Historical Romance of the American Negro Part 13

We spent one whole month at Richmond Hill, the month of August, 1865. We walked the hills and dales, far and near, as on the occasion of our former visit we spent many a pleasant day at the homes of the dear Canadians, who never knew how to be kind enough, and a great many came even a long way to see us. We walked along the hill-tops, and sat down besides the purling streams in the forests, and read under the shade of the tall trees. Once more the two girls overhauled that grand edition of the "Pilgrim's Progress," and Tom was also taken immensely with the pictures.

But all things come to an end. We had a most glorious time among these good Canadians; we all felt greatly benefited by our visit to Richmond Hill, and Tom declared that he felt at least as well as he did before he went away to the war. So we gave the Gibsons a general invitation to come and visit us at our home in Buffalo whenever they got ready to do so. We took a fond leave of them at Richmond Hill, and some of them accompanied us to the railway station at Ingersoll, where we took the 10 o'clock train for Buffalo, and arrived there safe and sound the same afternoon.

The condition of the South after the rebel armies surrendered reminds me of the havoc wrought when a forest of great tall trees is swept down by a strong and mighty wind, and all the forest monarchs are flat on the ground. Their mighty roots are exposed to the gaze of every pa.s.ser-by; an enormous quant.i.ty of earth is torn up by the terrible wrench that has taken place; and the great branches are broken and jumbled together with the great crash of the now prostrate and ruined forest. Such was the state of the South after Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, in Virginia. He had, indeed, no great army to surrender, and what little armies remained to the rebellion elsewhere were but of small account, and promptly laid down their arms at last.

Whilst the South fought with a valor that was worthy of a better cause, and her slave-holders and followers actually laid down their lives in thousands and ten thousands for their darling "independence" and slavery, I am never able to think without regret of the dreadful sacrifice of human lives and treasure that we of the North were forced to make to restore the Union to its former state, and to secure the freedom of the last slave in all the land. Never since this world began did a defiant, haughty and valiant race of rebels so long and so successfully resist-I might almost say the wealth, the resources, and the physical strength of half the world. It was the "strong man armed,"

and in his own house, fighting there with all his might and main. And how did we knock down the house and kill him? Alas, alas! we had to sacrifice whole legions of our well-beloved, both white and black, that the Union and liberty might be where they are at the present day.

I have just above compared the condition of the South at the close of the war to that of a forest of mighty trees, all suddenly dashed to the earth by the force of overwhelming and irresistible winds-even the terrible winds that are swept upon the land from the wild and stormy ocean that breaks upon our sh.o.r.es. The question next was how were we to clear this forest land; remove all the trees with their great upturned roots; fill up the great cavities-in a word, "clear the land," and worst of all, restore the forest? What Abraham Lincoln might have done if he had lived-he and his cabinet between them-I am unable to say. A great many people are of the opinion that had Lincoln lived things would have gone ten times better with Reconstruction than they did. That may have been so, but the wish was father to the thought, and it has always been my opinion that there would have been a bad time of it for years and years to come, as there was without the great war President. Poor fellow! Because ever during his lifetime, and when the war was going on, there were many times when Lincoln himself confessed that he was almost at his wit's end, and did not know what to do for the best. With the Southerners going home, sullen, angry and defeated, and four millions of slaves redeemed from the curse of the "peculiar inst.i.tution," for the very life of me I am unable to see that any one with much less wisdom than that which is divine, could ever had at once brought order out of chaos in a day, or even in a year. Even with the a.s.sistance of 10,000 giants, it must have taken time to clear away that fallen forest, fill up the awful gaps, and put a new forest in the place of the one that had been knocked down!

