History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol. 2 / Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens

Part 9.

CHAPTER XXVII.
REACTION, PERIL, AND PACIFICATION.
1875-1880.

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FROM 1868 to 1872 the Southern States had been held by the Republican party, with but a few exceptions, without much effort. The friends of the Negro began to congratulate themselves that the Southern problem had been solved. Every Legislature in the South had among its members quite a fair representation of Colored men. Among the State officers there was a good sprinkling of them; and in some of the States there were Negroes as Lieut.-Governors. Congress had opened its doors to a dozen Negroes; and the consular and diplomatic service had employed a number of them in foreign parts. And so with such evidences of political prosperity before their eyes the friends of the Negro at the North regarded his "calling and election sure."

In 1873 a great financial panic came to the business and monetary affairs of the country. It was the logic of an inflated currency, wild and visionary enterprises, bad investments, and prodigal living. Banks tottered and fell, large business houses suspended, and financial ruin ran riot. Northern attention was diverted from Southern politics to the "destruction that seemed to waste at noon-day." Taking advantage of this the South seized the shot-gun and wrote on her banners: "We must carry these States, peaceably if we can; forcibly if we must." An organized, deliberate policy of political intimidation assumed the task of ridding the South of Negro government. The first step was in the direction of intimidating the white leaders of the Republican organizations; and the next was to deny employment to all intelligent and influential Colored Republicans. Thus from time to time the leaders of the Republican party were reduced to a very small number. Without leaders the rank and file of the party were harmless and helpless in State and National campaigns. This state of affairs seemed to justify the presence of troops at the polls on election days. Under an Act of Congress "the President was empowered to use the army to suppress domestic violence, prevent bloodshed," and to protect the Negroes in the constitutional exercise of the rights conferred upon them by the Constitution. This movement was met by the most determined opposition from the South, aided by the sympathy of the Northern press, Democratic platforms, and a considerable element in the Republican party.

In 1874 the condition of affairs in the South was such as to alarm the friends of stable, constitutional government everywhere. The city of New Orleans was in a state of siege. Streets were blockaded with State troops and White Line leagues, and an open battle was fought. The Republican State government fell before the insurgents, and a new government was established vi et armis. Troops were sent to New Orleans by the President, and the lawful government was restored. The Liberal movement in the North, which had resulted in the defeat of the Republican tickets in Indiana, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and even in Massachusetts, greatly encouraged the Bourbon Democrats of the South, and excited them to the verge of the most open and cruel conduct toward the white and black Republicans in their midst.

A large number of Northern Legislatures passed resolutions condemning the action of the President in sending troops into the South, although he did it in accordance with law. Many active and influential Republicans, displeased with the action of the Republican governments at the South, and the conduct of the Forty-third Congress, demanded the destruction of the Republican party. The Liberal movement had started in 1872. Its leaders thought the time had come for a new party, and counselled the country accordingly.

The Forty-fourth Congress was organized by the Democrats. The Cabinet Ministers were divided on the policy pursued toward the South. In the autumn of 1875 the shot-gun policy carried Mississippi; and from the 6th of July till the Republican government in that State went down into a bloody grave, there was an unbroken series of political murders.

President Grant was met by a Democratic Congress; a divided Cabinet: Zachariah Chandler and Edwards Pierrepont were in sympathy with him; Bristow and Jewell represented the Liberal sentiment. Then, the Republican party of the North, and many leading journals, were urging a change of policy toward the South. The great majority of Republicans wanted a change, not because they did not sympathize with the Negro governments, but because they saw some of the best men in the party withdrawing their support from the administration of Gen. Grant. There were other men who charged that the business failures in the country were occasioned by the financial policy of the Republican party, and in a spirit of desperation were ready to give their support to the Democracy.

It was charged by the enemies of Gen. Grant that when he was elected President he had a solid Republican South behind him; that under his administration everything had been lost; and that he was responsible for the political ruin which had overtaken the Republican party at the South. The charge was false. The errors of reconstruction under the administration of President Andrew Johnson, and the mistakes of the men who had striven to run the State governments at the South had to be counteracted by the administration of President Grant. This indeed was a difficult task. He did all he could under the Constitution; and when Congress endeavored to pass the Force Bill, the Hon. James G. Blaine, of Maine, made a speech against it in caucus. Mr. Blaine had a presidential ambition to serve, and esteemed his own promotion of greater moment than the protection of the Colored voters of the South. And Mr. Blaine never allowed an opportunity to pass in which he did not throw every obstacle in the way of the success of the Grant administration. Mr. Blaine has never seen fit to explain his opposition to the Force Bill, which was intended to strengthen the hands of the President in his efforts to protect the Negro voter at the South.

When the National Republican Convention met at Cincinnati, Ohio, in the summer of 1876, there was still lacking a definite policy for the South. Presidential candidates were numerous, and the contest bitter. Gen. Rutherford B. Hayes, at that time Governor of Ohio, was nominated as a compromise candidate. There was no issue left the Republican party, as the "bloody shirt" had been rejected by the Liberals, and was generally distasteful at the North. But the initial success of the Democratic party South, and the loss of many Northern States to the Republicans, had emboldened the South to expect national success. But a too precipitous preparation for a raid upon the United States Treasury for the payment of rebel war claims threw the Republicans upon their guard, and, for the time being, every other question was sunk into insignificance. So the insolence of the "Rebel Brigadier Congress," and the letter of Samuel Jones Tilden, the Democratic candidate for the Presidency, on the question of the Southern war claims, gave the Republican party a fighting chance. But there were a desperate South and a splendid campaign organizer in Mr. Tilden to meet. And with a shot-gun policy, tissue ballets, and intimidation at the South, while a gigantic, bold, and matchless system of fraudulent voting was pushed with vigor in the North, there was little show of success for the Republican ticket. The contest on the part of the Republicans was spiritless. It was difficult to raise funds or excite enthusiasm. The Republican candidate had only a local reputation. He had been to Congress, but even those who had known that had forgotten it. A modest, retiring man, Gov. Hayes was not widely known. The old and tried leaders were not enthusiastic. Mr. Blaine had no second choice. He was for himself or nobody. The Democrats prosecuted their campaign with vigor, intelligence, and enthusiasm. They went "into the school districts," and their organization has never been equalled in America.

