CHAPTER XII

"CARPET-BAG" AND NEGRO DOMINATION IN THE SOUTHERN STATES BETWEEN 1868 AND 1876

Escape of Virginia, Georgia and Texas from Negro Rule-North Carolina's Rapid Recovery from Negro Rule- The Loyal League-Origin of the K. K. K.'s-Methods of the Ku-KluxPeriods in the History of Negro Rule-The Act for the Enforce-ment of the New Amendments-The Corruption in the New "State" Governments-The Supplemental Enforcement Act -The President's Proclamation of March 23d, 1871-The KuKlux Act of April 20, 1871-Interference of the United States Military Power in the Affairs of South Carolina-The President's Proclamation of May 3d, 1871-The President's Proclamation to the People of South Carolina-The Ku-Klux Trials -Corruption in the State Governments of the South-The Revolt in the Republican Party-The Liberal Republican Convention of 1872-Acceptance of the Liberal Republican Candidates by the Democrats-Division in the Democratic Party -The Republican Platform and Nominees-The Republican Triumph-Events in Alabama - Events in Louisiana - The Downward Course between 1872 and 1874-The Election of 1874- The Change in Alabama, Arkansas and Texas - The Status in South Carolina in 1874-The Day of Complete Deliverance-The Status in Mississippi in 1875-Fiat Money and the Resumption of Specie Payments-The Inflation Bill of 1874 and the Veto of it by the President.

VIRGINIA, Texas and Georgia had been in no great hurry, as we have seen, to exchange military government exercised by the white officers of the United States army for "State" government under the electorate proposed in the Reconstruction Acts. In this they were wise. The army officers did not, as a rule, sympathize with the radical

Escape of Virginia, Georgia and Texas from

negro rule.

movements of the Republicans in Congress, and they so executed the duties imposed upon them as to cause the least suffering and inconvenience. Their rule, though exercised under a repellent title, was in fact far milder than, and far preferable to, the civil government of the adventurer and the negro. They mingled socially with the old families, and, in many cases, married their fair daughters. The common soldiers from the Northern "States " also fraternized with their race relatives in the South. They did not fancy the black soldiers either of the regular army or the "State" militia, and many were the cases in which they intervened between the defenceless ex-Confederates and the brutal blacks in blue. It is even said by men who have every opportunity to know that many of them doffed their uniforms on election day, went to the polls, and voted the Democratic ticket.

In spite of the threats of Congress, and the ever-increasing conditions imposed by that body upon the permission to resume the "State" status, these three communities held out under military rule until so many of their leading citizens had been amnestied by Congress and made again eligible to office and mandate, and until so much better provisions concerning the enfranchisement of the ex-Confederates had been secured, as to put them in a far better position to resume "State" government than was the case two years before. Moreover, these communities had larger white than black populations. After their full restoration, consequently, Virginia and Georgia escaped largely the suffering experienced by most of the others, and Texas also managed to pull through the years from 1870 to 1874 with only about a four-fold increase of taxation, and the creation of a debt of only about 5,000,000 of dollars, when she reached the period of union of almost all her best citizens in the Demo

cratic party, which, in the election of Richard Coke as Governor in 1874, and of a majority of the legislative members, permanently triumphed in Texas. Mississippi also had held back in 1868 and 1869, as we have seen, in order to secure better terms for the ex-Confederates in the enfranchising and disfranchising provisions of the "State" constitution, and by doing so had accomplished this result. But Mississippi was one of the three Southern communities in which the negro population far outnumbered the white. Mississippi was not, for this reason chiefly, so fortunate as Virginia, Texas and Georgia. She was obliged, with South Carolina and Louisiana, to ( pass through the fiery furnace in order to fuse the respectable white elements in her population into a single political party with a well-understood and a well-determined purpose.

North Carolina's rapid re

covery from negro rule.

Of all the "States " included in the Congressional Act of June 25th, 1868, only North Carolina had been fortunate enough to rid herself, before 1872, of the rule of the adventurers and their ignorant negro support. This happened because matters were driven to a crisis sooner here than elsewhere. The legislature of 1868 had proceeded prompt. ly to authorize the issue of $25,000,000 of bonds, when the whole taxable property of the "State" was not over $125,000,000. From the first moment the people were threatened with confiscation, and when to this was added the legislative act, known as the Schaffner law, authorizing the Governor to suspend civil government, and institute martial law in any part of the "State," and when he actually undertook to do so in three counties of the "State," the whites came together in the election of 1870, captured the legislature and redeemed the "State" from the hideous tyranny with which it was threatened.

Already before the Reconstruction Acts were passed, the political adventurers in the South had begun organThe Loyal izing the negroes into secret bodies, known League. later as the Union or Loyal League. The members of these bodies were sworn to obey the decisions of the organization and to execute them. The original idea seems to have been a combination for protection against bands of lawless white people, and for mutual aid and assistance in the hard struggle for existence to which the freedmen were now exposed. The League soon took on, however, a political character, and became a sort of Republican party organization in the South.

It is difficult to determine whether the Ku-Klux organization preceded that of the Loyal League and proOrigin of the voked it or not. So far as we know, both of K. K. K.'s. them were first heard of in the year 1866. It is probable that the Ku-Klux had its origin a little farther north than the Loyal League. It is said by those who profess to know most about it, that the first appearance of this body was in one of the southern counties of Tennessee, Giles County; that it was first organized by a lot of young loafers, probably ex-Confederate soldiers, who lived in the town of Pulaski, the county town of that county; and that their first purpose was the playing of practical jokes upon the ignorant and superstitious negroes of the neighborhood. They operated in the night-time, went disguised, travelled on horseback, their horses being also disguised, and were oath-bound to execute the decisions of the organization, and to protect each other. Whatever may have been its origin, this body also soon found its political usefulness. It soon proved to be a powerful means for intimidating and terrorizing the negroes, and also white men acting with the negroes.

After the Reconstruction Acts were passed and put into operation, and especially after the Southern communities were reorganized as "States" un- Methods of der them, and the military governments the Ku-Klux. gave way to the "State" governments, this organization spread all over the South, and contributed much by its violent and unlawful methods toward wringing finally the new "State" governments of the South from the hands of the negroes and the "carpet-baggers." As it extended, its methods became more lawless and violent. Its members whipped, plundered, burned, abducted, imprisoned, tortured and murdered, for the prime purpose of keeping the negroes from exercising suffrage and holding office. They were protected by many respectable people who would not have participated personally in their nefarious work. And they had confederates everywhere, who, upon the witness stand and in the jury box, would perjure themselves to prevent their conviction and punishment. It was even said that there were many cases where members of these Klans were able to have themselves subpoenaed as witnesses, or summoned as jurors, in the trials of their comrades, and that they were sworn to perjure themselves, if necessary, to clear each other. The respectable people of the South tried to make it appear that these lawless bands were simply freebooters, such as generally infest a country for a time after a period of war, and had no political meaning or purpose whatsoever; and it is probably true that the Klans never went beyond county organization, any wider bond than the county organization, or Klan, being rather the moral bond of a common purpose; but it cannot be well questioned now that they had one purpose at least in common, and that that was a chief purpose with them all, viz., to terrorize the negro out of the exercise of his