The United States in our own times, 1865-1924

Front matter

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This Book may be kept out

Preface To Revised Edition

Four years have passed since the first appearance of this history. In that time the book has frequently been reprinted, and a number of minor corrections have been made, but it now seems desirable to bring the story down to date. Few events of prime importance have occurred that must be chronicled. The period is rather one of a return to normal conditions, and it must be said that, despite some depressing developments in public life, the progress made has been rapid. The book ends as it began with problems of reconstruction arising out of great wars. Fortunately for us these problems of to-day are much less grave than those that faced our fathers in 1865 or than those that now trouble our late European enemies and allies.

P. L. Ha WORTH.

Preface

If it be true that an important object of history study is to enable one to understand the present, then it is clear that the time has come when greater emphasis than hitherto must be laid on the period since the Civil War. Fifty-five years — almost half the period of our existence under the Constitution — ^have passed since the close of that conflict, and most of our problems have little or no direct relation to those that troubled Lincoln and his predecessors.

This book is designed to meet the needs of students who desire to know our country in our own times. In it I have devoted a large share of space to social and industrial questions, but I have been on my guard against swinging too far in this direction. After all, the business of government is still of prime importance to the welfare of the nation, and it is essential that our citizens should understand our past political history.

Throughout the book I have tried to bear in mind that history is made by men and not by abstractions. Nor have I forgotten that generalizations about a subject mean little to a student until he has some knowledge of what actually took place.

I am indebted to a number of persons for assistance rendered in the preparation of the volume, but most of all to Professor James A. Woodburn, my old preceptor and later colleague, for reading the proof and making many helpful suggestions.

Paul L. Haworth.

Contents

CBAFTES PA0B

I. The Aftermath of War i

II. President Johnson's Plan of Reconstruction 13

Chapter I The Aftermath Of War

On a never-to-be-forgotten April day General Robert E. Lee bowed to Grant and the inevitable at Appomattox, and his war-worn veterans in gray scattered, heavy-hearted, to their distant homes, after fighting for four years with a of the valor to which the world pays willing homage,

e eracy. pj.ggj(jgj^|- jefferson Davis and a few misguided irreconcilables sought to continue the struggle on other fields, but in vain. Before the end of May the last armed force that had marched beneath the stars and bars had dissolved or surrendered, and Davis himself was a prisoner. The victors participated in a memorable grand review in Washington, and then they too laid down their arms, to take up once more the prosaic tasks of peace.

The bloodiest civil war in history was over; the work of the soldier was done; but there still remained for solution by statesmen three great problems. The first of these was. What should be the future status of the eleven States Probfems^^ that had tried to quit the Union? Second, What should be the status of the individuals who had taken part in creating and upholding the now defunct Confederacy? Third, What should be the status of the more than 4,000,000 ignorant black freedmen, most of whom had hitherto been mere human chattels who could be bought and sold like any other property? Even as they greeted with glad acclaim the glorious news of peace, far-sighted men anxiously considered how these problems could be solved. v

Five days after Appomattox Abraham Lincoln fell by the bullet of a half-crazed assassin, and after a few hours of unconsciousness his labored breathing ceased and the Emanci- T hnso pator exchanged immortaUties. Shortly afterward,

Becomes in the parlor of the Kirkwood House, Andrew Johnson received the presidential oath of office from Chief Justice Chase. /'You are President," said the chief justice solemnly, as Johnson handed back the Bible. "May God support, guide, and bless you in your arduous duties !"