The result was doubtful. One thing, however, was sure: the Negro governments of the South were now a thing of the past. Not a single State was left to the Republican party. Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina were hanging by the slender thread of doubt, with the provisions of a returning board in favor of the Republican party. The returning boards were the creation of local law; their necessity having grown out of the peculiar methods employed by Democrats in carrying elections. These boards were empowered to receive and count the votes cast for presidential electors; and wherever it could be proven that intimidation and fraud had been used, the votes of such precincts, counties, etc., were to be thrown out. The three doubtful States named above were counted for the Republican presidential electors. Their work was carried before Congress. A high joint electoral commission was created by law, composed of the ablest men of the two parties in Congress, with the salt of judicial judgment thrown in. This commission examined the returns of the three doubtful States, and decided not to go behind the returns; and, according to a previous agreement, one branch of Congress ratifying, the candidate having the more votes was to be declared duly elected.

The country was in an unprecedented state of excitement; and even European governments felt the shock. The enemies of Republican government laughed their little laugh, and said that the end of the republic had come. British bankers brought out into the light Confederate bonds; while stocks in the United States went through an experience as variable as the weather in the Mississippi valley. The public press was intemperate in its utterances, and the political passions of the people were inflamed every hour. The national House of Representatives was a vast whirlpool of excitement,—or, rather it was an angry sea stirred to its depths, and lashing itself into aimless fury by day and by night. When the vote of a State was called, some Democrat would object, and the Senate, which was always present, would retire, and the House would then open a war of words running through hours and sometimes days. When the debate ended, or rather when the House had reached the end of its parliamentary halter, the Senate would again enter, the vote of the State would be counted, and the next one called. Thus the count proceeded through anxious days and weary nights. Business was suspended; and the bulletin boards of commercial 'changes were valueless so long as the bulletin boards of the newspapers contained "the latest news from Washington."

In this state of affairs there was need of statesmen at the head of the Republican minority in Congress. There were orators; but the demand was for men of judgment, energy, executive ability,—men in whom the Democrats had confidence, who could put a stop to filibustering, and secure a peaceful solution of a unique and dangerous problem.

These were forthcoming; the late President Garfield and Gov. Foster, then a member of Congress, with Kasson, Hale, and other members of Congress, were among those most active and effective in securing a peaceful result.

When the electoral fight was on, and the end seemed uncertain, these gentlemen stepped to the front and fairly won the reputation of statesmen. They saw that if the filibustering of the Democrats were brought to a close, it would have to be accomplished by the leaders in that party and on that side of the House. Accordingly they secured Fernando Wood, of New York, as the leader in opposition to filibustering, and John Young Brown, of Kentucky, as his lieutenant. The Republican policy was to allow the Democrats to lead and do the talking, while they should fall into line and vote when the proper time came. But Fernando Wood at the head of the Republicans as a leader, was a spectacle as strange and startling as Satan leading a prayer-meeting. It was too much for an orthodox, close-communion, hard-shell Republican like Martin I. Townsend!

On Thursday afternoon, the last day of the alarming scenes in Congress, nearly everybody had lost hope. There was no telling at what moment the government would be in anarchy. In the midst of the confusion, excitement, and threatening danger, the Hon. Charles Foster was the most imperturbable man in Congress. On Thursday afternoon Senator Hoar, a member of Congress from Massachusetts, saw Mr. Foster seated at his desk writing as quietly and composedly as if in his private office; he seemed perfectly oblivious to the angry storm which was raging about him. The cold-blooded, conservative New England Senator was as greatly amazed at the serenity of the clear-headed Western Congressman as he was distressed at the impending disaster. He went to Mr. Foster and talked very discouragingly respecting the situation. He said that the Senate was growing impatient at the dilatory conduct of the House, and would probably, at the earliest convenience, send a message to the House demanding that the latter open their doors and admit the Senate to complete the count. Congressman Foster stated to the Senator that the House was not in a temper to be driven; that a resolution of the character of the one proposed would hinder rather than help a peaceful solution of the vexatious count; and that if he would only possess his soul in patience, before the rising of another sun R. B. Hayes would be peaceably and constitutionally declared the President of the United States. And it was even as he said; for before four o'clock the next morning the count was completed, and Hayes declared the President of the United States for the Constitutional term of four years. This is given as one of the many unwritten incidents that occurred during this angry, and, probably, most perilous controversy that ever threatened the life of the American Republic.

A new policy for the South was now inevitable. From October 1876 till March 1877, President Grant had refused to recognize Chamberlain as Governor of South Carolina, or Packard as Governor of Louisiana. He had simply preserved those governments in statu quo. He had heard all that could be said in favor of the Republican side of the question, and seemed to believe that it was now beyond his power to hold up the last of the Negro governments with bayonets. He was right. It would have been as vain to have attempted to galvanize those governments into existence as to have attempted the resuscitation of a dead man by applying a galvanic battery. Governments must have, not only the subjective elements of life, but the powers of self-preservation. The Negro governments at the South died for the want of these elements. It was a pity, too, after the noble fight the Republican party of Louisiana and South Carolina had made, and after they had secured their electoral votes for Hayes, that their State officers who had been chosen at the same time should have been abandoned to their own frail governmental resources. But this was unavoidable. Their governments could not have existed twenty-four hours without the presence and aid of the United States army. And this could not have been done in the face of the sentiment against such use of the army which had grown to be nearly unanimous throughout the country. If the Republicans could have inaugurated their officers and administered their governments they would have received the applause of the administration at Washington and the God-speed of the Republican party of the North; but the moment the United States troops were withdrawn the Negro governments melted into nothingness.

