XV. THE "RECONSTRUCTION" COMPLETED
"Convention" Candidates
The debates in the convention over mixed schools, proscription, militia, and representation had seemingly resulted in a division between the carpet-baggers, who controlled the negroes, and the more moderate scalawags. The carpet-baggers and extreme scalawags of the convention resolved themselves into a body for the nomination of candidates for office. This body formed the state Union League convention. Of the 101 delegates to the convention, 67 or 68 had signed the constitution, and of these at least 56 were candidates for office under it. Full tickets were nominated by the convention and by the local councils of the Union League. In the black counties only members of the League were nominated, and it was practically the same in the white counties, where the League then had but few members. Nearly all the election officials were candidates. Men represented one county in the convention, and were candidates in others for office.[1469]
"CONVENTION" CANDIDATES
====================================================================== NAME | NATIVITY | CANDIDATE FOR -------------------|------------------------------|------------------- Ben Alexander |Negro |Legislature A. J. Applegate |Ohio and Wisconsin |Lieutenant Governor W. A. Austin |Negro |State Senate Arthur Bingham |New York |State Treasurer W. H. Black |Ohio |Probate Judge W. T. Blackford |Illinois |Probate Judge Samuel Blandon |Negro |Legislature Mark Brainard |New York |Clerk Circuit Court Alfred E. Buck |Maine |Clerk Circuit Court C. W. Buckley |New York, Mass., and Illinois |Congress W. M. Buckley* |New York and Massachusetts |State Senator J. H. Burdick |Iowa |Probate Judge John Caraway |Negro |Legislature Pierce Burton |Massachusetts |Legislature J. Collins |North |State Senate Datus E. Coon |Iowa |State Senate Tom Diggs |Negro |Legislature Charles W. Dustan |Iowa |Major-General Militia S. S. Gardner |Massachusetts |Legislature George Ely |New York, Conn., and Mass. |Probate Judge Peyton Finley |Negro |Legislature Jim Green |Negro |Legislature Ovide Gregory |Negro |Legislature Thomas Haughey |Scotland |Congress G. Horton |Massachusetts |Probate Judge Benjamin Inge |Negro |Legislature A. W. Jones* |Alabama |Probate Judge Columbus Jones |Negro |Legislature John C. Keffer |Pennsylvania |Supt. of Industrial | | Resources S. F. Kennemer |Alabama |Legislature Tom Lee |Negro |Legislature David Lore |Negro (?) |Legislature J. J. Martin |Georgia |Probate Judge B. O. Masterson |Unknown |Legislature C. A. Miller |Massachusetts and Maine |Secretary of State Stephen Moore* |Alabama (?) |Senate A. L. Morgan |Indiana |Clerk Circuit Court J. F. Morton* |Unknown |Senate B. W. Norris |Maine |Congress E. W. Peck |New York |Chief Justice Thomas M. Peters |Tennessee |Supreme Court G. P. Plowman |Alabama |Probate Judge R. M. Reynolds |Iowa |Auditor Benjamin Rolfe |New York |Tax Collector B. F. Royal |Negro |Senate B. F. Saffold |Alabama |Supreme Court J. Silsby* |Massachusetts |Clerk Circuit Court C. P. Simmons |Tennessee |Commissioner William P. Skinner |Alabama |Chancellor L. R. Smith* |Massachusetts |Circuit Judge H. J. Springfield* |Alabama |Legislature N. D. Stanwood* |Maine and Massachusetts |Legislature J. P. Stow |Connecticut |Senate Littleberry Strange|Georgia |Circuit Judge James R. Walker* |Georgia |Sheriff B. L. Whelan |Georgia, Ireland, and Mich. |Circuit Judge C. O. Whitney |North |Senate J. A. Yordy |North |Senate[1472] ======================================================================
The state of politics in the average Black Belt county was like that in Perry or Montgomery. In Perry, the Radical nominees for probate judge, state senator, sheriff, and tax assessor were from Wisconsin; for representative, two negroes and one white from Ohio, and for tax collector, a northern man.[1470] In Montgomery, for the legislature, one white from Ohio and one from Austria, and three negroes; for probate judge, clerk of circuit court, sheriff, and tax assessor, men from New York and other northern states.[1471] One or two negroes ran independently in each Black Belt county. In the white counties the extreme scalawags had a better chance for office, and most of the moderate reconstructionists fell away at once, leaving the spoils to the Radicals. It is doubtful if there were enough white men in the state who could read and write and who supported the new constitution, to fill the offices created by that instrument. Hence the assignment of candidates to far-off counties, and the admission of negro candidates.[1473] The state ticket was headed by an Alabama tory, William H. Smith, and the other candidates for state offices were from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maine, and New York, five of them being officers of the Freedmen's Bureau.[1474] The candidates for Congress were from Massachusetts, Ohio, Michigan, New York, Maine, and Nebraska. In several instances the candidate hailed from two or more different states.[1475]
Campaign on the Constitution
The campaign in behalf of the constitution did not differ in character from that in behalf of the convention. The Radical candidates for office, working through the Union League, drilled the negroes in the proper political faith. Nearly all the whites having gone over to the Conservatives, or withdrawn from politics, little or no attention was paid to the white voters. All efforts were directed toward securing the negro vote. Agents were sent over the state by the League to organize the negroes, who were again told the old story: If the constitution is not ratified, you will be reënslaved and your wives will be beaten and your children sold; if you do not get your rights now you will never get them. A subsidized press[1476] distributed campaign stories among those negroes who could read, and they spread the news. In this way the remotest darky heard that he was sure to return to slavery if the constitution failed of ratification.[1477] The Union League assessed its members, especially those who happened to be holding office under the military government, for money for campaign purposes.[1478]
The Radicals were forced by the general denunciation of the constitution, both in the North and in the South, to make some statement in regard to the matter. So on January 2, 1868, the Radical campaign committee issued an address stating that there had been general and severe criticism of some features of the constitution, and that Congress would expect a revision, though the state would be admitted promptly even before revision. The existence of political disabilities need not fetter the party, the address stated, in the choice of a candidate. A Republican nomination was a proof that the candidate was a "proper" person, and his disabilities would be at once removed. This was a way to mitigate the proscription.[1479]
From the first the Conservatives[1480] had no hope of carrying the election against the reconstructionists, who had control of the machinery of election and were supported by the army and the government. There was little organized opposition to the convention election, because the people were indifferent and because the leaders feared that a contest at the polls would result in riots with the negroes. To the Conservatives the convention at first was a joke; the disposition was rather to stand off and keep quiet, and let the Radicals try their hands for a while; they could not stay in power forever. Later, the violent opinions and extreme measures of the convention excited the alarm of many of the whites; the moderate reconstructionists deserted their party; a large minority of the convention refused to sign the constitution; and a number made formal protests. The nomination of candidates by the Union League membership of the convention and the character of the nominees showed that rule by alien and negro was threatened. The Conservative party, now embracing nearly all the whites except the Radical candidates, determined to oppose the ratification of the constitution. Many of the whites,[1481] now thoroughly discouraged, left the state forever--going to the north and west, to Texas especially, and to South America and Mexico.[1482]
On December 10 a number of the delegates to the convention, some of whom had signed the constitution, united in an address to the people advising against its adoption. All of them were native whites and former reconstructionists. They declared that under the proposed government designing knaves and political adventurers, who had a jealous hatred of the native whites, would use the blacks for their own selfish purposes; that this was clearly shown in the convention when the black delegation, with one honorable exception, moved like slaves at the command of their masters.[1483] Several hundred citizens sent a petition to the President, setting forth that some of the delegates to the convention were not residents of the state, that others did not, and had not, resided in the counties which they pretended to represent, and that others belonged to the army or were officials of the Freedmen's Bureau, and were thus not legally qualified to sit in the convention. The petitioners asked for an investigation.[1484] One of the delegates, Graves of Perry County, took the stump against the constitution framed by "strangers, deserters, bushwhackers, and perjured men," who were characterized by "a fiendish desire to disqualify all southern men from voting or holding office who are unwilling to perjure themselves with a test oath."[1485]
The so-called "White Man's Movement" in Alabama is said to have been originated in 1867, by Alexander White and ex-Governor L. E. Parsons.[1486] At a Conservative meeting in Dallas County, in January, 1868, the former offered a series of resolutions declaring that American institutions were the product of the wisdom of white men and were designed to preserve the ascendency of the white race in political affairs; that the United States government was a white man's government, and that white men should rule America; that the negro was not fit to take part in the government, as he had never achieved civilization nor shown himself capable of directing the affairs of a nation; that the right of suffrage was the fountain of all political power, therefore the negro should not be invested with the right. Parsons proposed the same resolutions at a Conservative conference in Montgomery in January, 1868.[1487]
The Conservative executive committee decided to advise the whites to refrain from voting, and thus defeat the constitution by taking advantage of the law requiring a majority of the registered voters to vote on the question of ratification before the constitution could be ratified. No nominations for office were made for fear that some whites might thus vote on the constitution, and also for fear of conflicts between the races in case of contest at the polls. All were advised to register and to remain away from the polls on election day. It was thought that less irritation would be caused in Congress and elsewhere if the constitution failed in this way than if it were voted down directly. The whites could be more easily persuaded to remain away than to go to the polls, and fewer negroes would vote if the whites did not vote. The people were urged to form organizations to carry out this non-participating programme.[1488]
In every county in the state the Conservatives held meetings, opposing the constitution and pledging all the whites to stay away from the polls. The Conservative press from day to day made known new objections to the constitution: it exempted from sale for debt $3000 worth of property,--whereas the old constitution exempted $500,--and this would exempt every Radical in the state from paying his debts; the power of taxation was in the hands of the non-taxpayers; the distribution of representation was unequal, favoring the black counties;[1489] mixed schools and amalgamation of the races were not forbidden, but were encouraged by the reconstructionists; a large number of whites were disfranchised from voting or holding office,[1490] while all the blacks were enfranchised; the test oath required all voters to swear that they would accept the political equality of the negro and never change their opinions; the Board of Education was given legislative power, and could pass measures over the governor's veto; an ordinance, which was kept secret, required the governor to organize at once 137 companies of militia, to be assigned almost entirely to the black counties, and under such regulations that it was certain that few whites could serve; this militia, when in service, was to be paid like the regular army, and was to get the proceeds from all property captured or confiscated by it; the government, under this constitution, would cost from one and a half to two million dollars a year.[1491]
Under the proposed constitution it was certain that for a while the government would be in the hands of the extremest Radical clique. The machinery, of the Radical party, of the registration and elections and the candidates nominated by the League were of this faction. The continued rule of the military was preferred by the whites to the rule of the carpet-baggers and the negro. Another reason why the Conservatives wished to keep the state out of the Union still longer was to prevent its electoral vote from being cast for Grant in the fall of 1868. During 1865 and 1866 Grant's moderate opinions had won the regard of many of the people, but his course during the last year had caused him to be intensely disliked. Though many meetings were held in opposition to the constitution, the campaign on the Conservative side was quiet and unexciting. The thirtieth day of January was set apart as a day of fasting and prayer to deliver the people of Alabama "from the horrors of negro domination."[1492]
Vote on the Constitution
The registration before the election of delegates to the convention was 165,123,[1493] of whom 61,295 were whites and 104,518 were blacks. Registration continued, and all the eligible whites registered. It is probable that more whites than negroes registered during December and January. And the revision demanded by all honest people evidently had the effect of striking off thousands of negro names; for at the end of the year the registration stood: whites, 72,748; blacks, 88,243; total, 160,991.[1494] By February 1, 1868, the registration amounted to about 170,000,[1495] of whom about 75,000 were whites and 95,000 were blacks. Therefore, more than 85,000 registered voters must participate in the election, or, according to the law, the constitution would fail of adoption.[1496]
The registrars were those who had been appointed by Pope in 1867. More than half of them were candidates for election to office. Meade was not favorably impressed with the character of the candidates nominated by the constitutional convention and by the local councils of the Union League, and he advised against holding the election for officers at the same time that the vote was taken on the constitution. He thought that the nominees were not such men as the friends of Reconstruction would choose if they had a free choice. He believed that the ratification would be seriously affected if these candidates were to be voted for at the same time. Swayne admitted the force of the objection, but was afraid that a revocation of the permission to elect officers at the same time would be disastrous to Reconstruction. Later he agreed that the two elections should not be held at the same time. But Grant objected to making the change, and the election went on.[1497]
General Hayden, Swayne's successor, removed a dozen or more of the registrars who were candidates for important offices,[1498] and in consequence was abused by the Radicals, who accused him of "hobnobbing with the rebels." He was "utterly loathed by loyal men," and they at once began to work for his removal.[1499] Every election official was obliged to take the iron-clad test oath, and as one-third of them were negroes, it was not likely that any of them were hostile to Reconstruction, as was afterwards claimed.
The elections were to begin on February 4 and last for two days. At the suggestion of General Grant the time was extended to four days, and a storm coming on the first day, instructions were sent out to keep the polls open until the close of the 8th of February. But in the remote counties no notice of the extension of time was received. There were three voting places in each county and a person might vote at any one of them (or at all of them if he chose). Late instructions ordered election officials to receive the vote of any person who had registered anywhere in the state. Of the 62 counties, 20 voted four days; 13, two days; 27, five days; and in 2 there were no elections.[1500]
Besides being told the old stories of returning to slavery, of forty acres and a mule, of social rights, etc., various new promises were made to the negroes. One was promised a divorce if he would vote for Reynolds as Auditor, and it was said that Reynolds kept his promise, and saw that the negro afterward secured it. Numerous negro politicians were, according to promise, relieved from "the pains of bigamy" by the first Reconstruction legislation. The discipline of the League was brought to bear on indifferent black citizens, and by threats of violence or of proscription many were driven to the polls. On February 3 the negroes began to flock to the voting places, each with a gun, a stick, a dog, and a bag of rations, as directed by their white leaders. It was again necessary for them to vote "early and often." The Radical candidates were desperately afraid that the constitution would fail of ratification, and every means was taken to swell the number of votes cast. Many negroes voted rolls of tickets given them by the candidates. They voted one day in one precinct, and the next day in another, or several times in the same place. Little attention was paid to the registration lists, but every negro over sixteen who presented himself was allowed to vote. Hundreds of negro boys voted; it was said that none were ever turned away. Where the whites had men at the polls to challenge voters, it was found almost impossible to follow the lists because so many of the negroes had changed their names since registration. The sick at their homes sent their proxies by their friends or relatives. In one case the Radicals voted negroes under the names of white men who were staying away. The voters migrated from one county to another during the elections and voted in each. This was especially the case in Mobile, Marengo, Montgomery, Macon, Lee, Russell, Greene, Dallas, Hale, and Barbour counties.[1501] The Mobile Register claimed that negro women were dressed in men's clothes and voted. The Radical chairman of the Board of Registration in Perry County stated that one-third of the votes polled in that county were illegal.[1502] In Mobile, when a negro man appeared whose name was not on the voting list and was challenged by the Conservatives, he was directed by a "pirate"[1503] to go to one D. G. Johnson, a registrar, who would give him, not a certificate of registration, but a ballot, indorsed with the voter's name and Johnson's signature. This ballot was to serve as a certificate and was also to be voted.[1504]
The Constitution fails of Adoption
The result of the voting was: for the constitution, 70,812 votes; against it, 1005. The 18,000 white votes for the convention had dwindled down to 5000 for the constitution. For ratification, 13,550 more votes were necessary, and the ratification had failed. So General Meade reported. The reasons for the falling off of the white vote have already been indicated. The black vote fell off also. One cause of this was the chilling of the negro's faith in his political leaders, who had made so many promises about farms, etc., and had broken them all. Many of the old aristocratic negroes would have nothing to do with such leaders as the carpet-baggers and scalawags, and this class and many others also were influenced by the whites to stay away from the polls. The general absence of respectable whites at the elections made it easier to convince the old Conservative negroes.[1505] In two white counties--Dale and Henry--no elections were held because there were not enough reconstructionists to act as election officials.[1506] Some whites, probably not many, were kept away by threats of social and business ostracism. Most of the reconstructionists cared nothing for such threats, as they could not be injured.[1507]
The Radicals explained the result of the election by asserting that many whites were registered illegally, foreigners, minors, etc., that the voters were intimidated by threats of violence, social ostracism, and discharge from employment; that the voting places were too few and the time too short in many of the counties; that there was a great storm and the rivers were flooded, preventing access to the polls in some places;[1508] that the Conservatives interfered with the votes, and tore off that part of the ballot that contained the vote on the constitution; that many election officials were hostile to reconstruction, and had turned off 10,000 voters because of slight defects in the registration; that there were not 170,000 voters in the state but only 160,000, as several thousand had removed from the state; that in spite of all obstructions the vote for the constitution, if properly counted, was 81,000 instead of 70,000, and that there were 120,000 "loyal" voters in the state; that the ballot-boxes in Lowndes County were stolen, and that the returns from Baine, Colbert, and Jones counties had been fraudulently thrown out;[1509] that General Hayden had especially desired the defeat of Reconstruction, and that he had managed the election in such a way as to enable the "rebels" to gain an apparent victory; and that practically all the army officers were opposed to the Radical programme, which was now true; and finally, that the attendance of Conservatives as challengers at the polls in some places was "a means of preventing the full and free expression of opinion by the ballot."[1510]
After a thorough investigation General Meade reported that the election had been quiet, and that there had been no disorder of any kind; that there had been no frauds in mutilating negroes' tickets by tearing off the vote for the constitution, and that the other charges of fraud would prove as illusive; that the vote for the governor and other officials was less than that for the constitution; and that a more liberal constitution would have commanded a majority of votes. He said, "I am satisfied that the constitution was lost on its merits;" that the constitution was fairly rejected by the people, under the law requiring a majority of the registered voters to cast their ballots for or against, and that this rejection was based on the merits of the constitution itself was proved by the fact that out of 19,000 white voters for the convention, there were only 5000 for the constitution; it might also be partially explained by the fact that the constitutional convention had made nominations to all the state offices, which ticket was "not acceptable in all respects to the party favoring reconstruction."[1511] He recommended that Congress reassemble the convention, which should revise the constitution, eliminating the objectionable features, and again submit it to the people. However, as he afterwards stated, "my advice was not followed." The tone of Meade's report showed that he did not expect Congress to refuse to admit the state. Indeed, at times the staid general seemed almost to approach something like disrespect toward that highly honorable body.
When the Radicals began to make an outcry about fraud, Meade complained that they were not specific in their charges, and told the leaders to get their proofs ready. The state Radical Executive Committee issued instructions for all Radicals to collect affidavits concerning high water, storms, obstruction, fraud, violence, intimidation, and discharge, and send them to the Radical agents at Washington, who were urging the admission of the state, notwithstanding the rejection of the constitution. They refused to send these reports to Meade, who was not in sympathy with the Radical programme. Many of what purported to be affidavits of men discharged from employment for voting were printed for the use of Congress. Most of them were signed by marks and gave no particulars. The usual statement was "for the reason of voting at recent election."[1512]
The Nationalist gave fifteen flippant reasons why the constitution had failed, and then asserted that the state was sure to be admitted in spite of the failure of ratification. Agents were sent to Washington to urge the acceptance by Congress of the constitution and Radical ticket. At first all, however, were not hopeful. There was a general exodus of the less influential carpet-baggers from the state, such a marked movement that the negroes afterwards complained of it. Some returned North; others went to assist in the reconstruction of other states.[1513]
C. C. Sheets, a native Radical, speaking of the failure of the ratification, declared that a year earlier the state might have been reconstructed according to the plan of Congress, but a horde of army officers sent South, followed by a train of office-seekers, went into politics, and these "with the help of a class here at home even less fit and less honest," if possible, had disgusted every one.[1514]
While waiting for Congress to act, the so-called legislature met, February 17, 1868, at the office of the Sentinel in Montgomery. Applegate, the candidate for lieutenant-governor, called the "Senate" to order, and harangued them as follows: Congress would recognize whatever they might do; it was absolutely necessary for the assembly to act before Congress, as the life of the nation was in danger and there was a pressing "necessity for two Senators from Alabama to sit upon the trial of that renegade and traitor, Andrew Johnson"; he stated that General Meade was in consultation with them and would sustain them;[1515] if protection were necessary, Major-General Dustan[1516] could, at short notice, surround them with several regiments of loyal militia.[1517] They attempted to transact some business, but the unfriendly attitude of Meade and Hayden discouraged them; and they disbanded, to await the action of Congress.
