School History of North Carolina Part 43

3. Governor Worth had ever been marked as a public man by the utmost devotion to the Federal Union. He had constantly opposed the doctrine and necessity of secession. He was now to show his wisdom and attachment for the State of his birth. As Governor, he was continually pressed to secure legal protection for the people against the interference of military commanders and courts-martial, which were constantly intruding upon the jurisdiction of the State courts.

4. The whole system of education in the common schools had perished in the loss of the Literary Fund. The University still continued its ministrations, but with a diminished faculty and patronage. The colleges, male and female, belonging to the different religious denominations, were re-opened and generally were slowly regaining their former efficiency.

5. Among the first enactments by the Legislature after the war, was the law allowing negroes to testify against or for white parties in courts of justice. This was a great change in our law, but was now necessary for their protection, as they no longer had masters to care for them.

6. The agriculture of the period was rapidly advancing in the perfection of its details. Concentrated fertilizers were coming into general use and the area of cotton culture was immensely expanding. The farms were about equally divided as to the style of their management. The best farmers still hired their "hands"

and superintended the details of operation in person, but many leased their lands to laborers and furnished the teams and supplies needed by the tenants.

7. Under the sensible and moderate rule then seen in the State, prosperity seemed rapidly returning, but as the United States Congress still refused to allow any representation in that body, there was great and increasing uneasiness as to the terms that would be finally exacted from the South in the proposed reconstruction measures.

1868.

8. Early in the year 1868 a convention, so-called, was held to frame a new Const.i.tution under the Reconstruction Act of Congress. The election for the delegates was held under General Canby's orders, and the returns were sent to him at Charleston.

Upon his order the Convention met and upon his order its delegates were seated and unseated.

9. In the latter part of April the Const.i.tution thus framed was submitted to such of the people as were allowed to vote, at an election held as before, under General Canby's order, and by him, in Charleston, South Carolina, the returns having been sent to him there, declared to have been adopted. It is now generally known as the "Canby Const.i.tution." In June, by order by telegram from General Canby, Governor Worth, who had been elected Governor by the people in 1866, was turned out of his office and Governor Holden put in his place. The only authority for this and other outrages was the might of Federal bayonets.

10. The Legislature elected under the recently adopted Const.i.tution met on the 1st of July, 1868. It was comprised largely of negroes and of men from the North who had lately come to North Carolina. These latter were popularly known as "carpetbaggers," and as a cla.s.s were mere birds of prey who came here for plunder. As might have been expected, the legislation of such a body was both corrupt and injurious. Ignorant of the resources of the State, of its people and their necessities, it would have been a miracle almost, no matter how honest, had their legislation not been harmful. Unfortunately, there was added to gross ignorance the most unblushing corruption and wanton extravagance. Many millions of debt, in the shape of "Special Tax Bonds," as they were called, were attempted to be fastened upon the State by this Legislature, but the people have persistently refused to recognize them.

11. The Convention and elections of 1868 will ever be remembered. The act of Congress, pa.s.sed on February 20th, 1867, was in vain vetoed by the President. It was made the law of the land, and under its provisions, while twenty thousand white men of North Carolina were deprived of the right to vote, that privilege was extended to every colored male in the State who had attained the age of twenty-one years.

12. The year closed with great apprehensions to all cla.s.ses.

The new State government possessed neither the confidence nor the affection of the people, and in the pandemonium of bribery and corruption there was justification for the fears of men, who, in corrupt and reckless appropriations and corrupt and reckless expenditures, foresaw ruin to all material interests of the State.

12. In Robeson county, life and property were so insecure that extraordinary measures were adopted to extirpate the bandits who slew and plundered as if no legal restraints were left in the land. The story of Henry Berry Lowery and his "Swamp Angels"

will ever stand as a convincing proof of the incompetency of the government of that day or of its wanton disregard of its duties to its citizens.

QUESTIONS.

1. Where was President Andrew Johnson born? To what State did he go? To what profession did he devote himself? How is he said to have mastered the rudiments of education? What position did his native ability give him?

2. How did his feelings toward the South undergo a change? What did he incur thereby? How did this affect North Carolina and the South?

3. What is said of Governor Worth?

4. In what condition were the inst.i.tutions of learning at this period?

5. What legislation is mentioned favoring the colored people?

Why was this now necessary?

6. How were agricultural matters progressing? How were the farms conducted?

7. What was the general condition of the State?

8. For what was the Convention of 1868 held?

Under whose order was the election for delegates held?

9. When was the Const.i.tution thus framed submitted to the people?

How is this Const.i.tution now known? How was Governor Worth removed from office, and who was put in his place?

What was the authority for this and other high-handed measures?

10. When did the Legislature of 1868 meet, and of whom was it composed?

What is said of this Legislature? What is said of the "Special Tax Bonds"?

11. What is said of the Convention and elections of 1868?

12. In what condition were public affairs?

13. What is said of Robeson county, and Henry Berry Lowery and his "Swamp Angels"?

CHAPTER LXVI.

THE RESULTS OF RECONSTRUCTION.

A. D. 1868 TO 1870.

There was in North Carolina great indignation at the result of the enforced changes wrought in the polity of the State by means of the various congressional enactments. Strangers from other States, and men entirely unused to legislation, had effected many alterations in our government and laws. It was to be expected that such things, done in such manner, would prove distasteful to a proud race that had so lately withstood so stoutly on the field of battle, and so long, such superior numbers.

2. Among the many unnecessary changes that were rendered more distasteful by the harsh manner of their accomplishment, were those made by Governor Holden and his party at the State University at Chapel Hill. This venerable inst.i.tution, which had given education to many men of renown, was taken in hand, and, with a new management and a new faculty, made up of carpetbaggers and unsuitable native North Carolinians, re-opened its doors.

