Part 6

To this I might add indefinitely, exhibiting the bad temper and disloyal spirit which prevail throughout Virginia. Bayonets are no longer flashing there; bullets are no longer whizzing there; but the traitorous soul that inspired the Rebellion still fills the State with its malignant breath. Give it not, I entreat you, the power to rule.

* * * * *

From Virginia pass to North Carolina. Here the testimony is the same. During this week I have seen Government officers who have been in service, one since 1863, who report that it is not safe to speak one’s sentiments there; that liberty of speech does not exist; that the freedmen, so far from being lazy or remiss, are willing to work, but that they are exposed to unutterable hardship and cruelty. On these points the testimony is explicit. A loyal resident of North Carolina writes me:--

“I tell you, Sir, the only difference now and one year ago is, that the flag is acknowledged as supreme, and there is some fear manifested, and they have no arms. The sentiment is the same. If anything otherwise, more hatred exists toward the Government. _I know there is more toward Union men, both black and white._”

More hatred toward the Union men, both white and black, than one year ago! Such is the condition of North Carolina.

In accordance with this is other testimony.

“Two women, school-teachers, who were recently sent from Wilmington to Fayetteville to establish a school for colored children, were informed by the sheriff of the county that they would not be allowed to start their schools, nor would they be allowed to land; but they might remain on the steamer until her return to Wilmington, inasmuch as they were women; if they were men, they would receive such treatment as was awarded to such meddlesome characters before the war.

“Mr. Dickinson says, that, while he was in Fayetteville, a negro was strung up by the thumbs in the public square, and received forty-nine lashes from a civil officer recently appointed by Governor Holden.”

A Wilmington paper makes the following report.

“General Ames, General Duncan, and Colonel Donnelson have returned from an official visit to Fayetteville, where they went to ascertain the truth of the reports coming from there in regard to the treatment of the colored people.

“The result of their visit substantiates the fact that the negroes have been cruelly treated, not only by the civilians, but also by the civil authorities there.

“Two negroes were tied up and publicly whipped by the sheriff, on the sentence of a magistrate.

“Other negroes were tied up to trees and whipped, and left tied to the trees until a storm came up and prostrated the trees, and the poor negroes fell with them.

“Citizens exercised the authority of masters over the negroes, and punished them at their will with such severity as to them seemed fit.

“It is even reported that negroes have been killed in the most cruel manner.”

Why heap instances? They might be piled high; but why pain the heart by such an exhibition?

* * * * *

From North Carolina pass to South Carolina, where the testimony is, if possible, still more explicit. The spirit of this Rebel State, yet rebel in heart, appears in the well-known letter from Wade Hampton, which I do not stop to quote. It is especially manifest in the frank speech of James R. Campbell in the Convention, from which I read an extract.

“I believe, that, when our votes are admitted into that Congress, if we are tolerably wise, governed by a moderate share of common sense, we will have our own way. I am speaking now not to be reported. We will have our own way yet, if we are true to ourselves. We know the past; we know not what is to be our future. Are we not in a condition to accept what we cannot help? Are we not in a condition where it is the part of wisdom to wait and give what we cannot avoid giving? I believe as surely as we are a people, so surely, if we are guided by wisdom, we will by the beginning of the next Presidential election, which is all that is known of the Constitution, (for, when you talk of the Constitution of the United States, it means the Presidential election, and the share of the spoils,) I believe then we may hold the balance of power.”

That Mr. Campbell spoke according to the sentiments of the prevailing politicians is attested by a private letter which I have received from a Government officer so situated there as to know the real condition of things. I read extracts only.

“The speeches in Convention and Legislature are doubtless known to you, and the _animus_ pervading all action of these bodies. Mr. Campbell expressed it exactly. Let us do what we _have to_, as little as we are obliged to, get into Congress somehow, and _then_ pay off the score. One or two minor matters in this connection I mention as showing how the current sets.

“1. _The election for members of Convention, 4th September._ The favorites in every contested case were those most prominent in Secession proceedings of past years. The majority of them did not take the amnesty oath.…

“2. Not even the prospect of securing a favorable recognition in Congress could secure the election of any man tainted with Unionism, in opposition to any candidate thoroughly established as an opponent to the Government in past time.