The Alabama Question in Congress
February 17, 1868, a few days after the election, Bingham of Ohio introduced a joint resolution in the House to admit Alabama with its new constitution.[1518] The Radicals of Alabama assumed that it was only a question of a short time before they would be in power. On March 10, Stevens, from the Committee on Reconstruction, reported a bill for the admission of Alabama. During the lengthy debate which followed, the Radical leaders undertook to show that when Congress passed the law of March 23, it did not know what it was doing, and that therefore the law could not now be considered binding. The carpet-bag stories about frauds in the election, icy rivers, etc., were again told. During the debates it developed that Beck of Kentucky and Brooks of New York, the minority members of the Committee on Reconstruction, had not been notified of the meeting of the committee, which was called to meet at the house of Stevens, and hence knew nothing of the report until it was printed. They made strong speeches against the bill and introduced the protests of the delegates to the convention, the reports of Meade, and the petition of the whites of the state against the proposed measure, and on March 17 introduced the minority report, which had to be read as part of a speech in order to get it printed. It was a summary of the Conservative objections to the constitution. For the moment Thaddeus Stevens seemed to be convinced that it was not desirable to admit Alabama. "After a full examination," he said, "of the final returns from Alabama, which we had not got when this bill was drawn, I am satisfied, for one, that to force a vote on this bill and admit the state against our own law, when there is a majority of twenty odd thousand against the constitution, would not be doing such justice in legislation as will be expected by the people." So the measure was withdrawn.[1519] But the next day Farnsworth of Illinois reported a new bill providing for the admission of Alabama. He argued that 7000 whites had voted for the constitution, and that 20,000 whites belonged to the Union Leagues in the state,[1520] and that only by fraud had the constitution been defeated. Kelly of Pennsylvania, of "Mobile riot" fame, said that "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." He was convinced that typographical and clerical errors in the voting lists had turned thousands away.[1521] Spalding of Ohio proposed a substitute, which was adopted, making the new constitution the fundamental law for a provisional government, and placing in office the candidates who were voted for. The legislature was to be convened to adopt amendments to the constitution and resubmit the latter to the people. The bill passed the House, but was not taken up in the Senate.[1522] In the debates on this bill Paine of Wisconsin said: "These men [the whites] during the war were traitors. They have no right to vote or to hold office, and for the present this dangerous power is most rightfully withheld." Williams, a Republican of Pennsylvania, objected to accepting a negro minority government. Stevens closed the debate, saying that Congress had passed an act "authorizing Alabama and other waste territories of the United States to form constitutions so as, if possible, to make them fit to associate with civilized communities"; the House had foreseen difficulties about requiring a majority to vote, and had passed an act to remedy it, but the Senate had let it lie for two months; he knew that he was outside the constitution, which did not provide for such a case; he wanted to shackle the whites in order to protect the blacks.[1523]
The effect of establishing a new provisional government on the basis of the constitution just rejected would be to require a new registration and disfranchisement according to that instrument. The proposal pleased the local Radicals very much. This plan was probably preferred by all the would-be officers except those who had been candidates for Congress and who could not sit until the state was admitted. The Nationalist[1524] said: "If we can get the offices, we, and not a 'military saphead' [Meade], can conduct the next election; we can by the Spalding bill get the government, rule the state as long as we please provisionally, and, when satisfied we can hold our own against the rebels, submit the constitution to a vote. We must wait until sure of a Republican majority if we have to wait five years."[1525] The carpet-baggers were in high hope. A girl applied to one of the managers of the Montgomery "soup house" for a ticket for ten days, saying that she would not need it longer, as her father by the end of that time would be a judge.[1526]
The whites began to close ranks, to leave no room in their midst for the white man of the North, the ruler and ally of the black. Social and business ostracism was declared against all who should take office under the Reconstruction Acts. They were turned away from respectable hotels.[1527]
The Independent Monitor, now the head and front of opposition to Reconstruction, gave the following advice to the white people, who, however, did not need it: "We reiterate the advice hitherto offered to those of our southern people who are not ashamed to honor the service of the 'lost cause' and the memory of their kith and kin whose lives were nobly laid down to save the survivors from a subjection incomparably more tolerable in contemplation than in realization. That advice is not to touch a loyal leaguer's hand; taste not of a loyal leaguer's hospitality; handle not a loyal leaguer's goods. Oust him socially; break him pecuniarily; ignore him politically; kick him contagiously; hang him legally; or lynch him clandestinely--provided he becomes a nuisance as Claus or Wilson."[1528]
The Conservative Executive Committee addressed a memorial to Congress against the proposed measures. In conclusion the address stated: "We are beset by secret oath-bound political societies, our character and conduct are systematically misrepresented to you and in the newspapers of the North; the intelligent and impartial administration of just laws is obstructed; industry and enterprise are paralyzed by the fears of the white men and the expectation of the black that Alabama will soon be delivered over to the rule of the latter; and many of our people are, for these reasons, leaving the homes they love for other and stranger lands. Continue over us, if you will, your own rule by the sword. Send down among us honorable and upright men of your own people, of the race to which you and we belong, and, ungracious, contrary to wise policy and the institutions of the country, and tyrannous as it will be, no hand will be raised among us to resist by force their authority. But do not, we implore you, abdicate your rule over us, by transferring us to the blighting brutality and unnatural dominion of an alien and inferior race."[1529]
Alabama Readmitted to the Union
The proposition to establish a Radical provisional government for Alabama was forgotten in the Senate during the progress of the impeachment trial, and on May 11 Stevens introduced a bill providing for the admission of Georgia, Louisiana, North and South Carolina, and Alabama.[1530] A motion by Woodbridge of Vermont to strike Alabama from the bill was lost by a vote of 60 to 74. Farnsworth said it was nonsense to make any distinction between Alabama and the other states. The bill passed the House on May 14, by a vote of 109 to 35, and went to the Senate. On June 5 Trumbull from the Judiciary Committee reported the bill with Alabama struck out because the constitution had not been ratified according to law. Wilson of Massachusetts moved to insert Alabama in the bill. Alabama, he said, was the strongest of all the states for the policy of Congress, and it would be unjust to leave her out. Sherman repeated the old charges of fraud in the elections, which had been contradicted by General Meade, from whose report Sherman quoted garbled extracts. It was absolutely necessary, he said, to admit Alabama in order to settle the Fourteenth Amendment before the presidential election. Hendricks of Indiana objected because of proscriptive clauses in the constitution, which would disfranchise from 25,000 to 30,000 men. Pomeroy of Kansas said it would be "a cruel thing" to admit the other states and leave out Alabama. Morton of Indiana was of the opinion that the bill with Alabama in it would pass over the President's veto as well as without it, and said that Congress must waive the condition and admit Alabama.[1531] The Radicals of Alabama kept the wires hot sending telegrams to their agents in Washington and to Wilson and Sumner, urging the inclusion of Alabama in the bill. On June 9 the Senate in Committee of the Whole amended the bill as reported from the Committee on the Judiciary by inserting Alabama. On this the vote stood 22 to 21. The next day Senator Trumbull moved to strike out Alabama, but the motion was lost by a vote of 24 to 16. So the report of the Judiciary Committee was revised by the insertion of Alabama, and the bill passed by a vote of 31 to 5, 18 not voting.[1532] The House Committee on Reconstruction recommended concurrence in certain amendments that the Senate had made, which was done by a vote of 111 to 28, 50 not voting. The bill was then signed by the Speaker and the President pro tem. of the Senate and sent to the President.[1533] The President returned the bill with his veto on June 25. "In the case of Alabama," he said, "it violates the plighted faith of Congress by forcing upon that state a constitution which was rejected by the people, according to the express terms of an act of Congress requiring that a majority of the registered electors should vote upon the question of its ratification."[1534] The bill was at once passed by both houses over the President's veto, in the Senate by a vote of 35 to 8, 13 not voting, and in the House by a vote of 108 to 31, 53 not voting.[1535]
The bill as passed declared that Alabama with the other southern states had adopted by large majorities the constitutions recently framed, and that as soon as each state by its legislature should ratify the Fourteenth Amendment it should be admitted to representation upon the fundamental condition "that the constitution of neither of said states shall ever be so amended or changed as to deprive any citizen or class of citizens of the United States of the right to vote in said state who are entitled to vote by the constitution thereof herein recognized" except as a punishment for crime.[1536] As soon as the new legislature should meet and ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, the officers of the state were to be inaugurated. No one was to hold office who was disqualified by the proposed Fourteenth Amendment.[1537]
June 29, Grant wrote to Meade that to avoid question he should remove the present provisional governor and install the governor and lieutenant-governor elect, this to take effect at the date of convening the legislature. So in July, by general order, Governor Patton was removed and Smith and Applegate installed. After the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment by the legislature, Meade directed all provisional officials to yield to their duly elected successors. The military commanders transferred state property, papers, and prisoners to the state authorities.[1538] And for six years the carpet-bagger, scalawag, and negro, with the aid of the army, misruled the state.
The members of Congress returned from their migrations[1539] and presented themselves with their credentials to Congress.[1540] Brooks of New York objected to the admission of these men on the ground that they were there in violation of the act of Congress in force at the time of the election. But on July 21 all were admitted by a vote of 125 to 33, 52 not voting. After taking the iron-clad test oath, they took their seats among the nation's lawmakers. Spencer and Warner were admitted to the Senate on July 25, and also took the iron-clad oath.[1541]
XVI. THE UNION LEAGUE OF AMERICA
Origin of the Union League
In order to understand the absolute control exercised over the blacks by the alien adventurers, as shown in the elections of 1867-1868, it will be necessary to examine the workings of the secret oath-bound society popularly known as the "Loyal League." The iron discipline of this order wielded by a few able and unscrupulous whites held together the ignorant negro masses for several years and prevented any control by the conservative whites.
The Union League movement began in the North in 1862, when the outlook for the northern cause was gloomy. The moderate policy of the Washington government had alienated the extremists; the Confederate successes in the field and Democratic successes in the elections, the active opposition of the "Copperheads" to the war policy of the administration, the rise of the secret order of the Knights of the Golden Circle in the West opposed to further continuance of the war, the strong southern sympathies of the higher classes of society, the formation of societies for the dissemination of Democratic and southern literature, the low ebb of loyalty to the government in the North, especially in the cities--all these causes resulted in the formation of Union Leagues throughout the North.[1542] This movement began among those associated in the work of the United States Sanitary Commission. These people were important neither as politicians nor as warriors, and they had sufficient leisure to observe the threatening state of society about them. "Loyalty must be organized, consolidated, and made effective," they declared. The movement, first organized in Ohio, took effective form in Philadelphia in the fall of 1862, and in December of that year the Union League of Philadelphia was organized. The members were pledged to uncompromising and unconditional loyalty to the Union, the complete subordination of political ideas thereto, and the repudiation of any belief in states' rights. The New York Union League Club followed the example of the Philadelphia League early in 1863, and adopted, word for word, its declaration of principles.[1543] Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Baltimore, and other cities followed suit, and soon Leagues modelled after the Philadelphia plan and connected by a loose bond of federation were formed in every part of the North. These Leagues were social as well as political in their aims. The "Loyal National League" of New York, an independent organization with thirty branches, was absorbed by the Union League, and the "Loyal Publication Society" of New York, which also came under its control, was used to disseminate the proper kind of political literature.
As the Federal armies went South, the Union League spread among the disaffected element of the southern people.[1544] Much interest was taken in the negro, and negro troops were enlisted through its efforts. Teachers were sent South in the wake of the armies to teach the negroes, and to use their influence in securing negro enlistments. In this and in similar work the League acted in coöperation with the Freedmen's Aid Societies, the Department of Negro Affairs, and later with the Freedmen's Bureau. With the close of the war it did not cease to take an active interest in things political. It was one of the earliest bodies to declare for negro suffrage and white disfranchisement,[1545] and this declaration was made repeatedly during the three years following the war, when it was continued as a kind of Radical bureau in the Republican party to control the negro vote in the South. Its agents were always in the lobbies of Congress, clamoring for extreme measures; the Reconstruction policy of Congress was heartily indorsed and the President condemned. Its headquarters were in New York, and it was represented in each state by "State Members." John Keffer of Pennsylvania was "State Member" for Alabama.
Part of the work of the League was to distribute campaign literature, and most of the violent pamphlets on Reconstruction questions will be found to have the Union League imprint. The New York League alone circulated about 70,000 publications,[1546] while the Philadelphia Union League far surpassed this record, circulating 4,500,000 political pamphlets[1547] within eight years. The literature printed consisted largely of accounts of "southern atrocities." The conclusions of Carl Schurz's report on the condition of the South justified, the League historian claims, the publication and dissemination of such choice stories as these: A preacher in Bladon (Springs), Alabama, said that the woods in Choctaw County stunk with dead negroes. Some were hanged to trees and left to rot; others were burned alive.
It is quite likely that such Leagues as those in New York and Philadelphia, after the first year or two of Reconstruction, grew away from the strictly political "Union League of America" and became more and more social clubs. The spiritual relationship was close, however, and in political belief they were one. The eminently respectable members of the Union Leagues of Philadelphia and New York had little in common with the southern Leagues except radicalism. Southern "Unionists" who went North were entertained by the Union League and their expenses paid. In 1866 the Philadelphia convention of southern "Unionists" was taken in hand by the League, carried to New York, and entertained at the expense of the latter. In 1867 several of the Leagues sent delegates to Virginia to reconcile the two warring factions of Radicals. The formation of the Union League among the southern "Unionists" was extended throughout the South within a few months of the close of the war, but a "discreet secrecy" was maintained. In Alabama it was easy for the disaffected whites, especially those who had been connected with the Peace Society, to join the order, which soon included Peace Society men, "loyalists," deserters, and many anti-administration Confederates. The most respectable element consisted of a few old Whigs who had an intense hatred of the Democrats, and who wanted to crush them by any means. In this stage the League was strongest in the white counties of the hill and mountain country.[1548]
Extension to the South
Even before the end of the war the Federal officials had established the organization in Huntsville, Athens, Florence, and other places in north Alabama. It was understood to be a very respectable order in the North, and General Burke, and later General Crawford, with other Federal officers and a few of the so-called "Union" men of north Alabama, formed lodges of what was called indiscriminately the Union or Loyal League. At first but few native whites were members, as the native "unionist" was not exactly the kind of person the Federal officers cared to associate with more than was necessary. But with the close of hostilities and the establishment of army posts over the state, the League grew rapidly. The civilians who followed the army, the Bureau agents, the missionaries, and the northern school-teachers were gradually admitted. The native "unionists" came in as the bars were lowered, and with them that element of the population which, during the war, especially in the white counties, had become hostile to the Confederate administration. The disaffected politicians saw in the organization an instrument which might be used against the politicians of the central counties, who seemed likely to remain in control of affairs. At this time there were no negro members, but it has been estimated that in 1865, 40 per cent of the white voting population in north Alabama joined the order, and that for a year or more there was an average of half a dozen "lodges" in each county north of the Black Belt. Later, the local chapters were called "councils." There was a State Grand Council with headquarters at Montgomery, and a Grand National Council with headquarters in New York. The Union League of America was the proper designation for the entire organization.
The white members were few in the Black Belt counties and even in the white counties of south Alabama, where one would expect to find them. In south Alabama it was disgraceful for a person to have any connection with the Union League; and if a man was a member, he kept it secret. To this day no one will admit that he belonged to that organization. So far as the native members were concerned, they cared little about the original purposes of the order, but hoped to make it the nucleus of a political organization; and the northern civilian membership, the Bureau agents, preachers, and teachers, and other adventurers, soon began to see other possibilities in the organization.[1549]
From the very beginning the preachers, teachers, and Bureau agents had been accustomed to hold regular meetings of the negroes and to make speeches to them. Not a few of these whites expected confiscation, or some such procedure, and wanted a share in the division of the spoils. Some began to talk of political power for the negro. For various purposes, good and bad, the negroes were, by the spring of 1866, widely organized by their would-be leaders, who, as controllers of rations, religion, and schools, had great influence over them. It was but a slight change to convert these informal gatherings into lodges, or councils, of the Union League. After the refusal of Congress to recognize the Restoration as effected by the President, the guardians of the negro in the state began to lay their plans for the future. Negro councils were organized, and negroes were even admitted to some of the white councils which were under control of the northerners. The Bureau gathering of Colonel John B. Callis of Huntsville was transformed into a League. Such men as the Rev. A. S. Lakin, Colonel Callis, D. H. Bingham, Norris, Keffer, and Strobach, all aliens of questionable character from the North, went about organizing the negroes during 1866 and 1867. Nearly all of them were elected to office by the support of the League. The Bureau agents were the directors of the work, and in the immediate vicinity of the Bureau offices they themselves organized the councils. To distant plantations and to country districts agents were sent to gather in the embryo citizens.[1550] In every community in the state where there was a sufficient number of negroes the League was organized, sooner or later.[1551] In north Alabama the work was done before the spring of 1867; in the Black Belt and in south Alabama it was not until the end of 1867 that the last negroes were gathered into the fold.
The effect upon the white membership of the admission of negroes was remarkable. With the beginning of the manipulation of the negro by his northern friends, the native whites began to desert the order, and when negroes were admitted for the avowed purpose of agitating for political rights and for political organization afterwards, the native whites left in crowds. Where there were many blacks, as in Talladega, nearly all of the whites dropped out. Where the blacks were not numerous and had not been organized, more of the whites remained, but in the hill counties there was a general exodus.[1552] Professor Miller estimates that five per cent of the white voters in Talladega County, where there were many negroes, and 25 per cent of those in Cleburne County, where there were few negroes, remained in the order for several years. The same proportion would be nearly correct for the other counties of north Alabama. Where there were few or no negroes, as in Winston and Walker counties, the white membership held out better, for in those counties there was no fear of negro domination, and if the negro voted, no matter what were his politics, he would be controlled by the native whites. What the negro would do in the black counties, the whites in the hill counties cared but little. The sprinkling of white members served to furnish leaders for the ignorant blacks, but the character of these men was extremely questionable. The native element has been called "lowdown, trifling white men," and the alien element "itinerant, irresponsible, worthless white men from the North." Such was the opinion of the respectable white people, and the later history of the Leaguers has not improved their reputation.[1553] In the black counties there were practically no white members in the rank and file. The alien element, probably more able than the scalawag, had gained the confidence of the negroes, and soon had complete control over them. The Bureau agents saw that the Freedmen's Bureau could not survive much longer, and they were especially active in looking out for places for the future. With the assistance of the negro they had hoped to pass into offices in the state and county governments.
The Ceremonies of the League
One thing about the League that attracted the negro was the mysterious secrecy of the meetings, the weird initiation ceremony that made him feel fearfully good from his head to his heels, the imposing ritual and the songs. The ritual, it is said, was not used in the North; it was probably adopted for the particular benefit of the African. The would-be Leaguer was told in the beginning of the initiation that the emblems of the order were the altar, the Bible, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, the flag of the Union, censer, sword, gavel, ballot-box, sickle, shuttle, anvil, and other emblems of industry. He was told that the objects of the order were to preserve liberty, to perpetuate the Union, to maintain the laws and the Constitution, to secure the ascendency of American institutions, to protect, defend, and strengthen all loyal men and members of the Union League of America in all rights of person and property,[1554] to demand the elevation of labor, to aid in the education of laboring men, and to teach the duties of American citizenship. This sounded well and was impressive, and at this point the negro was always willing to take an oath of secrecy, after which he was asked to swear with a solemn oath to support the principles of the Declaration of Independence, to pledge himself to resist all attempts to overthrow the United States, to strive for the maintenance of liberty, elevation of labor, education of all people in the duties of citizenship, to practise friendship and charity to all of the order, and to support for election or appointment to office only such men as were supporters of these principles and measures.[1555]
The council then sang "Hail Columbia" and "The Star-Spangled Banner," after which an official harangued the candidate, saying that, though the designs of traitors had been thwarted, there were yet to be secured legislative triumphs with complete ascendency of the true principles of popular government, equal liberty, elevation and education, and the overthrow at the ballot-box of the old oligarchy of political leaders. After prayer by the chaplain, the room was darkened, the "fire of liberty"[1556] lighted, the members joined hands in a circle around the candidate, who was made to place one hand on the flag and, with the other raised, swore again to support the government, to elect true Union men to office, etc. Then placing his hand on a Bible, for the third time he swore to keep his oath, and repeated after the president "the Freedman's Pledge": "To defend and perpetuate freedom and union, I pledge my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor. So help me God!" Another song was sung, the president charged the members in a long speech concerning the principles of the order, and the marshal instructed the members in the signs. To pass one's self as a Leaguer, the "Four L's" were given: (1) with right hand raised to heaven, thumb and third finger touching ends over palm, pronounce "Liberty"; (2) bring the hand down over the shoulder and say "Lincoln"; (3) drop the hand open at the side and say "Loyal"; (4) catch the thumb in the vest or in the waistband and pronounce "League."[1557] This ceremony of initiation was a most effective means of impressing the negro, and of controlling him through his love and fear of the secret, mysterious, and midnight mummery. An oath taken in daylight would be forgotten before the next day; not so an oath taken in the dead of night under such impressive circumstances. After passing through the ordeal, the negro usually remained faithful.
