CHAPTER XII.RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD.
Surrender of Lee.—On the ninth day of April 1865 at Apomattox Virginia General Lee surrendered to General Grant, after four years struggle in perhaps the most awful war of modern times. Only a remnant of the once powerful and vigorous army was left to share in the humiliation. A large proportion of the gallant soldiers of the army over which the immortal Lee was the commander had fallen to rise no more, and the few remaining were broken down by the continued hardships of the four years struggle. Being overpowered they humbly submitted to the inevitable and in good faith accepted the terms given by their conquerors and returned to their homes, thousands of whichwere broken up, and thousands more in mourning for loved ones who had perished in the war.
Right to Secede.—The question as to whether a State had a right to secede from the General Government could not be settled by arbitration or legislation, and had been submitted to the arbitrament of the sword and decided in the negative. The Federal government through its civil representatives and military hosts claimed and proclaimed a State had no right to secede. An overwhelming majority of the people north of Mason and Dixon’s line embraced this theory. Southern people embraced the opinion that States had the inalienable right to rebel against the government, if the rights vouchsafed to said states by the constitution were infringed upon. After four years of civil war unparalleled for its severity and extent of loss of life and property, the issue was settled in favor of the Northern idea, and Southern soldiers accepted their parole, took the oath of allegiance to the government of the United States in good faith, and returned home to take up life again as peaceable, loyal citizens.
Sherman’s March to the Sea.—A few days previous and subsequent to the surrender of Lee, Johnson with his army was retreating towards North Carolina, with Sherman in hot pursuit, on his famous march to the sea. General Sherman, talented, as he was, holding a key to thesituation, must have known that the end of the so called rebellion was near at hand, but leading his Vandal hosts with pine torch in hand, careless with fire, seemed to take a fiendish pleasure listening to the crackling conflagrations and witnessing the lurid sheets of flame as it swallowed up barns full of feed and stock and palaces, cottages and all kinds of residences with the accumulation of the lifetime of the occupants, and the inmates themselves, helpless women and children driven out of doors, groping their way through the dense smoke and darkness, hurried on with agonizing fear and dread of personal harm that was terrible beyond description. A man of intelligence raised in a land of Bibles under christian influence that could gloat over such orgies is more in need of missionary influence than the inhabitants of Greenland’s icy mountain or India’s coral strand.
Home Coming of Soldiers.—For several weeks after the surrender of Lee and Johnson, the soldiers continued to return to their homes and returning divested themselves of their army clothes worn, dirty and sometimes infested with vermin sad reminders of camp and prison life. The old clothes were burned and the soldiers dressed in citizens clothes that had been laid aside four years before, or in new clothes that thoughtful mothers, sisters or wives had prepared in anticipation of their home coming. The soldiers were welcomedhome by their people who rejoiced to see them return. On some occasions they were met by mothers, sisters or wives who had passed through four years of great tribulation, and sometimes by hungry, ragged children, made more than orphans by the war. To welcome the return of the soldiers. Nature seemed to smile in extravagant luxuriance. Flowers were blooming, growing crops were springing up in a prolific growth, promising a bountiful harvest. The soldiers became citizens and relieved women and children of burdens of farm work that their forced absence had put upon them, and under the changed condition of affairs everything was in a fair way to resume normal conditions.
Assassination of Lincoln.—Very soon after the surrender of Lee, Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States, was assassinated and Southern people deplored the sad event. Although the leaders and common people of the South had nothing to do with the awful crime, it had a tendency to intensify the already bitter feeling of the radical element North, and this element began to clamor for revenge, demanding the punishment of innocent people of the South for a crime for which they were in no way responsible but entirely innocent. If Lincoln had not have been removed by death from the presidency and could have exerted an influence that the promptings of his really generous nature would have caused him toendeavor to use, it would have been a boon to the downtrodden people of the Southland. The average soldier was disposed to get to work and really did get to work with an honest endeavor to repair the damage done, and to build up the waste places.
Federal Officers.—The rulers or representatives of the general government could have immortalize themselves and their names would have gone down in history as benefactors, but instead they took a different view of the situation and apparently actuated by a revengeful spirit heaped up burdens that made the suffering people cry out in agony “How long will this state of affairs exist.”