“3. And yet, strange as it may seem, _the people_--by which I mean the planters generally, exclusive of the _politicians_--are not savagely disloyal; and this is one main point to which I desire earnestly to testify. It is a fact that the political working of the State is in the hands of one hundred and fifty to one hundred and eighty men. It has taken me six months to appreciate the _entireness_ of the fact, though of course I had heard it stated.

“It seems to me a most Providential opportunity is now offered to break up this maladministration of politics. The people among whom I move are becoming restive under present disadvantages, and criticize sharply the acts of the Legislature, which seem to delay Reconstruction. If the State is refused representation in the present Congress, and the acts of the State Legislature, its speeches, its Black Code, its general fractious and combative attitude, its spirit in accepting the Constitutional Amendment and refusing the annulment of Secession Ordinances are brought to light,--if, in a word, it can be shown that the long recognized politicians of the State have thoroughly damaged the State by taking her out of the Union, and have also kept her from coming in, _there will be a political revolution in the State in less than two months_. The Rebels so promptly pardoned by the President will meet no such complacency from the people. I _know_ this to be true,--am taught it anew every day.

“If the State authority is to be recognized, and the present Legislature triumphs by forcing the State into the Union, I anticipate very disastrous consequences. The freed people are well enough; they do not know as much as could be desired, but they know quite as much as could be expected, and are open to instruction. But that instruction must come from _the Government, through the military_, untrammelled by any fractious jobbing of State Legislatures. There is no confidence on the part of the freed people in the _State_; they only know the United States Government, and no other will answer.”

Here is a letter from a South-Carolinian who served in the Rebel army, but who now sees the error of his ways.

“I am sorry to say Governor Orr’s inaugural yesterday received no applause at all from the audience: its sentiments were too Union-loving for them. I am sorry also to say that the South-Carolinians generally entertain to a great extent their old ideas and prejudices, so disastrous of late to the State. One is almost compelled to think they insanely wish to bring upon themselves more and greater mortifications. Witness the vote given Hampton, who refused to be a candidate. What an unwise display of a factious and discontented spirit! Few seem willing to admit the simple proposition that all causes of ill-feeling between North and South have been settled by the arbitrament of the sword, and we must submit sincerely. They seek rather to keep alive the ill-feeling that has made us unhappy for so many years, _and that ill-advised disposition to supervise the actions of the United States Government_.

“If this war does not settle all issues, and settle them forever, _it will be because the General Government fails to use the power it has obtained_. I am as dear a lover of South Carolina as any man in it, and for that reason I wish to see peace and harmony restored throughout its borders. But that can never be, if the men who tried hardest to break up the Government are, immediately they find themselves unsuccessful with the sword, _allowed to take seats in Congress and recommence the agitation with their tongues and by their arguments and votes. More inflammatory speeches were not made in 1860 than have been delivered during the late canvass. If examples are not made, if leading men are not made to feel some ill effects from an unsuccessful attempt to revolutionize, then agitation will never cease, but will be kept up by ambitious men of mean talents, who can hope to rise only in times of disorder, or by operating upon and influencing the passions of the multitude._”

To cap the climax of this iniquity, a body of men calling themselves the Legislature, but having small title to be considered a legal body, have undertaken to enact a Black Code, separating the two races, in defiance of every principle of Equality. I quote a provision fastening apprenticeship or serfdom in new form upon the unhappy freedman.

“Colored children, between the ages mentioned [males two and twenty-one, females two and eighteen], who have neither father nor mother _living in the district in which they are found_, or whose parents are paupers, or unable to afford to them maintenance, _or whose parents are not teaching them habits of industry and honesty_, or are persons of notoriously bad character, or are vagrants, or have been, either of them, convicted of an infamous offence, may be bound as apprentices by the District Judge, or one of the magistrates, for the aforesaid term.”[30]

Under these words no colored minor in the State is safe for one moment from compulsory serfdom.

The lash is also prescribed as a means of enforcing contracts.[31] The lash once more is to resound.

The planters at their public meetings give utterance to the same brutal spirit. Here is a series of resolutions, where, after calling for the withdrawal of the troops of the United States, and declaring themselves pledged to the existing state of things, and that it is their “honest purpose to abide thereby,” they proceed as follows.

“_Resolved_, That, if inconsistent with the views of the authorities to remove the military, we express the opinion that the plan of the military _to compel the freedman_ to contract with his former owner, when desired by the latter, is wise, prudent, and absolutely necessary.

“_Resolved_, That we, the planters of the district, pledge ourselves not to contract with any freedman, unless he can produce a certificate of regular discharge from his former owner.