In order to make a beginning at Reconstruction it was decided to place the late rebellious States under military governors, who acted in concert with the Bureau for Freedmen, Refugees and Abandoned Lands. This "Freedman's Bureau," as it was briefly called, was wisely established in the spring of 1865 for the purpose of a.s.sisting in every possible way those 4,000,000 of the African race whom the war had made free and turned loose on the country. Of course they must not be permitted to starve, and the Government at Washington wisely established the bureau to a.s.sist them in tiding over the crisis. Richmond and the Confederacy had not fallen yet, but the grand crash was at hand, and all things were in readiness for the mighty changes that were at the door of the nation.

But the freedmen were not the only people who had to be provided for.

There was a host of white people-all sorts of refugees-who had also been rendered homeless and entirely dest.i.tute, who were in precisely the same condition as the recent slaves of African descent. These had to be looked after the same as the rest of the people, and all had to be clothed and fed, and encouraged to go to work at once, besides sending their children to public schools that were to be established all over the States lately in rebellion. Besides all these, courts of law were set a-going to try ordinary cases throughout the new military districts everywhere. And for the purpose of farming, it was decided to take the lands that had been abandoned by the rebels during the war, or confiscated by the government, and portion out the same to freedman and refugees, not giving more than forty acres to each, and that upon the easiest terms, for the s.p.a.ce of three years, with the right of purchase afterwards, if the tenants wished to buy, when the easiest terms again would be granted. But right here I have something of a most unusual pleasant nature to relate. My indulgent reader, my book would come far short of the mark without it!

The war that had lasted about four years and a half was now all over and gone. The last rebel had been forced to lay down his arms, and slavery, that had existed under the most aggravated form for about two hundred and fifty years, had been swept from the land, and there remained not the shadow of a doubt that every colored man, woman and child were entirely free. Then, like the Jews of old, after the drowning of Pharaoh and his rebel army in the Red sea, there arose a loud and long-continued song of joy from the hearts of all the 4,000,000 of freed people all over Secessia-from Mason and Dixon's line to the Rio Grande river; and from the wild Atlantic waves to the State of Missouri in the far west.

For some time after the close of the war, throughout the entire South, the entire colored race could think of little else but rejoicing, singing and dancing for joy. And I would think it a very strange thing if the redeemed race had not so abandoned themselves to such joy and rejoicing for a time at least. It was the natural song of the captive, suddenly and unexpectedly released from his prison. Joy, joy, joy! Oh, nothing but joy! "I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea." For two hundred and fifty years the poor, dear, oppressed people of G.o.d had been under the lash of the task-master; but now they were free as the masters themselves! This was right, perfectly right, and accounts for all their joy, their songs and rejoicing all over the lately far-extended battle-field. "Oh, praise ye the Lord, for He is good: for His mercy endureth forever!"

When Abraham Lincoln was a.s.sa.s.sinated, Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, who had been elected vice-president, became in turn the President of the United States. This man had been brought up in the South, and when Reconstruction came, all his Southern sympathies floated up to the surface. He entered into a direct quarrel with the houses of Congress, and vetoed almost every bill that ever came before him. But in all such cases, Congress pa.s.sed his vetoes over his head, and they were of no effect. At last he was impeached and tried for his cross-grained, contrary measures, but escaped conviction by the smallest majority. But all the same he was one of the most destructive rebels that we had.

In the meantime Reconstruction went on in the late rebellious States in the best way that Congress knew how to do it, which was not much at the best. A race of men swept down from the North with their carpet-bags in their hands in search of fortune, who were nick-named carpet-baggers; then there were the middle cla.s.s whites of the South, who were nick-named the scalawags, who a.s.sisted the carpet-baggers in ruling the South, all of whom, however, were under the eyes of the military generals, each of whom was placed in command of one of the States, and these generals in turn worked hand in hand along with an a.s.sistant commissioner of the Freedman's Bureau, Major-General O. O. Howard, at Washington, being the chief commissioner, and one of the best men that ever lived.