Conduct of Yankee Soldiers.—Early in the Spring of 1865 the war was rapidly coming to a close and the Yankee soldiers were invading every nook and corner. Some of them acted very gentlemanly and did what they could to protect private property, but others committed depredations, terrified the people and stole or impressed, as they called it, the most of the good horses, sometimes leaving worn out old scrubby plugs for farmers to make their crops with, and then other gangs would come along and take these leaving farmers without horses. In the Summer the army horses were corralled at different places, sold at auction to the highest bidder and brought from one to fifty dollars a piece. In this way they got about allthe money the citizens had managed to get hold of.
Looters Follow Yankee Army.—In the rear of the Yankee army there followed a motley gang of looters that were ignorant, vicious and some of them penitentiary convicts. This despicable class, that would not have been invited into the homes of respectable people where they lived, set themselves up as leaders to plunder, steal and overawe the good citizens of the desolated country.
Provisional Government.—The Southern people soon learned to their sorrow that if a state did not have a right to secede that the states which were in rebellion were not considered in the union. Provisional Governments were forced upon the Southern States and in North Carolina W. W. Holden, who perhaps had done more to bring about, foster and encourage the secession of the state than any other man within her borders, was made governor of the state, and a reign of terror, misrule and tyranny began. A governor with a retinue of ignorant, vicious, dishonest followers, willing and anxious to humiliate and punish the leading and best citizens of the state, caused a distressing state of affairs to exist.
The Negro Enfranchised.—To still further humiliate the Southern people an amendment was added to the constitution which placed the ballot in the hands of every negro man in the South twenty-oneyears old, and not satisfied with this leading citizens of the South were disfranchised. Thousands of the most prominent and influential citizens of the State of North Carolina were disfranchised. An election was ordered and held but everything was one way, and many of the poll holders were big “buck niggers” that would not have known the Constitution of the United States from the Ten Commandments.
Carpetbaggers.—The carpetbaggers and low down thieves, thugs and bums that were tacked on to the tail end of the Yankee army and left to torture, torment and terrorize the peaceable, law-abiding citizens of the South were now busy with their fiendish work. They had already done effective preparatory work by visiting and mingling freely with an element congenial to their degraded and vitiated tastes. They had frequented negro cabins which were thickly scattered over the country. These ignorant, confiding negroes were easily prevailed upon to meet in old fields, woods, or old houses located in obscure places where they organized and instructed them.
The Negro Politicians.—The negro politician loomed up and these self-constituted bosses pictured to them in glowing colors the beauty and grandeur of a position they would occupy where their former owners and other leading white citizens would have to bow the knee and acknowledge their royal authority. They wereinformed that the lands owned by Southern white people would be confiscated and divided out among them. Some of them in obedience to instructions went so far as to stake off forty acres of land where they wanted it, with the assurance that it would be given them. They were also promised with the forty acres of land and a mule, and were happy in anticipation in the near future of being in possession of immense wealth. Their political aspirations were if possible more extravagant. Offices not wanted by these designing political robbers were parcelled out to negroes that they could use to do their bidding.
Election a Farce.—An election was held that was worse than a farce. The negroes marched up to the polls like droves of sheep and deposited a piece of paper in a box that they could not have told by looking at it whether it was a ballot or ticket for passage on a railroad or admission into a theatre. In North Carolina the ballot boxes were sent to Charleston, S. C., for the ballots to be counted by a military commander. To the legislature were elected a few good citizens and a host of carpetbaggers, scalawags, and negroes, the last three named having overwhelming majorities.
Legislature.—The legislature met composed of this motley crew to enact laws for the government of the people of our loved State. In the legislature were a few representative members mixed inwith the disreputable carpetbaggers, scalawags and ignorant negroes, and an organization effected by a few sharp unprincipled alien adventurers who at once began to plan a system of robbery bold, insolent and disgraceful, and their corrupt ignorant tools were ready to do anything dictated by them. The legislature remained in session an entire year, the members voting themselves seven dollars per day, and some of them computing their mileage over a roundabout way to give them an excuse to augment their mileage accounts. The public school fund that had been sacredly preserved through the four years vicissitudes of war was taken to pay the per diem of the members of the mob that had convened under the name of legislature. State bonds were voted and issued for millions of dollars ostensibly to build railroads, but the proceeds of the bonds were gobbled up by money sharks and no railroads built. Many of these bonds were later repudiated by the state as fraudulent. A system of state, county and municipal government prevailed that was oppressive, and the good people of the state were humiliated and felt outraged without having any chance to remedy the evil existing.