“_Resolved_, That under no circumstances whatsoever will we rent land to any freedmen, nor will we permit them to live on our premises as employees.”

Thus is the freedman, whose liberty the United States are bound to maintain, handed over to _compulsory service_, and under no circumstances is land to be rented to him. And yet these people announce that they accept the existing state of things, and that it is their honest purpose to abide thereby! Of course they accept a state of things which leaves them once more “masters” of their former slaves. Of course they will abide by this. Be it our function to teach them the duty and necessity of Equal Rights.

* * * * *

From South Carolina pass to Georgia, and there is the same wretched story. The spirit of the State appears in the language of Mr. Simmons in the Convention:--

“Let us repudiate only under the lash and the application of military power; and then, as soon as we are an independent sovereignty, restored to our equal rights and privileges in the Union, let us immediately call another Convention and resume the debt.”

Testimony from various quarters shows the same spirit. A recent writer, of unimpeachable authority, now sitting as reporter in your galleries, thus testifies:--

“In the stage between Augusta and Milledgeville I rode with two gentlemen of considerable local weight and prominence, who were both anti-secessionists in 1860-61. They talked of the approaching Convention, and of its probable action in redistricting the State for Representatives. ‘Well, Colonel,’ said the younger, himself a man of over forty years,--‘well, Colonel, what will be our proper course, when we are once more fully restored to the Union?’ The answer came, after a moment’s consideration: ‘_We must strike hands with the Democratic party of the North, and manage them as we always have._’ There was a pause while we rattled down the hill, and then the questioner responded: ‘That is just it; _they were ready enough to give us control, if we gave them the offices, and I reckon they have not changed very much yet_.’ There was then conversation on other matters; but half an hour later, after a mile or so of silence, the Colonel suddenly resumed: ‘Yes, Sir, our duty is plain; we shall be without weight, now that Slavery is gone, unless we do join hands with them. Andy Johnson will want a reëlection, and the united _Democratic party must take him up. It shall be a fair division: we want the power, and they want the spoils._’”

The same writer, in another letter, shows how Rebels were honored in the Convention.

“‘I’ll be d--d, if I vote for any man who did not go with the State,’ said one of the delegates, while the canvass for officers was going on; in accordance with which spirit the secretary is a gentleman who was a colonel in the Rebel army, and the doorkeeper a gentleman who lost an arm in the service.”

Where such a spirit prevails, the freedmen fare badly. In Georgia they are treated cruelly. A traveller writes:--

“The hatred toward the negro as a freeman is intense among the low and brutal, who are the vast majority. Murders, shootings, whippings, robbing, and brutal treatment of every kind are daily inflicted upon them, and I am sorry to say in most cases they can get no redress. They don’t know where to complain or how to seek justice, after they have been abused and cheated. The habitual deference toward the white man makes them fearful of his anger and revenge.”

An official of the Government, after traversing Mississippi and Alabama, writes from Georgia in a very recent letter:--

“Every day the press of the South testifies to the outrages that are being perpetrated upon unoffending colored people by the State militia. These outrages are particularly flagrant in the States of Alabama and Mississippi, and are of such a character as to demand most imperatively the interposition of the National Executive. These men are rapidly inaugurating a condition of things, a feeling among the freedmen, that will, if not checked, ultimate in insurrection. The freedmen are peaceable and inoffensive; yet, if the whites continue to make it all their lives are worth to go through the country, as free people have a right to do, they will goad them to that point at which submission and patience cease to be a virtue.

…

“I call your attention to this matter, after reading and hearing from the most authentic sources, officers and others, for weeks, of the continuance of the militia robbing the colored people of their property,--arms,--shooting them in the public highways, if they refuse to halt, when so commanded, and lodging them in jail, if found from home without _passes_, and ask, as a matter of simple justice to an unoffending and downtrodden people, that you use your influence to induce the President to issue an order or proclamation forbidding such wicked and unlawful proceedings, and, if he deem it prudent, forbidding the organization of State militia. _The only military force_ NEEDED _in the South is more regular and volunteer troops to keep in proper subjection those lately in rebellion, and to teach them to treat the freed people in a manner becoming a civilized community_.”

