A- \i> ,<^' ., l -^ S- « ^^ V' ,^ :>%, -^ .^ ■P^ • O ■ sOo. O '' , . ^ »o ^. ' i, S >.^ o. -O' , <:>- v^^ > ' '^ ' o^ "c^ '■'c. ^,/■• \.. /^'V \0 /■ ■>^ 0^ . 'v / ^^t V H -r^^ %/' % %..,#■ - .#■ . ■ .^% ' *• %■ ..^'' ,H -7-. ■\ V'' -■>^, A'. A .*" '^-^ kV '^. %^' '^^ ^ r -'.=5$!n^w^ ■■ "^^^ .^ '^^ * <\V ^« ,-^- t^, '>. v- m: ^ -^^^ •-^' <^ ^ " . V -^ A^ -#, "-J^ ,^5 -n^ /- .^^ c's ''^ V^^ THE COTTON STATES \i IN THE SPRING AND SUMMER OF 1875. By CHARLES NORDHOFF, \93o-V^ oi» AUTHOR OF "THE COMMUNISTIC SOCIETIES OF THE UNITED STATES," "POLITICS FOR YOUNG AJIER- ICANS," "CALIFORNIA FOR HEALTH, PLEASURE, AND RESIDENCE," "NORTH- ERN CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND THE SANDWICH ISLANDS,'* " CAPE COD AND ALL ALONG ASHORE," «&o. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 549 & 551 BROADWAY. 187G. / 1 z S3 ^'%'^ 2. Entered, accordiDg to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by D. APPLETON AKD COMPAl^, In the OflSce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. To THE PeESIDENT OF THE UnITED StATES. SiE,— I respectfully offer you a report on the political and industrial con- ition of several of the Southern States, the result of an exploration made y me during the spring and summer of the present year, at the request of Ir. James Gordon Bennett, for the JSfeio York Herald. The facts collected ere seem to me likely to interest you, who, I sincerely believe, have failed make the people of the Southern States contented, chiefly because, in your xalted position, it was unfortunately difficult for you to know the real con- ition of those States, which has rapidly and continually changed from year year of your Administration. Had you been able to examine them for ourself in 1874-5, as you did in 1865,1 can not doubt that your Southern olicy would in very many particulars have been different from what it has een ; for it is your duty, as it doubtless is your wish, to secure the liberties nd increase the prosperity, contentment, and happiness of all your fellow- itizens. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, CHARLES NORDHGEF. Alpise, Bergen County, New Jersey, September, 1875. CONTENTS. PAGE PRELIMINARY 9 ARKANSAS IN MARCH, 1875 29 LOUISIANA IN APRIL, 1875 41 MISSISSIPPI IN MAY, 1875 74 ALABAMA IN 1LA.Y, 1875 85 NORTH CAROLINA IN JUNE, 1875 95 GEORGIA IN JULY, 1875 101 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. PEELIMINAEY. It was my fortune to spend tbe winter of 1874-75 in Washington, in almost daily at- tendance upon tlie debates of Congress, and in more or less intimate friendly relations with many of its leading members, of both parties. The Southern question was, during the whole of the three months' session, that which attracted most attention, and was in public and private most earnestly discussed. The Louisiana aifair, the Vicksburg riot, the Alabama question, the Arkansas mud- dle, were all the topics of continual excited conversation iu and out of Congress. I was extremely desirous to find a basis of fact on which to found a trustworthy opinion of the condition of the South ; but was constant- ly confused by statements apparently parti- san, and, at any rate, unsatisfactory. The leaders of both parties in Congress were, for the most part, no more accurately informed than I ; and debate and legislation on South- ern affairs during the whole winter were mainly based either upon a general notion that we still live under a Constitution, or upon narrow views of party expediency or necessity. The Democrats for the most part dealt in incoherent and inefifective generali- ties about violated liberties. Of the Repub- licans, one faction steadily pressed coercive measures, which in the end failed of adop- tion; while the other part opposed these measures but weakly, because they had no certain knowledge of the condition of affairs on which they spoke and were asked to leg- islate. Thus the Habeas Corpus and Force Bill and the Arkansas Message were defeat- ed with great difficulty; the Civil Eights Bill was passed, only to become a dead let- ter in the South, and a source of annoyance to its supporters in the next Presidential canvass ; and the report of the first New Or- leans committee, though based on evidence not afterwards controverted, was received with so much doubt that a second committee was thought necessary — to investigate the first. Under these circumstances I accepted glad- ly an offer from Mr. Bennett to make for him an exploration of the principal South- ern States, and see for myself what I had vainly tried to discover by questioning others. My journey began early in March, and ended in July. I visited successively Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia; and the re- sults of my observations were printed in letters to the Xeio York Herald. These let- ters, with some additions and corrections, form the larger part of the present volume. They became, on their imblication in the Herald, the subject of a contentious discus- sion in the journals of both parties. North and South, and, I must confess, had not the good fortune to please partisans anywhere. It was probably inevitable that they should offend those whose preconceived views or whose interests they did not advance, for I sought only for facts, and did not care what side they favored; but it has been a great satisfaction to me to receive many private letters from Southern men, both Republicaus and Democrats, acknowledging the correct- ness of my statements, and the general jus- tice of my views and conclusions. Though my letters consisted almost en- tirely of statements of fact, I found, from first to last, opinions and conclusions im- puted to me, by partisan writers, which I 10 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. did not and do not entertain. It was Lut natural, perhaps, that each side should ac- cept such facts as served its purposes, and draw inferences from them which were not luy own. But I do not wish to be misun- derstood, and propose, therefore, to prefix to the record of my observations my own de- ductions. And to make clear my point of view, it is proper to say that I am a Re- publican, and have never voted any oth- er Federal ticket than the Republican; I have been opposed to slavery as long as I have had an opinion on any subject except sugar-candy and tops ; and I am a thorough believer in the capacity of the people to rule themselves, even if they are very ig- norant, better than any body else can rule them. The following, then, are the conclusions I draw from my observations in the Cotton States : 1. There is not, in any of the States of which I speak, any desire for a new war; any hostility to the Union ; any even remote wish to re-enslave the blacks ; any hope or expectation of repealing any constitutional amendment, or in any way curtailing the rights of the blacks as citizens. The former slave-holders understand perfectly that the blacks can not be re-enslaved. " They have been free, and they would drive us out of the country if they thought we were about to re-enslave them. They are a quiet and peaceable people, except when they are ex- asperated ; but then they are terrible. A black mob is a ruthless and savage thing," said a Southern man to me; and another remarked, " If ever you, in the North, want to re-enslave the negroes, you must give us three months' notice, so that we may all move out, with our wives and children. They were a source of constant anxiety to us when we held them in slavery. To at- tempt to re-enslave them would bo only to invite them to murder us, and lay the coun- try waste." In Mississippi alone did I find politicians silly enough to talk about the Caucasian race, and the natural incapacity of the ne- gro for self-government ; and even there the best Republicans told me that these noisy Democratic demagogues were but a small, though aggressive and not unpowerful, mi- nority ; and even in Mississippi, a strong Re- publican, a Federal law officer, an honest and faithful man, assured me that the north- ern half of the State, which, with the ex- ception of the region lying about Vicks- burg, is the most prone to occasional vio- lence and disorder, was, when I was there, to his personal knowledge, as peaceful and or- derly as any part of New York or Ohio. Even the extreme excitement of a polit- ical canvass in Mississippi this fall, in which the Democrats are trying to rid themselves of the justly hateful rule of a corrupt fac- tion, has led to but few disturbances ; and we are not to forget that this State is a frontier country, in which every body goes armed; and that it has for its governor a man who has neglected all the usual means of preserving the peace, or preventing dis- turbances. With a governor alive to his duty to the State, there would, I believe, have been none. Nor is it just to lay the whole blame of all that has happened on the whites. In the South the negro is not always a lamb. He is sometimes the ag- gressor. 2. That the Southern whites should rejoice over their defeat, now, is impossible. That their grandchildren will, I hope and be- lieve. What we have a right to require is, that they shall accept the situation; and that they do. What they have a right to ask of us is, that we shall give them a fair chance under the new order of things ; and that we have so far too greatly failed to do. What the Southern Republican too often requires is that the Southern Democrat should humil- iate himself, and make penitent confession that slavery was a sin, that secession was wrong, and that the war was an inexcusable crime. Is it fair or just to demand this ? Slavery is now seen, all over the South, to have been a huge economical blunder, and a proposition to re-establish it would not get fifty thousand votes in the whole South. That sccuis to me an extremely important point gained. As to the moral question, it belongs to the clergy, and has no place in our present politics. 3. The Southern Republicans seem to me unfair and unreasonable in another way, They complain constantly that the South- r PRELIMINARY. 11 ern wliites still admire and are faithful to ever, la a State like Louisiana or Mississip their own leaders ; and that they like to talk about the bravery of the South during the Tvar, and about the great qualities of their leading men. There seems to me some- thing childish, and even cowardly, in this complaint. The Southern man who fought and believed in it, would be a despicable being if he should now turn around and blacken the characters of his generals and political leaders, or if he should not think pi now, and Arkansas, Alabama, and others formerly, acts with the Republicans, actual- ly lends his support and countenance to cor- rupt men. Is it strange that, if he is ever so honest himself, he is disliked for his po- litical course ? Did not Republicans in New York bitterly criticise and " ostracize" Mr. Tilden, Mr. O'Conor, Mr. Hewitt, and others, who chose to adhere to and act with the Democratic party, while that was controlled with pride of the feats of arms and of endur- by the Tweed Ring ? And do not the New ance of his side ; or if, having been plun- dered by Republicans since the war, he should fling up his hat for that party. I York Republicans make it a reproach to this day, to such Democrats, that they thus did? But the cases are precisely parallel. say this as a Republican, and believe the j It "costs something to be an honest Repub- mass of Northern Republicans think just as lican in the South," precisely as it cost some- thing to be an honest Democrat in New York before the Tammany Ring was smashed. 6. As to " intimidation," it -is a serious mistake to imagine this exclusively a Demo- cratic proceeding in the South. It has been I do. 4. Moreover, it is a fact that the men of brains, of influence, of intelligence, in the South, did, almost to a man, consent to se- cession, and take an active part in the war against the Union. It was, I believe, and practiced in the last three years quite as most of them now believe, a great blunder ' much, and even more rigorously, by the on their part ; but they have paid a heavy Republicans. The Federal United States penalty for their mistake, for most of them marshal in Louisiana has used cavalry to were wealthy, and are now poor. It is not intimidate Democrats. Similarly, Federal fair in us to demand that they shall be re- : officers confess they did in Alabama and viled and put down by their own people ; : elsewhere. The negroes are the most sav- nor, I believe, do Northern Republicans want age iutimidators of all. In many localities that. A few days ago I received a letter from a Mississippi Republican, who related to me, with indignation, that at a Democrat- ic meeting no cheers were so loud as those which followed a mention of Mr. Jefterson Davis's name. Now, I do not admire Mr. Davis ; I thiuk him the weakest and the least respectable of the Southern leaders ; and I happen to know that he is not high- ly thought of in many parts of the South, where his peculiar qualities are weU under- stood, and were felt during the war. But I could not help but agree with a Southern Democrat who said to me, " I don't like Jeff Davis ; but he was our leader, and we should be mean creatures, if, when he is spoken against, we did not stand uj> for him." 5. As to ostracism of Northern men, it stands thus : In all the States I have seen, the Republican reconstructors did shameful- ly rob the people. In several of them they continue to do so. Now, all the Republicans in the South are not dishonest; but who- which I visited, it was as much as a negro's life was worth to vote the Democratic tick- et ; and even to refuse to obey the caucus of his party caused him to be denounced as " Bolter," and to be forsaken by his friends, and even by his wife or sweetheart. That there has also been Democratic intimidation is undeniable ; but it does not belong to the Southern Republicans to complain of it. In North Carolina, a leading and intelligent ne- gro told me that ho and others of his race were opposed to the Civil -rights Bill, but they did not dare to let their opposition be known, because, as ho said, they would at once have been denounced among their peo- ple, and would have lost all influence with them. In "Wilmington, a young negro law- yer was mobbed by his people, because he ventured to oppose corrupt candidates for office. This was told me by a colored man. 7. There are no wrongs now in the South which the interference of the Federal Gov- ernment under the Enforcement acts can 12 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. reach. This interference is purely and only mischievous. It has disabled and demor- alized the Republican State governments, whose members, sure that they would be maiutained by the Federal arm everywhere, abandoned their duties, and took to steal- ing and maladministration. It has serious- ly injured the negro, by making him irre- sponsible to the opinion of his neighbors, and submitting him, in his ignorance, to the mischievous and corrupt rule of black and white demagogues. As a result, it has fos- tered ill-feeling between the races, from which in the end it is inevitable that the negro must be the greatest sufferer. 8. Those States which have been under Eepublican control have been shamelessly mismanaged, and are now deeply, and some of them hopelessly, in debt, and with very heavy State and county taxes. Such are Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi (this in county and local indebtedness), Alabama, and North Carolina. 9. On the other hand, Georgia, which has been since 1871 ruled by Democrats, has but a trifling State debt, scarcely any county debts, good credit, and low taxation. 10. It is a remarkable fiict that, according to the best evidence I could collect on the subject, the negroes in Democratic Georgia own far more, real estate, and pay taxes on more property, than in any one of the States which have been under Republican rule, like Arkansas or Louisiana. 11. Wherever one of these States has fall- en under the control of Democrats, this has been followed by important financial re- forms ; economy of administration ; and, as in Arkansas and Alabama, by the restoration of peace and good- will. 12. In Louisiana and Mississippi, which remain under Republican control, there is a continuance of barefaced corruption, and of efforts, made by a class of unscrupulous demagogues, to set the races in hostility against each other. 13. The misconduct of the Republican rulers in all these States has driven out of their party the great mass of the white peo- ple, the property - owners, tax -payers, and persons of intelligence and honesty. At first a considerable proportion of these were ranged on the Republican side. Now, in all the States I have mentioned, except in North Carolina, the Republican party con- sists almost exclusively of the negroes and the Federal office-holders, with, in Louisiana and Mississippi, the Republican State and county ofiicers also. 14. Thus has been perpetuated what is called the '• color-line " in politics, the Dem- ocratic party being composed of the great mass of the whites, including almost the en- tire body of those who own property, pay taxes, or have intelligence ; while the Re- publican party is composed almost altogeth- er of the negroes, who are, as a body, illiter- ate, without property, and easily misled by appeals to their fears, and to their gratitude to " General Grant," who is to them the em- bodiment of the Federal power. 15. This division of political parties on the race or color-line has been a great calamity to the Southern States. It had its origin in the refusal of the Southern whites, after the war, to recognize the equal political rights of the blacks ; and their attempts, in State legislatures, to pass laws hostile to them. This folly has been bitterly regretted by the wiser men in the South. A Mississippian said to me, " It was a great blunder. We could have better af- forded to educate and train the colored peo- ple, and fit them for the duties of citizenship, than to have had them alienated from us." He was right ; it was a great, though probably an inevitable, blunder. It flung the negro into the hands of the so-called Republicans in the Southern States, and these, by adroit- ly appealing to his fears and to his grati- tude to the Federal Government, and by en- couraging his desire for official power and spoils, have maintained the color -line in politics, and by its means kept themselves in power. It is an indisputable fact that there can be no permanent and beneficial settlement of political questions in any Southern State until the color -Hue is broken. While the white vote, or the greater part of it, is massed on one side, and the black vote, or the greater part of it, on the other, as is still the case in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, it is impossible to get settled good government ; for the political issues will, of necessity, be false, and will have no PRELIMINARY. 13 relation to any real question of administra- tion, but only to questions of race. The great mass of the Southern colored voters are illiterate; they are easily im- pressed by exhibitions of power; they are readily alarmed about their safety; and, like all ignorant masses, they are very apt to fol- low a leader. The Republican leader has always had the United States Government to back him. Packard, chairman of the Republican State Executive Committee of Louisiana, has, as United States marshal, the absolute command of Federal troops in Louisiana. Spencer, United States Senator from Alabama, and Republican leader in that State, runs up to Louisville, and secures for the asking several companies of infantry aud cavalry, to be stationed in Alabama, at a time when, as the United States mar- shal testifies, there was no need at all for troops ; and Perrin, one of Spencer's under- lings, at the same time deputy-marshal, su- pervisor of election, candidate for the Legis- lature, and distributor of Government bacon, shoots a hole through his own hat, and then orders Federal troops to hunt for imagina- ry Ku-klux. Governor Ames, as is publicly charged, refuses to stir to prevent a riot at Vicksburg ; but after the riot, after forty or fifty blacks have been killed, and when the negroes are demoralized and feel utter- ly helpless, sends for Federal troops, which come at his command, and re -assure the blacks. Such manifestations of power strike the imagination of the negroes, as they would any ignorant population, and they follow very readily and blindly its possessor. Some colored witnesses in Alabama being asked why they all voted against Sheats, a Repub- lican, for Congress, replied, " because Perrin told them to ; " being asked if they would have voted the Democratic ticket if Perrin had told them to, they answered, unhesita- tingly, "Yes." But Perrin, as United States deputy-marshal, commanded Federal troops, and gave away Federal bacon. The leaders whom they thus follow do not instruct them in political duties. They do not discuss political questions before them. They appeal only and continually to the ne- gro's fears and to his sense of obligation to the Federal power. In Alabama they were told that the bacon was sent by General Grant, and its receipt made it their duty to vote the " straight Republican ticket." In some parts of Southern Louisiana the ne- groes are still summoned from the field to political meetings, "by order of General But- ler." I know of a case where a candidate for a county office circulated a printed "gen- eral order" commanding all colored men to vote for him, and signed " U. S. Grant, Pres- ident;" and he received the solid colored vote. One of the most intelligent and excellent men I met in Louisiana told me that in 1872 he had made a thorough canvass of the part of the State in which he lives, addressing himself entirely to the colored people, by whom he is liked and trusted, and trying to explain to them the necessity for honest lo- cal government, and their interest in the mat- ter. "But," said he, "I presently became aware that I was followed by a Republican, an illiterate and low-lived man, whom no colored man would have trusted with five dollars, but who overturned all my argu- ments by whispering, ' Don't believe what he tells you ; they only want to put you back into slavery.'" So pertinaciously has this base insinua- tion been used among the blacks, that when last fall the Democrats carried Alabama, I know of two instances in which colored men came into the nearest town to ask white Democrats, in whose honor and kindness they trusted, whether they would be allow- ed to choose their own masters, and wheth- er they would be separated from their wives and children. 16. The Federal office-holders are largely to blame for the continuance of this evil. They are a very numerous class in every Southern State ; and have far greater influ- ence than their fellows in Northern States, especially over the blacks, who have been taught to regard them as their guardians, and political guides and leaders. They are too often, and in the majority of cases in- deed, iut hy no means in all, men of low character, Republicans by trade, and of no influence except among the negroes, to whom the lowest Federal officer, even a deputy- marshal's deputy, is a very powerful being, armed with the whole strength of the Fed- eral Government. Georgia has nearly, if not 14 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. quite, three tbousaud men in the employ of the Federal Government in various capaci- ties ; and most of the States I have visited have an equal number. In such States as Louisiana these men " organize " the negro vote ; and they do it as the only means to preserve their places. A Democratic Federal Administration would oust them ; therefore they command and persuade the negroes, by all possible inducements, to vote the Republican ticket. The Federal Adminis- tration appears to me culpable in this mat- ter, because it has not only permitted its officers in the South to take an active and partisan part in politics, but has apparently encouraged them in doing so. The United States Marshal of Louisiana, for instance, having the command at will of Federal troops, has been chairman of the Republican State Central Committee. The mere fact that he holds these two positions is a dan- gerous abuse, especially in a State where a great part of the voters are ignorant, and easily misled. 17. The color-line is maintained mostly by Republican politicians, but they are helped by a part of the Democratic politicians, who see their advantage in having the white vote massed upon their side. 18. Human nature being what it is, no one can be surprised that the Republican leaders who found it easy to mass the colored vote, who found also the Federal power flung into their hands, and themselves its ministers, who by these means alone have been able to maintain themselves in power, regardless entirely of the use they made of this power — that under these conditions they should become and remain both weak and corrupt. The mass of ignorant men by whose votes they have been kept in power paid no taxes, and were not, therefore, directly affected by the public iiluuderiug; and the plunder has been so great, and the number of white men engaged in it so small, that these were al- ways able to divide with the more ambi- tious colored leaders, who, on their part, have been, as was inevitable, easily corrupted. Nor have the colored men been slow to learn the trickery and baser parts of political man- agement. They were ignorant and poor, and saw power and wealth in their reach ; and they did what poor and ignorant white men, having the same temptations set before them, have done the world over, and nota- bly in the city of New York. While the black vote is massed against the white, there is a continual irritation be- tween the races ; and this mainly because the white man, who is the property-owner, sees the black, who in most of these States seldom owns real estate, used by a few de- signing whites, to lay taxes, to make laws, to carry on the government, regardless of the wishes and rights of the great body of intelligent and substantial citizens. I know many Southern counties in which the colored men pay in all less than one thousand dollars of the annual taxes, and yet are in so great a majority that their votes, massed by unscrupulous demagogues of both colors, constantly waste and misap- ply the taxes of the county. Inevitably in such cases there must be a feeling of hostility by the whites toward the blacks, and it is an evidence of the good nat- ure of the mass of whites that, in the main, they conduct themselves toward the blacks kindly and justly. They concentrate their dislike upon the men who have misled and now misuse the black vote, and this I can not call unjust. It is commonly said, " The negroes are not to blame ; they do not know any better." On the other hand, as the feeling is in- tense, it is often undiscriminating, and in- cludes the just with the unjust among the Republicans. Hence what is called " ostra- cism" will last just as long as the color-line is maintained, and as long as Republicans maintain themselves in power by the help of the black vote, and by Federal influence. That this feeling of dislike and suspicion to- ward Northern men often goes to an unjust and unreasonable extent is very true, and it is not easy for a Northern man to hear with patience stories showing its manifestations. There are scattered over the States I have visited a number of highly honorable and cultivated Northern families, who have lived there for years. Where, as is often the case, these are Republicans, they are, to a large extent, isolated socially, and this is not pleas- ant for them. But they seldom complain ; and not a few have told me that they did PEELIMINAEY. 15 not wonder tliat Eepublicaus should be held ia disfavor iu their States, considering how badly corrupt Rejiublicau leaders have acted in the South. 19. The evil influence of the mass of Fed- eral office-holders in most of these States is an important, but with us in the North unsuspected, element in protracting ill-feel- ing and -preventing a iiolitical settlement. They have very great iniiuence ; they are the party leaders; if they do not show them- selves zealous Republicans, they are re- moved; and they are interested in keeping men of brains and influence out of their par- ty. Unfortunately, they have been allowed to control; and the Federal Administration has rejected the assistance in the manage- ment of these States of the only men whose help would have been important and efiect- ive ; namely, the natural leaders of the Southern people. 20. Tradition lives longer among the Southern whites than with us. How else can one account for the' fixct that you hear everywhere of Whigs, and that the real di- vision of iJolitical parties in those States which I have seen is between Whigs and Democrats ? In Louisiana the Whig prejudice and dis- like against Democrats is so strong that the party leaders found it necessary to adopt the name Conservative. In Arkansas the Whig leaders are quietly seeking out their followers. In Alabama, when you hear of an independent candidate, he is most likely to have been an old Whig. In Missis- sippi, even, there are Whigs, but they have as yet no ground to stand on. Whenever Federal interference in the lo- cal aff'airs of these States ceases, the color- line will be broken, and the population will divide into Whigs and Democrats. The leaders of the present white party will, as a matter of course, strive to prevent this in such States as Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, and Alabama ; but their efibrts will be in vain. There are traditional animosities and difi^erences, and these were not destroyed by the war. The Southern Whig was usually a Con- servative, and opposed to secession ; less, I imagine, because he liked the Union, than because he disliked the Democratic leaders who urged secession, and whom ho believed to be incapable and often dishonest. The result of the war has not raised the Demo- cratic secession leaders in the esteem of the old Whigs, but for the present they act with the Democrats, under the pressure of Feder- al interference and to defeat the Republican leaders. But there are many signs to show that whenever politics in the States I have seen resume their natural condition, the Whigs will rally, and, with the help of such part of the colored vote as they can win over to their side, will try to secure the control of those States. The Whig feeling is espe- cially strong in Louisiana, and there is lit- tle doubt that that State, and probably some others, could easily have been made permanently Republican, had the Repub- lican leaders who came to the top there in 1868 been wise and honest men, and had they given the people good government and the means of industrial prosperity. 21. Thus there are in all the States I speak of naturally two parties among the whites. The leaders of one of these could have been induced by the Federal authorities in Wash- ington, with proper efforts and at the prop- er time, to take a iiart in the reconstruction ; and they could have perfected this important work. Of course, it would have been neces- sary to take their advice as to the Southern policy ; and to give them the selection of Federal officers in their States. To give them influence in their section they should have been called to prominent places imder the Government ; but they would, I believe, have insured a peaceable and harmonious settle- ment. They have, unfortunately, been pro- scribed iu Washington for their share in the war, and thus forced into opposition ; and are to-day, often against their wishes^ united to the Democratic party. This has been the gravest error of the Republican Administration. Its true policy would have been to trust, and to put iu places of au- thority and responsibility, the most emi- nent of the Southern public men ; to take their advice as to the details of a Southern policy, insisting only that peace and equal justice should be rigidly established iu those States. With such a policy there would have been to-day a respectable and pow- 16 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. erful Eepublican party in every Southern State ; and, what is of greater importance, a harmonious settlement of all questions. 22. The blunder of the Federal Republican rulers has been that they have not taken care to keep themselves informed of the rapidly changing condition of public sentiment, and the political and industrial condition of the Southern States. They were, in fact, physi- cians who were treating a patient who, in 1868, was in a highly feverish and dangerous state. They prescribed for him a remedy which, if severe, was yet effective ; but it seems never to have occurred to them that under their treatment the patient's condition would change ; that a convalescent needed different remedies ; that what was necessa- ry in 1868 might be extremely injurious in 1872-74. They have had no faith in their own remedies. 23. There was, in those Southern States which I have visited, for some years after the war and up to the year 1868, or in some cases 1870, much disorder, and a condition of lawlessness toward the blacks — a dispo- sition, greatest in the more distant and ob- scure regions — to trample them underfoot, to deny their equal rights, and to injure or kill them on slight or no provocations. The tremendous change in the social arrauge- •jients of the Southern States required time as well as laws and force to be accepted. The Southern whites had suffered a defeat which was sore to bear, and on top of this they saw their slaves — their most valuable and cherished property — taken away and made free, and not only free, but their polit- ical equals. One needs to go into the far South to know what this really meant, and what deep resentment and irritation it in- evitably bred. At the same time came the attempt of President Johnson to re-arrange the South- em States in a manner which the wisest and best Democrats I have met in the South have declared to me was unwise and produc- tive of disorder. I believe Mr. Johnson meant well and patriotically; but my observations have con- vinced me that he was in error, at least in the time and manner of asserting his policy. He aroused the hopes and desires of the worst class in the Southern States, and dis- abled the large number of moderate and conservative citizens, who ought to have ruled during the reconstruction of society there, and who, unfortunately, were pushed aside. The result was violence and disor- der, not general, as has been charged so oft- en, but still very serious, and not to be en- dured; aud this lasted until time and the punishment of criminals by Federal pow- er under the Enforcement acts brought peo- ple to their senses. I believe that there was, during some years, a necessity for the interference of the Federal power to repress disorders and crimes which would otherwise have spread, and in- flicted, perhaps, irretrievable blows on so- ciety itself. But, after all, I am persuaded time was the great and real healer of dis- orders, as well as differences. We of the North do not always remember that even in the farthest South there were large proper- ty interests, important industries, many el- ements of civilization which can not bear long -continued disorders; and, moreover, that the men of the South are Americans, like ourselves, having, by nature or long training a love of order and permanence, and certain, therefore, to reconstitute socie- ty upon the new basis prescribed to them, and to do it by their own efforts, so soon as they were made to feel that the new order of things was inevitable. That there were, during some years after the war, shocking crimes in the States I have visited, no man can deny; but a grave wrong is done when those days are now brought up and those deeds recited to describe the South of to-day. 24. There was, after 1868, in all the States I have seen, great misgovernment, as I have said, mostly by men who called themselves Republicans, but who were for the greater part adventurers, camp-followers, soldiers of fortune, not a few who had been Democrats aud " Copperheads " during the war, or Se- cessionists, and engaged in the rebellion — some Northern men, but also mauy native Southerners. This misgovernment has been A'arious. Its most marked or prominent features were the unscrupulous greed and pecuniary corrup- tion of the rulers aud their subordinates, who, in a multitude of cases, notably in Ar- PRELIMINAEY. 17 kansas and Louisiana, were no bettor than sommon robbers. 25. T3ut public robbery was, after all, not the worst crime of the men who arose in the name of tbe Eepublican party to govern these Southern States. The gravest offense of these "Eepublican" State governments was their total neglect of the first duty of rulers, to maintain the peace and execute justice. They did not enforce the laws; they corrupted the judiciary ; they played unscrupulously upon the ignorant fears of the blacks and upon their new-born cupid- ity ; they used remorselessly the vilest tools for the vilest jiurposes ; they encouraged dis- order, so that they might the more effectu- ally appeal to the Federal power and to the Northeru people for help to maintain them in the places they so grossly and shameless- ly abused. I must, however, except here Aikansas. The reconstructors of that State were cer- tainly, in the main, a set of ruthless robbers. But there were in Arkansas a few men — no- tably Governor Clayton, I think — who held society in an iron grip, and by main force pro- duced peace. They put down with a stern and unflinching, and almost a cruel, hand the disorders which they found ; they made laws which are teri'ible to read, and they ex- ecuted these laws with a rigor which saved society, and gave j^eace to the State by en- couraging the orderly people of all parties to take public affairs into their own hands, and by discouraging and terrifying the lawless class. The result is that Arkansas is to-day a peaceful State ; and as it has an excellent governor, who knows the extreme impor- tance of maintaiuiug law and order, the State is fairly on the way to prosperity. 26. The injury done to a community by the total failure of its rulers to maintain order, repress crime, and execute justice, is more seriously felt in Louisiana than iu any other of the States of which I am speaking. It is a wonder to me that society has not entirely gone to pieces in that State: and I became persuaded that its white population pos- sesses uncommonly high qualities when I saw that, in spite of an incredible misgov- ernment, which encouraged every vice and crime, which shamelessly corrupted the very fountains and sources of justice, and made the rulers a terror to the peaceably inclined — in spite of this, order and peace have been gradually restored and are now maintained, and this by the efforts of the peojile chiefly. No thoughtful man can see Louisiana as I saw it last spring without gaining a high respect for its white people. The State is to-day as fit for self-government as Ohio or New York. The attitude of the races there toward each other is essentially kindly, and only the continuous efforts of black and white demagogues of the basest kiud keep them apart politically. The majority of the white people of the State are well disposed, anxious for an upright government, ready to help honest and wise rulers, if they could only get them, to maintain peace and order. I sincerely believe that whenever they are relieved from Federal oppression — and iu their case it is the worst kind of opxiressiou ^they will set up a government essentially honest and just, and will deal fairly and just- ly with the colored citizens. 27. What those States which I have vis- ited most need, for some years to come, is a vigorous and alert State government; a governor extremely vigilant in repressing and punishing crime, and possessing the energy and courage to use to the utmost his power " to maintain ^jeace." Governor Gar- land, of Arkansas, set an excellent example in this respect, when, last spring, he caused a couple of miscreants who had shot at a man in pure Avantonness, to be pursued not only through the State, but into the lower part of Louisiana, where they were finally cai)tured and brought iu irons to Little Rock to be tried. The governor openly de- clared that he would catch aud punish these fellows, if it cost the whole contingent fund of the State. Unfortunately, Eepublican governors, like Ames iu Mississippi aud Kel- logg in Louisiaua, do not use the power in their hands, but tolerate crimes, or if these affect their partisans, make haste to call on the Federal Government for helj). 28. The Southern white population differs from ours in one or two important respects. Iu the States I have seen there is a more marked distinction between the wealthy aud the poor than is commonly found iu the North. The numerous class of poor white farmers are a kiud of people unknown amoug 18 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. us. Settled upon a thia and infertile soil ; long and constantly neglected before tlie war ; living still in a backwoods country, and in true backwoods style, without schools, with few churches, and given to rude sports and a rude agriculture, they are a peculiar peoiile. They have more good qualities than their wfealthier neighbors, the planters, al- ways allow them; but they are ignorant, easily prejudiced, and they have, since the war, lived in a dread of having social equal- ity with the negro imposed upon them. This fear has bred hatred of the blacks, which has often, in former years, found expression in brutal acts to which, I believe, in the ma- jority of cases, they were instigated by bad men of a class above them. A mischievous class is found in a number of young men in the remoter parts of these States, who follow no regular occupation, but prey upon the community, white as well as black. They are gamblers and political bummers ; they drink whisky and swagger iu bar-rooms, armed with revolvers and knives ; and it was, during some years after the war closed, their habit, when they needed excitement, to " shoot a nigger." These are mainly the descendants of the overseer and negro-trader class iu the South, and naturally despise honest labor, and take readily to brute force. They have some- times sufficient education to make a j)olit- ical harangue ; and they are a curse to the community. If the Republican leaders in such a State as Louisiana had done their duty, they would have exterminated this not numerous class, which is disliked and feared by the decent white people upon -which it has often imposed itself. To have hanged them by the dozen would have been the first duty of a good ruler in Louisiana, and he would have won the gratitude and support of the decent people who form the mass of the community. In Arkansas this scum was crushed out. In Louisiana it was tolerated by the Repub- lican rulers, and has been kept down main- ly by the respectable people themselves. In some parts of Mississippi it forms still the most vociferous part of the Democratic par- ty, though by far the least numerous. As this is really a criminal class, it will continue to commit crimes; but they will [ not be political crimes, nor will they be be- yond the power of a reasonably energetic State government, encouraging and demand- ing the help of the decent x>eople, to punish and repress. As these young bloods havej sometimes influential connections, and aa they are known to be ready with the pistol, they may, here and there, overawe a local jury; and if their crime is given a political aspect by the action of Federal officers, they may even temporarily win the symi^athies of unthinking people. But a vigilant and energetic governor will have no difficulty iu mastering the situation, even in the most lawless parts of Mississippi. He need not call on the United States. There is nowhere such a combination as a determined govern- or can not put down, nor anywhere crime which he can not punish. In the last resort a governor may declare martial law in a county, and if he is wise he will take that occasion to hang up a few disorderly M^retch- es. He will make votes for the next elec- tion by doing so, for lawlessness is not gen- eral ; the mass of the people wish for peace and order. The country has seen recently two con- spicuous proofs of this ; the first in the con- duct of the governor and the peo]ile of Geor- gia, a Democratic State, in the " negro in- surrection " affair, where order -was main- tained absolutely under great excitement; and where the governor, a candidate for re- election, and naturally anxious to fall iu with the popular impulse, conspicuously as- serted the law, and saw justice done to the blacks. The other case is that of Mississip- pi, where, when some election troubles re- cently arose, prominent citizens in different counties at once and publicly offered their services to the governor, to assist him in maintaining order ; and Ex-Senator Pease, a radical Republican politician, Postmaster of Vicksburg, telegraphed the Attorney-gener- al of the United States that a posse of citi- zens of both iiarties could bo got by the governor, to maintain order, in every coun- ty in the State, if necessary. 29. No thoughtful man can examine the history of the last ten years in the South, as he may hear it on the spot and from both parties, without being convinced that it was absolutely necessary to the security of the PRELBIINARY. 19 blacks, and tlie permanent peace of the Southern commnuities, to give the negro, ignorant, poor, and helpless as he •was, every political right and privilege which any oth- er citizen enjoys. That he should vote and that he should be capable of holdiug office ■was necessary, I am jiersuaded, to make him personally secure, and, what is of more im- portance, to convert him from a freedman into a free man. That he has not always conducted himself ■well in the exercise of his political rights is perfectly and lamentably true; but this is less his fault than that of the bad -white men -who introduced him to political life. But, on the other hand, the vote has given him -what nothing else could give — a sub- stantive existence ; it has made him a part of the State. Wherever, as in Arkansas, the political settlement nears completion, and the color-line is broken, his political equali- ty will help — slowly, but certainly — to make him a respectable i^erson. I will add that in this view many Southern Democrats con- cur. " If the North had not given the ne- groes suffrage, it would have had to hold our States under an exclusively military govern- ment for ten years," said such a man to me. 30. General manhood suffrage is undoubt- edly a danger to a community where, as in these States, the entire body of ignorance and poverty has been massed by adroit idoI- iticians upon one side. The attempt to con- tinue for even four years longer such a state of things as has been by Federal force main- tained in Louisiana would either cause a necessary andentirely justifiable revolt there, or totally destroy society. There are scores of parishes and counties where the colored voters are to the white as four, six, eight, and even ten to one; where, therefore, ignorant men, without property, and with no self-restraint or sense of honor in pecuniary trusts, would continue to rule absolutely ; to levy taxes which others must l>ay; to elect .judges and fiduciary officers out of their own number ; to be the tools of the least scrupulous and the most greedy wretches in the community. There are scores of parishes and counties in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, where the voice of the people is not the voice of God, but the voice of the worst thief in the community. But the moment the color-line is broken, the conditions of the problem are essential- ly changed. Brains and honesty have once more a chance to come to the top. The ne- gro, whose vote will be important to both parties, will find security in that fact. No politician will be so silly as to encroach ujiou his rights, or allow his opponents to do so ; and the black man appears to me to have a sense of respectability which will prevent him, uneucouraged by demagogues, from trying to force himself into positions for which he is unfit. He will have his fair chance, and he has no right to more. 31. Whenever the Federal interference iu all its shapes ceases, it will be found, I be- lieve, that the. negroes will not at first cast a full vote ; and, as this will, perhaps, be charged to intimidation, it is useful to ex- plain the real reason. It was everywhere asserted to me by the Republicans that without white men to " or- ganize" the colored vote — which means to mass it, to excite it, to gather the voters at barbecues, to carry them up with a hurra to the polls, to make " bolting " terrible, to ap- peal to the fears of the ignorant and the cupidity of the shrewd : without all this the negro will not vote. This was the universal testimony of all Republicans I met in the South, good and bad. Now the " organizers " of the colored vote are almost altogether the petty Federal of- fice-holders. These have little else to do, arud they give themselves to the work. In Alabama, for instance, in 1874, the Republic- an State Executive Committee was allowed to nominate the United States deputy-mar- shals for the whole State. Many of these per- sons were candidates for the Legislature or for local offices ; many candidates were also Federal supervisors of election. They ap- pealed to the negro clothed in the majesty of Federal office ; they spoke in the name of General Grant ; a deputy-marshal could summon troops, and could summarily arrest white men. He was a very great man to a negro. Indeed, a United States deputy-mar- shal is a very great man to a Southern white man, for he has really extraordinary powers ; and in the South nobody nowadays thinks for a moment of resisting " the Government." "We may fight among ourselves," said a 20 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. Mississippian to lue ; " but if the vrliole of my town were engaged iu a riot, to produce peace you need not even bring in a squad of Federal troops. You need only stuff the clothes of a Federal sergeant •with straw, and briug that effigy into the market-place, and in five minutes you would have absolute quiet." And ho did not exaggerate. "Well, take away these petty Federal " or- ganizers," and the negro, left face to face with the white man, no longer marched up iu column to the central poll of the county, but voting in his pi'oper precinct, argued with, hearing both sides for the first time ; know- ing by exj)erience, as he will presently, that the Democrat is not a monster, and that a Democratic victory does not mean his re- enslavement, will lose much of his interest iu elections. " They won't vote unless they have white organizers," is the universal testimony of the Republican leaders wher- ever I have been. Of course, as soon as parties are re -ar- ranged on a sound and natural basis, the negro vote wiU re-api)ear ; for the leaders of each party, the "Whig or Republican and the Democrat, will do their utmost to get his vote, and therein will be the absolute secu- rity of the black man. I believe, however, that for many years to come, until a new gen- eration arrives at manhood perhaps, and, at any rate, until the black man becomes gen- erally an independent farmer, he will be largely influenced in his political affiliations by the white. He will vote as his employer, or the planter from whom he rents land, or the white man whom he most trusts, and with whom, perhaps, he deposits his savings, tells him is best for his own interest. He will, perhaps, in the cities, sell his registra- tion certificate, as in Montgomery in May last. But, at any rate, he will vote or not, as he pleases. And it is far better for him that he should act under such influences than that his vote should be massed against the property and intelligence of the white people to achieve the purposes of unscrupu- lous demagogues. 32. It struck mo as probable and natural that some constitutional modification of the suffrage should come about in such States as Louisiana and Mississippi. An education qualification, applied equally to white and black, seemed to me evident. But the re- ply was, that it is impossible. These States have a considerable population of poor and illiterate whites, who would resist to the uttermost — now, at least — any limitation which would affect them. "It is more probable that we shall make the State Sen- ate represent property, leaving the House open to every body," said a Louisiana Re- publican to me ; but even that would onlj' make a dead-lock, and is a poor expedient to evade a difficulty. The real cure, I imagine, lies — after the breaking of the color-line — in general and even compulsory education. But there is room for wide statesmanship in many of the Southern States, In Georgia there is a law under which a citizen can not vote unless he has i^aid his taxes for the year previous. It applies to white and black alike ; but it has resulted iu disfranchising a large part of the negro population, who have not yet become accus- tomed to paying even a poJl-tax, It seems to me a perfectly just law, and it is likely to be adopted in other Southern States, It ought to be in force everywhere. If a man evades a poll-tax, he is not fit to vote. In the Sandwich Islands I found what struck me as a sensible regulation : the law exacts of every voter a tax of five dollars per an- num — two for roads, two for schools, and one for his poll; and unless he has paid this, he can not vote. This is exclusive of the property-tax, and is intended to reach non- property-owners, all of whom have an inter- est in roads and schools, and ought, it is there held, in some way to pay something toward their supi^ort. 33. The negro, iu the main, is industrious. Free labor is an undoubted success in the South. In Georgia he owns already nearly four hundred thousand acres of farming real estate, besides city property. The negro works: he raises cotton and corn, sugar and rice, and it is infinitely to his credit that he continues to do so, and, according to the universal testimony, works more steadfastly and effectively this year than ever before since 18C5, iu spite of the political hurly- burly iu which he has lived for the last ten years. Nor ought we of the North to forget that a part of the credit of the negroes' industry PRELIMINARY. 