Immediately after the close of the war, many of the more p.r.o.nounced rebels retired abroad, where they found employment in foreign armies, or more peaceful occupations. They had no heart for any further rule under the flag of Uncle Sam, which now, indeed, floated freely over all races of people from the Lakes to the Gulf. For such arch-rebels the Sunny South was a home no more. But many of the late rebel leaders preferred to stay at home and take their chance, hoping for mercy and pardon from the Northern government, which they had so terribly outraged. As a general thing they were cross-vexed and sullen, and had no heart whatever for the reconstruction of the Southern states, which was entirely conducted by legislatures, composed of loyal Southerners and colored men, all of whom were duly elected. These colored men were in all the lower houses of legislature, while in some of the States they were also in the Senate, and in a few of the States they filled the office of deputy-governor. The heads and leaders of the late rebellion showed no disposition to lend a hand; they allowed the military and civil administrators to take their own way, a.s.sisted as the latter were by the colored senators and representatives in the State legislature, carpet-baggers and scalawags.

Whilst no doubt all of the above were doing the best they knew how, the entire race of 4,000,000 of freedmen had recovered from their dance of new and glorious liberty; had opened their eyes to the stern realities of the changed situation, and settled down to steady work all over the land. Many of them crowded into the towns, cities and villages, while a host of others went to work over all the plantations and farms-some working on shares with their former masters, whilst others farmed their own lands, and did wonderfully. Many a brave old "prophecy" had been uttered that the descendants of Africans were unfit for the pursuits of freedom, and that the whole freed race would fall to pieces like a ship on the sands; but the race went steadily to work, and with some aid from the Freedman's Bureau, they prospered from the very beginning. In short, the people now fairly began to see the beauties of personal liberty, and they had a mind to work. The American Government, however, never did a better thing than to establish that bureau, without the aid of which entire legions of colored and white people must inevitably have perished.

All things, however, did not work satisfactorily, and under the crooked circ.u.mstances perhaps that was more than was to be expected. Throughout the entire South the system of working on shares was not in favor of the redeemed race in many cases. The white man had got a notion in his head that he had been cheated out of his rights, and that somehow or other, the former slave still of right belonged to him. Some of them therefore thought themselves privileged in beating the freedman out of the fruits of their toil in every possible way. If such white men were thus aggrieved over the new order of things, their wives were worse, and could find no one to comfort them! The slave was now, at least, as free as themselves, and there was no power in the land to force him back to his former condition. So they took their spite out of him by cheating him on the division of the crops, and he was obliged either to stay on the lands and be imposed upon, or leave at a loss. The public papers were full of the freedman's complaints at the time. One way of defrauding him who did all the hard work was to open a general store for the sale of all kinds of groceries and other needful things. The accounts were cooked and managed in a way to suit the bosses, and almost everything was charged for far above the general prices of the country.

Thus, when the day of settlement came, the laborer usually found himself from $50 to $200 in debt, owing to the system of thieving practiced on him by his betrayer. The Southern people generally were sullen, and almost inconsolable under the new order of things, and they refused to be comforted for a long time. Indeed, some of them are not comforted yet, and never will be. Andrew Johnson, the President, did much harm in contending for the rebels in every way in his power. In fact, he went right over to them, and even obstructed Reconstruction itself in every way that he could.

This sullenness on the part of the Southerners at last found vent in the organization of a secret and murderous conspiracy called the Ku-Klux-Klan-whoever was guilty of inventing such an ugly name! This Ku-Klux-Klan reached for their shot-guns, and went forth by night, and shot down the carpet-baggers and their like, like crows. This was soon after the first election of President Grant, an election, by the by, in which the rebels took no part, but they now determined to spoil that which they were unwilling to mend. These wicked Ku-Klux sought to obstruct the courts of justice, hara.s.s and trouble the colored people in every possible way, and cripple the local governments. The terror that spread all over the South at the time was perfectly dreadful. People were shot down everywhere, colored churches and school-houses were burned to the ground in the night, and the work of revenge and destruction went on night and day. It seemed as if the late rebel soldiers, who had been beaten in the field by the North, were once more trying to raise a rebellion in a new form. The writ of habeas corpus was suspended for a time, and Uncle Sam put his heavy foot down upon the whole matter. The powers of the day went forth; arrests were made; the trials and convictions of many of those bad men were secured, and some of the penitentiaries were filled with the enemies of law and order.