Every thing had been tried but pacification. The men who best understood the temper of that section knew it was incapable, as a whole, of receiving the olive branch in the spirit in which the North would tender it. But a policy of conciliation was demanded; the Northern journals asked it. An ex-Major-General of the Confederate Army was called to the Cabinet of President Hayes, and was given a portfolio where he could do more for the South than in any other place. Gen. Longstreet, a gallant Confederate soldier during the late war, was made Postmaster at Gainesville, Georgia, and afterward sent as Minister to Turkey. Col. Mosby, another Confederate soldier, or guerilla, was sent to China, and Col. Fitzsimmons was made Marshal of Georgia. It was the policy of the Hon. Charles Foster to have the President recognize young men at the South who had the pluck and ability to divide the Bourbon Democratic party of that section, and hasten the day of better feeling between the sections. But the President, either incapable of comprehending this idea, or jealous of the credit that the country had already bestowed upon him, blundered on in selecting men to represent his policy in the South who had no following, and were, therefore, valueless to his cause. His heart was right, but he put too much confidence in Southern statesmen.

The South showed no signs of improvement. White Republicans were intimidated, persecuted, and driven out. The black Republicans were allowed to vote, but the Democrats counted the votes and secured all the offices. The President was under the influence of Alex. H. Stephens, of Georgia, and Wade Hampton, of South Carolina. He expected much; but he received nothing. Instead of gratitude he received arrogance. The Southern leaders in Congress sought to deprive the Executive of his constitutional veto; to starve the army; and to protract the session of Congress. The North had invited its "erring brethren" back, and had killed the fatted calf, but were unwilling to allow the fellow to eat all the veal! The conduct of the South was growing more intolerable every day; and the President's barren policy was losing him supporters. He had not tied to any safe advisers. Hon. Charles Foster, Senator Stanley Matthews, and Gen. James A. Garfield could have piloted him through many dangerous places. But he shut himself up in his own abilities, and left his friends on the outside. The South had gulped down every thing that had been given it, and was asking for more. Every thing had been given except the honor of the cause that the Union army had fought for. To complete the task of conciliation it was only required that the nation destroy the monuments to its hero dead, and open the treasury to the payment of rebel war claims, and pension the men who were maimed in an attempt to shoot the government to death. To the credit of President Hayes let history record that he did not surrender his veto power to arrogant and disloyal Southern Congressmen. He became convinced at last that the South was incapable of appreciating his kindness, and was willing to change front. His policy was inevitable. It did great good. It united the Republican party against the South; and a splendid cabinet, a clean administration, and the resumption of specie payments wrought wonders for the Republican party.

There was a ripe sentiment in the North in favor of "a change" of policy. The very men who had advocated pacification; who had "flowers and tears for the Gray, and tears and flowers for the Blue"; who wanted the grave of Judas equally honored with the grave of Jesus—the destroyer and the Saviour of the country placed in the same calendar;—were the first men to grow sick of the policy of pacification. But what policy to inaugurate was not clear to them.

In the summer of 1878 the Hon. Charles Foster returned to Ohio from Washington City. He had seen State governments in the North slip from the control of Republicans, because of the folly of the Hayes' policy of pacification toward the South. He had the good-sense to take in the situation. He saw that it was madness to attempt any longer to conciliate the South. He saw that the lamb and lion had lain down together, but that the lamb was on the inside of the lion. Brave, intelligent, and far-seeing, on the 1st of August, 1878, he gave the Republican party of the North a battle-cry that died away only amid the shouts of Republican State and National victories in 1880. This was all the North needed. A leader was demanded, and the Hon. Charles Foster sounded the key-note that met with a response in every loyal heart in the country. His idea was that as the South had not kept the faith; had not accorded protection to the Negro voter; had not broken up old Bourbon Democratic organizations, it was the imperative duty of the North to meet that section with a solid front. Hence his battle-cry: "A Solid North against a Solid South." The following is his famous speech—pure gold:

"I happened to be one who thought and believed that the President's Southern policy, as far as it related to the use of troops for the support of State governments, was right. I sustained it upon the ground of high principle, nevertheless it could have been sustained on the ground of necessity. The President has extended to the people of the South the hand of conciliation and friendship. He has shown a desire, probably contrary to the wishes of the great mass of his party, to bring about, by the means of conciliation, better relations between the North and South. In doing this he has alienated from him the great mass of the leading and influential Republicans of the country. He had lost their sympathy, and to a great degree their support. What has he received in return for these measures of conciliation and kindness? How have these measures been received by the South? What advance can we discover in them, of the recognition of the guarantees of the rights of the Colored men under the Constitutional Amendments? We see Jeff. Davis making speeches as treasonable as those of 1861, and these speeches endorsed and applauded by a great portion of their press and people. We see also the declaration of Mr. Singleton, of Mississippi, in answer to a question of mine on the floor of the House, declaring that his paramount allegiance in peace and war was due to his State.

"No gentleman from the South, or even of the Democratic party, has taken issue with him. We see also, all over the South, a disposition to resist the execution of the United States laws, especially in the matter of the collection of internal revenue. To-day there are four U. S. officers under arrest by the authorities of the State of South Carolina, in jail and bail refused, for an alleged crime in their State, while in fact these officers were discharging their duty in executing the laws of the United States in that State. Their State courts and their officers refused to obey the writs of the United States courts in the surrender of these men to the United States authorities. No former act of this treasonable State shows a more defiant attitude toward the U. S. Government, or a greater disposition to trample upon its authority. I trust the Administration will, in this case, assert in the most vigorous manner possible the authority of the United States Government for the rescue and protection of these officers. I have no bloody shirt to wave. If there is one man in this country, more than another, who desires peace and quiet between the sections, I believe I am that man. Gentlemen may philosophize over this question until they are gray, but you cannot escape the discussion of this question so long as a Solid South menaces the peace of the country. A Solid Democratic South means the control of the country by the spirit and the men who sought its destruction.

"My own opinion is that there can be no peace—this question will not down, until the menace of the Solid South is withdrawn. I had hoped that the policy of President Hayes would lead to the assertion, by a very considerable portion of the South, of their antagonism to Bourbon Democracy.

"I confess to a degree of disappointment in this, though I think I see signs of a breaking up of the Solid South in the independent movement that seemed to be gaining a foothold in all sections of that country. But the effective way to aid these independent movements, this breaking up of the Solid South, is for the North to present itself united against the Solid South. A Solid South under the control of the Democratic party means the control of the party by this element. It means the repeal of the Constitutional Amendments, if not in form, in spirit. It means the payment of hundreds of rebel claims. It means the payment of pensions to rebel soldiers. It means the payment for slaves lost in the Rebellion. It means the abrogation of that provision of the Constitution which declares, that the citizens of one State shall have all the rights, privileges, and immunities of the citizens of other States.