Organization and Methods
In each populous precinct there was at first one council of the League. In each town or city there were two councils, one for the whites, and another, with white officers, for the blacks.[1558] The council met once a week, sometimes oftener, and nearly always at night, in the negro churches or schoolhouses.[1559] Guards, armed with rifles and shotguns, were stationed about the place of meeting in order to keep away intruders, and to prevent unauthorized persons from coming within forty yards. Members of some councils made it a practice to attend the meetings armed as if for battle. In these meetings the negroes met to hear speeches by the would-be statesmen of the new régime. Much inflammatory advice was given them by the white speakers; they were drilled into the belief that their interests and those of the southern whites could not be the same, and passion, strife, and prejudice were excited in order to solidify the negro race against the white, thus preventing political control by the latter. Many of the negroes still had hopes of confiscation and division of property, and in this they were encouraged by the white leaders. Professor Miller was told[1560] by respectable white men, who joined the order before the negroes were admitted and who left when they became members, that the negroes were taught in these meetings that the only way to have peace and plenty, to get "the forty acres and a mule," would be to kill some of the leading whites in each community as a warning to others. The council in Tuscumbia received advice from Memphis to use the torch, that the blacks were at war with the white race. The advice was taken. Three men went in front of the council as an advance guard, three followed with coal-oil and fire, and others guarded the rear. The plan was to burn the whole town, but first one negro and then another insisted on having some white man's house spared because "he is a good man." The result was that no residences were burned, and they compromised by burning the Female Academy. Three of the leaders were lynched.[1561] The general belief of the whites was that the objects of the order were to secure political power, to bring about on a large scale the confiscation of the property of Confederates,[1562] and while waiting for this to appropriate all kinds of portable property. Chicken-houses, pig-pens, vegetable gardens, and orchards were invariably visited by members when returning from the midnight conclaves. This evil became so serious and so general that many believed it to be one of the principles of the order. Everything of value had to be locked up for safe-keeping.
As soon as possible after the war each negro had supplied himself with a gun and a dog as badges of freedom. As a usual thing, he carried them to the League meetings, and nothing was more natural than that the negroes should begin drilling at night. Armed squads would march in military formation to the place of assemblage, there be drilled, and after the close of the meeting, would march along the roads shouting, firing their guns, making great boasts and threats against persons whom they disliked. If the home of such a person happened to be on the roadside, the negroes usually made a practice of stopping in front of the house and treating the inmates to unlimited abuse, firing off their guns in order to waken them. Later military parades in the daytime were much favored. Several hundred negroes would march up and down the roads and streets, and amuse themselves by boasts, threats, and abuse of whites, and by shoving whites off the sidewalks or out of the road. But, on the whole, there was very little actual violence done the whites,--much less than might have been expected. That such was the case was due, not to any sensible teachings of the leaders, but to the fundamental good nature of the blacks, who were generally content with being impudent.[1563]
The relations between the races, with exceptional cases, continued to be somewhat friendly until 1867-1868. In the communities where the League and the Bureau were established, the relations were soonest strained. For a while in some localities, before the advent of the League, and in others where the Bureau was conducted by native magistrates, the negroes looked to their old masters for guidance and advice, and the latter, for the good of both races, were most eager to retain a moral control over the blacks. Barbecues and picnics were arranged by the whites for the blacks, speeches were made, good advice given, and all promised to go well. Sometimes the negroes themselves would arrange the festival and invite prominent whites to be present, for whom a separate table attended by the best waiters would be reserved; and after dinner there would be speaking by both whites and blacks. With the organization of the League, the negroes grew more reserved, and finally unfriendly to the whites. The League alone, however, was not responsible for the change. The League and the Bureau had to some extent the same personnel, and it is impossible to distinguish clearly between the work of the League and that of the Bureau. In many ways the League was simply the political side of the Bureau. The preaching and teaching missionaries were also at work. On the other hand, among the lower classes of whites, a hostile feeling quickly sprang to oppose the feeling of the blacks.
When the campaign grew exciting, the discipline of the order was used to prevent the negroes from attending Democratic meetings or hearing Democratic speakers. The League leaders even went farther and forbade the attendance of the blacks at Radical political meetings where the speakers were not indorsed by the League. Almost invariably the scalawag disliked the Leaguer, black or white, and often the League proscribed the former as political teachers. Judge Humphreys was threatened with political death unless he joined the League. This he refused to do, as did most whites where there were many negroes. All Republicans in good standing had to join the League. Judge (later Governor) D. P. Lewis was a member for a short while, but he soon became disgusted and published a denunciation of the League. Nicholas Davis and J. C. Bradley, both scalawags, were forbidden by the League to speak in the court-house at Huntsville because they were not members of the order. At a Republican mass-meeting a white republican wanted to make a speech. The negroes voted that he should not be allowed to speak because he was "opposed to the Loyal League." He was treated to abuse and threats of violence. He then went to another place to speak, but was followed by the crowd, which refused to allow him to say anything. The League was the machine of the Radical party, and all candidates had to be governed by its edicts. Nominations to office were usually made in its meetings.[1564]
Every negro was ex colore a member or under the control of the League. In the opinion of the League, white Democrats were bad enough, but black Democrats were not to be tolerated. The first rule was that all blacks must support the Radical programme. It was possible in some cases for a negro to refrain from taking an active part in political affairs. He might even fail to vote. But it was martyrdom for a black to be a Democrat; that is, try to follow his old master in politics. The whites, in many cases, were forced to advise their faithful black friends to vote the Radical ticket that they might escape mistreatment. There were numbers of negroes, as late as 1868, who were inclined to vote with the whites, and to bring them into line all the forces of the League were brought to bear. They were proscribed in negro society, and expelled from negro churches, nor would the women "proshay" (appreciate) a black Democrat. The negro man who had Democratic inclinations was sure to find that influence was being brought to bear upon his dusky sweetheart or wife to cause him to see the error of his ways, and persistent adherence to the white party would result in the loss of her. The women were converted to Radicalism long before the men, and almost invariably used their influence strongly for the purpose of the League. If moral suasion failed to cause the delinquent to see the light, other methods were used. Threats were common from the first and often sufficed, and fines were levied by the League on recalcitrant members. In case of the more stubborn, a sound beating was usually effective to bring about a change of heart. The offending darky was "bucked and gagged," and the thrashing administered, the sufferer being afraid to complain of the way he was treated. There were many cases of aggravated assault, and a few instances of murder. By such methods the organization succeeded in keeping under its control almost the entire negro population.[1565] The discipline over the active members was stringent. They were sworn to obey the orders of the officials. A negro near Clayton disobeyed the "Cap'en" of the League and was tied up by the thumbs; and another for a similar offence was "bucked" and whipped. A candidate having been nominated by the League, it was made the duty of every member to support him actively. Failure to do so resulted in a fine or other more severe punishment, and members that had been expelled were still under the control of the officials.[1566]
The effects of the teachings of the League orators were soon seen in the increasing insolence and defiant attitude of some of the blacks, in the greater number of stealings, small and large, in the boasts, demands, and threats made by the more violent members of the order. Most of them, however, behaved remarkably well under the circumstances, but the few unbearable ones were so much more in evidence that the suffering whites were disposed to class all blacks together as unbearable. Some of the methods of the Loyal League were similar to those of the later Ku Klux Klan. Anonymous warnings were sent to the obnoxious individuals, houses were burned, notices were posted at night in public places and on the doors of persons who had incurred the hostility of the League.[1567] In order to destroy the influence of the whites where kindly relations still existed, an "exodus order" was issued through the League, directing all members to leave their old homes and obtain work elsewhere. This was very effective in preventing control by the better class of whites. Some of the blacks were loath to leave their old homes, but to remonstrances from the whites the usual reply was: "De word done sont to de League. We got to go."[1568]
In Bullock County, near Perote, a council of the League was organized under the direction of a negro emissary, who proceeded to assume the government of the community. A list of crimes and punishments was adopted, a court with various officials established, and during the night all negroes who opposed them were arrested. But the black sheriff and his deputy were arrested by the civil authorities. The negroes then organized for resistance, flocked into Union Springs, the county seat, and threatened to exterminate the whites and take possession of the county. Their agents visited the plantations and forced the laborers to join them by showing orders purporting to be from General Swayne, giving them the authority to kill all who resisted them. Swayne sent out detachments of troops and arrested fifteen of the ringleaders, and the Perote government collapsed.[1569]
When first organized in the Black Belt, and before native whites were excluded from membership, numbers of whites joined the League upon invitation in order to ascertain its objects, to see if mischief were intended toward the whites, and to control, if possible, the negroes in the organization. Most of these became disgusted and withdrew, or were expelled on account of their politics. In Marengo County several white Democrats joined the League at McKinley in order to keep down the excitement aroused by other councils, to counteract the evil influences of alien emissaries, and to protect the women of the community, in which but few men were left after the war. These men succeeded in controlling the negroes and in preventing the discussion of politics in the meetings. The League was made simply a club where the negroes met to receive advice, which was to the effect that they should attend strictly to their own affairs and vote without reference to any secret organization. Finally, they were advised to withdraw from the order.[1570]
For two years, 1867-1869, the League was the machine in the Radical party, and its leaders formed the "ring" that controlled party action. Nominations for office were regularly made by the local and state councils. It is said that there were stormy times in the councils when there were more carpet-baggers than offices to be filled. The defeated candidate was apt to run as an independent, and in order to be elected would sell himself to the whites. This practice resulted in a weakening of the influence of the machine, as the members were sworn to support the regular nominee, and the negroes believed that the terrible penalties would be inflicted upon the political traitor. The officers would go among the negroes and show their commissions, which they pretended were orders from General Swayne or General Grant for the negroes to vote for them.[1571] A political catechism of questions and answers meant to teach loyalty to the Radical party was prepared in Washington and sent out among the councils, to be used in the instruction of negro voters.[1572]
After it was seen that existing political institutions were to be overturned, the white councils and, to a certain extent, the negro councils became simply associations for those training for leadership in the new party soon to be formed in the state by act of Congress. The few whites who were in control did not care to admit more white members, as there might be too many to share in the division of the spoils. Hence we find that terms of admission were made more stringent, and, especially after the passage of the Reconstruction Acts, in March, 1867, many applicants were rejected. The alien element was in control of the League. The result was that where the blacks were numerous the largest plums fell to the carpet-baggers. The negro leaders,--politicians, preachers, and teachers,--trained in the League, acted as subordinates to the white leaders in controlling the black population, and they were sent out to drum up the country negroes when elections drew near. They were also given minor positions when offices were more plentiful than carpet-baggers. All together they received but few offices, which fact was later a cause of serious complaint.
The largest white membership of the League was in 1865-1866, and after that date it constantly decreased. The largest negro membership was in 1867 and 1868. Only the councils in the towns remained active after the election of 1868, for after the discipline of 1867 and 1868 it was not necessary to look so closely after the plantation negro, and he became a kind of visiting member of the council in the town.[1573] The League as an organization gradually died out by 1869, except in the largest towns. Many of them were transformed into political clubs, loosely organized under local political leaders. The Ku Klux Klan undoubtedly had much to do with breaking up the League as an organization. The League as the ally and successor of the Freedmen's Bureau was one of the causes of the Ku Klux movement, because it helped to create the conditions which made such a movement inevitable.[1574] In 1870 the Radical leaders missed the support formerly given by the League, and an urgent appeal was sent out all over the State from headquarters in New York by John Keffer and others advocating the reëstablishment of the Union Leagues to assist in carrying the elections of 1870.[1575]
However, before its dissolution, the League had served its purpose. It made it possible for a few outsiders to control the negro by alienating the races politically, as the Bureau had done socially. It enabled the negroes to vote as Radicals for several years, when without it they either would not have voted at all or they would have voted as Democrats along with their former masters. The order was necessary to the existence of the Radical party in Alabama. No ordinary political organization could have welded the blacks into a solid party. The Freedmen's Bureau, which had much influence over the negroes for demoralization, was too weak in numbers to control the negroes in politics. The League finally absorbed the personnel of the Bureau and inherited its prestige.[1576]
XVII. TAXATION AND THE PUBLIC DEBT
Taxation during Reconstruction
After the war it was certain that taxation would be higher and expenditure greater, both on account of the ruin caused by the war that now had to be repaired, and because several hundred thousand negroes had been added to the civic population. Before the war the negro was no expense to the state and county treasuries; his misdemeanors were punished by his master. Yet neither the ruined court-houses, jails, bridges, roads, etc., nor the criminal negroes can account for the taxation and expenditure under the carpet-bag régime. During the three and a half years after the war, under the provisional governments, most of the burned bridges, court-houses, and other public buildings had been replaced; and there were relatively few negroes who were an expense to the carpet-bag government.
After the overthrow of Reconstruction, Governor Houston stated that the total value of all property in Alabama in 1860 was $725,000,000, and that in 1875 it was $160,000,000.[1577] In 1866 the assessed valuation was $123,946,475;[1578] in 1870 it was $156,770,385,[1579] and in 1876, after ten years of Reconstruction, it was $135,535,792.[1580] Before the war the taxes were paid on real estate and slaves. In 1860 the taxes were paid upon slave property assessed at $152,278,000, and upon real estate assessed at $155,034,000.[1581]
Although there was some property left in 1865, the owners could barely pay taxes on it. The bank capital was gone, and no one had money that was receivable for taxes. Consequently, it was impossible to collect general taxes, and the state government was obliged to place temporary loans and levy license taxes. No regular taxes were collected during 1865 and 1866. The first regular tax was levied in 1866, and was collected in time to be spent by the Reconstruction convention.[1582] For four years after the surrender the crops were bad, and when called good they were hardly more than half of the crops of 1860.[1583] However, if no state taxes were paid by the impoverished farmers, there still remained the heavy Federal tax of $12.50 to $15 per bale on all cotton produced.
The rate of taxation before the war on real estate and on slaves was one-fifth of one per cent. After the war the taxes were raised by the provisional government to one-fourth of one per cent, and license taxes were added. The reconstructed government at once raised the rate to three-fourths of one per cent on property of all descriptions,[1584] and added new license taxes, more than quadrupling the former rate. Under Lindsay, the Democratic governor in 1871-1872, the rate was lowered to one-half of one per cent. The assessment of property under Reconstruction was much more stringent than before. There were only five other states that paid a tax rate as high as three-fourths of one per cent, and four of these were southern states.[1585]
Before the war the county tax was usually 60 per cent of the state tax, never more. The city and town tax was insignificant. After the war the town and city taxes were greatly increased, the county tax was invariably as much as the state tax, and many laws were passed authorizing the counties to levy additional taxes and to issue bonds. The heaviest burdens were from local taxation, not from state taxes.[1586] In Montgomery County, the county taxes before the war had never been more than $30,000, and had been paid by slaveholders and owners of real estate. During Reconstruction the taxes were never less than $90,000, and every one except the negroes had to pay on everything that was property. In fact, the taxes in this county were about quadrupled.[1587] In Marengo County the taxes before the war were $12,000; after 1868 they were $25,000 to $30,000, notwithstanding the fact that property had depreciated two-thirds in value since the war. Land worth formerly $50 to $60 an acre now sold for $3 to $15.[1588] In Madison County, the state taxes in 1858 were $23,417.63 (gross); in 1870, $66,745.53 (net). The state land tax in 1858 in the same county was $7,213.10; in 1870, $51,445.30. Madison County taxes were:--
====================================================== | STATE TAX | COUNTY TAX | TOTAL -----------|--------------|--------------|------------ In 1859 | $26,633.71 | $13,316.85 | $39,950.56 In 1869 | 65,410.85 | 65,410.85 | 130,821.70 ======================================================
The general testimony was that the exemption laws relieved from taxation nearly all the negroes, except those who paid taxes before the war.[1589]
The following table will show the taxation for 1860 and 1870:--
============================================================ | CENSUS VALUATION | STATE TAX | COUNTY TAX | TOWN TAX -----|-------------------|-----------|------------|--------- 1860 | $432,198,762[1590]| $530,107 | $309,474 | $11,590 1870 | 156,770,387 | 1,477,414 | 1,122,471 | 403,937 ============================================================
Administrative Expenses
TABLE OF RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT
============================================ YEAR| RECEIPTS | EXPENDITURES ----|-------------------|------------------- 1860| ---- | $530,107.00 1865|$1,626,782.93[1591]| 2,282,355.97[1591] 1866| 62,967.80[1592]| 606,494.39[1593] 1867| 691,048.86 | 819,434.85[1594] 1868| 724,760.56[1595]| 1,066,860.24[1595] 1868| 1,788,982.43[1595]| 2,233,781.97[1595] 1869| 686,451.02[1596]| 1,394,960.30 1870| 1,283,586.52 | 1,336,398.85 1871| 1,422,494.67[1597]| 1,640,116.99[1598] 1872| ---- | ---- 1873| 2,081,649.39 | 2,237,822.06[1599] 1874| ---- | ---- 1875| 725,000.00 | 500,000.00[1600] 1876| 781,800.64 | 682,591.49 1886| 888,724.33 | 818,366.70 ============================================
The average yearly cost of state, county, and town administration from 1858 to 1860 was $800,000; from 1868 to 1870, the average cost of the state administration alone was $1,107,080, the cost of state, county, and town government being at least $3,000,000.[1601] The provisional state government disbursed in the year 1866-1867, $676,476.54, of which only $262,627.47 was spent for state expenses; the remainder was used for schools.[1602]
The greater expenditure of the Reconstruction government can, in small part, be explained by the greater number of officials and by the higher salaries paid.[1603]
SALARIES
====================================================================== | BEFORE THE | DURING | WAR | RECONSTRUCTION -----------------------|-----------------|---------------------------- Governor | $2,000.00 | $4,000.00 Governor's clerk | 500.00 | 5,400.00, two Secretary of State | 1,200.00 | 2,400.00, fees and charges Treasurer | 1,800.00 | 2,800.00 Departmental clerks | 1,000.00 each | 1,500.00 Supreme Court judge | 3,000.00 | 4,000.00 Circuit judges | 13,500.00 | 36,000.00 Chancellors | 4,500.00 three | 15,000.00 Member of Legislature, | | per diem | 4.00 | 6.00 Stationery executive | | departments | 1,200.00 | 12,708.77[1604] ======================================================================
The administration of Lindsay to a great extent had to pay the debts of the former administration. Expenses were curtailed when possible, and notwithstanding the fact that the indorsed railroads defaulted in 1871, the business of the state was conducted much more economically, and there were fewer and smaller issues of bonds and obligations.[1605] The Senate, however, had but one Democrat in it, and the House was only doubtfully Democratic, as the Democratic members were young and inexperienced men or else discontented scalawags.[1606] Consequently, the tide of corruption and extravagance was merely checked, not stopped. The capitol expenses of Smith and of Lindsay for a year make an instructive comparison:--
========================================================== | GOVERNOR SMITH | GOVERNOR LINDSAY | 1869-1870 | 1871-1872 -----------------------|----------------|----------------- Contingent expenses | $47,197.28 | $20,531.84 Stationery, fuel, etc. | 24,310.07 | 8,847.23 Clerical services | 27,883.77 | 21,883.03 Public printing | 80,279.18 | 49,716.43 ==========================================================
Other expenses, in so far as they were under the control of Lindsay, formed a like contrast.[1607] The cost of holding sessions of the legislature under the provisional government was $83,856.60 in 1865-1866, and $83,852 in 1866-1867. Under Smith it was about $90,000 per session, and there were three regular sessions the first year. One session (1870-1871) under Lindsay cost $95,442.30, and two under Lewis, 1873-1874, cost $175,661.50 and $166,602.65 respectively.[1608] The cost of keeping state prisoners for trial was about $50,000 a year. The Reconstruction legislature cut down expenses by passing a law to liberate criminals of a grade below that of felon, upon their own recognizance.[1609]
The Democrats complained of the way the reconstructionists spent the contingent fund of the state. This abuse was never so bad as in other southern states at the time, but still there was continual stealing on a small scale. Some examples[1610] may be given: Governor Lewis spent $800 on a short visit to New York and Florida;[1611] the governor's private secretary received $21,000 for services rendered in distributing the "political" bacon in 1874;[1612] the treasurer drew $1200 to pay his expenses to Mobile and New York, though he had no business to attend to in either place, and travelled on roads over which he had passes; ex-Governor W. H. Smith, when attorney for the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad, was paid $500 by the state for services rendered in connection with his own road, and the committee was unable to discover the nature of these services; the secretary of state charged $952 for signing his name to bonds, though it was his constitutional duty to do so without charge; a bill of stationery from Benedict of New York cost $7761.58, when the bid of Joel White of Montgomery on the same order was $4336.54; $50 was allowed to John A. Bingham (presumably a relative of the treasurer) for signing enough bonds to purchase a farm for the penitentiary. Such purchases as these were common: one refrigerator, $65; one looking-glass, $5; one clothes-brush, $1.50. Very few of the small accounts against the contingent fund were itemized. In no case were any of them accounted for by proper vouchers. The private secretary of the governor was in the habit of approving and allowing accounts against the contingent fund, even going so far as to approve the governor's own accounts. The Investigating Committee said that the private secretary seemed to be the acting governor.[1613]
The Florida commissioners, J. L. Pennington, C. A. Miller, and A. J. Walker, who were appointed to negotiate for the cession to Alabama of West Florida, spent $10,500, of which Walker, the Democratic member, spent $516, and Miller and Pennington spent the remainder, "according to the best judgment and discretion" of themselves. They claimed that part of it was used to entertain the Florida commissioners, and part to influence the elections in West Florida.[1614]
The governor was accused of transferring appropriations. In one case, he drew out of the treasury $484,346.76, ostensibly to pay the interest on the public debt, and used it for other purposes. A committee appointed to investigate was able to trace all of it except $75,196.56, which sum could not be accounted for. The accounts were carelessly kept. The auditor, treasurer, and governor never seemed to know within a million or two of dollars what the public debt was. The reports for the period from 1868 to 1875 do not show the actual condition of the finances, and the Debt Commission in 1875 was unable to get accurate information from the state records, but had to advertise for information from the creditors and debtors of the state.[1615]
Effect on Property Values
The misrule of the Radicals in Alabama resulted in a general shrinkage in values after 1867, especially in the Black Belt, where financial and economic chaos reigned supreme, and where the carpet-bagger flourished supported by the negro votes. Recuperation was impossible until the rule of the alien was overthrown. This was done in some of the white counties in 1870. At that date land values were still 60 per cent below those of 1860, and the numbers of live stock 40 per cent below. This was due largely to the condition of the Black Belt counties under the control of the Radicals.[1616]
Thousands of landowners were unable to pay the taxes assessed, and their farms were sold by the state. The Independent Monitor, on March 8, 1870, advertised the sale of 1284 different lots of land (none less than forty acres) in Tuscaloosa County, and the next week 2548 more were advertised for sale, all to pay taxes. Often, it was complained, the tax assessor failed to notify the people to "give in" their taxes, and thus caused them trouble. In some cases, where costs and fines were added to the original taxes, it amounted to confiscation. In 1871, F. S. Lyon exhibited before the Ku Klux Committee a copy of the Southern Republican containing twenty-one and a half columns of advertised sales of land lying in the rich counties of Marengo, Greene, Perry, and Choctaw.[1617] One Radical declared that he wanted the taxes raised so high that the large landholders would be compelled to sell their lands, so that he, and others like him, could buy.[1618] Property sold for taxes could be redeemed only by paying double the amount of the taxes plus the costs. A tax sale deed was conclusive evidence of legal sale, and was not a subject for the decision of a court.[1619]
There were hundreds of mortgage sales in every county of the state during the Reconstruction period. At these sales everything from land to household furniture was sold. The court-house squares on sale days were favorite gathering places for the negroes, who came to look on, and a traveller, in 1874, states that in the immense crowds of negroes at the sales there were some who had come a distance of sixty miles.[1620] Each winter, from 1869 to 1875, there was an exodus of people to Texas and to South America, driven from their homes by mortgages, taxes, the condition of labor, and corrupt government. Landowners sold their lands for what they would bring and went to the West, where there were no negroes, no scalawags, and no carpet-baggers.[1621]
Most of the farmers and tenants of that period were unable to send their children to school and pay tuition. The reconstructed school system failed almost at the beginning. Consequently, tens of thousands of children grew up ignorant of schools, most of them the children of parents who had had some education. Hence the special provision for them in the constitution of 1901. The first Democratic legislature restricted taxation to three-fifths of one per cent and local taxation to one-half of one per cent. The rates were lowered gradually, until in the early nineties the rate was only two-fifths of one per cent. Since that time, the rate has again increased until in 1899 the state tax was again three-fourths of one per cent, the increase being used for Confederate pensions and for schools.