Then for a time, at least, followed a pause in the obstructing work of the reconstruction of the late rebellious States, and the governments by colored legislators, scalawags and carpet-baggers went on as before. How much better it would have been if all parties, both white and black, had been harmonious and agreeable after Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House! But instead of that the defeated rebel went home, nursed his wrath to keep it warm. Robbing and stealing from the injured freedmen followed, and then he went out working mischief after dark with the aid of his shot-gun.

CHAPTER XIII.

_Reconstruction in the South-Great Progress in Education-The Fifteenth Amendment-Message of President Grant-Certificate of Mr. Secretary Fish Regarding the Same-Great Joy Over Amendment-It Goes to Work._

General Grant had been elected President of the United States in 1868 for his first term of office. In 1872 he carried the Southern States once more. He met with but little opposition in the South. Colored lieutenant-governors were elected in Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina, in which three States the colored population is far greater than the white. The States of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina had colored men in their Houses of Representatives, and Mississippi had them also in her Senate House. Many of the most important offices in the Southern States were held by men of color. But by the year 1875 the white leaders in the Republican party had become intimidated by the Ku-Klux-Klan, and were quite driven out or destroyed by that deadly shot-gun. Thus the colored men in the legislatures were abandoned to their fate, and the presence of the United States Army became necessary to support them at elections, whilst they held office, and carried on the State governments. The whole South was in a bad way, and things had gone on from bad to worse. The sullen and stubborn leaders of the late rebellion had refused to lend a hand in building up the State governments once more, which they had torn down, and the Northern government of the whole nation had committed the reconstruction of the late rebel States to hands as yet far too feeble at such a time, and that was, namely, to colored men, many of whom had little experience before with carpet-baggers and scalawags. At the same time there did not seem to be any others who could be trusted by the national government to carry on the business of the Southern States.

Even colored men, carpet-baggers and scalawags were either heartily or formally Republicans, and could be trusted by the Washington authorities in acting loyally and faithfully in the discharge of their duties at least. I am unable to see how the Washington government can be much blamed for committing the care of the Southern States to hands so feeble, so long as there did not seem to be anybody else to rule, and the late rebels themselves were still in too sullen a mood to lend a hand in the governments.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _FIRST READING EMANc.i.p.aTION PROCLAMATION._]

But during all these unhappy years that followed the close of the war there was one thing that did not miscarry, and that was the great march of the emanc.i.p.ated slaves on the road to progress, and everything that tends to elevate and enn.o.ble a nation. The fostering national government, the churches of the North, and all that which was best in this great republic, were straining themselves to the very utmost to lift up the entire redeemed race by affording them the best education that they could possibly bestow. Teachers still flocked down from the North in great numbers, all kinds of schools were opened, and inst.i.tutes and colleges were set on float for the benefit of the boys and girls, and young men and young women, who wished to attend them. There was no branch of education that was not supplied to the white race that was not also supplied to the colored. And not only did children and youths attend those schools, but even men and women; parents and grandparents in thousands took up their spelling-books and first readers, and went to work with a hearty good will, and learned to read, write and spell with great rapidity. The progress that the emanc.i.p.ated race made in the line of education was perfectly marvelous, and astonished the whole nation.

Even old preachers, who had been preaching the gospel for fifty years, went to work and learned how to read the Bible; they learned how to write letters and work arithmetic for the first time in their lives. It had been charged often enough that the colored race were unfitted by nature to learn this, that and other things. The studied policy of the slave-holders was, not to give them a chance, and then to tell a willful falsehood. But now that all were free, they rushed in at once, and showed the whole world that they were as capable of learning as any other race under the sun. Nay, more! They even crossed the oceans, and were recognized by all the nations on the face of the earth!