Its late president, ex-Governor David L. Swain, had died shortly after his removal, his colleagues in the Faculty had dispersed in search of new homes, and silence had usurped the halls so long thronged by students from many States. The village of Chapel Hill, depending on the existence of the University for its support, became almost deserted. No less than thirty of its best families removed within two years. The people of North Carolina refused to patronize the new organization, and the inst.i.tution was for seven years prostrate.

3. The changes did not stop with the University. The judges of all the courts had been, since 1776, elected by the Legislature.

This was altered, so that they were in future to be selected by the votes of the people. The name of the lower branch of the General a.s.sembly, so long known as the House of "Commons," became that of the "Representatives." The meeting of the a.s.sembly was made annual instead of biennial, and the pay of the members and State officials largely increased. Our county government system, too, was changed, and so was the mode of electing magistrates, who had hitherto been elected by the Legislature. In future they were to be elected by the people. In many portions of the State the effect was to put the white race at once under the domination of the black race. Bitterness and great excitement were the inevitable results. But of all the innovations, none, perhaps, was so startling as that made in the procedure and practice of the courts. It was distasteful both to client and counsel, but to the older lawyers it was especially objectionable.

1869.

4. The distinguishing event of this year in North Carolina was the appearance, in various parts of the State, of well-organized bodies of hors.e.m.e.n, commonly called Ku-Klux, who rode about at night in full disguise and punished crimes that the law had failed to punish. The mystery attending their coming and their going, the silence they preserved in their marches, the disguises they wore, coupled with the terrible punishment they inflicted, struck terror into the hearts of men with guilty consciences.

5. These midnight riders were doubtless in their origin the natural outgrowth of the condition of society that had prevailed in North Carolina for some time past--that is to say, they were originally nothing more nor less than local mutual protective a.s.sociations, with little form about them and but little more secrecy. The first step having been taken in that direction, the next followed as a matter of course. Next came a.s.sociations to prevent future crime by punishing past crime. These organizations were more complex in their character and of wider range in their operations.

6. The condition of society was very bad, but not worse than might have been expected under a government which, obnoxious in its creation, daily became more hateful in its conduct. Negro suffrage had just become a reality. Spies and eavesdroppers were everywhere catching up men's words and watching men's actions for report to the government at Raleigh. Corruption and licentiousness stalked openly in the legislative halls and sat unblushingly on the judicial bench, while in the Executive office was a Governor ready to obey the behests of his party at any cost. It was an era of extravagance, bribery, corruption, oppression, licentiousness and lawlessness. Of the negroes, ignorant slaves but yesterday, with all their pa.s.sion stirred to the utmost, large numbers blindly believed that freedom and suffrage would make them masters tomorrow were it not for the native white race. First suspicious, then sullen, then aggressive, they soon came under the bad teaching of the men who were their leaders, to regard the native white men as their born enemies. The result was the murder of men, the outraging of women, the burning of barns and other like destruction of property, then of vital importance, for the law had no terror for an evil doer who had friends at court or in the Executive chamber. It is but just to the negroes, however, to say that it is not believed that if they had been left to themselves they would have acted as they did, but that they were influenced to bad deeds by bad white men, who used them as tools to accomplish political ends. Under such circ.u.mstances as these, good citizens felt that they were tried beyond human endurance, and justified themselves to their own consciences for taking the law into their own hands.

7. The evils the Ku-Klux came to cure were indeed unbearable; but it must be said, also, that while the disease was desperate, the remedy was fearful. It is a fearful thing for men to band themselves together in secret and take the law into their own hands, and nothing but the direst necessity and the gravest emergency can ever justify it. Inseparable from every such organization, and this proved no exception to the rule, is the danger of its easy perversion to the gratification of personal malice or the improper punishment of petty offences, and this alone ought to be warning that in such a remedy lies terrible danger.

8. Governor Holden quailed before the Ku-Klux, and from his guarded house issued proclamation after proclamation, but they would not down at his bidding. When winter came and with it the Legislature, Senator Shoffner, of Alamance, at the instance of the Governor, introduced a bill into the Senate, in its terms conferring upon the Governor the right to declare any and every county in the State to be in insurrection, and to recruit and maintain an army whenever he saw proper. In other words, the bill sought to confer upon the Governor the power to declare martial law at will. Of course this was unconst.i.tutional.

1870.

9. The Shoffner bill was ratified on the 29th of January, 1870.

On the night of the 26th of February, Wyatt Outlaw, a negro, was hung in the county town of Alamance, by the Ku-Klux. On the 7th of March the county was declared to be in a state of insurrection. Federal troops were sent there, but beyond eating their rations they had no occupation, for quiet and good order prevailed throughout the county.

10. A striking fact, true of every place during these unhappy times, is that whenever white Federal troops were sent to a troubled section, whether in Alamance, Caswell, Orange or elsewhere, there was straightway an end of trouble. The law- breakers were awed into good behavior, and those who in self- protection had forced, in their own judgment, to take into their own hands the administration of justice, of course had no further occasion to do so.

11. Governor Holden, however, seemed not to be satisfied with the Shoffner bill, for on the 10th of March he wrote* to the President, asking that stringent orders be sent to the commanding general, and stating that if "criminals could be arrested and tried before military tribunals and shot, there would soon be peace and order throughout the country. The remedy," he said, "would be a sharp and b.l.o.o.d.y one, but indispensable as was the suppression of the rebellion." The 14th he wrote to the members of Congress from North Carolina**, beseeching them to induce Congress to author the President to declare martial law in certain localities, so that he might "have military tribunals, by which a.s.sa.s.sins and murderers can be summarily tried and shot,"

and telling them at the same time that he could not have such tribunals unless the President was authorized to suspend the habeas corpus.