Another witness, himself a Georgian, with ample opportunities of information, testifies:--

“I have personal and friendly relations with many leading men of this section: I had before the war. I have met many of them in New York and in Washington within the past few months, and have, as a citizen of the South, had frequent conversations with them upon our future, and the means that should be employed to begin it auspiciously. These interviews have been free and open in interchange of opinion, and I must believe that I had laid before me the intentions of those who must and will again assume the leadership here. If they are not so honored, their opinions will show how they _would_ lead, had they the power.

“Among these were four ex-governors of three different States, who had received pardons from President Johnson. Our conversation naturally and necessarily turned to the future of the emancipated negroes. Their past and present condition was discussed, and their chances as well as our own were of course considered, and everything that could bear upon their future was canvassed. The course to be pursued by the Legislatures of the reconstructed States, and the laws to be enacted, in order to obtain the fulfilment of contracts with the freedmen employed, occupied no small portion of consideration. In this way I had full opportunity to learn the opinions of those who have been and will be again looked up to as the leaders and directors of Southern opinion and sentiment.

“The unanimity of all was not the least singular thing, especially regarding the _status_ of the freedmen and their rights hereafter. If legal chicanery can avail, those rights will be but nominal, and they will remain, as they have ever been, isolated and apart,--free in name, but slaves in fact.”

It seems that in Georgia there is a body of men known as “Regulators,” who are thus described by a correspondent of that journal which has for years whitewashed the enormities of Slavery, the “New York Herald”:--

“Springing naturally out of this disordered state of affairs is an organization of ‘Regulators,’ so called. Their numbers include many ex-Confederate cavaliers of the country, and their mission is to visit summary justice upon any offenders against the public peace. It is needless to say that their attention is largely directed to maintaining quiet and submission among the blacks. _The shooting or stringing up of some obstreperous ‘nigger’ by the ‘Regulators’ is so common an occurrence as to excite little remark. Nor is the work of proscription confined to the freedmen only._ The ‘Regulators’ go to the bottom of the matter, and strive to make it uncomfortably warm for any new settler with demoralizing innovations of wages for ‘niggers.’”

Such is the unimaginable atrocity which, according to friendly authority, prevails in Georgia. The poor freedman is sacrificed. The Northern settler, believing in Human Rights, is sacrificed also. Alas that such scenes should disgrace our country and age! Alas that there should be hesitation in applying the necessary remedy!

Surely this is enough. I do not stop to dwell on instances of frightful barbarism. One is authenticated in the court of the provost-marshal, where a colored girl was roasted alive! And another writer, in a letter just received, describes a system of “burning” in Wilkes County, Georgia, as “a mild means of extorting from the freed people a confession as to where they have their arms and money concealed.” He says, “They were held in the blaze.” Think of it, Sir, here, in this Republic, they are held in a blaze! And the National Government looks on!

* * * * *

From Georgia pass to Alabama, only to find the same evil spirit and the same succession of enormities, intensified, if possible. Here again I am embarrassed by the variety and extent of evidence.

A recent private letter from Mobile testifies:--

“The press and people here, with one voice, are loud in their praise of President Johnson, for his wholesale manner of dispensing pardons. But I have yet to see the first signs of repentance on the part of those who have received clemency from the Chief Magistrate of the Government. The existing feeling is, that no man who did not support the Confederacy is worthy of trust; and all offices are given to those who did their best to break up the country. President Johnson will find in the end that he has been too liberal in the exercise of clemency. And unless he changes his course, or is checked by Congress, the most corrupt men in the South will again get into power, and sway the destinies of this section of the country.

…

“And until the labor question is adjusted between the planters and the freedmen, we cannot look forward to a time of prosperity. The indications at present are not favorable to a satisfactory solution of this difficult problem. The planters hate the negro, and the latter class distrust the former; and while this state of things continues, there cannot be harmonious action in developing the resources of the country. Besides, a good many men are unwilling yet to believe that the ‘peculiar institution’ of the South has been actually abolished, and still have the lingering hope that Slavery, though not in name, will yet in some form practically exist. And hence the great anxiety to get back into the Union, which being accomplished, they will then, as I have heard it expressed, ‘fix the negro.’

…

“I look forward with deep solicitude to the approaching session of Congress. I hope there will be strength and moral courage enough in that body to keep the ship of state right. The President has a difficult position to fill, and needs all the sympathy and aid he can get from right-minded citizens. But there is no question that he has been most sadly imposed upon within the past few months by designing and corrupt politicians.”

Another private letter, from a person so situated as to be accurately informed, makes this painful report:--