21 0-day is due to tlie Soiitliern planters, who tiave been wise enough to adapt themselves to the tremendous change in their labor sys- tem, and honest enough not to discourage the ignorant free laborer by wronging him of his earnings or by driving unjust bargains with him. The system of planting on shares, which prevails in most of the cotton region I have seen, appears to me admirable in every re- spect. It tends to make the laborer inde- pendent and self-helxjful, by throwing him on his own resources. He gets the reward of his own skill and industry, and has the greatest motive to impel him to steadfast labor and to self-denial. I have satisfied myself, too, that the black man gets, wherever I have been, a fair share of the crop he makes. If anywhere he suf- fers wrong, it is at the hands of poor farm- ers, who cultivate a thin soil, and are them- selves poor and generally ignorant. It is a curious evidence of the real security of the negro, even in the rudest parts of the South, that some thousands of them have emigrated from Alabama and Georgia into the Yazoo Bottom in IMississippi, and into the cotton regions of Arkansas and Louisi- ana — parts of the South where, if we might believe the general reports which have been spread through the North, no negro's rights and life are safe. 34. The black laborer earns enough, but he does not save his money. In the heart of the cotton country, a negro depending on his own labor alone, with the help of his wife in the picking season, may live and have from seventy-five to one hundred and twenty-five dollars clear money in hand at the close of the season. If he has several half-grown boys able to help him in the field, he may support his family during the year, and have from one hundred and seventy-five to two hundred dollars' clear money at the year's end. Few laborers as ignorant as the average plantation negro can do as well anywhere in the world. Of course he lives poorly ; but he thrives on corn-meal and bacon, and has few doc- tor's bills to pay. Unfortunately, as yet, he commonly spends his money like a sailor or a miner, or any other improvident white man. Very few lay by their earnings ; yet the deposits in the Freedmen's Bank showed how very considerable were the savings of the few; and I am sorry to say that the criminal mismanagement of this trust has struck a serious blow in the South, for it has given a fresh impetus to the spendthrift hab- its of the blacks. Moreover, in Democratic Georgia, where alone I was able to 'get offi- cial statistics, the negroes pay tax this year on over seven millions of property, of which nearly four hundred thousand acres are real estate. They have as yet far less desire to own farms than I hoped to find. They are, like almost all rude people, fond of owning an acre or a house lot ; and in Southern towns and cities it is common to find them such owners. But, except in Georgia, a compara- tively small number, as yet, are freeholders in the best sense of the word. This, how- ever, will come with time. They have been free but ten years, and in that time have been unsettled by the stress of politics, and have scarcely known, until within the last two years, whether their freedom was a substantial fact, or only a pleasant dream. Moreover, they have, very naturally, enjoyed the spending of their own money, and have had to acquire mules, farm implements, household goods, not to speak of very an- cient and shabby buggies, sham jewelry, and gewgaws of all kinds. In the cities and villages it is a pleasant, and indeed a touching, sight to see the lit- tle colored children going to Sunday-school, bright, clean, neatly dressed, frank and fear- less, with no trace of the slavery which was the lot of their parents. I think no humane man could see this sight unmoved, remem- bering, as he must, how short is the time since slavery came to an end. 35. The character of the Southern negro is essentially kindly and good. He is not naturally quarrelsome, and his vices are mostly those which he retains from slavery. For instance, it is the almost universal com- plaint of the planters that they can not keep stock, either cattle or hogs. It is the bad custom in the South to turn such animals into the woods to shift more or less for them- selves, and here they fall a prey to the col- ored men, who kill and eat them. They have not yet learned to respect property THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. rigbts so loosely asserted. But this -vrill come Avith time. Nor are the planters' chickens safe. In fact, petty theft is a common vice of the i)lantation negro. He learned it as a slave, and has not yet unlearned it. Ho spends some of his money for whisky, too ; but he is not an habitual drunkard, and is usually good - natured in his cups. Men and women, and even children, smoke, and in some regions they "dip" snuff. It is an easily contented and happy popu- lation, and I do not doubt the judgment of those planters who assured me that they pos- sessed the best laboring force in the world. Nor let jvny one persuade you that it is dying out. Wherever one travels he sees multi- tudes of fat, chubby, comical-looking pick- aninnies — the country is full of them, and their shining black faces and wondering, staring eyes are the commonest sight in tbo South. 36, They are anxious to send their chil- dren to school, and the colored schools are more abundant in those States which I have seen than I expected to find them. I think it may be said that the colored people, so fiir, have got their fair share of schools and school money. In such places as New Or- leans, Mobile, Selma, and Montgomery, the colored schools are excellently managed and liberally provided for. By general consent of both colors, there are no mixed schools ; nor would it be wise to force this anywhere. It must be remembered that few of the Southern States had public schools before the war. The whites are unaccustomed to them ; and enlightened and influential Democrats, as in Georgia, have difficulty in obtaining appropriations for schools sufficient to i^lace these on a sound basis. The poorer whites are still in doubt about the usefulness of a thorough public-school system. But wher- ever I have been the blacks have a fair share of school privileges. Democratic Georgia gives as much every year for the support of a colored university as for the old State University; and in places like Mobile, where the schools are under Democratic control, I was surprised at the excellence of tlie col- ored schools, and the liberal manner in which they were maintained by the Democratic trustees. 37. The negroes have developed quite a genius for the lower political arts. Tbey have among them not a few shrewd and calculating demagogues, who know as weU how to "run the machine," to form a ring, and to excite the voters to their duty, as any New York City politician. Office is of course a great temptation to men used to field- work at small wages ; and the moderate pay even of a juryman, with its accompany- ing idleness, seems very delightful to them. They have long ago discovered their numer- ical strength in many parts of the South, and do not hesitate to say in some places that, as they cast the votes, they ought to have the offices. At least a dozen times I came upon this saying in different places ; and there are signs which show that if the present political divisions could continue, the black leaders would, in counties where the blacks predominate, in two or three years crowd all the white men out of the Eepub- lican party ; or, at least, all who aspired to office. But they would not attempt this un- less they felt assured of the protection of the Federal power ; when they lose that re- liance, every body, of both parties, says they will lose the power of cohesive action. It is not strange that, on the whole, the blacks, under such white leadership as they have had, should have badly misused their political x>ower. They were both poor and ignorant ; they had no characters to lose by misconduct, for it is the misfortune of slavery that a slave is a being without repu- tation ; and it will require a generation or two to establish in them, as in the ignorant part of our foreign -born population, that quality which we call character. In their political relations among each other, they are as intolerant and as unscrupulous as ignorant men suddenly possessed of politic- al rights are sure to be. The caucus rules with a singular tyranny among them. The slightest assertion of political independence is resented. The restive negro's name is sent through the county or district, with " Bolter " affixed to it ; and this fixes upon him the stigma of treason. The church, his friends, the j'oung women if he is unmarried, all avoid him ; and he is effectually under a ban of excommunication. 38. Unfortunately, the North and South do not know each other. Few Northern Con- PRELIMINARY. 23 gressmen have visited the South ; and those who did too often fell into the hands of par- tisans, and obtained, ■whether Republicans or Democrats, only partisan impressions. Par- ty feeling runs high in the South, and noth- ing is easier than to get a thoroughly one- sided view, for each side has a share of truth on ■which to build up its statements. An advocate, on either side, .could easily make up a very eflfective case. In Washington the Southern Republican's statement was re- ceived, partly because he was a Republican, and generally a Northern man or a negro ; partly because he appealed, not to reason or statesmanship, but to the sympathies of his listeners ; and often because he was a very adroit demagogue, who knew how to make his points. In the South I was often hor- rified by tales of brutal murder or intoler- ance ; but if, when my indignation was at its height, I thought to ask, " When did this take place ?" the answer was almost always, "In 1865," or " 1868," or " 1869." It is a com- mon trick of the outrage-monger in the South thus to recite to his Northern visitor tales of some years ago as representing correctly the present condition of Southern society ; and this has constantly been done by South- ern Republicans in Washington. 39. I come last to speak of the future of the Southern States : I was deeply impress- ed with the natural wealth, mostly undevel- oped, of the States I saw. The South con- tains the greatest body of rich but unre- claimed soil on this continent. Louisiana seems to me to have elements of wealth as great as California. Georgia has a great future as a manufacturing State, and will, I believe, within a few years tempt millions of Northern and European caiiital into her borders to engage in manufactures. Ala- bama now exports iron to Europe — in small quantities, to be sure — and her coal-fields and iron ores will make her the rival of Pennsylvania at no distant date. Mississip- pi and Arkansas have immense tindeveloped tracts of rich cotton lands. North Carolina has mineral as well as agricultural wealth, which ought to secure her a remarkable future. 40. Almost everywhere, except in Lou- isiana, Mississippi, and perhaps Arkansas, I noticed an increase of the towns. I saw many new buildings, and others going up ; and observant Southern men remarked upon this to me also. Wherever the people have been even moderately i>rosperous, these im- lirovemeuts begiu to make a show. The reason for this growth of towns was pointed out to mo by Mr. Goodloe, a North Caroli- nian, and an Abolitionist before the war, whose essay touching this question seemed to me both curious and valuable. Uiulcr the slave-system, whenever a man had saved a thousand dollars ho bought a slave ; and the accumulated wealth of the South waa almost entirely invested in this species of property. Hence there was no money to build dwellings in the towns, to caiTy on retail shops, to make all those improve- ments which mark our Northern civiliza- tion. " But," as Mr. Goodloe remarks, "the money paid for slaves was substantially wasted, because the negro will work in free- dom." A horse, a cow, or a sheep must bo owned, in order to bo of service to man. Not so a man, a negro man. It was not nec- essary to enslave him in order to make him industrious and useful to the community of which he forms a part. Experience since the war shows that he will work without being owned. It is true, therefore, that tho money invested in slaves was wasted, so far as tho general community was concerned ; it was a misapplication of capital. With the extinction of slavery, this waste of tho sav- ings of the Southern people stopped. As wealth once more begins to accumulate, somo other and sound forms of investment are, and will be, sought for it. It will be turned into houses, town improvements, and, above all, I believe, into factories of various kinds. Of course, the accumulations of tho commu- nity will no longer bo in so few hands as before ; but this also is already found to be a great advantage in tho South, where em- ployments are becoming more varied, and there is more work for mechanics of differ- ent kinds. 41. I noticed, also, at many points a tendency to a more varied agriculture; to smaller fiirms; to tho cultivation of fruits and vegetables for distant markets ; and in these ways much remains to be done, which, when done, will very greatly increase the wealth of the Southern States. Already in 34 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. all the Cotton States planters begin to raise experience in taxation. Aside from the corn sufficient for tlieir home supply — an ex- tremely important matter in a region vrhere in winter the roads are bad, and where it is literally true, as an Alabamian said, that " it ■would pay a planter better to raise corn at home, at a dollar a bushel, than to have it given to him eight or ten miles away." No one who has seen the States of which I speak can doubt that they have before them a remarkable future. Nothing but long- continued political disturbances can prevent them from making very rapid strides in wealth. Their climate fits them for a greater variety of products than any of our North- ern States. The orange and lemon crop of Louisiana, for instance, will some day, I be- lieve, bring more money to the State than the sugar crop now does. The vegetable gardens about Mobile are already an impor- tant source of wealth to the place ; and this industry is as yet in its infancy. In ten years these market gardens which are grow- ing up will bring as much money to that city as the cotton used to ; and, when the Louisiana question is finally "denational- ized," as a zealous Packard man put it in New Orleans, the revival of industry in Southern Louisiana wiU in a few years make that wonderfully rich country as j)roductive as it ought to be, and re-establish the fort- unes of New Orleans. Meantime it is a fact that, if the planters are poor, they owe but little money. Plant- ing has come to a cash basis ; and a good crop is good for the land-owner and the la- borer, and not mainly for the factor. There is no doubt that there has been much suffering in the South since the war among a class of people who formerly scarcely knew what even prudent economy meant. The eman- cipation of the slaves destroyed at a blow, for the slave-owners, the greater part of the accumulated capital of these States. The labor is still there. The community will presently be wealthier than ever. But in the redistribution of this wealth the former wealthy class is reduced to moderate means. It is by no means a iiublic calamity; but it makes many individuals gloomy and hope- less, and is one cause of the general depres- sion. 42. Finally, these States have made a new plundering of the Republican rulers, there is a natural and inevitable increase in taxa- tion, growing out of the fact that the former slaves are now citizens, who are taught in schools, tried in courts of justice, confined in State and other prisons, supported in asy- lums, and in many other ways are, as all citizens are, a source of public expense. This is too often forgotten by Southern men when they complain of high taxes. Former- ly a negro thief received thirty-nine lashes from the overseer, and there an end ; now a constable catches him and a prison holds him for trial, a grand jury indicts him, a petit jury hears evidence for and against him, a judge sentences him if he is guilty, and thereupon a penitentiary receives him just as it does his white brother-in-law ; or, if this happened in Alabama under the Ee- publican rule, his father hired him of the State at twenty cents a day, an4 let him loaf about the cabin until his term expired, or he became a candidate for another term. The misfortune is, that the Federal inter- ference has held these States under Repub- lican rule against the will of the intelligent part of their citizens, and has prevented these from learning by experience what are the real difficulties and necessities of govern- ment under the new order of things. In Alabama, last spring, for instance, the Dem- ocrats, who are in power, began to discover that " the price of government has gone up," and that they could not very greatly lower the State taxes, against which, among oth- er things, they had long grumbled. In a State like Louisiana or Arkansas, of course merely to stop the stealing will at once and enormously relieve the community, and a good deal can be effected by economy in government in Alabama as well. But the people will discover that they can not get back to the old extremely low taxes. These are my conclusions concerning those Southern States which I have seen. If they are unfavorable to the Republican rule there, I am sorry for it. No men ever had a greater opportunity to serve their fellow -men and their nation than the Republicans who un- dertook the work of reconstruction in the South; and they could not have desired PRELIMINARY. greater power than was given them. Had they used their power as statesmen, or even only as honest and unselfish citizens, not only would the States I speak of to-day have been prosperous, and their people of both races contented and happy, but there would now have been, in every one of them, a substantial and powerful Republican party. Nor are the Northern Republican leaders without blame in this matter. They chose for their allies in the South men like Spencer in Alabama, Ames in Mississippi, Kellogg and Packard in Louisiana, Dorsey and Brooks in Arkansas, not to speak of hundreds of sub- ordinate instruments, corrupt, weak, or self- seeking. They suffered the most shameless public plundering to go on in those States without inquiry. Thoy confided the Federal power and patronage to men, many of whom would to-day bo in State-prisons if they had their dues. And they have, as the result of their carelessness, seen State after State fall into the hands of the Democrats, and, in a largo part of the Union, the name of Kopub- lican made odious to all honest and intelli- gent men ; while they have crushed to the earth a considerable number of honest Re- publicans in the South, who, naturally, found no favor in the eyes of such men as Spencer and Ames. THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. ARKANSAS IN MARCH, 1875. The State of Arkansas celebrated on the 25th of March, 1875, a great deliverance. By proclamation of Governor Garland that day vras kept as one of thanksgiving for the ac- tion of Congress, which, it is hoped and be- lieved, restored the State to permanent and peaceful self-government. I arrived in Lit- tle Eock a few days before the holiday, and that day was singularly quiet. Banks and shops were mostly closed ; many people went to church ; there was turkey for dinner; and there were, among the older and substantial citizens, not a few heart-felt words of grati- tude for quiet and peace, and the hope of prosperity. And that, so far as one could see, was all. The streets were not crowded, though the day was as long as a June day with us. I heard absolutely no political discussion ei- ther in streets or hotels. Poker Jack's ar- rival in the morning did not create even a ripple; and though there were probably a good number of disajjpointed men among the adherents of Brooks, it looked very much as though both parties were glad to see the battle ended. Indeed, there is no doubt about the mat- ter, for everywhere throughout the State re- ports show that the general settlement is accepted as final, and industry is reviving. More cotton and grain are being i>lanted than in jirevious years ; houses and fences are being repaired; fewer men are idle; there is a notable and sudden decrease of street-loungers, black and white, in Little Eock. People are going to work again. It is creditable to both parties that, so far as I hear and have been able to observe, there is no bitterness of feeling, no resentment. The victors are too well pleased to be any thing but good-humored, and the vanquished take their defeat in good part. One of the most zealous, and, during the winter, which he spent in Washington, ferocious Brooks men, a colored man, said to me, "What we need now is men and capital ; we have peace se- cured ; we are done with politics for a while, and will all go to work in earnest to recover our losses and make the State rich. Give us only a good crop this year, aud we'll bo out of the woods." The truth is, it was time for strife to end. Nobody of either party who had any thing, even his labor, to lose, could any longer af- ford it. Here are a few figures which jirove it: Arkansas has less than 650,000 peoiile. It has about 120,000 voters. These owed in 1868, when reconstruction began in this State, about $3,500,000, and had $319,000 in cash in their treasury. The debt was State debt. The counties owed little or nothing. To-day, after seven years, the State owes at least $15,700,000, and most of the counties have debts of their own sufBcient to make them bankrui)t. And for this huge indebt- edness, which amounts for State, counties, town, aud school districts to probably $20- 000,000, the people have nothing to show, except some miles of railroad, on which they must pay for their passage whenever they travel. There are no new public buildings ; neither science nor the arts have been ad- vanced ; the old State-house looks as dilajv idated as when the reconstruction began, and has been changed in nothing except having its door -lintels mutilated that a Brooks cannon might be squeezed into the hall; the schools are almost all closed be- cause the school fund was stolen ; and Lit- tle Eock is unpaved, though the conquerors of 1868 issued nearly shinplasters enough to pave all the streets handsomely with the pa- per itself, and bonds enough besides to make dry crossings at the corners. The State debt alone amounts to-day to more than $115 for every voter. State, coun- ty, township, and school debts, including scrip of all kinds, would probably bring tbo 30 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. voters ill debt $175 per head. And the whole of this jirodigious burdeu has been laid upon an impoverished, and never very prosperous, people in seven years. Arkansas was, in 18G8, a tempting prize to speculators. It had a trivial debt, a hand- some little sum in cash in the Treasury, hard- ly any railroads, and a peoide singularly in- nocent of political wiles. The young and enterprising men who then flocked in and seized on j)Ower, and who held it so many years,- had had some experience in what we call "politics." " We showed them some new tricks," said one of them to me ; " the damned fools (iidn't know a thing about organization. They just went around the State making stump-speeches, and thought that was poli- tics. But that thing's played out." The new regime framed a constitution ad- mirably suited to their ends, of which I shall speak further on. And then they began the work of plunder with an act granting State aid bonds to railroads to the extent of 800 miles, at $15,000 per mile, or $10,000 for such roads as had also land-grants. Under this law 271 miles of road were built, of which the Fort Smith road is well built and well planned for 100 miles, and is to be completed. It has received $1,000,000 of bonds. The Memphis and Little Rock Company built 45 miles, and received $1,200,000, or $750,000 more than it should have got. The Ouachi- ta Company built 28 miles, and got $600,000, or $180,000 more than it should have got. The Arkansas Central built 38 miles, and got $1,350,000 ; under the law it was entitled to but $.570,000. This was called Senator Dor- sey's road. The Pine Bluft" Company built 70 miles, and got $1,200,000, or $150,000 more than its share. The whol(4 issue of railroad aid bonds made by the State in less than four years amounts to $5,350,000. Many of the roads were not needed ; all but the Fort Smith and the Memphis are unfinished, and will for some time remain so^ $1,110,000 more bonds were issued than even these fragments of roads Avere entitled to ; the roads were to pay the interest, but of course did not ; and the State now owes the whole sum, and, when it can, must pay the interest as well as the principal. Citizens of Little Kock point out to a visitor a number of pleasant residences at the new or court cud of the straggling town, which, they say, were built by the men who handled these bonds. Next, in 1871, were issued $3,005,846 in levee»bonds. The law authorizing this issue provided that no levees should be built ex- cept on the application of a majrrity of the property -holders to be benefited, and then only in a specified way, and the land bene- fited was held for the payment of interest and principal of the bonds. Regular sur- veys were to be made, and competent engi- neers were to decide, after all, whether the levee should be built. In jiractice, one or two engineers and half a dozen contractors made a ring and built levees wherever they pleased ; no formal petitions were required, no proper surveys made ; logs and timber, and even empty flour and beef barrels were crammed into the bank, and meantime the levee commissioner issued bonds whenever any body whom he knew asked for them, and actually kept no books to show to whom, for what work, or when they were issued. The first freshet washed most of these levees away, and of those that stood, many were so misplaced that planters were ruined, be- cause the levees, intended to keep the water out, only kept it in. Fortunately, the contractors and swindlers took their pay and jilunder in bonds. The swindle was too gross, and the bonds fell in value till they sold in the market for six or eight cents on the dollar. The planters re- sisted in the courts the payment of interest demanded of them, and so carelessly had the whole work been done, that the courts have held them exempt, because the most simple forms of law had not been complied with, and it is now believed that the Levee Ring failed to get rich by its plunder. But the State owes on these bonds still. Next came the issue of scrip. Tbe taxes and bonds were not enough for the re- constructers. They began to issue State, county, township, and even school scrip — notes of hand of these corporations, some interest -bearing. They issued State scrip at such a rate that by Maj', 1874, $3,240,000 of this stuff had been taken up and destroy- ed, and there is supposed to be $1,500,000 of it afloat still. But these big thefts are not nearly as amusing as the smaller ones. One man. Speaker of the Assembly, for instance, got the people of Clark County to issue $100,000 in bonds to the Ouachita Valley Railroad, of which ho was president. He found a broker in New York who offered him eighty per cent, for these bonds, on condition that he would get a responsible bank to guar- ARKANSAS IN MAECH, 1875. auteo the payment of tlie interest for five years. He deposited with a bank §30,000, which was the interest for five years at six per cent. ; received at once $80,000 for his bonds, and of course pocketed $50,000 by this pretty transaction. He did not even take the trouble to return to Aikansas, and is now said to be living iu Colorado. In 1873, Faulkner County was formed out of fragments of surrounding counties. This making new counties was a custom of the reconstructers. They thus created new of- fices. The new Faulkner County had no debt. It had no public buildings, and has none yet, except an eight-by-ten court-house given it by a Methodist church. It contains 7000 people, and has a property valuation of about $900,000. Two young New Yorkers were appointed sheriff and county clerk by the governor. They collected the first year about $40,000 in taxes; and this being iu- sufficieut for their uses, they issued county scrip for $50,000 more. They collected the taxes iu greenbacks, and turned them iu iu depreciated State scrip, some of which they bought at thirty-five cents on the dollar. They sold offices, released prisoners, engaged in fraudulent registration, and, finally, they departed with their plunder, and the State knows them no more. In Little Rock, the collector of taxes open- ly engaged in brokerage, took out a Federal license as a broker, and then drove a thriv- ing trade with the citizens when they came to pay their taxes. You must understand that all State and county scrip was receiva- ble at par for taxes. If a citizen had to pay $50 for taxes, he might buy scrip at thirty cents, and pay it in at par. But the collect- or bought scrij) beforehand, when the mar- ket was low, and made his own bargain with the citizen. It is said he made his of- fice worth $100,000 a year. His way was to demand a moiety of the tax, but iu green- backs. For this he gave a receipt in full. Then he kept the greenbacks, and turned into the treasury iu their place the scrip he had bought up cheaply. This atrocious form of swindling becanle so iiniversal that .1 have been told only one county tax col- lector in the whole State has uniformly turned into the treasury the same money which he received ; and this when the allow- ances of the assessors and collectors were so great that iu some years it cost twenty per cent, to collect the State revenue. The reconstructers were wise iu their gen- 31 eration. They not only robbed at wholesale and retail, but they took care to preserve their own supremacy. The constitution of 18G8 gave the governor the appointment of almost all the local officers, even to the jus- tices of the peace and registrars of elections. The governor, of course, selected his own adherents, and did not scruple to send them from Little Rock, sometimes a hundred miles away, into a strange county. So loosely was business conducted that when the new coun- ty of Howard was created, iu 1873, an illiter- ate carpenter of Little Rock, being appoint- ed county clerk, began his career by having county scrip printed before he even went down to take up his office, and issued the fii'st of this scrip in Little Rock in payment for an ambulance to take his family to How- ard County. Scrip of this county is now worth from ten to fifteen cents — and no wonder. Again, in Little Rock the merchants got alarmed at the overissue of scrip in 1869, and took the plates from which these shin- plasters were printed from the mayor's office and destroyed them. But presently it was discovered that no account had been kept by the mayor of the quantity printed and issued, and to this day, though ten thousand dollars' worth of the stuff has been redeem- ed more comes in, and no man can tell how much remains behind. There is a small bridge in Eagle township, near Little Rock, which cost to build it five hundred dollars. Jack Agery, a colored man, was engaged to make some repairs on it. He brought in a bill for uiue hundred dollars ; scrip was then worth ten cents, and he re- ceived his pay iu it, amouutiug to nine thou- sand dollars, which the county must some day redeem at par. Sam Mallory, formerly engine-driver on the Erie Railroad, became here a general of militia, and State senator in 1871 ; was later made commissioner to audit old militia bills, and among the accounts allowed by him and paid was one for coffee-mills at seventeen dollars apiece. Meantime taxes rose, until in Pulaski County, of which Little Rock is a part, they were at five per cent., and in some counties seveu and three -tenths. Pulaski County scrip went down to ten cents, school -war- rants were bought at six, and some were worth no more when I was there. Other counties were but little better off, and the book-keeping has been such that it is im- 32 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. possible to tell bow mucb is really owed. In Pulaski County even tbe register of bonds bas been, as an official advertisement in tbe papers says, " lost or stolen," and tbe bond- bolders are now requested to come forward and register tbeir bonds before tbe coupons sball be paid. To return to tbe railroads. Wbero tbeir embankments would serve as levees tbey were allowed levee bonds in addition to tbe aid bonds ; and, not content witb tbis, in one case twenty miles of track baviug been laid on a road, accepted, and tbe bonds received, tbe iron was taken up and removed to anotb- er road, wbere it sufficed to obtain from tbe treasury anotber tbreo buudred tbousand dollars in bonds. Tbe reconstruction constitution in 1868, under wbicb Arkansas was sujiposed to en- joy a Republican government, is an able and ingenious instrument, said to bavo been framed at Wasbington. It establisbed an extremely centralized and despotic adminis- tration. Tbe governor appointed nearly all tbe lo- cal officers in counties and townsbiiJs, and be bad tbe power to fill vacancies even in tbe few offices be did not originally name. He appointed judges, collectors, and assess- ors of taxes, justices of tbe i)eaco, prosecut- • iug attorneys, registrars of elections, wbo in turn appointed tbe judges of elections. Wbere new counties were created, wbicb was a favorite device of tbe rulers, tbe governor appointed all tbe officers. Moreover, wbere any subordinate proved refractory — wbicb means bonest and jinblic-siiirited — bo was removed on a writ of quo warranto brongbt by a convenient attorney-general before tbe Supreme Court, at tbe head of wbicb sat Poker Jack. Then tbe governor filled bis place. Under tbis monstrous system of centrali- zation, as extreme as tbat of tbe later Frencb empire, the ring had their adherents scat- tered all over the State. They absolutely controlled the elections ; tbey ruled the peo- ple despotically. The governor was even careful to appoint, in many instances, local officers who did not live in the counties they were to rule, and who, of course, bad no in- terest whatever in good government or in the decent administration of justice. One instance, out of many, will show how audaciously tbey carried out their schemes. A new county was formed in the north- western part of the State. A sheriff was sent to it who lived in Little Rock. Tbis person chanced to own a farm in the county. The people chose for county seat a village near the centre of the county ; but tbe sher- iff determined to establish it on his own farm, five miles away. He and bis fellow- office-holders manipulated the registry-lists, but failed to eliminate a sufficient num- ber of voters' names, and when an election was held for a choice of three commissioners to determine on the county seat, bis candi- dates were beaten. He went at once to Lit- tle Eock, wbere tbe election was, at bis in- stance, set aside ; new commissioners were appointed, and the court-house, which cost over thirty thousand dollars, was actually placed on bis farm, in spite of the demand of nine-tenths of the people to put it in the village, wbere it would be convenient for the -public. All these local appointees of the central government bad unlimited power to steal, and knew it. Indeed, they were expected to divide their plunder with tbe ring at bead- quarters. Tbey issued county and town bonds for railroads ; they erected, or pre- tended to erect, new and unneeded public buildings, for wbicb bonds and scrip were issued ; they put out scrip on every possible excuse, and kept no books or records to show the amounts issued ; or stole the records, or in several notorious instances burned down the court-bouses and thus destroyed the rec- ords ; they pocketed tbe greenbacks paid in by tax-payers, and turned into the treas- ury depreciated scrip ; they protected thieves and swindlers for pay, and sold justice at a convenient price. When tbe county scrip became too much depreciated for their use, the Supreme Court — Poker Jack chief-justice — rendered a de- cision making tbat only receivable for county taxes ; and when this speculation bad served their turn, tbe Supreme Court — Poker Jack still chief-justice — reversed this decision, and made only State scrip receivable for taxes. So monstrous was the robbery tbat even now, when the plunderers are beaten off and confidence is restored, the average value of county scrip over tbe whole State is less than thirty -four cents, and it is doubtful if one-quarter of tbe counties know certainly the amount of their debt. Meantime champagne was the common- est beverage of several hundred people at Little Rock, and it was at one time said that nowhere in the United States was so mucb AEKANSAS IN MARCH, 1875. 33 of this ■nine consumed as in the dilapidated little capital of Aikansas. Champagne and poker ■were the chief enjoyments of the thieves in office, and they indulged them- selves -without stint and openly, ■without shame. The governor appointed the registrars of election, and they -were naturally tools of the ring. Eegistration ■was an imperative prerequisite to voting. The law -was so framed that the decision of the registrar as to the right of a citizen to vote -was final, the only appeal lying to the Supreme Court, ■which refused to hear such cases. On elec- tion-day, even if a citizen showed a certifi- cate proving that he had been registered, this did not entitle him to vote if his name ■was not actually found on the register. Moreover, the registrars appointed the judg- es of elections at the polling places, and, of course, chose partisans. What happened was this : As registration went on, the partisan registrars kei)t a sharp eye on the lists. When these were completed they had some days to revise them. During this time they counted votes, and judicious- ly marked out Democratic names enough to secure the required majority. "If red ink don't blot them out, take red paint and a I)aint-briish," was the blunt order said to have been sent to one registrar. Meantime the colored vote was manipu- lated to such an extent that the colored peo- ple were enticed away from their vocations for weeks before election-day, and gathered in crowds at barbecues and other camps. At first the ring had a large majority, for they controlled the negroes, and about twen- ty thousand of the old citizens were disfran- chised for participation in the rebellion. In November, 1872, a constitutional amendment was adopted by the people which enfran- chised these voters, and enabled them to be- gin to help themselves. As the people be- came more and more dissatisfied, the ring began to quarrel among themselves, and thus disorganization crept into this band. Meantime it is confessed that occasionally some public thief, who had outraged the peo- ple of a county beyond endurance, was shot, and j)ublic sentiment quietly justified the deed. But at every such murder a howl was raised that Union men were persecuted, and in danger of their lives ; and the North, anx- ious to protect the oppressed, ordered the Federal power to protect the oppressors. These did not shrink from measures for 3 their own protection. The Legislature adopted in March, 1869, a Ku - klus bill of the most stringent character, which was so well executed that all outrage of this kind disappeared in a very short time. In 1873 it adopted a Civil Rights bill, which is as peremptory as that which was advocated by General Butler. lu the same year they brought forward a bill to establish a " met- ropolitan police." Six thousand men were to be appointed by the governor, to act as a police over the whole State. It was in ef- fect to be a standing army, with power to interfere in all civil affairs, everywhere, at all times ; to make summary arrests, and to bring those they arrested from the most dis- tant parts of the State to Little Rock for trial. After jirolouged efforts, this atrocious scheme was defeated in the Legislature. At the same session was brought forward a scheme to release all the railroads from liability for their old bonds, by a law com- pelling the State to assume these, and re- deem them by a new issue. It was the avowed intention of the plotters to cause the issue, first of all, of the remaining raikoad bonds, between six and seven million dol- lars, and to declare the levee bonds uncon- stitutional and worthless, which, it was be- lieved, would appreciate the value of the railroad bonds. This proposal also was beaten. It was ad- vocated in the Republican newspaper ; and it was commonly said Governor Baxter had been offered a Federal judgeship, or sixty thousand dollars in money, to cease his op- position. Tills, however, was never proved. About this time came a change. The new constitution was adopted. Garland became governor, and the men who had so long rob- bed and misgoverned the State were at last threatened with loss of jiower. Then they appealed to the Federal Govern- ment. Unluckily, the President fell into the trap of these Ai-kansas jobbers. He had forced Brooks out of the State-house in 1874, and in 1875 he demanded of Congress that Brooks should be forced in again. Now, to install Brooks as governor was to continue the rob- bers in power; and these, rendered desper- ate, and knowing that, even if Garland were overthrown and Brooks put in, their lease of power would be brief, because a Democratic Congress was at hand, meant, it is said, first of all, to issue all the remaining railroad bonds, and divide this huge piece of plunder, amounting to at least five, or probably seven, 34 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. millions of dollars. Their swag secured, they were ready to retire, if they must. The first effect of the President's Arkansas policy would have been to saddle the State with all these millions of additional debt. I find, by the State auditor's account for the year 1859 and 1860, that at that time the cost of administering the State government ■was §307,590 for two years, or, roughly, $150,- 000 per annum. Making every fair allow- ance, it should not have cost, from 1868 to 1874, more than twice this sum, or $300,000 per annum, or $1,800,000 in all for the six years. But in that period there was col- lected from the people in taxes the prodig- ious sum of $6,674,000 ; the bonded debt was increased $8,753,000, aside from railroad sub- sidies ; a floating debt of scrip, demoralizing to the community, was added, of $1,865,000 ; and thus the recoustructors cost the State alone, in six years, over $17,000,000, instead of $1,804,000, whicli would have been a fair charge. And for this vast expenditure there was no return, except in despotic govern- ment, broken credit, ruined industry, and a deplorable corruption of public morals, grow- ing out of a depraved currency, and un- bridled and open theft in high places. But this still leaves out the county and other local taxes, of which I have no exact record, and the county, city, and township debts, an unascertainable total, thought by the best experts to amount to no less than $2,500,000 more. Of one thing I can speak with positive- uess, and that is, that Ai-kansas is, in March, 1875, as peaceable a State as New York, Mas- sachusetts, or Ohio. I assert this on the au- thority of leading men of both parties. No one whom I was able to see pretended a doubt on the subject. In Little Rock itself, where most of the jiolitical sore-heads are found, there is not even political discussion. The editor of the Brooks, or Republican, or- gan assured me that there is no violence, and that a close perusal of the county jour- nals and his own correspondence in different parts of the State convinced him that in- dustry had revived all over the State ; that the people were at work ; and that Arkansas promised this year, if the season were fovor- able, to produce more corn, wheat, and cot- ton than ever before. All this was corrob- orated by leaders of the Garland jiarty ; and as the well-informed men of both sides thus concur, it may be accepted as fact. Moreover, of Governor Garland, leading men of the Brooks side have told me that he is a man of good character, firm, determined to execute the laws, and able to do so. He himself assured me that he meant to put down with a strong hand any attempts at lawlessness, should such occur, and he struck me as answering very Avell the description his political opponents gave me of him, as a man of decided character, no blusterer, but firm, solid, and likely to be calm, and to car- ry out a definite policy in a straightforward manner. Of course, it is a great piece of good fortune for the State to have a man of such make at the head of affairs at this time. It is admitted by every body that the State has among its jjeople men of a ruffian- ly character, idle, vicious, and j)rone to mur- der ; these it is the business of the governor to hold to accountability for their misdeeds. They are not numerous, and there is no good evidence that they now shoot with jjolitical purposes. A couple of mouths ago, two young men, drunk and reckless, shot at the engine-driver of a railroad and another person. The latter was a Northern man, but a supporter of Garland; and this last fact showed that there was no politic- al xiurpose or animosity iu this attempt at mvirder. What followed, however, shows the spirit of Arkansas just now. The sheriff" of the county, a negro, pursued the two men ; and the whole county, white as well as black, turned out to help him in the hunt. The criminals escaped into Louisiana, but, under the energetic xmrsuit of Governor Garland's law officers, were captured, brought back, and are now in prison awaiting trial. There is just now a difficulty in Scott County. This lies in the northern part of the State, where there are but few negroes, and the cause of quarrel is exclusively among white men, and has no relation to politics or the negro. The negro sherifl', Furbush, iu Leo Coun- ty, was reported iu February to have been murdered ; but I saw a letter from him of re- cent date, in which no allusion was made to political or other disturbances in his county. To the one vital question which Northern men ask, "Are Union men, white and black, secure of life, property, and political rights in Arkansas ?" I am, therefore, persuaded the answer is, " Yes, they are so." And this answer rests on the very best testimony, that of Republicans and Brooks men themselves. ARKANSAS IN MARCH, 1875. 35 I may add that tlie phrase "Uuion men" is not used in Arkansas. " We are all Union men," said a Confederate general to me; "and you Northern peo^ile do us a serious injustice when you rank only the Republic- ans at the South as Union men. We have here life-long Northern Republicans acting •with the Democratic party; and, on the other hand, some of the very leaders of the Republican party in this State were not merely Democrats in the North, but Copper- heads during the war," and he cited ex- chief justice M'Clnre (Poker Jack) as such a man. In casting about for proofs of the actual condition of the State as to peace and liber- ty, it occurred to me that if there had been unrepressed violence, lawlessness, political assassination, and terrorism, such as we heard of during the winter of 1874-'75, and such as the Brooks men during the Arkan- sas struggle in Washington described, there must have been frequent apiieals to the Fed- eral commissioners for protection under the Enforcement acts. I therefore made inquiry of the clerk of the United States Court at Little Rock, under whoso eye every such matter must come, and he assured me there had not been a single case for a year. He thought that complaints had sometimes been made to the district attorney, but they had never been brought before the grand jury, and were, therefore, presumably groundless. The United States district attorney was absent, but the Federal judge corroborated the testimony of the clerk. The sum of my information on this point is, that not a single case for redress of griev- ances, either political or civil, under the Federal Enforcement acts has been made in the eastern district of Arkansas for a year past ; and in the western district, so far as I could learn, the only cases were appeals on the part of Democrats, complaining of Re- publican registrars of election in 1872. There are fifty-three Federal commission- ers in the State, who receive, I believe, no salary. The Federal supervisors of election for the whole State cost twenty-five hundred dollars for an election, when the full list is appointed. Now, it is hard to prove a neg- ative ; to show, namely, that the State is not disorderly. But it seems to me clear that if white and black Union men had been seri- ously or continuously harassed and in peril, they would have appealed to the Federal au- thorities established for that purpose, to pro- tect them and punish their oppressors. The fact is, that the Dorsey-Clayton Re- publicans between 18G8 and 1873 ruled Ar- kansas with an iron rule, and did put down, peremptorily and efi'ectually, all political disorders. For this they deserve credit ; for there is no doubt that when they took pos- session of the State in 1868, and for some time afterward, there was a grave and peril- ous condition of society. In March, 18G9, they adopted a Ku-klux law of uncommon and even dangerous severity ; it prohibited all secret political organizations, and de- clared their members iufiimous and public enemies ; it made even the possession of a uniform of such an order a criminal offense, or the knowing of its existence without giv- ing immediate information to the public au- thorities ; it authorized the arrest of a mem- ber of this organization anywhere, at any time, by any citizen, without a warrant ; it prescribed a penalty of five hundred dollars fine, and from one to ten years in the Peni- tentiary, and forbade the member of such society to be a juror before or a witness after conviction; it allowed the grand jury to summon witnesses and enforce their pres- ence, and gave the informer from half to three-fourths of the fine. This law was sternly enforced, and the "Knights of the White Camellia" disappeared almost at once. This law remains on the statute-book afc the instance of the Democratic governor, Garland, who gave notice that if it were not strong enough he would ask the Legislature to make it still more severe. This was his reply to a charge made in Washington that Republicans had been intimidated from vot- ing. Nor is this all. In February, 1873, the Republican reconstructors adopted a civil- rights act so much stronger than that re- cently passed by Congress, that, when I asked whether the Federal act made any trouble, people laughed at me. Under this State law hotel -keepers, bar-keepers, and owners of places of public amusement are required to give accommodation to colored people, and these are to have equal school fiicilities, but separate schools. Violators of the law are subject to a fine of from two hundred to one thousand dollars, or to imprisonment from three to twelve months. Even accessories or agents are punishable, and an action for civil damages lies, besides the criminal pros- ecution. Officers of the law may be prose- 36 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. ciited for failure to enforce it, and prosecu- ting attorneys, sheriffs, coroners, justices of tlie peace, and even constables, are to insti- tute proceedings, and are obliged to do so. Many of these officers throughout the State are colored men. I was told there had been but a single case under this act, in which a saloon-keeper was fined twenty-five dollars. I noticed that some drinking -saloons had two bars, one for each color ; but I also saw in several cases black and white men di'ink- ing together. The negroes have shown no disposition to make the law offensive. As to elections, while the justly odious features of the old registration law have been repealed, under the new constitution a candidate may appeal to the court with proof that voters intending to vote for him have been prevented ; and if he ji roves his case, the votes so claimed are counted as act- ually cast for him ; and if they give him a majority, he secures thereby the office with- out a new election. This makes it to the interest of candidates and of each party to look after and support the rights of voters, and gives them power to remedy wrongs. Finally, it is acknowledged by the best men of both sides, that the present State and local judiciary is composed of an excellent and capable class of men, of high character. So far as the colored people are concerned, and considering their lack of education and training for public business, it seems to me that a fair proportion were chosen to office by the Garland men, or Democrats, for there are now one hundred and sixty colored jus- tices of the peace in the State, ninety-five constables, twenty-nine sheriffs and county clerks, assessors, and county surveyors, one militia field-officer, and eleven militia com- pany-officers. The militia officers were ap- pointed by Governor Garland, and all the civil officers were commissioned by him. The enrolling clerk of the last (Democratic) As- sembly was a negro, and he was chosen by a Democratic house. The door-keeper of the same body was a one-legged negro, who had been a Federal soldier. The counties of Lee, Phillips, and Jefi'erson, where the negro vote is very strong, sent colored Kepreseutatives and Senators to that Legislature. The Dem- ocrats even nominated a colored man to represent Little Rock in the Constitutional Convention ; but his llopublican friends per- suaded him not to accept the nomination. Moreover, the condition of the two polit- ical parties in the State is such as in itself to secure good government if the present opposition — the Eepublicans, that is to say — wish it. Arkansas has, I am told, about one hundred and twenty thousand voters, of whom, roughly, sixty-five thousand are Dem- ocrats and fifty-five thousand Eepublicans. Of the latter about forty thousand are col- ored men. The ruling party has not, there- fore, a large majority. It can hold the State only by good and economical government, and of this fact I found the Garland men very conscious. They do not, by any means, think themselves in a secure position ; and they see the necessity, politically, of a mod- erate and just policy, and of general concili- ation. It is quite true that many of the promi- nent leaders of the Republican party have no political future in the State. Dorsey will, it is said, leave the State. M'Clure also talks of taking his little carpet-bag into New Mexico. Brooks has fallen into gen- eral contempt among his own adherents by accepting the Little Rock postmastership, to secure which he caused to be ousted a man universally respected and trusted by both parties. Snyder, late member of Con- gress, compounded any future preferment in the State for the little fifteen -hundred dollar post-office at Pine Bluff", and flung out one of his own adherents to get it. But with all this, the Republicans are not with- out leaders; and, now that the Federal gov- ernment has taken its support away from them, these begin to assume the natural at- titude of an opposition party, talk of the prosperity of the State, of the necessity for economy, of the benefits of peace, and so on. Both parties will try to secure the color- ed vote, and it may be confidently said that the color-line in politics is broken in the State. Tlio Republican leaders are already coquetting with white Democrats, whose votes they must secure to regain the ascend- ency; and the Democrats have for a year past been busy in establishing friendly rela- tions witli influential blacks. It is plain, from what is above stated, that not only is Arkansas at present peaceable, but, what is of greater importance, the con- ditions necessary to secure permanent peace and security are all present in the State. A strong governor, determined to punish lawlessness and crime ; an excellent judici- ary ready to help him ; and an absence, for the present, of all political excitement and animosity, are the means ; but the cessa- AEKANSAS IN MAECH, 1875 tion of Federal interference, and the necessi- ty which lies upon both parties to court the negro vote, and to maintain, and promise to maintain, j)eace and order, are the main ele- ments. It is just now (in March, 1875) probable that the Democrats will carry the State in 1876; but it is by no means certain. A thor- ough reorganization of jiarties is certain : when it will happen is only a question of time. The Democratic side has a dissatis- fied element, which may bolt, and endeavor to form a coalition with a part of tlie Ee- publican party. The leaders on both sides are distrustful, and one hears here, curious- ly enough, the old word " Whig" as a potent political watchword. If one could imagine such a resurrection, ho would think that these Arkausaus would by-aud-by split off into Whigs and Democrats. But, whatever hajipens, the negro is safe, for his vote — which can only be got by kind treatment — wiU be sought by the leaders of both parties, and he who wrongs a black man will lose votes. That, in the long run, the old planters will secure a large share of the negro vote is highly probable. They would be impracticable fools if they did not, for they know the negro's weak and strong points better than any one else. W^hat pleased me was to hear constantly from old Arkansans — former slave-holders — when I inquired about negro peculiarities, the answer, "They're just like white men; take them under any circumstances, and they'll act just as white men would." The reconstructors of Arkansas have been too busy issuing bonds and scrip and ma- nipulating laws since 1868 to pay attention to industrial statistics. Hence I could get but scant and uncertain answers to many questions affecting the real interests of the State. A leading politician could tell me readily enough how many black voters there are, and why these are more numerous in proportion to population than white voters, which is because, formeily, mainly adult ne- groes were brought in as slaves, and since the war the small colored immigration has consisted largely of colored men, seeking po- litical and other adventures. But when I asked the same man the more important question, how many colored real-estate own- ers the State has, he had not the least idea. I believe Governor Garland means to draw in- formation of this kind from the sheriffs of the counties, who are also often tax-collectors. 