Andrew Johnson was born of "poor white" parentage at Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1808. His boyhood was spent in the densest ignorance, and it was not until he was entering T , , manhood that he so much as learned to read. He

Johnson s

Career and became a tailor, and at eighteen crossed the mountains to Greenville in eastern Tennessee, where he presently married a capable and ambitious woman, who taught him to write and cipher. Unpromising as was his origin, Johnson possessed a natural genius for politics. He was elected in turn alderman, mayor, member of the State legislature, federal representative, and governor of Tennessee, and when his State seceded he was one of its representatives in the Senate of the United States. His success in politics was all the more remarkable because it was extremely unusual in the South for poor men to be elected to high office; such places were usually grasped by the rich, slave-owning planters. He had many conflicts with the men of that class, whom he once characterized as a "scrub aristocracy," and he repaid their hostility and contempt by hatred and by refusing to follow his State into the Confederacy. By his loyal stand he won high favor in the North, and in April, 1862, Lincoln appointed him military governor of Tennessee, a difficult position, which he filled with marked courage and ability. In 1864 the feeling on the part of many Republican leaders that it would be desirable to put a Southern man and former Democrat on the national ticket resulted in his nomination for the vice-presidency, and in his election to that office. The circumstances of his remarkable rise from ignorance and poverty to position and power werf

THE AFTERMATH OF WAR 3

highly to his credit, just as they were in the case of Lincoln, but unfortunately he lacked much of having attained Lincoln's mental, moral, and intellectual stature. Despite his successes, he remained uncultured, narrow-minded, obstinate, and it was whispered that he had a weakness for strong drink.

Many of the radical RepubHcans had opposed Lincoln's generous policy toward the South, and some of them regarded Johnson's accession as "a godsend." On Simday, the day after Johnson took the oath, certain radicals, including Pleased with Senators Chandler of Michigan and Wade of Ohio, o nson. called on the new President. ^'Johnson, we have faith in you," cried Wade enthusiastically. "By the gods, there will be no trouble now in running the government!" Johnson thanked Wade and responded: "I hold this: robbery is a crime; rape is a crime; treason is a crime, and crime must be punished. . . . Treason must be made infamous, and traitors must be impoverished,"

While in this mood Johnson signed a proclamation that charged Jefferson Davis and other prominent Confederates with complicity in Lincoln's assassination, while to persons who talked with him he harped so much upon punishing "traitors" that even some of the radicals began to fear that he would be too vindictive, that he would carry out a bloody proscription of Southern civil and military leaders.

In the days immediately following the surrender of Lee, Northerners were inclined to feel magnanimous toward the South, but Booth's dastardly deed roused a bitter desire for vengeance. Booth himself was presently hunted Attitude! down and slain; four of the other conspirators, including a woman, Mrs. Surratt, were convicted and hanged; while others were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, three of them for life. But many people be- Heved that the wretched assassins were mere tools of Jefferson Davis and other high Southern leaders, and throughout the North an insistent demand arose that the "rebel chieftains" should be hanged. It is now known that Booth had no prominent accomplices, but the contrary view long persisted among multitudes of men, and the course of events was influenced by this belief, mistaken though it was. Even many persons who scouted the idea that the Southern leaders had stooped to assassination reflected that the bloody deed was a result of secession, and they hardened their hearts toward the South.

On the other hand, it was not in human nature for ex- Confederates soon to display enthusiasm for the Union or for Union men. They had bowed to stern necessity; they smarted keenly under the sense of defeat; their loyalty, as Attitude! ^ Northern traveller reported, was simply ''disloyalty subdued." Some of them found comfort in asserting that they had been "overpowered" but not "conquered," and for years the vain hope that "the Lost Cause" might yet triumph in a new outbreak lingered in a few breasts. Southern men who had lent aid to the Union cause were regarded as black-hearted traitors, while "Yankee" soldiers and civilians were frequently made to feel that their presence was unwelcome. Women were particularly open in displaying their hatred and contempt. For example, it was commonly remarked by Union officers that women passing them on the street would gather up their skirts as if to avoid touching what they so much abhorred. An officer stationed in a Virginia town complained that whenever he went to church and attempted to enter a pew the ladies seated in it invariably rose to leave. Such manifestations of Southern hostility were viewed in the North with resentment, mingled with amusement, but they were natural under the circumstances and had a pathetic side. The Southern people had experienced bitter losses; in the words of Professor Fleming: "They must have time to bury their dead, and it was long before the sight of a Federal soldier caused other than bitter feelings of sorrow and loss."

