138.

[1954] Ala. Test., pp. 126, 127, 230, 418. See above, p. 612.

[1955] Ala. Test., p. 1983.

[1956] “Of the acts of this Order much has been written which is untrue; every disturbance between the races was laid at its door; every act of violence, in which the negro or the northern man was the victim, it was charged with. I do not deny that extreme measures were sometimes resorted to, but of such I have no personal knowledge.... Four hours would have been in [Perry County] ample time to secure the assembly, at any central point, of a thousand resolute men who would have done the bidding of their commander whatever it might have been, yet in this time [three years] no single act of violence was committed on the person or property of a negro or alien by its order or which received its sanction or indorsement.”—Dr. G. P. L. Reid.

[1957] However, in 1871 Governor Lindsay stated that there were in the state fewer feuds, crimes, difficulties, etc., than since 1819, when the state was admitted. This was especially the case, he said, in northern Alabama, for this reason: the people of the mountain and hill county were now prosperous; cotton was selling for $100 to $150 a bale; these white mountaineers by their own labor were doing well. Such was not the case with the planter who had to hire negro labor and pay high prices for provisions, farming implements, and mules. Meat that cost the planter 22 cents a pound was raised by the mountain people. Outrages against negroes were now very rare. Ala. Test., pp. 206-207. It is certain that the prosperity of the white counties which in 1870 got rid of the alien local officials had much to do with allaying disorder.

[1958] The estimate is Lakin’s.

[1959] Report Joint Committee of 1868; Ala. Test., p. 115 et passim. The N. Y. Tribune, Nov. 14, 1868, states that Gustavus Horton, the first Radical mayor of Mobile, was killed in this riot. After the riot was over the United States troops appeared too late, as they usually were in such cases.

[1960] Ala. Test., pp. 77, 429 et passim; Montgomery Mail, July 16, 1870. The mountain people had another grudge against Luke. He associated constantly with negroes and was said to be a miscegenationist. The mountain farmers had the greatest horror of such.

[1961] Ala. Test., pp. 257, 266, 275, et passim. Boyd had many private enemies, among them relatives of a man he had killed, and it was charged that they killed him. He was a man of low character, and his own party was not sorry to lose him.

[1962] It was a marked fact that no resistance to the United States soldiers was ever attempted. When the soldiers appeared, all violence ceased. The soldiers were as a rule in favor of the whites and sometimes took a hand in the Ku Kluxing. They usually appeared after the row was over.

[1963] Ala. Test., pp. 81, 221, et passim; Eutaw Whig, Oct. 27, 1870.

[1964] Ala. Test., p. 229 et passim. When he testified before the Ku Klux Committee, Alston swore that it was the men whom he had asked to protect him that had shot him,—such men as General Cullen A. Battle.

[1965] Ala. Test., p. 723.

[1966] “The company of K. K. K.’s which was organized in Tuscaloosa, was an independent organization, i.e. it was altogether a local affair, having no connection with any general Klan.”—Randolph.

[1967] Miss. Test., pp. 60, 223, 249; Ala. Test., pp. 213, 1822-1824; Garner, “Reconstruction in Mississippi,” pp. 345, 346.

[1968] Ala. Test., p. 942; Lester and Wilson, p. 78.

[1969] The anti-negro bands of the hills and mountains were rather of the spurious Ku Klux and were largely composed of tories and Radicals.

[1970] Ala. Test., p. 1763.

[1971] Constitution, Article 76; Brown, “Ku Klux Movement,” Atlantic Monthly, May, 1901.

[1972] Ala. Test., pp. 226-257.

[1973] Ala. Test., pp. 159-225.

[1974] With the White Camelia in south Alabama the case was somewhat different.

[1975] See Testimony of Lindsay and Clanton, cited above; also Ala. Test., p. 376 (Pettus); p. 896 (Lowe).

[1976] Somers, “Southern States,” pp. 4, 15, 21; Lester and Wilson, Chs. III, IV, V; Sanders, “Early Settlers,” p. 31. “The peaceful citizen knew that a faithful patrol had guarded his premises while he slept.”—Mrs. Stubbs. Brown, “Lower South,” Ch. IV; Ala. Test., pp. 432, 1520, 1532, 1803.

[1977] Throughout the pages of the Ku Klux Testimony are found assertions that Ku Klux was not an organization, but merely the understanding of the southern people, the spirit of the community, the concert of feeling of the whites, a state of mind in the population.