"If my Democratic friends who seem to be anxious to bring about peace and quiet between the sections are sincere and desire to make their expressions effective, they should act with that party that presents a solid front, a United North, so long as we are menaced with the Solid South.

"If it could be understood in the South that they are to be met with a Solid North, I do not believe that the Solid South would exist in that condition a single year. They retain this position because they believe that they can have the support of a fragment of the North; and thus with this fragment rule and control the country. I would have no fear of the control of the country by the Democratic party if it were made up of something like equal proportion from all sections of the country. I discuss this question, first, because I believe it the most important question at issue in the pending canvass. I repeat that it is the imperative duty of the North to meet the Solid South with a united front."[133]

This speech was delivered at Upper Sandusky, Wyandotte Co., Ohio. It thrilled the North, and put new life into the Republican party. It gave him the nomination for governor, and from 23,000 Democratic majority he redeemed the State by a Republican majority of 17,000. A wave of enthusiasm swept the country. His battle-cry became the editorial of a thousand journals, and hundreds of orators found ammunition enough in his little speech of a hundred lines to keep up a campaign of two years' duration. It is a fact that history should not omit to record, that from the 1st of August, 1878, until the election of James A. Garfield to the presidency, there was no cessation to the campaign in the North.

But the securing of a Solid North did not restore the Negro governments at the South. The North had rallied to rebuke an insolent South; to show the Democrats of that section that the United States Treasury should be protected, and that the honor of the nation would be maintained unsullied. If the South would not pay its honest debts there was every reason for believing that it would not pay the national debt. It was to be regretted that the Negro had been so unceremoniously removed from Southern politics. But such a result was inevitable. The Government gave him the statute-book when he ought to have had the spelling-book; placed him in the Legislature when he ought to have been in the school-house. In the great revolution that followed the war, the heels were put where the brains ought to have been. An ignorant majority, without competent leaders, could not rule an intelligent Caucasian minority. Ignorance, vice, poverty, and superstition could not rule intelligence, experience, wealth, and organization. It was here that the "one could chase a thousand, and the two could put ten thousand to flight." The Negro governments were built on the shifting sands of the opinions of the men who reconstructed the South, and when the storm and rains of political contest came they fell because they were not built upon the granite foundation of intelligence and statesmanship.

It was an immutable and inexorable law which demanded the destruction of those governments. It was a law that knows no country, no nationality. Spain, Mexico, France, Turkey, Russia, and Egypt have felt its cruel touch to a greater or less degree. But a lesson was taught the Colored people that is invaluable. Let them rejoice that they are out of politics. Let white men rule. Let them enjoy a political life to the exclusion of business and education, and they too will sooner or later be driven out of their places by the same law that sent the Negro to the plantations and to the schools. And if the Negro is industrious, frugal, saving, diligent in labor, and laborious in study, there is another law that will quietly and peaceably, without a social or political shock, restore him to his normal relations in politics. He will be able to build his governments on a solid foundation, with the tempered mortar of experience and knowledge. This is inevitable. The Negro will return to politics in the South when he is qualified to govern; will return to stay. He will be respected, courted and protected then. Then as a tax-payer, as well as a tax-gatherer, reading his own ballot, and choosing his own candidates, he will be equal to all the exigencies of American citizenship.

CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE EXODUS—CAUSE AND EFFECT.

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THE exodus of the Negroes from Southern States forms one of the most interesting pages of the almost romantic history of the race. It required more than ordinary causes to drive the Negro from his home in the sunny South to a different climate and strange country. It was no caprice of his nature, nor even a nomadic feeling. During the entire period of the existence of the Republican governments at the South the Negroes remained there in a state of blissful contentment. And even after the fall of those governments they continued in a state of quiet industry. But there followed the decline of those governments a policy as hurtful to the South as it was cruel to the Negroes.

During the early years of reconstruction quite a number of Negroes began to invest in real estate and secure for themselves pleasant homes. Their possessions increased yearly, as can be seen by a reference to statistical reports. Some of the estates and homesteads of the oldest and most reputable white families, who had put every thing info the scales of Confederate rebellion, fell into the possession of ex-slaves. Such a spectacle was not only unpleasant, it was exasperating, to the whites. But so long as the Republican governments gave promise of success there was but little or no manifestation of displeasure on the part of the whites. Just as soon, however, as they became the masters of the situation, the property of many Negroes was seized, and sold upon the specious plea—"for delinquent taxes"; and the Negroes were driven from eligible places to the outskirts of the larger towns and cities. No Negro was allowed to live in the vicinity of white persons as tenants; and it became a social crime to sell property to Negroes in close proximity to the whites. In the rural districts, where Negroes had begun to secure small farms, this same cruel spirit was "the lion in their way." The spirit that sought to keep the Negro ignorant as a slave, now that he was at least nominally free, endeavored to deprive him of one of the necessary conditions of happy and useful citizenship: the possession of property, the aggregations of the results of honest labor. Nothing could have been more fatal to the growth of the Negro toward the perfect stature of free, intelligent, independent, and self-sustaining manhood and citizenship. The object and result of such a system can easily be judged. It was intended to keep the Negroes the laboring element after as well as before the war. The accomplishment of such a result would have been an argument in favor of the assertion of the South that the normal condition of the Negro was that of a serf; and that he, did not possess the elements necessary to the life of a freeman. Thus would have perished the hopes, prayers, arguments and claims of the friends of the cause of universal, manhood suffrage.