In general, however, there was less friction between the garrisons and the people than might have been expected. Now and then white soldiers foolishly forced "noisy and scornful unrepentants " to walk under the stars and stripes, or cut the buttons off Confederate uniforms — often the only

THE AFTERMATH OF WAR 5

clothing their wearers possessed — or occasionally committed worse excesses; but there were few armed conflicts, and in time

many of the soldiers came to feel a certain sympa- Troopsin thy for the white population, while their presence

came to be regarded by the whites as a guarantee of peace and order. The presence of colored troops was considered particularly humiHating by the whites. They were likely to be insolent, they inoculated the freedmen with ideas of equality, and in some instances they were guilty of serious crimes.

Several theories had been advanced as to the effect of secession upon the status of a State, but, as Lincoln wisely said in his last public speech, made to a crowd of serenaders only three . , days before his death, all men would agree that Reconstnic- such States were "out of their proper practical reo icy. jg^^-jQj^ ^jijj ^g Union," and that the sole object of statesmanship should be again to "get them into that proper practical relation." Early in the war he had realized the desirability of restoring the semblance of loyal self-government in the seceded sections, and one result of his policy in this direction was the erection in Virginia of a Union government that consented to the setting up of West Virginia as a separate commonwealth. In Virginia proper the fragmentary poUtical organization that remained after West Virginia had been set apart estabUshed itself at Alexandria, under the protection of Federal cannon. Although this government, which was headed by Cjovernor Francis H. Peirpont, was frequently snubbed by Congress and by military commanders, Lincoln recognized it, being hopeful that it would furnish a nucleus for future loyal development. In 1862 he appointed military governors in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Louisiana. An important duty of these governors was to stimulate loyal sentiment among the inhabitants, and considerable success resulted from the experiment in Louisiana and Tennessee. After the surrender of Vicksburg Lincoln appointed a military governor for Arkansas, and near the close of the year he issued a general proclamation in which he offered that if 10 per cent of the male inhabitants in any rebellious State, except Virginia, would take an oath of loyalty, and would organize a State government, he would recognize it. In Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee such "lo per cent governments" were actually formed, and Lincoln carried out his promise regarding them; but the poHcy displeased the radicals in Congress, and neither house would admit members chosen from these States. When the Confederacy collapsed the net result of Lincoln's reconstruction pohcy was, therefore, that Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee possessed a semblance of a loyal government, but none of them had been definitely readmitted into the Union.

Infinitely more difficult was the problem of the negroes. Even the question of whether they should be slaves or freemen had not yet been settled absolutely, for the Thirteenth Amendment had not been ratified by three-fourths of the of^Se°^ States, while the Proclamation of Emancipation StatS!'^'''' ^^ ^^^ ^PP^y ^^ ^^1 sections of the South, and its vaUdity remained a matter of some doubt. It was practically certain that freedom would triumph, but, granted this, there still remained the complicated questions of the freedman's political, social, and economic status. And it could safely be predicted that these questions would continue to plague the country long after the status of the seceded States and of ex-Confederates had been fixed and forgotten.

During the war slaves in regions remote from the clash of arms had usually remained quietly upon the plantations. Dim notions that the war might bring them freedom penetrated the minds of some, and escaped Union pristhe Slaves oners could generally count upon their assistance, War^^ ^^^ ^^^ fears of servile revolts proved groundless. In after years a celebrated Georgia orator, Henry Grady, said gratefully: "A thousand torches would have disbanded the Southern army, but there was not one." However, when a Union force entered a district many of the slaves would flock to it, and when Sherman's victorious columns swept through Georgia to the sea thousands of blacks, fondly believing that ''the Day of Jubilee" had come, fell in behind their deliverers, having, as a South CaroHnian later complained, been

THE AFTERMATH OF WAR 7

''seduced from their allegiance" by the prospect of freedom. On foot, on horses or mules, and in every conceivable vehicle, from rough ox-carts to sumptuous carriages taken from their masters' stables, they followed the conquering hosts and often proved a source of no small embarrassment to their liberators. "Ise hope de Lord will prosper you Yankees and Mr. Sherman," said the spokesman of a large number of these refugees to an aide-de-camp, "because I tinks, and we all tinks, dat youse down here in our interests." Another gray-haired "uncle" told Sherman "that he had been looking for the 'angel of the Lord' since he was knee-high," and that he was sure that Union "success was to be his freedom."