[1978] Ala. Test., pp. 165, 380, 649, 724; Somers, “Southern States,” p. 154. Governor Lindsay said that the so-called Ku Klux who went over to Mississippi were roughs and that the people were glad when they heard that one of them had been shot. In 1870-1871, while living in Alabama, General Forrest, the reputed Grand Wizard, repeatedly condemned in the strongest terms the conduct of the so-called Ku Klux. Ala. Test., pp. 212, 213.

[1979] Ala. Test., pp. 162, 376.

[1980] Ala. Test., p. 719.

[1981] Ala. Test., pp. 610, 778.

[1982] Ala. Test., pp. 559, 560, 1229.

[1983] Ala. Test., p. 679. Governor Smith, a Radical, said in regard to the motives of Senator George E. Spencer, I. D. Sibley, and J. J. Hinds, carpet-baggers: “My candid opinion is that Sibley does not want the law executed, because that would put down crime and crime is his life’s bread. He would like very much to have a Ku Klux outrage every week to assist him in keeping up strife between the whites and blacks, that he might be more certain of the votes of the latter. He would like to have a few colored men killed every week to furnish semblance of truth to Spencer’s libels upon the people of the state generally. It is but proper in this connection that I should speak in strong terms of condemnation of the conduct of two white men in Tuskegee a few days ago, in advising the colored men to resist the authority of the sheriff; these men were not Ku Klux, but Republicans.” Letter in Huntsville Advocate, June 25, 1870. See also Herbert, “Solid South,” p. 55.

[1984] See Ala. Test., p. 433.

[1985] Ala. Test., p. 230. In some communities a negro is still told that he must not let the sun go down on him before leaving.

[1986] Ala. Test., pp. 944, 947, 948.

[1987] Ala. Test., pp. 1757, 1758, 1764, 1765, 1768. Judge Mudd was by no means a representative of the old slaveholding element, but rather of the white county people.

[1988] Ala. Test., p. 492.

[1989] Ala. Test., pp. 1127, 1128, 1139.

[1990] Ala. Test., pp. 1175, 1179.

[1991] G. O. No. 11, Sub-Dist. Ala., April 4, 1868; Selma Times and Messenger, April 9, 1868; N. Y. Herald, April 7, 1868.

[1992] Report of the Secretary of War, 1869, p. 83 et seq.; Report of Meade, 1868.

[1993] Joint Resolution, Sept. 22, 1868, in Acts of Ala., p. 292. The delegation to Washington did not provide themselves with an authenticated copy of the resolution and had to wait for it. Governor Smith, who was with the delegation, spoiled everything by declaring that there was no disorder except along the Tennessee River and in southwestern Alabama and that troops were not needed. No officials had been resisted, he said, and it would be imprudent to send troops. N. Y. Herald, Sept. 27, 1868. The citizens of Montgomery held a mass-meeting and denied in toto the allegations of the memorial, denouncing it as a move of partisan politics. The strangers were sure to fall from power unless upheld by outside force. N. Y. Herald, Sept. 25, 1868.

[1994] Act of Dec. 24, 1868; Acts of Ala., p. 439.

[1995] Joint Resolutions, Nov. 14 and Dec. 8, 1868; Acts of Ala., pp. 593, 594.

[1996] J. DeF. Richards and G. R. McAfee of the Senate, and E. F. Jennings, W. R. Chisholm, and G. W. Malone of the House.

[1997] Report of Joint Committee on Outrages, 1868.

[1998] Act Dec. 26, 1868; Acts of Ala., 444-446. A supplementary act had to be passed allowing the probate judges to license for one dollar the wearing of masks or disguises at balls, theatres, and circuses and other places of amusement, public and private. Application had to be made at least three days beforehand by “three responsible persons of established character and reputation.” Act Dec. 31, 1868; Acts of Ala., p. 521.

[1999] Act of Dec. 28, 1868; Acts of Ala., pp. 452-454.

[2000] See Dunning, “Essays,” pp. 243-246.

[2001] Messages and Papers, Vol. VII, pp. 55, 56, March 30, 1871.