But in addition to the expenditure of the sums raised by extraordinary taxation, the Reconstruction administration greatly increased the bonded debt of the state and by mortgaging the future left a heavy burden upon the people that has as yet been but slightly lessened.
The Public Bonded Debt
After 1868 it is impossible to ascertain what the public debt of the state was at any given time until 1875, when the first Democratic legislature began to investigate the condition of the finances.
In 1860 the total debt--state bonds and trust funds--was $5,939,654.87 (and the bonded debt was $3,445,000), most of which was due to the failure of the state bank. The payment of the war debt, which amounted to $13,094,732.95, was forbidden by the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1865 the total bonded debt with three years' unpaid interest was $4,065,410, while the trust funds amounted to $2,910,000. Governor Patton reissued the bonds to the amount of $4,087,800, and the sixteenth section and the university trust funds with unpaid interest raised the total debt, in 1867, to $6,130,910. In July, 1868, when the state went into the hands of the reconstructionists, the total debt was $6,848,400. The provisional government had been increasing the debt because no taxes were collected during 1865 and 1866. Taxes were collected in 1867, but before the end of 1868 the debt amounted to $7,904,398.92, and after that date no one knew, nor did the officials seem to care, exactly how large it was.[1622]
State and county and town bonds were issued in reckless haste by the plunderers, but the reports do not show the amounts issued; no correct records were kept. The acts of the legislature authorized the governor to issue about $5,000,000 state bonds, besides the direct bonds issued to railroads, which amounted to about $4,000,000 not including interest. The counties, besides being authorized to levy heavy additional taxes, were permitted to issue bonds for various purposes.[1623] A number of acts gave the counties general permission to issue bonds, but there are no records accessible of the amounts raised. There were issues of town and county bonds without legislative authorization. This practice is said to have been common, but in the chaotic conditions of the time little attention was paid to such things and no records were kept.
To dispose of its bonds the state had a large number of financial agents in the North and abroad. Some of these made no reports at all; others reported as they pleased. Certain bonds were sold in 1870 by one of the financial agents, and two years later the proceeds had not reached the treasury or been accounted for. In like manner some bond sales were conducted in 1871 and in 1872.[1624] Not only was no record kept of the issues of direct and indorsed bonds, but no records were kept of the payment of interest and of the domestic debts of the state. Some of the financial agents exercised the authority of auditor and treasurer and settled any claim that might be presented to them. Some agents, who paid interest on bonds, returned the cancelled coupons; others did not. In Governor Lewis's office $20,000 in coupons were found with nothing to show that they had been cancelled. One lot of bonds was received with every coupon attached, yet the interest on these had been paid regularly in New York.[1625]
Provision was made for the retirement of all "state money"; but if the treasury was empty when it came in, it was apt to be reissued without any authority of law. A large sum was returned, but no record was made of it, and it was not destroyed. Later it was discovered among a mass of waste paper, where any thief might have taken it and put it again into circulation. One transaction may be cited as an illustration of the management of the finances: in 1873 the state owed Henry Clews & Company $299,660.20. Governor Lewis gave his notes (twelve in number) as governor, for the amount, and at the same time deposited with Clews as collateral security $650,000 in state bonds. Clews, when he failed, turned over the governor's notes to the Fourth National Bank of New York, to which he was indebted. He had already disposed of, so the state claimed, the $650,000 in bonds which he held as collateral security; and a year later, according to the Debt Commission, he still made a claim against the state for $235,039.43 as a balance due him. Thus a debt of $299,660.20 had grown in the hands of one of the state agents to $1,184,689.63, besides interest.[1626]
In 1872 it was estimated that the general liabilities of the state, counties, and towns amounted to $52,762,000.[1627] The country was flooded with temporary obligations receivable for public dues, and the tax collectors substituted these for any coin that might come into their hands. There was much speculation in the depreciated currency by the state and county officials. During Lewis's first year (1873), the state bonds were quoted at 60 per cent, but on November 17, 1873, he reported, "This department has been unable to sell for money any of the state bonds during the present administration." He raised money for immediate needs by hypothecation of the state securities. Thus came about the remarkable transaction with Clews. The state money went down to 60 per cent, then to 40 per cent before the elections of 1874, and at one time state bonds sold for cash at 20 and 21 cents on the dollar.[1628]
The Financial Settlement
After the overthrow of the Radicals in 1874 taxation was limited, expenditures were curtailed, and the administration undertook to make some arrangement in regard to the public debt. For two years the state had been bankrupt; for nearly four years the railroads aided by the state had been bankrupt; the debt was enormous, but how large no one knew. A commission, consisting of Governor Houston, Levi W. Lawler, and T. B. Bethea, was appointed to ascertain and adjust the public debt.[1629] After advertising in the United States and abroad, the commission found a debt amounting in round numbers to $30,037,563. Some claims were not ascertained; many creditors or claimants not being heard from and many fraudulent bonds not being presented. The debt was divided into four classes: (1) the recognized direct debt, consisting of state bonds (exclusive of bonds issued to railroads), state obligations, state certificates or "Patton money," unpaid interest and other direct debts of the state,--in all, amounting to $11,677,470; (2) the state bonds issued to railroads under the law providing for the substitution of $4000 state bonds per mile instead of $16,000 per mile in indorsed bonds, which in all amounted to $1,156,000; (3) a class of claims of doubtful character, among them that of Henry Clews & Company, amounting in all to $2,573,093; (4) the indorsed bonds of the state-aided railroads, amounting to $11,597,000 (several millions having been retired), and state bonds loaned to railroads,--which debt, with the unpaid interest on the same, amounting to $3,024,000, was in all $14,641,000.
SUMMARY OF DEBT
Class One $11,667,470 Class Two 1,156,000[1630] Class Three 2,573,093 Class Four 14,641,000 ----------- Total $30,037,563[1631]
The interest on this debt at the legal rate of 8 per cent would be over $2,000,000, more than twice the total yearly income of the state. The commission and the legislature declared that in the present condition of the finances the state could not pay the interest, that it would be several years before the state could pay any interest at all. Moreover, it could not recognize as valid many items in the great debt. After conference with the representatives of the more innocent creditors, the debt was thus adjusted:--
I. (a) The state proposed for the next few years to confine its attention to paying domestic claims and to retiring state obligations. (b) New bonds were issued to the amount of $7,000,000, to be exchanged for outstanding state bonds sold by the state to bona fide purchasers. These bonds, known as Class A, were to draw interest for five years at 2 per cent, for the next five years at 3 per cent, at 4 per cent for the next ten years, and thereafter at 5 per cent. These bonds were issued to the most innocent creditors and constituted the least questionable part of the debt.
II. On the $1,192,000 railroad debt of Class Two the state accepted a clear loss of one-half, and issued $596,000 in bonds, known as Class B, to be exchanged at the rate of one for two. These bonds drew interest at 5 per cent.
III. Class Three was the worst of all, and none of the items were at the time recognized, though the commissioners were authorized to take $310,000 of Class A bonds and distribute the amount among the innocent holders of the $650,000 bonds sold by Henry Clews when held by him as collateral. The other Clews claims were emphatically repudiated as fraudulent.
IV. Class Four was more complicated. (a) The state gave $1,000,000 in bonds, Class C, drawing interest at 2 per cent for five years and at 4 per cent thereafter, to the holders of the Alabama and Chattanooga first mortgage indorsed bonds. The state was then relieved of further responsibility. (b) To the holders of the $2,000,000 state bonds issued to the Alabama and Chattanooga road, and which the commissioners were inclined to consider fraudulent, the state transferred its lien on the property of the Alabama and Chattanooga road, provided the bonds be returned to the governor.
The claims of the holders of the indorsed bonds of five other railroads were left for future settlement. They were declared fraudulent, and the state finally declined to recognize them. The Montgomery and Eufaula road had a loan of $300,000 in state bonds and an indorsement of $960,000. The road was sold for $2,129,000, and the state was secured against further loss.[1632]
This act of settlement caused the issue of $8,596,000 in bonds. There were besides several millions more in bonds, state obligations, claims, etc. The Commission reported that the innocent holders of the bonds were very reasonable in their demands.[1633] Henry Clews declined to give the Commission any information in regard to his agency for the state, but the Commission declared that he had in his possession, or had transferred improperly, coupons on which interest had been paid, and which he had not surrendered to the state. They recommended a fresh repudiation of any claim founded on Clews' securities.[1634] The Commission also discovered that Josiah Morris & Company of Montgomery had possession of $650,000 in state bonds which they refused to release without legal proceedings.[1635] There is not available sufficient evidence on which to base an account of the history of town and county debts. Some towns, unable to pay, gave up their charters; others still pay interest on the carpet-bag debt. For years in several counties the income was not large enough to pay the interest on its Reconstruction debt.
After the arrangement of state obligations, the state debt soon rose to par and above. The Democratic administration was economical even to stinginess. Salaries were everywhere reduced 25 per cent, the pay of the members of the legislature from $6 to $4 per day, and mileage from 40 cents to 10 cents.[1636] The people of the state even complained of too much economy. It was said that a "deadhead" could not borrow a sheet of writing paper in the capitol, nor in a county court-house.
There was not an honest white person who lived in the state during Reconstruction, nor a man, woman, or child, descended from such a person, who did not then suffer or does not still suffer from the direct results of the carpet-bag financiering. Homes were sold or mortgaged; schools were closed, and children grew up in ignorance; the taxes for nearly twenty years were used to pay interest on the debt then piled up. Not until 1899 was there a one-mill school tax (until then the interest paid on the Reconstruction debt was larger than the school fund), and not until 1891 was the state able to care for the disabled Confederate soldiers. The debt has been slightly decreased by the retirement of state obligations, but the bonded debt remains the same. In 1902 it was $9,357,600, on which an annual interest of $448,680 was paid,[1637] about one-fourth of the total income of the state.
The corrupt financiering in itself was not, by any means, the worst part of Reconstruction. It was only a phase of the general misgovernment. Though the whites were conservative and economical during the period of the provisional government and did not spend money or pledge credit recklessly, yet when the carpet-baggers began to loot the treasury, the people were not at first alarmed. Many were in sympathy with any honest scheme to aid internal improvements. Their Confederate experience made them accustomed to the appropriations of large sums--in paper.
Though from the first there were several newspapers that denounced the financial measures of the reconstructionists and warned purchasers against buying the bonds issued under doubtful authority, still it was only the thinking men who understood from the beginning the danger of financial wreck. When the railroads became bankrupt, the people began to understand, and when the state failed two years later to meet its obligations, they had learned thoroughly the condition of affairs. Extraordinary taxation had helped to teach them.
XVIII. RAILROAD LEGISLATION AND FRAUDS
Federal and State Aid to Railroads before the War
For forty years before the Civil War there was a feeling on the part of many thoughtful citizens that the state should extend aid to any enterprise for connecting north and south Alabama. It was an issue in political campaigns; candidates inveighed against the political evils resulting from the unnatural union of the two sections. South Alabama was afraid that the northern section wanted connections with Charleston and the Atlantic seaboard, and not with Mobile and the Gulf; the planters of the Black Belt wanted the mineral region made accessible; the merchants of Mobile wanted all the trade from north Alabama; the Whig counties of south and central Alabama wanted closer connections with the white counties for the purpose of enlightening them and preventing the continual Democratic majorities against the Black Belt at elections.
At first it was proposed to build plank roads and turnpikes between the sections and thus bring about the desired unity. These failed, and then there was a demand for railroads. There were also other reasons for internal improvements. Not only ought the two antagonistic sections to be consolidated, but emigration to the West must be prevented, for thousands of the citizens of the state had gone to Texas during the two decades before the war. There was a general feeling that the state only needed railroads to make it immensely wealthy, and a large "western" element demanded that the state or the Federal government assist in thus developing the resources of the state and in uniting its people. During the session of 1855-1856, though the governor vetoed thirty-three bills passed in aid of railroads, still the legislature voted $500,000 to two roads.
However, conservative sentiment, strict constructionist theories, sectional jealousies, and the knowledge of the sad experience of the state in other public enterprises[1638] operated against state aid to internal improvements, and before the $500,000 bonds were issued the act appropriating them was repealed, thus putting an end to the last attempt at direct state aid before the war.[1639]
In 1850 Senator Douglas of Illinois began the policy of Federal aid to railroads by securing the passage of a bill in aid of the Illinois Central Railroad. The Alabama delegation was then opposed to such a measure, but Douglas visited Alabama, conferred with the directors of the Mobile Railroad, and promised to include that road in his bill in return for the support of the Representatives and Senators from Alabama and Mississippi. The directors then brought influence to bear, and the two state legislatures instructed their congressmen to support the measure, which was passed.
Thus began the Federal policy of granting alternate sections of public land along a road to the state for the corporation. Later, the grants were made directly to the corporation. Before 1857, land to the extent of 307,373 acres had been granted to Alabama railroads,[1640] and liberal aid had also been given for improving the river system of the state.[1641] By the act of admission to the Union in 1819, Alabama was entitled to 5 per cent of the proceeds from the sales of public lands, to be used for internal improvements. Three per cent was to be expended by the legislature, and 2 per cent by Congress. In 1841 Congress relinquished the "two per cent fund" to the state to aid railroads and other public enterprises from "east to west" and from "north to south." The State Bank failed and the "three per cent fund" was lost, but the legislature assumed it as a debt and issued state bonds to the railroads to the amount of $858,498. The "two per cent fund" was loaned before the war as follows:--
To east and west roads $256,438.85 To north and south roads 202,551.02 Balance 52,246.23 ----------- Total $511,236.10[1642]
In 1850 there were two railroads in the state with a total of 132.5 miles of track, which cost $1,946,209. In 1860, there were eleven roads, 743 miles long, costing $17,591,188.[1643] During the Civil War the roads received much aid from the state and Confederate governments, though during this time only a few miles of track were built and some grading done. At the end of the war all were completely worn out or had been destroyed. The want of railroad communication with the armies and between the various sections of the state caused much suffering among soldiers and civilians, and after the war the people were more than ever anxious to have roads built. For two years the railway companies were busy repairing the old roads, but by 1867 popular opinion demanded new roads.
General Legislation in Aid of Railroads
The provisional legislature, on February 19, 1867, passed an act which served as a basis for all later legislation. The governor was authorized to indorse its first mortgage bonds to the extent of $12,000 per mile, when 20 miles of a new road should have been completed, and to continue the indorsement at that rate as the road was built. No indorsed bonds were to be sold by the road for less than 90 cents on the dollar, and the proceeds were to be used only for construction and equipment. The state was to have two directors, appointed by the governor, on the board of each road receiving state aid.[1644] The Reconstruction Acts of Congress were passed a few days later, however, and there was no opportunity for this law to go into effect.
The first Reconstruction legislature[1645] increased the endowment to $16,000 a mile, authorized the indorsement of bonds in five-mile blocks instead of twenty-mile blocks, as before, and to the roads that proposed to extend outside of the state it promised aid for 20 miles beyond the boundaries of the state.[1646] The next session Governor Smith, in a message to the legislature, stated that the indorsement law was defective; that he was in favor of lending the credit of the state, but objected to a general statute requiring indorsement of any road; that there was danger that the roads would depend entirely upon indorsement and would have no paid-up capital; moreover, taking advantage of the railroad fever, roads would be built where they were not needed; that aid should be given only to those capitalists whose enterprises promised success. Finally, he advised that the law be repealed and aid be given only in specific cases.[1647]
The legislature responded to the Governor's message by another general law, practically reënacting the former laws. By its provisions proof was required that the five-mile block had been built and that the road-bed, rails, bridges, and cross-ties were in good order, before the first issue of the bonds was made. The company was to show what use was made of the bonds. The indorsement was to constitute a first lien in favor of the state, and in case of default of interest by the road, the governor was to seize and sell the road if necessary.[1648] A few days later a sweeping measure was passed, declaring that all acts and "things done in the state" for railroad purposes were ratified and made legal.[1649] This was the last general legislation enacted while the railroad boom continued. Governor Lindsay and the pseudo-Democratic lower house stood out against railroad legislation, and the indorsed roads were in bad condition when the next scalawag governor was elected. Under Governor Lewis, in 1873, an act was passed to relieve the state of some of its obligations. Roads entitled to an indorsement might take instead a loan of $4,000 per mile in state bonds, and roads already indorsed might exchange indorsed bonds for state bonds at the rate of four for one. But no state bonds were to be given for fraudulent issues of indorsed bonds, and when exchanges were made the road was released from all obligations to the state.[1650] Had the roads accepted this offer, the state would have suffered only a loss of $482,000 in interest each year. However, from this time on the state authorities were busy trying to extricate the state from the bankruptcy caused by indorsing the railroad bonds.
The Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad
The Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad was the first of the roads to apply for aid under the indorsement law, and was in the worst condition. The story of this road is the story of all, only of greater length and more disgraceful. The Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad Company was made up of two older corporations, which, passing into the hands of Boston financiers, united in order to secure the spoils from the state. Before the union the officials had secured special legislation for one of the old roads, the Wills Valley. The sharpers who were engineering the scheme had agents at Montgomery when the Reconstruction legislature met, and these were instrumental in having the indorsement raised from $12,000 to $16,000 a mile. The second corporation was the Northeast and Southwest Alabama Railroad.[1651] The proposed road would be 295 miles long, and when completed would be entitled to $4,720,000 from the state in indorsed bonds. The law was explicit in regard to indorsation, but Governor Smith, notwithstanding his opposition to the principle of the law, was criminally careless, if no worse, in the way he administered it. The first 20 miles were not built as required by law, but were purchased from the old Northeast and Southwest Alabama Railroad. Moreover, the road was never properly equipped, and the 20 miles from Chattanooga, on which indorsement amounting to $320,000 was secured, were only rented from another corporation (which was already indorsed to the amount of $8000 per mile by the state of Georgia), and the rent was paid from the proceeds of the indorsed bonds, which by law should have been applied only to construction and equipment. Nor was the rented road equipped.[1652]
The indorsed bonds of the road to November 15, 1869, amounted to $1,800,000,[1653] and Auditor Reynolds reported in 1870 that the indorsement to September 30, 1870, was $3,840,000 on 240 miles.[1654] These figures should have been correct, but they were not. In fact, 240 miles had been roughly finished, but the indorsement was far above the legal limit. On December 5, 1870, a few days before he retired from office, Smith reported to the legislature that he had indorsed the Alabama and Chattanooga road for $4,000,000 for 250 miles.[1655] The facts, as afterwards disclosed, were that only 240 miles were completed, and of these only 154 were in Alabama. Yet he had issued bonds to the amount of $4,720,000, covering not only the whole 295 miles of the proposed road, but also including $580,000 in excess of what the law allowed to the completed road, which with equipment was worth only $4,018,388. So here were $1,300,000 in bonds which were clearly fraudulent. There was no further indorsement of this road.[1656]
As if the enormous issue of indorsed bonds was not enough for the Stantons of Boston, who were in control of the corporation, a second descent of railroad promoters was made on the legislature in 1869-1870, and $2,000,000 in direct state bonds were obtained for the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad. Indorsement was not enough for them. The act stated that the bonds were to be issued from time to time as needed for use in construction within the state, and in return the railroad lands were to be mortgaged to the state.[1657] In order to secure the passage of this act, the most shameful bribery was resorted to by the agents of the railroad and of the New York capitalists who were financing the Stantons. One of the Stantons came to Montgomery, also an agent from the banking house of Henry Clews & Company, and agents from other houses interested in the Stanton scheme. The Stantons themselves had no money except what they received from the state. On February 4, 1870, the bill failed in the House; but on February 5 a reconsideration was moved and the bill was referred back to the committee with directions "to report within fifteen minutes." The report was favorable, and the members having seen the light, the bill was passed by a vote of 62 to 27.[1658] From the first, specific charges of bribery had been made against those who, within three days, had changed from active opposition to support of the measure.[1659] A year later the House had a majority of young and inexperienced Democrats, and they ordered an investigation. The Senate, with one solitary exception, was still Radical. The investigation brought to light many unpleasant facts relating to the methods employed in securing the passage of the $2,000,000 appropriation and other railroad bills. Jerre Haralson, a negro member, told his experience. Jerre was opposing the grant and posing as a Democrat because he had not been sufficiently remembered on previous occasions when the spoils were divided. Hearing that something was to be divided, he went to Stanton's room, where, he said, there were many members. Caraway, the negro member from Mobile, told Haralson that he (Caraway) would not vote for the grant for less than $500. Stanton had four rooms at the Exchange Hotel, to which, at his invitation, all the purchasable members went. Stanton would take the members, one at a time, into the hall, after which that member would leave. Haralson, to his sorrow, was not called into the hall, but the next day he heard from the other negro members that money was to be had, so he called again. Stanton then accused Haralson of being a Democrat, but Haralson replied that he had left that party, and after receiving a "loan" of $50, he went home.[1660]
George B. Holmes, of the firm of Holmes & Goldthwaite, bankers, testified that Gilmer, president of the South and North Alabama Railroad (Stanton had all the roads in need of "boodle" working with him), asked him for $25,000 to be used at the capitol. Gilmer told Holmes that the banker of the road had refused it, as had also the Farley bank. Finally, Farley and Holmes each agreed to furnish $12,000 to Gilmer. John Hardy, the chairman of the committee, had asked for $25,000 to oil the bearings of the political machine, and for that amount had agreed to have the bill passed. At the last moment Hardy demanded $10,000 more, which Holmes obtained from Josiah Morris. The committee was thus gotten into condition "to report within fifteen minutes," and the legislature made ready to accept the report.[1661] Two years later, Governor Lindsay stated in his message that the Alabama and Chattanooga $2,000,000 bill had not passed the legislature by the two-thirds vote as required by law.[1662] The law provided for the issue of the state bonds for $2,000,000 from time to time as the road was completed. Instead, however, they were issued in reckless haste, within a month, and hurried away to Europe for sale. The proceeds were used to build a hotel and an opera house in Chattanooga, where Stanton was accused of trying to imitate Fiske and Gould of Erie.[1663]
When Governor Lindsay went into office, he could not find the "scratch of a pen" relating to railroad indorsement. Governor Smith, as later developments showed, had become careless with his bond indorsement and kept no records, or else destroyed them or carried them away. Auditor Reynolds reported in 1871 that his office had official knowledge only of the indorsement of the Mobile and Montgomery road.[1664] In his message of January 24, 1871, Lindsay said, "To what extent bonds under the various statutes have been indorsed and issued by the state it is impossible to inform you. No record can be found in any department of the action of the executive in this regard." None of the securities required by law could be found. Lindsay was unable to ascertain even the form of the indorsed bonds, except those of the Mobile and Montgomery and the Montgomery and Eufaula roads. Lindsay telegraphed to Smith's secretary, who replied that there was no record of the bond issues except the certificates of the railroad presidents. Lindsay found some of these, which were plain certificates: "This is to certify that five more miles of the (----) railroad has been finished." On each five-mile certificate, like the one above, the road drew $80,000. Yet the law was strict in requiring proof of completion, of good rails, bridges, road-bed, and equipment. At this time 45 or 50 miles of the Alabama and Chattanooga road had not been completed, and 50 miles more had only a temporary track hastily thrown together in order to get the indorsement. Governor Lindsay believed that the road as planned promised great success, and was of the opinion that had the bonds been issued according to law the road would have been completed. He had to correspond with the railroad officials in order to ascertain the amount of the bonds.[1665] A few days before Smith went out of office he reported $4,000,000 indorsement on 244 miles of the Alabama and Chattanooga road. Lindsay found no record of this. Almost immediately (January, 1871) the Alabama and Chattanooga road defaulted in payment of interest, and Lindsay was authorized by the legislature to go to New York and provide for the payment of interest on 4000 bonds legally issued and held by innocent purchasers.[1666] Statements were constantly appearing in the state press that fraudulent issues had been made, and the Democratic papers were warning purchasers against them, declaring that when the people of Alabama again came into power, they had no intention of paying them.
The carpet-bag régime had numerous financial agents in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, London, Germany, and elsewhere. Most of the agents in New York gave Lindsay assistance in his investigations. Souter & Company stated they had sold 4000 first mortgage Alabama and Chattanooga bonds (all that were legal), and 2000 state bonds for the Alabama and Chattanooga Company, all for more than 90 cents on the dollar. Erlanger et Cie., of Paris, had purchased the state bonds at 95 cents in gold. Lindsay soon discovered that 1300 Alabama and Chattanooga bonds in excess had been issued, 580 in excess of what the road would be entitled to when completed. Braunfels of Erlanger et Cie. testified that he had loaned $300,000 on 500 bonds numbered between 4000 and 4720. The trustees under the first deed of trust held bonds 4720 to 4800 and had refused to sell them, knowing them to be fraudulent; 344 bonds of the fraudulent excess had been partly sold and partly hypothecated to Drexel & Company of Philadelphia; thirty had been hypothecated to a firm in Boston for locomotives. Lindsay saw some of these fraudulent bonds, which were signed by Governor Smith and sealed with the seal of the state.[1667] Lindsay, through the state agents, Duncan, Sherman, & Company, recognized as legal the first 4000 of these indorsed bonds and the 2000 state bonds and ordered interest to be paid on them. All the others were rejected as fraudulent.[1668]
The acts of February 25 and March 8, 1871,[1669] authorized the governor to pay interest on the Alabama and Chattanooga bonds which were in the hands of innocent purchasers on January 1, 1871. At that date at least 500 of the fraudulent issue had not been sold. The other 700 or 800 bonds numbered above 4000 were declared fraudulent by Lindsay on the ground that the part of road which called for the extra bonds simply did not exist. At this time he paid interest on the railroad bonds, amounting to $545,000,[1670] and later to $834,000. No interest was paid on bonds held by the road or hypothecated by its officials. The governor was authorized to proceed against the road, and, in July 1871, Colonel John H. Gindrat, the governor's secretary, was ordered to seize the road and act as receiver. The road had ceased running two weeks before. Stanton claimed that the default had been caused by the threats of repudiation, and when Gindrat went to take charge every possible obstacle and embarrassment were imposed by the company. Besides, at the Mississippi end of the line the employees had seized the road in order to secure their pay. Gindrat pacified them, and went slowly along the road toward Georgia, where he was stopped at the state line. Not only had Alabama indorsed that part of the road within Georgia and Tennessee, for $16,000 a mile, but Georgia had also indorsed it for $8000 a mile, and the part within her boundaries she seized. The governor was forced to employ a large number of attorneys and institute legal proceedings, not only in Alabama, but also in Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, and in the Federal courts. Bullock, the carpet-bag governor of Georgia, would not run the road in Georgia in connection with the Alabama section, and not until there was a new governor (Conley) could connections be made over the whole line.[1671]
For his action in repudiating the fraudulent bonds and in seizing the road, Lindsay was much abused by all the railroad interests, by the hungry promoters who wanted more money from the state, and by a section of his own party which was influenced by prominent Democrats who were officers of the road,[1672] and especially by influential Democratic lawyers. This fact was important in weakening the Democratic cause in 1872. There were some who opposed the seizure of the road because they believed that in the then unsettled condition of affairs the state would not be able to manage the road successfully; there were others who believed that the state should not acknowledge the legality of the indorsement by seizure of the road. The Debt Commission in 1876 reported that, although the laws were strict, yet they had been violated in letter and in spirit before indorsement. But though many (including the Debt Commission) believed the issues illegal, yet by the seizure of the road the state acknowledged the obligations.[1673]
The history of the road while in the hands of the state authorities was not pleasant to Democrat or Radical. The state had first seized the section of the road that was in Alabama, and had gone into the state courts to get the remainder. The litigation promised to be endless, and the case was taken to the Federal courts. Finally the road was sold at a bankrupt sale, and Lindsay purchased it for the state, paying $312,000. The Circuit Court reversed this action, and there was a new case in which Busteed, district judge, adjudged the company bankrupt. In May, 1872, the Federal court placed the road in the hands of receivers for the first mortgage bondholders, who were to issue $1,200,000 in certificates to run the road,--this to be a lien prior to the claim of the state. August 24, 1874, the same court placed the road in the hands of the trustees of the first mortgage bondholders.
The road, while in the hands of the state receiver, was either badly managed or was unsuccessful because of the obstruction by the other roads and by capitalists. Several attempts were made, by Governors Lindsay, Lewis, and Houston, to sell the road, but with no success. Finally, in 1876, the Debt Commission arranged with the holders of the first mortgage bonds to turn over to them the whole claim of the state to the road, the state paying $1,000,000, besides the interest, to be out of the business.[1674]
Governor Lindsay had paid $834,000 interest on the Alabama and Chattanooga bonds, and in 1874 there were arrears amounting to $1,054,000.[1675] Congress had made a grant of land, six sections per mile, amounting to 1,000,000 acres, for all the roads within the boundaries of Alabama, and the state held a mortgage on this land. Much of it was sold fraudulently by the railroad company, and titles were given where there had been no sales. One railroad agent pocketed $33,447.97 received from fraudulent sales of this land. The state never received a cent.[1676]
Other Indorsed Railroads
The story of the other roads that applied for aid is similar, though shorter and of a meaner nature. The Savannah and Memphis road was the only one that failed to default.[1677] It was indorsed for $640,000, but when the House committee was investigating, in 1871, as there was no record of any indorsement, the president refused to appear or to give any information.[1678] Later it was ascertained that at the time that the road was worth only $263,000 it had been indorsed to the extent of $320,000.[1679]
The South and North Alabama Railroad was a persistent applicant for legislative favors. On December 30, 1868, the available portion of the "two and three per cent fund," amounting to $691,789.43, was turned over to the South and North road.[1680] The road secured indorsement at the rate of $16,000 a mile along with other roads, but this was not enough, and, on March 3, 1870, the legislature increased its indorsement to $22,000 a mile.[1681] Governor Smith knew so little of what he did in regard to railroads that in his last message he stated that the South and North road was indorsed for $1,440,000, that is, for ninety miles at $16,000 a mile,[1682] while he raised the indorsement of the Selma and Gulf to $22,000 a mile, thus confusing the two roads. The House Railroad Committee declared that by means of bribery the road had secured one hundred miles of indorsement, amounting to $2,200,000.[1683] When Lindsay was asked to indorse more bonds for this road, he made an investigation which convinced him that too many bonds had already been issued, and he refused to sign any more. Under the law the road was entitled to 1900 one-thousand-dollar indorsed bonds, but had received 2200,[1684] an indorsement of $2,200,000, while the road equipped was valued at only $1,625,200.[1685] When it became known that fraudulent issues had been made, the Investigating Committee called before them the ex-treasurer of the state, Arthur Bingham, of Ohio. He claimed and was allowed the constitutional privilege of refusing to testify on the ground that his testimony would tend to incriminate himself.[1686] In 1870 it was estimated that including the "three per cent" fund the road had received from the state $2,000,000 more than the cost of building it.[1687] Governor Lewis, in 1873, reported that the South and North road was indorsed for $4,026,000, including $2,200,000 that was not recorded on the books of the state.[1688]
The East Alabama and Cincinnati corporation consisted of Governor W. H. Smith, three senators (two of whom were J. J. Hinds and J. L. Pennington), and two members of the lower house. Stanton of the Alabama and Chattanooga was also connected with it; in fact, he was connected in some way with nearly all the schemes to secure state aid. The road was mortgaged to Henry Clews & Company for $500,000. It had no money of its own, but secured state indorsement for $400,000 and a bond issue of $25,000 from the town of Opelika. This indorsement by Governor Smith was not discovered until 1871, when Lindsay was accused of issuing the bonds. This he flatly denied, and he was correct. The Tennessee and Coosa rivers road had $33,513.25, if no more, of the "two per cent fund." On March 2, 1870, that road was released from its indebtedness to the state (part of the "two and three per cent funds") on condition that it apply for no further aid. But now, in order to get the indorsement, a part of this road was transferred to the East Alabama and Cincinnati road, to pass as a new road. With an indorsement of $400,000 besides the $25,000 Opelika bonds, the road equipped was valued at only $264,150.[1689]
The Selma and Gulf was another road without resources of its own, and, so far as it was completed, was built with state aid. Governor Smith, in clear violation of the law, the committee reported, indorsed the road for $480,000. Some one, probably Smith, though Lindsay was accused of it, raised this amount to $640,000, $160,000 of which was not recorded. At this time the road was valued at $424,900, and the company threatened to default unless further aid was extended. Smith thought that the road was indorsed for $22,000 a mile and reported $660,000 indorsement.[1690]
The Mobile and Alabama Grand Trunk road, valued at $704,225, was indorsed by the state for $800,000. The city of Mobile also issued $1,000,000 in bonds for this road.[1691] There was no record of an application for aid from the New Orleans and Selma Railroad. Neither Smith nor Lindsay reported it, yet its financial agent had secretly secured an indorsement of $320,000, contrary to law. The road was valued at $255,350. It had no resources except $140,000 in Dallas County bonds, and its president, Colonel William M. Byrd, resigned rather than be a party to the stealing.[1692]
The promoters of the Selma, Marion, and Memphis road placed General N. B. Forrest at the head of the enterprise, and for three years he worked hard to make the road a success. Governor Smith indorsed the road for $720,000, or $18,000 a mile, when only forty miles were completed. In 1873 the road was valued at $738,400. When the company failed, as was intended from the first, General Forrest gave up every dollar he could raise in order to pay debts due on contracts, and he himself was left a poor man.[1693]
The Montgomery and Eufaula road obtained something over $30,000 of the "three per cent fund" from the state, and in 1868 the governor was authorized by the legislature to indorse the road, notwithstanding this debt to the state, which was considered simply as an indorsement.[1694] Under this act the road was indorsed for $1,280,000, and in addition state direct bonds to the amount of $300,000 were issued to the company in 1870. For this loan there was no security. Lewis Owen, a former president, refused to answer when it was charged that bribery had been used to secure the passage of the bill. At this time the road was valued at $825,289. In 1873 capitalists offered to lease the road for enough to pay the interest on its bonds, provided the state would release the road from all claims and give to it the $330,000 already loaned. This was done. Later it was seized by the state and eventually sold for sufficient money to cover losses caused by the indorsement.[1695]
The Mobile and Montgomery road secured $2,500,000 by special act of the legislature.[1696] The road was valued at $2,516,250[1697] and was already built, hence the indorsement was safe.
The total indorsement was about $17,000,000.
VALUE OF ALL RAILROADS IN THE STATE (FROM THE AUDITOR'S REPORTS)
1871, 1496 miles $25,943,052.59 1872, 1629 miles 29,580,737.64 1873, 1793 miles 25,408,110.76 1874, ---- miles 22,747,444.00 1875, ---- miles 12,033,763.39 1875, (returns from railroad officials) 9,654,684.99
SUMMARY
======================================================== NAME OF ROAD |LENGTH| VALUE |INDORSEMENT| VALUE | | | PER | PER | OF | | | MILE | MILE | ROAD | --------------|------|-------|-----------|-------------| Alabama and | | | | | Chattanooga | 295 |$15,000| $16,000 |$4,018,388.00| | | | | | | | | | | E. Alabama and| | | | | Cincinnati | 25 | 10,000| 16,000 | 264,150.00| | | | | | Mobile and | | | | | Alabama G.T. | 50 | 12,000| 16,000 | 704,225.00| | | | | | Montgomery | | | | | and Eufaula | 60 | 13,000| 16,000 | 1,157,071.60| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mobile and | | | | | Montgomery | | 10,600| 16,000 | 2,516,250.00| | | | | | Savannah and | | | | | Memphis | 40 | 10,000| 16,000 | 498,810.00| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Selma and Gulf| 40 | 10,000| 16,000 | 424,900.00| | | | | | | | | | | Selma, Marion,| | | | | and Memphis | 45 | 14,000| 16,000 | 738,400.00| | | | | | New Orleans | | | | | and Selma | 20 | 12,000| 16,000 | 225,350.00| | | | | | | | | | | South and | | | | | North Alabama| | | | | | 100 | 15,000| 22,000 | 2,877,730.00| ========================================================
======================================= INDORSEMENT | PRESENT | REMARKS OF | ROAD | ROAD | | ----------------|----------|----------- |Ala. Great|Seized by $5,300,000[1698]| Southern | state. | |Completed. | | | |Never 400,000 | ---- | completed. | | |Mobile and| 880,000[1699]| Birm'gh'm| ---- | | |Central of|Seized and 1,280,000[1700]| Georgia | leased by | | the state. | | |L'sville | | and | 2,500,000[1701]| Nashville| ---- | | | |Did not 640,000 | ---- | default; | | never | | completed. | | 640,000[1702]| ---- |Never | | completed. | | | |Never 765,000[1703]| ---- | completed. | | |B'ham, |Never 320,000 | Selma & | completed. | N.O. | | | |L'sville | | and | 4,026,000[1704]| Nashville| ---- =======================================
County and Town Aid to Railroads
An act of December 31, 1868, authorized the counties, towns, and cities to subscribe to railroad stock. The road corporation was to be voted on by the people. If "no subscription" was voted, a new election might be ordered within twelve months, and if again voted down, the matter was to be considered as settled. If a subscription was voted, an extra tax was to be levied to pay the interest on the bonds; the taxpayer was to be presented with a tax receipt which was good for its face value in the county or city railroad stock.[1705] Several of the counties and towns issued bonds and incurred heavy debts which have burdened them for years. No one seems to have profited by the issues except the promoters.[1706] The counties that suffered worst from Reconstruction bond issues were Randolph, Chambers, Lee, Tallapoosa, and Pickens. These were hopelessly burdened with debt and became known as the "strangulated" counties. There was, after the Democrats came into power, much legislation for their relief. The state gave them the state taxes to assist in paying off the debt and also loaned money to them. Several cities and towns, notably Mobile, Selma, and Opelika, were so deeply in debt that they were unable to pay interest on their debts. They lost their charters, ceased to be cities, and became districts under the direct control of the governor. There are still several such districts in the state. The constitution of 1875 forbade state, counties, or towns to engage in works of internal improvement, or to lend money or credit to such, or to any private or corporate enterprise.