Among the masses of laboring men the iniquitous, outrageous, thieving "Plantation Credit System" was a plague and a crime. Deprived of homes and property the Negroes were compelled to "work the crops on the shares." A plantation store was kept where the Negroes' credit was good for any article it contained. He got salt meat, corn meal, sugar, coffee, molasses, vinegar, tobacco, and coarse clothing for himself and family. An account was kept by "a young white man," and at the end of the season "a reckoning" was had. Unable to read or cipher, the poor, credulous, unsuspecting Negroes always found themselves in debt from $50 to $200! This necessitated another year's engagement; and so on for an indefinite period. There was nothing to encourage the Negroes; nothing to inspire them with hope for the future; nothing for their families but a languid, dead-eyed expectation that somehow a change might come. But the crime went on unrebuked by the men who were growing rich from this system of petty robbery of the poor. For the cheapest qualities of brown sugar, for which the laboring classes of the North pay 8 cents, the Negroes on the plantations were charged 11 and 13 cents a pound. Corn meal purchased at the North for 4 cents a quart, brought 9 and 10 cents at the plantation store. And thus for every article the Negroes purchased they were charged the most exorbitant prices.

There were two results which flowed from this system, viz.: robbing the families of these Negroes of the barest comforts of life, and destroying the confidence of the Negro in the blessings and benefits of freedom. No man—no race of men—could endure such blighting influences for any length of time.

Moreover the experiences of the Negroes in voting had not been extensive, and a sudden curtailing and abridgment of their rights was a shock to their confidence in the government under which they lived, and in the people by which they were surrounded. It was thought expedient to intimidate or destroy the more intelligent and determined Negroes; while the farm laborers were directed to refrain from voting the Republican ticket, or commanded to vote the Democratic ticket, or starve. There never was a more cruel system of slavery than this.

Writing under date of January 10, 1875, General P. H. Sheridan, then in command at New Orleans, says:

"Since the year 1866 nearly thirty-five hundred persons, a great majority of whom were colored men, have been killed and wounded in this State. In 1868 the official record shows that eighteen hundred and eighty-four were killed and wounded. From 1868 to the present time no official investigation had been made, and the civil authorities in all but a few cases have been unable to arrest, convict, or punish the perpetrators. Consequently there are no correct records to be consulted for information. There is ample evidence, however, to show that more than twelve hundred persons have been killed and wounded during this time on account of their political sentiments. Frightful massacres have occurred in the parishes of Bossier, Caddo, Catahoula, Saint Bernard, Grant, and Orleans."

He then proceeded to enumerate the political murders of Colored men in various parishes, and says:

"Human life in this State is held so cheaply that when men are killed on account of political opinions, the murderers are regarded rather as heroes than as criminals in the localities where they reside."

This brief summary is not by a politician, but by a distinguished soldier, who recounts the events which had occurred within his own military jurisdiction. Volumes of testimony have since been taken confirming in all respects General Sheridan's statement, and giving in detail the facts relating to such murders, and the times and circumstances of their occurrence. The results of the elections which immediately followed them disclose the motives and purposes of their perpetrators. These reports show that in the year 1867 a reign of terror prevailed over almost the entire State. In the parish of St. Landry there was a massacre of Colored people which began on the 28th of September, 1868, and lasted from three to six days, during which time between three and four hundred of them were killed. "Thirteen captives were taken from the jail and shot, and a pile of twenty-five dead bodies were found burned in the woods." The result of this Democratic campaign in the parish was that the registered Republican majority of 1,071 was wholly obliterated, and at the election which followed a few weeks later, not a vote was cast for General Grant, while Seymour and Blair received 4,787.

In the parish of Bossier a similar massacre occurred between the 20th and 30th of September, 1868, which lasted from three to four days, during which time two hundred Negroes were killed. By the official registry of that year the Republican voters in Bossier Parish numbered 1,938, but at the ensuing election only one Republican vote was cast.

In the parish of Caddo, during the month of October, 1868, over forty Negroes were killed. The result of that massacre was that out of a Republican registered vote of 2,894 only one was cast for General Grant. Similar scenes were enacted throughout the State, varying in extent and atrocity according to the magnitude of the Republican majority to be overcome.

The total summing up of murders, maimings, and whippings which took place for political reasons in the months of September, October, and November, 1868, as shown by official sources, is over one thousand. The net political results achieved thereby may be succinctly stated as follows: The official registration for that year in twenty-eight parishes contained 47,923 names of Republican voters, but at the presidential election held a few weeks after the occurrence of these events but 5,360 Republican votes were cast, making the net Democratic gain from said transactions 42,563.

In nine of these parishes where the reign of terror was most prevalent, out of 11,604 registered Republican votes only nineteen were cast for General Grant. In seven of said parishes there were 7,253 registered Republican votes, but not one was cast at the ensuing election for the Republican ticket.

In the years succeeding 1868, when some restraint was imposed upon political lawlessness and a comparatively peaceful election was held, these same Republican parishes cast from 33,000 to 37,000 Republican votes, thus demonstrating the purpose and the effects of the reign of murder in 1868.

In 1876 the spirit of violence and persecution which, in parts of the State, had been partially restrained for a time, broke forth again with renewed fury. It was deemed necessary to carry that State for Tilden and Hendricks, and the policy which had proved so successful in 1868 was again invoked, and with like results. On the day of general election in 1876 there were in the State of Louisiana 92,996 registered white voters, and 115,310 Colored, making a Republican majority of the latter of 22,314. The number of white Republicans was far in excess of the number of Colored Democrats. It was, therefore, well known that if a fair election should be held the State would go Republican by from twenty-five to forty thousand majority. The policy adopted this time was to select a few of the largest Republican parishes and by terrorism and violence not only obliterate their Republican majorities, but also intimidate the Negroes in the other parishes. The sworn testimony found in our public documents and records at Washington shows that the same system of assassinations, whippings, burnings, and other acts of political persecution of Colored citizens, which had occurred in 1868, was again repeated in 1876, and with like results.

In fifteen parishes where 17,726 Republicans were registered in 1876 only 5,758 votes were cast for Hayes and Wheeler, and in one of them (East Feliciana) where there were 2,127 Republicans registered, but one Republican vote was cast. By some methods the Republican majority of the State was supposed to have been effectually suppressed and a Democratic victory assured. And because the legally constituted authorities of Louisiana, acting in conformity with law and justice, declined to count some of the parishes thus carried by violence and blood, the Democratic party, both North and South, has ever since complained that it was fraudulently deprived of the fruits of the victory thus achieved, and it now proposes to make this grievance the principal plank in the party platform[134] for the future.