[2002] The Nation, Feb. 4, 1875, in regard to the “Force” legislation: “It would not have been possible for the most ingenious enemy of the blacks to draw up a code better calculated to keep up and fan the spirit of strife and contention between the races.” James L. Pugh, later United States Senator from Alabama: The people were tired of being reconstructed by President and by Congress. Now the Enforcement Laws punish all for the crime of a few. They are an insult to a whole people, assuming them incorrigible. Alabama Testimony, pp. 407, 408, 411.

[2003] See Burgess, “Reconstruction,” pp. 69-73.

[2004] Text of act in McPherson, pp. 549-550. This act was ostensibly to provide for the enforcement of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments. Its constitutionality has been criticised on these grounds: (1) the amendments were directed against states, not persons; (2) the law enacted penalties not only against state officers, but also against any person who might offend against the election laws of the state or against this act; (3) it is entirely out of the question to claim that the amendments protect the right of a person within a state against infringement by other persons, or even against the state itself unless on account of race, color, or previous condition. See Burgess, pp. 253-255.

[2005] Text of act in McPherson, “Handbook of Politics,” 1872, pp. 3-8. While only the congressional elections and all the registrations were to be guarded, the chief purpose of the act was to control state elections, which were held at the same time and place. See Burgess, “Reconstruction,” pp. 256-257. This was so clearly the purpose that after the rescue of the state government from carpet-bag rule the time of the state and local elections was changed from November to August in order to escape Federal espionage.

[2006] “Upon the basis of information which turned out to be very insufficient and unreliable.”—Burgess, p. 257.

[2007] Messages and Papers, Vol. VII, pp. 127-128.

[2008] Burgess, pp. 257, 258.

[2009] Text in McPherson, “Handbook,” 1872, pp. 85-87. For criticism, Burgess, pp. 257, 259.

[2010] Messages and Papers, Vol. VII, pp. 134, 135.

[2011] Report of the Committee, pp. 1, 2.

[2012] Some of the Conservatives who testified were Gen. Cullen A. Battle, R. H. Abercrombie, Gen. James H. Clanton, P. M. Dox, Gov. Robert B. Lindsay, Reuben Chapman, Thomas Cobbs, Daniel Coleman, Jefferson M. Falkner, William H. Forney, William M. Lowe, William Richardson, Francis S. Lyon, William S. Mudd, Gen. Edmund W. Pettus, Turner Reavis, James L. Pugh, P. T. Sayre, R. W. Walker,—all prominent men of high character.

[2013] Some of those who gave, willingly or unwillingly, Democratic testimony: W. T. Blackford (c.), Judge Busteed (c.), General Crawford, Nicholas Davis (s.), L. W. Day (c.), Samuel A. Hale (c.), J. H. Speed (s.), Senator Willard Warner (c.), N. L. Whitfield (s.). (c.) = carpet-bagger; (s.) = scalawag.

[2014] Charles Hays (s.), W. B. Jones (s.), S. F. Rice (s.), John A. Minnis (c.), A. S. Lakin (c.), B. W. Norris (c.), L. E. Parsons (s.), E. W. Peck (s.), and L. R. Smith (c.).

[2015] Day, Busteed, Van Valkenburg, General Crawford, etc.

[2016] Senate Report, No. 48, 42d Cong., 2d Sess., Pts. 8, 9, and 10, and House Report, No. 22, 42d Cong., 2d Sess., Pts. 8, 9, and 10, contain the Alabama Testimony.

[2017] Feb. 17, 1872; Report of Committee, p. 626.

[2018] McPherson, “Handbook,” 1872, pp. 89, 90.

[2019] McPherson, “Handbook,” 1872, pp. 90, 91. These provisions had to be inserted in the Sundry Civil Bill, which was approved June 10, 1872. Kellogg of Louisiana introduced the “rider.”

[2020] For instances of petty annoyances to the people from marshals, deputy marshals, and supervisors, see Sen. Ex. Doc., No. 119, 47th Cong. 1st Sess., and Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 246, 48th Cong., 2d Sess. These annoyances lasted for several years.

[2021] Ku Klux Rept., pp. 320, 330.

[2022] In his Message, Nov. 15, 1869, Smith stated: “Nowhere have the courts been interrupted. No resistance has been encountered by the officers of courts in their effort to discharge the duties imposed upon them by law.” Smith was criticised by the carpet-baggers for not calling out the negro militia to “enforce the laws.” He stood out against them, and on July 25, 1870, he replied to their criticisms, denouncing George E. Spencer (United States Senator), J. D. Sibley, J. J. Hinds, and others as systematically uttering every conceivable falsehood. “During my entire administration of the state government,” he said, “but one officer had certified to me that he was unable, on account of lawlessness, to execute his official duties. That officer was the sheriff of Morgan County. I immediately made application to General Crawford for troops. They were sent and the said sheriff refused their assistance.” “Solid South,” p. 55.