37 Arkansas, as viewed from a railroad car, is not a charming country to a Northern eye. It seems to contain a good deal of thin and worthless land, and Avhere you meet with cultivation the farms have a ragged and un- combed look, the farm buildings are usual- ly of a poor character, and very high fences show that stock is allowed to run wild. Fields are oftenest full of stumps ; and in the cotton region " deadeuings," or fields with girdled and decaying trees standing upon them, give the landscape a melancholy aspect. But, after all, it is useful for a Northern man to remember that dead trees and stumps are more economical than a cleaner culture where labor is scarce, and that the Arkansas farmer does not need as solid a house as his countryman in New York or Massachusetts. Though the farms and plantations of the State have too often an unprosperous look, the census-tables of 1870 disclose the singu- lar fact that the value of the agricultural product of that year in the State equaled the assessed value of All the farms and planta- tions, which, if it is a correct statement, would make Ai'kansas one of the richest of our agricultural States. The State is divided, by natural configu- ration, into two sections, the south and east producing mainly corn and cotton ; the north and north-west, which is mountainous, yield- ing wheat and other grains. In the latter part there are but few colored people, and here, during the war, were found Union men, who fought vigorously for the old flag, either as volunteers or guerrillas. The richest and most productive lands of the State are, of course, the river-bottoms, and here are found the most colored people. The Arkansas negro prefers, it seems, to raise corn and cotton. He suffers less from mala- ria than the white, and he likes the bottom- lands. Of the forty thousand negro voters in the State, it is believed that at least one iu twen- ty owns either a farm, or a house and lot in a town. This would give but two thousand such independent land-holders — asmall num- ber, but yet a beginning, showing that, even amidst the intense and incessant political turmoil of the last seven years, a part of the colored men have been persistently indus- trious and economical. In that part of the cotton country which I saw, I heard of a number of negroes who had bought farms, and not uncommonly a manager or planter would say, " There's Jim ; he's going to buy 38 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. land nest year if this crop turns out well." In one negro cabin the woman told me lier husband had lost six hundred dollars in the Freedman's Bank, and seemed delighted when the planter told her she would prob- ably get back a part of it. I was shown a black man who bought a farm of eighty acres last year — all cleared cotton land — for four thousand dollars, pay- ing seven hundred dollars down. On the remainder he was to pay ten per cent, inter- est, and the planter who sold it to hira told me he would make it all safely out of the farm. This man had genuine energy, for he employed other negroes to cultivate his own farm, and himself worked fifty acres of rented land. " He gets more out of his peo- ple than I could," said the jilanter to me ; " he'll hire some women, and get a man's work out of every one of them." The usual manner of working the cotton lands is to let them, either on shares or for a fixed i)rice per acre. Some planters hire their laborers by the month or year, but it is not thought a profitable plan, and I be- lieve it is not so well liked by the negroes. The rich bottom-lands are worth from thirty to fifty dollars per acre, according to loca- tion and condition. Where land is let for a share of the crop the renter usually pays the owner from eighty to ninety pounds of clean cotton i)er acre. If he has good luck he can raise four hundred j)ounds to the acre, and he aims to get also corn enough for himself and his stock. In such case the owner gins all the cotton, and he supplies, besides the land, fencing, fire-wood, a house which even if very good will not cost more than two hundred and fifty dollars, and often is a mere log-cabin, and raitge for stock. The renter must have his own teams and tools, and must pay for extra labor for picking his cotton if he needs it. For twelve acres he ought to have a mule, plow, hoes, and seed; and he may get eight bales of cotton, of which two •would go for rent, and the net remainder ■would be worth three hundred dollars, be- sides the value of his corn. The planter or land-owner usually expects to make his peo- ple advances of food and clothing ; and it is evident, from what I have seen and heard, that the greater number of the people are careless and do not lay up money. That they can, however, is shown by many in- stances. Where a planter hires laborers, colored men receive from fifteen to eighteen dollars a month and board, or one dollar a day if they feed themselves. Women, employed in hoeing cotton, receive as much as men if they do a full day's work. I could not learn that any difterence in wages is made by rea- son of color ; but negro laborers are thought to be more peaceable and more easily pro- vided for than whites. General Churchill, now State treasurer, told me that some of his former slaves were still on his plantation as renters. Several managed forty or fifty acres each. He found no difficulty in col- lecting his dues from them, and liked them as renters ; but he remarked to me that the young colored people do not farm so well as their fathers, and more of them seek some other employment. The favorite method, I think, is to rent cotton land for a fixed price per acre, usual- ly from six to ten dollars, the owner ginning the cotton in the latter case. Tlie negroes usually use the labor of their women and children in the fields, and a man takes more or less land according to the number of his family. If a renter takes fifty acres at eight dollars, his account in an average year would stand somewhat thus : Thirty acres in cot- ton would yield twenty - five bales, worth thirteen hundred dollars. Of this he would pay out four hundred dollars reut, and, prob- ably, one hundred and fifty dollars for extra labor in picking, etc., and would have left seven hundred and fifty dollars cash, and twenty acres of corn as food for his family and stock. • Such results not only satisfy the negro, biit they even tempt white men to come in from the less fertile uplands, and on some plantations there are Swiss and Germans, who, as a rule, become prosperous, I am told. The planter keeps on the place a store at which renters may buy their supplies, and where they get a moderate credit. He also keeps a cotton-gin and a grist-mill, for the use of which he makes a charge ; and he takes care to get his year's rent out of the first of the crop. In practice, furthermore, the planter finds it necessary to ride daily through his fields to see that the renters are at work, and to aid them with his advice. During the winter, he hires them to chop wood for his own use, and to split rails and keep up the fences. All the plantations have a quantity of unused woodland, in which stock roams at large, and this is free to the renters. It is a wasteful and wretched way to keep stock, ARKANSAS IN MARCH, 1875. 39 and oue result of it you see in tlie steers which are used to draw wood into Little Rock, some of which are not much bigger than a good -sized Newfonndlaud dog. It makes trouble, too, about hogs. The hog is in Arkansas what the umbrella is elsewhere — the prey of the first man who needs it. Pork is called " meat ; " and when your plant- er friend explains to you that he has to buy all his meat, he will add that " the negroes will steal hogs ; you can't keep a hog about the place." , The cabins of the renters, white as well as black, are usually pretty cheerless affairs, and there are few signs of a desire for tasteful or even orderly surroundings. But in this respect the planter's own home surroundings are often but little in advance of his ten- ants'. Here and there you find a man who keeps a kitchen - garden ; and most of the people have chickens ; a forehanded negro will own some cows ; and they all buy cof- fee, sugar, molasses, and wheaten flour, which last they prefer to corn-meal. A plantation store which I examined was pretty thor- oughly supplied, not only with diy-goods and groceries, but with furniture, saddles, cook- ing-stoves, and all kinds of kitchen and table- ware of the plainer sorts, of course. A pla- card announced " Scotch snuff; " and to my inquiry the store-keeper told me that many of the women, white as well as black, use it in the way called " dipping." I was sorry to discover that at some of the plantation stores whisky is sold to the renters. On one of the plantations I was told that negro renters are preferred, because they are easier to get on with, and less apt to grum- ble and find fault than native whites ; and I judge, from all I heard, that the negroes are quite as economical, and as apt to buy land out of their savings, as the poorer class of whites who become renters. Cotton-picking, which, it used to be said, \ could never be satisfactorily done with free I labor, because it requires the concentration I of so much labor at a certain time, is, it seems, better done now than ever under the slave system. In the picking season women and children gather upon the plantations ; from towns and villages, and from all the surrounding iiplands ; and as they are well } paid, and by the hundred- weight, the work ^ is quickly and well done. " During slave ' times we never got through picking so early, or saved the whole crop in such good order as now," said a planter to me ; " sometimes the cotton was not all gathered before March, and now the fields are usually stripped clean before frost comes." Every neighborhood has a church and school for the colored people, and usually also a school for the white children ; but the school fund having been mostly wasted and stolen, many of the schools are closed. On Sunday the women go to church in bright dresses, and this is a great occasion. The colored preachers are usually cotton farm- ers, renting land, and I imagine they also have some political influence among their people. Political meetings are held in the churches. To conclude. Wherever I met colored peo- ple, they seemed comfortable and at ease ; and I neither saw nor heard the least evi- dence that they are regarded by the whites otherwise than as an integral and important part of the poijulation. They appear to me to have withstood, very creditably, the de- moralizing influences of jtolitical junketing, barbecues, and excitement incident to the earlier years of reconstruction. On the jilan- tations white and colored renters seem to hold like relations to the owners of the land. Cotton-land is still so abundant that there is no difficulty in buying it in such quan- tities as laboring men, white or black, want. In Little Rock I saw negro policemen as frequently as white, and in the State-house and elsewhere in government ofiices I saw them employed. Arkansas is at peace. The condition of parties seems to make proscription for opin- ion's sake impossible, for neither party can afford to sacrifice adherents. There is the best evidence that industry has revived all over the State, that the people of both par- ties strongly desire peace and order, and that the cessation of Federal interference has re- moved the only cause of disorder by throw- ing the politicians on their own responsibil- ity, and leaving the people to control their own local affairs, and to remedy abuses at the polls, which before they were unable to cure or remove by lawful means, and were therefore tempted to resort to the shot-gun and the revolver. "In my county," said an Arkansan to me, "the county clerk and collector of taxes were appointed by the governor. They were not citizens of the county, but strangers. They wasted the taxes; issued scrip to a heavy amount, and stole that ; gave us neither improvements nor good 40 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. management; and we had no appeal, no way, at elections or by any other method, of ridding ourselves of them. Taxes went up to seven per cent, on a high valuation. What Bhould we do ? One of these scoundrels was shot, and the other ran away. And then came a howl of political ostracism and per- secution of Union men. But now wo can protect ourselves at the polls, and we will keep the peace." The public debt of Arkansas is very great, and its management is full of diffictilties for the present. But the natural wealth of the State is great, too. It is now under the rule of honest men ; and the people, individ- ually, owe less, in proportion to their prop- erty, than ever before in the history of the State. Their prospects, therefore, are favor- able, and a good crop this year will, every body thiuks, make them prosperous. LOUISIANA U APRIL, 1875. The loug-talked-of "compromise," or Ad- justment, determined on by the Congres- sional Committee, was completed on Satur- day, April 10th, by the installment of a Con- servative in place of a Eepublican State senator. Its terms did not entirely please the leaders of either party. The Conserva- tive leaders conceived themselves to be get- ting less political strength than the election of 1874 actually gave them, and the Radi- cal leaders, or at least some of them, declare that it is for them a surrender of iiolitical power in the State. Meantime, however, a wing of the Con- servatives very strongly favored the com- promise, and was able to bring most of its side into it ; while a wing of the Radicals, among whose leaders were Governor KeUogg and Ex-Congressman Sheldon, accepted the compromise, and General Sheridan's advice silenced Pinchback, Senator West, and other Radical opponents, who were at first deter- mined to defeat the measures of peace. Thus matters stood when the House for- mally accepted the Adjustment, and unseat- ed the Radical members whom the commit- tee of Congress declared to have been wrong- ly seated by the returning board. But when the resolution of acceptance was pro- posed, a number of Conservative members voted " No ;" among them Mr. Wiltz, whom some of the Conservatives desired to make Speaker. This attitude of Wiltz encouraged those in his own party who did not want him to bo Si^eaker, aud these succeeded, with the help of a considerable Radical vote, in defeating Wiltz and electing Estil- lete as Speaker. This was the really important and deci- sive result of the Adjustment, for it declared whicb of the two branches of the Conserva- tive party should control its organization. The State of Louisiana had, according to the census of 1870, 87,076 white and 80,913 black males over twenty-one years of age. It has since been proved by undeniable evi- dence that the census understated consider- ably the number of whites. It was taken in the summer, when many white people always leave the State, aud the census-tak- ers did not, it is asserted, thoroughly record that jiart of the white population which is scattered over the pine hills back of the bot- tom-lands, on which a large number of white farmers are settled. I suppose the truth to be that Louisiana has to-day at least ten thousand more white than black voters. The Conservatives claim at least fifteen thousand more. Now, in the election of 1874 parties were divided, unhappily, almost entirely on the color-line. Mr. Packard, who unites in his person the two important, and I should think incongruous offices of United States marshal aud chairman of the Republican State Central Committee, told me, iu New Orleaus,that only five thousand whites voted the Republican ticket iu 1874, aud that the same number of blacks voted with the Con- servatives. It is, I think, a fair statement that, with the exception of the ofiice-hold- ers. State and Federal, and their relations, there were no white Republicans iu the State in 1874, or, at the furthest, but an in- appreciable number. The reason for this condition of things I shall try to explain. It must suffice now to say generally that the inefficiency and corruption of the State gov- ernment in all its parts — leaving lawless- ness unpunished, countenancing the most monstrous and shameful frauds, and contin- ued thus for six disgraceful years, at last united all the whites iu one party, whose aim was simply and only to oust the thieves. Opposed to them in 1874 stood those rulers with almost, but not quite, the whole negro population at their backs. The situation was one not difiercut iu kind from that in New York City in 1871, when all honest men united against Tweed and Tarn- 42 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. mauy Hall. The rank and file of the par- ty which calls itself Conservative consists in part of Democrats who are naturally opposed to Republican rule, but in part, also, of old Whigs, Know-nothings, and the mass of citizens not interested in politics. These entered the Conservative party only to save the State from further misgovcru- ment and spoliation. It was and is, there- fore, an "honest men's" party, and was called " Conservative," and the name Dem- ocrat dropi^ed, because there are in Louisi- ana a large number of good citizens who are so strongly opposed to the Democratic name that they will not actively, if at all, work with a party bearing that title. Many of its most substantial citizens were op- posed to secession, and to-day think that act was "blundering Democratic statesman- ship," as one said to me the other day. A Northern man may very commonly hear men who have been active and fpremost in the Conservative movement declare that, " as soon as we have driven off the Eadical thieves and robbers who have so long spoiled us, we shall quickly sliow these Democrats that they can uot hold the State." There is little doubt that whenever Feder- al interference in the State defiuitely ceases, and honest men have been put iuto j)ower, the " Conservative " party — the white man's party — will incontinently split into two nearly equal halves, and each will try, with the help of the negroes, to beat the other. But it is tolerably certain that, until the i>res- ent so-called Eeiiublicans are driven from power, the white men will stick together, for they can not afford to do otherwise. The Republican politicians stigmatize one wing of the Conservatives as " last ditchers," and it was these who desired Wiltz to be Speaker, and thus the head of the party. Now, they are uot " last ditchers,!' or imprac- ticable men at all ; but they are Democrats, and wish, as is but natural for them, to make the State Democratic. To this end they Avould like to keep the present Conserva- tive party together permanently, and use its strength for the Democratic jiarty. I can not see any thing wrong about this. It is their natural course to attempt it. But the other wing of the Conservatives, which, in the struggle over the speakership, was, curiously enough, led by Leonard^that editor of the Shreveport Times whose ex- treme and blood-thirsty utterances last year Avero so widely quoted as i>roving the dan- gerous condition of Louisiana — this other wing determined to beat Wiltz, and in doing so had the sympathy, I think I may safely say, of the greater part of the business com- munity of New Orleans. Leonard, who is a bold politician, did not hesitate to accept the help of the Kellogg wiug of the Republicans ; and the Wiltz men, on their jiart, tried to secure the help of Piuchback. On Friday morning it was un- derstood that Kellogg, Sheldon, Judge Steele, and the better class of the Republicans had given assurances to the Estillete men that they would co-operate for thorough reforms with that wing of the Conservatives, while Pinchback, it was said, was ready to throw a considerable colored Republican vote (twen- ty-three was the precise number given) for Wiltz; aud witb this help it was then believed Wiltz would be chosen. At the last moment, however, Pinchback abandoned Wiltz, and thus lie received but thirty-seven votes, in a house of one hundred and eight members, in which his own party had fifty- eight men. As it is very common to charge corruption where , party-lines are thus broken, I will add my belief, founded upon pretty iutimate knowledge of the negotiations on both sides, that there was nothing of the kind here. Mr. Wiltz is a person of a high sense of hon- or, and his adherents made no promise for him or themselves to Pinchback, except that Wiltz, if elected Speaker, would, in appoint- ing ofiicers of the house, give a fair share of the places to colored men. Pinchback prob- ably deserted Wiltz at the instance of Gen- eral Sheridan, who is known to have con- versed witli him on Friday morning in pret- ty energetic language. On the other side, Estillete's adherents insisted only on a sol- emn engagement from Kellogg that he would aid them in all reform measures. The disappointment of the Wiltz men was very great, and that of the corrupt Repub- licans was even greater, and with reason ; for, unless Governor Kellogg should be weak aud wicked enough to falsify his j)ledges, and fling himself once more into- the hands of the corrupt part of his party — which means, I do not hesitate to say, the very great majority of its white and black lead- ers — these are left out in the cold. Those Republican leaders, meantime, who sincere- ly desire honest government — and they are not very numerous — hope that they have sjilit the white man's jiarty in the State, and LOUISIANA IN APRIL, 1875. 43 that the result of the Sjieaker's election ■will be a fiual breaking-do^yn of the color-line. Meantime, so sore are the white people of the State over the too-long-coutinued mis- government, that they view every movement and every man with suspicion ; and only the most unswerving, bold, and determined course, the most rigorous punishment of cor- rupt men, could satisfy the State sufficiently to gain the new combination prolonged life. You can not travel far in Louisiana with- out discovering that the politicians who, in the name of the Republican party, rule it, and have done so for the last seven years, in all the departments of its government. State and local, are vehemently, and unani- mously detested by the white people. I have been amazed to see how all white men, and many blacks to my own knowledge — wheth- er rich or poor ; whether merchants, mechan- ics, or professional men ; whether Ameri- cans, French, Germans, Irish, or Italian by birth: absolutely all except the office-hold- ers and their relatives — unite in this feeling of detestation of their rulers. It expresses itself so vividly at the polls that, as I noticed before, only five thousand whites out of over ninety thousand supi^orted the Reiiublican ticket at the last election ; and it is a fact that most of these five thousand are office- holders, the greater jiart are strangers in the State, and very many of them may justly be called adventurers. It is so universal a sen- timent that I have found scarcely a colored man out of office, who did not complain to me that the Republican whites are as faith- less to their duty as they believe the other side would be. Now, this small band of white men have for more than six years monopolized all po- litical power and preferment in the State. They have laid, collected, and spent (and largely misspent) all the taxes, local taxes as well as State ; they have not only made all the laws, but they have arbitrarily changed them, and have miserably failed to euforce any which were for the people's good ; they have ojienly and scandalously corrupted the colored men whom they have brought into political life ; they have used unjust laws to perpetuate and extend their own power; and they have practiced all tlie basest arts of baUot-stuffing, false registration, and re- peating, at election after election. In the last election, it was proved before a committee of Congress that the Republic- an leaders had, in the city of New Orleans alone, made no less than five thousand two hundred false registrations. A few days ago I went down the river to attend court, in order to see the working of a negro jury. The court had to adjourn for lack of a jury ; aud no panel had been drawn, because, the names being taken from the registration lists of the parish, thirty-six out of forty-eight were found to be fictitious — and this in a country parish. The Republican returning board was condemned as a transparent fraud by two Congressional committees, and has, so far as I know, no defender iu Louisiana or in the country. I know of one case in the last election where, the Conservative ticket being elect- ed, the records of the election were carried by the supervisor frem the jiarish to New Orleans, and coucealed in a house of prosti- tution, one of whose inmates was sent to drive a bargain with the Conservatives for their return. So common is corruption, and so unblush- ing still, that the grand jury of New Orleans, only the other day, began an investigation to discover who had altered, after its pas- sage, an important appropriation bill, passed by the Hahn (Republican) Legislature ; aud the discovery of so gross and daring a fraud scarcely excited attention in New Orleans, where I have myself seen colored mMnbers of the Legislature — men who were slaves but ten years ago, and began life with noth- ing at that time — now driving magnificent horses, seated in stylish equijiages, and wear- ing diamond breast-pins. "Whatever we in the North may think of the white people of the South, we can not forget the fact that Louisiana has a long- established and wealthy community, with large and comjilicated business and social in- terests, aud a great accumulated capital, in- vested not merely in lands, but also in ma- chinery and important public works. New Orleans is one of the largest commercial ports in the L^nited States. It has a numer- ous body of intelligent and wealthy mer- chants, the equals of any of their class in New York, Philadelphia, or Boston. The sugar-planters of Louisiana are, in fact, man- ufacturers ; they have large sums invested in machinery, and their business requires much technical skill ; and they are, as a class, the equals in intelligeuce and charac- ter of Northern manufacturers. Now, then, all these men, the cream of the population, with scarcely a single exception, 44 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. are united in opposition to the present rul- ers of Louisiana, whom they not only detest, but dread. It is not tlie cotton-planter only of the remote districts, therefore, or the country trader, who opposes the Eepublican rule. How, in spite of so united an opposi- tion, a handful of politicians, most of them strangers in the State, have maintained themselves in power I will now try to explain. The constitution, of 1863, under which Louisiana was reconstructed, and wliich is still in force, is in some respects a sufficient- ly harmless -looking instrument. For in- stance, it iiretends to give the people the election of almost, but not quite, all their lo- cal or county officers ; it pretends to limit the powers of the Legislature and of the ex- ecutive ; it even, like many other State con- stitutions, forces the people to elect the judges and the subordinate State officers. But while thus apparently popular, it gives to the governor the exclusive power to appoint and remove all the officers con- cerned with the registration of voters, the conduct of elections, and the counting of votes in every parish of the State ; and also the appointment and removal of all tax-col- lectors — officers who have also an important part in the assessments. And, having thus given into the governor's control the purse and the voice of the people, by one or two inconspicuous clauses this instrument ena- bles an adroit and unscrupulous governor and Legislature to deprive the peojile of even those powers and remedies which are appar- ently secured to them, and without which free government becomes a farce. In fact, this constitution, as it has been applied by legislatures and governors, and construed by State judges since 1868, provides all the ma- chinery needed for the party in power to perpetuate its rule forever, in spite of the will of the people. Ist. The governor appoints and removes the registrars of election and their assist- ants all over the State, and the decision of these officers is final and conclusive as to the right of a person to vote. The regis- trars appoint the local supervisors, or com- missioners, who conduct the elections. But, as New Orleans is largely Democratic, the mayor and sheriff of that city are prohibited, under severe penalties, fi'om holding or in- terfering in " any election whatever," that work being given to the metropolitan po- lice, whose officers are appointed«by the gov- ernor. 2d. The governor appoints and removes the tax-collectors all over the State ; and in New Orleans he appoints also the assessors. 3d. He appoints the officers of the metro- politan police, paid for by the city of New Orleans ; and this body, so controlled by him, is constituted a metropolitan brigade, which he may send into any part of the State to make arrests ; and a steamer is provided for this purpose. 4t]i. He appoints the Board of Public Works of the State. 5th. He may, whenever he deems it neces- sary, appoint and commission, as an extraor- dinary force, a chief constable, and as many deputies as 'he thinks necessary iu any par- ish of the State, and these have, ex officio, power to make summary arrests. The chief constable is paid four doUars a daj-. 6th. He is, of course, commander-in-chief of the State militia, and appoints and com- missions its officer's. 7th. The constitution empowers him to fill all vacancies in office throughout the State. Under this apparently harmless clause, he, in efliect, controls even the lowest local of- fices in the remotest parts of the State, such as constables, justices of the i)eace, and par- ish surveyors. In a single number of the Louisianian, the official gazette of the State, I find the following exam^iles of the exer- cise of this power : "appointments bt the goveenok. "The following appointments were made by Gov- ernor Kellogg yesterday : "Parish of Orleans.— A. W. Connog, assistant sn- pervisor of registration of the First Ward. "Pai-ish of yatchitoclies.—lhwry Percy, parish sur- veyor, vice W. II. Boult ; R. E. Hammett, justice of the peace of the Third Ward ; F. L. Grappe, consta- ble; F. Jennings, justice of the peace of the Fifth Ward ; S. M. Cramps, constable ; L. Van Schoubruck, justice of the peace of the Sixth Ward ; M. L. Bates, constable; James E. Turner, justice of the peace of the Seventh Ward ; Will Cobb, constable ; A. R. Dow- den, justice of the peace of the Eighth Ward ; J. C. Bush, constable ; J. B. Vienue, justice of the peace of the Ninth Ward. "Parish of East Raton Rouge. — Charles G. Pages and Robert Morris, clerks to the supervisor of registra- tion. "Parish of CTaiftonu'.— Charles S. Blackburn, su- pervisor of registration ; L. M. M'Cormick and L. B. Blackburn, clerks. "Parish of St. 3/ar?/.— Richard Brooks, constable of the Third Ward. "Parish of ilabine.—'R. A. Forbis, justice of the peace of the Fourth Ward ; S. Whattey, justice of the peace of the Ninth Ward ; James Hardy, constable of the Fourth Ward; O. Seuter, constable of the Ninth Ward. "Parish of Lafayette.— Uai^h Wagner, justice of the peace of the Second Ward; Joseph Ledoux, constable of the Second Ward, vice C. Doucet, who failed to qual- ify; Vincent Bertrand, justice of the peace of the First LOUISIANA IN APRIL, 1875. Ward, vice Alfred Peck, who failed to qualify : Galbert Bienvenu, constable of the Third Ward ; Jules D. Boudreaux, constable of the Fourth Ward, vice H. Theall, who failed to qualify ; Alexander Billond, in- spector of weights and measures. ^^ Parish of Winn.— Sam Peace, justice of the peace ; John Patton, constable. "Dr. J. J. Finney was commissioned as a member of the Board of Health." A more thoroughly centralized govem- meut Frauce did not have under either em- pire. Nor have these great powers been hesitatingly used. Officers have been multiplied to an ex- traordinary degree, and at every new crea- tion the governor had the appointment of a favorite. New parishes (counties) were form- ed by the division of old ones, and in every case the governor ai>poiuted all the officers. Judicial districts have been re-arranged and new ones formed, and the governor there- upon made his friends or allies judges. A trick became common by which officers elected refused to qualifj^, and thereupon the governor filled the artificial vacancies ■with men who could not have been elected. Finally, so careful have the leaders in this conspiracy been to maintain theii- influence and their creatures in the pettiest offices, that the members of the Legislature are usually members of the local school boards, and degrade the schools by making the teachers their iiolitical tools ; and I have been in some petty villages of fifteen hun- dred or two thousand inhabitants, which have not for four or five years been allowed to put in office the town officers they elect- ed ; but after each election the result was disallowed, and the vacancies thus created Avere filled by the governor. As an example of the way such matters were managed, Shreveport will answer, the better because it lies in a region where the whites have been accused of discontent with the Republican rule. Shreveport before re- construction had a simple and economical city government. The mayor received a moderate salary, the Common Council were unsalaried. In 1871 the Republican Legis- lature imposed upon the place a new char- ter, which put it in charge of a mayor and four administrators, all salaried, all provided with clerks, and with office contingents. The governor was authorized to appoint these officers, and to fill all vacancies, un- til 1873, and they were authorized to issue bonds, and dispose of them " for the best in- terests of the city." They seem to have issued not only bonds, 45 but scrip, and this fell to forty cents on th« dollar at last. In the spring of 1874 the ad- ministrators proposed to issue bonds to the amount of one hundi'cd thousand dollars, to improve the streets. A tax-payers' associ- ation had been formed, and, having defeat- ed this project, they ofl'ered the mayor to undertake the same work which had been proposed, and do it to his satisfaction, if they were allowed to raise money on tax receipts from citizens. Permission being given, they did the whole work for thirty- six thousand dollars. The police vrere de- moralized by being paid in depreciated scrip; the tax -payers asked the mayor to discharge the police, and authorize an un- salaried citizens' patrol ; and this, too, was done, and the city became at once orderly. In the fall of 1874 the Republicans were beaten, a Conservative city government was chosen, and the scrip stands to-day at ninety. But this is not all. The new charter was passed in 1871. In 1873 the Legislature in- corporated the Shreveport Savings-bank and Trust Company, and gave it for fifty years the "sole and exclusive right" to erect works to supply the city with water and gas, and to run a ferry across the river. Now, at that very time Shreveport had already a well-established gas company ; a satisfactory ferry had long been in existence, and was a source of revenue to the city ; and for water- works there was no need. The company was to pay for all its privileges the petty sum of five hundred dollars a year. Now, then, among the incoriiorators named in the stat- ute -which gives these " exclusive rights," I find C. C. Antoine, then and still lieutenant- governor ; William Harper, State senator ; S. A. Hamilton, tax-collector ; Frank T. Hatch, supervisor of registration ; M. A. "Walsh, the appointed mayor, and George L. Smith, mem- ber of Congress. The story is completed when I add that the incorporators were not merely endowed with "exclusive rights," but also allowed to transfer these to other per- sons unimpaired. No ruler of a civilized community ever possessed greater powers than the governor of Louisiana under this constitution. It gives him actual and direct control of the ■whole of the election machinery, and of all the officers who handle the taxes, and, indi- rectly, he has had the appointment of almost all the local or parish officers of the State, as well as of the judiciary ; for when a judge or other officer elected by the people did not 46 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. serve the puqioscs of the corruptionists who controlled the State, if no other way to re- move him ofiered, the Legislature was ready to create a new parish, or a new judicial dis- trict, or a new court, and thus enable its governor to put iu a serviceable jierson. Here is an example : The constitution pro- vides that all district judges shall be elected by the people. New Orleans has a strong Conservative majority, and elected Conserv- ative judges; and, this being inconvenient to the rulers of the State, the Legislature of 1871 created a new tribunal, called the Eighth District Court, and authorized the governor to appoint a judge to hold until the next election. But, in 1872, Mr. Elmore, Conserv- ative, was elected to preside over this court. Thereupon the Legislature, as soon as it met, abolished both this and the Seventh District Court, to both which Conservative judges had been chosen, created the " Superior Dis- trict Court," authorized the governor to ap- point its judge, to hold until 187G, and vested in this court, so organized, exclusive juris- diction of all prerogative writs and the trial of all actions in which the title to any of- fice — State, iiarish, or municipal — was in- volved. Another act of the same Legisla- ture authorized the removal of cases where the office of judge was contested in any part of the State to this Superior District Court of New Orleans. Again, the criminal jurisdiction in the par- ish of Orleans was formerly vested in the First District Court of that parish. In 1872, a Conservative, E. Abell, was elected judge of this court. Thereupon, iu 1874, the Leg- islature deprived this court of almost all its important powers, and gave them to a new tribunal, called the " Superior Criminal Court ;" and this was specially vested with exclusive jurisdiction iu all cases of viola- tions of registration or election laws — and the governor was directed to appoint a judge to hold office until 1876. Now, remem- ber that the Radicals, or Republicans, who thus .created this court, were proved before the Cougrcssioual committee to have made five thousand two hundred false registra- tions in New Orleans alone in 1874. Of course, hating their own court, no one was punished for this. Again, by the charter of New Orleans, the police magistracy of the city was vested in certain " recorder's courts," whose officers were to be chosen by the ''Administrators," or Common Council of the city. But the peo^de elected in 1872 a Conservative board of administrators, and these chose Cfonserv- ative recorders. Thereupon, Act No. 95 of 1873 was passed by the Legislature, which abolished the recorder's courts, created iu their place metropolitan police-courts, and gave the governor authority to aj)point the magistrates to preside iu these courts. In other parts of the State the same trick has been repeatedly played, of legislating an obnoxious — that is to say, an honest — judge out of office by creatiug a new district, thus giving the governor the appointment of one judge, or even several new judges. Take one instance as an example : In the parish of Natchitoches, in 1S72, the grand jury ift- dicted a i)arish officer for embezzlement. The parish judge, his personal friend, pro- tected him by neglecting to draw a jury. This was so common a trick that a law was finally passed which compelled the drawing of juries ; but this law is evaded, for no jury was drawn iu the parish in which I write this at this term of the court — peo- ple tell me because the parish judge was afraid that if a grand jury met it would in- dict him for a gross misa|)j)licatiou of trust funds. However, in Natchitoches the case went before the district judge and a negro jury, who gave a verdict for forty thousand dol- lars. Thereupon, at the next session, the Legislature broke up the judicial district, and the governor appointed to be judge of the new district, which included Natchi- toches parish, that parish judge who had corruptly protected the embezzler of public funds. The judge has since been driven out of the county — so he tells me ; reputa- ble citizens of the parish accuse him of be- ing concerned in embezzling the school fund. The tax - collector, Boult, also driven from the parish, stands published as a defaulter in the last official State auditor's report, and acknowledged to me that he had, while tax- collector, been engaged in partnership with the Democratic member elect of Congress in buying up depreciated county warrants, which the county must redeem at par. Both Myers and Boult continued, when I was in Louisiana, to hold office, and the condition of aflairs in the parish may be gathered from the following details, which were confiimed to me by several citizens as existing iu 1874 : District Judge Myers was also treasurer of the school fund, and continues to be, though ho has not been LOUISIANA IN APRIL, 1875. 47 in the county siuce last July. Dr. Boult was tax-collector and member of the school board. His son, William Boult, was dep- uty-tax-collector and also deputy parish treasurer^two offices one of which ought to be a check on the other. A negro " police- jury" — a body which is the equivalent of our county supervisors — appointed an illit- erate parish treasurer, who made this Boult his deputy. Another sou, David Boult, was parish judge. Nor is such a state of things uncommon. Before the Congressional committee appear- ed one Green, of Lincoln parish, and in an- swer to questions admitted that he was State senator, one of his sons tax-collector, another parish judge, and a third supervisor of regis- tration. Of the members of the present Leg- islature some are parish judges, some tax- collectors, one is assistant secretary of state, and a considerable number are charged by their constituents with sharing the emolu- ments of office-holders whoso appointments they have caused. The complaiut is universal tliat the officers charged with the execution of the laws are not only inefficient, but corrupt ; that justice is not only denied, but openly sold ; and in many cases the people have, after vain re- monstrances, taken the law into their own hands. " I have seen a district attorney, appoint- ed by the governor, sell out a case for as little as ten dollars," declared, a laboring man with whom I conversed, and the story was con- firmed to me by several citizens of the par- ish whom I asked. Oue of the prominent citizens of the parish of Kapides said to me, " We have had neither protection nor justice for years. Matters became so bad that even the negroes got tired of bad government, and began to vote with us. We had no intimi- dation at the last election, because it was not necessary. But we would have intimi- dated if it had been required, for we could stand it no longer." " When we drove out the parish judge and other rascals, our taxes had got iip to seven and nine -tenths per cent, on a high valua- tion ; and we concluded that we might as well stop there, aud refuse to pay any more taxes," said the citizen of another parish. Nor are even the highest judicial officers of the State untainted. In the North Loui- siana Railroad case, the Supreme Court of the Uuited States, in its decision delivered last winter, said : " A property upon which had been expended nearly two million dollars, together with a large stock-sub- scription, a large grant of lauds, and considerable movable property, was bought for fifty thousand dol- lars by the very persons who defeated a sale for a much larger price, and the jiurchase money was retained by themselves. * * * It is impossible to characterize this agreement as any thing else than a gross fraud. Its obvious purpose was to remove competition at the sale. It was a flagrant breach of trust on the part of Home, and it was a fraud iu Ludeling, with knowl- edge of the trust Home had undertaken, to jiersuade him to violate his instructions aud sacritice the inter- ests of his constituents, himself becoming a party to the violation. * * * Aiulit is further ordered, a/} jvdged, mid decreed that the sale made by John T. Ltuieling and liis associates, aud the adjudication of the sheriff to them, together with the sheriff's deed to them, ha de- clared to he fraxidulent and void, and be set aside and canceled; and that a perpetual injunction issue com- manding them and all the defendants to refrain from setting up or claiming any right, title, or interest un- der said sale or under said deed, etc." Now, the .John T. Ludeling here declared guilty of fraud aud breach of trust is the present chief-justice of the Supremo Court of Louisiana, appointed by a Republican governor, aud has been allowed by the Re- publican Legislature to retain his seat on the Supreme Bench of the State iu the face of these terrible words of the Uuited States Supreme Court. Public aud political de- moralization could hardly go further than this. Considering the character of the men with whom he acts, he was the right man in the right place ; and it was but part of a gener- al system when " Ludeliug, Ch. J." decided, in 1870, in a case brought before his court, where it was attempted to upset an act of the Legislature on the ground that it had been procured by bribing the members, that " courts are not permitted to go behind an enrolled, duly authenticated aud prouuilgat- ed public statute, to inquire into the motives which may have iuflueuced the members of the General Assembly in enacting it. There- fore, evidence tending to establish bribery and corruption against the members of the General Assembly, Avhich, it is alleged, pro- cured its passage, is not admissible." Federal, State, aud parish officers have banded together to maintain themselves iu power, auA have used the ignorant fears of the negroes to help them. Thoy called to their aid every man unscrupulous' enough to take part with them. By alarming the blacks, by false registration, by arbitrary arrests aud threats of arrests just before the elec- tions, by cheating in the returning board, by tamperiug with the courts, by debauch- ing the Legislature, by monopolizing offices, 48 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. tbey have persistently prevented tlie hon- est people of the State from securing honest government. See here an example : A young fellow, a white man, in the pres- ent Legislature, came to New Orleans from New York six years ago, so far an adventurer that his first occupation was to teach boys to travel on the velocipede. He was present- ly engaged as a subordinate clerk in the Legislature, and when that body adjourned he went to Mississippi, where, the Legisla- ture of that State being still in session, he was also employed as a clerk. In the fall he returned to New Orleans, where Warmoth, then governor, made him supervisor of reg- istration and election in an uj)-country par- ish where he had never been or lived. Aft- er the election he brought down the returns, which, by a coincidence not at all remark- able in this State, showed him to have re- ceived the unanimous Republican vote, and to be elected to the Legislature from the parish where he had managed the registra- tion and election. Two years later (in 1872) he did not receive the ReiJublican nomina- tion ; but, noways discouraged, he announced himself as an independent candidate. On his way to the parish, however, he was intrust- ed by the State committee with the Eepub- lican tickets for the parish voters, and it was discovered that his name and that of a Dem- ocrat had been mysteriously placed on these tickets. Thereupon the negroes threatened to lynch him, and he returned to New Orleans until just before the election. The returns showed his defeat ; but the returning board seated him, regarding him as too useful a man to leave out. I am told that he found it necessary to .call in the help of the last returning board also to seat him in the pres- ent Legislature. Such cases were so far froin rare that the Legislature of 1869 was made up almost entirely of supervisors of registration and colored men. Warmoth, the governor, se- lected as registrars a large number of men left iu New Orleaus after the war, and re- maining there without regular employment. These were sent into the country parishes to register the voters ; and they so impressed the negroes with their oflicial power and dig- nitj^, that a majority of them were returned to the Legislature from parishes which they had never seen until they went there to superintend the election. Many negroes were dragged in as a matter of bargain ; they had wit enough to demand a share of the honors. The Legislature so elected sat sixty days, at a cost to the State, for j;er diem, mileage, and contingents, of nine hundred thousand dollars. Each member is said to have received seven thousand dollars for the session ; and it is related that a single com- mittee of the House had eighty-seven clerks, who were paid ten dollars a day each. A government so highly centralized as that of Louisiana can scarcely fail to bo costly and corrupt. But it ought at least to secure peace and order. I asked Governor Kellogg what was the real condition of the State in this respect, and he gave me a long and deplorable cata- logue of disorders : parishes which refuse to pay taxes; others where the judges have been driven away; others where murders have been committed, and so on. Other Rad- ical politicians spoke rather boastfully of these things, as a New York newsboy took pride in his sore toe. They related to me by the half- hour melancholy instances of crime and outrage — most of them dating back to 1866. What they did not tell me was some such story as this, Avhich, nevertheless, is true : In the parish of Plaquemine, which lies un- der the governor's nose, along the Lower Mississippi, below New Orleans, and which has had Republican rulers ever since 1868, thirty-three murders have been committed since 1868. Of these, thirty -one were of blacks by blacks, one of a white by a white ; and one of a white man, a Northern man, a Republican and an office-holder, the tax-col- lector of the parish. This man was shot by a colored man for seducing his sister and turning the young girl adrift with her baby. Of these thirty-three murderers, not one has been hanged. Those who were apprehended mostly broke out of jail, and only last fall the Republican deputy- sherifif, who acted as jailer, was indicted for i)ei"mitting thi'ee murderers and a defaulting tax-collector to escape out of his custody. In other cases which I have on my note- books, men sentenced to imprisonment for life for mnrder have been pardoned. No one, not even the governor, pi-eteuds that murder and laAvlessness have been punished, though in many instances white citizens have helped the authorities to arrest white murderers. I am satisfied that since the year 1870, except in the Coushatta and Colfax afi"airs, most of the murders in Louisiana have been non- political iu their origin, and a great propor- LOUISUNA IN APRIL, 1875. 