Nor did the people only learn how to read, write and work arithmetic, but all kinds of industrial schools were started throughout the South; first in one place, then in another, so that the young men learned different trades, and thus qualified themselves to learn a living in coming years. And they not only learned, but they learned well, were ambitious to excel, took naturally to it, and earned the good will and praise of their teachers. In short, after the war was over, the South was both cursed and blessed by a race of "volunteers," who came down from the North, and whose mission was to take advantage of the new state of things. The curse came in with those carpet-baggers, who came to take all they could get, and hold on as long as ever they could. It is true that they were not all bad, for indeed they ran all the way from good to middling. But they have generally been looked upon as a set of rapacious men, who came down to help themselves first, last and all the time; and when all was done, if anybody else could be benefitted by them, so much the better!

But with the teachers things were altogether different. They can in no sense be compared with the carpet-baggers, for they were a perfect blessing-all of them, or nearly all, being "volunteers" for the South, and for the benefit of freedmen, and for them alone. They were sent forth, as I have stated before, by the churches and societies of the North, and the national government encouraged them and their efforts in every possible way. And not only were public schools set on foot all over the land, but there were a great many who opened private schools, and thus the work went merrily on. And the walls of the new educational structure began to rise rapidly on all sides, "for the people had a mind to work," and, as the ancient Romans said, "Labor conquers all things."

[Ill.u.s.tration: _DE SOTO DISCOVERING MISSISSIPPI RIVER._]

And even to the very day and time whilst I am now writing, I have great pleasure in informing my kind reader that the work goes on, and still goes on well. Beginning gradually at the close of the war, nay, I might almost say, in some places before the close of the war-schools and colleges for all studies were set on foot, either South or North, some for the training of young colored men and women, who were destined to become teachers of their own race throughout the land; some were inst.i.tutes or colleges for the study of law, medicine, music, elocution and a variety of other subjects. And the work still continues and extends in all directions, and promises to unfold itself more and more as the years go by. At the present time there are many beautiful private schools and seminaries in many parts of the South where young colored ladies exclusively are sent to be educated, and they are splendidly educated, too. And inasmuch as the colored race are born to excel in music, many of them have come to the front, and in the departments of music and song they have shone brightly in the nation, and in distant lands also, where they have no prejudice to contend with. But though the color line has by no means been wiped out yet, even in the Northern States, it must in all fairness be stated that colored youths and maidens are freely permitted to pursue their studies in almost all the schools and colleges of the land; and it is only where race prejudice exists, and the last dregs thereof prevail, that the children of African descent are barred from entering. But time changes all things; G.o.d alone cannot be changed-new generations will arise who will entirely sweep the evil past away!

The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Const.i.tution had been pa.s.sed, securing the race in their personal and civil rights as freemen before the common law of the United States; but as yet colored men could not vote, and the Republican party, as a just and defensive measure, considered that it would be well to arm those who had formerly been slaves with all the rights of citizens, even as others. This brought up the question of a new amendment to the Const.i.tution. It was to be a new dress in which the new citizens were to be clothed before the work was complete. There was opposition enough to this in some quarters; of course, it never was once intended to ask such men as Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee for their consent. Even if many of the colored men were uneducated, they were as good, if not better, than a wicked and intelligent rebel. The rebels (as they were still commonly called), would rather pull the national government down to the ground than restore it, but the entire ransomed race desired to build it up.

Politically, and also from a sense of grat.i.tude for their freedom, they belonged to the Republican party, and therefore they were perfectly right in siding with the Republicans on every and all occasions.

Besides, the right for colored men to vote was bound to come forward sometime or other, and it might just as well come now as hereafter.

Ignorance on their part was much better than the studied opposition on the part of the rebels. And I doubt very much whether the most illiterate colored man did not know more about the American Const.i.tution than those ignorant hordes of Europeans who are almost weekly dumped down on our sh.o.r.es, who neither know nor care anything about our Const.i.tution, and who never even heard of the name of George Washington.