The worm trampled upon so persistently at length turned over. There was nothing left to the Negro but to go out from the land of his oppression and task-masters.

The Exodus was not a political movement. It was not inspired from without. It was but the natural operation of a divine law that moved whole communities of Negroes to turn their faces toward the setting sun. When the Israelites went out of Egypt God commanded their women to borrow the finger-rings and ear-rings of the Egyptians. All had sandals on their feet, staves in their hand, and headed by a matchless leader. God went before them as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. But when the Negroes began their exodus from the Egypt of their bondage they went out empty; without clothing, money, or leaders. They were willing to endure any hardships short of death to reach a land where, under their own vine and fig-tree, they could enjoy free speech, free schools, the privilege of an honest vote, and receive honest pay for honest work. And how forcibly they told why they left the South.

"Now, old Uncle Joe, what did you come for?"

"Oh, law! Missus, I follers my two boys an' the ole woman an' then 'pears like I wants a taste of votin' afore I dies, an' the ole man done wants no swamps to wade in afore he votes, 'kase he must be Republican, ye see."

"Well, old Aunty, give us the sympathetic side of the story; or, tell us what you think of leaving your old home."

"I done have no home nohow, if they shoots my ole man an' the boys, an' gives me no money for de washin."

A bright woman of twenty-five years is asked her condition, when she answers; "I had n't much real trouble yet, like some of my neighbors who lost every thing. We had a lot an' a little house, an' some stock on the place. We sold all out 'kase we did n't dare to stay when votin' time came again. Some neighbors better off than we had been all broken up by a pack of "night-riders"—all in white,—who scared everybody to death, run the men off to the swamps before elections, run the stock off, an' set fire to their places. A poor woman might as well be killed and done with it."

In the early Spring of 1879, the now famous Exodus of the Negroes from the South set in toward the Northern States.

"Many already have fled to the forest and lurk on its outskirts, Waiting with anxious hearts the dubious fate of the morrow. Arms have been taken from us, and warlike weapons of all kinds; Nothing is left but the blacksmith's sledge and the scythe of the mower."

The story of the emigration of a people has been often repeated since the world began. The Israelites of old, with their wanderings of forty years, furnish the theme of an inspired poem as old as history itself. The dreadful tale of the Kalmuck Tartars, in 1770, fleeing from their enemies, the Russians, over the desolate steppes of Asia in mid-winter; starting out six hundred thousand strong, men, women, and children, with their flocks and herds, and reaching the confines of China with only two hundred thousand left, formed an era in oriental annals, and made a combination from which new races of men have sprung. But still more appropriate to this occasion is the history of the Huguenots of France, driven by religious persecution to England and Ireland, where, under their influence, industries sprang up as the flowers of the field, and what was England's gain was irreparable loss to France.[135] The expulsion of the Acadians, a harmless and inoffensive people, from Nova Scotia, is another instance of the revenge that natural laws inflict upon tyranny and injustice. Next to the persecuted Pilgrims crossing a dreary ocean in mid-winter to the sterile coasts of a land of savages for freedom's sake, history hardly furnishes a more touching picture than that of forty thousand homeless, friendless, starving Negroes going to a land already consecrated with the blood of the martyrs to the cause of free Soil and unrestricted liberty. It was grandly strange that these poor people, persecuted, beaten with many stripes, hungry, friendless, and without clothing or shelter, should instinctively seek a home in Kansas where John Brown had fought the first battle for liberty and the restriction of slavery! Some journeyed all the way from Texas to Kansas in teams, with great horned oxen, and little steers in front no larger than calves, bowing eagerly to the weary load. Worn and weary with a nine weeks' journey, the travellers strained their eyes toward the land of hope, blindly yet beautifully "trustin' de good Lord." Often they buried their dead as soon as they arrived, many dying on the hard floor of the hastily-built wooden barracks before beds could be provided, but praying all night long and saying touchingly: "Come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly. Come with dyin' grace in one hand and savin' love in the other."[136]

A relief association was organized at once. A dear, good, old Quaker lady, in her sixty-fourth year, a quarter of a century of which had been spent in relieving suffering humanity, came forward and offered her services free of charge. The association was organized as The Kansas Freedmen's Relief Association. Mrs. Comstock was just the person to manage the matter of raising funds and securing clothing. In Gov. J. P. St. John, Mrs. Comstock and the association found a warm-hearted Christian friend.

Notwithstanding the plain, world-known causes, the Hon. D. W. Voorhees, United States Senator from Indiana, introduced a resolution providing for the investigation of "the causes of the migration of the Colored people from the Southern to the Northern States." It cost the Government thousands of dollars, but developed nothing save what the country had known for years, that the political cruelties and systematic robbery practised upon the Colored people in the South had forced them into a free country.

In one year those who had taken up a residence in Kansas had become self-sustaining. They took hold of the work with enthusiasm; they proved themselves industrious and frugal.

The Relief Association at first supplied them with stoves, teams, and seed. In round numbers, in a little more than a year, $40,000 was used, and 500,000 pounds of clothing, bedding, etc. England contributed 50,000 pounds of goods and $8,000 in money; the chief givers being Mrs. Comstock's friends who knew her in her good work abroad. Much of the remainder had come in small sums, and from the Christian women of America. One third was furnished by the Society of Friends. Ohio gave more than any other State. The State and municipal funds of Kansas were not drawn upon at all, though much had come from private sources.

During the first year in Kansas, the freedmen entered upon 20,000 acres of land, and plowed and fitted for grain-growing 3,000 acres. They built 300 cabins and dugouts, and accumulated $30,000. In 1878 Henry Carter, of Tennessee, set out from Topeka on foot for Dunlap, sixty-five miles away; he carrying his tools, and his wife their bedclothes. In 1880 he had forty acres of land cleared and the first payment made, having earned his money on sheep ranches and elsewhere by daily labor. He has built a good stone cottage sixteen feet by ten, owns two cows, a horse, etc. In Topeka, where there were about 3,000 refugees, nearly all paupers when they came, all have found means in some way to make a living. These people have shown themselves worthy of aid. Mrs. Comstock has heard of only five or six cases of intoxication in nine months, and of no arrests for stealing. They do not want to settle where there is no church, and are all eager to have a Bible and to learn. Schools have been opened for the adults—the public schools of Kansas wisely making no distinction on account of color,—and also industrial schools, especially for women, who are quite ignorant of the ordinary duties of home life.