49 tion of them Lave been of negroes by ne- groes, maiuly on account of jealousy iu tlieir relations -with their women. This does not lessen the degree of crimi- nality. Nor does it take away from the duty of the rulers, possessing, as these did, greater and more iiulimited powers than the rulers of any civilized State in the world, to pun- ish these crimes. The governor of Louisiana appoints, in effect, almost the whole judicia- ry and constabulary of the State ; he has ex- press authority to use the metropolitan police as a standing army iu any part of the State, and to appoint au extraordinary constabu- lary force iu any parish ; his own judges su- perintend the selection of the juries, both grand and petit, and these are usually large- ly composed of colored men ; he has also the militia ; and, finally, he has the army of the United States ready to help him at his call. Is there any excuse for him if he jiermits lawlessness, murder, violence ? .When he and those who rule with him speak of murder and violence nnrepressed, do they not fa- tally condenm themselves as incapable and nutit to rule the State? A United States army officer, an extreme Eepublican, after giviug me an account of some murders of which he had heard, and which he believed to have happened, added, " But I must say that if the governor had been a man fit for his place, such thiugs could not have hap- pened. Let me be governor, and I would quickly, with the great power he has, put a stop to such thiugs." It can not be truthfully said that the State of Louisiana has been peaceful ever since the war. In the early days, between 1865 and 1868, there is no doubt that many barbarous and heart-rending murders and outrages were committed on the blacks. The white people, sore at their defeat iu the war, un- used to tolerate free negroes, fearful, to a de- gree that seems to a Northern man absurd, of combinations and conspiracies among the blacks to murder the whites and outrage their women, and rendered frantically furi- ous by the sight of negroes assembled in po- litical meetings, often at night, did, without doubt, commit atrocities of which I should be sorry to see any formal record made. Such crimes decreased from year to year, but I doubt if they entirely ceased until 1870. They happened oftenest in counties — of which Louisiana has a good many — where the negro population is as three, four, and in some cases eveu as nine, to one white; Avhere 4 a few white families, isolated from each other, are surrounded by a dense negro population ; and where the di-ead of a rising to extermi- nate the whites is to this day the secret ter- ror of every white man, the dread which makes him frantic and desperate when even a rumor of conspiracy reaches his cars. I speak here that which I know. Now, into such regions came white men, strangers, often fanatics, often knaves, who gathered the freedmen together at barbe- cues and in camps, and told them of their " rights." I was shown yesterday a colored man who still keeps in his house the mule- halters he got in 1868, when a white man traveled through St. Mary's Parish telling the blacks that " they had made the land what it was ; had cleared it and cultivated it ; and they ought to own it ; and the Gov- ernment, which had set them fi-ee, was go- ing to give them each forty acres of laud and a mule." The blacks believed it. Many of them believe it still — just as there are planters down here foolish enough to be- lieve that the United States Government will pay them for their losses in the war. All this irritated the whites, and aroused the fear of negro insurrection ; and it led, iu the remoter jjarts of the State, to many inex- cusable acts of barbarity. Then came tho reconstruction, in 1868, and the negro was made, not only a voter, but an office-holder. It was, I believe, absolutely necessary to confer these rights upon him ; he would nev- er have been a free man without them. But it was a misfortune that demagogues and adventurers were his introducers to political life, and led him to regard not fitness, but color and numbers, as the reasonable claim to office. I have been opposed to slavery ever since I sat on my father's knee, and was taught by him that slavery was the greatest possible wrong ; but when, in New- Orleans last Wednesday, I for the first time saw negro legislators, I was unpleasantly startled — not because they were black, but because they were transparently ignorant and unfit. What, then, must have been the feelings of meu who saw blacks, but lately their own slaves, and as ignorant as the mules they drove, preferred before them for office, set over them iu authority, nuxking laws for them — and makiug them very badly at that— openly plundering the State, bribed by rascally whites, and not merely enjoying, but, under the lead of white adventurers, shamefully abusing, place and power? 50 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. Even ill 1874, in one of tlie northern par- ishes, the Republican candidates for sheriff and parish judge couhl not write. The ne- groes on many police-juries (supervisors of counties) are totally illiterate ; yet they have complete power over the parish taxes, roads, bridges, and all county matters. Negro ju- ries are called to sit npou intricate cases of commercial law and other matters which even intelligent men find it dititicult to un- derstand ; and the black man himself has, it would seem, an instinctive appreciation of the absurdity of this, for it is notorious that a negro criminal always asks his counsel to get a white jury, if possible, to try him. Things which are commonplace here are unheard of with us. It was a matter of complaint to me the other day that in a certain county not a single colored man had been drawn on the grand jury thisyear. Myinstant and thought- less reply was that I had never known a negro to be drawn on the grand jury in the county in which I live. But the cases are widely dif- ferent; and it is absolutely necessary that the negro in the South shall take some share of the responsibilities of citizenship. But you can not quiet unreasonable fears or change wrong habits by act of Congress. I asked a citizen of a northern parish, a frank and intelligent man,whether they had schools for the colored children. He replied, " Of course, as many as for the whites ;" and added, "At first all our people were bitterly opposed to negro schools ; when, after some time, we had come in to that, then we would not for a while allow white men to teach in them. But now we are all agreed that it is just as well not to interfere; and one of my own neighbors, a weakly man, is teacher in a colored school, and nobody thinks the less of him for it." A prominent citizen of New Orleans said to me, " When, in 1868, the blacks were for the first time to vote, I was a candidate for office ; and I heard, just before the election, that John, a man I had raised, who was my personal servant, and who, since his freedom, had lived with his family in a house of my own rent free, was going to vote against me. Now, I love the boy like a brother, but I called him to me and asked the question, and I was deeply irritated. He replied that if I was on the Republican ticket he would gladly vote for mo ; but if not, he would cer- tainly vote against me. I told him that if he did, he must leave the house in which he lived, and must never show me his face again. The nest day was election-day. I watched ; the poll, which was near my house. I saw John come to vote ; he did not see me, but he pulled out his ticket, unfolded it, held it ux) over his head, and said in a loud voice, ' I'm votin de Republican ticket.' I drove him out of his house, took away all his em- Xiloyment, and ordered that he should not be admitted to my house. I was very sore and angry toward him. My pride was hurt. It lasted several months, and I missed John. One day, on the anniversary of the death of one of my children, he sent me a bouquet of flowers ; and I did not refuse the peace-offer- ing. He lives with me now, and will till he dies; but since then I have never tried to control a black man's vote. I have learned better. Nowadays they come to me to ask how I would like them to vote ; and as those I employ necessarily lose a day if they go to the polls, I noticed that in 1874 many did not vote at all." How clearly such instances show that the freedman would never have been a free man without political rights ; but, also, that the adjustment of his new relations needed time as well as law to complete it ! One thing more was very much needed, and that was a rigorous enforcement of the laws. Unfortunately the reconstructors of Louisiana have utterly failed in this. It was not only murder and personal outrage they should have punished and repressed, but malversation in office, public robbery, bribery, fraud. When the United States-Su- preme Court, in a solemn and public decis- ion, dencunces as an inexcusable fraud and breach of trust the act of a man who is now Chief-justice of the Supreme Court of Loui- siana, and when neither the Legislature nor the governor takes measures, after that de- cree, to purify the highest judicial court in the State, that is only a straw which shows the general di-ift of political demoralization. All sense of honor, of honesty, of propriety and self-restraint, seems to me to have been lost by these men who have so long misruled the State. That I am not speaking extravagantly or in mere idle denunciation, let this recent in- stance show you. The Republican (or Hahn) Legislature, that which, after the dispersion of the W^iltz Assembly in January, 1875, was recognized by the Federal Government, among other acts passed a new charter for the city of New Orleans — an instrument cal- culated, I am told, to facilitate stiU great- LOUISIANA IN APRIL, 1875. 51 er robbery aud misgovernmeut of the city. Governor Kellogg did not sign the bill ; but neither did he veto it. The Assembly ad- journed while it was still properly iu his hands, and under the constitution he must return it signed or vetoed on the first day of the next meeting. The merchants and prop- erty-owners were alarmed at the mischief which would be wrought if this bill became a law. They petitioned against it, and the governor quietly gave them to understand that if they would unite to iirevent the elec- tion of Wiltz as Speaker, he would veto the bill. Now, I do not believe Wiltz to have been the best man for Speaker, but that does not excuse a governor for trading upon the fears of citizens. More than this, an honorable Republican, a man respected by the other side, told me, with indignation, that a number of Radical members of the Legislature had made it a condition of their supporting the Adjust- ment, that an injunction issued by a State court stojipiug the proceedings of a corrupt board of audit should be dissolved ; and it was so dissolved the day before the Legisla- ture met. As for minor robberies, take this as an ex- ample : The parish of Plaqtiemine lies on the Jlississippi, below New Orleans. It contains a large number of sugar- plantations; and, besides these, its people (mostly French Cre- oles and colored men) cultivate rice and the orange. It is a charming, quaint country, and the small farmers, who mostly speak French better than English, are a quiet and simple-hearted people. In the year 1868, when reconstruction began, this jjarish had no debt, and six thousand dollars in cash in its treasury, which sum was turned over to the reconstructors. Among these was one who owned a small sugar- plantation in the parish, into which he had come as an offi- cer during the war ; he was elected to the State Senate, and, by a curious coincidence, the Legislature, of which he was a member, passed a law removing the parish seat from Point ^ la Hache, where it had been time out of mind, to a spot at Jesuits' Bend, far- ther up the river, and on this man's planta- tion. Of course, to get the county town removed to one's farm is not a bad specu- lation. Lawyers and many other people must live near the Court-house, and they make a market for town lots. The records of the county were, in fact, removed ; but the people made such a clamor that, after a struggle of a year, the project was given up. Presently this man became a bank- rupt ; but he is all right, for the governor has appointed him tax-collector of the par- ish, a place said to be worth ten thousand dollars a year. A colored man from the island of Nassau also came in 1868. A white man, formerly iu General Neat Dow's corps, which cam- paigned in this region, was another i^oli- tician. He was made supervisor (member of the police-jury they call it here), and, soon after the reorganization, the parish authorities began to issue scrip iu such abundance that in two or three years it fell to fifteen cents on the dollar. But it was always receivable at par for parish taxes. In 1872 the colored man above mentioned was State senator; another colored man was member of the Assembly, and another was sheriff. The Legislature passed a law authorizing these three, and two white citi- zens, to ascertain and report the outstand- ing debt of the parish, and to fund it. The three colored men are accused of issuing bonds illegally, and without consent of the whites, to the amount of ^36,000 iu exchange for scrip, much of which had been bought up by them and their friends at a great dis- count. On an investigation by citizens it was found that the seal of the court, which had to be affixed to these bonds by the par- ish clerk to make them valid, had not been affixed by him ; but had been surreptitious- ly obtained and used by the three bond-is- suers. The parish debt is now $93,000, and Judge Pardee, a Rei^ublican, but praised by every body here as an honest and incorrupt- ible man, has granted an injunction prohib- iting the conversion of the remaining $57,000 of scrip into bonds. Finally, the last grand jury of the parish, composed of twelve col- ored men and four whites, indicted Butler for bribery and embezzling the school fund ; Mahoney, for stealing the school fund; and Prescott, the parish judge, a white man, stranger in the parish, for subornation of perjury. Now, then, the financial statement in Plaquemine parish stands thus : In 1868, no debt, and $6000 in the treasury ; in 1875, a debt of $93,000. Meantime, iu every year since 1868, taxes to the amount of from §20,000 to $25,000 have been levied and col- lected. And for all this large sum, amount- ing, taxes and debt, to over $200,000 in six years, the jiarish has received neither roads, 52 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. nor scliools, nor levee repairs, nor public Luiltliugs. Before the war the taxes never exceeded $7000 a year. Ill tbe report of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, tbe management of scbool affairs in Plaquemiue parish is thus mentioned: "A controlling portion of the school board coultl not resist the temptation to use their position as a means of political advancement, tind a large portion of the school funds was expended for private and partisan purposes. Furnished with ample funds from the State treasury, which were liberally increased by local tax- ation, the money has been squandered or expended without even ordinary judgment. * * * Access to the books and papers pertaining to the office of the treas- urer was denied me from time to time upon frivolous pretexts, and, finally, peremptorily and insultingly refused. Obstacles of every possible character -were thrown in my way to prevent me from obtaining re- liable information, the treasurer even attempting my imprisonment on the charge of larceny. * * * The re- sult of a somewhat protracted investigation can be summed up in a few words. The accounts, as they appear in the remarkable document before alluded to, are, in many cases, falsified by being ' raised ;' ficti- tious claims are allowed and paid to fictitious person- ages; unworthy, iucomixstent, and dissipated teach- ers have, in some instances, been employed to per- form political services of questionable honesty, and the public money expended to the last cent, leaving a heavy load of debt. * * * Knowing as I do the details of this most disgraceful matter, I charge the then treasurer of the board with embezzlement, aided and abetted by the then president and the parish judge, who also was a member of the board, and am pre- pared to establish this before any competent tribunal." The treasurer of tbe school board here de- nounced -was also at the same time State Senator and member of the police-jury (su- pervisor). Maboney, who was president of the school board, was at tbe same time mem- ber of the Assembly and police-juror. I find that in a great many parishes the members of the Legislature are members and officers of the school board. As the lat- ter office is not salaried, I was dull enough not to see the object of the Senators and Keiiresentatives in holding it, until an in- telligent colored man, a Republican and an office-holder, explained to me that in this way the public schools are made political engines throughout the State. The Sena- tors or Representatives, being also officers of the school boards, appoint the school-teach- ers, and select meu who are their own polit- ical adherents, and who, living among the colored people, help to keep their patrons in office. " In this parish," said the man to me, '^wo have many more colored scliools than white ; but it is a fact that most of the teachers are ignorant men or lazy, or, sometimes, drunk- ards. They are appointed by our Senator and Representatives, and their work is not to teach school, but to talk up the man who appoints them. If a teacher were the smart- est man in the township, and be went against the man who appointed him, he would be turned out; but this is not all. Over here there is a colored school, and another one close to it. There is no need for two so near together; but neither of them is worth any thing ; for they were both set up for politics, and the teachers are only politicians, and the schools are hardly ever open." The colored man who told me this is a Reiiublicau and an office-holder. I shall not mention the name of the parish iu which he lives, because I do not wish to get him into trouble ; but his testimony was confirmed to me by many other meu of both colors. The scbool report to which I have referred gives a melancholy picture of the Louisiana school system. Of 272,334 children between six and twenty -one, only 57,433 were en- rolled in the public schools ; and as my eye runs over the images I find that iu one i>arish the treasurer of the school board has used the funds for his private puri^oses, and paid the teachers in scrip to the amount of three thousand dollars. . In another thirty thou- sand dollars were spent, and tbe schools were open less than a year — this in a country par- ish. In two parishes the school treasurers " had absconded with quite a large amount of money belonging to the school fund." In another "tbe money appropriated to estab- lish schools was invested in private business and speculation." In yet another "all the forms of law Avhich should govern school affairs have been totally ignored and disre- garded." In the parish of St. Martin, the treasurer of the school fund was discovered to be a defaulter to the amount of three thousand seven hundred dollars. In St. James the school board had prudently burned their records when they left tbe office, and J. W. Hunsaker, president of the board, after giv- ing bail of five thousand dollars to answer to the charge of fraud, left the State. Do you wonder, iu the face of such things as these, that, according to the admission of Marshal Packard himself, only five thousand white men voted the Republican ticket iu 1874 ? That is to say, tbe office-holders and their relatives. Is it matter for surprise, that but for the fear of the Federal power, the people would sweep away this State government in an hour — that, in fact, these rulers would disappear of themselves if they LOUISIANA IN AFEIL, 1875. 53 did not know tliat they have tlie Federal government behind them ? Do you wonder that enterprise languishes, and jiroperty is valueless, when men see a fair election de- feated by a fraudulent returning board, and the chief officer of that board, the engineer of the fraud, which was denounced as such by two committees of Congress, receiving directly afterward a Federal office f It is not contempt which the peojile of Louisiana feel for their rulers, but fear. The niau who takes part in the State govern- ment, eveu if he should be honest himself, gives his influence to public plunderers, and he must expect property-owners to be shy of him. Did honest men associate with the Tammany thieves in New York ? Or, if they did, were they not, in the public opinion, stained by the contact ? " Do you see that man ?" said a citizen in an interior x^arish to me : " he is our parish judge ; he is as ignorant of law as a horse. During the last election I heard him openly, and to his face, charged with theft. Not only that, but at a public political meeting where he was speaking, iu his presence he was ac- cused of taking a bribe of ten dollars while be was prosecuting attorney, and the man who accused him was the man who paid him the money. In spite of this, the colored peo- ple were persuaded to elect him judge. Every decent colored man in the parish will tell you that it was an uufit nomination ; but he got on the ticket and they elected him. The whole bar of the parish firmly believes that he sells justice. He says he is ostracized ; but can you expect me to invite him to my house ? He could not to-day get invited to the house of any respectable colored man iu the parish." " Can you expect us to like people under whose rule such frauds go on for years, and are unpunished ?." asked another ; " who al- low the fountains of justice to be corrupted, who never punish crime, and are too corrupt to check corruption in their subordinates; who degrade the very schools to serve their partisan purposes ; appoint rogues to collect the taxes; and frame a returning board to cheat us by a clumsy and glaring fraud, when we try at the elections to procure better government ?" A friend writes me from the North this question, "Are white and black Union men safe in life, liberty, and property iu Loui- siana? That is the question which we of the North want to have honestly and seri- ously answered." I answer: first, the population of Loui- siana is divided politically into Republicans, called here Radicals ; and Democrats, called here Conservatives. They are all Union men. It is absurd and wicked to keeii up the old war animosity by giving to the Southern Republicans the special title, " Un- ion men." The Republican party iu Louisiana con- tains a great many men who were bitter Se- cessionists, not only during, but after, the war. One of the most conspicuous Repub- licans who came before the Congressional committee with complaints, and who was proved there and then by documentary evi- dence to be a rogue, was a Breckenridge Democrat before the war. Another, Green, who admitted that he and his sons held pretty much all the offices in Lincoln par- ish, made a speech iu the Legislature after the war advocating payment for slaves. I could mention dozens of such cases. On the other hand, in my limited acquaiLt- anco iu the State, I know at least fifteen Northern men who were strenuous Repub- licaus in the North, most of whom still open- ly act with the National Republican party in Federal elections, but who vote and use all their influence for the Democratic or Conservative party in State and parish af- fairs. There are huudreds of such men in the State. Even the Republicans themselves are not so absurd as to arrogate to them- selves the title of "Union men." They would be laughed at. What my correspondent, and no doubt many other Northern men, want to know is, whether Northern men and negroes are safe, and cau get security and justice iu Louisi- ana; and to this I reply, unhesitatingly^ " Yes." It is perfectly true, as I have said else- where, that between 1865 and 1868 there was a good deal of savage and brutal wrong in- flicted on blacks; and iu the same period, and probably for a year or two later. North- ern men who came here to take possession of the State politically, and who at onco be- gan a prodigious system of public plunder, were not always safe from the auger and re- sentment of the native whites. But several of the most prominent Republican politi- cians of New Orleans have told me positive- ly that the State was peaceable and quiet from 1868 to 1872, and that since then the whites had been dissatisfied mainly because they believed sincerely that Kellogg was not 54 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. fairly elected governor, aud that his rule was that of a usurper. If General Sheridan ever turns in his famous list of '2500 murders, aud if ho puts dates to them, it will be found that the political murders happened before 18G8, with the exception of the Coushatta and Colfax atfairs. The corrupt judge who claims to have been driven out of Natchi- toches Parish assured me that that parish was one of the most quiet in the State until 1874, when he and a swindling tax-collector were driven out. That parish has becomo so notorious as the most unruly in the State, that I have taken some pains to ascertain the facts; be- cause there, if anywhere, persecution of Northern men and negroes would be found. Now, then, first, an official report, properly authenticated, of the murders committed in this parish from 1868 to 1875 lies before me. They number 41, aud of these there were whites murdered by whites, 13 ; colored mur- dered by colored, 13 ; whites by colored, 4 ; colored by whites, 3 ; whites by an unknown person, 3 ; colored by unknown, 1 ; colored by officers of justice in serving process, 3 ; Indian by a white man, 1. Somebody may object that this record is not correct, but to that the reply is that the parish has been al- most continually since 1868 under Eepublic- an officers, and that the coroner is reputed here, as elsewhere, to be an officer very zeal- ous in the collection of fees. It is not cred- itable to the Republican rulers that for these 41 homicides not one man has been hanged, and only one has been i^unished in any way. I should add that there is no evidence that any of these murders arose out of political causes. Consider that the parish had for years a corrupt judge aud a thieving tax-collector — who managed to get all his sons into offices — and a police -jury (county sxipervisors) made up mainly of illiterate negroes. Gov- ernor Kellogg, for instance, in 1874 appointed as police-jurors three colored men, who could neither read nor write, one white man of an infamous character, whom even his fellow- Republicans publicly protested against, and one decent white man. Under such rulers, the parish tax, which amounted to $13,475, with a valuation of $8,000,000 in 1860, rose to $46,894 on a valuation of but $2,000,000 in 1869; it rose to $54,902 in 1870; aud in 1873 to $82,207. This was the parish tax alone, exclusive of the State tax. The supervisors allowed themselves one year fifty cents a mile mileage for everj' time they met. They paid out $1500 for a bridge which should have been built for $300, aud gave the contractor a privilege to levy toll upon it for his own use when it was built. The parish judge acknowledged before the Congressional committee that he had for two years retained $7500 of parish money in his possession, in violation of an order of a district court to return it to the treasury; he refused repeatedly to draw juries, in or- der to shield his confederates ; and yet this person was appointed by Governor Kellogg district judge, a higher office. The people formed a tax-payers' associa- tion, and warned the judge and one of his confederates, the tax-collector, to leave the parish. The sons of the latter to-day hold offices in the parish, and none of them have been killed. The two men walk about free- ly in New Orleans, aud are not molested ; but they tell fearful stories of intimidation and danger to their lives, and call them- selves " Union men. " The Tax-payei's' Association was composed of Republicans as well as Democrats, and had among its members 200 negroes. Myei-s calls it a white league, of course, and talks about intimidation of Republican voters ; but the official returns of the registration and election show these figures : The parish had, by the census of 1870, 7312 whites and 10,929 blacks. Of these, one in five and a half blacks registered as a voter, and only one in seven and a half of the whites, in 1874, the year of the disturbance. Of the 3665 who registered, 3131 actually voted, and the Republicans carried the parish by 315 majority. It was shown that many negroes voted with the Conservatives, and many oth- ers staid at home because they were disgust- ed with the theft of the school fund. I have taken Natchitoches as an example, because it has an especially evil reputation. Contrast with this a parish in which the Reimblicans have given the people an hon- est aud economical government, and where there has been no disturbance. There are but four or five honestly governed parishes in the State. I happen to be well informed about one of these, Tensas, like Natchitoches, a cotton-planting county, and with a large preponderance of negroes. There has never, since 1868, been any disturbance in Tensas, nor any pretense of intimidation. Here is its story since 1868 : The Republicans who came into it from the North happened to be LOUISIANA IX APRIL, 1875. 55 honest and sensible men. Tlieir leader was Judge Steele, later assistant attorney-general of tlie State, an able man. They persuaded some of the most substantial of the old resi- dents to take parish offices. They took care to put always three prominent whites and two colored men on the j)olice-jury. The par- ish judge had been a Confederate officer, and is a capable man, and a jiroperty-holder in the parish. They have always persuaded the negroes to elect such men to the local offices. Tensas had, in 1S70, 1400 whites and 11,018 blacks. With, economical management, they have extinguished since 1866 a debt of $190,- 000, contracted for levees before the war, pay- ing off $130,000 of it. The rest was proved fraudulent in the courts. The parish has good roads, bridges, thirty schools, four gra- ded schools — two for each color ; it has mon- ey in the treasury ; its assessment is very low ; the courts are respected, the laws are enforced, peace obtains ; even stock-stealing has been put down. Meantime, the North- ern men have not ceased to be Republicans, nor have they given up their share of the offices. The State Senator and Representa- tive and some of the local officers are North- ern men and Republicans. The negroes are satisfied ; and when once some di'uukeu ruf- fians from a neighboring county threatened to come in and attack a Nortliern man, the largest meeting of whites ever assembled in the county promptly gathered, and sent word to the rowdies that they would be shot down if they showed their faces in the parish. Surely the story of these two parishes tells the reason why discontent and some- times disorder are found in parts of Lcni- isiana. "It is not the Radicals, but the thieves, that we hate and oppose," said more than one Conservative to me. And I believe this to be the truth. I have not time to wander all over the State ; but I have exam- ined every case where I have heard of com- plaints of especial hostility to Republicans, and in every case I have found that there had been gross and long-continued misgov- ernment, extravagance, denial of justice, and tolerance of disorder by the courts. I was told, for instance, that Madison Par- ish was " not a pleasant j)lace for a Repub- lican." Very well. I find that in four years — from 1863 to 1872 — the Republican recon- structors ran up a debt in this j)arish of over $142,000. It had, in 1870, by the census, only 936 white persons. It registered in 1874 only 255 white voters and 2135 blacks. The few whites were, of cour/se, the owners of almost all the property. Such monstrous mismanagement, borne by so few tax-payers, might very well create ill-feeling and strife ; but the parish gave, in 1874, 1614 Republic- an majority, and the vote ran but 55 short of the registration. Intimidation is, of course, out of the question. In the North wo have heard so much about murders that I was very glad to get hold here of some parish statistics on this subject. The State government, which has almost entirely neglected to punish murder- ers — being too busily engaged in stealing — has, of course, no such official returns of crime as it ought to possess. I have been able to obtain returns, chiefly made by county clerks and coroners, from only 13 parishes, not counting Plaquemiue, which I have before given. From 1868 to 1875 there have been in these 13 parishes 313 murders. Of these, 93 were of whites by whites, 143 were of colored by colored, 28 were of whites by colored, 32 colored by whites, 3 colored by officers of justice, 5 colored by persons unknown, 7 whites by persons unknown, 5 whites by mobs, and 5 colored by mobs. The State has 57 parishes. Most of the 13 of which I have given returns have a population nearly equally divided between white and black, and I suspect the figures give more than an average number of mur- ders of whites by whites, and less than the average of murders of blacks ^y blacks. Plaquemiue, for instance, not counted in the above list, registered, in 1874, 510 white and 2160 black voters, and there I found that there had been, since 1868, 33 murders, of which 31 were of blacks by blacks. There is good evidence for the statement that the large majority of murders in the State in the last six years were of blacks by blacks, instigated by whisky and jealousy. The negroes drink less whisky this year than two or three years ago, when they were get- ting much higher wages ; but theii* demand for it is so strong that I find the planters generally sell it to them in the little planta- tion-stores, having discovered that if they did not, their hands would be running off elsewhere to get it, or some negro would peddle it in the cabins. The plantation ne- groes commonly carry a razor as a concealed weapon, and, absurd as this seems as a weap- on of attack, they infl^ict serious and often fatal wounds with it. The razor seems to 56 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. be tbeir favorite weapon elsewhere also, for I found it so in Delaware. They take to it probably because it is the cheapest tool with a keen edge. It is not only a fact that crime has not been punished in the State under the Kepub- licau rule — neither crime against the person nor against property ; but there is a great complaint that the pardoning power has been abused. I have found but oue return on the subject, whicli shows certainly a lib- eral use of this jirerogative. From January 1, 1873, to March 5, 1874, Governor Kellogg pardoned thirteen murderers (almost one a month) besides six men convicted of man- slaughter. The whole number of pardons during this period was eighty -four, aud among the offenses thus condoned are i)oi- soniug, rape, shootiug into a dwelling, burg- lary, assault with intent to kill, perjury, and bribing witnesses. Now, when society is said by Governor Kellogg to be in a dis- ordered state, and when he himself acknowl- edges, as he did to me, that crime is not geu- erally punished, surely it is a serious error to pardon with so free a hand persons con- victed of such grave and dangerous crimes as I have mentioned. It can not fail to in- crease disorder. Unhappily, it can not bring the courts into greater contempt than their general corruption and inefficiency all over the State, and from the lowest to the high- est, have already brought upon them. To return to the question of my Northern friend: Lomsiana is at peace. The people universally accept the Union — nothing is more certain than this. Also, there is no disposition to re -enslave the negro. The planters have discovered that free labor is far more economical than slave. Every- where planters have been ready to demon- strate to me the profitableness of free labor, and to .acknowledge that all their fears of disorganization had proved groundless. The bitterest Democrat I have met in the State said to me, "We are fortunate in one thiug which I little expected at the close of the war : we have the best laboring force in the world." He went on to tell me that be- fore the war he had often to pay, for extra hands which he hired, from one hundred and sixty to two hundred dollars a year, two suits of clothing, rations, and medicine. Now ho pays thirteen to fifteen dollars per month aud a ration. "And they work just about as well, except when some accursed politi- cian comes up from New Orleans Avith a brass band, aud sends word, as was done last fall, that General Butler has ordered them all to turn out to a political meeting." Oue of the hopeful signs is that I have not heard a single man in the State speculate about "the future of the negro." That sort of nonsense bas disappeared. Nor ha\e I anywhere found the negro shy of si^eakiug his mind on political subjects. I laughed at a planter t)nly last evening, who told me how well his hands worked on a system of shares in the crop, of which I shall speak iu another place, and how faithful and service- able they were. He said, " But the scamps all voted against me at the last election." "I'm glad of it," he added, "for I could not have refused them any thing they asked if they had voted for me, and it saved me prob- ably five huudred dollars, for they know how to get a favor for a favor." I do not exaggerate when I say that the only cause of disorder in the State lies in the corruption and ineificiency of the State and parish governments. Even Marshal Pack- ard tells me the State is now at x^eace. It has, as every Southern, aud, for that matter, every Northern State has, a proportion of lawless and ruffianly persons. This class is not numerous, but is composed of idlers, drunkards, and bravos, who go armed ; and when a community is excited, they are ready to commit outrages, not only on blacks, but on whites, even on each other. I was touch- ed by the remark of an elderly man from a remote parish, who said, " The State govern- ment, and the courts and officers it gives us, are so inefficient that we have to deal with these ruffianly young men ourselves. I have more than once taken my life in my hand to preserve the peace, when the sheriif was too cowardly or inefficient to do his duty. Wo have not had a murderer punished in our parish in five years, except oue, and he was pardoned out of the penitentiary before his sentence expired. We live near the Texas line, and desperate men come and go easily. Instead of being abused as disorderly, wo people deserve praise that Ave have keiit as good order as we have, when the governor has time and again appointed corrupt and inefficient officers, and when, in fact, society has had to be maintained against the abuses and inefficiency of the government by the jirivate effort of the good citizens." This man spoke the truth. It is a solemn and undeniable fact that the Republican rulers of Louisiana have disorganized socio- LOUISIANA IN APKIL, 1875. 57 ty, instead of protecting the good citizens. The only danger to tlie peace of Louisiana to-day lies iu the corruption and inefficiency of her rulers, who call themselves Eepuhlic- ans, and have thus gained the countenance of the Northern Republican party and the sup- port of the Federal Administration. These men have committed a great crime against the State and against the country, the great- est crime -which civilized men can commit ; for their misrule has struck a blow at .the very foundations of society in Louisiana; they liave corrupted the public morals, they have degraded and debauched the negroes, whom they wei-o sent to lead into the exer- cise of citizenship ; and, surveying the story of their misrule, I am constrained to say that their plunder of the State, monstrous as it has been, is the least of their offenses, be- cause it is a graver crime to debauch and demoralize a State tliau to steal its treas- ure. Here are a few figures which give some idea of how the affairs of Louisiana have been managed under the Radical rule since ld68 : For mileage, j}er diem, and contingent ex- penses the General Assembly of the State cost, iu 1860, before the war, $99,435; in 1861, $131,489 ; in 1866, the year after the war, $164,906 ; iu 1868, the year of recon- struction and of the beginning of Republic- an rule, $363,156 ; iu 1869, $370,214 ; in 1870, $722,231; iu 1871, $958,956; in 1872, $350,000; iu 1873, $461,450 ; last year, a mucli Smaller SUM, over $200,000 ; but still, the Comptrol- ler of the State says, $60,000 above his esti- mates of the proper cost. In 1860 the State printing cost $40,900. In 1867, the year before reconstruction, it cost $75,000. The Republican Legislature of 1868 adopted a system under which each parish has an official organ, which prints at the public cost, not only the laws, but the entire journals of the Legislature and the proceedings of police -juries. This abuse has been checked, but not yet entirely stop- ped. During its height, these petty jour- nals were, with a very few exceptions, own- ed by members of the Legislature. Hence these persons every year voted themselves handsome subsidies ; and the State-printing bill, which amounted to $75,000 iu 1867, jumped to $431,345 in 1869, $313,920 in 1870, $397,600 iu 1871, $154,752 in 1872, and $160, 806 in 1873. That is to say, the reconstruct- ors managed to spend out of the treasury in five years for printing alone very near- ly $1,500,000, and a great part of this they voted into their own pockets. In 1861 the State tax amounted to 29 cents on $100 ; iu 1867, the year before re- construction, to 37-:^ cents ; in 1868, to 52^ cents ; in 1869, to 90 cents ; in 1871, to $1 45 ; in 1872, to $2 15 ; iu 1873, to $2 15 ; and in 1874, to $1 45, at which it is fixed, now, I believe, by the constitution. In spite of this euorinous increase in tho tax rate, the debt of the State has trebled since 1860. Iu that year the absolute and contingent debt (by which tho State ac- countants here mean the debt owing, and for which the State has engaged itself for the future) amounted to $11,182,377. Iu 1868, the year of reconstruction, it amount- ed to $16,885,682. In 1870 it had been run up to $40,456,734. The report of the Joint Legislative Com- mittee to investigate the State auditor's office — the committee is composed entirely of Republicans — gives the following sum- mary of the State debt at the beginning of the present year. I copy it literally, as it is official: Floating debt $2,165,171 71 Bouds loaned property banks 4,830,083 33 Bonded debt proper 22,134,800 (10 Contingent debt reported by auditor 10,895,000 00 Contingent debt not reported by auditor.. 0,605,500 00 $49,004,155 04 Add trust bonds and bouds missing 093,194 01 1'otal $50,597,394 95 The committee add to this statement these remarks : " In conclusion the commission find that a large por- tion of the public debt has arisen from extravagance, profligacy, and misuse of the revenues of the State ; that as to all that portion created since 1SG5, the State did not realize over fifty cents on the dollar, nor was the amount realized expended for the benefit of the State to the extent of more than one-half; in other words, the State has not been actually benefited in an amount exceeding one-fourth of the debt created, nor to an amount exceeding one-half of the taxes collect- ed since 1S65. The entire balance, say one half of all the taxes and three-fourths of all the present debt, has been squandered, or done worse with, by the admin- istration of the government since that date." The State revenues, as given iu the audi- tor's reports for the different years, were : 1SG8 $3,4!52,060 1809 4,937,759 ISTO 0,537,939 ic;71 " " ] 6,010,843 1S72 '".'.'... 4,312,033 1ST3 4,010.600 1S74.'.".!.' • 3..514.33'2 Total $33,387,665 —collected in taxes from the people for the 58 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. support of the State goverumeut alone in sev- en years, besides city and parish taxes. The various petty inouopolies and swin- dles to which State aid was so profusely given account for a small part of this huge debt and expenditure. Such extravagance as is nieutioued by the auditor in his last re- port (1875), in the following words, accounts for more : "Thus the number of pages (in the Legislature), which by Act No. 11 of 1ST2 is limited to ten, at a com- pensation for each of $1S0, was increased more than sixty, and vouchers issued to them at from $150 to $180 each ; nor was this practice confined to this par- ticular class of employes, but was carried to other classes, such as enrolling and committee clerks, por- ters, etc." He also, in the same report, complains that he has vainly tried to get the Legislature to adopt a new plan of assessing property for taxation which " would save the State $156,- 000 a year." In the auditor's report for the year 1871, complaint was made to the Legis- lature of the great cost of collecting the tax- es. " In 1870," says this report, " the actual commissions' paid on account of assessors was $181,975, and the amount paid to tax- collectors $215,411. In 1871 the commissions of tax-collectors amounted to $320,252, and that of assessors to $250,838." Of course there were some heavy jobs, which helped to run up the debt. For in- stance, in the aiiditor's report for 1871, 1 fiud a statement that during the two previous years the State, under an arrangement with the firm of Jones & Hugee, lessees of the penitentiary, had issued $500,000 in State bonds for machinery for that institution. The lessees were to pay one-half their clear profits to the State. They paid nothing, and in 1870 transferred their contract to another set of men, the State agreeing thereafter to accept $5000 a year in lieu of all profits, with an increase of $1000 a year. Between 1869 and 1871, in two years, "the iieuiten- tiary had cost the State $796,000." In 1868 the New Orleans, Mobile, and Chat- tanooga Railroad was chartered in Louisi- ana, and it was determiued to connect Mo- bile and New Orleans with Houston, Texas, la 1869 the Legislature agreed to indorse the second-mortgage bonds of the road to the ex- tent of $12,500 per mile, and to make the in- dorsement for every section of ten miles built. The company built seventy miles, and the State indorsed $875,000 of their sec- ond-mortgage bonds. The next Legislature agreed in addition to give the road a State subsidy of $3,000,000 of bonds, and of this they drew $750,000. The company now pro- posed to build a railroad from Vermillion- ville to Shreveport, and in 1871 the State agreed to take stock in this enterprise ($2,- 500,000), payiug for it in bonds, and the whole of these bonds were delivered to the com- pany when they had done one day's work on the road. They have never done any more. That is to say, the company have built in all seventy miles of an uncompleted, and, therefore, worthless road, and received from the State $4,250,000, or over $58,000 a mile, besides a grant of the use of a part of the New Orleans levee, valued at $1,000,000 ; and they have kept it all. Finally, it remains to be said that two different companies of Northern capitalists offered to build the Houston and New Orleans road without sub- sidy or State aid of any kind, but the Legis- lature would not give them a charter. A great deal of money has been spent and squandered since the war on the reconstruc- tion of the levees and their repair, and Demo- crats as well as Reiiublicans have taken part in this jobbing, the greatest waste, however, being since 1868. Between 1868 and 1871, $4,750,000 of State bonds were issued for levee purposes, and still there are no levees worthy of the name. Most of the money was spent by a " State Board of Public Works," whose members were appointed by Governor Warmoth. In 1871 a different system was adopted, which is still in force, and under which a large part of the revenues of the State has been handed over for a long term of years to a private corporation, with privi- leges which enable it to misuse and squander them in a most shocking way. By the act, this corporation, which was to furnish a million of dollars in capital stock, agreed to build and repair the levees of the State, and to be responsible in dama- ges to the planters and farmers who should suffer loss by overflow or crevasse. In re- turn for this, the Legislature gave it a mill- ion dollars down, before it began work, and the proceeds, annually, for a term of years, of a tax of four mills on the whole taxable property of Louisiana ; and authorized it to charge, against this great fund, sixty cents per cubic yard for the work. But a great part of the levee work, when done by plant- ers for themselves, has cost only from fifteen to eighteen cents per cubic yard, and thirty cents for the average of all kinds of work all over the State would be, experts tell me, LOUISIANA IN APRIL, 1875. 