[2023] Montgomery Mail, July 3, 1872. The Black Cavalry and its spurious Ku Klux successors infested those parts of eastern Alabama where, in 1903, the existence of a system of peonage was discovered.

[2024] Tuskegee News, Sept. 3, 1874; Report of Joint Committee on Election of George Spencer. During the remainder of Reconstruction under the Enforcement Acts, the Federal government exercised supervision over all elections. Election outrages by the Democrats probably decreased, while outrages by the Radicals tended to increase. The Democrats put in their work of influence and intimidation in the summer and early fall, and when the elections came were quiet, trusting to the influence brought to bear some months previously. After the carpet-bag government collapsed, the Federal Enforcement Acts still gave supervision of elections to the Washington government. The Democrats in Congress were unable to secure the repeal of the force legislation. “We do not expect to repeal any of the recent enactments [Force Laws]. They may stand forever, but we intend by superior intelligence, stronger muscle, and greater energy, to make them dead letter upon the statute books.” Birmingham News, quoted in the State Journal, June 24, 1874. But in 1880 no appropriation was made for the pay of the deputy marshals and supervisors.

In 1875 the supreme court in the case of United States vs. Reese declared the two most important sections of the Enforcement Act of 1870 unconstitutional. In 1883, in the case of the United States vs. Harris, the Ku Klux Act of April 20, 1871, was declared unconstitutional. In 1888, when House, Senate, and President were Republican, an attempt was made by Mr. McKinley (afterward President) to pass a Force Bill to enforce the old election laws, which were still on the statute book. The measure failed to pass. It was in opposition to this Force Bill that Colonel Hilary A. Herbert of Alabama and other southern congressmen wrote the work called “Why the Solid South? or Reconstruction and its Results.” It is said that this book had some influence in causing a halt in force legislation. It was the first attempt to write the history of the Reconstruction period, and is still the best general account. In 1894, when House, Senate, and President were Democratic, the remnants of the Enforcement Acts were repealed, and thus was swept away the last of the Radical system. See Dunning, “The Undoing of Reconstruction,” in the Atlantic Monthly, Oct., 1901.

[2025] Coburn-Buckner Report, p. 238. The constitution is not in the Journal, however.

[2026] Coburn-Buckner Report, pp. 7, 12, 19, 702, 882, 883.

[2027] Cameron Report, 1876, pp. 53, 108; oral accounts.

[2028] The accounts of the wild and idle negro children of the rice and tobacco districts are not true of those in the Cotton Belt. The smallest tot could do a little in a cotton field.

[2029] See Birmingham Age-Herald, March 31 and April 7, 1901 (J. W. DuBose); Review of Reviews, Sept., 1903, on “The Cotton Crop of To-day,” by R. H. Edmonds; Ingle, “Southern Sidelights,” p. 271; Address of President Thach, Alabama Polytechnic Institute, before the American Economic Association, 1903; Tillinghast, “Negro in Africa and America,” pp. 126, 143; Mallard, “Plantation Life before Emancipation”; Washington, “Up from Slavery,” and “The Future of the American Negro,” passim. The immense cost of slave labor is seen when the value of the slaves is compared with the value of the lands cultivated by their labor. In 1859 the cash value of the lands in Alabama was $175,824,622, and that of the slaves was $215,540,000. The larger portion of this land had not a negro on it, and if cultivated, was cultivated exclusively by whites. See Census of 1860. The effect of the loss of slaves on the welfare of a planter is shown in the case of William L. Yancey. His slaves were accidentally poisoned and died. The loss ruined him, and he was forced to sell his plantation and engage in a profession. A farmer in a white county employing white labor would have been injured only temporarily by such a loss of labor.

[2030] The tenant furnished labor, supplies, and teams, and paid the landlord a fourth of the cotton and a third of the corn produced.