If this was not so serious a matter, I could almost laugh at the thought of the ignorance of those foreigners.

Besides, if colored men were in many cases unfit for the franchise, it was no bad thing to give it them at once anyhow, because it would stimulate the nation at large to push their complete education along, and the race themselves would now have a far more powerful motive to acquire knowledge than they had ever had before. Therefore, there was a very great deal of interest taken by the nation at large in the pa.s.sage of the new amendment to the Const.i.tution that was destined to place black men upon the self-same footing with white men. The white Republicans also considered that they were indebted to colored soldiers for the restoration of the Union to the tune of at least 200,000 brave, heroic men, and that they owed them the right to vote.

The necessary three-fourths of all the States of the Union having voted in their legislatures in favor of the pa.s.sage of the new amendment to the Const.i.tution, President Grant deemed the new measure of such vast importance that he went out of the usual mode adopted upon such occasions, and addressed the following special message on the subject to Congress, for the purpose of still further enhancing its importance in the eyes of the Senate and House of Representatives, and, in short, of the whole American people:

"SPECIAL MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT GRANT ON THE RATIFICATION OF THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT.

"To the Senate and House of Representatives:

"It is unusual to notify the two houses of Congress, by message, of the promulgation by proclamation of the Secretary of State of the ratification of a Const.i.tutional Amendment. In view, however, of the vast importance of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Const.i.tution this day declared a part of the revered instrument, I deem a departure from the usual custom justifiable. A measure which makes at once four millions of people voters, who were heretofore declared by the highest tribunal in the land not citizens of the United States, nor eligible to become so (with the a.s.sertion that, at the time of the Declaration of Independence, the opinion was fixed and universal in the civilized portion of the white race, regarded as an axiom in morals as well as politics, that black men had no rights which the white man was bound to respect) is indeed a measure of grander importance than any other one act of the kind from the foundation of our free government to the present day.

"Inst.i.tutions like ours, in which all power is derived directly from the people, must depend mainly upon their intelligence, patriotism, and industry. I call the attention, therefore, of the newly-enfranchised race to the importance of their new privilege. To the race more favored heretofore by our laws, I would say, withhold no legal privilege of advancement to the new citizen. The framers of our Const.i.tution firmly believed that a republican government could not endure without intelligence and education generally diffused among the people. The 'Father of his country,' in his farewell address, uses this language, 'Promote, then, as a matter of primary importance, inst.i.tutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of the government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.' In his first annual message to Congress, the same views are forcibly presented, and are again urged in his eighth message.

"I repeat that the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Const.i.tution completes the greatest civil change and const.i.tutes the most important event that has occurred since the nation came into life.

The change will be beneficial in proportion to the need that is given to the urgent recommendations of Washington. If these recommendations were important then, with a population of but a few millions, how much more now with a population of forty millions, and increasing in rapid ratio.

"I would therefore call upon Congress to take all the means within their Const.i.tutional power to promote and encourage popular education throughout the country; and upon the people everywhere to see to it that all who possess and exercise political rights shall have the opportunity to acquire the knowledge which will make their share in the government a blessing and not a danger. By such means only can the benefits contemplated by this amendment to the Const.i.tution be secured.

"Executive Mansion, March 30, 1870.

"U. S. GRANT."

On account of the vast importance of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Const.i.tution, and its direct bearing upon the elevation of the colored race, and the immediate amelioration of their condition, I will here append the certificate of Mr. Secretary Fish respecting ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Const.i.tution, March 30, 1870:

"Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State of the United States.

"To all to whom these presents may come, greeting,

"Know ye that the Congress of the United States, on or about the 27th day of February, in the year 1869, pa.s.sed a resolution in the words and figures following, to wit:

"A resolution proposing an amendment to the Const.i.tution of the United States.

"Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress a.s.sembled (two thirds of both houses concurring,) That the following article be proposed to the legislature, shall be valid as part of the Const.i.tution, namely,