59 a higli rate. lu fact, the first charge -was so exorbitant that it bas been reduced to fifty cents ; and in 1874 the levee tax, -which the company contiunes to receive, was reduced to three mills. But the company never had any money; the levees have not been kept in proper repair, and the losses from over- flovr have never been so great as since it went into operation ; and, having no capi- tal of its own, if it is sued for damages it must pay these out of the State fund; and thus, in fact, the tax -payers pay their own insurance. The company receives about §720,000 a year. This was one of the most notorious jobs perpetrated by the Legislature, and attracted attention at the time because a great many members not only received bribes for its sup- jiort — which was too common an occurrence to be noticed — but actually gave their re- ceipts for the money paid them. The fol- lowing letter, of which the original is before mo, shows how openly legislative bribery was carried on under Warmoth's adminis- tration. The writer of it was then member of Assembly, is now State Senator, and mem- ber of the State School Board, and, I am sor- ry to say, is a negro : " House of Representatives, State of Louisiana, ) New Orleans, February 25th, 1S7I. i ' ' Gentlemen of the Finance Committee of Louisiana Levee Company: "SiES,— Please pay to Hon. A. W. Faulkner the amount you may deem proper to pay on account of Levee Bill, I being absent at the time under orders of the House. But would have voted for the bill.had I been here. Mr. Faulkner is authorized to receive and receipt for me. Very respectfully, gentlemen, "Your obedient servant, "T. B. Stamps." Surely the brazenness of corruption could go no further than this — when a legislator claims a bribe on the score that he would have performed the corrupt service had he been in his place, and sends his friend not merely to receive, but to receipt for it. The city of New Orleans is made to pay a very great part of the State tax, and has been, besides, burdened in various ways by the Legislature, which has set apart a large part of its revenues for State or special purposes. It has now a debt of its own of about ^22,000,000, and its tax-rate has been run up to three per cent. About $17,000,000 of 'its bonds are worth but thirty-five cents on the dollar in the market. Here is an example which tells the tale of wasteful mis- government : An estate, which coiild have been sold in 1867 for over $1,000,000, showed on its books, in 1872, this remarkable con- dition : After paying for insurance and usual repairs, the taxes levied that year on the property exceeded the entire rental by $540. In the next year, 1871}, the receipts exceeded the taxes, repairs, and insurance by $900. Yet, in 1867, this property netted seven per cent, on over $1,000,000 — that is to say, more than $70,000, after paying insurance, taxes, and repairs. It is not the wealthy alone who complain. I have siioken with at least a dozen small property-owners in the city, and they all tell the same tale. In the country the small farmers complain that they are forced to pay the heavy taxes, while in many cases their rich neighbors resist, and are allowed to refuse payment or to delay. I was struck with the story of exaspera- tioii told me by a man who said, " One iiiece of property after another belonging to mem- bers of my family had been sold out for tax- es. Two years ago we came nearly to the end. We could not sell, and we could not pay the terrible taxes. I went to the sherifl^ and said to him, 'This property which you are advertising is the last possession of my mother and sisters, and their only support. I warn you that on the day yoit put it up at auction I am going to attend the sale with my double-barreled shot-gun.' And it was not sold. Nest year we were fortunately able to pay." Now, I know the man very well who thus did, and I know him to be a peaceable, law- respecting citizen, one of the most important and most useful members of the community in which he lives. He saw that I was shock- ed and pained at his story, and said, " What could I do ? We were wealthy people before the war ; we have been contented in our pov- erty since, and I have worked hard, and lived very economically. My sisters now teach in a public school. But the times are so hard and the taxes so high that it is all we can do to live, and when I saw the last little dependence of my mother and sisters about to be sold to satisfy these cormorants and thieves, I could not stand it." In the parish of St. Landry alone, as I think I have before stated, there were be- tween November, 1871, and November, 1873, eight hundred and twenty-one sales of plan- tations and lauds for taxes. Yet Louisiana is by nature one of the richest States in the Union, and Now Orleans is one of the great- est commercial ports. Is it surprising that 60 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. tlie whole white popukition of the State, ex- cept the ofQce- holders and their relatives and intimates, united, in 1874, in the endeav- or to overthrow a party which has so abused its powers ? I speut some days looking through the acts of the Legislature of Louisiana since the first i^coustruction Legislature, in 18G8, and a more amusing and preposterous exhi- bition of wholesale legislative plundering it ■would be difficult to imagine. The bare ti- tles of the acts whose sole and transparent purpose was j)lunder would fill half a dozen of these pages. I must content myself with a brief mention of but a few sample laws granting exclusive privileges, giving away the State's money, creating new offices, or adding to the taxes. One of the earliest acts of the recoustrnct- ors — who are believed to have come into the State as the missionaries of great moral ideas — was the passage of a law giving the exclusive njouopoly of selling lottery, policy, and " combination " tickets in the State to a eompany which calls itself the " Louisiana State Lottery Company." Lest the profane should imagine that this monopoly was intended to promote the mere- ly selfish advantage of the incorporators, it is distinctly stated in the charter, which forms part of the act, that the lottery com- pany is a.purehr charitable and beneficent body, created for the unmixed benefit of the people of Louisiana. " The objects and pur- poses of this corporation are, first, the protec- tion of the State against the great losses here- tofore incurred by sending large amounts of money to other States and foreign countries for the purchase of lottery-tickets and other devices, therebj^ impoverishing our own peo- ple ; second, to establish a solvent and reli- able home institution for the sale of lottery, j)olicy, and other tickets ; third, to provide means to raise a fund for educational and charitable purposes for the citizens of Loui- siana." The monopoly is to last twenty-five years ; it is made a criminal olfense in any one un- authorized by the company to sell any kind of lottery-ticket anywhere in the State ; the company is exempted from all taxes and li- cense fees whatever — State, city, or parish ; and for these monstrous privileges and ex- emptions it pays into the State treasury — for the educational fund — the petty sum of forty thousand dollars per annum ! The company is now composed almost en- tirely of a few men living in New York and New Jersey ; on a million of capital they are believed to make not less than" seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars clear profit every year; they have established policy-shops and petty gambling dens around the markets and other public places in New Orleans, which perpetually demoralize the laboring class, and particularly negro men and women, and over which the city government has no con- { trol ; and they have agents and solicitors all over the State, tempting the poor and igno- rant to gamble, providing for this end what they call a "combination game," which can be played even by the owner of a ten-cent piece. In 1868 the Legislature chartered the Mis- sissippi Valley Navigation Company of the South and West, and in 1870 an amendment to the charter gave the company $100,000 of State money, for which the State was to re- ceive stock. The comjjany got the money, but I can not hear that they are in business to-day, though they were authorized to "construct steamboats, warehouses, docks," etc. Another scheme was the Eed Eiver Navigation Company, which was authorized to receive $135,000 in State bonds. The bayous or river estuaries of the State early became a fine field for swindling. For instance, the Legislature of 1870 jiassed an act incoriiorating a company to improve Bayou Bartholomew, in the northern part of the State, and granting State bonds to aid the enterprise. Within sixteen days after the passage of the act, State warrants to the amount of $118,000 had been issued to the company. The auditor at that time happened to be an honest man ; he refused to recognize these warrants ; suit was brought by the company, and the Supreme Court twice declared the proceedings fraudulent, Ludeling, chief-justice (whom the United States Supreme Court last year denounced for fraud in another matter), alone dissent- ing ; and on a motion to remand the caso for a rehearing, which Ludeling granted. Judge Wyly, dissenting, said, "Act 59, to improve the navigation of Bayou Bartholo- mew, never authorized a contract to exceed $40,000. I regard the contract for $118,000 for that work as a deliberate fraud ui)on the State. Not a single requirement for lettitig out and making the contract according to Act 59 seems to have been comiilied with." Now, then, mark what follows. The clai ni was twice denied by the Supreme Court. LOUISIANA IN APRIL, 1875. 61 The Legislature of 1874 created a board of audit, -with power to settle outstanding lia- bilities ; and this board, while I was in New Orleans, quietly allowed a large part of this claim. A company whose main purpose appears to have been cattle-stealing was organized and chartered in 1874, under the title of "Society for the Prevention' of Cruelty to Animals." The Legislature gave it sole and exclusive charge of all the pounds in New Orleans, with authority to seize and arrest animals of all kinds in the streets, and impound them, and charge the owners five dollars a day for their detention, and to sell them outright at the end of eight days. The summary arrest of goats in the outskirts of the city came near creating a mob of Irish -women ; and, to prevent cruelty to animals, the company at one time, I am told, began to an-est horses left standing in the streets ■while their riders were transacting business in the shops. An act of the Legislature to improve Bay- ous Glaises and Eouge gave the incorporators sole and exclusive power to navigate these bayous with vessels of all kinds, exempted their capital stock from taxation of every kind, and allowed them to levy a toll on all vessels except their own, or which they al- low to be used on these bayous. The im- provements to be made were very slight. In 1871 the Mississippi River Packet Com- pany was incorporated by act of the Legis- lature. Among the incorporators were An- toine, now lieutenant-governor, then sena- tor; Kelso, Monette, Pinchback, lugraham, and Barber, all State senators, and Pollard, member of Assembly. The object of the company was to run steamboats on the Mis- sissippi River. The State was pledged to subscribe $250,000 on the organization of the company ; and, so far as I can see in the act, it was to enjoy no benefits or privileges whatever. The same Legislature established the Lou- isiana Warehouse Company " to promote the interests of commerce." Among the incor- porators I find mentioned in the act Senator West, then administrator of improvements iu New Orleans, and Collector Casey. The company was authorized to issue bonds to the amount of $1,500,000, and the State was required to guarantee the payment of the interest and principal of these bonds on con- dition that the company should deposit se- curities equal in value to the bonds issued. which securities, the act says, may bo " bank indorsements or other good and solvent bonds!" By an act authorizing a company to im- prove Bayous Portage and Yokeley,the State gave the company $100,000 by way of aid ; and if the improvements should cost more than this sum, the company was empowered to lay a tax on all the lands benefited, to make up the deficiency, and to sell for taxes any such lands whose owners hud not paid after sixty days' notice. No limit was set of cost, and the comx^any was made its own tax-col- lector. A company chartered to improve Loggy Bayou and Lake Bisteneau received $50,000 State aid, and the people say, pulled out about twenty stumps for the money. A com- pany chartered to improve Bayou Terre- bonne received the exclusive privilege to im- prove Bayous Boeuf and Crocodile, and was authorized to receive $80,000, a sum asserted to" bo preposterously beyond the value of the service. The Mexican Gulf Canal Company drew $36,000 in bonds from the State in aid of its enterprise, then abandoned it and merged with another company for a diflerent pur- I)ose ; got control of the drainage fund ; fell into the hands of one man ; and he, iu the name of the company, is now doing a neces- sary work of drainage at a cost a hundred per cent, higher than responsible citizens stand ready to do it for. The Legislature even chartered a compa- ny and gave it the sole and exclusive right to clean privies in Ncav Orleans, and to empty their contents into the Mississippi River; made it obligatory on citizens to have this service performed at fixed intervals ; and established a scale of charges much higher than that at which the service had long been performed. Even the purchase by the State of the St. Louis Hotel, to be used as a state -house, was a swindling transaction. Several mem- bers of the Legislature and others were char- tered as the Louisiana National Building As- sociation. They got from the owners of the St. Louis Hotel an agreement to sell that building at a set price, and, this done, made a lease of it to the State for uiueteen years at $50,000 a year and entire exemption from taxation. They overshot their mark, and the outcry raised against this act of extor- tion compelled the annulling of the lease. Thereupon the Citizens' Bank bought the 02 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. same buildiug outright for $84,000, wLicli the Buihliug Association had leased to the State for $50,000 per aumim. The Louisiaua Building Association Tvas enjoiued, and could not act under that title. They changed the company's name to the New Orleans National Buildiug Association, bought the hotel for $149,000; and the Hahu Legislature, which met after the dispersion of the Wiltz body, in the spring of 1875, gave $250,000 for the buildiug. These fig- ures and other figures above are authentic. It is not always easy for men to cover up their tracks, aud these lueu have not been careful to do so. In 1870 the Legislature passed a law au- thorizing the improvement of the old City Park, a piece of ground which had been held for the purpose many years. During the year two politicians, Southworth and Bloom- er, got a written agreement from the owners of a large vacant piece of ground — the only large tract, except the old Park, near tlie city — to sell it to them at a fixed price — $600,000. The Legislature of 1871 next amended the park improvement law so as to allow the commissioners to buy land for a new park, and made an appropriation of money to carry it into effect. The governor now apiioiuted park commissioners, aud one of these, by an odd coincidence, was South- worth, who was also at that time recorder of mortgages. Piuchljack was another park commissioner, and Senator West another. Southworth and those interested with him next acquired title to the property they had held under agreement, but paid only $65,000 down ; the remainder of the purchase mon- ey was left on mortgage. Then, on the 15th of August, they sold to the city one -half of their purchase for $800,000, receiving $65,000 in cash and $195,000 in bonds, while $540,000 of debt was transferred from their shoulders to the city's. It is the common street talk hero, that, " after this transaction was completed, Au- toine, the lieutenant-governor, went about complaining that Pinchback had cheated him out of $40,000, which ho had in some way expected to get out of the affair." The park is still unimproved ; it is used as a cow- pasture ; but the city is paying interest on its debt for a park. I could go on indefinitely with stories of this kind, for I have only culled here aud there out of the acts of the Legislature, aud as I turned over the leaves of the books I met with dozens of petty swindles : ferry monopolies granted to members of the Leg- islature, oftenest at i)oints where ferries al- ready existed ; acts to remove a county-seat to some member's farm or plantation; the creation of new counties ; and acts incorpo- rating a multitude of petty villages, some having less than three hundred inhabitants, afflicting their inhabitants with a city gov- ernment, mayor, and administrators, author- izing these ofticers to lay taxes " not to ex- ceed the parish tax;" and providing fees and salaries for the needless officers. Nor was even this the worst. I know some such little towns which have never, since their incorporation, been ruled by the officers they chose : on some pretext the elected men are rejected, and the governor then fills the va- cancies thus created. So severe has been the pressure of taxa- tion, and so greatly has business been pros- trated in the State by the long -continued misrule, that, according to an official report, in three years, 1871-73, 47,491 tax seizures were made in the city of New Orleans by the sheriff; I have seen parish newspapers three of whose sides were filled with advertise- ments of tax sales — this not in parishes which prudently refused to pay taxes, as a few remote ones have done; and I have before me a statement, certified by the recorder, showing that from the 10th of November, 1871, to the 18th of November, 1873, 821 tracts of land aud plantations in the parish of St. Martin were actually sold by the tax-collector for State and parish taxes. Yet, in spite of their exorbitant com- missions, the official report of the State au- ditor for 1874 contains a list of defaulting tax-collectors containing twenty names, who are reported to be in default to the amount of $200,000. Nor can it be said that the valuations are low, for in New Orleans the assessors receive by law five per cent, for their work, and tho assessment is made annually. In the par- ishes, the tax-collectors, who have more or less to do with the assessments, receive ten per cent, of their collections, and in many cases it has been proved that they received taxes in greenbacks, and turned them in in depreciated scrip. The city of New Orleans, being largely Democratic, has been afflicted with a double Bet of assessors and collectors — one for the State, the other for the city. The State's annual assessment of jiroperty in New Or- LOUISIANA IN APRIL, 1875. 63 leans cos|, iu 1871, $100,000. This -wrong was so great tliat in the State auditor's re- port for 1872 I read, " Witliiu the parisli of Orleans two per cent, on the amount of the tax levied would be a fair compensation to the tax-collector, acting in the capacity of assessor ; or, should the General Assembly so determine, an agreement with the city ad- ministration, at a nominal expense, to fur- nish complete copies of their assessment rolls, would thus make a further reduction of expenses without detriment to the inter- ests of the State." And again, " Within the parish of Orleans assessors are paid r^ j»er- centage upon the amount of their assess- ment rolls. As a consequence, experience has shown that great injustice is done by placing assessments very high — iu some in- stances 150 per cent, above the true value of property. A large commission is thus paid by the State; and afterward, in many in- stances, the assessment is reduced by order of court or otherwise, thereby the State los- ing the compensation paid the assessor, be- sides the annoyance and expense it unjustly entails upon the tax-payer. The assessment and collection of the State tax for New Orleans cost $175,000 last year, I am told. The result of all this is that property in New Orleans is almost worth- less, and totally unsalable. Nobody likes to be a tax-payer. A house and lot assessed for $36,000 was sold in March, 1875, for $11,- 000. Good residence property has fallen since 1868 more than fifty per cent, in value. Rents produce very small net income. Several years ago the Legislature was per- suaded to pass a law that the parish tax should not exceed the State tax in amount, and a member of the ring here showed, me this law to prove that the complaints of ex- orbitant taxation iu the country parishes must be without foundation. Ho forgot to tell me of another law which allows the holder of parish scrip to sue the parish, and directs the judge, in the case of such suit, to lay a special tax on the parish for the pay- ment of the scrip at par. Tliis is contin- ually done, and the business of buying up depreciated parish scrip, with the object of forcing the parish to pay it by getting a judgment against it, is so common that sev- eral tax-collectors have admitted to me that they had engaged in it. It is a perfectly safe speculation. One can not study the politics of Louisi- ana and her politicians long without becom- ing aware that the Radical leaders are, as political managers, more skillful and adroit than the Conservatives. They understand the generalship of a partisan campaign ; and if they only had a little principle or a little of that wisdom which would teach them that misgovern ment must have an end, some of them might even now rule the State for another term of years. Their difficulty is that they have so long used the Avorst ar- guments, and the most corrupt and corrupt- ing means, that they can not stop without running a risk of losing their adherents. I believe Governor Kellogg would now like to make his administration honest ; but he would also like to go to the Senate, and the result is that he will be no more efficient than those who control him will let him be. The subalterns, the petty officers of the Radical army, are, as a general thing, a very poor set. With here and there an exception, they hang on to office with a tenacity which is almost pitiful ; it is a sort of death-grip. A Radical member of the Legislature, whom I asked why he opposed the Wheeler adjust- ment, said, with a pathetic quaver in his voice, "Because if that is passed, it means that I shall go out." I thought he meant that he would be driven out of the State, and asked him if he really feared violence. He replied, "Not at all; you don't under- stand me; I mean that I shall have to go out of politics. If the Conservatives onco get a majority in the House, they'll carry the State at the next election." This man is a member of the Legislature ; he had enjoyed three or four terms, but ho wanted another. To "go out "seemed to him like dying does to common mortals, and his dolorous face was a study. It never occurred to him to think that the Conserv- atives had already carried the State, and were, in the adjustment, giving up a part of the majority they had fairly gained. The strongest, and probably tlio most dan- gerous, politician in the State on either side is the United States marshal, Packard. He is reputed to be a man of unflinching cour- age, strong will, and no scruples. A citizen of Maine, he has lived iu Louisiana since the war; he married there, became early known as a shrewd and successful political organ- izer; and was made United States marshal by General Grant. His body is large and somewhat heavy, and his mind does not 64 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. move rapidly. His single idea is to keep Louisiana in Kepublicau Lauds, and his only method is to mass the colored vote. " Packard," said au honest Republican to me in New Orleans, " stands in our vray in making a split in parties here, which it is BO necessary for the welfare of the State to do. He always wants to mass the colored vote ; he believes in the color-line. He dis- courages every attempt to bring the right kind of white men into our party, and al- ways has something against a new man who would share our political fortunes — that he was in the rebel army, or something of that kind. I think but for Packard we might really make such a break and reorganiza- tion of parties as would give the State rest and permanent good governmeut." In Washington, last winter, Sir. Packard appeared as one of the strenuous advocates of the Habeas Corpus and Force bill, and his argument was that, if this measure were l^assed, he would guarantee to carry the State for the Eepiiblican party in 1876; but if it were not j)assed, he would promise nothing. Here iij New Orleans he opposed the Wheeler adjustment at iirst,and very strong- ly; and it was one of his adherents who amused me by denouncing this adjustment with a good deal of profanity, as " Sure to denationalize the Louisiana question." Amidst the general demoralization and corruption, it is a part of Packard's strength that he is believed to be pecuniarily houest. He has a little the air of a fanatic, but he is in reality an extremely adroit and unscrupu- lous politician. They say he also wants to go to the Senate. As a politician he tolerates no rival near his throne. I was told of a case where ho imagined that a Republican was obtaining too much influence in a parish. He sent up — it was last year — a steamboat? with a brass band and some " organizers," and set up a rival Republican organization, whose aim Avas to drive out the "Eepublican leaders whom he did not like. It was, as it hap- pened, one of his failures ; but it sufficiently shows that he means to rule. The office of United States marshal in one of these Southern States gives a man very extraordinary powers ; for, so far from Wash- ington, and among a people whose com- plaints are not much listened to, he is a kind of viceroy. Under the Enforcement acts he may make summary arrests on frivolous pretexts ; he may use the army to do it ; he is a peace officer with practically no supe- rior, very loosely defined powers, and small responsibility, particularly if he is trusted by the President. That you may not think I overstate the authority lodged in Marshal Packard's hands, I transcribe here part of a general order to "commanding officers of posts and detachments," and issued from "Head-quarters, Department of the Gulf:" "Whenever the United States marshal of the dis- trict in which you are serving, or any of his deputies, shall make writteu application to you for a detach- ment of troops to protect him or them in the perform- ance of their duties, or to aid him or them to serve legal process, yoa will at once furnish such detach- ment, reporting your action to these head-quarters." Now, Mr. Packard is not only United States marshal, for he unites with this office anoth- er of even greater importance — he is chair- man of the Republican State Central Com- mittee. That is to say, the United States troops in Louisiana are placed by the Federal Admin- istration under the orders of the chief man- ager of the Republican party. Every United States soldier in the State must obey the orders of the chairman of the Republican State Central Committee. Such a situation, even if it were not abused, would be liable to suspicion, and must give just cause of complaint to the other party. Moreover, it is hardly possible that it should not be misused. For instance : It is in evidence before the Congressional committee that, just before the election of 1874, United States cavalry appeared in sev- eral parishes, armed with blank warrants of arrest issued in New Orleans by the marshal. But why should a citizen, innocent .of wrong, be alarmed at such things ? Well, because it is not a pleasant expe- rience, which some of them have had at !Mr. Packard's hands, to be dragged down to New Orleans from a distant country parish, liut under bail, and then allowed to go home again at their own expense. I have heard from army officers several cases where such an arrest of a man against whom nothing was ever proved or attempted to be proved, caused great alarm and suffering to his fam- ily, which was dependent on his daily labor for support ; and of other cases where men lay out in the woods for days, though con- scious of innocence, out of a dread of Pack- ard's blank warrants. Moreover, while such warrants were sent abroad just before the election, none were sent out after the election, when, if ever, it LOUISIANA IN APRIL, 1875. 65 might be supposed that offenses had been committed. In a State where a political struggle of great bitterness and vital importance is go- ing on, the chief of one party thus, you see, has authority to command at any time, at any place, and for such purpose as he may decide, the services of the United States army, and may and does use soldiers to ar- rest his political opponents. It is at least an inconvenience to the other party. No doubt they would like to have troops, too. The supervisors of registration are ap- pointed by the governor, and are naturally, and in fact, partisans of the party in power. Fraudulent registration has been proved on several occasions ; and I have before me a registration certificate now, blank as to name, date, and residence, but duly signed by the supervisor of Assumption Parish. The certificate is as follows : "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ** State of Louisiana, Parish of , , 18 — . •, do solemnly swear, affirm, that I "I. was duly registered as a qualified elector of the par- ish of , in the month of , IS—; that a cer- tificate of such registration was at the time issued to me by the supervisor of registration for the said par- ish, which certificate of registration has been lost or destroyed. "I am years of age, ; my occupation is ; and I now reside at . I have no other place of residence. • " Sworn and subscribed to, this day of , A.n. IS—, before me. E. E. Gaure, " Su^icrvisor of Registration for the Parish of Assuviptio7i." " DUn.IOATE. " [Original No. — .] "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, " state of Louisiana, Parish of . " I hereby certify that was on the day of , IS—, duly registered as a qualified elector on the original registry of this parish, No. , a citi- zen of the United States, and residing at , born in , age , naturalized iu Court, State of , day of , IS—. Now resides at " Witness my hand, this day of , a.d. IS — "E. E. Gaure, '^ Svpervisor of Registration for the Parish of Assuviption." The nature of this instrument, which as- serts a personal appearance of the applicant for registration, makes it, of course, impossi- ble to be legally signed in blank. Now, spurious registration papers would be of little value but for a peculiar clause iu the election laws, which authorizes a voter to vote at any poll iu his parish, or at any poll in the ward of his residence in New Or- leans. A parish is a county. "What is to prevent a man with a dozen registration cer- tificates in his pocket from voting at a dozen polls in his county ? Nothing, except the difiQculty of getting to so many on the same day. This rule, which may have been made for good reasons — I don't know as to that — is in effect an invitation to fraud. Finally comes the returning board for the State, named by the Senate, which sits at New Orleans and overhauls the returns, and, as was proved to the satisfaction of the Con- gressional committee this year, substantial- ly does what it pleases with them. Among other things it hears charges of intimidation, and, in order that every thing may be in readiness to bring forward such charges, these prudent Republicans print beforehand "intimidation certificates," to which ignorant negroes are persuaded to set their " -|- " marks. Here is an example, and on the other side of the same paper you will find a certificate of the same Narcisse Jacques, which also is sworn to before a no- tary i)ublic, and which also tells iu detail quite a little tale of intimidation — but of a different kind : ** State of Louisiana, Parish of St. Martin. "Before me, the undersigned authority, personally came and appeared Mr. Narcisse Jacques, a resident of the parish of St. Martin, who, being first duly sworn, declares and says that he is entitled to register and vote in the said parish of St. Martin, that he is a Re- publican, and that he would have voted the ticket an- nexed hereto, including for member of the Forty-fourth Congress, had he not been prevented from registering by fear of personal violence from armed bodies of raeu who have been patrolling the country. his " Naeoisse -f- Jaoques. mark. "Sworn and subscribed before me, this 2Tth day of October, 18T4. Gustave Baker, "Justice of the Peace.'" " State of Louisiana, Parish of St. Martin, " Before the undersigned authority, a justice of the peace of the parish of St. Martin, personally came and appeared Narcisse Jacques, a freedman of the parish of St. Martin, who, after being duly sworn, said and declared that the paper on which is written the affi- davit on the other side was handed to him by Onezi- phone Delahoussaye, the sheriff" of the parish of St. Martin, and that, though he aflised his mark to said aflidavit, he was deceived as to its contents; that said affidavit is false ; that he was not prevented reg- istering, and so informed Gustave Baker, the justice of the peace, and Oneziphone Delahoussaye, Jan., the sheriff'; that said affidavit was signed by him in the Federal camp established at Breaux Bridge, in the par- ish of St. Martin, before and during the last election ; and that he had previously been threatened by one Robert Allen, of the parish of St. Martin, a Radical leader, that, unless he registered and voted the Radi- cal ticket, he (affiant) wouhl be arrested, tried, hanged, or killed by the Federal cavah-y then engaged in gath- ering negroes to the registration office. The threats of the said Robert Allen were made in the presence of Darmas Gindry, his employer, who told him to 66 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. do as he wished and thought proper, and lent him a horse to go to Breaux Bridge : that the said Robert Alien told affiant's employer, Darmas Gindry, that he (Gindry) would also be arrested by the Federal cav- alry, his "Nakcisbe + Jacques. mark. "Witness to the above mark. Euo. A. Dcohamp. "Sworn to and subscribed this 2Sth day of Decem- ber, A.D. 1S74. OsoAE Hah-uen, J. P." It is a singular fact that in the greater number of parishes the registration lists of 1874 show that the colored registered voters are more numerous, compared with the col- ored population, than the white registered, compared with the white population, taking the census of 1870 as a basis. For instance, in Plaquemiue Parish the registry lists show one white name for every seven and one- fifth of the total white population ; hut cue black name for every three and one-eighth of the total colored population. But while I was in Plaquemine, out of a panel of forty- eight names drawn for jurors, from the reg- istry lists of 1874, only twelve could be found. The other thirty -six were non-ex- istent — that is to say, they were fraudulent- ly registered names. In St. Charles the whites registered are one in three and a half, the blacks one in two and a half, of the respective j)opulation. In St. James, the white registry was one in four and a •half, the black one in two and a half, of their population. In St. Landry, where it was pretended that there was intimidation, white and black both registered one in four and a half of their population. In Carroll, the whites registered five and one-third, and the blacks three and seven-tenths, of their population. In Terre Bonne, the registered voters stood — white, four and seven-eighths ; black, three and two-thirds ; and so on. In many parishes the proportions were reversed ; but in the greater number the colored men registered a larger proportion to their popu- lation than the whites to theirs. This does not look much like intimidation. Finally, the vote of 1874 was uncommon- ly full. " The whole number of votes regis- tered was 167,604. Of these, 146,523 voted. This is a larger proportion of registered voters than usually vote in any of the North- ern States." So say the Congressional com- mittee. " When a man marries, his troubles begin," says an old song. In Louisiana, when a man votes the Oonservative ticket, his troubles begin. Ho must prove that he voted, and that he did not frighten some other body from voting ; and when he has done that, then the returning board may, after all, turn him out. I have gone into this detail to show you that it is no joke to carry an election against the Republicans in Louisiana. If the party in power were united, and had the Federal Government to support them, they could easily, with all this machinery, from Pack- ard to iirinted intimidation certificates and returning board, remain in for a century. But, 1st. They are no longer united. A portion of the Eejjublicans certainly desire honest government. They are a small mi- nority of the party, but they are hopeful. 2d. The negroes are becoming a nuisance to their corrui^t white allies. Under the in- spiration of Pinchback and other ambitious colored leaders, they begin to grasp after all the oflices. "We have the majority," they say: "we cast the votes ; the offices belong to us ; we do not need you." They are ready to give judgeships to the whites; but the Leg- islature, the sheriffs' places, the police-juries, (county supervisors) — all the places where money is to be spent or appropriated — they demand, in those parishes where they are the majority. "I was very glad of the affair of the 14th of September in New Orleans," said a Re- publican to me. This was the affair iu which M'Euery took jjossession of the government. I asked him why, and he said, " We have a very heavy colored majority in my parish. We have always managed honestly, and vigi- lantly protected the blacks iu all their rights ; but we have given the important places to intelligent and honest whites. Last sum- mer I suddenly found that some colored lead- ers were quietly getting up an opposition to our management, and were determined to turn us out, and put in an entire colored set of office-holders. All our white people were uneasy ; for .an ignorant and corrupt police- jury and sheriff might run us into heavy debt. The blacks would not listen to argu- ments or appeals from us white Republicans, who had always been their allies and pro- tectors. Just then came the 14th of Septem- ber ; the news of M'Enery's success flew up to our parish ; it was believed that the Fed- eral Government would recognize him ; the negroes were alarmed ; they flocked around me again, and were very ready to heed the good counsels of those of us who had been for years, as they knew, their safe guides and advisers, but whom just before they had LOUISIANA IN APRIL, 1875. 67 been quite ready to throw overboard -with contempt." This incident will give you the key to an important part of the situation in Louisiana and in Mississippi as well. The blacks are not wise enough to resist the allurements of their own corrupt leaders. Office has great temptations for them ; and the strongest Radicals have confessed to me that the blacks have no shame about bribery or corruption, no sense of the dignity of office. I speak of them, of course, as a class. There are ex- ceptions. You will see that no tax-payer, no matter of what party, can afford to give up entirely to the colored voters. The Conservative politicians have not been wise. They have too often been ruled by their tempers. For instance, under tlie natural irritation of misgovernment, much of which is truly blamable to the ignorant blacks whom the Radicals have brought into power, the Conservatives in State conven- tion last year at Baton Rouge, adopted a resolution declaring that they would nomi- nate no colored men to any office whatever. It was seen by themselves to be so foolish an act, that no sooner had the convention ad- journed, than in thirteen parishes the same men did actually nominate colored men on their tickets. But they were too late. Tiieir adroit opponents made full use of the Baton Rouge platform, and in most instances pre- vented the break which the wiser part of the Conservatives had sought to make. An intelligent negro in one of the coun- try parishes expressed to me his disgust at the bad character of the men nominated and elected by the Radicals in 1874 in bis parish. " But," I said, " if you knew that, why did you not vote for the compromise ticket, which also had colored men on it, and hon- est, intelligent ones, I am told?" He replied, " It came too late. The Radical organizers had already been around among our people ; our ticket was nominated and our people pledged to support it, and the Baton Rouge platform made them feel an- gry." And so they voted for men whom they knew to be corrupt. It is not nice ; but it is a sample of Loui- siana politics. The real embarrassment in the future lies with Packard and Pinchback. They believe in the color-line, and Pinchback is an unscru- pulous, and, with his own people, a very in- fluential, politician. ' The colored people, un- fortunately, are very susceptible to such in- fluences as his. They are — their best friends and most zealous supporters openlj' confess it — incapable of independent political ac- tion. They require a leader. This is so true that the office of " organizer " is one of the most important in the Radical machinery in Louisiana. He is a person sent into country parishes from New Orleans some weeks or months before election, to gather up the col- ored vote ; to appoint and hold meetings ; to instruct the local leaders, who are mostly preachers and school-teachers, and to organ- ize the party. " We had a light colored vote in our par- ish," said a Conservative to me ; " but there was no intimidation. The organizer came up late, and fell sick as soon as he got there, and the negroes had no one to drill them and tell them what to do." Now, Pinchback understands organiza- tion. He has at this time a propagandist of his views in many parishes, and it is said he means to make himself, if he can, master of the colored vote. I believe he can not do it ; but he can do much mischief. It is a grave misfortune for Louisiana that in her crisis she has so weak a governor. I believe that Governor Kellogg has a sincere wish to do right ; but he has no force of character; he has no influence over those who rule with him. He lacks the iron grip which is needed to bring reform. He him- self complained to me in New Orleans, after the adjournment of the Legislature, that the State Superiutendent of Public Instruction (a colored man) had just appointed two no- toriously corrupt men to be president and treasurer of the school board of a parish. I asked him how he came to permit such a wickedness. He replied, " The colored Sen- ator Blunt demanded it. Brown, the su- perintendent, weakly gave in to him. I am sorry — but what am I to do ?" One listens with contempt to such an excuse, which no man would make who really commanded his administration. By law the superintendent appoints ; but a governor who was a strong man would know how to resist such action. The good Kellogg only drifts, and hopes he is drifting toward the United States Senate. But, so drifting, ho fatally impedes reforms; he allows things to bo done which imbitter the passions of men, and make them hopeless of reform ; he really bands together the white men, who have all to lose by continued bad 68 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. government, and all to gain by good, and the great mass of whom would to-day be happy and content with good government ou any terms. Many of them, indeed, would vote to make General Grant President for life, and Loui- siana a province, because, as a very respect- able and intelligent man said to me but the other day, "In that case we should at least have equal protection, and could ap- peal direct to Cassar for justice, and against robbery." It is not pleasant to hear such words from an American citizen. The only sure remedy, I am persuaded, lies in the absolute non-interference of the Federal power. If to - day it were known that the Federal Government would not in- terfere in the affairs of Louisiana on any account except for rebellion against the Fed- eral Government, the influence of those Ee- publicans who sincerely desire good govern- ment would bo increased a hundred - fold. They would be able to extinguish at once the power of the colored demagogues ; for the negro dares to be politically corrupt only because he profoundly believes that the Fed- eral arm will protect him in his acts ; he has always seen it do so. Take away the con- stant menace of Federal interference, and the whole body of corruptiouists will at once sink out of sight, as they did in Arkansas. Nor do I believe that any serious disorder would happen in the State. The good peo- ple would know that they could hope to con- trol the government by fair and peaceable means, and would have its help in control- ling the disorderly whites. There is not the least disposition to fall into trouble with the Federal jiower. There is no hostility to the Union or the Government. The negro la- borers are too valuable to be abused; for free labor is a very great and universally acknowledged success. The spirit of Louisiana is not bad; he who says it is has, I do not hesitate to as- sert, some bad motive. There are a few parishes, like Franklin, where human life is held cheap, where ruf- fians rule, and where one might, without ex- aggeration, say that, under the careless sway of the Kepublican rulers, outlaws have mas- tered society. But even in these parishes, of which there are but two or three at most, no one pretends that murder is practiced for political purposes. Franklin, for instance, was the refuge of deserters and outlaws during the war ; it is thinly populated, contains but few blacks, and, I think, from what I have heard from both Democrats and Republicans, it has sub- stantially no law except that of the pistol and knife. "The jieople are getting very tired of it," said a Democrat to me. " Prop- erty is unsalable ; nobody goes there ; and they would welcome law and order if they could get it." I said there were perhaps two or three such parishes, but I know of only this one. Its condition is probably worse than that of some of the coal counties of Pennsylvania, but not much worse. Neither "Warmouth nor Kellogg has done any thing to improve it. But the great body of the white people of the State are good citizens, and they have learned a terribly severe lesson of the im- portance of justice, peace, and order in the last ten years. They have learned to respect the rights of the negro, and they and the blacks ought to be trusted with self-govern- ment. There is no other way to reform abuses in the State ; and, what is still more important, a continuance of the Federal pro- tectorate will speedily result in making life intolerable even to the white Republicans, or, at least, to that part of them who have property in the State ; for, as I pointed out before, it is the worst class of colored dema- gogues who are nc to take command. The agricultural industry of Louisiana di- vides itself broadly into two parts — sugar and cotton. The upper part of the State is main- ly engaged in cotton-culture; the lower, in the production of sugar. But, as in some of the northern and western parishes stock-raising is also practiced, so on the low alluvial lands intersected by the Mississippi, the Atchafa- laya, audthe numerous bayouswhich lead out of these streams, rice is a considerable and profitable crop as well as sugar; and latterly the small planters begin to set out orange orchards, the few orchards now in bearing being very profitable. This tree requires ten years in this climate to come into full bearing, and is liable while young to be cut down by frost. It is not a sure crop here, is subject to the scale insect, and the orange- planter needs to select with some care the site of his orchard, and to seek protection against the cold north winds of the spring season. But the tree bears well, and has much less care than it should have ; and the crop finds a very ready sale for cash, the LOUISIANA IN APRIL, 1875. 69 twenty dollars per acre, whicli includes tak- ing off the crop. lu some parts the people continue to cut it with a sickle, and I have seen it threshed out by driving horses over it in a large circle. But reapers and steam- threshers are coming into use, and the rice country has always mills to which the farm- ers take their rice to get it hulled. In the rice -fields the colored laborer receives one orchardist usually, I hear, selling his fruit on the tree, and at a gross valuation made when the oranges are ripening. The flow- ers, also, have a market value. A few large sugar-jjlanters are beginning the systematic culture of the orange ; and where the situation is favorable to the tree, it makes a very profitable crop. At twelve years after planting it should yield one thousand dollars an acre, with a trifling ' dollar a day, and feeds himself. cost for cultivation apd care. Along the river or the bayou there is usu- lu some places, as on the Atchafalaya and about Grand Lake, live-oak timber is cut ally a strip of laud from half a mile to a and shipped to different parts of the world. mile deep; back of that come forest and swamp, and beyond that, probably, the face of another bayou. The land is flat, but falls a little from the river toward the swamp ; 60 that when a rise of the waters comes, the plantation is overflowed from the back first, unless, of course, the levee in front breaks. One of the important pettj- industries of Lower Louisiana is the collection of the moss which hangs in long festoons from all the trees, particularly from the oak. Ne- groes and white men alike devote them- ' selves to this, and the quantity brought to New Orleans annually is quite large. On Many plantations have a back as well as a the sugar-plantations, when fire-wood is cut frout levee, and often you see a pumping j the moss is usually the perquisite of the col- wheel and eugiue, which are needed to get ' ored men, and they understand how to pre- rid of the rain-water. They say of Florida pare it for market, and make some pocket- that the water is so close to the surface that money iu this way. you may dig down anywhere two feet deep Sugar, however, is the main crop of South- aud go a-fishiug ; and these sugar and rice eru Louisiana. Various causes make it just lauds are at this season not much drier, i now a precarious crop; and sugar- plauta- The banks of the stream are fringed with tions la some of the best locations iu the live-oaks, aud iu the shade of these the plan- tation-house is usually placed, with the sug- State could be bought in the spring of 1875 for less money than the machinery of the ar-house near-by, and the cottages of the la- ' sugar-houses cost. I was surprised to find borers beyond that. On some of the bayous ' that a large number of Northern aud North- which are quite narrow, the plantation lines , western men have come down here since extend on both sides, and the fields are the war, and bought sugar -estates. Some connected with the sugar-house by floating bridges, which are swung to oue side to allow a steamboat to pass. On the Missis- sippi the high levees partly conceal the buildings, aud from the deck of a steamboat the view of roof-lines above the levee gives the landscape a very quaint appearance. In many places rice is the crop of the of these manage their plantations with the help of overseers, and live here only iu the winter ; others manage their own places. As you pass up a bayou on the steamboat, the whitewashed cottages and neater culture generally tell you that here a Northern man has settled with capital enough to carry on his business to advantage. Many of the small fiirmers — men with oue hundred or : plantations are still in the hands of the old two hundred acres of land. It requires less planters, aud often these have a dilapidated capital than sugar, aud is sufllcieutly profit- able. It depeuds, of course, on the waters rising sufllcieutly high to flood the land at the proper time. To accomplish this, flood- ing ditches are cut, and water is let iu through the levee by simple flood-gates. About Point h la Hache such ditches and gates are found at intervals of every few hundred feet for miles of the river-front. In a good season the yield, I am told, is from twelve to fifteen barrels per aci'e, which ought to bring five dollars per barrel. The expense is about 1 do not mean to say that they have no fault look, which shows that their owners are in embarrassed circumstances. The bad condition of the levees has brought serious loss to many planters, especially iu the Atchafalaya and Teche country; aud there is a general complaiut of high taxa- tion and wasteful expenditure of public money. The planters, without exceptidn, so far as I have heard them speak, are thoroughly sat- isfied with the colored man as a laborer. I 70 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. to find; but they say tliat tbe negroes are orderly, docile, faithful to their engagements, steady laborers in the field, readily submit- ting to directions and instructions, and easi- ly managed and made contented. This ap- plies to cotton as well as sugar planters, and all is summed up in the phrase I most fre- quently heard used, " We have the best la- boring class in the world." Their faults are mainly of carelessness •with such property as mules and farming-im- plements, and killing cattle and hogs. As to the first, several planters told me they had found it useful to give the charge of animals entirely to a special person, who fed and cared for them. But it appears to make no difierence whether the mules belong to the planter or to the laborer ; the latter is as conscientiously careless of his own as of another's property. It is part of the heed- lessness bred of slavery, and it will take time to be bred out, as it was bred in. As to killing cattle and hogs, this is a cus- tom which arises, in part, out of a slovenly way of letting animals run half wild in the woods without that care which marks spe- cial ownership. It is a matter which the planters are meeting gradually by letting the laborers keep stock of their own, and thus making it to their interest to put down the indiscriminate theft. A Northern man, a planter, told me that he had brought from the North thirty-four cows, and all had been killed but two, which, for safety, he now kept within the door-yard of his dwelling. I asked if his laborers were generally dis- honest, and he replied emphatically, no ; he would trust any one of them, he said, with ten thousand dollars to carry to town, with- out fear of loss ; he had never missed any articles from his house, where he had colored servants, and where the women from the quarters often came. But he could keep chickens and turkeys only with the utmost difficulty and care ; and as for cows and hogs, it was entirely out of the question. The laborers on the sugar-plantations re- ceive from thirteen to fifteen dollars per month; a cottage, Tisually of two rooms, and a garden patch near it ; a ration of pork and corn -meal, rather more than enough for a hearty man ; and a corn patch, which the laborer cultivates for himself on Saturday afternoon with the jdanter's teams. About their cottages they can keep chickens and pigs, if they like ; and often they have a horse, a cow, and even an old can-iago of some kind, in which they drive out on Sun- day with great satisfaction, crowding in wife and children. The planter usually has on his place a store where necessaries and luxuries are sold, and among the former whisky is reckoned, I am sorry to say. They tell me the blacks will have it, and it is better to sell it in mod- eration on the place than to compel them to go to a distance for it. As the sugar-planta- tions are all situated upon navigable streams, they are exposed to a serious nuisance in the shape of peddling boats, which sail up and down with a license from the State to sell various matters, among which whisky is prominent. These anchor opjiosite a i)lan- tation for a day or two, and carry away, not only all the spare cash, but chickens and other " truck " which the colored people may have raised. The negro is fond of credit. Few of them, I find, are sufficiently forehanded to deal for cash. They have credit at the store ; and it is the planter's object to so manage the laborer's account that he shall have a pretty little sum at Christmas, which he thereupon mostly spends during Christmas-week with very great satisfaction. If he has been al- lowed to draw out all of his account before- hand ho is dissatisfied, and likes to remove, thinking that he has not done well — no matter how clearly he is shown that he was wasteful during the year. Only a very few lay by money ; but occasionally a negro was pointed out to me who had several hundred dollars ahead. One thing greatly pleased me : the black man pays his debts. All the petty shop- keepers, of whom the country is full, are ready to give credit to the negroes. It was a question I asked very often, and always received the same reply, " They always pay up." Among the rice -planters, where the blacl|^s work by the day, they frequently hire cottages, and the owner of some of these told me he wonld rather have negroes than whites for tenants, because they paid more prompt- ly. A country store -keeper said to me, " Ninety per cent, of ray sales are to colored people, and ninety per cent, of my bad debts are owed by whites." I had road somewhere in the North a com- plaint that the j)lanters refused to sell laud to the negroes. The case I found stands thus : In tho sugar country the negro does not aim to buy twenty or forty acres, and plant cane for himself. He would need to LOUISIANA IN ATRIL, 1375. 