It is impossible to secure complete statistics of the railroad bond issues of counties and towns. Some issues were made in ignorance, without authority of law, others were made under the provisions of a general law. Naturally, the counties that suffered most were those of the Black Belt under carpet-bag control. The following is a summary of the issues made under special acts:--
================================================================= COUNTY | | | | | OR TOWN |DATE| AMOUNT | ROAD AIDED |AUTHORITY| VOTE ----------|----|---------|---------------|---------|------------- Barbour |----| ---- |Vicksburg and |Act, Dec.| ---- | | | Brunswick | 31, 1868| Chambers |----| $150,000|East Alabama |Act, Dec.| | | | and Cincinnati| 31, 1868| ---- Dallas |----| 140,000|New Orleans and|Act, Dec.| | | | Selma | 31, 1868| ---- Greene |1869| 80,000|Selma, Marion, |Act, Mar.| | | | and Memphis | 3, 1870| 1011 to 550 Hale |1869| 60,000|Selma, Marion, |Act, Mar.| | | | and Memphis | 3, 1870| 2260 to 301 Lee |----| 275,000|East Alabama |Act, Dec.| | | | and Cincinnati| 31, 1868| ---- Madison |1873| 130,000|Memphis and |Act, Mar.| | | | Charleston | 27, 1873| Also earlier Pickens |1869| 100,000|Selma, Marion, |Act, Mar.| | | | and Memphis | 3, 1870| 1212 to 607 Randolph |----| 100,000| ---- |Act, Dec.| | | | | 31, 1868| ---- Tallapoosa|----| 125,000| ---- | ---- | ---- Eutaw |1869| 20,000|Selma, Marion, |Act, Mar.| | | | and Memphis | 2, 1870| 98 to 35 Greensboro|1869| 15,000|Selma, Marion, |Act, Mar.| | | | and Memphis | 3, 1870| 164 to 1 Mobile |1871|1,000,000|Mobile and |Act, Mar.| | | | Northwestern | 8, 1871| ---- Mobile |1873| 200,000| ---- |Act, Mar.| | | | | 7, 1873| ---- Opelika |----| 25,000|East Alabama | | | | | and Cincinnati| ---- | ---- Prattville|1872| 50,000|South and North|Act, Jan.| | | | Alabama | 23, 1872| ---- Troy |1868| 75,000|Mobile and |Act, Oct.| | | | Girard | 8, 1868| ---- =================================================================
XIX. RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SCHOOLS
School System before Reconstruction
The public school system of the state of Alabama was organized in 1854, and was an expansion of the Mobile system, which was partly native and partly modelled on the New York-New England systems.[1707] By 1856 it was in good working order. The school fund for 1855 was $237,515.00; for 1856, $267,694.41, and the number of children in attendance was 100,279, which was about one-fourth of the white population. For 1857 the fund amounted to $281,874.41; for 1858, $564,210.46, with an attendance of 98,274 children.[1708] The schools were not wholly free, since those parents who were able to do so paid part of the tuition.[1709] In 1860 there were also 206 academies, with an enrolment of 10,778 pupils, and in the state colleges there were 2120 students.
In spite of the war the system managed to exist until 1864, and some schools were still open in 1865, at the time of surrender. Few of the private schools and colleges survived until that time, and the majority of the school buildings of all kinds were either destroyed during the war, or after its close were placed in the hands of the Freedmen's Bureau or of the army. The State Medical College was used for a negro primary school for three years, and was not given up until the reconstructionists came into power. An attempt in 1865 was made to reopen the University, although the buildings had been burned by the Federals in 1865. The trustees met, elected a president and two professors, but on the day appointed for the opening (in October) only one student appeared.[1710]
During the summer and fall of 1865 and during the next year the various religious denominations of the state and mass-meetings of citizens declared that the changed civil relations of the races made negro education a necessity. The Freedmen's Bureau was established and anticipated much of the work planned by the churches and by southern leaders, but the methods employed by the alien teachers caused many whites to become prejudiced against negro education.[1711]
The provisional government adopted the ante-bellum public school system and put it into operation. The schools were open to both races, from six to twenty years of age, separate schools being provided for the blacks. The greater part of the expenditure of the provisional government was for schools. Relatively few negroes attended the state schools proper, as every influence was brought to bear to make them attend the Bureau and missionary schools, and the state negro schools soon fell into the hands of the Bureau educators, who drew the state appropriation.
The colleges at Marion, Greensboro, Auburn, Florence, and other places were reopened in 1866-1867. The legislature loaned $70,000 to the University, besides paying the interest on the University fund. For three years the University was being rebuilt, and so well were its finances managed that in 1868, when the carpet-baggers came into power, the buildings were completed and the institution out of debt, although it had used only half of the loan from the state.[1712]
The Reconstruction convention of 1867 was much more interested in politics than in education. The negro members demanded free schools and special advantages for the negro, and a few carpet-baggers had much to say about the malign influence of the old régime in keeping so many thousands in the darkness of ignorance. The scalawags demanded separate schools for the races, but pressure was brought to bear and most of them gave way. Sixteen of the native whites refused to sign the constitution and united in a protest against the action of the convention in refusing to provide separate schools.[1713]
The School System of Reconstruction
The new constitution placed all public instruction under the control of a Board of Education consisting of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and two members from each congressional district,[1714] the latter to serve for four years, half of them being elected by the people every two years. Full legislative powers in regard to education were given to the Board. Its acts were to have the force of law, and the governor's veto could be overridden by a two-thirds vote. The legislature might repeal a school law, but otherwise it had no authority over the Board.[1715] This body also acted as a board of regents for the State University. One school, at least, was to be established in every township in the state, though some townships did not have half a dozen children in them. The school income was fixed by the constitution at one-fifth of all state revenue, in addition to the income from school lands, poll tax, and taxes on railroads, navigation, banks, and insurance.[1716] The legislature added another source of income by chartering several lotteries and exempted them from taxation provided they paid a certain amount to the school fund. On October 10, 1868, the Mutual Aid Association was chartered "to distribute books, paintings, works of art, scientific instruments and apparatus, lands, etc., stock and currency, awards, and prizes." For this privilege it was to give $2000 a year to the school fund.[1717] Two months later the Mobile Charitable Association was formed, which paid $1000 a year to the school fund,[1718] and a number of other lotteries were chartered soon after.
The school system, as a whole, did not differ greatly from the old, except that it was top-heavy with officials, and in that all private assistance was discouraged by a regulation forbidding the use of the public money to supplement private payments. The first Board of Education probably contained a collection of as worthless men as could be found in the state.[1719] The elections had gone by default, and since only the most incompetent men had offered themselves for educational offices, the work suffered. Dr. N. B. Cloud, an incapable of ante-bellum days, was chosen Superintendent of Public Instruction. He was a man without character, without education, and entirely without administrative ability. Before the war he was known as a cruel master to his few slaves. In August, 1868, he proceeded to put the system into operation by appointing sixty-four county superintendents, of Radical politics, each of whom in turn appointed three trustees in each township. The stream rose no higher than its source, and the school officials were a forlorn lot. One of them signed for his salary by an X mark. Another, J. E. Summerford, the superintendent of Lee County, was a man of bad morals, and so incompetent that, when attempting to examine teachers for licenses, he in turn was contemptuously questioned by them on elementary subjects. In revenge for this expression of contempt, he revoked the license of every teacher in the county. One county superintendent was a preacher who had been expelled from his church for misappropriating charity funds. But Cloud paid no attention to charges made against the integrity of his school officials.
Cloud proceeded with much haste to open the schools. A year later he made a report which is an interesting document. There was little progress to be noted, but much space was devoted to an appreciation of that "glorious document," the constitution of 1867, the crowning glory of which--the article on education--should "entitle the members to the rare merit of statemen and sages." This provision for education, he said, was the first blow struck in the South, and especially in Alabama, to clear out the last vestige of ignorance with all its attendant evils; and now, in spite of the burdens imposed by the unwise legislation of the past forty years, the bosoms of the citizens expanded with a noble pride in the present system of schools.
After this he proceeds to business. He reports that in every county and in almost every township in the state his officials met with opposition, not, he confesses, on account of opposition to schools, but on account of the objectionable government and its agents. The reports from the white counties, especially, indicate opposition to the establishment of negro schools, while in the Black Belt this opposition was not so strong. Everywhere, he states, the opposition died out, more or less, in time.[1720]
Before the new system went into operation, a meeting of the Board was held in Montgomery to clear away the remains of the old system. They voted to themselves a secretary, sergeant-at-arms, pages, etc., like the House of Representatives; all school offices were declared vacated and all school contracts void; separate schools were provided for the races where the parents were unwilling to send to mixed schools; eleven normal schools were provided for, with no distinction of color; and a bill was introduced by G. L. Putnam and passed into a law, the object of which was to merge the Mobile schools into the state system and also to make an office for Putnam. A sum of money had been appropriated by the previous legislatures to pay the teachers in the state schools, and now the Board declared that any association, society, or teacher in a school open to the public should have a claim for part of this money.[1721] The country superintendents were made elective after 1870; coöperation with the Freedmen's Bureau was declared desirable, and the Bureau was asked to furnish or to rent houses, or to assist in building, while the aid societies were asked to send teachers who would be paid by the state, and who would be subject to the same regulations as native teachers. The "Superintendent of Education" of the Bureau was to have supervision over the Bureau schools, but he, in turn, would be under the supervision of Cloud.[1722]
Reconstruction of the State University
The Board then tried to reconstruct the University. After the appearance of the lone student in 1865, the efforts of the trustees had been directed only towards completing the buildings. In 1868, after the constitution of 1867 had failed of adoption, the old trustees met, elected a president and faculty, and ordered the University to be opened in October, 1868. A few weeks later Congress imposed the constitution on the state, and the Board of Education as regents took charge of the University. Their first act was to declare null and void all acts of any pretended body of trustees since the secession of the state. This was done in order to repudiate a debt made by the University with a New York firm in 1861. No suitable candidate for the presidency was presented, and the regents chose for that position Mr. Wyman, the acting president.[1723] He declined, and the position was then sought for and obtained by the Rev. A. S. Lakin, a Northern Methodist preacher, who had been sent to Alabama in 1867 by Bishop Clark of Ohio, to gather the negroes of the Southern Methodist Church into the northern fold.[1724] Lakin, accompanied by Cloud, went to the University to take charge. Wyman, who was then in charge, refused to surrender the keys, and a Tuscaloosa mob, or Ku Klux Klan, serenaded Lakin and threatened to lynch him if he remained in town. It is said that he was saved from the mob by Wyman, who hid him under a bed. The next morning Lakin decided that he did not like the place and left.[1725] He did not resign, however, and three years later still had a claim pending for a full year's salary. On this he collected $800 from the Board of Regents.[1726]
It was in connection with Lakin's short visit that the Independent Monitor published the famous hanging picture of the carpet-bagger (Lakin) and the scalawag (Cloud).[1727]
The next offer of the presidency was made to R. D. Harper, a Northern Methodist Bureau minister, who at one time was the Bureau "Superintendent of Education" for the state, and who organized the Bureau schools and the Northern Methodist churches in north Alabama. He, after some consideration, declined the position, which, to an alien, was one of more danger than honor.[1728]
Difficulty was also experienced in securing a faculty. Some of the faculty elected by the old board of trustees were reëlected. Geary of Ohio was given the chair of mathematics, and Goodfellow of Chicago, who had previously been a clerk of the lower house of the legislature, was elected commandant and professor of military science. The latter said that he did not know anything about his work, but that he guessed he could learn. General John H. Forney, a Confederate and native, was also elected to a chair, the Board, it is said, voting for him under a misapprehension. The native contingent refused to serve under the regents, and the vacancies had again to be filled.[1729] Loomis of Illinois was elected professor of Ancient Languages; J. De F. Richards of Vermont, professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, etc. W. J. Collins, who was elected professor of Oratory and Rhetoric, wrote, "I except the situation." The Monitor said, "We predict an uncomfortable time for the aggregation."[1730] That paper chronicled all the weaknesses, peculiarities, and failings of the faculty. If one of them drank a little too much and staggered on the street, the Monitor informed the public.[1731] Upon the arrival of an heir in the Collins family, Randolph promptly demanded that he be named for him,--Ryland Randolph Collins,--and the name stuck.
Finally, as it seemed impossible to secure a president, the regents determined to open the University with Richards as acting president.[1732] On April 1, 1869, the University opened with thirty students, twenty-eight of whom were beneficiaries.[1733] The Monitor said that the members of the faculty were known as Shanghai, Cockeye, Tanglefoot, Old Dicks, etc. Another woodcut appeared in the Monitor--of Richards, this time.[1734]
Thirty was the highest enrolment reached under the Reconstruction faculty. The number gradually dwindled away until at the end of the session there were only ten. The next session ended with only three. In October, 1870, there were ten students, four of whom were sons of professors. William R. Smith[1735] was elected president during this session, but he reported that there was no prospect of success under the present conditions and resigned. By the end of the session not one student remained. The scientific apparatus was scattered and lost, as were also the museum specimens and library books, and the $2000 object-glass of the telescope had disappeared.[1736]
The people of Alabama did not favor the continuance of the University under the reconstructed faculty, and were glad when the doors were closed. The Ku Klux Klan took part in the work of breaking down the venture. Notices were posted on the doors, directed to the students, advising them to leave. One sent to the son of Governor Smith read as follows:--
DAVID SMITH: You have received one notice from us, and this shall be our last. You nor no other d--d son of a d--d radical traitor shall stay at our University. Leave here in less than ten days, for in that time we will visit the place and it will not be well for you to be found out there. The state is ours and so shall our University be.
WRITTEN BY THE SECRETARY BY ORDER OF THE KLAN.
Charles Muncel, son of Joel Muncel, the publisher, of Albany, New York,[1737] received the following notice:--
CHARLES MUNCEL. You had better get back where you came from. We don't want any d--d Yank at our colleges. In less than ten days we will come to see if you obey our warning. If not, look out for hell, for d--n you, we will show you that you shall not stay, you nor no one else, in that college. This is your first notice; let it be your last.
THE KLAN BY THE SECRETARY.
The next warning was sent to a lone Democrat:--
HORTON: They say you are of good Democratic family. If you are, leave the University and that quick. We don't intend that the concern shall run any longer. This is the second notice you have received; you will get no other. In less than ten days we intend to clear out the concern. We will have good Southern men there or none.
BY ORDER OF THE K. K. K.[1738]
Before the summer of 1871 the reconstructed faculty had absolutely failed; there never had been any chance for them to succeed. The regents were unfitted to manage educational affairs, and they chose men to the faculty who would have been objectionable anywhere.[1739] The professors and their families were socially ostracized. Even southern men who accepted places in the Radical faculty were made to feel that they were scorned; no one would sit by them at public gatherings or in church. The men might have survived this treatment, but not so the women. In 1871 the Superintendent of Public Instruction and two members of the board of regents were Democrats. The faculty was reorganized for the eighth time since 1865, and a faculty of natives was elected. The effect upon the attendance was marked. In April, 1871, there were three students and in June none, while during the session of 1871-1872, 107 students were enrolled. In 1873 and 1874 the Radicals again had control, but they did not attempt to reconstruct the University.[1740]
When the land grant college, provided for in the Morrill act of 1862, was established in 1872, there was no attempt made to appoint a reconstructed faculty or board of trustees. But there was sharp competition among the towns of the state to secure the college. The legislature was to choose the location, and many of the members let it be known that their votes were to be had only in return for material considerations. It was finally located at Auburn, in Lee County. One Auburn lobbyist went out on the floor of one of the houses and there paid a negro solon $50 to talk no more against Auburn. The next day the same negro was again speaking against the location at Auburn. His purchaser went to him and remonstrated. The negro acknowledged that he had accepted the $50 not to speak against Auburn, but said, "Dat was yistiddy, boss." Another Auburn man promised a cooking stove to a negro of more domestic inclinations, and amidst the excitement forgot all about it; but after the vote the negro came up and demanded his stove. He received it. Another was given a sewing-machine.[1741]
There was no attempt to force the entrance of negroes into the State University. Some reformers wanted the test made, but too many scalawags were bitterly opposed to such a step, to say nothing of the Ku Klux Klan. In December, 1869, the Board of Education asked the legislature to provide a university for the negroes,[1742] and several colored normal schools were established. In 1871, Peyton Finley, the negro member of the Board of Education,[1743] introduced a series of resolutions declaring that the negro had no desire to push any claim to enter the State University, but that they wanted one of their own, and Congress was urged to grant land for that purpose.[1744] But not until December, 1873, was Lincoln school at Marion, Perry County, designated as the colored university and normal school, where a liberal education was to be given the negro.[1745]
Trouble in the Mobile Schools
For more than a year Cloud had trouble in the schools of Mobile. The Mobile schools (always independent of the state system) were under the control of a school board appointed by the military authorities in 1865. When all offices and contracts were vacated, G. L. Putnam, a member of the Board of Education, and also connected with the Emerson Institute, which was conducted at Mobile by the American Missionary Association, had secured the enactment, because he wanted the position, of a school law providing for a superintendent of education for Mobile County. In August, 1868, Cloud gave him the office. The old school commissioners refused to recognize the authority of Putnam, who was unable to displace them, because he himself could not make bond. But, in order to give him some kind of office, Cloud went to Mobile and proposed a compromise, which was to appoint one of the old commissioners superintendent of education and Putnam superintendent of negro schools under the supervision of the other superintendent and the board of commissioners, which was still to exist. This was an arrangement Cloud had no lawful authority to make.