When the Confederacy collapsed some of the freed men willingly hired themselves to their former masters, but hundreds of thousands could not rest content until they had tried out „ their freedom. A desire to behold the fascinating

among wonders of the world and fear lest slavery might be

suddenly restored and they be caught by their old owners stimulated this tendency, and many freedmen changed their names to disguise their identity or to signify that they had passed from under the yoke. Multitudes swarmed into the towns or tramped aimlessly about the country, and, as they were not accustomed to caring for themselves, thousands died during the next year. Many negro men seized the opportunity to desert their famihes and get new wives, for it was regarded as a relic of bondage to be tied to an ugly old wife who had been married in slavery. Revivals and camp-meetings were held in many places and aroused much rehgious fervor. One old negro woman baptized in a river came out screaming: "Freed from slavery! Freed from sin! Bless God and General Grant ! " To many negroes freedom meant primarily the chance to escape from work, and they experienced a sad disillusionment when they learned that they must still labor for a Hving. To avoid so disagreeable an alternative, many resorted to stealing; it was not considered sinful to take pigs or chickens from the whites; that was merely "spilin' de 'Gypshims."

Other freedmen were actuated by more laudable ambitions^ notably to acquire the white man's learning in the schools, upon which optimistic Northern philanthropists were expending

much money and effort. More than a score of Education. societies were formed to minister to the freedman's

material wants and to uphft him morally and mentally, and large sums were subscribed for this missionary work. Yankee schoolmasters and schoolma'ams invaded the South, filled with all the hopeful zeal of crusaders, and were regarded with a mixture of amused contempt and angry hostihty on the part of most of the white population. As for the blacks, many had the view that education — best of all, a knowledge of Greek and Latin — was the sesame that would open all doors to them. Children and grown-ups alike were seized with the thirst for knowledge. An officer of the Freedmen 's Bureau reported that in a school in North Carolina he saw sitting side by side representatives of four generations: a child six years old, her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, the last over seventy-five years old — all studying their letters and learning to read the Bible. Little wonder, therefore, that the results of this educational crusade present an odd mixture of the ludicrous, the pathetic, and tlie sublime.

White men complained that the negroes were demoralized by freedom, that they would not work except under compulsion, that they were ''lazy and sassy," that they would not „ . display the old deference. One of Howell Cobb's

about overseers wrote to his employer that the blacks

would remain in their houses for days, feigning sickness or giving other more trivial excuses. "Tha air," he declared, "steeling the green corn verry rapped. Som of them go when tha pleas and wher tha pleas an pay no attention to your orders or mine. . . . You had as well Sing Sams to a ded horse as to tri to instruct a fool negrow." Some white employers resorted to the old methods, such as whipping or hanging up by the thumbs, while more serious offenses were now and then committed against freedmen, either by employers or ordinary ruffians.

From the days when they were imported into America

THE AFTERMATH OF WAR g

against their will the negro race had labored for their masters without financial reward, but among both freedmen and many , white men there now developed the idea that some

Acres and recompense should be made for unnumbered years

of forced service. In the course of the war freedmen in some parts of the South had been established on confiscated estates, and this fact helped to create a belief that the government would adopt a general policy of seizing the property of the masters and dividing it among the emancipated slaves. In some way the notion got abroad that each negro family would receive "forty acres and a mule," and for years the idea persisted in some black districts. In certain quarters white sharpers reaped a rich harvest by selling to credulous freedmen the painted stakes, or "pre-emption rights," with which each must be provided if he expected to obtain his share on the day of division. The deed sold to one credulous negro read as follows: "Know all men by these presents, that a nought is a nought and a figure is a figure; all for the white man and none for the nigure. And whereas Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so also have I lifted this d — d old nigger out of four dollars and six bits. Amen ! Selah ! "

There were Northerners who urged that both justice and considerations of the freedmen's future demanded that financial assistance should be given to the emancipated race, but in

the end nothing of consequence was done. In the for words of a celebrated leader of the race, namely^

ISandaUy. Frederick Douglass, the negro "was turned loose,

naked, hungry, and destitute to the open sky." He was made a freeman, but he was left economically dependent upon his former master.