County Officers.—In the legislature were several negroes and in some counties were negro sheriffs, registers of deeds, county commissioners, magistrates and school committees. While such a state ofaffairs was humiliating, perhaps the carpetbaggers and some of the homemade scalawags who forgetting and forsaking their race and color, acting with them were, if possible, a worse curse to the state than the negro himself. White people were arrested upon warrants issued by negro magistrates who tried their cases and gloated over an opportunity to punish them. Extortionate taxes were levied and collected and in some counties claims were held by officers and people were obliged to sell them at a tremendous discount and the officers and their pet partners would buy them in and pay themselves full value from the county fund. Their outrageous extravagance disgusted all decent white people and their methods were universally condemned. The negro as a politician became aggressive and the bosses were obliged to put their names on the ticket because in many places they furnished the voting population. Negroes became offensive and entirely ignored their former owners and other white friends who were disposed to treat them fairly, and accepted as their advisers these low down carpetbaggers and if possible lower scalawags. The negro depended almost entirely for his living upon the better class of white people and notwithstanding all his prejudice and bitterness, acknowledged this fact, but a dirty thief or a dirty, no account white man of the class used to do their dirty work would tell them if they votedwith the old secession crowd, as they called them, they would be put back in slavery, but if they voted as they suggested they would surely get the forty acres of land and a mule, and what was still more pleasing to them would place themselves in a position to wreak revenge on this now despised class. Some of the hireling serfs were willing to sell their birthright for less than a miserable mess of potage, and went so far as to advise the poor, ignorant, confiding negro, in case he was refused work by this class of white people, to steal such as he needed from the corn cribs, wheat houses, smoke houses and if that would not suffice to burn their barns or to burn them out of house and home.
Crimes Committed.—Under this wicked teaching or training crimes galore were committed and men were unsafe and women insecure to go along the streets or highways. Instead of law and order anarchy reigned supreme and crime stalked boldly in the land heretofore noted for peace, happiness and prosperity.
Negroes Offensive.—Young negroes became offensive as a result of the false training of this vicious class of men and some women, pretended religious enthusiasts, who knew nothing of the class of people to whom they were teaching a doctrine of direct or indirect social equality. Ambitious notions took possession of the bestial natures of some of the worst element of the race and results revoltingto think of blackened the page of history of this fearful period.
W. W. Holden was then governor of North Carolina, and could have used his fine talent, directed in a proper channel, to have been a blessing instead of a curse to the people of the State whom it was his sworn duty to protect instead of persecuting. The Executive and Judicial powers of the State were silent as the grave and by their silence put their seal of approval upon the disgraceful transactions, thus staining their administration with crime and the approval of crime and becoming a party seeking and wreaking revenge.
Ku Klux Klan.—The ferocious wretches became so bold in the commission of their outrages that in defense of life and property the good people of the country organized a society called by different names in different places but known every where as the “Ku Klux Klan.” The object of the organization was to secure protection that the pretended officers of the law failed to give to the oppressed people.
Holden and Kirk.—Governor Holden prevailed with his gang of blind partizans in the legislature to pass a law authorizing him to declare martial law in any part of the state. This he proceeded to do in a few counties and had some citizens of the highest character, accused of committing heinous crimes. Federal troops were sent to these counties, not troops made up in the state, but a gang of cut-throats fromTennessee, commanded by an acknowledged vicious wretch by the name of Kirk.
Governor Holden was not satisfied with the scope of power given him, but wrote to the president asking for Federal authority allowing arrests to be made and parties tried before a military tribunal hoping to have some of the best citizens of the state shot at the stake. Congress refused to confer on the president the power to declare martial law. The governor and his crowd had to depend on such state authority as they had managed to usurp. Col. Kirk with his gang had invaded the state under the direction of the governor and more than one hundred citizens were arrested and imprisoned by Kirk and his minions.