71 have the cane ground ; and the business is too hurried at the close of the season to get this done ■with certainty and at the proper time. But they like to ovrn au acre or two, on which they place a cabin ; and this home- stead makes them contented. Unluckily, they do not improve their places ; invariably I have found them in the roughest and most disorderly condition. Now, naturally, no man likes to sell a corner of his estate to such purchasers ; aud the planters very just- ly and very generally refuse to sell such lit- tle patches to negroes. Some would divide their estates into hundred-acre tracts, but there are few purchasers for such parcels. Many others hold on to their large estates, even when they have not capital enough to work them ; and I have seen some planta- tions which were not worked at all, but on which the owners paid the taxes, and waited for better times. For my part, I do not much blame them. Nobody, except a land-specu- lator, likes to sell land ; especially where it has been his home. And these i^eople are not land-speculators. It is not uncommon, however, for a spec- ulator to buy a hundred acres near a town, and divide it into two-acre tracts, which are readily sold to colored people at a great ad- vance. I have seen several such villages, and certainly the regular rows of neatly whitewashed cabins on the plantation look, and are, far more comfortable. In the cotton country it is not very un- common to tind negroes owning twenty or forty acres ; aud they can always buy land if they want to. The great majority, how- ever, as yet, prefer to cultivate the land on shares, either furnishing their own teams or only their labor ; and in the rich Louisiana bottoms they make handsome returns in this way. The sugar-planter lies, in all countries where he is found, under a practical disad- vantage, because he combines two callings very different in their nature — he is both a farmer aud a manufacturer. I found this recognized in the Sandwich Islands, where one or two of the shrewdest planters have tried the experiment of inducing the natives to raise cane and bring it to their mills to be ground. In this way the risk of the crop is divided ; and this is so gi'eat that a large sugar-planter may be fatally embaiTassed by the loss of a single crop, or by a trilling fall in the j)rice of sugar. There are undoubt- edly some difficulties iu the way of dividing the business ; bnt in several of the sugar counties of Louisiana iilanters are making the attempt to turn the mere raising of cane over to laborers and small farmers, and with a promise of success. In Plaquemine, Mr. Dymond, of New York, has begun to buy cane and grind it at his mill, and with profit to himself aud to those who raise the cane. One farmer told me that the experiment last year, which he made only because his own sugar-house had burned down, was so far successful that this year he was putting a part of his land iu rice, aud over two hundred acres in cane. He sold last year one hundred and seventy-five acres of cane for five dollars a ton — he cutting it, and loading it on the barge which carried it to the mill ; aud he thought the returns satisfactory. In Terre Bonne I found an intelligent young planter-, a Louisiauian, who was try- ing a different plan, and, as he thought, with the jiromise of success. He has made a con- tract for five years with his laborers, under which they take of him on an average ten acres per hand, he furnishing seed-cane, cane land, houses, fire-wood, fences, and laud for a corn patch ; they supplying teams, tools, la- bor, aud feeding themselves, and taking half the croiJ. The men work in squads of half a dozen. When the cane is ready to cut, the planter takes charge, aud uses all the teams and men for the common i)urpose of getting the cane in and the sugar made. At this time also he hires extra hands, and the tenants pay half the cost of these. The planter ad- vances all the money needed, and, in fact, makes advances of food and other supplies also to the tenants, which is the evil custom of the countrj% The cost of taking the cane from the field aud turnuig it iuto sugar is about twenty dollars an acre. Under this system this planter told me that the men worked more zealously than ever before. He had even sold them teams on a credit of three years ; and the result of the first year was that the tenants lived, and paid one-third the cost of fheir teams; aud of eleven squads, the members of seven came out at the close of the season one hundred dollars per man ahead. As for himself, ho said he had lost money for several years ; but last year he made money, aud he attribu- ted it largely to the new system. I ought to add that most of his tenants were white men, but a squad of colored men did as well and made as much money as any of the o.thers. 72 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. I fouud a Southern man in charge as su- perintendent of a railroad which employs a large colored force as track layers and mend- ers, etc. The men receive one dollar and fifty-seven cents a day, and pay sixty cents a day to their foreman, a colored man also, for food. They are " the very best of labor- ers, always willing, zealous, and faithful, and will work very hard and in the most disa- greeable labor for any one who treats them well." So said the superintendent. One large gang was poiuted out to me, which for some years had labored in the swamiis through which a part of the road runs. They composed a little independent commu- nity, having a justice of the peace of their own, who maintains order and decides dis- putes. Where sugar-planters keep no store for their hands, it is customary to pay the hands half their wages at the end of the mouth and the balance at the close of the year ; and I imagine those who make advances in goods try to keep their men to about the same limit. Very few cotton-planters in Louisiana i)ay wages. The colored man prefers to take the land on shares, and it is by far the best way. Where they rent land in the rich bottoms, they pay from six to ten dollars per acre, or, which is more usual, eighty pounds of clean cotton. In some cases the planter furnishes laud, house, fuel, a corn patch, teams, tools, and feed for the animals, and takes half the crop. If the colored tenant wants to undertake corn as well as cotton, that, too, is planted at halves. They usually work in squads, and undertake about fifteen acres of cotton and ten of corn to the hand. Cotton will average three-quarters of a bale to the acre, and I judge that the labor- er with a fair crop may live through the year, and have one hundred and fifty dollars in cash at the close of the season, neither he nor his family having suffered for any thing in the mean time. The returns are very sat- isfactory to the laborer, and Northern farm- ers, who save as well as work, could easily grow rich on the Mississippi and Ked Eiver bottom-lands. Every body tells me that the colored men save but little. In one cotton-parish a Re- publican who has taken great interest in the welfare of the negroes said, in answer to my question, "They are not worth a dollar a head of the population to-day." " That man had one hundred and fifty dollars duo him last Christmas for his cotton," said another planter to me : " he spent it all in ten days, and bought the greatest lot of trash you ever saw ; but he and his wife and children were satisfied and happy, and when I reproached him, ho said, ' What's the use of living if a man can't have the good of his labor V " New Orleans has a considerable number of colored mechanics, who are spoken of as skillful and competent men. Elsewhere in the State I have seen colored men working as masons and carpenters, and occasionally shoe -makers, and they are skillful black- smiths. I am told, in the towns a consider- able proportion of the colored people own the houses in which they live, and they all have a strong desire, as I have said, to own small lots of laud. But in a parish which has a negro population of over twelve thou- sand, a planter who has takeu much interest in the colored people told me he knew not more than twenty men who owned farms, and some of these he thought would not make their payments on the price, by reason of improvidence. This was in the cotton country, where the colored people can read- ily buy land, and at a reasonable rate. The women do not regularly work in tho fields. They receive from eight dollars to ten dollars a month as field-hands, and in the cotton -picking time women and chil- dren turn in to this work. In the sugar coun- try, too, the planters employ women in the fields at certain seasons. If the colored la- borer is forehanded, he prefers that his wife shall not work in the field. Of schools most of the parishes have a suf- ficient number, and the colored people are generally better supplied than the whites with free schools. This arises in part from the fact that school-teachers are made use of as politicians. The notion that the negro race is dying out is absurd, and one never hears it meu- tioned here. The whole country is full of hearty, shiny little pickaninnies, fat, quiet, generally nicely dressed ; and in tho towns and villages the larger children look very neat and happy as they go to and from school or Sunday-school. The colored people are almost universally, I am told, anxious to send their children to school, and in my conversation with them the most frequent complaint I heard was of the mismanagement or inefficiency of schools. I never heard auy complaint of a lack of schools, though some outlying par- LOUISIANA IN APKIL, 1875. 73 islies are not well supplied. In a country parish on a Sunday, I fell into conversation with three colored men whom I met in my walk. One had his little children with him. He comiilained that the school was not kept open — " not more than one day in the week. It was a shame, when they had a good school- house ; but the teacher was of no account." I said they ought to cure that by choosing good officers at elections, and one replied that they always got cheated. The Eepub- lican office-holders were as bad as Conserv- atives, and he would just as soon trust one as the other. " And if we i>ut our own color in, somebody comes along and shoves money in their pockets, and makes them forget their own people." As to churches, in the cotton country the colored people are mostly either Methodists or Baptists, and they have their own church- es and preachers of their own color. The meeting is a curiosity. The preacher is al- most always so far illiterate that he uses large words in a wrong sense ; but he free- ly denounces the sins of the congregation. Then come screams, violent contortions, jumping, dancing, and shouting — but not more violent or ghastly than I have seen in Western camp-meetings among white peo- l^le, in my youuger days, I must own. You hear it commonly said that the preach- ers are not good men, and do not live up to their calling, but I doubt it. They are poli- ticians — -as preachers, lawyers, and doctors are commonly among white men. But even though the form which Christianity takes among these people is repugnant to my cold- er nature, I found no upright, thoughtful planter who did not acknowledge that the Church is a restraining influence upon them ; and in one case where I put the question the planter told me that he had noticed that almost all the crime, lawsuits, and troubles generally, in his parish, which came before the courts, originated on those plantations where there was no meeting-house. "As for me," he said, "I think it an economy to support both church and Sunday-school among the colored people on my planta- tions." In Southern Louisiana a large part of the colored population are Catholics, and have not separate churches. The colored people are the main working force of the State. It is not fair to say that they are the only workers, as is sometimes rashly asserted, for there is a considerable population of white farmers scattered over the State. In the Acadian country these people, who are called " Cadians," are indus- trious and prosperous. They speak Freucli, and retain many of their old French customs. They live a good deal among themselves, and do not even care to tnide with the Amer- icans, whom, though they have occupied the country ever since the acquisition of Louisi- ana, the Acadian still regards as interlopers. In other parts of the State there is a popu- lation of white farmers who cultivate the thin uplands. They have been much neg- lected, and are not very highly thought of by their neighbors in the lowlands. To conclude, the industrial prospects of the colored people in Louisiana are satisfac- tory. They work, and they receive a fair and even handsome return for their labor; and working so largely on shares, they have incentives to faithful work which day -la- borers in the North are often without. Lou- isiana is an extraordinarily rich State ; mill- ions of acres of the most fertile soil lie uncultivated, and may be obtained at a price so low that an industrious man maj' pay for a farm from the savings of two cotton crops. These lands are open to the colored people, and when time and a long- er experience of liberty have taught them self-denial, economy, and business habits, they will more largely become independent farmers. It is my belief that they ought now to be finally — in this State — left to themselves, so far as the xiolitical interference of the Fed- eral Government is concerned. They know how to help themselves, and it is, in the opinion of the best Republicans I met in the State, a danger to social order that the ne- groes, preyed upou as they are by dema- gogues of both colors, shall any longer have cause to believe that the Federal power stands behind them to protect them against the results of their misconduct, or to main- tain them in places for which they are, by lack of education and of training and expe- rience, unfit. MISSISSIPPI U MAY, 1875. Mississippi is, politically, iu a melauclioly condition. The State is naturally fertile and rich; the people ■work ; the means of prosperity and content are at hand. Nor can it be said that there is actual disorder or violence. Mississippi is still, even more than Arkan- sas, a frontier State, -with frontier habits. Men, and even boys of fourteen, go about ■with pistols in their pockets, and murder is not a crime if the murderer can " get a continuance" — that is to say, if he is not lynched, and his lawyer succeeds in de- laying his trial. But, except iu Vicksburg last year, there has been iu two or three years but little iiolitical violence aud mur- der iu the State. The evil passions -which raged after the -war, and continued too long, are subsiding ; the State debt is trifling ; the schools are in a tolerably good condition ; the Civil-rights Act is submitted to ; there Las been little occasion for the interference of the Federal Government under the En- forcement acts, except at Vicksburg, for at least eighteen months or two years ; the State is in the main at peace. And yet it is neither prosperous nor hap- j)y. It is the prey of two political factious of the -worst type, ■who, on both sides, aim to create aud maintain excitement, bitterness, suspicions, fears, and hatred. On the one side stands an unscrupulous and deter- mined band of Democratic politicians of the ■worst kind — the pistol and bowie-knife stripe, namely — ■who, in ne^wspapers aud by their daily conversation, excite the ■white Democrats ■who listen to them to unreason- ing and imreasonable fury, aud at the same time alarm the timid negroes and bind them together. Arrayed against these Democrats stands another equally unscrupulous baud of Kepublicau politicians, -n'ith Governor Ames at their head, -vN-ho have " captured " the . colored vote, and mean to hold power and plunder by its means. Between these contending factions stand the mass of honest Eepublicans and honest Democrats, moderate and conservative, but unable, it seems, to control the bad elements; unable, at any rate, to unite and take con- trol into their own hands. Here are two examples which do not bad- ly illustrate the state of affairs iu Missis- sippi. Knowing that I am interested in schools, some one iu New Orleans sent me a letter of introduction to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction here — a colored man named Cardozo. On asking for him I found he had gone to Vicksburg " to look after an indictment " found against him ; and when I myself went there, I discovered that Car- dozo was not merely indicted, but, as an in- dignant Republican told me, " shingled all over with Indictments" for embezzlement aud fraud, aud likely, if justice is done, pres- ently to be sent to State-prison. What a love- ly and im^iroving sight for the children of the State, white and black ! Yet this man is one of Governor Ames's confidential and influential advisers. Here is the other side. The postmaster, ex-Senator Pease, while I was in Vicksburg, was stopped in the street by a person who, I was assured, is " one of the most respecta- ble citizens" of the place, who said to him in a loud voice, "I hear, sir, by God, that you are going to appoint a damned nigger to be a clerk in your post-office !" Pease re- plied that he certainly was going to appoint a colored man to a clerkship. "Then, sir, I tell you it's a damned outrage, and this community won't stand it, sir!" said this "most respectable citizen" in a blustering tone. Pease replied, "You will have to stand it," ■which is perfectly true. And as they have a colored sheriff already in Vicks- burg, aud colored officials in many counties, this bluster seems to be as foolish as it is wicked. At the same time, a hack-driver was furiously driving his hack up and down the main business street, shouting, "Pease is MISSISSIPPI IN MAY, 1875. 75 going to put a nigger in tlie post -office!" Now, see what follows. The next day's Vicksburg Herald, the Democratic organ, re- marks : "Pease puts Milton Coates at the geueral delivery of the post-office as an insult to our people. He says the people 'must stand it.' They may not stand even Pease very long. Our people have a rather summary way of disposing of men and measures sometimes." And another article in the same journal says: " Pease was remonstrated with yesterday upon the assignment of a negro to the ladies" window. A gen- tleman modestly suggested that the men of Vicksburg would not submit to have a negro assigned to the duty of waiting on their wives and daughters at the post-office, when the insolent scoundrel replied, 'They will have to stand it !' The appointment is a deliber- ate insult to the ladies of this city, and the alleged Jersey school-house burner may find that he is not quite so potent as he imagines. He may find that he has made a blunder, and he may yet live to realize that a blunder is worse than a crime. He may con- vert the post-office into anything but a bed of roses." The mayor and police of Vicksburg, who are Democrats, took no notice of the disor- derly hack-driver, whom they ought to haye summarily arrested. The insulting words of the " respectable citizen " are approved by a considerable i)art of the Democratic citizens, and those the most prominent j)oli- ticians. The colored man whom Mr. Pease has made clerk in the post-office is a young man of education, acknowledged integrity, and quiet, gentlemanly demeanor, whom sev- eral Democrats praised to me. The hack- driver who objected to him never objects to taking a fare from a negro, and a citizen of Vicksburg told me he had seen him repeat- edly driving negro prostitutes about the town. The "most respectable citizen" is agent for a steamboat line, daily sells tick- ets to colored people, and never refuses their money. The whole affair would be a farce, if it were not so likely to become a tragedy. Mississippi has a colored majority in its voting population of probably lifteen thou- sand, and possibly twenty thousand. To these must be added about nine thousand or ten thousand white Republicans, of whom at least two-thirds are natives of the State. About five thousand negroes are counted on to vote the Democratic ticket. The Ames faction in the Republican party contains but a small part of the white Re- publicans — a majority of the petty office- holders and the camp-followers ; but it con- trols the colored vote. In the anti-Ames wing of the Republican party, I found a number of men, Northern and Southern, who have a substantial interest in the State ; who are men of culture, upright, wise, and good citizens iu the best sense of the phrase ; such men as Judge Tarbell, of the Supreme Court ; Judge Luke Lea ; Mr. Musgrove, late State Auditor ; General M'Kpe, a member of Con- gress ; Judge Hill, of the United States Cir- cuit Court ; G. W. Wells, United States Die- trict Attornej^ for the Northern District ; and many others. The large majority of the Democratic par- ty also is composed of men of moderate and conservative views, who would i^refer peace, harmony, and good government, but who are influenced to a largo degree by a small but fierce band of fire-eaters whose head-quar- ters are at Vicksburg, and who control a number of presses in different parts of the State, and keep the iieople in a ferment by their violent language and their exaggera- tions of evils which are great enough iu fact, but not nearly so great as they pre- tend, nor by any means entirely blamablo upon the Rei^ublicaus. Through the appeals of these persons the people of Mississippi have been led to believe themselves outraged and opi>ressed in some ways in which they are not ; partisan bitterness has been main- taiued to a degree which leads the ignorant Democrat to unite in the same denunciation honest and dishonest Republicans ; and so intense is the feeling kept up that the mate- rial interests of the State suffer by reason of it — confidence is shaken, values are depress- ed, and even industry is disturbed. Mean- time these Democratic demagogues strive to lead the people away from the legitimate and natural means by which they could rid themselves of corrupt rulers and establish a sound government, based upou the union of the best men of both parties. That there have been wastefulness and cor- rnptiou in the government of Mississippi there is no doubt. I am so weary of official grand and petit larceny that I do not mean to go at any length into Mississippi finances. It is enough to say that the State debt is trifling ; there have been no great railroad swindles; a constitutional provision wisely forbids the loan of the State credit. But there has been gross financial corruption in many counties; officers with high salaries have been needlessly multiplied ; there have been notorious jobs, such as the State print- ing ; and the ruling powers, the Ames Re- publicans, have unscrupulously used the ig- norance and greed of the negroes to help them in their political schemes. Control- 76 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. ling the negro vote, and using it as a solid mass, tliey Lave put iuto such offices as coun- ty supervisors and treasurers, as -well as iuto the Legislature, negroes who were often not Such men as Barksdale, Wharton, Lamar, and hundreds of other jiromiuent Democrats, have clean hands and are men of honor; but there is an undoubted projiensity to only unable to read and write, but who were I corruption among some Democratic as well notoriously corrupt and corrupting dema- j as among Kepublican leaders. For instance, gogues. For instance, the late treasurer of i Vicksburg has been, since August, under Hinda County, in which the State capital j Democratic rule ; but the expenses of the lies, was a negro who could neither read nor city government, I am told, have increased. write, and who was killed by another negro a few weeks ago for a disgraceful intrigue. In the last Legislature were several negroes ■who could neither read nor write. It has happened that the members of a grand jury were totally illiterate. A city government was to be elected last August in Vicksburg, and the Republicans nominated for mayor a white man at the time under indictment for twenty-three offenses, and for aldermen sev- en colored men, most of them of low charac- ter, and one white man who could neither read nor write, the keeper of a low grog- gery. This ticket was denounced by Gen- eral M'Kee, Republican member of Congress, in a public speech, and, with the help of the Republicans, was beaten. Of the present supervisors of Warren County (Vicksburg), the president and two others can not read. It is a notorious fact that Governor Ames has appointed to judicial places men igno- rant of law, and that he has used his appoint- ing power to shield criminals, Avho were his adherents, and to corrupt the judiciary of the State. These are serious matters ; but, on the other hand, it must be said that the Demo- cratic demagogues have repeatedly urged the negroes to nominate only colored men for office. They say they " would rather have a Mississippi nigger than a carpet-bagger ;" and, moreover, in the notable cases of cor- ruption, both in State and counties. Demo- crats have in many cases shared the plun- der, and in some have got up the scheme. Now, on this head the Democratic leaders are silent. They cry out that the State is ruined, which is not true ; but they have themselves helped to rob it, and it is at least a doubtful question whether, if some of those who so loudly denounce corruption had pow- er, they would make an honest government. There is, for instance, a loud outcry about the enormous debt of Vicksburg ; but of the money spent for street improvements, Dem- ocratic contractors got the most ; and the money given to railroads was voted by Dem- ocrats and Rexiublicans alike. and order is not as well maintained under Democratic rule as formerly. Nor, if the Democratic leaders were fair, would they omit to tell their people that the expenses of State and county govern- ments have necessarily increased, for the colored people being free give business to the courts and the officers and institutions of justice; they must have schools; and in other ways the cost of government is in- creased. That a very large balance of waste and theft and high taxation remains, is per- fectly true, and of that all may rightfully complain, as well as of other and graver wrongs which I have mentioned above. It is a complaint, also, of the Democrats that their opponents have, for corrupt pur- poses, maintained the color-line in politics. It is true that the Ames men cultivate the ne- gro vote by corrupt means; but it is also true that the Democrats have helped them. In Ai-kansas and Louisiana, I do not remember having once heard of the negro except as a part of the body politic, ignorant, to be sure, but a good worker, and, as was often said to me by Democrats, " not to be blamed that he went wrong under bad advice." But ia Mississippi the commonest topic of discus- sion is the " damned nigger." A dozen times, at least, prominent Democrats told me he was a peculiar being, not possessing the virtues of the Caucasian race, and not fit- ted by nature to vote, or to sit on jury, or to bear witness — a creature admirably fitted to make cotton, and so on. I have heard such discussions going on in the presence of colored men, who naturally listened with all the ears they had. Now, the negro is not an idiot. He would be if he voted for and with men who ha- bitually call him a "nigger," and often a " damned nigger," and who openly assert his incapacity by nature to perform the functions of a citizen. When the " most re- spectable citizen in Vicksburg" blustered about the postmaster appointing a " damned nigger," ho was heard by at least twenty- five colored men and women. Yet, in that MISSISSIPPIJ-TklAY, 1875. 77 very town leading Democra'iPf/esm af>Vut the impossibility of breaking the color-liue. One woiild have a contempt for such politi- cians Tvere not their course a constant in- jury to the State in ■which they are so fool- ishly noisy, and. in ■which the quiet, sensi- ble, and orderly people seem to have almost entirely resigned the po^wer and suj)remacy ■which belong to them. The thing ■which ■was oftenest said to mo in Mississippi by Democratic politicians ■was this : " Our only hope is in the Democratic success iu the next Federal election. The Democratic successes last fall gave us our first gleam of light." But ■when I asked how a Democratic administration could help them, the reply •was, " Because then ■we can disorganize the colored vote. They will not vote ■without ■v\hite leaders to organize them." And when I asked one of the white leaders of the "white-line "movement, ■whose object is to dra^w the color-liue strictly, how he could hope to get all the -uhite people, ■with their strongly diverging views, into his movement, his reply ■was, " We'll make it too damned hot for them to stay out." Now, to me this does not look like the American way of carrying an election. It is a method of bluster and bullying and force. The honest Republicans ■whom I asked -whether the ■white -line movement could possibly draw iu all the -white voters, all replied iu the affirmative. It would si- lence opposition at any rate, they said. At present there is vigorous opposition to the " white-line " movement among the more sensible Democrats. The party policy is to be decided in a meeting of a State commit- tee on the 17th of May, and the opponents of the "white line" profess to be confident that they can defeat the extremists.* But in the mean time they do not attack the cor- ruptionists and extremists in their party, and, "what seems to bo more deplorable and fatal still, they have nothing to say against • Since this was written, Colonel Lamar, in the Dem- ocratic State Convention, brought forward and carried a platform denonnciug the color-line as an injury to the State ; and thus the "white-liners" have failed to carry their point. During the canvass going on as I write this note, several political meetings have ended in disturbance and riot ; the canvass is probably the most exciting the State has experienced for some years ; Governor Ames has called for Federal inter- ference; but ex -Senator Pease, above mentioned, a radical Republican, has telegraphed to the President that a posse of citizens can be got in any county to keep order, and that Federal interference would be an injury rather than a help. I have left my letters unchanged ; they give my impressions in May, 1S75, ] the brutal intolerance displayed by Demo- cratic demagogues, either toward colored men or toward the honest ■white Republic- ans. All Northern men are united in one general and fierce condemnation as " carpet- baggers." But many of these men thus con- demned and held up to hatred have lived iu the State since 18(;.5-'GG ; tlicy are men of means, and have all their means invested in the State ; many of them are largo planters : against the honesty and high character of many of them no one can say a word. It is charged that some of these hold office ; but why should they not ? They are citizens of the State in every sense of the word, and worthy, capable men, whom no one charges with peculation or oppression. They are as strongly opposed to the misrule and corrup- tion of Governor Ames and his faction as the Democrats themselves. Only a little wisdom on the part of the Democrats would lead them to conciliate these men, to ■«'iu them over to co-operate with them. But nothing of the kind is done. They are sneered at as "carpet-bag- gers," and made to feel that the Democratic leaders will have nothing to do with them. So, too, with Southern men who have chosen to join the Republican party ; they are at once denounced as " vile renegades," entire- ly regardless of their actual character. Thus Judge Niles, who represented a Mississippi district in the last Congress, is habitually spokeu of as " that renegade Niles." Now, Mr. Niles is a man of singular purity of char- acter, a quiet scholar, an old resident of the State. No Democrat pretends that he is dis- honest, or that he tolerates corruption. But he is a Republican, therefore a "vile rene- gade," not fit for the society of decent men. The same course is pursued toward the colored voters. They have among them some — a few — men of education and honest de- sires for good government. But these are denounced in common with the whole herd of ignorant and easily corruptible black vot- ers, who are the prey of designing and un- scrupulous white politicians. On the other hand, a man ceases to be a carpet-bagger the moment ho becomes a Democrat. For instance, a former sheriff of Warren County, then a Republican, a North- ern man, has recently become a Democrat, and is at once made a "respectable citizen," Yet it is notorious that he came to the State poor, has been an office-holder, is now worth over one hundred thousand dollars, and does 78 THE COTile, which has led them into a vicious system of requiring ad- vances of food and other supplies from the planter, naturally brings them a loss, in the higher prices which credit always requires, and which in a country like Mississippi, where interest is high, must be considerable. A planter near Jackson, who pays cash for his supplies, told me that while he was buy- ing bacon at fourteen cents, a neighbor, who required a credit, was charged twenty -one cents, and did not hesitate to buy at that rate. There is no doubt at all that on the share or renting system, as jiracticed in the rich bottom-lauds of Mississippi and Louisiana, the colored laborer is able to make handsome wages, and yet secure greater independence than the day-laborer usually enjoys else- where. Nor is the planter's share too large ; for he must give careful and constant super- vision, and he has fences and cabins to re- pair, a gin -house and mill to furnish, and must have capital enough to keep on hand supplies for the renters on his land, from the sale of which, however, he of course makes a profit. Mr. Richardson, of whom I spoke above, has engaged a part of his capital in a cotton- factory in Southern Mississippi, where he now employs two hundred and fifty hands. It is so successful that he is about to double its capacity. The operatives are all whites, and mostly taken from the population of small farmers, to whom this additional chance of emxiloyment is a great boon. He told mo that the saving in transporting cotton alone secures a handsome profit ; but he has also very cheap fuel and a large and steady home market for the goods he makes. He said he had been surprised to discover how large a working capital such an enterprise demand- ed, and thought that the chief reason why so many Southern factory enterprises had failed was, that those engaged in them had not a sufficient working capital, and were cramped and destroyed by the necessity of raising money at high rates of interest to keep the mills going. ALABAMA IN MAY, 1875. The Alabama Registration and Election ' laws, made in 1868-'9, and unchauged until last ■winter, formed one of the most perfect machines for political frand that I have ever heard of. It is amazing to me that the decent people of the State, of both par- ties, did not unanimously and loudly protest against them loug ago. A complete registration of the State was made in 1868-'9. The lists then made were, by law, placed in charge of the jirobate judges in the counties, and these were obliged thenceforth to place every one's name on the registry who applied for the purpose, and took oath that he was a citizen of the State and county, and had the requisite qualifica- tions ; and such application might be made at any time. No provision was made for auy revision of these registration- lists to strike oif the names of voters who had died or removed ; new names were added from year to year, or rather from day to day, for there was no set time for registration ; it was possible even for a man to register under several differ- ent names. Moreover, lest any voter should neglect registration, it was provided that an inspector of election must register him, if required, on the day of election ; and the names so registered were afterward sent to the probate judge. It is easy enough to see that registration- lists so prepared, and never revised, were mere instruments to conceal fraud. That is to say, they would have been the cloak for frauds at election if they had ever been used. For fear that they might, under some con- ceivable circumstance, be used to detect fraudulent voting, an amendment to the Eegistration Act, passed by the Legislature, March 3, 1870, enacts this astounding pro- vision : " That it is the intent and meaning of this act (namely, the Eegistration Act) that no registration-lists shall be used by any inspector, or any other officer of election, on the day of election for the purpose of de- termining who may or who may not vote ; and any person attempting to interfere in any 7nan- ner xvith any other person tcho may desire to vote, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and jmnished in the same manner as 7ioiv provided for in the election laivsJ' Lest you should think, as I confess I did, that this was only a bad joke or a blunder of the Legislature, I show you here that it was a law actually obeyed. The clerk of the Circuit Court of Wilcox County, one of three officers who officially count the vote of the county and make the certificates of election to the secretary of state, was asked, a few weeks ago, " As suiiervisor of elec- tions, would you count a vote that you knew " was not j)roperly registered ?" and answered, " Without any further knowledge of the law than I now have, I would." Again, "Are the names appearing in the poll-lists duly reg- istered according to law ?" He rejilied, " I do not know." Another returning officer of the same coun- ty being asked how long it would take to compare the poll-lists of the county with the registration-lists, thought it would take at least sis months. " Poll-lists " were lists made at the polls of the names of those who had voted. Now mark : The voter in Alabama could, until the present year, vote at any poll in his county. As he was not required to show a registration certificate ; as it was impossible to tell whether or not he had registered ; as an act of the Legislature expressly prohibit- ed any one from preventing his voting, even if he had not been registered ; and as he might vote at one of a score of polling-places in the county, and evidently under auy name he chose to give, it is quite clear that the election law was as great a sham as the registration law. The whole thing was simply a hngo prac- tical joke, or would have been, had not the THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. consequences been too serious. I can imag- ine Warmotli, Packard, and the other Loui- siana worthies gritting their teeth at the thought that they Avere not up to such a trick as this. Naturally, " repeating" was carried on on a scale which would make even a New York political manager blush. In the Congres- sional district which includes Mobile and Sel- ma, an investigation has been going on this spring into frauds which involve the seat in Congress claimed by F. G. Bromberg, against a colored man, Jeremiah Haralson. Such an investigation is a formal affair. Due notice is given of the witnesses to be heard by each side, each candidate is represented by coun- sel, and the witnesses are subjected to a se- vere cross-examination. Haralson had for his counsel the Kepublican candidate for at- torney-general of the State, an able lawyer. The testimony will be laid before Congress. Since the recent Democratic success in this State a number of the Kepublican leaders and managers have quarreled among them- selves, and some of them have, so to speak, turned State's evidence. Among others, one Squires, a political mauager in Mobile, was brought up before the committee, and, un- der oath, testified that he was chairman of the Kepublican Union Club in Mobile ; the club met almost every night for some time before the election ; it had about two hun- dred and fifty members. " Its object," he testified, "was to increase the Republican vote of the county — first, by voting them- selves ; second, by inducing their friends to vote ; third, by voting for their absent friends, those who are dead, and others who never had any existence." The club was divided into squads of ten men, for each of which a trusty leader was selected. They were regularly instructed how to evade the election laws. " Explana- tions lyero given how persons who repeated could escaiie the consequences." Finally, sham elections were actually held in the club-room, " in which," said this wit- ness, who was confirmed, by-the-way, by oth- er witnesses, " members were drilled in the actual business of election-day ; some were judges of elections, some inspectors, others deiiuty-sheriff's and deputy-marshals. The members were divided into two crowds, representing Kepublicaus and Democrats. Some were quiet citizens, standing around the polls ; others were noisy and disorderly, and were arrested ; others, yet. were quietly putting in their work. They would come up, vote, pass away, retire, change their clothes, return, and vote again." Observe, all this was not real ; it was a sham election — a training-school for repeat- ing, and I am quoting sworn testimony, all the essential points of which rest on the iu- dependent evidence of several persons. " If a man was challenged and objected to, and was fearful of arrest, he would retire without voting, and forthwith assume some other and better disguise. Each crowd were shown how they might deceive the members of the other by pretending that they were voting tickets, when in reality they were not. For instance, Republicans would re- ceive their tickets from those representing Democrats, and, while pretending to deposit such tickets in the ballot-box, really depos- ited them in their pockets or in the lining of their hats, substituting therefor Repub- lican tickets. They were taught that those who go quietly about on election-day are very little noticed ; and that while one par- ty was certain that such persons were voting for them, and the other party was more cer- tain that the same jiersons were voting for them, they need fear no interruption. This fact had been thoroughly proved by the per- sonal experience of many there iiresent at that sham election. A majority of the mem- bers had been admitted on account of their well known Republicanism — by their zeal displayed in previous well-fought campaigns, and their enthusiasm and determination that the Republican party should triumph in the elections of 1874." I quote this from the sworn testimony. In addition to these sham elections, ar- rangements were made for preparing fraud- ulent lists of registered names for use on the election-day. The majority of these names, though projierly registered, were only crea- tions of the fancy. The persons for whom these names appeared on the registration- lists never had existence. Some three thou- sand names were thus prepared. It was pro- posed that the squads before mentioned, under the control of competent and ener- getic leaders, should assemble on the elec- tion-morning early, and, having been fed, should proceed, on previously designated routes, from poll to poll, voting as often as possible. They were instructed to avoid de- tection and arrest by various means: "first, to vote names that were properly registered ; second, to change their personal appearance ALABAilA IN MAY, 1875. 87 by various disguises ; and as there ■was but little dauger of their arrest by Republicans, that, if it should appear expedient, they should deceive the Democratic managers at the polls into believing that they were vot- ing the straight Democratic ticket, while in fact they were industriously engaged in vot- ing the straight Eepublican ticket. These in- structions "were given in such a way that no member could faithfully say that ho was ad- vised, commanded, or instructed directly to vote more than once. Nevertheless, the lead- ers of the squad and men in whom confidence ■was reposed understood the whole matter." " It was further suggested that it might be expedient for some members to carry Dem- ocratic tickets in their hands, and thus ap- pear to be voting such tickets, while their pockets were stutied with an aniple supply of Eepublicau tickets, -which they were rap- idly depositing in the ballot-boxes. Also, the leaders were privately instructed to keej) a, careful record of the number of Eepublican tickets deposited by these squads, so as to get an approximate estimate of the vote. On the night before election, at the club- room, after the members had gone, and when only the leaders of the squads remained, two thousand Eepublican tickets were laid out and folded. Persons were appointed to dis- tribute tickets, also food, and some to keep account of the reports made by squads. As far as possible the route of each squad from poll to poll was designated beforehand, so that there might be no confusion and no as- sembly of several squads around one poll on election-day. Instructions -were also given by which reports were exchanged, from time to time, of the progress of the work, so that the precise locality of each squad at any time, and also the number of votes up to that time deposited by each squad, might be known. * * * No regular account of the num- ber of votes polled was kept after one o'clock on election-day. The aggregate returns, aft- er making all allowances, was over one thou- sand votes cast. About two hundred mem- bers went out on this work on election- morning. * * * I saw all the squads at work on election-day — some voting ; others were waiting for their turn to vote ; others pass- ing rapidly from one poll to another. They reported up to one o'clock that the work was going on with vigor. After that time, as we found we were beaten, no further ac- coiints were kept." The scheme broke down because the Dem- ocrats had horsemen moving rapidly from I>oll to poll, following the squads of repeat- ers, and exposing them. Squires's testimony is fully corroborated by a number of witnesses, members of this club. One testified that if the plan had been carried out, two hundred men could have cast fifteen hundred voles. Another, after speaking of the " drill" and sham elec- tion, said that he thought the club had polled about one thousand votes, and that they did this " for the promotion of the in- terests of the Eepublicau party by voting early and often." Another testified that they " were drilled to repeat, then change hats and go back again, but be smart enough not to be caught." Another testified that two thousand names were written for the use of the repeating squad, ten names on a slip ; and so on. This was one of the districts in which ba- con was distributed by order of Congress, and at the expense of the Federal Govern- ment, ostensibly for the benefit of sufferers by the overflow of the Alabama Eiver in 1874. Tliis bacon was made a means of se- curing Eepublican votes ; the negroes were told, in some instances, that it was sent them direct from General Grant, and it was re- l^orted and understood that the receiver of Government bacon must vote the Eepublic- an ticket, under penalty of losing all his " rights iu law," a fearful threat to the ig- norant blacks. J. S. Perrin is a Republican politician. In the canvass of 1874 he was at the same time Eepublican candidate for the Legislature, United States deputy-marshal, chairman of the Eepublican county committee. United States supervisor of election, and, besides this, had charge of the distribution of bacon appropriated by Congress for sufferers by the overflow of the Alabama Eiver. He is the same person who recently confessed be- fore the Spencer Investigation Committee that in the canvass of 1872, being then Uni- ted States deputy -marshal, he shot a hole through his own hat, and thereupon imme- diately called for Federal troops to protect Eepublican voters against Ku-klux. Perrin was made United States deputy- marshal again on the 12th of October, 1874, at the request of the chairman of the Ee- publican State Executive Committee ; and on the 27th of October he called for United States troops. The use he made of them ap- pears in his testimony, thus : The ostensible THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. object was to enforce writs of the Uuited States courts ; but, says Perrin, " said writs had no existence." He adds, under oath, " The real object of these troops was to quar- ter them in the most central portion of the district, and intimidate Democratic voters by causing reports to be circulated that the deponent had warrants for the arrest of a large number of whites for alleged violation of the Enforcement acts and National Elec- tion Law ; also for persons who had failed to pay colored men their full wages. Many per- sons who had taken an active part in the Dem- ocratic nominating convention, and some who had had personal difficulties with col- ored men, were led to believe the report was correct, and rather than be arrested and ar- raigned before a Uuited States commission- er's court, with unscrupulous witnesses to testify against them, and in order to avoid the expense and trouble of a trial, prepared to leave, and did leave, the county. Tljis action incited and encouraged the more par- tisan and turbulent negroes to unite the col- ored crowd against the whites, and enabled me to vote them as I chose." As to the use made of government bacon, Perrin testified : " I issued the bacon for Mon- roe County. Previous to doing so, a report "was circulated among the negroes that in order for them to obtain bacon they would have to vote the straight Republican ticket; and if they received bacon, and afterward refused or neglected to vote said Republic- an ticket, they would forfeit their rights iu law. As I was a candidate for the Legisla- ture upon said ticket, I did not consider it necessary to correct this report. [Other wit- nesses swore that Perrin was the author of the report.] It was extensively circulated through Monroe, Conecuh, Clarke, and Wil- cox counties that a barbecue would be held at Monroeville on election-day, and that all negroes who would attend and vote the Re- publican ticket would receive bacon enough to last them a year. This induced many to come from adjoining counties to Monroeville and vote on said day. The barbecue was held, and largely attended. I could not pre- vent these illegal votes had I been disposed. All strangers were challenged, and, having taken the oath, were permitted to vote. This was the law of the State. At least five hundred illegal votes were cast there for the Republican ticket." The Federal soldiers were on election-day " stationed directly at the polls under arms ;" and Perrin testifies positively that of the nine hundred legitimate votes cast at Mon- roeville for the Republican side, eight hun- dred would have voted the Democratic tick- et but for these tricks and promises, " as the colored jieople were getting along so well with the whites " iu their business and jdant- iug relations. In Dallas County, where bacon was also distributed, an ingenious Republican politi- cian to whom this bacon had been confided caused the negroes who applied for it to make affidavit that they had been over- flowed, and for witnessing these papers he charged each twenty-five cents. He gave to each man about two pounds of bacon, and he could have bought uearly three pounds for a quarter of a dollar. He really " made a good thing " out of the negroes, and could have afforded to go into the ba- con business on his own account. Dallas is one of the heaviest negro coun- ties in the State. It has suffered from the control of low white and black demagogues, and in this county there is the most positive and abundant testimony of intimidation of black voters by the colored Republican lead- ers, both before and on election-day. At one precinct, Orville, Haralson, the Re- publican candidate for Congress, a colored man, said, in a speech, that any negro who voted the Democratic ticket ought to be swung from the limb of a tree, aud called on the men aud women present to bold up their hands iu approval of this sentiment. He then appealed to the women in the audience, demanding if any of them would live with a husband or have a sweetheart who would vote with the Democrats. Forze, a colored man of remarkable abili- ty, who rents and himself manages one thou- sand four hundred acres of land, testified that the negroes were put under a general apprehension that if the Democrats succeed- ed they would lose their right to vote ; and the more ignorant, he says, believed that they would be re-enslaved. At Bellevue precinct a Republican candi- date openly threatened all blacks who should attempt to vote the Democratic ticket ; aud a number of colored men testified that those who were suspected of such an intention were driven away from the poll. At Warreuton precinct a colored man who had been detected voting a Democratic tick- et was seized by a negro mob, who dragged him off, aud from whom he escaped only by ALABAMA IN MAY, 1875. 