In the month of February, 1880, John M. Brown, Esq., General Superintendent of the Freedmen's Relief Association read an interesting report before the Association, from which the following extract is taken:

"The great exodus of Colored people from the South began about the 1st of February, 1879. By the 1st of April 1,300 refugees had gathered around Wyandotte, Ks. Many of them were in a suffering condition. It was then that the Kansas Relief Association came into existence for the purpose of helping the most needy among the refugees from the Southern States. Up to date about 60,000 refugees have come to the State of Kansas to live. Nearly 40,000 of them were in a destitute condition when they arrived, and have been helped by our association. We have received to date $68,000 for the relief of the refugees. About 5,000 of those who have come to Kansas have gone to other States to live, leaving about 55,000 yet in Kansas. About 30,000 of that number have settled in the country, some of them on lands of their own or rented lands; others have hired out to the farmers, leaving about 25,000 in and around the different cities and towns of Kansas. There has been great suffering among those remaining in and near the cities and towns this winter. It has been so cold that they could not find employment, and, if they did, they had to work for very low wages, because so many of them are looking for work that they are in each other's way.

"Most of those about the cities and towns are men with large families, widows, and very old people. The farmers want only able-bodied men and women for their work, and it is very hard for men with large families to get homes among the farmers. Kansas is a new State, and most farmers have small houses, and they cannot take large families to live with them. So, when the farmers call for help, they usually call for a man and his wife only, or for a single man or woman.

"Now, in order that men with large families may become owners of land, and be able to support their families, the K. F. R. Association, if they can secure the means, will purchase cheap lands, which can be bought at from $3 to $5 per acre, on long time, by making a small payment in cash. They will settle the refugees on those lands, letting each family have from twenty to forty acres, and not settling more than sixteen families in anyone neighborhood, so that they can easily obtain work from the farmers in that section or near by. I do not think it best to settle too many of them in any one place, because it will make it hard for them to find employment.

"If our association can help them to build a small house, and have five acres of their land broken, the women and children can cultivate the five acres, and make enough to support their families, while the men are out at work by the day to earn money to meet the payments on their land as they come due. In this way many families can be helped to homes of their own, where they can become self-sustaining, educate their children, and be useful citizens to the State of Kansas.

"Money spent in this way will be much more profitable to them than so much old clothing and provisions. Then they will no longer be objects of charity or a burden to benevolent people."

The sad stories of this persecuted people had touched the hearts of the friends of humanity everywhere. Money and clothing came on every train, and as fast as the association could secure homes for the refugees they were distributed throughout the State.[137]

A special correspondent of the "Chicago Inter-Ocean" was despatched to Topeka to report the condition of things there, and to throw some light upon the great intellect of Senator Voorhees. He reported as follows:

"Topeka, Kan., April 9.—During the last few days I have, in obedience to your request, been taking notice of the exodus, as it may be studied here at the headquarters for relief among the refugees in Kansas. This is the third visit your correspondent has made to the 'promised land' of the dusky hosts who, fleeing from persecution and wrongs, have swarmed within its borders to the number of 25,000. In a letter written while here in December last the number then within the State was estimated at about 15,000, and since that date at least 12,000 more have come. In the 'barracks' to-day I found what seemed to be the same one hundred * * * who crowded about the stove that cold December day; but they were not the same, of course, for their places have been filled many times with other hundreds, who have found their first welcome to Kansas in the rest, food, and warmth which the charity of the North has provided here. So efficient have the plan of relief and the machinery of distribution been made, that of the thousands who have passed through here, none have remained as a burden of expense to the association more than four or five days before places were found where their own labor could furnish them support.

"If that pure statesman of Indiana whose great heart was so filled with solicitude for the welfare of his colored brethren, that he asked Congress to appropriate thousands of dollars to ascertain why they moved from one State to another, will come here he will be rewarded by such a flood of light on the question as can never penetrate the recesses of his committee room in Washington. He need hardly propound an inquiry; he had, indeed, best not let his great presence be known, for in the presence of Democracy the negro has learned to keep silence. But in search of the truth let him go to the file of over 3,000 letters in the Governor's office from negroes in the South, and read in them the homely but truthful tales of suffering, oppression, and wrongs. Let him note how real is their complaint, but how modest the boon they seek; for in different words, sometimes in quaint and often in awkward phrases, the questions are always the same: Can we be free? Can we have work, and can we have our rights in Kansas? Let him go next to the barracks and watch the tired, ragged, hungry, scared-looking negroes as they come by the dozens on every train. If he is not prompted by shame, then from caution necessary to the success of his errand, let him here conceal the fact that he is a Democrat, for these half-famished and terrified negroes have been fleeing from Democrats in the South, and in their ignorance they may not be able to comprehend the nice distinction between a Northern and Southern Democrat. If he will be content simply to listen as they talk among themselves, he will soon learn much that the laborious cross-examination of witnesses has failed to teach him. He may take note of the fact that fleeing from robbery, oppression, and murder, they come only with the plea for work and justice while they work. He may see reason to criticise what generally has been deemed by Southern Democrats at least, the unreasonable folly in a negro which prompts husband and wife to go only where they can go together, but he will find nothing to cause him to doubt the sincerity and good faith with which the negro grapples with the problem of his new life here. If he would learn more of this strength of resolution and the patience which they have brought to the search for a home in a free land, let him inquire concerning the lives of these refugees in Kansas. It may seem of significance and worthy of approving note to him, that as laborers they have been faithful and industrious; that in no single case have they come back asking aid of the relief association nor become burdens in any way upon corporate or public charities; that as citizens they are sober and law-abiding to such a degree that he would hardly be able to discover a single case of crime so far among them; and, finally, that in those instances where they were able to purchase a little land and stock, they have made as good progress toward the acquirement of homes and property as have the average poor white immigrants to the State. He will first learn, then, from the refugees themselves something of the desperate nature of the causes that drove them from the South, and secondly, from their lives here, with what thrift, patience, and determination they have met the difficulties which they have encountered in their efforts to gain a foothold, and as men among men, in the land of equal rights. From the Hon. Milton Reynolds, President of the Auxiliary Relief Association at Parsons, I learn that the negroes who have come into the southern part of the State, mostly from Texas, are all either settled on small tracts of land or employed as laborers at from $8 to $12 per month, and are all doing well. Mr. Reynolds's testimony to this effect was positive and unqualified. To assist these refugees in Southern Kansas—over 3,000 in all—only $575 has been expended. From Judge R. W. Dawson, who was the Secretary of the association under the old management and during the early months of the movement, one year ago, when 6,000 refugees were distributed throughout the State and provided with homes at a cost of $5,000, I learned much of interest concerning the welfare and progress of this advance guard of the great exodus. Judge Dawson, although not connected now with the relief work, feels of course a great interest in the welfare of those to whose assistance he contributed much, and loses no opportunity for observation of their condition while travelling over the State. He says he knows of no case where one has come back to the association for aid, and that, as laborers and citizens, their conduct has been such as to win the approval of all classes. Four colonies have been established. State lands were bought by the association and given to the colonies with the understanding that, to secure their title, they must make the second and third payments on the land purchased on the one-third cash and two-thirds time payment plan. Two of the newest of these colonies are still receiving aid from the association, but the others are self-sustaining and will be able, it is thought, to make the small purchase payments on the land as they become due.