Judiciary Exhausted.—Chief Justice Pearson had until this time been regarded as a just judge, and application was made to him for a writ of habeas corpus that men in prison might know why they were imprisoned. Judge Pearson granted the writ but when an attempt was made to serve it on Kirk he ignored it under the plea that he was acting under orders from Governor Holden. Counsel of the prisoners asked for further process to punish Kirk but the Chief Justice held that his power was exhausted and that the Judiciary could not contend with the Executive. The highest judges in the state claimed to be powerless and the Holden Kirk conspirators, although panting to get recognition fromthe Federal Government, began to make preparations to form a Drumhead court to consist of thirteen members—seven to be appointed by the governor and six by Colonel Kirk. The Chief Executive of the state expecting to preside over this court and try cases with the Judiciary in sight and hearing, declaring itself helpless.
Judge Brooks.—The right will usually prevail and Judge Brooks a Federal Judge listened to the cry of the distressed and oppressed and gave them relief. Governor Holden and Colonel Kirk could not intimidate him with their scarecrow cries of war and bloodshed. He gave Kirk peremptory orders to allow his prisoners to come before him at Salisbury within ten days. Governor Holden asked the president to interfere and he promptly informed him that Judge Brook’s order must be obeyed. Nothing was against the prisoners and they were released, and the state was soon relieved of the presence of the Kirk mob. Governor Holden was impeached, convicted and expelled from his high office. The people rose in their might and partially redeemed the state, but it took years to accomplish the desired effect.
One hundred thousand ignorant negroes were enfranchised and their proportional numerical strength of the voting population enabled them to exert a baneful influence which very much afflicted the counsels of our state.
Negro Problem.—This brings to thesurface the negro problem, which will not be discussed here, but the different phases of negro life at different periods of time will be noticed. The negro was brought to this country from a heathen land centuries ago and it was soon discovered that a Southern climate was suitable to his health and growth and as a commercial commodity in the South he would be profitable. The negro living as a servant of the white families developed many commendable traits of character. Under the influence of an acknowledged superior race he became partially civilized and became very much attached as a servant to his master and mistress as he was pleased to call them. He brought with him from the dark continent some traits of character that were inherent and hard to eradicate. As a slave he was faithful and the great mass of them were happy, and growing up with white children loved and respected them without once thinking himself their social equal. Before the war and during the war it was a very rare case to hear of an outrage being committed. The negro was happy in his surroundings, having no cares for the future, knowing he would be provided for even in sickness and old age. During the war he cared for and as far as he was capable protected the white women and children at home while their fathers, brothers and husbands were in the army.
The old time darkey is in the evening of his life,After the passing of the last one with the race there will be strife,He is a colored gentleman in company or at homeAnd when asked to do a favor always will come.If his people are suffering with hunger or in distressHe will divide his last slice of bacon or last crumb of bread;If at any time employed in the field at workHe does not have to be watched for he will not shirk.He is polite in company, at home, on the road, or streetAnd will pull of his hat to anyone he may meet;He is proud of his freedom, and glad he is not a slaveBut remembers his early training and knows how to behave,He has bought his acre of land that he claims as his ownHas built a rude cabin and lives at home,When a slave he worked through the week and on Saturday nightDanced to the tune of the banjo till broad daylightThen on Sunday all through the dayCourted his dusky damsel in the old time way.If asked how he liked roasted potatoes, opossum or chicken to eatWith a broad grin he answers “Dem things is sweet.”He said poor nigger got tired of bacon and corn bread,And relished good eating before he went to bed.He owns he was fond of nice good pickingAnd thought it was no harm for mister’s niggers to eat master’s chickens,His mouth still waters and he sighs for the luxury so fineWhen he feasted on watermelons in the good old Summer time.During the war he was industrious, polite and genteelAnd took care of women and children while the men were in the field.He was loyal to the South as any Southern sonAnd his conduct should be classed with Southern victory won.The old black mamma that stayed around the homeAnd took care of the children the same as her own,The children remember her kindness and careThough now growing old they are children to her,The old time darkeys are well meaning and try to checkThe young generation that are losing self respect.