As part of the compromise the principal and teachers of the American Missionary Association were to be retained and paid by the state. The Emerson Institute (or "Blue College," as the negroes called it) was to remain in possession of the American Missionary Association, but the school board and county superintendent were to have control over the schools in it. Putnam, as superintendent of the "Blue College" school, refused to allow the control of the board. He wanted them to pay his teachers, but would have no supervision. The general field agent of the American Missionary Association, Edward P. Smith, offered the "schools and teachers" to the school commissioners to be paid but not controlled. "We ought now in some way," he said, "to have our teachers recognized and paid for, from the public fund, an amount equal to that paid for similar grades to other teachers in Mobile." At the same time the state was paying $125 per month for the use of the building over which the Association and Putnam would allow no supervision. The county superintendent and the commissioners, unable to secure any control over the Putnam schools, refused to recognize them as a part of the Mobile system. Cloud declared all the offices vacant, but the commissioners refused to vacate. The case was carried into court and the commissioners were put in jail. The supreme court ordered them released. The Board of Education then met and abolished the Mobile system and merged the special and independent schools of that county into the general state system. This was done on November 13, 1869.[1746]
The judiciary committee of the legislature, consisting of three Radicals and one Democrat, was directed to investigate the conduct of Cloud in the Mobile troubles. It was reported (1) that Cloud had appointed two superintendents in Mobile County, contrary to law; (2) that on January 29, 1869, G. L. Putnam, who was not an official of the state and who, according to the compromise, should have been under the control of the county superintendent, drew from the state treasury with the connivance of Cloud between $5000 and $6000, with which he paid the teachers of "Blue College," who were in the employ of the American Missionary Association and not of the state of Alabama; (3) that in July, 1869, Cloud again appointed Putnam superintendent of education for Mobile County, and sixty days afterwards he made a bond which was declared worthless by the grand jury, and after that Cloud gave Putnam a warrant for $9000, which he was prevented from collecting only by an injunction; (4) that while the injunction was in force as concerned both Putnam and Cloud, the latter drew from the treasury $2000 or more of the Mobile school funds to pay lawyers' fees; (5) that while the injunction was still in force Cloud drew $3600 from the treasury for Putnam, the greater part or all of which was illegally used; (6) that Cloud again drew a warrant for $3300, which the auditor, discovering that Putnam was interested, refused to allow, and it was destroyed; (7) the committee further stated that very large salaries were paid to the teachers in "Blue College," or Emerson Institute,--that one of them (Squires) received $4000 a year. The committee went beyond the limit of the resolution and reported that county superintendents were paid too much, and recommended the abolition of the Board of Education by constitutional amendment, the reduction of the pay of all school officials who acted as a sponge to absorb all the school funds, and, finally, that no person should hold more than one school office at the same time.[1747]
Later investigation showed that Putnam had made out pay-rolls for the teachers of the Emerson Institute for the last quarter of 1868 and presented them to A. H. Ryland, the county superintendent of Mobile, for his approval. This Ryland refused to give, as the compromise in regard to the Institute dated only from January 22, 1869. Putnam then went to his own American Missionary Association Negro Institute Board, had the pay-rolls approved, and then, as "county superintendent of education," drew $5327.20, Cloud certifying to the correctness of his accounts.[1748] Putnam padded the pay-rolls and, in order to draw principal's wages for each teacher, divided the Institute into ten schools. As there were only ten teachers besides the principal, there were now eleven principals.[1749] Kelsey, the principal, stated that no matter how much Putnam obtained for "Blue College," the teachers received none of it, but were paid only their regular salaries by the Association. Kelsey himself was paid only $250 a quarter. The teachers were under contract with the Association to teach for $15 a month and board. Some of them testified that they had received no more. However, a part of the appropriation was turned into the treasury of the Association, and we may well ask what became of the remainder of it.[1750]
Irregularities in School Administration
Superintendent Cloud was handicapped, not only by his own incapacity, but also by the bad character of his subordinates, whom he appointed in great haste from the unpromising material that supported the Reconstruction régime. Many of the receipts for the salaries were signed by the teachers with marks, some being unable to write their own names. From the school officials he received inaccurate reports, and on these he based his apportionments, which were defective, many of the teachers not receiving their money. The county superintendents had absolute authority over the school fund belonging to their counties, and could draw it from the treasury and use it for private purposes nearly a year before the salaries of the teachers were due.[1751] Complaint was made that the black counties received more than their proper share of the school fund. In Pickens County the superintendent neglected to draw anything but his own salary, and a north Alabama superintendent ran away with the money for his county. Other superintendents were accused of scaling down the pay of the teachers from 20 to 50 per cent, and it was estimated that in some counties two-thirds of the school money never reached the teachers. There was no check on the county superintendent, who could expend money practically at his own discretion.[1752] Three trustees were appointed in each township by the county superintendent; these trustees, who were not paid, appointed for themselves a clerk who was paid, and these clerks met in a county convention and fixed the salary of the county superintendent.[1753]
The bookkeeping in the office of State Superintendent Cloud was irregular. Some of the accounts were kept in pencil, and for a whole year the books were not posted. Of $235,000 paid to the county superintendents only $10,000 was accounted for by them. In 1871, $50,000 or more was still in the hands of the ex-superintendents, and the state and the teachers were taking legal proceedings against some of them.[1754] Both sons of Cloud embezzled school money and fled from the state.[1755] Cloud receipted for one sum of $314 in payment for sixteenth-section lands. This he forgot to pay to the treasurer. He issued patents for 4000 acres of school land and turned into the treasury only $323. A township in Marengo County rented its sixteenth-section land; nevertheless, Cloud paid to this county its sixteenth-section funds. In 1871 an investigation of Cloud's accounts showed that a large number of his vouchers were fraudulent, hundreds being in the same handwriting. He signed the name of J. H. Fitts & Company, financial agents of the University, to a receipt by which he drew from the treasury several hundred dollars to advance to a needy professor. He said, when questioned about it, that he thought he could "draw on" Messrs. Fitts & Company. It afterwards developed that he did not know the difference between a receipt and a draft. His accounts were so confused that he often paid the same bill twice. In 1871, when he went out of office, the sum unaccounted for by vouchers amounted to $260,556.37. After two years he succeeded in getting vouchers for all but $129,595.71.[1756]
In the black counties the school finances became confused, especially as the negro and carpet-bag officials tolled the funds that passed through their hands. At the end of 1870 the school funds of Selma were $40,000 short. It was found practically impossible to collect a poll tax from the negroes, the Radical collectors being afraid to insist on the negroes' paying taxes. In Dallas County the collector refused to allow the planters to pay taxes for their negro hands on the ground that it would be a relic of slavery. If the negroes refused to pay, nothing more was said about it.[1757] In 1869 there were 200,000 polls and only $66,000 poll tax was collected, which meant that only 44,000 men had paid the tax.[1758] In 1870 Somers states that the insurance tax was $13,327, and the number of polls was 162,819. Yet from both sources less than $100,000 was obtained.[1759]
The Board of Education, according to the constitution, was to classify by lot before the election of 1870. But in 1869, when the matter was brought up, they refused to classify. Several vacancies occurred, and these were filled by special election. Consequently the Democrats in 1870 did not get a fair representation on the board.[1760]
Objections to the Reconstruction Education
The Board of Education had the power to adopt a uniform series of text-books for the public schools; Superintendent Cloud, however, assumed this authority and chose texts which were objectionable to the majority of the whites. This was especially the case with the history books, which the whites complained were insulting in their accounts of southern leaders and southern questions. Cloud was not the man to allow the southern view of controversial questions to be taught in schools under his control. About 1869 he secured a donation of several thousand copies of history books which gave the northern views of American history, and these he distributed among the teachers and the schools. But most of the literature that the whites considered objectionable did not come from Cloud's department, but from the Bureau and aid society teachers, and was used in the schools for blacks. There were several series of "Freedmen's Readers" and "Freedmen's Histories" prepared for use in negro schools. But the fact remains that for ten or fifteen years northern histories were taught in white schools and had a decided influence on the readers. It resulted in the combination often seen in the late southern writer, of northern views of history with southern prejudices; the fable of the "luxury of the aristocrats" and the numbers and wretchedness of the "mean whites" was now accepted by numerous young southerners; on such questions as slavery the northern view of the institution was accepted, but on the other hand the tu quoque answer was made to the North. Consequently, the task of the historian was not to explain the southern civilization, but to accept it as rather bad and to prove that the North was partly responsible and equally guilty--a fruitless work.[1761]
Cloud, in his first report, admitted that the opposition to schools was rather on account of the officials than because the people disliked free schools. He further stated that the opposition had ceased to a great extent. There were many whites in the Black Belt who disliked the idea of free or "pauper" schools, and to this day some of them have not overcome this feeling. They believed in education, but not in education that was given away,--at least not for the whites. Each person must make an effort to get an education. However, they, and especially the old slaveholders, were not opposed to the education of the negro, believing it to be necessary for the good of society. In the white counties of north and southeast Alabama there was less opposition to the public schools for whites. But in the same sections schools for the negroes were bitterly opposed by the uneducated whites who were in close competition with them, for they knew that the whites paid for the negro schools, and also that, having a different standard of living, it would be easier for the negroes to send their children to school than for them to send theirs. In the Black Belt there were a few of these people, who disliked to see three or four negro schools to one white school, for here the number of the negroes naturally secured for them better advantages. The whites were so few in numbers that not half of them were within easy reach of a school. Whenever the numbers of one or both races were small, it was (and has been ever since) a burden on a community to build two schoolhouses and to support two separate schools, especially where the funds provided are barely sufficient for one.[1762]
The Question of Negro Education
Before the negro question in all its phases was brought directly into politics, and before the Radicals, carpet-baggers, and scalawags had caused irritation between the races, there was a determination on the part of the best whites in public and private life, as a measure of self-defence as well as a duty and as justice, to do all that lay in their power to fit the negro for citizenship. Most of the newspapers were in favor of education to fit the negro for his changed condition. Now that he had to stand alone, education was necessary to keep him from stealing, from idleness, and from a return to barbarism; in some parts of the Black Belt there was a tendency to return to African customs. It was necessary to substitute the discipline of education for the discipline of slavery.[1763] The Democratic party leaders were in favor of negro education, and General Clanton, who for years was the chairman of the executive committee, repeatedly made speeches in favor of it, and attended the sessions and examinations at the negro schools, often examining the classes himself. He and General John B. Gordon spoke in Montgomery at a public meeting and declared that it was the duty of the whites to educate the negro, whose good behavior during the war entitled him to it. Their remarks were cheered by the whites.[1764] Colonel Jefferson Falkner, at a Baptist Association in Pike County, advised that the negro be educated by southern men and women. Pike was a white county, and while no objection was raised to Falkner's speech, several persons told him that if he thought southern women ought to teach negroes, he had better have his own daughters do it. Falkner replied that he was willing when their services were needed.[1765] White people made destitute by the war or crippled soldiers were ready to engage in the instruction of negroes; and the Montgomery Advertiser and other papers took the ground that they should be employed, especially the disabled soldiers.[1766] General Clanton stated that many Confederate soldiers and the widows of Confederate soldiers were teaching negro schools, that he had assisted them in securing positions. Such work, he said, was indorsed by most of the prominent people.[1767]
The blacks in Selma signed an appeal to the city council for their own white people to teach them, and the churches made preparations to give instruction to the freedmen.[1768] The Monroe County Agricultural Association declared it to be the duty of the whites to teach the negro, and a committee was appointed to formulate a plan for negro schools.[1769] Conecuh and Wilcox counties followed with similar declarations. A public meeting in Perry County, of such men as ex-Governor A. B. Moore and J. L. M. Curry, declared that sound policy and moral obligation required that prompt efforts be made to fit the negro for his changed political condition. His education must be encouraged. The teachers, white and black, were to be chosen with a careful regard to fitness. A committee was appointed to coöperate with the negroes in building schoolhouses and in procuring teachers, whom they assured of support.[1770]
Besides the purely unselfish reasons, there were other reasons why the leading whites wanted the negro educated by southern teachers. It would be a step towards securing control over the negro race by the best native whites, who have always believed and will always believe that the negro should be controlled by them. The northern school-teachers did not have an influence for good upon the relations between the races, and thus caused the southern whites to be opposed to any education of the negro by strangers, as it was felt that to allow the negro to be educated by these people and their successors would have a permanent influence for evil.[1771]
The whites generally aided the negroes in their community to build schoolhouses or schoolhouses and churches combined. Schoolhouses were in the majority of cases built by the patrons of the schools; if rented, the rent was deducted from the school money; the state made no appropriation for building. In Dallas County forty negro schoolhouses were built with the assistance of the whites. This was usually done in the Black Belt, but was less general in the white counties. In Montgomery the prominent citizens gave money to help build a negro "college"; some paid the tuition of negro children at schools where charges were made. White men were often members of the board of colored schools. All this was before the negro was seen to be hopelessly in the clutches of the northerners.[1772]
In spite of the fact that for several years there were southern whites who taught negroes, the schools were judged by the results of the teaching of the northerners. The Freedmen's Bureau brought discredit on negro education.[1773] The work of the various aid societies was little better. The personnel of both, to a great extent, passed to the new system, Bureau and Association teachers becoming state teachers; and in the transfer the teachers tried to secure a better standing for themselves than the native teachers had. Many of the northern teachers were undoubtedly good people, but all were touched with fanaticism and considered the white people hopelessly bad and by nature and training brutal and unjust to negroes. The negro teachers who were trained by them, both in the North and in the South, and who occupied most of the subordinate positions in the schools, had caught the spirit of the teaching. The native negro teacher, however, never quite equalled his white instructor in wrong-headedness. He persisted in seeing the actual state of affairs quite often. But the results of some of the educational work done during Reconstruction for the negro was to make many white people, especially the less friendly and the careless observers, believe that education in itself was a bad thing for the negroes. It became a proverb that "schooling ruins a negro," and among the ignorant and more prejudiced whites this opinion is still firmly held. Not all of the northern teachers were of good character, and the others suffered for the sins of these. Almost from the first the doors of the southern whites were closed against the northern teacher, not only on account of the character of some and the objectionable teachings of many, but because they generally insisted on being personally unpleasant; and, had all of them been above reproach in character and training, their opinions in regard to social questions, which they expressed on every occasion, would have resulted in total exclusion from white society. They really cared little, perhaps, but they had a great deal to say on the subject, and made much trouble on account of it.[1774]
At first, when they wished it, some northern teachers were able to secure board with white families. After a few weeks such was not the case, and, except in the cities where the teachers could live together, they were obliged to live with the negroes. This could produce only bad results. It at once caused them to be excluded from all white society, and gained for them the contempt of their white neighbors, at the same time losing them the support and even the respect of the negroes. For the negro always insists that a white person to be respected must live up to a certain standard; otherwise, he may like, or fear, or despise, but never respect. Again, some of the doubtful characters caused scandal by their manner of life among the negroes, and in several instances male teachers were visited by the Ku Klux Klan because of their irregular conduct with negro women. One in Calhoun County was killed. Negro men who lived with white women teachers were killed, and in some cases the women were thrashed. Others were driven away.[1775] But on the whole there was little violence, the forces of social proscription at length sufficing to drive out the obnoxious teachers.[1776]
Much was said during Reconstruction days about the burning of negro schoolhouses by the whites. There were several such cases, but not as many as is supposed. In the records only one instance can be found of a school building being burned simply from opposition to negro schools. As a rule the schoolhouses (and churches also) were burned because they were the headquarters of the Union League and the general meeting places for Radical politicians, or because of the character of the teacher and the results of his or her teachings. Regular instruction of the negro had been going on for two years or more before the Ku Klux Klan began burning schoolhouses. When one was burned, the Radical leaders used the fact with much effect among the negroes; and in several instances it was practically certain that the Radical leaders, when the negroes were wavering, fired a church or a schoolhouse in order to incense them against the whites, who were charged with the deed. When a schoolhouse was burned, the negroes were invariably assisted to rebuild by the respectable whites. The burnings were condemned by all respectable persons, and also by the party leaders on account of the bad effect on political questions.[1777]
Some teachers of negro schools fleeced their black pupils and their parents unmercifully. Teachers of private schools collected tuition in advance and then left. In Montgomery, a teacher in the Swayne school notified his pupils that they must bring him fifty cents each by a certain day, and that he, in return, would give to each a photograph of himself.[1778] In Eutaw, Greene County, the Rev. J. B. F. Hill, a Northern Methodist preacher who had been expelled from the Southern Methodist Church, taught a negro school and taxed his forty little scholars twenty-five cents each to purchase a forty-cent water bucket.[1779]
In the cities where there were several negro schools, it was found difficult at first to keep the small negro in attendance in the same school. A little negro would attend a school until he discovered that he did not like the teacher or the school, and then he would go to another. A rule was made against such impromptu transfers, and then the small boy changed his name when he decided to try another school. Finally, the teacher was required to ask the other children the newcomer's name before he was admitted.[1780]
The negro children were poorly supplied with books, and what few they did have they promptly lost or tore up to get the pictures. The attendance was very irregular. For a few days there would be a great many scholars and perhaps after that almost none, for the parents were willing to send their children when there was no work for them to do, but as soon as cotton needed chopping or picking they would stop them and put them to work.[1781] If the negroes suspected that the trustees, who were (later) Democrats, had appointed a Democratic teacher, they would not send their children to school to him, and in this they were upheld by their new leaders.[1782]
When the public funds were exhausted, the majority of the white schools continued as pay schools, but the negro schools closed at once, for after 1868 the interest of the negro in education was no longer strong enough to induce him to pay for it. The education given the negro during this period was little suited to prepare him for the practical duties of life. The New England system was transplanted to the South, and the young negroes were forced even more than the white children. As soon as a little progress was made, the pupils were promoted into the culture studies of the whites. Those who learned anything at all had, in turn, to teach what they had learned; their education would help them very little in everyday life.[1783] Negro education did not result in better relations between the races. The northern teacher believed in the utter sinfulness of slavery and in all the stories told of the cruelties then practised. The Advertiser gave as one reason why the southern whites should teach negro schools, that northern teachers caused trouble by using books and tracts with illustrations of slavery and stories about the persecution and cruelties of the whites against the blacks.[1784] General Clanton stated that in the school in which he had often attended the exercises and examined the classes, and where he had paid the tuition of negro children, the teachers ceased to ask him to make visits; that the school-books had "Radical pictures" of the persecuted slaves and the freedman; that Radical speeches were made by the scholars, reciting the wrongs done the negro race; finally, that the school was a political nursery of race prejudice, and that where the negroes were greatly in excess of the whites, it was a serious matter.[1785] He also said that the teachers from the North were responsible for the prejudice of the whites against negro schools. The native whites soon refused to teach, and if they had wished to do so, they probably could have gotten no pupils. The primary education of the negro was left to the northern teachers and to incompetent negroes; higher education was altogether under the control of the alien. It was most unfortunate in every way, he added, that the southern white had had no part in the education of the negro.[1786] The higher education of the negroes in the state continued to be directed by northerners. Washington and Councill have done much toward changing the nature of the education given the negro; they have also educated many whites from opposition to friendliness to negro schools.
The Failure of the Educational System
In 1870 Cloud was a candidate for reëlection, but was defeated by Colonel Joseph Hodgson, the Democratic candidate.[1787] When Hodgson appeared as president of the Board, Cloud refused to yield on the ground that Hodgson was not eligible to the office, having once challenged a man to a duel. The Board, however, refused to recognize Cloud, and he was obliged to retire.[1788]
The first year of the reform administration was a successful one in spite of the fact that the state was bankrupt and the treasury ceased to make cash payments to county superintendents early in 1872.[1789] The second year was a fair one, although the treasury could not pay the teachers, for the Radical senate refused to make the appropriations for which their own constitution provided. However, the attendance of both whites and blacks increased, notwithstanding the fact that the United States Commissioner of Education reported that Alabama had retrograded in educational matters.[1790] The school officials elected in 1870 were much superior to their predecessors in every way. A state teachers' association was organized, and institutes were frequently held. Four normal schools were established for black teachers and four for whites. Private assistance for public schools was now sought and obtained, and hundreds of the schools continued after the public money was exhausted.[1791]
Hodgson did valuable service to his party and to the state in exposing the corrupt and irregular practices of the preceding administration. His own administration was much more economical than that of his predecessor, as the following figures will show:--
================================================================= | 1870 | 1871 | DECREASE ------------------------|-----------|-----------|---------------- Salaries of county | | | superintendents |$57,776.50 |$34,259.50 |$23,517.00 Expenses of county | | | superintendents | 21,202.86 | 4,752.00 | 16,450.86 Expenses of disbursement| 78,979.36 | 39,009.50 | 39,969.86 Clerical expenses | | | (at Montgomery) | 3,544.46 | 1,978.71 | 1,565.75 Cost of administration | 86,123.82 | 44,588.21 | 41,535.61[1792] =================================================================
In the fall of 1872, owing to the operation of the Enforcement Acts, the elections went against the Democrats. The Radicals filled all the offices, and Joseph H. Speed was elected Superintendent of Public Instruction.[1793] Speed was not wholly unfitted for the position, and did the best he could under the circumstances. But nowhere in the Radical administration did he find any sympathy with his department, not even a disposition to comply with the direct provisions of the constitution in regard to school funds. So low had the credit of the state fallen that the administration could no longer sell the state bonds to raise money. The taxes were the only resources, and the office-holding adventurers, feeling that never again could they have an opportunity at the spoils, could spare none of the money for schools. Practically all of the negro schools and many of the white ones were forced to close, and the teachers, when paid at all by the state, were paid in depreciated state obligations.
The constitution required that one-fifth of all state revenue in addition to certain other funds be appropriated for the use of schools. Yet year by year an increasing amount was diverted to other uses. The poll tax and the insurance tax were used for other purposes. At the end of 1869, $187,872.49, which should have been appropriated for schools, had been diverted. In 1872, $330,036.93 was lost to the schools by failure to appropriate, and in 1873, $456,138.47 was lost in the same way. By the end of 1873 the shortage was $1,260,511.92, and a year later it was nearly two million dollars. During 1873 and 1874 schools were taught only where there were local funds to support them. The carpet-bag system had failed completely.[1794]
The new constitution made by the Democrats in 1875 abolished the Board of Education, and returned to the ante-bellum system. Separate schools were ordered; the administrative expenses could not amount to more than 4 per cent of the school fund;[1795] no money was to be paid to any denominational or private school;[1796] the constitutional provision of one-fifth of the state revenue for school use was abolished;[1797] and the legislature was ordered to appropriate to schools at least $100,000 a year besides the poll taxes, license taxes, and the income from trust funds. The schools began to improve at once, and the net income was never again as small as under the carpet-bag régime.
Neither of the Reconstruction superintendents, Cloud or Speed, furnished full statistics of the schools. It appears that the average enrolment of students under Cloud was, in 1870, 35,963 whites and 16,097 blacks; under his Democratic successor the average enrolment, in spite of lack of appropriations, was 66,358 whites and 41,308 blacks in 1871, and 61,942 whites and 41,673 blacks in 1872. Speed evidently kept no records of attendance. In 1875, after the Democrats came into power, the attendance was 91,202 whites and 54,595 blacks. The average number of days taught in a year under Cloud was 49 days in white schools and the same in black; under Hodgson the average length of term was 68.5 days and 64.33 days respectively. Theoretically the salaries of teachers under Cloud should have been about $75 per month, but they received increasingly less each year as the legislature refused to appropriate the school money. The following table will show what the school funds should have been, as provided for by the constitution; the sums actually received were smaller each successive year. In no case was the appropriation as great as in the year 1858, nor was the attendance of black and white together much larger in any year than the attendance of whites alone in 1858 or 1859.