89 the interventiou of wliite men, who con- cealed him, and, later, set him ou a horse, on •which he escaped. At Pleasant Hill, just before the election. Walker, candidate for clerk of the Circuit Court, violently denounced all negroes "who should vote with the Democrats, and de- clared they should be killed. At Portland a large number of colored men complained after the election that they had been individually threatened if they should vote with the Democrats ; and Cyrus B.War- ner, a colored justice of the peace, elected by the Democrats, testified that the fact that he Lad been mobbed and nearly killed in 1872, by negroes, for supporting the Democratic ticket, was remembered, and i)revented, to his knowledge, a number of colored men from voting with the Democrats. I could go ou at great length with such and even more forcible evidence, but this is enough. In this county, Haralson, the Re- publican candidate for Congress had, in writ- ing, positively charged intimidation by the Democrats ; but the testimony of Republic- an violence and intimidation was so over- whelming that before the commission he confined himself to efforts to prove that there was no intimidation on either side, but a fair and j)eaceable election. Nor did the candidates confine themselves to verbal intimidation. One circulated an "order" to the colored people to vote for him, signed " U. S. Grant, President." An- other, J. S. Diggs, now and at that time coun- ty solicitor, and in May arrested under crim- inal indictment by the grand jury for embez- zlement and bribery, circulated through the county a printed warning against his oppo- nent: "REPUBLICANS, BEWARE ! " Any one found with tickets with the BOLTEK SiLSBt'B NaMB on it will be prosecuted, and sent to the Penitentiary. " J. S. DiGOS, Solicitor, Dallas County." The solicitor is the prosecuting attorney, who represents to the colored man the maj- esty and terror of the law ; and tliis threat was so effective that Silsby received but one hundred and fifty-five votes in the county. The financial condition of Alabama is bad, but it might bo worse. The State debt is heavy, and will probably have to bo scaled. Its exact amount is as yet unktujwn. Mat- ters have been managed so loosely that the governor told me the other day it would take him several months to discover the en- tire State indebtedness. Auditors and treas- urers have kept their accounts with such lack of method that their reports are un- trustworthy. The governors since recon- struction — two Republican and one Demo- cratic — seem to have spent, invested, ex- changed, and generally manipulated the State funds and bonds with extraordinary carelessness. So far as ascertained, it is be- lieved the debt amounts to about twenty- eight million dollars. The condition of the counties is not bad. In oulj^ a few has there been serious finan- cial mismanagement. There has been no such wholesale plundering as was suffered by the peoj)le of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Generally I find the majority of supervisors have been white men and property -owners, and this has often been brought about by persuading, or even by bribing, negroes to give up their offices — this in the black counties. But in at least a third of the counties the whites have the majority. The Democrats complain unreasonably, as it seems to me, of Republican misrule. The truth is, the State has been misgoverned and the State debt increased under Demo- cratic as well as under Republican adminis- trations. From 1868 to 1870 its governor was William H. Smith, Republican. Him followed, 1870-'72, Lindsey, Democrat. His successor, 1872-'74, was Lewis, Republican, followed now by Governor Houston, who strikes me as a moderate and well-meaning man, who is determined to keep the peace and to restore order to the finances. Now, so far as I can discover, the Demo- cratic Lindsey was little, if at all, more eco- nomical than either his predecessor or suc- cessor. The Democrats say he was an hon- est blunderer; but the Republicans say that Smith and Lewis were also honest blunder- ers. All, by-the-way, were Alabamians, and the State has suffered less from "carpet- baggers," so called, than any of the other three I have seen. The native Alabamian, under the tuition of United States Senator Spencer, who is a carpet-bagger, has shown himself very capable of misrule, and partic- ularly of the most unscrupulous political trickery. It must also bo said that where conspicu- ous, financial jobbery took place, Democrats have, oftener than not, been parties in inter- est. F6r instance, in Dallas County, which has a large negro majority, complaint is 90 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. mado that tbo blacks, -wlio do not pay one tlioiisaiid dollars of the total yearly tax, by their votes saddled the cotuity with a sub- scription of oue hundred and forty thousand dollars to a railroad ; but some who com- plain of this fail to tell you that the direct- ors of the railroad were all prominent Dem- ocrats ; and that they advocated the sub- scription, and even paid the railroad fares of negroes to bring them from the country into Selma to vote for it. Again, while the finances of Dallas County have been mismanaged, and the assessment and collection of taxes have been for years fraudulently performed by Republican offi- cers, you find that in the adjoining county of Montgomery the only defalcation which has occurred in recent years was by a Demo- crat, appointed by the Democratic Governor Lindsey. This collector robbed the county of thirty-five thousand dollars, and the State of fifteen thousand dollars, and, I am told, now conducts a Democratic newspaper iu Texas. It is not fair, therefore, for the Democrats to blame the financial mismanagement en- tirely on the Eepublicans, or to speak of these as having robbed the State. But there is no doubt that dishonest Eepublican lead- ers have been guilty of most flagrant and shameless iiolitical debauchery. I have al- ready given some account of how they car- ried elections. But the character of candi- dates was often of the lowest. For instance, in Dallas County, last year, Haralson, colored, himself candidate for Con- gress, was president of the Eepublican coun- ty nominating convention, and renominated for tax-collector a man who was then under eleven indictments for malfeasance in office. He was " triumphantly " re-elected ; and the grand jury, composed of six Republicans and ten Democrats, with a white Eepublic- an foreman, an excellent citizen, while I was there brought in ten new indictments against this Eepublican tax-collector, who was at the same time county superintendent of educa- tion — but was removed for drunkenness — and was also member of the Common Coun- cil of Selma. Haralson, himself a " smart " negro, who holds the certificate of election as Congress- man from the district, whicli includes Mo- bile, was indicted in 1872 for stealing a bale of cotton ; and the man from whom the prop- erty was taken, in a civil suit actually proved ownership, and got the bale, which was found in Haralson's cotton -house. The criminal suit Avas dropped by a Eepublican solicitor (Mr. Diggs), who is now himself under in- dictment. There is a good deal of complaint of higli taxation, but I doubt if the Democrats, now in power, will be able to reduce it much, and their revenue bill of the last session is very unpopular in the State, and some of its feat- ures have been declared unconstitutional by their own attorney-general. Undoubted- ly there have been numerous abuses iu the State and local governments, such as — to give an instance — the letting -out of con- victs to their own relatives ; the needless increase of petty officers, and a generally wasteful administration. But the most serious charge that can be brought against the Eepublican leaders iu Alabama is, that they have secured power by corrupting the negroes, and enjoyed it without enforcing the laws. It must be added that they appear to me to have sys- tematically and grossly misrepresented the condition of the State as to peace and order, with the view of getting the use of United States troops and courts for the punishment of offenses which the State government ought to have taken in hand, or, ofteneryet, for the intimidation of white voters, and with the object of keeping up irritation and a division between the whites and blacks. Alabama is, in parts, still a frontier State. In some counties there_ are bad and lawless men, but they do not preponderate ; they are nowhere so numerous that the State au- thorities could not, had they been energet- ic, have repressed disorder and maintained peace. Unfortunately, the readiness of the Federal authorities to interfere demoralized the Eepublican Stale rulers, who, when a disturbance took place, supinely turned the matter over to the United States marshal and Federal troops. Here, as iu every other Southern State I have visited, I have found the Federal interference under the Enforce- ment acts not only unnecessary, at least for the last two years, but an absolute and grave injury, because it has demoralized the State governments, and led them to abdicate their proper functions. As an example, take the Barbour County riots of last year. The Eepublican governor at the time took, so far as I have been able to hear, no measures at all to punish the au- thors of a very cruel outrage — the shooting into a house at Spring HiU, by which a lit- ALABAJ^IA IN MAY, 1875. 91 tie boy was killed — or to investigate the riot I northern counties,' -nhero there are hut few at Eufaula. On the contrary, he acted as negroes. These people, ^vho had pretty gen though it had heen none of his business. The -whole matter was turned over to the United States Court, and, as Judge Bruce has chosen to put off the trial of accused persons until the Supreme Court decides upon the constitutionality of the Enforce- ment acts, if any one is ever punished for these crimes, it will be more than a year after their commission. A more recent instance has been treated by Governor Houston (Democrat) in a differ- ent way. In Etowah County three masked ruffians broke into the jail some weeks ago at night, took a negro out, and shot him. The people of the county, who are mostly Democrats, met at once, and called for a spe- cial term of the County Court to investigate this murder, and asked the governor to offer a reward for the discovery and conviction of the criminals, which he did immediately. The better class of Kepublicans in the State, so far as I have seen them, without exception, told me that the Enforcement acts were needless, and ought to be repealed. In their opinion, Federal interference irri- tates and imbitters feeling between the races, makes the Republican party odious, and is used mainly by corrupt politicians to intim- idate the whites,, and to encourage the worst black as well as white demagogues. There is a different opinion, which you hear freely uttered by some Eepublicans ; but these men are disappointed politicians, and in Alabama I have found this class to be men of low character, who are demagogues rather than politicians. These would like to see the Enforcement acta retained, and they uni- versally praise General Grant for his readi- ness to send troops and allow of Federal in- tervention. Also these people speak dolor- ously of the " poor negro," and in general they resemble those Arkansas politicians who haunted Washington last winter, and who swore solemnly that they would not dare to return to Little Rock unless Garland were overthrown and the Force Bill passed, but whom I found two weeks after the adjourn- ment of Congress walking about Little Rock with cheerful faces, declaring that every thing was lovely and peaceful. The agitation of the Congressional Civil Rights Bill did more, even, than Republican misrule, to give the State to the Democrats last fall. Alabama has a large population of whites — small farmers, collected in the erally voted the Republican ticket in pre- vious years, became alarmed at the prospect of " negro equality," which has greater ter- rors, it seems, the less likely it is to become a fact ; and last fall, under the representa- tions of adroit and earnest Democratic speak- ers, they went over in a body to the Demo- cratic i^arty. The passage of the absurd Civil Rights Bill by Congress has probably allayed their feai-s, because it is now found to be substantially a dead letter. The blacks do not attempt to have it enforced, and it is probable that its only use will be to annoy the Republicans in Northern States, and in regions South where there are but few ne- groes, and where the Democrats propose to arouse the race prejudice by hiring negroes to board at hotels, and to otherwise insist on the enforcement of the law during the next year's canvass. The Democratic victory has brought to the victors, I suspect, more cares than pleas- ures. The reformation of the State's finances is not an easy task ; the Legislature proved to have among its Democratic majority some embarrassing simpletons; the Republicans did not fail to annoy their opponents, as only demagogues solicitous for party suc- cess rather than for the good of the State know how to annoy ; some imprudent prom- ises made by the Democrats, such as a re- duction of taxation, could not be fulfilled ; and, altogether, the Democratic party does not stand so well in the State as it did im- mediately after the election. The governor is a good man, with expe- rience in legislation and administration; and it is at least probable that he will be a governor, and not a mere political figure- head. In his inaugural address, he said : "With a firm determination to respect and maintain my oath of office, which shall be a seal to my conscience, I unhesitatingly undertake to perform such duties as it im- poses ; and I will regard it as one of my high- est and most sacred obligations to see that the laws ' are faithfully executed,' and the rights of all citizens, ' without regard to race, color, or previous condition,' duly guarded and protected." Governor Houston assured me that these were not empty words, but that he was solemnly determined to enforce the laws, and to maintain peace and order, and protect alike all the citizens of the State. The immediate rcatilts of the Democratic 92 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. success in Alabama are : first, a strong tend- ency in tlie white politicians to re-arrauge liarties, and to split in such manner as to break up completely the color-line. You must understand that the Democrats, as is but uatural, resist this with all their might. They Avaut to keep together the white vote, and to attract to themselves some part of the colored vote. But there are, naturally, two factions among the wjiites. The line between Whigs and Democrats is uot so strongly drawn in Alabama as in Louisiana and Arkansas, but it exists ; and, besides, there are more ambitious men than there are offices in the gift of one party. At several places in the State the local elections this spring have developed differ- ences among the Democrats. At Opelika the result was odd enough, the Democratic candidate receiving a majority of the black vote, and the independent man a majority of the -white. At ^Montgomery over four Imndred colored votes were cast for the Democratic candidate, who was chosen over his independent competitor ; but the latter ■was uot a competent person, as some of his supporters confessed to me. I hear, how- ever, that in this i^lace Democrats bought up, at two dollars a piece, the registration certificates of colored men to the number of over two hundred, and these were carefully retained, except in cases where it was quite certain that the original holder would vote the Democratic ticket. Under the new law a voter must produce his registration paper, so that if he parts with it, he loses his vote. At Opelika, by -the -way, I am told, the Democrats managed to capture a whole col- ored church, minister and all, by a moderate subscription to the church -fund. It was a Eepublican politician who told me this, on the authority, as he exiilained to me, of a "colored man, a member of the Legislature, whose brother lives here, and keeps a bar and a gambling-place. The legislator is a gambling man h.'mself, but an honest fellow so far as his politics are concerned." This description gives one a curious notion of Alabama colored legislators, and of the mor- al standard among the Republican leaders. The Republican party in this State has some excellent men among its members, but they are, unfortunately, men of little influ- ence in the party councils. If they could get rid of most of the Federal office-holders, they might hope to re-organize, and become a valuable and efiectig^'e political force in the State. But the present Republican lead- ers are, in the main, men of little character or power. There are but two insignifi- cant Republican newspapers in the State, both owned by one man, and apparently published for the sake of the post-office and other Governmental advertising, which is their pap, without which they would perish, and which Senator Spencer secures them. The Democratic success has had a good effect on the colored voters, or, rather, on the demagogues who controlled them. It has moderated their ambition. The negroes themselves begin to think of " splitting the vote." In two places I was told that the proposal had been made by negro leaders, as an act of prudence, to divide their vote hereafter. Immediately after the election, ignorant colored people were much alarmed, thinking they would be deprived of some rights, and, perhaps, even reduced to slavery. This fear is dying out. It grew out of the declara- tions made before the election by Republic- an demagogues, who appealed to the fears of the poor negroes, in order to secure their votes to the Eepublican ticket. But, now that they find themselves unharmed and just- ly treated, they begin to lose their fear, and even to think of voting with the Democrats. While I was in Selma, a colored man was de- fended in a suit in court by one of the best lawyers in the State, General Pettus. He had six black witnesses; his oiiponent, who was white, produced six white witnesses; the jury were all white ; but the colored man gained his case : the jury gave a verdict for him. It produced a great effect upon the negroes, who saw that justice was done re- gardless of color, and this after a Democratic political victory. I think it probable that the negro vote in the next election will fiiU off heavily, and this not through intimidation, but partly be- cause the baser white men who have lived off the negro vote are discouraged, and will not take so much paius to "organize" the black voters, and stimulate them by inflam- matory addresses and the exhibition of Uni- ted States troops ; partly because in many counties the blacks have been for some time disgusted with their Republican leaders, who have promised many things, such as the fa- mous " forty acres and a mule," which have uot come to pass ; and partly, also, because the new law which reciuires a voter to vote ALABAMA IN ItlAY, 1875. 93 in tlie precinct in TvLlch he lives, and no longer allows him to vote anywhere in the county, makes the election -day a compara- tively tame afiair. Formerly all the negroes of the county used to march into the county town to vote, where they saw each other and made a grand holiday. No doubt, too, the Democrats will do their best to persuade those negroes who would vote the Eepublicau ticket to abstain from the polls, and there are legitimate ways to do this. In Louisiana colored laborers on the railroads, who lose a day's pay if they go oif to vote, often, in 1874, did not vote at all. The check which all this will set to the negro's ambition to hold office will be an undoubted advantage to him and to the com- munity. In the last Legislature there were three colored members who could neither read nor write. In some counties the ma- jority of the supervisors are illiterate blacks. Matters are not nearly so bad in this respect in Alabama as in Mississippi ; but, of course, a law-maker or a tax-levyer who is illiterate is not fit for his responsibilities. Some of the Republicans complained to me of a law adopted by the last Legislature obliging of- fice-holders to jirocure the proper bondsmen within the counties in which they serve ; and I was told that in Dallas County, for in- stance, there are not more than a dozen Ee- publicans who own property and can become bondsmen. But it seems to me that the rule is a sound one, and can inconvenience main- ly only a class of men who ought not to hold important oflSces. At any rate, it is of no permanent importance, because when the color-line is broken iiroperty-holders will be found in both parties. I do not think that I have anywhere found the negro vote more wickedly or thoroughly .manipulated than it was in Alabama. It was systematically compacted. A "bolter" was not merely denounced, but held to be no better than a criminal. In the black counties there were colored demagogues who had a clientage of voters whom they con- trolled ; and more than one Eepublicau told me that such fellows would go about in the beginning of a canvass and " coax a man to run for office, in order that they might sell him the vote they could carry." Such fel- lows were hired to make the canvass of a county. A Eepublicau politician said to me, " I have sent a negro on a hired horse, pay- ing him days' wages, over the county, to advocate a measure, and when election -day came, every colored vote was cast for it." Perrin, a Republican manager, defeated Sheats for Congress by simply telling the blacks that he, Perrin, thought him unfit. Negroes testified that they would have voted the Democratic ticket if Perriu had told them to. Alabama was not in the old times famous for schools, but it is now better provided than Mississippi, or even Arkansas. In Mo- bile, Selma, and some other places, an ad- mirable school system is found for both col- ors. In Selma, ten per cent, of the city rev- enues is set apart, by a Democratic council, for school purposes, and divided among both colors. Mobile, Montgomery, Selma, Bir- mingham, and Huntsvillo, all have graded schools for both colors, and at Huntsvillo there is a colored normal school. The State school-fund yields one dollar twelve and a half cents per head for all the children in the State; and, besides this, the poll-tax is given to the school-fund in each countj'. Unfortunately, the poll-tax has not been fully collected. In Lowndes County, for in- stance, not a dollar of poll-tax was collected last year; and the tax-collector, being a candidate for re-election, urged, as a point in his favor, that " he had not troubled them about the poll-tax." The State superintend- ent told me that fewer black than white children attend school, in proportion to the population. It is the universal testimony of men of both parties that the colored people are working better this year, more steadily and efl^ectively, than ever before since the war, and also that, on the whole, they are re- quiring smaller advances, which means that they have corn left over from last year. It may be said that the people generally, white as well as black, in all parts of the State, are more steadily laboring than in previous years. Alabama has had three successive poor crops, and the planters and farmers are generally poor. This year, so far, prom- ises well, and a good crop would put both parties in good humor. The State has lost a considerable part of its colored population by emigration to Mis- sissippi, Arkansas, and Texas. Now that its political affairs are settled — as I believe they are — it is possible that the tide may turn. Its immensely rich mineral resources in coal and iron are as yet almost untouch- ed ; but it is a singular fact that iron is al- ready sent from here, not only to Ohio, Mis- 94 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. souri, Kentucky, aud other Western States, but even to England, -nliero the tenacious, soft iron of Alabama begins to be used in the manufacture of car -wheels. If high protective duties had not caused the estab- lishment of too great a number of iron- ■works, and an oversupply of iron in the country, the Alabama iron region would be rapidly developed. If the tariff on pig-iron should be considerably lowered in the next few years, furnaces would be set up in great numbers in this State ; for here iron of the finest quality can be produced at so cheap a price that it requires no duty to protect it against foreign competition. As in the other States I have visited, cot- ton and corn are usually planted on shares, the planter receiving a moderate share of the crop as rental on his land. This plan is satisfactory to the colored people ; but they, as yet, lay by but little of their earnings, and show a very slight disposition to buy land. NORTH CAROLINA IN JUNE, 1875. North Carolina had, according to the census of 1S70, 678,470 white people, and 391,650 colored. The Eepublicau estimate of voters here iu Raleigh is that, of a total voting population in the State of about two hundred thousand, hetweeu seventy thou- sand and eighty thousand are colored. The State was heavily Republican in 1868. This means, of course, that a considerable part of the white population then supported the Republican ticket. But in two years this majority was so far frittered away by the people's disgust and alarm at the cor- ruption aud maladministration of the Re- publican rulers, that the Democrats, in 1870, carried the Legislature, aud they have held it ever since. The governor, however, has been, aud remains. Republican. I ueed not recite here the story of the North Carolina era of railroad grants, and other official and party corruption and maladmin- istration. Its results still remain in a State debt, the interest of which is not paid, and which the rulers of the State evidently do not know how to manage. The total State debt amounted, last November, to very near- ly $30,000,000, which includes heavy arrears of interest. The State debt in 1860 was only $8,372,900, in addition to which §1,128,000 of bonds were issued during the war for internal improvement purposes. The past- due interest on all the State debt has been funded several times, and the interest on that is not paid. The Republican rulers between 1868 and 1870 managed to issue over $12,000,000 of bonds for railroad and other purposes, the greater part of which was wasted or lost in stock-gambling in Wall Street ; and it was this which caused their overthrow. In 1872, Caldwell, the Republican candi- date for governor, was elected by about one thousand eight hundred majority. The gov- ernor in this State holds office four years. In 1874 a State superintendent of public in- struction was chosen, and the Democrats in this vote carried the election by about eight thousand majority. The agitation of the Civil Rights Bill caused the greater part of this change in the two years ; but it is confessed by the Republicans that they lose strength constantly, the fact being that no new white voters join their ranks, while they lose constantly by death, removal, and desertion. When the Democratic Legislature of 1870 came into power, it carefully gerrymandered the Senate and House districts, so as to se- cure a permanent, though not large. Demo- cratic majority in the General Assembly. There has been some complaint among the Republicans on this head ; but the leading men of that party, who are mostly candid men, confess that they can not complain, be- cause they set the example of gerrymander- ing in 1868, when they were in power ; and, mo doubt, if they should carry the Legisla- ture they would do it again. North Carolina is at peace. I tell you this on the authority of the ablest and fore- most Republicans in the State ; and, indeed, there is no pretense here to the contrary. "The Democrats mean no violence, no wrong to any one, no hostility to the Government ; there is no political crime in the State; there is no intimidation by the Democrats ; they mean only to defeat the Radicals aud keep them down ; and they dislike negro rule." This was said to me by one of the foremost Republicans in the State, a Federal office-holder, and it was confirmed by not less than a dozen others, all zealous and some bitter Republicans, and by leading colored men also. Those to whom I put the question unani- mously said, too, that the Enforcement acts are of no use or importance any longer in North Carolina. There is no necessity for such laws in the State. " They were once useful and necessary, but the time for them 96 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. Las passed." They are now only a reproacli to tho Republican party, and a liandle for the Democratic politicians. The Republican testimony is unanimous on these heads. It is confirmed by the atti- tude of the two parties toward each other. There are, hero and there, extreme and bit- ter men on each side ; and in a few counties where the negroes have a large majority, and where they have been used by corrupt white and black men to keep in power wasteful and corrupt local rulers, there is, naturally, strong feeling. But even there there is no violence, and the best men of both parties co- operate together to maintain order. There is but little estrangement of families on ac- count of politics ; it is not uncommon, for instance, to see a Democratic and a Repub- lican lawyer partners ; and the Democrats try to relieve themselves of the undoubted, and by the Republicans generally acknowl- edged, evils of negro supremacy in the few counties where the blacks are predominant, by the exercise of ingenuity in framing char- ters, and gerrymandering city wards. Of this I will give some account hereafter when I describe the conduct of the negroes in poli- tics, which has not been entirely lovely. The Republicans admit that the Civil Rights Bill has nearly broken up their party in the State. It was the predominant issue in the canvass of 1874, and caused not only their defeat, but a partial disorganization, which the Democratic leaders, if they had been wiser than they are, could, I believe, have made entire. The Republican party of North Carolina is composed of the great body of the negroes, and of a largo mass of the poor whites in the western, or mountain, districts. But these small white farmers dislike the negro, whom they know little about, and are easily alarm- ed at tho thought of social equality with him. The Democratic politicians very nat- urally worked upon their fears on this point, and thus found their best argument put into their hands by those Republican leaders in the North who insisted ujion this measure. Nor was this the worst result, even, of the Civil Rights agitation. There is no doubt that the Democrats had begun to make up their minds to conciliate and, if possible, gain over a part of the negro vote — to break up the color- line. The best and wisest of them acknowledged to mo freely that the only iiermaneut political settlement in the State lies in this direction — a reformation of parties, with an extinction of the color-line in politics ; and they looked forward to this as not far off. But, said these same Demo- crats : " When the Civil Rights Bill came up as a prominent issue last year, we dared not conciliate or ask for the colored vote. To do so would have alienated from us the great mass of the white vote, for our people were naturally and deeply excited on this ques- tion. Hence, in the canvass of 1874 we ad- dressed ourselves entirely to the whites, and were forced to let the negro vote go where it would. It would have aroused our own people against us, had we made any overt- ures to the blacks. Our efforts were all turned to gaining over white Republicans, and we did so pretty effectually." These men were right, of course, as poli- ticians ; and I find that their appeal to white Reiiublicans was strong enough to gain over inWake County, for instance, which has a ne- gro majority, and is usually Republican, 499 votes, all whites, who in 1874 voted the Demo- cratic ticket because of the Civil Rights Bill, A prominent colored man with whom I spoke, a politician of some note in the State, and an able man, told mo that he was per- suaded the Civil Rights Bill had done seri- ous harm to his people. He added that no sensible colored man favored it ; they were opposed to it, but the bad and ignorant ne- groes were excited by it ; and this largely because bad white men, who use the negro vote in such counties as New Hanover (in which Wilmington lies) took pains to advo- cate it ; the object of these white men being — said this colored man to me — to keep them- selves in profitable offices by pandering to the ignorant negro vote. I asked him why, if he and others of his race saw this, they did not go to Washing- ton, and remonstrate with the Republican leaders in Congress, and explain to them the mischief they were doing. He replied, " Some of us did speak our minds privately to Senator Morton and oth- ers, but it was of no use." " But," I said, " you should not have worked privately. Why did you not get up a public remonstrance ?" "Ah," he replied, "we did not dare do that. It would have been said at once among our people here that we had sold out to the Democrats; that we were bolters; and all our influence would have been gone from that moment. The difficulty with our NORTH CAROLINA IN JUNE, 1875. 97 people is that tliey do not read. The mo- ment one of us tries to oppose the working of the bad whites or corrupt black leaders, these send out runners all over a county or district to tell the colored people that we have sold out, and then they will have noth- iug more to do with us, and we are gone up." That is to say, the mass is so ignorant that it is controlled very easily by a few design- ing knaves, whoso personal interest in con- trolling it is so great that they can afford to take extraordinary pains. This is one of the main difficulties with the whole Eepub- lican party in North Carolina. Its honest members have no means of forming a pub- lic opinion in the party which would enable them to reform abuses, to turn adrift cor- rupt and incompetent leaders, and to make the party useful and strong. The poor whites who commonly vote the Eepublican ticket are but little less illiter- ate than the blacks. It is believed that not more than twenty-five thousand newspapers are taken in the whole State ; but of this small number, seven -eighths are taken by Democrats. Some Eepublicans to whom I submitted this estimate, which was made by a Eepublican for me, remarked that, in their opinion, the Eepublicans did not take even so many. The party has no daily news- paper in the State, and only sis or seven weeklies, all small, and edited with little intelligence. They tell a story in Ealeigh of the owner of the official organ of the par- ty two or three years ago, a promiuent Ee- publican, who determined to wind up the jiaper, and being asked to continue its pub- lication, remarked, "Do you think I'm a d — d fool, to print a paper for a party that can't read ?" A political party composed so entirely of a mass of ignorance is, of course, easily de- ceived and misused by designing men, and it can scarcely look for the respect or the confidence and co-operation of the intelli- gent and property-holding class ; especially where, as is fully acknowledged by the hon- est men in the Eepublican party, these find themselves- with too little influence to guide or control the mass, and are, for the most part, subordiuated to corrupt and incapable leaders. In spite of all this, the State is by no means certainly Democratic. It would be, I am pei'suaded, if the Democrats had not among their politicians a number of men of little brains, who make foolish speeches in the Legislature, and appeal to the old prej- udices among the people. The blunders of such men alienate a good many sensible •whites from the Democratic party. For in- stance, in the last Legislature they carried through a usury law, with the result, now seen and generally made known to the plant- ers and farmers, of forcing the bunks and other owners of money to send it out of the State into other States where no usury law exists. North Carolina needs more capital, for the State is rich in mineral and other natural resources ; and being at peace, there is no reason why its natural wealth should not begin to be developed. But money is worth from one to one and a half per cent, a month in neighboring States, and capital- ists naturally prefer to send it there, rather than accept seven per cent, at home. Of course the Democratic party is rightly held responsible for this blunder. Again, the last Legislature forced upon the people, after long caucusing, and against the better judgment of the wisest Demo- crats, a constitutional convention. It is generally acknowledged by both parties that the constitution requires change in one or two matters, especially in the article re- lating to county courts, which in a blunder- ing manner fixes the number of these courts in such a way that in the wealthier and busier parts of the State they are entirely taken up with criminal business, to the ex- clusion of civil cases, whereby justice is se- riously impeded. But the opponents of a constitutional convention urge that the re- quired amendments could easily have been submitted by the Legislature to the people ; that this would have saved the expense of an election and a convention to a State which already does not pay the interest on its debt, and which is not prosperous ; and, further, that it is impossible to tell what a constitutional convention will do or attempt. It is by no means certain that the Democrats will carry the convention, and, with a Pres- idential election to come next year, they have put themselves into the dilemma of either being beaten at the convention elec- tion in August, or, if they are successful, of having the responsibility of a convention in which it is pretty certain that ignorant men will bring forward some injudicious and perhaps alarming measures.* . * Since the above was written, n constitutional con- vention has been chosen, with but two Democratic majority. 93 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. Also, some of the changes wliicli they iiro- pose are not popular, and will arouse oppo- sition. Such is a proposition to abolish the system of townships, estahlished for the fii'st» time in 1868, untler which justices of the lieace are elected by the people, and return to the old system, under which the Legisla- ture appointed an unlimited number of men iu every county justices of the peace or mag- istrates for life or during good behavior, and gave to a certain number of these, selected by the whole, the duty of holding quarter sessions. Of course, the present justices of the peace, their friends, and all who have come to favor the township system, will op- pose the change, and this includes a number of Democrats. The object is to relievo the "black" counties of colored justices of the peace, which seems reasonable enough ; for some of these negro Dogberrys are amazing- ly ignorant, and they are, unfortunately, al- ways likely to be corrupt. The error of the Democrats lies, it seems to me, in endeavoring to adapt the constitu- tion to a transitory state of political afiairs ; for it is quite certain that the political col- or-line will presently be broken; and when that happens, when the body of intelligence and wealth iu the State is pretty equally divided into two political parties, and the negro vote is also split, the colored men will no longer be put into oflices for which, by lack of intelligeuce and character, they are unfit. Meantime the Republicans acknowledge that, if they are defeated in August, their party organization will be pretty thoroughly destroyed. In the last election (1874), the white Ee- publican vote was very greatly reduced, and the civil rights agitation strengthened the color -line, as I have said. But the blacks have acted A'ery well under the law. Here and there one hears of a colored man trying to enforce it ; but the jiublic opinion of the best colored men is against it, and the law is a dead letter. The Republican party of North Carolina, as at present constituted, is not a useful body; and the sooner it disappears and makes way for another, the better for every interest iu the State, and especially for the colored iieople, who are now, in the main, the creatures of bad white and black lead- ers, who only keep up irritation against the race by their corruption. This, I have rea- son to believe, is the opinion of many hon- est and sincere Republicans in the State — some of them colored men — and also of a large number of conservative Democrats, who feel themselves now without influence in the Democratic party, but Avho will not, and can uot, act with the Republican party as it is at x^reseut constituted. North Carolina had formerly a peculiar constitution. Under it the State Senate was chosen by fi'eeholders owning fifty acres of land or more, and a State senator must hold three hundred acres in fee. The justices of the peace were a numerous body in each county, recommended by the governor, and appointed by the Legislature during good behavior. They chose in each county cer- tain ones of their own number to hold the county courts. There was no township gov- ernment such as is now general in the Uni- ted States, and as obtains also at present iu North Carolina. Some of the Democratic citizens desire to return to the old system, believing that prop- erty ought to be represented in one house of the Assembly, and wishing also to take away from the people the election of local magis- trates. If the color-line were to be perpetual iu the State politics, probably some change guarding property against the attacks of a mass of ignorance would be expedient. But as soon as the intelligent and property-owu- iug citizens cease to act with only one par- ty, and become distributed by the mutations of politics somewhat equally in both, the ig- norant voters will cease to be dangerous ; for there can be no doubt that the negro will, in such a state of things in the South, for many years to come, vote with his employer if he treats him justly, and against him if he cheats him. Of course, there are Democratic politicians who tell you that they think it best to keep the white vote together, and massed against the black vote. " Thus we may hope to con- trol the State, and the west and middle can jirotect us in the east, or sea-board :" so said a Wilmington Democrat to me, and made me smile, because, not an hour before, a Repub- lican had said to me that it was "best to keep the black vote together ; for thus, with the help of white votes, the State could," he thought, "be controlled by the Republicans." And while such j)oliticiaus dream, both par- ties are splitting to pieces ; and if Congress will only stop legislating about the South, or threatening it with Force bills and Civil KORTH CAEOLINA IN JUNE, 1875. 99 Kiglits bills, no power on earth cau keep tbem iu their present couditiou after, and hardly until, the next Presidential election. North Carolina is the first Sonthern State I have visited where men are discussing some j)ublic question other than reconstruction, the negro, and civil rights. There is a strong hard -money element iu the present Demo- cratic party, and I heard a good deal of dis- gust expressed by some respectable Demo- crats at the platform of the Ohio Democrats. The adoption of a usury law by the Legisla- ture has also raised discontent and discus- sion. Of course, the party leaders discourage such opinions. Tliey want " harmony," and ''a iii-m front to the enemy;" but the peo- ple are really thinking of new questions, aud tired of the old. The State is not as jirosperous as it ought to be. A large part of the planters are heav- ily in debt, and have even fallen into a way of mortgaging their crops in advance. They work, mainly, a thin and worn soil, which needs manure, and they adhere, to a greater extent than in any of the South - western States, to the system of paying wages, which I do not believe to be the best or most satis- factory, either to the planter or the negro laborer. I have noticed that, when a cotton-plant- er is embarrassed, iu debt, and not making money, he is very apt to think that "the ne- gro don't work," aud this you may hear oc- casionally hereabouts. But wherever I have ■ found a planter who managed well, aud had sufficient capital to carry on his operations, he was successful, aud was also well satisfied with the negro. The answer I oftenest re- ceived from iilanters and others whom I ask- ed about the negro as a laborer was this : " If you pay him regularly, cash in hand, aud do not attempt to sell him any thing, but let him trade elsewhere, and if you deal fairly with him, he is the best laborer you can get, and you can always keep him." Iu the cotton country a few negroes rent land outright, I judge mostly on the richer soils, and then pay from three to seven dol- lars per acre. The commoner way is to rent twenty-five acres, for which, on strong land, lie pays sixteen hundred pounds of lint, or ungiuned cotton. Others plant on shares, and give the planter one-thud of the corn and one-quarter of the cotton. Iu this case the negro has his own mule. If the planter furnishes the mule, the negro receives some- times one -third or one -quarter of the crop and a meat ration. Where they serve for wages, they receive from ten to twelve dol- lars a month and a ration, consisting of five pounds of bacon and a bushel of meal. Where the negro works for wages, ho tries to keep his wife at home. If he rents laud, or plants on shares, the wife and children help him in the field. It is odd that the blacks will not eat beef or mutton. They say " it don't stand by them." The meat ration is always of pork. An intelligent planter told me, after some consideration, that he thought if you took a thousand colored people, men, women, and children, now, working in cotton, they would Ijroduce one -quarter less than when they were slaves. He was, however, not certain of this ; nor had he ever thought which was the cheapest, free or slave labor. Slavery, he said, was enormously profitable by rea- son of the rapid and sure increase iu the slaves, which made a man wealthy in the course of some years, even if he produced only enough to feed and clothe them. He told mo that in this State, before the war, a full-handed laborer could be hired for one hundred and fifty dollars per annum, with rations, clothing, and medicine. At this rate slave labor was probably, for this re- gion, very little, if any, dearer than free. Au intelligent Republican told me that he thought not one iu ten of the agricultural negroes owned a working mule. This shows them to be poorer than their fellows in the South-western States ; but they have here a much poorer soil, aud have to spend some money for manure. A good hand in the tobacco country re- ceives fifteen dollars per month. In all cases they have a cabin, land enough for a vege- table garden, and usually Saturday after- noon to work it, with the use of the mule and plow. Some planters believed that at least half the agricultural force (uegro) iu the State work for wages. There are many colored mechanics, and they .are all thrifty people, aud very com- monly own the houses they live in, aud often a town lot besides. In the cotton country, au increasing number of colored men own farms of from forty to a hundred acres, but many of these were free before the war. In the towns and villages the colored people have a prosperous look ; they dress neatly, and very commonly live in frame houses. On the whole, their condition appears to me very comfortable and satisfactory. 