The old time darkey is in the evening of his life,After the passing of the last one with the race there will be strife,He is a colored gentleman in company or at homeAnd when asked to do a favor always will come.If his people are suffering with hunger or in distressHe will divide his last slice of bacon or last crumb of bread;If at any time employed in the field at workHe does not have to be watched for he will not shirk.He is polite in company, at home, on the road, or streetAnd will pull of his hat to anyone he may meet;He is proud of his freedom, and glad he is not a slaveBut remembers his early training and knows how to behave,He has bought his acre of land that he claims as his ownHas built a rude cabin and lives at home,When a slave he worked through the week and on Saturday nightDanced to the tune of the banjo till broad daylightThen on Sunday all through the dayCourted his dusky damsel in the old time way.If asked how he liked roasted potatoes, opossum or chicken to eatWith a broad grin he answers “Dem things is sweet.”He said poor nigger got tired of bacon and corn bread,And relished good eating before he went to bed.He owns he was fond of nice good pickingAnd thought it was no harm for mister’s niggers to eat master’s chickens,His mouth still waters and he sighs for the luxury so fineWhen he feasted on watermelons in the good old Summer time.During the war he was industrious, polite and genteelAnd took care of women and children while the men were in the field.He was loyal to the South as any Southern sonAnd his conduct should be classed with Southern victory won.The old black mamma that stayed around the homeAnd took care of the children the same as her own,The children remember her kindness and careThough now growing old they are children to her,The old time darkeys are well meaning and try to checkThe young generation that are losing self respect.
The old time darkey is in the evening of his life,
After the passing of the last one with the race there will be strife,
He is a colored gentleman in company or at home
And when asked to do a favor always will come.
If his people are suffering with hunger or in distress
He will divide his last slice of bacon or last crumb of bread;
If at any time employed in the field at work
He does not have to be watched for he will not shirk.
He is polite in company, at home, on the road, or street
And will pull of his hat to anyone he may meet;
He is proud of his freedom, and glad he is not a slave
But remembers his early training and knows how to behave,
He has bought his acre of land that he claims as his own
Has built a rude cabin and lives at home,
When a slave he worked through the week and on Saturday night
Danced to the tune of the banjo till broad daylight
Then on Sunday all through the day
Courted his dusky damsel in the old time way.
If asked how he liked roasted potatoes, opossum or chicken to eat
With a broad grin he answers “Dem things is sweet.”
He said poor nigger got tired of bacon and corn bread,
And relished good eating before he went to bed.
He owns he was fond of nice good picking
And thought it was no harm for mister’s niggers to eat master’s chickens,
His mouth still waters and he sighs for the luxury so fine
When he feasted on watermelons in the good old Summer time.
During the war he was industrious, polite and genteel
And took care of women and children while the men were in the field.
He was loyal to the South as any Southern son
And his conduct should be classed with Southern victory won.
The old black mamma that stayed around the home
And took care of the children the same as her own,
The children remember her kindness and care
Though now growing old they are children to her,
The old time darkeys are well meaning and try to check
The young generation that are losing self respect.
The Emancipated Negro.—To do the negro race justice, there is no doubt if they had been let alone to follow their own inclinations and judgment they would have been largely influenced in their conduct after being emancipated by their former owners and the better class of white people of the South who were then and are now their best friends, because having grown up with them in an entirely different social scale are better calculated to advise them for their good. Two classes of people accepted by them as their advisersare responsible for present conditions. A low class of avaricious, ignorant, known enemies of the South who have used them to advance their own selfish interests, and another equally objectionable class of Northern religious fanatics, whose training lead them to believe that the Southern people treated them inhumanly. By mingling with them socially and teaching them that they were entitled to recognition in the social circle of the whites, caused them to have aspirations and ambitions to which they can never attain.
The Southern people at once acknowledged their freedom, and were ready to help them in their struggle for a more prosperous career, and were willing to give them their rights before the law but not willing to place the ballot in their hands or give them a place in the counsels of the government. Negroes who have followed the advice of their real friends are now doing well, accumulating property and are in possession of homes of their own and their children are being educated, but those who have gone astray under the teaching and advice of aliens who know nothing about them and care less have become vagrants and criminals and are a menace to the communities in which they live. The negro problem will be solved by Southern people who know the characteristics of the race and will treat them in such a way as to enable them to build up as a race. If listened to their condition will be bettered and the two races will live in the Southland together harmoniously, but if the advice of their only true friends is ignored it will be a survival of the fittest and like the Indians they will by the management of Southern people be provided with a home elsewhere and live to themselves andenjoy the fullness of their freedom.