[2031] There was usually good feeling between the whites and blacks at work together; but the negroes, at heart, scorned the poor whites, and had to be closely watched to keep them from insulting or abusing them. The negro had little respect for the man who owned no slaves or who owned but few and worked with them in the fields. To protect the slaves against outsiders was one reason why discipline was strict, supervision close, passes required, etc. When both white and black were allowed to go at will over the plantation and community, trouble was sure to result from the impudent behavior of the negro to “white trash” and the consequent retaliation of the latter. The whites often came to the master and wanted him to whip his best slaves for impudence to them. The master, to prevent this, regulated the liberty of the slave by passes, etc., and the whites, especially strangers, were expected not to trespass on a plantation where slaves were.

[2032] The idea of the so-called “prejudice” against manual labor is perhaps due largely to abolitionist theories and arguments, which have been partially accepted since the war by some southerners who think it due to the old system to show its lofty attitude toward the common things of life. But the negro had, and still has, a contempt for a white who works as he does. And it has always been a custom of mankind,—white, yellow, or black,—to get out of doing manual labor if there was anything else to do.

[2033] Accounts from old citizens, former planters.

[2034] The agent of President Johnson.

[2035] Report to President, April 9, 1866.

[2036] Colonel Saunders, a noted slaveholder in one of the white counties in north Alabama, established a patriarchal protectorate over his former slaves. He built a church for them, and organized a monthly court, presided over by himself, in which the old negro men tried delinquents. It is said that the findings of this court were often ludicrous in the extreme, but order was preserved, and for a long while there was no resort to the Bureau. Saunders, “Early Settlers,” p. 31. Many similar protectorates were established in the remote districts, but the policy of the Bureau was to break them up.

[2037] A term of contempt.

[2038] See Sewanee Review, Jan., 1905, article on “Servant Problem in a Black Belt Village.”

[2039] N. Y. Herald, July 17, 1865; Reid, “After the War,” pp. 211, 218, 219; Tillet, in Century Magazine, Vol. XI; Reports of General Swayne, 1865, 1866; Van de Graaf, in Forum, Vol. XXI, pp. 330, 339; DeBow’s Review, Feb., 1866, p. 220; oral accounts.

[2040] For a description of the Bureau labor regulations, see Chapter XI, Sec. 1. Also Montgomery Mail, May 12, 1865; Howard’s Circular, May 30, 1865; Circular No. 11, War Department, July 12, 1865; Huntsville Advocate, July 26, 1865; Swayne’s Reports, 1865, 1866; G. O. No. 12, Dept. Ala., Aug. 30, 1865; G. O. No. 13, Dept. Ala., Sept., 1865; Selma Times, Dec. 4, 1865. The so-called “Black Laws” passed by the legislature in 1865-1866 to regulate labor were scarcely heard of by the people who hired negroes.

[2041] Somers, “Southern States,” 130.

[2042] Southern Magazine, Jan., 1874; Selma Messenger, Nov. 15, 1865; Harper’s Monthly Magazine, Jan., 1874; Selma Times, Dec. 4, 1865; oral accounts; DeBow’s Review, Feb., 1866.

[2043] Swayne to A. F. Perry, N. Y. Herald, Aug. 28, 1865; N. Y. Herald, July 17, 1865; Reid, “After the War,” pp. 211-219; DeBow’s Review, 1866, pp. 213, 220; Somers, “Southern States,” p. 131.

[2044] DeBow’s Review, Feb., 1866.

[2045] Many of the carpet-bag politicians were northern men who had failed at cotton planting.

[2046] Report to the President, April 9, 1866; “Ten Years in a Georgia Plantation,” by the Hon. Mrs. Leigh; oral accounts. On account of the general failure of the northern men who invested capital in the South in 1865 and 1866, there grew up in the business world an unfavorable feeling against the South, and for the remainder of Reconstruction days that section had to struggle against adverse business opinion. Harper’s Magazine, Jan., 1874.

[2047] Selma Times, Dec. 4, 1865. Nearly all the newspapers printed advertisements of the immigration societies.

[2048] “Northern Alabama Illustrated,” p. 378.

[2049] Selma Times, Dec. 4, 1865; N. Y. Times, July 2, 1866.

[2050] The great evil of slavery was its tendency to drive the whites who were in moderate circumstances away from the more fertile lands of the prairie and cane-brake and river bottoms, leaving them to the few slaveholders and the immense number of slaves. Emancipation thus left on the finest lands of the state a shiftless laboring population, which still retains possession. Now, as in slavery times, the white prefers not to work as a field hand in the Black Belt when he can get more independent work elsewhere. And besides, he does not wish to live among the negroes. Slavery kept white farmers from settling on the fertile lands; the negro keeps whites from taking possession now.