"If our inquiring Statesman is interested in observing in what spirit these refugees receive the aid which has made existence possible here during the cold winter months, he may be profited by spending a few days in looking about the city of Topeka. There are in Topeka alone over 3,000 refugees, and nearly all of them, paupers when they came, have found means in some way to make a living. In many cases it is a precarious subsistence that is gained, and in not a few cases among late arrivals he would find evidences of want and destitution, but, compared with this, he cannot but be struck with the small number of applicants to the Relief Association for aid. Only 213 rations were issued outside the barracks last week to the 3,000 refugees who came here only a few months since without money, and frequently without clothing, to undertake what seemed under the circumstances the desperate purpose of making a living.

"The dangers and difficulties which beset the refugees' departure from a land where even the right to emigrate is denied him are great. * * * He may learn (Mr. Voorhees), however, from copies of over 1,000 letters in the Governor's office, that Gov. St. John has never, in reply to their appeals, failed to warn them of the difficulties that would beset their way here, and has never extended them promise of other assistance than that implied in the equal rights which are guaranteed to every citizen of Kansas. Further than this, however surprising it may be to Mr. Voorhees' theory of the causes of the exodus, it is nevertheless a fact that this very association, which is charged with encouraging the exodus, has sent the Rev. W. O. Lynch, a colored man, to the South to warn the colored people that they must not come here expecting to be fed or to find homes already prepared, and to do all in his power to dissuade them from coming at all. Still they come, and why they come the country has determined long in advance of Mr. Voorhees' report. * * *

"While we have Mr. Voorhees here we would be glad to have him glance at a State document to be found upon Governor St. John's table, which bears the Great Seal and signature of Gov. O. M. Roberts, of the State of Texas. It is a requisition by the Governor of Texas upon the Governor of Kansas for the body of one Peter Womack, a colored man, who was indicted by the Grand Jury of Grimes County at the last November term for the felony of fraudulently disposing of ten bushels of corn. From further particulars we learn that this Peter Womack gave a mortgage early in the spring of 1879 upon his crop just planted to cover a debt of twenty dollars due the firm of Wilson and Howel. When Womack came to gather his crop, he yields to the importunities of another white creditor ten bushels of corn to be applied upon the debt. About this time this Peter Womack becomes influential in inducing a number of his colored neighbors in Grimes County to emigrate to Kansas. Undeterred by threats and despite the bull-dozing methods employed to cause him to remain a 'citizen' of Texas, Womack, with others, sick of a condition of citizenship which is nothing less than hopeless peonage, leaves stock and crops behind to seek a home in Kansas. His acts in inciting the movement of these black serfs are not forgotten, however, by the white chivalry of Grimes County. The evidence of this surrender on a debt of ten bushels of corn, mortgaged for another debt, is hunted up, presented to the Grand Jury of Grimes County, he is promptly indicted for a felony, and the great State of Texas rises in her majesty and demands a surrender of his body. The demand is in accordance with law, undoubtedly,—Texas law,—but if Texas would occasionally punish one of the white murderers who do not think it necessary to leave her borders, this pursuit of a negro for selling ten bushels of corn from a mortgaged crop would seem a more imposing exhibition of the power of the commonwealth to enforce its laws."[138]

The effect, or rather the results of the Exodus have been twofold. It taught the Southern people that there was need of some effort to regain the confidence of the Negroes; that the Negro is the only laborer who can cultivate that section of the country; that the Negro can get on without the Southern people a great deal better than they can get on without Negro labor; that the severe political treatment and systematic robbery of the Negroes had not only driven them out, but had discouraged white people from settling or investing money at the South; that dissatisfied labor was against their interests; that it was the duty of business men in the South to take a firm stand for the protection of the Negroes, because every stroke of violence administered to the Negroes shocked and injured the business of that section; and that kind treatment of and protection for the Negroes would insure better work and greater financial prosperity. On the other hand, the Exodus benefited the Negroes who sought and found new homes in a new country; and it secured better treatment for those who remained behind. The Exodus was in line with a great law that governs nations. The Negro race must win by contact with the white race; by absorbing all that is good; by the inspiration of example. He must come in contact now not with a people who hate him, but with a people of industrious, sober, and honest habits; a people willing to encourage and instruct him in the duties of life. Race lines must be obliterated at the South, and the old theory of the natural inferiority of the Negro must give way to the demonstrations of Negro capacity. A new doctrine must supplant the old theories of pre-slavery days, and every man in the Republic must enjoy a citizenship as wide as the continent, and, like the coin of the Government, pass for his intrinsic value, and no more.