SCHOOL FUND, 1868-1875
1868 1869 $524,621.68[1798] 1870 500,409.18[1799] 1871 581,389.29[1800] 1872 604,978.50[1801] 1873 524,452.40[1802] 1874 474,346.52[1803] 1875 565.042.94[1804]
XX. RECONSTRUCTION IN THE CHURCHES
SEC. 1. THE "DISINTEGRATION AND ABSORPTION" POLICY AND ITS FAILURE
The close of the war found the southern church organizations in a more or less demoralized condition. Their property was destroyed, their buildings were burned or badly in need of repair, and the church treasuries were empty. It was doubtful whether some of them could survive the terrible exhaustion that followed the war. The northern churches, "coming down to divide the spoils," acted upon the principle that the question of separate churches had been settled by the war along with that of state sovereignty, and that it was now the right and the duty of the northern churches to reconstruct the churches in the South. So preparations were made to "disintegrate and absorb" the "schismatical" southern religious bodies.[1805]
The Methodists
In 1864 the Northern Methodist Church declared the South a proper field for mission work, and made preparations to enter it. None were to be admitted to membership in the church who were slaveholders or who were "tainted with treason."[1806] In 1865 the bishops of the northern organization resolved that "we will occupy so far as practicable those fields in the southern states which may be open to us ... for black and white alike."[1807] The General Missionary Committee of the northern church divided the South into departments for missionary work, and Alabama was in the Middle Department. Bishop Clark of Ohio was sent (1886) to take charge of the Georgia and Alabama Mission District. The declared purpose of this mission work was to "disintegrate and absorb" the southern church, the organization of which was generally believed to have been destroyed by the war.[1808]
In August, 1865, three Southern Methodist bishops met at Columbus, Georgia, to repair the shattered organization of the church and to infuse new life into it. They stated that the questions of 1844 were not settled by the war; that, "A large portion of the Northern Methodists has become incurably radical.... They have incorporated social dogmas and political tests into their church creeds." They condemned the northern church for its action during the war in taking possession of southern church property against the wishes of the people and retaining it as their own after the war, and for its more recent attempts to destroy the southern church.[1809]
In the confusion following the war, before the church administration was again in working order, the Protestant Episcopal Church, especially the northern section, attempted to secure the Southern Methodists. Some Methodists wanted to go over in a body to the Episcopalians. The great majority, however, were strongly opposed to such action, and the attempt only caused more ill feeling against the North.[1810]
At the time there was a belief among the Northern Methodists that in 1845 thousands of members had been carried against their will into the southern church, and that they would now gladly seize the opportunity to join the northern body, which claimed to be the only Methodist Episcopal Church. Those thousands proved to be as disappointing as the "southern loyalists" had been, both in character and in numbers. The greatest gains were among the negroes, and to the negroes the few whites secured were intensely hostile. In 1866, A. S. Lakin was sent to Alabama to organize the Northern Methodist Church.[1811] After two years' work the Alabama Conference was organized, with 9431 members, black and white.[1812] In 1871, Lakin reported 15,000 members, black and white.[1813] The whites were from the "loyal" element of the population. There was great opposition by the white people to the establishment of the northern church. Lakin and his associates excited the negroes against the whites and kept both races in a continual state of irritation. Governor Lindsay stated before the Ku Klux Committee that in his opinion the people bore with Lakin and his church with a remarkable degree of patience; that Lakin encouraged the negroes to force themselves into congregations where they did not belong and to obstruct the services; and that they also made attempts to get control of church property belonging to the southern churches.[1814] No progress was made among the whites, except in the white counties among the hills of north Alabama and in the pine barrens of the southeast. The congregations were small and were served by missionaries. Lakin and his assistants had a political as well as a religious mission--General Clanton said that they were "emissaries of Christ and of the Radical party." They claimed, nevertheless, that they never talked politics in the pulpit. Lakin once preached in Blountsville, and when he opened the doors of the church to new members, he said that there was no northern church, no southern church, there was only the Methodist Episcopal Church.[1815] But every member of this church, he added, must be loyal, and therefore no secessionist could join. He said that he had been ordered by his conference not to receive "disloyal" men into the church.[1816]
The political activity of these missionaries resulted in visits from the Ku Klux Klan. Some of the most violent ones were whipped or were warned to moderate their sermons. Political camp-meetings were sometimes broken up, and two or three church buildings used as Radical headquarters were burned.[1817] Every Northern Methodist was a Republican; and to-day in some sections of the state the Northern Methodists are known as "Republican" Methodists, as distinguished from "Democratic" or Southern Methodists.
The Baptists
The organization of the Baptist church into separate congregations saved it from much of the annoyance suffered by such churches as the Methodist and the Episcopal, with their more elaborate systems of government. Yet in north Alabama, there was trouble when the negro members were encouraged by political and ecclesiastical emissaries to assert their rights under the democratic form of government by taking part in all church affairs, in the election of pastors and other officers. Often there were more negro members than white, and under the guidance of a missionary from the North these could elect their own candidate for pastor, regardless of the wishes of the whites and of the character of the would-be pastor. This danger, however, was soon avoided by the organization of separate negro congregations.[1818]
The Southern Baptist Convention, organized in 1845, continued its separate existence. The northern Baptists demanded, as a prerequisite to coöperation and fellowship, a profession of loyalty to the government. During 1865 the southern associations expressed themselves in favor of continuing the former separate societies, and severely censured the northern Baptists for their action in obtaining authority from the Federal government to take possession of southern church property against the wishes of the owners and trustees, and for trying to organize independent churches within the bounds of southern associations. They were not in favor of fraternal relations with the northern Baptist societies.[1819]
The Presbyterians
In May, 1865, the Presbyterian General Assembly (New School) voted to place on probation the southern ministers of the United Synod South who had supported the Confederacy.[1820] Few, if any, offered themselves for probation, while as a body the United Synod joined the Southern Presbyterians (Old School). The General Assembly (O. S.) of the northern church in 1865 stigmatized "secession as a crime and the withdrawal of the southern churches as a schism." The South, the Assembly decided, was to be treated as a missionary field, and loyal ministers to be employed without presbyterial recommendation. Southern ministers and members were offered restoration if they would apply for it, and submit to certain tests, namely, proof of loyalty or a profession of repentance for disloyalty to the government, and a repudiation of former opinions concerning slavery.[1821] Naturally this policy was not very successful in reconstructing their organization in the South. The General Assembly (O. S.) of the Presbyterian Church in the South met in the fall of 1865 at Macon, Georgia, and warned the churches against the efforts of the northern Presbyterians to sow seeds of dissension and strife in their congregations.[1822] A union was formed with the United Synod South (N. S.), and the "Presbyterian Church in the United States," popularly known as the Southern Presbyterian Church, was formed. To this acceded in 1867 the Associate Reformed Church of Alabama.[1823]
The Episcopal Church in the United States during the war had held consistently to the same theory in regard to the withdrawal of the southern dioceses that the Washington administration held in regard to the secession of the southern states. There was no recognition of a withdrawal, nor of a southern organization. The Confederate church was called a schismatic body, and its actions considered as illegal. The roll in the General Convention was called as usual, beginning with Alabama.[1824] But after the war a generous policy of conciliation was pursued; the southern churchmen were asked to come back; no tests or conditions were imposed; the House of Bishops of the northern church upheld Wilmer in his trouble with the military authorities. The acts of the southern church during the war were recognized and accepted as valid by the northern church. Such a policy easily resulted in reunion.
The attempt at Reconstruction in the churches had practically failed. Only the Episcopal Church, one of the weakest in numbers, had reunited.[1825] The others seemed farther apart than ever.
The other denominations had recognized the legal division of their churches before the war. Now they acted on the principle that territory conquered for the United States was also conquered for the northern churches. Southern ministers and members were asked to submit to degrading conditions in order to be restored to good standing. They must repudiate their former opinions, and renouncing their sins, ask for pardon and restoration. Naturally no reunion resulted.
SEC. 2. THE CHURCHES AND THE NEGRO DURING RECONSTRUCTION
At the end of the war nearly every congregation had black members as well as white, the blacks often being the more numerous. With the changed conditions, the various denominations felt it necessary to make declarations of policy in regard to the former slaves. General Swayne, Assistant Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau in Alabama, in his report for 1866, stated that at an early date the several denominations expressed themselves as being strongly in favor of the education of the negro. "The principal argument," he said, "was an appeal to sectional and sectarian prejudice, lest, the work being inevitable, the influence which must come from it be realized by others; but it is believed that this was the shield and weapon which men of unselfish principle found necessary at first."[1826]
The Baptists and the Negroes
The Alabama Baptist Convention, in 1865, passed the following resolution in regard to the relations between the white and black members:--
"Resolved, That the changed civil status of our late slaves does not necessitate any change in their relations to our churches; and while we recognize their right to withdraw from our churches and form organizations of their own, we nevertheless believe that their highest good will be subserved by their retaining their present relation to those who know them, who love them, and who will labor for the promotion of their welfare."
The Convention also ordered renewed exertions in the work among the negroes by means of lectures, private instruction, and Sunday-schools.[1827] In 1866 the North Alabama Baptist Association directed that provision be made for the religious welfare of the negroes and for their education in the common schools. The negroes were to be allowed to choose their own pastors and teachers from among the whites.[1828] But soon the results of the work of the northern missionaries and political emissaries were seen in the separation of the two races in religious matters. The negroes were taught that the whites were their enemies, and that they must have their own separate churches. They were encouraged to assert their rights by obstructing in all the affairs of the churches, and in the north Alabama Baptist churches, where they were in the majority, there was danger that they would take advantage of the democratic system of the church government and, prompted by emissaries from the North, control the administration. They were, therefore, assisted by the whites to form separate congregations and associations.[1829]
The principal work of the northern Baptists in central and south Alabama was to separate the blacks into independent churches, and the second Colored Baptist Convention in the United States was organized in Alabama in 1867. The free form of government of this church attracted both ministers and members. In 1868 Bethel Association (white) reported that a large number of the negroes desired no religious instruction from the whites, although they were in great need of it, and that this opposition was caused by ignorance and prejudice. But, the report stated, there should be no relaxation in the effort to impart to them a knowledge of the Gospel; that the first duty of the church was to instruct the ignorant and superstitious at home before sending missionaries to the far-off heathen; that all self-constituted negro preachers who claimed personal interviews with God and personal instruction from Him should be discouraged, and only the best men selected as pastors. Advice and assistance were now given to the negro congregations, which were organized into associations as soon as possible. In 1872 three negro churches with a white pastor applied for admission to Bethel Association. But it was thought best to maintain separate associations.[1830] For years the white Baptists of Alabama exercised a watchful care over the colored Baptists, whom they assisted in the work of organizing congregations and associations, and in the erection of schoolhouses and churches. Church and school buildings destroyed by the Ku Klux Klan were rebuilt by the whites, even when the colored congregation was only moderately well behaved. The whites in Montgomery contributed to build the first negro Baptist church in that city, and a white minister preached the sermon when the church was dedicated and turned over to the blacks. A number of white ladies were present at the services.[1831] For fifteen years Dr. I. T. Tichenor was pastor of the First Baptist Church in Montgomery. During that time he baptized over 500 negroes into its fellowship. At the end of the war there were 300 white and 600 negro members. Dr. Tichenor tells the story of the separation as follows: "When a separation of the two bodies was deemed desirable, it was done by the colored brethren, in conference assembled, passing a resolution, couched in the kindliest terms, suggesting the wisdom of the division, and asking the concurrence of the white church in such action. The white church cordially approved the movement, and the two bodies united in erecting a suitable house of worship for the colored brethren. Until it was finished they continued to occupy jointly with the white brethren their house of worship, as they had done previous to this action. The new house was paid for in large measure by the white members of the church and individuals in the community. As soon as it was completed the colored church moved into it with its organization all perfected, their pastor, board of deacons, committees of all sorts; and the whole machinery of church life went into action without a jar. Similar things occurred in all the states of the South."[1832]
The old plantation preachers were ordained and others called and regularly ordained to the ministry by the whites. But good negro preachers were overwhelmed by an influx of "self-called" pastors who were often incompetent and often immoral. At last the whites seem to have given up as hopeless their work for the negroes. In 1885 an urgent appeal from the Colored Baptist Convention for advice and assistance met with no response from the white convention. Politics and prejudice, imprudent and immoral leaders, had completed the work of separation. Still something was done by the Home Mission Board towards instructing negro preachers and deacons, and in 1895 this Board and the Home Mission Board of the northern Baptists agreed to coöperate and aid such negro conventions as might desire it. But the Alabama negro convention has not yet asked for assistance.[1833]
The Presbyterians and the Negroes
In 1869, encouraged by the white members, the negro members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Tennessee and north Alabama asked for and received separate organization and were henceforth known as the African Cumberland Presbyterian Church.[1834]
It is this division of the Cumberland Presbyterians that is now (1905) hindering somewhat the union of the Cumberland Presbyterian with the Northern Presbyterian organization. The blacks demanded the separation of the races; the whites now demand that it be continued.
Various branches of the Northern Presbyterian organizations worked in Alabama among the negroes. The principal result of their work was the separation of the blacks into independent churches. The Southern Presbyterian Church (Presbyterian Church in the United States) made earnest efforts for the negro after the war, and with some success. The Institute at Tuscaloosa for the education of colored Presbyterian ministers is now the only school in the South for negroes which is conducted entirely by southern white teachers.[1835] The work of the Presbyterians among the negroes has continued to the present day, though in 1898 a movement was started to separate the blacks of the Southern Presbyterian Church into an independent church. This movement was not successful, as not a majority of the negro preachers desired separation. But the number of colored Presbyterians has always been small.[1836]
The Roman Catholics
The Roman Catholic Church did much work among the negroes in the cities and at first with a fair degree of success. It was strongly opposed by all Protestant denominations, both northern and southern, and especially by the Northern Methodist Church. It seemed to be dreadful news to the Methodists when it was reported that the Catholic Church was about to open fifteen schools in Alabama for the negro, where free board and tuition would be given.[1837] The American Missionary Association, supported in Alabama mainly by money from the Freedmen's Bureau, used its influence among the negroes against the Catholic Church, which, the Association stated in a report, "was making extraordinary efforts to enshroud forever this class of the unfortunate race in Popish superstition and darkness."[1838]
But the Catholic Church had no place for the negro preacher of little education and less character who desired to hold a high position in the negro church. There was better prospect for promotion in the Baptist and Methodist churches, and to those churches went the would-be negro preacher and, through his influence, the majority of his people.[1839]
The Episcopalians
The Protestant Episcopal Church did nearly all of its work among the negroes in the cities and among the negroes on the large plantations of the Black Belt. This church offered little more hope of advancement to the average negro preacher than the Roman Catholic, and the hostility of the military authorities to this church in 1865 and 1866 and the efforts of the missionaries and politicians caused a loss of most of the negro members that it had. In 1866 the laity of the State Convention seemed rather unenthusiastic in regard to work among the negroes, and left it to be managed by the bishop and clergy. The General Convention established the "Freedmen's Commission" to assist in the work, which was not to be under the jurisdiction of the bishop. Bishop Wilmer stated that he was unwilling to accept this "schism-breeding proposition," but would be glad of assistance which would be under his direction as bishop. No such aid was forthcoming. In 1867 only two congregations of negroes were left, one in Mobile and one in Marengo County. A few solitary blacks were to be found in the white congregations, and during Reconstruction these suffered real martyrdom on account of their loyalty to their old churches. They were ostracized by the other negroes, were called heathen and traitors, and were left alone in sickness and death. Under such treatment, the majority of the negro members were forced to withdraw from the Episcopal churches.[1840]
The Methodists and the Negroes
In 1861 the Methodist Episcopal Church South had more than 200,000 colored members and 180,000 children under instruction. One year after the surrender of Lee only 78,000 remained.[1841] The Montgomery Conference, in November, 1865, decided that there was no necessity for a change in the church relations of white and black; that in the church there should be no distinction on account of color and race; and that the negro had special claims on the whites. Presiding elders and preachers were directed to do all that lay in their power for the colored congregations, and establish Sunday-schools and day schools for them when practicable.[1842] The Methodist Protestants announced a similar policy.[1843] General Swayne of the Freedmen's Bureau reported that he received much assistance toward negro education from the Southern Methodist Church, and especially from Reverend H. N. McTyeire (afterwards bishop).[1844]
The Southern Methodist congregations lost their negro members from the same causes that brought about the separation of the races in other churches. The negroes were told by their new leaders that for their safety they must consider the southerners as their natural enemies;[1845] they were convinced that there was spiritual safety only in the northern or in independent churches. All the forces of social ostracism were employed against those who chose to remain in the old churches. The southern planter was not able to support the missionary who formerly preached to his slaves, the negroes would not pay; and the church treasury was empty.[1846] In 1866 the General Conference directed that the colored members be organized as separate charges when they so desired; that colored preachers and presiding elders be appointed by the bishop, annual conferences organized when necessary, and especial attention be directed towards Sunday-schools for the negroes.[1847]
Against all efforts of the Southern Methodists to work among the negroes, the Northern Methodists struggled with a persistence worthy of a better cause. Missionaries were sent South, narrow and prejudiced, though sincere, men and women, who were possessed with the fixed conviction that no good could come to the negro except from the North; in this conviction schools were established and churches organized. The injudicious and violent methods of these persons and their bitter prejudices caused their exclusion from all desirable society, and naturally they became more violent and prejudiced than ever. Their letters written to their homes showed that they believed the native white to be possessed by an inhuman hatred of the blacks, and that on the slightest provocation the whites would slaughter the entire negro population.[1848] They favored at least a partial confiscation in behalf of the negro. Through the Freedmen's Aid Society the northern church entered upon work among the whites also, opposing the southern church on the ground that it was sectional and condemning all its efforts among the blacks as useless and harmful. For years there was not a word of recognition of the work done by the southern churches among the slaves.[1849] The missionaries were afraid of "the old feudal forces" which were still working, they thought, under various disguises such as "Historical Societies, Memorial Days, and monuments to the Confederate dead."[1850] Their work was thoroughly done. Two negro Methodist churches, organized in the North, secured the greater part of the negroes.[1851] Some joined the Northern Methodist Church, "which also came down to divide the spoils."[1852]
After 1866 the colored congregations still adhering to the Southern Methodists had been divided into circuits, districts, and conferences. By 1870 political differences and the efforts of other churches had so alienated the races that it was thought best to set up an independent organization for the negroes, for their own protection. This was done in 1870 by the General Conference. Two negro bishops were ordained, and all church property that had ever been used for negro congregations was turned over to the new organization, which was called the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. A few negroes refused to leave the white church, and in 1892 there were still 357 colored members on its rolls.[1853] Until recently there has been strong opposition on the part of the other African churches to the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church because of its relations to the Southern Methodist Church. The latter has continued to aid and direct its protégé, and the opposition is gradually subsiding.[1854]
After thirty years' experience, most people who have knowledge of the subject agree that the religious interests of the negro have suffered from the separation of the races in the churches and from the enforced withdrawal of the native whites from religious work among the blacks. The influence of the master's family is no longer felt, and instead of the white minister came the negro preacher, with "ninety-five superstitions to five eternal truths,"--superstitions, many of them reminiscences from Africa.[1855] There have been too many negro churches; every one who could read and write wanted to preach,[1856] and many of them claimed direct communication with the Supreme Being; every one who applied was admitted to the churches; morality and religion were only remotely connected; leaders of the demi-monde were stout pillars of the church. A Presbyterian minister in charge of negro interests has stated that in his church the personnel of the independent negro congregations is inferior in character and morality to the congregations under the supervision of the whites. In the colored Baptist associations it is reported that frequent and radical changes have been the custom. Discontented churches secede and form new associations, which exist for a short while, and are then absorbed by other associations. The boundaries of the associations also change frequently; the church government seems to be in a kind of fluid state. Thoughtful religious leaders now believe that the southern white, for the good of both races, should again take part in the religious training of the negro.[1857] But the difficulties in the way of such a course are almost insurmountable and date back to forced separation of the races in the churches.
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An editorial in the Nation in 1866 expressed the situation from one point of view very clearly and forcibly: The northern churches claim that the South is determined to make the religious division permanent, though "slavery no longer furnishes a pretext for separation." Too much pains are taken to bring about an ecclesiastical reunion, and irritating offers of reconciliation are made by the northern churches, all based on the assumption that the South has not only sinned, but sinned knowingly, in slavery and in war. We expect them to be penitent and to gladly accept our offers of forgiveness. But the southern people look upon a "loyal" missionary as a political emissary, and "loyal" men do not at present possess the necessary qualifications for evangelizing the southerners or softening their hearts, and are sure not to succeed in doing so. We look upon their defeat as retribution and expect them to do the same. It will do no good if we tell the southerners that "we will forgive them if they will confess that they are criminals, offer to pray with them, preach with them, and labor with them over their hideous sins."[1858]
"Reconstruction" in the church was closely related to "Reconstruction" in the state, and was so considered at the time by the reconstructionists of both.[1859] The same mistaken, intolerant policy was followed, on the theory that the southern whites were as incapable of good action in church as in state. Irritating and impossible tests and conditions of readmission were proposed before reconciliation. Later the efforts to weaken and destroy the southern churches after attempts at reunion had failed completed the alienation, which in several organizations seems to be permanent. There was a Solid South in church as well as in politics.