[2051] Mobile Daily Times, Oct. 21, 1860; Montgomery Advertiser, March 21, 1866; DeBow’s Review, March 18, 1866.

Several young women of Montgomery, who were once wealthy, worked in the printing-office of the Advertiser. One of them was a daughter of a former President of the United States. Many women became teachers, displacing men, who then went to the fields. Disabled soldiers generally tried teaching.

There seems to be a belief that emancipation had a good effect in driving to work a certain “gentleman of leisure” class, who had been supported by the work of slaves and who had scorned labor. (See W. B. Tillett, in the Century Magazine, Vol. XI, p. 769.) It is a mistake to regard the slaveholding, planting class as, in any degree, idle, unless from the point of view of the negro or the ignorant white, who believed that any man who did not work with his hands was a gentleman of leisure. The Alabama planter was and had to be a man of great energy, good judgment, and diligence. It was a belief that a man who could not manage a plantation or other business should not be intrusted with an official position. One of the most serious objections made by the cotton planters to Jefferson Davis as President was that he had failed to manage his plantation with success. See also Somers, “Southern States,” p. 127.

[2052] DeBow’s Review, Feb. and March, 1866; Montgomery Advertiser, March 21, 1866; N. Y. Herald, July 17, 1866. It was estimated that in the fall of 1865 the negro male population of the state was reduced by 50,000 able-bodied men, who were hanging around the cities and towns, doing nothing. At Mobile there were 10,000; at Meridian, Miss., 5000; at Montgomery, 10,000; at Selma, 5000; and at various smaller points, 20,000. Mobile Times, Oct. 21, 1865.

[2053] See also Reid, “After the War,” p. 221.

[2054] Trowbridge, “The South,” p. 431 et seq.

[2055] Trowbridge, “The South,” p. 431; Reports of General Swayne, Dec. 26, 1865, and Jan., 1866, in Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 70, 39th Cong., 1st Sess. General Swayne strongly approved the objects of these societies. He said there was not and never had been any question of the right of the negro to hold property. Free negroes had held property before the war.

[2056] DeBow’s Review, Feb., 1868.

[2057] Jan. 31, 1866.

[2058] I have this account from a planter of the district.

[2059] Somers, an English traveller, thought that the economic relations of planter and negro were startling, and that anywhere else they would be considered absurd. The tenant, he said, was sure of a support, and did not much care if the crop failed. Even his taxes, when he condescended to pay any, were paid by his master. For all work outside of his crop he had to be paid, and often he went away and worked for some one else for cash. And his privileges were innumerable. “The soul is often crushed out of labor by penury and oppression. Here a soul cannot begin to be infused into it through the sheer excess of privilege and license with which it is surrounded.” “Southern States since the War,” pp. 128, 129.

[2060] My father’s tenants, white and black, rented on all systems. The negroes usually began as wage laborers or as tenants “on halves,” for they had no supplies when they came. Then the more industrious and thrifty would save and rent farms for “third and fourth” or for “standing rent.” The whites usually obtained the highest grade, and the average white man would save enough of his earnings to purchase a team, wagon, buggy, farm implements, and a year’s supply and spend all else, though some saved enough to buy land of their own in cheaper districts or to support themselves for a year or two while opening up a homestead in the pine woods. The negro, as a rule, rented “on halves,” for he spent all his earnings and required supervision. The average negro stays only a year or two at one place before he longs for change and removes to another farm. About Christmas, or just before, the negroes and many of the whites begin to move to new homes. For a description of conditions in Mississippi, where the negro has somewhat better opportunities than in Alabama, see Mr. A. H. Stone’s article in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb., 1905.

[2061] In the census each person cultivating a crop is counted as a farmer and the land he cultivates as a farm. Thus a plantation might be represented in the census statistics by from five to twenty-five farms.

[2062] See also Otken, “Ills of the South”; Somers, “South since the War,” p. 281; Harper’s Monthly, Jan., 1874; DeBow’s Review, Feb., 1868.