The sun may be darkened and the moon stream in bloodBut the voice of the Anglo Saxons in our counsels will be heard,The stars may fall and the earth with fervent heat melt,But the influence of an inferior race in our counsels will not be felt.They may come from Greenland’s icy mountain or India’s coral strand,From the black continent of Africa or other heathen lands:We will humanely treat the savage, and give them their rights before the law,But before they undertake to rule they had better quietly withdraw.In our own Sunny South we will give them a homeAnd teach them civilization and to no longer roam,We have a knotty problem to solve in our own Sunny Southland,But will resist any interference from any alien band.
The sun may be darkened and the moon stream in bloodBut the voice of the Anglo Saxons in our counsels will be heard,The stars may fall and the earth with fervent heat melt,But the influence of an inferior race in our counsels will not be felt.They may come from Greenland’s icy mountain or India’s coral strand,From the black continent of Africa or other heathen lands:We will humanely treat the savage, and give them their rights before the law,But before they undertake to rule they had better quietly withdraw.In our own Sunny South we will give them a homeAnd teach them civilization and to no longer roam,We have a knotty problem to solve in our own Sunny Southland,But will resist any interference from any alien band.
The sun may be darkened and the moon stream in bloodBut the voice of the Anglo Saxons in our counsels will be heard,
The sun may be darkened and the moon stream in blood
But the voice of the Anglo Saxons in our counsels will be heard,
The stars may fall and the earth with fervent heat melt,But the influence of an inferior race in our counsels will not be felt.
The stars may fall and the earth with fervent heat melt,
But the influence of an inferior race in our counsels will not be felt.
They may come from Greenland’s icy mountain or India’s coral strand,From the black continent of Africa or other heathen lands:
They may come from Greenland’s icy mountain or India’s coral strand,
From the black continent of Africa or other heathen lands:
We will humanely treat the savage, and give them their rights before the law,But before they undertake to rule they had better quietly withdraw.
We will humanely treat the savage, and give them their rights before the law,
But before they undertake to rule they had better quietly withdraw.
In our own Sunny South we will give them a homeAnd teach them civilization and to no longer roam,
In our own Sunny South we will give them a home
And teach them civilization and to no longer roam,
We have a knotty problem to solve in our own Sunny Southland,But will resist any interference from any alien band.
We have a knotty problem to solve in our own Sunny Southland,
But will resist any interference from any alien band.
The Coming South.—For forty years the oppressed South has been under a cloud groping its way in the wilderness, a part of the time without even a feint hope of reaching the promised land, but the clouds are breaking and through the dense darkness can be traced at least the outline of a silver lining. To the most obscure vision a light appears, and the dullest prophet can forecast the sunshine soon to burst forth in magnificent splendor. Neither heights, lengths, breadths, depths, principalities nor all the powers that be can stop the onward march of education, industrial development and universal wave of prosperity destined erelong to place the people of this, by nature favored land, in possession of their own. In the scientific, religious, industrial and political world, the South is forging its way to the front rank, and our grand old state of North Carolina with its variety of soil, climate, minerals, timbers and its progressive people is coming. From the foundation of the government till the sixties the native born talent of theSouth shaped and managed the affairs of the nation, and now she is coming, after passing through a fiery ordeal, to again resume a place that other sections of the country will be compelled to concede to her.
We no longer hear the bellowing cannon or clash of arms,Or the tramp of soldiers marching raising alarm.But instead the busy hum of machinery and tramp of children to school on their way,And the blessings of peace and prosperity making triumphant strides in their day.
We no longer hear the bellowing cannon or clash of arms,Or the tramp of soldiers marching raising alarm.But instead the busy hum of machinery and tramp of children to school on their way,And the blessings of peace and prosperity making triumphant strides in their day.
We no longer hear the bellowing cannon or clash of arms,Or the tramp of soldiers marching raising alarm.
We no longer hear the bellowing cannon or clash of arms,
Or the tramp of soldiers marching raising alarm.
But instead the busy hum of machinery and tramp of children to school on their way,And the blessings of peace and prosperity making triumphant strides in their day.
But instead the busy hum of machinery and tramp of children to school on their way,
And the blessings of peace and prosperity making triumphant strides in their day.