100 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. They have everywhere in the State, I am told, their fair proportion of schools ; and here iu Kaleigh the colored people are, in general, more anxious to send their chil- dren to school than the poorer whites. The school system of the State is not in a very good condition. There are 309,900 children hetween six and twenty-one years, accord- ing to the school census of 1874, of whom 242,768 are white, and 127,192 hlack. There ■were in that year 4020 public schools open, attended by 119,083 white and 5.5,000 col- ored children, under 2108 white and 767 col- ored teachers. I believe Avhites teach in some of the colored schools. The schools cost during the year $278,000. At Raleigh there is an excellent colored academy, and this is in part supported by contributions from citizens of other States. There were, iu 1874, 2350 white and 999 colored schools. I have spoken above of the lack of prosper- ity of the planter class, and I must add that the farmers, on the contrary, are generally prosperous. The tobacco farmers have made good and very remunerative crops for some years, and in general the small farmers, I be- lieve, were never better off than now. The towns, too, are growing ; there are more shops, and there is more demand in all the farming parts of the State for mechanics. More money circulates iu the community, I am assured, than ever before, and it passes through more hands. Here, as elsewhere in the South, the retaU dealer is prosperous; and the surplus capital or savings of the people, which were formerly invested in slaves, now take the shape of houses and shops and valuable improvements of all kinds. If the credit of the State were re- stored, there would be an opportunity for the development of its rich and almost un- touched mineral resources. New enterprises of this kind are needed to give moi'e profit- able employment to the jioor white class, which iu some resiiects lags behind the negro. The colored man, having no pride of race to contend with, has one advantage : he can do any kind of honest work without losing public respect — black boots, run errands, or perform house-service ; and I imagine that the civilizing influence of house -service, which brings the colored people iu contact with the better class of whites, not only en- ables them to live better, but also to acquire better and more elevating ideas than the children of the poor whites, who often live iu poverty and iu wretched hovels. GEORGIA U JULY, 1875. "Georgia," said a Federal office -li older to me, a Republican, and long resident in the State, " is still a rude community. In the country districts the people are what you Tvould call careless of law, and apt to take revenge into their own hands." And he instanced to me two acts of assassination which had occurred within six months at no great distance from Atlanta, the victims being old citizens, prominent men, and Dem- ocrats. One was waylaid and shot ou the road, the other was shot while sitting in his house at night. " Politics," said this Fed- eral office-holder, who is a strong Repub- lican, "has nothing to do with such crimes. Such things occur not unfrequently, though by no means constantly ; but they happen because our people are, in the main, not much above them. If a man oflends or wrongs another, this other takes the law into his own hands." "There has been no political crime, i)rop- erly so called, in this State for two or three years," said another Federal office-holder to me, also a zealous Republican, and in a position where he had the opportunity to know whereof he spoke. "' There is a good deal of crime in the State, but it is not po- litical. The general community is apathet- ic ; the magistrates often are not active in ferreting out criminals, for fear of taking liarm themselves. Matters are improving ; but still rude men in the country districts are too apt to take the law in their own hands. Negroes are generally more openly attacked than white men when they become the subjects of dislike by others, but other- wise there is no difference. The negro, usu- ally, will not defend himself, and thus eu- coiarages attack. The white man is more formidable, and so his opponent lies in wait for him." He gave me, as an example, the case of a negro who complained to a United States officer that a white man had beaten him over the head with a stick. The negro's hog had got into his white neighbor's garden ; whei-eupon the beating, and the request from the black for the interference of the United States Government. " Who saw the man beat you?" "Nobody, sah." "AVero you and he alone ?" " Yes, sah." " And you stood stiU and let him beat you ?" was the officer's pertinent question. " Now," said he to me, " you see, this black man was then and there openly beaten. If it had been .a white man, his antagonist would have lain in wait for him after night and done him some severe injury. But it is not political." Ou the day I came to Atlanta news came there that a United States deputy-marshal had been shot through both legs, and had had his horse shot, in a northern county. This looked a good deal like Ku-klux, and I have seen such cases reported as Ku-klux outrages. But the marshal told me his dep- uty was engaged in ferreting out illicit distilleries. He had just captured and de- stroyed two or three, and the enraged own- ers took their revenge ou him. This busi- ness of illegal distilling is followed to a great extent in the mountain region of Georgia and North Carolina, and by Repub- licans as well as Democrats, of course ; and these people hate the sight of a deputy- marshal, and do not hesitate to shoot at him, regardless of politics. Petit larceny is here, as in other cotton States, the principal and the most vexatious offense of the plantation negro. " They are an excellent working force," said more than one planter to me ; " but they will steal cat- tle, hogs, and many other things." This crime is very severely punished in Georgia — they are relentless toward it — and it re- sults that negroes are sent to the peniten- tiary and the chain-gang for very long pe- riods for it. The severity of the sentences would be with us inhuman ; but the crime is so serious and frequent, I am satisfied that it 102 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. must bo cliecked witli a strong band. I was amused to discover that in many cases em- ployers refused to prosecute tbeir servants for tbeft, on the ground, as in more tban one instance tbey frankly but privately con- fessed to me, that tbey " did not like to be tbe cause of sucb severe punisbment ;" and tbis feeling will, I suspect, work its eflect by-and-by, in causing milder puuisbments to be favored. Tbere are only very few counties in Geor- gia in wbich colored men are drawn for jury duty. The constitution of tbe State, made by Republicans, declares that " tbe General Assembly sball provide by law for tbe selec- tion of uprigbt and intelligent persons to serve as jurors. There sball be no distinc- tion between the classes of persons who com- pose grand and petit jurors." This seems to me an admirable regulation, but I do not think it is fairly administered. There is no doubt that it properly excludes the great mass of the negroes, and also a great many whites; and I am told that juries are generally carefully selected. But there are certainly in the large towns a few colored men who answer to the definition of " up- rigbt and intelligent," and these ought to be included in the jury-lists. In Atlanta, the other day, the colored people made up a list of one hundred and fifty names of men of color whom they regarded as fit jurymen, and presented it to the Ordinary, that he might select from it some names for tbe jury- bos, which, as I understand, is drawn for two years' service. They now assert that no at- tention was paid to their request. I spoke on this subject with an uncommonly intelli- gent Georgian, a x^lanter and business-man; be said that in bis county the negroes com- plained of their exclusion, but he thought it wise. " The most intelligent of them are often the worst," he said ; " and to the ne- gro the jury-box, with its handsome daily pay, seems heavenly. They would all like to serve on juries." This last is true enough. The plantation negro naturally likes jury duty; and the pay, two or three dollars a day, seems to him princely ; while, of course, ho is shamefully unfit. Nevertheless tbe wholesale exclusion is neither right nor wise ; and it is ono of the causes why so many negroes have emi- grated from the State. Of course, the most intelligent leave first. You bear a good deal of complaint, both among planters and in the cities, about the unsteadiness of the negro as laborer or house- servant. I was a little puzzled at this at first, because in other States I heard but very few such complaints. But a number of planters and citizens later explained to me the cause. " Whoever pays his black la- borers regularly and honestly can get as many as he wants at all times, and tbey will work faithfully," said a South Georgian planter to me — a rough man, whose conver- sation in some respects impressed me unfii- vorably. " Come down into my country," he added, "and I'll show you plantations standing idle, whose owners will tell you that the nigger won't work ; and I'll show you plantations right along- side of them where one hundred bands work faithfully year after year, and don't think of moving away. All you've got to do is to j)ay them honestly and sell them nothing, and you won't complain. I don't keep a store. I make the niggers gooff to the village. That's what they want, and I i^ay cash — that's all they want ; and I can get one hundred extra hands whenever I like ; and I'm not an easy- going man, either." The same story I heard from citizens. " Where a man complains that his servants leave him, you'll find that his wife has paid them in driblets — a dollar now, and half a dollar another time. They don't understand accounts; they are spendthrifts ; and at the end of the month, when tbey have but littlo due them, they think they have been cheat- ed, and go off dissatisfied. I sufiered in this way for a while ; but now I pay them their whole month's wages punctually at noon on the day their month is out, and they never leave me. Punctual and honest pay is all that is needed to make them faithful and steady servants." Similar testimony I re- ceived from a number of persons of both sexes. Irregularity of pay, and often the fiiilure to pay wages, have been another fruit- ful cause of the large negro emigration from tbe State. A law of tbe State deprives a man of his vote at an election who has not paid bis taxes for the year previous. There is a poll- tax of one dollar. " This," said a Eepublic- au to me, " works badly against our party, because the negroes evade its payment, or are careless about it, or lose their tax -re- ceipts, and then their vote is rigorously challenged, and they lose it." "Half the negi-oes in Georgia are disfran- chised for non-payment of their poll-tax," GEORGIA IN JULY, 1875. 103 was tlio assertion of aiiotlier aud a zealous Eepublicaii, a leadiug inau iu tho party. " Many whites do not pay citlier," he added; "but the Ecpublicans do not challenge as rigorously as the Democrats." A number of Republicans complaiiled of this law to me as though it were wrong or unfair; but I think, on tho contrary, it is just and right. If a voter neglects or re- fuses to pay his poll-tax, certainly ho is not fit to cast a vote. By-thc-way, a Republic- an iu North Carolina owned to me that so remiss were the colored people there in pay- ing their poll-tax, that if failure to pay there forfeited the vote, two-thirds of the negroes iu the State would be disfranchised. Aside from this perfectly just reason for disfranchising a voter, I am persuaded that iu Georgia other means have been used to overcome the colored vote — means not at all justifiable. In some cities, for instance, as in Atlanta and Savannah, iusufificient vot- ing-boxes are provided, and the negro voters are crowded out and x^revented from casting their full vote. A candid xilanter whom I questioljed upon this subject — he living in a county which had a black majority, but had been for some years ruled, honestly, I must add, by Democrats — said, "We had ^A•hite Republican county officers, natives ; we discovered that they were corrupt. They kept the county offices for themselves,- but were ready enough to let a negro go to the Legislature, where the Democratic majority left no chance for stealing. As we could get no county reform by arguments or appeals to the negroes, who were as three and a half to one white voter, Ave made up our minds to buy tlio black leaders, who fooled their peoi>le with imitation Republican tickets. Later, we bought over also some of tho white leaders, and others we put in jail when we could prove corruption against them. We have had a struggle for it, because some even of our own men proved corrupt, and we had to pitch them overboard. But wo have managed to maintain a pretty good government." In another case I was told, " We can al- ways elect a Democrat to the Legislature. There is no stealing tliere, and neither the negro leaders nor the corrupt whites care to go there. The struggle is over the county offices. In my county and iu others, I do not doubt there has been ballot-box stuffing. This was unknown among us before the war, and it is one of the bad things that will be left here, arising out of the now or- der of things. I don't justify it, add I very deeply regret it ; for, once introduced, it will continue to be practiced ; but Avhere tho blacks are in a large majority, they are the means of very serious robbery, and men are apt to think that any thing isgustifiable to save themselves from such gross misgovern- meut." In yet another case a planter said to me, " The Republicans began in my county with Union Leagues, and these became quickly the prey of vagabond aud corrupt whites, almost Avithout exception, natives, for we have had few carpet-baggers in our local pol- itics. You could not buy a member of the Union League ; but we found we could easily buy the leaders, and this Ave did do. These leagues are noAV almost entirely broken up. The negroes have discovered that the white leaders were corruiit ; but they stick to their black leaders, some of whom are sharp but generally unscrupulous men." I giA'e these statements, because they de- scribe pretty accurately what has been done in many counties where the negroes have a majority of votes. The whites have been determined to keep the local gOA'crnments iu their own hands, and they have used means which the better class do not attempt to justify, except upon the plea that no oth- er means were a\'ailable to save themselves from the hands of thieves. That the negro voter has been, to an extraordinary degree, the prey of demagogues and scoundrels, wherever in the South he has had a consid- erable majority, no one can doubt who has examined the question. His ignorant at- tachment to the Republican name, and his readiness to follow black leaders, who are easily corruptible, and low whites who flat- ter him, have made him the tool of robbers. That tho whites, wherever they can, should protect themselves, even by counter-frauds, is lamentable but natural. I wonder it has not been more universally practiced iu oth- er States. That intimidation and crowding- out at the polls should bo practiced is not at all remarkable, under the circumstances. Governor Smith seemed to mo to speak sensibly when he told me that these evils could bo cured only by a division of parties off tho color- line, which he thought must, before long, come about. The other means used, however, have, I believe, made actual intimidation rare iu the last two or three years, except here and 104 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. there in some nucommonly rough and law- less county, -where it would be practiced upon whites as well, if the white vote were divided. Georgia has a few such counties, where society is not in a pleasant condi- tion, where violence is frequent ; and here the negro suffers probably oftener than the white, because he does uot defend himself. But emigration is emptying these counties of the negroes. It is a sure cure, moreover, even in tliese counties. I have been told by Kepublicans of some cases where the perpe- trators of violence upon an unofiendiug ne- gro found the public sentiment, to their sur- prise, so changed of late that they thought it prudent to leave the State. I believe this better sentiment is caused, in part at least, by the fact that planters in such localities see their laboring force removing to other States. It may seem to you that the condition of the negro in Georgia is not happy, under all these circumstances; and yet here is proof that such a judgment would be mistaken. It is not difficult to hear of instances of abuse ; but the best and conclusive proof that these are only sporadic cases, and that, in general, the colored people are safe in their lives and property, is found in an offi- cial report of the comptroller-general of the State, for 1874, giving the character and val- ue of property and amount of taxes returned by colored tax -payers for that year. The number of colored polls listed was 83,318. These returned an aggregate value of tax- able property amounting to $6,157,798, on which they actually paid $30,788 in taxes. They owned 338,709 acres of agricultural land, and city and town property to the amount of $1,200,115. Now, remembering that these people were slaves only nine years before; that they owned, when they obtained their freedom in 1865, absolutely nothing except what they stood in; and that they have not only ac- quired all this property in seven years, but lived, spent a great deal of money in foolish ways, and lost, I do not know how many thousands, in the Freedmen's Savings-bank, I think it clearly establishes that, first, they have labored with creditable industry and perseverance, and, second, that they have been fairly protected in their rights of life and property by the Democratic rulers of the State. I do not think the colored people in any other State I have visited own half as much real estate, or, indeed, a quarter as much, as those of Georgia. Surely this says a good deal for the effective justice and protection given the negro in this Demo- cratic State. At least twenty- five thousand colored people have left the State in the last five or six years. In Atlanta I had some conversa- tion with a negro who had been one of the leaders in this movement, and he gave me a number of instances where colored farm- ers had removed to Mississiiipi or Arkansas, taking with them mules and farm-tools, in some cases enough to fill two or three cars. This man remarked to me that when he was younger, and during slavery times, he had noticed that many white people, even plant- ers' sons, removed from the State, and when any of them returned for a visit home, they proved usually to have prospered by the change. " I thought if it was good for the whites, it would be good for our folks too," he said ; " and so I always encouraged all that wanted to try it." He had started a son-in-law to Louisiana, where, after two years, he found him pros- pering. He had visited Arkansas and Mis- sissippi also, and confirmed to mo my own observations that in these States the color- ed peojde thrive, and are generally secure in their rights. He thought Arkansas the best of all the States for his people, but showed me also pamphlets recommending certain parts of Mississippi, which he was distribut- ing among his people. I do not know, by -the -way, what better evidence one can have than this of tlie gen- erally satisfactory condition of the colored people in those States. The testimony of a colored man — a sufficiently shrewd fellow I judged him, who had traveled through the regions he spoke of, and whom I saw, from his conversation, to be a stickler for the "rights" of his people — ought to go very far to satisfy Northern people. Such disor- ders as are now happening in Mississippi will injure that State, but they are strictly local and sporadic. He told mo, what I knew otherwise also, that emigration agents come into Georgia from difterent counties in the three States I have named in search of laborers. I know myself a single county in Northern Louisi- ana which has drawn in the last seven years uot less than four thousand colored people from Georgia and Alabama. These agents make known the fact that rich lands lie open in the sections they represent, and, not GEORGIA IN JULY, 1875. 103 nnfrcquently, tlicy aro ready to pay the ex- jiense of a family's removal. The late fall anil wiuter, after the crops are made, is the season of removal ; and the man I speak of tliougbt, from -what he knew, that not less than five thousand would leave the State next -winter. This, hear in mind, was long before the so-called insurrection. I confess that, to me, this readiness to bet- ter their fortunes by emigration seemed one of the best signs I saw in the South of the real independence of the negro ; and I found it most fully developed in the very State where, according to the commonlj' received reports of Southern Republican politicians, the negro is still iu a condition little better than slavery. If this were true, of course he would not be moving away, for he would be tied to the soil. Nor do I believe that Georgia will sustain a serious loss by this emigration. It will make room for white emigrants ; and Geor- gia is peculiarly fitted to receive and utilize a white farming and manufacturing popula- tion. It is not properly a i>lanting, but a manufacturing, State. I recur for a moment to the remarkable return of over six millions of property owned by the negroes of Georgia, to say that it is the only official report of the kind I have found in any Southern State. Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, long under Eepublicau rulers, yielded me no such infor- mation. Only in Democratic Georgia had the rulers suflicient intelligent curiosity to ascertain what practical progress the negro had made under freedom. The result is, of course, very gratifying and surprising. It speaks well for the ne- gro's industry, and his growing power of ac- cumulation, and it speaks well for the jus- tice and fiiir dealing of the whites toward the blacks. Georgia has at this moment but one Re- publican jonrual, and that is a weekly — the Kaiional BcimhUcan — printed in Atlanta. From that I take the following editorial comment on the condition of the colored people. It seems to me a little harsh, but it comes from a Republican : "What is the record of ten years of freedom? In the matter of temperance has there been progress? Nay, in this respect the freedmen are a thousand per cent, worse off than they were iu slavery. Rarely do we find a strictly temperate man. Very nearly all drink, in town .and out, young men and old, and the women too. Thousands spend a dollar for whisky through the week, and on the Sabbath put a nickel or nothing in the contribution-bos. The freedmeu of Georgia spend in a half-year for liqnor as much as they have paid for schools since emancipation. Is this a matter of which they should be proud ? To whom is the in- fliction of this wrong due ? What has been done for schools? A little money has been raised, but not a hundredth, if a thousandth, part ofwhat has been spent for tobacco, and shows, and shot-guns, and fines. One show here last winter is said to have carried away $3000 of the colored people's money— more than their voluntary contributions to schools in this city since 1SC5. In ten years not more than one in nine or ten has learned to read in the State; or out of 550,000 not more than 60,000 or 70,000; and these very largely through the aid of Northern missions. This year tax- es will be paid on an aggregate of $T,000,000 of prop- erty, or less than $13 a head. This is the showing of a decade of freedom and fair opportunity. For it, in some measure, the whites may be responsible, but the responsibility lies chiefly with the people themselves. They have probably earned from $35,000,000 to $45,- 000,000 a year, and out of it should have saved a large percentage. But there has been improvidence and waste on every hand. Not quite, but very nearly, as poor and ignorant are the freedmen to-day as when emancipated ; and their ignorance and their poverty, quite as much as the ' prejudice and hate ' of the whites, serve to keep them where they are and what they are —hewers of wood and drawers of water.'' If a Democratic journal had said these things it would have been called prejudice, and I should not have thought of quoting it. They are the words of the Republican and colored organ. AVhilo I am speaking of the Democratic management of the State, I think it right to call attention to the satisfactory financial statement, which compares remarkably with the condition of Louisiana, Arkansas, and other Southern States which have been un- der Republican control. The State debt is but .$8,000,000, and the credit of the State stands high in New York and abroad. In January of this year there was a surplus in the treasury of over $1,000,000. The total cost of the State government for 1874 was but $770,000, while the mileage, per diem, and contingents of the Louisiana Republican Legislature in 1871 cost $9o8,95G; and the State printing cost $431,000 in one year. The counties have no debts of any conse- quence. The cities have some, but not a very heavy iudebteduess. It is altogether such a showing as these Democrats need not be ashamed of. It has one weak spot only — the expenditure fin- schools. Georgia had no free schools before the war, and the system makes but slow headway in the State. The prcsetit super- intendent of public instruction (a Democrat) is a zealous and efficient officer, and ho looks forward to better days. There was apportioned by him fur the sup- port of schools iu 1874 only $265,000, and the schools are open, 'in general, less than three 106 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. montlis in tlie year. For tlie present year the school-tax will yield only $270,000. Last year there were 135,000 children in the pub- lic schools — an increase of 50,000 over 1873. In 1873 there were actually attending school only 63,922 white, and 19,755 colored chil- dren ; in 1874 the numbers stood 93,167 white and 42,.374 colored children. This was out of a total of 218,733 white, and 175,304 col- ored children within the school ages. There is still in many counties some prej- udice against colored schools, but it con- stantly decreases ; and you will notice that more than twice as many colored children atten&ed schools in 1874 as in 1873. Atlanta has a colored university, and the Legislature appropriates yearly toward its support $8000 — the same amount which is given to the old State University. The governor and superintendent of schools both desire that this appropriation shall be diverted to a col- ored normal school ; and there is some igno- rant prejudice in Atlanta against the teach- ers in the university, on the ground of their sitting at table with the colored students, which is thought to promote " social equal- ity." It is not denied, however, that the school does good work ; and I imagine the teachers can best instruct the pupils in the minor morals by eating at the same table with them. One can not help feeling a little contempt for the people who here in the South make themselves needlessly unhappy about " so- cial equality." I was amused at a sensible planter — a Democrat, and a native Geor- gian — who said to me, " It is absurd in us to make such a fuss. There is scarcely a man of us whose children are not suckled by ne- gro nurses ; our playmates were negro boys ; all our relations in the old times were of the most intimate ; and, for my part, I would as soon ride in a car with a cleanly dressed negro as with a white man. It is all stupid nonsense, and makes ns absurd in the eyes of sensible people." The feeling takes the most ridiculous forms, too : for instance, in Atlanta and Au- gusta colored peojile are allowed to ride in street-cars ; in Savannah they are forbidden. Why the difference ? Is a Savannah negro less clean, or is a Savannah white man a more noble being, than those in the other two cities ? As sliowing the relations of the two races, I found on a wall in Augusta a poster giv- iug notice of a colored railroad-excursion to Port Eoyal, stating price of passage and time required, and at the end a notice that a special car would be provided for such of the white citizens as Avould like to take ad- vantage of this opportunity to see Port Roy- al, and special accommodations for their comfort would be at hand. The whole affair was under the conduct of colored men. The superintendent of schools told me that there was less prejudice against colored schools in the southern counties, where the negroes are the most numerous, than in the northern part of the State. The negroes in and near the. cities and towns are usually prosperous. There are many colored mechanics, and they receive full wages where they are skillful. Near At- lanta and other places tliey own small "truck-farms," and supply the market with vegetables. There are fewer black than white beggars in the cities ; and a mission- ary clergyman surprised me by the remark that the blackberry crop, which was ripen- ing, was " a blessing to dozens of poor white families whom he knew," who lived half the year, he said, in a condition of semi- starvation. He explained that these people would not only sell blackberries, but that in the season they largely lived on this fruit. These are the kind of people to whom fac- tories would be a blessing. In the cotton country the planter usually pays his hands ten dollars a month, by the year, with a house and ration. The ration consists of three pounds of bacon, a peck of meal, and a pint of molasses per week. The laborer has also a "patch" of land for a garden, and Saturday afternoon for himself, with the use of the planter's mules and tools to work the garden. They work from sun- rise to sunset, and in the summer have two and a half hours for dinner. The cotton- pickers receive fifty cents per one hundred pounds in the seed, and are fed ; or sixty -five cents per one hundred pounds, if they feed themselves. The ration costs about fifteen cents a day. Most planters keep a small store, and sell their laborers meat, bread, and tobacco on credit, the general settlement being made once a year. The women receive for field work six dollars a month and a ration ; and I was told that they insist on receiving their own wages, and will not let their husbands use their money. They form an important extra force for pressing work. One of the most intelligent planters I met GEORGIA IN JULY, 167b. 107 n tlie State told mc that bis laborers cost dm about fifteen dollars a mouth — wag;es md ratiou. He added (what surprised me) bat tbe best planters i)refer to pay wages •atber tban let their laud ou shares, and ihat the wages system was growing in favor ilso with tbe negroes. I found this con- Irmed by other testimony. It is very differ- mt in tbe other States I have seen, except, udeed, North Carolina ; and I imagine the loverty of tbe soil is a main reason for it. [u Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas, the planters told me it would be poor policy to pay wages. Certainly, it is the poorest sys- tem for the negro. Where tbe negroes plant on shares, the planter furnishes tbe land and mules, and feeds the mules. Tbe negro furnishes labor aud feeds it, and gets one -third the crop. He pays for one-third of the fertilizers. The plauter gins the whole crop. Where negroes rent land, they pay seven hundred and fifty pounds of lint or ginned cotton for thirty- five to forty acres of land — as much as they can cultivate with one mule — and they keep up the fences, and pay for tbe fertilizers. " On this lay," said a planter to me, " I know one man who made two hundred and fifty dollars clear in a year over and above bis support, and another who lost one hundred and fifty dollars." He added that the ne- groes, on tbe whole, preferred the wages system ; and this is mainly, I imagine, be- cause tbe artificial manures are costly, and an uncertain element in making the crop. This means really, of course, that it costs more money to make cotton in Georgia than in the other States I have named. A third of a bale to the acre is the average crop in Georgia, but in Mississippi they expect to get from three-quarters to a bale per acre without manure. A planter from one of the " black coun- ties," where the negroes are most numer- ous, told me they were a most quiet and docile population. " I live in tbe midst of several hundred," he said, "with no white family within several miles of me, and my peo^jle are never in the least alarmed. I have not a fire-arm in the house half the time. Treat them honestly," he said, " and tboy are all right." This man amused me with some stories of how tbe blacks were deceived by a set of white rascals for some years after the war. Among other things, these fellows brought red and blue sticks, which they sold for one dollar each to tbe negroes, wherewith to " stake ofi"" tbe laud which tbe Government was to give them. Tbe blacks used also, when they went to the polls to vote, to bring baiters with them, for the mule which General Grant was to give them. I would like to know what graceless wretch it was who spread all over the South, among the blacks, the story of "forty acres and a mule," which has caused bitter disappointment to many thousands of credulous negroes, and appears to have been used mainly to induce them to vote tbe Eepublican ticket. In Louisiana, several negroes told me that Gen- eral Butler, they understood, would make them this gift ; but lasually it is from Gen- eral Grant that they expect it, and they are very ready to vote for him. The jilanter of whom I speak told me that the young negroes who had grown up since the war worked less steadily than tbe old bands. He added that, in bis county, some blacks owned as much as two hundred and fifty acres of land, and many were doing well on their own farms. " If it were not for petit larceny, they would all do well." He kept a colored school on his own planta- tion. Tbe black people liked it, he said. They are fond of hoarding coin, especially since the Freedmen's Bank failed, which caused loss to many of them, and tliey are quite ready to buy gold and silver coin at a premium. Tbe negroes in Georgia have some, but slight and lessening, causes for dissatisfac- tion. The fact that they will pay taxes. on over seven millions of dollars this year, all acquired siuce 1866, and by a class notorious- ly unthrifty, shows that they have suffer- ed no serious wrong or injustice. Tbe fact that over twenty-five thousand negroes have emigrated from the State, shows also that they know how to better their condition. But their dissatisfaction does not arise from wrongs ; for the whites also are dis- satisfied, aud an equal number of them have removed to other States. The chief difficul- ty in Georgia is that it is an old State, with worn lands, whose near neighbors, Mississip- pi, Arkansas, and Louisiana, invite its peo- ple to come and take possession of new and fertile soils, where they need no manures, and can get greater returns for their labor. Georgia and North Carolina differ from the other Southern States I have seen in this : that much of their land is thin aud worn, and will not produce a crop, even in 103 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. the cottou regiou, -witliout the use of expen- sive manures. This, of course, makes cotton- jilauting less remuuerative than it is iu the rich bottom-lands of Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Moreover, judging from ap- pearauccs, I should say that eveu in the old times, before the war, Georgia must have been a less wealthj' State than those west of it. One evidence of a general lack of prosper- ity in this State I came upon eveu before I entered Georgia, is the considerable number of emigrants of both colors, ■who are leaving the State for Arkausas, Texas, and Missis- sippi, and parties of whom I frequently spoke with at railroad stations. Georgia has lost in this way, since the conclusion of the war, I have been told by good authorities. Dem- ocratic citizens, at least fifty thousand peo- ple — half of each color. The tiict is that Georgia, though it is still essentially an agricultural State, has its greatest future as a manufacturing regiou. It has a great deal of valuable water-power; also coal, iron, and other mineral wealth ; it has a great deal of land better fitted for small farms and varied agriculture than for either cotton or corn ; and it has ready to the hands of manufacturing capitalists a numerous population of " poor whites," I whose daughters make excellent factory op- eratives, and to whom the offer of this spe- ! cies of labor is a real rise in the scale of civ- ilization. The cotton -i^Iauters are not, as a class, either wealthy or i)rosperous ; but the few cotton-factories are, even iu this day of gen- eral depi'ession, very remunerative. The iron j and coal works are in a good condition, and ' the farmers of Northern Georgia are said to be doing well iu all respects. I have been surprised by the unbroken prosperity of the cotton -mills in Georgia. The Augusta mills have paid a yearly dividend of not ! less than twenty per ceut. since 186.5, and the stock is quoted at 168 to-day, and none is for sale. The product is 275,000 yards per week. The Eagle and Phoenix mills of Co- lumbus, built since the war, with a capital of $1,000,000 and 25,000 spindles, have paid an average dividend of over eighteen per cent., and have a considerable surplus. No stock can be bought. The Graniteville cot- ton-mills, which lie in South Carolina, just across the border-lino of Georgia, were not fairly started until 1867 ; and since then, I am told, have paid oft' a debt of $75,000, in- creased their capacity from 15,000 to 23,000 suindles, built over forty houses for opera- tives, and have meantime paid an average dividend of over twelve per cent. But all these mills have done a more im- portant work besides ; for all of them give I employment to the girls and women of the ! poor white class, to whom such labor is, as I ! have said, a real and very important step iu civilization. They make excellent opera- tives, I am told, and the factory life not only j improves their own condition in a remark- able degree, but adds greatly to the comfort of their parents ; and is, perhaps, the only means of redeeming this large population from a somewhat abject and degraded con- dition. I think I can see that the cotton-manu- facturer has several important advantages in this State over his rivals in the Northern States. He needs no such solid and costly dwellings for the work-people ; laud is still cheap ; lumber for building is cheap ; fuel is unusually cheap ; the operative class is, I suspect, more manageable, and more easily made iutelLigent, than the rude, imported labor now used in the North ; food is, aud must loug remain, cheaper ; the mildness of the winter is certainly an advantage, aud there is an air of comfort and contentment about these Southern factories which is very lileasing. The operatives are usually very nicely lodged in cottages, and are evidently happy aud pleased with their life. It is amoug the factory workers and the small farmers of Georgia that one finds the chief prosi^erity of the State. Here there is little or no debt ; money circulates rapidly ; improvements are seen; and there are patient, hopeful labor, thrift, and enterprise, which aft'ect, as it seems to me, the whole popula- tion. I heard here and there of iustances of poor young mechanics working steadily and earnestl}', iu a New England way, at their trades, making labor respectable, ac- cumulating projierty, and taking honorable places iu their communities; aud some such men talked to me of their jiast and their future, of the hopeful change which the ex- tinction of slavery had jiroduced in the prospects of their class, in language which showed me that there is a new-born hope of better things iu the poor white people of the State. When you strike the cotton region, affairs are not so happy. Iu the first place, the cotton farmers aud planters — the large land- GEORGIA IN JULY, 1875. 109 owners, less euergetic tliau the population I have spoken above — have sufiered from two bad laws which fostered their lack of business cajiacity and love of ease. The Homestead Law reserves to a land-owner a homestead of the value of . three thousand dollars in gold, exempting this from seizure by creditors. Of course, in an agricultural region, so large an exemption can be easily made to cover a very considerable amount of property. To this was added a lien law — fortunately repealed by the last Legislature — which enabled the planter to borrow on or mortgage his unplanted crop ; the factor who furnished him tools, manures, food, and clothing having, by this law, the first claim on the crop. Of course, he also secured the handling of it. I have seen the evil opera- tion of such a law in Louisiana in the slav- ery times, and in the Sandwich Islands more recently. It is ruinous, for it offers a prize to incapacity and unthrift, enables men to i;ndertake planting with insufficient capital, and deranges the whole industry. In Geor- gia the Homestead Law doubtless increased the evils of the Lien Law ; and between the two it resulted that many of the planters fell over head and ears in debt. These were regularly a year or more behindhand ; and if the crop — which is more precarious in this State than in some others — failed, or fell short, the factor took all ; and the labor- ers, employed to a great extent on wages, sometimes lost all their pay, except what they had consumed during the year. I do not doubt that in some cases such loss and wrong fell ui)on the negro laborer through the recklessness or dishonesty of the planter ; but I am satisfied also that much oftener the planter would have honestly paid if ho could, and that he, as well as his work- man, was the victim of a bad business sys- tem and of his lack of capital and of busi- ness thrift. It was one of the incidents of the reorganization of labor on a new basis in a State where the culture of cotton is less certainly remunerative than in more fertile regions. To show you how the Lien Law worked, here is a statement made to me by a planter of the charges which he had known to be paid for advances made by a fiictor. He in- stanced to me the case of a planter who re- quired from his factor a loan or advance of five thousand dollars to make his crop. For this he paid one per cent, per month, to which I was assured seven per cent, per an- num were sometimes added, making really nineteen per cent. Then the arrangement was that the factor should buy all the idant- er's supplies for him ; and for this service he charged him two and a half per cent., and billed the goods to him at " time prices," which added eight or ten per cent, to their cost. Then the factor sold the planter's crop, and charged for this two and a half per cent, again. I should not have believed such a system possible, had I not seen jirecisely the same thing regularly done by the sugar -planters in the Sandwich Islands two or three years ago. Of course, no business except the slave- trade could bear such a drain. Some plant- ers complained to me that they could never get advances from the banks, which preferred to lend to the factors ; but this will hardly surprise any business man. The profits were great enough for the bank and the factors to divide. One of the natural results of this system has been discontent among the negroes — the laborers — who sometimes lost their wages. At least twenty-five thousand of them have left the State ; and this emigration, which last year already began to alarm the plant- ers, has not ceased. It has been increased by other causes ; but I am satisfied, from conversation with leading colored men, that the lack of prosperity here, and the well- founded belief that they could do better else- where, have been one of its main causes. The repeal of the Lieu Law has, of course, left the poor and improvident among the planters without credit, and they are natu- rally in poor spirits. But they will present- ly see that it is their salvation. Already they are planting more corn than ever be- fore. They see that to raise bread and meat enough for their laborers will keep them out of the hands of the factors. More corn will be harvested in the cotton region of Georgia this year than in any year since the war. I have given this statement of the indus- trial condition of Georgia because it is cer- tain that many of the incidents of Georgia society grow mainly out of the fact that the planting region is less prosperous than the cotton region of Arkansas, Louisiana, or Mis- sissippi ; and is so mainly for the reasons I have given — the poverty of the soil, the pre- cariousness of the crop in the far southern counties, where it is peculiarly exposed to the attacks of insects, and the poverty and unthrift of the planters. That you may not 110 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. think I have overstated this lack of pros- perity, I give you here some figures fi'om a mercantile report, which I find in an Augus- ta journal. The business failures in the State amounted in the last six months to the sum of $2,956,215. This is a greater loss by far than is rei>orted from any other Southern State ; greater even than in South Carolina, as the following figures show : Alabama 5523,000 Arkansas 211,000 Florida 235,000 Georgia 2,956,000 Louisiana 630,000 Mississippi 1,045,000 North Caroliua 263,000 South Caroliua 2,042,000 Tennessee 325,000 Texas 1,153,000 Virgiuia and West Virginia 1,383,000 Total $10,766,000 The liabilities of Georgia amount to near- ly one-third of the liabilities of the twelve States; the liabilities of Georgia and South Carolina together amount to nearly half the liabilities of the entire South. Georgia com- pares as follows with other larger and wealthier States: Indiana $1,860,000 Iowa 436,000 Kentucky 2,456,000 Missouri 2,328,000 Ohio 2,594,000 Georgia 2,956,000 Now, you must remember that, unlike Ohio, Indiana, or Missouri, Georgia is almost entirely an agricultural State, and that her factories aud other iiurely business enter- prises have been, almost without exception, prosperous. These figures show the condi- tion mainly of the planting interest and of those businesses intimately related to it. I conclude my account of Georgia with a few remarks about the political condition of the State. There is no Republican party worthy of the name in tlie State. There is but one Republican newspaper, and that is a weekly. One of the most zealous Republicans in the State said to me, " The Republican party, so far as its white members are concerned, consists mainly of Federal office-holders and men seeking ofiico — mostly natives of the State." He added, " There are not more than a hundred active white Republicans in Geor- gia who are honest, aud out of office." An- other zealous Republican said to me, " The white Republicans of Georgia are made up almost entirely of Federal office-holders whose aim is to keep their places, and of men who are trying to get these places. There is substantially nobody else, white, in the party." Another said, " White men puf themselves forward for Congress on the Re- publican ticket, knowing they will be beat- en, with the sole object of rushing to Wash- ington as soon as the election is over to set ux) a claim for a Federal office on the ground of their defeat." "The Civil Rights Bill killed the Republican party in this State," said a Federal officer to me ; " it put us back to 1867." Less than five thousand whites voted the Republican ticket at the election of 1874. In 1872, a Republican told me, at least ten thousand blacks voted the Greeley ticket, and "more and more negroes vote Demo- cratic all the time." I notice that among the grievances of the blacks mentioned in discussions of the so-called insurrection, is one that they are disfranchised if they do not pay their poll and road taxes. This is per- fectly true, and, I think, perfectly just. Poll and road tax is all that the greater part of them pay toward the support of the Govern- ment ; and if they evade this, they do not de- serve to vote. The same law applies to the whites. In the Georgia Congressional delegation there is not now a single Republican. One reason for this is, that in some cases the party nominates men who can not get the support of honest Republicans. One such man I was told of, who was repudiated by the honest Republicans of his district, but was no sooner beaten than ho proceeded to Washington and set up a claim to all the Federal patronage of the district. Nor are claims of this kind always disallowed at Washington. For instance, not lolig ago a man was appointed collector of internal rev- enue in a Georgia district who, according to general Republican testimony, had been a Ku-klux in Ku-klux times, and who actually could not take the office because he then stood charged with offering a brilie. One of the most prominent Federal offi- cers in the State, a native and a zealous Re- liublican, and bitter opponent of the Demo- cratic party, said to me, " I don't know that there is any Republican party in the State. The negroes will not vote in general, be- cause they have no white vote back of them. The blacks are almost totally disfranchised by their neglect to pay their taxes. At least two -thirds of the colored voters are thus disfranchised. Then, again, in some conn- GEORGIA IN JULY, 1875. Ill ties where there are large negro majorities half a dozen black demagogues insist on running for the same office, and then Demo- crats run iu between them. AVherever in- dependent tickets have been put up in coun- ties the supporters of these strove for the negro vote, and in such cases the election was always peaceable and full, because there two parties were anxious for this vote. I do not think that for a year or two past there has been much cheating in wages; the people have learned to do better." Georgia has been longer and more contin- uously than any other cotton State, since the war, under the rule of the Democratic party. Bullock, the Eepublicau governor, chosen at the adoption of the constitution, in 1868, for a term of four years, abandoned his office and the State in October, 1871 ; Smith, Dem- ocrat, was elected to till his unexpired term ; was re-elected iu 1872, and is still governor. The Legislature, which is elected every two years, was Eepublicau by a small majority in 1868 ; but the body which assembled iu November, 1871, was strongly Democratic, and both houses, and all the executive offi- cers, have been Democratic ever since. It follows that, since the winter of 1871, the State government has been entirely in Democratic hands ; and the county govern- ments have also, with but few exceptions, fallen under the same control. The Legis- lature has been overwhelmingly Democratic in both branches. It would be strange, considering the cir- cumstances and the party strength, if the ruling party had been always wise ; but it must be said that they have done very few wicked or very foolish things. They have been fortunate in the possession of a few "wise and Conservative men, with courage enough to make 'their sentiments known. For instance, in the last Legislature a stupid old Bourbon introduced a bill to make a breach of contract by a negro a penal offense. But Mr. Furlow, a strong Democrat, but a sensible man, rose at once, and declared that he would oppose such a measure as long as he lived ; that, in his experience, if yon pay a negro and treat him honestly, he will work fairly and stick to his coutract. Furlow is a popular man, and has the courage of his opinions ; and the result was that, in a house of one hundred and thirty members, only twelve votes were cast for the bill. In like manner, the Toombs men, who are the Bourbons in Georgia, have tried, on dif- ferent occasions, to get a constitutional con- vention, but have always failed, the consti- tution being a sufficiently good iustrumeut. So, too, iu his last message. Governor Smith, who has conducted himself so well in the '•' insurrection " business, urged the Legisla- ture to stop the appropriation of eight thou- sand dollars per annum for the colored uni- versity ; and the superiuteudent of public in- struction supported him, believing, as he told me, that a normal school for colored teachers was more necessary than a university. But, iu spite of a foolish prejudice against the teachers in the university, the Legislature refused to do the governor's bidding. It is but just to add that, if the dread of " social equality " were likely to die out, this would be skillfully prevented by some lead- ing Eepublicans, chief of whom is the North- ern Methodist Bishop Haven, who has on sev- eral occasions openly declared himself in fa- vor of " social equality," and who appears to me to have qi;ite a genius for keeping alive a subject which naturally stirs up rancorous feelings, aud which is best left to settle itself. The prostration of the Eepublican party- has given the Democrats such great power that they are now on the verge of a quarrel among themselves. Iu two Congressioual districts, iu 1874, Democrats ran against Dem- ocrats ; in many counties independent can- didates were put forward, and, where the Eepublicans were wise enough to support them, were elected. There are at this time eight or ten candidates for governor. By- the-way. Governor Smith is a candidate for re-election, and, iu view of this fact, his firm and just course during the "insurrection" excitement shows that he at least believes that the white peoiile, whose votes he would like to get, are in favor of justice to the ne- groes. Georgia has some able aud many influen- tial public men. L^nfortuuately for the Ee- publicans, they are all in the Democratic party. Governor Brown, who is reputed the ablest aud most popular man in the State, was a Eepublican in 1868 ; but ho is one no longer. He is a man of moderate views, a lover of justice. Of Mr. Stciihens I need uot speak. He is deeply respected by all Geor- gians, who forgive him all his vagaries, and will support him for whatever place he de- sires, conscious that he will serve them hon- estly. General Toombs is a man of but lit- tle influence. He has a small and decreas- ing following, composed of a few extremists. 112 THE COTTON STATES IN 1875. Mr. Lull Hill, who is a member of the iiext Cougress, is spoken of in Georgia as a prod- igy, and as certain to make a career in Con- gress. He is a ready speaker, and has spok- en, in Lis time, on botli sides of several im- portant public questions. There are other notable men, but those I have named are the leaders of opinion. " When the Democrats are so likely to split, especially on the nomination for gov- ernor, I suppose the Republicans will stand ready to support an independent Democrat," I said to a leading Kepublican. He rejilied, " That is not so certain. It is more ]3robable that some Republican will be selfish enough to demand a nomination for himself, will get it with the help of the ne- gro, and will, of course, be beaten. The fact is," he added, " you can see that there is no room here for a Republican party such as ex- ists, composed of a few ambitious leaders and a mass of ignorant blacks. It is a nuisance." He was right. Such a iiarty is a danger to the community ; and I can not help but admire the self-control of the Democrats, Avho, with such overwhelming majorities in the Legislature, have committed so few fol- lies. Their management lias not always been wise ; and in the parts of the State remote from railroads, there has been maltreatment of blacks which was scandalous, and which the press did not properly report. Such things are getting rare, as I was assured by Republicans who were well informed. But it seemed to me that both the press and many of the public men of the State are foolishly timid in rebuking both folly and wrong. They have not sufficient confidence in the people. It was laughable to mo to see how timidly a jiart of the press and some of the promi- nent public men supported a movement in Atlanta to celebrate last Fourth of July, and to see, nevertheless, in what crowds the people turned out in the city, and came iu from the country to join in the celebration when it was finally determined on. I ought to add, on the authority of several Federal oflice-holders, all earnest Republic- ans, that the bar of the State, in matters where justice to the colored people is con- cerned, is not chargeable with neglect or cowardice. They assured mo positively that lawyers all over the State, from the highest to the least, were always ready to defend a negro in a court of justice, if called on. The conduct of the recent conspiracy trials shows this to be true. The difiiculty in Georgia is that black and white, Republican and Democratic, dema- gogues unite in maiutaiuing the color-line iu politics. The bad Democrat does not object, for it enables him to control the State. The bad Republican likes it, for it makes him a martyr, and gives him what he longs for — a Federal office — or at least the excuse for de- manding one. Governor Smith spoke wise- ly when he said to me that only when the color-lino Avas broken could the politics of the State be settled, and this would bring absolute security to the negro. There is no doubt, too, that the Civil Rights Bill and tho Force Bill, and all the other efi"orts made to maintain iu the South a spurious Republic- an party, sucli as giving many of the Fed- eral offices to men who have no real hold or influence in their State — all these things have only tended to band the white voters together in a more and more inflexible op- position to the Federal administration, and to band the ignorant blacks together, and subject them to the rule of demagogues, leaving the moderate men of both sides without their just voice or influence. THE END. Hfc. X 1 7 8 ,0 ' -^^ "^^ V^^ ^\~ ■^ x° %. ^^' ^ .<^ "^. ^A v^ . -^c- %,^' X"^^' ^^^0?^, ^0^ ' ^ "^A >* - c N^ o^. i ;\ ^ 'y '^ ' .0 ''°^ * ^•^ 'Z- c^- o .^^" - -. ^::< \ ^^' ^ - S' ^-;. ^<. o , ^^^ ''^^^ s .\ O, .A" -^ . 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