[2063] Any stick is good enough to beat slavery with, so it is usually stated that slavery was responsible for the wasteful methods of cultivation that prevailed in the South before the war. That can be true only indirectly, for the soil always received the worst treatment in the white counties. Like frontiersmen everywhere, the Alabama white farmers found it easier to clear new land or to move West than to fertilize worn-out soils. The lack of transportation facilities in the white districts made it almost impossible to bring in commercial fertilizers or to move the crops when made. The railroads had opened up only the rich slave districts. If there had not been a negro in the state, the frontier methods would have prevailed, as they still do among the farmers in some parts of the West. On the other hand, the rich lands worked by slave labor under intelligent direction were kept in good condition. Under free negro labor they are in the worst possible condition. Experience, necessity, the disappearance of free land, and the increase of transportation facilities have caused the white county farmer to employ better methods, and to keep up and increase the fertility of the land by using fertilizers.

[2064] But it was nearly forty years before the entire cotton crop of the state was as large as in 1859.

[2065] Southern Magazine, Jan., 1874; Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 206, 207; Somers, “Southern States,” p. 117. In 1860 it was estimated that of the whole cotton crop 10 to 12 per cent was produced by white labor; in 1876 the proportion of whites to blacks in the cotton fields was 30 to 51; in 1883 white labor produced 44 per cent of the cotton crop; in 1884, 48 per cent; in 1885, 50 per cent; in 1893, 70 per cent. And this was done by the whites on inferior lands. See W. B. Tillett, in Century Magazine, Vol. XI, p. 771; Hammond, “The Cotton Industry,” pp. 129, 130, 132.

[2066] DeBow estimated that the entire acreage of the cotton crop was as follows:—

1836. 2,000,000 acres

1840. 4,500,000 acres

1850. 5,000,000 acres

1860. 6,968,000 acres

The Commissioner of Agriculture in 1876 estimated that the acreage in 1860 was 13,000,000. Taking this estimate, which, while probably too large, is more nearly correct, only 4 per cent of the arable land was planted in cotton—the staple crop. Hammond, “The Cotton Industry,” p. 74.

[2067] Smith, “Cotton Production in Alabama” (1884); Census, 1880; Smith in Ala. Geolog. Survey, 1881-1882; Kelsey, “The Negro Farmer”; oral accounts and personal observation.

[2068] So poor were the people after the war that, even though the value of the mineral and timber lands was well known, there was no native capital to develop them, and the lion’s share went to outsiders, who bought the lands at tax and mortgage sales during and after the carpet-bag régime.

[2069] Slavery or negroes prevented the establishment of manufactures by crowding out a white population capable of carrying on manufactures. The census shows that in 1860 the white districts had a fair proportion of manufactures for a state less than forty years old.

[2070] Address of President C. C. Thach, Dec. 29, 1903.

[2071] “Northern Alabama Illustrated,” p. 378; see article on “Immigration to the Southern States” in the Political Science Quarterly, June, 1905.

[2072] Address of President C. C. Thach, Dec. 29, 1903.

[2073] The decreasing value of the wage laborer is shown by the following table of wages:

Year Men Women Youths, 14-20

1860 $138 $89 $66

1865-1866 150-200 100-150 75-100

1867 117 71 52

1868 87 50 40

1890 150 100 60-75

The figures of 1860 are based on the wages of an able-bodied negro. The statistics of 1865-1866 are taken from tables of wages prescribed by the Freedmen’s Bureau; those for 1867 and 1868 show the decline caused by the inefficiency of the free negro laborer. Yet the demand for labor was always greater than the supply. In 1860 clothing and rations were also given; in 1866-1868 rations and no clothing. In 1890 nothing was furnished. In 1866-1868 the currency was inflated, and the wages for 1868 were really much lower. Hammond, “The Cotton Industry,” p. 124; Montgomery Mail, May 16, 1865; Freedmen’s Bureau Reports, 1865-1870.

[2074] A convention held in Montgomery, in 1873, recommended that the share system be abolished and a contract wage system be inaugurated; wages should be secured by a lien on the employer’s crop; separate contracts should be made with each laborer, and the “squad” system abolished. In this way the laborer would not be responsible for bad crops. To aid the laborers, Congress was asked to pass the Sumner Civil Rights Bill, providing for the recognition of certain social rights for negroes, to exempt homesteads from tax action, and to increase the tax on property held by speculators. And the President was asked to supply bread and meat to the negro farmers. Annual Cyclopædia (1873), p. 19; Tuscaloosa Blade, Nov. 30, 1873.