The fact had an important bearing on the subsequent history of the South. It meant that generally the negroes must continue to work for others, instead of settling down upon

Effect on ^^^ °^^^ ^^^^^ P^^^^ ^^ ground and leading a lazy. Labor carc-frce existence. In consequence the problem

Conditions. r i ^ • • i i i i

of obtammg labor has never become so acute m the South as in Guiana and certain West India islands, where the emancipated blacks easily obtained land, and solved the lo THE UNITED STATES IN OUR OWN TIMES

question of living by setting out a few banana-trees and cultivating a yam patch. Even to-day the number of negro farmers who own their land is comparatively small.

To act as a guardian for the freedmen, and to stand as a buffer between them and the whites, Congress, by act of March 3, 1865, created an institution called the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. General Oliver Biureau.^^^ O. Howard, commander of one wing of Sherman's army, a philanthropist of great zeal, a man who had won the title of "the Christian Soldier,'' was made commissioner of the bureau. Not all the officials were of so high a type, for many were lacking in tact, while some proved to be rascals. There can be no doubt that the bureau did much work that needed to be done, but by Southern white men it was generally regarded with hostility. Many ot the bureau agents ultimately organized their black wards politically, and swelled the ranks of the "Carpet-Baggers," as Northern men who entered Southern politics were called.

In weighing the difficulties involved in effecting the transition from a slave-labor to a free-labor system, it should not be forgotten that the task was comphcated by unfavorable eco- ^ . nomic conditions. The North was actually richer

Economic ^ •'

Condition and more prosperous, despite the war, than it had been in 1861, and the victorious Northern soldier returned to a land full of the busy hum of industry. In the words of Henry Grady, it was far otherwise with "the footsore Confederate soldier, as, buttoning up in his faded gray jacket the parole which was to bear testimony to his children of his fidehty and faith, he turned his face southward from Appomattox, in April, 1865. Think of him as ragged, halfstarved, heavy-hearted, enfeebled by want and wounds; having fought to exhaustion, he surrenders his gun, wrings the hands of his comrades in silence, and, Hfting his tear-stained and palUd face for the last time to the graves that dot the old Virginia hills, pulls his gray cap over his brow and begins the slow and painful journey. What . . . does he find when, having followed the battle-stained cross against overwhelm-

THE AFTERMATH OF WAR ii

ing odds, dreading death not half so much as surrender, he reaches the home he left so prosperous and beautiful? He finds his house in ruins, his farm devastated, his slaves free, his stock killed, his barn empty, his trade destroyed, his money worthless; his social system, feudal in its magnificence, swept away; his people without law or legal status; his comrades slain, and the burden of others heavy on his shoulders. Crushed by defeat, his very traditions gone; without money, credit, employment, material training; and beside all this, confronted with the gravest problem that ever met human intelligence — the estabHshment of a status for the vast body of his liberated slaves."

"Everything has been mended, and. generally in the rudest style," wrote an observer of Southern conditions. ''Windowglass has given way to thin boards, and these are in use in rail- . p. way coaches and in the cities. Furniture is marred

of Southern and broken, and none has been replaced for four years. Dishes are cemented in various styles, and half the pitchers have tin handles. A complete set of crockery is never seen, and in very few families is there enough to set a table. ... A set of forks with whole tines is a curiosity. Clocks and watches have nearly all stopped. . . . Hairbrushes and tooth-brushes have worn all out; combs are broken and are not yet replaced; pins, needles, and thread, and a thousand such articles, which seem indispensable to housekeeping, are very scarce. Even in weaving on the looms, corn-cobs have been substituted for spindles. Few have pocketknives. In fact, everything that has heretofore been an article of sale at the South is wanting now. At the tables of those who were once esteemed luxurious providers, you will find neither tea, coffee, sugar, nor spices of any kind. Even candles, in some cases, have been replaced by a cup of grease, in which a piece of cloth is plunged for a wick. The problem which the South had to solve has been, not how to be comfortable during the war, but how to Uve at all."

The Civil War had begun as a revolt to perpetuate slavery and the right of secession; it had ended in a revolution that extinguished both. It had been a bitter battle, and both belligerents had fought on until one had been overwhelmed by J, p , numbers and material resources. After so pro- Solution tracted a struggle, after so complete an overturn of old institutions, it was inevitable that even the wisest statesmanship should not be able immediately to restore peace and prosperity in the conquered section. And unhappily really wise statesmanship was to prove chiefly conspicuous through its absence.*

*A list of "Suggestions for Further Reading" is given in the Appendix.

CHAPTER II PRESIDENT Johnson's plan of reconstruction

Following the assassination of Lincoln, many prominent Southerners were seized and thrown into prison, but the only person who was tried, convicted, and punished was Wirz, Tr nt ^^ commander of Andersonville prison, who was of Southern sent to the gallows by a military tribunal. The expected trials for treason were indefinitely postponed; most of the prisoners were soon released. Jefferson Davis was kept for about two years at Fortress Monroe, and for a short time was subjected to the indignity of being put in irons, but ultimately he was released on bail, and was never tried; curiously enough two of the men who signed his bond were old abolitionists, namely, Gerrit Smith and Horace Greeley.

That events took such a course was largely due to Johnson's dropping his punitive pohcy toward the South. The main influence in effecting this revolution in the President's mind Change in ^^^ probably the cabinet. James G. Blaine, in his Johnson's Twenty Years of Congress, attributes the change to

Policy

Secretary of State Seward; others reject this view. Though marked for assassination by Booth and his fellow conspirators and dangerously wounded by one of them, Seward retained his naturally generous disposition. To him an enemy who surrendered was an enemy no more. One day he met an old senatorial associate from Virginia, a man with whom he had often clashed in ante-bellimi days, but Seward's heart went out to him. "Come and dine with me. Hunter," said he to the ex-Confederate. Hunter accepted, and when he raised his plate at the secretary's hospitable board he found beneath it a "pardon," duly signed and sealed. Having decided to follow a liberal course, Johnson virtually adopted Lincoln's plan of reconstruction; but unfortunately, in carrying out the details, he lacked the Emancipator's infinite tact. He soon accorded recognition to the "lo- VirtuaU per-cent" governments established by Lincoln in

Adopts^ Louisiana, Tennessee, and Arkansas, and to the Plan. Peirpont government in Virginia, and on May 29

he proclaimed William W. Holden provisional governor of North Carolina and directed him to call a constitutional convention for the purpose of organizing a new civil government. Holden was a Raleigh newspaper pubhsher and politician who had given the Confederate authorities much trouble, and had in 1864 come near to being elected governor on a "peace-at-any-price" platform. The President's proclamation provided that only loyal persons could participate as electors or as delegates to the convention; the test of loyalty established was the taking of an oath prescribed in an anmesty proclamation issued the same day. Among those excluded from the benefits of this amnesty proclamation were civil or diplomatic officers of the Confederacy, military officers above the rank of colonel, governors of seceded States, and persons who owned taxable property worth more than twenty thousand dollars. All other persons might take the oath, which required, among other conditions, a pledge to support all laws and proclamations regarding slavery. Even the excepted persons might make special apphcation to the President for pardon, and the proclamation held out the hope that "such clemency will be liberally extended." Within a few weeks the President took similar action regarding the six remaining seceded States. The President let it be known that to secure the restoration of their States into the Union the conventions must accept the results of the war. His fundamental conditions were: (i) Repeal of the ordinance of secession or declaring it null and void. (2) Acceptance of emancipation. (3) Repudiation of debts contracted in aid of the Confederacy.

As Congress would not meet until December, President Johnson for several months had a free hand to carry out his reconstruction plans, and meanwhile the Southern people were